Good News, Everyone!

I’m back on track sorta with the bloggin’ and tradin’ & stuff.  The joy.  Here’s what all is happening.

Within the next couple hours, five bubble mailers with cards in them will be going out to the following peeps:

Marie of A Cardboard Problem (and I totally forgot the sketch card, so you’ll be due for another eventually), Shot Not Taken, Stats on the Back, Nachos Grande, and umm, someone else (sleep-deprived brain can’t remember last one).

That still leaves soon to be sent packages to Sooz also of A Cardboard Problem, Night Owl, Great Sports Name Hall of Fame, Roll out the Barrel, and… I’m pretty sure there are a couple more.  If I did miss anyone else, please let me know!

More good news!  I finally got that last bunch of scans with trades & stuff, and did a couple more of the I picked up from Check Out My Cards.  So I will have some pretty pictures to go with my pithy commentary again, lol.

Side note: Lacking scans and not having much card stuff to write about lately, and seeing this recent post from Ms. Latina gave me much to think about, and I actually started a post along the lines of that subject (race/ethnicity if you don’t want to click the link).  I’m sure it would’ve been interesting, and I may still do it if I can find the words.  And not that it has or ever will stop me from writing about other things, but I am curious about something.  Does anyone even care or pay attention when I write about anything besides cards?

Finally, despite massive sleep problems of late, I do have personal good news too.  I got a HUGE hit out of a retail pack at Walmart last night.  Let’s just say, I also picked up a couple Topps206 packs in the hopes of maybe getting lucky with a relatively easy to pull (1:41 pack) auto, but I ended up pulling something considerably harder to get than the hardest pull from 206 retail, which itself is a little over 1:500 packs.  Oh, and it’s someone good too.

Was that a great tease or what? 😉

Write on, ride on…

The Lonestarr Personal Collection #8

Woo, I’m signed in again.  What a pain in the arse that has become since they monkeyed with the front page.  Anyway, in the name of just getting a post in, I present another piece of my personal collection.  Not only that, but today is special.  This is one of my most very favorite pieces of my personal collection.  It comes from my first trade with Marie from A Cardboard Problem and in recent times the Upper Deck Blog.  Anyway, I never actually got around to posting the trade I don’t think, but I did scan it all.  And now I present one of the coolest cards I’ve ever laid eyes on, the main event of what Marie sent those many moons ago:

Sportscaster!

How cool is that?  It’s a 2004 Leaf Sportscaster card #ed to either /20 or /40 (don’t feel like messing with teh ginormo binder to find out for sure, will edit it to the right number when I do get around to messing with it).  The reason this is so cool, is that back when Beckett was still to some degree relevant to me, these cards caught my eye for some reason.  Maybe it was the name, or the rarity, but for some reason, their entry in the price guide I was always curious about.  I would always stop on it when I’d, um, leaf through the thing.

I never thought I’d actually own one though.  I had never consistently collected baseball, it didn’t become my #1 until I discovered the card blogs at the beginning of 2008 (yep, I’m not quite an original, but I’ve been around since pretty early on, first starting my blog around March of last year, only got six posts in before giving up until several months later when I deleted the old posts and started from scratch), and I’m not sure I even had access to whatever Donruss brand they came in anyway, and definitely not if they were hobby exclusive.  There hasn’t been a card shop around here since around the turn of the milliniem.  And they were pretty rare, to me at least.  I still don’t know exactly how hard to come by they were, but I figured it was beyond my realm of luck.  I never pulled anything #ed that low until 2005.

Anyway, yes, this is one of the most awesome cards I own, not just because of it’s inherent awesomeness, that it’s pretty rare and features one of the greatest of all time, but because there is a debatably interesting story behind it.  There is a reason, that I can’t adequately explain, for me to have been drawn to it, to have wanted it, even though I didn’t quite understand what it was, and it came to me as a total surprise.

All I wonder about now, is what magic Marie has up her sleeve for round two, if we ever get around to finishing this second trade…

Oh, and Sooz, I need your address.  I’m still waiting to find out what exactly I need to send to Marie, but all your cards have been ready to go for awhile.

…

Then again, I guess there’s no hurry.  I’m pretty much broke till December, so I can’t send it till then anyway.  Meh, just send ya addy whenever.  I’m going to sleep.  This post took way longer than intended (they always do…).  Peace, love, and fighting spirit!

~Akron Hammer.  Huh?

Fell off the Wagon… :(

It’s true.  I’d only spent $6.50 on cards this month until tonight. 😦  Oh well, guess I’ve got a blog to post then.  Here’s what I got:

2009 Tristar TNA iMPACT! retail

Pack 1

80 Sting & Kurt Angle (Champions subset)

3 Daniels

25 Kurt Angle

76 AJ Styles (Champions subset)- Keeper!

22 Jay Lethal

Pack 2

78 Daniels (Champions subset)

11 Samoa Joe

5 Bobby Lashley- I really hope he becomes a big MMA star, and not just to justify the topps Vault WWE Heritage Chrome proof I got of him on the ol’ eBay many moons ago.

52 Traci Brooks

82 Awesome Kong (Champions subset)- I’d like to remind everyone, and especially the previous Traci Brooks card that Kong Kills Bitches Dead (TM that one dude from 411mania).  Thank you.

2008 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks & Prospects

Pack 1

BDP38 Jonathan Van Every Red Sox RC

BDP32 Brooks Conrad A’s RC

BDPP9 Adrian Nieto Nat’s 1st Yr

BDPP16 Shane Dyer Rays 1st Yr

BDP23 Eric Hurley Rangers Chrome RC

BDPP59 Scott Green Tigers Chrome 1st Yr

Checklist Decoy

BDPP44 Bryan Shaw D’Backs Gold 1st Yr

Pack 2

BDP10 Mitch Boggs Cards RC- That’s some good Boggs, lol.

BDP44 Edgar Gonzalez Padres RC

BDPP6 Eric Campbell Mets 1st Yr

BDPP53 Devaris Strange-Gordon Dodgers 1st Yr

BDPP103 Gerardo Parra D’Backs Chrom 1st Yr

BDPP86 Jesus Montero Yankees 1st Yr- Heya Sooz. 😉

Checklist Decoy again- Fail…

BDPP49 Brent Morel White Sox Gold 1st Yr

2009 Allen & Ginter retail

84 Justin Upton

142 LaShawn Merritt

17 Manny Ramirez

306 Cliff Lee SP- Hello there, ball.

LMT7 Medusa Creatures of Legend, Myth and Terror- Sweet, I finally got one of the harder to pull inserts!  Keeper until I get a good offer for it.

NP10 Jose Reyes National Pride

Now for the main event…

…

…

2009 TriStar Obak retail!

Pack 1

76 Mike Coolbaugh- Southern League single season RBI record; The reason base coaches have to where batting helmets…

60 Joe Wilhoit- 69 game hitting streak in 1919.

54 George H. Rawlings Mini- Of Rawlings Sporting Goods fame.

23 Buster Posey- 2008 Gold Spikes Award winner.  Rich SOB, lol.

88 Patrick T. Powers- First Presidente of Minor League Baseball.

The info is from the card backs.

Pack 2

74 Alexander Cartwright- US Congress-credited inventor of baseball.

89 George H. Rawlings- Same guy as the mini, but different #… Umm, what?

27 Ted Williams Mini!- Began his pro career with the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League.  Ironic that the 2009 Padres are once again a minor league-caliber team.

Thank you, I’ll be here all week.

57 Grover Lowdermilk- Set the single season strikeout record of 465, between the Eastern Illinois and Three-I League, in 1906.

38 Ryne Sandberg- He’s Ryne-Effin’-Sandberg!  Keeper!

These cards are FLIMSY.

Pack 3

41 Ted Williams- Hmm… same as mini, but with different number again.

33 Stan Musial- Was in the minors from 1938-1941?  Even the great ones had to start somewhere I guess.

60 John W. Heisman Mini- Atlanta Crackers President; the guy that college football trophy is named after.

4 Eric Hosmer- Has at least four of the mythical tools  apparently.

20 Jesus Montero- Sooz-jo!  Hopefully Hip-Hip-Jorge’s eventual replacement.

I’m forever replacing the word mojo with Sooz-jo.  Sorry Mr. Hand.

Let me know if ya require any of the above that isn’t being kept or being sent to Sooz.

I have a couple more fat packs of American Heritage for another post.  Still no pictures though.  I’m really backed up when I get to the scanner too, so I dunno when I’ll be doing what.  Sorry.

One other item of note, I received cards from Wicked Ortega today.  Let’s just say after that, the number of scans I’ve gotta do went up by 10-15.

Finally, an impromptu prize (and maddest of props if you don’t have to look it up) to the first person to get the reference I made on the Cliff Lee card.

Until our next…

The Oddball Lot #1

Though I swore off all of Topps offerings in blaster form, I still have a few loose packs worth of A&G to add to the want/for trade list after I get some sleep soon, including a suh-weet Mantle Ginter Back Mini, a couple of which came after the blaster debacle.  I guess I can’t fully resist the Allen & Ginter goodness, though no more blasters EVAR~!  I’m pretty much done with it till whenever as of now though.  My focus has very nearly completely drifted away from baseball cards to non-sport offerings.  I am awaiting some as I speak, and the rest of the near future’s boxy offerings are of the entertainment variety.

Anyway, I STILL owe some A&G trade-related emails to the following people (Yes, I do fail, thanks for asking):

Nachos Grande– Send me an email with what you want if you still require anything you inquired about and your address, and I will just send them and some Reds along with no specific strings attached other than my vague wantlists (aka The Lonestarr Special~!), because I’m not completely sure what my nice haul from the A&G group break does to my A&G wantlist.

More on the later group break later, btw…

Box Opener I’m not sure there was anything specific mentioned, so I don’t know where to even begin.

Night Owl– I have a Blake DeWitt ’09 A&G bat card if you need it still.  Also plenty of assorted Dodgers of note, including a couple other “hits”, if lil’ Blakey isn’t enough.  Well, I guess it doesn’t matter, I always send team stuff anyway, so I’m sure I can make giving  up the Fukudome jersey worthwhile.  I can get more specific via email if you wish.

Beardy– I’m not sure if my comparably paltry number of A&G cards can help you out any, but I’ve got a decentish-sized stack of Orioles with probably something to get ahold of that No Number Aramis Ramirez Mini.

Cat Osterman remains a dream that only achievable via a pipe of some kind though. *sigh*

Sharpe Since ’92– I can hook you up with some minis for the cards you offered.  I’ll need to thoroughly go over the A&G group break stuff to know specifics again though.  I know it knocked a few off, but my attention span hasn’t let me get there yet to see what’s what.

And regular trade emails to:

Sac Bunt‘s Chris– One of these years I will get to it.

Wicked Ortega– I haz Marlins cards & stuff.  Will trade.

Marie of Cardboard Problem and Upper Deck Blog– Just need to find out about the Canos & such.  The Pujols sketch card will be done once I get some sleep. New markers FTW.

And now for a couple of different, yet equally faily of me things:

Sooz of A Cardboard Problem– Did I reply to the Ichiro list email?  I thought I did, but it isn’t in the sent or trade folders, so I’m not sure what the deal is.

David, the king of the Generosity Tribe… I totally flaked and forgot about the money order until I actually saw the box break happened.  I have the money order, but I don’t have your address.  On the Packs of Random Kindness bubble mailer, it is partially ripped away, and the Seattle Mariners pack of kindness bubble mailer one is long gone it appears, so if you get this message, please email me please.  Once I have it, I will send along a small (because I’m fairly severely lacking in your team) selection of Cleveland Indians cards as a thank you for your packs of kindness and hopeful tolerance of my forgetfulness.

If there is anyone I missed, and I’m sure there was, please get in touch.  If my email addy isn’t available through my WordPress blog somewhere (I honestly don’t know), then check my Google profile please.  It’s also Lonestarr, but with a Walt Bellamy card as the avatar.  Can’t miss it probably.

Finally, a quick newsbite for Shot Not Taken.  I’m looking at picking up the TNA iMPACT! box in early-mid September (only have about 2 1/2 packs worth of base cards right now).  Trading will hopefully commence shortly thereafter. 😀

That’s all for this one sports fans.  Tune in next time for the Northside half of White Sox Cards‘ exceedingly great packet from not long ago.

After that look for a three-parter to get my poor Gint-A-Cuffs showing officially posted and out of the way.  Let’s just say I’m near the bottom of the pack in that one. Bleh.

I’m failing bad at the being social and card trading things.  Sorry. 😦

Albert Pujols Sketch Card

Here is my Albert Pujols sketch card for Marie of A Cardboard Problem:

ALBERT~!!

Will send everything as soon as I finish this and find out about the Robinson Canos, etc.  Another email to send… The hardest part of trading, methinks. *sigh*

I feel so dirty… I think I should’ve drawn a Derrek Lee first. 😦

Renovation and Business Picking Up

Wow, things are starting to get busy at BTHE HQ.  My eyes are buggin’ out like Jeremy Borash just thinking about it all.  Let me check my schedule…

• It looks like I’ve got no less than three(!) packages currently headed my way to prepare for.  The cards I have to send back are set aside (and in one case, pretty much ready to send) at least.

• I’m also in the process of trades with both Marie and Sooz of A Cardboard Problem, as well as Shot Not Taken.  All three trades continue to expand exponential-ish from very humble beginnings.

• I’m also in the beginningest of stages of trades with Dayf (doing my trading specialty, aka the “Lonestarr Classic”: send random cards attuned to a person’s liking and hope there aren’t many dupes and then see what comes back) & Ginter Code co-cracker JD’s Wild Cardz (because I’m apparently the only card blogger that ♥’s them some World Baseball Classic).

A public thank you for the assistance with the bubble mailer SASE btw, Dayf.  Can I post the guide on it’s own page here on my blog?

• My specific ’09 Allen & Ginter wantlist has been requested by Chris of Nachos Grande and a certain Box Opener, so there may yet be more trades soon.  I will post it sometime Wednesday afternoon I think

• I’ve still got my googly eyes on Chris from Sac Bunt‘s available for trade list, and intend to deal with that soon as well.  I wonder how far into the list of what I want from him a ’98 Stephen Davis Skybox Autographics auto, a Clinton Portis UD Graded rookie jersey (not actually graded, btw; #ed to /350 though), a Carlos Rogers jersey, and few other Redskins will get me.

• I’ve still got Gint-A-Cuffs scans to edit and blog (totally forgot to scan the backs of the Ginter Back Minis, so it’ll be a bit longer before I get to it still).  The rest of the package from White Sox Cards needs edited and posted too.

• Finally, I seem to be heating up artistically, busting out with some somewhat successful sketch cards.  I’m starting to think that, even though I’m a total rookie artistically… maybe I don’t suck, and can make something of it.

How do y’all with actual lives & jobs & families & stuff keep your bloggin’s & trades rollin’?  I’m getting totally consumed by this without much of that other stuff to worry about… Am I just that immature & disorganized & inefficient? @_@

~~~~

Now for the renovation part.  My linkies are back! I dunno why that widget deserted me, but it’s back. I’ll put some more people’s up there once I get a little more organized. I tossed a couple other widgets up there too.

My heart is all in on my blog for the first time, so I’m tryin’ to class it up a bit. I’ve made a conscious effort to include more pretty pictures and shamelessly self-promote the blog on twitter.  It’s even payed off a bit too. My daily hits have more than doubled (to around 30, but still) as of late.  If I ever figure out gimp someday and make myself a banner or something, watch out! 😛

My Joey Votto auto, just because...

And there ain’t no more to say…

Other Stuff that Came Up

My box of cards is due to arrive sometime between 9am and 7pm today.  But before we get to that, let us look back.  Here’s a list of all the other things that came up in the week or so I’ve been trying to get my To Do List done.

I stumbled into an art trade with a very talented sketch card artist.  I’m really gonna have to step my game up to make an acceptable comic version of Gambit for her.

I may have found more cards for Marie of A Cardboard Problem.  I need to email her about those soon.

My Americana blaster break aroused the attention of the proprietor of the Shot Not Taken blog.  So we are now in the process of working out a trade that started with real life freakin’ ninja Gerald Okamura.

This one will be a ways down the road before it’ll be return the favor time, but Indians Baseball Cards.  And then some… has some random packs of kindness to offer.  And I took him up on a Mariners one.  I guess you can get in on multiple teams, which I’ll do once the Cubbies roll around, and maybe a couple other teams that aren’t otherwise likely to get much play.  So I’ll definitely have to send something nice in return down the line.  Fortunately, this is one I was fully prepared for, so I didn’t really have do go out of my way for it.

When asking Dayf about bubble mailers, I also got his address to send him some Braves and anything else I might have that would be useful to him.  My Braves are pretty much in order I think, so this one will be easy enough to do as well.

Aside from the sketch card, nothing too major or that I’m in a hurry on.  Just thought it’d be fun to mention everything else that popped while I was getting things ready.  I just hope I have enough bubble mailers for all new this stuff though!

To Do List~!

I intend to finish all these things before my box of 2009 Allen & Ginter comes, probably in the middle of next week, judging by the time my first box took.  These are in not listed by order of importance, by the way.  I’m just writing them as I think of them.

1.) Get all my baseball cards sorted by team (except for ’08 Allen & Ginter and a couple others that I have a bunch of that may be useful to set-builders). [Somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 of the way done I think.  Unfortunately, my urge to do the Gambit sketch card is outweighing going any further, but I think I did pretty okay overall.]

2.) Send SASE to Mario at Wax Heaven for the ’09 Football Heroes inserts. [With the mighty Dayf’s valuable information, I might be able to send this as soon as the next time I’m out.]

3.) Figure out what a SASE entails, because I’ve never sent one before. [Done- Wow, Dayf really is the expert at doing the bubble mailer version!]

4.) Finish Marie & Sooz‘ sketch cards.  Albert Pujols for Marie, Kevin Kouzmanoff and oh, maybe Gabe Kapler for Sooz. [We’re all done… unless I add some color to Kouz, Kap, & Pujols.]

5.) Get the sketch cards, as well as the rest of Sooz’ trade ready to send. [Think I’m done, since I’ve only got about two cards that she’s after.  Working on another trade with Marie as well, since I found my Canos, Jobas, & Phil Hughes’.]

6.) Get a bigger bubble mailer for the cards I’m sending to Matt of Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius. [Done]

7.) Find the Bazooka Gold Chunk Aaron Rodgers rookie for what I’m sending to Matt, and then send the cards. [Yatta, I FOUND IT~!!  Always in the last place ya look. >.<  Also found a 2003 Donruss Elite Series Glavine #ed /2500 & some other stuff with it.  So, umm… w00t~!]

8.) SEND DINGED CORNERS THEIR FREAKING CARDS ALREADY~!!!!!!!!!!!  It’s only been what… 9 months, since you made that trade?  Good grief Lonestarr, send them something at least! [Asian players are packed up & ready to be sent.  Will send next time I’m out.]

Yes, I fail.

9.) Send Baseball Dad my pathetically small list of Sandberg cards. [Done- I had a few more Rynos than I thought!]

10.) Prepare some Indians to send to Baseball Dad. [Done]

11.) Get my Orioles cards organized to send to some people in the Orioles card blogger nation, just because. [Done.  Now when will I ever get around to contacting any of them?]

12.) Get my Washington Redskins cards in order because I want to make a trade with Chris from Sac Bunt because there are a bunch of cards on his trade list I’m interested in. [At least half done.  Will contact you soon about a trade, Chris.]

13.) This one I have to get done tomorrow.  Pay for the box of cards I picked up in the big sale at Dave & Adam’s. [Done]

14.) Get over wanting to call them Dave & Buster’s.  *stomach grumbles* [Done- Though now I’m doing the opposite! >.<]

15.) Get the UDX cards ready for McCann Can Triple. [Done, but need to to double-check them sometime.]

16.) Get some more White Sox Cards ready for Steve. [They are in order, but I’m not too sure I have anything he doesn’t.  Will have to check later.]

All that’s left that I can do before I bust my box is to finish organizing my cards, send an email or two, and check a couple of want lists.  Won’t be able to send any stuff out until next time I’m out.

I will not open my 2009 Allen & Ginter box until I get pretty much all of this done.  I will check things off the list as I get through them, so you can keep up with my progress, especially if you appear on the list.  Let me know if I’ve forgotten anyone or anything, or if you want to be added to the list too.  It’s gonna be a busy week. 🙂

It’s go time~!