A Little Something to Heat Up the Coldest Morning of the Year…

Hi!  I’m still around… THE HORN, err… and kicking.  Pretty worn out and a little achy after being out for a few groceries in the suddenly stupidly cold weather, and doing up 25 scans tonight.  The awkward angle I was working on the scanning from probably didn’t help.  Need a higher place to sit the scanner.

Anyway, I’ve been on a bit of a Benchwarmer kick since the money I put up for myself to buy a single expensive card I wanted for my birthday (the 9th, 27 now, so old, get off my lawn, blah blah blah, tacopants, etc…) proved as futile as my other attempts to celebrate leveling up another year.  It was gone right when I finally had the money there, but eh, I may get bitchy about it, but I roll with the punches well.  Thus, back to eBay after a good long hiatus for some Benchwarmers I collect.

So, without further ado, here’s a little of that competent but half-assed nonsense hidden behind pretty pictures you’ve come to expect of me before I hit the deck.

Project: S.T.A.L.K.E.R lives! + a Gail Kim auto.

The scan doesn’t even begin to do justice to the gold card top right.  Bright gold foil with gold glitter trim.  Hard.  Core.  You can see a slight difference in the background color on the two cards that look otherwise the same.  Apparently the right one is a gold parallel, but man that is lazy.  And if you know my blog or myself around the net, you know that I freakin’ know lazy.

This is my second Gail Kim auto, the first being an Americana auto/relic from back when I could regularly spend well over $10 on a card without fretting.  Those were the days… I got this one for $1.77, and a shade under $5 with shipping.

And, as you may remember from my Benchwarmer posts in the past, there is still more to see.  Show me those backs!

Boo. Tay. You're welcome. 😛

I’ve got a Brooke Morales auto and an older Benchwarmer box (2006 I think) that I picked up for just over the price of a blaster on the way, so be on the lookout for those.  Also stay tuned for some Check Out My Cards goodness as well, seeing as it’s finally all scanned up, edited, and ready for posting.  And with that I’ll just let you enjoy these fine scans and be on my way.

Until our next…

She Can Warm My Bench Anytime

Yeah, that’s a lame title, and I apologize.  I’m not sorry enough to not go with it though.  Anyway, I stumbled upon this hot little number with a low price on eBay with about six minutes left, but nearly blew it due to having so many tabs open my internets had slowed to a crawl:

95% sure this is Miriam Gonzalez...

Fortunately I got a bid in with about 30 seconds left and won it for well below my max bid.  I wasn’t sure who this was at first (not that it matters that much, lol), but I was sure I’d seen the picture the card was drawn from before.  I just couldn’t quite place it.  But I think I found it mere moments before typing this sentence.  It appears to be from Ms. Gonzalez’ School Girls autograph from 2006 or 2007.  Someone in the upper tier of hotness and that I have also heard of works for me.  Can’t ask for more than that from a Benchwarmer set.  Seriously.

The Back. Does this mean I can put it in Project S.T.A.L.K.E.R?

This is my third Benchwarmer oversized sketch card, and easily the least expensive of the bunch.  It looks just as good as the others, though like pretty much any sketch card of a real person I pick up, I think I could do it just as good a job.  Needless to say, this be a keeper.

I’m Cave Johnson, we’re done here.

Until our next…

Project S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: The Centerpiece

Yaharr, feel the heat.

Ah yes, Project S.T.AL.K.E.R., my excuse to be a perv. 😛

Seriously though, I picked up a cool card that is now the centerpiece of my Brooke Morales collection.  Behold!

It's a sketch card! A really big one.

Pretty cool, huh?  It is 4″x5″ and is encapsulated in a extra large top loader.  I was surprised to get it for less than $20 shipped, but that $15-$20 range seems to be about the going rate for these when they actually come up for auction.  I really like it, though I can’t help but think that, given the chance, I could do some cards on par with most of the Bench Warmer sketch cards that I’ve seen (and most of what I’ve seen is very good!).

Yes, I just made a statement of confidence in my abilities that might border on arrogance.  And I meant every word of it.

What do you mean “Who am I and what did I do with the real Lonestarr?”

Seriously though, the portraity-type drawing is the one thing I think I might have something resembling legit talent in (check the portraiture stuff at my deviantART gallery to see what you think), so I’d love the chance to do Bench Warmer & maybe topps baseball sketch cards someday.  Well, I’d love to do any kind of sketch cards for any company, but the Bench Warmer and baseball and stuff like that I think I could do well immediately.  My other stuff could still use a lot of work (I’m still fairly new at this after a loooong hiatus, after all).

Wow, sidetracked much?  Sorry about that.  I’m gonna shut up now & get a little more sleep.  Gotta be well-rested, there’s a sorta important game on later.  Enjoy the hawtness and catch y’all later. Who Dat!

The back of the card at the top.

It’s the Super Bowl, man!  We’re gonna need a lot more Zubaz!

Here’s to New Beginnings!

Or, the Obligatory New Year’s Post.  The Obligatory New Year’s Resolution Post?  Whatev.  Anyway, as I begin writing this, there are nine hours and fifty-six minutes left in the year 2009 (where I’m at anyway).  Was it good to you?  Are you ready to move on?  Are you ready to step boldly into the next decade?  Do you have any resolutions for the coming new year and decade?

This is probably about the first year I’ve ever seriously considered making any resolutions for the coming year.  I was chatting with my friend David from Spain, and he asked me if I had any.  And as it turns out, yes, I kinda do.

So here they are:

First is to just be a little more focused in general.  This will help me in all facets of my life, I think.  Just focus, stick to one thing at a time a little more.  I have the attention span of a guppy (which I assume is really short, as is mine).  If I had a little better focus, I may have done something worthwhile in my life already.  It’s not too late, as sad as it makes me because it feels old to me, who’s emotionally stunted in my very early teens, I am only in my mid-20s.  I think I can still learn to focus, maybe even along those lines, learn some organizational skills.

That leads me to my most tangible goal for the new year.  And that is to accomplish something as a writer.  Finally getting close to 1000 words on something, and I want to get much, MUCH further in the new year.  You know I’ll keep y’all posted on how that goes, though it may slow down my posting at times.

Next, I want to continue to push the limits of my artistic ability.  I’ve gone from thinking I couldn’t draw anthropomorphic characters to having no trepidation at all with them in short order.  I’m still nervous when it comes to coloring and inking, but the fear is subsiding there as well.  So I want to keep moving forward.

That brings me to my next resolution.  I mentioned most of my sketch cards taking damage recently, but I’ve done eight more since they got messed up.  It brought me down for about a day, but I came back strong and have drawn eight more so far this week.  I must keep this attitude up, when it comes to responding to adversity… to deal with it, and keep fighting onward.  It is all one can do, right?

The last resolution came to mind as I started writing this post, and pertains to cards.  Virtually everyone I’ve traded with knows how slow I can be in every part of it, so I really need to be quicker in all facets of trading.  I need to email, and reply to emails faster (I’ll email about trading you that Holliday refractor sooner or later, Mojo!).  I need to send out trades faster (Roll Out the Barrel and Sooz and GSNHoF are waiting, though I need the first two’s addresses… oh and Night Owl, I finally have your stuff ready to send!).  I need my cards to be more organized so I can send out trades faster (I have cards EVERYWHERE, and only a few teams have any semblance of order).  So yeah, even though this might actually be the resolution most likely to fail, it’d do me good to get it right like all the rest.

Those are my long-winded resolutions, what are yours, if you have any?

Oh, and here’s the back of that box topper from last time.  As always, thanks for reading!

Happy New Year! 😉

Eight hours and fifty-three minutes…

The Plan

Sooner or later, I’ve got to reign in my spending habits on cards.  So I came up with a plan, and have already begun to enact it.

You see, there are several boxes that have fallen into my price range recently that I have been wanting for awhile, so I want to tear through them over the first quarter or third of the new year/decade.  After that, I hope to dramatically reduce my monthly card expenditure indefinitely, having satisfied the itch for the specific boxes I’d been wanting.

I have the first two boxes from the list coming in January: 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History (Finally officially on it’s way!) and 2008 Donruss Threads baseball, as well as two packs of ’06 Playoff Football Playoffs bonus packs (Two for a buck less than just one normally costs?  Well if you insist).

Oh, for those creepy enough to keeping score, what’s wrong with you?  And my price range is less than $50 (not counting shipping).

Here’s the list of stuff that’s fallen I want to pick up:

Baseball

2005 Donruss Champions- They’ve been known to drop just into my range on weekends and during special sales.  The base cards and set in general are pretty odd, but I like these a lot and really need to make up for my only hit being a So Taguchi bat card.

2007 Upper Deck SP Rookie Edition- I don’t know why I want a box of this, I just do.

2008 Donruss Threads

2008 Upper Deck Goudey- Just want a retail box.  I need some more Sports Royalty and Hit Parade of Champions.  Collecting both of those.  Anything else is just icing.

2008 UD Masterpieces- A retail box will suffice with this too, though it appears the hobby boxes have dipped into the mid-$30s…

Some topps Jumbo HTA box (most likely from 2008, but we’ll see)- I don’t think I need to justify this to anyone, even if I end up getting fugly 2008s.

2009 UD A Piece of History

2009 Upper Deck Spectrum- It has enough going for it for me to justify at around $40 a box.  I’m leaning towards this for my January purchase.

Basketball

2008/09 Fleer- I love the ’86-’87 and ’88-’89 parallels.  And four hits per box ain’t bad.  I may be poor, but I do loves me some hits.  The amount and potential for being decent weigh into my purchasing decision.  Notice that most of the boxes I want offer up a whole bunch of hits.  I like them for my PCs and also because I love to be a generous trader.  I’ve come to realize that if I can make someone’s day, it makes me feel every bit as good as the great cards I receive in return… And the hits, they help me do that.

/tangent

I badly want some ’09/’10 topps and/or Upper Deck too, but they are out of my range for the time being.

Wrestling

2007 topps WWE Heritage III- A&G minis, baby!  What more needs to be said?

2008 TriStar TNA iMPACT! Wrestling- Two words: Gail Kim.

Non-Sport

Upper Deck Marvel Masterpieces (probably Series 2)- The quest for more sketch cards!  Plus the base cards & regular inserts tend to be hella tight.

Razor Ink Vault- Okay, these aren’t in my price range either, but damn I really want a box.  I was so close to pre-ordering one at just over $40, but couldn’t pull the trigger, and now they are $50-something.

There ya go… I hope I can knock all that out in four months without having to sell a kidney or something.

Oh, and if y’all are feeling generous, my birthday is February 9th (the big two-five), and I’d really love a box of anything on the list above (especially Donruss Champions or Ink Vault) for the momentous occasion.

Err… that was pathetic and shameless and I’m sorry. m(_ _)m

So that’s the plan.  Focus in and get all the stuff I’ve been wanting that I can afford consistently and relatively quickly so I can cut way back for awhile and save some cashola.  It ain’t rocket science, and there is a major potential flaw if many more boxes I might want fall below $50.  But it’s the best way I can think of to keep things going strong for awhile, but also set a real timetable to buckle down and start saving some money.

Now here’s a pretty picture for reading the whole thing:

Project S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is in effect. Oh yes...

Project S.T.A.L.K.E.R. means Sweeping Through All Lovely BrooKes, Even Relics.  Brooke Morales has been in every year of Benchwarmer since the beginning in 1992, and I intend to collect every card of her.

Hooray for Benchwarmer!  Hooray for Brooke!