Back to the COMC Order

Heyo.  More keeper goodness for the pleasure of visual stimulation today on the show while I continue making trade offers on the Diamond Giveaway site in the background.  Still about 180 cards to move to get me down to 40 that I want, but that’s another post.  We were on baseball, yes?  Well then, to the scans!

YOU try scanning warp-assed chrome cards straight. EX-ARod sample, and an early American Ichiro, from Cardboard Icons' COMC, no less..

I require a sample..

$1 well spent. 🙂

Big Dave. I dunno why, but it amuses me greatly how much he absolutely dwarfs everyone else whenever he's playing analyst..

My inner-WBC wonk got the best of me. That's my first ever quad jersey though. It's niiiice..

Classic SPx, scanned spectacularly..

A crazypants Vlad insert, an early '80s oddball, and a Nomah #'ed /173..

Ol' Rock is plastic like a credit card. This is the back..

And here's the Vlad & Nomah backs. Vlad was also from Cardboard Icons..

Always hate on manu-relics until you have one in-hand. This is freakin' suh-weet..

GQ Papi jerseys..

Starting to think breaking the scans down before I posted was a really dumb and definitively time-consuming idea.  I mean, it probably makes for better viewing and reading this way, and it’s easier if you need to download or link to a particular card, but man does it take forever.  So let’s just get to the end of the (not Cubs) baseball keepers already.  I’ll give my Cubs and Bears a post of their own next.  Moving on down the line, we veer off course and take a side trip to funky(card)town.

The On-Deck Circle swatch featuring borderline Hall of Famer Carlos Delgado..

The swatch feels plastic and rubbery at the same time.  If the crazypants of the swatch isn’t enough for you though, it gets a little weirder still when we turn it over.

Foilboard shine on the back, but not the front... Cuz why not?

Foilboard doesn’t exactly work in scans, but you can tell it’s different than the front.  I dunno, it’s hella strange, but I likes it.  It’s unique, that’s for sure.  And it has rhyme and/or reason to it at least.  Who doesn’t love All-Star-related cards and swatches (besides roughly half of you)?  Can’t say the same for this next (and mercifully final) one though.

I... What? What is this, I don't even..

But... but why?

I don’t understand the point of this card at all.  Not complaining though, I must admit I enjoy the quirky weirdness of it all.  I’d be delighted if some could explain what the meaning of this is.  Blue archer needs background info badly.

And that is hopefully it for this one.  If I missed anything, I’ll throw it in with the Cubs and Bears next time, unless I decide to post up something else tomorrow.  I do have a couple other directions I could go if I feel like it.

Till then, mi amigos…

Checking In

Hi!  What’s new in the new year?

Not much to say on the card front, other than I finally got around to having my latest order from Check Out My Cards shipped.  A little over 100 more on the way.  Night Owl & maybe a couple others will be getting their cards out of this deal.

What’s been taking a lot of my time the past week or so is a pretty new story idea deciding to start fleshing itself out in my head.  So I started putting it to digital paper.  Pretty happy with it so far.  We call it Missionworks, a fantasy/steampunkish tale.  It’s coming together quite nicely, and I’m excited to get to work on the story itself.

The other main thing I’ve been doing is polishing off my FATSA: Lord of the Dragons sketch cards.  My main ones were finished days ago, but I just got what are my likely to be my Artist Proofs penciled and inked, and I’ve gotta say they are some of the nicer cards I’ve done in awhile.  I end up despising how 75% of my cards turn out, but I’m really pleased with at least three of the four.  I’ll be posting my FATSA cards here & dA & wherever else I can think of once I get them scanned and submitted for approval.

Now to get started on my Mac & Trouble cards.  Don’t have much time on them, but I only have two (and two Artist Proofs) to do, so no worries there I guess?

I cleaned a bit.  Got the place looking a little better than Reverend Jim’s, though it’ll be spring before the clutter levels start dropping dramatically (provided they don’t block the damn doors during spring cleanup, like they did in the fall… idiots).  Next step in this stupidly long process: get a new (used) chair that isn’t broke so my back will stop bothering me so much.

Finally, card buying is about to go way down (yes yes, you’ll believe it when you see it), because I have the quite frankly insane idea of trying to hit both Otakon and The National this summer.  The National is in Otakon’s home of Baltimore this year, and happens at the same place, something like three days after Otakon.  It may be time to part with some of my bigger hits to raise funds.  Also maybe get a few for-cash commissions or something?  Please?

Guess that’s about all I’ve got for now.  Hope to be back soon.  Seeya.

Until our next…

More Cards to Check Out

I’m not up for posting anything thoughtful or intelligent or insightful or any other big word at the moment.  So how about pics of my latest batch of cards shipped from COMC?  (Another order, that I was intending to have shipped in mid-december, will be on the way soon.)

Minis! One with a piece of stadium seat in it. And one that I accidentally bought twice...

Yep, I accidentally bought two Nelson Cruz Kimballs.  I’m sure another blogger can use the second one though.

1975 Topps Minis of Cubs Hall of Famers in the wrong uniforms.  And Billy Williams rocking the late-career heel turn ‘stache.  Very nice.

Cy Young is a keeper.  I’d really like to knock out both mini Icons sets this year.

Ferris Fain is… for trade, I guess.  I kinda wanna keep it, but I’ll let him go for the right price.

Old timey players on shiny cards and current players on old timey cards.

Jimmie Foxx is the only one available for trade on this page, again reluctantly.  The nonsensical shininess really works well with that particular photo, methinks.  I might just be too out of it to know better though.  I’ll at least need some form of one of the legends I collect (any version, any team) in return.

In the unlikely event you got your hands on the obscure early-2000s Donruss Estrellas set at some point and pulled any other Leyendas del Posados, I’m collecting that set.  You can find it on my page dedicated to set needs.  The only other one I have besides the three above is Tony Perez.  I need the rest.  I like… goooold.  Ahem, moving on.

Jerseys... Jerseys... And more JERSEYS!

Except Forte.  He’s just a bronze parallel #’ed /999.  Also, the two SPx jerseys on the bottom row were in rougher shape than the pictures indicated.  But oh wells.  The Colston is an eBay 1/1, being #’ed 250/250.  And cost me less than $1.  Actually only Tomlinson ($1.49) and Hester ($2.50) cost more a buck.  All of these are keepers, if you didn’t know.

Right then, one more picture for tonight.

All sorts of random silliness. Mitch and Roberto aren't even from COMC...

Yeah, Keith’s kid and Sandy’s kid came from Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius.  Thank you, Matt!  Did your stuff from me ever arrive?

Beckham is Razor Metal or something.  I never really paid much attention to any Razor offerings.  I wanted to see what these in particular were all about though, and it was priced at a solid shiny nickel, and I had just slightly more than that leftover, so I was all “Eh, why not?”, and there it is.  I know nothing more about these or Razor than I did before.  But it’s pretty cool looking I guess.  He and the Nomo are the two cards on this scan for trade.  I’m not keeping Moreland, but his destination has already been chosen.

Ah, Starfire, in presumably less terribly written days.  The Titans have had a lot more downs than ups in their existence, as I understand.

Cards like the Nomar above are mostly what I’m after of him.  Love the quirky inserts from the second half of the ’90s and first half of the aughts, and who better to go after than the Ken Boyer of his day, whose heyday coincides with the most unbridled creative time in the history of the hobby.  Haha, yeah!  Stamp-like die-cut, foil that can’t decide if it’s silver or gold (I still don’t know!), and multiple photos.  Man… the 1990s were truly the greatest decade ever.

And speaking of that 1996-2000 sweet spot of glorious cardmatic wonder, a pretty spiffy insert from a happier, more easygoing, less cynical point in the life of Topps Finest, celebrating the previous year’s MVP (TD), Super Bowl MVP (Tebow Hater Elway), and Rookie of the Year (Straight Cash Homey Moss).

Well, there ya go.  I woke up enough to get wacky at the end.  But for this post, this is the end.  And after just over 300 posts, I still don’t know how to segue to outtro.  So I’ll just be on my way then.  Seeya. 😉

Man I totally realized I left off at least two other people I owed cards to on my New Year’s post… 😦

 

That Old COMC Order…

Better get these posted up, since my ginormo 123 card order got here a few days ago and will be scanned soon.  Plus there’s another good-sized order I’ll be having shipped before Christmas!  I’ll see about getting the trade bait added onto it’s proper page after I finish (this could mean tomorrow or 2018, I don’t know).

In other news, I have at least three packages going out over the weekend as well, possibly more.  Now then, onto the pretty pretty card pictures.  Huzzah!

Iconic minis, Agent Zero, Japanese stickers, a set completing starlet, and some numbered Cats..

None of these are for trade.  The Kenn/Cat is a red parallel #’ed /50, the Fusion is to /150.  The 1980-81 style Arenas is part of a booklety-type thing, except his was missing.  I have a Chris Paul that’s all together though, so I’ll go into more detail whenever I get CP3 scanned and posted.  The COMC pics don’t adequately describe it.  Kosuke and Tuffy aren’t too exciting to look at, but I didn’t even know there were stickers like that made in Japan.  Finally, Selma Blair completes my PopCardz relic set, but that too is another post for another time.

A tire swatch, a shiny Vlad, a super thick and transparent (and I guess die-cut) 'Twoine, The Sarge, Vitters, a great player with a lame patch, Gale Sayers, and a '60 high number..

Only The Sarge is for trade.  Ed is my second ’60 high number, which is pretty good considering I’m just barely into double digits overall.  I say maybe die-cut on Antoine Walker because the five tiny squares at the bottom and the three near the top are holes that go clear through the card, which is patch card thick.  Love that tire swatch; trying to at least one of every single type of relic card in existence.  The Vlad is from the golden age of shiny cards.  In fact it doesn’t so much shine as glow.  It’s a lost art.  Topps just doesn’t have it, and every attempt I’ve seen Panini make at shiny is downright atrocious.  Papi’s patch really is lame.  It’s hard to say for sure that it’s even a patch.  Vitters only set me back about $.75, if I recall correctly.  And Gale Sayers… well, it’s GALE SAYERS, what more need be said?

Horford & some guy, a couple swatches of maybe the most underrated player ever, old school Wiz Rip, Brook & some guys, a giant floor swatch, Gallinari, and J-Rich

All of these are for trade.  I think the theme here is underrated.  If you keep offering up any of these guys for as little as this, I suppose I will feel compelled to take them every time.  There’s just a certain price point for some guys.  The Hawks are probably all going to Dayf unless someone else wants to make an offer on them.  I’ve got a mess of stuff for him already, so if he doesn’t come over and outright demand them, it’s probably not a big deal.  Anyway, have at thee.

An unfortunate necessity, Maury, BJ, Pettitte is already claimed, I think V-Mart is too, Carlos Lee in his days on the South Side, Buchholz (was he claimed too?), Atkins on the Rocks..

Have at these too.  They are all for trade, or were.  Pettitte was claimed by zee Dimwit, I think Baseball Dad got V-Mart, and I want to say Buchholz was claimed too, but I don’t know for sure.  If you claimed it, speak up, otherwise I’m listening to offers again.  Cardinals, bleh.  But we Cubs fans need to have some around for our Missouriable rivals.  It’s a symbiotic thing.  Better to send ’em to someone who will inexplicably cherish them than make kindling out of them I guess.

The Marlins last hope get a fanbase, Iceman, Addai, a fellow headcase, Amar'e, Mr. Kardashian, and some card backs..

Reyes is bound for Wicked Ortega country, Amar’e was claimed by Plaschke ages ago, but the other four are available.  I despise all that the Kardashians stand for, but that Odom is just a good looking card.  It’s also hilarious.  Listed as a Laker, pictured with the Heat, and the back says the jersey swatch is from his time with the Clippers.  I’d like to believe the floor came from his high school, lol.  Does Vince Young still have fans or collectors?  Do the Colts?  Also, there’s the back of the Antoine Walker card.  Yup.

That’s it.  No more pretty pictures and even more incoherent than usual babble for tonight.  Feel free to stake your claim on any of the available cards you like.  And as always, thanks for stopping by. 🙂

*BAMF*

I Have No Idea What This Post Will Be About…

… Until I start writing it.  I’m barely mentally coherent and can’t quite think of anything specific to say (I for one blame this ridiculous heat and dis brokeass recliner hurting my back for my total lack of posting energy), but I feel the need to say SOMETHING.  So, here goes whatever.

Nothing has happened as yet with my Black Diamond Die-Cut on the topps Diamond Giveaway site.  Haven’t even gotten many offers on it.  I’ve picked up three regulars via trading though.

I had to let my ’75 Bill Madlock go earlier today when someone offered a Yovani Gallardo for it.  Just couldn’t refuse that.  I also scored a Ricky Romero a few days ago from haphazardly offering up my ’67 Dick Schofield, ’74 Walt Williams, and ’91 Luis Rivera for just about any Diamond Die-Cut I had even marginal interest in and/or could easily trade once I have it in-hand if I can’t get one of my needs on the site.  I sent out a mess of only slightly more focused trade offers for each when the sun was going down.

Before that, doing the same incoherent-but-effective trade offering with a ’73 Johnny Briggs and ’69 Chuck Cottier landed me a Billy Butler which over the course of a single day became a Carlos Santana which finally turned into my first definite keeper in Vlad Guerrero.  Very nice.  I’d like to land another Santana for myself at some point, but I’m not counting on it.

(EDIT: Just checked.  I’ve landed another Carlos Santana.  Got it for Gallardo.  Lulz.)

Aside from that, I’ve picked up four packs of this year’s A&G.  The first two (from Walmart) were weak.  No inserts, plain ol’ regular back minis (one was a Cub, but I’ve never been a fan of Dempster), and a shortprint of stinkin’ Cardinal.  Only saving grace was Cheryl Burke hawtness.

The second two (from Target) were outstanding, however.  A code version of an SP, a Jason Heyward mini SP, a Most Mysterious Man in the Iron Mask, and an Ascent of Man, which I can confirm are as awesome as advertised.  Plus more cool random people base cards in Kristi Yamaguchi and  Stan freakin’ Lee!  I’ll be keeping Kristi, Stan, and maybe the Ascent of Man (for now at least), but the others are available.  I’m interested in Minds that Made the Future, Highlight Sketches, and Portraits in Penultimacy in return.

I also picked up a few things the on COMC the other day, much of it trade bait.  Flying Spaghetti Monster only knows when I’ll have money to get any of it out though, especially if the government turds out.  Seriously, fuck the GOP.  Right in the ear.  Because God forbid the rich and big businesses start paying their fair share of taxes, amirite?

Anyway, if you like BJ Upton, Jose Reyes (2B?), Victor Martinez, Garrett Atkins, or… Joseph Addai (eh, why not?), or the teams they play/played for, you might be in luck.  Also Carlos Lee and Andy Pettitte.

Also slowly gathering specific things for specific people.  Got at least one thing I owe Ray now.  I’ll set about getting ahold of the rest pending government bullshittery.

Finally, for the love of Tommy Oliver, my email is on my blogger profile which is linked on my sidebar!  Ahem… Sorry, but it’s there.

In the meantime, here’s a picture of a thing (via my first trade with Cards on Cards that I never posted because I don’t know what became of most of the scans :():

The original Shawon-O-Meter?

Seriously though, I have no idea what this is and have been too lazy and/or unfocused to look it up as of yet.  It’s kinda cool though.

Guess that’s all for this post.  Needs more pictures, but it turned out better than the post I had originally planned.  Baseball cards are much more enjoyable than b*tching about government incompetence, DC Comics incompetence, and… “Unicorns”.  It would’ve been… weird.

It’s too hot for pants…

COMC Order #1

Check out my cards had a shipping special over Thanksgiving/Black Friday weekend.  10¢ a card.  So I picked up the 77 cards I’d been storing up since about March, for $7.70 instead of over $22.  Well, I had mid-50s, but the $15 I saved on shipping allowed me to pick up about 21 more cards for immediate shipment.  And a few days ago I finally got it all scanned.  So let us check them out, one scan of one section at a time.

First up, we’ll start with vintage, cuz… why not?

1960 topps Gernert, Hobbie and Cunningham AS, 1971 topps Hoyt Wilhelm, 1975-76 New York Nets (featuring Dr. J), 1968 beat up & used Yaz checklist & Manny Sanguillen rookie, and a couple Gaylord Perry's from the latter half of the '70s..

Just stare at them for awhile.  They aren’t all the greatest of players or in the best of shape, but doesn’t staring at old cards just make you feel good?  Doesn’t it just relax you and somewhat put your mind at ease, if only for the moment?

Speaking of condition, the Wilhelm is in spectacular shape, impossibly awful centering aside.  Smooth surface, four sharp corners, and no creases at all.  Can’t ask for more of a ’71.  Only the first five are keepers, Yaz and the bottom row are available for trade.

PS: Nobody has guessed the card right yet.  Everyone that guessed may try again (on that post plz).  We’ll go until someone gets it right.

Until or next…

Check Out My Cards, Cards

I had $16+ leftover from stuff in my paypal account for awhile, and hadn’t felt like messing around on ebay, so I took it over to Check Out My Cards.  I’d looked around there several times before, but never pulled the trigger on anything, but this time, I found some cool stuff I decided I must have.

Before we begin, I didn’t make any offers on anything.  I dunno if there’s a long wait on it or not, but I just wanted to get my stuff and be gone.  I’m comfortable with the prices paid, so it’s cool.  Maybe I’ll try that out another time, because there will definitely be another time.  The transaction was smoother than an analogy I’m too tired to make, so I’ll be going back.  Give it a go yourself sometime, if you haven’t already.  It’s a cool place, despite card pricing being based on “book value”.

Enough jibba-jabba.  Without further ado, here’s what I got for my $16 and change:

Picked up a little Braves trade bait. Anyone in the market for a little LaRochey illegible autographness?

Sweet, I can finally put in pictures.  The Flash upload wasn’t working.  Fortunately, you can do it the old fashioned not flash way too, so I can do this post instead of complaining about my deteriorating mental state, due to my sleep issues sinking close to all-time bad range.  Incidentally, I’m starting to feel a little like when I tried that nasty 5-Hour Energy stuff not too long ago (minus the actual energy).  It kinda feels like… being all there mentally, understanding and thinking, but not quite being in control of the thoughts.  It’s unnerving as hell.  No likey. 😦

Wow, that would’ve been a much shorter post than I expected.  I could’ve done the quickpress thing and been done and gone to sleep by now, lol.

Cat Osterman and some other dude. Not for trade. The Mojo Hand probably has it anyway. My Kitty collection stands at three after the two I picked up at teh COMC.

Paid way under a buck apiece for the two Cat’s.  LaRoche was inexpensive too.  It’s really just the last two cards in this post I might possibly have been able to knock a buck or two off of making an offer.

Cat = shiny intensity

Cat is pretty tall.  I think she could use my head as an armrest (and I’m not even that short!).  It’ll be soft place to rest her arm at least.  I have enough hair up there to put in cornrows, and I have every intention of getting them one day.

This intermission sponsored by soggy Volcano Nachos… mmm. 😛

And now, for the main event.  It’s Kosuke time!  We’ll start with a card that makes topps’ Ridiculous Gimmicks Departmant blush (even though the card may quite possibly not be a gimmick at all).

Looks like a jersey card right?

Well guess again, Chachi.  That swatch is just a picture, and the card itself is no thicker than your average base card.  Just what the heck is this shiznit?

Here's the back. It's a non jersey card. Umm, yeah... what?

BBM: Hey topps, those Heritage High # cards.  The Jeter with a Red Sox logo and Dustin Pedroia with a Yankees logo.  That’s great… FOR ME TO POOP ON!

This has got to be way up there with the weirdest cards ever made.  And look, it’s number M2, so apparently there is at least one other card like this, maybe even an entire set!  Madness… Yet, it’s kinda growing on me.  I mean, it’s a Fukudome card, so there is already redeeming quality to it, but the sheer brazen absurdity of it all makes me chuckle.  This was actually the most expensive card in the lot, at or just shy of $5 (too tired too look, I’ve been up since before 11am… yesterday morning).  Uh, oops. >.>

Matsuzaka, Johjima, Fukudome Sweet Swatch triple

I think I mentioned recently that I wouldn’t search out and aquire any ’09 Sweet Spot relics, but I said wouldn’t get them on eBay.  Yes yes, taking advantage of the untintional loophole I gave myself sure is clever.  I didn’t even know the jersey cards went past dual in ’09 Sweet Spot until I saw this and few other triples at COMC.  Second, while it’s not like they are card of the year-level good looking, this kicks a single swatch Carlos Lee upside the head (sorry to those that have pulled a single swatch Carlos Lee), and looks a bit better than the fugly singles as well.

Alright, that’s all the cards.  I’m barely coherent at this point (actually dozed off for a few minutes), but I do have a little more to say before I go.  I want to thank everyone who commented on my last post for the words of encouragement.  It means a lot.  Thank you Wicked, Shane, Tim, Ken, and Ms. Latina♥.  It’s cool to know that what must be at least half of my entire regular readership consists of some of the absolute coolest people to have an internet connection.  Y’all rock. 😀

And I will see what I can do about a collecting for beginners post after apartment inspections early next week (I r slob, have lots of cleaning to do), Ms. L.  I think I can probably do a pretty decent post on that subject.

Here’s another tease for my big retail hit to go out on.  Not that this actually tells anyone anything about it, but only one card I’ve ever owned (still own it, actually) has sold for more than what I saw this one sell for on eBay the other day.  And with that, I bid you all adieu.

Looking for paradise… or a good night’s sleep.  That’d be cool too.

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…