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…

Quick Hits

Just have a few of notes to mention tonight, since I’m not up for the 3-5 hours it’ll take to do a post for my first trade Wicked Ortega (It was big!  I don’t think the 9 or so scans I did was more than 40% of the package), which is the only other thing I have handy to talk about at the moment, since my Allen Iverson post is now moot (and I couldn’t be happier!).

I finally got around to doing a bunch of scans of eBay stuff, pack breakage, my second trade with Wicked Ortega, the clunkers and more from Roll out the Barrel, a few other random cards, a couple sketch cards I finally finished, and some quickie sketches from one of my sketchbooks.  And then I forgot to bring them back to my place… Yeah, I suck. -.-;

Anyway, you’ve got that stuff to look forward to when I do finally get all that good stuff over here.  And I’ve got a box of Fantastic Four Archives I picked up on Blowout Cards over the weekend to look forward to arriving near Christmas.  Here’s hoping for a really cool sketch card.

Speaking of sketch cards, does anyone know where I can get some binders on the really really cheap?  I need one for my sketch card and Benchwarmers collections, and probably ones for other stuff eventually.  My ginormo 2005 Bowman Heritage redemption binder won’t hold my random insert/WBC collections and player collections forever.

Provided I pick up some more cases, cards will be going out, starting this weekend, to the following peeps: Nachos Grande, Shot Not Taken, Roll out the Barrel, Night Owl, and The Great Sports Name Hall of Fame, and possibly another 3-5 more to be named later.  It’s gonna be a busy month, or what qualifies as such for me.  Fortunately, there are no $7+ packages here, so I won’t break myself with all this.

Hmm… I thought that was it, but since I just now finished a couple more sketch cards, I thought I’d mention them.  Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn and Batman are now done.  I will scan them someday.  They’ll be available for sale or trade or something maybe.  The blog stars of AnotherMaria and Ms. Latina I’m coloring as I type this very paragraph won’t though.  Once I finish it, I’m going to send it off to each of them to sign.  It will be my first TTM auto. ♥ 😀

Goodnight, and apologies for such a crappy, halfhearted post.  Maybe the next one will be better.

Maybe.

You’re thinking of tacos…

Belated Night Owl Trade

I sent Night Owl some Dodgers a few weeks ago (or is it months at this point), and here’s what I got in return:

Starting it off with some Cubs and A&G wantlist minis...

I am unsure of what that Leon Durham is.  It’s not really a card, it’s on paper that’s about newsprint thick.  Whatever it is though, I do like it. 🙂

Straight outta 1960, it's 2009 Topps Hertage... and a couple Target blaster throwbacks

Makes me want to get some more actual 1960 topps Cubbies to go with my lone card from that year, great defensive innovator (and pretty decent hitter to boot) Vic Power.  And is Reed Johnson ever the right guy for an old school version or what?  The hustle & effort, man.  Granted, he’s gritty & hard-working because he’s no better than mediocrely talented, but still, hustle is a motivator for others sometimes… He will make a fine manager someday perhaps.

2009 O-Pee-Chee, approximately 1/8th of the Cubs base set... 😛

Wasn’t a fan of OPC this year.  Not to say that some of the cards aren’t nicely designed (though plenty of photography stinkers there are).  Not enough cards for the price of admission, considering the ginormity of the set.  If they were eight or more cards per pack with the same insert & hit rate for the $45 or so hobby boxes were going for when it first came out, I *might* have picked up a box.

This brings me to gripe I should mention to Upper Deck sometime if I ever get a live mic with someone with some stroke there.  Upper Deck does not seem to even be able to grasp the concept of low end (flagship VERY aside).  Even the surprisingly decent Upper Deck X suffers from the low end-itis a bit.

Let’s continue with the pretty pictures of baseball cards then, shall we?

Another OPC, some '09 Goudey, '09 UDX, Attax, and '08 Timeline

Thusfar, my favorite Upper Deck brand of the year is UDX.  Is that crazy or what?  I didn’t hate ’08 (one of the few, the proud), and the ’09 version was a vast improvement.  It’s the only baseball product truly geared towards kids too, aside from topps’ surprisingly excellent flagship.

Goudey was sometimes not pretty this year, but the Cubbies I received looked fine for the most part.  The Uncanny Valley ookiness is mercifully kept to a minimum.

I still don’t like the Timeline base design, but there is something about the blue on it that give it a certain I don’t know what.

Attax are Attax.  Rolling out a new game every year or two and never sticking with one can’t be helping the baseball CCG cause, I’m just sayin’.

Tristar & Bowman & a different Zambrano & topps Chrome

It’s a shame Tristar’s stuff gets no love, because most of their stuff looks very good, better than Boredom Bowman most years.

I think that’s the first ’94 Fleer Ultra Cubbie I’ve got.  I was going to say the mid-’90s (’94-’98ish), were a good place to start for my Cubs collection needs, but really, I don’t have that many from just about any era.  Vintage aside, mid-’90s is certainly a very low point, but I don’t even have that many junk wax era Cubbies, particularly of the non-topps persuasion.  I guess this is because while I’ve been collecting cards since 1996, it’s only been the last couple of years that baseball cards became my top priority.

Fonsie, just… try to come back healthy next year, ‘kay?

2009 Upper Deck Cubs

There they are.  Amazing that through all the horrible offseason moves, injuries, and just bad years in general, the Cubs finished over .500 in 2009.

Cards from the dark ages...

Well, the late-’80s/early-’90s were colorful, if nothing else.

'09 Icons & more '09 Allen & Ginter needs

Icons are kinda meh and the foil parallels are mostly fugly, but the blue does the halfhearted baseball design some good.  And there’s Fukudome, the whole reason for the trade in the first place.  Someday, I’m going to update my A&G trade page.

Someday.

Some great great cards from the man with one of the 5 coolest names in the sports card blogosphere (along with Wicked Ortega, Mojo Hand, Collective Troll, and yours truly, Lonestarr, modesty aside ;P).  Give it up for Night Owl one more time!

Oh, Mr. Owl, do you still need the Broxton All-Star card from Updates & Highlights?  If so, I will send it along with the Kershaw & any other stuff I might have.

That’s all for this post.  Just a reminder, only about a dozen guesses have been made in the contest so far, so keep ’em coming.  Remember, even if you’re guess is wrong, you’ll still be in the drawing for a chance at the four football cards.

Play again?

Another To-Do List

There is more trady business I need to be doin’.  This is The To-Do List, sponsored by Subway & Tristar (just kidding… someday I will get a consistent and large enough amount of hits per day to be sponsored by card companies & people who want stuff reviewed though).

• Send another SASE to Mario (never even got the first one sent, d’oh!) for three quite frankly (Get it, cuz Frank Gifford is one of ’em? Laugh with me!) awesome football relics from a recent box break.  This one goes on top because I’m on the clock here.  I’m going to send some extra top loaders too.  I think I’ve got somewhere around half a 60 ct. box of off-brand ones that I picked up at Toys ‘R Us when I was probably still in my teens that should work well for his shipping style.

• Get a replacement package together for JD’s Daddy.  Someone jacked most of my first trade somewhere between here & there.  Ya know, for my $7.62 (it was a pretty big package), you’d think I could rest easy knowing it’d make it in one piece with no trouble whatsoever.  Whatever mail piratin’ f***head stole it, I hope they get paper cuts from the cards.  I could’ve bought a pack of oh so misleadingly named Legendary Cuts for roughly the same price.  At least when I got screwed over that way, I’ll be getting a few cards, not losing well over 100.

Oh well, I can get rid of my Max Scherzers now at least. 😛

• Working on something with Brian for my Texas Rangers hits.

• Wicked Ortega has some more Maybins & M. Cabreras & Manny bat card and probably a Greinke auto coming to him.

• I still owe Da Rook some ’08 & ’09 UDX and maybe some ’06 topps, and of course there will be Braves.

• I have a Kershaw to send Night Owl.

• Still gotta send Dayf some cards.

• Shot Not Taken… I’ve got most of what I already had for you together.  I can send out what I’ve got and wait do the TNA cards later if you want.

• Cardboard Problem~

Marie, you are officially getting the Pujols Ticket Stub for the Ramirez & Sandberg jerseys.  Also, did you ever get my email about the cards I have of the other guys you collect?

And for Sooz, I guess all that is left is for me to get around to finally coming to a final conclusion on which Ichiros I need from your list.  At most, I only have a half dozen I think (it was four last time I checked, but I think I may have pulled one or two more since then).

• I still have some ’09 A&G regular minis & mini SPs to send Nachos Grande for some clunkers & stuff.  I think I will just see that they are sent out in short order and mess with sending him some Reds later.

If I have missed anybody, and I’m sure I have, please let me know.  When I reach my 5000 hit anniversary, we’re gonna have my first real contest.  5000 hits is the uncirculated anniversary, you know. ;3

My unrelated notes for this post are as follows…

Did Braylon Edwards just have the ultimate falling up experience or what?  Beating up LeBron’s little buddy got him shipped off from the sucktastic Cleveland Browns to the quite possibly legitimate contender Jets?!?!  How is that punishment?  Granted, it sounds like there is a small chance of him getting suspended for a few weeks, but dude, UP-FREAKIN’-GRADE.

Also, what is up with the Eagles backups?  EVERY SINGLE TIME McNabb goes out with injury, his backups play like freakin’ superstars without exception.  It’s hard to have sympathy for a rich & famous QB with ridiculous athletic ability & lots of endorsment deals, but sometimes it’s hard not to feel bad for him.  Dude’s been nothing less than a great player and a class act, but fate seems to have been conspiring against him in Philly ever since he got drafted.

I’ve been stuck in that sick-but-not-quite-sick mode for the past couple of days.  It’s almost somehow worse than being full blown sick.  You don’t feel bad enough to be completely out of commission, but you don’t feel good enough to go about life like normal.  It kinda sucks.

That’s all for this one.  There is a sketch card project and sleep to catch up on.

Until our next…

Things Are… Actually Progressing?! Holy S#!%

I actually have three packages ready to go out tomorrow morning and some others rapidly approaching completion? What did I do with the real Lonestarr?!  It must just be excess nervous energy from worrying about someone, and the fact that I’ve been slowly preparing a bunch of these things little-by-little at once when the mood strikes.  But whatever the case, things are finally coming to fruition.

♫ Indians cards on the way for Baseball Dad (he sent 20 or so Ryne Sandbergs that I will post about once I’ve scanned them) and David (my WAY late group break money order and a far too few cards in thanks for the Random Packs of Kindness).  I can’t guarantee that there’s anything either of you can use, supercollectors that you are, but here’s hopin’.  I can always send a little more on (lol) to you if you are unsatisfied.

♫ Lots of wonderfully dementedly random stuff for Matt of Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius will also be on the way tomorrow morning.

♫ The long-overdue SASE for Mario of Wax Heaven is pretty much only waiting for the old Andrew Miller sketch card I did back before I had a teal marker to be inked and colored.  It doesn’t seem right to not send anything, as cool and generous as Mario has been with me.  Unfortunately, I have nothing else to offer right now besides my mediocre artistic talents.

♫ Piles have been set aside for Wicked Ortega (Marlins and Mannys and stuff) and codebreaker extrordinaire JD’s Daddy (Phenom Pitchers).

♫ I just need Night Owl‘s address and I can send out stuff to him any time, Dodgers being one of the first teams I organized back when I thought I had the iron will to get further than two teams into The Great Cardening of 2009.

Looks like that’s everything that is progressed to near-completion.  Shoot me an email if you wish to know more specifics.

Hopefully this wasn’t too inane of a post.  Just doing whatever I can to take my mind off, umm… things, and thought I’d let people know how their dealings with me are progressing, since I’m painfully, excruciatingly slow at this.

Gettin’ s*** done, yaya. :d

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. 😦