I Wanna Say, Thank You ♫

I know I’m a little late with this, but there are some people I am thankful for, and I want to say thank you to them.

First, I am thankful for Migdalia, the Latina on a Mission herself.  Really, twitter makes you think you are closer to people you actually are, and we probably hardly know each other at all (we even discussed this phenomena once, lol).  But that doesn’t matter, because there aren’t many people that can instantly put a smile on my face with just their presence, not many people can make my heart skip a beat just by saying (err, typing?) my name.  She is not only one of the few people in this world that can do that to me, but also a sweet and helpful person who’s gentle encouragement gives me hope.

Next, I am thankful for Jacky from over at justin.tv, who’s presence does the same thing as Migdalia.  Similar in personality as well.  In fact, I’ve known Jacky quite a bit longer.  We haven’t talked much lately, but every time we do, I get the same warm & fuzzies. 🙂

I am also thankful for AnotherMaria.  She is just made of awesome, basically.  She’s strong-willed, motivated, driven to succeed.  She can multitask like nobody’s business.  She is basically all the good stuff that I’m not, but want to be.  She is The Maria as far as I’m concerned.  I hope to be as awesome as her one day.  It may be an impossible dream, but to be that strong, I suppose there is nothing I couldn’t do, and I could find someone as awesome as Maria to be with (and feel like I might actually be on something close to equal footing).

Taylor, another someone I haven’t talked to in awhile, but someone I go back with further than anyone else on the internet.  I’m thankful for her because, well, I might never have even taken the first step try to recover from my horrible mental screwed-upedness if not for her.  Amazing what having someone to care about can do.

And amongst the card bloggers there, whom I am thankful for in general, for what I have learned from y’all about generosity and stuff, are a few I am particularly thankful for.

Shane of Shoebox Legends, with whom I made my first major trade.  He’s cool, and who knows if I would’ve even hung around if not for that trade.

Of course we should all be thankful for the ladies of Dinged Corners, who constantly push the limits of what we can learn from cards.  They are truly innovative in their approach to little cardboard pictures of baseball players.  Go look through their archives if for some reason you don’t know of them, and prepare to have your mind blown by all the ways baseball cards can be used to teach, all the things things you can learn, all things you never considered before, about specific cards and cards in general.

And finally, I want to thank the man, the myth, the Wicked Ortega.  I want to thank him for caring enough to comment frequently, and for just being cool in general.  Thank you.

And yeah, I totally cried at his “What I’m Thankful For” post.  Like “hide the sharp objects” crying.  When it comes to people I have a connection to, that kinda thing is like stabbing me in the soul.  I hurt right along with.

I know I’m leaving out a few people I’m thankful for, for one reason or another, and I hope they know how much they mean to me.  You all are as much family to me as my own flesh & blood, perhaps even more so.  I think my friends are a blessing, even if I don’t often know how to properly express it, and I think that, in my friends, I am surrounded by some of the greatest people who have ever lived.

Love always…

News and Notes and Billy Goats?

Oh my, I hope there are no Billy Goats…

Anyway, I officially added Adrian Beltre and Shin-Soo Choo to my Want List.  I explained about Beltre in the last post, and as for Choo, have you seen him this year?!  Alexei Ramirez is under consideration to officially add as well.  Dunno if Fred Lewis will remain or not.

Should I add the guys I’m not actively collecting that I keep any cards I pull of (Hanley Ramirez, Ken Griffey Jr., Chien-Ming Wang… yeah, seriously reconsidering that last one), to the want list?

Three people have shown interest in the potential box break.  Shane, Thomas, and Baseball Dad would like to play.  Now, we need at least another 9 people to commit (or enough spots to be taken to equal 12 or more) before we can proceed further, however.  Baseball Dad gave me an idea how to divvy up the teams, should it actually get that far, though.  More on that as it develops.

In non-related news I started experimenting with making my own sketch cards.  I don’t have the markers to color most of them though.  If you want a B&W sketch card sent along with your trade, tell me what or who you’d like and I’ll whip one up for ya.  Can be pretty much anything your lil’ heart desires.  Sky’s pretty much the limit.

I’d like to actually be able to make a few bucks off them someday, so uhh… Get ’em while they’re free.

I’m done shamelessly pimpin’ my wares now.  Thank you.

The reason I’ve yet to put up my remaining Yankee Stadium Legacys is because… I don’t know where they are.  I thought I just missed them in the empty SP Blaster Yankee box, but they aren’t there, or in any of the piles and piles of random cards I checked awhile ago.  So yeah… >_>

Next on the agenda is a question for Shane of Shoebox Legends.  Did my end of the trade make it to you yet?  And if so, was it acceptable?  I’m a little worried.

And then a question for Cliff of Capewood’s Collections.  Did you ever come to a conclusion on what, if any, of the Phillies you needed/wanted?  Please shoot me an e-mail and I’ll do my best to get them to you before I run out of moneys this month.

To the ladies of Dinged Corners, I’m still workin’ on the box.  I’m planning to do at least two sides as soon as I finish this post.  Also, I can only fit 176 cards in the box not the 200+ I intended.  Will send the other 30 or so as I normally send out my trades.  I think I’ve managed to get everything you asked for in there, with the possible exception of a couple of minis that are nowhere to be found.  However they’ve been more than replaced with other minis.

I wonder if they’ve ever even been to my blog…

I’m probably forgetting something, but I guess I’m done for now.

See you, Space Cowboy

Shoutouts #5

Let’s get right to it, shall we?

Shoutout to the ladies of Dinged Corners.  I officially can’t find the bubble mailer with your address on it.  If you’d be so kind to email it to me, I’ll have your ridiculously huge lot of cards on their way by this time next week, if not sooner.

Shoutout to Bailey of The Nennth Inning.  The cards you sent arrived safely a day or two ago.  A Sweet Spot Josh Beckett jersey, a Ryne Sandberg Masterpieces SP and a Bowman Chrome Carlos Zambrano X-Fractor, correct?  Thanks much, btw.  I’m very pleased on multiple levels.

Cheese and Beer, the Prince Fielder and Corey Hart are all yours.

Shoutout to who it may concern.  The defending champion Philadelphia Phillies will be up first in the The Great Cardening of 2009.  Look for that this weekend probably.

And when that one is completed, we’ll go on to the hated minorly annoying division rival Milwaukee Brewers.  I actually do find them fairly enjoyable to watch, but I have no need for my damaged Prince Fielder jersey or any other Brewers cards any longer.

My Yankee Stadium Legacy cards will be up third, and the regular Yankees demanded to bat cleanup in a fit of roid rage.

Ooh, topical.

Also to who it may concern, my official Want List is up.  Hopefully this will help in the great Cardening.

Is that it?… I think it is.  No more shoutouts today.  Sorry. :/

.::~Outtro~::.

Blasters, We Got Blasters

I picked up  another ’08 Goudey blaster from K-Mart.  Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment.  At least if I’m gonna get a craptacular blaster, it’s half off right?  I’m starting to think I’m the only person who’s actually buying them, because the amount of blasters collecting dust never seems to get smaller.  I had my mom choose it since my luck has been so unflinchingly horrendous with blasters in general.  She didn’t do much better, but it wasn’t horrible overall.

I got a black & white  Derek Jeter for the unclaimed stack of Jeters waiting to be traded and couple more Red Sox to throw into my trade with Shoebox Legends.  And I got a Rod Carew and a Griffey for myself.  The real winner from this blaster though is whoever wants to trade for some Cardinals legends.  I got Stan Musial, Ozzie Smith Sports Royalty (the very last card in the last pack I believe), and Lou Brock.

This wasn’t all I got though.  I also went to Target and got an ’09 Upper Deck Series 1 blaster.  And it was good.  I had my mom choose that one too.  She did better on it.  Cards of note include 20th Anniversary Retrospective cards of Michael Jordan and Margaret Thatcher, O-Pee-Chees of Randy Johnson and John Smoltz, a Black Ultra Rare Chipper Jones Starquest, a Gold Rare Griffey StarQuest (which I am keeping), and an uncommon A-Rod (no commons in this one *le gasp*), and a spiffy looking team USA card.  The guaranteed jersey was even good for once.  I got Josh Hamilton.  Sure kicks the stuffins out of the Zack Duke jersey from the ’08 Series 2 blaster I got a few days ago at any rate.  Does anyone out there in blogland want it?  Or (almost) anything else from these blasters for that matter?  I’m only keeping the Cubs and Griffey, and the White Sox I already have a destination in mind for, but everything else is up for grabs.

I wanted to mention something about how these Upper Deck Cards look before I go.  To my eye the design is absolutely outstanding (special commendation for the bright and colorful Team Leaders subset) and even blows away Topps’ much improved ’09 effort.  The base cards and inserts are all colorful (and this year’s StarQuests are a huge step up) as well, something that Upper Deck is not normally known for, but I really like it.  Whatever extra creative effort that may have went into the flagship set in 2009 really paid off.

I noticed almost immediately there seems to be one thing amiss though… and that is the photography.  Not to say that it is bad in and of itself, but it seems like a lot of the shots are so up close and personal that you could smell the player’s breath.  It may be an effect of the bottom border being closed off, but I’m not digging it, especially with Topps’ borders being smaller than usual and a good deal of their photography actually being on par with some of Upper Deck’s better efforts from the past.

Ok I’m all done here.  Seeyaz next time, when I’ll have a couple of possibly worthwhile ideas to roll out before I start dropping the occasional sketch on ya.

PS: And I might finally have the cards for Dinged Corners sent out by then too.  I may need your address though ladies.  I had found it awhile back when I was almost ready to send it out in I think December of last year, but I believe the bubble mailer with your address is long gone now.  And lets just say the lot (which was about 80 cards strong as of December) has gotten a little bigger since then.

By about 3x…

OH… MY… GOD!!!!!!!!!!

I had a post ready to go in preparation for the completion of my second trade with Shane from Shoebox Legends.  All I had to do was fill in what he sent and add the links and it’d be ready to go.  But now that I have the package he sent, just… whoa!!!!

First of all, here is the background of this trade: He pulled a beautiful Spectrum Carlos Zambrano jersey #’d to /15 over on A Pack A Day awhile back, but had no use for it himself, so he said make an offer if you want it.  So I did, and he accepted.  What it basically ended up being was two ’05 Heritage Jed Lowries (regular & mohagany), and an Allen & Ginter Jason Varitek jersey for the Big Z.

I also threw in most of the Red Sox that had built back up after our last trade, as well as most of the two packs of Goudey I had bought between the trade being accepted and actually sending it out.  Finally, I sent out the only two worthwhile packs remaining in Target’s bargain bin along too.

Anyway, this is just incredible.  I can’t even wait to try and get some scans to put up before I post this.  Here is what my dawg, my boy, my man Shane hooked me up with.

Packs- If I am accepted, I will post these on A Pack A Day.

1992 Stadium Club Hockey- Man I do loves me some Stadium Club, and I do enjoy the occasional Hockey pack.

1986 Major League Leaders Baseball

2005 Upper Deck All-Star Classics Baseball

Cubs Singles-

Top Case (Top To Bottom)-

1993 Fleer Ultra- This here is on of my all-time favorite sets.  It just oozes class.

Candy Maldonado, Greg Hibbard, Mike Harkey (a personal fave from my youth), Jose Guzman, Randy Myers, Dan Plesac (showing *hopefully* proper bunting technique on the back of the card), Rey Sanchez (ah, there’s a name from my younger dayz *le sigh*), Tommy Shields (your guess is quite possibly better than mine), Jose Viscaino (bittersweet memories of lost youth), Matt Walbeck Rookie, Willie Wilson

And the rest (still in order)

2008 SP Legendary Cuts Alfonso Soriano (I approve this design), 1986 Major League Leaders Ryne Sandberg (oh my yes), 1991 Upper Deck (The first cards I ever received) “MVP Lineup” Ryno, Hawk, and Taco Bell, 1992 Score Bob Scanlon, 2007 Topps Heritage Rich Hill

Second Case (Top to Bottom)-

2008 Topps Alfonso Soriano, 2008 Upper Deck Ted Lilly, 1987 Topps Rafael Palmiero (w/ sweet nonsensically rainbow-hued Future Stars insignia), 2001 Topps Stars Eric Young (not this guy), 2001 Leaf Rookies & Stars Fred McGriff (I liked him long before he came to the Cubs), 2001 Fleer Premium Kerry Wood, 2001 Upper Deck MVP Bill Mueller (this design is straight up swank), 1994 Topps (another of my all-time favorite set designs) Shawn Boskie and Dan Plesac, 1994 Score Steve Buechele (picture is indescribable, something for the ladies of dinged corners to dissect I think), Jose Viscaino (another fascinating pic), and Eddie Zambrano Rookie Prospect

Sandwiched Between the Cases

1977 Topps Larry Biitner and 2006 Bowman Heritage Derrek Lee mini

I’m pretty sure I have none of these cards, and I know for a fact the only two that I could even possibly have already are the Topps Soriano and UD Lilly.

The Crown Jewel

2008 Upper Deck Spectrum Carlos Zambrano Game-Used Jersey (w/ Pinstripe) SS-CZ #’d/15

And now for the holy s*** moment.  I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this…

The Reason I Almost Fainted-

2005 Upper Deck Vladimir Guerrero UD Game Patch GP-VG

OH… MY… GOD.  This is just incredible.  Above and beyond anything I could have ever hoped for.  Was there a nice hit in one of those packs of Hockey?  I don’t know what I did to deserve this, but thank you thank you thank you 745,121 times THANK YOU!  Shane Diaz you are an awesome man.

PS: After a “buggy” start to today, things just keeps getting better & better.  I got down to the office this morning to pick up this package of improbable greatness.  And while I was writing this post (and the reason I still haven’t finished it until now going on 7pm), Jacky Muffin came back!!!!  Eleventy billion hearts. ❤

Until our next,

Me