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?

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…

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. 😦

Gabe Kapler Sketch Card

Here’s the aforementioned Gabe Kapler card I mentioned in my last post:

Oh look, it's a 1/1! 😛

It’s up to Sooz if she wants it colored the rest of the way.  It will still be awesome either way, cuz that’s how I roll. 8)

Watch out for slow devoloping trades… they tend to expand exponentially.

Kevin Kouzmanoff Sketch Card

Here one of Sooz of A Cardboard Problem‘s three sketch cards.  I’m posting it because it’s the only one I can say for sure is done (Jeter I decided to color all the way, and I’ll leave the decision on Kapler’s completedness for Sooz to make).  So without further ado:

Teh Kouz for Sooz...

Hope ya like it, Sooz!  I’ll get everything sent once I finally finish Jeter & possibly Kapler.

The never-ending pursuit of artistic competence… I mean, excellence!

Attempted Derek Jeter Sketch Card

As promised, here’s my attempt at a Derek Jeter Sketch card for Sooz of A Cardboard Problem:

I tried...

As you can see, by no means is it poorly drawn.  I just completely failed at making it look like jeter.  I dunno what went wrong, because two other sketch cards I attempted before this (and also a similar sized work) of other people looked like who they were meant to look like.

He isn’t colored because I lack markers in navy blue and his particular skin tone, and I skipped the gray because I just thought it looked better without any color at all to go with a colored background, though that didn’t turn out quite as I’d envisioned either.  I did mention to Sooz needing practice, and if nothing else, this was definitely a learning experience.

Couple other quickies:

• My 2009 A&G is ordered.  You’ve been put on notice, my fellow Gint-A-Cufflinks.  Or something.

• I pulled an awesome card out of a 1/2-priced pack of 2008 UD Masterpieces from K-Mart this afternoon.  That will be posted as a Random Cool Card I Own soon.  Alas, retail Masterpieces has already been posted at A Pack to be Named Later, so the pack itself won’t be seen on there.

Ironically, the pack posted on APtbNL had three of the four cards in the other pack of Masterpieces I bought (all except former White Sox slugger Frank Thomas; got current White Sox slugger Jim Thome instead).  Madness.  And… I’m out.

Until our next…