2014

I’m not much for resolutions and I know anything I put here is going to fail miserably.  But what the hey.  These are my goals for 2014, in no particular order.

Collecting

1.) Mostly Finish Fergie Jenkins playing career run- Pending COMC shipment, I will have gotten all of Fergie’s solo, non-league leaders Topps cards from the 1970s.  So, barring oddballs and OPC, which are not major priorities. I’ll just need his ’68, some league leaders from the ’70s, any SSPCs, and most of his ’80s cards, none of which should cost too much.

2.) Get Ryne Sandberg’s other two RCs- I have a Fleer and two Topps Ryno RCs, so I need his OPC and Donruss.

3.) Complete 12 trades- Averaging one a month shouldn’t be too hard… right?  We already have one pending, two if you count Shot Not Taken being always pending.

4.) Complete any three sets- Propaganda Posters, Diamond Stars, and some year of A&G Highlight Sketches look like the easiest options, but we’ll see.

5.) Complete the following Single Page Sensations-

2011 Topps Legend Variation SPs

2011 Topps Diamond Legend Variation SPs

2011 Topps Diamond Die-Cuts- Sale and Winfield Single Pages have been reinstated, so I need two to replace them.

2012 Bowman Chrome Legends in the Making Die-Cuts

2012 Finest Faces of the Franchise Die-Cuts- I was very on the fence about these until I actually got them in my hands.  I like them.  I will keep them (I  may still be willing to part with certain ones for the time being though).

2013 Topps Museum Collection Canvas Collection

Victoria/Tara

Luol Deng

Carlos Santana

Any combination of five others.

Any two from the Sketch Card Page.

The sketch cards might prove difficult, but none of the rest should require a great deal of expense or challenge.

6.) At least 30 new 1960 Topps Cards- This has really trailed off.  Out of the 30, I want a minimum of 5 superstar/Hall of Famer/common high numbers.

7.) Land at least 10 more key rookies- Andre Dawson, Ichiro Suzuki, Vlad Guerrero, Nomar Garciaparra, Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs, and Don Mattingly are the highest on my list.  I’d be very happy to land any one of them in the coming year.

8.) Complete 5 more trifectas- Almost everything I’m close on trifecta-wise is attainable, except Kosuke, because he has no autograph cards that I know of.  Peanut Tillman lacks severely in the relic department, but he does have one.  Even lesser Ladainian Tomlinson autos can be had for around $25 on occasion, so finishing these enough of these is just a matter of making them a priority.

9.) Break the 100 card mark of another player- I’ve been over 100 with Aramis Ramirez for a little while now.  Ichiro and Vlad are my next closest, and I feel like I might be able to get there on one of them, especially if trades pick up.

10.) Pay off my old debts- There are a couple trades from 2013 I still need to send out, and I found someone on twitter awhile back that I flaked out on like three years ago.  Those will go out soon, one possibly as early as today.

Blog

1.) At least 75 posts this year.

2.) At least 25 non-baseball card related- Art, crappy poetry, short stories, life in general, reviews, recipes, I’m up for any whim really.

Life

1.) Finally start hitting the gym-  This won’t start until I think the resolutioners have mostly cleared out though.

2.) Rededicate myself to running- I hit a wall last summer and never really recovered, even though I still walked a ton.  I’m starting to get it back though.  I’ve jogged the full, 2+ mile trip over to the parents twice recently.

3.) Rededicate myself to eating healthier- I don’t look hideous and haven’t gained a lot of weight, but I feel like I really fell off the wagon the last couple months of 2013.

4.) Finish most of the old sketch cards I’ve never gotten around to completing- I did a few awhile back, now for the other bajillion.

5.) Complete at least 30 new portraity sketches of real people- Well, I’ve started one so far.  Sketch cards count, but I’d like them to not account for more than half.

6.) Complete at least 50 new sketch cards- These could play into #5, but I’d like to get back to comic & such ones in a big way as well.

7.) Finish the first draft of a novel- I have a chapter or two written of several things and lots more character sheets to work from.  I really should have finished this already.

8.) Take at least one trip well outside of my town on my own- All I want to do is travel, so I just gotta start doing it.  No one is willing or able to help me with this.

9.) Watch more anime- I watched Trigun: Badlands Rumble over the holidays, and while I never got that into the series itself, the movie was pretty outstanding and reignited my love of anime.  I have a promising series called Fairy Tail queued up to watch in the coming days, so this is off to a good start.

10.) Play more video games- I want to finish my Gen IV Pokemon games, pick up and complete both games in Gen V, and maybe beat one or two of the oldern non-Polkamenz RPGs I have laying around by the end of the year.

That’s all I got right now.  Come back at the end of the year to see what an utter disaster this turned out to be!

Your reward for slogging through my self-indulgent post..

#KeepMoving…

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…

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*

Diamond Giveaway Update

Since I haven’t mentioned in awhile and it’s all I’ve got handy, here is where I currently stand in the Diamond Giveaway.  I’ve managed to score several Diamond Die-Cuts via random vintage trading, and have finally landed a few keepers.  Behold, for I now have a screen grabber!

Vlad, via Carlos Santana..

Shin-Soo Choo, via Ricky Romero..

Big Papi, via David Price..

King Felix, via Roger Maris..

Aramis, via '66 Bolin, '75 Bumbry, '78 Pentz, Dierker, & McClure, '82 Cey, and '85 Ozzie Smith..

Not bad.  And if you’re wondering how I have 46 cards, I let go of the second Carlos Santana for 14 vintage cards because I was about out of trade bait.  A few of those netted me a Brian McCann Die-Cut which shortly thereafter landed me 31(!) more cards from 1973-1985, including several stars (one keeper- ’76 Dick Allen) and a Cub.

See?

I peaked at 52 cards, but seven of them landed Aramis over the weekend.  So despite all the randomness, there is a method to my madness, and these are the rest of the Diamond Die-Cuts I’m after:

Ernie Banks

Starlin Castro

Tyler Colvin

Dave Winfield

Ichiro Suzuki

Adrian Beltre

I also have a secondary list of players I’d like to pick up any of (for various reasons) if possible.  These would be my main priority from the secondary list:

Mark Buehrle (for my dad)

Carlos Santana (3rd time’s a charm, right?)

Hanley Ramirez (still flirting with the idea of collecting him on occasion)

Andrew McCutchen (ditto)

I’m not sure I have anything anyone wants, but if you’ve got any of the above on the site (or any others really, whatevs, I’m not too picky or in a hurry or anything) and want to swing a deal for my random, mostly ’70s nonsense, and if you can find me… maybe you can hire– Wait, ha.  I’m game.

So that was a pretty boring post, but at least I had some pictures this time right?  Right??  Anyway, next time, a “Look for Vintage” Fairfield pack that didn’t suck.

‘Til the crossroads…

Trading Day Pt. 2: The Search for Curly’s Gold

Here is the other package I received (last) Monday.  These are from Too Many Grandersons hisself.  Behold!

Suh-weet Walter Payton reprints, Gold Hester, base blue Manning parallel /500, Urlacher (foil and thus poorly scanned) insert from rookie year, and more Urlachers (have at that code)! How much better does that blue parallel look than the boring black borders that they've trotted out most of the last 10 or so years?? A set that looks that good I might actually consider collecting, as I once did the the '02 Gridiron Kings (even picked up about half the Legend SPs in a lot once upon a midnight's dreary).

More Bears! Greg Olsen, Bernard Barrien black parallel from one of the single greatest set designs in the history of cards, Cutler, some rookies, and my personal favorite, my first and Julius Peppers as a Bear.

Last of the Bears... The more I think about, the more I think Rex' dad was right about the Bears mismanagement of QBs, especially in the Super Bowl. Fortunately, in getting Martz, they seemed to have wised up to some degree. Not sure I like the total abandonment of the running game though. Somehow Bronko was the only card I already had amongst the Bears.

Moving on to baseball now…

Vladdy! I may have the Own the Game & one of ToppsTownies, but the rest are new to me, three I've never even seen before. The Diamond King is the gold parallel version #'ed to /2500.

Ichiro! Don't get a lot of him in trades. The '04 Own the Game in the middle just insane. And a rookie of the BEST catcher in baseball. Well, he's in that elite group with Mauer, McCann, and Victor Martinez (and maybe Posey in a year or two) at the very top anyway.

And a few of my favorite Cubs to finish it off. I really hope Big Z sticks around if it's between keeping him or Dempster. In fact, I think I'd just rather Dempster leave regardless. Something bothers me about him.

Thanks for the great cards!  I’ll get together something worthwhile to send in return… eventually. *sigh*

.::~Outtro~::.

Cards from Marie and Matt

I got my prize winnins from Cardboard Problem and a fresh trade from Heartbreaking Cards at the same time and scanned them at the same time, so I might as well post them at the same time.  Plus I’m not sure which came which on one of the scans.  I may have mixed them on it, I dunno.  Anyway, pretty pictures ahoy!

These be from Marie. It appears the Cubs drew the better artists in Chicle, judging by these three. All solid, and Ernie is outstanding! Love the scoreboard shot! And the Prince is cool cuz I used to have a small collection of the guy and clever cuz the ticket is against the Cubbies. The terrible, terrible Cubbies. *le sigh*

The *literally* big prize. Johnny Mize cabinet card. Though a Cardinal, it's one of the prettier looking cards in the entire set, in my rarely humble enough opinion. And three mini 206 Cubbies (only one still with the team) for scale and because I couldn't fit normal-sized cards on the scanner bed with giganto Mize. I mentioned something somewhere about this being my first contest win, but I actually won a contest at White Sox Cards awhile before. Slipped my mind due to how quick that one went down (half hour, give or take).

And the rest, maybe. But what nice filler it is. All-Star Classics is one of my absolute favorite sets of the entire past decade. Been wanting a box for eons.

Now it gets confusing, though it’s a perfect segue from Marie to Matt I guess.  I don’t know which one these all came from, though the more I think about it, I’m pretty sure there is some from both in this scan:

If there's a choice between keeping Big Z or Dempster, I'm keeping Big Z. Every. Single. Time. Also, I heart blue refractors. 🙂

Now it’s definitely on to the Heartbreaking part of this post.

The King Felix collection gets some rare lovin' thanks to Matt. Noice.

Even though the D-Lee collection was officially closed almost immediately after this (but well before he was actually traded), that mmiddle row is freakin' sweet. And a new Kosuke (the Documentary one)!

Finally, the two cards that keyed this trade in the first place, the blue Fukudome & Vlad parallels. Also a cool D-Lee segueing into his tenure with the Cubs.

Great awesome cards.  Marie and Matt should both be expecting something in the mail before too long.  And with that, I’m outta here.

Until our next…

A Couple Small Trades

The come from Baseball Dad and Da Rook, respectively.  I will find the cards I’m looking for and send them to them in return for these beauties sooner or later.

Here’s what Baseball Dad sent:

A couple Rynos, Rod Carew for K-Mart, Frank Robinson, the First Clementes I've ever gotten in a trade, the rare set need card (Nobunaga), and LT aka the reason for the trade in the first place.

And, though I still can’t find the missing Alomar, this trade is finally mailer’d up and ready to go.  I did call his bluff and throw in an extra case & a half of random Indians cards though.

Now for the cards from Sarah:

Ichiro & Vlad toppstown golds, old school Ted, probably the coolest Tales of the Game insert, and possibly the only meaningful ticket in Ticket to Stardom..

Man, remember when everyone thought the Cubs horribly overpaid for Lilly?  He’s only gone on to become the most reliable pitcher in one of the better starting rotations in the league.  He’s like… the anchor that keeps them afloat.

And I mentioned the Shin-Soo Choo card might be the only one with a ticket to a meaningful game to the player depicted in the entire set.  Behold!

The only way it could've been better if the ticket was from the semifinal, but it's Ticket to Stardom, so I'll take what I can get. Also, it's #'ed 1/90, which is nice. Also, Jackie's legendarytastic World Series moment in text form. Reading is good.

Don’t see too many tickets from this where the player actually did something, so I was pleasantly surprised to get a memorable one.  Hopefully I can find the straggler and get the gaggle of Chippahs sent on their way soon.

Oh, my wantlist has been updated quite a bit.  Be sure to check it out!

Adieu, homies.

2009 Allen & Ginter Blaster

I cannot believe I found these at K-Mart.  The blaster kinda sucked overall, but I can knock a few more off the wantlist.  Let’s breakitdown:

Pack 1 (easily the best of the bunch)

9 Ryan Theriot

280 Shin-Soo Choo

125 Randy Johnson

AGHS4 Carlos Zambrano Baseball Highlights Sketch- Keeper!

275 Vlad Guerrero Mini- Double Keeper!

NP66 Joba Chamberlain National Pride

Had I not had the first two, this pack would’ve been four outta six in keepers.  As it is, two is still solid.

Pack 2

210 Johan Santana

181 Aaron Rowand

41 Victor Martinez

326 Cameron Maybin SP

93 David DeJesus Mini

NP65 Carlos Delgado National Pride

Whole lotta trade bait.

Pack 3

184 Chris Young

11 Jacoby Ellsbury

60 Matt Holliday- The Cards could wreak havoc with the landscape of the National League picking up Holliday AND Mark DeRosa.  Two legit bats to protect Pujols when there were really none before.

93 David DeJesus

164 Erik Bedard Mini

NP64 Francisco Liriano National Pride

Pack 4

94 Paul Maholm

18 Clyde Parris

178 Adam LaRoche

321 Kelly Shoppach SP

279 Jon Lester Mini

NP67 Adrian Gonzalez National Pride

Crack the Code ad- These things make good decoys.  They add size to the pack being a 7th card, and weigh more and give the pack a level of rigidness close to that of a hit pack.

Pack 5

121 Ryan Church

232 Everth Cabrera Padres RC

250 Grady Sizemore

282 Eric Chavez

218 Bobby Parnell Mets RC Ginter Back Mini

NP68 Ichiro Suzuki National Pride- Woohoo, keeper!

Pack 6

113 Rafael Furcal

202 Conor Jackson

92 Joe Mauer

329 Carlos Gomez SP

66 Alex Rodriguez (horrendously miscut) Black-Bordered Mini

NP69 Ryan Rowland-Smith National Pride

Pack 7

187 Brett Myers

244 Carlos Beltran

17 Manny Ramirez

215 Jed Lowrie Ginter Code Parallel

61 Burke Kenny Mini!

NP70 Carlos Pena (damaged) National Pride

8th and final pack

227 Neslson Cruz

55 Alex Rios

96 Geronimo- Keeper!

317 Jeff Baker SP

237 Walton Glenn Eller Mini

NP71 Josh Hamilton National Pride

Well, there ya go.  Nothing to write home about.  About to fall asleep, so I’ll mess with adding stuff to for trade and want lists later today.