A look back on 2014

With 2015 right around the corner, and all the blogs showing the best cards, best sets, worst inserts, blah blah blah out there, I'd like to take a little look see at what I had planned for 2014 and see how well the year turned out for me. I made some not so lofty goals, because I felt it was far more important to have fun instead of putting unneeded pressure on myself trying to complete something that may be out of reach.

First though, let's take a quick glance at the goods - the best cards obtained during the year. If I had to look back and pick the best three cards I added to my collection, I will need to give the nod to these three:

From a group break run by Chris over at Nacho Grande, I lucked out by not only getting my White Sox, but securing this ùber rare Abreu diecut from one of the mini boxes. While prices on this card has been dropping over the months, there was never a plan for me to sell it. It's a fine addition to my throwbacks binder.

Certainly not a pull from me, this sweet relic card was a gift from the super insane (in a nice way) Wes from Jaybarkerfan. For a nerd like me, who gets a chance to play Star Wars dress up, I still geek out on the galaxy far, far away.

I was going to type that the three cards are in no particular order, but who am I kidding. Top pull from 2014 was this beauty I yanked from my LCS. Buy back auto of the best hockey player of all time. I think I was grinning for a week after this hit. Someone at my LCS wants me to sell it to him. Yeah - that's not happening.

Now, I like to look at the most popular posts for the year. The five most visited, in regard to page views:
1 - "I Walked Alone", discussing a visit to a card show in November. At almost 1200 views, I am pretty sure I am somehow stealing views from the video linked in the post.

2 - "Happy Birthday to Me", my 2nd anniversary post. Contests certainly draw page views, and 430 views made it popular.

3 - "Blogger Meet-up", a recap of DimeBox Nick and I hooking up at the Orland card show in February. Over 360 page views. I think the picture of an entire box of '75 minis made Night Owl visit the page at least 200 times alone.

4 - "Who gets post mail?", a post covering 6 different envelopes from 6 readers who sent me some great cards. I'm not sure what drove this post to 280 views, but it must have been interesting.

5 - "Card show visit", talking about a solo trip to the Orland show, with a side visit to Winston's for the greatest Irish soda bread anywhere. 225 page views on this post. There were some sweet vintage on the page, so I think that helped.

Personally, my favorite post with average page views concerned a multi-blogger trade I was a part of. Though my sad attempt as being Dr. Seuss was a close 2nd.

Ok - so that quickly recaps the big additions to my collection. So let's go into the way back machine, take a gander at the goals I had for this year and see how I felt I did.

Trades - I had put a goal of about 26 trades into my plans. I really didn't keep track, plus I less "make trades" and more "send out stuff to people". If I was to take a guess, I would say I fell short of the goal. However, to me, the idea of a trade is to get cards into the hands of people, and I did a lot of that, so I am going to say I did a decent job with this goal.

Collection - I had put goals to get specific binders to specific numbers. I WAY shot low, because all but one of those I beat by mid year. I set my goal for double play cards to 450 - I am at 779. My bunting goal was 250 - I hit 791. Throwbacks were going to get to 300 - right now I am at 583. And my Ben Petrick collections was going to be 90 - I missed that, currently having just 68. However, I had a Sportlots order to place which contains 14 Petrick cards so that gap will be closed in a couple weeks.

Organization - Organization was a huge goal, and I nailed that one. I have a fantastic grasp on what I have to keep, what I have to give away, and what I would like to add. Once I got my Zistle account moving with the initial card recording, everything flowed well. I have yet to add all my White Sox cards. I would like to do that, but it's low on my priority list.

Sets - This was the loftiest of all the goals, It's also the goal I really should have kept track of. I can't say if I knocked off 15 sets, because I kept adding sets to the lists. I think I completed 8 or 9 sets. I am also sooooooooo very close to a couple others. Feel free to click on my Wants and A&G Wants links at the top if you can help me out.

Blog - I didn't care about adding followers or readers. Thanks if you do both. Just know that numbers don't matter to me. I made a few changes to the links at the top of the blog, and along the side. I will keep tweaking as needed. I'll continue to write in a fun way, hopefully not bore you to death and maybe post a cool picture or two.

Is this one cool picture or two?

Tomorrow, we'll look to the future.

Tracking the card: two from three?

(ed note: this is the 4th part in an on going series where I attempt to track a card to a specific game. You can read previous card tracking through the label "tracking the card".)

Hopefully everyone had a safe and enjoyable Christmas. I have one more giveaway still in progress until the end of the year, so please take part if you like. It's free. Are their two better words than that?

Two words together that are better? You're so cute!

Anyway, over the past week I finally took the time to organize a box of junk wax I ripped from my LCS. 1992 Upper Deck baseball high series. The early, bordered UD releases are nice, and the box was just $12. There are Bench and Morgan autos in the boxes, but I didn't pull any. On the plus side, I filled a ton of holes and almost completed the set, so that's a good thing. While sorting the cards, I came across this one - Chris Gwynn #689.

Another great photo selection from UD. But as you can see, thrid baseman Greg Jeffreies appears to be throwing the bal towards second baseman Keith Miller. Is this a rare DP card that starts at third? Let's sleuth it out.

For starters, I am not familiar with Shea Stadium. And a bunch of searches only turned up more recent photos of the park with different outfield wall looks to them. While the stadium does appear to be Shea, there is always the chance it wasn't. The Mets website also has an interactive 360 view of the field, and I was still pointing to this being Shea, but none of the angles confirmed it for me. I needed to be over 50-50 on where this play at third occurred. A search at AP Images got me something that tipped the scales in the direction I needed. This image of Deion Sander and Bobby Bonilla give enough of a view of the outfield wall at Shea to state this is a regular season game.

So let's look at the 1991 season for the Dodgers. They made two east coast trips and played a total of six games in the Mets' ballpark. The first two games were in Early May - 7th and the 8th. Chris Gwynn appeared in neither. Their 2nd trip was the end of a 11 game home stand for the Mets, playing 4 games from July 18-21. Chris did not play in the 2nd game on the 19th. He started in left on the other three games.

In the game on the 18th, He came to bat 5 times and recorded a single hit - a home run in the top of the 7th. Otherwise, he flew out twice, stuck out once and grounded out 4-3 in his out plate appearances.

In the game on the 20th, Gwynn only has 3 at bats, two ground outs and a strike out in the top of the 5th. In the bottom of the 5th, Gwynn was part of a double switch. Tim Crews replaced him in left while Mitch Webster replaced reliever pitcher Dennis Cook, flopping the batting position of the two positional players.

That leaves us with the final game of the series on the 21st. Chris came to bat 4 times. He walked in the 3rd and was part of a 6-4-3 double play hit by Lenny Harris. Gwynn hit into a 6-3 ground out in the 6th. In his last at bat, he flew out to his counterpart in left field. It's his at bat in the top of the 2nd that brings our answer. After Darryl Strawberry singled, Gwynn drew a walk. Lenny Harris then drilled a single, scoring Strawberry with Gwynn pulling up at second. Next batter was catcher and current Angels manager Mike Scioscia, who slapped a slow roller to Jefferies at 3rd. Gregg stepped on third for the force, and then attempted a play at second, but Harris beat the throw to the bag.

As you look at the card, you can see how close to the bag Gwynn was as Jefferies was making the throw to second. Scioscia was swinging on a 1-0 count, so doubtful it was an attempted steal of third but a slow grounder. Considering it was Lenny Harris advancing to 2nd but Mike Scioscia lumbering down the line to first, I'm shocked Jefferies was throwing for the force at 2nd to get a second out.

And with that, we close another case for Encyclopedia 2x3Heroes.

Tis the Season: You get a car, and you get a car, and you....

The great and powerful Randomizer has spoken!

I want a onion bagel!

All total, for the dupe giveaway, there were 31 entries. And since I like stupid facts, let's give a few about the selections:
* Most common stack to be ranked #1 was the Allen and Ginter dupes, though one person ranked that #13
* Least favorite stack was the random UFC, golf, TV & movies, though one person ranked that #1. Fighting with that stack for the bottom position was the hockey cards.
* All but one winner were given a stack that was ranked #7 in their list or higher. The only person that had to go below that was the player who ended up 15th in the winnings.
* The #10 winner was able to secure their first choice in their rankings. Nice for them the stack was unclaimed for so long.
* Winner #2 didn't get the first choice on his list. Again - that's how popular the A&G dupes were.
* The first and the last person to enter the draft came out empty handed. Sorry. That being said, that last entry ranked 5 stacks with the value "999999". I kinda wish he won, but at the bottom of the randomizer - I have a stack of about 30 Bips he would have received. :)

Ok - let's get to what you all care about. First off, let me show you how the names were entered in the Randomizer. I copy and pasted the name as it was listed in form. I took the whole name as it was entered - everything you typed prior to your email address.

Being that this is not a case break and no one has any finances involved in the randomizer, I am sure you are comfortable in the fact I am not video recording this. Being the third year of TTS, I ran the list three times.

As I stated, we have 15 stacks to giveaway, and Night Owl didn't have to fight anyone for the cards he wanted. After going through each person's list, here are the winners and what they are receiving:

Night Owl - 2013 & 2014 A&G cards
Jeff Yeo -  2014 Topps Gypsy Queen stack #1
Caitlin Jennings - 2014 Topps flagship stack #1
Josh DenHartog - 2014 Topps Gypsy Queen stack #2
Dawgbones - 2014 Topps flagship stack #2
RAZ - random cards UFC, WWE, golf, TV & movies
Daniel Wilson - 2014 Heritage
Jason Carter - 2014 Panini Golden Age
Steve Drennen - 2014 Bowman and Bowman Chrome
Al Kawamoto - 2014 UD hockey and 2010 UD World of Sports
Weston DeShon - 2014 soccer cards
Mark Hoyle - 2012 Panini Americana and 2014 NASCAR
Kevin Papoy - 2013/14 basketball
John Miller - 2014 football stack #1
Adam Kaningher - 2014 football stack #2

Note for those that won a stack #1 or #2 - both stacks are pretty equal. For the GQ and flagship, I put all the dupes in order, then built the two stacks by flipping each card in order and alternating between two stacks. So you may get dupes of my dupes, but they are even in number and hopefully even in stars. For the football stacks, I did the same alternating between two stacks. I watched as any inserts and serialed cards came up and did my best to have an even amount of those between the two groups.

One giveaway remains. If you haven't picked a hit from my list, go visit this post and do it. And if nothing thrills you, but you still want about 40 free cards, just leave a comment with no number, but your favorite team and player. I would love to send you something. Please, help me make a dent in this full 5000 count box of cards.

Speaking of cards, let's post two. Two I received yesterday from a successful TTM request.

Nice return from Roberto Hernandez that took just over a week. Thanks Mr. Hernandez. Congrats to the winners! Go celebrate.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter....

Just a short reminder there are free things available if you have not signed up yet. Search back through the the last week worth of posts to find them. 

Like the others out there, I want to wish you and your family a happy and safe Christmas day. May your stockings be stuffed with hits. Can we give some thanks to Santa for another year of excellent deliveries? For myself, one of his elves put this beauty together.

And to think you can make that with their wooden tools. Merry Christmas everyone.

Tis the Season: Something for everyone

Here's hoping your Christmas Eve is going well. And if you are Jewish, today is the final light on the Menorah. There is still time to have a chance at my duplicate giveaway. You can visit this post to read more, and then click the link to sign up.

As I mentioned, and as I like to do each year, I want to be sure anyone that would like something gets something. If you have been floating and visiting 2x3 Heroes over the past couple years, I have a Trade Bait page as most other bloggers do. However, it's gone now. I took the page down because in the coming years, I plan to do something else with the hits I receive. That's not to say I don't have a stack of relics and autographs within arm's reach of myself as I type. So that's my gift to each of you - take one of my trade bait, would ya? I scanned 67 different cards. I am not saying they are amazing hits. They're just cards that don't fit my collection. Some have been riding in the trade bait for a while and others never got scanned into the list. I want to let each of you pick one. Any one. It's yours, with no need to send me anything back. This is my Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza/Festivus gift to you.

Before I link you to the list, a couple rules. When you view the Flickr images, each is numbered. Come back to THIS POST and comment with the number of the card you want. Also, list out your favorite team and your favorite player. And if you think I don't have your mailing address, shoot me an email with your screen name and your mailing address so I can tie the two of you together.

The reason for the favorite team and favorite player is two fold. First, along with your pick, I'll throw in some team cards of your team. Now, I have baseball and hockey, so pick either. All my football and basketball are in the raffle, remember? Second, I plan on using this list to help with future hits I get. I can contact the people that have stated the team and/or player and offer up the card first. If no one wants or needs, I'll post about the card and throw it out to anyone that responds. My root thought is I don't want to be sitting on cards that belong in someone's collection. It's a waste.

Ok - Kate said she was under the weather, so Lauren stepped up to guide you to the cards...

Glenn's out looking for food.

That's pretty much it. Pick your card, comment here with that number plus your favorite team and player, then email me your address. If you aren't sure my email, I bet you could find it on the WANTS page. I'm going to let this roll thru the end of the year, so you have until the 31st to pick a card. And it goes without saying, but I will say it: just one of each card available, so once it's selected, it gone. I'll try and remove the image of any card selected. Have a great night, and watch out for fat men flying carts driven by rangifer tarandus.

Tis the Season: let's give stuff away

Ok - I am behind this year as opposed to the last two years of Tis the Season, but let's start if off quickly. If you are new to Tis the Season, it's very simple:

You get free stuff.

That's all there is to it. I have my commons box from the 2014 card season. I hate dupes, so you have a change to get all my dupes for simply a couple minutes of your time. In the past, I have had guessing contests for the cards. This year, I am going to do it a little differently. I have broken out all the stacks of free cards into 15 different groups. You have a chance for:

One of two 2014 Topps flagship baseball stacks (series 1, 2 and update)
One of two stacks of 2014 Gypsy Queen
A stack of 2014 Heritage
A stack or 2014 Panini Golden Age (no minis, sorry)
One of two stacks of random 2014ish football cards
A stack of random 2014ish baseketball cards
A stack of Allen and Ginter cards (mostly 2013 but some 2014 in there)
A stack of 2014 Bowman & Bowman Chrome
A stack of soccer cards (yes, Panini World Cup is in there)
Three other stacks of oddball releases, like UFC, WWE, golf, UD World of Sports, Panini Americana

So how do you get a stack? We are going to let the great and powerful Randomizer decide the 15 winners. To take part, I have created a form to fill out. It lists the 15 different stacks available. Just rank the stacks from 1 to 15, with #1 being the stack you really, REALLY want, and #15 being that stack that will end up lining the bottom of your bird's cage.

As with all my contests, you are welcome to promote it if you want. You can follow me if you want. But neither are a requirement. Being that this is so late getting posted, I will give everyone until the Dec 27th to fill out the form. At midnight, I will cut of the entries and run the Randomizer to select the winners.

So if you would like to get some free cards, just click the right spot on the image below to be taken to the form.

My silly boyfriend! Just click me anywhere to get to the form!

As I mentioned earlier this week, everyone will have a chance to get something this season. I expect to post the other giveaway post on the 24th. Just because you win in the Randomizer, you will still be able to select something from that post. More on that when Wednesday comes along.

Got questions - take a few seconds and you can find out how to contact me.

Sensory overload

So all of us pretty much learned when we were younger about the senses we have in our body. You know the five - smell, sight, sound, touch and taste. Aristotle came up with that list. We actually have more, closer to nine and maybe as many as 22. But when you dive into other senses above the first 5, it becomes harder to describe. Sure, I step outside right now without a shirt on and know pretty quick the thermometer is closer to zero than 100. That still seems like a bit of the touch sense.

When it comes to baseball cards, most of us only attribute them to two senses: sight and touch. Yet, over 100+ years of cards, we have touched on all of the senses.

SIGHT

I could post pretty much any card here and demonstrate "sight", but when you think about Championship Baseball, you have more than the cards. The playing board, the tokens, the box - all of the pieces really are something to add in viewing the cards. They take on much more than just holding them in our hands to view the front, then flip them over to read the back. 

TOUCH

Again, almost any card could be here, but think about all the changes that cards have gone through. The sizes and shapes, the gloss, the foil, the embossing, the addition of jersey swatches and patches - all allow us to get a different sense of the cards. Just like this '96 Fleer with the matte finish. Quite the change to cards than everything else coming out since the late 80's.

SOUND

Cards were flat, inanimate squares of paper. Then, Starting Lineup released Electronic Talking Baseball, and now we could hear the player on the card "playing" a ball game. A year later, Topps jumped into the sound with Baseball Talk cards. Then, Donruss and Upper Deck put a card on a CD, so you could watch and hear videos of the player on your computer.

TASTE

While officially no card exists you can eat (to my knowledge), there are still a plethora of cards released by food companies and restaurants. Slurpee, Jimmy Dean, Denny's, Hostess, and even Red Heart dog food to name but very, very few. Plenty of food products you can munch on as you hope to pull out a nice Griffey card and not a.... DAMMIT!

SCENT

Now, just a year ago, an official scratch and sniff card was released by minor league club the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. But here, in my mind, is the first card you could smell. Plant the card, water it and in a short period of the time the seeds within the card would sprout. I wonder how many people planted these?

Baseball cards - much more than something pretty to look at.

Throwback Thursday - 12.18.2014

Every Thursday, I post a card showing a ballplayer wearing a throwback uniform from my collection. Hopefully, he will be wearing it well, with proper pants blousing. I'll try not to duplicate a uniform. The picture may be from the front of the card, or the back. Enjoy the uniforms from years past.

Bud Black - 1993 Donruss - New York Giants

Look out - Christmas is coming!

If you have been around here, this is the time of the year I run my Tis the Season, giveaway. I usually have started it by now, but for some reason I was REALLY behind getting it organized. I'm still going to get it started, though. I have cards mostly sorted, and I have some scanning to do. I am going to do things a little differently this year in regard to my 2014 commons, but I think it should work fine. Plus, as always, there is a gift for everyone who would like a gift. I'm shooting for Saturday for the first post, so please come back. 'K?

Did you call me, sweetie?

I still have other stacks to posts, though. Far too much kindness from you bloggers, non bloggers and generally nice people (except for Weber at Hot Corner - I just know he's going to Bip me). Dime Box Nick and I are overdue for Orland, which is nice cuz Nick is fun to hang with, talk with about cards, and we can just hand over stacks of card board in person, since we pretty much have a 4-6 week pipeline going between our homes anyway. His latest package was the standard feast for the eyes, boxes and binders.

There's always some cardboard he finds in one of the 20k worth of dime boxes he searches that I need. Here's just five of them. Love the hockey mask on Alomar, and I really would like to find more of the Cracker Jack set Topps put out 10 years or so ago. That One Dog card in the battling cage, though. That's the type of card that reminds us all how great Stadium Club was, and is back to being. Easily one of the top 50 images ever on a card. 

Ya know - I think I over reduced the size of these scans. They look blurrier than normal. Sorry. Anyway, Nick is probably in the top three of people that have contributed to my throwback and bunting binders. In this latest package were 18 throwback cards. That Berroa in the old Negro League Monarchs uniform is beautiful. 

In the bunting category, Nick added 13 to the binder total. Such the contrast between that Cracker Jack and the Guillen Fleer. Someone should put originals of each card in a capsule and launch it into space. What will the aliens think when they recover that?

I'm showing this last card for a few reasons. A) 2008 Stadium Club. B) Nice picture. C) Miscut.

Hold up. I thought it was miscut, and I wonder if Nick thought the same. That white border at the bottom screams this thing being out of line. Yet, every version of this card I have viewed on ebay has the same white stripe at the bottom. What gives, Topps? Misprint? 

Thanks as always, Nick. Let's look to hit up Orland in January or February. 

Staying organized

One of my 2014 goals was to get my collection organized. Thankfully, through getting a bunch of binder cards on Zistle, getting all my current Sox cards sorted by year in a 5k box (removing the dupes), and getting my team set needs into Google Drive (more on that in some future post), I am in a position to quickly identify the cards that fill holes in my collection, upgrade cards as needed, and put the dupes aside (which I think I will use to get my great nephew into card collecting).

Recently, I got an out of the blue envelope from Rob at Texas Rangers Cards. In with the team bag was a biz card he had written the following note:

There were a total of 29 cards in the envelope. So let's see if there is one or two I need, or maybe we beat the odds?

I didn't need the Kessinger. That isn't to say I didn't keep it, though. It was a far nicer version than the creased copy I had in my teams set, so I call that card a need. I am almost done with the '91 Ultra set, and the Pasqua was a dupe. Believe it or not, I have a lot of junk wax needs, one being that Karko. So far - 2 needs and 1 dupe.

Rob included 11 total 1990 Topps cards. I only needed Hillegas, Pasqua and Karkovice. However, I always need a rookie card of the Big Hurt, so 4 needs out of 11. Running total: 6 needs and 8 dupes.

Mish-mash of 2014 Topps, and some early UD releases. The only Garcia I have is in my bunting binder, so this card went to the 2014 team set. Keppinger is a dupe, as are both of the Fisk cards. Each 1993 UD cards (damn, what a great set) were needed in the Sox box, filling team set openings. Running total: 12 needs and 11 dupes.

Last scan from the envelope. The only piece of cardboard I didn't need was the mini Baines. I bought maybe 5 total packs of Heritage prior to 2012, so all the Heritage cards I have in that 5000 count box came from you folks.

So the final total: 29 cards sent - 17 cards added to the collection. Far, far better than the "hope you can use one or two" comment from Rob. Thanks a bunch for the cards. I hope when I get my envelope out to you I can add at least one or two new cards to your collection.

Throwback Thursday - 12.11.2014

Every Thursday, I post a card showing a ballplayer wearing a throwback uniform from my collection. Hopefully, he will be wearing it well, with proper pants blousing. I'll try not to duplicate a uniform. The picture may be from the front of the card, or the back. Enjoy the uniforms from years past.

Robinson Cano - 2014 Topps Stadium Club - Seattle Mariners

Email not required

One of my side ideas to this blog, when I started it and began to make trades, was to be able to send out cards at will. No need to send an email to someone, talk about what I have, and then maybe what you have, then do you need this or that or any other of a thousand questions. Just here - have some cards. I'm getting to the point of that pretty much. An email kicks off the first time trades (you few out there I have not forgotten you - we'll get something completed), but for the most part, I just send out a stack, and in time the generosity of the receiver is returned in kind. There may be dupes in the package, but that never bothers me. And an email might go out if there is a hit or something rare, just to confirm, but throw it in the padded envelope and away it goes.

NORTON!

Here's a couple packages that just showed up. First off is a guy that blogs SO much he really needs to give his keyboard a break. Or maybe he broke it, like his phone. Chris from Old Foul Cardboard (I'll shame you until you start posting again, dude) finds all the best stuff. I'm not sure how all the ChiSox and Blackhawks cards make it to NY state, but thank goodness I have a connection in the area.

Start with a couple gorgeous miscuts with some amazing players shown. Quite the range of facial hair between the four of them.

I have pulled two Kings swatches from this year's UD. So I'll take a Hawks when I can. And newly retired Paulie cards are always welcome in my binders. Thanks as always Chris (and Kyle).

The other out of the blue came from your favorite addict and mine: TJ from Junior Junkie. Besides Tim Wallach, is there any other blogger easier to shop for? Find the Kid, mail the Kid. So for all my recent Kid's, TJ hit me back with a nice group of needs.

Shiny, goldy Durhams. Dig all those empty Yankee stadium seats. That's not a Jeet's cameo, btw. Not drafted yet in 91.

That Griff must be a dupe, and I love me some Topps Fi........ hold up. Let me fix that card........

MUCH better!! See how they look when you remove the card condom? #releaseyourfinest

Glad the 2014 Finest offering has no covering. The Johnson in the upper left is a refractor. Rienzo is wearing the "Halfway to St Patty's Day" uniform. The Sale, lower right, is a rainbow foil variation from Stadium Club (obviously) and a nice addition to the Throwback binder. I should chase the other versions: gold, electric, foilboard and Members Only. But the best for last....

Nice on card...er....scribble of Erik Johnson, and I'm not a Ventura collector, but glad to add a relic of his in my binder. Thanks as always, TJ.

BTW - TJ revealed today  that he is a huge MST3K fan, and the next time Chris writes a post is a mystery. COINCIDENCE??? This is the 3rd time I have used a version of this song. COINCIDENCE??? Sarah McLachlan is super gorgeous, damn talented, writes great songs, should marry me and does those doggy commercials, and I have a dog. COINCIDENCE???

Checking in.

Maybe I have been a little quite post wise in the past couple weeks. Sorry. A lot is going on, but mostly, I haven't been in a writing mood. I appreciate the bloggers that get something up daily or every other day. I am always reading. But I never committed myself to a schedule like that. I post when I want, and if I miss a few days, I'm not worried about it. I love all you that read and comment. If you want more from me - ask. And then I'll ignore you and stick with my own pattern.

But since Tis the Season will be starting very soon, I need to publicly thank people since my scan folder is filled. Recently, I completed a couple traded that netted me some Blackhawks hits (checks?). First off, good ol' DJ with Sportscards from the Dollar Store. Anyone willing to rip as many repacks as DJ wins a spot in my heart.

So they are aren't Blackhawks. DJ did throw some Sox cards, and a couple bunts for the binder.

Crow is having a great year. Then he goes and hurts himself leaving the House of Blues. He won't give details, but you can be sure alcohol was involved. Ray did a decent job the year he was here. Then he thought the 2013 Cup success was because of him, went to Philly and stunk it up. Guess what, Ray - your name is on the Cup, but all the other names is what put yours there. And jumping Holtby was a douche move.

Now we are talking! Me thinks I should start organizing my Toews and Kaner cards. And those to at the bottom right are stickers. Captain Serious is sooooooo foily.

These two are the highlights from DJ. Great auto of Ham Sandwiche's defense partner with Oduya. And a black Stash printing plate from 13-14 Dominion. I still owe you, DJ. Hoping next week's card show pans out for me...er....you.

The other Hawks I received came from Matt at Cardboard Conundrum. Matt rips the hockey wax I wish I could. Luckily, a Blackhawk appears here and there, and I can luck out and wrestle a few away from him. It helps when my wife wins boxes of cards via my LCS bingo.

I had my eyes on this card. Gotta love Shaw (ask my daughter). But the guy is pure Blackhawk hockey - gritty, gutsy. Everything you want in a player. Luckily, there were two other cards in the envelope.

This may look familiar as I got this exact card from another DJ package. I'm fine with that, though, as Nordstrom is doing a signing at my LCS next week, so I'll get one of them auto'd.

Blackhawk? No, unfortunately. Stanley Cup winning Blackhawk? He was in 2010. I like picking up autos of any former Hawks, and I always liked Ladd. Good for him that he wears the captain's C up north. Bad for him, cuz he won't be lifting any hardware with that plane on his chest.

Thanks DJ and Matt for the nice binder additions.

I thought I went in to hang up my clean shirts

For starters - if you haven't sent me a link to your want lists as I asked yesterday, what are you waiting for? Go back in time a leave me a comment, would ya!

Now, I know who I am. I have been pretty secure in who I am, what I am, what I like and what I don't like. I'm a guy, I've always been a guy, I like sports, girls, cards and Star Wars, and I don't like brussel sprouts, cheap beer, the Cubs or the Red Wings. But sometimes, someone sends you something that questions everything you thought you knew. And that someone is Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown. If you don't visit his blog, shame on you. He makes totally cool custom cards that glow in the dark (I happen to have one, and I hope it won't be my last), and he does a great job showing of cards as they are meant to be seen. See - me, and damn near everyone else, just scans them. Flat and boring. Gavin will take the time to animate the cards, and give more appreciation to them. And one would think that would be how he would question me: why don't I put more effort into my blog. But no, it was far deeper.

A package he sent me started with a card he posted on his blog.

A gorgeous auto from one of the pitching heroes of the Sox run to the title in 2005. I never think to seek out one of his cards, as much as I would like one. So it was nice to see this, inquire, and have Gavin send it along. And that wasn't all from Gavin.

A nice amount of Sox team sets, plus all these for my player collections. Love that Rowand 1st Bowman card. And it continued...

More Sox needs. Contreras never had a pitcher's build, but that guy could throw. That no-logo Donruss on the left is more tolerable than the no-logo on the right. But still there was more...

Gavin sprinkled in a couple custom cards. I should start doing this with the ton of 88-89 Topps I pull At least make them far more interesting to send out.

Shiny, silvery cards. Now - I should properly take 20 pictures of each card, animate them up and show you that Buehrle in all it's multi color glory, but I don't feel like it. And I think I know why. It's less my laziness and more this...

That's how are the cards were packaged - inside a bag for a girl. Does Gavin know something I don't, or I have intentional suppressed? Do I really have no idea who I am and what I like. Maybe, just maybe I desire a player collection of Dan Cleary.

Nah - no frigging way that last part is true. Thanks for the cards, Gavin. I think I still owe you, right? I'm so lost...