Updates and updates

Just a few updates, so I can think I did something here on 2x3Heroes.

1) If you haven't voted for the 2nd best Blog of the Year, you have until midnight-ish tonight to do it. Get over to this thread and make your click heard.

2) And since I am promoting stuff, vote for the Bip Awards right here - you have until Feb 2nd. One year anniversary over at Bob Walk the Plank, so get a chance at freebies right here.

3) Tis the Season mailing will begin tomorrow. I will work on some of the larger stuff, which means I am looking at the dupe giveaway winners. Watch your mailboxes for stuff next week, and then I'll see how the mailing funds are. I have a game plan for the pick your hit people with a 10x13 envelope and some 9 pocket pages. I may test mail a couple tomorrow, so I'm going to email a couple folks to see how well this idea works. Obviously, it's for cost reasons. $2.32 is fine, until you run about 30 padded envelopes through the machine.

Lately, what post is good without some card scans? For 2015, I started a new collection: Project 2005. This is an attempt to get an autograph of each member of the 2005 World Champion Chicago White Sox, plus the coaches. When I first saw the idea and pulled together autographs I had, I was at 9. Thanks to a couple cheap Ebay pickups, an LCS purchase and TTM success, I am now at 14 players. The latest are these three:

My goal for the project is to get the players in a White Sox uniform. Ozuna will be tough - I cannot find any certified autograph of him in black, and a TTM address is hard to come by. This card was too good to pass up being a buck fifty shipped.

Widger, on the other hand, is a great TTM responder. He was just named the manager of the Camdem Riversharks after serving as the pitching coach for a couple seasons with the club. A quick mailing to their stadium and Chris signed a couple cards for me in about 20 days.

Lastly is this gem from Tribute. What I am hoping for is to edit this post in a year and be able to add "Hall of Famer" in front of Rock's name. Tim was the first base coach during the 2005 season.

Ok. I'm done updating. Until the next update.

Throwback Thursday - 01.29.2015

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.

Chase Headley - 2011 Topps - San Diego Padres

How I roll....er....scan

I don't believe I am unique in how I handle incoming packages, but there is a meaning to my explanation, so allow me to invite you in for a brief overview of the workings done by the staff at 2x3 Ltd. It all begins after the initial glee of finding an envelope address to me in the mailbox.

Pictured: Initial glee.

After I bring the cards into the house, A little opening, a little scanning while still smiling and then placing the cards back into the envelope. Then, I'll try and fire off a thank you email to the sending, so they know it was received and to give them gratitude, though this is the one thing I do the worst. Anyway, then I will place all received envelopes over on a desk to my left if I have scans in my scan folder for future posts. I try to keep the scan folder pretty empty (which will make a lot of sense later).

Now, if I have a few envelopes stacked, I'll grab one, go back through the cards to organize and think about what cards I want to scan for the blog. I try to keep an envelope between 3-6 scans, unless it's a PWE - those get less. My thinking is to keep the images in my post to about a half dozen. As I scan cards, I number the scan, and if I am scanning multiple packages, I have a text doc to track the numbers and the gifter.

When I was gearing up for TTS v3, I had scanned about 10 packages scanned, So after that was done I took the time to go through the images and organize everything - get an idea what envelopes may be combined for a post. Speed it up the thanks.

Well - here I am. My scan folder has just one package left to post and to give thanks to the sender. And I can't do that. See - sometime over the past week of posts, as I deleted images and removed entries from the text document, I deleted the line for this batch of images. Struggle as I have, I cannot, for the life of me, remember who sent me the following cards. If you held a gun to my head and wanted me to give an answer, I would say Kerry from Cards on Cards. But I have about 25% faith in that answer. So please - when you see your handiwork, speak up so I can give you the proper praise. Because just look at this stuff...

A Panini/Topps sandwich. Whomever you are sent a bunch of '12 Cooperstown and Golden Age for the want lists. And the Topps leaves me one card short of completing the Update set. Kiss my Asche!

It's not even pronounced like that.

A Kimball mini, leaving me 4 short of the set. There were a couple high number Heritage and a nice handful of GQ. Recycled image of Joltin' Joe, but it's hard to not love that image.

Topps, Topps and Topps. The Webb and the Eaton hit the throwback binder. George, and the rest of the Sox, went into the team box. And man, that sucker is getting full. 1980-2014. I think 2015 is the last year for that baby.

So - help me out. Reveal yourself in the comments, or feel free to sneak up behind me and whack the back of my head with a mallet. Maybe it will knock the answer forward.

It's quiet. Too quiet....

I can say that about the area of town I am in. Right now, it's snowing, but nothing like Night Owl, Home Run Apple and many of the other east coast bloggers are about to deal with. There is maybe a half inch of the ground. Nothing, really.

Also, it's quiet in the sports world around here. The NHL All Star game was yesterday, so still an off day for all the teams. The Bears sucked, so nothing coming on Sunday. Bulls are off. No baseball (obviously).

I hope to start the Tis the Season mailings this weekend, so you that have won or signed up, you should start seeing some cardboard in the first week of February. Thankfully I almost through all the cards I have received, which has been a daunting task. I have one HUGE mailing to get to, that came completely out of the blue, but otherwise it has slowed down. I'm thankful for all I have received, but also I will have the time to work on some emails that have been sent my way. So for you waiting on cards, or a reply, I haven't forgotten you. Whatever your name is.

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt

Here's a couple envelopes I received of players doing a lot on cardboard, but very very little in real life at this very moment. First, my dumping ground for Red Wings, Dennis at Too Many Verlanders, sent along a few Sox and Blackhawks.

I slowly completed the Archives Sox card totally by trades - this Dunn was the last one I needed. I think I have dang near all the Walmart and Target cards from last year, but I didn't have the Thornton. I'm sure that Toews was getting NO love in the Dennis household, so I will treat it like the precious rectangle it is.

Dennis really nailed it with two Hawks autos. Though you can't read it, that's Enrico Ciccone on the left. Not a big career, going though 7 NHL sweaters in his career. But his job was a goon, as his 334 penalty minutes in 85 games with the Hawks will attest. The right, though - GRAMPA!!! Larmer is that quiet guy that will get overlooked for the HOF, and that is a crime worse than a lot of baseball stars. ROY in '83, 3rd longest consecutive games streak all time, 1006 games played, 1012 points, 2 time All Star. But I'll let someone else explain why Grampa deserves the call.

Thanks for the cards, Dennis. There may be more Red Wings cards heading your way.

The rest of the post is courtesy of AJ from The Lost Collector. It's always nice to have a Yankee fan in your address list. That team seems to get a lot of cards year after year. AJ dropped an envelope on me in thanks for the PWEs I have dropped on him.

Love those Topps oversized cards, except when I try to put them in the binder. I am glad they are horizontal, so the 8 card pages fill the needs. Someone REALLY needed to lay down a bunt at the upper right.

It's very very blue. And very very needed in the Sox box. Thanks again, AJ.

Well, I thought it was quiet around here. Now I need to run to the store for the wife. Guess I spoke too soon.

More for the binders

Here's some more cards I received last year that I really needed to give public thanks to the provider. Greg from the read that is Plaschke Thy Sweater is Argyle send over a nice envelope of cards. I still think his blog name is far too long, but maybe it's because I really don't get the reference.

It's a reference to Bill Plaschke, that's a easy one to understand. But the argyle sweater part? No images seem to show up with a Google search of Bill Plaschke and argyle, but there is this.

So it must be a thing, huh?

I have seen him a few times on Around the Horn, but never in a sweater. But I guess he did prior to some of the shows I have seen him on, in my limited viewing of ATH.

 

So now it makes sense. And Plaschke seems to be a real douche. At least Greg isn't, not from these gems.

Some needed double play cards for the binder. And not just these.

How about them too? Whitaker's throwing arm position looks weird. Can't tell if his arm is moving forward or going back.

Dig them bunts, and dig that number on Abreu. Must be a Spring Training game, as only Kenley Jansen has ever worn 74 in a NLB game for the Dodgers. Greg really outdid it with this card.

Refractor manu-patch with a autograph of Hudson. He was okay with the Sox, moved to the D-Backs, blew out his elbow a 2nd time, but is working he way back into Arizona's pen. Love this card, though, and it's a great addition to my all time Sox binder.

Thanks Greg.

Lots of Sox

(adapted from Dr. Seuss "Fox In Socks")

Lots
Sox
Rocks
Box

Sox in box with lots of stocks
Flocks of Sox but no Knox in box

Johnson and Beck and May do come
Diff'rent positions they play do come
Sox that play all day do come

Look, sir, Look, sir.....reader look sir.
Some they sparkle all shiny and bright sir
Sparkle they do but not tiny or slight sir

Sox of ice that is cracked, you see
Sox of ice in box packed, you see
Sox from Julie of Funner Here see
Blocks of Sox make it sunner here see

Sox from old box with lots of pen
Old box of Sox that used to been
Pen on Sox from box of jocks

Sox with green around the white
Green like eggs around the white
But without ham for the green and white
Lots of blocks of Sox jocks rocks box

See a signed Sox within a box
Yet a Sox that wear's Sox socks nots
Now he wears socks near Beach of Indian Rocks

New Sox.
Whose Sox?
Night Owl Sox.
Lots of Sox.

Sox with lots and lots of big here
Sox of size four by six here
Sox of six by four some more here

Big big Sox from the next year
Big big Sox from the best year
Next more Sox for the box right here

A classy Sox from Fleer is nice
A gassy Sox right her is nice
Lots of Sox jocks go in the box twice

Big Sox
Gas Sox
Hoyle Sox
Royal Sox

(Thanks to Julie, Night Owl and Mark Hoyle for the cards, if you didn't catch the shout out).

Throwback Thursday - 01.22.2015

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.

Justin Upton - 2014 Topps Stadium Club - Atlanta Black Crackers

Down at the LCS

Don't forget - Vote for the 2nd Best Blog of 2014 here, and visit Sooz for the 2014 Bip Awards here.  

I've said it before - I have a great LCS. Great owner and workers to chat up, along with the regulars. Loads of cards to pick from, whether new wax or old commons. Hell, considering some of you readers, I could have a hole in the wall stacked with boxes of '87 Topps, '90 Score and '92 Upper Deck and I would be way ahead of the game over the places you get to visit.

Tut tut....looks like Pinnacle.

Last weekend, Brain ran a trade day. If you have cards to trade you can come in to wheel and deal with other people, and even sell. It's the only time he'll allow exchange for cash within his store. I stopped by to see some of the goods people have, but mainly to dig through his commons. From what Brian and Chris (his son) say, there are stacks of boxes in the back that need to be sorted and organized. They finally have enough space on the floors to get all the current product properly displayed, and have started to work on the pallets of cards. I figured it was a good a time as any to work on some earlier Sox team set needs. So I grabbed boxes and started digging.

Filled some holes from 71-75. I completed a couple sets recently, and I am very close to knocking out some of the earlier 70s Topps sets. I am always open for help, so if you have Topps ChiSox from the 50s-80s, my team set needs can be found at the top of the page.

I dug. Most of the boxes we in order, but if I jumped to the card number I needed, I would miss some prime binder cards like these. Great view of Yankee Stadium behind pre-Yankee days Graig Nettles, a classic double play image from the '73 set, and Llenas faking a bunt.

A couple nice miscuts. The rare duel binder card with Auerbach being a miscut bunt. Sonny is a fine parallelogram. Hey Topps....there's a diecut idea for ya!

Last of the vintage are my first two "Nat'l Lea." Padres cards. Have been wanting one of these for a long time, so when I pulled them out of the '74 commons box it was a no brainer. Gaston is miscut, but I think I will keep it separate, at least until I get a replacement.

Yeah - two 2013 A&G Peles. I bought the one on the left. If you look close, it's a little whiter than the one on the right that I pulled from my set. Why?

I have two of the missing text cards, but none of the bio cards, so I picked up the card for two quarters.

Last two pickups were autographs I couldn't pass up.

Nick gifted me with one of these embossed cards. Seeing this one for $5 I had to have it. Not sure how good a TTM Peters is, but I figured I would just pick up this beaut. Lastly...

Ebay has a lot of Podzilla's autograph cards, but they are always him as a Brewer. For Project 2005, I am trying to get the players on cards dressed as White Sox, so I jumped on this for $3. According to the web, Scott is a tough autograph get.

Not too bad for a little hole in the wall, eh?

The best of the also rans - 2014 2nd Best Blog of the Year voting!

Sorry - I am a couple days late. Life....you all get it.

Anyway, what a TON of nominations. Great ones from top to bottom. Most of them I know and read on a regular basis, as I hope the rest of you do. There were a couple I was unfamiliar with, but a quick jump over and they turned into some fine reads. Any of the nominees have the blogger chops to knock Night Owl off the top of the stand.

Down goes Night Owl! Down goes Night Owl!

And before I get to the list and the votes, mad props to Kerry from Card on Cards to help out with the prizes. If that is an honest offer, I am totally taking you up on it. Also, someone commented about a rookie of the year. I highly recommend you visit Sooz and Marie at A Cardboard Problem. They are running the 2014 Bip Awards, which has that category along with a bunch of others. They even have a blog of the year, which I called as Night Owl a couple weeks back. So if he wins, I get half his prizes. Get over there and make your voices heard before you have to pay a poll tax.

Anyway, let's look at the sites up for the 2nd best blog of 2014, in the order they were nominated:


Shoebox Legends - Red Sox collector and a man who needs to store some of his sweet vintage at my house
A Cracked Bat - rookie blogger Julie gets in on the fun
Baseball Card Breakdown - Gavin and his animated, glow in the dark cards. Also, the inventor of #WalletCard
The Chronicles of Fuji - Fuji and his love of dang near every professional sports team out there
Nachos Grande - Chris, super Larkin collector and the man with some sweet breaks
Dime Boxes - Nick and all cards for under a thin FDR.
My Cardboard Mistress - Spankee with football, baseball and maybe a tennis card here and there
Torren' Up Cards - the adventures of Capt Rex and Zippy Zappy and their unending prospect searches
The Junior Junkie - there isn't a card of this Kid TJ doesn't want
Bob Walk the Plank - just Matt, his Buccos and a weird obsession with a career 105-81 pitcher
Garvey Cey Russell Lopes - Jim, with a lot of Garveys, a bunch of Dodgers and a ton of double plays
Five Tool Collector - CommishBob, collecting a little of it all, and stealing my Pierces
The Dutch Card Guy - Jeroen proves that cardboard insanity shows no continental boundaries
Off Haitus - Tony likes him some Brew Crew
Chavez Ravining - Alex and all thing Dodgers - and I mean all things
The Lost Collector - AJ and his sweet stacks of Bronx Bombers
Cards On Cards - Cardinals and Oregon Ducks, Kerry collects them all
Waiting 'til Next Year - the eternal struggle of the crazy optimist known as Tom
Play At The Plate - Rangers extraordinaire collector Brian
Dodger Penguin - following the Dodgers one card at a time (and day)
Catching up with Collecting - Jared, back in the hobby after all them years
Wrigley Wax - if a Cubbie is on a card, Paul has it, or will shortly
90's Niche Football Card Blog - a new blog for me and a great look at heavy production cards
bdj610's Topps Baseball Card Blog - the name is unexciting, but James writes a mean post worth reading
This Way to the Clubhouse - Mark and his Mets, every single one ever

If I count right, that's 25. Hey - the more the merrier!!! If you are unfamiliar with any, use the link and pay them a visit. Become a follower because each one is a great read. So let's get to it. Place your votes, feel free to link people here and let's see who is just good enough to fill in should Night Owl not be able to fulfill his duties as Miss Ameri.....I mean blogger of the year.

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Even in 10th place, you win something

I've now taken part in my 3rd College Bowl Pick 'em challenge that Kerry from the great Cards on Cards runs each year. My first attemp was a total disaster. In 2013, I was way out in front of the pack, even ranking in the top 50 of all the bowl picks on Yahoo, before everyone reeled me back in and I finished just out of the winnings in 4th or 5th. This year, I said it would be my year. And without fail, I jumped out to an early lead, only to have my knowledge (?) of college football fail me as I finally ended up a distant 10th. Oh, the humanity....

Northern Illinois over Marshall? What was I thinking? Noooooo!

But a couple weeks before the first bowl game even kicked off, Kerry dropped a nice envelope on me. I'm calling these pre pick prizes, cuz it helps me sleep at night.

Pitchers and catchers report in about 35 days. That's a better indication of the end of winter than Groundhog Day. That Moments and Milestones is the 2nd one I have, and both are of Big Hurt's career home runs. If Dime Box Nick's math is to be believed, that is 2 out of 12,529 cards. Otherwise, I have completed .016% of the set. Got a bit to go.

Two Abreus from 2014 Update. Dennis from Too Many Verlanders and I had an email exchange about Update today. I mentioned I am not looking forward to the 20+ Abreu cards that will be in 2015 flagship. And that's before the 29 variations of each. He thinks Update should be traded players only. Sometimes a Red Wing fan does know what he's talking about. Hmmm....

Gold Paulie for the binder. The Holland flag look does not save that Prizm. Kill the brand, Panini. Kill it with fire.

The Renteria was sitting on the most wanted baker's dozen, so a great removal because that is a killer throwback the Cards had. Teddy goes into my master set for the 2013 Heritage. Check my Wants page if you have some of those lying around.

And the prize of the envelope. Into my Igushi collection these baby goes. Not sure purple is a good color with grey (or any other color really), but Kerry gifted it to me, for pre coming into 10th place, so that's the prize you can expect for finishing just out of single digits in his contests.

Thanks Kerry. I hope you all join in the college pick 'em next year. Watch me jump out to a HUGE lead and then falter at the end.

PEW PEW PEW!!!

Getting back to the laying the praise on people, I was one of the many that got a Zippy Zappy'ing for Christmas. If you haven't read his blog, Torren' Up Cards (at least that's the current name - it changes a lot), give him a look. Along with the prospect hunting, Zippy gets his hands on a lot of Japanese cards. He just came back from a little vacation with a crapton of Sega Card Gen cards. But before he left, he sent me a nice little package.

His handwriting is atrocious, though. Half those words don't look like English.

Great bunch of White Sox in the package.

MIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSS!!!!!! I pulled two of those Sale mini Bowman Chromes, only both of them had a picture of Kershaw, so I dumped them on a couple Dodger bloggers. Nice that I got that Sale from Zippy.

You should follow the exploits of Captain Rex and the hunt for Padawan Torren on his blog. While the Morel certainly isn't a prospect anymore, that Anderson and Hawkins make for nice additions in my Sox box.

ROY cards? Yes please. I had pulled that fire Bowman card at my LCS a couple months back. The unfortunate part is I pulled it in a pack when we were playing traditional pack wars, and I lost the round. So now I am happy again as I have one. The Chrome on the right is a dupe, but only cuz I needed one in my throwback binder. So really, it's not.

Talk about your old prospects!!!! Some great vintage in his envelope. I never noticed that in some years of printing, Topps puts dividing lines between the cards, as seen on that Grzenda miscut. The final, top two cards he sent, though, are these two beauties.

I'm a sucker for autographs, so a nice addition to my binder with the Harrell. That May on the right? Oh, it's just serialed 12/25. I have no idea the refractor name of it - I think I'll just call it "mine".

Thanks again Zippy. If any of you noticed another time I posted cards from ZZ, I totally screwed up and posted a K Pop video instead of a J Pop video. I got it right this time (I hope), but I have one question: are all girl (and boy) bands made up of 48 members? It's crazy all the performers in each group.

PS - I lasted about 90 seconds watching/listening to that. Click here if you need a palate cleanse.