Happy Holidays

Whatever you celebrate, if you do, may it be a good time.

I will be posting soon, I swear.

Vacation surprise

So I am on vacation this week. It's the old "use them or lose them" type of vacation. No real plans. Maybe get to a ball game. Or a day trip or two. But I had a great surprise today when my second cousin, three times removed showed up on my doorstep today.

Ha HAAAAAAAAAAA!

Anytime Kenny shows up, I give him a post on this blog. So have at it Kenny.

**************

This blog has been far too boring, so let's spice it up with my Top Ten Most Painful DP Eliminations of the Day:

Starting at number 10 is Jeff Kent. But after his run-in at second base, he'll need to change his name to Jeff Kent Walk Anymore.

Number 9 is Ray Boone. You can already see the pained look on his face and he just came to realize the error of his ways before gravity takes over. It's been good knowing you, Ray.

Number 8 is Erick Aybar, doing the splits to avoid the hits, but soon his bits will be turned into grits.

At number 7 is Brent Gates, admiring his throw over to one while the runner turns him into number two.

At six is Rey Ordonez, flopping and high kicking his way into a trade to the New York Traction-politans.

Number 5 is Tony Womack who is divided into three separate players and making 6 outs on one play.

At number 4 is Billy Ripken, attempting to make the throw off balance, but only causing his spleen to explode. What a Fuck Face.

Number 3 is Frank Duffy, looking down at the death he has caused, only to see the light at the end of the tunnel racing towards him as he returns back to Earth.

Number 2 is Chris Getz, moments before his nards are torn from his body, ending the family line of Getz players in the MLB. Our condolences to The Getz Family. And Chris' nards.

And my most painful DP elimination of the day goes TO..........

David Eckstein, who is so eliminated he has transcended all time and space is now resides within a black hole, trapped for all eternity suspended in a netherworld between life and death, being and not being.

 Enjoy the rest of your week, and you know what we always say.

Three PWE for me.

I started my vacation today. A week off. No plans at all besides doing some things around the house that need attention. Maybe the wife and I can get a night out. All depends on the pocket book. I've been trying to whittle down the stacks or cardboard on my desk. I'm hoping to get some mailers out this week cuz daaaaaaaaaaaamn - I need to mail some stuff. I'm better than this, I like to think. At the very least, I should strive to be better than this. It's important to have goals and stay on target.

Even if it's only two meters wide

Let me thank three people that sent small but amazing PWEs to me over the past few months. Starting with Matt over at Sport Card Collectors. Matt grabbed a stack from TTS (see comment about needing to mail stuff), and sent a small PWE my direction.

Lots of colored borders, from gold to purple to green and bi-color. I believe that is the first gold border from 2009. Was that foil comment about 56 years of collecting angled like that on all the cards, or did it just happen to be perfectly positioned under Bobby's plant foot? And a card of Quentin doing one of the three things he did: hitting a dinger. The other two were striking out and fighting with Greinke. Who hasn't wanted to punch Zack, though?

Next up is Dennis from Too Many Verlanders. One thing Dennis love to do is work on want lists. always sending me cards out of the blue that knock a few here and there. This mailer followed his standard MO.

I am still working on 2016 GQ base and inserts. SPs are a "get when the price is right" pickup. And another for the one and done Hometown Heroes set. Boxes of that stuff is SO cheap, with 3 hits in it. I really need to pick one up.

Lastly, CommishBob from Five Tool Collector. Not sure where he went for these, but sure glad he did.

Boom. Shacka. Lacka. Technically, box Fox's are in the player project, though that 1960 is a MAJOR upgrade to the current card in the binder. Both make the cut into the White Sox team sets for the respective year, knocking off a couple needs. And no, I am not building the '56 set. Mr. McMillan makes the double play binder with that sweet background image.

A big thanks to all three. I know I have stacks set aside for you all, somewhere on this desk. I need a search party.

What a distance a dollar makes

I need to get back to blogging. It's been a month since I have posted, and it's not like I don't have content. So as I groove back in, allow me this simple post about two recent eBay pickups. We'll start with the 2nd card first.

This is my 3rd or 4th Topps Now card. I have only ever bought one directly from Topps. Othewise, secondary market all the way. Every so often, I will search for White Sox Topps Now cards to see if I can snap one up at a cheap price. I guess Topps put out a set for the American and National league starters, so someone must have bought it and broke it up. But I couldn't pass this card up. I have no idea what the set cost, but selling it with a BIN of $1.99 with a buck shipping seems like a loss. And a loss for me if I didn't pick it up.

Now, for a dollar more, $0.99 winning bid and $3 shipping, I picked up a card for my Project 2005.

It's not a certified auto of Freddy Garcia, but all his certified cards tend to be Mariner cards. I have only seen a single card of Freddy with a certified autograph a Sox uniform. And the price of that was a joke. However, this auto looks authentic, and at the price it was listed, should it not be a real sig, the seller still made little money. This card took a while to arrive, though. Almost a month from Florida. I was about to message the seller about the card when I got a call from my daughter a couple weeks ago while I was Uber'ing.

"Dad, you have mail from Venezuela."

Um......what?

That is a DHL package, and the label tells me it came from Santa Eduvigs, Venezuela. And inside the mailer was a brown paper bag with my address on it, stating "United States" at the bottom. So it wasn't like a misrouted PWE that DHL took under their wing to correct. It appears this sale originated in South America and was shipped from same. At $3. If the seller of the Abreu made little money, this seller had to take a loss. But it does tick off another player for Project 2005. Sixteen to go.

I hope this video from some Venezuelan band is not too offensive. Though, titled "Black Panties", I'm taking a real chance.

I'm the top

One of the great parts of the blogging community is the immense number of contests that are active. One blogger after another is either celebrating an anniversary, celebrating a success, clearing stock or just making an excuse for fun. I'm overdue for a contest, in fact. I completely missed my 6th year of running the blog. I'll figure something out.

I enter them from time to time. Do I notice the post before sign up ends? Are the winnings items that fit my collection? How much energy to enter? I certainly don't enter them all - maybe 50% at best. So odds of winning are usually pretty low. But even a broken clock is right twice a day, and I pull out the impossible ever so often.

Kerry over at Cards on Cards runs a couple NCAA contests a year - one for bowl time and the other for March Madness. Every time I enter, I tend to get out of the gate fast, then fall apart and end up in the middle of the pack. Well, this past NCAA basketball tourney, I was certain to end another year as the bride's bride's bride's bride's maid, and not the bride. And then the final was played, and some how the math went my way. The winning were a blaster of GQ and a blaster of Kerry's choice, which ended up as Archives. Some nice cardboard came from the Archives blaster, and maybe I'll actually finish building the set. Love that image on the Bench.

And here's the Gypsy Queen blaster. Nice SP with the Honus, and a logo swap Happ for the PC. Not sure why I scanned the Mengden. I think it was the similarity to it being a pic of Rollie. Kerry added some bonus cards to the mailer.

We have color, with a sepia SC Thomas, blue Prizm and B&W Donruss Abreu.

Some rookies. Hoping Carson figures this out. I think the Sox should turn him into a reliever. His starts are dreadful.

Couple for PCs, and a nice Chrome Moncada. Yoan isn't tearing it up, but he's still just 23, so no need to start freaking out. I think he is developing nicely and will fit in well at second for a few years.

Last in the mailer was a dozen plus to help with the SC build. I didn't intend to scan the Correa and Bregman, but interesting how Topps selected similar images for the left side of the Astros infield. Thanks again, Kerry.

The blogosphere's resident crazy man Wes from Jay Barker Fan Area 40 is having a year long (?) goodbye to the blog and running contest after contest. Unintentionally I entered and one the first one he ran and came out at the top of the randomizer. Some nice additions in the mailer with the die cut Big Hurt, a refractor of a Sox minor leaguer, and that sweet Drabeck Fleer numbered to 100.

These were the contest winnings. A nice auto of Andre Fili, currently 18-5 and scheduled to fight again next month. The lower card, Daron Cruickshank is number 9/148. He is 20-10 and currently with the Rizin Fighting Federation, but has not had a bout for almost 2 years. Thanks Wes. Reconsider leaving, would ya?

Player Collection update

Well, Comcast really screwed up a chance for a better post here today. Even though I don't work for them at all, all the users on the east coast figured my company's program was down, when it was that cut fiber that screwed up the net today.

So just a quick post. One image - six cards.

I now collect all these guys. And a few others like them, if you figure out how they are related.

SEND ME YOUR DUPES!!!!

Throwback Thursday - 06.28.2018

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. The picture may be from the front of the card, or the back. Enjoy the uniforms from years past.

Alex Rodriguez - 2004 UD First Pitch - Washington Senators

Ye of little quantities

Getting cards out of the blue, for no reason, is a joy. Fat padded envelopes with stuffed team bags, or long white boxes crammed with cardboard. I have a couple of those boxes still to organize and scan, but I will never turn up my nose to a thin mailer or a PWE.

So let us honor those tiny quantity gifts that bring just the same huge smile to my face.

Got four cards a while back from my buddy Chris, who's blog, Old Foul Cardboard, is all but dead. Chris is alive and well, and so are these cards. Though a few BoSox fans wish Bucky Dent was dead. Had to scan with a white background to appreciate the acetate Magglio from UD EX.

The other two cards included a sweet '71 Reds team card that someone at Topps decided the equipment manager needed to be removed. Last is a manu-patch from Topps Rogue One release. It's a shame they just print the patches now instead of chain stitch, like Topps have done in the past. Thanks Chris.

It's a mini Hoyle-ing, from everyone's favorite random mailer Mark. I might have that Podzilla, but I love that card and think it would look great autographed. But Scott is horrible on returns, so naked it will probably remain. Nice oddball Big Hurt. Thanks Mark.

See, you don't need to send 400 cards to make me smile. Teeny-tiny makes me happy-happy.

Hidden Gems: Missing the cut

So in the Hidden Gems posts, I bring up those cards that are beautiful as well as the songs you may have missed out. But for today's post, let's look at a couple cards that one might think hit the binder, but they are just not good enough to make it in. Plus, they help transition to the song selections of the post. Yes - plural. You'll see.

I have plenty of cards I have kicked aside from the Hidden Gems binder that fit into this look. Most of the time something is considered, but ultimately rejected, comes down to one simple word:

Cropping

In the world of digital graphics, cropping is removing outside areas of a photo or image. It helps focus the eye to what the artist wants you to see, frame the image, remove trash from the image or alter the aspect ratio. Sometimes, it's perfect. But on these examples, it's too much. For the Reddick, they did well to get most of him within the frame, and the most important parts, but chopped off a leg, and the glove is juuuuuust out of the inside border. On the DeJesus, we have a similar issue. Cropped just s fraction too close, so he has no feet and the Ultra logo covers part of the image. DeJesus would have done better pulled out just a bit, while the Reddick could have fared much better on a horizontal card (yeah - I know it's Archives, but go with it).

Sometimes, you can crop too much, thinking you are getting rid of excess garbage, but losing the best part of the subject.

Now, for music, I am going to start with a simple question: Ever hear the songs "Get Away" and "Broken" by Chicago and Tears For Fears, respectively? I'm fairly certain most of you have without really knowing it. But unless you own the songs, you probably won't hear them anytime soon on the radio. Maybe on WXRT here could your ears enjoy Broken. But you tend to not hear those songs lately because of a little thing called the "radio edit".

I've talked about radio edits before, specifically the fact the 60 plus seconds are cut from The Knacks "My Sharonna" when you tend to hear the song. Many songs have sections cut out so they play faster, allowing more commercials over the air. See, Get Away and Broken appear at the end of a couple very famous songs for each band:

If you listen to the end of each video, the song ends. But on the album, each song has a close to minute jam fest attached. Getaway highlights Chicago's horn section, which hearkens back to their earlier years as a jam band. For Tears For Fears, Broken is a small section of a live performance of the song tacked at the end. It's an actual song that appears just before Head Over Heels on their Songs From The Big Chair album. It's a shame you don't get to hear either over the airwaves, though.

Poorganization

pȯr-gə-nə-ˈzā-shən [noun] : the act or process of insufficient organizing

It's a mess here. Sure, it could be worse, but I have stacks of sorting that needs to be done, piles to be mailed and boxes/envelopes to be sorted and scanned. And let's not even mention the box of cards for cataloging in whatever will replace Zistle for me.

Ok, so blue are throwbacks. We'll make yellow bunting cards, the pink...

When I get in mailers, I try to either throw a note in the bag so I remember who sent them, or take the return label off the mailer and stuff it in the bag. Well, here's a couple mailings to show off. Or maybe it's one? I am not too sure, and that's my fault. I either failed to note of the groups, or I fail to remember what was sent to me. Here's let me just start posting with a single image.

Small sampling of the bags of Star Wars cards I received from Pat over at Hot Corner Cards (dude - get posting!). Top left is from The Force Awakens set while the top right is Galactic Files. No idea what the sticker at the bottom is from.

Now, here's my confusion. There are three other bags of cards. These three have blue painters tape sealing them, while the three SW cards just had Scotch tape. So they don't match. But I though Pat sent me a bunch of White Sox cards too, and since these three bags have no label/address within, I am not sure if they are from Pat or another. Maybe someone will recognize them. Otherwise, more credit for Weber.

Some failed ChiSox prospects within. And a failed Dodger prospect who became a HUGE star with a certain club wearing pale hose.

Healthy group of double plays. Love the Bell at the bottom. Great shot on a pathetic design.

Jermaine Allensworth. Barley fits on the card. And look - Brett Butler in a very odd pose. Bunting??? NEVER!

Now, all those may not spark someone, but if you sent in these miscuts, I am certain you would remember.

I do love me the parallelogram miscuts. And no, Jeroen, you cannot have that Blyleven.

So a big thanks to Pat. Or could it be slightly smaller because the other cards were from another. Either/or, I screwed up, so I'm sorry. Thanks a bunch no matter what, but sorry.

So sorry.

So.

As is fairly evident, my postings have been few, far between and really, not that great. I have post series that have been ignored (Throwback Thursday, Hidden Gems, etc...), post thoughts that currently resides in a text document in a document folder, as well as stacks of cards that need to be scanned, thanked and organized. I work in my card room/office daily, so I see stacks upon stacks of card, mostly meant to be outbound, and a simple question comes to mind

What happened?

It's actually a fairly difficult question to break down into a concise and coherent answer, but let's have at it. For starters, I'm active in my attempts to bring income into the household. From the regular job, Uber, LetGo/OfferUp, eBay (soon, but nothing of my collection) - goal #1 is always finances. And quite frankly, I frigging hate it. I hate how survival is based on these green pieces of paper. The analogy of finding a deer so the family can eat becomes short lived when half the deer meat is spoiled. It zaps your motivation. Your pleasure. Your sense of accomplishment. Your self worth. Since failure is not an option though (thanks Gene Kranz), I plug away.

Ceri is......well, Ceri. Doctor after doctor, medication after medication, diagnosis after diagnosis - we still don't have a firm answer. Mayo said fibromyalgia, which is just a BS response when they have no answers. It's not fibromyalgia. This whole household knows it's not that, but we'll play the game for now. I know her anxiety complicates the issue, but there is truly something that starts the pain. We are working to better treat her fears and other mental needs in the hope that until we get a good solution, her life is manageable.

My regular job is unfulfilling, which I am sure the rest of you feel about your careers. Some days we are overworked, with the same mind numbing calls each day that cause you, at least myself, to question why am I in the job, or even this field. Pile a heaping dollop of micromanagement into the mix and the day ends with the mind taxed to the limit and needing inane activity to wind down for the day. Thank you Destiny 2. (side note: if anyone plays that and wants to hang out, shoot me a message with your tag. PS4 only).

And there in lies the rub. I like to blog. As I have said in the past, I write for me more than for you. It keeps my mind sharp and my sarcasm sharper. But when you are worn down, it's hard to work out what you want to say and construct it into something somewhat interesting to read. Greg - have no idea how you write a newspaper article daily. Thank goodness that is not my career. I put a lot of energy into my posts. I like working them out, constructing the sentences and the flow of the post and then releasing it to the world. I hate "dialing it in". I have done a few like that, and, back up to the self worth statement, I don't want to hit my psyche doing something half ass. I take pride in all I do, with 101% effort being the goal at all times. And I'm my harshest critic. It's important I strive for the best I can do.

There's a little of the personal life. I tend to be fairly private, so if any of you use it against me I will destroy you. For a more focused update on the blog and other card related things, I am hoping to get rid of the last of the Tis The Seasons mailing by the end of July. I will put a focused effort on those, as there is really not much card wise to buy, and I don't have the cash for what I want anyhow. Plus I have a fair amount of "owes" mailings along with "here, you should have these" mailings to get packaged and sent out. Soon. As I mentioned, organization is dreadful right now, though I think it's really bad because of the backlog of of incoming mailings. Maybe I need to just cut myself a break of being perfect when I post.

HAHAHAHA......"perfect".

Oh, and before I get to some scan folder cleaning, I have a goal for myself. Not a promise to any of you, cuz I suck at them, but a goal: post 7 days in a row. I have done this before, and I can do it again. The hope if if I take the time to focus on content, I get break out of the funk, get the mind working as it should and show some appreciation for the generosity I have received. I can get Throwback Thursday back on track, which is a no brainer post. And knock out a Hidden Gem, which requires some effort to pair up the card with the song, and be somewhat entertaining in the process. Goals....

How about three quick thanks over 6 images?

Jeff Pederson (non blogger) snagged up the bags of 2016 Topps in TTS (they are mailing soon, Jeff). He dropped a well stuffed PWE back in thanks )not needed, but appreciated). I love the blue border Bazooka. In fact, that whole set was fun. Hey Topps - maybe Bazooka as a replacement for Opening Day?

Jeff really dropped the colors on me. Always felt that blue sparkle redemption card from Update was the best looking sparkly thing Topps released. It's a good color choice. Much better than the green or that red abomination.

John from Johnny's Trading Spot dropped a healthy lot of bunting cards. I think I have a 2nd mailer here from him I need to organize, but let's enjoy this stack showing the art of the lay down. Some better than others.

I said it was a fat lot of bunts. And a single double play card. I have no idea who that player was on the south side.

Brian Simpson (do you blog?) also grabbed a stack in TTS and felt the need to mail something back. That's not how this works!!!! But thanks. Some rookie ChiSox hit the headquarters. May is back in the minors. Anderson is doing fairly well in the show, but needs to stop striking out so much. Puckett is on the 7 day DL (since April), so I have no idea what the Sox plan are with him.

A newer minor leaguer with  Basabe, who is still in the minor getting his skills up. Such the difference in years when you see what was released as a minor league card 20+ years ago. Fernandez had an ok career, but I think more was expected from him. Missed a no hitter by two outs. Merullo had an uneventful 6 years in the pros.

There we have it. Day 1 of 7 posts (or more hopefully).  So.......

Be back tomorrow

Been almost a month since I have posted. Lot going on, but I will get a post up tomorrow with some updates on a lot of stuff and plans for the future. Missing the 2x3 headquarters - it's all dusty here. And is the Jimmy Hoffa in the corner behind that stack of '92 Upper Deck?

Ok - talk to you tomorrow. Until then, here's a card that even Prince would say "damn - get a real mustache".

Mustache in training....

Break it down!!

I think I have only ever participated in one group break online with all those breakers you can purchase from via ebay or directly on their sites. Main reason is the price. Yeah, sure, whatever - I don't get all the extra cards, and hopefully I get what I want, but I still think many breakers are overpriced. My opinion - I could be wrong.

Survey SAYS....!

But when bloggers do group breaks, I try to get in on the ones I find fit my budget and fill needs in the Sox box. Been is a couple over the past months, and it's about time I thank the breakers and share some spoils. First up, Colby from Cardboard Collections did what he called an affordable group break. The price was right, and it almost didn't happen, so I grabbed a 2nd slot to get it filled. Along with my Sox, I picked the Pirates, and my random teams ended up being the Indians and Tigers. A lot of AL Central for me.

There were three boxes in the break: 2002 Topps Gallery and 2004 Topps Clubhouse Collection. Colby also threw in some bonuses, one being a blaster of Diamond Kings. I think I pulled the whole Sox team set from Gallery, along with that sweet Kendall in a throwback.

The Clubhouse Collection was a hit per pack product. I grabbed the Pirates since there was a Clemente relic, but nothing from my other teams. Fortunately, if you are going to be shut out of 75% of your teams, when you score twice on your main, it's a joyous thing. I look forward to your next affordable break, Colby.

The other recent was run by new daddy Chris at Nacho Grande. Chris called it retro, breaking six total boxes: 02 Fleer Triple Crown, 12 Coopertown, 97 Sports Illustrated, 09 Bowman Chrome, and both a 98 and 12 box of Gold Label. I had my White Sox and the Brewers (blah). Chris threw in some random packs as well, so let's look at the good stuff.

Two for the player collections. I need another Paulie from my throwback binders. I really would like to see the Sox bring back those 1917 uniforms. One would have thought they could have made an appearance for a few games last year. Sigh.....

These really constitute my only "hits" from the break. A black foil Moncada, a city variation of Abbott, and a needed Big Hurt, if only a class 1. Not sure when the next time Chris will do another break, being he had to go and be a dad (FOOL!). Seriously - I wish nothing but the absolute best for your whole family. Fatherhood just gets better and better.

Unless your baby grows up to be a degenerate.