Checklist Chipaway: EX Century

The master checklist takes a small hit this week with deliveries of a trio of slick 1999 EX Century Cards:

I am now at 95% complete, with 5 cards left to go!
 

Napkin Doon & Jack Reacher- On a Collision Course of Bad-Assery

There are a few things that send me into tizzies of excitement.  Baseball card collecting is one as you know.  George Will’s genius is another.  And of course, the lovely wife in all her hotness surpasses both of these.

Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child are also on that short list.  And I just found out Child is coming to my town October 28 for a speaking engagement/book promotion.  Tickets are $50 and includes a signed copy of his new book “The Affair” (due Sept. 27) and dinner.   Yes, I already have my ticket.

Lee Child books are just flat-out cool.   Jack Reacher is the constant character in Child’s books, although you do not have to read the books in sequential order.   Reacher  is an ex MP (Military Police) who roams the country, his only possessions being a tooth brush and the clothes on his back.  Every book is about Reacher coming into contact with someone with a problem, and he stays to help.    He likes to kick bad-guy ass and drink coffee and usually scores with a hot chick somewhere in between.  Reacher can be described just as you might imagine Napkin Doon:  a  6’5” mountain of muscle, with a steel trap mind and lethal hand to hand combat skills.  The only difference is that Reacher has blonde hair and mine is brown.

Wax Wednesday- 2011 Topps Chrome

Does anyone use the term “Boy Howdy” anymore?  It’s a term that I heard and used a lot in growing up in West Texas.  I didn’t think anything of using it until I moved out of state to go to college.  I remember one of the first days my freshman year, all of the guys from my dorm room floor got together for a meet and greet and when someone asked me if I was a Razorback fan, I said without embarrassment “Boy Howdy, am I!”  It was months until I heard the end of the mockery that ensued.   I think when we all started taking ourselves so seriously in the 90s as a backlash to the ridiculous 80s, terms like “Boy Howdy” were almost ridiculed into extinction.  That’s my pop-sociologist diagnosis.  

Please humor me for a moment while I dust off the term“Boy Howdy” for this post.

Boy Howdy, I like Topps Chrome!

I picked up a couple of rack packs today and am thinking seriously about building this set.  I’ll wait until the newness wears off and take another look, but these are sweet, sweet cards.  And I will echo what I have heard from others in saying that the curling issues seem to be solved. At $8.99 a pack they are expensive though, and I suppose I could build a base set off the secondary market much more cheaply later this fall.   Enough from me, here is what I got:

 While they didn't curl much, these slippery little suckers are still difficult to scan.  Lining these up on my scanner was like playing air hockey.

No major pulls, although I’m happy about the Orange Pujols and Stanton.   I guess I actually did pretty poorly on these packs, as I didn’t get any numbered cards or hits.  But the quality of these cards alone made them worth the purchase. 

GWAG12!! 

A Second Helping From BA Benny's Buffet!

I just completed my second trade with BA Benny's Baseball Card Buffet and once again, I'm thrilled with what I got!  Inside the padded mailer was a big block of Rangers, with a generous stack of 2011 Heritage.  Here were my favorite cards of the package:

Thanks for the trade Mike!  And I hope to see you back to blogging soon!

My Mission: George Will for Allen & Ginter 2012!

Writing this blog has been one of the most rewarding hobbies I’ve ever undertaken.  It has enhanced my love of baseball cards tenfold and has been a wonderful creative outlet.   However, there is a tiny part of me that has still been searching for some more meaningful reason to continue this new endeavor of mine and I haven’t been able to put my finger on it.  Until today.  I have realized a new goal for of this blog with crystal clarity:  Help get George Will on an Allen & Ginter card.  The fact that he has not been on a card yet befuddles and irritates me.   Why George Will?  I say, "Why Not?."  His baseball relevance resume:

• Bestselling author of two books about baseball:  Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball; and Bunts 
•  Member of MLB’s Special Committee for on field matters
• Lifelong suffering Cubs fan
• Briefly held position of Commissioner of the Texas/Louisiana independent baseball league (I was a big Lubbock Crickets fan myself)

If I can somehow use this blog to help influence Topps into issuing a card of him in a future Allen and Ginter set, then I will be most satisfied.  Allen and Ginter is the perfect, and really only choice for a card of George Will.  If Regis deserves a card in this set, so does George Will.  And I would love to see an autograph card offered, as well as a relic card of one of his bowties.

This is my mission.  I don’t really know how to make it happen yet, but I am open to ideas.  I’ll start with this post, and perhaps a letter to Topps.  Any other suggestions?

Labor Day Etopps Offering

Last week, eTopps was off due to the weather but apparently will have an offering today:

Justin Verlander

Anthony Rizzo

 

Mark Trumbo

With Verlander looking like a good bet for the Cy Young, I will order his card, but decline the other two.  If players in your port are awarded post season awards (Cy Young, MVP, ROY etc.) you receive bonus points for each card you have.  Bonus points can be used to trade for other cards, pick up cards or merchandise in the weekly catalog, or to pay for shipping of cards.

I would think Trumbo will be available cheaper after the IPO, and frankly I don't know anything about Anthony Rizzo.  Should he be on collector's radars?

Napkin Doon 2.0 = Attacking The Sort Box:

I have a bit of a process when I purchase cards.  I posted this process early in my blogging days, and it hasn’t changed.    Technically, there is an initial step after I purchase/receive my cards and scan them if warranted.  If I don’t have time to put them in their proper place right off the bat, I put them in this sort box.  Lately, my sort box has achieved mitosis and split into two sort boxes.  I think it’s reasonable to expect myself to whittle down to one sort box, and strive to keep this one sort box empty.  Therefore:

Napkin Doon Collection Sanity Rule #3:  Unless the sort box is empty, I may not purchase new cards.

I also needed an excuse to see if using Firefox will help me with my Blogger woes.  I downloaded it just a few minutes ago, and just made a comment on another blog with no problems, so that's a start!  Used to be, if I wanted to comment on someone's blog, I had to do it through my phone which was a hassle.  Let's see if the posting delays are solved too...

Checklist Chipaway and Blogger Aggravates Me

Slowly but surely, my master set from the two year run of Topps HD is nearing completion.  Last week, I picked up a couple of inserts online.  The problem with HD is that I don't think they made every card that was scheduled to go in each insert set. For example, the Image insert set that this Albert Belle goes to should be 20 cards, but I can only find names for 10 of the 20 cards leading me to think not all 20 exist.  So who knows, I may be closer to finishing than I think.



And once again Blogger seems to have it in for me.  My most recent post has not shown up on my dashboard or google reader 24 hours after posting (Saturday morning).    So it doesn't look like I've posted anything in a few days.    I checked blogger help and found other bloggers have had this problem.  But I couldn't find a solution unfortunately.   

Blog Dog Championship Tourney Match #4

Welcome to the last match of round number one. 

Sam’s Club Vs. Tusk and Trotter

On paper this is a total mismatch.  In one corner is a hot dog I can get WITH a large fountain drink for $1.50.  The other is a $12 KOBE beef hot dog at one of the coolest restaurants in Northwest Arkansas.  This one should be easy.

Sam’s Club

I could spend $10,000 at a Sam’s Club without breaking a sweat.  Since I live in Walmart’s backyard, it should come as no surprise that the Sam’s Clubs around here are really nice.  The lovely wife and I love taking the kids to Sam’s on weekends and picking up some fruit, which is always good at Sam’s, and helping ourselves to all the samples that are being hocked all over the store.  Sam’s used to carry baseball cards, but I haven’t seen them offered for a long time. It’s probably just as well they don’t.  Sam’s has a nice little snack area, and offer a hot dog/soda combo for $1.50.  And it’s a Nathan’s Hot Dog.  And it’s a Jumbo Size:

And guess what?  So far, this may be the best hot dog I’ve had this whole tournament!  I’m sure if taking a picture of a stupid hot dog didn’t draw enough attention to me, my moans of ecstasy did.   This was so good I just wanted to run around the store and urge everyone else to go get a Sam’s hot dog.  And for $1.50?  I’m going to have this for lunch every day!    Tusk and Trotter, you are in big time trouble…

Fortunately for T&T, I had a few days between hot dogs to get over my euphoria over the Sam’s Club hot dog.  The lovely wife met me for lunch, and we sat down at one of our favorite new places around. 

This is a total guy’s restaurant.  So of course, there has to be a hot dog on the menu.  It’s an expensive hot dog, but a hot dog nonetheless.  Here is what a $12 hot dog looks like.

I have to admit, I was a little let down.  Don’t get me wrong, it was a superb hot dog.  The meat was out of this world, and the toppings were great, even though they didn’t exactly follow the mustard/relish guideline.  But the bread, while looking beautiful, was too dry for me.  I couldn’t tell if it was meant to be that way, or just stale.  Whatever, I didn’t like it.  

So, spread the news:  Sam’s Club $1.50 hot dog just beat a $12 Hot Dog at a top shelf restaurant.  This is going to send shockwaves through the blogging and foodie worlds, I can feel it.

Even though this round ended on such an exciting note, I can’t take another hot dog right now.    My guess is that those of you who read my blog would like me to move on to something else, too.    To complete this tournament properly, I would need two more rounds, which would mean 3 more match ups, and 6 more hot dogs.  I love hot dogs and I would like it to stay that way by not getting burned out on one of my favorite things.  Should I suck it up and figure out a champion?  I’ll post an anonymous poll question on the sidebar.    I will abide by whatever the results dictate I do.

Blog Dog Championship Tournament Match #3

Sonic vs. White Oak Station

I realized halfway into this tournament that I should not have  set up the brackets based on seeding from a selection committee (a committee of myself).  I should have paired the contestants off by restaurant type.  For example, I should have had White Oak Station and Kum and Go face off and see who has the best gas station hot dog.  Or Chicago Dog vs. Tusk and Trotter for Non Chain Restaurant, etc. etc.  But it’s too late now because I definitely not starting over.  This should be a tough match up this week, since I like hot dogs from both contestants.

I went to Sonic first.  Ahh Sonic…..  Did you know there are almost 400,000 drink combinations you can get at Sonic?  I remember I tried to embarrass the lovely wife one time by ordering something a 5 year old would want, like a Chocolate-Watermelon Coke or something that was pretty awful.     Every year my mother gives me a Sonic Gift Certificate, which I use up as fast as I possibly can.  But I digress.  On to the results:

Just a quick drive from my office, Sonic is a mini oasis for me.
Here was my dog.  The All American, with relish and mustard:

Superb!  The bun was really warm and soft.  Yes, I am secure enough in my manhood to discuss eating warm buns and juicy weenies with a straight face.    No, I’m not being defensive at all!   Get your heads out of the gutter!  So what if porno music started playing in my head while I watched the hot dog weenies rolling around, all oiled up on hot, long, hard rollers at Kum and Go?  That doesn't mean anything!  I like girls gosh darnit!

 Anyway, this contestant from Sonic was gone in 3 bites.   As a bonus, I decided to try the new bacon and blue cheese dog.  It sure was pretty:

But it was just ok.  I’ll stick with the All American or Chicago Dog when I go to Sonic.

Next up was White Oak Station.  

The rich man’s Kum and Go, White Oak Station is a very cool gas station.  It is part gas station, part gourmet market, part deli.  The hot dog was self serve, which neither adds nor detracts to its merit in my opinion.  I was a little miffed when  the freaking metal tongs scalded my fingers.  But I am a rugged individual, and I took it like a man.  Here was my dog…

Oh my, it was fantastic!  This matchup is close!  The White Oak Station dog was $2 more than the Sonic, but I have to disregard prices for the purposes of this tournament.   But I have to pick a winner so…

White Oak Station wins by a whisker!    Sonic I still love you, and will see you at our regularly scheduled time. Don’t be upset with me.

Next is the final matchup in round 1:  Sam's Club vs. Tusk and Trotter.  Polar opposites..

Cleve’s Auction Night Part 2: Hello Everybody, I Got Some George Kell

1953 Red Man and 1952 Bowman George Kell

I’ve known all week that I wanted to get the 1952 Bowman George Kell card above at Cleve's weekly auction.  I knew he was a native Arkansan, and a HOFer.    I remember from my days in the book business that he had written an autobiography “Hello Everybody, I’m George Kell”.   I knew he was the voice of the Tigers for a long time, and was one of the all time great announcers.

But I after I researched him a little more this week I knew I HAD to have some cards of him.  I realized just how BELOVED he was by Tigers fans.  I learned he was a 10x All Star, and a superb fielder.  Apparently he was an overachiever as well, born with limited natural gifts according to this article from a 1951 Baseball Digest .*  I also learned that when he won the batting title in 1949, he beat out Ted Williams by one percentage point, and it kept Williams from winning the Triple Crown.    And for what it’s worth, it appears he was a man of integrity.

Bottom line, I got a 52 Bowman of a HOFer and role model for $15.

I also grabbed the 53 Red Man card for $6 since Kell also happened to be available.  I already have two Red Man Cards, which will need to be posted at some point, and thought this would make a good addition.

Grades:

1952 Bowman George Kell $15  A:  Very excited about this card!  My first 52 Bowman, and it’s of a Hall of Famer.  Excellent pick up!

1955 Red Man George Kell $6 B+:  Nice addition to my modest Red Man collection.  It’s in good shape, and wasn’t too expensive.

*Talk about learning something new every day:  I didn’t realize old Baseball Digest articles were archived in Google Books up to 2009!  Talk about stumbling upon a gold mine!  Didn’t anyone else know this?  This is a HUGE discovery to me!   

Cleve's Auction Night: It's a Chilly Evening In The Doon House Tonight

I began having a palpable sense of dread the moment I started driving home from Cleve's tonight.  No, I didn't score any of the Mantles (each went for at least $180 or more, with a certified auto card going for nearly $2,000).  No I didn't score the Michael Jordan auto ($350 I think).  But I did spend some money, and more than I planned.  Not only did I get the two cards that I had a fix on all week, 3 other cards slipped through the other bidder's nets and landed safely and cheaply on my lap.  But great values or not, I spent $47 tonight, and I knew that was not going to go over well with the lovely wife.  So I got to hear about it a little bit when I got home.  Here is what she said verbatim:

And I listened, and I nodded and agreed to be better.  But on the inside, I felt like this:

I dare you to find a better video.

Why was I so stoked tonight?  Well because I got some dang cool cards!  Let's start with this:

This is my first 1951 Topps Red Back card.  I've always wanted one but have never pulled the trigger.  The fact that Roe was Brooklyn Dodger, as well as an Arkansan made it even more special to me.  I know 1951 Topps aren't that hard to come by, but this one is in pristine shape, with no creases or tears, and it has great color. 

I also picked up two bonus cards that I snagged on the cheap:

This Seau/Merriman dual jersey card holds little interest to me, but the lovely wife has family from that area that are huge Charger fans and I'm sure their boys will dig it.  And it's numbered to #200.

If I can get a Tom Brady Jersey card for $4, don't I have to do it?  The jersey is nice and dirty too! 

I also picked up two other cards that I will post about tomorrow.

Here are the grades:

1951 Topps Preacher Roe $15  B+:  This is about what I would pay online for one of these in just ok shape.  A little expensive I guess, but shouldn't every collector have at least one '51?

Panini Threads Seau/Merriman $3  B: I'll get more enjoyment giving this to a kid who will like it than keeping it for myself. 

Tom Brady Topps Pro Bowl Jersey $4.00  A- :  Now I have a Brady jersey.  

Blog Dog Championship Tournament Match #2

I have really been looking forward to this match up, because I have never been to Chicago Dog.  I’ve heard good things about it, even from people who are from Chicago.  Clearly, the signature item at this place is a Chicago style hot dog.  If I had my druthers, I would always get Chicago style hot dogs.  But for the purposes of this contest, I have to stick to a standard hot dog with mustard and relish to keep things even. 

Contestant #1- Chicago Dog Hot Dog

To help move along my silly little tournament, the lovely wife agreed to let me take the family to Chicago Dog Wednesday night for dinner.  It’s located in the downtown square, and is very quaint in my opinion.

I may have to check out the hot dog eating contest!



 This was the contest entry, and it was pretty darn good.  It didn't blow me away like I was expecting, but it was good.  After taking this dog down, temptation got the better of me and I decided to try the 1/3 pound Chicago Dog:

Holy Crap!  Good thing this wasn't allowed in the contest or it would be over now.  Culinary gold!

I think I found a second home.  Besides Cleve's of course.  But Back Yard Burger will only go up against the standard hot dog from Chicago Dog, and we might be looking at an upset... 

Back Yard Burger

I will admit, BYB was at a bit of a disadvantage.  I had both kids Sunday night, while the lovely wife was out carousing with her hooligan friends.  And both kids decided this was the night to show daddy their whole asses.  The older one wanted Taco Bell for dinner and the baby wanted ice cream  ("I want ice ceem right now!").  Actually, the older one wanted Chic Fil A, and when I explained that they aren't open on Sundays, it lead to a minor inquisition of sorts and somehow we worked our way to discussing the finer points of the Reformation.  I kid.   But, I wasn’t in the mood to go inside, so I ordered drive through.  Back Yard Burger hamburgers are so freaking good, I hoped they would have a good showing with their hot dogs and put me in a better frame of mind.  But, I got a bratwurst from them a month or so ago and was severely let down.  Here was the hot dog:

This contest was over after the first bite.  Yuck.  The bread was stale and the meat was tasteless.  I didn't even finish it.  Chicago Dog takes advantage of a poor showing from Back Yard Burger and moves to round two. 

Next contest:

White Oak Station vs. Sonic

Big Auction This Week At Cleve's

Does anyone have a few bucks to spare?  Because I'm going to need some help this week paying for all the stuff I'm planning on buying at Cleve's auction.  I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking:

Several Mantles this week.  I don't know what this dairy card is, but I like it.

Some great vintage!  I didn't get a good shot of it, but there will also be a 1952 Andy Pafko, card #1!

There are some great modern cards too!  Again, I missed taking pics, but there were about 4-5 nice Tom Brady Relic and Rookie Cards.

And a sweet Michael Jordan auto!  Flanked by another Mantle and a Roger Maris auto card.

I realize in looking at these cards, I missed several other key items.  For example, there was a really nice Pete Rose framed autograph jersey, some other great football and basketball cards, and some authenticated autographed photos, one of Joe DiMaggio!

Tuesday night can't come soon enough!

Napkin Doon 2.0 = Attacking Storage:

I assume many of you can relate to the problem of your collection getting out of hand.  Most of you are like me in that you have jobs, families or other obligations and can’t spend a whole lot of time working on your collection.  The lovely wife hides it pretty well, but I believe she must get pretty exasperated with the space my collection takes up.  There is some here, some there… some everywhere.   When she used to find an empty penny sleeve on the floor she would ask if I needed it.  Now when she sees one on the floor she just picks it up and holds it up to my face for a good hard 5 seconds before throwing it away.   So, as I did with my checklist, I put some elbow grease into my actual card collection, and I think, tidied it up quite nicely.  Here are a couple of before pictures, although they really don’t adequately capture the totality of my disorganization:

You might suspect I staged this area for effect, but no, I really am that big of a slob.

I suppose I could have shoved the toys out of the way..

And now, the after:

Man, I turn myself on sometimes…

I wish I had the time and talent to put together a video montage of me working this stuff over.  Instead, here is the best non “Rocky” video montage ever, courtesy Team America.  Just pretend it’s footage of me sorting my cards. 

I still have a long ways to go.  I would like to get the albums more uniform looking and the boxes labeled.  But at least is all on one place now, and the penny sleeves are off the floor.

Napkin Doon Collection Sanity Rule #2:  My entire working collection* has be able to fit on the above shelving unit.    

 *Complete collated and factory sets in boxes may be placed elsewhere.  I must have a Topps factory set every year, and if I stored the ones I already have, plus a new one each year, I would have no room for anything else.  This is the lone exception to this rule.

Napkin Doon 2.0: Master Checklist Update

I finally took a few minutes to mess with Google Docs and convert my super duper checklist into something that can be viewed on the blog.  All of the sets I am building are now on my master checklist page at the top of the blog rather than just an image of the overview page.

The costs listed on some of the pages are from sportlots.com, which is what I use as a guage to estimate how much it will cost me to finish my sets.

I imagine this workbook looks like a big confusing mess, but the whole thing makes total sense to me. 

A Nightmare on Eutaw Street..

Actually, it wasn't a nightmare at all, but a nice pleasant dream.  But I went for the more catchy post title.  Kirk from Eutaw Street Cardboard and I just completed a pretty good sized trade.  It started a few months ago when he responded to a post I wrote about some SPX cards I liked and said he had one I still needed.   This eventually grew to a larger trade.  I sent him some vintage Orioles, an auto and some other misc Oriole cards and he sent me a whole mess of cards I needed for multiple sets I am building.  Most of this mess included the 1999 SPX set, and 2005 Topps Gallery, both of which are really slick sets in my humble opinion.  Here was what he sent:

This gets my SPX set almost to 50% done in one shot!

Another big chunk, this time from 2005 Topps Gallery, one of my favorite sets ever! The top 3 cards are all artist proofs.  Very, very nice cards.

And finally, some misc needs for some other sets I'm working on.  I'm really close to completion on several of these now.

Thanks again for the trade Kirk, and I look forward to doing it again!