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!

200 Posts! Napkin Doon 2.0

I like to think of myself as a steady, well balanced individual.  Not prone to wild mood swings and impulsive behavior.  My dark side, Napkin Doon, on the other hand, is an irrational maniac, especially when it comes to baseball cards.  Napkin Doon has trouble saying “no” to cards.  More to the point, Napkin Doon doesn’t say “no” to baseball cards.  Thus, my card collection, much like myself, has become bloated and disorganized.  I track the sets I am building with my super duper checklist.  I could never get my super duper checklist below 90 sets.  As soon as I did, it would come roaring back up to close to 100. 

I finally was able to put Napkin in time out for a few hours and take a hard look at my checklist.  There were 30+ sets on it that I either had 0% interest in building and/or no reasonable chance in building due to scarcity and/or cost, and I cut them out.  My checklist is now down to a svelte 51 sets.  I am going to really try to keep it at 50.  So I will make a rule that I cannot add any new set without removing one.  I guess I should instate that rule now.  It helps that I have decided to pass on Allen and Ginter and Lineage, although I really like some of the inserts.  Once I get to 50, the list will stay at 50 sets or lower.  Then, if I get it whittled down to 40, I will make 40 the ceiling.  I will keep doing this until I get down to 20 sets.  Why am I telling you this?  I don’t know, but there you have it.   I am now committing in public, in writing, the first rule of maintaining sanity in my collection:

Rule #1 is:  There are no rules!  Sorry, I’ve just always wanted to say that.  Seriously here it is:

Rule #1 is:  You do not talk about Fight Club.  Always wanted to say that too.  Third time is the charm:

Napkin Doon Collection Sanity Rule #1:  My Checklist will never expand beyond a 50 set ceiling.  The checklist ceiling will drop at every ten set interval once that interval is reached.  No set will be added unless an existing set is cleared.

Technically, that is a group of several rules, but it’s my blog and I can do what I want.

On a side note, I just saw that I had reached 200 posts!  I am not sure why that is a significant number, but it's a clean easy number, so I'll mention it.  Thank you to all of you who have read, commented, played and traded with me over these past 7 months!  I look forward to the next 200!

Topps Diamond Cut Cards

I recently took delivery of my handful of Topps Diamond cards.  I have 5 of the Rangers, and want to add the Adrian Beltre.  Nolan Ryan will be too expensive, and I am not interested in the Vlad Guerrero. 

These are really nice cards!  I guess I’ll leave the protective film on them, although it really bubbled up on Michael Young.  I saw on eBay that someone was selling the entire set of this line.  How much work must that have been to put together???  I thought I was a big timer by scrounging up 5!

Etopps offering 8/22

This week's etopps offering:

Derek Jeter
Ubaldo Jimenez ????
Brandon Beachy

I'll likely pick up the Jeter and maybe the Beachy for possible ROY points.

Be online at 1 pm est on WWW.etopps.com to order if interested.

Blog Dog Championship Tournament: Match 1

Five Guys vs Kum and Go

This has massacre written all over it.  First, let’s meet the first contestant, seed #8, Kum and Go Hot Dog. 

Yes, this little convenient store with the filthy name had the odds stacked against it. 

Here was my hot dog, spinning around on rollers with his brothers and sisters and cheddar brat cousins, oblivious to his impending doom.   After dressing it up with mustard and relish (the standard condiments I will give every hot dog in this contest to keep it fair) this is what my $1.59 got me:

And do you know what?  It was EXCELLENT!   The bun was soft, the meat was plump and juicy (no dirty jokes please) and the condiments were just fine for coming out of a bottle on the counter.  I have no complaints about this hot dog!  An impressive start to the competition, and Five Guys had better have their act together, or they are in big trouble.

So let’s see if Five Guys answered the bell.

There was a noticeable tension in the air behind the counter at Five Guys as I ordered my hot dog for $3.99.    Were they aware of what had happened earlier in the day at Kum and Go?  I don’t know, but here is what they served up:

Uh oh, not too impressive looking.  Could it be possible that a hot dog from a Five Guys Burgers, an establishment just recently featured in Bloomberg Businessweek, could lose to a place called Kum and Go, who was featured in Maxim Magazine's "Found Porn" segment?  Let's see....

Ok, Kum and Go, it’s time to go… home.  This Five Guy hot dog makes a man want to slap his mamma!   The bun was warm and fresh and the meat was deep fried and had an audible snap when I bit into it.  This deep fried hot dog may just roll through the competition like it rolled through my bowels this evening.  What a freaking masterpiece!

Round one result:  Despite a valiant effort by Kum and Go, it’s hot dog was simply outclassed.  But don’t worry, Kum and Go.  You’ve earned my trust and respect, and I will be seeing you again soon.  But the moment belongs to Five Guys, so congrats to them!

Next round:  Chicago Dog vs. Back Yard Burger

Lineage Rangers

I don't know what happened, but I very quickly changed my mind on Lineage.  I still love the mini relic cards, and some of the other inserts, but I have no interest in the base other than the Rangers cards.  Luckily,  neighboring state (OK) blog Cardboard Catastrophes (BTS, the more I read his blog and correspond with him, the more I realize we have in common- except I LOVE Star Wars) cares even less for Lineage and sent me the Rangers cards he had from his purchase:

This about covers my needs for Lineage base.  The Cruz card is super cool, and now I think I have all of the mini relics of the Rangers since I also received this Kinsler relic off eBay:

While the base doesn't do much for me, I still am enamored with the mini relics.  Once they come down in price, I will probably fish for a few more online.  I also really want the Josh Hamilton 3D card.

Thanks for the trade Jeff! 

Blog Dogs

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the first annual Napkin Doon Northwest Arkansas Hot Dog Tournament Championship!  Gathered today are the 8 best Hot Dogs available in Northwest Arkansas!  That I know of!  Here are your contestants and their seed in the tournament:

1)      Five Guys Burgers and Fries

2)      Chicago Dog

3)      Sonic

4)      Tusk and Trotter

5)      Sams Club

6)      White Oak Station

7)      Back Yard Burger

8)      Kum and Go

You may not be familiar with some of these restaurants, but I won’t let that stop me.  I will give more detail on the restaurants and dogs over the course of the tournament, as well as exciting action photos!

I have appointed seeding based on a cursory, top of my head ranking of these hot dogs in 4 key areas:  Price, Meat, Bun, Fixins.    I am not 100% sure on these prices, but I think they are close enough.  Yes, there really is a $12 Hot Dog available in Northwest Arkansas.

	Price	Meat	Bun	Fixins	Score
Five Guys	$3.99	1	1	1	1.7
Chicago Dog	$3.50	3	2	2	2.6
Sonic	$1.99	6	4	5	4.2
Tusk and Trotter	$12.00	2	3	3	5.0
Sams	$1.50	5	7	7	5.1
White Oak Station	$2.99	9	5	6	5.7
BYB	$1.99	7	8	8	6.2
Kum and Go	$1.50	10	10	10	7.9

Clearly, Five Guys is the heavy favorite going into this tournament, and Kum and Go has almost no chance of winning.  But, as we know from sports, rankings and seeding mean nothing!  It has to be settled on the field, or in this case, in my gut. 

So over the next several weeks, buckle up while I figure out which hot dog I like best!  The first contest should be a blowout, with Five Guys Burgers going up against Kum and Go.    But you never know how this thing will play out.  We could be looking at an historic upset.  Stayed tuned for the first matchup!

What does this have to do with baseball cards?  Nothing.  It just needs to be done.

I can just sense the lovely wife turning red with embarrassment already…

Side note,I hope this post shows up correctly.  Apparently there were problems with my last one and it didn't show up on followers reading lists. 

Logic and the Lovely Wife

Besides being smoking hot, the lovely wife is super sharp and does not let anything get by her.  Case in point, the controversial Bob Feller card that I declined to go after at Cleve’s the other night  (BTW it went for over $30, so I’m not kicking myself for missing out on it.  Plus, now I’ve gotten my week hiatus out of the way, and this Tuesday I can go hog wild!!!).  After I won a magnificent Satchel Paige card the week before, I agreed with her that I should take a hiatus from Cleve’s auctions and get myself back under control.  But then I saw the 1953 Feller, and it was too much for me to bear.   I am a great admirer of Feller as a player, patriot and ambassador to baseball, and was genuinely sad when he passed away.  Yet, I do not have a single vintage card of him.  I explained to the lovely wife that this was a special circumstance, and I REALLY wanted this card, despite agreeing to take an auction break.  In fact, a helpful handful of you agreed I should go for this card now and take a break later.  The lovely wife thought about this and asked, “But don’t you think you will be able find a ‘special circumstance card’ at Cleve’s EVERY week?” 

Touché.  

So, to gain credibility when I advise her of cards I really want, I have come up with a “Special Exception” list.    I hear of couples making “exception” lists of famous celebrities they have permission from their spouse to “be” with should the opportunity present itself.  In that spirit, I am going to list the cards that I should be able to bid on at ANY time should they find their way to one of Cleve’s auctions and come at a reasonable cost.  This way I can simply point to this legally binding agreement and show the lovely wife that the player in question is on the list, and I have already made public my desire to purchase a card of said player.

I give you the Napkin Doon exception list: 

Hank Aaron

Grover Alexander

Roberto Alomar

Walt Alston

Sparky Anderson

Cap Anson

Luis Aparicio

Luke Appling

Richie Ashburn

Earl Averill

Frank Baker

Dave Bancroft

Ernie Banks

Al Barlick

Ed Barrow

Jake Beckley

Cool Papa Bell

Johnny Bench

Chief Bender

Yogi Berra

Bert Blyleven

Wade Boggs

Jim Bottomley

Lou Boudreau

Roger Bresnahan

George Brett

Lou Brock

Dan Brouthers

Mordecai Brown

Ray Brown

Williard Brown

Morgan Bulkeley

Jim Bunning

Jesse Burkett

Roy Campanella

Rod Carew

Max Carey

Steve Carlton

Gary Carter

Alexander Cartwright

Orlando Cepeda

Henry Chadwick

Frank Chance

Happy Chandler

Oscar Charleston

Jack Chesbro

Nestor Chylak

Fred Clarke

John Clarkson

Roberto Clemente

Ty Cobb

Mickey Cochrane

Eddie Collins

Jimmy Collins

Earle Combs

Charlie Comiskey

Jocko Conlan

Tom Connolly

Roger Connor

Andy Cooper

Stan Coveleski

Sam Crawford

Joe Cronin

Candy Cummings

Kiki Cuyler

Ray Dandridge

George Davis

Leon Day

Andre Dawson

Dizzy Dean

Ed Delahanty

Bill Dickey

Martin Dihigo

Joe DiMaggio

Larry Doby

Bobby Doerr

Barney Dreyfuss

Don Drysdale

Hugh Duffy

Leo Durocher

Dennis Eckersley

Billy Evans

Johnny Evers

Buck Ewing

Red Faber

Bob Feller

Rick Ferrell

Rollie Fingers

Carlton Fisk

Elmer Flick

Whitey Ford

Bill Foster

Rube Foster

Nellie Fox

Jimmie Foxx

Ford Frick

Frankie Frisch

Pud Galvin

Lou Gehrig

Charlie Gehringer

Bob Gibson

Josh Gibson

Warren Giles

Pat Gillick

Lefty Gomez

Joe Gordon

Goose Goslin

Goose Gossage

Frank Grant

Hank Greenberg

Clark Griffith

Burleigh Grimes

Lefty Grove

Tony Gwynn

Chick Hafey

Jesse Haines

Billy Hamilton

Ned Hanlon

Will Harridge

Bucky Harris

Gabby Hartnett

Doug Harvey

Harry Heilmann

Rickey Henderson

Billy Herman

Whitey Herzog

Pete Hill

Harry Hooper

Rogers Hornsby

Waite Hoyt

Cal Hubbard

Carl Hubbell

Miller Huggins

William Hulbert

Catfish Hunter

Monte Irvin

Reggie Jackson

Travis Jackson

Fergie Jenkins

Hughie Jennings

Ban Johnson

Judy Johnson

Walter Johnson

Addie Joss

Al Kaline

Tim Keefe

Willie Keeler

George Kell

Joe Kelley

George Kelly

King Kelly

Harmon Killebrew

Ralph Kiner

Chuck Klein

Bill Klem

Sandy Koufax

Bowie Kuhn

Nap Lajoie

Kenesaw Landis

Tommy Lasorda

Tony Lazzeri

Bob Lemon

Buck Leonard

Freddie Lindstrom

Pop Lloyd

Ernie Lombardi

Al Lopez

Ted Lyons

Connie Mack

Biz Mackey

Larry MacPhail

Lee MacPhail

Effa Manley

Mickey Mantle

Heinie Manush

Rabbit Maranville

Juan Marichal

Rube Marquard

Eddie Mathews

Christy Mathewson

Willie Mays

Bill Mazeroski

Joe McCarthy

Tommy McCarthy

Willie McCovey

Joe McGinnity

Bill McGowan

John McGraw

Bill McKechnie

Bid McPhee

Joe Medwick

Jose Mendez

Johnny Mize

Paul Molitor

Joe Morgan

Eddie Murray

Stan Musial

Hal Newhouser

Kid Nichols

Phil Niekro

Walter O'Malley

Jim O'Rourke

Mel Ott

Satchel Paige

Jim Palmer

Herb Pennock

Tony Perez

Gaylord Perry

Eddie Plank

Alex Pompez

Cum Posey

Kirby Puckett

Old Hoss Radbourn

Pee Wee Reese

Jim Rice

Sam Rice

Branch Rickey

Cal Ripken, Jr.

Eppa Rixey

Phil Rizzuto

Robin Roberts

Brooks Robinson

Frank Robinson

Jackie Robinson

Wilbert Robinson

Bullet Rogan

Edd Roush

Red Ruffing

Amos Rusie

Babe Ruth

Nolan Ryan

Ryne Sandberg

Louis Santop

Ray Schalk

Mike Schmidt

Red Schoendienst

Tom Seaver

Frank Selee

Joe Sewell

Al Simmons

George Sisler

Enos Slaughter

Hilton Smith

Ozzie Smith

Duke Snider

Billy Southworth

Warren Spahn

Al Spalding

Tris Speaker

Willie Stargell

Turkey Stearnes

Casey Stengel

Bruce Sutter

Mule Suttles

Don Sutton

Ben Taylor

Bill Terry

Sam Thompson

Joe Tinker

Cristobal Torriente

Pie Traynor

Dazzy Vance

Arky Vaughan

Bill Veeck

Rube Waddell

Honus Wagner

Bobby Wallace

Ed Walsh

Lloyd Waner

Paul Waner

John Ward

Earl Weaver

George Weiss

Mickey Welch

Willie Wells

Zack Wheat

Sol White

Hoyt Wilhelm

J.L. Wilkinson

Billy Williams

Dick Williams

Joe Williams

Ted Williams

Vic Willis

Hack Wilson

Jud Wilson

Dave Winfield

George Wright

Harry Wright

Early Wynn

Carl Yastrzemski

Tom Yawkey

Cy Young

Ross Youngs

Robin Yount

Keep in mind, this list only applies to vintage players.  I have an obligation as a Blogger and American Consumer to continue to purchase modern cards at my discretion.  Now, let’s see her argue with that.