Checklist Chipaway- SPX Winnng Materials 2003

I'm still stunned over this:

Lost in the shadow of yesterday's package from the Cardboard Junkie, was another addition to my 2003 SPX Winning Materials set:

This is the only Blue Jay from the set, and that's too bad, because it's really nice.  A Roy Halladay would have been excellent.  I'm 74% done with 11 cards to go.

The Cardboard Junkie Made Me Tear Up

I come to you today with a spring in my step.  I received some cards from the King of baseball card blogs, dayf, aka, the Cardboard Junkie.   His was the first blog that got my attention as , as it pertained to baseball cards.  In fact, it was this post that I specifically remember that hooked me.   I followed dayf's posts about A&G religiously every day.  He made me want to buy Allen and Ginter.   His posts were creative, funny and informative.   And he inspired me to write my own baseball card blog, not because I thought I could do it as well as him, but because he seemed to be having so much damn fun doing his. 

 

And dayf is an extremely generous gentleman, too.  I sent him a little note recently, just teasing, saying he didn’t love me because he hadn’t ever replied to an email I sent when I first started blogging and asked him to pretty please put me on his blog roll.    I guess I made him feel bad because he said he was going to send me some cards I needed for my Gypsy Queen master set (which made me feel bad for making him feel bad).  The cards came in the mail today.  

I could not believe one particular card that was included.  I stared in disbelief at it for a good 20 minutes.  I'm saving it for the end of this post though. 

First, here was the note in the package:

My very own "My Little Pony" sketch from the great Carboard Junkie!  How awesome is that?  Next, I noticed that there were way more cards in the package than I was anticipating.  He sent about 20 Gypsy Queen base that I needed.  I give you but a sampling:

He also sent a couple of the very cool Sticky Fingers inserts that I needed:

I only need one more (Jeter) to knock this sucker out.

Then, I came across the first big surprise:

This 2003 Diamond King Heritage insert not only knocks the rust off my 03 Diamond King master checklist, but this is one of the toughest cards to find.   I was stunned to see it, and am extremely appreciative!  But, what I came across last, in a simple penny sleeve, immediately became the highlight of my blogging experience to date:

A 1/1 sketch card of George Will.  As you may know, I am half-ass campaigning/wishing to get George Will on a 2012 Allen and Ginter Card.  Dayf beat Topps to it, and I don't think I would trade this for one from Topps if I had a choice.   And as I stated to him, the greatness of the front is only matched by the brilliance of the write up on the back:

I'm speechless over this card.  I'm glad I have dayf's address so that I can attempt to return the favor.  I'll never be able to fully though, because the Will card is priceless.    I hope my sincere gratitude is a start.  Thank you again dayf, you are the king.

eTopps Football Tracker 11/25

Lots more movement this week as well on my eTopps 2011 Football purchases:

•  I passed on the two cards offered last week, and I'm glad.  They're already tanking.  
• Look at Tom Brady's 2011 card drop!  Wish I had sold the first week and bought a couple later with the money.
• Speaking of Tom Brady, I'm not actually a big fan of his, but I seem to keep picking him up here and there.  I traded for another of his 2010 cards this week, giving up my AJ Green.  That may have been a mistake.
• Aaron Rodgers is still doing well, although I did say if the card started to move down, I would sell.  I probably won't now though since he is in line to rack up a ton of performance points at the end of the season and I can use those for the catalog or shipping.
• I was able to chuck the Steve Johnson card for a Nelson Cruz baseball card.  A little more value, and a card I'll want in hand when it's printed this December.

Conlon Collection Part 4: Rube and the Old Perfessor

It's hard to pick only a couple of favorites from these Conlon pages, but I've always been fascinated by two characters that share this page: Rube Waddell and Casey Stengel  You should take a few minutes to read the backs of their cards below.

If you want your head to spin, read Stengel's testimony to Congress in 1958 regarding anti-trust laws.


As for Waddell, I read a little about him in Crazy '08 (which I highly recommend), and that book also mentions (as does the back of the card above)  his tendency to chase fires, literally:  "Among his more respectable hobbies were chasing fires(he adored fire engines) and wrestling alligators; he once taught geese to skip rope."

But that doesn't top the end of the write up on the back of Waddell's card: "His longtime catcher was another flake, Ozzie Schrekengost.  They were roommates and bedmates as clubs doubled up players then.  Rube liked animal crackers and Ozzie got it in his contract that Rube couldn't eat those with horns on 'em."  

I need to read more about this guy, so if anyone can recommend any material, let me know so I don't have to go to the trouble of searching on my own.

Checklist Chipaway: EX Century & GQ

Picked up 3 more EX Centurys this week off sportlots.com.

I am so close, it makes me want to puke.  I just need 2 more:  Corie Koskie and Gabe Kapler.  Surely I'll be able to find those cheap somewhere.

I also knocked off a few more Gypsy Queen inserts, again, courtesy of sportlots.com. 

Speaking of puking, I spent all Sunday doing just that as a result of food poisoning.  I know, it's hard to imagine that something like that could happen to poor little Nappy, especially with my sophisticated eating habits.  But it did happen, and it put me behind a couple of days.  If you are waiting on me for an answer to a trade post, please forgive me.  I think all of my mail has finally gone out, with Cardboard Catastrophes deserving a special apology for my tardiness.  Your cards are on the way, and I'm sorry for the delay!

Gypsy Queen Life Vest- Courtesy "O" No!!! Another Orioles Blog

My assault on Gypsy Queen continues.  This week, I received some much appreciated help from Ryan at "O" No!!! Another Orioles Blog, who not only sent some nice GQ, but some other sets I'm working on as well.  Ryan has a beautiful blog, and I kind of want to be an Orioles fan whenever I read his posts.  Here are the GQ:

 I'm most excited about the Green Framed Paper cards.  I think this will wind up being my favorite set from 2011.  The set is only 100 cards large, so getting 4 of these guys is a big help.  He also sent a couple of Bowman's Best Prospects, which takes me to 68% done on that nice insert set.

Speaking of Bowman, Ryan sent several base and prospect cards that are getting me that much closer to completion on those sets as well:  76% complete on prospects and 93% complete on base.  I didn't scan the base, but he sent a lot.  A LOT.  He even added some 2010 base as well (interestingly, I am also 93% complete on the 2010 base also.)

Finally, he added 10 Kimball Champions, which takes me to 57% on that set, not including the 50 cards from Topps Update, which I suppose I need to add if I want to truly complete that set. 

Thank you to Ryan for a great trade, and I look forward to many more!

Gypsy Queen Life Vest- Courtesy Potch Wheeler

Man, begging for help with Gypsy Queen was a stroke of genius!  I received another big chunk today courtesy Darren from Potch Wheeler and the Cardboard Heroes.  He sent me a big batch of base cards, and several inserts:

Beautiful cards! 

I am now at the following completion %s:
Base: 40%
Green Paper Parallel: 28%
Home Run Heroes: 88%
Future Stars: 90%
Great Ones: 67%

I think Sticky Fingers is done (more on that later).

He also sneaked in a few other cards from my want lists.  I appreciate the bonus!

A big thank you to Darren!  By the way, I love the new look of your blog. If you haven't been over to Potch Wheeler, you should go.  Now.  There's always something interesting going on over there.

Another Trade With Plaschke...

Thy Sweater Is Argyle.  And another sweet Tony Gwynn relic.  And another sweet Pudge Rodriguez relic.  How many more of these guys do you have dude?  The Gwynn is a very sharp Finest relic, and the Pudge has both Jersey and bat pieces.  I also got something else I am very excited about:

That's right, a 1987 Fleer Mitch Williams!

Actually, it was the autograph of Logan Forsythe that sealed this deal.  Forsythe is a former Razorback, and I don't yet have any cards of him.    I will say he needs some work on that signature.  I don't even remotely see "Logan Forsythe" in that scribble.

Thanks for another nice trade Greg!

2011 Etopps Tracker 11/19/11- What A Mess…

… yet so much fun!  Lots of things going on this week with my eTopps portfolio, so I’ll briefly summarize the key happenings:

• Aaron Rodgers was added this week, and it’s blowing up!  I love this card, and even though the chart above shows me generally the best time to sell is immediately after cards are released, I just can’t make myself pull the trigger.  This is a sweet card, and might still go up.  However, the moment I start to see it move south in value, it’s gone.

• Of course when I do attempt to sell/trade high, it backfires on me.  Take Demarco Murray… please!   Last week I traded the Murray card for a T206 Cal Ripken, with a value of around $11.  The Murray climbed another $4 this week, and I could have got more for it had I waited.  I won’t get too down though.  It still worked out positive for me.
• Speaking of the Ripken card, I traded it for two T206 cards:  Jackie Robinson and Cy Young.  I love these T206 cards, and will take them in hand eventually, so I’d rather have two, especially when one is Jackie Robinson.  The value is of the trade is a wash so far.

• I also traded Fred Jackson, and received a 2010 Tom Brady, a 2010 Steve Johnson (which I am attempting to trade for something else) and 4 eTopps points.  The points are worth a buck each when using them to pay for shipping, so that will come in handy when I take my next delivery. 

• The red squares on the chart are cards I sold on www.cardtarget.com.  So now I have some money in my cardtarget account.   I can either blow it at www.sportlots.com, or wait and see if I can buy back these cards  (or other eTopps cards) cheaper in a few weeks on cardtarget.  I can probably get quite a bit with $15 on sportlots, so I’m sure that’s what I’ll do.
• Andy Dalton continues to haunt me.  That’s the only card I passed on that I regret.

Gypsy Queen Life Vest- Courtesy The Daily Dimwit

I have been stoked about the responses I've received so far from my "Help Wanted" post for Gypsy Queen.  I've had a few trades and my checklists are shrinking quickly.  The first batch of cards came in from Sam at the bigtime blog, The Daily Dimwit, who was very generous on his side of the deal.  He sent about 20 base cards that I needed.  Being the genius that I am, I neglected to immediately scan them, and instead put them in a box with my other GQ base cards.   I am not 100% sure that what I am showing are what he sent.  I think they are, because I'm pretty sure I remember getting excited about seeing Jackie Robinson in there.  Nonetheless, he sent me about 20 cards, and put a nice dent in my base checklist.  I think these are some of they:

Thanks Sam, and I can't wait to ogle more non sports cards from your new blog sponsor.

I need a sponsor.  I'll shill for anyone.  You hear me out there?  Anyone! 

Checklist Chipaway- Topps HD Clear Relics

I am trying to complete a master set of Topps HD from the 2 years it was issued (2000-2001), and recently was able to snag a couple of these relics at good prices.  It’s too bad the checklist for this insert set isn’t better (Vernon Wells is the best card in the set), because these are some ridiculously nice looking cards. You can't tell by the scan, but they are made of clear plastic.  There are only 8 cards in the set, so I am now 25% there.

I also reached another “milestone” on my master checklist this week.  I am now down to 40sets.  And according to my Napkin Doon2.0 Sanity Rules, 40 sets is now my ceiling.  If I had left my list at 41, I would have had room to maneuver, with 50 sets being the ceiling.   But I decided to cut out a couple of sets that did not have an adequate “cost/enjoyment” ratio.   

Conlon Collection Part 3- A Page of Great Nicknames

I could spend yet another turn at this series yet again making fun of the writing on the back of these cards.    But I’d rather talk about the nicknames of these guys.  I love these names.  Why can’t we have great nicknames today?  I love the Rangers, but they have no great nicknames that I can think of.  Ian Kinsler is “Kins.”  Yawn.  Nelson Cruz is “Nellie.”  Come on.  At least Derek Holland has “The Dutch Oven” going for him.  Look at the names on the back of these cards:  Heinie (my son loves that one).  Pepper. Big Six. Bucketfoot.  I love "Bucketfoot", but don’t understand the explanation on the back of the card:  “… he was known as “Bucketfoot” because he always picked up his left leg and dropped it somewhere near third base when he swung.”  I don’t get it, but again, I am one of the more thickheaded fellows you will come across.

 I want an 8x10 of the picture of Ty Cobb's grip on the bat.

Catastrophe Schmutastrophe

Jeff from Cardboard Catastrophes keeps one upping me. Not only is his blog better than mine in general, I still haven't been able to come up with a better trade post title for trades with him than the one he came up with for trades with me:  Paper Products From a Paper Product.  Brilliant.
Then we sort of worked out a trade where I was going to send him some Red Man cards of Johnny Antonelli.  I say sort of because I actually was just going to send him the cards since I still owed him from our last trade.  I told him not to send anything.  But he went ahead and sent me a bunch of great Ranger cards, and they came in the mail today:

 My first Feliz relic card.  AWE. SOME.

 I'm more excited about this Gaylord Perry 1978 card the more I look at it.  Fantastic vintage.

And there were several current Rangers cards,with several A&G that I didn't have yet, and a couple of great Heritage Minors.  I hear Jake Skole is tearing it up in the AFL.

There were more as well, but these were my favorites.  Thank you so much for the great package Jeff!  I'll keep an eye out for more Antonelli cards!

Some Culture For You Unruly Savages

While you brutes were spending your Sunday watching football, eating pork rinds and sticking your hands down your pants, I was elevating my already refined person by attending the opening weekend of the unbelievable Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

 The front entrance.  That's a metal tree.

And when I say unbelievable, I mean unbelievable.  This place has immediately put Northwest Arkansas on the Fine Arts Map.  It's certainly pulled in plenty of national pub:

Wall Street Journal
NY Times
Time

You get the idea. That is, if you are still reading this post even after realizing it has nothing to do with baseball cards.  Man, if these national outlets think this place is great, I should point them in the direction of Cleve's! 

I'm extremely proud of this magnificent museum and look forward to going often.  We took the kids Sunday morning and spent about an hour there.  The lovely wife and I only got to see about a third of the main exhibits, because we spent most of our time with the kids in the child friendly parts of the museum.  It was a little uncomfortable carrying around the two year old girl in the Colonial exhibit, which held several million dollar works, and hearing her yell, "I NO LIKE THAT!" every time I stopped to take in one of the paintings.   Oh well, the museum has free admission, so we can always go back later.  I am hopeful that one of these days, since this is an American art museum, there will be a baseball art exhibit.   Back to your pork rinds, you Neanderthals.

Etopps Football Tracker 11/13

There have been major problems with the "Pigskin Challenge" over the past several weeks at Etopps.  The Pigskin Challenge is a weekly fantasy game where you use cards from your portfolio to set a 4 player lineup.  Cards can only be used once per season, which encourages trades and purchase of new cards, and was a smart move by Etopps.  Historically, the popularity of the game has helped inflate prices on players who put up big stats, which I think is great, since it helps give value to cards based on how good the players actually are.  I'm thinking the recent technical problems with the game have to have something to do with the ever declining values on these cards.  Again, there is almost always a drop off on the value of the cards, but it usually happens after the season is over.  Here are the values of the cards based on what I could get right now if I sold them on www.cardtarget.com:

Note the Cal Ripken T206 card on the list.  I purchased a Demarco Murray card last week, and based on the odds of this card peaking immediately and dropping later, I traded it for an Etopps T206 Cal Ripken card:

Someone offered this for the Murray, and it was too hard to turn down.  I'm not sure I'm satisfied how I'm reflecting the performance of the trade with the above chart. I'll show the value of the Ripken card against what I paid for the Murray card, but also show the value of the Murray card in the group of cards I didn't purchase.
Being a Cowboys fan, I hope Murray keeps it up, but I think the odds are he falls back, either because that's just usually what happens with Cowboy running backs (see Julius Jones, Marion Barber, Felix Jones, Tashard Choice etc.), or the return of Felix Jones will take away some of his carries.  The Ripken T206 was a safe play, and I might try to trade some of these other Football 2011 cards for other T206 cards before they fall off too far in value.  Or I may just sell them all on Cardtarget.com and buy some donuts.

Checklist Chipaway: Gypsy Queen Inserts

I recently wrote about my desire to quickly build a Gypsy Queen set.  I took a good step toward this goal this week with the arrival of a chunk of GQ inserts:

 Future Stars- 4 Cards- Checklist now at 75% with 5 cards to go.

 Home Run Heroes- 4 Cards- Checklist now at 68% with 8 cards to go.

Great Ones-2 Cards- Checklist now at 50% with 15 cards to go.

My Weekly Trip to Cleve’s Auction Gets Sucker Punched…

I was pretty excited to take in another fun auction atCleve’s Tuesday night.  I drove to Springdale and when I arrived at the auction, I noticed all the parking spots were full.  No big deal, I just parked in the alley behind the store.  That’s where the trouble started. 

Just as I stepped out of my truck, my face was met with a fist.  And not just any fist.  The fist belonged to my Arch Nemesis, who I still haven’t named, and he was out for blood.  It was a total sucker punch and he used it to his advantage, beating me silly for several minutes.  I guess one of Cleve’s customers must have heard something going on, because he came out with his camera and got the whole thing on tape.   I decided I would share it with you.  The action picks up right as my nemesis had started dunking me in a barrel of water and trying to get me to admit he was the “master.”  I didn’t really want to reveal my identity on this blog, but I guess I’ll have to make an exception.   You’ll also get to see appearances from Cleve and, yes, the Lovely Wife.

A few thoughts:

·         I don’t know how this video was able to capture and illustrate the thoughts in my head as I was being dunked in water (perhaps it’s an app for the iPod), but you see that previous words of wisdom from Cleve and the Lovely Wife are partly responsible for the ass that I kicked when I realized that I, in fact, am the “master.”

·         I can’t really explain how I got my body to glow.  At the time, it was great, and helped me overpower my nemesis.  But now that it’s started, I’m having trouble controlling it, and it often happens at inappropriate times.  It’s a little embarrassing when I’m in a meeting at work and it flares up.

·         I’m not sure who the little man was that seemed to be egging on my nemesis.   They apparently have ties.  I’ll definitely keep an eye out for him.

·         I don’t know why he kept referring to me as “Leroy.”  But I’ve heard him call other people that too.  I guess it’s just his thing.

So, the point of this post is that I don’t have any Cleve auctions to show you this week.