Cleve’s Auction Night: Back In The Saddle Again… Part 1

I’ve been in a bit of a slump at Cleve’s lately.  The Holiday Auction was too rich for my blood and I didn’t see anything I had to have at the auction last Tuesday.   But, I got back on track in a big way this Tuesday night.  Well, let’s not get carried away, it wasn’t that big of a night, but I’ve got good blog material for at least 4 days now thanks to this auction.  I got some good singles, sets and a goodie box that was loaded with little treasures that I can’t wait to show, some of the most interesting bits having nothing to do with baseball cards. 

Ironically, I was just yesterday bemoaning to the lovely wife the fact that with eTopps apparently slipping into the night, I was going to have to find a new source of topics to take it’s place on the blog.   At least temporarily I have plenty to write about from this auction.   I almost have so much, I don’t know where to start.

I guess I’ll start with the singles I picked up:

 Yes, this Duke Snider has seen better days, but I’m pleased with it anyhow, especially for $5.

 

For $2 I couldn’t resist this dual relic Diamond King card of Scott Rolen.  It’s also numbered to #25.

This may have been my only “mistake” of the night.  My hand was a little slow on the draw and I got snared with a $4 bid rather than $3 for this Marshall Faulk/Steven Jackson dual relic.  But it’s numbered to #230 and has a current and perhaps future Hall of Famer on it.

Another $2 purchase.  I’m pretty proud of this one.  Both cards are of Jeff Bagwell, who better get in the HOF next year.  The “Play at the Plate” card has batter’s box dirt in it, and the other card is numbered to 1,000.  Plus they both came in screw down holders which I can always use.

Finally, I picked up an autographed card of Eddie George.  I think this is a rookie card as well.  I’ve always been a fan of Eddie George, so this was a steal at $2.

Not a bad way to start huh?

Here are my self given grades:

Duke Snider 1958 Topps $5=  B-  : I probably should have passed on this given it’s condition, but I wanted to make sure I got a good vintage card, and I don’t have a card of the Duke.  

Scott Rolen Relic #25 $2= B+ :  I hope I can get a good trade out of this.  I don’t care that much about Rolen, but this is a nice card.

Panini Jackson/Faulk Relics $4= B-  :  I spent more than I meant to on this, but it’s still a nice card.  

Jeff Bagwell Lot $2 A :  I love the stadium dirt gimmick, and getting two screwdown holders is a plus.  

Eddie George Auto $2= A+:  This is a steal in my opinion.  I’m sure I could triple my money on it, but it makes a nice addition to my small autograph collection.

Tomorrow, I’ll cover the non-sport treasures that I’m extremely excited about!

Checklist Chipaway: EX Century- One Step Back, Two Steps Forward

I previously thought I was only 3 cards away from completing my 1999 EX Century set.  I got out the album the other day and wanted to verify the accuracy of my checklist.   I was bummed to see that I actually further away than I thought.  Undeterred, I plowed ahead and ordered some of the cards I thought I already had off sportlots.com.  They came in today and after placing them in the album, I double checked and can confirm that I only need card #117, Gabe Kapler to finish.      

eTapps

As I usually do on Mondays, earlier today I checked eTopps to see what the offering would be for the week, if anything.  With the regular football season finished, I wasn’t really expecting any new cards, but thought there might be an update as to what program was coming next.  There was an update alright:

Dear eTopps Community,

Thank you for participating in this year’s NFL football release as well as your continued enthusiasm for eTopps card offerings over the past ten years. Moving forward, we no longer plan to offer new cards each week. For now, we will continue to offer weekly catalogs and a baseball fantasy game, and we will maintain trading, selling and shipping services for eTopps cards.

We look forward to sharing new digital developments with you in the future, and thank you for your support of eTopps.

Sincerely,
The Topps Company

I read this as a notice of the end of eTopps despite the vagueness of the wording.  The message states they no longer plan to offer cards “each week,” but doesn’t say, “ever.”  And they also mention they are running the baseball game again this year, although I don’t know how that would be any fun if there is no baseball offering for 2012.   Again, I interpret this message as eTopps is done, but will keep the site running only to allow existing cards to be traded and cards in portfolios to be shipped (at the new higher costs which went into effect today).  I did not take the note about “sharing new digital developments in the future” too seriously.  I think if they had some sort of plan for new developments or programs in mind, there would have been a lot more optimistic tone to the note.  It’s too bad if in fact they are done.   I would have loved one more run of T206 cards.  

I’m a little bummed.  I’ve been on eTopps almost since the beginning and have for the most part enjoyed what the program offered.  The cards have been very nice for the most part and the site offered a lot of entertainment with trading and games.  I’ve also enjoyed sending in-hand cards to folks that have never had them before.  The end of eTopps also takes away a lot of subject matter for my blog, which really stinks.     

  

Oh well, nothing lasts forever.  The concept of eTopps is still relevant in my opinion.  Maybe something better will take the reins on this niche of the market, or perhaps eTopps just needs to regroup and start from scratch at some point in the future.

Checklist Chipaway: Gypsy Queen Green Paper Frames

I am now 58% done with this set, which I find very exciting.  50%+ completion means that the cards can go in pages now.   Let me not waste more time with words.  Just take in these beautiful cards:

Checklist Chipaway: 2003 Diamond King Diamond Cuts

This is a set that has bogged down on me over the past year.  The cards are getting hard to find, at least at prices that I’m willing to pay.  I picked up an Alfonso Soriano jersey this week though to give this set a little movement.    I’m at 66% completion on the jerseys now.  This is one of those sets I don’t mind dragging out though.  It’s kind of nice to savor a single card pick up here and there and slowly fill the page.

Royals and Winnings

I was fortunate enough to be picked to participate in a clever game at Royals and Randoms a few weeks ago.  It was a hybrid draft/yankee swap game with hundreds of cards to choose from.    I'm not sure how Josh kept up with everything, but he did a great job and is building himself a nice blog over there.  My winnings came in this week, and it was fun to dig through:

These Flair cards were the main thing I was targeting.  I've got a decent handful of these in my own collection, and it's one of those sets I may decide to back my way into completing if I can get enough to get started. 

I also picked up a few Rangers.

 

... and some non- Rangers I collect.  The Biggio card is pretty slick.

To round out my winnings, a have a few misc cards I liked.  The Larkin card is part of a Fleer Tradition set I was building, but scrapped, but may decide to start up again.

Josh also had a "Mystery Pick" wrinkle in the game.  You could, or could choose not to, choose a mystery card as part of your winnings.  Of course I had to take a chance on it.  This is what I got:

It's a pretty cool looking Jeff Gordon card that apparently used to play some sort of audio.  I guess Josh wore it out before sending to me, because when I pushed the play button, all I heard for the next ten minutes were scratchy pained screeches coming out of the card.  It went on and on and I couldn't make it stop.  Josh is now on the lovely wife's sh*t list.  But I still think it's a cool card though.

Thanks for the great contest Josh!  Be sure to check out his blog, it's a lot of fun!

SCANDAL! CONTROVERSY! SHAME!

Folks, we have a full blown scandal on our hands!  Yesterday, with pure pleasure I showed you that yours truly was a topic of conversation on the eTopps message board.  At least, my blog was.  Those of you who have followed my blog know that I have been a champion of eTopps from the get-go, and even when I was aggravated with them, I acknowledged that their product was fantastic.   I’ve even sent several of you your first eTopps cards through trades and answered questions on how the program works.  So I was very excited to see that my little blog had become visible to some of the heavy hitters in the eTopps world.  I posted the discussion thread yesterday, and last night there were a few additional comments that I didn’t capture.  I think one guy took me seriously when I said I was “the greatest blogger who ever lived.”  But that was fine too. 

So I was anxious this morning to see what, if any, new comments had been posted on this thread before interest in it dried up.  I clicked the link and….nothing.  The post about my blog was gone!

I was pretty confused.  Why would that thread be removed by the moderator?  It surely couldn’t have been because of a perception that I was anti-eTopps.   There are far worse things said about eTopps on the message boards than anything I’ve ever said.  I’ve never referred to anyone at eTopps as “monkeys.”  Maybe they didn’t like me posting their ridiculous response to myquestion a few weeks ago.  But my posts are typically positive.  Perhaps there is a guideline against linking to other websites?  I don’t know, but, whatever the reason, the thread was gone.   My new ally in the eTopps world, Diamondjake, was also incredulous.  He later this morning posted a follow up thread:  “Wow…. Really?”  I took a screen shot again in case eTopps censors this one too:

I haven’t been this interested in the eTopps message board since (inside eTopps reference) Boysofsummer was an active member and stirred things up.  

This is not the first scandal associated with this blog.  Let’s revisit the top 5 scandals in Napkin Doon History:

1)       Mystery of the Vanishing eTopps Message Thread.  So scandalous.

2)      Chicago Dog Temporarily Closes During The First Annual Napkin Doon Northwest Arkansas Hot Dog Tournament.   Maybe there was more to this than meets the eye?  Was their foul play involved?  We may never know.

3)      LostCollector Raises a Ruckus.  Everyone’s favorite new daddy couldn’t get a hold of himself when I made an executive decision regarding White Oak’s offering in the Hot Dog Tournament. 

4)      Death of the Doonboggle.   I was actually pretty pleased with my Doonboggle concept, but it never caught on, mostly because of Eric from Manupatches and Mustaches.  It was his  fault.

5)      Top 5 Scandal list only had 4 scandals.  I could only think of 4 things, but had already said this would be a top 5 list.  So that’s a scandal in itself.

My God, blogging is fun.

Holy Crap, I’m Famous!

As usual, I was very focused and diligent at work today, but I did take a few minutes to play on eTopps and wanted to see if there were any interesting discussions on the message boards.  I came across this:

http://forums.etopps.com/etoppsForum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=105787

I certainly hope you can open this link if you are not a member of eTopps.  If not, no problem, here is a screen shot.

Yep, the boys in eTopps land are talking about yours truly.  And by boys, I mean 3 people.  But what a thrill nonetheless!  I’m sure the conspiracy theorists out there will think either I AM Diamondjake, or in cahoots with him.  ( I love saying in cahoots.)

I am not Diamondjake, and do not know Diamondjake.  I’ve actually done a trade with him (under my eTopps name which is NOT Napkin Doon) recently.  I’ve also read enough of the eTopps message boards to know that he is one of the kings of the eTopps world, and his knowing about my blog is right up there with Dayf and Night Owl knowing about my blog.  Just be sure you take in his effusive praise of my blog.  And I quote:  “I found it entertaining.”    You can’t see it, but I have a very smug look on my face.  It almost makes up for him thinking my name is PhilliePhan.  

I will be printing and autographing screen shots of this great message board accomplishment.  If anyone would like a copy, please let me know.

And I also want to emphatically state to any eToppsers reading this:  I am NOT carlosmath.