Baseball Card Box Of Chocolates

As if I needed any more reason to worship the lovely wife...

I have often been tempted to purchase one of these value packs at Target.  10 packs for $10 is a great deal, and at a minimum, you get a pack of 206 and 2010 Heritage.  I've always passed because I felt I should spend my money on packs I "needed."  I came home today to find a value pack, plus a rack pack of 2011 Topps Series 2 on my night stand with a sweet Valentine card that I will keep to myself.

This is a perfect gift for card collectors on Valentines Day because of the assorted nature of it.  I opened it with more of a sense of fun than anything I've opened in a long time.  There was no feeling of hoping to avoid doubles, hoping to get a big hit, or hoping to not get the "wrong" thing.  It was so much fun to open because it was a little of this, and a little of that.  Kind of like going to a wine tasting.
Here was what was inside:

 I haven't opened Upper Deck Wax since forever, so this was a great excuse to do so.

That's such a pretty picture.

And I was very happy with what I got in the packs:

I've received a few of these UD StarQuest cards in trades.  Very nice insert set.  Getting Jeter and Griffey cards turns any pack rip into a win.

The Kinsler at the top of this pic came from a 2007 Topps pack.  The bottom 2 are from the 206.  I love the Queensboro Bridge mini card.  The Munson is a beaut too.

The Heritage pack yielded probably my favorite assortment.  I got Vlad as a Ranger and two of my favorite non-Rangers, Ichiro and Halladay.

I may have mentioned this in the past, but there is something about this Fleer Ultra set that I really like.  It's on the short list of sets to add to my master checklist.

Finally, I mentioned the 2011 Topps rack pack.  Can't complain about these pulls, with the Kimball Champion Aaron leading the way.

That was just fun!  It was a nice reminder of what opening wax is supposed to feel like.  Thank you so much lovely wife.  I'm a lucky dude!

1999 Skybox E-X Century- The Whole Stinkin' Set Part 2

Part 2 of the EX Century Set:

1999 Skybox E-X Century- The Whole Stinkin' Set Part 1

I wasn't kidding when I said I would show every single card from my recently completed 1999 Skybox E-X Century Set.  I am doing this for two reasons: 1) I really love this set and think the cards are worthy of display and 2) I am insanely busy at work right now and I need a few more auto pilot posts that don't require a lot of thought on my part.  So here is part one of this set, pages 1-4:

 I wish they could have found a better pose for the Piazza card.

Checklist Chipaway: 2005 Topps Gallery Artists Proof

I apologize for 4 days of posts about my checklist progress.  I actually have bought some 2012 Topps, but didn't hit anything interesting and don't have much to say about them that hasn't already been said.  So think of me as a boring oasis of pictures of cards of which you have no interest.

Or perhaps you are interested?  I know I was certainly interested in this big lot of 2005 Topps Gallery Artist Proofs that I got this week off of sportlots.com.    Just when I think I've picked through everything on sportlots.com, a new batch of stuff will show up that I have to have.  That was the case here, as I got a nice chunk of 15 artist proof cards, taking my set to 63%.  The scans don't nearly convey the slickness of these cards:

Checklist Chipaway: 2003 Diamond King Diamond Cuts

I don't care how long it takes, I am going to finish the master set of 2003 Diamond Kings.  I just sit up in my tree like a sniper and every once in a while my prey comes into affordable view and I'm able to chip, chip, chip away towards completion.

The autos on this set are reallllllyyyy going to take some time to finish, but I'm a patient dude.  I managed to snipe this Mike Sweeney auto recently:

I'm still here 2003 Diamond King cards, I'm still here.

Checklist Chipaway: EX Century- All Done!

Before my little girl learned to talk, when she was done eating she would hold her hands up to us palms up and rotate them left and right.  This means "all done" in baby world.  You can't see it, but I'm holding up my hands and signaling "all done" to 1999 EX Century with this final card:

If you don't believe such an outrageous,  incredible, unbelievable tale, just look on the "completed" tab of my master checklist.  Go ahead, I'll wait.

See, I told you!  In your face!

I'm actually in Toronto right now and the blog is on autopilot for a few days, but when I get back, you are in for quite a treat when I post scans of every single card of this bad ass set. 

Checklist Chipaway: Gypsy Queen Green Paper Frames

I now have a D- on my Gypsy Queen Green Paper Framed Set, or more precisely I'm 62% complete.  62% still feels like it's a long way to go.  

I got this lot from a fantastic eBay seller named lilbumblebeee03.  Not only did they send these beauties quickly after purchase, check out these "filler cards" that were sent along:

Trout, Hosmer and Stanton rookies? Thank you very much!  I guess the Hosmer isn't technically the 2011 Rookie of him, but his "Rookie Debut" card.  It's all good to me.  I'll definitely be watching bumblebeee03s store going forward.

I Like My Mail Sonny Side Up

I received a nice little PWE this week from Justin over at the wonderful Justin's World.  He had come across a couple of cards of former Razorback Sonny Weems and was kind enough to send them my way.  I didn't have any cards of Weems yet, so these found a much appreciated spot in my Razorback binder.  Thanks for the considerate gesture Justin!  I am on the lookout for some of the 2012 Topps you still need.

Gwynn Win

Even though I have a full album of Tony Gwynn cards, I don’t have a lot of relics of him. 

I picked this one off eBay for $3 shipped this week.  There wasn’t a picture of the item in the auction, so getting a stripe in the swatch was a nice surprise. 

Hey Big Spender- January Wrap Up

In an effort to better understand and control my spending on cards this year, I decided to keep detailed records on where my money goes.  Not only is it helpful to me from a budget standpoint, it gives me some blog material as well!

Each month I am going to track where I spend my money (Cleve’s, Wal-Mart, eBay, etc.) as well as on what I spend my money (vintage, wax, etc.).  I wish I had done this last year when eTopps was still making new cards.

First, let’s look at January overall and see how many days of the month I spent money on cards.

Yep, that’s the purchase cadence of a guy with a problem.  Sure, it’s not much money each shot, but I bought something on average almost every other day.   That needs to improve.  I sure ended the month with a bang too (Cleve’s auction, 2012 Topps Blaster, eBay purchase all on the 31st).

So, where did I spend my money?

Value packs going on sales for $11 at Walmart was a big reason for them getting 35% of my card money in January.  I’m done with those, and I’m not all that hot on 2012 Topps, so I should be able to control myself on wax purchases in February and the lion’s share of my purchases should go to Cleve’s.  I’ve got a lot of travel planned in Feb/March so I might be forced to be good those two months anyway.

What did I spend this money on?

It's no surprise that wax was the biggest category, again due to the value packs.  I’d like to get that percent down and spread it out more to vintage and set completion (sets listed on my master checklist).    Relic cards is a category that I don’t plan out in advance, but I know what I want when I see it so it's a little unpredictable.

When all is said and done, I spent $182 on cards in January.  Considering what some folks drop on a single box, that’s not too bad.  For February, my goal is to get spending down to $120, and then my average per month would be $150 year to date, which I think is reasonable for a mediocre collector like me.  

Cleve’s Auction Night: This Isn’t Going To Stop Is It, Napkin? Part 2

Before I begin, I'm desperately trying to get a sneak peak of 2012 Topps cards.  Has anyone seen pictures or heard anything about these yet? 

BOOYAH, rim shot baby, I'll be here all week!

Anyway, yesterday I showed off the vintage portion of my pickups from Cleve's Tuesday night auction.  Let's jump into the rest shall we?

I picked up this lot of Topps Supreme Football (and one low numbered Yates Bowman Sterling) for $3, mostly for the Darren McFadden.  But they came in a nice little black box that I assume was the original box they sell in?  I'll give a few of the football cards to my boy, and the box to my girl for her to store her cards.  Of course if anyone wants to trade for anything other than the McFadden, please let me know.

I was super excited to get an autograph of Adrian Beltre, who is fast becoming one of my favorite players.  $3 for this beauty.
I picked up another pair of autos, each for $2:

These are for trade if anyone is interested.

For another $2 I couldn't pass up this Jorge Posada bat card.  I'm pretty happy with it, but it is for trade as well.

Grades for the modern card portion of the auction:

Topps Supreme Lot $3  A:  I'm happy with the D-Mac, and my kids will be happy with the rest of it.  Win-win.

Adrian Beltre Auto $3  A+:  I'm more excited about this by the minute.  This was a great buy in my opinion.

Sizemore and Pena autos $2 each  B+:  I didn't really need these, but they might bring something good in trade, and at a minimum will beef up my auto collection.

Allen and Ginter Posada relic $2  A:  Another good trade bait card.

Overall, I'm giving my self an A for this auction.  I spent only $22 and got a nice versatile slew of cards.

Cleve’s Auction Night: This Isn’t Going To Stop Is It, Napkin? Part 1

It’s been awhile since I’ve had a reaction from the lovely wife regarding my trips to Cleve’s.  She mostly just takes a quick look at what I bring home, nods or snorts, depending on if she approves of the pickups or not and goes about her business.  So when I came home tonight with my usual armload she asked the question from the title -“This isn’t going to stop, is it Napkin?”  

It was more of a statement than question, and was posited more with acceptance than indignation.  She was pretty blown away with Cleve’s generosity with me the other day.  Plus, despite her teasing, I think she knows how much I enjoy this stuff.    But the question made me think a little, and what I realized kind of depressed me.  It IS going to stop someday.  Cleve won’t hold these auctions forever.  One of these days he’ll hang up his spikes and close shop.  I don’t think it will happen soon, but it will happen.   Apparently, well run shops with owners who care about the hobby like Cleve are apparently a rare breed.  That’s really a shame.   And selfishly, I dread that as when eTopps decided to pull the plug, another source of cards (and blog material) will be taken from me.  I can’t imagine anyone will take over the auctions when Cleve has had enough.  He’s too well connected and has too many sources across the country to be easily replaced.  

But, like I said, I don’t think it will stop anytime soon, so I’m going to enjoy the auctions while I can.   This week was really, really solid.  Here is part 1 of what I got:

  This 1960 Topps Whitey Ford is in fantastic shape.  I would bet it would get a very nice grade if I were to send it in, which I'm not. This is one of the few 1960 Topps cards I have, so it will make a great addition to my sampler album (which I've not yet started).  Great deal for $6 I think.

Speaking of sampler album, I bought this lot of 1972 Topps Cards for just that purpose.  For $3 I got this nice little assortment of stars, all of which are, like the Ford above, in great shape:

Finally, from the vintage side of my auction winnings, I got this lot of 1965 Topps embossed cards for $3.  I was mostly just curious about them, since I don't own any.  They will go in the Topps sampler album too. 

Vintage Grades:

1960 Topps Whitey Ford- $6   A:  A vintage card of a Hall of Famer that is in near mint condition.  Hard to beat that.

1972 Topps Lot $3  A:  Great looking cards, and all of well known players.

1965 Topps Embossed Lot  B+:  These aren't all in great shape, and not exactly star players, but they're still pretty cool looking, and only $.60 per card.

Kinsler Shiny Swatch

I've seen a few of these Diamond Parallel "Topps 60" relic cards online here and there, and finally was able to get one on the cheap of one of my favorite players.  It came in this weekend:

I didn't care that much about the Topps 60 set in 2011, but this card is pretty sweet!

Album Rotation Time- Warning: Tears Were Involved

So the Rangers didn’t get Prince Fielder after all.  I was all set to move Prince Fielder out of my semi-star box straight to the big time glamor-fest that is my Rangers album (that is getting too full and needs to move to a bigger binder). Perhaps Scott Boras doesn’t know what he deprived his client of.    Back to the semi-star box for Prince?  It's something I'll need to think about.  

Which brings me to why I asked you all here.  Every year during the off season, I go through a card rotation process.  I decide which players need to be "called up" (taken from the semi star boxes and placed in the current star album) and which stars need to be "sent down" (taken from the current star album and placed in the semi star box), and which star players need to go to the retired stars album.   This process is entirely based on my whims and arbitrary judgements, so don't try to argue with my choices.  

For the cards that get sent down, it’s a difficult conversation.  And even though I am becoming more grizzled and calloused every day, it’s still hard to tell my cards they are losing their spot in one of my albums.  This year, Alfonso Soriano cards were one of three to get their cards sent down to the semi-star boxes.  The heart wrenching conversation I had to have with them was pretty typical, so I thought I would share it.  The first thing I do is pull the still full pages out of the binder and spread them out on a table.  Before I start yanking the cards from the pages, I begin the conversation with a warm, yet sad smile.  I don't waste any time though:

Me:  Alfonso Soriano cards, I’ve got some bad news for you.  We’ve made a decision.  We’re sending you down to the semi-star box.

Alfonso Soriano Cards:  (Blank Stare)

Me:  You’ve meant a lot to this collection, and when you first came up with the Yankees we had high hopes for you.  And when you moved on to the Rangers, we really had a lot of fun together.  In fact, I remember the day we told you that you were getting your own pages.  Remember those days, Alfonso Soriano cards?  Remember?

Alfonso Soriano Cards:  (Blank Stare)

Me:  (Tears welling up) I don’t know what happened, but we just stopped being interested in looking at you.  You’ll still have a home in our semi-star boxes, and some of you will probably get placed in penny sleeves.  We just don't have the binder space to keep you around.  Your relic cards will stay in the relic binder, so don’t worry about that.   I hope you stay open to the possibility of getting sent off to another collector.  If that opportunity arises, we’ll make sure you are well taken care of and not go to someone like the Lost Collector who will just send you out for autographs.

Alfonso Soriano Cards:  (Blank Stare)

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

See, I told you this was difficult.  If Soriano had made it to retirement while still in pages, he would be sitting pretty. Once a player makes it to the retired star album he stays there and never has to worry about the indignity of the semi star box.    Even Sammy Sosa.

Below is an overview of the movement this year:

Yes, Prince Fielder, you have moved into the star album.  Congratulations!  And to Curtis Granderson and David Price.  These are indeed the salad days for you my friends, so enjoy living the good life!

Lance Berkman, Johan Santana and Alfonso Soriano, I'm sorry this happened.  Well, I'm not sorry for you Lance Berkman and that smug look on your face and all the trouble you caused the Rangers this year.  You're lucky you didn't get shoved in the common boxes.

I'm not sure if Pudge and Vladdy are retiring or not, but they're close enough, so they go in the retired albums.

I would also like to give a stern warning to a few guys in the star album:  Carl Crawford and Mark Teixeira.  I honestly am not that interested in looking at you right now, but your overall body of work has made me give you the benefit of the doubt one more season.  Let's be a little more interesting in 2012, shall we?

.........Wow....

I don't have a good title on this post because nothing that I would have come up with would have been good enough.   I have been stunned by the generosity of a very good man.  A man you all know as Cleve.

I was in Cleve's today looking around at Tuesday's auction material.  The past couple of times I've been in his store, he told me he had a nice Josh Hamilton card he wanted to give me, but was having trouble finding it.  I thought that was really nice of him and had no idea what kind of card he had in mind.  Today he told me he had found the card and went to the back to get it.  I looked around and a bit later saw him bring out a card that looked incredibly thick.  It was a Josh Hamilton card alright, and when I saw it, I almost passed out.  It was thick because it was a book card.  From Triple Threads.  With Josh Hamilton's autograph.  And jersey relics.  And oh by the way, the other side of the book had Evan Longoria's autographs.  And jersey relics.  And the card is numbered to 9.

Look at this!

I told him I didn't know what to say, and I still don't.  This is just about the best card in my collection now, and it was a gift from someone who had no reason to be so generous with me.   I hope I can think of some way to return the favor to him some day in some way.

If you are reading this, thank you Cleve! You are a special individual, and I am grateful more than you will ever know.

The New Joy I Get From Baseball Cards

I’ve been collecting cards to some degree for over 20 years now, and through all the stages in my collecting history, I have found some level of joy and satisfaction in the hobby.   

When I was a slouched-over idiot teenager, one of my best friends and I collected together.  We made up games with the cards, traded and even created our own cards.   We were horribly, horribly repugnant dorks, but we had fun.  I still remember the excitement of buying something like a whole box of 1987 Topps,  the feel of the waxy wrappers, the smell of the powdery pink gum and the anticipation of pulling a Bo Jackson rookie, or a Darryl Strawberry card, who was my favorite player at the time.

During college and my 20s, I didn’t care that much for cards, mostly because I was broke but also because I thought that collecting cards in public might hurt my chances with the ladies.  I figured that was what kept me from getting anywhere with them in high school, and not my gangly body and utter lack of style or common sense.

I started timidly collecting again in my 30s, doing it stealthily through eTopps and buying some wax here and there.  Then, miraculously, I managed to snare the lovely wife.  Once I was convinced she was ok with me being a big dork and wouldn’t leave me, I jumped back into the hobby head first.  And I experienced fulfillment with it all over again.  I enjoy the chase of the cards still and the process of collecting, but mostly, I’ve become such a huge fan of baseball in general, the cards are a nice supplement to my enjoyment of the game, especially with what the Rangers have been doing over the past several years.  If the Rangers are ever bad again, which I don’t see happening in my lifetime, we’ll see how that changes. 

And of course starting up and running this blog has been immensely enjoyable and has been something I look forward to daily which is yet another part of the fulfillment I get from this hobby.

Lately I have developed a new sense of fulfillment from baseball cards, and it comes from seeing things like this around my house:

My two year old girl has latched onto sports cards.  I gave her a handful of miscellaneous cards, and now I find them in interesting places all around the house: in my shoes, in the bathroom, in the refrigerator, etc. But she seems to be able to ultimately keep up with them.

She has a little chair in the corner of our dining room, and sometimes I catch her sitting there mimicking how I sort through my cards.  She’ll look at a card, jabber something at it and then stack it on the floor.  Then she’ll take the next card and do the same.   When I'm scanning cards she'll come in the room and demand some for herself, so I have a stash of cards for her that is readily available

 I can give her some cards and penny sleeves and she will stay busy for hours.  She loves the process of sorting and storing, both her cards and her other toys.  I think she might really get into this hobby as she gets older.

My 5 year old boy has is a little more organized.  He has an album of football cards that he flips through now and again.  I say a "little" more organized because we can't find this album anywhere right now, which is too bad because I wanted to show the cover page he drew.  Oh well.  He’s pretty hit or miss on his interest in cards, and he prefers football cards over baseball cards for reasons known only to him.   He’s a brilliant, yet contrary little fart, so I don’t try to push anything on him.    Right now he’s really into Star Wars and it’s been a blast dragging out my old Star Wars toys and playing with him.  Anyway, he has his own album, and has sort of expressed interest in going to Cleve’s with me one of these nights.

I genuinely love my card collection, but I can tell you that the most pleasure I will ever get from it will be the day when I pass it on to one or both of my kids, whoever wants it.    Of course that will be the day the lovely wife will be the happiest with my collection too.

Napkin And Baseball Cards Sitting In A Tree…

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

First comes love, 

Then Comes Marriage,

The Comes Napkin Pushing a baby carriage!

( I completed the Finest Futures insert sets from 2011 Bowman by the way…)