Just Commons Maiden Voyage

I’ve heard quite a lot about Just Commons from fellow bloggers lately and finally decided to check it out.  It’s pretty similar to sportlots.com, but you aren’t shopping from multiple vendors so the shipping rates are easier to manage.   In fact, if you purchase $10 or more, shipping is free.  So I spent $10, mostly knocking off some needs for my checklists and filling Sampler Album pages. 

 

Just Commons also has a section of $2 relics/autos and I found a few good ones for my collection:

 

Nick Schmidt is a former Razorback, so $2 for this chrome autograph is great for me.

 

I’m really proud of this Derek Holland auto for $2.  Even though he looks ridiculous with that mustache.

I certainly have not been in buying mode these days (or blogging mode for that matter), but this was a fun purchase.  Overall, I got about 20 cards, most around a dime or so.   It looks like the site adds cards pretty regularly, so I look forward to checking it out again soon. 

Taking Crap From The Lost Collector

So A.J. from The Lost Collector finds me "unpalatable" eh?  I'm a "Jerk" am I?  Well, this is what my fellow Razorback Cliff Lee thinks about these insidious, and downright hurtful jabs at my expense:

Cliff would probably crack a bit of a smile if he knew that A.J. also played "good cop" in the mail to his "bad cop" online.  I mean, a guy would have to have a bit of a heart to send cool stuff like this:

I think, or at least hope, that someday we will look back on Derek Holland as one of the characters of the game.  He's turning into a stud pitcher, but he's also colorful and has a great sense of humor.  Did anyone see his "Dumb and Dumber" bit for the MLB fan cave?

I apologize for the strange scan, but that was the best I could do with this Will Clark UC3 card.  I'd never seen one of these before, and it's a neat card in hand.

Finally, I think this was meant to be a throw in, but it actually inspired me a little.  I've never put much though into collecting Rangers team cards, but I liked the looks of this and dug around to see what other Ranger team cards I have.  Turns out, I have a decent collection already and I put them all in a page in my Rangers binder.  It looks pretty cool, and I'm going to start looking out for more.

So, thanks I guess.   

Dutch Oven Auto

Why is that my children choose moments when disaster is striking the Rangers to misbehave?  They'll be playing nicely together and if I'm watching the Rangers on TV,  usually everything is going smoothly at the ballpark as well.  But then one kid will do something the other doesn't like and tensions start to mount.     Sure enough, the Rangers will give up a huge home run, or commit an error, or someone will get hurt.  And then the kids decide that is the moment they need to show their asses.  At that point I'm ready to yell at them and the TV.  It's uncanny timing on their part, and the combination of my kids acting up and the Rangers acting up is enough to make me mental.

(I would outline how before our children came along, it was the lovely wife who had the uncanny ability to wait until the Rangers were falling apart in a game before she decided to plop down on the couch beside me either gabbing on the phone, or asking me a gazillion questions about god knows what.  I would outline this, but the lovely wife reads this blog and I don't at all want to give her the impression that I don't listen to her yammering when the Rangers are on TV.)

I wish I had been home for Thursdays game against the Yankees.  The kids must have been on their best behavior, because there were no disasters in that game.  Derek Holland (Dutch Oven) was brilliant, tossing a complete game shutout, and giving a worn out bullpen a break.  More importantly, it gave me a good excuse to show this Holland auto I picked up for next to nothing on eBay recently:

I've got somewhat mixed feelings about Panini Prizm.  Mostly, I hate the lack of logos and that pretty well ruins the whole set for me.  But to be fair there are things I kind of like too. 

Logo, or no logo, I'm happy to have a Dutch Oven auto in my collection. 

Return From Vacation Mailbox Goodies Posts: The Unexpexted Deliveries

My little family and I just returned from a wonderful Alabama beach vacation.  I won’t bore you with the trip details but I would like to mention one particularly fun highlight, and that was Lambert’s Café.  I’d heard of Lambert’s before and I guess it’s a relatively famous restaurant.  There are two Lambert’s north of us in Missouri, and the lovely wife and I have often mentioned making a trip to check one out.   To our pleasant surprise, there is a third Lambert’s on the Alabama shore, and it was a short drive from our hotel.

If you are not familiar with Lambert’s, it’s a kind of down home foods restaurant featuring fare those of us in the South love so much:  Chicken Fried Steak, Grits, Fried Okra, all that kind of healthy stuff.   Lambert’s is also known as the “only home of throwed rolls.”    Yep, the servers come out with big plates of rolls and throw them to you across the restaurant.  It was especially amusing seeing our son’s expression when a roll was thrown to him.  He thought it was the coolest thing ever.  I thought the endless supply of fried okra was the coolest thing ever.    Have any of you Yankees or that read this had the pleasure of fried okra? 

Another highlight was returning to several PWEs and bubble mailers with my name on them.  Two of them were from other bloggers, and both were unexpected.  And both were awesome.

First, my man the Lost Collector sent me a nice trio of “Dutch Oven” cards.  “Dutch Oven” is Derek Holland’s nickname BTW:

The silver ice cards are very cool.  Almost as cool as Holland’s porn star mustache. 

 
LC also sent this very shiny Hank Blalock refractor numbered to 399.  Finally, I managed to score a certified "Lost Collector" autograph:

I never realized AJ and I looked so much alike.

 I also had an unexpected card from The Diamond King.  We sent some cards back and forth recently, and I guess he was feeling pretty generous.  Or maybe he feels bad for calling me Doonie.  Don't feel bad.  Napkin Doon is a made up name, so take all the liberties you want.  I probably wouldn't like "doon-bag" though.  Anyway, check this puppy out:

 
Love me some Yu Darvish patch cards!  Let's see if me posting this today ruins Darvish's start against the Yankees tonight.

 
Thanks guys for the cool stuff, and be looking for something from me soon!

Bowman 2012 And The Art of Spending Wisely

I happen to be a fan of Bowman products.  Not because I consider myself a prospector, but because I live in AA baseball country, and it's fun to get cards of guys I see come through here.  It's with Bowman cards that my son has been able to get real baseball cards (sometimes autographed) of players he sees play live. 

I've built, or should I say, am in the process of building complete sets from 2010 and 2011 Bowman still, which I mostly put together through blasters.  2010 yielded me a few Strasburg cards, and last year I had monster luck with Bryce Harper cards.

I'm in for the 2012 set as well.  However, one tries not to go through life without learning how to do things better and smarter.  I realized that it could be so much easier and cheaper to pass on building the 2012 set through blasters, trades and sportlots.com.  A quick scan of eBay reveals that I can buy a master set (220 card base, 110 card prospect set and 110 chrome prospect set) for about the cost of 3 blasters.  Or, I could be patient and wait for the inevitable lot of Bowman cards that will surely be auctioned off at Cleve's from someone who buys a hobby box or two for the big hits and sells the rest for a steal at the auction.  It happens all the time.

Today at lunch, I had to go to Walmart for business purposes.  Seriously, I did.  Before I went in I reminded myself of my wise strategy:

• No blasters- maybe buy one pack to see what the cards look like
• Buy a master set online and be done with it and then chase a few good cards that I really want (i.e. Ranger parallels, autos of guys who might play for the Naturals soon, etc.) or..
• Wait to get the bulk of the set from a Cleve auction, and finish off the rest through trades

I was proud of myself for such a level headed, disciplined approach to my collection.  Confident, I went into Walmart.

Let's take a look at the blasters I bought:

 Mr. 4 Home Run- Josh Hamilton and other Rangers

I like the base set design just fine.  It's simple, and I like the placement of the team logo.  The font size of the player name is a little small though.

Of course, there are the obligatory parallels.  The orange (#d to 250) and the gold do nothing for me, but I have to say I really dig the "silver ice" parallel and the international parallel with the player's home country flag as the backdrop.  The silver ice cards have a hologram/3D look to them, and are really neat under lights.  The flag cards are very sharp too.  I'm seriously considering building a 3 pronged base set with the base card, silver ice and international parallels as well.  That would look great in a binder with 3 cards of each player layed out in rows in 9 pocket pages.

Each pack contained 2 Bowman Chrome cards.  I didn't get any big prospects as far as I know, although I've heard some good things about Josh Bell.

One thing I was pleasantly surprised about this years Bowman offering was the lack of inserts.  From what I can tell, the Bowman's Best set is the only one.  That's fine with me, as it will make building a master set much simpler.  The Bowman's Best cards are pretty nice looking I think.

Oh, I almost forgot the hit I pulled in blaster #2.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any Yu Darvish cards, which is what I was really hoping for.

Now the question becomes, do I still go ahead and just buy a master set online, or do I do this the hard way again? 

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.