Top Blog Moments- IT'S A LIST, LOST COLLECTOR

Remember that time the Lost Collector wrote a post about how lists were lame, and it rubbed Night Owl the wrong way?  That was funny.

I'm happy to say that for as much grief as I give AJ (The Lost Collector), I consider him a friend and one of the best people I've met as a result of this blog business.  

So before my last post tomorrow, in honor of AJ, I wanted to stroll down memory lane and list out my Top 9 favorite blog moments from the last three years.  Why 9?  Because 7 ate 9.  Wait, no that's a punch line to one of my 4 year old's jokes.  Why 9?  Because.... I couldn't come up with 10.

Here they are, sort of ranked and sort of not:


#9 : Auctions/Gifts From Cleve:

Obviously auctions at Cleve's were a major part of my blog.  My involvement with Cleve's won't end with the ending of the blog thankfully.  And I'm still stunned by some of the incredible cards that Cleve has given me over the years:

Yes that's a Triple Threads dual autograph book card of Evan Longoria and Josh Hamilton.  It is indeed.

I guess these aren't directly tied to the blog, but they are so nice and Cleve is so awesome that they need to be on the countdown.



#8 :  Dayf sends me the best card I ever received from another blogger:

 

As you may recall, I made a lazy, half ass attempt to get George Will, my hero, on a card in Allen & Ginter.  It went nowhere, but did result in me receiving a custom made Will A&G card, courtesy of everyone's favorite Cardboard Junkie.

#7:  AJ Gets Ranced:

Speaking of exchanging cards between bloggers, I was very proud of what I sent AJ after he made a smart ass remark about some tainted cards I had opened.  His post is perhaps my favorite post related to my blog from another blogger.

I also want to send a kudos to Cardboard Catastrophes for the best title of a post about a trade with me:  Paper Products From a Paper Product.  That was brilliant, and Jeff is a fantastic writer and generous dude.

#6:  Etopps Scandal:

This is as close to fame in the baseball card world as I ever got.  I was mentioned on eTopps message boards and it led to a mild scandal.  It's a weak 15 minutes of fame grant you, but it's mine.

#5:  Hot Dog Tournament:

I know this was a stupid bit on my part, but it was a blast.  My stomach didn't appreciate it, and I won't do it again, but it was fun to write.  It's also been fun to re-live all the matchups and the controversies that occured.  What a thrilling tournament!

#4:  The Becky Bridwell Interview:

I was pretty of proud of this one.  It's as close to journalistic "work" as my blog ever got.  Adventures of Napkin Doon is not interview-centric at all, but the interview with Oriole's prospect Parker Bridwell's mom was fun, and she was an awesome person to correspond with.

#3:  Doon Discs:

This was a totally stupid spoof of phiten discs, but it was a wonderful creative release.  I was also able to use artwork from stuff I received from AJ and Dayf to make the "discs".

#2:  My Collecting "Food" Pyramid:

 

Other than my first Big Fun Game, this post was one I got the best response to early in my blogging days.  I think the analogy still holds up for me as a collector.  In fact, the comparison of junk wax to candy was spot on for me personally, because I'm getting to the age where splurging on either really makes me feel like crap.  I think it was my best "contribution" to the "blogosphere."

#1:  George Will Sends Me An Autographed Card:

Sure, this is number one for purely selfish reasons.  But getting an autographed card from George Will, and having his assistant tell me he was amused with my letter still gives me chills.  Best autograph I have by far.  This alone was worth starting the blog.


I'm sure there are a few things I'm forgetting that should make this list, but for now, that's it, that's the list. 

One Last Etopps Delivery

I've been meaning to take one last delivery of eTopps cards from my portfolio- at least some select cards- before I'm done here.  Delivery is damn expensive ($12 first card, $1.75 each additional), but I'm getting worried that soon Topps is just going to pull the plug on the site (they stopped making new cards back in 2011, and recently took down the message boards) and my cards will be lost forever.  So I figured I'd bite the bullet and get the cards I really wanted and hope for the best on the rest.  I have a couple of complete sets that would be painful to ship, but I'm hopeful that someday there will be a special offer to clear out one's portfolio.

Anyway, my cards arrived the other day:

Four bubble wrapped blocks of shiny eTopps cards.  Aren't you excited to see them all?

Here they are out of the bubble wrap:

Sorry, I know that's a strange angle.  All the cards come in their own little zip-loc baggie.  So we'll take the next step and look at them all lined up out of the wrap and out of the baggies:

These are the T-206 cards.  They are every bit as beautiful as you think they are.  I still need about 8 cards to finish the set, but they are getting really hard to trade for on the site.

I didn't take an individual shot of the Matt Weiters card in the bottom left of the photo above.  But I managed to trade for one and took it in hand.  Why?  It's Weiter's only Topps card.  I learned that from a comment by a guy named Stubby on a previous eTopps post I wrote.  Thanks for the tip Stubby!

So the challenge of taking pictures of eTopps cards is that not only are they in hard plastic cases, the cards are shiny too.  So my picture styles aren't consistent.  Because I just kept snapping away until I got images that didn't have ridiculous glare.

As much as it ticked me off to pay that much for shipping, I absolutely love these cards.  Especially the T206s.  Here are a few up close for ye:

At some point, I plan to have this Willie Keeler card in it's original T206 form too.  For now, this will work.

I took a bunch of standard eTopps cards too:

 It's neat to have a couple of cards of Christian Colon, who has been mentioned on my blog many times before.

 I got this Mauer just because I thought it would be a nice looking card in hand.  I was right!

 See what I mean by shiny?  Isn't that Maddux gorgeous? 

I took all my Derek Jeters for delivery.  No way I'm leaving those at risk with the website.

These two are from the 2004 set.  As far as eTopps sets go, 2004 is considered one of weaker offerings, and the cards are very cheap to obtain up front before delivery.  But I have to say they are very striking in hand, and a great value in comparison to the other sets.  If I decide to take more cards in the future, I'm loading up on stars from the 2004 set.

I could probably get 2 or 3 more posts out of this haul, but you get the idea.  I will say that I'm not especially interested in trading these just because I wouldn't know what would be fair for them.  On the one hand, the degree of difficulty getting these in a portfolio, coupled with expense of shipping means I'd want something good for them, but on the other hand the initial "cost" per card doesn't warrant getting something good for them.  Mostly, I don't want to go to the effort to replace anything I trade out.

The Sad, Sad Tale Of Etopps

When I started this blog almost 3 years ago, I had some specific ideas of what the content would look like.  I expected to feature a very analytical, graph-heavy theme that would bring fact based insight to my many serious readers. 

Instead, you got Hot Dog Tournaments and Doon Discs.

In my defense, one of the subject areas I intended to mine for serious data-laden material every week, eTopps, two years ago vomited on itself and keeled over like a drunk wino sitting on the corner of a street wearing a clown costume and eating a bologna sandwich while....sorry, lost my train of thought.

In other words, eTopps is no more. 

Ok, I guess technically that is not accurate, since the website is still up and my cards are still in my portfolio.  (For those unfamiliar with eTopps, here is a link to the basics if you are interested).   I can still go and look at my cards, sell my cards on eBay, and trade my cards.  And if I wanted to, I could take delivery of my cards. 

That is where the problem lies.   To take delivery of my cards would cost an initial $12 charge PLUS an extra $1.75 charge per card.

I have over 600 cards that I've accumulated since eTopps came to be around 2001.  That's a shipping charge of over $1,000 to ship myself cards that have an average "worth" of about 60 cents each. 

Frankly, I'm a little bit screwed no matter what I do.  I'm certainly not spending a f*&#ing grand to have the cards shipped.  I guess I could start selling them individually on eBay, but after the fees per card, I'd wind up with nothing.  And I assume at some point, Topps completely pulls the plug on the eTopps site (just this month they shut down the message boards).  When/if they completely shut down, am I just SOL on whatever cards I have at the holding facility?

The main problem is that the bulk of my 600 cards make up complete sets (I've built complete sets of the 2002-2005 baseball editions).   I've got to think that combined with the low number print runs of some of the cards in these years, plus the fact that there can't have been many people building complete sets, that having a complete eTopps set is somewhat rare?  Won't that be just the kind of nitche thing that would be neat to show people 20 years from now?  I mean, as frustrated as I am about all this, in fairness, these cards are really pretty:

They are all refractors and all serial numbered.  And eTopps did some neat other sets, like this take on T-206 cards:

I'm thinking I will just suck it up and have my T-206 cards delivered, as well as a few other favorite cards, and then hold my breath and hope for some kind of palatable solution to present itself on the other cards.  It's too bad this program didn't work out, because these cards are pretty incredible.







 

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.

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.

eTopps In Hand Delivery Part 2

No talk, on with pictures:

These are the first 2010 cards I've taken in hand.  They're not bad, but not the best eTopps has done.

I took a few of my favorite players. The Hunter and Halladay on the right are from the 2003 set, which I think is the nicest base set eTopps has released.  The eTopps logo looks more like a medallion than just a printed logo.  The 2 Hunter cards on the bottom are from the 2007 set, which is much nicer in hand than I expected.

Finally, I took a handful of NFL stars. The Tomlinson cards at the bottom look GREAT.  I especially like the card on the left from the 2007 set.

eTopps In Hand Delivery Part 1

I’m not sure if eTopps is circling the drain yet or not.  There seems to be a lot of tension on the message boards (what else is new though), but there also does not seem to be a lot of excitement or effort coming from eTopps at the same time.  Maybe it’s slowly dying away, who knows.  Since points will no longer be able to be used for shipping, I took a decent size delivery of cards I wanted in hand last week, and they arrived today.  No matter how annoyed I get at the operations at eTopps, I have to say these cards are just sweet.     

First, here are some T206:

 The backs are cool too:

I had a lot more of these, but as I started getting back into cardboard much more heavily, I sold all of them to fund my paypal account.    I got these three through trades.

 Here are my Razorbacks.  Love the Cliff Lee card with the big Indians logo from the 2008 set.  The checklist for that set is pretty weak, but the cards are sharp. 

 I got some Rangers too.    The Young card is much nicer in hand that in port.

Tomorrow I'll show the eTopps Football cards I got as well as few other misc cards.

eTopps Football Tracker 12/30

I think this may be the last week I run this tracker post.  I haven’t bought a card at IPO in a month,  and the spreadsheet is getting cumbersome.  Of course I may still be irritated at the recent shipping charges news and don’t have much affection foreTopps right now.  I ordered a bunch of cards to be shipped in hand and should get those in next week, so that may provide a spark.   Rationally, I understand eTopps decision to change their shipping policies.  I just wish I could have got the cards that were supposed to be released back on Dec 8 with my points.  Oh well, no use beating a dead horse.

I did take the plunge and move my Aaron Rodgers this week.  I got this beauty for it:

The Rodgers card was very cool, but it’s hard to argue with a T206 Mantle.  The Rodgers will go down (and has been) in value, but the Mantle should stay pretty steady.  In fact, this Mantle is one that I am receiving in hand next week, so I’m anxious to show it off in it’s real life glory.

Other than that, it was another bland week on the tracker.  I may do it again next week, who knows.  It kind of depends what, if anything, is offered on Monday.  If team cards start, I think I will wrap it up.  Last week the only card offered was Carson Palmer.  Yikes.  I hope there is one more week with at least one interesting player card.  I’d hate to think the 2011 season was ended with Carson Palmer.