My Sea Monkeys Have Hatched! Take a Look!

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I had won an Allen & Ginter "Sea Monkey" card at one of Cleve's auctions.  I didn't really know what I was going to do with it, but thought it would be a neat card to have.  I received a note from Hall of Fame Blogger Ryan from "This Card Is Cool"  saying that if would send the the card to him in Japan, he would hatch the little critters for me and send them back once they were grown.  I thought that made sense.  With my busy schedule, I don't have the time or energy it takes to dedicate the focus and skill necessary to hatch sea monkeys.   So I shipped off the card and asked him to send me pictures of babies as they grew.

It didn't take long to see the little critters sprout once Ryan put them in water:

Aren't they cute?  At this point in their development, you need a magnifying glass to get a good look at them, but Ryan assured me they were healthy babies.

A few days later he sent me an update:

Now you can really start see these little fellas grow!  You can almost get a sense of what they will look like at maturity, but they're still a little small.

Two days later, Ryan sent me another pic, and this time I could totally see their cute little faces.

This batch of eggs must have all come from the same mother because they all look alike.  Did I say that?

Finally, Ryan sent me the final pic and said he was taking the babies out of the tank because they were running out of room.  I'll say:

This Friday, a package from Japan arrived and I knew it was from Ryan.  I hurriedly opened it to see my babies in person for the first time.  Just I suspected, I'm the proud daddy of a bunch of Darvishes!

I don't know where else I would find Japanese cards of Yu Darvish, so I was really excited to get these. I especially like this card:

 I like it not so much of the front, but the back:

I have no idea what these charts are telling me, but they are wicked cool.  I would love to see a US set that featured graphs like this.

I love all of my new Yu babies, but noticed that a few other stowaways came in the package.   I guess one of the eggs split like in that movie "Twins" and I got a couple of Danny DeVito's:

 I don't know who this tool is, but I want that faded jean jacket.

 This poor little bastard is obviously some kind of heartthrob in Japan.  I guess you're supposed to fill out the back of the card and give it to your significant other:

We should all know our significant other's blood types and hobbies.  Can't argue that.

Anyway, thanks for the awesome Darvishes, Ryan!  I look forward to sending you more novelty pets to grow in Japan! 

This Card Is Cool... You're Darn Tootin It Is

Before he heads to the land of the rising sun, Ryan from the powerhouse "This Card Is Cool" blog and  I worked out a small trade and today I received my cards.  And I now have one of the coolest cards I've ever seen:

This Pacific Crown insert card of Tony Gwynn is di-cut, but even more awesome is that the cards has actual netting built into it.  I had to make sure to get it in a snap case before I screwed it up by playing with it too much.  I've never seen this card and didn't know what to expect when Ryan offered it up.   Super, super cool card.

He also sent this Biggo relic card which is really sharp.    Two fantastic cards! 

Thanks for the trade and the great blog Ryan.   Good luck with your new position in Japan.  I hope your world travels do not distract you from what should be your main priority in life:  entertaining and informing us in the blogosphere.   Don't let us down.  If I have to, I'll fly to Japan and drag you back myself.

Conlon Collection:

Remember the days when there were baseball card stores everywhere?  Even in my hometown in West Texas with a population of 15,000 people, there was a card store for a brief period of time in the late 80s.  It was terrible and didn’t last long, but the point is, card shops were everywhere.  There was one store in Lubbock Texas that was my favorite place in the whole world: Faust Stamp and Coin.  I think they are still in business today, although it’s been at least 15 years since I’ve been there after moving to Arkansas.

I remember how excited I was to go to this store as a slack jawed teenager in the mid 80s.  And I even remember a couple of cards I picked up as I was starting my collection. 

I particularly remember the guy working there selling me on a "Baseball Immortals" 60 card set with showcasing the photography of Charles Conlon.   

The guy (who was not the owner, but was always there) must have had a real good sales pitch because he talked my mother into buying this set for me.  I wasn’t that interested, but she wanted to get me something to help start my collection, and this was what he recommended.  I remember him congratulating us on the purchase as he rang us up.    Even then I thought that was a overdoing it a bit.  But I’ve held on to them all this time and I came across these again the other day as I was organizing my collection.  I doubt there is much demand for this set out there, but I really enjoyed looking over it and reading the backs.  The photography is compelling, and the write ups on the backs are loaded with cheese.  I am going to share each page, front and back, with you over the next week or so.  If you want an excellent overview of Conlon and his work, check out this post from Ryan at This Card is Cool.    Here is the first page from the 1986 Baseball Immortals set.

Sorry for any confusion of laying out one scan horizontally and the other vertically, but I wanted to make the backs easier to read.  And these are riveting reads.  I want to know who wrote this stuff.  Just read the first card about Lou Gerhig.  I don't even know where to begin on that one.  It could be because it's late and my brain is not functioning at it's normal mediocre level, but that last sentence doesn't make sense to me.  "His consecutive-game playing streak -2,130 games- may well have killed him (!!), but it was Gerhig's style- first class."  What???  There's so much material to cover on these cards.  Another gem:  "Mickey (Cochrane) sweated like a pig.... and looked like a stripper...  And he was one smart cookie, too."   Who writes like that?  I love it!

Early Fireworks in the Mailbox

Ryan at the outstanding blog "This Card is Cool...My Life in Baseball Cards"  just made my day!   I recently was one of the winners in his surprise package contest.  I had only a vague idea of what I might be getting, but didn't know for sure until today.  What I got blew me away!

First, Ryan sent these 3 non-sport autographs:

Very nice indeed!  He also sent a bunch of entertaining non-sport cards:

My wife is a big fan of the Tudors, so she gets the Tudors card.  I'll keep the Betty Paige for myself.  The Topps Tribute card of the Tortoise and the Hare is really nice!  There were several of the UD Political cards which I think will be really fun to look back on over the years.  The "art card" at the top is a card of original artwork by wretler Jeff Hardy.  And of course, Ginter minis are always cool!

But the best part was the heap of 2011 Bowman inserts he sent!   Here is just a sampling:

There was about 40 insert cards in this package, which really made a huge dent in my Super Duper Checklist needs!

What a great way to start a long weekend, and thank you so much for the generosity to Ryan!