August-erity

Wow, I spent way too much on cards in July.  The two culprits were Fanfest in Kansas City and Bowman Platinum releasing this month.    I don't feel too bad about the Fanfest purchases, since that was kind of my National.  But those Platinum rack packs add up pretty quickly, and I need to settle down in August.

It felt like I was spending money on cards every day towards the end of July, and, turns out I was:

I know by comparison I am a small time spender.  I haven't bought a pricey hobby box in years, and my purchases are pretty modest,  but this is still more than I feel comfortable spending in a mont's time.

I spread my purchases around pretty evenly by category too:

Again, Bowman Platinum explains why 2012 Wax was the heaviest category.  "Set Builder" is anything that I bought to work on the sets on my master checklist.  The complete set was the 2012 Topps Factory Set I got at Fanfest.

I really need to move the needle to where Cleve's is getting the lion's share of my card purchases.  Purchases from his auctions are always more satisfying than rack packs at Walmart. 

I'm not making any big promises to completely stop spending in August (sorry lovely wife, I know you are reading this) but I'm going to make it a point to dramatically slow down. 

PhanPhest Part Phour: Phiten Phullocrap

One of the more interesting booths at FanFest was the Phiten booth.  I’ve always been curious about Phiten products and popped in to check them out.  For those not up to speed, Phiten makes those rope looking necklaces that you see on a lot of MLB players.  Apparently, they are supposed to provide energy or balance your magnetic field or something like that.  

I was immediately greeted by a very nice young Asian girl who asked me if I had any pains. 

“Sure I do, but they’re over at a table having a snack right now.”  Bada-bing!

Actually, I didn’t say that, but it would have been hysterical if I had.  I told her I didn’t have any pains, so she asked me to hold my right arm our with the palm of my hand facing up.  The then asked me to bend my fingers backwards toward my body and asked if I could feel tension in my forearms.  The massive, rippling, muscles in my forearm tugged a little, and I said “yes.” 

She then peeled off what looked like a small round bandaid and placed it on the part of my forearm where I said I could feel tension, and then just looked at me and nodded her head.   We stood there in silence for a few moments, and then for whatever reason, I said “Great.” 

She nodded and peeled the sticker off my arm and asked me to do arm exercise again.   I felt the same tension,  and I wasn’t sure if that was what was supposed to happen or not.  I nodded my head and said “Great,” again.  I was hoping to get some sort of explanation of what just happened, but instead she ushered me over to an iPad where I could put in my email address and get some discs decorated with my favorite team logo.  I put in a phony email address and asked for Rangers stickers. 

“No Rangers,” she said.

I asked for the Royals.  “No Royals” she said.

I asked for the Yankees. “No Yankees” she said.

I looked into the box and saw the Angels among some other teams.  I hate the Angels.  But I figured if I was going to be sticking these on my body, it would be as if the Angels were sucking me on…  well, I chose the Angels stickers.  I looked around at the cases of  necklaces a little, and was disappointed no one offered to let me try one on. 

I’ve always thought the Phiten necklaces and bracelets were pretty cool looking, but besides them being expensive I didn’t understand what the point was.   If any Phiten exectutive is reading this, please accept my apologies if you think I’m bashing your company, and please feel free to send me a Rangers necklace or wristband.  I assure you I will give it a fantastic write up, and even if it does nothing for me, I will say that it does. 

I'll take one of these Mr./Mrs. Phiten Executive

I spent some time on Phiten’s website trying to figure out what their products are supposed to do.   Turns out, Phiten doesn’t really seem to know what they are supposed to do either.  Maybe there is a smug pretty boy out there that can help.  Cue CJ Wilson (by the way, this quote is direct from the Phiten website):

“I first tried Phiten during spring training in 2005, when recovering from my elbow surgery. I tried RAKUWA Necklace and Power Tape and felt difference. After that, I visited the Phiten shop three times a year when our team has a game in Seattle. At the shop there, I learnt (sic) a lot about products and tried them one after another. As I used a lot of products including the drinking water and bed pad, I became more interested in Phiten. I often give Phiten shirts and socks to my teammates as a present wishing them to feel the power of Phiten that I believe.”

First of all…. My God he looks like such an ass.  Yes, I know he dates some ridiculously hot girls, so good for him.  I also suspect this quote went through some translations before landing on the website.  I’m curious about the linking of the drinking water and bed pad.  I would mention these items separately if I were CJ, because it sounds like he has a bed wetting problem. 

I can tell you that I have had an open mind to these discs and currently have 4 stuck to my lower back, which has been stiff lately.  Other than the lovely wife asking why the hell I have stickers on my back, I haven’t noticed much change.  But I’m keeping them on, hoping that I too can believe I can feel the power of Phiten.

“Once I experienced the power of Phiten, I used it more and more”

-CJ Wilson

“Once I experienced the placebo effect of Phiten Discs, I figured I could make some too”

-Napkin Doon

That’s right.  DoonDiscs are coming, starting tomorrow.  Get in line kids.

Fanfest Part Three: Other Favorite Booths

I've could spend a whole week talking about the various booths and experiences at FanFest.  In the interest in time, I'll just highlight some of my favorites.   Note to anyone planning to go to FanFest in the future:  entry times are staggered out on the tickets, so if you want to go and want to have enough time to see everything, purchase your tickets early so you can get early admission tickets.  I guess I got mine a little late, because 4 pm admission was all that was available to us.  I could have easily spent a few more hours taking it all in.  On the flip side, 4 hours was probably about all my little ones would have been able to handle, so there's that.

And going to FanFest was really meant for the kids to enjoy, so while I would have liked to spend a little more time at the Cooperstown and Negro League Museum exhibits, I wouldn't trade that for watching my kids participate in the throwing and hitting activities that were there for them.

I also don't regret that I didn't spend more time looking at the card/memorabilia tables, other than spending a little time at the Topps booth.  I looked at the dealer booths long enough to see that the stuff was pretty expensive.  However, I did pick up this snazzy metal sign:

Overall, we saw a lot of great stuff.  Here are just some of the highlights:

 The Rawlings Booth had a little stage where it looked like they were holding exhibitions of the process of sewing a baseball.  Unfortunately, we never did see it happen.

 This was a big map showing all the minor league parks across the USA.

 We just missed Fergie Jenkins at the autograph booth, but I was able to catch a few minutes of his interview afterwards.

 Here is that grass that is used at the Rangers Ballpark.  Yippee.

 I thought this was cool.  There was a mock up locker room with the actual jerseys of several players.  At least I'm sure they were the real things since several attendants repeatedly advised the crowd not to touch the jerseys.

 One of the dealer booths. 

 The awards booth was very cool.  Pretty much every major award that will be given out for this season was on display, including the World Series trophy.  Above is the 2012 AL MVP award, hopefully with the name Josh Hamilton and not Mike Trout inscribed on in in a few months.

The Roberto Clemente Award

 Nap Lajoie jersey.  I have a T206 card of him...

An autographed ball from Honus Wagner.  I have his T206 card... oh wait I'm thinking of my Kris Benson rookie.

All in all, There were tons of great booths, but I'm saving the most inspiring for Monday.  Prepare to be energized...

FanFest Part Two: The Topps Booth

The Topps Booth was relatively small, and was manned on two sides:  one side was selling special All Star Game editions of the 2012 Factory Set (only 600 made is what I’ve heard), and the other side was where you could redeem wrappers for special All Star Game cards.  Forgive me for the lack of and poor quality of pictures of the booth:

 2012 Products

Man, those are terrible pictures.  I don't know what happened here.

The Factory sets were only $50, which is what you'd pay at retail anyway, so I went ahead and got one.  They come with a special pack of cards in each box, and I'm tempted to break the seal and see what is in the pack.  I haven't broken the seal yet, but I probably will soon.

Each set also came with a special All Star Patch card, numbered to 150.  Bryce Harper patch cards were already gone, but I gladly settled for a Yu Darvish:

Not that I would sell this, but I have seen that these Darvish cards are going for around $40-50 on eBay. 

After this, I caught a mild case of card fever and decided to get a redemption card too (different than the packs in the sets and the patch cards).  Redemption cards were available for 3 wrappers per card.  I bought 3 packs of 2012 Pro Debut at a nearby dealer and redeemed those wrappers for a Bryce Harper that was still available:

The Pro Debut packs were only 3 for $10, which I didn’t think was too bad.  I got the cool Harper card, plus a few good minor league prospects in my Pro Debut packs:

 Happy to get a card of personal favorite, John Lamb...

I wish I would have had the presence of mind to see if these Harpers were already selling on eBay and for how much.  Had I taken 30 seconds to look this up on my phone, I would have seen that they were going for $30-40 a pop.  I would have gladly bought a lot more packs to get a lot more Harpers.  Oh well, I’m happy with the one I got.

Topps was also handing out little 4 packs of 2012 cards and a free kids book:

I’m anxious to read this to my boy, and I’ll give a full review later.  Just kidding.  I won’t unless it is just super awesome.

Although we didn’t get anything to speak of in our packs of cards, it was a nice gesture from Topps, and my kids enjoyed opening them. 

Other than kicking myself for not getting more redemption cards, the Topps booth provided some nice adds to my collection.

FanFest Part One: FanFest Is Awesome!

We live about 3.5 hours away from Kansas City, and it’s an easy 3.5 hours, mostly on one highway.  The moment I found out KC would be hosting this year’s All Star game, I started making plans to attend.  My main desire was to watch the Futures game (the minor league All Star Game), since every year that I’ve watched this event on TV I seen tons of empty seats and assumed that getting tickets would be relatively easy and not insanely expensive like the Home Run Derby or the All Star Game itself.

I also wanted to go to FanFest- mostly for my kids.  From what I saw of past FanFests, there were tons of games and activities geared towards kids.  For myself, I was very interested in visiting the Hall of Fame exhibit, as well as the Topps booth.   I’m assuming that those of you who read this blog are more interested in what I got at the Topps booth than the other aspects, and I’ll cover that on the next post.

Today, I’ll give a general overview for anyone who is curious about the event.

FanFest took place in the Kansas City Convention Center.  I used to come to the KC Convention Center every year when Walmart would use it for their Year Beginning Meetings, so I was familiar with the building.  Still, there was such an overwhelming feeling as we stepped off the elevator and took in the magnitude of the event.  I had the same feeling walking in as I did walking into Six Flags as a kid.  I immediately wanted to sprint off in 10 different directions and see everything at once.  My mind was spinning, soaking in everything I was seeing.  I started taking in what people were carrying and talking about, trying to determine what kind of stuff the kids were going to get to do, and what kind of stuff we were going to get to take home.

I won’t carry on about every booth, rather, I thought it would be more interesting to simply show a map of the event from the handy flier we received as we walked in:

Again, I’ll cover the Topps booth tomorrow, and some of my favorite other highlights after that.  For now, I’ll leave you with the first ever publicly shown Napkin Doon Family Portrait:

Take your eyes off the lovely wife’s legs gentlemen.   The perv photographer talked her into that pose.  And yes, I really am almost as tall as Randy Johnson, and yes the two year old really was asleep during this photo, as well as half the event.  Kids.