365 x 3 + 1 = 500

So, uh, yeah--I'm celebrating a couple milestones today:  this very post you're reading right now is #500!  At almost the very same time--almost because the actual anniversary was yesterday--this here blog is now three years old!  Could I have made sure those coincided instead of waiting a day late?  Probably, but who cares?  Let's get to some celebratin'!

Post number one occurred three years ago yesterday, on August 28, 2010.  I kicked things off with an image of Dr. Nick Riviera, explained the Simpsons-centered origin of the blog's original title (Too Many Grandersons) and then promised box reviews aplenty thanks to a nice purchase from Dave & Adam's.

Three days later I showed off my D&A bonus packs, then busted my first box to review, 2006 Bowman football (a.k.a the set I just finished YESTERDAY).  Two days after that I busted another jumbo football box, this time 2010 Topps, then used the Gridiron Giveaway codes as bribes for being listed on 10 bloggers' blogrolls, which paid off handsomely.  Among the collecting legends that did me that huge favor were Thorzul Will Rule, the Great Sports Name Hall of Fame, Night Owl, Emerald City Diamond Gems, and BA Benny.  Thank you all again for giving me many much-needed page hits!

From that point on I was busting and reviewing boxes and packs, showing off purchases from shows and online, occasionally coming up with original content, and displaying some of my favorite PC items.  And trading, let's not forget the trading, which is easily my favorite consequence of creating and maintaining this blog.  I completed nine trades that first month and haven't looked back, except when I've literally looked back to enjoy the results of those trades.

Not a whole lot has changed other than splitting off sister blog Too Many Manninghams so I didn't bore all of you baseball fans with my Michigan Wolverines collecting exploits.  Some new bloggers and traders have come and gone, and so have a lot of cards into and out of my collection.  I can honestly say it's been an outstanding three years, the best of my collecting life, thanks especially to learning and embracing some of the habits of those of you I still read daily and trade with as often as possible.  Thank you as always to those of you who read, comment, trade, and help me with the sometimes difficult task of maintaining the motivation to keep buying, trading, scanning, and writing.  Here's to three more!

So since this is a day of celebration, I'm taking a day off of coming up with anything remotely original and throwing some top five lists at you instead:

Top five all-time posts by pageviews:

• My first post showing off my baseball RC collection (2914 views as of this writing)
• My second trade with Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle (2848)
• A trade with Beardy, a huge Michigan PC pickup, and a Topps Chrome replacement pack that leads to a (formerly) significant hit (2731)
• A trade post showing off a few Tigers cards traded to me by Jeff of My Sports Obsession before we attended the UM-Air Force game last season (2340)
• A huge trade post thanks to BA Benny, featuring a bunch of missing images of cards that have since left my collection (2187)

Top five favorite search keywords that led to people visiting this blog (for real):

• "UPS girl"
• "Yo dawg template"
• "Respek knuckles"
• "Nickelback sucks"
• "Attention whore"

Top five favorite posts of mine that I didn't just pick at random for this post:

• "We're gonna need more internets: a tribute to MCM" -- Adam from My Cardboard Mistress sent me a hilarious custom Ohio State card that I still keep handy to this day
• "Who's My Tiger?  These Guys!" -- Fondly remember my favorite Tigers players since my birth, though some of these may have changed thanks to recent developments!
• "TitleTown Poll" -- I really enjoyed recounting how many championships my local sports teams had won, and comparing that number to others around the country
• "Complete Sets:  1996 Upper Deck V.J. Lovero Showcase" -- Come on now, everyone loves this set!  Baseball card photography at its finest, back when inserts MEANT something
• "30 for 30: my 30 favorite PC cards on my 30th birthday" -- I posted this one back in my on my 30th birthday, and I seriously went through a big-time struggle to pare the list down to just 30!

Top five (times two) favorite post labels:

• 1990s Tigers SUCKED
• Alison Brie
• Blue tape is awesome
• COLLECT
• Drug-fueled card-buying binge
• ESPN blows goats
• Jim Leyland is terrible at everything except smoking
• Josh Hamilton says om nom nom drugs
• Ohio State is like Topps and therefore dumb
• WTF Chris Olds?

And finally, Top five animated Alison Brie images I'm gratuitously posting right now because this blog just turned three, and that's 21 in dog years:

Happy THREE Many Verlanders, everyone!