I promise I'll work on getting caught up covering everything that still needs a post, but recent positive developments have made this announcement higher priority, namely that my COMC order arrived several days before it was even originally due to ship! So, with a better idea of where things stand, I can happily formally announce
Christmas Cards: 2022 Edition
As I previously teased, I went back to the old COMC well to find some fun stuff to send some of you, generally tailored to your collections and wantlists. Not quite everyone who's getting a Christmas cards package from me is getting something from COMC, but most are.
Other sources of items in these packages include:
Recent shows
TCDB trades
eBay
Sportlots
The COMC delivery leaves me short items in-hand from eBay for a couple folks, and Sportlots for a few more (waiting on packages to hit my box before shipping). The people getting cards from Sportlots will almost certainly have to wait until after Christmas for me to mail their envelopes because I don't even know when I'll have everything.
That said, a majority of you who have Christmas cards coming from me can expect them to start moving through the USPS this week, very possibly in time to see them before the big holiday.
Over the years I've learned that I really enjoy giving and this is one of my favorite traditions that I've been able to observe for most of the 12-ish years I've been blogging here, so I'm possibly as excited about getting these cards (and more!) under your trees as you are to tearing them open!
As for whether or not you're one of the lucky recipients, well, in addition to three of my TCDB buddies, I'm currently looking at gifting stuff to about 15 current and former bloggers and Twitter friends.
I'm going to keep this post short so I can start gathering, packaging, and labelling stuff so I can get a bunch out on Monday. In the meantime, please enjoy this flat-out awesome duet of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" featuring UM's own Darren Criss (in a sweet Michigan holiday sweater) and the extremely talented Lizzy McAlpine:
It's been a rainy kind of Sunday here in southeastern Michigan and that makes it seem like the perfect afternoon for spending time with some cards I recently purchased. I'll have a good summary up later, but long story short, one of the items I picked up in another fun Facebook Marketplace buy was a box of 1988 Pacific Legends.
That's 36 packs of 10 (fairly thin) cards for a reasonable $10. The set is just 110 cards so I'm hoping '80s junk wax collation doesn't prevail and that maybe I can get a couple complete sets out of this!
Is anyone up for watching me bust this low-end but classic box live? I'm posting this here and on Twitter so if I can get a few of you interested for this afternoon/evening, I'll throw up another post with a Youtube link. Just drop a comment here or on Twitter if you're in!
Hit the Follow button on the right side of your window and then click here to come watch the packstravaganza and enter to win free stuff!EDIT: stream is now over, I may upload it at some point after I edit it. Thanks to all who participated) Saint Matthew of Lesko demands it!
For those of you still here, here's the quick(-ish) breakdown of packs that came with my five 50-pack orders:
For today's post let's go with another Reds fan favorite: Chris Sabo, the 3B nicknamed "Spuds" who was the National League's Rookie of the Year in 1988 and was a World Series champ in 1990.
Spuds is another of my supercollections and as with others like Hal Morris, I had a ton of luck attacking his wantlist thanks to Sportlots:
We'll start with 1988 when Sabo was named NL ROY. Future HOFer Roberto Alomar placed a distant fifth in that voting despite a fairly similar season, oddly enough.
The first five cards in this scan are from that year and they include issues from Donruss and Fleer boxed sets, pre-RCs from Fleer and Score update sets, and a Glossy parallel of the Fleer card.
Then '89 opens with an oddball Bazooka product produced by Topps along with more Donruss and Fleer boxed set cards.
This scan will take us through the rest of 1989. As in several of my other Sportlots posts there's still more boxed set stuff, especially thanks to Score and Fleer being so prolific late in the decade. Speaking of the latter I grabbed both of Sabo's Glossy parallels of the flagship set. An exciting appearance by Sportflics is joined by one other base card in Chris' '89 Topps RC. Seriously, I didn't have one! Finally, a Topps Glossy Send-In and oddball Toys 'R' Us issue close the book on that year.
Here we start with a quick romp through 1990: base cards from Leaf and Topps (again, seriously) and Topps' Tiffany parallel. Then we start a ten-card run through '91 with a trio from Donruss, plus Fleer, O-Pee-Chee, and one of two Score flagship appearances.
We'll close out '91 in style by starting with Sabo's other Score appearance: a World Series card that includes fellow Wolverine Barry Larkin flipping his lid. That's joined by another Score boxed set, Topps Tiffany, and a checklist from Upper Deck.
1992 Begins with Bowman and Donruss, gets interesting with a Fleer Team Leaders insert, then returns to status quo with Leaf and O-Pee-Chee Premier.
Let's finish off '92 with base cards from Studio and Upper Deck, plus UD's stupid Gold Hologram parallel. I'm a supercollector so I have to pick those up!
Things start to get kind of interesting again with some of the '93 stuff. Donruss, Fleer, and O-Pee-Chee are fairly pedestrian but the year gets boosted by Flair, Stadium Club (Members Only Parallel) and the much-improved Studio.
A '93 Topps Gold parallel finishes up '93 before we get into 1994 and Sabo's Orioles tenure, which ended up lasting just one season. Bowman and Collector's Choice base cards lead off alphabetically, and I also picked up the latter's Gold and Silver Signature parallels; it's always nice to knock off the rarer Gold versions. Those are joined by an even better version of Flair, one of my favorite Leaf designs, a much better effort from OPC, and the start of a nice run of designs for Pinnacle.
This group completes the year of cardboard in '94, and you can tell we're going alphabetically, not chronologically, because there's some Reds outliers here. One of those is from Score, though the company updated his team in its Rookie/Traded product. Stadium Club's base set (and its Members Only Parallel) showed him with Baltimore while its Team card, while listing him as an Oriole, still had a shot of him in his Reds uni. Finally, his Topps Gold parallel also had him with the Reds, though that's not a huge shock since its flagship product can arrive before players switch teams.
This scan--the last with vertically-oriented cards--shows Sabo with three of his four career teams. Three '95 cards--Fleer, Score Gold Rush, and Topps Cyberstats--end his Orioles run, and that year's Leaf documents his short (20 games) tenure with the South Side Sox. I did a quick Beckett search and came up with just four products in which Chris appears with Chicago including Leaf above, Fleer Update (which I already have), Upper Deck (which you'll see below), and UD's Special Edition. I'll also note that while Sabo appeared in just five games with the Cardinals during that same '95 season, he never appeared on cardboard as a member of that team.
Chris' final MLB season was 1996 and fortunately for me he could be found on Fleer's outstanding matte design from that year (as well as Ultra). I also snagged one of his much more recent cardboard appearances, 2015 Stadium Club. See? Topps can do good things, they're just not in the practice of doing them regularly.
This second-to-last scan is just cards aligned horizontally, the way your cell phone videos should be most of the time if you're not an idiot.
Anyway, we have a nice assortment here, starting with a '91 Fleer World Series subset (not quite as cool as Score's), plus '92 OPC and Topps Gold. Then 1994 is once again represented by Score's Select and Upper Deck (plus its not-that-great Electric Diamond parallel). 1995's Collector's Choice and its Gold Signature parallel--another one I'm glad to check off--finish us up here.
And here's today's final scan, which opens with the final two mainstream horizontal cards: '95 Upper Deck and another Electric Diamond parallel.
The we go all the way back to the beginning with 1988 and '89 Topps Big, plus a miniature '89 Topps Leaders. Those are followed by two '89 Panini Stickers, as well as Topps Stickers from the same year, one of which Sabo shares with AL counterpart Wade Boggs. Last and definitely least (in terms of size), I grabbed Sabos Topps Micro issues from 1991-93.
All told this added a very nice 86 items to my Sabo collection and put me at 147/210 (70%) of his checklist, a great boost.
December is a fun time of the year for me when it comes to collecting because I know what's left in my collecting budget and that means I can sometimes aim a bit higher than normal (such as last year when I landed my Tom Brady autograph!). Thanks to some reasonably careful spending this year, not to mention some solid COMC sales, I was in position to take shots at cards I wouldn't really consider most of the rest of the year.
I'm happy to report that I've managed to land two such cards over the last few days, and the first of those arrived today.
Pretty much anyone that follows this here blog knows I'm a big fan of former Tigers 2B Lou Whitaker--big enough of a fan that he's my first non-UM player collection. One major PC component of his I've been lacking is a certified autograph (I do have one IP auto of questionable origin and this Leaf Ink card). That isn't too shocking since he doesn't have many of those; I count 11 non-1/1s (I don't include brands like Historic Autographs and ITG), and all but one are fairly limited in production.
Here's the 11th card:
Lou Whitaker 2001 Topps Archives Autographs auto
Maybe it's because I haven't seen the other options, but if I had to pick one Whitaker autograph to own, this would be it. Retroactive cropping of the four-player card aside, I really like what Topps did with its Archives autos back in the 2001 product, and not just because other Tigers Bill Freehan and Kirk Gibson were also part of the set. The idea of an autographed rookie reprint simply appeals to me, especially when it's a guy like Lou that's lacking in hobby love (not to mention Hall of Fame respect).
In opening this post I mentioned that I'm able to spend a bit more if I need during a month where I know exactly what my budget will be, but I was surprised that I didn't have to spend nearly as much as I thought for a card like this that pops up on eBay from time to time, but not terribly often. Believe it or not, about $27 delivered was enough to send this white whale of sorts straight to my PC, and that's much less than I've seen these going for in the last few years. Hooray for Christmas miracles!
I'm sure my fellow Tigers fans--and possibly others--will agree with me that this is a cool purchase, but I should have an even bigger surprise in store for y'all tomorrow!
I was saddened today to learn of the passing of former Tigers 1B Dave Bergman. A member of the '84 champs, he was apparently struggling with bile duct cancer for a while until succumbing at the age of 61.
I actually saw one of Bergman's final appearances with the Tigers during the '84 team's 30th reunion last year, and though I couldn't make him out from my left field seats, he was definitely looking run down, almost unrecognizable, even:
Despite his tragic passing, this seems like a great time to remember a guy not everyone outside of Detroit was familiar with, but still a player that was important to his Tigers teammates and fans.
Dave was a second-round pick of the Yankees back in 1974 out of Illinois State. He appeared in just 12 games in parts of two seasons with the Bombers, then was sent to the Astros as a PTBNL late in 1977. After three-plus seasons in Houston he was flipped to the Giants in 1981, and there he enjoyed a pretty solid three years. Still, in March of '84 he was on the move once again, traded to the Phillies, then to Detroit (along with ace closer and Cy Young/MVP-winner Willie Hernandez) on the same day (essentially a three-team deal).
Detroit would prove to be his home for the remainder of Bergman's career, and with the Tigers he'd average almost 100 games per year for his nine seasons in Motown, primarily as a 1B. '84 proved to be the apex of that career, but what a high it was as he combined with slugging DH/1B Darrell Evans to form a pretty good platoon at the position for a team that roared out to a lead it never relinquished. Although he went hitless in his five World Series ABs, he did collect a hit, steal, and run in his only plate appearance in the ALCS against the Royals.
You might think, then, that he wasn't really memorable that season, but that's where you'd be wrong. On June 4, the Tigers faced the Blue Jays at home, and although Detroit had run out to their amazing start, Toronto wasn't that far behind. Going into the bottom of the 10th the game was tied at 3. New pitcher Jimmy Key allowed a single to Lance Parrish, who moved up to second on a Darrell Evans bunt. Roy Lee Jackson came on and got Rusty Kuntz to ground out, then walked Chet Lemon. With 2 on and 2 out, Bergman stepped to the plate. The players battled back and forth for 12 pitches, and then #13 proved lucky for the batter as Bergman launched a moon shot into the right field upper deck. The game-winner was his first career Tigers homer and it couldn't have come at a better time. Check out the video here for yourself:
I still get goosebumps thinking about that season and I was only a year old!
So while he wasn't the most famous, even locally, the game and the world are poorer today with his passing. As my way of remembering him, here are the 19 Bergman cards I could find in my collection:
His '78 Topps RC (what a set for Tigers rookies!) gets its own scan because it's great. As I mentioned, he'd been shipped to Houston from New York, so he gets an Astros hat on this card. Joining him is future Rockies/Pirates manager Clint Hurdle.
This bunch is a mix of singles and cards I have from complete sets. In order they are: '85 Topps, '86 Topps, '87 Donruss, '87 Topps, '88 Donruss, '88 Topps, '89 Donruss, '89 Fleer, and '89 Topps. The '85 Topps is my favorite since it includes his stats from the championship season.
Continuing the collection are cards from: '89 Upper Deck, '90 Bowman, '90 Donruss, '90 Fleer, '90 Leaf, '90 Score, '90 Upper Deck, '91 Donruss, and '92 Score. Although he'd go on to play 87 games during the '92 season he never got a farewell card in any of the 1993 products.
Rest in peace, Dave, and thanks for everything you did for this team and the game, from a Tigers fan who will always remember you well.
as a celebration of a five-envelope mail Monday. While that post covered four of those packages, one of them--the last bubble mailer on the right--had to wait for today's post over here. It was a surprise package from Gavin of 100-plus follower blog Baseball Card Breakdown. He participated in my giveaway/contest earlier this year, and while I hoped that would lead to more trading, I certainly didn't require anything in return--especially not something as nice as what he sent my way out of the blue:
Earl Weaver 2004 Topps Retired Signature auto
Whoa! I think I made a comment or two about this Weaver during Gavin's sorta recent contests where various autos like this one were the prizes. Still, I never expected to acquire it so soon, if at all, because I hadn't worked out any actual trade with Gavin. Chalk this one up to generosity, I suppose. The good news is that it led to a formal deal this time, and once we both ship our cards out I'll show another sweet Baseball Card Breakdown pickup that's as exciting as this one.
Speaking of the Weaver, this is my first autograph of the esteemed (if diminutive) Hall of Fame manager. Earl was of an old-school class of skippers that was a favorite of players and fans alike due to his strategic acumen, winning ways, and most of all, his legendary temper. This famous video shows that last trait in spades (but includes very NSFW language!):
Weaver managed the Orioles--his only MLB team--for 17 total seasons (1968-82 and 1985-86) and his teams won more 1480 games, four pennants (three in a row, '69-'71, plus '79) and the 1970 World Series. The Veterans' Committee voted him into the Hall in 1996, and there he'll forever be remembered for success...and swearing!
I'm a big fan of Topps' Chrome-ified retired/favorites sets of the 2000s, and 2004 features an especially nice design thanks to its black border surrounding the 2004 flagship look. This is a great shot of Weaver, and I love that Topps designed a nice clear area for an excellent on-card signature. Earl obliged collectors with a beautiful John Hancock for this encased work of art.
Thanks a ton for a fun and exciting surprise, Gavin! I look forward to completing our pending trade (and showing off my return as well). If anybody needed evidence that the guy is a thoughtful and generous trader, look no further than this post. And speaking of his collecting habits, don't forget to head on over to Baseball Card Breakdown if you're not already following!
I'm once again heading down to Detroit this evening for my third(!) Tigers game of the year and first ever playoff game. Naturally I'm excited, even though Detroit's offense has been suspect and has wasted some great pitching performances (as did the 'pen in game 2).
Fister. 'Murica. Fuck yeah.
Tonight's Tigers starter is Doug Fister, so hopefully he and Kate Upton will be teaching Boston how to Dougie tonight.
Yesterday I covered my 2012 and 2013 resolutions, then promised that I would return today to talk about the financial aspects of my collecting habit, both last year and going forward.
After June I posted a mid-year look at my spending and selling, and I'm proud to report that I stayed disciplined enough that I continued to record every purchase (and sale), no matter how tempting it might have seemed not to do so. That would have been a massive waste of time, though, and there really was no point in not keeping an accurate running total so I could keep my spending reasonable. Also, I've maintained that I try to be reasonably transparent with my spending on my blogs, and I feel that I've lived up to that.
So today, you get to see my net spending for an average (?) year in my collecting life, including how often I bought stuff, where I was most likely to purchase cards, how I did trying to sell, and maybe some other useful info.
Before I begin, a few notes:
Anything I purchased with "house money" such as gift cards, eBay bucks, and even bottle returns (a gray area, yes, but it's my blog and I'll do what I want) didn't count towards my spending total, though if those only covered a part of a purchase, I prorated the price accordingly.
Purchase totals for online sources include delivery costs. Basically, I was good about reporting the full price paid every time I bought something.
Purchase totals for retail include Michigan sales tax.
Selling totals (I believe) don't take into account what I had to pay to ship those items; I felt like it would be more interesting to capture the total price of each sale, especially since shipping costs are pretty much implied when you sell over the Internet.
I didn't track spending on packaging for and shipping of trade packages and giveaway items. I think of trading as a zero-sum game (where everyone wins!) and while those costs are a necessary evil, I don't believe they merit meticulous tracking.
I also didn't include the cost of any supplies I purchased for myself, such as boxes, sleeves and top-loaders. While those purchases are related to what I spend on this hobby, I also don't feel they merit consideration when looking at yearly spending.
Ok, on with the show! First up are some buying numbers and charts:
Let's get down to some stats, shall we?:
Total spending: $3,173.76
Average monthly spending: $264.48
Most spent in one month: March ($533.72)
Least spent in one month: December ($0! I can't remember the last time I went this long without buying anything!)
Largest individual purchase: $300 for the "IPP" lot of Michigan Wolverines on March 30
Source purchased from the most: COMC, $1,463.55
Source purchased from the least: Group breaks, $24
Average spending per source: $396.72
COMC clearly ruled the roost here, accounting for nearly half my 2012 spending, and for good reason: I love buying me some singles, and so far there hasn't been any other place that's been such a reasonable source for collecting my favorites. Look for that to continue this year.
eBay was the next most useful, and I really did pick up some exciting stuff for my PCs this year, mainly in terms of the Michigan collections, but not entirely. Similarly, my spending at card shows included zero dollars spent on boxes, with all of it going towards my baseball and Michigan PCs, trade bait, and autographed memorabilia.
While I don't have numbers for my 2011 spending, I can tell you for sure that I spent a LOT less on Blowout this year as those boards have kind of devolved in my opinion over the last few months. No loss, though--there's always other places to spend my money!
That $300 in-person purchase, while costly, was most certainly a boon to my Michigan PC, especially because of the fact that I picked up both a good number of high-end stuff and a bunch of new players for the football collection.
The $200+ I spent on retail was my biggest regret of the year, but looking at that number gives me plenty of motivation to avoid the same mistake this year. Meanwhile, I certainly don't regret joining Dimwit's group break, but as I explained yesterday, I don't see myself participating in any breaks this year. I may, however, spend a bit more on a site like SportLots as I seek to complete a few more baseball and football sets.
Overall, I spent a good chunk of change, but I added so much useful stuff (and relatively little junk) to my PC that I can say without a doubt that it was worth it.
Next up, a look at how I did with some sales:
NOTE: the eBay total above is $55.
And some stats:
Total sales: $769.75
Average sales per month: $64.15
Most sold in one month: July ($222.75)
Least sold in one month: as you can see, there's a bunch of zeros up there...
Largest individual sale: $200 for multiple lots on the Blowout forums. Technically, I sold more in one day on COMC, but that included many individual sales along with one large port sale. So for the purpose of this post, the Blowout lot wins it
Smallest individual sale: $0.50 for a 2001 Topps Chrome Adrian Gonzalez on COMC
Source sold to the most: COMC, $430.75
Source sold to the least: eBay, $55
Average selling per source: $256.58
I hadn't really planned to dabble too much in selling this year, but in the process of trying to get rid of unwanted stuff earlier in the year, I put up a bunch of lots over the course of a few days on Blowout and did fairly well. Later, I finally jumped into COMC head-first and had a blast dumping some unwanted trade bait for some store credit, all of which I promptly spent (and plenty more!). Finally, during my 2012 Topps Football frenzy I managed to sell a Drew Brees manupatch and Chris Houston 1/1 for a bit more cash. The fact that I totaled more than $750 absolutely amazed me, and while I can't possibly hope to replicate those results this year (thanks to a dearth of cards to sell, really), that gave me a bit more spending room for the year, which you can tell I think I put to good use.
And lastly, but most importantly, a look at my net spending:
Total spending - total sales = $3,173.76 - $769.75 = $2,404.01
Net spending per month: $200.33
See? My $2,400 yearly budget I decided upon yesterday wasn't entirely pulled out of my ass! Besides being an easily calculable $200 times 12 months, that's almost exactly what my net spending was last year, and I see no reason to change that considering the results I had. The only difference between then and now, as I said, is that I probably won't get involved with selling much, if at all, this year, so look for the total spending number to decrease accordingly. That's not a problem as far as I'm concerned: I'm happy to work on getting better at scoring nice deals, plus that'll get me that much more motivated to attain my goal of 100 trades, which might have a bigger stake in terms of being a source of incoming cards for 2013.
Well, I hope this admittedly numerical analysis-heavy look at my 2012 spending was as interesting and informative for you as it was for me. I'm thrilled to be able to find ways to improve so easily this year, and I'm already aware of how little effort it really takes to track my card spending, so you can be sure I'll be repeating that this year! Here's to a more frugal but fruitful 2013!
I had planned a different post for today but was inspired last night to go with something different.
I don't talk about boxing much on this blog, but I do enjoy watching the occasional big fight, and there's a good reason for that: boxing was something fun I shared with my stepdad, who was a huge part of my life as a part of my family for the majority of my first 25+ years. He had watched tons of fights through the years and lived through some of the greats, so he was an ideal person with whom to watch a big bout. More importantly, he passed down some of his knowledge and all of his enjoyment of the sport to me, and whenever we could, we'd arrange to catch some boxing, big-time or small.
Sadly, he passed away unexpectedly in June of 2009, and that dealt a large blow to my family, but we've all found ways to move on and honor his memory. In my case, I still make sure I watch a few big fights each year, thinking about how we laughed at Larry Merchant's slow cadence and Harold Lederman's excitable analysis, soaked up Emmanuel Steward's excellent commentary, and most of all, raised fists high in anticipation after Michael Buffer's signature "LLLLLLLET'S GET READY TO RUMBLLLLLLLLLLLE!"
As is typical of the sport, we were disappointed as often as we were satisfied--a terrible referee fighting for the spotlight to the detriment of the bout, a judge inexplicably coming up with a bad score, or a first-round KO--but the ones that excited us were more than worth it. I never did a good job of keeping track of how often we saw each fighter how he did when we last saw him, but I do know I saw some of today's great fighters and more than a few matchups that have since passed into legend.
I bring all of this up because last night was one of those marquee fights: Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Manny Pacquiao. It was actually their fourth meeting, as previously they had fought to a draw, a split-decision win for Pacquiao, and most recently, a majority-decision win for "Pac-Man." These fights weren't without a certain level of controversy, as is often the case with boxing, but they certainly made for excellent entertainment. Marquez surely had a chip on his shoulder, though, and his added bulk proved that.
The action quickly grew with Marquez catching Pacquiao hard enough to knock him down early. A few rounds later, Manny clocked him hard enough to get him to touch a glove to the canvas, scoring a knockdown of his own. Pacquiao was statistically the more aggressive and accurate fighter, and multiple times he had Marquez hurt and in significant danger. Marquez somehow managed to weather the storm, and then with only a second left in the 6th round, he faked out Pacquiao and caught him just barely defenseless, and that would prove to be the decisive blow--Manny went down hard face first and was clearly out for several minutes. He did eventually regain consciousness, and later tests proved negative for any significant damage. It was a stunning finish to a fight that for all intents and purposes appeared to be going the other way.
Here's a look at some highlights of the fight to give you a quick idea of how things went down:
Anyway, the reason I thought to post something about this fight, besides discussing the joy I still experience watching boxing sometimes thanks to my stepdad, is that it reminded me of how a few years ago, Topps inserted some boxing autographs in its 2008 Co-Signers set. I managed to pull a couple from boxes, namely notable trainer and commentator Teddy Atlas. I then began grabbing more to give to him as a Christmas present, including more than a few big names. Since his passing I've sold off a few, but kept my favorites, one of which is this guy:
Marquez has always been one of those warriors who doesn't go down easily, who fights back even when things look bleak, and who's been in a ton of battles, but still continues to put on a great show for his fans. Because he's such a legendary fighter, one who showed a ton of heart last night, and because I feel it's another way to honor my stepdad's memory and the great times we had together, I'm proud to have this autograph in my collection, and it's one I intend to pass on to my children, hopefully along with some interest in boxing as well.
I'd like to close on a lighter note, though, with a Youtube video I still love sharing with people. I was reminded of it with the way Pacquiao was just knocked OUT last night (and now that it's clear he's OK, I think it's not exactly offensive to post). Awesome comedian Cedric the Entertainer did a bit on a fight featuring Zab Judah years ago, and someone synced it up to a clip of the fight in question. So enjoy the hilarity!:
Sorry not to have posted for a while, everyone, but I had a hell of a week of feeling like crap (and I'm STILL not 100% yet!). I'm finally ready to get back on the wagon, though, and with this post comes some GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE:
My COMC package is HERE. Behold, some teasers of what's to come for the next few weeks of posts (though mostly over on TMM!):
That second image includes my 19-page packing list. 19 pages?
19 pages. It's gonna be a fun few weeks of posting, and that's without mentioning that I have some various trade packages to attend to, plus maybe some hope for the Tigers in the playoffs as well. Hooray for enormous packages! Wait--that doesn't sound right...
A very happy birthday to did-he-or-didn't-he-write-all-that-awesome-stuff literary genius William Shakespeare. How am I gonna relate this post to cards? BOOYAH:
I know I rail against Topps for inserting all kinds of non-sports crap into its--you know--SPORTS products, and that still stands, but I do like the fact that ol' Billy got himself an A&G card; this English major verily doth approve.
In honor of Will, here's some Youtube fun with some great guys I've seen in-person and enjoyed a ton:
If you dislike this post, please feel free to skip it, but do so at your own risk, because if you do, I BITE MY THUMB AT YOU, SIR.
Kids these days still listen to the Foo Fighters, right? Consider this video a hat tip to those of you that embiggen (it's a perfectly cromulent word) your noble blog posts with excellent music. Also, it's the first thing that came to mind as I sought for a title. It's been quite a while since I showed off some of my favorite Cal Ripken cards, other than a couple stray pickups of relics and autographs. So long, in fact, that I can't easily find that post. The point is, it's time for me to do it again, so here's nine more of my favorites from my Cal Collection:
1983 Topps:
This is definitely a good place to start: Cal's second-year Topps card. The Iron Man was fresh off his first full season, during which he won the AL Rookie of the Year. He'd easily top that in 1983 by winning the AL MVP (one of two in his career) on the way to the Orioles'most recent World Series title. Besides all that, I chose this card since it's the year in which I was born. so basically, lots of reasons to like it!
Leaf Preferred Staremasters (#0876/2500):
Some of you remember I bought a decent amount of '96 Leaf Preferred because you'll recall my posting the complete Steel insert set. Well this isn't a card I pulled from those packs (they were really, really hard to pull at the time, as you can see from the numbering) but I ended up with one all the same, which is great because it's such a cool card. Fact: If you stare at the card long enough, his eyes move.
1996 Studio Stained Glass Stars:
I can't imagine anyone not liking this sweet die-cut card. At least as far as I see it, my inner child sees it and goes "OOOH COLORS!" and I'm instantly entranced. Just another great example of a creative (read: not Topps) insert from the 1990s in the years before things shifted to "HITS OR GTFO."
1997 Donruss Franchise Features (with Scott Rolen) (#1572/3000):
This is another product I bought a lot of, and I might have actually pulled this from a pack, but I can't remember for certain. 1997 Donruss Rookie Update featured some awesomely entertaining inserts, including Diamond Kings, Press Proofs, and these two-player inserts featuring the oft-used conceit of pairing a star with an up-an-coming player. Rolen never became Ripken, but he's been a very good player in his own right, so this pairing isn't the usual Topps insanity. The design is very pleasing to the eye, making for an excellent total package.
1997 Leaf Knothole Gang (#2375/5000):
Here's another fun, unique 90s insert, in which Leaf took a die-cut, faux wood piece and placed it over a great photo. Baseball is the sport that probably does the most to emphasize its history, I'm sure because it's been around so long, and the "knothole gang" hearkens back to a more innocent time when you could sneak in a game for free. I chose this one because of the great look and the fact that for whatever reason I love shots of Cal in the field.
Here's another one that I'm pretty sure I pulled from a pack even though I didn't buy a whole lot of the set. I'm not 100% in love with the design, but it's a cool parallel (the scan makes it a stranger color than the copper or so it really is) that's serial numbered and it features a sweet shot of Cal's swing, so up it goes.
2000 Black Diamond Rookie Edition Gold (#0192/1000):
And our second Upper Deck numbered parallel in a row. I really liked the look of the 2000 Black Diamond and Rookie Edition sets, especially the red and black (my high school colors!) of the base set. But this Gold insert is numbered and has a great look of its own, plus another good shot of Cal at the plate.
Our only non-insert today besides the '83 Topps, this one's special because it was a short print. I'm very sure I pulled it from the one box I grabbed of the product, along with a Jason Giambi SP that's now in my trade bait. This is kind of a busy card front but there's a lot I like: the shot of him fielding, the excellent close-up, the two key moments mentioned and a perfect design to use on a horizontal card. This was a great base set and I'm glad to have the short-printed Cal as part of my collection.
I promise I won't wait as long next time to put up some more of these for my fellow Ripken fans to enjoy!
