New custom card - 2014 Absolute Idiot Teammates to Inmates #1

Aaron Hernandez, went from a sixteen million dollar guaranteed contract (just under $40M total) playing for the Patriots, to serving a life term without the possibility of parole for first degree murder.

The sixteen million he gave up is why the card is serial numbered to 16.  Figured it had to be a low number, so that's what each card in the theoretical series would use to set the numbering.  I thought about putting a notation on the front for the money and the sentence, but I figure it will have to go on the back (which I won't attempt to mock up).

I would also make a Gridiron Gangsta for Hernandez (to continue the series started with Plaxico Burress in 2011), but I couldn't find Aaron's actual mug shot in several online searches, just pics from his indictment and trial.

I like the little touch of the Patriots and Mass Dept. of Corrections logos, and the notations below the swatches - it's always fun to come up with the scandalous "event" where the pieces supposedly come from.  I've had "concert worn leather", affair worn lingerie", and now "indictment worn shirt".

Would have liked to have done more with the background behind the pictures, but I always have trouble with the purely graphical type stuff.  I guess I'd be hired at Topps, but turned down from Upper Deck.  They usually had higher level graphics through the years.  This card design was derived from a Panini Spectra Teammates Combo Jerseys.  Unfortuately, there weren't any with Patriots on eBay at the moment.

Next in this series, Ray McDonald of the 49ers.

1959 Topps - status update - down to TWO!

Went to a show in Ephrata, PA a couple weeks ago and got my Kaline and Pierce All-Stars.  That leaves the Yanks and the Mick!

 

Free the knees!

It's spreading.

At least it seems to me it is.  The trend / tendency / craze / obsession / delusion that I thought was just confined to hipster high school students.  It's now moved on to older folks as well.

No, it's not Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, or the latest smart phone app.  It's the notion that no matter what the temperature outside, they MUST WEAR SHORTS!!

I don't know if it came from marketing, or is a derivative of the "coats aren't cool" concept, but I've observed for months now that more and more people, at least in my area in Western Maryland, appear on the streets in shorts during the cold weather.  Most of them are guys.  (I suppose I wouldn't complain nearly as much if it were mostly girls). 

I've come to the conclusion that the threshold is about 40° F.  Any time the outside temp goes to or above that level, the uncovered knees appear.  The strangest ones to me are those that come out in a full winter coat, hat, and maybe gloves, but still sporting the jogging shorts.  But the majority are dudes with hoodies or warmup jackets and athletic shorts, low socks and sneakers running around in the dead of winter.  Now, I give a pass to the guys just coming off the basketball court in the local gym, but you can usually tell if that's the case.

My theory is that they're either just running a higher metabolism, or hopped up on energy drinks or coffee, or they have some new ailment that makes their knees 20° warmer than the rest of their bodies. 

I was trying to think of what to call it.  Steamy knees?  Swelter shins?  Parched Pants?  Tropical Trousers?  Baking Britches?  I could go on...

Down to four

My 1959 set is almost complete.  With a recent eBay purchase of the Casey Stengel All-Star card, I'm down to four cards for the complete set (not counting the variations).  I need the Yankees team (#510), Al Kaline AS (#562), Mantle AS (#564) and Pierce AS, the last card in the set (#572).

I'll probably get them at the next shows, especially the Mantle.  They're too high dollar to trade for.  At some point, I'll find the other variations too - the "no traded line on back" ones.  Can't wait til the last one is in hand.  This is my favorite set of all time.

Happy Birthday to Me and Kate (and Nina!)

Shucks, I missed doing a 2014 post for my birthday that I share with the Duchess of Cambridge.  It's pretty much just a good excuse to put up her picture.
Also found another cutie that was also born January 9 - actress Nina Dobrev. 
So since I'm behind a year, here's a double shot of two beautiful women!

Trade with One Man's Junk (Wax)

Nope, I haven't dropped dead, just my posting level.  Readership has never been anything anyway, so this is pretty much for my own entertainment.

Sent a stack of 2014 Topps and some bonus Dallas Cowboys to Jeff at One Man's Junk (Wax) blog.  In return, I got two white envelope "sheet strip specials" as I call them, full of 1992 Topps baseball.  He had sent another envelope full of older Redskins a couple weeks ago.

This is our second trade.  The first time he sent me a Stephen Pearcy autograph in exchange for two Angels gamers.   Hope we keep going, though now he says he jinxed the Cowboys by trading with the enemy ~ me!

The End of the Rainbow

With my most recent order to COMC, I finally completed the full rainbow for 2004 Leaf Rookies and Stars Longevity of Priest Holmes.  Got the Gold and True Blue Parallels to finsh out the eleven card group, including nine parallels and two jersey cards.  Had to look them up on Beckett again to make sure I had 'em all.  Sure looks good in the binder.  I pulled the Regular R&S card (that lives in the page before) and the two jerseys from my GU/auto box to scan them all together.

You have (l to r from top) Regular Rookies & Stars, Emerald jersey /40, Black jersey (patch) /25, Longevity, Longevity parallel /125, Ruby /250, True Blue /249, Sapphire /199, Gold /150, Emerald /99, Holofoil /75, and Black /75.

At some point I want to recount and calculate what percentage of Priest's cards and GU/autos I currently have.  Don't think I've reached supercollector status...yet.

Tale of the tape

 Was just reading Play At The Plate blog and came across an older post about packaging cards.  Check it out here.  He outlines two of the most important things you can do as a trader to protect your cards as well as your fellow trader's sanity.  First up is using the proper tape to secure top loaders. 

 

 Please don't ever use that self-fragmenting brittle clear scotch type tape!!  Blue painters (or regular masking type) tape is much more acceptable.  It is a lot easier to remove and doesn't gum up the top loaders, which leaves them actually usable for storage and display.

But if you must use clear tape, do this:

 

Make a pull tage by folding over the end of the strip, creating a handle.  This is so much better than having to claw for an edge or snip through a piece of tape and leaving it stuck to the top loader or snap box.

Farewell 42

Mariano Rivera closed out his All-Star appearances last night.  I won't repeat what has been well documented about the game.  Didn't actually see it except at a distance.  I figure I made out OK since I missed Joe Buck and Tim McCarver.

Gotta respect a guy who pitches with such consistency and longevity, even for a Yankee.  Bonus points for rockin out to Metallica when he enters a game.

1949 Bowman Ken Venturi

Geez, nothing like posting every six months or so....

Anyway, I was just watching the Feherty show with the late great Ken Venturi, who had a short ten year PGA golf career (1956-1967), and was the revered broadcaster for CBS for so long before his retirement in 2002.  Venturi passed away on May 17 of this year.
At one point in the interview, Venturi mentioned he had been offered a contract by Lefty O'Doul of the New York Yankees in 1949 at the age of 18.  He turned them down when he “ found out they live a lot better at country clubs than they do in dugouts.”

That gave me the inspiration for the card above.  What might his card have looked like had he forsaken golf for baseball?  I merged an old picture of Ken and Phil Rizzuto.  Then colorized the face and cropped it to size.  Had to cull the nameplate and PSA label name from a few different cards.

Tribute to 1965 Topps tall boys

I've had most of the pieces for this one for a good while, just never finished it.  Since Topps revived this design for a mini set in their 2012 offering, I figured it's a timely choice.  I actually considered using it before the set came out.  Simple enough design.  Just have to find two cards with all the right letters and then crop and blot out the background of a good photo, which was hard to find in Priest's case.  Not a lot of helmetless pics of him out there.  Solid background makes this one real easy.  Just had to raise him up so he was closer to the team name and extend the jersey down a little....

Happy Birthday Dutchess and me! 2013

Happy Birthday to (pregnant) Kate Middleton!  As I mark my 46th year, along with Bart Starr, Jimmy Page, Bob Denver, Crystal Gayle, Richard Nixon, Dave Matthews, Chad "formerly Ocho Cinco" Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Dick Enberg and Muggsy Bogues.

2012 Topps series 2 inserts tweaked

Four posts (and six months) ago, I took the Panini inspired designs of the Topps flagship inserts and tweaked them to look like they were meant to be normal cards instead of relic autos missing the swatches and signatures.  Here's my take on series 2.

The Mound Dominance inserts aren't bad.  The logos could use a bit of growth or something, but I guess they were intended to hit the center of the strike zone.

A Cut Above inserts are actually that - a step above most of the lackluster stuff that came with this set.  Nice die-cut shape and full pictures with text that's just the right size.

Career Days are not so lucky.  There's a big team colored area on half the photo that just basically throws the balance of the whole composition off.  They look like this:

Sorry, no sig for you!  Looks like there was a gunfight just between home plate and the on-deck circle that they couldn't clean up by game time.

Why not just make a properly balanced card like this?  Now I know the photo may not be from that particular game, but what guarantee do we have that the one above IS?   I will admit that I like the daytime photo better for the lighting and contrast behind the logos, but it's the layout that's got to go.

Oh, and did you see DiMaggios?  It's the same photo that was used in Gypsy Queen and Marquee.

 

 

Video Mashup - Da Hawpa

Here's something I've been thinking about doing for a while (ever since the Dish Network ad).  Created just for fun with apologies to Dish Network, the sports media, and all the copyright holders, videographers, etc.  Hope it's good for a laugh.  Wish it would show bigger on Blogger.

Update: I added a shot of Harper-Hater Cole Hamels to make it clearer who was saying "Shaddup!".

A Full C(a)rd of Lumber

Thanks to Check Out My Cards, I have finally finished what I think is the coolest insert set ever.  I now have all 18 Lumber Yard inserts from 2002 Upper Deck 40-Man.
The fronts of the cards are actual (bat? - BB Cardpedia says no.) wood, laser etched with the player photo, team logo and set logo.  The backs have the same photo in real color and a brief blurb about the players exploits.  You can tell these came out mid-season, because a few of the write-ups on active players include details about their performances up to mid-May 2002.  (CardPedia says July)
I just like the way they look and how much detail could be carved into the wood.  The streaks in the scans are just the penny sleeves....

I pulled most of them from boxes of 40-Man as I was building the set, sometimes even from partial boxes (Pujols).  Don't think I ended up with more than one duplicate.
I got the last few from eBay, notably Mantle (for which I probably paid the most), Griffey Jr., and Frank Thomas.  One night last week I arbitrarily Googled the Chipper Jones - the last missing one - and found that Amazon had a listing for it for $12.50.  Upon further investigation, I found it was actually sold by COMC.  So since I had recently created an account, I went in and jumped on it.  Then, to make the shipping worthwhile, I shopped for some other stuff I haven't been able to find - namely inserts from 2005 UD All-Star Classics.  Then I searched for my two latest player collection guys - Brian Matusz and Dan LeFevour.  I ended up with about $60 worth of stuff in that order.

I've seen the whole collection for sale by Kruk Cards on eBay.  Can't remember how much he wanted for them, but I think it was approaching four digits.  I tried not to spend more than just below high book value, keeping it closer to low book in many cases.

 

Here is a bigger scan of A-Rod's card, front and back.  Click on them to see 'em bigger (same goes for any of the other scans).  You can see they replicated the stripes from the back, which ties both sides together nicely.  I like how the wood grain shows in some of them too.

 Now all I have left for a "master set" of this 1182 card monster is to finish the Mark McGwire Flashbacks.  I still need #1  4  7  19  27  30  31  33  34  38  and 39 out of the 40.  When I say master set, I mean all base, and these two insert sets.  I didn't try for the three jersey subsets, or the Electric and Electric Rainbow parallels.   The McGwires can be had for a couple bucks apiece on either COMC or SportLots.  I'll probably clean them up there after I check at this year's National in Baltimore.  But the best part is now over.  I've never seen Lumber Yard inserts at a show, ever.  I always glance at dealer mojo hit cases, but not once did I spot an all wood beauty like those above.  Now I don't have to search any more!

Star Trek - The Retro Football Card Set - card #6

1934 Diamond Matchcover Dr. Leonard McCoy.  Fonts match better to the green example of these covers.  The name over the football came in a couple different fonts.  I didn't have anything to match the one in the tan original.  Also had a hard time figuring out what to substitute for the football.  Not many sketches of the original NCC-1701 starship out there.  Nice oddball item instead of the same old Topps or Philadelphia designs.  I'm running out of cool designs to use.  There aren't as many nice ones for football as there are for baseball.

My Concise 2012 Topps post

Since there are a ton of posts about Topps' new release, I'll make this quick and efficient.

Base set - Great photos.  Fun shots that aren't overprocessed like 2009 and 10 looked to me.  Numbers are clear and easy to sort.

Parallels - Not real impressed with the golds.  Haven't seen the retail ones yet.

GUs, SPs and giveaways - As usual, didn't pull anyone impressive.  See inserts rant below.  I don't expect to see any of the SPs.  Curious to see what comes up for all my codes this time.

Inserts - Topps has (re?)hired the Panini football design team and they are still lazy bastards.  What they came up with are auto jersey cards and then just removed the good stuff to make the regular insert.  Each insert looks like a football card from Panini's past.  To wit:

Not bad, but why is there still a space for an autograph?

Look familiar? Sorry, no autograph for you!!

Plain

Auto

Relic

Plain (though crummy Chromey)

Auto

 

Relic (in a crappy location)

Only difference is that it seems the 2012 baseball guys are either relics or autos, not both.

Nice design, but it's not finished.

This one has the gall to put it in writing that you got
gypped out of an autograph. Kinda rubs it in your face.

Now what they should have done with this....

...Is finish the coloring.  Now that's not a bad looking card.

 This is the most hideous design of all - redundant pictures that you
can see, and a different one that's faded for no reason. 
Huge blank areas, and a dinky logo that doesn't fill the space. 
Plus, silver foil on grey?  Eccch.

Now that would have been better.  No gaping holes.

Worst part about the whole thing is that I'm still going to go after all of them except the Walkoffs.

Super Bowl summary

 

My condolences to all the sportscasters who are depressed over their man-crush's loss last night to the 9-7 NY Giants.

Good game, but would still have preferred a Harbaugh rematch.

Fausto to Roberto correction - 2011 ToppsTown

The former 28 year old Fausto Carmona, was revealed to actually be 31 year old Roberto Hernandez Heredia after being arrested in his native Dominican Republic.  He was charged with using a false identity, which isn't actually that unusual for Dominican players, so it's been reported.

Too bad the card year is just turning over next month, or Topps et al may have had the opportunity to issue corrected cards of Mr. Heredia.  They might look something like this: