A return to blogging related activities

I always laugh when I see sports articles referring to injured players returning to "baseball related activities".  It just sounds so stupid to me.   I never have thought once that a returning athlete would be doing something like taking up the ballet, or learning to rumba.

For five days, as far as "blogging related activities" went, I did nothing.   OK, that's not entirely true, I did read a few of my favorite blogs regularly, and I took the time out to wish Brian congratulations on his 2000th post over at the great Play at the Plate blog. 

Did I think about my blog?  Yea, a couple of times.   But as far as editing want lists and trying to come up with something worthwhile to write (lol, yea, my stuff being considered worthwhile....), it was absolutely a no go.  But then for some reason, I sat down last night around 10:30 and started going through the pile of Jays cards on the desk and removing the corresponding cards from the want list.

It actually felt good to get away.  I actually put a lot of thought into what I want to do next on the blog over the past few days.  That amount of thought (yes I know, thinking just gets me into trouble) brought me to a couple of realizations.

1.  I really like my Blue Jays collection, but it's a little too overwhelming.  I have what amounts to a couple of thousand cards I need to put into binders.   Holy shit.  It made me realize that I have to draw the line on the Jays collecting for the foreseeable future.  So I drew a line.  A thin red line.  If you've looked at the Jays want list over the last few days, you've seen it. 

I'm not adding anything new below that line for the foreseeable future.  There's no need.   I have enough cards to chase above the line to keep me busy for a very long time.  Case in point, here's a card that I received today from Max at the Starting Nine blog (another one of my favorites).

You always have that one card in an envelope that just jumps right out and grabs you.  This was it.  Why?  Because I had not one damn clue what it was.  I knew it had to be from 1977, because that's the only season that Singer was in Toronto.

A little digging on the Trading Card Database revealed that this was my first Hostess card!!  Fabulous.  I've never had a really big appetite for food related issues, but this card may start to sway that a little bit.  Miscut? Who cares! 

2.  My love for "vintage" cards has grown exponentially.  Case in point.  I went to Wal-Mart on Sunday needing a few things for the house.  I hit the card aisle, and what do I see.   A few rack packs of Heritage, and a couple of blister packs of Bowman. 

I passed, very quickly.  Nothing from this year is exciting me at all.  I decided to save my money for the card show this weekend.  Vintage should be all over the place....I can't wait.

I decided to dig a little bit to see when I started talking seriously about putting together the '64 Topps set.   The post here is dated March 3, 2012.  2 years and 2 months since I really started working on this set, and the interest is still strong.  Not like newer releases that I started and watched as they became stale when I couldn't/didn't want to finish them. 

I've also had a blast finishing the '75 and '77 Topps sets, and the '73 is a little over 90% complete.  I definitely want to keep going and complete a lot of the older sets.  That's where the blogosphere is going to come in.

I'm going to run a tournament, and let the blogosphere decide what my next set building project is.  I've seen other bloggers run stuff like this, and it's always been a favorite of mine, so I'm going to do one myself.

18 sets...1 eventual champion.  I will build the set, and keep everyone apprised when each card comes in.  That's the plan. 

I also plan to incorporate some kind of give away during the tournament.  I haven't done a whole lot of contests during the past year, so it's time again to give a little back to the hobby, and to those who have helped me enjoy it immensely since I started the blog.

Just imagine if a set like '60 Topps won...

572 of these cards being shown for your viewing pleasure...I think that would be great.

Keep an eye out, it's coming soon.

thanks for reading,  Robert