No update? No problem!

Since this past Saturday, I've had the opportunity to visit both the local Wal Mart and Target.  I've seen the posts here and there about the '14 Update packs being in the stores, and I decided to check and see if there were any.

Both stores, nothing.  There was hardly any 2014 product on the racks at all.  I can't believe that it's all sold out, so maybe vendors are pulling product off the racks early in my area if they aren't selling.

Does it bother me that there's no update?   Not at all.

I can continue the quest to clean off the top of my desk.   That's been a tall order, which I've been able to knock down some in the past 3-4 weeks.  The Blue Jay piles have been diminished, and there is about 150 cards left to put into the spreadsheet and that onerous task will be complete.   I have a pile of Blue Jays "hits" that I'm going to scan and show off on the "Just the hits--Blue Jays" page I just created (you'll find it on the right hand side).

One of the piles on the desk actually had some vintage cards that I'd forgotten that I purchased a while ago (I believe these are from the May show). 

'61 will be a passing fancy for quite a long time.  I only have 15 cards towards the set, and this set is down near the bottom of the list as far as vintage set completion goes.

Dick Hall here is one of the many cards in the pile that I marked off of the '62 checklist, but never bothered to put away with the rest.  I've got quite a good start on this set, with 158 cards in my possession.  This is actually one of the nicer specimens that I own from this set.

Another card that I picked up quite a while back, but never bothered to put away.  The '67 set is one that I'll set my sights on once I finish off the '64 and '73 sets.  It might take a back seat to sets such as '62 and '69, since I only have 23 cards so far.

The '68 burlap set is another that I have quite the head start on, but will also take a back seat for a while.  I had to look, but sure enough that Mike Marshall is the same rubber armed pitcher that set the mark for most appearances by a reliever in 1974 (one of those records that will never be broken).  Mike didn't pitch in the majors during 1968, and wound up as a swing man on the '69 Seattle Pilots team before moving to the NL for the first half of the 70's.

I have an unchecked version of this '69 6th series checklist, so if anyone is looking for a marked up checklist that doubles as a Brooks Robinson card, I can send this your way.

I learned something new today.  There are 2 variations of this checklist from the '70 Topps set.  The one I have features the batter with a red bat, while the other version features a brown bat.  The scan makes this card look like the brown bat version, but I know it to be the red because I wouldn't be lucky enough to find the brown bat in a commons box.

The '71 set is another "down the road" project.  I don't think I can even picture Rollie Fingers pitching without the handlebar mustache.  I don't want to say it looks odd, but to me, it is.

There is progress being made as I said earlier on the desk cleaning.   I'm about halfway through creating a trade list full of inserts and serial numbered parallels for the team collectors out there.  I'll scan more of the Jays "hits" as time goes on. 

Meanwhile, I've started playing with my cards.   You may or may not have noticed that my post output has dropped quite a bit again.  That's largely due to having little inspiration for writing, and noticing that what I do write is being shunned by the masses (not that I blame anyone).  

I decided to create a little game for myself, comparing cards from half a dozen sets that I've either finished, or am close to finishing.   Totally arbitrary and subjective fun/scoring on my part.  (thanks to Mark Kaz and his "Four Topps" posts for the inspiration)  It's nothing fancy, it's not ground breaking, but for me it's different and variety is the spice of life.   Maybe one or two people will look at it and have something to say themselves about the cards!!

So, no update, no problem.  I've got a helluva lot of cards to go through, and a long season planned.

thanks for reading, Robert