The 5 aspects of blogging that I enjoy, part 4

Good Friday to all, hope that you all are ready for the weekend, I know I am!  Today we have part 4 of my little mini series about the aspects of blogging I enjoy, and that would be the trades I have completed.

I've completed 24 trades so far, and every one was a pleasure.  Every blogger or reader I've dealt with has been amazing, and some of them were very generous.  Take a look at my Blue Jays list for example.  I had the modest goal of hitting 250 unique cards by the Christmas holidays.  Not only has that goal been surpassed, it's been destroyed.  700+ now, probably be close to 800 by the end of the month.

I've sent people a handful of cards, and received a box full back.  This just blows my mind.  I've also completed two sets, and I am a lot closer on a few others as well.   Being involved & surrounded with all this generosity inspires me, makes me believe in the concept of paying it forward.  I've tried to send a few cards here and there to bloggers that have been good to me, but I still feel like I'm in debt to some of you out there.  There are also some that I read on a daily basis, but have unfortunately have not had the good fortune of trading/emailing with you.  Hopefully that day will come soon. 

Forget the cards for a minute, I've started some great relationships (card wise, don't get any ideas here...) with other bloggers out there.   I've had some good back and forth via email with a couple of bloggers that are great.  It's always great to get to know someone on a little more of a personal level, especially when their hobby is the same as yours.


Plus, trading gets you some great cards....
 

As always, thanks for reading,  Robert (28 days)

The 5 aspects of blogging that I enjoy, part 3

Good Thursday to you all, we're getting closer to Friday by the minute.  Here we go with part 3 of what I enjoy about blogging, and this goes part in parcel with why we're all here....it's the cards.  

I've said it before, and I'll say it again now, there are a lot of great blogs out there.  Guys & gals writing about their passion for card collecting.  What I've discovered, especially with those who are bloggers, is the love for the basics.  A "big hit" in the blogosphere means something totally different than what it does on eBay or at a card show. 

It can be a great find of the last card or two to complete an older set.  It can be the oddball find of a card of your favorite player from a bag of Twizzlers, or out of a fire department issued team set from 30 years ago.  It's not all about the jersey cards, or the autos; with bloggers, cards have more meaning. 

My specific example here is the 1977 Topps set that I have started to build over the past couple of weeks.   There are no relics, inserts, or fancy shiny cards involved.  Just great cards that bring back old memories of me going to the variety store on the Danforth in Toronto in the late 70's to pickup a couple of packs of cards with my allowance.  Pulling cards of guys like Freddie Patek, one of the shortest players ever to play in the majors.

This guy makes me look tall, and I'm only 5'9".

Freddie was 5'4" tall, but a heckuva shortstop, and something different as far as the game goes.  In the 70's, shortstop was a truly different position as far as offense went.  Back then, the position was all glove, and any hitting was considered a bonus.  Freddie never hit higher than .267 in a season, his best OPS was .693, and yet he was a three time All Star, and finished 6th in MVP voting one year.  His assets were his glove, and his speed, he stole 30+ bases for 8 straight years.

Cards like this bring back the passion in me for collecting.











I see it everyday in posts.  The passion, the enjoyment, the fun.  The great trades that bloggers make, and those on the other end that enjoy the cards they received.  The way that people send cards to others that they've traded with out of the blue, for no reason at all but to give someone else a little enjoyment. 

For those of you out there who read my blog, or who have blogs of their own, we are part of a unique group.  A group of people that share a love for their childhood memories, and yet still enjoy making memories for others, as well as themselves.  All of this, because of a little rectangular piece of cardboard with a picture on it.

Part 4 tomorrow...

Thanks for reading, Robert

The 5 aspects of blogging that I enjoy, part 2

Good Wednesday to all of you, hope that your week is going well so far.  This continues my series of posts on the 5 aspects of blogging that I enjoy.  Today's aspect is you can blog at your own pace.

What I've discovered so far is that there is no right or wrong to posting.  Post daily, twice a day, twice a week, twice a month.  You call the shots, and go at your own pace.  Nobody pressures you, there is no time limit or clock that hits zero and kicks you out of blogging. 

You also can post at whatever time of the day you want.  4 in the afternoon, sure!  3 in the morning, why not?  Somebody out there will read it soon enough.  Not only is blogging just posting on your blog, but making comments on others as well.  There are days when I sit there and do nothing but read blogs, especially if I don't have any inspiration to write.  Sometimes I go several days without reading, and nobody knows (well until now) unless I post a comment.

What a blog writer needs to be aware of is burnout.  Sometimes you post for several days straight and you feel like you're making progress.  What you have to be careful of though is trying to do too much too quickly.  I think I suffered from that a couple of weeks back.  Sometimes, blogging at your own pace means stepping away from the blog for a day, or several, and letting things happen around you, instead of trying to make them happen.  The blog will be there when you get back. 

Have fun blogging, make sure that you are posting at a pace that is comfortable for you, and keep yourself active in the blogosphere.  But don't let the blog take you over.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Part 3 of my Saturday fun

Good Monday to all, hope that you all had a great weekend!  I decided on Saturday that since I had budgeted $80 for the show, and only wound up spending twenty, that I would hit the local Wal Mart and pickup a blaster.  I decided on a Topps Lineage, since that set has kind of grown on me, and the box also promised a relic card. 

First, the inserts/parallels:

Some fun stuff here, I especially like the Ripken and the Munson cards.  The Nishioka diamond has already been offered in a trade with Rhubarb, and the Arencibia is going into my Blue Jays LTP collection.  All the others are up for trade, so if there's something you like, please feel free to comment or send me an email.

The Hughes has already been set aside for the Night Owl, but if you are interested in the Sabathia mini relic, again please let me know.

Finally, a couple of cards that, well let's just say that they don't quite make the cut.

the first pack that I opened, or didn't open, featured the Santana card on the right.  I first thought that somebody searched the pack, because the pack was wide open,  then I remembered it was a sealed box.  The Santana obviously was out of the pack when it was in the crimping process.  The 2nd pack featured the Kinsler card on the left.  Take a look at the bottom corners, both of them are crushed.  Needless to say I was leery while I opened the rest of the box, but I found no other issues.  I should have a wantlist up soon for this set, the 200 card size made it too difficult to pass up as an easy build. 

All in all, Saturday went over budget by $10, but I had quite a lot of fun, was able to share some stories, and put some great cards into my collection (along with a couple of dings...). 

Thanks for reading, Robert

Part 2 of the card show visit from Saturday

Good Sunday morning to you all, hope that your weekend is great so far.  Part 2 of the card show visit from Saturday starts at the next table I visited.  The dealer had a lot of signs that said "going out of business", which for me is a little difficult to understand because you would think that paying for a table or 2 at a card show would eat into your potential windfall of selling off your card collection.  No matter, I walked up to his table and didn't see any cards in his display that I really wanted, however I looked off to the right and he had some packs that I hadn't seen in years....

2000-01 Topps Heritage Hockey!  I loved this set when it first came out, but I was only able to buy a couple of packs at the time.  Back then they were $3 a pack for 8 cards, but he had them on his table for $1.50 a pack, so I grabbed 7 packs.  He gave me the hard sell, asking me to buy the rest of the packs, and he would even sell them to me for $1.25 apiece.  I passed, wanting to stay within my show budget, and moved on.   Later on when I got home and opened the packs, did my fears about them dissipate.   Here's a scan of one pack that I found to be really interesting...

Goalies galore

Not too often you open a pack like this one.  All 5 regular base cards were goalies!  I also pulled an Amonte insert, and a couple of subset cards of Shanahan and Yzerman as well. 






























I also pulled a couple of Chromes from the packs numbered to 555

Chrome beauties

Some of you out there may not remember Tommy Salo, but here's a video of a goal in the '02 Olympics that started what may have been the downfall of his career.

Then, in the last pack, I pulled the best card I've pulled in quite a long time.

HOF AUTO!!

That's right friends!  That's an on card auto of Hall of Fame goalie Lorne "Gump" Worsley.  Needless to say I was thrilled to pull this card.  What was even better is that the auto was still in good shape even though the packs are 10+ years old. 

Now, on to the story I promised you about the family.  I moved to the first table I saw in the show, and wanted to buy a couple of packs of top loaders and rummage through the quarter and dollar boxes.  Well, when I got back there there was a family, a mother with 3 boys.   I'm going to say the boys were approximately 13, 10 & 3.  The young one was riding in a cart,  very well behaved having his fun.  The older two were obviously very excited to be at the show, and were rummaging through the boxes, looking for stuff to buy.  Well, the mother was as impatient as they come.  This woman was SCREAMING at her kids, "stay here" , "hurry up", "come on!!"  It was unbelievable.  Needless to say, I moved on, because there's nothing worse than someone screaming at their kids when you're five feet away from them. 

The person I felt sorry for the most?  Why the dealer of course, because it was like there was a wall of 20 feet around his tables where nobody would come near while the woman was there.  I know the poor guy lost my sale for sure, and goodness knows how many others he lost as well.  I did manage to grab one of his business cards though,  and found that he has a card store not too far from the other one that I frequent.  I'm gonna take the time in a few weeks to make a trip out there and take a look at what he has. 

Tomorrow will be part 3 of my Saturday, and it will feature the blaster that I purchased after the show, and the quality control problems that were discovered when it was opened. 

As always, thanks for reading, Robert

A trade post...with a twist

Saturday evening in my house means one of two things....if the Leafs are playing a big game, I'm watching while my wife tends to her crafts.  If it's a night off for the Leafs, or in the summertime, we usually end up watching our shows that we have recorded on our DVR.  Well, we're doing the latter so far this evening while I record the Leafs game, so while she's taking a break for a few minutes, I decided to get this trade post in that I had promised yesterday. 

I recently completed a trade with Richard over at Dawgbones, a Phillies Phan!  I was able to send Richard some cards off of his wantlists, including a Shane Victorino jersey card from this years Topps release.  In return, Richard knocked off quite a bit of my wantlist for 2010 Topps update, and a card or two off of some other sets.  In addition, I received these....

Some great Braves stuff

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......I scratched my head for a moment or two, and wondered why I received all the Braves cards, along with a note saying he was sorry about the preseason (I loved the note though, combination of thoughtful and a playful jab maybe??!!)  But I still wondered why I received the Braves cards.   Then it dawned on me, if Richard is like any other blogger out there, he's probably got a few trades on the go, and maybe mixed these in by mistake.  So, I sent Richard an email, and he said he just made a mistake.  He has me down as a Blue Jays fan on his blogodex, so I know he's been paying attention!!

What also happened here...I'm becoming hooked on the Upper Deck X cards.  I received some as well from the Daily Dimwit's Artifacts group break a few weeks back, and after seeing the Braves cards, I may be leaning towards maybe trying to complete this set too. 

Richard, anyhow...thank you for the trade, the cards are indeed appreciated!!  I'm sure that I'll be able to pull some more Phillies stuff for you in the future.  Of course, no worries about the Braves cards as well, I'm sure someone out there may find them a good home!!

Thank you for reading, Robert

Week 11 starts at a local card show

Good Saturday to all, hope that your weekend is great so far.  This is the start of week 11 for me, and that means doing a little "housecleaning" as far as my piles go on the desk.  This weekend is also a local card show not too far away from me, so I figured I would go check it out.

This was actually the first time I'd been at this show, which is at a mall about 15 miles from my house, not too far to go for me.  I walked into the mall, and it was pretty quiet, like it always is, and the hunt was on for the tables.  I hit the center of the mall, and sure enough it was similar to the last show I was at, a small clustering of about 20 tables, with several dealers having multiple tables.  I remembered the good luck I had at the last show finding cards to go into my collection, so I decided to take a good look at this one.

I make it a habit of making at least one lap of all the tables before I start making any purchases.  I do this because if I buy the first thing I want at a table, I'll do it at the next, and so on until my budget is blown.  In the past I blew my budget early, and wound up missing out on some good deals because I had no cash left.

I began "the walk', and found that this show was a little more football intensive than the last one, which kind of disappointed me, because I'm trying to stay away from football as much as possible.  I didn't see much on the first lap until I hit the 2nd last dealer, who had several boxes of top loaders, and a table full of 70's cards in snap-tite plastic cases.  I started perusing the cases when BINGO!, I saw the '77 Topps snap-tite.  100 cards for $6.  I have to see what's in there, so I politely ask the dealer if I can take the cards out.  The dealer was an older gentleman, and very politely said no problem.  I opened the case and these cards were in OK shape, mostly would grade out to excellent, which for me is perfect because it's a '77 set, and I'm not extremely concerned about condition.  I start flipping through the cards and I come across a checklist.  Now if you're old like I am, you'll find that these checklists remind you of your childhood collecting habits. "Hmmm, I got that card, let me color in the square". You kept doing it until your set was finished (or in my case, until you ran out of $$ to buy cards).  Well, take a look at this checklist:

Back is untouched

Front, not too bad.

The back is pristine!  Wow, I was shocked.  It also looks as if whoever collected this originally only bought one pack, because there are only 12 cards marked off on the front.  I also got some other cards that I was happy to get...

More 77 fun

Let's see we have, Don Money, great name for a baseball player in today's era, not so much back in the 70's.  Luis Tiant, still the best windup ever in my opinion.  Roy Howell played for the Jays in the late 70's and early 80's, and has the distinction of driving in 9 runs in a game against the Yankees.


Bobby Valentine still looks exactly the same today, doesn't he??  Mike Marshall will forever hold the record for most appearances in a season; in 1974 he appeared 106 times, went 15-12 with a 2.42 ERA and won the Cy Young award.  Biff Pocoroba is just there, because I like saying his name. 






This dealer also had some $1 and $2 77 Topps cards on his table, so I picked up a Joe Morgan NL All Star card, a Dave Winfield and a Robin Yount as well.   Grand total for all the cards was $10.  Nice!  I'm almost 25% of the way to completing the set for a grand total of $16.  Get this, I'm not done yet for the card show recap, I've got more cool hits, and a story about a family...well let's just say that I felt bad for somebody there today.  Part 2 is tomorrow, check back then.

Thanks for reading, Robert (34 days)