Why I just can't identify with football players, and thus likely will not buy any football this year

Don't get me wrong, I love football.  Sunday afternoons in my recliner, Steelers game on the tube (or whatever game may be on), I'm there.  But the last few years just have kind of turned me off to collecting football cards.  Now anyone who knows me that I don't normally collect teams, I just build base sets.  But, if there were any sport that would be best for me to collect team players, it would be football.  But the passion for me to do this is gone. Players move around in football more than any of the other major sports (yes, free agency is a good thing, but for some, it's just a little too nuts), and when they do, it's hard for me to build something of a team set when you see new players on your team all the time.

Take for example, these 5 players from the 2006 Topps Football set.  3 of them are already on new teams (Holmes, White and Johnathan Joseph), and the other two (Drew and Hester) will surely move when they hit free agency. 








Who knows, maybe I'll relent and work the 2011 Topps football base set, but as of right now, my interest in it(and football cards) is declining...Maybe somebody somewhere can point me in the right direction. 

The end of week 1 and some interesting cards (well, at least I think so...)

Well, here it is Friday, and the end of week 1 in my great experiment to see if I can stay within a weekly budget of $30.  So far, so good because I stayed under by spending $21.70 this week.  Nothing special planned for this weekend, so I may start hunting for trades on other blogs or on The Bench.  Now, on to other things...

Have received some interesting cards from Topps over the past two years in their card giveaway "lottery".  The three that you see scanned below were obtained last year, and to me were an interesting way of piquing my interest in older cards without having to buy any.

All 3 cards were off center, and have corner and edge wear, but for the price of postage, have become a fun part of my collection.














Now, on to an interesting card I found with my collection of hockey jersey cards.  This winning combos combos card from 2007/08 SPx hockey is a dual swatch of Ales Hemsky/Dwayne Roloson from the Edmonton Oilers.  Last I remember, their team colors were copper and blue, and yet here we have an example of a Green swatch on the Roloson side.   Oops!!

I used this card to introduce the fact that I love hockey most of all, and come the fall will be blogging a lot more about it, especially the highs and lows of my favorite team, the Toronto Maple Leafs (yea, I know).  Hopefully this year they will make the playoffs for the first time since the lockout, cause I'm tired of not following hockey seriously after the 2nd week of April.

Cards in the mail...trades & ebay

Didn't have time to post last night, had to get to work early today (up at 415...yikes).  Just wanted to follow through and thank Chris at Nachos Grande for the trade.  I'm 25 cards closer now to my 11 Topps complete set.  LOL, wife and I were looking through the cards yesterday when I received them and found what may be the most ridiculous uniform on a card I've ever seen (my apologies to Oakland A's fans who may read this)...

Please, somebody tell me what they were thinking??

Also, I received another 9 card diamond parallel lot from an eBay auction I won last week...see below

Still have a long way to go to put that set together...

Haven't spent any money since the other day on packs...so still at $21.70 for the week, and likely will carry the extra $8.30 to next weeks $30.

Allen & Ginter Pulls

Got some decent pulls out of this week's blaster box (I've had good luck so far at my local Wal-Mart).

An Aroldis Chapman auto is the best hit so far.  Plus I also pulled a...

K-Rod black bordered mini, and the following two code cards:

Always looking to trade, so if you need or want any of these, just send me an email....thanks,

Week 1

OK, well I have spent the past 3 to 4 weeks getting back into the hobby, and for me that means making trades and building sets.  Unfortunately, I cannot spend like I used to, so I hemmed and hawed about what to do.  So, I looked at quite a few blogs, and saw what people were doing there, and I figured that if they can do it, so can I.  As you can tell, this blog is very rough (my computer skills still aren't the greatest).  But, over time I will try and learn what others are doing, as well as experimenting to find out what I am able to do as well.

I also wanted my own little niche, something that made my blog unique from the other card blogs that are out there (and wow are there a lot of card blogs, and some very good reading as well).  For me, fitting cards into my budget so my wife doesn't give me grief, and I so don't blow the utility bill $$, I decided to keep my spending to $30 a week, cumulative.  What I will do over the course of the next few weeks/months/years, is keep track of my spending on this blog, as a way of showing myself and others in the collecting community that I can do this. 

For example, Week 1 so far (my weeks will run from Saturday to Friday...you will also learn over time that I LOVE my weekends), I have spent $21.70 on the hobby.  This consists of:

$19.99 for a 2011 Allen & Ginter blaster box at Wal-Mart
$1.71 for postage on a trade with Chris over at Nachos Grande for some 2011 Topps base cards to complete my set. 
Now what I am going to do is allow myself to carry over money, that is if I don't make any more trades or purchases this week, the $8.30 will carry over into next week.

Hopefully I'll get some followers (or at least some views), and get to talk to more of the collecting community over the not too distant future.