February Recap, and a trip preview

As expected, it was a light month.  On the positive side, the guitar amp is out of the shop and sounding incredible. So barring any unforeseen expenses, I should be back to mailing out pretty soon. We're also only a month away from the start of baseball season, so Frisco runs should start happening pretty soon too.

FEBRUARY 1 – Dallas Renegades Practice
Lance Dunbar, 3/3
Eric Dungey, 2/2
Landry Jones, 4/4
Frank Alexander, 1/1
Daryl “Moose” Johnston, 3/3
Greer Martini, 2/2
Sean Price, 1/1
Hau’Oli Kikaha, 4/4
Derron Smith, 2/3
Bob Stoops, 1/1
Tre Watson, 2/2

FEBRUARY 7
Rick Wilson, c/o business, 1/1, 1 year

FEBRUARY 19
Brad Maxwell, c/o home, 4/4, 1 month

FEBRUARY 21
Ken Holtzman, c/o home, 1/1, 1 month

FEBRUARY 22
Terry Labonte, c/o home, 4/4, 10 months

FEBRUARY 25
Ryan Reed, c/o team, 3/3, 10 months

I'm also looking at doing another graphing mini-trip with Arron in early June. We can catch Corpus Christi at Midland, Las Vegas at El Paso, Salt Lake City at Albuquerque, and Midland at Amarillo all in a four day span on June 3 through June 6. So that's pencilled in on the calendar. It's a good holdover until the 2022 National trip.

Speaking of that, we're now less than a year away from the 2021 Topps Heritage set being released with the 1972 design. I plan to go nuts on this set with TTM and IP and trading to get as much signed as I can in the base set, the high-numbers set, and the minor league set. I already have an improbable piece of work with the 1972 set project; I might as well add more to the Sisyphusian task.

Help me out here fans/collectors: what's my best way of doing this? Buy a hobby case? Retail case? Blaster case? Just grab a few complete sets off eBay? Snag a bunch of base lots from people breaking cases? Maybe a combination of a blaster case plus a box or two of hobby or retail?

I'm not looking to make a killing on inserts or SPs or anything like that, but I'd like at least two complete base sets, preferably three or four just for an overabundance of preparedness. And I'd like to do it in the most cost-effective way possible, knowing I'll have to lather-rinse-repeat in the fall with the high-number and minor league sets.

Two-month update

I got a little busy: joined a new band, had the find of a lifetime while sorting which I'll get to at the end, and am preparing for a couple trips later this month. So I'll sneak in this update while I have half a moment.

SEPTEMBER 6
Jaime Jarrin, c/o home, 2/2, 1 week
Carlton Fisk, c/o home, 1/1, 2 weeks, $40

SEPTEMBER 7
Dick Tracewski, c/o home, 3/3, 2 weeks
Joe Tait, c/o home, 3/3, 2 weeks

SEPTEMBER 9
Monte Moore, c/o home, 2/2, 2 weeks
Dave Lemonds, c/o home, 2/2, 2 weeks
Steve Zungul, c/o home, 1/1, 2 months

SEPTEMBER 10
Steve Brye, c/o home, 3/3, 3 weeks
Enrico Ciccone, c/o Quebec Parliament, 2/2, 1 month
Mark Karpun, c/o home, 1/1, 3 weeks

SEPTEMBER 11
Fred Cambria, c/o home, 2/2, 1 week

SEPTEMBER 12
Syd O'Brien, c/o home, 3/3, 1 week

SEPTEMBER 13
Bob Heise, c/o home, 3/3, 1 week

SEPTEMBER 14
Al Spangler, c/o home, 3/3, 2 weeks

SEPTEMBER 17
Denny Matthews, c/o home, 2/2, 3 weeks

SEPTEMBER 19
Booker T. Jones, c/o home, 1/1, 2 weeks

SEPTEMBER 26
Charlie Hough, c/o home, 4/4, 6 weeks
Bob Gallagher, c/o home, 3/3, 3 weeks
Mel Behney, c/o home, 2/2, 1 month

OCTOBER 1 - Rangers Development Camp
David Garcia 1/1
Josh Jung 1/1
Julio Pablo Partinez 2/4
Jonathan Ornelas 2/4
Leody Taveras 2/4
Cole Winn 4/4

OCTOBER 5 - Rangers Development Camp
Sam Huff 1/1
Josh Jung 1/1
Davis Wendzel 1/1
Cole Winn 2/2
Leody Taveras 1/1
Julio Pablo Martinez 2/2
Jonathan Ornelas 2/2
David Garcia 1/1

OCTOBER 15
Hal Lanier, c/o home, 3/3, 6 months
Mason McReakin, c/o home, 4/2, 1 week, added a signed IC and a note

OCTOBER 22
Gene Clines, c/o home, 1/1, 1 week

OCTOBER 25
Ted Giannoulas, c/o home, 3/2, 2 weeks, added a note

OCTOBER 29
Tony Esposito, c/o home, 1/1, 2 weeks, $10

NOVEMBER 1
Pete Mahovlich, c/o home, 2/1, 2 weeks, $10, added an extra signed card

So yeah, quite a hodge-podge in there. Three that I paid for, which I rarely do, but I had some spare cash on hand and needed them for sets. Two IP outings. Fifteen new additions to the 1972 Topps project (plus three I bought on eBay). Two for the Topps/OPC Archives hockey set. Two for the MISL project. One for the Fleer Throwback hockey set. And three just for the hell of it. Clines finished the 1971 Topps dual with Cambria, McReakin pitched in the Braves org in 2018 and is a member of the Facebook autograph groups I run, a well-known mascot in Giannoulas (The Chicken!), and Jones is my first music-related success.

So, the new band. We're called The Nothing. Right now I'll likely be splitting time on drums and guitar. I'm most comfortable on drums, but as long as I can stick to rhythm guitar then I'm competent on six strings. We're still looking for a bassist and hopefully a lead guitarist (so that I can be solely on rhythm and the lead singer can stick to just vocals instead of both vocals and rhythm guitar). I do need to get a better guitar amp soon though.

Which brings me to the find of a lifetime.

With the baseball autographing season winding down in September, I figured it was time for a cleanup. It had been a couple years since I had sorted any new additions into my inventory of stuff. I had several boxes of unsorted/barely sorted cards across pretty much every sport, whether purchases, gifts, or stuff I had pulled from inventory and failed to get signed. So to clean up, organize, and just overall make sure I had my shit together so that I didn't forget something when pulling for an outing, I decided to spend a few months sorting. We're in mid-November and I'm almost done-- I just have to finish hockey R-Z and soccer. I'll be done by Thanksgiving.

Anyways, as I was searching and sorting, within the span of about 24 hours I found three BIG cards I didn't know I had, just sitting in boxes: Patrick Mahomes' 2017 Prizm RC, Mike Trout's 2012 Topps Heritage card...

... and the 2018 Topps Ronald Acuna Jr. bat-down photo variation.

I had pulled it from a random pack a while back. I remember even getting it in the pack and just going "Wow, an Acuna RC, cool" since this was not long after my friend Arron pulled the 2018 Pro Debut Acuna auto. I figured okay, maybe this would be a $5-10 card, not knowing about the photo variation. So I just stuck it in a box and forgot about it.

Over the next few months I forgot I had it, but saw a few posts on Facebook groups about the card heating up and going for big money and thinking to myself "Man, I never have pulls like that." So when I pulled it out from this random box, I was hyperventilating and close to shaking-- pretty sure my wife was about to dial 911.

I put it in a sleeve and case and immediately made preparations to run it over to Beckett-- along with the Trout, the Mahomes, my 1989 UD Griffey RC, and an old T-205 gold border tobacco card that my in-laws had given me.  A month later, I picked them up yesterday...

Mahomes: 9 overall with subs of 9.5/9.5/9/8.5 (I knew the centering was bad)
Griffey: 9 overall with subs of 9.5/9.5/9/9
Trout: 9 overall with subs of 9.5/9.5/9/8.5 (somehow the surface got knocked down)
T-205 Tom Downey: 1 overall, no subs, which I expected; I mostly just wanted to protect it in a slab

The Acuna came back as one of the 32 best in the population report. There is one Black Label 10, and 27 regular 10s. There are only four 9.5s that have subs of 10/10/9.5/9.5 including mine.

Considering the range of 9.5s have all gone for $400-600 over the last two months, I'm hoping the two 10 subs and two 9.5 subs will get me $1000. I mean really, you cannot get a better 9.5, and I've only seen two 10s come up for sale, both of which accepted a Best Offer on eBay so I don't know the actual price-- only that they were originally listed at $3000, $2300, and there's one up now at a price of $2350. PSA 10s are going in the $1500 range. I figure a BGS 9.5 with 10/10/9.5/9.5 subs has to be about equivalent to a PSA 10, right?

So, I figure that's how I'll get that new guitar amp.

Phantom Parallels: The Checklist Replacers

I'll have my September update coming in the next week or so. Got a crowded few days ahead of me including some baseball IP outings!

In almost every base set for four decades, Topps produced the loathsome checklist card.  No one wanted to pull it from a pack: it didn't feature a player, just a list of who was on what card. In the early days, kids would mark them off and use them for their intended purpose. In later days, everyone wanted a 100% mint condition set, so it was little more than space-filling junk.

1992 birthed the brainchild (or spawned the brainbastard, depending on your outlook) of the parallel set. Take the base set, tweak something but change nothing else, and whammo, new tough-to-find collectible! Topps Gold was the first to do this before every company followed suit and now today you have the crazy rainbow chasers who need every single variety of a guy's Chrome or Prizm or whatever card.

So of course, the last thing ANYONE would want is for their short-printed parallel that they pull from a pack to be the checklist card. Instead of leaving gaps in their sets, Topps printed what I call the phantom parallels: inserting players to replace the checklists, but those players didn't have a regular card.

I'm always interested in oddball cards to get autographed so I started to wonder how many of these would be possible to get signed.  I haven't gone that far, but I did finally assemble a list of who the phantom parallels were in each set.

1992 BB Gold
131: Terry Mathews
264: Rod Beck
366: Tony Perezchica
527: Terry McDaniel
658: John Ramos
787: Brian Williams
132T: Kerry Woodson

1992 FB Gold
109: Freeman McNeil
218: David Daniels
316: Chris Hakel
341: Ottis Anderson
452: Shawn Moore
563: Mike Mooney
759: Curtis Whitley

1992-93 BK Gold
197: Jeff Sanders
198: Elliot Perry
395: David Wingate
396: Carl Herrera

1992-93 HK Gold
525: Alan Conroy
526: Jeff Norton
527: Rob Robinson
528: Adam Foote

* * * * * * * * * *
1993 BB Gold
394: Bernardo Brito
395: Jim McNamara
396: Rich Sauveur
823: Keith Brown
824: Russ McGinnis
825: Mike Walker

1993 FB Gold
329: Terance Mathis
330: John Wojciechowski
659: Pat Chaffey
660: Milton Mack

1993-94 BK Gold
197: David Wingate
198: Frank Johnson
395: Will Perdue
396: Mark West

1993-94 HK Gold
263: Martin Lapointe
264: Kevin Miehm
527: Myles O’Connor
528: Jamie Leach

* * * * * * * * * *
1994 BB Gold
395: Bill Brennan
396: Jeff Bronkey
791: Mike Cook
792: Dan Pasqua

1994-95 BK Spectralight
197: Keith Jennings
198: Mark Price
395: Chris Webber
396: Mitch Richmond

1994-95 HK Special Effects
274: Rudy Poeschek
275: Michael Peca
549: John Druce
550: Matt Martin

* * * * * * * * * *
1995 BB Cyberstats
395: Darryl Strawberry
396: Luis Alicea

It doesn't look like Topps did any phantoms for the 1994 Football Special Effects set. Shame, as I'd love to have seen some punters or long snappers represented. The parallel craze died (for Topps at least) following the 1995 Series 1 baseball.  Of course Pacific ran the concept into the ground in the late 90s, but they also didn't print checklist cards in the base set. Topps got smart and eventually made the checklists as a random one-per-pack insert that wasn't part of the set, then took from Upper Deck and put them back in the set but put a player or something interesting on the front with the list on the back.

There were a few similar to this in the O-Pee-Chee baseball sets that I'll need to assemble a list of as well. I know Delino Deshields and Nate Minchey both had a 1988 card after the Expos drafted them (Deshields replacing Earnest Riles and Minchey replacing the Nolan Ryan Record Breaker card), and there were several cards replacing the All-Stars in the 1992 set. O-Pee-Chee also typically denoted trades on their cards, such as Dennis Lamp's 1987 card that shows him as a Blue Jays but has Chief Wahoo and a "Now with Indians" notation, and even gave Blue Jays catcher Rick Cerone his own 1977 card instead of just stashing him on the Rookie Catchers card that Topps had, where he was still with the Indians. Granted, the OPC set usually was an abbreviated set rather than a true parallel and a guy might be on card 630 in Topps, but then on 390 in OPC. But aside from that, the cards look the same. So finding a card that wasn't in the Topps set but was in the OPC set is kind of a phantom in its own right.

EDIT: There's a blog on the OPC variations!

Of course, some of these guys might not sign, and some-- such as Rod Beck and Terry Mathews-- may even be dead. But if you're looking for some oddball items to potentially get signed, look no further than the phantom parallel.

Outsourcing some writing

As some of you may know, I also write for Sports Card Forum quite often.

I also have a link here (to the right, a ways down the page) to my past articles there on their old blog-style articles page.

This week I also added to that, penning a piece on a random card for Corey Mansfield's Broken Bat Blog.

Check it out here!

Read more of Broken Bat Blog here as well.

National Sports Collectors Convention, Days 4 and 5, plus aftermath, Indians, and TTM

READ MORE: Preview, Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four

NOTE: more photos will be added this week including the 8x10 and 11x14 photos.

A view of the show floor.

I'm back in Texas now after a 6:45 am flight to start my day.  That's 5:45 Central. As one who has never been a morning person, having to deal with pain in my ears and a screaming baby and flight attendants who twice forgot my drink order and weather that is 20 degrees hotter than what I left in Ohio, I arrived home tired and hot.

Saturday: Dad, Bobby Hull, and Johnny Football

Fortunately it was an awesome weekend that had bonuses beyond just attending the National, starting on Saturday.  My dad came down to the show in the morning, and we went down to check it out.  The first place we went was the Panini booth so I could show him a few of the products I've been involved in.  I even got a few boxes to show him, breaking some 13-14 Contenders, Titanium, and Crown Royale hockey. I had a few nice pulls, it was great seeing the stuff I worked on, and my dad seemed pretty impressed by the stuff going on in the card world.

Panini booth

I had set up something with one of our guys from acquisitions and we went over to try that.  I dropped my Milt Plum photo and ticket off with Dan from the SCF board and we headed over to the Case Break Pavilion.  Panini was on the stage breaking some Prime, with Bobby Hull joining them for an interview and to comment on the cards.  It's great to hear from one of the greats and he was hilarious. Only a hockey player could use both the terms "amalgamated" and "shitkicked" in the same breath.  I had talked to one of Panini's acquisitions guys about trying to meet Hull, who is my dad's all-time favorite player.  It looked like we would have a chance, but unfortunately later in the day he was sick and left the show early.

However, we were able to hit up a bunch of tables and I got to talk to a few people who could help me with some of my sets.  I also bought a bunch.  Saturday is the first day you really start to see prices occasionally drop and I foune one that had done so.  Originally they had a bunch of cards at $6 or 5 for $25.  They dropped them to $4 and 7 for $25.  And they had a bunch I needed.  For $41, I knocked out 6 for my football set, 3 for baseball, and picked up 2 I just wanted.  There were some tough signers included in there as well.  At another, I picked up a bunch, mostly basketball, at 3 for $1, as well as some Avs for my wife.

A few set hits

I also got Hanford Dixon and Al Oliver on 11x14 photos with my VIP tickets.  Oliver really liked the photo I had, and Dixon was his usual self, always fan friendly and taking time to sign a good 'graph.  It's just an H, a big loop. and an X, but he always adds his #29, "Go Browns" and his "Top Dawg" nickname.

A typical autograph line. Or a piece of it.

Saturday night was the big one: the Panini VIP Party. As an employee I asked if they needed any help for it and was told to show up a little before 7 and I could certainly assist them. What an event! Julius Erving, Kyrie Irving, Trey Burke, Joe Namath, Tom Glavine, Jose Canseco, Dominique Wilkins, and of course Johnny Manziel.  Plus a live set from DJ Kool of "Let Me Clear My Throat" fame. I got to chat briefly with Erving and Irving, and ended up near Canseco several times throughout the night. The dude is still huge. After I got done working, I got to go and rub elbows with the big spenders-- anyone wanting admission had to buy $7500 worth of Panini products at the show. And here I was, a guy barely able to afford to spend 1/20th of that getting to hang out with them. I love my job.

So while everything was going on, I went over and asked the aforementioned acquisitions guy if there was any chance I could get a photo with Manziel. As the only Browns fan at Panini (as far as I know), I figured I'd have a decent shot. About 15 minutes later, he told me to follow him to the back. After doing a quick interview and a couple photos, Manziel walked over, I got introduced, quickly told him I'm a huge Browns fan working at Panini and would love a photo with him. Manziel could not have been more accommodating. It would be easy for someone in his position to roll his eyes a bit and say "Alright, whatever, let's get this over." But he didn't: he seemed genuinely happy to meet a fan of the team, shook my hand, and posed for a picture, which I posted Saturday night/Sunday morning. I seriously spent the next 30 minutes wondering if that really just happened.

Sunday: The end of a week-long collectibles bender

I was pretty wiped out Sunday morning, but I still had autographs to get and money to burn.  I got Jeff Burroughs on my 11x14 photo (soon to be signed by Tom Grieve as well) and Gary Bell on an 8x10 photo. He added "Smoke em inside" to it as well per my request, quoting his line to Jim Bouton in Ball Four when Bouton asked him how to pitch to guys in a team's lineup. That was Bell's answer for every single one.  In the afternoon, I added Mike Hargrove on a 11x14 photo that he had never seen before, and Len Barker on several items-- my Tom Browning ball (completing a dual-signed by the only two pitchers to toss a perfect game in an Ohio MLB game since World War One), two cards (one for Chris), and a 11x14, celebrating the final out of the perfecto.

Grabbed two of Fedor. That's trade bait!

I also hit up a few more tables, finding one with a ton of hockey autos 3 for $1.  I was able to find several more set needs, knowing my 2004 Choice AHL Top Prospects down to only three unsigned, picking up Yann Danis for the 05-06 UD Rookie Class set, and adding a notorious toughie to my Topps Total set in Fedor Fedorov.  So overall, I added about 20-25 cards to my sets, plus picking up some trade bait and adding some higher-end items via the various signings. I also decided I'm going to start getting the 1972 Topps set signed as much as I can. I'll never complete it, but it would be a fun project to work on. At the very least, I'll get everything signed that I can and at least get the rest of the set unsigned but all together.

Everyone gets a photo with the Stanley Cup.
Cool people do it with the Hart Trophy.

Monday: A bit of IP graphing

On Monday I headed down to The Jake to try my hand at the players' parking lot.  I had pretty decent success-- at least a whole lot better than Arlington.  Ryan Raburn signed 2 cards just after I arrived, followed by 3 from Bryan Shaw, 3 from Marc Rzepczynski, 3 from Mike Aviles, 3 from John Axford, and 1 from David Murphy.  I wish the Rangers had easier access to players like this. The players' lot in Cleveland is fenced in and outdoors so it's easy to see them come and go and to call out to them as they walk to the door.  I stuck around and checked out the game as well with a guy from the show that I met on the hotel shuttle. Good game, Tribe took it to the Reds 7-1 as Corey Kluber once again had a great game. I also surpassed the 50% mark on my goal of 1500 sigs for the year.

The haul from the parking lot. Could have had Reds too
if I was any good at ID'ing them.

Tuesday: I went back to Ohio and my city was gone

Tuesday I mostly spent driving around Lake County. I tried to get in at my old high school but the driveway was under construction so I couldn't get in.  I did go to my old elementary/middle school at least, which is now owned by a college nearby.  I also drove around a few areas mentioned in an article I read on Dustin Spaller, a local athlete who was murdered in his early 20's. I never knew Dustin: he was a few years older than me but we attended the same school briefly. Our moms worked together at the local hospital. Of the places mentioned in the article, Just Teazin' was down the street from my house, I played Little League ball in Rec Park, we used to fill up at the BP station a lot, but Tony's is in what I had always heard was a pretty sketchy neighborhood. I drove around it a bit and it wasn't any worse than some areas I've been through, like Boston's Combat Zone, anything on the MBTA Orange Line, or a few areas of Wichita Falls. From the outside in the daytime it looks like just another bar or Italian restaurant. Granted, after something like this the area may have been cleaned up a bit-- signs are posted that the place is under 24-hour surveillance.  I drove by my old house for a bit and it's almost unrecognizable. New siding, new windows, if I didn't know the location and the shape of it like the back of my hand, I never would have known I had lived there for nearly 20 years. Show me a photo with zero context and I wouldn't know.

Fortunately a lot of things are still around.  Most of the businesses I know are there or have expanded and moved.  Mr. P's Pizza is gone, as is the Donut Stop, but taking their place are a barbecue joint and a cupcake shop.  Downtown, Puritan Bakery closed up, but the old Cards & Games from the Painesville Shopping Center moved in.  I stopped in and picked up a box of 1988 Score baseball just for the hell of it.  At the Great Lakes Mall in Mentor, it seems like every store space is filled.  There are only a couple openings and the mall appears to be doing very well.  I hit East Coast Frozen Custard for the first time in ten years, later finding they had opened a new branch at the Mentor-Painesville line.  Dick's Sporting Goods moved to the mall, and a card shop is also open near it.  I stopped in and talked to one of the proprietors for a while and left him my card.

The business card worked well all week.  I found a few people who may be able to help me out and I them.  I already found one auto for a guy who is collecting all the Fleer sets signed.  I also may have a guy for signed hockey stuff.

To finish things out, I went to my dad's place on Tuesday and he told me he was giving me all his old cards.  He didn't have many: most of his collection had been sold to a friend years ago.  At one point he said he had nearly every card from the late 50's and early 60's.  All he had left are the 1962 and 1963 Topps cards we found in Grandma's attic before she moved into an assisted living home in 1992.  And now 22 years later, he was passing them down to me. Here are a few photos...

Click to enlarge; Brunet lived next door to my dad in the 60's.

To finally top it all off, I had six TTMs waiting for me when I got home.  Each taking less than 3 weeks were Ken Schrom (5/5), Jamie Easterly (4/4), Gerald McNeil (3/3, all personalized), Danny Wuerffel (3/3, plus a donation request), Stevon Moore (3/3), and Matt Stover (4/3, enclosing a signed religious card).

The mailbox was busy while I was away.

I got to hit Melt and Friendly's, picked up chocolates from Malley's, and got another supply of Stadium Mustard. It had been ten years since I had Pierre's and East Coast Frozen Custard.  I love going back to Cleveland. I just wish I could do it more often.

Anyways, it was an amazing week and I can't wait to do it again, whether it's in the next three years for Chicago and Atlantic City or in 2018 in Cleveland again.  At the very least, now the planning starts for hockey season along with the end of baseball.  I'm sure I'll be cutting back on baseball a bit but we'll see.  At the very least, I've been told I should consider hitting Frisco this weekend.

I may also write a full-week recap of this on SCF or elsewhere. We'll see.

Until next time, Cleveland.

National Sports Collectors Convention, Day 3

First I'd like to say hello and welcome to anyone I've chatted with this week at the National or the Indians game, or anywhere else around Cleveland.  Thanks for taking the time to check out my slice of the interwebs, and I hope you'll become regular readers and commenters.

Today was significantly lighter on the 'graphing front.  There were five signers, but only three I needed anything from, as I couldn't find anything for Jim Stillwagon and didn't feel like paying $5 for a photo, so I gave away my ticket for him.

Apparently Sonny Siebert fell ill, so he was a no-show; fortunately TriStar allowed us to use our Siebert tickets on any other VIP signer that day, so I got an idea.  Okay, I ripped off the idea from someone else. But only because it was a good one.  I'll get to that in a moment.

Al "Bubba" Baker had his timeslot moved up to 11:30 to accommodate the lack of Siebert.  He signed an 8x10 photo for me, even adding an inscription of his winning the Defensive Rookie of the Year in 1978.  Some may recognize him from the TV show Shark Tank, where he developed and patented a method for deboning ribs.  He owns Bubba's Q, a barbecue restaurant in Avon, Ohio.

Bubba said he smokes his briskets for 18 hours. I may have to sample it.

With some time before the two late signers, I finished walking the show aisles and checked out the cheap autograph tables. Sadly, there was nothing I could use for cheap. There were a few I need that were a bit pricier, but I'll wait until the last day before I make any big decisions. On the plus side though, I picked up a couple Hall of Famers' RCs for cheap.  I spent $8 total to get a Jari Kurri and Carlton Fisk. I have one more table to check out, we'll see what develops there.

I did get my business card out to a number of people this week, so hopefully I'll have a few more regular readers of this blog, and maybe a few who can help me out with the holes in my collection.  I was told to talk to a guy with Heritage Auctions as well; he's done a number of signed sets and has some excellent contacts.

I also helped out an SCF member with some signed items as contest prizes.  Dan left his tickets and 8x10 photos of Joe Charbonneau and Tom Browning with me to get signed, which I did.  Charbonneau also signed my 11x14 photo and shook my hand three times-- perhaps opening a beer bottle with one's eye too many times leads to short-term memory loss?  He did add 1980 AL ROY to all his sigs which was a nice touch.

Browning was who I used my Siebert ticket on. I picked up a ROMLB from a dealer ($19, which is more than I like to spend, but I think this will be worth it) along with Dan's photo and my 11x14 photo. He added P.G. 9/16/88 to them all. As you may notice in the picture, I had him sign off on the side panel. I'm going to get Len Barker on the other side panel, thus having the only two Ohio pitchers to toss perfect games post-World War One on the same ball.  Addie Joss is the only one I'd be missing if you include all of MLB history, and good luck getting him to sign it.

I'll get a better picture of the ball later.

Tomorrow I'll be taking my dad to the show, and hopefully will have a surprise in store on here. I can't say much more than that right now. I also have a few unsigned items to buy, and hopefully autographs from Hanford Dixon, Milt Plum, and Al Oliver.

Preview: 35th National Sports Collectors Convention, July 30-August 3, I-X Center, Cleveland, Ohio

The Granddaddy of Them All is hitting the big 3-5 this year, and it's happening in my hometown.

The National isn't the first card show ever, but it certainly is the biggest.  Every year in a different city, collectors come from all over the country-- sometimes even all over the continent, perhaps even the world-- for a five-day card show that takes up almost the entire floor of some of the world's largest expo centers.  The show has been restricted to three different cities over the last eight years after having stops in eleven cities in the first 25.  Add in the next six, and it will be four cities in 14 years. This year's will be the sixth to take up the International Exposition Center in Cleveland. Previously, the show was held there in 1997, 2001, 2004, 2007, and 2009.

The I-X Center: formerly a World War II bomber and
Korean War tank plant
(Photo Credit: Ohio Gun Collectors Association)

I'm sure many of you have been to card shows of various sizes. Anything from a few tables in a VFW Hall or an Elks Lodge, to a corner of the Grange Hall at the county fair, and on up to a hotel ballroom. Before the 1997 National, the largest show I had been to was at the annual show at the Clarion Hotel in Eastlake, OH.  The National trumps any show you have ever been to.

Even though I've been to three previous Nationals (1997, 2001, and 2004), the sheer size of it still knocks me off my feet when I first walk in.  Let's put it this way: the I-X Center has 1 million square feet of exhibition and conference space.  The Show takes up less than half of that, but it still is ungodly huge. It has 23 aisles, a 12,000 square foot Case Break Pavilion, corporate sections with giant booths for major sponsors (including Panini, Upper Deck, Leaf, PSA, Beckett, Blowout Cards, Dave & Adam's Card World, COMC, and plenty more), a 39,000 square foot autograph pavilion, a food court, and a VIP Lounge. The dealers take up the rest.

A tiny piece of the 2009 National
(Photo Credit: Sports Collectors Daily)

All the companies and sponsors have various freebies, whether it be in the VIP gift bags (double the stuff for Super VIP's) or via wrapper redemption programs or box breaks. Topps has already announced theirs, with Panini, Upper Deck, Leaf, and Press Pass certain to follow soon.

Past shows have had various sports artifacts on display, including the famous PSA 8 Honus Wagner, balls from the 1998 Sosa vs. McGwire Home Run Chase, some Barry Bonds home run balls from 2001, one of Shoeless Joe Jackson's bats, and more.  Plenty of well-known dealers will be there as well: there's a full list here in PDF form.

And of course, there's the world's second tallest indoor Ferris Wheel, offering views of Cleveland Hopkins Airport and the city's skyline at the very top through a glass-enclosed cutout in the roof. It was the tallest until one in Turkmenistan passed it in 2012. It's definitely worth taking a few minutes out of your day to relax and enjoy a ride on it at some point during the show.

The Wheel
(Photo Credit: lareina1045 on Flickr)

Needless to say, the National is a must-visit for any serious collector at least once in their lifetime.  As a Cleveland native with vacation time built up at work, it's a good opportunity for me to get back to it again, visit friends, family, and my city, and add more to my collection.

Tristar runs all things autograph-related at the show.  Fortunately, with my SuperVIP pass, I will at least get all of their free VIP signers, so I should be able to add about 20 autographs to my collection.  The full rundown of freebies is as follows (with the item I plan to get signed in parentheses):

WEDNESDAY, JULY 30
Carlos Baerga (11x14 photo), Dale Murphy (11x14 photo, maybe some cards for Chris as well if I can swing it), Kevin Mack (11x14 photo), Billy Sims (11x14 photo)

THURSDAY, JULY 31
Andy Van Slyke (Topps ATFF card), Howard Johnson (Topps ATFF card), Rick Waits (not sure yet; hoping to trade it for an extra Van Slyke or HoJo), Joe Delamielleure (Topps ATFF card)

FRIDAY, AUGUST 1
Sonny Siebert (8x10 photo), Jim Stillwagon (not sure yet; hoping to use as trade bait for Van Slyke or HoJo), Al "Bubba" Baker (8x10 photo; don't remember if I ordered 11x14 or 8x10), Joe Charbonneau (11x14 photo), Tom Browning (11x14 perfect game photo)

SATURDAY, AUGUST 2
Milt Plum (8x10 photo), Hanford Dixon (11x14 photo with Frank Minnifield; hopefully I can get Minnie on it sometime in the future), Al Oliver (11x14 photo)

SUNDAY, AUGUST 3
Jeff Burroughs (11x14 photo with Tom Grieve; major thanks to TGC reader Big Anthony for hooking me up with it; I'm sure I can get Grieve on it at the tunnel later in August), Gary Bell (8x10 photo), Mike Hargrove (11x14 photo), Len Barker (11x14 perfect game photo)

In addition, I might go for one of the Topps wrapper redemption deals-- open three packs, turn in the wrappers, and get a Allen & Ginter mini card of Jadaveon Clowney, Johnny Manziel, Jim Brown, Jordan Cameron, Derek Jeter, Mike Trout, Bob Feller or Albert Belle. Hopefully if I break a box of Heritage, I can get all of them, plus some stuff I can get signed in the final months of the season. At the very least, I want Manziel and Cameron.

I'll also be on the lookout for anything I can find to add to my sets.  I'll get at least three items signed for the Topps ATFF sets, maybe as many as five if I can swing a few trades.  I'm sure a few dealers will have some signed cards.  I'm also always on the lookout for any bargains (like getting a 1983 O-Pee-Chee Ryne Sandberg RC at the 2001 show for about 50 cents) and stuff of my wife's favorite players (Peter Forsberg, Matt Duchene, and Gabriel Landeskog).

Part of the fun of the show of course is networking.  SportsCardForum will have a booth there, and I've already alerted collectors at several other boards that I'll be coming in.  I even printed up business cards promoting TGC with a list of sets I'm doing.  If you're reading this and will be there, let me know; I'd love to meet any other collectors, especially regular readers here. And if you'd be willing to trade or sell your Van Slyke and/or Hojo tickets, DEFINITELY let me know ASAP.

Photoshop skills.

Outside the show, I already have a ton of other things I plan to do.  I need to make sure I have a dinner at Melt one night, and the B-Spot.  Maybe Hot Sauce Williams, or West Side Market. Malley's of course.  Granted, I may be so tired from walking all through the show that I just end up hitting Friendly's, Panera, and Burger King every night near the hotel.  I know one SCF member has talked about trying to get a group together one night, and who knows what my people from Panini may have in store.

I also plan to go to two Indians games as they take on the Reds the Monday and Tuesday after the show-- I will be graphing both games, both at the Indians; parking lot and inside for the Reds. I may also need to duck up to Eastlake to get a Lake County Captains team set at their team store.  Plus I'll be visiting my dad, and hopefully meeting up with a few friends from high school.

It's going to be a crazy week, but a good one. It's been two years since I was last in Cleveland, so it'll be good to get back. I haven't been to the I-X Center in ten years and I've heard they added some floor space and repainted since then (first ceiling repainting since 1984).  Plus, I plan to update here after every day of the show.

Hope to see you there, and if you can't make it to the North Coast, you can always follow along here.

For more information, visit NSCCShow.com for a full floorplan, list of dealers, sponsors, autograph signers, promotions, and photos from last year's show in Chicago.

Hounding Report: Modano Night, March 8; Stars' Practice, March 9; a couple TTM's and trades

It's been a while since I last had a graphing outing, which actually worked out alright. My wife finally got moved down here so we were able to spend time organizing the apartment and getting her acclimated to the area, and getting her a new job, for which she started training this week. Plus floorball has been taking off with new games added in Arlington, a scrimmage in Keene where we showed the Fort Worth Venom could become a force very quickly, league play in Flower Mound, and upcoming tournaments in Keene, Austin, and Arlington.

It's also given me time to start on a project of potentially selling off some unsigned cards that I don't need on eBay and figuring out who I can send to TTM to get some of these signed.  I've found enough signers to probably get out a couple thousand cards. The only limitations will be how much time I want to spend writing and how much money I can afford on postage.

And still, I've been able to add some new stuff to the collection.  I got back a couple TTM, including Jarome Iginla (2/3, sent back the third unsigned, signed in thin-tip blue) and Eric Metcalf (4/4, signed in black).  I also pulled a trade with a guy in Ontario, Mark.  He got a few guys I need for my sets plus some other stuff I want for a few he needs for his various sets. The first half has arrived with more on the way; I'll be getting his stuff out soon as well.

I also got a bunch from Corey up in New York, including a few that will go to Arron.  He's gotten a ton signed for me from the Atlantic League, including former Indians first baseman Ben Broussard and former NL ROY Dontrelle Willis.

And finally with March rolling in, I've had a chance to get back out on the 'graphing circuit.  Through a floorball contact, I got free tickets to Saturday's Stars game, featuring the Mike Modano jersey number retirement.  These tickets were tough to come by, selling upwards of $150 on StubHub and SeatGeek. Before the game, they were doing a Red Green Carpet walk-in with all the guests, many of whom stopped and signed.  Bob Gainey was the first one I got, as he signed the Canadiens puck I;ve been holding for quite a while.  Gainey was perfect for it because it's a 1980's puck, complete with John Ziegler's signature on the back NHL logo.  And he's a Hall of Famer. Gainey looked at me and said "Geez, you've got every thing going on there; Texas hat, Pittsburgh jacket, Minnesota shirt, and Montreal puck," as I had on my Rangers hat, Penguins jacket, North Stars shirt, and the puck. He signed it in gold, a great new addition for my desk.  I'll have to post a picture of the puck wall I've got going on there.

The rest of the time was tough-- a lot of guys skipped around signing so I didn't rack as much as I was hoping.  However, I could have handled it much better, getting to the front of the walkway instead of the middle, or even skipping it and trying the players at the hotel.  I did at least get Stewart Gavin (4/4 cards), Shawn Chambers (2/4), Guy Carbonneau (1/4), Jon Sim (3/3), Dave Reid (1/4), Gerald Diduck (1/4), Jamie Langenbrunner (2/4), and Jere Lehtinen (1/4).  I also got a pic with Brent Severyn, one of the NHL's top fighters in the mid 90's.  I was hoping to get pics with Basil McRae, Grant Marshall, and Shane Churla too, but I wasn't certain who was who. Most of these guys haven't played in 10-25 years and only getting a brief look at them on the video boards with a long delay in between due to their being asked to stop for interviews, photos, and signings along the way made it tough.

Hangin' with Sevy. I resemble a mustachioed 12 year old girl.

The ceremony was awesome.  I had been to a number retirement before but it was just AHL ones for Johnny Bower and Fred Glover in Cleveland, a good 40 years after they had played there.  This ceremony was well-done from start to finish and much deserved for Modano.  Honestly if it hadn't been for Modano, I likely wouldn't be living in Texas or even married to my wife. It's amazing how one little thing like that can change so many things.

Today, Chris and I hit up the Stars practice, trying the alternate entrance out.  Unfortunately not much luck was had.  Before practice, only Tim Thomas signed.  Nice guy though: coming out of his car I asked if he had time to sign my puck.  He stopped, looked at his watch and said "Sure thing," taking my pen and signing.  I asked if he could add "2x Vezina" to it, and he said "THAT I don't have time for."  Jokingly of course: he added it and it came out pretty nice.  Another great addition for the wall in my cubicle.

Despite his political leanings, Thomas is pretty cool

We went over to Plano for a card show, each picking up some stuff for TTM's and future Rangers alumni signings, as well as the few Stars cards we could find.  I also talked to Rich Klein, formerly of Beckett who ran the show.  He actually recognized me as a Rangers 'grapher. It had been about 10 years since my last show and this was a good one-- easily manageable both for dealers and consumers, but still had something for every type of collector.  Perhaps I'll set up a table at a future show.  It was only $25 per table which would certainly be doable.

After the show we bolted back to the Stars' facility, missing a lot.  We had originally planned on going to the main entrance but the crowd there was a bit much so we went to the back again.  We missed out on a bunch once again.  Chris went around front, getting Alex Goligoski, while I stayed at the back getting James Patrick on 4/4 cards.  Thomas signed again on his way out; unfortunately my silver pen died on me, so it didn't turn out too good.  I was hoping to send it up to Corey for his Vermont collection, but I'll likely get it redone before I do. I need to find a few Liquid Silver and Liquid Gold DecoColor pens.

TOTALS: 22 autographs IP, 6 autographs TTM, and several via trades (I'll count those later).

Blog Friday (Part One)

Had a short Black Friday hounding opportunity and we'll also cover a box break from the Black Friday sale at Triple Cards up in Plano.  I hit up the store in the early afternoon, getting a Jumbo box of 13-14 Score Hockey, as well as two bonus Panini and Topps Black Friday packs. I also picked up two of their sig/GU mystery envelopes.  We'll get to all of that in a moment.

Later on, Gen and I went on down to the AAC as the Stanley Cup was on display, along with Stu Barnes signing autographs.  In addition to getting five cards signed by Stu (one with each team he played for), I also got The Keeper of the Cup, Phil Pritchard, to sign an index card for me (even adding "Keeper of the Cup" to it).

Am I the only one who found it to be in slightly questionable taste for the Stars to have Barnes as the signer for a night the Cup was on display when he was the only member of the Stars' Alumni Association to have played for the Sabres in 1999, the year the Stars beat them for the Cup?  Not complaining much, I've always liked Stu. Former Penguin.

Also, apparently Andrew Miller has convinced himself that he did nothing wrong. All of you who got dicked over by him are to blame in his mind. Typical criminal thinking. Apparently he also is back posting on TAC-- I've been told dallashockeyfan is his name there.

Anyways, the box break. I love the Score Jumbo packs from this season. 52 cards per pack, 10 packs per box, 4 hits per box. Not bad. The packs are arranged as two rows of five packs each. Let's take a look at everything that wasn't just a standard base card. We'll go front to back, left side then right side. Hits are in bold italics.

Pack One
Inserts: Sean Collins Hot Rookies Auto, D. Sedin Franchise
Gold: Shore Hot Rookies, Sharks TL, Korpikoski, Bryzgalov, Latendresse, Wingels, Alfredsson, Niemi
Hot Rookies: Coyle, Conacher, Schultz, Komarov
Team Leaders: Avs, Sabres
Season Highlights: Lecavalier
35 base cards

Pack Two
Inserts: Quick Netcam
Gold: Hickey Hot Rookies, Flames TL, Stralman, Pavelski, Orpik, Hanzal, Kreider, Oshie
Hot Rookies: McGinn, Yakupov, Brodin, Howden
Team Leaders: Blackhawks, Sharks
Season Highlights: Hossa
36 base

Pack Three
Inserts: Galchenyuk Future Franchise
Gold: Grant Hot Rookies, Senators TL, Karlsson, Stuart, Voracek, Silfverberg, Ekman-Larsson, B. Schenn
Hot Rookies: Nilstorp, Murphy, Collins, Dziurzynski
Team Leaders: Stars, Flyers
Season Highlights: Selanne
36 base

Pack Four
Inserts: Anaheim Ducks Team 8's (With jersey pieces of Cogliano, Rakell, Hiller, Etem, Perry, Vatanen, Ryan, Fasth), Grigorenko First Goal
Gold: Komarov Hot Rookies, Maple Leafs TL, Read, Lehner, Galiardi, Spezza, Burns, Vokoun
Hot Rookies: Arcobello, Mrazek, Spooner, Grubauer
Team Leaders: Wild, Blue Jackets
Season Highlights: Brodeur
29 base (Therefore, packs with a Team 8's card have 46 cards; those things are thick!)

Pack Five
Inserts: Nik Antropov Black Parallel, Anton Volchenkov Check It
Gold: Schroeder Hot Rookies, Hejduk SH, Hannan, Shattenkirk, B. Boyle, Smith, Kennedy, D. Boyle
Rookies: Pickard, Jordan, Oleksiak, Forsberg
Team Leaders: Lightning, Capitals
Season Highlights: Lecavalier
36 base

Pack Six
Inserts: Howden Future Team
Gold: Mrazek Hot Rookies, Flyers TL, Eller, Suter, Blum, Pominville, Hornqvist, Gaustad
Rookies: Grigorenko, Laughton, Kuemper, Vatanen
Team Leaders: Devils, Maple Leafs
Season Highlights: Marleau
36 base

Pack Seven
Inserts: Marleau Franchise
Gold: Campbell Hot Rookies, Bruins TL, Williams, Emelin, Henrique, Spaling, Price, Legwand
Rookies: Bordeleau, Lashoff, Bennett, Matteau
Team Leaders: Ducks, Blues
Season Highlights: Selanne
36 base

Pack Eight
Inserts: Tavares Red Back
Gold: Spooner Hot Rookies, Stars TL, Clarkson, Backstrom, Plekanec, Strait, Richards, Vermette
Rookies: Gryba, Hickey, Grant, Schroeder
Team Leaders: Penguins, Canadiens
Season Highlights: Crosby
36 base

Pack Nine
Inserts: Klasen Signature, Lundqvist Netcam
Gold: Thomas Hot Rookies, Devils TL, Klesla, Sheppard, Smith, Brassard, Morris, Iginla
Rookies: Roussel, Shore, Thomas, Campbell
Team Leaders: Red Wings, Coyotes
Season Highlights: Kings
35 base

Pack Ten
Inserts: Richter Netcam
Gold: Grubauer Hot Rookies, Jets TL, Gill, Salvador, Bouchard, Markov, Martin, Carter
Rookies: Huberdeau, Granlund, Redmond, Rakell
Team Leaders: Jets, Bruins
Season Highlights: Jagr
36 base

So, there you have it. If this collation figures across every box (unlikely, yet possible), your best bets for Team 8's are the 4th pack from the front on the left side, and for Red Backs pick the middle pack on the right.

The Black Friday packs didn't have much in them. The Panini one had a Miguel Cabrera base and a Yadier Molina Lava Flow. Topps had Spring Fever cards of Wally Joyner, Cabrera, Don Mattingly, Josh Hamilton, and Buster Posey.

The Auto/GU mystery envelopes had a Rick Krivda auto and a GU of Patrice Bergeron.

Stars practice tomorrow, hoping for the best...

Anything Can Happen Thursday: Good grief, I'm famous, sort of, part time...

Paraphrasing (read: blatantly stealing) from a chapter in Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick's book The Big Show with this title. Read it (the book, I mean, not the title since you probably already read that) if you get the chance.

A few weeks ago a crew from the NHL came through at Panini showing how cards are made.

Guess who ended up as the photo editing representative at about the 3:20 mark?

Check it out here!

I was hoping to embed the video but I'm not having much luck with it. Oh well. Click the link and check it out!

Greed TTM

I make it a point that I never send more than six items to a player.  I only send more than 3 usually if I know the player signs that many.  And usually if I send 4 or more, I'll tell the player to keep a few if he wants to.

Check out this guy.

I do at least hope Steve Duchene knows that not everyone getting autographs via mail is looking to sell them.  But I'd assume someone sending 22 cards with a Post-It note "letter" probably is.  In Jaromir Jagr's autobiography, he mentions once getting four envelopes, each with four cards, and each with a quarter of the same piece of ripped paper, reading simply "Please sign."  He signed one and sent the other 15 back unsigned.

Hmm... I have 120 Matt Williams cards... Nah, better not.

Reader's recommendation, and some box busting

Thanks to TGC reader Big Anthony for recommending Triple Cards in Plano to me.  About a month ago, I wrote about visits to Nick's in North Dallas and Duane's in Arlington, and he left a comment saying to check out Triple Cards if I'm ever out in Plano.

Two weeks ago I made my first trip out there.  I didn't want to post a full review since honestly, I was a tad overwhelmed.  This place has EVERYTHING.  I went in pretty unprepared with just a basic list of players I needed.  Most card stores I've been to lately don't have a huge inventory of current commons.  Duane's is good on that, don't get me wrong, but Triple even blows them out of the water.  An entire wall plus of shelves with boxes, all sorted by sport, brand, year, and set, all in numerical order.  The first trip in, I just went through some Topps Heritage stuff, followed by a quick peek through their discounted autos and GU cards, and a purchase of one of their mystery envelopes, and I left $10 lighter in the wallet, but knowing where I needed to start shopping.

I headed out there again today.  I skipped out on the FC Dallas game that I was thinking about going to, but it netted me time with my wife and her mom who came down from Wichita Falls for the day, a visit to the card store, to Stonebriar Mall, and dinner and quality time with my brother-in-law and his girlfriend.  They live over in Allen, and while Arlington to Allen is closer than Wichita Falls to Allen, I still don't get to see them as often as I'd like to.  We hit up Quaker Steak and Lube (my and my wife's favorite restaurant) and got some ideas planned out for my wife's birthday in September.

This time I came prepared for the visit to Triple.  I went through SportLots last night with a list of players I needed, and scratched out a list of five cards of each player.  I needed three of most of them, so listing five would give me three plus two backups in case they were lacking one or two.

All in all, I picked up 64 cards for hounding over the next few weeks (mostly Reds, Astros, and Mariners, as well as a few Rangers Alumni and celebrity baseball game players), another mystery envelope (this time GU of Charlie Ward and Latrell Sprewell; not a basketball fan, but still nice, and better than the one I got last time with an auto of a guy who never got past AA ball due to injuries), and also a box of 2002 Upper Deck Vintage baseball.

I loved UD's 2001-02 and 2002-03 Vintage hockey sets, do I figured I'd try my hand at a baseball box.  The cards are very similar to (read: a direct ripoff from) the 1971 Topps baseball set, which has the classic black-bordered design that looks more like the cover of an album released on the Stax label.  I almost expect the cards to feature a bonus track by the Staples Singers.

The card backs are a putrid yellow color, similar to what I puked up along I-70 a little over a year ago when afflicted by a stomach bug on the drive from Wichita Falls to Cleveland. Related: I hope you aren't eating while reading this.

So now, I'm going to borrow a page from a number of card-blogs and go through pack by pack and tell what I got.  Boy howdy readers, you're in for a treat now!

24 packs, 10 cards per pack.  The box has them arranged in three stacks of 8 packs each.  I'll start with the leftmost pile and work down through it, then the center, then the right.

PACK THE FIRST: Todd Helton, Trevor Hoffman, Fernando Tatis, Barry Zito, Todd Ritchie, Mike Piazza, Paul LoDuca, A's Checklist, Derek Jeter Postseason scrapbook, Phillies Rookies (Nick Punto and Carlos Silva)

PACK 2: Jim Edmonds, Tino Martinez, Jeff Weaver, Tony Batista, Geoff Jenkins, Jon Garland, Carl Everett, Yankees Rookies (Nick Johnson and Erick Almonte), Angels Rookies (Wilmy Caceres and Elpidio Guzman-- no, I don't know who they are either), Tino Martinez Postseason Scrapbook

PACK 3: Eric Chavez, Bobby Abreu, Jason Schmidt, Brian Giles, Brad Penny, Mark Grace, 2001 NL Batting Average Leaders, Cardinals Checklist, Indians Checklist, Derek Jeter Postseason Scrapbook

PACK 4: Rondell White, Richard Hidalgo, Joe Mays, Marcus Giles, Frank Thomas, Nomar Garciaparra, 2001 AL Batting Average Leaders, Cardinals Rookies (Bill Ortega and Luis Saturia), Indians Rookies (Ryan Drese and Roy Smith), Nomar Garciaparra Sandlot Stars insert.

Through four packs, nothing super-impressive.  One insert (Sandlot Stars are 1:11 and not very distinct from the base set), two Indians-- two rookies who never amounted to much and a team checklist, and not a whole lot I can get signed either TTM or IP.  Oh well, it's fun to bust at least.

About a year ago, I finished a project that I considered making into a book.  Starting as articles at SCF, I ranked the Topps baseball base sets in order from worst to best in the years of 1952 through 2011.  I actually have a full book done in PDF form with photos and everything, but now that I work for Panini, I figure it would be wise just to shelve the thing.  Topps is one of our big rivals, of course.  But in that book, I railed against the use of "Rookie Stars" or "Future Stars" labels on cards because, really now, how many of those guys were actually Stars at any point?  While Future Serviceable Major Leaguers or Future Fungal Fellows doesn't sound as good, those titles would have been more accurate.  Thankfully, the dual rookies' cards in this set have nothing regarding any sort of present or future aspirations of stardom.

Back to the packs...

PACK 5: Robb Nen, Randy Johnson, Chipper Jones, Lee Stevens, Sammy Sosa, Jeff Bagwell, Brewers Rookies (Josh Mieses and Alex Sanchez), Devil Rays Rookies (Dewon Brazelton and Delvin James), Randy Johnson Postseason Scrapbook, Reds Rookies (David Espinoza and Dane Sardinha

PACK 6: Cristian Guzman, Rafael Palmeiro, Ben Grieve (I can get this signed next week!), Tony Clark, Jason Johnson (I could have gotten this signed on Thursday!), Raul Mondesi, Mike Hampton, Braves Rookies (Wilson Betemit and Horacio Ramirez-- might be able to get Betemit in mid-July when the Orioles come), Blue Jays Rookies (Brandon Lyon and Vernon Wells), Luis Gonzalez Postseason Scrapbook

PACK 7: Brandon Duckworth, John VanderWal, Luis Gonzalez, Greg Maddux, Phil Nevin, Orlando Cabrera, Bud Smith, 2001 NL Steroid Users... err, Home Run Leaders, Cubs Checklist, Mariners Checklist

PACK 8: Eric Milton, Gabe Kapler, Toby Hall, Mike Mussina, Jose Lima, Jeff Conine, Alfonso Soriano Postseason Scrapbook, Pirates Checklist, Astros Checklist, Manny Ramirez Night Gamers insert (also 1:11 packs and rather nondescript)

On to the center group...

PACK 9: Devin White (He was a Brewer? Huh, okay), Ray Durham, Hideo Nomo, Russell Branyan, Mark Quinn, John Olerud, Mark Mulder, Darryl Kile, Jim Thome Postseason Scrapbook, Marlins Rookies (Abraham Nunez and Josh Beckett)

Two Indians in that pack.  So I probably won't see another one the rest of the way.

PACK 10: Garret Anderson, Pat Burrell, Preston Wilson, Ken Griffey Jr., Edgardo Alfonso, Shawn Green, Tigers Rookies (Pedro Santana and Mike Rivera), Mike Mussina Postseason Scrapbook, Phillies Checklist, Yankees Checklist

PACK 11: Matt Williams, Brian Jordan, Brad Radke, Jimmy Haynes, Derek Jeter, Mike Sweeney, Edgar Martinez, Angels Checklist, Andruw Jones Postseason Scrapbook, Mets Rookies (Alex Escobar and Jae Weong Seo)

Alex Escobar.  What a bust for the Indians.  There's a trade I think both the Tribe and Mets would love to take back.  Alomar, after hitting a career-best .336 the year before, hit .265 with the Mets in a season and a half.  Escobar shredded his knee in Spring Training, then hit .235 in only 74 games with the Tribe.  Of everyone involved, only Matt Lawton was worth anything after the trade-- weird to say that about a guy who hit .236, .249, and .277 with the Indians, the last season culminating in an All-Star nod.  After bouncing between three teams in 2005, Lawton picked up a PED suspension.  Ask for a refund Matty, they didn't work.

PACK 12: Frank Catalanotto, Aubrey Huff, Robert Person, Troy Percival, Juan Pierre, Mark Kotsay, Twins Rookies (Adam Johnson and Juan Rincon), Curt Schilling Postseason Scrapbook, Rockies Rookies (Jason Jennings and Luke Hudson), Ichiro A Day At The Park insert (1:23 packs, also pretty nondescript)

PACK 13: Larry Walker, Brian Lawrence, Tony Armas Jr., Juan Uribe, Bubba Trammell, Barry Bonds, Eric Young, Twins Checklist, Curt Schilling Postseason Scrapbook, 2001 AL PED Abusers... err, Home Run Leaders

PACK 14: Jon Lieber, Wade Miller, Damion Easley, Jay Gibbons, Lance Berkman, Bobby Higginson, Chris Richard, Cubs Rookies (Juan Cruz and Mark Prior), Mariners Rookies (Rafael Soriano and Dennis Stark), Andruw Jones

PACK 15: Chris Carpenter, Jim Thome, Ramon Ortiz, Jose Cruz Jr., Aaron Boone, Robin Ventura, Jorge Posada Postseason Scrapbook, Giants Checklist, Royals Checklist, Tom Glavine Postseason Scrapbook

PACK 16: Rob Mackowiak, Al Leiter, Chan Ho Park, Kevin Brown, Mark McGwire, Paul O'Neill, Reds Checklist, Braves Checklist, Blue Jays Checklist, Mark McGwire Sandlot Stars insert

And finally as midnight passes, the rightmost pile...

PACK 17: Reggie Sanders, Rafael Furcal, Mark Buehrle, Mike Cameron, Tim Hudson, Dmitri Young, Pirates Rookies (John Grabow and Humberto Cota), Astros Rookies (Tim Redding and Morgan Ensberg), A's Rookies (Oscar Salazar and Juan Pena), Troy Glaus

PACK 18: Trot Nixon, Juan Gonzalez, Aramis Ramirez, Jay Payton, 2001 AL Wins Leaders, Diamondbacks Rookies (Alex Cintron and Jack Cust), Orioles Rookies (Sean Douglass and Tim Raines Jr.), Catfish Hunter Timeless Teams Jersey Card, Devil Rays Rookies

There we go!  I figured I wouldn't get any big hits since the odds on them were two sets at 1:144 (or 1 per 6 boxes) and 1:288 (1 per 12 boxes).  Also, the first double of the entire box, I believe (some names appear doubled in the Postseason Scrapbook cards, but those were different cards of the same player in the same subset).  Really nice two-color swatch too.  Here's a pic.

Pretty nice looking card!

Let's go for a second one!

PACK 19: A.J. Burnett, Gary Sheffield, Ben Sheets, Magglio Ordonez, Vladimir Guerrero, Albert Pujols, Jorge Posada, Ryan Dempster, Edgar Martinez Postseason Scrapbook, Marlins Checklist

Or not.

PACK 20: Manny Ramirez, C.C. Sabathia, Mo Vaughn, Carlos Beltran, Kaz Sasaki, Jermaine Dye, Tigers Checklist, Chipper Jones Postseason Scrapbook, Mets Checklist, Ivan Rodriguez Night Gamers insert

PACK 21: Dee Brown, Freddy Garcia, Jason Giambi, Jose Ortiz, Charles Johnson, Curt Schilling, Jeromy Burnitz, Brewers Checklist, Devil Rays Checklist, Omar Vizquel

It feels so weird seeing Devil Rays on a card. Seeing Expos is less weird and more nostalgic. I also believe Omar Vizquel should be in the Hall of Fame.

PACK 22: Scott Rolen, Rich Aurilia, Kerry Wood, Jose Canseco, Dante Bichette (raise your hand if you remembered he played for the Red Sox; my hand is not raised), Bartolo Colon, Rangers Checklist, Brent Abernathy, 2001 AL ERA Leaders, Dodgers Rookies (Ricardo Rodriguez and Carlos Garcia)

PACK 23: Moises Alou, Robert Fick, Josh Towers, Darin Erstad, Adam Dunn, D'Angelo Jimenez, Jose Vidro, Rangers Rookies (Mark Teixeira and Carlos Pena), Carlos Delgado, 2001 NL Wins Leaders

Teixeira/Pena has to be the best "rookie" combo in this set.  That's not saying much though, as the second best one is Lyon and Wells, and trying to name the third-best in this is roughly the equivalent of trying to name the third best president post-Kennedy.

PACK THE LAST: Alex Gonzalez, Kris Benson, Luis Castillo, J.D. Drew, Mariano Rivera, Dean Palmer, Diamondbacks Checklist, Orioles Checklist, Bret Boone Postseason Scrapbook, Vladimir Guerrero Sandlot Stars insert

Overall not too bad.  Very few doubles. Should be less than 75 cards from a complete set out of a single box (225-ish of 300) if I wanted to put it together.  Oddly, I didn't pull a Tanyon Sturtze card, the lone card from this set that I ever had in my collection coming into breaking this box (got it signed during the 2004 ALCS in Boston and apparently traded it at some point, as it's not listed in my inventory).

I'll definitely be heading back to Triple more often.  I just need a Toll Tag to make the cross-Metroplex trips a little cheaper.

Card shopping

Just realized I forgot about "Anything Can Happen Thursday" being yesterday.  That's just further proof that anything can happen on Anything Can Happen Thursday. We'll move it to next week.

Anyways, my reason for posting...

The internet is the best thing ever to happen to card collectors.

Twenty years ago when I was first starting out as a collector, there was no internet.  At least not for us peons-- only if you were an uber-geek or had a government job.  If you needed cards for your set or for your autograph hounding outings, you had three options: hit your local card store and hope they had what you needed, bust packs and hope you got what you needed, or hope to find another collector nearby and trade for what you needed.

But now, the internet has opened collectors up to finding other collectors nationwide, even worldwide.  The site SportLots has become my preferred location for getting cards for my hounding and TTM opportunities.

I mentioned in my last entry that I was running low on Craig Gentry, and also found I was out of several other players, both for the Rangers and for the teams they face in May.  Fortunately, I was able to grab 100-some cards from SportLots and their dealers for $42, including shipping.  The price of roughly 40 cents a card is a tad steep considering it's mostly commons, but considering stores in the Dallas area regularly get 50 cents to a buck for the most common of Rangers, I'll gladly accept that 10-60 cent discount.

You do have to work a bit to get the best deals on SportLots.  It works best if you can find most of what you need from a single seller, or only a small handful of sellers, and it can take some time to gather all of that information.  But if you're willing to take the time, it's the best resource out there for anyone needing cards at a reasonable price.

For the record, I got 15 cards of Mitch Moreland, 13 Jason Frasor, 7 Leonys Martin (FINALLY!), 13 Ron Washington, 3 Craig Gentry, 5 Jeff Baker, a Jackie Moore, 4 Steve Busby, 2 Michael Kirkman, 2 Tanner Scheppers... and that doesn't include the A's, Royals, and Tigers I picked up, or the cards for doing minor league baseball or the Reebok Heroes Celebrity Baseball Game in Frisco in June.

So go and check out SportLots.com next time you need to pick up some cards.  You'll leave happy.

Graphing preparations, eBay sales, and upcoming entries

I'm back in Wichita Falls for the weekend.  Dropped some cards off with Arron as well-- he's hounding the Memphis Redbirds and Oklahoma Redhawks and trying to get a few items done for me.  I know at the very least he said he got Adron Chambers for me.

I also picked up a few packs of cards.  Walmart had jumbos of 2010 and 2011 Topps baseball on sale for 40% off, so I took a chance to see what I'd get.  I did pull cards of Mitch Moreland and David Murphy that I'm sure I'll get signed in the next few weeks, plus a few others for use in the next few weeks/months.

Seattle Mariners are next on the list on Saturday.  I got them last year in Cleveland and they were excellent.  Hoping for more of the same this year.  I'll be going for the Rangers at the tunnel Saturday and Sunday and probably inside on Saturday too. Hoping for better luck than I did with the Rangers-Rays the other day.

I have a few ideas for upcoming regular entries as well.  On Thursdays, I'll maybe do that Throwback Thursday thing where I take a look at some items I've had in my collection and how I got them, maybe some old hounding stories as well.  On Wednesdays, I'll have Wednesday Friendsday, where I'll interview a fellow autograph collector.  First one will be this week!

Glad to have a weekend off with nothing to do except relax back in Wichita Falls, see Gen, and just do nothing.  My last Saturday with no work or hounding was back in December.  It's been too long, and I'm looking forward to more of them in the not too distant future.

Free cards? Yes please!

If you were to ask my wife, I'm sure she'd say the last thing I need would be any more damn cards.  With somewhere around 125,000 in boxes and all sorted (except for the 14,000 cards of baseball players with last names Aardsma through Eyre) there are probably better places for me to put my money.  And for the most part I agree.  I still buy the occasional pack, or stock up on guys I'm likely to be hounding in the following weeks.

But if there's no money involved, is there a problem?  My vote would be no.

And so when my friend Arron (remember that name, I'm sure you'll be hearing it a lot here as we'll be hounding a ton in Arlington) texted me yesterday to alert me that Matt at DocHoloday.com was giving away team lots and my beloved Indians were still available, you can guarantee I jumped on that chance.  I'll let you all know what I get.  It may take a few weeks since they're being shipped to Wichita Falls instead of Arlington (unless I email Matt real quick-like and ask him to hold them for a few days and send to the new place), but once I get them, I'll be as happy as a little girl.

Me in a few weeks when the cards arrive.

And this appears to be no junk either.  In what I saw from others who picked up cards from him, Matt is sending out some nice inserts and such.  Stuff I might not get autographed but that will go into the Tribe box for future keeping.  That box is minimal at present, but this should make for a very nice start.

I got so excited I told Corey about it as well.  His Mets were gone already, but he knows a Marlins collector he thinks he can swing a few trades with to pick up some Mets; so he got the Marlins.  Arron picked up the A's since the Rangers were gone.

Matt still has the Giants, Pirates, White Sox, and Brewers available.  So if any fans of those teams are reading this, go check him out.  And not just for the free cards either-- the blog as a whole is great.  There's a lot in there on baseball, cards, and other random stuff on his mind and life in general. I added to the blog links on the right side here.

Maybe I'll do something similar eventually with clearing some of my cards out.  I was planning on selling some on eBay (because really now, why do I need 120 cards of Matt Williams?).  I figured with some of the stuff I have, I can help out some IP/TTM collectors sometime.  So we'll see what happens.  I don't have the awesomeness that Matt has been slinging around to everyone, but I figure I can help someone out somewhere.