Anyway, I've been absent. There have been a number of things going on, mostly good (including a new niece!), but I will be getting back to my regularly occurring this Sunday. Sometimes, you just need a little break.
As for content, I've got plenty on the way. Box breaks, pack rips, trades, etc, etc, etc. Did I mention football season is right around the corner? Woohoo! I can start posting football cards again!
I figure that, since I'm in the home stretch of my break, I might as well do a "state of the blog" of sorts.
On regularly occurring posts - Sunday Sketch/Weird-Ohs/2006 A&G - Does anyone actually give a crap about these? I get a few comments here and there, but I'm wondering if I'm just wasting my time. I enjoy doing them to a certain extent, since it makes me look at the cards a little closer.
On box breaks - I have three more boxes of A&G to post, which I will continues to use my standard box break posting layout. Does that layout work? I've also got a bunch of Artifacts boxes and other miscellany.
On trading - I'm always open for trading, though it seems things have slowed down recently. Not as many e-mails roll in as in the past. Aside from the usual suspects (BA Benny, Daily Dimwit, Play at the Plate, Plaschke Thy Blog Name is Too Long to Type, etc.), I haven't had many trade requests. I've got both general Want Lists and Allen & Ginter Want Lists. I know part of it may be my horrible e-mail response, lately. I don't know when I went from good e-mailer to the suckassiest e-mailer out there, but it definitely happened.
On showing off - I plan to start showing some of my Bryan Randall and Scott Sizemore collections. At some point, I turned the corner on my Scott Sizemore collection. It used to be "anything cheap", then became "anything cool", and now it's become "anything not #'ed to 1 that isn't insanely expensive". I now have 74% of his cards that aren't 1/1's (he has 101 1/1's, seriously).
On buying - I'm cutting myself off...kinda. No more big purchases this year unless funded by the sale of other cards. Since I have a baby on the way, and two urgent house projects, I'm guessing there will be no big purchases, at all. As always, I'll allow myself to pick up cards here and there on eBay, in moderation. As far as retail...I pretty much have done this again. I have opened blasters/packs/etc. all over the place. For that reason, I am cutting off my retail purchases...kinda. I'm limiting my new product purchases to just a couple of packs. I'm going to avoid getting any more packs of A&G, Bowman, Bowman Platinum, Topps S1/S2, Goodwin Champions, Chrome, Archives... The only current product I'm giving myself the green light on is Panini Triple Play, because it is awesome and only $1/pack.
Well, this has probably been a boring post for you, so let's liven it up with some cards:
I've managed to get my Topps #3 needs down to just one card: the 1952 Hank Thompson. The last three cards I've picked up are:
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| 1957 Topps #3 Dale Long ($3.25 shipped) |
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| 1953 Topps #3 George Crowe ($2.29 shipped) |
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| 1965 Topps #3 Killebrew/Powell/Mantle AL HR Leaders ($3.98 shipped) |
Who pays $3+ for a horribly miscut Dale Long?
>>> Well, I do, but only because I started feeling the push of an almost complete "set".
Is that '53 Crowe the most gorgeous card you have ever bought?
>>> Very close. It's easily the most gorgeous card I've bought for under $3. While putting together the Topps #3 "set", I looked for creased and damaged cards intentionally to keep the price low. This card was a great find. But, the creases aren't where the beauty truly lies. The real pleasure comes from the George's glasses. Wow this card is awesome.
How on Earth did you find a $4 Mantle!?!?!?
>>> Patience sometimes does pay off. In the past year, I've probably bid on 25-30 different copies of this card. Every time, the bidding went over $10, which I just couldn't justify. I would convince myself that I just had to wait for the right auction to come along. I even lost out on cards in way worse condition than the Crowe above. Just horribly conditioned cards going for $10+. Amazing. Then, one day, along came an auction with a horrible photo (too much flash) and a description that included "he back has tape damage". Since the back wasn't shown, I didn't know what to expect, but I knew I was going to give it a shot. Man am I glad I did. The "tape damage" doesn't obscure any of the names or numbers and overall, the condition is pretty good. $4 was an absolute steal for this card.
Speaking of steals, I picked this card up with combined shipping on another shipment for just $6.50.
I'm not one to typically throw down more than five bucks on single cards I don't collect, but I'm also not stupid. This is a certified on-card auto of Dan Larsen commemorating his World Series Perfect Game. It's also a refractor, which makes it look awesome in person. At worst, it is an awesome card in my collection. At best, I can sell or trade it and get some great cards in return. Anyone interested in trading?
3 comments:
Ahem.... I will e-mail you on that sweet looking Larson. I have some cards I have been holding for you so we can make a deal.
As a matter of fact, it was quite interesting ... so interesting that I didn't have time to read much but told myself I need to go back and read it again.
And you're not the only one who has never started a Facebook account. The appeal of Facebook is totally lost on me. At the risk of sounding sexist, Facebook seems like a totally female-oriented activity and I am baffled by the number of males on Facebook.
No Facebook for me either. I used to say because I spend all day at work staring at a computer, why would I want to at home, but now I blog, so clearly I just don't wanna be on Facebook.
I like the Weird-Ohs and other regular posts, but I always think you should blog what you want, and some readers will always skip over some of the posts. If the posts start feeling like a chore, do them half as often (and half as often as that, etc) until you're feeling inspired again.
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