Yesterday, my favorite website got shutdown by the man. It was an mp3 site responsible for the vast majority of my music collection over the past decade. Out of all the gut-punches delivered by 2016 so far, this one hit the closest to home for me. I discovered so much great music there. Though I'm pushing 40, I've never felt the dreaded "out of touch with today's music" or falling into a rut of just liking the same few bands I've always liked. I might not like a lot of what's popular these days, at least I was familiar with it. And believe it or not, other old guys, there still are many new artists out there creating great songs to hunt down and fall head over heels over, regardless of your preferred genre(s). Not to mention all the hidden gems you've missed from years past.
I know the music-listening landscape is becoming streaming focused these days, but as card collectors, I'm sure you guys understand how obtaining an mp3 to add to your collection is much more rewarding than streaming a song. It's not too unlike holding a physical card in your hand verses having a Bunt digital version. (Some of you older guys might feel the same way about vinyl records or CDs verses mp3s.) Just something about streaming music that's fine is certain settings, but ultimately unsatisfying as far as your collection goes. My wife has a Spotify account and loves it. Maybe once I finally get a smartphone, I'll give it a shot.
I recently started maxing out the capacity of my 160gb iPod, finding it hard to cram on more songs and having to make some tough choices about what to delete to free up space (currently at 23,599 songs on the thing). So maybe it's for the best that my mp3 supply has been severed. It would only get more frustrating for me as my collection grew too big to get a handle on. But still, it's a sad time for me, realizing my days of new music at my fingertips are finally coming to an end. And with the current climate, there's not much hope thinking, "oh well, a new site will come along and take the place of the old one." As far as buying stuff on Apple Music or wherever, that's an option for the occasional album I know I really want, but the selection is much more limited (I dig plenty of obscure shit), not to mention I don't have nearly the funds to check out everything I have a cursory interest in.
Anyways, back to the cards... I got sidetracked for a few days with contest wins n' such, but now let's continue recapping card show haul from last weekend.
A pair of shiny Bowman refractor reprints.
A pair of Rizzo cards.. the shameful trade haunting Padres fans everywhere.
A pair of Wil Myers cards.. slightly less shameful deal for Padres fans than the Rizzo trade, though Trea Turner seems to be the real deal (2016 NL ROY runner-up behind Corey Seager) and we shoved him out the door.
A pair of Clint Frazier Bowman diecuts. Perhaps he'll end up being the Indians' Rizzo-esque shameful one-that-got-away. It's worked out well for them so far, though, seeing as Andrew Miller carried the team to the cusp of a championship.
A pair of Stantons.
A pair of hometown parallels. Adam Jones and Bartolo.
A pair of co-signers. Maddux and D. Lee. Dunn and Griffey. Yep, scored a cheap, low-numbered Junior, sneakily masquerading as an Adam Dunn card.
A pair of Rangers hurlers.
A pair of Cespedes refractors. Where do you think he'll end up for 2017? Back with the Mets or someplace new?
A pair of shiny Beltres.
A pair of pointing Correas.
A pair of hot young Bowman's Bests.
A pair of autos. Chris Jones was a solid player (though not the white guy [from Granite] from the 80s with the same name whom I need an auto from) and an oddball 73-style Joe Garagiola (which isn't a certified auto, but sure seems to be legit).
A pair of Goldschmidts, with a Chrome rookie and a #'d Tribute green parallel.
A pair of Griffeys. Sorry, my camera got mistakenly switched on a wack setting, resulting in a blurry photo. But yeah, it's a gold parallel Fleer Ultra checklist and an Etch-A-Sketch insert.
A pair of Xanders. (I'd say he won that "duel". Never even heard of the other guy.)
A pair of Bowman "1st" cards.
A pair of Bowman refractors.
A pair of Clemente reprints with films over them.
A pair of modern cards of legends.
And we close with a couple neat-looking cards of young dudes. Addison Russell was a big part of the Cubs' success in 2016. Dylan Bundy had his first full season in the bigs and put up decent numbers. I would have probably snagged this Bowman black wave refractor regardless who it was, to be honest. Just love the look of these. I almost expect them to be electrically powered somehow. (Seriously, how long till a card company makes a thick hit card that lights up or something with a battery embedded in it?)
All the cards in this post were comfortably less than a buck each.. many were from a dimebox (I think the guy let me have 108 cards for $10) and the others were from the 7-for-$5 bins.
Still more to show off from the haul, but that's enough for today.
Thanks for swinging by.. Have a great weekend, everybody.
I remember the excitement of hopping on a bus or taking a walk to the local record shop to snag up the latest Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth or Del The Funky Homosapien tape.Everything is just a click away these days.
ReplyDeleteI hope Cespi comes back to the Mets.He was the main power source,the guy that got things going for every one hitting in front and behind him.
"Seriously, how long till a card company makes a thick hit card that lights up or something with a battery embedded in it?"
ReplyDeleteAs I recall, in the late 90s there was a company that produced thick cards that played a brief highlight clip of the player depicted when you pressed on button on the front. They were powered by a watch battery. I think I had a Sammy Sosa one and my brother had one for Jeff Gordon, so they were a multi sport product. Ive been trying to find one for a little while now.
The company was called Fanatics, does not appear related to the company around today but I may be wrong. I have two of the NASCAR ones in my collection, one still sealed.
DeleteAre those Griffeys for trade? I need all 3 lol. But if not, is the etch a sketch at least?
ReplyDeleteI started using Spotify more frequently a few months ago after the backlight on my Zune died. I'm still all about physical media (tapes, CDs, vinyl) and having a solid MP3 collection (almost 22,000 songs) so I figured I would never go to Spotify. That said, it has been great for finding new music with its curated playlists geared toward my listening preferences.
ReplyDeleteStinks about losing your website. I have kind of gotten in a rut of listening to the same stuff over and over. I have tried to find new stuff to listen to but it's proven more annoying then successful.
ReplyDeleteUpper Deck & Panini came out with video cards a few years back. UD's were clunky as heck & Panini mentioned their much better, more streamlined ones that had capacity for dramatically longer video resembled UD's in the prototype phase. Regardless, they were both so rare and expensive that nothing ever really came of it.
ReplyDeleteLove the comparison to Topps Bunt. I'll take your mp3's one step further. I'm the guy who has to actually go out and buy certain CD's, so I can have a hard copy in my collection. Due to space, I probably only buy 5 or 6 a year.
ReplyDeleteAs for Spotify... my students turned me onto it back in September. I really like it, because they're so many great playlists on there... and lots of songs to choose from. It has really helped me keep up with the current music teenagers are currently listening too.
P.S. Sorry for your loss.
P.S. #2 Cool Cespedes refractors!
P.S. #3 Love the Garagiola oddball autograph too.