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Friday, March 24, 2023

Cards from Rickey collectors

I received a couple maildays this week that both came from big Rickey Henderson collectors, funny enough, and that's good enough motivation to whip up a post.


I got this shiny relic card from supercollector @rickey939, A.K.A. the Man-cave of Steal Twitter account that shows off sweet Rickeys on the daily. He was one of the few to reach out to me regarding the 1991 Fleer lightened border mods that made the rounds back around Rickey's birthday. I agreed to give him a heads up once I had another Rickey mod available, and when I did, it was a quick turnaround.


He also threw in a few later-career cards which are appreciated to help pump up the PC, as late 90s to early 00s is often underrepresented in my PCs.

Thanks, Kent! Pleasure dealing with you.

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My first Rickey '91F mod from back in December was for friend-to-all-cardbloggers, Fuji. He was nice enough to return the favor and include me in a recent round of mailings to some of his trader buds.


Just what I hope to see whenever opening up a blind batch of cards: vintage needs! Some Cubs-heavy help with my 1976 Topps setbuild plus a sole '75.


Garry Templeton (one of my oldest PCs) and Dave Stieb (one of my newest PCs) are presented in cutting-edge 3-D, while the Brian Giles relic has a bit of mystery staining to spice up the white swatch.

Thanks, Fuji! Great stuff.

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Kind of a short post so far, so maybe some random photos and checking in.


I think this is my first attempt at a jigsaw puzzle since childhood. It's tiny, probably tinier than ideal (phone charger cord for scale). It was fun for a while, working on the tower and the boats.. even the rippling water. But now that I'm down to only sky and trees, it's gotten harder and not much fun so I'll likely give up here. So there's a photograph for posterity before I crumble it back into the box and get rid of it.


We had a dead tree in the backyard that I took out but it turned out it had a little sapling next to it, and I've been kinda trying to look after it these past few months in the hopes it grows into a respectable tree. Glad to see it apparently survived the winter ok-- through the most snow Portland has gotten since I've lived here-- and has some buds popping up.


My attempts at getting a good photo failed, but a couple weeks ago while walking the dog, there were a pair of bald eagles soaring overhead for a few minutes. That was cool. Crazy that I live in a big city like Portland yet I get wild rabbits in my backyard (which are a bit of a nuisance because Ruby seems to think bunny poops are nature's dog treats) and probably not coincidentally, occasional birds of prey in the neighborhood.


In one of my more popular tweets in a while, I pointed out the big shirtless guy lurking in the lower left of the Dwight Evans cards Topps put out in 1988. Just wanted to mention it here so you non-Twitter folks can have it haunt your nightmares as well. lol


A big DIY project I've been spending time on lately is fixing up my attic. The height isn't tall enough to make it into a full-on 2nd story, but still plenty of wasted space that I could take advantage of. The plan is for it to become a little "reading nook" area with some bookshelves and a beanbag chair, as well as a "Cardroom Annex" where I can move stuff to free up space in my cardroom. It's not climate controlled up there, meaning it'll get very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter, so cards from the UV gloss era (prone to bricking) as well as vintage or anything valuable shouldn't be stored there. But my boxed complete sets from the 80s and early 90s should do fine up there (right?). And in the slim chance something bad happens to the cards, oh well, for the most part they're not worth much and I'll still be glad to have the extra space freed up in the cardroom. I bought some big plastic tubs from IKEA to put the cards in to help against moisture and other attic threats (don't want no spider eggs in there, or critters gnawing on the cardboard!). If anyone has experience with storing cards in their attic (or tips for converting an unfinished attic into usable space), feel free to let me know.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

7 comments:

  1. I had no idea there was a Captain's Cloth relic set in a baseball release. It's likely a callback to when Topps had an NHL license. I happen to have a Mario Lemieux CC from 2002-03.

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  2. Thanks for pointing out what I shall forever now call the "Ewww-y" Deweys...

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  3. Okay okay I'll wear a shirt next time. Maybe a dehumidifier? Of course if you aren't going to be up there on a regular basis, that might not be a good idea (running out of water and all).

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  4. I like to think I have a good amount of Rickey cards, but I bet there's a ton of people whose Rickey collection dwarfs mine. He's a fun guy to collect.

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  5. A. That Rickey relic is awesome! But the custom 1991 Fleer you sent me was even more awesome!

    B. I started a Star Wars puzzle at the start of the pandemic, but never finished it. I reached the same problem as you. It's the one with the TIE fighter shooting at an X-Wing. I completed both ships and the borders... but the black space is crazy frustrating. I don't have the heart to box it up though. It's still sitting on my dining room table.

    C. Can't wait to see what you do with the attic. Wish I could offer you advice, but I don't really have any experience with them. I bought one of those dehumidifiers for my place that Johnny mentioned. They totally work... but the one I have you have to manually dump every few days. But I've seen ones on YouTube that you can run lines to utility tubs. As for the heat, I know my brother has an attic fan that vents all of that hot air during the summer out at night. He said it keeps his home a lot cooler.

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  6. One of the things I miss the most about the PNW is all of the Bald and Golden eagles.

    As for the attic, a dehumidifier is a must, just make sure that it's big enough for the space. If it's too small, it won't do anything. I'd also recommend looking into a solar attic fan. I had one many years ago, and it worked really well.

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  7. Those are some really cool Rickey cards. Good luck on the attic conversion project. Keep us updated!

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