Peeling Protective Film (a handwritten post)

 

Incoming cards like it's 2014 all over again

There was a time when I used the blog to document most new cards I added to my collection. But these days plenty of eBay wins and Sportlots orders quietly get filed away without a public mention. TCDB trades sometimes get blogged about, though not a priority. But cards from fellow bloggers, especially contest/giveaway wins, deserve a tip of the cap on the blog. So let's go!

First up are highlights from the big 'repack' I was lucky to score in Night Owl's recent 5000 Post Celebration/ 5000 Card Giveaway. Like with store-bought repacks, it's often the older cards that stand out as special. Some good names here, with the Drysdale especially getting my attention.

I used to try to keep up with the hot prospects in baseball, but have pretty much gotten off that train here in the covid era. These 3 young dudes above have seen their hobby interest fluctuate a lot over the past few years and who's got the time to keep up with all that? Not that I was ever a big "prospector", but am even less so now. But still, coming across stuff like the Wander Franco Opening Day RC was a thrill.

Some more active ballplayers I collect, including what I believe is my first card from that Ben Baller set.

Greg included a smattering of non-baseball, which I'm all for. Some miscellany highlights here. Wonder what the PSA pop report is on that Higgins? lol

Hey, it was one of those repacks with a hit! I wasn't familiar with Neil Ramirez, but looks like he had a respectable MLB career, pitching in 185 games during the twenty-teens.

Overall, after a fast & loose sorting of the repack, the "keepers" stack was significantly bigger than the "for trade" stack, which is what you hope for when opening a repack.

Big thanks, Night Owl! I say it a lot, but our little community here on the Cardsphere, as I like to call it, is incredibly fortunate to have a professional writer consistently cranking out quality posts. Here's to another 5000+!

-o-

I admit I've been a little shameless trying to rustle up 1972 Topps trades through the blog, hitting that set hard this year, but it's turned out that my readers aren't exactly sitting on a trove of '72 high numbers itching to send out to whoever calls dibs. But I have better luck when I take initiative and propose a trade, which is what I did after reading a new post on the semi-dormant Starting Nine blog. Max and I are both similarly deep into the set, and were able to help each other out, swapping PWEs of our dupes.

These are mostly from the later serieses and in great shape apart from the pen marks on the edges of the George Hendrick RC, which Max had offered to toss in as a filler card but chances are it doesn't end up getting upgraded any time soon and that's fine with me. I'm in "any port in a storm" mode with the set and will accept any condition so long as that's factored into the expected return.

I've got 167 cards left to go-- with a handful of those currently "out for delivery" courtesy of GCA which we might see by the end of this post or maybe another future post.

Thanks for the trade, Max! (Our first since 2014, back when PWEs flowed like wine.. Hopefully it doesn't take another 8 years for our next exchange!)

-o-

My Portland neighbor Kerry from Cards on Cards is one of the few trader buds who hasn't let the calendar get too far between swaps over the years. I don't have much left in the way of cards he needs at this point since I haven't been breaking new product or going to card shows, but I'm always happy to see mail arrive from him (or our quick in-person exchanges back when we were both in downtown every weekday) and always do my best to scrape together a respectable return for him.

Love the Juan Soto cards. I kinda hope he resigns with the Nats-- gotta love one-franchise guys-- but chances are he lands a monster free agent contact elsewhere.

Speaking of one-franchise guys, Pittsburgh was blessed with these guys in their lineup for the entirety of their major league careers. The Heritage reprint is a card I've wanted to add to the PC (former Desperate Double Dozen want), though it's an odd choice by Topps and they probably would have been better off with a tribute more like what When Topps Had Balls came up with rather than a straight reprint thrown into the base set. (Or could have been nice if they dug up the original photo negative and made a higher-resolution version of the card with today's improved photo processing to give an updated look to the iconic card. Hell, that'd make a great insert idea for Archives, putting out clearer reprints of classic-yet-grainy cards. I mean, if they're gonna be doing reprints anyway.)

I've got a decent Damian Lillard PC and virtually all of it is comprised of Kerry's castoffs. Good stuff here, with the comic book cover and wide action shot standing out.

Ok, I think that's all I can get to today, but I'll be back before long with some cards from Bo, plus the just-(re)delivered GCA stuff that has a bit of a backstory to go with it. (Another Refractor Friday post due as well.) Thanks for stopping by.

a vintage advantage

Expect to see plenty of vintage on this blog in 2021 as my interest in current cards continues to wane (I don't plan to attempt ripping much if any current product this year). I've revived my goal of completing a page of each vintage Topps baseball set, and I've been filling out my new vintage (non-flagship) frankenset. Plus I've also got a few vintage setbuilds in varying stages of advancement, and sometimes I just pick up random singles for PCs or whatever. Such as...

Check it out! I hadn't picked up a playing-days Clemente in a while, and when I saw this '62 Post with a low opening bid, I took a run at it. The first four cards in this post were from the same seller, taking advantage of combined shipping. Not in perfect condition, but just right for my collection.

Clean back, too.

And here's a '61 Post Willie Mays. I threw bids on a handful of cards from the seller and this was another that I ended up with after the dust settled. Again, not in mint condition, but considering the fair price, works just fine for me. Helps kick up my little PC of the Say Hey Kid.

Some light pencil marks on the back that I've resisted the urge to try taking an eraser to.

I also snagged this '60 for my Minnie Minoso collection.

Looks good.

Here's the main card I was after from the seller. Bobby Richardson was one of the few notable rookie cards missing from my 1957 Topps setbuild. Took me a while to find one that looked ok in the price range I was hoping for, but I'm happy with this one.

Just barely makes it out of my personal "upgrade needed" threshold. It's from the toughest series of '57, so you can't be too choosy unless you really want to pay up.

Here are a couple more rookie cards of All-Stars that I needed for my set. Chris the Collector surprised me with this pair recently.

Thanks again, Chris! Very much appreciated!

About half my recent Sportlots box order was vintage cards, including a couple more '57 needs plus Don Larsen for my '64 build. It's been slow going, but I'm nearing 80% complete with both. Doubt I'll complete either this year.. maybe in 2022.

A more realistic goal for me this year would be to finish off at least one of the 70s sets I've got in the works. Thanks to these from Sportlots, I now have only 29 cards left on my 1974 wantlist, though the remaining cards are pretty much all HOFers and "Washington" Padres variations (the latter of which I've been considering cutting bait on). The Red Sox checklist finishes all of those red-bordered inserts for me, though I'd like to upgrade many of them from marked on the back to unmarked.

My 1978 build is a bit further out, with 131 cards still remaining after checking in these four. As always, please check out my wantlists and get in touch if you think you might be able to help me out with anything in trade. Thanks

A pair of big Bobs

My 1964 Topps setbuild is clawing toward 3/4 complete, and I recently picked up a pair of key cards. I had been after a '64 Bob Roberto Clemente for a while now. I thought it'd be fitting to use my Q1 eBay Bucks on a vintage Clemente (since the majority of those eBay Bucks came from buying his autograph), but truth be told, my Bucks had already been depleted by the time I ended up snagging this PSA 4 specimen in late April. (--though I did use an 8% eBay Bucks promo on it, so the cycle continues.)

A little off-center on the front, and the corners aren't perfect, but I'm very happy with it.


And the other '64 Bob I added last month is another baseball legend in his own right...

Roberto Bob Uecker! Another personal favorite I was happy to reel into my collection. And this one was fully funded by eBay Bucks.

Uecker is a high-number, too. Similar to the Clemente, it leans to the left, but seems the relatively sharp corners and unrubbed trivia answer helped it secure a PSA grade of 6, among the highest examples of the very few slabbed cards in my modest setbuild.

You may be wondering if I plan to free these two beautiful Bobs so I can caress them in my hands and get a good feel-- but no, I intend to keep them safe in their plastic prisons for now.

Thanks for poppin' by!

dream card achieved

I recently got my yearly bonus from work. We're doing fine financially at the moment, so I wanted to go nuts and use a good chunk of the windfall to treat myself to a very, very nice card. Something BIG. Something I never would have even dreamt of owning as a kid. I thought it over for a while and it didn't take me long to find just the special item to put in my crosshairs.

I ended up winning the auction for about triple the cost of my most expensive hobby purchase up to that point. I won't pussyfoot around it too much and admit it was just north of a grand. Some of you reading right now might think I'm insane. Fair enough. (I'm sure there will be a snarky comment or two in the comments.) Helping mitigate things were the fact I happened to get an eBay offer for 10% bonus eBay Bucks, and it seems most other folks didn't get the offer (but I hadn't gotten the previous similar offer I heard people talking about on Twitter a couple weeks prior), which means I was able to max that out to a $100 rebate to spend on eBay in the not too distant future. Plus just days before, I was approached by a buyer for my vast Rilo Kiley live/rare CDR/DVD collection (I had been meaning to find a home for them after backing it all up on external drives over the summer), so I had an extra $150 in my PayPal account, meaning when all's said and done, my 4-figure purchase will actually be more of an $800 hit.

Also worth noting is that the same exact 1/1 card sold for nearly $200 more just a few weeks earlier. I think perhaps someone was trying to flip it, having bought it from a less prominent seller, then reselling it through Probstien123, which is probably the biggest sportscard consignment account on eBay. They're known for generally having max expected final bids (some folks even whisper rumors of shill bidding), but at least in this instance, it doesn't seem to have been the case, and the seller who consigned it looks to have taken a hit. And from other somewhat similar completed auctions, I feel good about the deal I got. I think the fact I was apparently one of the few who had the active Bonus Bucks offer at the time the auction ended helped give me an edge in bidding. Really feels like the stars aligned a bit for me this time!

That was earlier last week. My big purchase was scheduled to arrive Friday, which added to the stress I mentioned in my last post, in addition to lots of work activity and the annual big work party Friday night. I had narrowly missed the mailman and would have to pick it up Saturday from the post office since a signature was required for delivery. So I put it out of mind and had a fun time at the party. I may have had too good for a time, though, and ended up getting violently ill that night after the Lyft home. That was rough! (I should have stuck to beer; it was the couple mixed drinks and especially a Maker's Mark "neat" at the end that really did me in.) Ended up sleeping on the bathroom floor much of the night.

Then Saturday was pretty brutal. It ended up snowing decently overnight, so even if I had been feeling ok, I probably wouldn't have ventured out to the monthly card show. As it was, I was in a world of hurt with an epic hangover. My window for picking up the package was until 2 pm, and with work, I probably wouldn't have another shot until the following weekend (an eternity), so a little after 1 o'clock, I bundled up and took my dog for an arctic trek through the neighborhood to the post office. Lots of wind and snow in our faces, and remember I'm still feeling half-dead at this point. I figured it'd make memorable part of the story of how I got the crown jewel of my collection, at least!

I successfully got the package and we returned home. Around 2:30, the sun came out and the snow started melting. It felt a little like, "oh great, now the weather improves." Or looking at it more optimistically, it was like the world signaling a victorious end to the journey. I held off opening the package until I wasn't feeling so crappy. Got plenty of sleep Saturday night and woke up feeling much better Sunday.

Finally, it was time!

That's an authentic Roberto Clemente autograph. I'm still blown away that it's mine! I almost feel like I can retire from card collecting now. With the exception of like maybe a mint '52 Mantle or one of those mega-scarce Honus Wagner cards, I can't really think of a more impactful card for me.. nothing I'd personally put above a Roberto Clemente autograph. Obviously it's not perfect.. but then again, a perfect Roberto Clemente autograph would be much more expensive (and probably have a greater likelihood of being fake). I'm happy making due with an "ugly" one.

Not to say there's zero chance this is fake, since I wasn't there when it was originally signed, but it has a lot going for it toward indicating it's legit, including how ugly it is.

I have no plans to crack it out of its case, but of course I was going to make a custom overlay to spruce it up!

I whipped this up this (Monday) morning in about 20 minutes before work. The custom isn't my best work, but the beauty of an overlay is I can make a new one anytime I want and just swap it out. I really wanted to bring it into work ASAP to display it where I can see it as often as possible. I work in a very secure room, with limited access and security cameras, so I'm confident it'll be safe there. And there's no direct sunlight, so keeping it in a shady spot (and maybe covering it up when I'm not around) should prevent fading. I know the signature already isn't very dark.. seems to be pencil, though, not faded pen. But I'm no expert. Maybe someday I'll move it to the family safe deposit box, but for the foreseeable future, it's gonna be the centerpiece of my work space. (well, besides like my computer n' stuff.)

Oh yeah, there's even a Willie Stargell cut auto on the back. I love Pops, so that's a pretty cool, but I've already got 3 or 4 auto cards of his, as they're much more plentiful than Clemente, so it's a nice bonus, but definitely not the headliner here.

You may have noticed under Clemente's signature is another, lighter marking. Digging into it, turns out that's about 51% of Don Hoak's autograph, a very "tough" signature in its own right. He was the Pirates' starting third baseman for their 1960 World Championship team. He also got a ring with the '55 Brooklyn Dodgers. Sadly, he died in 1969 at the age of 41.

The original document seems to be from 1962, some sort of marketing material to get Pirates fans excited to support their team. Perhaps it's from from a program or maybe an offseason event. Maybe it was from mid-season, alluding to a stretch run (They had a strong team that year, going 93–68, but that was only good for 4th place in the NL.) Further dating it to 1962 is that Don Hoak was traded from Pittsburgh to the Phillies in November of '62. If any Pirates fan could possibly track down a copy of this "Let's Boost our [...] Team Home!" document, I'd love to check it out in its uncut glory.

Wrapping things up.. what else can I say? Never thought I'd one day own a Roberto Clemente autograph. Such an iconic figure, on and off the field. A great player and an even better human being. True hero. Legend! Hopefully this tiny remnant from his time on earth helps me in my life to be the best person I can.

Ok, I'm laying it on pretty thick here and this has been a long rambling post, but you know what I mean. Bottom line is I'm incredibly blown away to have this in my collection.

Thanks for reading!

''Any time you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don't, then you are 
wasting your time on Earth.''

░▒▓█▀▄▀▄▀▄★ Sentimental Sundays: Do the Reminiscence Bump ★▄▀▄▀▄█▓▒░

I'm a little late, but here's my Reminiscence Bump post, as popularized by Night Owl Cards. This is a rundown over the years of how I got into card collecting and some cards that are linked to specific memories for me. I'm also throwing in some tunes while I'm at it, documenting how I got into music. ♫ 

 1985 - I'm a kid playing on a grassy field with my friend William. I give him like a piece of candy or something, and to return the favor, he gives me 4 or 5 baseball cards, all of which are Oakland A's cards from 1980 Topps (who knows why). I don't really care about baseball, preferring to watch cartoons and play with my G.I. Joes, but I happily toss the cards in with my inventory of toys.

♫ 1985 - I'm attending a friend's birthday party at a local roller rink (hell, it might have been William again, I don't remember). While skating around under the dim lighting of rays bouncing off the mirrorball, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" comes on over the soundsystem and hits me in a wonderful, unfamiliar way.. the first time music really connects with me.

1986 - As a kid in San Diego, I'm aware of big names such as Tony Gwynn and Steve Garvey of the Padres.. and I recall seeing those distinctive "black top" 1986 Topps cards owned by friends of mine, though I don't have any of mine own. I do somehow manage to acquire a few '86 Topps Football cards from a buddy somewhere along the line. Highlights are a Bernie Kosar rookie, Busta Rhymes, an Eric Dickerson "1000 Yard Club" insert, and a Rushing Leaders card with Marcus Allen and Gerald Riggs. I don't care about football, but am happy to expand my tiny sports card collection into another sport.

♫ 1986 - I watch a lot of The Monkees in syndication on weekday afternoons over summer break, being watched (babysat) by family friend Kit, hanging out with her three daughters, Missy, Kristy, and Cindy. Seems like those guys are having a lot of fun on tv. I start making it known that I'd like to be a musician when I grow up. My music collection begins by receiving cassettes of greatest hits albums for my birthday of the Monkees (Then & Now... the Best of The Monkees) and the Beach Boys (The Beach Boys ‎– Do It Again!), the latter of whom I'm a fan of thanks mostly due to "I Get Around" being featured in the film Flight of the Navigator which I like a lot.

1987 - I still don't care much about baseball, but every so often I run across a new card for my tiny collection. My mom buys a loaf of bread that strangely has a baseball card in it and I'm mildly happy to get a card of one of the few ballplayers I know of, the legendary all-time great Steve Garvey. (Years later, I would be shocked to learn he wasn't in the Hall of Fame.)

 

♫ 1987 - I'm riding in a car in Chicago with some family members on our way to my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary party. Somebody asks me about the music I like and I mention I like that "I was standing, you were there" song, which I caught on the radio once or twice, and my cooler older cousin Siobhan perks up and seems to be impressed, "INXS?" Yeah, that one. In a rare moment, I kinda feel cool.

♫ 1988 - My card collection is stagnant for 1988. As for music, my favorite cassettes are Paula Abdul - Forever Your Girl and Roxette - Look Sharp.

♫ 1989 - My card collection still consists of just those few A's cards from William and an oddball or two I wound up with. Cards are totally off my radar, though in hindsight the "overproduction era" was ramping up like never before, so it's almost surprising it hasn't gotten to me yet. As for music, I've found my first official "favorite band" with Def Leppard, being a huge fan of their album Hysteria even though I know I'm a couple years late to it. I'm also into some popular rap, with Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock's It Takes Two getting a lot of play on my little boombox. This is the year I buy my first "explicit lyrics" cassette tapes-- Guns N' Roses Appetite For Destruction and Tone Lōc's debut album, Lōc-ed After Dark. My mom snatches them behind my back to give a listen as a concerned parent. She returns them without incident-- even says she kinda enjoys that "Take me down to the Paradise City" song-- though I am extremely mortified at this turn of events. Specifically, GNR's "Rocket Queen" is nearly impossible to listen to now, what with the naughty lady noises.

1990 - Baseball cards hadn't been very popular at my elementary school, but then here in this first year of middle school-- BOOM! Damn near everybody collects. I'm hesitant to jump on the bandwagon at first. My locker in P.E. is right next to a cool kid named Troy. He's a good dude, but not the sharpest tool in the shed. Troy is always having problems opening his locker. I help open it for him each day and he returns the favor by giving me a random baseball card. They're all '90 Topps and '90 Donruss. The name "Howard Johnson" sticks with me, perhaps due to the hotel/restaurant chain of the same name. I eventually amass a decent little stack of Troy's castoffs, and my life as a card collector has officially begun. I soon start buying packs myself, trying to get a sampling of all the options on the market, even the pricy Upper Deck. I begin watching all the televised baseball I can, plus read the sports section, pouring over the box scores to see who had a good game the day before, learning who the good players are. I may be a late bloomer to the sport/hobby, but I hit it hard and it basically consumes my 6th Grade.

♫ 1990 - My best friend Doug and I are nuts for the two big pop-rap albums ruling the charts, Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em and Vanilla Ice's To The Extreme. Nearly every day after school, I hang out at his place and we listen to a side of one of these tapes in his room while goofing off. When Christmas rolls around, my (cool) cousin Siobhan gives me a couple cassettes: New Order Substance and Fine Young Cannibals The Raw & The Cooked. Brilliant move by her taking my love for danceable pop, but guiding it a little further from the mainstream. These albums knock me for a loop and open my eyes to what would soon become known as "alternative" music.

1991 - I've got the pedal to the metal with my card collection. I make weekly trips to the local card shop, PB's Baseball Cards, to spend my allowance, which is conveniently just a couple blocks from my home. I buy at least one pack of any baseball card set that comes out on the shelves, though I mostly stick to the big boys: Topps, Donruss, Fleer, Upper Deck, and Score.

♫ 1991 - I've forsaken the "pop" radio stations I used to listen to (San Diego's Q106 and Z90), and now am a loyal listener of 91X "the cutting edge of rock" (San Diego's "alternative" station). I get a CD player for Christmas and the first two CDs I buy happen to both be from 8 years earlier, 1983: Yes - 90125 (love that "Owner of a Lonely Heart" song!) and my old favorite Def Leppard's Pyromania ("Photograph" might in in the running for my favorite song of all time).

1992 - I'm still balls-to-the-wall with collecting baseball cards, though I've also expanded into spending some allowance money on comic books, too.. with Spider-Man being my focus. My two best friends have chosen their favorites to collect: Doug: Tony Gwynn and Wolverine, Chris: Darryl Strawberry and Punisher, Me: Reggie Jackson and Spider-Man. Not much change from the prior year as far as my collecting habits, as I try to sample a little of every baseball card pack PB's has available, though I tend to stick to the major releases. I also buy a lot of "old" packs that the card shop has on the shelves, as I look to "diversify" my collection, including several each from 1986 Leaf (bizarro Donruss!) and 1982 Topps (so vintage!), the latter of which ends up giving me the best pull of my life up to that point, as I rip a wax pack while crossing Jamacha Boulevard and get a Cal Ripken rookie, excitedly showing my bud Doug. I'm floating on air as we make our way back home.

♫ 1992 - I gotta give my mom a lot of credit for shaping my taste in music.. Among the albums I listen to this year are a lot of artists I became familiar with through my mom's record/CD collection, including Paul Simon, Talking Heads, and the Beatles.

1993 - My intense baseball card collecting fascination for the past 3 years has finally started to ease up. I buy a handful of packs, mostly 1993 Topps, but apart from the thrill of pulling a Frank Thomas Black Gold insert, am just not getting the enjoyment from the hobby I once did. Once I'm in high school, my friends and the rest of the guys at school have pretty much stopped collecting cards, too, so I don't really have anyone to connect with there. For the first time, comic books take priority for my allowance money, with my favorite monthly titles being Spider-Man 2099 and Image's The Maxx. But by the end of the year, I lose interest in them too, as I get my first serious girlfriend and most of my interest/money goes toward that relationship.

♫ 1993 - Actually, what really starts taking priority for my allowance money in 1993 is my music collection, buying lots of CDs. Something about starting high school and music suddenly having a much more important role in your life. My favorite band is now Jane's Addiction (and their new offshoot Porno For Pyros). Also listen to lots of Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, Catherine Wheel, Lemonheads' Shame About Ray, and Matthew Sweet's Altered Beast.

♫ 1994 thru 2004 - My cards and comics are packed away in boxes, with no new additions over the next decade save for maybe a random oddball found in a box of cereal or something. I instead get my collecting fix by tracking down every live recording I can find from my favorite bands, mainly Jane's Addiction and related side projects. Pixies, Frank Black, Paw, Dig, and John Frusciante are also among my top artists. Lots of buying bootlegs and trading fellow collectors for live tapes, eventually building up an impressive collection.

2005 - After many years, I stick my toe back into the card collecting waters in the summer of 2005. I'm impressed by how easy it is to find/buy specific cards now thanks to the rise of eBay. Among the earliest cards I pick up online are a 1986 Donruss Fred McGriff rated rookie (which I had always hoped to pull from those '86 Leaf packs as a kid back in the day, but came up short)-- and not only that, it's my first ever graded card-- which is a concept that kinda blows my mind. I also buy singles of 1980 Topps Ozzie Smith, 1974 Dave Winfield rookie, 1972 Topps Harmon Killebrew (base card + his In Action card), a lot of few '73 Topps cards (my favorite vintage set), and I also relive the thrill of opening packs for the first time in years with a lot of 20 unopened packs of 1984 Topps, a set I've never had much of (they weren't carried at my LCS in the early 90s), so I figure they'd be somewhat "fresh" for me, and they're cheap. I spread them out over a few days and pull a Boggs and Ripken and feel pretty good about it. I also end up trading live recordings to a guy for a few good cards including a John Elway rookie and a Ryne Sandberg Fleer rookie. But despite this flurry of card-collecting activity, it doesn't really take, and I then go dormant a few more years.

♫ 2005 - I'm no longer into Jane's Addiction that much (though I never really turn my back on music I once enjoyed; hell, I still listen to MC Hammer, Roxette and Paula Abdul every once in a while to this day), with the title of my favorite band now belonging to Neutral Milk Hotel. Again, the collector in me compels me to hunt down every circulating live & rare recording of theirs out there. I even spend much of my spare time working on a fansite for the band. I finally finish up college and briefly get a job at a computer shop with my buddy Chris. My days are generally very lonely, having no luck with the ladies or making new friends. My best friend Doug got married a few years back and no longer has much time for hanging out with me other than occasionally having me over to watch a Chargers game. I write and record a lot of my own songs, though no one listen to them. Seriously, 1994 through 2007 were dark times for me.

2008 - I'm at Target and notice a box of current baseball cards near the checkout and throw one in my basket on a whim. It's my first pack of new/current cards in 15 years. When I get home and rip the pack, I'm not all that impressed by them. A CC Sabathia insert is the only card that stands out in the slightest. I later do make one eBay card purchase this year, though (Saturday, Nov 22, 2008, to be specific.. yeah, that's not from memory but thanks to searching old emails), spending $3.14 + $1 S&H on a Topps 1973 Roberto Clemente. I get a thrill reminiscent of my early collecting days landing a vintage card of the great Roberto Clemente, a mythical figure if there ever was one. Me as a kid would have been blown away! But again, my interest in the hobby is fleeting and I step away for a few more years.

♫ 2008 - My favorite band now would probably have to be Rilo Kiley. I've been listening to them for a few years now. I've got a fansite for them too. I'm also a moderator on a popular fan message board for the band. One night the year prior, I drunkenly flirted with a certain female regular on the forum I had thought was really cool for a while. We ended up sparking a relationship, but she lives way up in Portland, so the long-distance thing is a strain.

2012 - Yep, I live in Portland now, moving away from San Diego in 2009 to be with my special lady. I've finally got a job with some extra money to spend (just a temp job, but still). I take a curious look on eBay at the current state of baseball cards. I'm intrigued by this new Topps Archives product, with its comforting familiar designs for me and a nice mix of active players and favorites from the past. I buy a blaster, then a couple more, and before I know it, I'm back in the hobby. I'm thrilled by pulling a Roberto Clemente rookie reprint during a very rough period (our awesome dog Lucy is dying of cancer) and it gives me strength and reminds me what a positive force card collecting can be. Around this time, the band message boards I moderate fall apart and I find myself without an online community to be a part of. It's a hole in my life to not have a bunch of buds to check in with everyday. I somehow stumble upon an old blog dedicated to 1988 Topps-- while that's always been among my least favorite sets, I still find it fascinating reading the author's take on the cards and players. From the commentators on that blog, I find a guy named Night Owl who seems to have some interesting things to add, too. I find out he has his own daily card blog, and I become a loyal reader of it.

♫ 2012 - Man, music-wise, everything seems to blur together around these years. I'm not sure what I was listening to in particular. I'll go with Metric here. I would still find new bands online from time to time, but mostly I got to the point where I stuck to listening to stuff I already liked. I guess that comes with getting old.

2013 - Ok, I've been reading card blogs for a while now. I'm really impressed by how cool the community is, sharing info about cards and trading and generally being great people of all ages and backgrounds. I even take the plunge and start writing my own blog in June of 2013, and soon do my first cards-for-cards trade in over 20 years (trading Marcus an extra McGriff rated rookie I ended up with). I must be on the right track, as I narrowly squeak out a win for "Best new blog of 2013" in awards voted on at another blog. As for my collection, I rarely spend real money on cards, though am active on Listia, selling crap for credits that I can turn around and spend on cards. One particular card I win on Listia is a really sharp looking autograph of Bill Madlock, a guy I got an in-person autograph from as a kid. Turns out the set is called 2004 Topps Retired Signature Edition and I'm in love with everything about it. I think I'll try to get some more of these cards. Yeah, maybe! Speaking of being in love, I ask that girl I've been shacking up with to marry me and she says yes!

2014 - I have pretty much focused my collection on retired greats and fan favorites from yesteryear up to this point, but inspired by reading card blogs, I finally come around to the current state of baseball and slowly start collecting some active players in addition to my old favorites. Funny enough, there are a few active card blogs that focus on the Padres, and they help teach me about the current lineup, and even though the team has broken my heart so many times in the past, I slide back into being a fan, for better or worse. Speaking of for better or worse, we get married over the summer.

2015 - I kick off the year by posting The game of Wallet Card, an idea I had come up with at the end of the previous year which I think is a fun concept for the cardsphere. It damn near goes viral and gets attention of collectors online far beyond my blog's normal reach. Feels like I've "made it" as a part of the baseball card collecting scene. My collecting habits expand further as I enter the world of working on vintage sets, deciding to make a run at my favorite set, 1973 Topps.

2016 - My dream of making my own baseball cards sort of comes true as I start toying with designing/printing my own custom cards. I have lot of fun coming up with various "cards that never were" and cards of hot rookies. I fly a little too close to the sun and start trying to make a little extra card-spending money by selling my custom cards online. After scary (though honestly a little flattering) legal threats from Topps and a Texas newspaper, I give up any intentions of making money off my customs. It doesn't matter much to me, though, as I'm lucky enough to score a good job with the company my wife works for. I no longer need to pinch my pennies quite so much, and start splurging on adding nice cards to my collection here and there.

2032 - I die of heart failure in a storage unit I've been crashing in since the money ran out. Alone with nothing to my name besides my beloved card collection boxed up all around my lifeless body, with no next-of-kin to be found, my collection is auctioned off for a few hundred bucks to a pawn shop asshole who turns a tidy profit on them and then puts a down payment on a mid-priced new card for his teenage son.

And I guess that's pretty much it. These days I've got lots of various collecting project in the works, with my focus for the first time being less on player collections and more on vintage sets and other fun/off-the-wall stuff. Still going strong with the blogging here as 2018 winds down, fortunate to have kind folks reading and interacting, both on the blog and twitter. Lots of incoming cards. Enjoying the hobby very much.

Thanks for reading all this!