Snow Day

The Snowpocalypse has hit Portland, so I get a much needed 3-day weekend. As I mentioned the other day, we're moving this weekend. We haven't started packing at all. Luckily, we can take our time and move over the course of the next week (although, I guess there's nothing really "lucky" about paying 2 rents for a week or two). And our new place is only 3 miles away, so (once the snow melts), it'll be an easy commute.

Today I'll start packing up non-essential stuff. I also hope to pretty much finish up the string of "special event" blog posts I've been working on drafting here-n-there for the past few weeks. Luckily I had those about 75% "in the hole" ready to go, or else I'd probably have to take a short break from blogging while I worry about the move. I should be able to continue getting posts up on the regular, though it might take a while to get an internet connection set up at the new place. I could likely still post from work on my breaks, though.

I've sent out a few trade packages in the past 2 or 3 days (Rockies, Red Sox, Mets), but will have to put a hold on future trades for the moment until the move is complete and I'm back in the swing of things.

Anyways, back to the snow. Hailing from San Diego, I haven't spent much time with snow. We don't get much up here in Portland, either, but every few years the city gets blanketed in white and pretty much shuts down for a couple days.

But one guy who is no stranger to snow is Night Owl. I got a trade package from him yesterday. That's right, we're turning this into a "trade post"!

I had sent Greg some worthless-but-kinda-cool homemade glow-in-the-dark Dodgers and he responded with a nice Padre-centric variety of wants of mine. (And no, he didn't send the J.T. Snow card at the top of this post.. that was just me being cute, taking a picture of the only J.T. Snow card I own in the snow.)

Goose! As I was naming this image file, I had to stop and appreciate "owl-goose.jpg"

Adrian! An early card and one from his days as San Diego's starpower. Very cool.

Bip! To know Bip is to love Bip.

Gant! Wow, I had this Baseball Cards Magazine freebie cutout back in the day.. I bought the oversized magazine with Ron on the cover and everything. It was the only Baseball Cards Magazine I ever bought. The card and magazine got purged from my collection when I moved to Portland a few years back. Cool to be reunited with this neat oddball. How crazy would it be if this were the very same card that used to be mine? How long till Topps starts putting tracking microchips into their cards? Damn, that'd be pretty freaking cool, actually. Way cooler than a manufactured patch or relic of questionable authenticity.

Some more additions to my Cooperstown Padres collection.

Finally, we close out this trade package with a few miscellaneous Padres, including up-n-comer Jedd Gyorko and never-quite-met-potential'er Khalil Greene. Love 'em.

Thanks a bunch for the trade, Greg! --Oh, I almost forgot, he also included 3 or 4 needs from 1973 Topps! I've already filed those away, so no scans.

Anyways, thanks as always for reading. Have patience with me over the next couple weeks as my home situation goes through a crazy transitional shift. But hopefully you won't even notice anything's up.

Now for no reason, I'll leave you with some pictures of my dog Annie playing in the snow.

Is it possible to know romantic love with a card?

I'm sure everyone reading this has cards in their collection they love. Your favorite card of your favorite player. Perhaps a rad old vintage card you've had forever. Or maybe a really scare "hit" you were lucky enough to pull one glorious summer's day.

But what about romantic love?

Can someone truly love a card, romantically?

Yes, I love this card and we are getting married as soon as the law allows for a man to marry a trading card.

Isn't this the most beautiful card you've ever seen? Depicted upon it is a lovely girl stretching back in a beautiful grassy field on a perfect afternoon. Heaven.

Sure, like us all, she's not without her flaws. For instance, (don't tell her I said this, but) she'd be so much more attractive had she been born an on-card auto, rather than a sticker auto. And she's a little "old" for my taste. I like my cards to be serial numbered 12/25. So at 24/25, she's a bit over the hill.

But I don't care! I still love her!

And by the adorably cute heart in front of the signature, I know this card loves me, too.

As for the human pictured on my cardboard concubine, well, she's cool, too, I guess.

Carly Patterson is an Olympic gymnast. Or she was. She's retired now. She had a great athletic career, being named the 2004 Olympic All-Around Champion and later inducted into the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame. (And now I've got her autograph!) These days, she's a pop singer, married and living in Texas. I checked out a song of hers on YouTube..


Meh, it's fine for that kind of thing, but not the type of music I listen to much at all.

Now, in the comments, tell me all about your romantic escapades with cards. Oh wait-- no, nevermind. Let's not. Ignore this post. It's kinda creepy. Hopefully the tongue-in-cheekiness of it came through.

Still, it's a nice card.

Everything's Coming Up Milhouse!.. or Bryce Harper, in this case

I don't want to get too excited till we've inked the lease, but it looks like my little family unit (me, my fiancée, and our dog) will be movin' on up.

After 4 years in a basement apartment of a big house, we've got our eyes set on renting a nice little house all to ourselves. While it was great living here at first, a couple years ago a super annoying couple moved in upstairs and just ruined the house, mainly thanks to their asshole dog who barks sooo much, at all hours. Of course, it's a "chicken and the egg" situation.. Is it a shitty dog because it has shitty owners, or are the owners shitty because it's a shitty dog so why bother? Probably a bit of both, creating a perfect storm of a shitshow dog.

Anyways, sorry to vent my issues on you (I had second thoughts and edited out the worst bits), but just want to give a little idea of part of the reason we are so ecstatic to be leaving here for our very own place.

So Monday, after a very stressful day and a half anxiously hoping we'd get the house (we were not the first people to apply), we got an email from the owner saying our application was chosen, and as long as all the references and stuff check out, we should be good to sign the lease soon. Man, my girl and I had a virtual danceparty celebration over email. (She has grad school Monday nights, so she wasn't home.) Sooo happy!

To reel this in to the topic of baseball cards, that evening I celebrated by opening the repack I bought at Target the other day. I already posted about the '14 Topps blaster I ripped. The highlight of that was probably the first card I saw, the Bryce Harper patch. Here's a better picture of it.

Love that crazy ball-playin' bald eagle! Makes for a much more interesting card than just a boring Washington "W" logo or his jersey number or whatever manipatches usually use.

So on to the repack. This was my first-ever Fairfield repack. I took me a while at the card rack debating if/which I should get. You gotta remember that I very, very rarely buy cards away-from-keyboard, usually ordering online like on eBay or something. So many different products to choose from. I went with a blaster boasting 4 unopened packs plus 50 loose cards. 2012 Chrome was the top pack showing, with cover boy Bryce Harper. I thought it'd be cool to try for a Harper RC.

Ripping 'er open, what's the first card I see? A Bryce Harper RC! Nice! After thumbing through the rest of the cards, I said to myself, "Not bad, but as a base card, doesn't quite pay for the blaster." And just then I see some rainbowy shine coming off the card. Giving it a better look, sure enough, it is a refractor. A quick check tells me this is about a $20+ card, so yes, that would easily cover the $7.99 for the repack.

The only problem is it looks like the packs were crammed into the box pretty tightly, and being an outside card, it was vulnerable, and the lower right corner took a slight dinging, knocking down the value a bit, I'm sure. But it's fine. I planned to hang on to it myself anyways, semi-collecting Bryce, as I do.

A few other less-exciting highlights from the repack:

I still remember having optimistic high hopes when Mark Prior attempted his comeback with the Padres years ago. Unfortunately, it didn't work out too well, and this became a "year zero" card, with Mark never pitching in an official game with San Diego.

I'm an outcast in the card collecting world because I don't like Allen & Ginter. At all. But thanks to this repack, I ripped my first (and last?) ever Ginter pack. At least I got that lovely young woman whose card I've seen on other blogs. Also a Lassie mini.

I like Mike Piazza, but he has too many damn cards. As a former Padre (soon to be) inducted in the HOF, he's wedged himself in one of my main collecting goals: "All cards of any player in the Hall who ever played a game for the (MLB) Padres." He just spent one year on the squad. That's a lot of total cards to collect, with only a small fraction of which being Padres cards. Ah, such is collecting!

This was one of the 50 loose cards (the rest of the cards I've shown were from packs). Not surprisingly, 90% of them were junk. I was just thinking about this classic Boggs card the other day while working on a forthcoming blog project for which he has a part in (starting Sunday, 2/9!), and realizing I probably didn't own it anymore (I know I had it back during my initial card-collecting run of the early 90s). So I was happy to pull it and be reunited with this guy in the sky.

So there you go. My first ever Fairfield repack. This wraps up my Harper-hot card shopping spree at Target.. if you count 2 blasters as a spree. Thanks for reading and see you next time.

UPDATE!!! Moments ago, just got confirmation that we've been offered the lease!!! Our own house. We move in this weekend. This is one of the happiest moments of my life. =D

1973 Topps goal update.. recovering after a slow start

Back in late November when I officially announced my intentions of completing 1973 Topps, I was at about 10% complete.

December was pretty quiet on the 73 front, only picking up a small smattering of needs from Listia, Just Commons, or eBay, and I had began to think I was going to have to go it alone in my quest.

But then a couple weeks or so ago, I suddenly started getting some emails from fellow collectors with extra 73s to part with. It was like something out of It's A Wonderful Life! ..Ok, maybe it wasn't that huge of a community outpouring, but a couple guys hooked me up with nice ~40 card stacks, and a couple other guys expressed interest in smaller trades. I think I need to credit Night Owl for prominently featuring Baseball Card Breakdown in a post around that time, resulting in a nice little bump in readership here. Thanks again, Greg!

First, mrhaverkamp came through and rapid-fired off a bunch of needs from the first series, helping me get a majority of the first 120 or so cards in the set.. a great start! Were I to put these in a binder, I'd have the first page completed, plus another complete page or two around 90-110. (Still debating whether I want to go the binder route, or stick with a box.)

There she is.. "page 1"

He even knocked some "desperate dozens" off my sidebar list while he was at it, including The Legendary Afro Card (1976 Traded Oscar Gamble).. I can't put into words how incredible it is to finally own this mesmerizing pinnacle of 70s baseball cards. The generous mrhaverkamp didn't even need anything back in exchange, just a request to occasionally check on his wantlist for future considerations, which I'll gladly do. Big thank, man!

Next.. Mark H has been getting a lot of thank-yous in the blogosphere lately, and for good reason. He recently got back into the hobby after many years away, and has been graciously distributing some great old cards from his collection to bloggers who'd appreciate them. I was lucky enough to be the recipient of about 40 '73s I needed, even a few of those pesky high numbers which I'm realizing will be a bit of a bitch for me to complete. Mark is just looking for any modern Red Sox cards in return, and while Boston isn't well-represented in my trade stack at the moment, I'm happy to clear them out for him. (I recently grabbed Boston in View From The Skybox's big group break for charity [the break is a go!! Still plenty of teams left. Sign up if you can. It's for a great cause].. so I'll have a replenished Red Sox stack before long.. I'm sure a big chunk of which will make their way to Mark.)

Anyways, among the great 73s he sent me was Killer, here..

Mark also knocked a few needs off the desperate dozen while he was at it, including this scary 69 Gaylord.

A couple months ago when I gathered my Gaylords together, 1969 came up absent, though I thought I had it. But then I couldn't find it, so figured I must have just seen it in a nightmare as a child and it vividly stuck with me.

Thanks again to Jim and Mark for the great bonuses and helping me nearly get to the 25% milestone with the 1973 set! Anybody else got some extra 73s to spare in trade? Check out my needs and get in touch, and hopefully we can swing a deal. Thanks.

				165	/699
				23.61	% complete
				as of	2/1/14

Glowing cards glowing

I haven't posted any  glowing  cards in-action in a while. That's always fun to see, right?

Most of these have already found new homes, but I thought ahead to snap photos before sending them off, since I know not everybody has the proper camera/patience to get a decent photo in the dark.

First, here are a pair of Ron Cey GAV (Glowing Altered Variation) cards I sent off to Night Owl a month or so ago.

This above was a technique that I messed around with for a bit, but ultimately haven't continued using. First, I tried it on like a dozen cards and maybe 2 or 3 actually came out looking good. Plus it's relatively expensive and makes the cards gritty. Still, though, this one looks pretty cool in the dark. Ghostly.

This next one isn't as impressive when glowing, but I love it! It looks normal in the light, but get it in the dark and the background image becomes the foreground image! Magic!

Notice the right arm, even! Man, I'm proud of this one (even if it does look a little like Snoopy). haha

Here's another trilogy of Dodgers I sent Night Owl's way. These used a different "sketch" technique that works ok, in sort of an arty "abstract" way.

Now, Dan at It's Like Having My Own Card Shop is a big fan of Ryan Roberts. So when he was due a contest-winning prize PWE from me a while back, I figured this would make a good "1/1" altered card to throw in for him.

Finally, here's a real, officially-produced glowing card, not one I made myself. Got this '93 Upper Deck Fun Pack Jeff Bagwell in a recent trade with Need More Cardboard.

Ok, that's it for now.
By the way, time's running out to vote for those additional 2013 blog awards at It's like having my own Card Shop, so please help me achieve my ROY dreams by voting for Baseball Card Breakdown as Best New Blog of 2013! Thanks, guys.

2014 Topps Series I trade bait

As promised, I spent Super Bowl Sunday shopping. In addition to groceries, new shoes, and spiffy additions to my wardrobe, I picked up a blaster of 2014 Topps Series I and a repack (which I'll get to another time).

I'm not crazy about '14 Topps, or modern cards in general, really, but figured I should at least check 'em out in person, right?

I'm sure other bloggers have already written much more interesting things about the 2014 base cards, so I'll just get right into the parallels and inserts. Sorry, it's been a big day for me. I'm exhausted (we also looked at a couple prospective places to move.. one of which was a little house that would be perfect for us.. and so now we're kinda stressing out, hoping we get it, but it looks like we have some stiff competition.) Anyways, I'm taking the lazy route and posting multi-card photos instead of scanning or taking separate pics.. sorry.

These above are the "keepers" for me. Nice cards.

Ok, now everything below is trade bait, so if you see something you want, let me know and let's swing a deal. Here's my wantlist. Got any '73s I need or players I collect? Let me know! Thanks!

The 2 red guys up there are the shiny red type (Middlebrooks, Richard). The below red guys are the Target parallels.

Sorry the names are so hard to read. Just ask if you need clarification on any of these guys.

And yes, the Target card coupons are trade bait, too.. I rarely shop for cards at Target, so one of you guys could probably get better use out of them than me.

Of course I've got a stack of base cards too, so feel free to let me know if there's any you're looking for.

Have a great week, everybody.

(oh, and remember to go vote for Baseball Card Breakdown for Best New Blog of 2013!)

Never trust a Junkie

...unless it's The Junior Junkie. In that case, yes, you can trust him.

TJ(J) is a pretty generous guy. I feel bad that I forgot to thank him for the free cards he sent me a few week back as part of his Griffey Birthday Blowout Spectacular (or words to that effect).

I snagged a '77 Topps Garvey (that I think I may already have.. but couldn't pass it up) and a Rickey-as-a-Padre card (always love seeing Rickey as a Friar on cardboard). He graciously threw in an unclaimed Biggio, to boot.

So when I sniffed a potential trade brewing with him, I jumped on the chance to send some card-love back his way.

I sent him a Ron Kittle auto he had his eyes on, and surprised him with a few other cards, including a '89 Score Griffey, Jr RC complete in a custom hand-painted glow-in-the-dark hard case of my handywork. It ended up looking not too pretty in the light.. but glows nicely in the dark.

In return, I was expecting a few additions to my modest Jake Peavy PC from him. He delivered big in that department, plus hit a few other players-I-collect from my wantlist while he was at it.

First, here's a bunch of Peavys..

As the last great Padres hurler, Jake'll always have a spot in my heart. Nice to see him finally get a ring with the Sox last year.

Next up was a heaping helping of Larry Walker cards.

Nice! If you need any convincing of Walker's greatness, read this terrific number-nerd article at High Heat Stats.

His '90 Bowman RC was, I think, his only major RC to elude me all these years.. so, nice to finally get it.. even if it documents Larry's brief, failed attempt at growing a mustache. LOL

Another great, Paul Molitor.

Love em! Especially the '92 Leaf black gold parallel and the #'d 0623/1250 refractor on the end.

Finally, a few McGriff's and a couple Donnie's.

Thanks again for the trade, TJ!

[OH< AND BY THE WAY, It's Like Having My Own Card Shop is running some 2013 card blogging awards and the voting is now open! Junior Junkie is up for "post of the year", and yours truly has his eyes on "best new blog of 2013".. so hey, please take a couple seconds to go vote! Thanks!]