My vinyl record collection in its entirety!

For today's Rocktober/Sentimental Sundays post, let's check out my vinyl collection.

Gotta admit I don't currently own a record player.. haven't since I moved from San Diego. And even when I did have a turntable, I only ever used it when I was capturing records to a digital format, never just to simply listen to albums. I suppose it's one of those "maybe one day when my ship comes in" situations, I might buy a nice sound system setup and become an audiophile and get into vinyl.

But as it stands, the record collection is just for collectible/sentimental value. While I'm not really looking to part with any of this stuff right now, if you see something you really like, feel free to make an offer to talk me out of it. (and hey, if you missed it, I've still got a bunch of CDs I'm looking to find homes for-- just $14 for postage will score you ~45 CDs!)

Here we go...
First off, let's enjoy the big box I keep my 12" records in. I've adorned it with a multitude of stickers over the years:

Above you'll find the only baseball-related content of today's post: a couple stickers in the lower left. My guess of the players is Kevin Gross and Pascual Perez, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I have never "berned" an American flag, I promise! God bless America.
91X was the best radio station in San Diego. Definitely shaped my musical tastes in the early 90s.
Lou's Records is the best record store in San Diego. Are they still open? I hope so. It was a solid 45 minute drive from my house in El Cajon, but my buddy Doug and I would trek out there once a month or so to pick up some new music.

More sports content: an obscured Chargers bumper sticker can be found in the middle of this mess. I'm so happy they're sucking this season in LA! Nobody wants them there anyways. I really hope the NFL forces them back to San Diego.

A lot of these are promotional stickers from indie record labels/bands. Many of them I don't know anything about, just grabbed them free in the "free mags n' shit" section by the door of record stores.

Ok, now onto the actual vinyl.

The latest addition to my record collection, an autographed Mercury Rev album. I just showed this off earlier this month along with some of my other Rev stuff.

Here are some rare Jane's Addiction promo records I got from their A&R guy Troy back around 1998.

More of my rare Jane's/related records. The Psi Com (upper left) is the most expensive record I ever bought. I think it was $150 from a mail order company back in the pre-eBay days. It's Perry's first band, pretty hard to find.. though these days you could probably find it for a third of that without much trouble. The Polar Bear (Eric Avery's band, '95-00) is a clear blue vinyl that I should have remembered to pull out for the photo (I love colored vinyl), but forgot.

I love the band Dig. I befriended their original drummer a few years back and he hooked me up with a bunch of great stuff.. uncirculated demos, live recordings, t-shirts, and these couple records. I won't tell you the name of the clear one on the right, because I like you.

OK, now we're really going back in time. This is from my mom's record collection back when I was just a wee lad. I remember it was almost like a special event when we would have a Sunday night of listening to records, and this Beatles album was always a must-play. You didn't have to tell me this was the best band ever.. just listening to these 20 songs, it was obvious.

Here's another one of my mom's old records, one of my all-time favorite albums, Abbey Road. Years ago, I transferred all my mom's records to mp3 for her as a Christmas gift or something. In return, she let me have all the records. Most of them I got rid of before I moved out of state, but I've hung onto these couple Beatles albums. There are some I kinda feel bad about parting with now (Cat Stevens, Fleetwood Mac, a Bob Marley Catch a Fire LP she bought in Jamaica [She likes to tell the story of how she vacationed in Jamaica once in the mid 70s and was so excited when she "discovered" the awesomeness of Bob Marley's music, only to return to the States and realize everybody here already knew about him. LOL], and Big Brother & the Holding Company (Janis Joplin), but oh well.

More Beatles!

Here's the back. And peep that small print...

Yes, this is a German pressing! I got this from my buddy Doug, who got it from his mom, who is from Germany originally (his dad was in the US Army over there when they met). I doubt this is really worth much, since I'm sure there were a ton of these made in the height of Beatlemania, but I love it and it adds some variety to my collection to have a German Beatles record.

Angst was a folk/punk band in the mid 80s. I befriended one of the co-frontmen a few years back, and he hooked me up with a few albums. I think he autographed them on the back, but I forgot to check while I had them out for photos.

Here's my favorite song from those guys, though they've got several good ones.

Neutral Milk Hotel might be my favorite band, at least they were in my lonely, distraught 20s.

One more Beatles album. I believe this is a 4 LP compilation. This is probably the most perplexing item in my music collection. It's another of my mom's records, but I haven't been able to find any info on it anywhere. Here's the back...

©1972 TV Products, Cleveland, OH?! Doesn't sound like a real Beatles label to me. Also, note how there are solo McCartney songs ("Maybe I'm Amazed", "Uncle Albert") and Lennon songs ("Imagine") among the Beatles songs. I asked my mom about this album a while back and she was under the impression it was a legit release, though I'm pretty confident this is actually a bootleg. Again, if anyone can shine some light on this record, let me know. I wonder if it's worth anything? Even if it was, the duct tape keeping it together would probably torpedo the value. But yeah, still a neat item.

Now it's time for my 7" vinyl. Here's the box that houses them all.. pretty colorful.

This Rilo Kiley single was a pretty hot item at one point.

Here's a Red Hot Chili Peppers bootleg with a couple studio outtakes. Man, I love colored vinyl, such as this clear blue number. If I ever dove into collecting vinyl, I would probably focus on colored vinyl. To put it into cardboard terms, colored vinyl is like a refractor.. just adds a much more visually-appealing aspect to it.

Cool cover art on this Rocket From The Crypt single.

This John Frusciante Estrus 7" is probably my most valuable record. Apparently there were only about 500 made of this single from the former RHCP guitarist. One recently sold on eBay for "$325.00 Best offer accepted." I got mine at Off The Record in the College Area of San Diego back when it came out circa 1997. I had 2 of them (Doug traded me his copy) and I think I sold the other one for like $200 a decade ago.

A couple Black Heart Procession 45s, including the only "picture disc" I currently own.

Three Mile Pilot is one of my favorite local San Diego bands, probably second only to Rocket From The Crypt. I've got a nice selection of singles here, even a dupe I ended up with somehow.

I love the band Paw and I love colored vinyl! These are early recordings from before they signed their big record deal in the wake of Nirvana's success making grunge a hot commodity. They're from Kansas, so they've got some Southern tinge to them, with quality "storytelling" lyrics.. really underrated band from the 90s.

More colored vinyl! I love these like I love low-numbered colored Bowman parallels! The top one is Hum "Stars" and the bottom is another Rocket From The Crypt 45.

Here's some more rare Jane's Addiction related stuff. There are 2 of the same P4P bootleg 45, but if you'll notice, they're both hand-numbered out of /1000. Yes, even back then I was a sucker for serial numbering! LOL. I think I actually even owned a couple more from that same pressing, but I sold the other two, just keeping #44 and #21 for their low numbers.

Pixies ("Debaser"), Sinister City (I'm not sure what this is.. got it for a buck from some online sale a few years back), and a Jenny Lewis / Whistpertown 2000 split single.

It wouldn't be a true Sentimental Sundays post without something of mine from my childhood, and here's a Muppets 7" I had since kindergarten or so. I probably should have taken the plastic wrap off for the picture, but oh well.

And childhood Star Wars items, too! Empire includes the record, pictured. Jedi originally came with a cassette instead, and that's long since gone (think I might have taped over it during my teenage years).

I remember I also had a few more of these "storybook + 45" items as a kid, but must have parted with the less-cool ones over the years.

And we end the post with the true beginnings of my music collection. I think a friend of my mom's gave me this Rolling Stones 45 when I was a little kid and it was the first adult/real music I ever owned. And man, I LOVED IT! Of course, when Mick Jagger sang "Let's spend the night together" I thought he was talking about having a slumber party. But man, I would excitedly dance around my room to that shit!

While a bit more subdued, I loved the b-side, too, "Ruby Tuesday". Judging by the scribble on the label, it was originally owned by somebody named Alice Hagan Carelle who lived in La Jolla, CA. Never heard of her, but if she wants this record back, these 30-something years later, she can get in touch. The middle metal 45 extender-thing must have belonged to my mom as a kid growing up in Chicago, as it's branded Webster-Chicago Corporation. So yeah, this is a very sentimental item for me.

And there you have it: my record collection. Thanks for checking it out! Have a great week, guys.

trade roundup (Nachos off the wall)

Got a couple recent trade packages to show off.

First up.... I claimed a couple consecutive Trade Stacks from Nachos Grande a week or so ago.

The first stack was pretty big (26 cards), and these are among the ones I was interested. I kinda-sorta collect Jim Edmonds, and I'm a sucker for Topps Gold Label.. specifically the classic Gold Label cards from the turn of the millennium that were on hefty Chrome refractor stock, not to be confused with the current reboot of the product that's on disappointingly flimsy foilboard. (sorry I've been whining about that a lot lately.)
And it's a creased and miscut, but hey, I need the '85 Sparky Anderson for my PC. (I consider him a former Padre in the HOF, as he coached for San Diego in '69 before taking over the Reds the next year.)
Chances are I already have that Gwynn, but I'll have to check.

The other draw for me in the first stack was the Killebrew mini poster. And then the 2nd stack consisted just of the framed Killebrew and I wanted that one, too! Unfortunately I was too slow to save Chris a stamp, but he kindly let me have it as well. (I sent him back several 2017 Archives needs for his setbuild and a Barry Larkin I think he needed.)

He surprised me with a couple "uncommon" Starquest cards in the second envelope, Vlad and Big Unit.

Very cool. Thanks, Chris!

- - - ----o

Next up is a big package from Shane Katz. His blog is Off The Wall, though it hasn't had a new post in a few months. But he's still active on Twitter.

This package was a Padres dump, and while I generally discourage traders from blindly dumping their unwanted Padre cards on me, I definitely understand it's easier to just sort cards by team and ship them off. And with a big lot, it's still fun for me to go through a bunch of Padres, even if I'm not exactly much of a team collector by nature. And in this instance, I'm happy to say the stack of "keepers" was much larger than the stack of "rejects."

Tony Gwynn was the star of the package, without a doubt. Lots of nice cards here.. And Tony wearing glasses?! That's a strange sight for me.

Some obscure "limited edition"/"collectors' series" sets from the 80s represented here. In addition to collecting Red Sox, Shane is a big oddball collector, so it's no surprise he's dug up some cards I haven't seen before.

And some more Gwynns, with a couple cool Fan Favorites among them.

It was 33 years ago today that the Padres lost the 1984 World Series to the Detroit Tigers. Here are 3 guy who were a big part of that pennant-winning run.

Some additions to the Trevor Hoffman PC here. Hopefully he gets the call to the Hall next year and his cards see more respect from collectors.

Nice Jake Peavy lot. At the start of the season, he had talked about making a mid-season comeback once he worked out some homelife issues. Haven't heard anything about him since, though, so I'm guessing his career may be over. But who knows, maybe he'll give a 2018 comeback a shot.

Adrian's Dodgers made the playoffs despite a bad, injury-plagued showing from him this season. Some wonder if his chronic back issues mean we've seen the last of him on the diamond. Again, I guess we'll have to wait and see how 2018 shakes out for him.

A couple HOF Friars.

IP autos of Andy Ashby and Greg Vaughn are pretty cool! I really like the look of those Woolworth cards. Donavan Tate was a bust as a ballplayer, but is attempting to hit rewind on his amateur decision to pick baseball over football, and has returned to college, now a quarterback for the Arizona Wildcats of the University of Arizona. How awesome would it be if he managed to become a great quarterback and all his worthless Padres prospect cards became valuable! ha

And the rest of the keepers. Peep that Anthony Rizzo RC! And yes, a Carlton Fisk card even worked itself into the Padres package. It was included because the back has a sticker of a Padre (Chris Brown?), but joke's on Shane because this White Sox card is going in my Fisk PC whether he likes it or not! LOL

But seriously, big thanks, Shane! I very much appreciate the package. Lots of good cards in there. I'll work up a return for you soon.

The New Book Value (more from the card show)

When I go to a card show, I'm keeping an eye out for cards I need for my collection (guys I collect, set needs), and sometimes just random cards that interest me, and of course I look for trade fodder for my regular trade partners.

And sometimes I buy a card because I suspect it's a great deal. I spend enough time reading card blogs and such that I can usually spot a rare/valuable card hiding in a stack of lesser cards. I mean, I'm sure there are plenty of variations and rare inserts that get by me (and plenty of stuff I don't know much about from the decade I stepped away from the hobby), but I'd like to think I'm pretty good at finding diamonds in the rough.

I rarely take the time to look up a card value while at a show, but once I get home, I'll look some of them up and try to determine my best deal of the show.

For me, the new "book value" is the cheapest one on COMC. I suppose another good way to find out what a card is worth is to check completed eBay listings for it, but that is a little more work and can have other influencing factors, such as time the auction ended and the seller's feedback. So while it's not infallible, I find looking up a card on COMC is quick and usually gives me decent idea what it's worth.

I think this might be my best deal of the show according to COMC. Brandon Morrow has been a key arm out of the pen for the Dodgers this year. This 2007 Bowman Chrome Prospects X-Fractor /275 cost me a quarter, but the cheapest on COMC right now is $15.25. Fifteen dollar theoretical profit!

Here's another "(Gold) Blue Label". After pulling a Cano auto recently, I'm tempted to get a little PC going for him. This one isn't on COMC currently. The Tim Anderson card falls into that "hmm, maybe this is a valuable card?" category and is a 2017 Topps Stadium Club Chrome refractor. It isn't on COMC right now either, but the regular Chrome parallel (non-refractor) is priced at $5.25, and I assume the refractors are tougher pulls. The Fisk 2013 Panini Hometown Heroes State parallel is a PC need. This White Sox card isn't on COMC, but his similar Red Sox card is $0.99.

A couple Beltres and a Brock. I've really enjoyed bumping up my Beltre PC over the past year or so. Finally pulled the trigger to kick it up further, which will be coming in a future post.

A nice Nolan Arenado trio.

Brown mustard Bowman RC parallels of Alex Gordon and Mike Moustakas. These both run under a buck, but not bad.

A couple fancy Giancarlo cards. Billy was asking about those Bowman Platinum "Ice" parallels the other day.. yeah, when I was thumbing through the boxes, I pretty much zoomed passed any Bowman Platinum card unless it was a parallel, as generally speaking, I'm not into that line of cards (not a big fan of foilboard cards), but those bubbly cracked ice parallels look pretty cool in the light. This one goes for $1.25 according to COMC. It surprisingly beats out the /650 2013 Topps Triple Threads card available for only 89¢.
Dee Gordon /250 is also $1.25, while the Trevor Story goes for 95¢.

A couple 2017 Heritage High Numbers here. Honestly, I was just looking to get any ol' Eric Thames Brewers card, since his start to the 2017 coming back over from Korea was just awesome. Turns out this is the action variation, so my 25¢ investment balloons to $4.57, if we're going by the gospel of COMC. As for the Carlos Asuaje, as I mentioned recently, I'm a sucker for any blue burlap parallel, but I was especially happy to find this one of a promising Padres rookie. This one isn't on COMC right now, but the cheapest blue burlap card of any player on there is $3.50.

A pair of shimmering mini Padres here. The Renfroe is /150. It's worth over a buck, safe to say. And while listed at over a quarter (no cards are for sale on COMC for under 30¢), the Austin Hedges might be my "worst" buy of the day, using our COMC guide, as it's listed at only 31¢. But heck, I like it.

And we'll close today with some more San Diego goodness (I refuse to acknowledge the Padres traded away Eric Owens to the Marlins). For what it's worth, the Lamet ice is on COMC for $3.75, the Colin Rea "Missing Black Plate" $1.13, and the Owens 2001 Traded refractor at 85¢. Really though, that Eric Owens may have been my personal favorite pickup of the day, if we're judging by how high my eyebrows raised and my mouth smiled when I saw it. Always love stumbling upon a card I need from a somewhat obscure player I collect.

Still another post or two from my quarterbox haul to go. Thanks for sticking with me! Have a great weekend, everybody.

Madlockin' it down / My Jane's addiction

A few weeks ago, I did a post on my Bill Madlock PC. The catalyst for that was a guy had earlier contacted me inquiring about a copy of the 1973 Topps-style custom I made. I was happy to send one off to him and help out a fellow Mad Dog collector. In return, I just asked if he could take a look at his dupes and see if he had a card or two I needed (with that post being a guide of what I already had).

Well, Steve delivered more than I could have hoped, with a great stack of Madlock cards that finally put the PC over the 100-card mark. Getting Bill into my Hundred Card Club feels good, and was tougher than you might expect; you gotta remember he doesn't have a ton of cards out there, being a semi-star player who retired just as the "junk" era really kicked into gear.

Glorious oddballs! A 1983 3-D Kellogg's card and a non-3-D version? First time I'm seeing one of those. Perhaps it's a proof card or something? Also got a couple Slurpee cup-bottom discs, including one 3-player disc (Garvey showing here). And a bunch of 80s stickers.

Moving from small to large, with some oversized cards, and a standard 2012 Archives card for scale (and contrast to the 1984 jumbo). Topps hasn't given Mad Dog much love lately, as the '12 Archives represents his last inclusion on a major checklist (Well, he's also has autos in 2013 Topps Supreme, but then nothing after that besides buybacks as far as I can tell).

And while it may be hard to appreciate in the picture, here are a couple glossy cards. Yes, I still need the standard NL Active Career Batting Leaders card to complete my Topps flagship run of Madlock, but now I've got a Tiffany version of it. Pretty cool.

More miscellany, with an '81 O-Pee-Chee, Purina card, and a Cubs team card with Bill's floating head in the lower left.

Probably the cards from Steve that I got the biggest kick out of were these variations from 1977. On the left is a cloth sticker. On the right is the OPC version of Bill's '77 card, featuring a different photo than his Topps card. Gotta love old photo variations like this, even with such a completely pathetic job by the airbrush artist. Cool card!

Big thanks for the trade, Steve! You definitely gave my Bill Madlock collection a nice boost!


- - - ---o



Let's work in a Rocktober segment (all this month I'm trying to show off tangible highlights from my music collection on the blog). Since most casual music fans best know them as the rock band with "that barking dogs song" I thought pairing Jane's Addiction up with a Mad Dog post made sense.

[Heads up: there's a slightly NSFW image coming up (a tasteful nude female sculpture on an album cover). You might want to leave the post now if you or someone currently around you are easily shocked by stuff like that.]

But really, I don't know any big Jane's fan who would even put "Been Caught Stealing" in their Top 20 list of the band's songs. It's a catchy song with a fun video that screams "1990", but they're deeper cuts are pretty great. When I left card collecting in mid 1993, I pretty much switched my collecting habit from baseball to music, and Jane's was my #1 band. I was a huge collector/fan of there's, as well as any related bands featuring Jane's members, such as Porno For Pyros. I spent many hours hunting down rare import CDs, cassettes of any live recording I could find (regardless of sound quality-- I wanted them all!), and whatever else (I even had collectible candles. Candles! Warner Bros. actually put out promotional candles to promote a song.)

My fandom has waned as this millennium has gone on (the band is still technically together, though a shell of their glory years-- their songs do not lend themselves to be sung by a guy in his 60s whose voice is shot), but yeah, back in my teenage years and early 20s, I was all about Jane's Addiction.

I've since parted with much of my huge JA/related collection, and will pare it down further in my latest CD purge, but here are some keepers.

Perry Farrell autograph

I met Perry Farrell before a show--Wow, I just looked up the date and it turns out it was exactly a decade ago! Cool coincidence that I'm posting this today-- I was too starstruck to talk to him much, but I sheepishly asked for his autograph and he kindly obliged, signing my Nothing's Shocking CD cover. He and his wife were really nice to me and even offered to put me on the guestlist for the show, but I had already bought my ticket in advance so I didn't need it. But I did get in to watch much of the soundcheck.. that was cool. It was at the same venue right on the beach in San Diego I recently mentioned where I met Mercury Rev.

In addition to being a popular frontman whose bands influenced the likes of Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, and Pearl Jam and paved the way for the alternative rock boom, Perry also has his place secured in pop culture for being the driving force behind the Lollapalooza music festival.

Eric Avery autograph

While I love Perry, the real secret weapon of Jane's Addiction was original bassist Eric Avery. He was a big musical influence on me and the reason my first instrument was a bass guitar. I was lucky enough to chat with him a few times over the years. One time in 2005 he got me backstage when he was playing with Garbage at the Street Scene festival in San Diego. He introduced me to Butch Vig, which was a huge thrill for me as a Nirvana fan. I got Eric to sign this CD single for his 1994 band Deconstruction. The silver ink smudged a little, but I think that works with the oil splatter motif of the artwork.

Deconstruction put out just one album then split, which is too bad because I love that CD (though some people have a hard time getting past Eric's vocals, which to me sound somewhere around the lower registers of Lou Reed and Iggy Pop).

The guitarist for Deconstruction was none other than fellow Jane's bandmate Dave Navarro.

Dave Navarro guitar pic

I don't have Navarro's autograph, but I do have this guitar pic of his. I think I got it at the Jane's reunion show at a Mexican bar called La Cita in Los Angeles in 2008. I've seen the band like 7 or 8 times, and this was probably the best. It was a tiny little venue, super packed, electricity in the air. I vaguely recall grabbing this pic off the stage floor right after the show ended.

The back of the pic has "RHCP" for the other band he's famous for (in addition to his many TV appearances over the years), the Red Hot Chili Peppers, which he was in for a few years in the mid 90s.

As for the 4th member of the quartet, drummer Stephen Perkins... well I don't really have anything all that cool to show off from him, but I did shake his hand once (8/24/1996 Snow Valley Ski Resort, Big Bear, CA, Enit Festival). I asked for his autograph, but he was in a hurry so he offered me a handshake instead, and I happily agreed to that deal. Nice guy.

Perhaps my coolest Jane's Addiction signed item isn't actually from a band member.

Casey Niccoli was Perry's girlfriend during Jane's original run, and was undoubtedly his muse. Many of their songs are written about her, and her likeness is on the cover of their two biggest albums. She was a contributing creative force, inspiring and being a sounding board for ideas. The classic "Been Caught Stealing" video was directed by her, even. Just a real cool lady. I was bummed that she and Perry split up shortly after the band dissolved in late 1991. (While the band would reunite a few times, unfortunately Perry and Casey would not. Perry later married some other lady who's always bragging on social media about all the fancy purses, shoes, and stuff she's spending Perry's money on, not to mention trying to ride his coattails into a singing career though she has no talent).

Casey Niccoli autograph

I caught up with Casey online several years back and she asked me for a copy of a Jane's VHS I had. In return, I asked her to sign my Classic Girl CD. She did it in style, carving into the inside cover. Love it!



Oh, and I forgot about until now, but she also gave me a lock of her hair (unsolicited, I must add! LOL)

As far as I recall, this is the only hair in my collection. Yeah, it's kinda weird but still cool on some level.

- - -- ---o

Let's circle back to Bill Madlock to end the post. Back in my White Whales post a couple weeks ago, one of the cards I listed was a Bill Madlock autograph with the "Mad Dog" nickname included in the autograph. Well lucky me, researching for that post, I found an auction for one on eBay. A few days later I ended up winning it for single digits...

Very cool! I already had this card with the standard signature, but love the added "Mad dog" inscription.

more card show pickups

I'm currently in one of those bogs where I've got a lot of different stuff I want to post about and not a lot of time to type up posts. So here's a quick rundown of a few more cards from my quarterbox haul at the card show last weekend.

Some Boston goodness. I was kinda sad to see them get eliminated yesterday, though Houston has fun a team that's hard to root against. Nice trio of Mookie Betts parallels here, plus a Benintendi insert, and a couple Bogaerts.

Some Dodgers. I was hoping Arizona could challenge Los Angeles more than they did. Oh well. Here we got a Kershaw GQ "Missing Black Plate" parallel, a Corey Seager RC, and a Jansen chrome parallel #/999.

The Nats need to score some runs against the Cubs this afternoon to stay alive (update: postponed by rain). The Trea Turner card is a Chrome parallel, though it might not be obvious in the pic. COMC is telling me it's a $4 card, so not bad for a quarter! (The Strasburg on the other hand is going for $0.43... hey, they can't all be screamin' deals. Pretty sure it's a PC need, at least.)

Yankees surprisingly forced a deciding Game 5 against the Indians. That'll be interesting. I grabbed the Torreyes just because those blue burlap parallels look cool. While not serial-numbered, they apparently have a print run of only 50.

And a few more cards. The McCovey mini is a SP.

Thanks for stopping by.