79 Is Fine (Part 3)

As you've probably figured out , I'm trying to finish the '79 Topps set, as it was one of the first I collected as a kid. Over the past few weeks I've received a couple of packages of these from Greg at Night Owl cards which I posted here and here.

I had also received a package of '75 Topps from reader Mark, which also included a couple of the more expensive '79 cards I hadn't acquired yet. Read about it here.

The same day I received the second package from Night Owl, I also received a second package from Mark. In it was more '79's!

Just like the cards I received from Night Owl, reading all of the names on these cards brought me back to being a ten year old again. My most vivid memory of opening packs of 1979 Topps was being in the back of my mom's station wagon, (not the backseat, the back...you know where the "hump" is) and being excited because I pulled a Jack Brohamer card.

Thanks again Mark!

Monster Box Mania! (Chapter 2)

The majority of my card buying is done at either Wal-Mart or Target, and I usually only go to my LCS if I need supplies. There are two in my area, and one of them always has 1500 count boxes of cards for $9.95. These boxes are pretty much the only cards I buy from my LCS. These boxes are great for set builders like myself because they will have cards from sets I can't find at shows or some commons from a current set. And at less than a penny a card, the price is definitely right.

It usually takes me a month or so to go through a box although in this case it didn't take quite as long. Generally I look for ones that are baseball only, but lately they've only had boxes of assorted cards (meaning they could be from any sport). This time I found one that was baseball only, and I jumped on it.

Here's what it contained:

One hundred and eighty of 1993 Triple Play. This is a set I bought a few packs of back in the day, but since it's only a 264 card set, it's now almost three quarters done.

One hundred and forty-seven from 1994 Fleer Flair. A cool looking card but almost impossible for me to read the stats on the back without the aid of floodlights.

Two hundred and eighty-one from 1994 Pinnacle. The last few boxes I've purchased all have had stacks of cards from this set. I'm probably pretty close to finishing it. I should put up a want list one of these days.

One hundred and seven from 1991 Bowman. Highlights were the above Jeff Bagwell rookie and a Jim Thome rookie. Since I'm only a few cards away from finishing this set, this was the only stack of cards that I'm pretty sure are all dupes.

Sixty-two from 2004 Donruss Throwback Threads. I like this set. It's a 200 card set (250 if you count the SP's, which I don't). I've got a few of these lying around somewhere, so I've probably got about two-thirds of it to go.

Ninety-six of 2006 Upper Deck Update, which included the above Adam Jones rookie SP as well as the Carlos Marmol and Jim Johnson rookies.

Two hundred and eighty-three from 1995 Collector's Choice.

This is 2003 Upper Deck Victory. I might have had a couple of these cards from repacks before the stack that was in this box. It looks and feels like a playing card.

The backs are very colorful and also it's a game that I have no idea how to play. It does appear I got a double and 10 points. We will now take a blog break whilst I do some research...

Well, that was a waste of time. I found nothing significant about these cards other than the fact the box promoted the "gaming element" of this, and collectors did not like it. Maybe because there seems to be no information on how to play it!

There were a hundred base cards, and I got ninety of them. Not bad, almost the entire base set.

There are also a hundred SP cards in the set. Just f'n lovely. You know how much I love SP cards.

Especially ones where the photo happens to be taken two seconds after the one for the base card.

I do prefer the older Atlanta Braves uniforms, don't you?

Here's the back of the Chipper Jones SP. The picture is shiny, but you can't tell that from the scan.

There were fifty-seven of the SP's, which gives me one hundred and forty-seven of the two hundred card set.

According to Beckett, this set is listed at $80.00. Really?

So it looks like getting almost three-quarters of the set for a little more than a dollar is a good deal.

God Bless America.

But wait, there's more.

There also are parallels!

Each of the first hundred cards had green, orange, blue, purple and red bordered parallels!

The green was also known as "Tier 1" and was inserted at a rate of 1:1.

There were fifty-one "Tier 1" parallels included.

The back says "Triple", as opposed to the base card which only grants you a Double. 

Ninety-two from 2003 Upper Deck Vintage. 

Fifty-seven from 2001 Upper Deck Evolution.

So I scored a little better on this box, as I ended up with three cards more than the fifteen hundred that was advertised. 

Another great box with a low percentage of duplicates for me. 

79 Is Fine (Part 2)

A few weeks ago, I posted a package of 1979 Topps cards I received from Greg at Night Owl Cards. That post is here. He let me know that there was more coming, but he had to send it in two installments because of the holidays.

I'm mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. Somewhere along the line in 2012, I accidentally stumbled across his blog. As you may or may not know, I buy a lot of repacks, most often at dollar stores in my area. I was researching how to get my own repacks into dollar stores, and I wanted to see if there was any information about anybody's experiences in trying to do that.

I was clicking on any links I could find about baseball cards and dollar stores and one of them led me to his blog. After I read that post I read a bunch more, and I was introduced to this entire blogging community that I knew nothing about.

For several months, I bounced from blog to blog, just reading. I was amazed that there were all these blogs just about collecting baseball cards! Eventually I created a profile so I could comment, and then I took a deep breath, took the plunge and started blogging myself.

So it is kind of indirectly Night Owl's "fault", that you are subjected to my ramblings, good or bad. Which makes it kind of bittersweet when I receive a package of cards from him.

One of the things that I frequently read before I started blogging was how cool this group of card collecting bloggers are. Since I have forced myself upon all of you, I have to say I have not been disappointed. This is truly a "club" I'm proud to be part of.

Ok, enough sappy stuff (sorry, sometimes I want to express just how much more I've enjoyed this hobby since I discovered y'all).

Now where were we?.....Oh, yeah the cards!

These arrived earlier in the week on a day when I worked both jobs, so I arrived home quite late. It was about 1:00 in the morning and I was debating whether I should go to bed or open up the cards. Thankfully, common sense prevailed and I opened up the cards.

So behold all of the cardboard goodness that is 1979 Topps!

Remember to breathe, kids.

Doesn't the Terry Humphrey card scream the 1970's?

Juan Beniquez, Bombo Rivera, Leroy Stanton, Rennie Stennett....I feel like I'm 10 years old again.

Thank you Night Owl for the trips down memory lane.

More '75 Topps For The Collection

It's been often reported how generous other bloggers are. Well, as I've found out over the past year, that generosity isn't reserved only for bloggers.

I received an email from Mark, who is also a Red Sox fan, letting me know that he had some '75 Topps off of my want list.

A few emails were exchanged and they arrived at my doorstep a couple of days after Christmas.

I would have been content with just this display, but he was also kind enough to put in a couple of 1979 Topps which I did not have.

Hows that for a belated Christmas present?

Mark also sent a second package a couple of days later which will be the subject of a future post.

Thank you very much Mark! Your generosity is greatly appreciated.

Problem Update

I posted yesterday that I was having trouble with uploading scans in that they were all coming out grainy. I tried a few things regarding the scans last night but didn't have any success. 

This morning I tried looking at my blog through one of the computers at work. The pictures looked fine. Later on in the day I had a co-worker look at my blog through his laptop. Again, everything looked fine. 

So the issue is apparently confined to my laptop. 

Just f'n lovely.

I figured when I got home from work I would try a couple things, and if they didn't work, just let it be. If everything looks good everywhere else I could live with the graininess.

It actually kind of reminds me of when I used to play club gigs. Quite often the sound we heard on stage was atrocious, but as long as our audience had good sound, all was well.

The first thing I tried was to look at my blog through a different browser.

Problem solved.

Annoying, annoying, annoying.

But at least I get the "good sound" now as well.

Blogger Question

Has this happened to anyone else before? For some reason today when I upload scans of cards, they appear really grainy. Even scans that I've used before show up this way.

Here's a couple of examples:

I just used these for a post the other day and they came out fine. Now they look terrible.

Has this happened to anyone else before, and if so what did you do?

2014 Collecting Goals!

Since I'm seeing these pop up all over the blogrolls, I kind of felt I wasn't playing nice but not letting you all into my house to tell you what my collecting goals for 2014 are.

First of all, let me begin by saying I generally don't have a list of goals/resolutions to begin the new year because quite frankly, when the year ends I realize I really didn't do much of them. For example I only had three personal goals for 2013. I completed one of them. And that one was fairly easy. So the two I didn't accomplish are holdovers for 2014. (I'm going to keep playing until I win.)

As far as collecting goals are concerned, since I buy a lot of repacks and boxes of commons, what I collect is really up to what is contained in them. So I could give you a list of what I would like to set for collecting goals, but do I really want that kind of pressure? Isn't card collecting supposed to be fun?

So instead my list of collecting goals will contain things I'm not going to do this year.

How's that for a positive outlook?

So I've come up with a list of things I am not going to do, and I will check them off when I don't do them.

1.) I will not buy 2014 Topps Heritage Update.

I'm starting off with a real easy one. I don't want to jump into the more difficult goals right away, do I?

1b.) However, I also will not refuse anybody who send me cards from it.

2.) I will not spend hours scouring eBay looking for the latest hot rookie jockstrap swatch.

....or any swatch for that matter. I can also count the actual amount of time I've spent on eBay (in minutes) on one hand.

3.) I will not complete 2014 Topps and 2014 Topps Update.

Since I started collecting in 1977, I have only finished one Topps Flagship set the year it was produced (1980). So going by the statistics, I'm expecting more unfinished sets come December 31st.

4.) I will not refer to the late 1990's releases as "the good 'ol days".

Self explanatory.

5.) I will not pull any memorabilia or auto cards numbered to 50 or less.

Another safe bet. I think any numbered autos I have are numbered to 7500. I don't think I have any numbered memorabilia cards.



I'm pretty confident I'll accomplish these collecting goals of mine. I'll probably add some more things I'm not going to do as the year progresses.

All joking aside, one of the things I do plan to do this year is comment more. I do try to read everyone's posts as much as possible, but most of the time I can't think of anything to say other than "Great pickup!" or " Nice haul!" or something like that, so I don't end up commenting.

But I get that a lot on my posts and I would rather see that than nothing at all. I assume everyone else feels the same way. So if you see that from me on one of your posts, rest assured I spent hours trying to come up with the perfect combination of words to express my enthusiasm.

Now that the holidays are over and I'm back to a more manageable work schedule, I should be able to spend more time blogging and catching up with y'all...and also sending out cards to those I owe them to.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy 2014...and that we all accomplish our collecting goals!