#30DBCC Recap of Days 21-30 plus a bonus

Wrapping up with the final ten cards I posted on Twitter as part of the 30 Day Baseball Card Challenge. Thanks to Tony L who adapted a music challenge to something collectors could have fun with. Cards 1 thru 10 were posted here and the next group, 11 to 20, are here.

Day 21: The third segment kicked off with a "card of a rookie I thought I was 'investing' in". I really did very little of this. I didn't go out and buy cards of anyone hoping to cash in. What I did do was put away cards of promising rookies that came in the numerous wax packs I was ripping back in the Junk Wax Era. Mike Marshall (the outfielder, not the doctor/pitcher) came to mind.

Day 22: Card of a common player that eluded me. I had already posted the best example, my Mark Belanger '67 rookie, back on Day 7 as a card I bought in person w/ a story behind it. So I drove off the tracks on this one and went with a 'story' that eluded me. This '59 Colavito card led me down a long and winding path to find the shot it was based on. I finally did.

Day 23: A fave oddball from the 50s. 1954 Red Man Billy Pierce. BP had a card in each of the three red Man issues.

Day 24: A fave oddball from the 60s. I had lots of choices with Orioles team issued things, fool food related cards, etc. But I picked this Boog Powell from 1969's Atlantic Oil game series.

Day 25: A fave oddball from the 70s. (I mislabeled this as Day 24 on Twitter) It's one of many many MLBPA discs and similar items from that decade. From 1977 we have a Pepsi Jim Palmer.

Day 26: A fave oddball from the 80s. One of my favorite Eddie Murray cards is this Drakes Cakes from 1983. I even got a retweet by @Drakes__Cakes. LOL

Day 27: A fave oddball from the 90s or later  Gary Cieradkowski does some great work. His art graces this 2008 Wally Yonamine promo card for a Rob Fitts book. And he has a blog and his own books. Highly recommended.

Day 28: A favorite relic or manufactured relic card. Another category of cards I don't deal with much. I have a couple pages of relics in a binder but I haven't thought about them much. This Babe Ruth bat relic is the best of them although a Mel Ott jersey swatch card I have is cooler looking.

Day 29: A fave pre-1950 card. This was tough. I have some tobacco cards that I love and a few nice cards from the 30s and 40s but in the end my only career contemporary card of Babe Ruth won out. This is a German issued Sanella margarine card from 1932. It's worth posting the back, too.

Day 30: The last day of the challenge asked for your favorite card in your collection. This was the hardest one for me. I cycled through about a dozen cards. I eliminated those that I had been on an earlier day like the '78 Murray, 1961 Wes Covington and the 1960 Mantle All Star. It came down to my '57 Brooks Robinson rookie, my T206 Chief Bender, another card I'll discuss in a bit and this card....

....which in the end is the one card I'd keep if I had to offload my collection. Christy Mathewson is from Factoryville, Pa. I spent some summer vacations there staying with my Aunt Mary and Uncle Al. There isn't much in or around Factoryville. Mostly we sat on their front porch up on that hill and enjoyed the views of valleys and trees. At night my uncles and my Dad would go to the one bar in the area. They would take me and some of my cousins when we were teens and many intense bar shuffleboard games ensued. That's where I learned to appreciate pickled eggs from a jar and Hires root beer from a bottle.

My Uncle Al was probably the only other collector in my extended family. He had a few cards but mostly he collected baseball publications He loved books, guides and magazines. When he passed on some years ago my aunt sent me a box of his stuff. Nothing extraordinary but all of it priceless...to me.

I remember those summer days in the northeast Pennsylvania hills when I look at this card.

Day "31": I couldn't do a baseball card challenge without somehow including the 1959 Topps Bob Gibson I posted at the top. So I added a extra day to the challenge. Here's what I said about this card on my '59 Topps blog years ago:

This is by far the worst conditioned card in my 1959 set. But it's also the one that means the most and the reason I'm filling up a binder with this great group of cards. This Bob Gibson is the only '59 Topps that has survived from my childhood. Besides that, even given the condition it's in ("Poor" would be a generous grade) I love this one. Gibby looks happy to be posing for his rookie card and he's smiling out at us from an outrageously inappropriate pink setting. This is a 'high number' card, note the red and black on white reverse. One day I'll upgrade this card but I'm not in any hurry. This old warhorse of a card will anchor my set for the time being.

I don't remember how the tape got on the back but it doesn't detract from the card in my eyes. Neither do the creases or rounded corners. It had hidden in a copy of the first Beckett Price Guide as a bookmark and sat forgotten in a storage box in my closet. Sorting through the box a couple of summers ago brought Gibby's card back into my hands and the answer to the question I'd been asking myself for some time ("Which vintage set do I want to collect") was answered.

So there are the final cards in the 30 Day BB Card Challenge. I enjoyed posting the on Twitter (and here) and I enjoyed reading other fols' postings. Many are still going on. Tony, great job in putting this together! It forced me and others to dig into boxes and binders we hadn't gone through in awhile. And to think about and appreciate the cards we have in a different way.  It was great fun.

Closing In On A Full Page

There was an odd twist to this Batman sketch card arriving in my mailbox. It began when I found a listing for a custom sketch card on eBay. The artist, Nick Hernandez, offers to do a card for you for $12. He had a bunch of his work in the photo in the listing and I really liked what I saw. Here is the picture:

I ordered a card and sent a note as requested asking him to draw a Batman card similar tot he one in the picture with a different background. As promised he drew the card and sent it quickly and sent a note that he had mailed it. I waited almost a week and I got a second note from him saying that he had checked and that USPS Tracking showed the package being held at a postal facility in west Houston and had it marked as 'indefinite delay'. Sure enough he was right.

Neither Nick nor I had ever encountered something like this before. He immediately offered to re-do the card and send it if I wasn't willing to wait. But I have faith in the USPS so I figured I could wait a couple more days. Finally after the package sitting in limbo for another five days I checked and saw it was out for delivery. It came that afternoon.

I'd say it was worth the wait. This one brings me to six of nine and a total of $51 spent towards my mythical $75 budget. I'll have to average $8 a card from here on out to hit my goal.

As for the 'delay', well my brother-in-law, a long time postal worker said it could have been a problem with the label or a postal inspector randomly pulling it for a closer look. I dunno but I'm glad it showed. I'd have hated to miss out on this one.

eBay Envelope Stuffers

About a week or so ago a couple of eBay purchases arrived in my mailbox together. Both were one card purchases. Both had something in common....each seller used interesting stuff to 'pad' the envelope. 

One of my purchased cards was a Gordie Howe O-Pee-Chee from the late 60s that I'll do a post on soon enough. The other was a '58 Richie Ashburn that I grabbed as an upgrade for my set. 

One dealer (I can't recall which was which) used six 2017 GQ's to fill out one of those oversized card bags. Funny thing is I needed a Gsellman card for my fantasy binder. I think I already sent the Seager card to a Dodger collector and deGrom is headed out as well. I sort of half-assedly collect Cutch. Maybe 'collect' is not the right term. I just kind of 'save' Cutch cards I find in packs, etc. The guy sent me two of them which is cool. If someone wants a GQ Cutch lemme know.

The other dealer used two thick as hell football cards and lots of tape along with three card protectors in his package. Both of these cards would go into my football fantasy league binder if they weren't the thickness of about three or four normal cards. That Calvin Johnson is a really a great looking one.

It's fairly common to receive an extra card from some eBay sellers. These are probably the only ones I've ever received that actually were worth getting.

A Close Out Sale

Somehow on eBay I came across a guy who said he was closing his store and was offering six card lots for a dollar apiece. He promised stars, game used, parallels, blah blah blah. Just for grins I bought three lots. Even with the $3 shipping I was looking at 33 cents a card. I figured at the least I'd get some PWE fodder and a blog post out of them.

He said it was a Dutch Auction which wasn't a term I was familiar with. Turns out it means the price drops until he finds a buyer. So I suppose the 6-card lots were higher previously. Whatever.

So, how did I do? Hard to say. Like the answer I gave to a friend who asked if I was disappointed with potus45. LOL It's hard to be disappointed when you have zero expectations.

I received baseball, football and hoops cards. Wouldn't have minded some hockey but that's OK. First off here is my favorite card of the group. I have never collected Frank Thomas and I missed out on a big chunk of his career since I wasn't following the game. But he seems to be a pretty nice guy and he of course is a Hall of Famer. I really like this card.

Next comes a numbered 2006 Topps card of someone named Mike Jacobs.

Best part of this card is the cartoon. Jacobs had a nice debut week apparently.

The most colorful baseball card of the group is this Upper Deck Don Mattingly. It looks like something you'd find in an SI for Kids issue.

I'm not going to go on and on about each card. This UD Clemens is a nicely composed one. I like how the design works with the photo. 

I guess Troy Polamalu is a star. At least his hair is/was. the Kelly/Aikman is an interesting oddball.

Chrome-a-lated Yao Ming. It's just as hard to read in hand as it appears in the scan.

I'm going to put this Emmitt Smith in my fantasy football binder. I always feel like I go my moneys worth when I can add a card to that collection.

Panini Travis Kelce. Texans host the Chiefs again this year according to the NFL schedule released yesterday. I'm tired of them. I think I've seen them four times in the last three seasons.

Another BoSox pitcher. My sons can't believe I rooted for his Boston clubs to win the World Series those couple of years he led them there. Well for one thing league loyalty runs deep for me. And for another I'll admit to being one of  'those' fans at that time...I only got interested when the series rolled around. I didn't feel the rival team animosity as much. Plus, I like Pedro. I have no idea why.

I have no idea who Michael Smith is.

Greg Maddox. This card just looks weird to me.

Big Chuck. He makes me laugh, in small doses.

A Topps Sammy Sosa. The odd 3D sort of effect is not working for me. Or maybe it's just that I don't care much for Sosa.

"Practice?" Just yesterday I saw that phrase as a bumper sticker on a VW Golf. I don't know what it was trying to say to me.

Normally I'd dig an Expos Vlad card. I just wish thet'd have stayed with their original unis.

There were other cards but you get the idea. For $3 plus $3 shipping I'd say it was worth it. But I won't buy more. I can spend six bucks at tomorrow's hotel card show and get 8 or 10 vintage gems. In fact that's what I plan to do. I'll report back.

#30DBCC Days 11-20 Recap

The 30 Day blog and /or Twitter Challenge has been both fun and thought provoking for me. I've gone through binders I hadn't looked at in a long time. At least twice I posted a card for a daily challenge and then later thought "that card would have work better for THIS one."

Anyway, here is the next installment, Days 11 through 20.

Day 11...a favorite card from the 70s. I went with the Jim Palmer Kellogg's card for a couple of reasons. I have plenty of them for one thing. And they are just plain neat cards. The 3D aspect was unique then and nobody has done it as well since. 

I could have put the '78 Murray rookie here but that one would have fit in several other places. I already used it a a favorite rookie card.

Day 12. A favorite from the 80s. Rochester Cal Ripken. The only card I own that I ever considered paying to have graded. I have two of these, the other is on display on my shelves. That one isn't off-center.

Day 13. A favorite from the 90s. I was a David Clyde fan since I watched him as a high school phenom. He was a man playing against boys.

Day 14. A favorite from the 2000s. 2008 Topps Barack Obama. No comment other than I remember buying one pack of 2008 Topps cards at a Wal Mart and opening them in the parking lot. I remember being disappointed in the design. 

Day 15. A favorite from the 2010s. I could have chosen any of about a hundred great Stadium Club cards from the last three years. This one is about as good as a card gets.

Day 16. A card of a guy I didn't like but admired. .My only decision was which Reggie to post. I chose a great one I picked up from the late Bob Lemke. RIP Bob

Day 17. A card from the first set I put together by hand. .I decided to use a card from my first major set blogging project, '59 Topps. I'm sure i put together several sets as a kid but I couldn't swear which the were. Probably '62 or '63. Those were school yard sets projects. Picking the '59 gave me the chance to post this great Frank Robinson card.

Day 18. A card of a player who went on to manage your fave team. Could have used a Frank Robinson card here as well. I scanned his rookie card but then decided to use a Bauer for variety. This one had just arrived as an upgrade for the '58 binder.

Day 19. A favorite from outside the USA. This one was right in my wheelhouse. I flipped thru my Japanese card collection and chose three different Sadaharu Oh menkos. 

I'm in doubt about the legitimacy of this one:

I like this one .....

....but I like this one the most!!

And finally we get to Day 20: A parallel you like not for the player but the design.  I pay next to no attention to parallels so I was at a disadvantage on this one. First one I found was this framed Brooks from an Upper Deck set. Winner by acclamation I guess. 

I'm in the midst of pulling and scanning for the final leg of the challenge. They may be the most fun of them all. I hate to see the end of the 30 days coming at me.

I'll post those once the challenge is done.

A Batman Sketch Card and Not-A-Batman Sketch Card

I added two cards to the 'page fulla Batman sketches' project last week. Or did I? 

First up is one I found on Etsy(?!?) done by artist Alyssa Torres for $12. First of all I don't think I knew about Etsy until I hit the shopping button on Google while doing a search for these things.

One of the best things about this little project is seeing the different takes that artists have on the same subject. Ms Torres (or Alyssa Sketch'd as she signs her work) had this on the page for this card:

The Bat. Looking over his city, plotting the best way to take down the scourge of of Gotham.
Batman is my favorite hero. Yeah, he's rich but he's super intelligent and incredibly clever. And he's always 15 steps ahead of everyone. Batman always wins.

As with a lot of these the ink or paint bleeds to the back.

This next card is done by David Lee (not the hoops David Lee nor the BALTIMORE Colts punter I'm assuming) and it's spectacular. Except it's a print, not a sketch card. A "Limited Edition Print" but a print none the less.

I knew it when I read the listing so I don't feel like I was misled. But I sure was disappointed when I read it because nabbing an original work that was this nice would have been pretty cool.

So only the first of these two will be going into the binder page although the Lee print card will have a spot in the Batman binder as well.

More Batman sketches popped up recently and I have one in transit, one mysteriously hung up at a postal facility somewhere in Houston and bids in on two others.

Running total...Five of nine batman sketch cards acquired, $39 dollars spent. I need to pick up four more with the $36 remaining under my 'cap' to hit my target. Gonna be close.