Pack o' Stickahs

This year I've become one of those 'troublemaker' collectors who is not buying new product. I'm not specifically boycotting anything, I'm just not buying new wax. It's getting difficult, especially now that Heritage is out. I can already tell right now that Allen & Ginter is going to break me. And oh crap... Gypsy Queen is going to be out soon too. I'm boned.

I do have one last trick up my sleeve. In addition to some unopened wax I stashed late last year in case of card emergency I have one outlet for my 2012 card cravings. 2012 Topps Stickers. Some of you are likely protesting right now. "How can you say you're not buying 2012 product if you're buying packs of stickers?" Here's my reasoning on this:

1) I have no earthly idea where or how I would ever find it but in 2009 or 2010 when Panini was back in the game with sticker albums I made an offhand comment on someone's blog that if Topps were to do another baseball sticker album I'd forsake the flagship and just collect that exclusively. Well they did, and I feel somewhat obligated to fulfill my promise even if I can't find the original comment.

2) They're not trading cards, they're stickers. Fundamentally different product. Even when Fleer put out their full sized sticker cards back in the '80's I always saw stickers as a separate entity than cards. Like baseball coins or rub-offs or tattoos. They're in that nebulous category of "worthless kid stuff" in a subset of "oddball ephemera" and that's exactly what I need in my life right now.

3) They ain't but a buck a pack. And collectors gonna collect. Don't force me to buy pony blind bags.

I am also rationing them out and only allowing myself to open a pack every time I complete a painting. So far I've opened three packs. I have 4 other paintings in various stages of completion and a handful of sketch cards to work on so I'll probably have to make a Target run soon for more packs. Here's the second pack I opened, the first one is in a video I haven't posted on YouTube yet.

Brandon Phillips just got a ginormous contract from the Reds. Brandon is one of those players I really like despite playing on a Braves rival so I'm happy for him, but between him and Votto the Reds' payroll has about a buck and a half left over for their entire rotation.

Dexter is another damn good player. Wanna know who is going to be the next breakout star? Read the AJC Braves blog and watch to see which player the genetic defectives in the peanut gallery are screaming that the Braves need to trade for right this instant this year. Carl Crawford, Matt Kemp, Jacoby Ellsbury, Dexter Fowler. These are all players from past years that the bloggers obsessed over. I'd tell you who the current fixation is on that board but the trolls and psychopaths have so thoroughly poisoned the blog that it's far less stressful to just hit myself in the knee with a hammer repeatedly rather than read that mess.

I'm still extremely bitter that I can watch pretty much every Cubs game on my bare bones cable package while I get maybe 35 Braves games on Peachtree TV. I can't even give Major League Baseball my money for their MLB.TV package because of stupid blackout rules. I'm really beginning to question why I care about baseball at all.

"We're only making plans for Nyjer..."

"WoooOOOOoooh"

Bad news: my first duplicate sticker in 2012.
Good news: the other one was torn out of the sticker album and was pretty much trashed when I tried to separate it from Ryan Zimmerman's sticker.

Longoria's home run last September pretty much talked me off the ledge after the Braves' flop. I'm still bummed they didn't go further in the postseason.

My first mascot from the set. Wait... No way. It can't be.

Oh God, it is.

First Pony pulled in 2012. Seriously folks, I just can't get away from them anymore. I've given up even trying and have simply accepted my fate.

Finishing up with a couple of non-foil logo cards. Some are not happy with this development, but I like the simplicity. Plus: Rainbow fishy logo.

ADDED VALUE:

So one thing I do as an aspiring Arteeest is work on my gesture sketching. Basically I look at a subject and try to sketch their pose as quickly and as accurately as possible. Normally I sketch nekkid people over on this site (NSFW if you click the 'get drawing' button) but after I opened this pack up I decided to sketch out the poses on these cards instead. Here's the result.

I really like sketching with charcoal pencil. I love the dark lines and it forces me to really think about what I'm doing because once I draw with charcoal, there's no going back. The faces all ended up dreadful, but I was more concerned with the poses. I am disappointed that I'm still drawing Salad Fingers when I do hands though.

These two turned out pretty ok although I am not sure how with a Cub and a Brewer on the same page the paper doesn't just burst into flames.

As you can see I'm getting sloppier and sloppier. There wasn't really enough room for both players on this page. While Evan may lamelt the loss of his left arm, I'm sure he's glad I also didn't bother to draw Mike's bat.

And if you didn't see this coming a mile away, you really haven't been paying attention.