2024 WEEK IN REVIEW - WEEK 2

 

HEY I'M DOING THIS AGAIN! AT LEAST I BETTER BE DOING IT, I'VE UPLOADED ALL THE IMAGES ALREADY. HONESTLY I WAS BORING THIS WEEK, I SPENT MORE TIME WORKING THAN PLAYING BUT I GOT SOME FUN IN HERE AND THERE. I GOT A LOT OF STARING OUT THE WINDOW AT BIRDS DONE AS WELL. THE CARDINALS HAVE BEEN HAVING A PARTY LATELY, AT LEAST BEFORE IT STARTED STORMING AND THE TEMPERATURE DROPPED. IT IS SUPER DIFFICULT TO GET PITCURES OF BIRDS BUT I MANAGED TO GET THIS BIGFOOT QUALITY SNAP OF THIS RED GUY HERE AND I'M PROUD OF IT

COLLECTING STUFF I DID THIS WEEK

THE BIG ACCOMPLISHMENT THIS WEEK WAS GETTING A BUNCH OF BLOG POSTS WRITTEN. ENOUGH THAT WE'VE GOT POSTS QUEUED UP THROUGH THE END OF JANUARY. I DID GET A LITTLE BIT OF CLEANING UP DONE THOUGH. THESE PILES OF 80S DONRUSS AND FLEER AND 1975 STARS GOT PUT AWAY IN THEIR BINDERS. MY 2024 GOALS LIST AIN'T READY YET BUT PUTTING ALL THESE DAMN CARDS AWAY IS ON THE LIST. I ALSO INCHED TOWARDS GETTING ORGANIZED BY FINDING MY GREG MADDUX BINDER AND BOX SO I CAN EVENTUALLY GET THEM ADDED TO TCDB. THIS IS LESS SO I CAN JUMP UP ON THE RANKINGS AS I'M PROBABLY NOT EVEN IN THE TOP 50 BUT SO I CAN BUY MORE MADDUX CARDS WITHOUT GETTING MORE DUPLICATES. I ALSO HAD A BONUS SURPRISE: I AM TRYING TO BUILD THE FLEER STICKER SETS AND I WAS MISSING THE 1991 FLEER ULTRA BRAVES STICKER EVEN THOUGH I WAS CERTAIN I HAD ONE. THE MADDUX BINDER USED TO BE A GENERIC BRAVES BINDER AND LO AND BEHOLD:

THERE IT IS! HOORAY FOR ORGANIZATION! AS LONG AS WE'RE HERE LET'S SHOW OFF THAT BIG CARD

HERE'S A GIGANTIC CARD THAT WAS AN INSERT IN NEWSPAPERS SOLD AT THE STADIUM BACK IN 1998. I MANAGED TO PICK A FEW UP INCLUDING MAD DOG. CHECK OUT THE BACK

LIMITED EDITION BAYBEE!! THERE'S EVEN A SERIAL NUMBER. WHO'S EVEN HEARD OF SERIAL NUMBERED NEWSPAPER INSERTS?? THIS IS VERY NICELY DESIGNED FOR WHAT IT IS AND WHILE I PROBABLY AM NOT HIGH ON THE TCDB LIST I'D LIKE TO KNOW HOW MANY OF THE TOP TENNERS GOT ONE OF THESE

SPEAKING OF HAVING WORK TO DO, THIS IS THE BOX OF THE REST OF THE MADDUX CARDS. I ONLY GOT UP TO 1996 INTO THE BINDER MAINLY BECAUSE I'VE HAD TO SCAVENGE PLASTIC SHEETS FROM OTHER BINDERS. AND THE LAZINESS. I AT LEAST KNOW WHERE THEY ALL ARE NOW

HERE'S SOME NON-CARD STUFF I'VE BEEN DOING

COMICS AND BOOKS

MY COMIC READING WAS MOSTLY RANDOM WEBCOMICS AND THE DAILY STUFF THAT POPS UP ON MY TWITTER AND BLUESKY FEED LAST WEEK SO THERE'S NOTHING SPECIFIC TO SHOW OFF. HOWEVER, MY DAUGHTER CLEANED OUT HER BOOKS IN PREPARATION FOR A BOOK SWAP NEXT WEEK AND FOUND THIS. THIS IS AN OLD BOOK THAT HAS BEEN BOUNCING AROUND MY STUFF SINCE I WAS A KID AND IT'S BEAT ALL TO HELL AND HELD TOGETHER WITH ANCIENT SCOTCH TAPE. THE SPINE IS HARD TO READ BUT IT SAYS BEST BOOKS - STORIES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

SHERLOCK IS EVEN EMBOSSED ON THE FRONT! HELL YEAH, SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES! I DON'T REMEMBER READING THIS BOOK WHEN I WAS A KID THOUGH, I HAD A DIFFERENT HOLMES ANTHOLOGY. LET'S CHECK IT OUT

THE WHITE COMPANY? WHAT THE HECK IS THIS

AH. A THREE VOLUME SET OF ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE'S BEST BOOKS IN THREE VOLUMES. THE FIRST TWO VOLUMES ARE SHERLOCK HOLMES AND I GOT VOLUME THREE. THERE IS NO COPYRIGHT INFORMATION ANYWHERE IN HERE, THAT PAGE MUST HAVE FALLEN OUT DECADES AGO. I HAVE NO INTEREST WHATSOEVER IN THE NOVEL AS IT'S HISTORICAL FICTION ABOUT A 14TH CENTURY TEAM OF MERCENARY ARCHERS BUT THE BOOK IS COOL LOOKING IN A DECREPIT SORT OF WAY AND THIS PORTRAIT OF DOYLE LOOKS COOL

VIDEO GAMES

I REALIZED I HADN'T PLAYED A MINUTE OF VIDEO GAMES THIS YEAR  AND DECIDED TO RECIFY THAT THIS WEEK. I PLAY EXACTLY TWO GAMES: THE BINDING OF ISAAC, WHICH I HATE, AND STARDEW VALLEY, WHICH IS COMING OUT WITH A GIGANTIC NEW UPDATE SOON SO I'M WAITING ON THAT BEFORE PLAYING ANY MORE. I PLAYED A COUPLE GAMES OF ISAAC BEFORE GETTING KILLED BY SOME NONSENSE AND RAGE QUITTING AND UNINSTALLING. TO FIND SOMETHING NEW I DOWNLOADED SOME DEMOS TO TRY. I PLAYED FIVE OR SIX THAT EITHER DIDN'T CLICK OR DIDN'T WORK ON MY POTATO LAPTOP. THEN I TRIED OUT DUNGEONS & DEGENERATE GAMBLERS, A GAME SCHEDULED TO COME OUT SOMETIME THIS YEAR. ROGUELIKE AND DECKBUILDER ARE TWO PRETTY POPULAR CATEGORIES ON STEAM AND THIS ONE COMBINES THEM BOTH WITH BLACKJACK. IT AIN'T NORMAL BLACKJACK THOUGH, DIFFERENT SUITS CAN GIVE YOU HEALTH, EXTRA DAMAGE, SHIELDS OR COINS AND WINNING A HAND INFLICTS DAMAGE ON THE LOSING PLAYER. YOU CAN ALSO PLAY WITH OTHER KINDS OF CARDS INCLUDING BIRTHDAY CARDS, BUSINESS CARDS, MONOPOLY CARDS, TAROT CARDS AND AS YOU CAN SEE ABOVE A SLABBED 1971 BASEBALL CARD. THE FIRST GAME I PLAYED I REACHED THE END OF THE DEMO AND IN THE DOZEN GAMES I'VE PLAYED SINCE I HAVE NOT GOTTEN PAST THE SECOND LEVEL. IT'S FUN AS HELL IF YOU'RE INTO BLACKJACK AND BUILDING CARD DECKS FULL OF POWERUPS 

MOVIES

THREE MOVIES THIS WEEK, EACH ONE WORSE THAN THE LAST

#4 THE CHEAP DETECTIVE

A KINDA SORTA FOLLOWUP TO MURDER BY DEATH WHICH IS A FAVORITE OF MINE DESPITE THE STUFF THAT'S AGED VERY POORLY. THIS IS SORT OF A PARODY OF HUMPHREY BOGART FILMS IF THE ONLY FILMS HE EVER MADE WERE CASABLANCA AND THE MALTESE FALCON. THE STORY AND JOKES ARE PRETTY BASIC AND IT'S EASY TO SEE WHY THIS NEVER BECAME A CLASSIC, BUT PETER FALK IS AN INCREDIBLE BIZZARO WORLD SAM SPADE AND THE CAST IS COMPLETELY PACKED WITH A PILE OF THE BEST COMEDIC ACTORS OF THE 70S. YOU'LL BE POINTING AT THE SCREEN LIKE LEO FROM THE FIRST SCENE WHEN VIC TAYBACK AND ABE VIGODA STROLL IN AS COPS INSTECTING A CRIME SCENE AND A NEW CHARACTER ACTOR OR THREE WILL POP UP EVERY FIVE MINUTES AFTERWARDS. I KNOW MOST OF YOU OLD GEEZERS OUT THERE WILL LOVE IT

#5 THE THREE STOOGES IN ORBIT

I HAVE NEVER WILLINGLY SAT DOWN AND WATCHED A THREE STOOGES MOVIE BUT SINCE I FAILED AT MY MISSION TO WATCH EVERY STOOGES SHORT LAST YEAR (TWO MORE DOWN THIS WEEK BUT I STILL HAVE OVER 60 LEFT TO GO) I DECIDED TO PUNISH MYSELF BY HAVING TO ADD THE FILMS AS WELL. I HAVE NEVER LIKED CURLY JOE DERITA IN ANY OF THE STOOGES CLIPS I'VE SEEN AND WHEN I SAW HIM STAR IN HIS OWN COLUMBIA SHORT AND BE THE ABSOLUTELY WORST PART OF THE FILM THIS REINFORCED MY DISTASTE. THIS FILM POPPED UP IN MY RECOMMENDATIONS SO I WATCHED IT. IT WAS PRETTY DAMN GOOD ACTUALLY! I MEAN, YES, IT WAS BAD, DERITA WAS STILL A STIFF AND THE STORY WAS LUDICROUS AND AN HOUR AND A HALF IS OBJECTIVELY TOO MUCH STOOGES. HOWEVER, EMIL SITKA HAD A MAJOR ROLE AND WAS AWESOME ENOUGH TO MAKE UP FOR CURLY JOE, THE SPACE ALIENS WERE WONDERFULLY GOOFY AND I THOUGHT THE SUBPLOT OF THE STOOGES TRYING TO SAVE THEIR CARTOON SHOW WAS A NEAT TOUCH. I'D DEFINITELY WATCH IT AGAIN, BUT THEN AGAIN I LOVE BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA

#6 ORGY OF THE DEAD

SPEAKING OF BAD MOVIES, THIS ONE IS REALLY BAD. I LOVE ED WOOD MOVIES AND HAVE WATCHED PLAN 9, BRIDE OF THE MONSTER AND NIGHT OF THE GHOULS MANY, MANY TIMES. I HAD SEEN ALL OF ED'S PRE 70S WORK BUT NEVER WATCHED THIS ONE, HIS FIRST OF MANY BOOBIE MOVIES. THIS IS A NUDIE EXPLOITATION FLICK, BUT IT IS ALSO DEFINITELY A PURE ED WOOD MOVIE WITH NO STORY, HORRIFIC ACTING, EXCEEDINGLY QUESTIONABLE EDITING CHOICES AND ALSO MAYBE THE FUNNIEST BIT OF STOCK FOOTAGE IN HIS ENTIRE FILMOGRAPHY. IT'S EXTREMELY STUPID AND EMBARRASSING AND ALSO KINDA BORING AS YOU WATCH A NEVER ENDING PROCESSION OF TOPLESS GIRLS DOING YET ANOTHER BURLESQUE DANCE BUT IF YOU'RE A TRUE ED WOOD FANATIC YOU'LL GET A FEW LAUGHS OUT OF IT

ALBUMS 

LAST WEEK WAS A LITTLE OUT THERE SO I'M DIALING IT BACK FOR YOU ALL WITH THIS ONE. MINT JAMS BY CASIOPEA IS ALMOST A MEME FOR HOW IT MANAGES TO GET INTO EVERYONE'S RECOMMENDATIONS ON YOUTUBE. IF YOU SEE IT POP UP THOUGH, IT'S AN EXCELLENT LISTEN. CASIOPEA IS A JAPANESE JAZZ FUSION BAND THAT'S BEEN RELEASING MUSIC SINCE 1976 WITH VARIOUS LINEUPS OVER THE YEARS. MINT JAMS IS CONSIDERED ONE OF THEIR BEST ALBUMS AND IF YOU ARE INTO FUSION OR JUST JAZZ IN GENERAL YOU MIGHT DIG IT

YES I KNOW YOU ALL CAME HERE FOR THE CARDS AND NOT ALL THE WEIRD BULLSHIT I LIKE SO HERE'S YOUR REWARD FOR SCROLLING DOWN QUICKLY INSTEAD OF CLOSING THE TAB

BEST THING I BOUGHT THIS WEEK

I'VE BEEN GOING FULL SPEED AHEAD ON BUILDING SETS LATELY SO EVERY TIME I SEE A CARD FROM A SET I KNOW I HAVEN'T COMPLETED I HAVE TO OPEN UP THE WANTLIST AND MAKE SURE I HAVE IT. THIS IS A PAIN FOR THE HANDFUL OF SETS I ONLY NEED A FEW CARDS FROM BECAUSE MY FEEBLE BRAIN CAN'T MEMORIZE THE CARDS I NEED AND I INEVITABLY OPEN UP THE WANTLIST FOR NO REASON 99.9% OF THE TIME. THE TWO CARDS I NEEDED FOR 1999 TOPPS WERE DENNY NEAGLE AND THIS GRIFFEY JR LEAGUE LEADERS CARD. THE LEAGUE LEADER CARD WAS EXTRA FRUSTRATING BECAUSE I KNEW I NEEDED ONE OF THESE FOILBOARD LEADERS CARD BUT IT NEVER STUCK IN MY BRAIN THAT IT WAS GRIFFEY. LEAGUE LEADER CARDS IN 2000 WERE ALSO FOILBOARD SO  NOW EVERY ONE OF THOSE I SEE I'M CHECKING THE  WANTLIST AGAIN. I GOT FED UP WHEN I SAW A 2000 LARRY WALKER LEADERS CARD AND OPENED UP THE WANTLIST AGAIN. SURELY I HAD THE NEAGLE IN A TEAM BINDER. YEP, THERE IT WAS. I YOIKED IT FROM THE BINDER, WENT TO COMC AND PICKED THIS UP FOR FIFTY FIVE CENTS. 1999 TOPPS COMPLETE - FIRST COMPLETE SET OF 2024. OR IT WILL BE WHEN I SHIP THESE THINGS

THIS WEEK'S BASEBALLCARDSTORE DOT CA PICKUPS TOTALED 55 CARDS. MY FORTY CARD PACK A WEEK ISN'T CUTTING IT. IT'S NOT MY FAULT, THERE'S A LOT OF COOL STUFF BEING POSTED ON THERE. HERE'S THIS WEEK'S TOTALS

WANTLIST CARDS FOR SETS: 15
BRAVES/HAWKS/DAWGS: 6
STAR CARDS: 18
INSERT CARDS: 4
CHRONICLES: 3
SHIIIIIINY CARDS: 8

THE BEST THING I PICKED UP THIS WEEK WAS THIS TRIO OF GALARRAGO TEK CARDS. I HAVE HAD SOME TROUBLE SLEEPING THIS WEEK AND ONE NIGHT I WOKE UP AT 3:30. I CHECKED MY PHONE AND REFRESHED THE SITE AND SAW NOTHING NEW. I TRIED TO GO BACK TO SLEEP, HAD NO SUCCESS AND WAS STARTLED BY A LOUD NOICE OUTSIDE AT ABOUT 4AM. FRUSTRATED I STARTED MESSING AROUND ON THE PHONE AGAIN AND THIS TRIO APPEARED. TEK CARDS USUALLY LAST ABOUT 12 SECONDS ON THE SITE AND THAT'S ABOTU HOW LONG IT TOOK ME TO PUT THEM IN MY CART. THESE ARE LISTED UNDER SHIIIIIINY CARDS ABOVE BUT TWO CAN BE ADDED TO THE WANTLIST PICKUPS AS I NEEDED THE AWAY VARIATION OF ANDRES AS WELL AS ONE OF THE BACKGROUND PATTERNS

UNTIL NEXT TIME, Y'ALL GO PLAY WITH YOUR CARDS AND DO SOMETHING FUN THIS WEEK

1999 Topps Want List

I found a cheap partial set of 1999 Topps Traded today, and sorting that set made me want to do a want list for the base set and someone on Twitter told me to post it to the interwebs so I did and here it is. Can you tell it's after midnight on a Saturday Night?

Series 1:
69 Bill Taylor98   Gerald Williams
138  Walt Weiss
203 Roger Clemens Season Highlight
224 Ken Griffey Jr. League Leader
225 Sammy Sosa League Leader
231 Greg Maddux League Leader

Series 2:
306   Brian Jordan
311 Dennys Reyes
330 Jeff Kent
450   Jeff Bagwell - Astros, Andres Galarraga - Braves, Mark Mcgwire - Cardinals
453   Vinny Castilla - Rockies, Chipper Jones - Braves, Scott Rolen - Phillies
460   Roger Clemens - Yankees, Kerry Wood - Cubs, Greg Maddux - Braves

Traded Set:
moved to another post

I figured it out...

Chris Reed. That's who sent me the Timelines cards. It's all coming back to me now. I'll be doing this for the next month or so, by the way, posting neglected packages of stuff I received but never wrote about. There's some cool stuff in them too, time to get working. An assortment of Braves came over along with the Timelines and Heritage cards. Here's some of them:

1998 Collector's Choice StarQuest Greg Maddux

And you though Upper Deck just pulled their new StarQuest insets out of their rear, didn't you. Nope, this insert set has a long and storied history of, um, well, no. They were one a pack tiered inserts in their low-end set and only lasted for a few sets. This design here is in my opinion the most boring of the lot. It's not the strangest by any means though, the all texured colored foil set from '99 UD Choice probably takes the cake on that. StarQuest was an early adopter of the rainbow system of parallels. The first two incarnations in 1998 Collector's Choice had a 90 card set where the first 45 were easy to get then the next 45 were increasingly tough. The '99 version was more like today's set, 30 cards with varying rarity depending on the color of the foil. The '98 Series two SQ set was simple with rarity split up into singles, doubles, triples and homers. This set had some kind of theme going on, commons like this Maddux were "Special Delivery", uncommon (1:21) were "Student of the Game", rare (1:71) were "Super Powers", and really rare (1:145) were "Super Star Domain". Or just make it easy on yourself and count the stars at the bottom. Makes all the Super Rares and Ultra Rares and Retail Jumbo Purples from the '09 set sound easy, right?

1998 vs 1999 Topps

Two cards from Topps' colored border period. Just throwing these two out for comparison. Night Owl likes the '99 version better than the '98 edition but I disagree. We disagree a lot apparently. it's kind of like the olden days when I despised the Dodgers with a hatred I reserve for certain NL teams in New York and Chicago today. The Braves were in the NL west remember, and the Dodgers thwarted us on many occasions. Here is my reasoning behind liking the '98 set:

The mid-'90s were sort of blah for Topps. Sort of blah for base cards in general actually as manufacturers put all their effort into the inserts. Topps base cards got more gloosy and foiley, but the actual designs were somewhat forgettable in my opinion. Quick - describe a Topps design from '95 to '97. Hard, isn't it? They were all sort of underwhelming, even when Topps got weird with the UV coating in '97. In 198 though they threw out GOLD freaking borders! With the frame effect around the photo! And gold foil names and teams on top of a strip of team logos! This stuff looked classy. Then in '99 they recycled the gold border. Yeah the cards were nice, the phot was much larger and the design is more clean and open. It's a very attractive set by any standard, but the gold border seemed like a knock off to me. Then in 2000 we had pewter borders, green in 2001, then orange, and I was completely sick of colored borders on Topps. I jumped up and down for joy when Topps finally went back to a good 'ol white border in 2004. So now I associate 1998 with originality and class, and 1999 with cheap bootleg knock offs. It's not you, 1999 Topps, it's me.

1990 Topps Franscisco Cabrera

The most famous third string catcher in Atlanta Braves history. The man who came out of nowhere to utterly demolish an entire franchise with one swing of his bat. The man who only had twelve other at bats total in 1992. And Topps airbrushed that monstrocity upon his poor noggin. But Dayf, it was 1990, how could they have known? Ok, that's a fair point, but he didn't even get a Topps card in 1992. Such poor treatment of a Braves legend.

Thanks Chris, I'll try not to forget who you are next time!