Bacon Calling

The Collective Troll sent out a package from his group break with the instructions that I had to post one card.

EFF THAT NOISE

THIS BLOG GOES TO ELEVEN

Here are eleven cards from a very large pile of junk wax White Sox I got from the group break.

So why the heck did I choose the White Sox in a group break? Three reasons:
1) Braves were took and I wanted in on the break.
2) The White Sox have been my adopted American League team since I was a kid thanks to Carlton Fisk.
3) I would now have some cards I can send to Steve when we inevitably trade packages again.
When I opened the package and looked through the pile, this card here got me the most excited. Even though Tom played for the Mets and reds, two of my least favorite teams growing up, I've always been a fan of Seaver. Then I looked through Steve's wantlists and wouldn't ya know, this card is on there. So Tom is heading North, eventually.  (to be honest I think I already have this card anyway)

The rest of the cards are not on the wantlist and therefore MINE ALL MINE. Unless I can flip them to another White Sox fan. Is there more than one of them on the interwebs? This card shall not be flipped. Pacific Legends was a kickass set back in the day and is probably one of the reasons why my collecting is still grounded in vintage stuff even though I lived through the Golden Age of NEW AND SHINY Junkwax. I don't have a heck of a lot of this series of Legends and I could never give up a knuckleballer anyway. 

I went card crazy in 1991 and I probably have more '91 Score than any other brand from that year. I liked this set so much I bought a truckload from packs and then went out and bought the factory set. Current manager Ozzie about to beat out an infield single on this card.

Man, this card was on fire back in '92. I must be jaded because I'm just not seeing the fantasticness of this card any more. It's nice... but we all lost our minds over it.

Pudge!!! I must have a dozen of this card. Odd how the Premier version of O-Pee-Chee is dirt common while I hardly ever see the actual base set.

Best Upper Deck set ever. Here's another knuckleballer and you can get a good look at the grip on this one. What's up with the throwback hat with the contemprary uniform though?

No-hit hurler Wilson Alvarez shows off a grip to Napoleon Dynamite. Gosh.

Julio's still playing somewhere, I know it. Wren needs to sign this dude to spell Glaus at first. Julio's knees are younger than Troy's anyway.

Here's a big jump to 2009. Thome's apparently showing off his swing at the county fair.

Man I like this set. I like this set a lot. I need to break down and just buy a box of this stuff. They're cheap as dirt anyway.

Oh lookie here, a hit! How do I get hits without even trying. Q-man's playing pretty well this year from what I've heard.

A few unopened packs were used as filler in the box. I shall open and post one and one only. Choose the pack to be opened wisely. Thanks Troll, I'm slowly rebuilding my Rays file so expect something in the mail one of these months.

1953 Topps Joe Dobson

Card #5
Joe Dobson
Chicago White Sox
Pitcher

• Played 14 seasons in the majors - 9 with the Red Sox, 2 with the Indians and 3 with the White sox.
• Missed the 1944 and 1945 seasons due to military service. 
• Was an all-Star in 1948 aftergoing 18-8 the season before.
• Lost his thumb and finger at age 9 while playing with dynamite. 

The man's nickname was "Burrhead" according to Wikipedia and BR.com. Really? Burrhead? The man blew himself up and liked it so I'm not going to argue. Topps sidesteps the issue and refers to him as the more generic "Dobby". Joe was a pretty damn good pitcher for the Red Sox for many years before moving on to the Pale Hose. Joe finished out his career back with the Red Sox in 1953, but I'm glad this first series card pictures him with his 1952 club. That old style flying sock logo is brilliant. Of course the Red Sox Sock Monster is pretty good in its own right. This is the third card in the set where the background is fluffy clouds and nothing else. Maybe I should keep track of that sort of thing.

Tiny little people bravely playing baseball inside an El Smoko cigar box as the lid teeters mere moments before crashing down upon them and plunging the game into total darkness until uncle Leo decides it's time for a smoke is one of the most fantastic things you will see today, guaranteed.

Trading Mania - Really late package to White Sox Cards

Ok, I suck. I got involved in a bunch of trade discussions a week or so before Christmas, put a bunch of cards together and then got waylaid by Santa Claus. One of the trades was with Steve, the proprietor of White Sox Cards. Here's how it happened.

I did a live box rip on A Pack A Day of UD Masterpieces and I said anyone who commented could get a free card. Steve commented, but said he didn't want a card. I really like his blog, so I decided to give him one anyway along with some Sox cards for his collection and contacted him about it. He said thanks, and pointed me toward his want list. I checked it out, printed up a copy and started looking. About that time Santa and his elves kidnapped me and drug me to about 500 family get togethers while simultaneously dumping a lot of work stuff on me. Stupid Santa! By the time I finished up with all that crap and managed to recover, we were already over a week into the new year. I had a pile of random Sox stuff I picked out but I was still looking though his list. In the meantime, Steve had looked through my want list and sent me a package of stuff. So now I'm slow and I got stuff from him (and others - I'll get to them in future "I suck" posts) without sending anything in return. However, I have finally gotten my act together and gotten a package ready to send. Steve probably made out in the end though, the longer I took to get it together the more stuff I added out of guilt. Here's the skinny on the deal:

What I got from Steve:

Some UD Masterpieces that helped complete my set:

And a pile of Topps Updates and Highlights from my want list.

Not bad. I completed a set and I got further toward completing another one that I don't want to open packs from.

Here's what's going out in tomorrow's mail:

A few from Steve's wantlist,

An assortment of scruffy old socks from Topps, 1954-1986,

A few Sox biggies picked out of the star box,

And some completely random stuff I ran across in doubles boxes while hunting for other cards.


Better late than never, and I'm guessing a White Sox fan will enjoy this stuff.

Here's what I learned from this:

1) I need to get organized in my trading. I haven't done a whole lot of it online and I've got an auction routine of winning, printing out the invoice, sending the payment and getting the cards. I'm not used to people sending me stuff before I send something to them and it weirded me out a little bit. Plus flagging the e-mails from trade offers doesn't help when you get two or three dozen e-mails a day. Everything is being written down, flagged and saved online from now on for reference so I don't lose stuff.

2) Ease up on the trades where I need to look through every card I own. It's not that bad until you start doing it for four or five different trades.

3) Get the stuff together and out ASAP. I've got the supplies ready to do that now.

4) December sucks. The whole damn month.
4a) Never try to trade in December.

Hopefully now I'll have things under control. If I've snubbed you on a trade or you're still waiting for something, shoot me an e-mail. Getting all this stuff mailed by tomorrow has been this week's project.