The Official Trade With Scott

A little while back I offered up all these cards in exchange for three things:

• 1 Braves Card
• 1 Card What Is Cool
• 1 Drawing Of A Subject Of My Choice. 

Scott Sawyer stepped up to the plate and took my offer.

And sent 13 cards instead of 3, but I'll let him slide this time simply due to these three cards.

The Brave

There were Braves all over that package, including some Dover Reprints, minor league cards from the '80s and a Jermaine Dye autograph that almost ended up in this post. Instead, I chose this Chipper Jones bat relic from 2001 Fleer Platinum RC Edition. Fleer Platinum was Fleer's "Heritage Set" using designs from the '80s including '81, '84 and '87 Fleer. In '01 they used the 1981 design and added a "RC" Update set towards the end of the year. I think it was merely an excuse to get a Mark Prior card on the market. Well, in the Aughts a card set wasn't a card set without truckloads of relic cards. Here's one of Chipper in the Lumberjacks set. Anyone recognize the photo in the background? It looks familiar but at 1:30am I can't place it. I chose the Chippah - well, because Chippah - but also because I looked through my Chippah box and didn't find this one. That's right, I got over a thousand different Chipper Jones cards and Scott found one I didn't have already. Good show!

The Cool

1991 Pro Set Scottsh Football card of Tommy Turner of St. Johnstone. Any man who can pull off shorts like that whose name is not John Stockton is automatically cool. Take into account the 'stache and Tommy is reaching dangerous levels of coolness. Oh how I regret not buying a box of this stuff at the dollar store when I had a chance...

The Sketch

Not even going to make jokes about this one, because I have never been quite as happy to see a card in my life as I was to see this one. I think I was a teensy bit happier to see my kids being born, but it was close. Holy crap did this one throw me for a loop.

My instructions to Scott were thusly:

Your artist's commission:1) a monster or2) a pony (for all values of pony) or3) a scene or actor from a favorite movie
Choose any one of those three that you wish. Or any of those three asor with a pony. (Pony pony?) Do not worry about artistic ability, I'ma fan of outsider art and the more DIY the better I like it.

Here is the result:

Humphrey Bogart & Ilsa Pie. On a Topps "You Sketch It" card. I have no words. But my initial reaction was this.

Oh yass, there will be a repeat of this experiment, and soon.

2012 Phungo Pack Rip Video

No scans yet because I got sidetracked by tonight's short print kerfuffle and I have to get back online for work in a few minutes. If the video doesn't say it all, then I really don't know what will.

1976 Topps Ron Paul

Once I saw this I couldn't not do this:

I even used Cesar Cedeno's card for the template since they look so much alike.

(my pledge to avoid politics this year has really gone all to crap, hasn't it??)

RUDY RUETTIGER IS NOW PONY

POST PONIES



Jeez, I really need to cut it out with all the poniez.

C-C-C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER



Thank goodness for ska.

Here's a message Rudy, you're now a pony! BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA

(I swear to Celestia that things will be back to normal on the blog this week)

I can't think of any more clever ways to troll you with ponies

Guess I'll just have to...

(you know)



Wait, he's not a pony! Wizard, maybe. But not pony. Let's fix this.



Aaah, that's better.

POST, PONIES

Can't ask for a more accurate blog title than that.

(gee I hope I didn't include a Jello card accidentally)

Joy of a Completed Team Set - 1954 Topps

I finally finished it!

What's that? The Aaron? It's uhhhh... supposed to look like that. I had to get one in really bad condition. So bad it's smaller than normal and is printed on Chrome stock. I think it got hit by radiation or something. You know, all those nuclear tests in the '50s? Eeyup, this team set is totally legit. Nope, didn't cheat at all. Why are you looking at me like that? Hey look guys, over there!

PONIES!



(runs)

I swear no ponies this time

See, I'm trustworthy!

2012 Phungo Cards are LIVE

First pack of the new year! Although I'm still not buying packs this year. I got no problem with people sending them to me out of the blue. Too bad I haven't had time to video the pack rip yet. Guess I'll just have to

POST PONIES

Package from Scott

I promised I'd show off the sketch that Scott sent and I'mma do it. But I asked for three cards and he sent thirteen so I have to figure out what to do with the other ten. I know, I'll show 'em off here! Check out my cards.

 
A couple off the '76 wantlist.

Topps205 of Hall of Famer Larkin. I don't need this one for the set, but I have plans for it.

Three Braves reprints from the classic Dover reprint books by Burt Sugar. I already have these in book form and in separated form, but Lopez is going to be a filler in my Braves binder.

Three minor league cards from the '80s including long time trainer Sam Ayoub.

Jermaine Dye minor league auto. I swear I have this already but I can't find it. I'm completely disorganized right now because I've been too busy

POSTING PONIES



(this one was a dirty trick)

Book readin' update

Just checked this book out of the library the other day. I stopped by the library looking for a copy of The Catcher Was A Spy, a biography about Moe Berg. Unfortunately, that book hadn't been seen since 2002, but it was still in the computer system for some reason. I was able to find another Vonnegut book I haven't read and it has my bro Kilgore Trout in there so I snagged it. I haven't actually started reading it yet though because I'm too busy

POSTIN' PONIES

A bright and shiny Sunday morning

Time for breakfast.

WITH PONIES

Dayf is asleep

POST PONIES



(thank goodness for the 'schedule post' function)

GO TO SLEEP

It's too late for little fillies to be awake!



(not too late to post ponies)

No one pays attention on the weekends

POST PONIES

January Vintage Show Top 20 - #18 At Least He's a Hall of Famer Now

FYI for everypony: If you're in the Houston area this weekend, Sports Memories of Oklahoma (the dude I bought these cards from) is going to be at the TriStar card show at Reliant Stadium this weekend. If you end up going, say hi to Roger for me.

Yes, I used the word everypony. It's Applejack episode day! Errrrrr... make that Derpy episode day!

I've set myself up for failure with this series of posts by writing the first two too well. I'm not sure exactly what is the reason behind this. Perhaps I got really geeked up over the vintage show. Maybe it's all the caffeine I've ingested this week. The recent internet unpleasantness (I don't even want to say the name) got me riled up, maybe that got the juices flowing. It might be that I've got a bunch of sketching projects to complete and I'm procrastinating by writing a lot. Who knows, maybe all the ponies have recharged my batteries. This post - I can tell you right now - is not going to be good.

The problem is this card is one I had to get, but I'm not really jumping up yelling and screaming about it either. Come February when I start hitting the top ten I'm going to be bouncing off the walls like Pinkie Pie visiting the Hershey's chocolate factory, but today (and honestly for the next few posts in this series) I'm just not going to be all that excited. I'm happy, but a quiet, reserved sort of happy. The happiness of doing a job that needed to be done, and doing it well enough. A solid workman-like happiness. Those things are all kinda boring though and so also this post shall be. Here's #18.

OMIGOSH

HOW CAN I CALL THIS CARD BORING

FRIGGIN HALL OF FAMER

1972 TOPPS!

THE HECK IS WRONG WITH ME

PONIES HAVE RUINED MY MIND IF I THINK THIS IS BORING

Hear me out, people. I admit, this is not a boring card by any means. '72 Topps with the blue psychedelic tombstone border. Posed shot with the ubiquitous facade in the background. Not really a semi-high number, but it's got a card number in the 500s which is kinda impressive for a '72 card. And it's of HALL OF FAMER Bert Blyleven! I was griping and beeyotching about his Hall snub for years! Not quite as loud as I screamed about Santo, O'Neil, Minoso and Miller, but he was definitely in the Top 5 of players I whined about not being in the Hall of Fame. And now I have his '72 Topps card for the set? What gives?

There are several factors keeping me from acting like a squeeing fangirl all over this post. First of all is the price. If I had found this sucker in a quarter box I would have been dancing in the streets. (brief aside: I did a search for that link and Google told me that I had already shared it in a blogger post last year. I'm starting to think SOPA isn't the thing I should be worrying about. Oh well [insert last line of Orwell's 1984 here]) The fact of the matter is I got this for 4 bucks which is probably a pretty fair price for it. It's in good shape, coupla dings, slightly off center. I needed the card for my set and I acquired it fairly from a reputable dealer in a grand example of how Capitalism is supposed to work. Booooooring!

While I needed this card for my set, I haven't actually placed my '72 Topps series 4 cards into a binder yet. I probably should go ahead and do that, but I've been trying to finish each series one at a time and I haven't done it. Honestly, after I knock out series 3 and 4, I ain't completing no '72 series for a loooooooooooong time. Series 5 is tough and the high numbers are just stupid. I have about 3 times the number of high series cards from 1953 Topps than I have for the '72 set. That's just not right. So while I have knocked out a hole in my collection, I never got the tactile sensation of actually placing the card in the binder. Things like that are important. Sure, I'll do it soon. Whenever I get arsed to stick the rest of series 4 into pages, but it just won't quite be the same. The card for Tuesday's post (like how I've got all this stuff scheduled out in my mind?) suffers from the same issue as Bert, but I at least have a clue on where I'm going to go with writing that one.

The big thing that leaves me sort of flat about this card ( heh - card, flat) is the simple fact that Bert now is a bona-fide Hall of Famer. Two years ago, this card probably jumps at least a half dozen spots on the countdown and I would have written a flaming rant full of piss and vinegar about how the BBWAA is a bunch of Morans and the Hall of Fame voting is a joke and they should really just nuke Cooperstown from orbit and blah blah blah blah. TIPS FOR ASPIRING WRITERS: Wanna find something easy to write about? Find a topic that pisses you off. You can write rant all the live long day about injustice and stupidity. You'll have a great time writing and your readers will rally around the flag. A great time is had by all! Writing about something that is exactly the way it should be? That's harder.

Bert Blyleven is a Hall of Famer. WELL DUH. Dude's got 3700 strikeouts! He was an All Star! And he pitched amazingly well for a bunch of shitty horrible teams! And he won two World Series Championships when he finally got on good teams! OF COURSE he's a Hall of Famer! And now he is. And I bought his card. For a fair price. And I can can now check off one more Hall of Famer on my '72 Topps checklist. Oh goody.

No, really, I'm happy about this. I'm smiling on the inside. This is a really great card. Out of thousands of cards at that show and hundreds upon hundreds of cards in my price range, this was one of only 26 I deemed worthy enough to come home with me. I enjoy having this card, really I do. I just can't bring myself to jump up and down about it. Sorry about the boring post. I promise the next one will be more action packed.

Here's the complete list of Top 20 posts. See if you can guess what cards are coming up!

#20 - Wantlist Fail Part 1
#19 - Dollar Box Gem
#18 - At Least He's a Hall of Famer Now
#17 - Thurman Inaction
#16 - Cocktail Hour
#15 - Kid Stuff
#14 - Clubbed Cub
#13 - Cheapest High Number I Could Find
#12 - '59, Dude!
#11 - Look at the Whistler
#10 - Heartbreaking Taunt
#9 - '54 Ford With a Beat Up Chassis
#8 - King of the Bums
#7 - Joy of a Completed Page
#6 - HOW THE HELL IS THIS NOT IN THE TOP FIVE?!?!
#5 - Oh, because this one is...
#4 - Awwww, come ON.
#3 - Admit It, You Knew This Was Coming
#2 - Wantlist Fail Part 2
#1 - Feat of Clay

1969 Topps Braves Team Set

When I was updating my Braves Vintage want list the other day I realized that I apparently have never shown off my completed 1969 Topps braves team set. I am not entirely certain how this has not been posted before, but I can't seem to find it in my post archive. I suppose I could have labeled it poorly. If anyone wants to go through my 3000+ posts to check, feel free. In the meantime, I scanned it again for your Friday viewing pleasure.

In other news, even though I will never have time to play it, I really, really, reaaaally want to buy Skyrim now. Yay!

Via.

January Vintage Show Top 20 - #19 Dollar Box Gem

According to my self-imposed schedule, this card should have been posted yesterday, but the blog was blacked out in a stand to try to keep freedoms on the internetz. Fat lot of good that did, as the very next day the Feds shut down MegaUpload to teach all us geeks a lesson. Noone said the birth of the Information Age wasn't going to have labor pains. So now servers have been confiscated, over 9000 file share sites are still in operation and everyone who bought a subscription to MegaUpload for perfectly legitimate uses just lost their data forever and not a goddamn thing was accomplished just so the politicians running for reelection can woo back the Hollywood donors for the 2012 campaign. At least there is a Presidential campaign going on so real issues that affect every American's life will be discussed.

Ah well, fuck it. I've seen this kind of movie before (legally, not pirated) and I know all the possible endings, and every single one of them is dreadfully entertaining. Why sweat it? I'mma write a blog post about cards instead.

Once I was done with my orgy of bargain box scrounging I had nineteen cards total. BUT... I specifically had a request to do a top twenty card show series. Well, there was no choice! TO THE DOLLAR BOX!

Actually, there was no specific dollar box. The entire bargain box was littered here and there with dollar cards and there was a separate box filled with some old crummy Bowmans that were a buck a pop (2 for Yankees and Dodgers, grumble). Roger uses a system of dots on the sleeves to make it easier for him to sort through the bargain cards. A yellow dot means the card is a buck. I was being a high roller this time and only picked up one dollar card out of the non-sports pile in my initial card grubbing. There was also a little stack of cards from the '50s for a dollar each. That's where this one came from.

Ain't it purdy?? it's a 1953 Bowman card. You can tell by the design. Or rather, lack thereof. 1953 Bowman is a helluva set that I should really respect more than I do. I'm far too blinded by 1953 Topps though to really appreciate the set the way it deserves. What a kick in the ass for Bowman. They take the time, effort and expense to produce the first card set with really fantastic quality photography, and their competitor puts out a set that is worthy of hanging in the Louvre. Ok, maybe not the Louvre. It could certainly hand in MOMA though. It's like meeting a beautiful, funny, smart girl who likes the same music you do and then she introduces you to her sister Natalie. (might want to hover over that link before you click on it so you know what you're getting into) Just ain't fair, I say.

This card is well loved, but you can still make the picture out from behind all the wrinkles. And what a picture! The batter kneels, bat in hand. Two more bats at the ready, resting on his knee. He glares to his left at an unwelcome intruder into his photo shoot. Ten minutes after this picture was taken that interloper would be dead, his lifeless corpse dumped behind some trashcans in a nameless alley in the Bronx. He would later be found by a junkie who boosted his wallet to buy some smack. That junkie would get busted for puking on a cop, get sent to Rikers for a stint, find Jesus while in the joint and turn his life around. He worked as a dishwasher for a small pizza joint in Brooklyn run by an immigrant who came to America in 1932 after leaving his family an Napoli. He was eventually promoted to the kitchen and did so well, he took over as manager when the old man retired. He married a widower from Queens whose husband was killed in a tragic ferry accident and the used the money to buy the pizza place, where they worked together, the husband cooking, the wife doing the books, until his death in 1975 from a stroke. Widowed for a second time, she cashed out the parlor, moved to Jamaica and smoked grass with local reggae musicians until passing away peacefully in her sleep at the age of 92 naked on the beach with a bottle of rum in one hand and a half smoked blunt the size of Pittsburgh in the other. Yankee Stadium is also visible in the background just like 97.4% of all Vintage Bowman cards ever. Moral of the story: don't mess with people with Boston when they are getting their picture taken. They get tetchy. So who is this alleged vicious killer?

HOOT

How'd you like to be bludgeoned to death by a long ball hitting fly chaser named Hoot? Muck up his photo shoot and find out! While everyone oohs and ahs over the front, the backs of 1953 Bowman is where the true genius of this set lies. A blogger recently asked what would be on a perfect card back, and this right here comes pretty close to the mark. Text is readable. Card number is on the top left and big enough to see without your glasses. Player name large and bold in a font that could be Comic Sans' great grandpappy. Bographical stats and a nice paragraph on the player. Career and 1952 year stats including fielding stats. And the true kicker: a blank line for 1953 stats! Anyone ever seen one of these with the stats written in?

I picked up two '53 Bowman cards at the show, the other was Herman Wehmeier. That card looked a lot better and I'm kind of fond of people named Herman right now, but I couldn't leave a dude name HOOT off the top 20 list, could I? Nah. Not when he's got that bat in his hand.

Now that the gov'mint is bound and determined to destroy the internet over a severely broken copyright system, the question remains: just who the hell owns the copyright on this picture? It's a 59 year old photo from a defunct company. Topps gobbled up their competition in '56, so do they own it? Does the original photographer own it? Since I scanned this particular image with this particular pattern of scuffs and creases and wrinkles, do I own it? Does no one own it? Well if by some freak legal accident I happen to own it (not bloody likely as I don't have a team of lawyers at my beck and call) I say copyleft the sucka! Go little assemblage of 0s and 1s! Fly, be free! Go out into the interwebs to find your fortune! Stay away from that area labeled 2 Girls, 1 Cup, though. You don't wanna go there. I believe in you little .JPG! Be all you can be! It's not like they can take stuff in the public domain and drag it back into copyright, can they?

Oh Goddamnit. Et tu, Supreme Court?

Here's the complete list of Top 20 posts. See if you can guess what cards are coming up!

#20 - Wantlist Fail Part 1
#19 - Dollar Box Gem
#18 - At Least He's a Hall of Famer Now
#17 - Thurman Inaction
#16 - Cocktail Hour
#15 - Kid Stuff
#14 - Clubbed Cub
#13 - Cheapest High Number I Could Find
#12 - '59, Dude!
#11 - Look at the Whistler
#10 - Heartbreaking Taunt
#9 - '54 Ford With a Beat Up Chassis
#8 - King of the Bums
#7 - Joy of a Completed Page
#6 - HOW THE HELL IS THIS NOT IN THE TOP FIVE?!?!
#5 - Oh, because this one is...
#4 - Awwww, come ON.
#3 - Admit It, You Knew This Was Coming
#2 - Wantlist Fail Part 2
#1 - Feat of Clay

Trying to get back to normal

SOPA ain't dead yet, but hopefully a whole bunch of people who didn't know anything about it got some knowledge today. Thanks to everyone out there who did their part today to raise awareness of one of the many bits of underhanded shenanigans our government keeps trying to pull on us. From the sites who shut everything down completely to the people who just put a mention in their normal site activity that they were against SOPA, everyone who did even the smallest thing to raise awareness today has my gratitude. As do everyone else out there who just learned a little bit about the world today. SOPA ain't dead, PIPA ain't dead, the people who want to fuck up the interwebs are still out there, and they're already regrouping as I type this. Don't be surprised if the bill is repackaged, renamed, and snuck into a budgetary defense appropriation bill that has to be passed right now or the government will shut down (if only), the world economy will collapse and all our troops in the field will be left to die. But at least at this particular moment things look a tiny bit better than they did last week. Don't think I'm going to let up though, I can be obnoxious when riled.

IN THE MEANTIME: the blog (or at least the background and header) will remain black until I can find the images on my hard drive and upload 'em again. Maybe a little MSPainting is in order?

I also wanted to acknowledge a package received from Scott Sawyer. He took the bait when I tried to pawn off some doubles. Here is the play by play of my reaction when opening the package.

Oh hey, a package!
It's from Scott!
(opens)
Awww jeez, I only asked for three cards! There's a dozen in here! I have too many cards as it is!
These are pretty cool though, even if I got 'em already.
Let's open this up- D'OH dinged the crap out of that corner there...
Ooh, this IS a cool card
Braves errywhere - do I have that already?
Couple off a want list, sweet
Wow, that's a nice one
Heh! I remember those! nifty!
Still, this is too many cards. I just wanted three! Let's check out the sketch card.
...
!!!
O_O

 (yeah I'm gonna make you wait for the post)