Why Blogging Is The Coolest Thing A Collector Can Do

I've been blogging about baseball cards for fourteen months now.  It's crazy to look back at my posts from last February and see how many hits some of those posts had versus the number of hits I get now.  Back then, I was the new guy in the neighborhood.  I'd read blogs and be amazed -- completely surprised -- when I would read how people just sent cards to fellow bloggers.

So, I went around to different blogs, started commenting, started e-mailing people, and suddenly, my blog started getting read.  It's sort of like networking in real life -- if you show yourself to be trustworthy, diligent, and reasonably interesting (at least most of the time), people will recommend you to their friends, or, here, they will list you in their blog rolls.

Soon after I started doing that, I started making trades with people.  The next step was when people who simply read my blog started sending me cards.  

That just sounds crazy to me.  

But, it keeps happening.  Recently, reader Angus sent me a note asking me for my address. He told me that he had gotten a big box of cards from the 1990s, and he wanted to send the cards he had to someone who needs them.  I've asked for a wantlist or even an inkling of what he collects...and if he ever tells me, I'll send him some cards he would like!

I've already gotten a second envelope from him, so it's well past time to put up the highlights of the big envelope.

I'm going to start with a Fun Pack special -- folded out to see everything the Dave Winfield/Robin Yount booklet showed:

Yount appears so concerned -- as does Winfield -- that I'm fairly certain that it must be a new planet or a UFO in the air near them:

Angus introduced me to the world of Fleer Extra Bases.  I have them on my want lists, but I had no idea what they looked like until now:

  

I have no idea who thought these were a good idea.  They probably were the same persons who thought people in America would love buying Yugos.

Seriously, these are just strange cards.  They are the same width as a regular card but they are about 1.5 times taller.

While a package full of those would make for a good story and a serious storage problem, Angus sent me some normal-sized, honest-to-goodness gap fillers for my collection.  There were a lot of 1994 Donruss.  Three examples:

Collector's Choice was also well represented:

And those four went right into their respective player collections.

Upper Deck...man, I miss Upper Deck.  Well, I don't miss the Upper Deck that I missed out on in the mid-2000s when everyone went parallel-crazy, but I miss the quality photography and pleasantly different card designs, like these:

Yes, that Joe Oliver (whom I'd forgotten played for Milwaukee in the 1990s...and that's okay because Oliver probably doesn't recall that happening either) is from SP -- the Upper Deck competitor to Stadium Club, I think.  All of those cards, while definitely being "from the 1990s" would be welcome re-additions to the card scene today.

One set that has really popped onto my radar screen as an attractive set is the 1995 Leaf set.  

It's like a cross between the full-bleed photo of Upper Deck crossed with the "picture-in-picture" (Thanks, Brad!) of the 1983 and 1984 Topps sets.  What keeps this set out of being a favorite is the difficult to read name in the lower right hand corner and the too-big team name.  

At least it's not Upper Deck's Fun Pack, though.  As good as the base set and the SP set were, that's as bad as the Upper Deck "grab the little kids" set was:

The stupid swirls and dots in the background, the too-large borders, the too-small photo...wow.  Just wow.  I think I know where these designers got their idea for the set design though:

Considering that Saved by the Bell debuted on August 20, 1989 -- yes, more than 25 years ago -- and that the set with the Bell-swirls came in 1994, I mean, I guess Upper Deck was only 5 years behind the times back then.

Angus, thanks a lot for these cards (and the second envelope, which arrived yesterday).  If you are thinking about blogging, all I'll say is DO IT -- so long as you like writing and have a little time, it's a great way to get to reach out to others in the hobby across the country and around the world.