Some eBay Pickups And the First (only?) Topps Now Brewer

Writer's block -- and feeling blase generally -- can be detrimental to blogging. I have had two parts writer's block, 2 parts of blase, and 2 parts not having anything really new to write about lately. I have found myself watching TV more in the past few days -- a decent amount of baseball, but also some old episodes of Mythbusters and some reruns of American Pickers have dominated, but sometimes even Rehab Addict (yes, because Nicole Curtis is an attractive woman but out of interest in the renovations as well) or a random soccer game.

But baseball cards have been lacking a bit here. I've been trying to save up a bit with a goal of taking a good chunk of change to one of the North Carolina shows run by Inside Pitch some time in July or August. That means that I've barely paid any attention to any of the new cards coming out from Topps -- and, to be fair, why would I pay attention with how few Brewers feature in any of Topps non-flagship sets?

I've been pretty outspoken on Twitter about the Topps Now concept and card selection process. I enjoy the concept generally -- I think the idea of capturing the previous day's events on a card is a fun idea. It's a damn shame, though, that Topps's execution of this concept is as flawed as about everything else Topps does. 

I mean, it is still inexplicable to me that Topps could overlook a team turning a triple play so that David Ortiz could appear on yet another card. 

But, as much as I loathe Topps and how it essentially refuses to note Milwaukee's existence in the past four or five years (hey, I get it...y'all are still mad about Ryan Braun. Get over it. You've lionized F**king Bartolo Colon -- who tested positive for steroids too!), I'm still a Brewers collector and an obsessive at that. So, when Aaron Hill hit three homers in a game including a grand slam that helped to win the game in the 10th inning on May 7 in Cincinnati, I had to get the card. 

I mean, I did it angrily, though. Aaron Hill hopefully will be traded away soon for a lottery ticket to a contender. He's not the future, nor does he have any particular tie to the franchise generally. He's just a guy we had to take in a salary dump.

Hopefully, the Brewers won't have any more Topps Now cards. Seriously. I'm happy to get one, but like many of Topps's releases, I'm glad that Topps is draining the pockets of Yankees and Red Sox and Dodgers and Cubs fans. 

Other than this Topps Now card, I have picked up a few things on eBay. For just about $20, I bought a lot of six complete or nearly complete police card sets from the 1980s and early 1990s. As I mentioned, I'm obsessive, so I still harbor this dream of collecting every single set. Here's what I added this time:

Four of the lots were from the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department. As in many places, Milwaukee has both a police force -- which is the entity that gave away the cards for the Stadium Giveaways -- and a Sheriff's Department. The only downside to the 1991 lot is that it did not include a Robin Yount.

The other two sets came from West Bend -- a city about 15 minutes from where I grew up -- and West Allis -- the city that abuts where Miller Park is located and where the State Fair Park is located.  I'm always looking for new departments to add to my collection, so keep your eyes peeled for me!

Finally, I added a couple of Jonathan Lucroy cards/items. I've been on a bit of a Luc spree lately. I'm not sure if it is in hope of him not getting traded or if his cards just give me someone to chase at a more reasonable price than the Ryan Braun items go for these days. I got two pretty cool items:

This is a 2014 SI for Kids card. I didn't realize that SI for Kids was still a thing, and I certainly didn't realize that they still do cards. Or maybe it was still a thing in 2014. 

 

And, finally, I've continued to be able to find Jonathan Lucroy printing plates for a reasonably inexpensive price. Again, I think it's because it's Lucroy and not Braun or Yount or Molitor, but this one stayed under $15, if I recall correctly.  

All in all, not a bad week of mail coming in thanks to my purchasing stuff online. Of course, that runs counter to my attempt to save money, but...oh well.

Thanks for reading, and let me know if you want to trade!