Off Hiatus: A Retrospective

Today is my two-year anniversary of kicking off my card blogging life. Last year, I didn't even realize that my one-year anniversary had passed until three days after it had hit. It's been a tough, strange, fun, crazy, off-the-wall, difficult year for me personally and professionally as I left BigLaw, basically was my own firm for about 7 months, then joined another firm in July of last year. 

Lew Burdette was happy for me to switch law firms.

In between last February and now, I spent most of my time trying to catch up with trades both incoming and outgoing.  To be fair, it comes and goes for me in terms of having time to put together the outgoing trade packages. I owe some of you a package currently, and I apologize for my laxity in not getting those together already.  They will go out soon.

This past year has been a great one for me in many respects. I lived through a war with Jaybarkerfan -- a war in six parts (1a, 1b, 1c, 2, 3, 4, 5a, 5b, and 6) that was declared a draw thanks in large part to an invasion from Canada and the proprietor of Dawg Day Cards, Angus.

I received cards from a multitude of countries too (and I know I still owe cards, now long overdue, to the Italian Completist...dude, I am VERY sorry...I will be sending you a package soon). As best I recall it, I've gotten cards from Canada (a few times), France, Italy, the Netherlands, and England as a start.

My most popular posts of all time all came in the last year, and I have no earthly idea why these posts are so popular. That's not meant as a jab at the person I traded with whose cards are highlighted in the past, but I still don't know why these two posts both have over 1350 hits each while no other post has over 500 (there is one sitting at 500). Those two popular posts? 

With 1385 hits, it's "Julie: A Trade Post." Julie's "A Cracked Bat" provides a wonderfully different perspective on card collecting, as Julie -- unlike most of us -- came to collecting as an adult rather than having collected as a kid and returning when we want to be kids again. Still, I think the reason that that blogpost gets so many hits is because I included an American Girl Doll reference in it.



Not that I'm above doing things to drive web traffic to my site or anything.

The other post that gets tons of hits -- at 1451 hits as of today -- is "Catching Up with a Trade Post." Mark Kaz is great and the 1990s Brewers he sent were awesome enough to lead me to post both photos of kangaroos and a Violent Femmes song ("Promise" in case you were wondering). But why so many hits for those two?

Of course, now that I think about it, perhaps all the traffic is just looking for a "trading post" and clicks through that way.  Maybe I should name all of my blog posts "trade post."

So, it's the beginning of year three for me as a blogger. While some people do resolutions at the beginning of the year, I tend to like to wait for a different day important only to me. Here are my resolutions:

1.  Grow my Robin Yount collection to 1000 items. It stands currently at 875 items, including magazine covers, mugs, bobbleheads, glasses, placemats, rulers, books, talking baseball cards, and autographs.

2.  Get more organized, again. With the addition of approximately 25,000 to 30,000 cards as part of that Christmas Horde, I have got an absolute crapload (sorry for the legalese) of cards to sort through again. I'm pretty sure I have to have over 100,000 cards now, of which perhaps 20% are Brewers. 

3.  With that said, I want to winnow my collection a bit too. Get rid of some of those Twins cards, or Expos cards, or Blue Jays, or Yankees. Especially Yankees. 

4. To do that, I need to sit down on a regular basis -- perhaps even a scheduled basis -- to put together packages to send out. I'm hoping the "SuperTraders" will help me with this. By the way, does anyone know a good Indians, Royals, or Marlins collector who wants in?
Actually, does anyone know ANY Marlins collectors?

5.  Stick to a better budget on buying cards. Rather, create a budget for buying cards. If I had a budget maybe I'd follow it.

6. Get my Brewers parallels, oddballs, and Paninis all organized and set up in proper want lists and, also, get my Milwaukee Braves post-1965 cards organized and get want lists created. I love my lists and want more.

7.  Last one: Keep up on the 1982 Blog and the "Meet the Brewers" posts, trying to do one a month each.

Okay, finally, one more thing. I wanted to show off a card I got at my local show yesterday:

 

It's a JSA certified Eddie Mathews autograph. I got it for $24 from Frank Moiger, the promoter of the card show, and I love it. I wanted a Mathews autograph, and this one will do quite nicely, thank you.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm still trying to get Coldplay songs out of my head after that Super Bowl halftime last night.

This Way to a Trade Post

It will be a trade post with Mark Kaz from This Way to The Clubhouse soon.  In other words, I will be getting a package out to Mark soon, that is, once I get everything put away from the JBF Monster packs. I'm almost done with it too. All that sorting puts trade packages behind, but I have to admit -- the sorting part is probably the most fun part.  It's even cathartic at times. 

But, in between monsters arriving in Georgia, I received a stuffed envelope from Mark filled with Brewers. Mark was kind enough to send these cards my way -- perhaps partially in thanks for my research skills in chasing down his Mike Piazza 1999 Fleer Tradition kite. Mark sent me a number of cards that I needed for player collections along with a couple of minor league cards too.

Let's start with those minor leaguers:

Matt LaPorta might be a familiar name to baseball fans for being part of the trade that brought CC Sabathia to Milwaukee just prior to his free agency. The Brewers pretty much knew that Sabathia wasn't signing with them, so they abused the living hell out of his arm -- and why not? No need to worry about the future if the future for the pitcher did not include the Brewers.  LaPorta is pictured here with the Helena (Montana) Brewers. 

Mike Farrell was an undrafted free agent out of Indiana State University who made it all the way to Triple-A New Orleans in 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1996. He never struck out enough guys to make it past Triple-A, though.  After his playing career, the Brewers signed him on as a scout as soon as his playing career ended in 1998, and he is credited with signing two players who made it to the major leagues -- Eric Fryer (who played 28 games with Minnesota last year) and Mitch Stetter (who last pitched in the major leagues in 2011 with Milwaukee).

Beyond the minor leaguers, Mark also sent me three Ryan Braun cards that I did not have. For whatever reason, 2009 seems to be a dead zone for me. I never find cards from 2009 at the card shows -- 2010 to the present, sure...2008 and before, yup, those too...but not 2009. So all three of these were greatly appreciated:

Some guys seem to have the same photo on every card.  Like the Braun "puffed out cheeks in his swing follow-through" photos above, it seems like Dave Nilsson is always looking up at something:

Unless, of course, he's looking down to try to block the plate.

Apropos for Nilsson being an Aussie, here's a photo of some kangaroos from, yes, 2009.  

Yes, I took this photo.

Anyway, Mark Kaz didn't send me to Australia, but these cards took me there.  

Back to the USA for a few more cards that scream "1990s".  

Why do these cards scream, "1990s"? Vaughn with the hat backwards, for example, reminds me of the joke we had about the Vanderbilt frat boy uniform in 1990: blue shirt, khaki pants, navy blazer, yellow tie, and backward dirty white hat with a Milwaukee's Best Light in his hand. Of course, Vaughn would not have fit in that well with that frat boy look because, well, Vanderbilt was 92% white at that time.  

B.J. Surhoff would have fit in at Vanderbilt, other than not having a name that sounds like two last names.  You know, like Walker Buehler or Dansby Swanson or Carson Fulmer -- all first round MLB Draft picks from Vanderbilt this year.

And, to close out, nothing says the 1990s quite like 1995 Fleer or a Pinnacle card of any kind.  Yes, I realize Panini resurrects 1990s brands from time to time like a lurching middle-aged man revisiting his Vanderbilt 1990s frat days -- and it usually comes off similarly. It starts kind of fun -- everyone's having a good time, people overlook the flaws for a little while...then it starts going wrong. No logos for Panini or too much Scotch for Vandy Frat Guy starts wearing on the folks around them. Panini throws in 84 different parallels, Vandy Frat Guy starts thinking he can pick up like his 19 again -- and it all goes off the rails.

And, wow, where the hell did that stream of consciousness come from.

Mark -- please ignore my vacant stares and accept my sincerest thanks for these great cards and all the other cards you sent to me.  I have your address now, and I have the URL for your Zistle Wantlist, so I will be returning the favor soon.

I promise.