A Plug and Cool Surprise from Angus

I spend a lot of my free time -- in between posting here, working, reading blogs, and trying to be a good husband -- on Twitter. Often, it's the first thing I read in the morning (usually to catch up on what is new in the world of European soccer) and many times it's the last thing I actively read before playing a mindless game of "Civilization Revolutions" on my iPad and nodding off to sleep.

A few weeks ago, I got a new follower on Twitter called @CardMavin. Card Mavin is a completely free website that gives people a realistic view on what their cards are worth based on real time eBay sales and listings. Perhaps, in the not-too-distant future, the site may include aggregation of information on sales -- or at least asking prices -- from COMC, Sportlots, Just Commons, etc.  That probably will take some intellectual property rights agreements with those sites, I'd suppose.

That said, the folks behind Card Mavin reached out to me and told me how much they enjoyed my writing. After I asked if they had the right "Tony" from the blog world, and after I asked if they had actually read my blog -- oddly, the answer was yes on both counts -- I was sufficiently flattered enough to be receptive to their approach for me to write a guest blog. 

After a couple of weeks where work conspired to keep me both busy and lacking in inspiration, finally I sat down and hacked out my post: "Advice for Getting Back into Card Collecting." Thanks to trying to be brief -- which, as many of you know, is more of a challenge for me than trying to extend a post to a particular length -- I set forth a list of three pieces of advice for folks considering whether they should get into collecting or back into collecting. 

Please take a read of my thoughts there and provide some advice of your own. And, while you're there, check out how CardMavin works and give feedback on Twitter to @CardMavin.

Okay, now that I have plugged one of the first appearances of my writing that does not involve writing about construction law (I am, in fact, general editor of a book published 15 years ago and I am a general editor as well of a book that is in the works now about trial practice in construction cases...seriously), I need to give full props to the blogosphere's Canadian Cleveland Browns fan, Angus of Dawg Day Cards.

First, he has watched as his team has actually improved its QB situation with RGIII, a QB who caused his own offensive line to hate him in DC -- to the point where they hardly helped him up after sacks and whose seeming refusal to take any blame for mistakes rubbed everyone the wrong way. I mean, after Johnny Manziel, perhaps everyone who is a sentient being is an upgrade at QB, but when people from around the league come out and say that you are a "jerk" who "didn't stay humble", you know you have some problems.

Still, as a Browns fan as Angus is, he found the bright side of things and noted that having a guy like RGIII for the here and now while the team tries to build isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Is there a comparable situation in all of the Big 4 sports to being a Browns fan? I mean, at least in baseball, most every team has gotten to the postseason in the last 15 years.

I really feel for Angus on that level. It is close to the situation in Milwaukee from 1993 through 2006, when the team just sucked and sucked and sucked and it didn't look like there was any plan in place under the Seligs other than, "Let's suck as bad as possible so that we can prove our point that small market teams can't compete."

Amongst all this, Angus still finds time to sprinkle sunshine around to all of us bloggers. 

I've seen two others of these now around the blog world, and I'm happy that Angus sent one my way. The nine discs on the Milwaukee Brewers "Triple Play Funmeal" include Robin Yount, Sal Bando, BIll Travers, Sixto Lezcano, Von Joshua, Charlie Moore, Jim Slaton, Jerry Augustine, and the cleft-chinned Eduardo Rodriguez. 

Even without seeing the 1977 copyright date, I could have dated this item to that very year for a couple of reasons. First, if this had been issued in 1976, Hank Aaron would have been included. Second, Sal Bando would not have been included in 1976 because he signed as a free agent from Oakland after 1976. Finally, it could not be from the 1978 season because the Brewers simply cut Von Joshua after spring training in 1978 and they traded Jim Slaton after the 1977 season to Detroit for Ben Oglivie. Slaton then re-signed with the Brewers after the 1978 season.

Angus, many thanks once again for the fantastic surprise you sent my way.

#SuperTrader Mark Hoyle

Mark Hoyle was the first person I ever traded with who simply commented on my blog and who does not have a blog of his own. Part of me is envious of that, since the time it takes to write blog posts is not inconsequential. 

But, I enjoy the creative (okay, sort of creative) writing that I get to do here. I get to let my madman run wild here, so to speak, and just let the posts go where they go based on the cards I get, the music in my head, or the music that the cards lead to.

I have a post brewing inside me coming up that has nothing to do with the cards I've received or traded away, but I think I need to cogitate for a while on it. At least until after this post is done.

So, let's stay light and happy and highlight the cards that Mark sent my way!

That's right -- clap along if you feel like that's what you want to do! Even if the scan of this first card is really dark and the card itself is a bit dark in hand thanks to Topps not doing a very good job with the card's concept and printing in the first place:

When the light catches this "Diamond Stars" insert of Derrick Turnbow from the 2007 Opening Day set just right, it's a really cool card. Looking at it directly without any reflected light, it looks like a bad attempt at an Upper Deck hologram logo sticker from 1991. 

Wait, that's not Happy!

Let's try again.

That's it! Let's be happy together! What makes everyone happy? Cards of legends, that's what. Everyone appreciates a Hall of Famer, or at least respects the Hall of Famer, right?

These two cards were needed for my Paul Molitor collection. Can you tell that the Topps Magazine card of Paul Molitor is from the early 1990s? Really, you could? What was the give away? Oh, yeah. The very 1990s design, of course. Surprisingly, this card's back notes that it is "Design-a-Card Winner #1," which means that someone at Topps not only had to wade through all kinds of crappy designs, but it means that there were all kinds of crappy designs far worse than this one!

The other card shows Molitor suited up and giving his induction speech in 2004. Man, that was 12 years ago already? Molitor turns sixty years old this year? Gah. And, he's married to a woman named Destini? Really? Now I'm getting depressed again.

Dang it, I was trying to be Happy! Let's try this again...

If there is anything that is almost always guaranteed to make me happy, it is music from Athens, Georgia. In my time there for law school, I ran into/saw (and left alone) Michael Stipe several times. He was a strange guy, no doubt -- wearing clothes that no one else on the planet would wear -- but everyone in Athens really just let him live his life because, well, the guy is a legend. 

Even better is that Kate Pierson is stunningly gorgeous in this video. I freely admit that I had a pretty huge crush on her around this time...and here's a little secret: in this video in 1991, she was forty-three years old! Wow. Even today, now that she is married to her longtime girlfriend and is sixty-seven years old, she still looks pretty good...which sounds weird to say but it's true.

These cards are a bit like Kate Pierson in that B-52s video -- they are forty-two years old now, but they still look damn good. Sure, Felipe Alou's card has some writing on it -- probably some youngster trying to fix that satiny hat and giving up -- but Tom Murphy has sharp corners on it. It's a very rare card in my collection that is over 30 years old and has sharp corners! So, Murphy is definitely a condition upgrade for the one currently in my Brewers collection.

Okay, now I'm feeling better...gotta keep things light and happy, right? Light...

Wait, The Smiths tend to be universally depressing, what with Morrissey's never-ending yearning and with lyrics like, "And if a double decker bus, crashes into us, to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die."

Wow, that got dark. But if we are talking about baseball and lights that will never go out -- and to be completely serious for a moment -- there is no better personification of overcoming years and years of racism, ugly treatment, and demonization than Hank Aaron.



Hank truly is a light that will never go out, in many ways. He is, of course, a legend in Atlanta and Milwaukee. I chose not to collect him as a player collection in large part because he really is identified much more with Atlanta despite spending more of his time in Milwaukee thanks to breaking Babe Ruth's record as an Atlanta Brave. Of course, he also resides here and is a special assistant to whatever general manager the Braves have at any point in time. Still, these cards are excellent and much welcomed.

We've gotten a bit wistful here now. Let's pick up the pace again for the last song:

What Jeremiah the bullfrog was doing with mighty fine wine, the world will probably never know. Also, I'm a little suspicious of Three Dog Night as well since they want to throw away cars and bars with wars. I like going to bars. 

Still, I can't argue too much with this song, such that it glorifies being a straight-shootin' son of a gun.

And it's joyful, so let's be joyful about my original "main" player collection from the 1980s alongside my "main" player collection now:

That Gary Carter collision at the plate is pretty cool. It must come from the late 70s or early 80s, because that sure looks like a Padre-clad Ozzie Smith there. Still, I don't know why the card refers to Carter blocking the plate in the 1979 All-Star Game with this photo/drawing on the front...since Smith and Carter would have been on the same side in that game, of course.

Finally, that Robin Yount 3000th Hit card. Sure, no logos, but still a great action shot. If cards simply showed players playing baseball with normal photos -- not overly redone, not overly painted up, not overly airbrushed/photo shopped, not overly blurred in the background such that the player could be playing literally anywhere, and not overly zoomed in -- maybe we collectors wouldn't find as many reasons to complain as we do.

Oh, who am I kidding? We're a cantankerous bunch of old guys (and gals). We're programmed to complain and not to be happy.

Mark, thank you very much for these and all the rest of the cards you sent my way. They are very much appreciated. 

And to the rest of you?

Going Back to the Old House

Back in the 1980s, my love for "alternative" music started when I was introduced to a melancholic band from Manchester called The Smiths. As a teenager listening to The Smiths in 1986, I was not exactly what you would call mainstream. Yeah, there were a fair number of people in the larger cities who knew about and liked The Smiths, but there were not a lot of fans in my little hometown of 1612 people.

One of the songs on their compilation album of B-sides previously unreleased in the U.S. called "Louder Than Bombs" (named the 365th best album of all time by Rolling Stone) is called "Back to the Old House." That song is a sad dirge with typical lyrics from The Smiths about a love that was never revealed to the object of the affection:

That's all very depressing, of course. It is The Smiths, after all.

But, it relates to what I have done recently. For a good two months, I stayed away from the Old Auction House on eBay. I was spending too much money on cards due to my impatience in wanting to build up my collection immediately. As in yesterday.  Yet, recently, I dipped my toe back into the auction waters to pick up some specific items without buying complete sets of things that I don't need.

So, what did I get?

I had no idea that Topps had done these "Throwback Thursday" sets until I saw Cynical Buddha post the Robin Yount one on his Yount Collector blog. I get so much spam from Topps for so many sets that I simply don't care about that I missed seeing that this one actually had two Brewers in it. I checked out the set on Topps.com -- where it costs $50 before shipping -- and wondered if I could cherrypick the Molitor and the Yount without buying the whole damn set.

Well, I overpaid, to be fair, for those two alone, but in the grand scheme of things, I saved myself $30 or so dollars and got just the two players I wanted. They are both serial numbered 14/49, so I'm okay with that sort of higher price.

Another "must have" for me came in the Bowman Chrome or Platinum -- whichever -- packs as an insert. This Robin Yount is from the super sparkly "1989 Bowman is Back" inserts that Topps has been shoving into all the Bowman products this year. I paid about $4 with shipping for it; that shipping cost is, of course, always the problem when dealing with buying on the multicolored auction site.

This next card was a genuine bargain to me. Featured in the 2014 Topps Triple Threads set are an array of swatch cards like this one of Ryan Braun. It's numbered 3 of 27. Three is a good number for this, since, due to his struggles this year and the taint of his PED use, I picked it up for $3.26 before shipping costs of $2.50.  Not bad for a card numbered to 27.

This next Triple Threads card was not as much of a bargain -- it cost twice as much as the Braun even though it is numbered 41 of 99. Then again, it does feature a certified stickergraph, so there is that. But, at least it recycles the photo of Segura from the die-cut mini 1989 insert card from the base set series 2.

Another recent purchase was a Brewers team set. I've been trying to figure out what site is the best place to purchase team sets so as to fill gaps more quickly in my collection. I've tended to purchase only on eBay, but I see the Just Commons buys and wonder to myself whether that might be a better option. I guess I have to do more research.

That said, I picked up the entire team set from that weird 1984 Nestle/Topps parallel set in perfectly cut condition for $16 total. I borrowed this Yount photo from another auction (this card alone is going for $4) to show the Nestle logo.

Somewhere at my mom's house, there is an uncut sheet that I got from this Nestle giveaway back in 1984. I have to find that.

My final recent purchase was another one that came as a bit of a bargain hunt for an oddball that just does not show up all that frequently: the elusive Sega Gen cards.  I picked up this Carlos Gomez for $5.50 including shipping from a guy who has been selling off a bunch of 2013 Sega Gen cards on eBay. He's in the US, so shipping wasn't a nightmare either.

So, what do y'all think? Did I overpay for some of these/all of these/none of these? I'm terrible sometimes about being impatient and jumping on the first auction I see, so I won't take it personally if you think I did.

As always, thanks for reading.