Just a Taste: 4 Packs of Diamond Kings

A trip to the LCS with three things in mind, supplies, Diamond Kings and maybe some Gypsy Queen. Gypsy Queen was a no show from the supplier so there was no temptation there, but there was the one thing I really wanted to try, 2018 Diamond Kings, so I scooped up 4 packs.

RLC Custom Card Project: Eric Anthony

The Card: One of the most Iconic modern sets, 1989 Upper Deck. The first Upper Deck release marked in increase in quality of the card, bigger focus on photography, and of course the Griffey rookie. Fairly simple design, but this set is really more about setting the tone for what cam after, rather than the set itself

The Player: Eric Anthony was probably better known as an Astro where he played his first 5 seasons, rather than his last 4 in which he bounced around from Seattle, Colorado, Cincinnati and the Dodgers. Anthony played in 32 games with the Rockies after being purchased from the Reds in July, with a two home run game against the Cardinals in August being the highlight.

The Project: Rockies Legacy Collection custom project to make digital cards of Rockies players who never had one issued.

Redskins Heavy Trade

Baseball is in full swing, but I always love adding new Redskins and crossing names off the One of Every Redskins lists. Mr. Armentrout (great name) from The Collective Mind blog and I swapped some Redskins, starting with two vintage Skins from 1964 Philadelphia, you will probably never see Kicker-Guard listed as a position on a modern card.

TCDB Trade with an International Flair

As my collection and want-list get slowly added to TCDB, I am starting to get back to were I was with zistle, mainly getting more than just Rockies cards. The most recent trade from there had a good stack of WBC cards to increase my Canadian baseball collection, along with a Munenori Kawasaki, because who doesn't love Munenori Kawasaki.

Why I Didn't Buy Two Gypsy Queen Boxes

There are only a few sets I have actively built since returning to collecting, with Gypsy Queen from 2011-2017 being the only ones that were current that year. I don’t buy many boxes because; 

1) They are expensive (I am cheap), 

2) Topps does very few things I am actually interested in (more on this later) and  

3) I save my card budget for two boxes of Gypsy Queen every year. 2011 is the only year that I did not pre-order two boxes as that pre-dated my return to the hobby by a few months. If you follow this blog you will see three things ad nauseam, Rockies, Redskins and Gypsy Queen. The point being, I like Gypsy Queen. Or I liked Gypsy Queen.

RLC Custom Card Project: Jason Pridie

The Card: 1970, Probably the most forgotten vintage set in the Topps line. The big rookie card is probably Thurman Munson, but that card is largely overshadowed by his iconic 1971 card. Topps has gone crazy with reprints of old sets between Heritage, Archives and various inserts but I still don;t think they have touched 1970. If Heritage follows along, next year will be based on this design, and I am really looking forward to it as I kind of like this set, it's simple, but classy. As far as the custom goes I have really worked on cleaning up old designs and making them look sharp, but this one I left as a little crooked, off-center and the corners beat-up from the original scan, it just seems better than way.

The Player: Jason Pridie signed with the Rockies prior to the 2014 season and was sent to Triple-A after Spring Training. He was called up to the Rockies on August 2nd, played in two games, starting one, then was designed for assignment on August 6th. He is probably best known for his time with the Mets, playing in 101 of his 133 career MLB games for them in 2011.

The Project: Rockies Legacy Collection custom project to make digital cards of Rockies players who never had one issued.

Cards from Burbank

I sure most of you have seen Burbank Sportscards around the trading card marketplace. They recently listed some stuff I was interested in so I placed an order. It came fast, was well packed and shipping to Canada was very reasonable which gets very high marks from me. On to the cards.

Three more 2011 Gypsy Queen mini photo variations, these bring me up to 24 out of 100.

Blog Bat Around: What Goes On Here

An idea started over at Night Owl Cards that has been going around and I decided to join in, a Blog Bat Around of what people collect. A simple and brilliant idea. Kind of like the "go-around-the-room-and-say-something-about-yourself" but not as horrifyingly awkward.

I started this thing back in November of 2011, mostly as a way to document the various weird variations in the 1971 Topps and OPC sets. Check this link out if the shade of red on a helmet graphic on a 45+ year old checklist card sounds like interesting reading. It kept going as a fun project, a way to make trades and grew into as much a part of my hobby as the actual cards themselves.

I hope my boss doesn't see this, because I totally stole these binders from work.

1. Rockies : I have always been a team collector first so it is always Rockies first, if I had a dime for every time I searched for "Rockies" on comc, I would be getting paid in a very weird way, and be able to afford way more cards. The current project is going through everything and adding it the Trading Card DB. I store things alphabetically and just finished "H", which doesn't seem like much, but having Helton, Holliday, Bichette, Castilla, Galarraga and Cargo done is a big chunk. 

The ongoing project is the "One of Every Rockies" project, which according to my master spreadsheet currently sits at 384 out of 385 solo Rockies cards (still need a Neshek), 15 out of 17 for the "Misfits" which are shared cards, traded cards or unlicensed stuff, and 127 out of 171 for players that have Rockies cards, but never actually played a game for them.

Also a part of this is customs, I have posted a ton of custom cards over the years (link provided if that kind of thing interests you, and now I am starting to organize things starting with the Rockies Legacy Collection project (insert shameless plug link). 

The rug really ties the room together.

2. Redskins: My other big team collection, my spreadsheet for this is not a precise, but I can tell I have 448 different players among the solo, shared and misfits. This one is way harder to complete with all the vintage that the Rockies don't have.

My labeling really took a turn for the lazy around 2014 or so.

3. Sets (Mostly Gypsy Queen): Not much for set building, but I have done Gypsy Queen from 2011-2014 and 2016. 2015 and 2017 are currently still in progress. 1996 SP baseball and 2012 Prestige are also in progress, but not moving very fast, and 1992 Pinnacle is complete.

4. CFL: Being Canadian I dabble a little in CFL, mostly a few sets from my youth (1991ish) and a little of the current UD offerings, the current goal being to complete the 2014 set with the rookie SSPs.

5. Everything Else: 

- Not actively collecting hockey, but the odd time either as trade filler or something just catches my eye, mostly Bruins and what I feel is getting to be a pretty nice Pelle Lindbergh collection. 

- Also there have been much more NBA being bought, partly due to my growing dis-interest in what Topps is doing (more on that soon) and liking what Panini is doing, along with building my Sacramento Kings collection.

- A small collection of catchers in their gear.

- Canadian national team baseball cards

- Clear acetate cards

- A small "Pitchers batting" collection.

- and just generally any card I find interesting.

Like this card, it fits in zero of my collections, but it is awesome thus earning it an honored place in the "Random Keepers" box.

RLC Custom Card Project: Main Page

Not much of a post, just a spot to keep track of my Rockies Legacy Collection project. I will update as I go.

Players Done:

Eric Anthony (1989 Upper Deck)
Jason Pridie (1970 Topps / 2019 Heritage)

Chris Volstad (2017 Topps Black Friday / 2018 Topps Now design)

Pre-Project Done:

Jon Garland (2017 X/R Football)
Jose Acevedo (2005 Donruss Team Heroes)
Ryan Hanigan (1995 SP w/ Parallels)
Josh Outman (2013 Topps Flagship)
Mark Knudson (1993 Topps Flagship)
Ramon Ortiz (1986 Topps)
Omar Olivares (1996 Topps Flagship)
Adam Eaton (1998 Score)
Joe Beimel (1987 Topps)
Matt Herges (1992 Pinnacle)
Sal Fasano (1985 Topps NFL)
Octavio Dotel (1962 Topps / 2011 Heritage)

Players Needing Photos:

The list below is players that I still need a scan or a digital photo of to complete a card, if anyone can help with any of the players below it would be greatly appreciated.

De Los Santos, Valerio

Venafro, Mike

Gissell, Chris

Roa, Joe

Lowe, Sean

McKeel, Walt

Bartee, Kimera

Belitz, Todd

Suzuki, Mac

Jennings, Robin

Mendoza, Carlos

Cangelosi, John

McRae, Brian

Kelly, Mike

White, Derrick

Rath, Fred

Pulliam, Harvey

Hutton, Mark

Scott, Tim

Gonzales, Rene

Minchey, Nate

Raabe, Brian

Habyan, John

Thompson, Milt

Jones, Terry

Decker, Steve

Cockrell, Alan (have as a coach, need as a player)

Czajkowski, Jim

Walton, Bruce

Van Burkleo, Ty

Service, Scott

Galactic Single Card Mailday

I was a little worried about this one as it was ordered on Jan 25th and didn't arrive until today. Seeing as it came from Taiwan I guess that is to be expected. The Galactics are very nice and shiny, but my scanner hates them and Office Lens didn't really do much for me so here is a camera shot of it.