Tuesday 27 March 2018

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.

Saturday 24 March 2018

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.

Saturday 17 March 2018

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.

Friday 16 March 2018

RLC Custom Card Project: Main Page

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

Players Done:

Yonder Alonso (2018 Panini Football)
Eric Anthony (1989 Upper Deck)
Robbie Beckett (2011 Gypsy Queen Mini Black)

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.


Venafro, Mike

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
Hutton, Mark
Scott, Tim
Gonzales, Rene
Minchey, Nate
Raabe, Brian
Habyan, John
Jones, Terry
Decker, Steve
Cockrell, Alan (have as a coach, need as a player)
Van Burkleo, Ty
Service, Scott

Thursday 8 March 2018

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.


Monday 5 March 2018

RLC Custom Card Project: Chris Volstad


The Card: Based on the 2017 Topps Black Friday promotional cards, which would also be used as the base for the 2018 Topps Now set. Super simple design, but I really like it, it allows the photo to be the highlight, and really looks sharp with horizontal cards, I really wouldn't have minded something like Stadium Club using this design.

The Player: Chris Volstad is better known for his time with the Marlins, winning a career high 12 games in 2010, he joined the Rockies in 2013 after a really bad year with the Cubs and things didn't exactly go well in Colorado either. Making the opening day roster as a minor league invite Volstad pitched in six games, all out of the bull-pen, allowing at least one earned run in each game, finishing his Rockies career with a 10.80 ERA. Since then he has bounced around the Angels, Pirates, Braves and White Sox originations with a stop in Korea mixed in, and enters 2018 as a non-roster invite in White Sox Camp.

The Project: Rockies Legacy Collection custom project to make a custom card of the Rockies players that didn't have one issued.

Friday 2 March 2018

A couple things and a new project.

I saw something on twitter around new years, and I apologize to the person that posted it as I don't remember who it was, about spending more time enjoying the cards you have over spending on new stuff. That, along with the need to make tcdb current has lead to the second re-organize of my Rockies cards, split into 6 areas.

1. The Pitcher Binder
2. The Hitter Binder
3. The Catcher/Acetate/Minis Binder
4. Penny Sleeve Keepers
5. Penny Sleeve Traders
6. Top Loaders & One Touchs

I really struggle with the binder on how to sort, right now it's alphabetically, starting a new page at each letter to leave room for future cards, this seems to work best for finding things, but leaves a lot of empty pockets. If anyone reading this has any input on team binders I would be interested to hear what other people do.

While this has kept me busy, it really leads to very few posts, other than potentially "look what I found in a box that I forgot I had".

To fill the gaps I am starting to post things from my custom project, making a card of every Rockies player than never had one. I couldn't think of a name so it ending up being "Rockies Legacy Collection". There is a logo an everything. See, it's up and too the right. It will give a chance to post some customs and maybe get some feedback on improvements on customs, and a chance to talk about my favorite subject, obscure Rockies players.

Also a small ask for help with the project above, if anyone has access to old Rockies Magazines there are guys I don'h have pictures of that need customs, if anyone has a bunch laying around, I could point to the issues that might have something I need to cut down on searching, just throwing that out there.

Kind of rambly and not much to look at, but a "state of the blog" I felt like I needed to do, thanks for reading.