I won! Twice! And some serious discussion.

There are too many bloggers named Ryan. But I was the only Ryan to answer on The Mojo Beard's first contest (second link takes you to winners page) and I just picked up some awesome stuff! I love trivia and thought/research-based contests, so this was a blast to work through! I'll post more about it when I get my goodies. (By the way, this is the first contest I entered where I actually won!)

And on the heels of that first victory, I worked pretty hard at hiflew's contest at Cards from the Quarry to pull through on the fourth day! When he said it was a set made by Topps but not named Topps, the 1980s store-specific releases like Woolworth and K-Mart came to mind. The fourth clue did it for me - Omega = Pete Rose! It took me a second, before "I am the alpha and the omega" came to mind - which means "I am the beginning and the end." Ahh! The end of the set is Pete Rose! Just a bit of research brought me to the K-Mart set from '82.  Anyway, thanks, hiflew! And if you aren't following his blog, he doesn't just talk about Rockies. There's all kinds of great stuff going on over there, and if he didn't mention that he's been at this for only a few months, you'd think he's been around for years.

Okay, now, some discussion. I already mentioned The Mojo Beard's website above, and today a post was made about the negativity towards the video cards being released by both Upper Deck and Panini. This is kind of a response to that:


I have to agree with Kevin's comments about the hobby. I don't know if I get negative or not at times, but I try not to. And something like this, if it carries over to baseball, would be right up my alley (assuming I could afford it). Heck, all the "failures" of 1990s Topps' and others attempts at innovation are some of my favorite sets, looking back (D3, Embossed, Laser, UD's CD-ROMs, Pinnacle's cans, pins, tins, metal cards, you name it). I believe so many investors have become tired of putting their money in what they consider to be a new gimmick only to end up losing in the long run - but those aren't collectors. If it's not about money, you always come out on top.

As hiflew said in the comments, it's easier to complain and find fault with things than it is to determine what is going right. I heard an economist talking about the ups and downs of economies, and how most of it is all based on perception. If we think it's good, it is. If we think things aren't going well, they aren't. There has been so much downswing in people's lives, that even if you aren't affected, you're feeling the effects. And people become quite negative about everything.

In fact, it's easy to complain about what I think is the hobby getting better. Were any of you buying cards off eBay in 2004-2005? With the insane number of sets (I believe 2005 saw 80 different releases overall) containing high numbers of relics and autographs per pack, the market was flooded with "hits" and these cards were easy to find at low prices. Now, with only about two baseball releases per month - twenty-six last year including minor leagues, eTopps and Upper Deck - collectors focus more on each individual set and autographs and relics are harder to come by, so prices have risen. I've seen some people complaining about higher prices. But isn't that what we want?

Now, back to the video cards. They may work out, they may not. They may be for you, they may not. I'm going to have nothing to do with them for at least a while - they need to come to baseball and be affordable before I become interested. But the card companies are trying. What else is left with innovation? They've already put every possible type of relic in cards, autographs, hair. Cards have been made from metal, wood, plastic (I said that already). They've been cut into circles, die cut into shapes, laser cut into patterns, and embossed into 3D shapes. It's quite difficult to do much more with pieces of cardboard. A&G is making plantable cards. But how many people are going to put an Albert Pujols card in their backyard? Maybe if it grew a jersey? That'd be an innovation. When was the last real innovation in cards, anyway? Relics have been around since 1997, and certified autographs since 1990 (or sooner, I'm sure). I guess we're due for something great - maybe the video card is it. And like relics, it started with a jersey, and now we have such a great variety of game used stuff. These first attempts can evolve into the next big thing.

Oh, and by the way - I've explored the topic of video/CD-ROM cards before.

So, as Kevin says, take a deep breath and relax. I think things are much better now in the hobby than five years ago, and new great things only come around once in a generation.

Going Postal 2: Sign Your Pants, Please!

Josh Willingham had trouble finding a home on the field. He played shortstop at the University of North Alabama, was the starting catcher for the Marlins in 2006 and 2007, went to the Nationals as an outfielder in 2008, 2009, and 2010, and now is the A's starting left fielder. On opening day this year, he was the sole run producer, going yard in his first regular season at bat with his new team. After Friday's game, he's still the only player on the team with any home runs, though he does also lead the team in strikeouts.

At some point in 2008 (when he was still with the Marlins), Upper Deck decided it would be a good idea to make a trading card with a big swatch of jersey, and have the player sign that swatch. And so we have this:

Numbered 23/99, it's a nice sized swatch with two pinstripes (one is just barely showing at the top) even if they are sideways. And since the autograph is on the jersey, there's room for the numbering, photo, and all that other design stuff on the front. Though I'm not a fan of signatures on jerseys. They always come out looking a bit choppy (signing fabric isn't easy). I picked this nice thing up off eBay and it arrived this week. In it goes to the A's signed-card team set. Can you tell I don't really care what team the player is pictured on for the collection? Makes it less expensive.

I also picked these up for my autograph collection:

And this card arrived yesterday, finishing one of the smallest sets that it's taken me forever to complete. This is part of an 8-card set depicting Hall of Famers and great players from the '70s. Four of the cards were released in 1991, with the other four released the next year. Cards were found in specially marked packs. This is also one of the first autographed sets issued - 3000 of each card were signed by the player and randomly inserted in packs.

I picked up the first four cards as a set many years ago, but it's taken me nearly a decade of occasional searching to find all four cards from the 1992 issue - coincidentally all of them have been picked up in the past six months. And actually, the Lou Brock is sitting on COMC waiting to be shipped.

I also received my first Sportlots purchase today. I finished off my '11 Topps set (YAY!) while trying to complete the '99 Upper Deck set. I also picked up several 2006 Upper Deck cards (most of them coming from a second dealer).

 The '06 Upper Deck and '11 Topps cards I needed.

 Some of the many 1999 Upper Deck cards I received. I think this is my least-favorite flagship Upper Deck design. The foil dominates the card; if they had left it off the rest of the design could have been okay over the top of the photo (even if they kept those vertical-ish black bars). And most of the photography, especially from this lot, is quite boring.

There were only three horizontal cards in the lot. I do like the Branyan image, though it looks like Mo Vaughn is about to get into a fight. Overall, the cards I received lack the exciting imagery that people came to expect from Upper Deck.

 The last thing I have to show you is this Barry Zito autograph. Hey, this post features two former A's who are now autographs, whose cards are signed by the A's! I picked this up fairly inexpensively, and it came as part of a lot. What else came from that lot? Well this stuff:

 The Ripken card is from 1994 Leaf, and I had never seen it before. Apparently, if you had the MVP winner for the AL or NL you could mail in the card and they'd send you a prize and have a chance at another prize. The A-Rod promo doesn't exactly fit into my collection but I'm fitting it into the samplers. And the Chrome Draft Picks card is a refractor that I needed for the samplers. Also in the box were several other baseball cards including an A-Rod bat card and a rookie autograph, and a bunch of football, basketball and hockey cards including some autographs, numbered cards, and jerseys. I'll be using  those as gifts or contest prizes or something. I think there was 20 of one particular basketball card. Time to bip!

There's a contest going on! And it requires thought!

Not here, not yet at least. But hiflew at Cards from the Quarry is running another one of those unique fun contest things that everyone seems to be doing. Check it out and don't win before I do!