Keeping Up With The Joneses

This past week has been strange, to say the least. There is no typical week for me these days, but usually I've had things going on. The weekend was quite busy, as I visited several flea markets and a card shop I've never been to before. I have tons of stuff to show you, but I've been working on a couple other projects, and I haven't had time to write this week. 

Concrete from this lady
is in a Ginter relic.

I have been keeping up with the Allen & Ginter state keepsake relics, and there are only four states left that I don't know what exactly is in the card. I love the look of the cards, but the relics get boring after awhile, mainly because there isn't much originality to them. Many of them have pieces of wood or cloth, with a few containing brick or dirt. It's also disappointing that several states are joined with others. Topps really needs someone like me on board to help with set creation (see here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

One of my big projects that I completed this week was the addition of 12 new categories to the Awards and Leaders Collection. The All-Star Game Home Run Derby collection was the inspiration for this. The twelve new categories are: triple crown winners (pitching and hitting), retired numbers, players who hit for the cycle, the Edgar Martinez Award (given to DHs), 300-Win Club, 300-Save Club, 500-HR Club, 3000-Hit Club, 50-HR in a Season Club, 40-40 Club, DHL Hometown Heroes team, and MLB All-Century Team. Somehow I missed the 3000-K Club, but I'll fix that soon. Adding the categories (grabbing the names, formatting the lists, and adding them to the want list) took a couple hours. What took so long was going through one of those three-column jumbo shoeboxes card by card to match up cards I already had with the new additions to the list. I just finished that this evening. I did pretty well - 40-40 Club was done, and I probably saved 250-400 doubles from their unloved location. I ended up with just under 500 more cards added to the want list when it was all said and done, most of those being players who hit for the cycle before 1980.

This book is not a reference item.
But it is fun to look through.

The other project I've been working on this week is looking at a move to Japan. One of my thoughts a year ago was to work in Australia for a while, but it looks like Japan is a more viable option. I'm hoping to find a job teaching English in the Tokyo area, and if I could do that for a year or so, I could work my way around the country on short trips and see all the sights out there (and catch games in all the pro ballparks). 

As I've been so involved with these two things (I spent a good four hours or more on the Japan thing today, and just as long yesterday), I haven't wrote much of substance here. Hopefully I'll finish up some of the major research with Japan tomorrow or this weekend, and I can get back to that promise of making some more interesting posts.

I'm going to make a post tomorrow (Friday) afternoon with all the great cards that have come in this week - a prize package, a trade, and some fun little pickups from around the 'net - and I'll get to the flea market finds early next week if not by this weekend. Oh, so many promises, and so many great ideas flying around in my head, with no time to do them.

And by the way, to all of you who have emailed me and are waiting for a response on trades, I'll get to that ASAP too!