This post is 111 days late

Today is my birthday.  My birthday was 111 days ago.  Some time back, I discovered that some Triple Threads cards are serial numbered 8/18 (my birthday).  I actually posted some of them on my birthday last year.  The rest of 2014 and throughout this year, I slowly added to the 8/18 collection so I could write this big post to celebrate my birthday again.  Those of you that still read my very spotty posts know that all this life stuff got in the way.  I decided it was time to finish this post and get it off the "to do" list.

Before we get started, I do want more of these so if you have any 8/18 cards, let me know.

I'll take any 8/18 card for the collection.  Football too.  That's how I ended up with this 2011 Champ Bailey.  It's a bland white swatch, but when it's the numbering you're after, you can't be choosy.

I like these next few football Triple Threads cards better.  This 2013 Torrey Smith has a nice strip of gold stitching in the WR.

This 2013 Stepfan Taylor was really cheap.   That's about all I have to say about that.

This is by far the best of the football 8/18 cards I have.  I like the different pieces in the BIG TIME from Roddy White.

Now we move on to the baseball cards.  First up is a bat piece, or more likely a piece of a bar stool that never saw the light of day in the same room as a major leaguer.  The card is Kendrys Morales from 2011.

The only way I'd ever, ever and I mean EVER, have a David Freese card in my collection is this 2012 Triple Threads card.  I feel dirty just typing that.  

Here's a little 2012 J-Roll action for you.  I do like that you can really see the 8/18 on these.  Some of the designs make reading the numbering difficult.  I actually bought a Mike Napoli that was listed as 8/18, but was actually 9/18.  I know, that's a real First World Problem.  

This is pre-Blue Jay Tulo.  

OMG!  An actual pinstripe!!!  But the numbering is right.  

Here's a little MOTOWN KID action, courtesy of Gio Gonzalez.  This is also a 2012 card.

Jason Kubel is boring, but I do like the colorful swatch of the couch cover jersey.

You'll notice that most of these guys aren't superstars.  There are a lot of 8/18 cards available that I just can't afford.  These were generally the cheaper ones. Sorry Rickie, I didn't mean to imply that you're cheap.  Just less expensive.

I'm not even sure who Austin Jackson plays for now.  

Not all of my 8/18 cards are scrubs.  We have some HOF quality right here.  

I don't really like the design of these 2014 Triple Threads cards.  I think its the paisley tie affect from the swirlies.  

I think this guy might have been a big deal in the playoffs.  

Now we get to the Rangers portion of the post.  I love this 2009 card because it has my favorite Ranger on it.  Oh, and Hamilton and Kinsler.

Three Two former Rangers.  I do like that the card has three different pieces in it.  I always wonder if they actually use pieces from three different players.  This is from 2011 by the way.

Adrian Beltre is going COMMANDO!

2013 Ian Kinsler.  Does BOOTSY refer to his errors?

Elvis Andrus.  Might be a former Ranger before long.

My favorite current Ranger.  With the 'stache.  Love the blue swatch.

Will Yu Darvish ever be the same?  We need him and Derek to come back strong in 2016.

I saved the one auto'd version of an 8/18 card for the end.  Andrew from Tomahawk Chop pulled this and agreed to trade it to me for a similar card. I obliged and we were both happy.

So there you have it.  I know the writing wasn't great, but at this point, I'm happy to have a post up for you to read.  In case I'm not back before the end of the year, have a blessed Christmas and a very safe and happy New Year!

Bloggers Need Cards Too

Baseball cards are great.  Bloggers are great.  Cards of bloggers...well, they are fantastic.

Like many of you, I've received actual cards of bloggers in trade packages.  It's possible that I have a few more somewhere, but hey, I'm writing a blog post, so I'll just enjoy that while I can.

First up on the list is a guy everyone knows and loves to read, the Great Fuji, writer of The Chronicles of Fuji.  I've received at least two (there may be another hiding somewhere) cards of Fuji, both signed in red.  Fuji's cards are great.  The card stock is Chrome like.  The 2008 design and colors are great and although I never watched more than a couple Southpark episodes, I do get the reference.

The first Fuji card was signed with a fine point Sharpie.

The second was signed with the regular tip I think.  I do think the red auto goes well with the colors.

As you can see from the back of the card, Fuji has a wide a varied interest in cards.  Some of my favorite Fuji posts include his many and varied finds at the flea market.

Next up is a very generous blogger, JayBarkerFan.  He hasn't posted in about a month (I'm not criticizing...look at my number of recent posts),  but when Jaybarkerfan's Junk gets a post, it often times leads to a crazy generous mailing of cards across the blogosphere.

Love the auto on the front and the hand numbering, 45/98.  I don't know if this is the Hambugler variation, but I love the whole design.

JBF was a pretty damn good hitter and with power too!  He is generous, obviously eccentric and yes, he does give a lot of stuff away.  In case you were wondering, 26.4 stones is 369.6 pounds.  I can relate.


Last, but not least is the one and only Topher, of Crackin' Wax fame.  Topher has a side gig called Varsity Trading Cards.  It's pretty cool.

Topher is a wax breaker of the highest order.  He has some pretty cool case breaks, many of which lead to healthy donations to charity.  So far he's donated over $5000 to charities.  That is very cool. I love the card.  I like to think he's staring off into the distance and thinking "Man, I should really pull some cool Rangers for Brian".  Hey, you never know.

The back of the card is also very cool.  I know you could easily bribe him with some Dark Chocolate M&Ms.

Rumor has it there is a Literal Quirk autographed card (that's his wife).  That's the one I really need to make the collection top notch.

Well, there you have it.  Some pretty cool blogger cards.  If any other blogger has one, I need to make a deal to get one.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Veteran's Day

To all of you who have, or are, serving our country, I salute you and say thank you from the bottom of my heart.  I count my service in the Navy among the highlights of my life.

Your sacrifice and duty to all of us does not go unnoticed and I know I share the thoughts of many that recognizing you should not be relegated to one day.

God bless you, whether your standing watch on a wall, in the air, in the sea or back home.

One Hundred and Five

It's been 105 days since I posted on the blog.

1.0.5.

I almost can't believe it, except I can.

In no particular order, I've been distracted by the following:

My wife's car accident over a year ago.  Which finally led to back surgery a few months ago.  Which led to another procedure last month.  Which has done exactly nothing to make her better.  She's not paralyzed and she wasn't killed, but thanks to a 17 year old girl who was most likely texting, my wife will never be the same.  Pain.  All the time.  I hope the text was a great one.

My now just over a year as supervisor of the group I used to be a part of.  I love the job, but I really have to work now and quite honestly do not know how you guys find the time to blog at all.

My, and I know Judson will make fun of this, season long obsession with NPF.  That's National Pro FastPitch softball.  It started out when I heard that Cat Osterman was going to be pitching for the USSSA Pride against the Dallas Charge on June 6th.  I went to the game and met Cat and the other players and got autos from a bunch of them.  My obsession for Team USA stuff led me to the game to meet Cat and I ended up going to three (I think) other games.  I will be writing up a post on all of that in the near future.

I really got into the TTM thing during Spring Training and beyond and once a few baseball cards started rolling in, I started sending stuff out to Team USA members and I've gotten some amazing stuff back.  Again, a post for the future.  Sooner rather than later.

Bunt.  As in Topps Bunt.  I got sucked in and I'm actually looking forward to the season being over so I can write about it.  Not that anyone wants to hear it, but I'm going to write it anyway.

I sorta stopped buying cards.  Just a little burnout.  I sent Jon from Community Gum $20 to buy me some Senators at the National.  I bought a few blasters and my mother-in-law bought me a couple of blasters of "football" cards.  If you follow me on Twitter (@patpdude), you might know what I'm talking about.

That's it in a nutshell.

Oh yea, and I signed up for Gint-A-Cuffs and just didn't get around to getting a box to open.  So, I guess I'm out by default.

I hope to see you all back here very soon.

Breaking things down because I can

No, it's not some deeply thought out blog post.

It's a contest pimp for Baseball Card Breakdown.  I hope you enter, but I hope I win.

Go get some.

A Reorg Update, Live and In Color!

Exciting right?  Right?  I thought so.

I had a few diversions during my 9 days off.  My wife's post op recovery being the number one diversion and the reason I took last week off.  I was thinking she'd sleep a lot and I'd have lots of "Reorg" time.  Well, she didn't sleep that much and I didn't organize as much as I thought I would.  I did a lot of work, but I'm not sure it really shows.

My other diversion was going to see Cat Osterman pitch on Saturday night, but I'll save that for another post.

Over the weekend, I'll post up to date pictures of the piles of boxes so you can see what a difference I made.

One thing I did that I have been wanting to do for a long time is put my Rangers and Senators cards in binders.  Not all of them mind you, but I got Senators from 1961-1971 and Rangers from 1972-1990.

My Senators team sets are not complete and I sincerely hope that I left the correct number of blank slots for the missing cards.  I know I have a decent amount of other Senators cards in my vintage box, I just need to dig them out.  If you've checked my wantlists recently, and I don't know why you would, it hasn't been updated in a long time.  That's going to change in the next few weeks and this time I'm going to keep up with it.  *He says for the 1000th time.*

This is just another look at some of the Sens and the multitude of open spots among them.

This is my first Rangers binder.  I'm working on base Topps cards only right now.  Gotta start somewhere.

We start with the '72s and lord have mercy am I missing all the high numbers or what?  Figures.

This binder goes all the way to 1989 and has room for a few more.  I don't want to overstuff it, but I would like to limit the Topps base binders to 2 or maybe 3.  I haven't fully decided how I'm going to handle parallels and the like, but I think they'll get their own binder.  It really starts with the 1975 Rangers because I have a handful of the minis, but I don't want to stick them in with the regular '75s so I'll handle that when I get through the base.  

It's been a fun process so far, but a little irritating for the wife.  When we are watching television, I've been sorting through cards, so she feels like I'm not paying attention.  Well, I am.  To the cards.  The shows I could do without for the most part.  

More updates to come. 

Reorg week continues.

I have a confession to make. You'll think it's borderline ridiculous for someone who has been collecting cards since 1981. I'll make it anyway.

This is my 2013 Allen and Ginter set in a binder. It's the first complete set I've ever put in a binder and I just did it. That seems like a crazy thing for someone who has been collecting cards for nearly 35 years.

These are my other Ginter sets which are both incomplete AND sorted. That's progress I suppose. I have more minis that are in another box.  Those are not sorted yet.  Baby steps.

Here is one of two boxes of Ginter dupes. Lots of dupes and very little completion. That's the plight of the collector I suppose.

REORG week continues. Until the next update..

The great REORG project of 2015

In truth, this really isn't a reorganization project. That implies that I was ever organized in the first place. That just isn't true.

Semantics I suppose.

This is a 5000 count box of cards for trade. These are random cards I've been setting aside for awhile. They are now sorted by League, Division, and Team. I have a few other small boxes to sort into this, but I've mailed out some PWEs and packages using this box.

This does not include my organized boxes of Ginter, Heritage, or base Topps set dupes. That's another post.

One of these days...

I miss blogging every day, sometimes twice a day, like you would not believe.  I miss reading 30, 40, 50 or more blog posts every day, commenting on lots of them.  I once commented on nearly every blog post of the complete series of posts on one blog.  Mostly I miss digging into my cards and finding stuff to blog about.  New cards, old cards (I LOVE old cards), trade packages, contests (I've had a few, won a few), you name it.  I love blogging.  I've mentioned on numerous occasions how my job just doesn't afford me the time to blog.  It's just a fact.  I'm STILL at work...but it's late and I'm working 17 hours today so I'm writing a post.  Sue me.

I've decided that instead of complaining about not having time to blog, I'm just going to blog when I can. Like now.  I'm in the middle of a HUGE reorg project.  I posted three pics on Twitter of what I was doing (@patpdude).  It's actually been a lot of fun.  When I finish, I will reveal some things you may find shocking, some you may find appalling, maybe even a couple that will make you question whether I've ever really been a collector.  We'll see.

Here's what I'm looking at right now.

This box has some un-sorted Rangers in it.  It has lot's of non-Rangers in it.  It has some pretty cool stuff in it.  If you like manu-relics of Mr. October in an A's uniform, facemask parts on a catcher card and seat relics that no president's ass has ever touched.

This is what I'm working on next week. My wife is recovering from surgery and I have the next 9 days off (two weekends and a week).  I'm hoping to make great progress on my reorg project.  I'll try to keep you guys in the loop, because despite what you're saying in your head right now, I know you really do care.  Because you're just that kind of person.

So keep on blogging, trading, busting wax and generally keeping this hobby alive.  I'm still here and I'm not going anywhere any time soon.  

In Remembrance

Because of men like this who came before us...

 

and many men and women since, we enjoy the freedom to worship the way we want, say the things we want, and collect cards the way we want.

Thank you to every person who ever served our country.  You are loved.

Winner Winner and a PWE question

By now most of you know that Night Owl won the Ebay gift card.  The amount on the card was $31.27 and after a few clues, he nailed it.  Several of you were close and Night Owl himself missed by only one cent early in the contest.

Congrats to him for winning and thanks to everyone who played along.  It's not too late to get in on the PWE action.  Just send your name, address, and collecting interests to playattheplatedude at yahoo dot com.  Between that email and my twitter @patpdude, I only had 15 people request a PWE. This is a no obligation deal so get in if you want.  No guarantees on what you'll get, but it will be something of interest to you.

On to the PWE question.  I've gotten a number of PWEs in the last year.  Some of them come with cards loaded into 1/3 of a nine pocket page that someone has cut apart.  My plan is to reuse those and ship the same way, but I was curious how many cards I can mail that way with one stamp.  Sure, I could figure it out my self, but what is the fun in that.  I wanted to see if any of you experience PWE mailers had an answer.  I want to maximize each one so give me some feedback if you have the answer!

Thanks everyone.

A May Contest To Remember

Admittedly, my blogging has become the definition of sporadic.  I'm loving my new job, but it is a lot of work and I have so little time for cards.

HOWEVER, I have a ton of cards to post and things to say.  Stuff about Josh Hamilton coming back to the Rangers, the Rangers 7-14 start, even the fact that I'm going to be at the game tonight.  IN A SUITE no less.  The new job has its perks.

That is NOT why you stopped by today.  You saw the word "CONTEST" so you want free stuff. Fine, let's get to it.

This is a two part contest.

PART 1

I am about to do my first EVER mass PWE mailing.  I have 50 Forever stamps and 50 envelopes and I'm ready to stuff 'em.  In order to update and add to my address book AND if you want a PWE from me, send your NAME, ADDRESS and FAVORITE TEAM/PLAYERS to playattheplatedude @ yahoo dot com and I'll accommodate you the best I can.  I know some of you are thinking, he knows my address, he knows my favorite player, he knows I want 1952 Topps cards (I don't have any of those to give away).  Just humor me ok? If you'd rather, you can send me your info via twitter DM @patpdude.  If I'm not following you, just ask and I will.

Just so you know, part 1 is NOT required for you to partake in part 2.

PART 2

I have an Ebay gift card to give away.  No strings attached.

You must have an Ebay account to use this card (their rules, not mine).  This card is one of those "add however much you want cards".  I did that.  You have to guess the amount. 

The amount is somewhere between $15.00 and $50.00.  You get up to ONE GUESS per hour to get the exact amount.  This might take a day or three and someone might get really lucky and get the answer right away.  Every so often, I'll drop in a hint of some type.  If you guess more than once per hour, NONE of your guesses for that hour will count.  Don't worry if you can't come back every hour to guess.  Just put a guess whenever you get a chance.  

Someone is going to win.  Why not you?

Thanks again for all the support, the nice emails, the mean emails, the where the hell are you emails, and the great card packages.  You are all outstanding people.  Well, except for one of you and he knows who he is.  :)

EDIT 1: The once per hour guess refers to once during the 9 o'clock hour, once during the 10 o'clock hour, etc.  Thanks for the question!

On the horizon

Do you see it?  Out there, just at the edge of the horizon?

There's a contest coming...yes, it's coming straight for you.

You won't want to miss it.

May 1st.

An Arbitrary Call

 I've seen a lot of box breaks.  I've seen a lot of case breaks.  I've taken part in a few of each.  I've only seen one group "trade" break and as it turns out, it was pretty fun.  (He says sheepishly since he still has to send his part of the trade out.)

Brian of the delightfully named Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary did just that.  He bought some boxes, busted them and all he asked in return was a trade of similar cards.

I'm not entirely sure John Wetteland understands how this is supposed to work.  John, you throw the ball, I catch ball.  Brian sends the cards, the other Brian sends cards back.  Got it?  Ummmm....maybe?

Brian sent a nice batch of cards, including the ever popular Deckle Edge cards.

Michael Young worn a jersey to an event and Topps chopped it into little bits and now I have one!  Ok, it's not that exciting, but still...

How about a little 1984 Olympic Gold Medal Allen and Ginter goodness?  I like it.  It fits in nicely with my growing Team USA collection.

Brian, I'll be working on your return package this weekend.  Thanks!

You know you make me wanna shout!!

Card packages are so much fun to open. Small ones, large ones and everything in between.  They are all great, especially when you don't know what's inside.

You might get a very excited Pudge with a silver signature.

You might get a Hall of Fame Catcher, a soon to be Hall of Fame catcher and...who?

You might get a card that combines the best of your two favorites...Team USA and Will Clark.

You might get a beautiful card that combines THREE of our favorites (shiny, Team USA and Joe Mauer) with one of your least favorites (Panini).

You definitely might get a shiny blue card that would be gorgeous if it had logos.  Said card might also be #2/75 on the back.

You could also get a shiny, non-logo card that is #17/25.

The package might well contain a 2003 Fleer EX Rafael Palmeiro #56/82.

You might also just happen to find a Jurickson Profar Finest auto in said package.

Yep, you sure might get a package that looks like that.  Except that I DID get a package like that and it came from Jon over at Community Gum.

Thanks a bunch Jon.