What you talkin' about Willis?

On their own, these two Heritage stickers are just stickers.  However, side by side, they remind me of Different Strokes, one of my childhood "must-see" television programs.

Josh Hamilton portrays older brother Willis while Adrian Beltre, as younger brother Arnold, asks the famous question, what you talkin' 'bout Willis?  What can I say, it's late and my weekend is but 5 hours away.  (It's almost 2 AM as I write this.)

It's possible the question from Beltre has more to do with why Michael Young is at the center of this card when he actually only has the 3rd highest batting average.  This is the Chrome version, #35/1963.

These cards came from Smed over at Smed's Baseball Card Blog.    If you're a newish blogger or follower of the blogs, you need to work out a trade with Smed because being on Smed's good side will sometimes result in a completely unexpected, yet wonderful little package like the one I just showed you.

Thanks Smed (aka Scott).

I "rediscovered" this card in my stack yesterday.  It came over from Uncle Moe at My 2008 Topps Set Blog while I was at camp a few weeks ago.   

Someday soon I'll be organized enough to get caught up on my 2012 Rangers and see how many more of these Bronze parallels I need.

Thanks Uncle Moe!

But the year is only half over...

The year isn't even half over yet and there are only two products I'm still looking forward to seeing.

Allen & Ginter will arrive around July 11th.

Topps Chrome should be here around August 22nd.

**Heavy sigh**.

How about you?  What is still to come in 2012 that you are really looking forward to opening?

Paying it forward--Schmidt happens

The future of this hobby is anything but certain.  The Toppsopoly is limiting creativity and design (in my opinion) and I don't think Topps has figured out how to draw younger collectors into the hobby.  I don't completely blame Topps for that because basic supply and demand dictates what they do.  The collectors with money, those over the age of 20 for the most part, will buy some Opening Day, but they're not buying cases and cases of the stuff.  Most kids can't afford to buy anything else unless they're hard working and have a job or they have parents who are generous enough to fund the habit.

I think it's up to us older collectors to get kids involved with cards.  I do everything I can to interest my older son in the hobby.  He loves it when he gets a Ranger "hit" for a good report card or as a special treat.  He's just one kid though.  The hobby won't survive if I just influence one kid so when the chance arose recently to help another kid who was interested in cards, I jumped at it.

Doug over at Baseball Cards, Sports and Life and his son attended a card show and little Doug (I'm sure that's not his real name) told dad he wanted a Pudge Rodriguez jersey card and he wanted to start a Pudge Rodriguez collection.  That's all I needed to hear.

I rounded up a stack of Pudge cards and sent them over to give his new collection a little boost.  I'm not saying everyone has to do stuff like this, but I think this is one way we can interest the video game generation in this hobby we all love so much.

Doug sent over a very generous thank you package.

I haven't checked what Doug sent against my want list yet, but he hooked me up with 1984 Topps, 1984 Fleer and 1980 Topps.

Buddy Bell was one of my two favorite Rangers as a kid.

Jim Sundberg was the other.

The Rangers just wrapped up a three game series with Houston (we needed that sweep!).  The Saturday game was a throwback uni day and they wore the 1986 uniforms.  The logo in the bottom right corner of this 1984 Fleer Jon Matlack card was painted on the field just behind the plate for the three game series.  I like retro days and seeing the older logos takes me back to a time when the worries of adult life were not even on my radar.  How do you feel about teams wearing the throwback unis?

Doug hit a little new...

...and a little old with this package.  These two cards couldn't be more different and I'm glad to have both in my collection.

Doug thanks for the great cards.  I'm sure I'll have some more Pudge cards for you before too long!

I wish I had 17 of these cards

I would trade every non-Ranger card in my collection for vintage cards if I could.  I could name 50 many vintage cards I would love to own, but the best one I DO own is this one.  

If I did have 17 of these 1951 Bowman Roy Campanella cards, I would keep one and give one to each Dodger blogger out there.  Wait, would 16 be enough?   You might recognize this card from this post.  I still haven't cracked it out of the case, not because I don't want to, but because it's just not a high priority.  I'll do it eventually and enjoy the feel of real vintage greatness.

Thanks for giving me another reason to look at this great card Fuji.

Best of "Luck" on your birthday

Happy 12th Birthday to my oldest son!

He bought a single pack of Bowman football cards (he won't admit it, but I think it was a mistake) and pulled this Andrew Luck rookie card.

The card itself is hideous, but we're having a great birthday celebration.

Giving Topps the finger right back

My Saturday post about Topps Giving Collectors the Finger got more attention than any non-contest post I've written in quite a while.  Well, guess what?  My family decided to give Topps the finger right back by not buying Topps cards for me for Father's Day!  How do you like that Topps!?

Instead of Topps cards, I got...Bowman and Archives.

Wait...those are Topps products.

That's what happens when people who never buy cards, buy cards.  They don't understand that you're only going to find Topps cards on the shelf. (I've given explicit instructions to NEVER buy Panini.)  So imagine how proud they were to present me with a Bowman value rack pack (value..right) and an Archives blaster.  Like any good collector, I didn't bust their little bubble and I tore right into the packs.  

The Bowman value pack gave up another Silver Ice parallel.  Sure it's only a Padre named James Darnell, but it still looks nice and I can trade it easily enough.

I also pulled a Matt Adams sticker auto.  Well, it says it's Matt Adams, but you won't get that from the signature. Those were the only two cards of interest for the most part.  I did get the three purple parallels, but I didn't recognize any of the players.

Now on to the Archives Blaster.  It was pretty boring overall.

The first pack revealed a Mike Napoli Deckle Edge insert.  I won't argue with that, even if I did get another one later that day in a package from a certain Braves fan who will be named later.

The next 6 packs were rather pedestrian and I won't bore you with any of them, even the Rainbow Foil Cole Hamels.  The last pack was much less boring.

The first card was this Josh Hamilton base card.  This one looks great and I'm glad to have another copy.  I think I'll send one off hoping for a TTM.

The pack did contain one of my favorite inserts of the year, a Matt Kemp 3D card.  These actually scan pretty well and I'm probably going to try to put this set together.

The last pack also had this BJ Upton jersey card.  Like most of you, I'm not buying blasters for the relics or autos, but it's nice to hit one now and then, even if' it's not a player on your favorite team.  Tradeable cards are like currency on the blogosphere and I already have a home in mind for this card.  Not even giving retail buyers a chance at a hit is a pretty sorry way to distribute cards, but who is going to stop a big company like Topps.  Especially when certain related persons don't realize there is a buying freeze going on and a certain collector has made a point to say he doesn't want to buy more new product.

Oh well, I still love busting packs and I couldn't resist.  Maybe next time my willpower will be stronger.

Third time's a charm

I don't know how you organize your card scans, but I don't lump them all in together.  It might make them easier to find if I did.  In January, I made a 2012 scans folder and within that folder is a folder for the scans of every trade package I've received this year.  The 2012 folder also has a few blowout purchase folders and some miscellaneous cards that I've posted as well.

The first person to make it to three folders this year is Night Owl.  I've said it before and it bears repeating that Greg and I don't trade so much as just mail packages back and forth.  I can't tell you how many times we've done that since before I even started blogging.

The latest package was loaded with variety as always.

If you've ever read Night Owl (and who hasn't, really) you know he's a fan of Topps All Time Fan Favorites sets from 2003, 2004. and 2005.  If you don't believe me, you can see it here and here.   This is the 2004 version of Bobby Valentine.  Bobby V doesn't look any happier there than he does to be the skipper in Boston and in last place.

The only other Ranger in the 2004 All Time Fan Favorites set is Pete Incaviglia.  Mark off another team set complete!

How on earth did Night Owl get a 2012 GQ Nelson Cruz?  I thought he didn't buy any of this stuff.  I'm glad he sent it along to me, no matter how he got it.

This is how I feel every time I see another package in the mail, no matter who it's from.  Uh oh, I ended another sentence with a preposition.  I know you care about this sort of thing so I'll tell you the Feliz is #1600/2012.

It wouldn't be a Night Owl package without at least one vintage card.  John Ellis doesn't look like he gives a rip about this trade, but I'm glad to have him anyway.

How's that for ending on a high note?  I missed out on 2008 A&G so any time I get anything from that set, it's a nice bonus.  A black bordered mini of Josh Hamilton...well, that's icing on proverbial cake.

Thanks for the great cards Greg!