I’m still breathing

I know I’ve all but disappeared from here but to be honest, I just haven’t been buying many cards.  I do have stuff I can post but I haven’t been in the mood.  I think a lot of that is just not wanting to do the scanning, it seems to be most of the work.  I’ve gotten some PWE’s from “JayBarkerFan’s Junk” and even one Manila one with an awesome photograph.  And a envelope full of White Sox cards from Uncle Moe over at “My 2008 Topps Set Blog” that was a surprise.

I haven’t gotten completely out of collecting, just the blogging part of it.  I mentioned in my last post that I was changing my collection.  I have added quite a few players (which is what type of collector I was as a kid).  One of these days I’ll get around to posting them all.  A couple of the players I collect were never White Sox players either, which means I don’t have much of their cards yet.  Most of them were White Sox players at a time so I do have a bunch of those.

I have gone through all my cards and pulled the new player collection cards as well as took out all of the White Sox cards that don’t fit into the new team sets collections.  I need to update all my lists yet as well since I took cards out of my team cards to add to the player collections.  I didn’t break up any of my finished team sets, just the ones that weren’t completed yet. 

I had a little bit of money leftover in my COMC account and I used that to pick up some cards for Ryan over at “O No!!!  Another Orioles Blog” to finish that trade.  I received them today Ryan, but I work the next couple of days so I probably won’t get it out today later next week.

I’m also trying to get some cards together for Marcus of “All The Way To The Backstop” together to complete that trade with him.  I also have some vintage to send “JayBarkerFan’s Junk” as soon as I get those together.

Now if I could just get Jeff over at “2 by 3 Heroes” to finish his want lists, I could probably send him another box of White Sox cards.

So as you can see, I haven’t let the sport go, just the blog at this point.  I’m not coming out and saying that I’m quitting the blog, but I have considered it.  So don’t expect a lot of posting coming for awhile, but I may be back in the future.  And you can always follow me at my usual outlets or my personal blog “Random Thoughts From A Random Guy”.  I am around so don’t be afraid to keep in touch.  I am doing a lot of scanning of most of your blogs and if something catches my eye, I will still leave comments.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changing

I’m thinking about changing my collections again.  I was thinking about more or less becoming just a player collector and getting rid of the majority of my White Sox cards.  But I realized that I like my vintage White Sox teams sets too much so I’d have to keep those.  But then where would I stop with the team sets so I figured I’d have to just collect them to the current year.

But I also like the autographs and some of the relics so I don’t want to get rid of those.  So I feel like I’m not really getting rid of anything.  So this is what I have decided, I’m not going to collect all Sox cards anymore.  I will collect what I want to collect instead of having an “all” Sox cards collection.  I will probably add some more player collections to the lists as well.

I haven’t completely thought this out yet but as of right now, this is what I’m collecting.

• Paul Konerko collection – Any and all Paul Konerko cards.
• Tom Seaver collection – Any and all Tom Seaver cards.
• Luis Aparicio collection – Any and all Luis Aparicio cards.
• Billy Williams collection – Any and all Billy Williams cards.
• Dave Dravecky collection – Any and all Dave Dravecky cards.
• Mike Hart collection – Any and all Mike Hart cards. (football)

All of those I was already collecting and you should have known about them.  I dropped the Peyon Manning collection because I just don’t follow him anymore now that he left the Colts and I was never really into football cards anyways.

Here is some additional player collections I am adding and a short reason why if it’s not obvious.  There may be more to come.

• Ryan Zimmerman collection – Any and all Ryan Zimmerman cards.  (He is very active on behalf of Multiple Sclerosis).
• Chris Sale collection – Any and all Chris Sale cards. (That one should be obvious).
• Bill Melton collection – Any and all Bill Melton cards. (I really like him on the pre and post game shows and he’s vintage).

I may add some more, I may subtract some more.  We’ll see.

As far as my White Sox team sets, I am going to continue to collect all of the base sets from the following.

• Topps (1952-current).
• Fleer (1981-1999).
• Donruss (1981-1997).
• Upper Deck (1989-2010).

You may wonder why I stopped at the years I did for Fleer, Donruss and Upper Deck.  Those were the last years they issued an actual team set and not a limited team set.  I basically like team sets to be at least 15 cards.

So anything else that I have, I will be getting rid of or maybe even giving to my son.  I will check with Jeff at “2 by 3 Heroes” before I get rid of anything because he is my fellow White Sox collector.

My Michigan Wolverines collection won’t change any.  It isn’t overly huge because they only make so many cards in their college uniforms.  I’ll let you know if there is going to be any more changes.  I haven’t actually sat down and figured all this out yet so I don’t have want or have lists for the new collections.

I still owe a few trades and I promise I will get to them.  I haven’t forgotten about you.

1973 Topps

Here is the last of my 1973 Topps purchases.  You’ve seen 18 so far and this post will round off that number right at 25 cards.  All these purchased during the COMC Spring Cleaning sale.

It’s either a called strike or no where near the strike zone because the batter doesn’t even look like he’s going to attempt to swing.  Maybe a 3-0 count and he’s taking.

It’s miscut but it’s a team card, I don’t think I have too many of these.  I do like the manager cards.  I like how they have the supporting staff (coaches) as well.

Another team card, yeah.  I always loved the leaders card as a kid, mainly because you could get hall of fame players and they didn’t book as much as their base cards so you could afford them.  I already had that card for my Billy Williams collection.

A rookie cup card but another of those hideous uniforms.  Another great leaders card as well.  More hall of famers, sweet.   And yes, I already had one of these in my White Sox collection because of the Wilbur Wood.

• Total price paid – $92.07
• Average price per card – $0.26
• Percentage completed – 358/684 (52% completed)

These are the final tallies after all of this purchase were added to the totals.  These 25 cards put me over half-way completed and I only raised my price per card by a penny.

1973 Topps

You’ve seen 12 of my 1973 Topps pick-ups the last couple of days from my COMC Spring Cleaning purchase.  Here’s 6 more for your viewing pleasure.

Have always liked the Cincinnati Reds, not much feelings for the San Diego Padres.  I will say those Padres jerseys are kind of hideous.

That, my friends, is a long name.  Not sure I’ve ever heard of him either which there isn’t too many players I can say that about, at least in the 1970’s till now.

Another long name and another Red.  As per typical in the 1970’s cards, you have a photo shopped hat on Andy Messersmith.  But at least I’ve gotten one great action shot out of these 6 cards.

• Total price paid – $92.07
• Average price per card – $0.26
• Percentage completed – 358/684 (52% completed)

1973 Topps

You saw 6 of my 1973 Topps pick-ups yesterday from my COMC Spring Cleaning purchase.  Here’s 6 more for your viewing pleasure.

While the 1973 set is known for it’s photography, apparently I didn’t get too many of the action shots with this purchase.

A much better catcher shot than the one above it.  A young Ed Farmer too who, I think, is still doing White Sox broadcasts on the radio.  I know he used to, but I don’t listen to the radio broadcasts to know if he is still doing them.

I believe that’s the 3rd Atlanta Braves card I’ve shown from this purchase.  At least it’s another action shot.

• Total price paid – $92.07
• Average price per card – $0.26
• Percentage completed – 358/684 (52% completed)

1973 Topps

I picked up a few 1973 Topps cards along with my previous COMC purchase.  I basically did a search for 1973 Topps, set it for cheapest first and then picked up what I didn’t have, up to $.50.

I’m going to divide these up to 4 posts because I actually picked up quite a few for the set.

Not sure about the whole Boyhood Photos of the Stars subset.  Nothing I really need to see.

Not a big fan of the lower case A for the Atlanta Braves, just doesn’t look right.  Of course, neither do those eyebrows.  Yikes!

• Total price paid – $92.07
• Average price per card – $0.26
• Percentage completed – 358/684 (52% completed)

Annual MS Walk

That’s right boys and girls, it’s time for my annual plea for money.  On May 4th, we (my family) are doing the MS Walk to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis.  Here’s the post from last year after the walk.  For those not aware, my wife has MS.  She was diagnosed a few years ago but has battling it for many years, maybe over half her life.  But we have done this walk for 3 years now, and this year there will be a few changes.

• The Positive - We should have a lot more money to donate this year.  Cheri has had a 31 party and has worked out a deal with the local 31 representative.  We rented out a local fire station (it’s really cheap) and she threw a fundraiser 31 party.  We ended up running a 50/50, had a gift certificate to sell tickets for and sold some chocolate covered pretzels.  But where the most money came in was the 31 party itself.  25% of all sales went to the MS Society.  That ended up over $300, it was awesome.  I’m glad it worked out that well because Cheri worked her ass off to get it all set up.
• The Negative – As it is looking right now, this will be the first year that Cheri won’t be able to walk.  If you followed my other blog any, you know she has been fighting a ruptured disc which was pinching a nerve in her foot.  She has been getting steroid injections right into the site and things are getting better, but there will be no way that she would be able to walk it.  So I’ll be pushing her in her wheelchair, she’s not happy about it.  But I think she is more than making up for it with the party.

I’m not going into all the issues that Cheri deals with, just click the MS tag on my “Random Thoughts From A Random Guy” blog on the right side and you can find out.  But what I am going to do is ask for your help.  I’ve asked for donations before and I’m asking again.  I don’t care if you only give $1, everything is appreciated.  You don’t even have to leave your name, it can be anonymous.  I will certainly accept any paypal donations as well (jccsst1022 at gmail dot com).

Donate or not, I’ll still love you.  But if you donate, I’ll love you more.  Thank you for all of you who continue to read this far.

Links

• Click here to donate on the MS Walk website.