Losing my Mind, Among Other Things

I really hate this feeling.  You know the feeling.  The one you get when you vaguely know where you laid something down at and then when you go to retrieve said item, it is nowhere to be found...

Well, I had that feeling last night and it has carried over into today.  I was going to blog, card for card, my 1951 Topps Red Back set.  The sat has been on the top shelf in my safe for YEARS.  I vaguely recall (after going to my safe to get the cards) that I took them out and put them aside so I could scan them a while back.  It appears that they never made it back into the safe. 

I have torn my computer room (which, in all fairness, is my actual card room) and I have torn apart the man cave in a desperate attempt to locate the set.  All 52 cards are in loose album pages which have been kept inside a purple manila folder all these years.  My wife vaguely remembers me pulling them out to scan and saying that I was going to put them in an album so they would be easier to find.  Heh.  Well, they aren't in any of my albums. 

I swear I put them with a number of other things (my oversize Brooks Robinson cards and some other stuff like that come to mind) and shut them inside SOMETHING for safe keeping.  Oh, they're real safe alright, they're even safe from me.  I sincerely doubt I lost them in the move.  I also sincerely doubt they've been ripped off because I don't have any sketchy friends.  They are in my house.  Somewhere.  Anyone want to come over and help me look for them?

The Case of the Missing Bloggers

I've noticed lately how easy it is to neglect one's blog.  I've been sick, I've been painting a ceiling, I've been at the beach, etc etc.  Most importantly, I've been bored.  Not bored in general, mind you, but bored with the blog.

I have had very little coming in lately due to saving money for my upcoming vacation.  I am working really hard on not using the credit cards at all for this trip, so I am saving like crazy.  I am going to the National Card Show in August with Ryan from O No Another Orioles blog.

All of this down time has made it a bit easier for me to understand how bloggers can drop off the planet, so to speak.

Have any of you noticed how some bloggers just seem to disappear? 

People like:

Nico - Nr Mt

Pete - Dropped Third Strike

Chris - On Card Autos

Mike - JDs Wild Cardz

Etc, etc, etc.  There are too many to count.  Just guys who went off into the sunset.

I know where Pete is, he got married, and I chat with him on facebook.  But these guys aren't the only ones.  There are a ton of good bloggers whose voices are now silenced.  I wonder to myself why.  Maybe they don't have time anymore.  Maybe they don't have the money.  Maybe they just burned out, which is kind of how I was feeling.

At one time, I was posting at least once a day.  Now, it is a constant struggle to find something meaningful to write about.  I don't want to become boring, so I try really hard to come up with some interesting posts.  I have noticed that I do a fair enough job of informing all of you about older players (be it TTM or whatever) who time might have forgotten.  I have become a pretty decent voice for them.

I also do the occasional trade.  My trade emails are few and far between now.  I feel like a lot of that is due to my just sending stuff to people at random and not doing a good job of updating my trade page.  That's my fault.  Not a lot of people seem to have what I want anyway.  I would really love someone to email me and say that they have the Brooks Robinson patches I need, or some 1959 or 1969 Topps for my sets.  I don't need anymore Orioles from the mid-2,000's.  I can't give away all of my Jay Gibbons and Miguel Tejada cards fast enough.

Anyway, I'm still here.  I still have a voice.  I've not faded off into the distance yet.  I still have older players I need to advocate.  I still have TTMs that I want to get.  I still have sets to build.  I'm not going anywhere.

Thoughts on 2012 Topps Allen & Ginter

Things have slowed down to a crawl over here.  No new cards or trades have come in.  No TTMs have gone out or come in lately.  I'm still a bit under the weather.  Chris is out of town visiting grandparents, so I am enjoying some quality time with the wife.  She and I rode to the LCS today so I could pick up a few packs of 2012 A&G to see what the fuss is about.

I picked up 4 packs at $4.50 a piece and my second pack yielded a Cal Ripken for my collection.  Very nice.  I used to be hot for A&G.  I remember when it debuted in 2006 and was the product of the year.  I had put together the set each year up until 2010.

I began to sour on A&G in 2009 when the infamous printing issues cropped up.  Remember the lines on the cards?  Those really got on my nerves.  I didn't buy but maybe 4 packs of 2011 A&G last year.  I'm pretty much over the set, now.

That being said, I do like the design of this year's set.  They look nice, much like an A&G card should.  I might purchase a box at some point; but as of right now, I'm in full save mode.  I paid myself back pretty quickly for the money I spent on 2012 Topps Series 2 and have now rolled that on to autograph tickets for the 2012 National Card show.  I have almost paid myself back for that stuff as well, meaning, if I can build a nice surplus to take with em to the show, I might be able to find a lot of blog worthy cards and such while I am there.

So, I have to sacrifice.  No boxes to bust, no HOF baseballs to buy, no Ebay purchases up until the end of the month, then I can splurge at the National.  Plus, that is my vacation time as well, so I need to save for that, too.

Once all of this is said and done, I should be back into blogging full time by the end of the month.  We'll see.  Might need you guys to hook me up with some trades to keep me writing.

Biggest Surprise for the First Half

Well, it's the All Star break.  If you would have told me that the Orioles would be in second place in the AL East, hold one of the two Wild Card slots and have a record that was 5 games above .500, I would have probably told you to put down the pipe...

However, here we sit, halfway through the 2012 season and the Orioles are in second place.  Yeah, ok, they crawled to the halfway point after being bludgeoned by the Angels, three of their original starting 5 rotation members have taken the shuttle to Norfolk, yet, they are still above .500 and hold a wild card spot.  Wow.  They are even poised to be buyers at the trade deadline.  In years past, the Orioles have been perpetual doormats for the AL East.  Now they are linked to Zack Greinke and Wandy Rodriguez.  They obtained one of my favorite all-time non-Orioles (Jim Thome) for a could minor leaguers.  Furthermore, oft maligned owner Peter Angelos has let Dan Duquette know that he is committed to winning this season 'no matter the cost.'  That in itself is a refreshing change.

I'm not going out on a limb and saying that the Orioles will continue to hold one of the playoff spots.  I'm just savoring the moment, like every Orioles fan should.  We aren't used to this.  The Orioles haven't put together a winning season since 1997 (their last trip to the post season).  I'm savoring every moment of this and enjoying it while it lasts.  There have been ups and downs this season, but there is much more promise for the future than in years past.  Let's hope we can ride this wave as long as we can.

So, what is your biggest surprise to this season?  Leave me some comments, I'm interested in seeing what everyone else thinks.  This, for sure, has been an interesting season so far.

Something New For The Man Cave

Last weekend, when I went to visit my family for my parents' anniversary party, my oldest brother and his wife gave me something they picked up for me when they had visited Myrtle Beach.  These are the same folks who sent me the awesome signed baseball of my nephew while they were on vacation.  Anyway, since it rained during 99% of their trip to the beach, Kenny and Gina checked out a lot of shops in the Myrtle Beach area that they wouldn't have normally checked out had the weather been nice.  You know, because they would have been laid out on the beach.

Well, in one of the shops, my brother saw several baseball related tin signs for sale so he had his wife give me a call to see if I  would be interested in any of them.  She texted me a picture of this sign and I was really happy because it is a replica of the Topps advertising signs they used in 1955.  If you have followed this blog for a while now, you'll know that I hold a special place in my heart for the 1955 set... seeing as I blogged it card for card for the entire set.

So, I had to own this sign, and my brother and sister-in-law were awesome enough to pick it up for me.  They are becoming frequent contributors to the blog now... first with Gina hooking me up with a Paul O'Neill autograph, then the signed baseball from IAN! and now this awesome sign for the man cave.  Maybe the next item will be a trophy from my brother's first race win... ;)  Wouldn't that be awesome!  No, I know once Kenny wins his first race, that trophy is going right in the middle of his living room... right, Gina?

Oh, I know you guys love the super seventies orange bedspread behind the sign.  Well, you can't have it because it's mine!

Series 2 Topps Wrapper Redemption Cards

I meant to post these yesterday, but I still wasn't feeling all that great, so I put it off until today.  Of course, today, they would have been posted sooner but when I scanned them, I noticed that I needed to clean up all of the pictures on my laptop.  So, I did that, then we decided to make a trip to the beach for the afternoon.  Anyway, here I am, a little late.

I had enough jumbo wrappers from Series 2 Topps to get 2 Topps Goldrush packs.  I was really happy that the first card I saw was this Cal Ripken.  Again, it is always nice to add a new Ripken to the collection.

 I also got this Nick Markakis.  2 Orioles in one pack, not bad at all.

I think this Mike Trout was a decent pull.  I think it will be some good trade bait or a good sell at my next card show.

Another decent pull is this Yu Darvish.  I saw that it is selling on Ebay for around $22, so that is definitely worth it to me.  More trade bait!  Or sell bait.  Whatever you want to call it.

Anyway, I liked this year's wrapper redemption cards, even though I didn't pull an auto.  I still want to get the Virgil Trucks auto from last year's wrapper redemptions.  If anyone has one of those, please shoot me an email.

TTM Success - Steve Garvey

After taking a much needed and well deserved break, I had one of my padded mailers waiting for me in my mailbox this afternoon.  Inside my mailer was a signed baseball from Dodgers and Padres legend, Steve Garvey.

The 1972 NL MVP, Garvey (b. 1948) played in the majors from 1969 to 1987 for the Dodgers and Padres.  He retired with 2,599 hits, 272 home runs and a lifetime batting average of .294.  He won the World Series in 1981 with the Dodgers.

Garvey failed to be elected to the Hall of Fame in his 15 years of eligibility, garnering at most 42.6% of the vote in 1995.  He is a likely candidate to be elected when his turn comes via the Veterans Committee.

Garvey is my 62nd TTM success.  I mailed to him on June 26, 2012 and got him back today, July 5, 2012, making him a 9-day TAT.  Not bad considering there was a holiday in there.

Also, I apologize for not posting much lately.  I haven't had much to write about, I've been sick and I've been scraping and painting the ceiling in Chris' bedroom.  I plan on being back, now.  I got my 2012 Series 2 wrapper redemption packs in, so that could be my next post, unless I get another TTM tomorrow.  We'll see how I am feeling.  Anyway, leave me some comments, I missed you guys, even though it has only been a little over a week.