Major Blog Acheivement

Well sometime a day or two ago something happened to this blog that I hadn't expected but was pretty excited about A few months ago I wouldn't have even thought it was possible... a week or two ago it started to become apparent that this would happen sometime soon.

So yeah take a look at this:

take a closer look:

Yep it says 100 Followers Officially: In reality now I have probably about 10 people who read this regularly I think it is really only about 3 or 4. Then about 20 who read this blog once or twice a month maybe, and about 60-65 who read the blog once signed on as a follower (probably just to join in on a contest and they probably won since only 2 or 3 people entered), and the other 5-10 who followed years ago and have since disappeared either by death or some other reason they no longer come around.

OH OK I'll show a card maybe.... let me look in the old PC that has been scanned...

 1961 Fleer Baseball Greats 68 Mel Ott NY Giants

(Front and Back)

1961 Fleer Baseball Greats a nice vintage set of pre-war guys some of whom had never been on cards before (and never again maybe) This is one of those vintage sets I really need to get off my butt on and try to complete it. I only have 3 out of the 154 of the set.

 2007 Topps Allen & Ginter's 72 Bruce Lee Martial Arts Master

(Front and Back)

*sigh* Allen and Ginter's A&G or just plain Allen & Ginter I have to get a handle on what I have from this and many other years of this wonderful cardboard product. I know the last 2 or 3 years I haven't gotten any A&G. I want to at least get the full base sets of the regular sized cards. At one time I also wanted to get the mini base set as well but that is too ambitious a goal so for the minis I will have to settle for probably just my homie teams, the non-sport/non-baseball folks and some of my "binder" guys (usually HOFers and guys who played 1960s-70s)

Mascot Monday: Cubby T. Bear

Cubby T. Bear 

Daytona Cubs 1993-2014

This installment of Mascot Monday is one of the many cards I have yet to feature that are on the MM Logo. I have a feeling that the next zillion episodes will be these cards and everyone will get bored and tired of them. *Heavy Sigh!*

Last year (2014) when the Chicago Cubs announced they were getting a mascot (Clark) for the first time in over 100 years. I couldn't help but think of this card that I have had for a few years.

2008 Choice Sports Cards NNO Cubby T. Bear Mascot - Team Checklist

(Front and Back)

As of the 2015 Season the Daytona Cubs changed their MLB affiliation to the Reds and were renamed the Daytona Tartugas (Turtles/Tortoises). In October of last year Cubby was physically auctioned off. Bidding started at $200 and the final bid was $2,105.

To see previous Mascot Monday posts click here.

Weird Packaging: But Still Pretty Safe

On Thursday 26 March 2015 I had a three package mailday. Someday I might blog about the other two packages especially the second one that was a lot of 15 hand-cut mid 1970s Hostess cards many of them poorly cut from their product boxes. This post is not about them but about the third package which was very strangely packaged for what it actually contained. This is the story of this overpacked package:

This last package was a work of art. Very strange packaging. Without giving away what the item was yet I will mention I purchased it from Ebay an auction with the winning bid of $4.99 + $2.32 shipping. OK nothing out of the ordinary here. Reasonable final price for the item and shipping costs also reasonable.

Now the odd thing the packaging job: (Image blurred on purpose)

The envelope was 9" x 12" yellow clasp envelope. Super taped with clear shipping tape that I had to cut an opening at the top to get it open.

Inside that a piece of cardboard (white sort of odd triangular piece not sure what it originally boxed).

Next to that, I forget if it was taped or not, a clear ziplock plastic bag 6" x 11" has red lettering printed on it "AdoptaPlatoon www.adoptaplatoon.org" strange.

Stranger still in the clear plastic bag a paper bag that was folded and taped some. The paper bag from Burger King "Bags of Flavor"

with hand scribbled "yogi berra" barely legible. OK the cat is almost out of the bag.

Inside that a small plain white PWE (4x6) with one fold and surprisingly not sealed or taped. Then the card safe in a toploader with penny sleeve.

Yogi peaks his head out over the edge of the envelope to see if it is safe to come out.

Yes it is a 1961 Topps Baseball: 472 Yogi Berra Yankees MVP Card.

I left positive feedback because other than the strange overly excessive packaging it was a smooth transaction with safely delivered card. My feedback reads "Good Service. Strange packaging for one card but everything is good"

Blog Group Box Break: Da Randomizing

This post is the final new post about my Blog Group Box Break Basketball Edition All the boxes have been opened and the videos and recaps posted. Now all that is left is to do the randomizing of the unclaimed team's Rookies, parallels, inserts and Hits. Plus randomizing the multi-team cards owned by two members. That is covered in this post. Then everything gets packaged and shipped out soon (Hopefully this next weekend).

First the unclaimed parallels, rookies and inserts will be randomly assigned to members by team. Then the multi-team cards will be randomized between the two members who have the teams shown. Any of the multi-team cards that were two "unclaimed" teams will now have claims, if any of those are now just one person that member will automatically get the card no randomizing. Then the three remaining hits will be individually randomized.

So this is how things break down. Including myself we had only 5 group members but we had 17 claimed teams that breaks down to almost 3.5 teams per member (technically it is 3.4). There are 13 unclaimed teams. The list of teams will be matched up to a randomized list of break members. The number of teams claimed by a member will be his number of chances at that particular team or hit up for grabs. I will only be in the randomization for the unclaimed team assignments, not the final hits.

The randomizing was recorded on video and posted on YouTube.

Good Luck to all.

RANDOMIZED RESULTS BELOW:

Here is the list of Unclaimed teams: For the Rookies, Parallels (Gold, Red Backs etc...) and Inserts.

76ers
Bobcats/Hornets
Bucks
Grizzlies
Hawks
Jazz
Kings
Magic
Nuggets
Pacers
Pistons
Rockets
Suns

After randomizing the member names 3 times here are the results:

List Randomizer

There were 17 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Billy 2
2. Mike 2
3. Billy 1
4. Billy 4
5. Brian 1
6. Mike 1
7. Brian 3
8. Chad 2
9. Mike 5
10. Kirk
11. Brian 4
12. Chad 1
13. Brian 2
14. Chad 3
15. Mike 4
16. Mike 3
17. Billy 3

Timestamp: 2015-06-03 03:39:16 UTC

You have randomized this list 3 times.

The team assignments:

1. 76ers - Billy
2. Bobcats/Hornets - Mike
3. Bucks - Billy
4. Grizzlies - Billy
5. Hawks - Brian
6. Jazz - Mike
7. Kings - Brian
8. Magic - Chad
9. Nuggets - Mike
10. Pacers - Kirk
11. Pistons - Brian
12. Rockets - Chad
13. Suns - Brian

The results of the multi-team cards: (Member name in BOLD is card winner)
2012-13 Prestige Connections #2 Marcus Morris Rockets (Chad) and Markieff Morris Suns (Brian)
2014-15 Hoops Matchups #7 Russell Westbrook Thunder (Billy) and Tony Parker Spurs (Brian)
2014-15 Hoops Matchups #9 Carmelo Anthony Knicks (Billy) and Dwyane Wade Heat (Chad)
2014-15 Hoops Matchups #11 Victor Oladipo Magic (Chad) and Michael Carter-Williams 76ers (Billy)
2014-15 Hoops Trading Places #20 Brandon Jennings Pistons (Brian) and Brandon Knight Bucks (Billy)

And now the Results of the Remaining HITS:
2013-14 Hoops Signatures #50 Kyle O'Quinn Magic on-sticker auto blue sharpie (Billy)
2014-15 Hoops Hot Signatures #59 Ben McLemore Kings on-sticker auto blue sharpie (Mike)
2014-15 Hoops Hot Signatures #81 Tyler Ennis Suns (Chad)

Congratulations to all. I hope you enjoy your cards once you receive them.

Mascot Monday: Logo Key

Mascot Monday: Logo Unmasked

Over on my Curly W Cards blog I began a little project that started off by just something I thought would be kind of helpful to some folks who read that blog. It ballooned from that one-shot idea into an even larger project for myself that now spans both blogs. As many readers (The 2 or 3 regular readers) of my blogs may have noticed, or not, I like to make logos for my regular and semi-regular features. The last few times I've made them I decided to do a spread out collection collage of cards that meet the criteria for the feature they are for.

The current logo for this blog is made up of a few of the collages I have made and used for my blogs. I will not attempt to make a key for that one, maybe for the individual collages it is made up. For some of them I might not have some of the cards anymore.

Basically I just spread the cards out covering the entire area of my flatbed scanner and scan the mess. Sometimes I rearrange things or cover up holes if the first attempt wasn't to my satisfaction. Most of the time though it is just a one and done scan. I should have done the logo keys, or key logos when I first did the scanning but I didn't think of doing a post like this back then for any of them. It would have made identifying things much easier. Fortunately most of the time I can recognize what is what.

For these Mascots though it is a good thing I have kept most of my mascot cards lumped together and not sorted into sets yet.

On to the identifying the cards. The team in (parentheses) is the Major League team affiliate at the time of the card. Many of these teams have changed affiliates and several have changed names and moved to different cities completely since the card was printed. It seems that in 2014 there was a major shifting of teams.

Row 1:

1998 Multi-Ad Sports Rascal 28 Harrisburg Senators (Expos)

2007 Topps Opening Day Baseball 189 Homer Atlanta Braves

2007 Multi-Ad Sports 35 Woolie Hagerstown Suns (Nationals)

2007 Falconer Printing 06 Bubba Grape Jamestown Jammers (Pirates)

2010 Grandstand NNO Recycle Man Spokane Indians (Rangers)

2010 DAV (Disabled American Veterans) 299 Cosmo Las Vegas 51s (Mets)

2010 DAV (Disabled American Veterans) 473 Slider Rochester Honkers
(Northwoods League - A collegiate summer league)

Row 2:

2008 Choice Sports Cards NNO Cubby T. Bear Daytona Cubs (Cubs)

2011 Grandstand NNO Rascal Harrisburg Senators (Nationals)

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball M-3 Ace Toronto Blue Jays

Space with unidentified piece of card showing. This little patch around the center in this logo I haven't figured out which card it comes from. The little green area between the Toronto Blue Jays Mascot Ace and The South Bend Silver Hawks Swoop. I thought I knew which one it was (Bubba Grape) but that card is already shown elsewhere in the photo. It looks like an image I seem to recall of a military Minuteman type character in green with purple another card of Louis the Lumberking maybe? I can somewhat remember what the image looks like he is running/jogging the bases or maybe the warning track. A chunk of my mascot cards I can't locate right now it has to be with them.

Not Dated (After 1998): TCU Swoop South Bend Silver Hawks (Diamondbacks)

2010 Grandstand NNO Keyote Frederick Keys (Orioles) - Autographed in black sharpie

2010 DAV (Disabled American Veterans) 174 Rocky Bluewinkle Wilmington Blue Rocks (Royals)

Row 3:

1999 Grandstand NNO Louie The Lumberking Clinton Lumberkings (Reds)

1984 Donruss Baseball 651 The Famous Chicken AKA: San Diego Chicken San Diego Padres

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball  M-22 Screech Washington Nationals

2002 Mulit-Ad Sports 31 Homer Edmonton Trappers (Twins)

2010 Choice Sports Cards 14 Lou E. Loon Great Lakes Loons (Dodgers)

Very small space with a Topps Opening Day Logo, too small and generic to ever figure out which card it came from. Unless...Hmm the MLB logo is at the top of the Opening Day Logo. That helps narrow it down to a year, dang the picture is too blurry to make out the year looks like 2007 and 2010 are the only years I have that have the MLB logo above and not below the OD Logo...

I think I've narrowed it down to most likely being the 2007 Topps Opening Day Baseball The Bird (Orioles).

2009 DAV (Disabled American Veterans) 191 Lucky The Beaver Portland Beavers (Padres)

2009 DAV (Disabled American Veterans) 123 Uncle Slam Potomac Nationals (Nationals)

This was also a sneaky way to get myself to scan some mascot cards so I can reboot my Mascot Monday feature.