30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Thursday, May 2, 2019

The Bane of my Blogging Existence

Scanning cards is the bane of my blogging existence.  That's why I've always appreciated the bloggers out there who take the time to scan tons of cards for their posts.  But last week, I purchased a set on eBay that I felt was definitely scan-worthy.


And since I've already spent over 30 minutes scanning and cropping, I'm gonna keep the typing to a minimum and let you bask in the beauty known as the 1998 Sports Illustrated Great Shots posters:










By now you've probably noticed the fold lines that run down the middle of these posters.  That's because each pack of 1998 Sports Illustrated Now and Then came with one of these posters.






Can't stand the New York Yankees... but I sure love this mini-poster of Yogi!



The checklist contains twenty-five different players representing rising stars, popular veterans, and hall of famers.


Seventeen of these posters contain a total of eighteen hall of famers and it's only a matter of time before Jeter and A-Rod join the club.

The icing on the cake was that this set cost me less than a Big Mac value meal.  Now I just need to figure out a way to store these oversized (5x7) beauties.

Okay... here's your question of the day:


What's your least favorite thing about blogging?

I've told you mine... now you tell me yours.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

26 comments:

Dennis said...

Beautiful set! I never thought to pick up the whole thing myself, but now I might have to. Thanks for putting in all the time to scan and post them. For some reason actually writing up posts after all the scanning/cropping/labeling/uploading is often my least favorite thing.

Nachos Grande said...

I love that set as well. As for my least favorite thing about blogging? Probably the fact that if you don't shamelessly self-promote you probably won't be recognized (or even read) these days. Back in the day my posts would easily attract 100 views within the day and a couple hundred within a day or two. Now it's very rare for me top 100 views in 24 hours on a post. I'm not great in terms of using Twitter and I am a terrible self-promoter (I have this problem in my "real world" job as well but that's a story for another day).

Commishbob said...

Oh, beyond a doubt my least favorite thing about blogging is dealing with my %$#*L)@ing scanner. I'm about to try to fix the latest issues by re-installing the drivers.

Sekund on the lyst is knot bying able too spel.


I've never seen those posters. The Hall of Fame ones are especially nice. I may have to look into them.

Rod (Padrographs) said...

i hate scanning

night owl said...

I can't really think of anything I dislike about blogging.

The Lost Collector said...

Scanning is really a pain. Sometimes I don't show off the large packages (like from Wes or ZZ) because of how much scanning it involves!

Angus said...

Oh, man, I love those posters! That Lou Brock is amazing! Berra and Gibson right behind.

My least favorite thing about blogging? Probably my fellow bloggers, they all seem like such jerks.

Of course, I kid about that.

I think I hate how much more time it takes me to finish a post as opposed to how much time I think it should take me. I never seem to guess correctly.

Brett Alan said...

I’m also an anti-Yankee guy but I picked up that Berra a while ago and it’s great. Need the Piazza and Mays though.

Chris said...

These are very cool, and I appreciate you taking the time to scan them all and show them here. Lots of cool poster-cards in this set, but my faves would be Marichal, Gibson, the Robinsons, and Charles Johnson.

I don't have a lot of major complaints about blogging. Scanning cards (especially a big trade/COMC haul) is tedious. I get annoyed with the HTML coding in Blogger and it often takes me 3-4 edits before a post looks the way it's supposed to. It's tough to expand your audience, and some people only show up when you're giving stuff away. But overall I enjoy it.

Peter K Steinberg said...

These are stunning man. Wow. Thanks for sharing them with us. I don't have many or any issues with blogging. Sometimes I want more time for it.

Big Tone said...

Great posters!I'd like to scan my Starting Lineup posters that way but they are too big :(

I hate waiting for stuff to arrive so I can finally blog about It.Sometimes I'll have an idea of what to write fresh In my head,I'll start the post,and then save It.Once what I'm posting about arrives ,I'll add the pics and publish.But that can be a pain sometimes.

Matt said...

I picked up The Robinsons folder in a repack years ago. They're great! I don't hate anything about blogging, but time constraints and lacking ideas for posts can get a bit annoying...

Mike Matson said...

I think I need to get that Fergie..

My least favourite thing is having all sorts of ideas but then hitting a block when I actually go to write. If I even have the energy to write lol

tomrobak said...

Thanks for posting these, the Yogi is my favorite, a childhood hero of mine. I don’t recall seeing this photo before, it’s so different from the usual batting or catching shots.

GCA said...

I'm with Matt and Mike in that I sometimes have these great post ideas, but when I sit down to write, I've either forgotten them or someone else does it much better. Also, I struggle with coming up with posts that match the depth of the better bloggers' work. I feel like I should be able to write much better, but keep sinking back into complaining about things, loot, and quick and dirty silly stuff.

Someone must have Tweeted about a post of mine, because it got like 239 pageviews. I average like 40-60 total otherwise. That's still not reason enough for me to join Twitter....

Jon said...

I HATE SCANNING!!!!!!

Henry Blanchette said...

I really can't stand writer's block or cropping the photos that I scan. Both of those things are incredibly frustrating. Even though I've never gone more than 2 days in a row without posting, I've had a couple instances of writer's block in which my post quality, in my opinion, wasn't too great.

defgav said...

I don't like scanning either. Don't think I've scanned in years.. I stick to photos and just hope my readers don't mind too much.

Chris P said...

Uploading/Copying Pics for sure..especially when i have a monthly mailday that's like more than 10 cards..makes me wanna procrastinate the post lol

SumoMenkoMan said...

My scanner sucks so it is the bottleneck in the whole process for me. I enjoy scanning in general, but if I have a bunch of stuff, it can be dreadful.

Zippy Zappy said...

Scanning is fine. Cropping is what kills me.

The Shlabotnik Report said...

My scanner tends to wash out everything, so in addition to scanning I have to use software to darken/clarify each image. Pain In The Butt.

These are nice... I won't chase the whole set, but I might have to look out for that Cal.

Fuji said...

dennis - i was looking on sportlots and most of these posters can be picked up for 18¢ + shipping

nachos grande - i plug every one of my posts on fb and twitter. not sure how much it helps though. my view count goes up and down like a roller coaster.

commishbob - a while back i invested in a nicer scanner. it took about 6 months to figure out, but i was happy that the scanning speed increased. best of luck with your scanner and speling.

rod (padrographs) - me too!

night owl - maybe one day i'll actually enjoy scanning. when that day comes, i'll be closer to reaching blogging zen like you.

the lost collector - yeah. i feel bad when people send a ton of cards and i end up scanning only a fraction of them. my solution is i now take photos of larger lots and then scan my personal favorites

angus - when i think about how long it takes me to write these posts... it only stresses me out. the fact is a lot of my free time is spent on writing posts and reading/commenting on other blogs.

brett alan - you can find them on sportlots for 18¢ each

chris - one day i need to figure out the html coding stuff. i'm sure it'd make my posts better

peter k steinberg - that's awesome! hopefully one day i'll get rid of my issues

big tone - i've scanned larger posters before. what i do is make 2 or 3 scans and then use a photo stitch app

matt - i get writer's block from time to time. right now, i've got tons of things to write about, but not enough time

mike matson - lol. that's another thing i can add to my list. i'll come up with an idea for a post at work or on my drive home... then when i get home, i completely forget the idea.

tomrobak - it's a tough call for me between yogi, juan, and bob. right now, i'll go with juan... with yogi being a very close second

gca - i struggle with forgetting blog post ideas on the regular. i'd say that happens to me at least once a week. i've even texted myself ideas before just to help remind me.

jon - me too!

henry blanchette - you've never gone more than 2 days without posting? that's very impressive. i've gone weeks before.

defgav - i've never minded seeing photos in your posts. sometimes i take photos too.

chris p - ten scan posts is usually my limit. actually maybe 5 to 7 scans per post

sumomenkoman - i ended up investing in a better scanner and although there was a steep learning curve, i feel like it's paid off in the long run

zippy zappy - lol. i'm not a fan of either

the shlabotnik report - oh man, if i had to tinker with lighting, i'd probably would just quit scanning altogether and go with photos. pretty sure you can pick up a cal for 18¢ on sportlots. if not... it wouldn't be more than 25¢.

Adam said...

Scanning for me is/was by far the biggest pain. With my old scanner, I used nine-pocket pages to scan the cards. It was so time consuming. Plus sometimes the pictures didn't come across all that great when I loaded them into Blogger. When the scanner finally went kaput over a year ago, I just started using my iPhone to take pictures. I think those have turned out way better.

Doing photos with my phone (or my iPad) is definitely a faster process because. I pre-organize everything beforehand, and I can do the highlights of a blaster box in about 5-10 minutes. Sometimes I'll do a big photo session for multiple posts if I have time. Once I'm done, I AirDrop the pictures to my Macbook and then do a quick crop of any excess around the edges. Once all that is done (which takes about 10-15 minutes to quickly crop everything depending on the amount of pics), I organize the photos into a folder on my desktop, create the blogger posts, then I upload.

This may sound all kinds of time consuming but believe me, it's not. I can usually get a decent amount of pictures in about 30 minutes. I don't always edit the photos right away either. Sometimes I'll just wait and edit them before dropping into Blogger and forming a post.

CaptKirk42 said...

Scanning has kept me from making many posts and delayed many of my posts. it is the main reason many of my backed up post drafts spend sometimes years sitting in the draft queue. I am a lazy scanner. There I've said it. I'm a card hoarder and a lazy scanner.

Fuji said...

adam - big fan of air drop too. whenever i take photos of larger items on my phone, i'll share it with macbook too. best part is with icloud it automatically shares it with my desktop computer as well. gotta love tech.

captkirk42 - well said. i think i fall into that category too.