30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Thursday, July 9, 2020

Blog Inspired Purchase and an Awesome Hobby Trend

Another day.  Another blogger inspired purchase.  Back in December, I saw a pair of 2000 Pacific Crown Royale Proofs over at Cards My Mom Didn't Throw Out (which has since disappeared) and immediately headed over to COMC and picked up a pair of my own:

2000 Pacific Crown Royale Proofs #30

2000 Pacific Crown Royale Proofs #5

These very cool die-cut parallels are made from an acetate-ish material that resembles the stuff used to make 35mm film.  Although there are 144 cards in the regular base set, Pacific chose to produce proofs for only 36 players.

These cards were inserted into 1:25 packs, which is approximately one per box (boxes contained 24 packs).  In other words, they were challenging enough to pull a specific player... yet are easy enough to make most singles reasonably affordable.  I managed to add this pair to my collection for $4.90.

There are also serial numbered versions of these cards, which are much tougher to pull... thus more expensive.  A Gwynn popped up for auction back in April, but the opening bid of $19.99 was more than I'm willing to spend.  Maybe one day another one will show up at a more reasonable price.

Until then... I'd like to thank JayP and JayP's Secret Santa (JonA Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts) for bringing these to my attention.  I'm always on the lookout for interesting, yet affordable cards to add to my collection... which is why I enjoy reading card blogs so much.  I'd say the majority of my eBay purchases these past few months have been stuff I discovered on card blogs.

Speaking of reading card blogs, one of the only positive things to come from this COVID-19 pandemic has been the number of people blogging on a regular basis.  I have at least one to two hours worth of reading material on any given day.

So for my final submission to Tim B's 7 Day Trading Card Challenge, I'll go ahead and say that the return of some retired bloggers and the arrival of several new blogs have been one of the best hobby trends of 2020.  Originally, I was planning on writing about how the hobby has boomed this year.  That's still really cool, but the blogging community definitely impacts me more on a personal level.

Here are a few card blogs that have either recently came out of hibernation or just arrived on the scene:










These are just the ones that published a post and popped up on my Blogger reading list during the past 7 days.  If you know of any others I should add to this list, leave a comment down below and I'll revise this post as soon as I can.

Oh and before I forget... thank you Tim B. for creating the 7 Day Trading Card Challenge.  It was a lot of fun... and gave me something to write about for seven consecutive weeks.

Anyone else have any Blog Bat Arounds?

I'm in need of some writing material.  So if you have one or if there are any specific topics you'd like to see on this blog, leave a comment down below.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

21 comments:

  1. The SABR baseball card blog, which uses various contributors, does a series called My Favorite Common, where guys post about their favorite common card. It's neat to see the stories people have for liking a random card of a random player. I haven't figured out what my favorite common is yet!

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    1. I'll have to check that out. I am prepping a similar series for posting later this summer or fall.

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    2. Thanks for the mention! It's our standing "if you want to introduce yourself" prompt.

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  2. Thanks for sharing some of these blogs--I added a few new ones to my blog roll! Always happy to have more great stuff to read.

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  3. Thanks for the promotion of Sports Cards Ate My Brain.

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  4. Someone sent me the Frank Thomas proof from this set a while ago and I thought it was some kind of error. It doesn't feel like an actual baseball card, and it's gotta be thinnest card in my collection.

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  5. I like the original cards. Now i know about the acetate proofs...

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  6. These are cool. I think I have a Bernie Williams, but it's so thin I feel like I always lose track fo them.

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  7. jeff b - favorite common. i like it. i'll have to check out some of their posts

    alex markle - me too. i'm always looking forward to adding new blogs to my reading list

    sascards67 - no problem. keep up the great work

    johnnys trading spot - took me almost 20 years to discover them ;D

    nick - i think you're right. if there's a thinner card out there, i've never held it

    jongudmund - the original cards are awesome. wasn't a big fan when they were first released, but i love them now

    the lost collector - yeah... it doesn't get much thinner than that.

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  8. Wow these are really cool Fuji, and you picked a couple of great players too. I'll have to keep my eye out for a Nomar!

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  9. Those are really cool proofs! I've had my eyes on a Bernie to add to the PC. Thanks again for participating in the challenge, Fuji. It was great to so many folks in the community respond and definitely gave me some great reading material! I'll have to check out some of the new and returning blogs that I didn't know about, so thanks for that as well.

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  10. Those are neat but I largely remain on the fence about die-cut cards. It's neat you got Gwynn and Ripken whom I largely associate together since their careers overlapped so nicely.

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  11. It's a bummer that JayP isn't around anymore. I enjoyed his blog.

    As for a BBA topic - how about favorite players on your least favorite teams, or vice versa? For instance I do not like the NY Rangers at all yet I like Henrik Lundqvist a lot. I love the Red Sox but they've had plenty of players I didn't like, from J.D Drew to J.D Martinez. Perhaps there are some A's or Sharks that you weren't a fan of?

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  12. I've got one or two of those proofs somewhere too. Had to look them up to identify them. Now if I can find them again I'll see who they are.

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    1. Found it! It's Vlad Guerrero. Anyone want to start or fill a Vlad collection? I can probably start you with over 100 different cards...

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    2. I would take the Vlad proof! Those sound pretty cool!

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  13. I’m definitely excited to read all the new/renewed blogs popping up.

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  14. Interesting post. I've never seen die-cut parallels before.

    Thanks for the links to the new/renewed blogs.

    My apologies for not commenting. I almost always read blogs from my phone and for some reason it won't let me leave a comment - even on my own blog!

    Peace,

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  15. shoeboxlegends - good luck. my guess is you should be able to find a copy on comc, beckett, or sportlots for a couple of bucks

    tim b - thanks for putting the challenge together. it gave me some writing and reading material. much appreciated

    peter k steinberg - that's why i picked the ripken up. they started around the same time together and finished around the same time. plus they entered the hall together

    chris - i know. hope he returns to the keyboard at some point. love the topic chris... and i'm game. stay tuned

    gca - vlad is the man.

    sumomenkoman - i'm sure i'm missing some. if you come across any, let me know and i'll add them to my reading list

    cincicuse bill - no worries. i definitely appreciate the comments, but totally understand. there are a couple of blogs that i read that i'm not able to leave comments on either. not sure what the deal is.

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