I'm not a statistician, nor do I have any hard evidence outside of my own experience... but I'd estimate 9 out of 10 bloggers utilize blue tape when preparing care packages for shipment. And at least some of the credit goes to Gavin over at Baseball Card Breakdown.
Every summer he reminds all of us to put down that Scotch tape and pull out our blue painter's tape during Blue Tape and Pull-Tab Awareness Week. It's all about improving the hobby and making things easier for the cardboard recipient.
Gavin has another blog that's dedicated to the 1991 Pro Set Superstars MusiCards. Over there he does a fantastic job breaking down each card and musician featured in that set... as well as going above and beyond to make custom cards that relate to the artist. If you're a fan of music, you should definitely head over there right now: 1991 MusiCards Blog.
Last month... he held a contest and rewarded four of his top commenters. And for the first time in my life, I got to shared the podium with the Blogfather himself: Night Owl Cards. We shared the title of "top commenter" and each received a generous prize package. Billy Kingsley (author of Cardboard History) and Brett Alan (avid blog commenter) also were the other two winners.
The two cards I received were shipped in the two top loaders shown above... and both were double collection cards...
#1: 2003 Donruss Signature Series Century Signatures #69
This card will obviously go into my Oakland A's PC, but if you flip it over and look at the bottom of the card you will see something special about the serial numbering:
The other card he sent me is also serial numbered #1...
#2: 2016 Donruss Significant Signatures Blue #SIG-SC
Thank you Gavin for both of these very cool autographs! You are the president of the Blue Tape Group, an amazing custom card creator, and I can't wait to one day head back up to Portland and hang out with you and the Portland blogging crew.
Happy Monday and sayonara!
Wow, those are nice! Yep, Gavin's awesome. And blue tape/tabs are the best (though I don't usually put in the effort to do tabs myself)
ReplyDeleteI feel attacked.
ReplyDeleteNice cards. I really like that Carlton.
ReplyDeleteNice!!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on getting some really nice cards! Blue rules!
ReplyDeleteGreat cards! Always a nice bonus to have serial # 1.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a fan of the blue tape.
I prefer the green tape myself :)
ReplyDeleteReally cool of Gavin to send those autos! I shudder to think I used to use Scotch tape when mailing stuff - I've been a blue-tape convert for a while now.
ReplyDeleteGlad you like! Those were card show finds from a while back. I know you're generally not into stickergraphs, but the price was right, and I figured the numbering would help you forgive the non-on-cardness of the signatures.
ReplyDeletedennis - nobody's perfect. i don't use pull tabs all the time either. but i try to only use blue tape these days.
ReplyDeleteelliptical man - because of the blue tape? if so... you'll be glad to know that i appreciate any card i receive... whether or not scotch tape or blue tape was used.
crocodile - me too. i don't target steve carlton cards as much as i should.
matt - totally agree
bbcardz - dodger blue or blue tape? ;D
cardstacks - i know some people don't value specific serial numbered cards, but i totally do. gavin does too
jon - i just bought a roll of that, but haven't tried it out. saw that it was for delicate surfaces, so i'm eager to test it out. the problem is... i stocked up on blue tape a while back.
nick - i used to use scotch tape back in the day too. i think the main thing that made me switch was seeing all of the top loaders that were destroyed by it.
defgav - i've started to dump my stickergraphs, but don't worry... these aren't going anywhere because they're part of my team/player pcs. the numbering was a nice bonus. thank you so much gavin!
Cool auto, though the mathematician in me does cringe a bit when you say "prime number" for the number 1 (by the mathematical definition of prime, a prime number is a number greater than one with only itself and 1 as its two factors). :)
ReplyDeleteIt took me a long time to switch to blue tape, wish I would have learned my lesson a lot earlier.
ReplyDeleteSweet prizes, congrats on a well deserved win. I finally made the switch to blue tape about a year ago. Most of the cards I send are from sales these days but I will apologize to those of you that had to suffer through my scotch tape care packages in days gone by (at least I used tabs!).
ReplyDeletecardboard ones - i was out of the hobby from 2001 to 2007, so i'm always learning new things about that era
ReplyDeletenachos grande - lol. i take heat for that every time i write about my prime number pc. i know 1 isn't a prime number in regards to primes vs. composites. but in this case, i use prime to mean "important".
sumomenkoman - i wish i had made the switch sooner too. now if i could only create pull tabs for every single care package
arpsmith - i used scotch tape for years. i'd rather receive a care package with scotch tape, than no care package at all :D