Taking A Break

Blogging about cards has been one of my go-to hobbies for the past eleven years.  It's been an activity that has provided me a place to document hobby memories, talk about trading cards, and best of all... interact with all of you who take time out of your busy lives to read my posts.

Normally... the act of sitting down in front of my computer and writing about cards is enjoyable, but lately... the passion hasn't been there.  With each passing week, I started fixating more and more on the amount of hours I spend writing and scanning... instead of focusing on quality content for myself and all of you.

That's why it's time for me to take a break from the blog.  I've been contemplating this decision for a few months, but was worried about losing followers.  However this week I've decided mental health needs to come before blog views and comment counts.

Is this the end of the blog?  Probably not.  It's a big part of my life and I don't see myself closing up shop and walking away.  Do I have an idea when I'll come back?  No.  Maybe next week or maybe next year.

Will I continue to collect and be a part of the blogging community?  Of course.  Just because I'm burned out on writing posts doesn't mean I don't enjoy reading yours.  Plus the additional free time should allow me to sort a few 5,000ct. monster boxes and finally reorganize my collection.

So a huge thank you to all of you who have supported me and this blog over the years.  This past Tuesday marked the 11th anniversary.  According to Hallmark, I'm suppose to celebrate with some steel:

1996 Leaf Preferred Steel #46

This was the first product I thought of when I saw the word "steel".  Back in 1996, Leaf inserted one of these Steel cards into each pack of Leaf Preferred.

Does the protective peel distract you?  Maybe I'll remove it.  Maybe I won't.

The back reveals Gwynn's Steel Stats.  It's hardly his most iconic 90's card... but it definitely fits the era.

Can't have my final post feature a single card... so here are five athletes who wore/wear #11 on their jersey:

1994 Pinnacle Museum Collection #12

2012-13 Panini Classics Signatures #113

2009 Bowman DP&P WBC Stars Gold #BDPW2

2009-10 Panini R&S Retired Team Patch Signatures #17

2007 UD Artifacts Photo Shoot Flashback Fabrics #PSF-LF

Until I return from this break... happy Thursday and sayonara!

Circled on My Calendar

March 1st will forever be an important date circled on my calendar.

1996 Topps Gallery Mickey Mantle Masterpiece #MP1

Fifty-two years ago, Mickey Mantle announced his retirement.  I'm sure that date is significant to New York Yankees fans, but not me.  I wasn't even born yet.

1993 Classic Four Sport Collection Jumbo (Blank Back) #NNO

Forty-eight years ago, Chris Webber was born.  I was a fan of Webber and the Fab Five back in the early 90's, but he's not the reason March 1st is important to me.

1991-92 Upper Deck #54

Twenty-eight years ago, Pavel Bure scored two goals against the Buffalo Sabres to become the first player in Vancouver Canucks franchise history to score 50 goals in a single season.

2015 Panini Immaculate Collection Collegiate Materials #6

March 1st, 1993 was also the day Mr. Conforto was born.  Both of these guys are cool... but again... not the reason I look forward to March 1st.

Mama Fuji (far right) @ Tahoe

The reason March 1st will forever be one of the most important dates on the calendar is because it's my mom's birthday.  She's no longer with us in person, but her spirit still floats around and watches over her family.  And until I join her... I'll continue to celebrate this special day.  Because I wouldn't exist or be the person I am today without her or my father being born.

Happy Birthday Mom!  Happy Monday and sayonara!

TWiB: Scorpions, Saito, Stone Fingers, Soccer, and Storage Boxes

Yee haw.  Baseball is back.  Sure it's only Spring Training... but it's better than basketball or even following my beloved San Jose Sharks who have flirted with .500 the entire season, but haven't been able to hold my attention.  I guess I'm still adjusting to the new and not-improved era of Sharks hockey.  I'll still support them by wearing my jersey and collecting their cards, but I'm ready to focus my attention on baseball.

Okay... let's kick another This Week in Blogging post off with a minor league card of his Airness...

#1:  An Expensive Minor League Card

1991 Upper Deck #SP1

On Monday, Ryan over at This Card is Cool showed off a really cool jersey card of Michael Jordan from his days with the Scottsdale Scorpions.  Back in the mid 90's, I was one of those collectors who chased his baseball cards.

2001 UD Prospect Premiers Heroes of Baseball Dual Jersey #J-JJ

It took me awhile, but I finally added my first and only memorabilia card of MJ back in 2010 that also happens to have a Scorpions swatch.

#2:  Super Saito!

Greg over at Night Owl Cards showed off the COMC haul he recently received and included were some Takashi Saito cards.  He mentioned him being a pretty big deal during his two years with the Dodgers and he wasn't kidding.  You should check out his 2007 stats.

2008 Topps Silk #NNO (#'d 44/50)

Saito has gotta be one of only a handful of players who had a lower career ERA in the MLB than across the Pacific in the NPB.

#3:  Stone Fingers

No idea how or why Toby Harrah received that nickname... but it's an attention grabber.  He was featured in a post I read over on The Shlabotnik Report this morning and it reminded me of when I was a kid.  Back in 1982, Harrah hit .304 with 25 home runs... which made an impression on the ten year old version of me.

2013 Tristar Signa Cuts Bronx Edition Red #NNO (#'d 1/5)

Although I mostly associate him with the Texas Rangers and Cleveland Indians, I just couldn't pass up this terrible looking cut signature of his.  I found it at a card show back in 2019 for a buck.

Looking back at that card show haul reminded me of another really cool purchase I made:

2019 Chrome Negative Refractor #203

I purchased this card off of a dealer for $20.  These days regular Chrome rookie cards of Tatis sell for $80 to $100 on a regular basis.  This card is over $500 now.  Crazy times people.  Crazy times.

Anyways... getting back to The Shlabotnik Report... if you enjoy learning interesting 70's baseball trivia, please check out his series:  The 1970's: A to Z.

#4:  Another Interesting Collection

The Best Bubble has some of the most interesting mini collections around:  Bubble Blowing Cards, Athletes Balancing Bags and Balls, and Marlboro Man Advertisements just to name a few.

2017 Archives Fan Favorites Autographs #FFA-BV

On Monday, he showed off some cards from his Fans In The Stands collection.  It's so cool and unique.  Anyways, outside of the famous Mark Jackson Hoops card (which I don't own yet)... this Yankees fan was the only card that came to mind when thinking of fans.

#5:  Creative Design

I just wanted to give P-Town Tom over at Waiting 'til Next Year a huge shoutout for his custom storage box.  If you haven't seen it, please head over to his blog and check it out.

#6:  Entertaining Errors

Matt over at Big Blue Cardboard showed off an interesting error card this week... where Panini placed a David Wilson sticker-graph on a Rueben Randle card.

I just happened to be watching a Tony Gwynn Jr. card featuring his father's autograph earlier in the week on eBay.  Due to collecting cutbacks, I let it go.

2006 Exquisite Collection Dual Rookie Signatures #55

However I did grab this one a few years ago off of COMC.  If you're bored, I wrote a post about this goof in further detail five years ago.

#7:  An Entertaining Soccer Card Post

Are you a soccer card collector?  Head over to A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts to check out his Kaka card.

2013 Topps MLS Kit Relic #KIT-CW

Outside of the occasional San Jose Earthquakes autograph or memorabilia card, I don't really chase soccer cards... but I do enjoy watching them play at Avaya Stadium (when there's not a pandemic).

#8:  Football Card Blog Bat-Around

1975 Topps #525

1975 Topps #60

Ryan (SumoMenkoMan) is hosting a "Living" Blog Bat-Around over on his blog.  For details, please click either of those links or you can read my response post from Thursday.

#9:  Leaving Your Collection Behind

Dime Box Nick gave his readers something to think about this week, when he wrote about what would happen to his collection if he had to leave it all behind.  It's something I've thought about on numerous occasions.

And it's one of the reasons, I've started to clear out some of the stuff cluttering my place...

Last week, I threw this collection on Craigslist for $100 and three different people reached out to me within an hour.  The only interaction I had was with the first guy... and I immediately accepted his $70 offer.  He was happy... I was happy.  That's what I call a win/win situation.

Yesterday, I listed some boxes of basketball cards for $400 and sold them this morning.  However I'll hold off on showing the photos until I've actually completed the sale on Monday.

As for the rest of my stuff... I'm going to slowly move duplicates of sets and graded cards I've accumulated over the years.  No... I'm not dumping my collection.  But do I really need ten 1992-93 Fleer Ultra Shaquille O'Neal PSA 10 rookie cards? 

That wraps up another This Week in Blogging post.

Feel free to throw down your thoughts on Spring Training, MJ's baseball cards, custom storage boxes, selling sports cards, or collecting soccer cards down in the comment section below.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Defense Wins Championships

During the 70's, no MLB team had more wins than the Cincinnati Reds.  They made the playoffs six times, participated in the World Series four times, and won it twice.

1975 Topps #260

One of those seasons was 1975.

Anyone familiar with the Big Red Machine knows that Sparky's lineup was stacked with guys like Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, George Foster, Tony Perez, Johnny Bench, and Ken Griffey.  The starting rotation might have lacked notable names, but it did manage to have six starters with 10 or more wins.

1975 Topps #17

Part of their success on the mound has to do with having several guys around them who were defensive gems.  Manning the corners... Rose and Perez both finished within the Top 10 in regards to fielding percentage.  While up the middle... Bench, Morgan, Dave Concepcion, and César Gerónimo won Gold Glove Awards for the Reds that season.

Talk about defense winning championships.  Wait.  That's a football quote.

Well... I just so happen to have another pair of 1975 Topps cards for you that feature two gentlemen known for their defensive play on the gridiron:

1975 Topps #60

1975 Topps #525

Much like the Cincinnati Reds, the 1975 Los Angeles Rams were pretty solid in regards to defense.  They had five defensive players make it to the Pro Bowl that season.  Jack Youngblood and Merlin Olsen were two of them.

If you're wondering why I would try to compare apples to oranges with this post... it's because I love me a good old-fashioned Blog Bat-Around.  They're always fun and encourage interaction among fellow bloggers.  Plus they provides me with one less blog post idea to come up with.

Two weeks ago, Ryan over at Japanese Sumo Wrestling Cards and Menko kicked off a "Living" Blog Bat-Around.  The premise is simple, a PWE with two 1975 Topps football cards (see above) is passed around the blogosphere.   When you receive it, write a post incorporating the two cards, sign the Card Savers, then place the cards in a new PWE, and ship it off to the next participant.

Worried about postage?  Ryan has you covered.  He included a bunch of Forever stamps.  All you need to do is provide a new PWE and:

1.  Sign up on his blog.

2.  Wait until the cards are shipped to you.

3.  Write a post.

4.  Sign the Card Savers.

5.  Toss them into a new PWE and ship them out to the next blogger.

When everyone has had the opportunity to write their post, the last blogger will ship the cards and the signed Card Savers back to Ryan.  At that point, he'll summarize the BBA and has even tossed around the idea of auctioning off the cards and donating the proceeds to a charity.

So... who's interested?  I know Jon (A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts) and Adam (Infield Fly Rule) have both signed up.  Let me know who wants to be next and I'll ship them out this week.

The rest of you should head over to Ryan's blog and sign up by clicking here and leaving a comment on his post.

Well that's it for today.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

2019 Topps Chrome Refractor #46

2019 Topps Chrome Refractor #66

My original idea was to somehow compare Merlin Olsen and Jack Youngblood to Matt Chapman and Matt Olsen... but I trouble making the pieces fit.  However... I didn't want to waste these two scans from the year they both won Gold Glove Awards.