Not an Expert... but Proficient

In one of our district inservice trainings, the presenter discussed the five stages of acquiring expertise.  Without boring you with the details, it just states that people go through a five step process (novice → advanced beginner → competent → proficient → expert) to become an "expert" at something.

It got me thinking about whether or not I consider myself an "expert" at anything.  Sadly... I couldn't really think of anything.  But when it comes to classroom management, collecting cards, and knowing Star Wars trivia, I'm confident that I'm at or at the very least close to being "proficient".

Those are three areas in my life that I enjoy and I'm eager to grow in.  Over the Christmas break, I found a cool YouTube channel dedicated to teaching Star Wars geeks like myself random facts that most people could care less about.

2000 Star Wars: Young Jedi CCG Battle of Naboo Expansion #86

(Photo from SWCCGStore)

In one of their videos, I learned that the famous bikini that Leia wore in Return of the Jedi made a cameo in The Phantom Menace.  Maybe I was focused in on Jabba... or maybe it's because the scene only lasts a few seconds.  Regardless... I've watched The Phantom Menace at least ten, maybe fifteen times... but never noticed it.

But now that it's embedded in my brain... my eyes will be drawn to it from this point moving forward.

I also discovered a bunch of baseball card variations over the holiday break.  Rod @ Padrographs sent me over 300 different Tony Gwynn cards last year.  I finally sat down and went through them to see which ones I needed.  TCDB opened my eyes to a boatload of variations.  And just like the Diva Shaliqua bikini scene in The Phantom Menace, you've gotta look closely or you'll miss them.

I found eight different ones in Rod's care package.  

1989 Donruss #128

I'm hoping my scans will be clear enough for you to see the very subtle difference between these variations.

1989 Donruss Bonus MVP's #BC-20

In regards to the Donruss variations, all six in this post have to do with whether or not the cards have a period following the INC on the back of the card.

1990 Donruss #86

1990 Donruss Bonus MVP #BC-4

1992 Donruss #441

1992 Donruss #425

I wish I could tell you which variation I had and which one Rod sent me... but I didn't have the foresight to jot down that information back when I scanned these cards.  If I had to guess, I'd say that all of Rod's cards are either at the top or the bottom of the scan though.

The Stadium Club variations are based on tiny letters on the back of the card which I'm thinking is related to the sheet they were printed on:

1991 Stadium Club #308

1992 Stadium Club #825

Now I wasn't exactly a "novice" in regards to these tiny variations from the Junk Wax Era.  I'd probably classify myself as an "advanced beginner" who knew they existed and even knew that some of them were related to "periods" and "letters".  This information was accumulated by exploring TCDB and reading card blogs like Nachos Grande who shows off these types of variations within his Barry Larkin PC from time to time.

Have I moved up to "proficient" in regards to these variations?  Probably not.  However I consider myself "proficient" in the overall knowledge of baseball cards.  I've been collecting off and on for the better part of 42 years and I'm continuously learning new things about our hobby.

And while we're on the subject of variations, here's a 2022 Topps Advanced Stats parallel that Reader X sent me last year:

2022 Topps Advanced Stats #617 (#'d 112/300)

You can't tell this is a variation by looking at the front.  You've got to turn it over to see the differences:

The first difference is obviously in regards to the advanced statistics listed instead of the standard stats you'd normally see.  But if you look in the upper righthand corner, you'll also notice this card is serial numbered to 300.  If I'm not mistaken, you can also differentiate these variations by zooming in on the Topps code at the very bottom, but I'll leave that up to the collectors with superior vision.

Luckily for me, Xavier had this card sitting in a top loader.  Had it been in the stack of penny sleeved cards, there's a good chance I would have missed it.  It's these types of things that keep me from becoming an "expert" in baseball card collecting.  And with new variations coming out year after year after year... I'm more likely to slide back down into the "competent" level than advance to "expert".

What about you?  In regards to collecting cards...

Do you consider yourself a novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, or expert?

As an educator, I probably should create guidelines or a rubric for these categories.  But we're not in a classroom and this isn't an assignment.  It's just a friendly blog with carefree standards... and I'll leave it up to you to set come up with your own guidelines.  Honestly... whether you are a "novice" or an "expert", I appreciate you taking the time to stop by and hang out.

Thank you Rod and Xavier for these generous donations to my collection and for motivating me to learn more about our hobby.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

While putting the final touches on this post over the weekend, I actually discovered three more 1989 Donruss variations sitting in my duplicate box:

1989 Donruss #128

1989 Donruss Bonus MVP's #BC-20

Yup.  Seems like the learning process never ends.  And maybe I'm closer to "competent" than I really think.

It's My Special Day

Today teachers and students around the district I work in celebrated the 100th school day of the year.  I've never actually celebrated the occasion, but I know it's something primary school teachers look forward to.

Personally, I didn't even know that today was Day #100 until I started doing homework for this post three weeks ago after I received this card in Reader X's most recent care package:

2022 Topps Allen & Ginter It's Your Special Day! #IYSP-15

I've wanted to add a copy to my Sports Card Smorgasbord binder since the first time I saw it on one of your blogs.

Unfortunately National Teachers Day is three months away and this card is too cool to sit on for that long.  So I had to get creative... and here we are... the hundredth day of school.  Yeah, I know.  It's a pretty big stretch... especially since I don't even celebrate it with my students.  But the theme goes perfectly with another card that Xavier sent me:

2020 Panini Donruss One Hundred #93 (#'d 023/100)

Not the biggest fan of Panini baseball cards with their lack of logos and exorbitant number of parallels.  But Buster's gear has a way of disguising the lack of logos and it is cool when the parallel plays into the theme of the post.

Here are two more numbered Posey cards from his care package:

2021 Topps Chrome Magenta Speckle Refractor #29 (#'d 198/350)

2019 Topps Heritage Chrome #THC-445 (#'d 163/999)

I was hoping to think of an interesting 100 day baseball record, but this will have to suffice...

1975 Topps Mini #330

In 1974, Mike Marshall became the first (and only) pitcher to cross the century mark in MLB games pitched in a single season.  Kent Tekulve and Salomon Torres are tied for second with 94 games pitched each.

In December of 2021, Charlie Trippi became the 10th NFL player to live to see his 100th birthday.

Signed 8x10

He passed away this past October, but obviously lived a long, long life.  Wes (aka JayBarkerFan) hooked me up with this photo over a decade ago.

And wrapping up this post is one of the greatest basketball players of all-time:

1992-93 Upper Deck Basketball Heroes #13

On March 2nd, 1962... Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points against the New York Knicks.  Not sure what NBA attendance was like back then, but according to the card back only 4,124 fans were in attendance.  As sad as that sounds... the Oakland A's had less fans in attendance at the Coliseum thirteen times in 2022.

Well that wraps it up for this post... and the workweek.  Thank you Xavier for making my day feel extra special and for helping me out with this very cool addition to my Teacher PC.

As for the rest of you...

What other interesting sports records related to #100 can you think of?

Happy Friday and sayonara!

Burgers & Baseball Cards

Hope you weren't expecting a post about late 70's Burger King cards... although I'll try to dig one up at the end of this post if you did.

Today's post is about a recent blogger meetup.  A few weeks ago, Jim over at cards as i see them reached out to me and let me know that he was headed out to California.  We've discussed grabbing IN-N-OUT burgers at least a couple of times in the past.  Well we finally made it happen.  One day after work, I picked him up and took him to Stevens Creek Sports Cards.  I didn't buy anything, but he made a pretty cool purchase.  Don't want to spoil things for his readers, so I'll keep my lips zipped.

Before we left the shop, he made a cool suggestion to take a photo of our wallet cards to document our meetup:

Gwynn and Garvey were teammates for five seasons in San Diego from 1983 to 1987.  It was nice that this was an opportunity for them to get together on a cardboard level.  That 1974 Topps card has been in Jim's wallet on two separate occasions.  At the shop he told me about the first time he slid the card into his wallet.  It was back in the mid 90's when Mickey Mantle passed away.  He had seen Bob Costas talk about Mickey being his wallet card.

At some point, he gave Garvey a breather.  But in 2015, Gavin @ Baseball Card Breakdown introduced his wallet card idea to his readers and Jim put him back in the billfold.

My wallet card hasn't been around quite as long.  I picked Gwynn's 1995 Skybox Emotion card as my inaugural wallet card back in January of 2015.  Two years later, I swapped it out for the 1986 Topps card you see above.

It's been six years and while we're still in January (which is the month I've chosen my wallet cards in the past), I figured it's time to show off my new wallet card:

1992 Topps Kids #53

There were four potential replacement cards.  The 1985 Topps Gwynn that I received from Johnny last week was one option.  There was also Gwynn's 1987 Topps base card which I considered back in 2015.  And there was this little curve ball:

1981 Fleer #574

There's a story behind this card that's worthy of its own post.  I'm thinking that it'll be the fourth and final wallet card... in the sense that when I swap out the latest Gwynn... Rickey will be carried with me until I enter the ground.

However for now... the cartoonish Topps Kid card will be keeping me company.  I ultimately decided to go with this card, because collecting cards keeps me in touch with my childhood... and this card is as childish as it gets.  It's not often I can track down the source of a specific card, but I know with 100% certainty that I pulled this card out of a pack in 2017.

Sorry I got a little sidetracked.  Let's get back to Jim.  After hanging out at the card shop we drove to IN-N-OUT where we ate dinner and talked about cards and the community.  Regardless of whether it's a fellow blogger or just another collector, it's always fun to hang out and talk about the hobby.

We also exchanged care packages.  Half of the stuff he gave me I'm going to hold off on writing about until this weekend or next week.  But I will share the other half of the items which were donations to the Oakland A's and Damaged Card PC's.

Let's start off with some pins from the late 80's (and possibly early 90's):

UNOCAL 76 Oakland A's Pins

Based on an internet search, I think the two pins on the left were produced in 1989.  I couldn't find any information on the last pin, but one eBay vendor has it listed as a 1991 pin.  Regardless these are very cool.  I have a sandwich sized bag full of pins representing several different Bay Area teams.  One of these days I'll have to go through and organize them.

He also added these three A's cards:

1994 Upper Deck All-Time Heroes #214

I've debated on putting together a Bert Campaneris collection, but just haven't gotten around to it.  Maybe one day.  Maybe not.  Either way... this card has a home in my collection.

2005 Leaf 4 Star Staffs #FSS12

Not familiar with this set, but gotta admit it's pretty cool.  This card celebrates the pretty famous (at least in the Bay Area) 2002 Oakland A's pitching staff.

2022 Topps International Trading Card Day #NTCD-20

Pache was one of the only things I really looked forward to in regards to the A's in 2022.  His .166 batting average kinda summed up how that went.  Based on his facial expression... even he knows things got ugly last year.

Let's move on to something a little more positive.  Here are two potential candidates for the Damaged Card PC:

2017 Topps Update #US50

2020 Topps Gallery #107

The reason I say "potential" is because there's limited space in that collection and I'm probably only five 9-pocket pages away from filling the binder.  That's why I'm pretty selective about which cards I add to the collection.  Back in 2019, the Bellinger would automatically get slid into it.  As for Lux, he's going to be the Dodgers starting shortstop this season.  If he has a big year, I'll put him in.  Until then... Cody is in... Gavin is out.

Thank you Jim for the cards.  It was fun meeting you and hanging out.  Hit me up the next time you're in the Bay Area and maybe we can check out a flea market or card show.

By the way... Jim is the 6th blogger I've had the opportunity to meet.  Here are the other five:

Brady @ St. Louis Cardinals Cardboard

Ryan @ Japanese Sumo Wrestling Cards and Menko

Dan @ The Other World

Rod @ Padrographs

Greg @ The Collective Mind

I've been talking to my friend in Portland about visiting her and her family.  If I'm lucky, I'll be able to finally meet Gavin @ Baseball Card Breakdown, Kerry @ Cards on Cards, Kevin @ The Diamond King, and Cardboard Hogs and add four more to the list in the next year or so.

Nick over at NJWV is another blogger I'd like to meet as he sometimes comes out with his family to the Bay Area.

If there are any other bloggers out there who plan on taking a trip to Northern California and are interesting in getting together, hit me up and I'll buy you some IN-N-OUT.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

Oops.  Almost forgot.  Here's that Burger King card I promised...

1979 Topps Burger King #16

I've always had a soft spot for cheap slabs of vintage cards featuring hall of famers.  I picked this up before the pandemic off of 4 Sharp Corners for less than the price of a Whopper with cheese.