Baywatching

by | Jun 7, 2012 | Baseball

So, my month long and self-imposed limit on card buying is now over and I feel good about it. I put the money towards more important things like time with the family and I’ve got a couple freelance things in the works for hopefully some more card money in the near future. That’s another rule. Paycheck is for living, money on the side is for cards. By self regulating and sticking to only “play money” for cards, it helps keep the lights on, or more importantly in the middle of summer, the A/C.

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Burgers, Brentz and Buddies

by | May 31, 2012 | Baseball, Friends and Family

So, Memorial Day weekend was fun. We had some time to relax, play in the pool, and visit with friends, including the Dimwit who came into town for a party. He hand delivered the Brentz auto I had mentioned before and also gave me some new Topps Archives he had pulled out of a blaster that morning. I’m kinda torn on Archives. I like the ’71 and ’80 base cards and the ’56 relics and those B&W deckle edged ones, everything else isn’t really my tastes. The card stock is also thin, like a regular Series 1/2 base card would be, but the price per pack is high, like Heritage. For $3 a pack, I’d rather buy GQ or A&G. I guess I don’t understand the need for another retro themed product, but I also can’t find any information on if Topps is doing a 2012 run of Lineage. My guess is that Archives replaced Lineage in the same way Tier 1 replaced Marquee (or did Museum Collection replace both?). That said, I’m very appreciative of the cards Sam gave me. It was just enough to get me to find the team set, but not much more. In case you’re wondering, here are the four he gave me…

The only thing I don’t really get, are the facsimile-autos on those. For example, that’s not Buchholz autograph, at least not one he “officially” signs cards with. For comparison, here’s the patch auto I got a couple months ago…

Notice the difference? Why Topps? Why fake a FAKE signature? That’s just silly. Maybe Clay (and others) signed contracts with Topps using a “personal” signature (as they would if they wrote a check), and they used those (with permission?) and then they all have different “fan autos” that they use to sign cards, boobs and whathaveyou. That’s confusing as hell. And weird. Weirdly confusing. Weirdfusing!

*sigh*

Oh, and here’s the Brentz, which is awesome. Very excited to have my 2nd Brentz auto in the collection, and to have completed the 3 autos from Sterling last year. This one makes me happy. Thank you again Sam!!!

Bowman Blaster

by | May 27, 2012 | Baseball

Ok, so I didn’t make it 30 days without buying cards. I made it 26, I think that’s pretty good, lol. Actually, I was planning on buying a blaster of 2012 Bowman anyway. My theory being that you really can’t tell if you’ll like a product based on a single pack, and a hobby box is way too expensive if you’re unsure, so a blaster fits the “I wonder what it’s like” scenario perfectly. I won’t drag this out by recounting everything that was in it, but there was a good sampling, a couple inserts, a couple parallels, and enough variety for me to go “meh” and not really plan to buy another box. Team set for $2.99 on ebay, here we come. Also, I did pull aside a couple cards for a few of you out there who I know are team collectors. I’ll stick them in with our next trades, whenever those happen to be.

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Family Road Trip – Part 2

by | May 26, 2012 | Friends and Family, Personal

I promised a post about modern art and by holy Helvetica, you’re going to get one whether you want it or not. lol.

After wrapping up a fun day of shooting on Saturday, Sunday we decided to play it a little more chill. We took our friends and the kiddos to the Dallas Arboretum, just to walk around and have a nice picnic lunch before getting back on the road in the afternoon. It’s a great park and botanical garden and also happened to be hosting a huge Dale Chihuly exhibit. For those of you unfamiliar with the name, Dale Chihuly is a modern glass artist who does huge sculptures out of blown glass. He’s actually one of very few modern artists who’s work I appreciate. Not only are they aesthetically pleasing (mostly), they’re also so massive in scale and the craftsmanship required to construct them is so clearly off the charts that I can’t help but be impressed. Am I a huge Chihuly fan? No, not really, but they are undeniably impressive, regardless of your feelings on modern art as a whole.

Anyway, of course I had the camera in tow, and I took a handful of photos as we were walking around the grounds…

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