by Matt | Jul 20, 2012 | Baseball, Personal
No, not that kind of size guide, get your minds out of the gutter, geez. lol.
This post has actually been a long time coming. It’s something that’s annoyed me quite a bit in the past and, while I’m sure it’s old news to most of you, I thought a handy guide couldn’t hurt.
I’m talking about CARD sizes, specifically thickness. The sizes provided by most binder page, magnetic holder, top loader manufactures make absolutely no “real world” sense. For example, there isn’t such a thing as “180pt” card stock. If you go to a printer and ask for that, perhaps to make your own cards, they’ll look at you like you’re an alien. Even the unit of measure, “points”, isn’t really the correct term. Most of the printing industry uses “pounds” to express paper thickness. Even then there’s a difference between “Bond lbs.”, “Offset Lbs.” and “Cover lbs”. It really depends on what you’re printing.
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by Matt | Jul 20, 2012 | Baseball
Another month, another awesome break from my good buddy Sam over at the DailyDimwit. This time he was busting Goudy, Unique and SPX. Just before he started opening boxes we worked out a trade for something extra special. You might have seen his half of the trade here, but here’s my loot.
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by Matt | Jul 11, 2012 | Baseball
Ginter, ginter, ginter. There, you happy now? I said it. It’s like you can’t not say it this time of year.
In 2010, I decided to start collecting baseball cards again. The very first thing I bought was 2010 Allen & Ginter. I blame Sam. Well, not completely. I asked him what was fun to collect, and he was right. 2010 Ginter was a lot of fun. I got my team set, a couple relics, had some fun. Then 2011 happened. I did not have fun. The distribution was terrible, beyond the normal terrible we all routinely complain about, it was just plain ugly. I opened, in back to back blasters, the same (even down to the mini) identical pack. In 3 blasters I got a total of TWO pieces of Carlos Pena’s pants. That’s way more Pena pants than anyone outside of the man himself should actually own. I said to myself, “well, this sucks, forget Ginter”, and promptly moved on to last years Gypsy Queens and Topps Chrome. I disliked just about everything about 2011 compared to 2010. I told myself I wasn’t even going to look at 2012. Then I saw the design. Damnit, they actually improved it. I really like Art Deco. It sucked me back in. Then I looked at the checklist. Half the number of crappy non-sports cards, also a plus. Better auto/relic selections, a plus. Damnit, I was going to buy Ginter again, I could feel it.
Then I did. Just one blaster, just to be sure… and I got this.
Ok Ginter, you’ve won. Just… let me down easy this time ok. No more pants.
by Matt | Jul 11, 2012 | Baseball
So, remember the other day when I said seeing little yellow envelopes in my mailbox made my day? Yeah, this does too!
A couple weeks ago Derek over at Tomahawk Chopping announced he was giving away some free cards. I made a comment, made a trade or two, and forgot all about it. Low and behold, I find this beauty in my mailbox the other day. 250+ very nice cards! Everything from regular Topps flagship to (my favorite) Chrome, to some great UD Signature Stars and Gypsy Queen. Awesome stuff Derek! Thanks, as always, for being more than generous!!
by Matt | Jul 10, 2012 | Baseball
With June we saw Tier 1 pop up on the grid and I, like most of you, “like” Tier 1 but don’t really plan on buying much of it. The very concept of “4 cards in a box” just rubs me the wrong way. Buying 1 of those cards off the poor sucker that bought said box however, that I find completely acceptable. They’re hoping to get $5k from their 1/1 Harper, I’m hoping to get that Ortiz jersey for $0.99, it’s a win-win for everyone, lol. I also inched closer to finishing some sets, which makes me happiest of all. Let’s see what the mailman brought this past month.
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by Matt | Jul 9, 2012 | Baseball
I’ve had my family in town all week, they came in for the 4th and to spend time with their grand-daughter. She’s loved every minute of it because Grandma and Grandpa spoil her rotten, as they should. The wife and I always try to come up with interesting things to do whenever people visit and this time the subject of an Astros game came up. 20 minutes and $30 later, thanks for Stubhub, we’re on our way. Not only that, but we got some pretty sweet seats.
That’s 1 section past 1st base (128), row 2. Not too shabby. You’d have to kill someone to get those seats at Fenway.
We got to the field about an hour and a half early, which I figured would be plenty of time to catch BP and maybe get some autographs. I was wrong. BP was long over and no one was signing except for Lucas Harrell, who I didn’t bring a baseball card for (or even have one for that matter). I did bring my Lowrie and Altuve cards but apparently (according to the security guy for our section) they don’t sign much. I also brought a couple Brewers cards (Greinke, Hart, Braun) but they had stopped signing and were warming up across the field. Oh well.
The game was pretty good, 10th inning win by the Brewers. The Astros bullpen pretty much imploded in the 9th and 10th and let the Brewers not only come back but go ahead and win.
It’s always fun to go to a game regardless of who’s playing or who wins. I know folks that say that watching something like the Stros’ and Brewers wouldn’t be worth it, that they’d rather save their money to watch two exciting teams go at it, but I couldn’t be more opposite than that. Pretty much the only games I can afford to go to are the “cheap” ones, and I enjoy them entirely. Just going to the ballpark is part of the fun. Maybe I’m just old fashion, but not every game needs to be Red Sox/Yankees for me to enjoy watching it.
I had a blast, saw a good game, and got some ice cream in a helmet. What more could you ask for! lol.
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