Thursday, April 28, 2016

Time to get to work

As much as I love the NFL and my Carolina Panthers, I don't follow college football so I can't get excited about tonight's NFL draft. So what does one do instead of watching young guys become millionaires?


He puts on the Braves game (holy crap, are they actually leading the Red Sox?!) and gets ready to put a large chunk of 2016 Gypsy Queen in pages.

I'm really enjoying this years GQ set. The base design looks great and the inserts are a little more interesting this year. I love the MVP mini set, however I've only pulled 4 so far and I've bought a good bit of retail blasters. Once I'm done with this tonight, I need to go through a large box that arrived last weekend from a deal I made with a Facebook user. More on that later. Well, I better get to work.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

These Nachos Grande are so good! (and so are his trades)

Every now and then I come across some things that the crazy Reds fan that runs NaA lotchos Grande doesn't have and we are able to strike up a trade. My latest deal with him consisted of sending him some Reds cards along with some Lego mini figures from the latest series. In return he helped me out with my 2016 Topps want list of both base cards and some of these awesome Perspective inserts.


A lot of the inserts from the flagship Topps set have really been lacking in originality the last few years in my opinion, but these Perspective cards are beautifully done. The sharp photography and full bleed design makes me think this is something from Stadium Club (minus the regular thickness card stock) and is a set I'm eager to finish.


I also got a few more inserts from this years Topps set including Berger's Best (not sure why I'm actively working on this set since this has been done before), Pressed into Service, the Wrigley Field set and the last Wacky Packages sticker I needed to finish the preview set.


These custom Allen & Ginter mini cards were a complete surprise! Personally I love the Freddie Freeman and the autograph card of his truly, Chris was a nice touch too. I'll have to find a place for these in one of my A&G binders. Thanks for such a great swap!

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Player Collections - Trials and Tribulations

Most collectors have at least one player they collect. This player or players may be collected for a myriad of reasons - hometown team, childhood idol, shares your birthday, etc. Many of the players I collect I admire their talent on the field, but I collect some of these players because of their impact off the field or for who they are as a person.

In the past I've made the decision to omit cards of players from my player or team collections due to something that happened off the field. Early in the Carolina Panthers history, promising rookie wide receiver, Rae Carruth, murdered his girlfriend and hid in the trunk of a car trying to evade the police. He was a high draft pick and I had a good many of his cards. Today, they have been purged from my Panthers collection. Same thing for Greg Hardy. I think I only had one or two cards of him in the first place, but those ended up in the garbage.

Now I'm faced with this whole Hector Olivera fiasco. Charged with assault two weeks ago in Virginia while the Braves were in town playing the Nationals, Hector has been suspended from the team while his case is being investigated. While he was arrested, he hasn't been formally convicted of the crime he is accused of. If he is charged then there is a very, very good chance the few cards I have of him will be pulled from my Braves collection.

All of this just got me wondering if others have felt compelled to pull or sell cards of players you may collect when they run into serious off the field issues. Do you look the other way and keep the cards? Do you even want these cards in your collection or does it not bother you what players do in their personal lives? Why do you collect who you do and if you were in my shoes how would you react?

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Trade with Finding Time for Cardboard

Andy from Finding Time for Cardboard and I recently helped each other by sending each other some cardboard we wanted. This package from actually came in about a week ago, but I was sitting on the white sand beach of Half Moon Cay last week this time.


Inside the package was a nice mixture of cards from a few want lists such as 2016 Topps, 2015 Allen & Ginter and 2015 Gypsy Queen, plus several cards from various players I collect. Much thanks for the 2016 Topps as I creep closer and closer to finishing series 1.


In the PC stack were a few cards of David Justice, Jeff Francoeur, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. I particularly like the Fleer Sports Illustrated card of Justice. I always loved that set...the great full bleed photography, simple design and glossy thick card stock.


Andy even tossed in one of the Braves cards from the new 2016 Wacky Packages MLB set. I'm actually working on this set so it was nice to get another of this card for my Braves collection.

I appreciate the deal and better yet, I got a new blog to put on my blogroll! Thanks for the cards Andy...let's do this again sometime.