Cabin fever cards

Posted by cardboard hogs on March 15, 2017

About a month ago, my family took a weekend trip to Mt. Hood, with me, i went too. We’re lucky enough to have good friends that own a small cabin in the woods and are more than happy and willing to share the tiny abode from time to time. It’s near Rhododendron, which is close to Zig Zag, which is close to Welches, which is close to Government Camp, which is close to Mt. Hood…it’s on Mt. Hood actually. The cabin is a small, one bed timber framed cabin with a kitchenette, it’s…umm… cozy…(read small)…but it is nicely nestled in the forest off a small unpaved road. Normally the roads are covered in snow, but we were able to visit just after a heavy rain storm that washed away most of the snow, leaving some ice.

cabin road

I believe these cabins were once used to house park rangers that would work during the year. It allowed them to retreat to a nice home after a long day at work rather than travel to and from their own homes each day. For one person, these cabins are crazy comfortable, for two people, it’s perfect…for two people and a toddler…you need more space. A LOT MORE SPACE! But, hey it’s free…and i got some cards to open while i was there too!

That blurry flash is my child doing his best to run around in a small building while my wife makes snacks and i build a manly fire. So, cards.

One of my goals with the renewed interest in blogging was to open packs or do something card oriented each time i travel. We were kind of in that weird time of year where the 2016s didn’t interest me anymore and the new 2017’s weren’t out yet…other than the flagship Topps…which i already had a box of. So i picked up one of those dreaded repack jobs that deliver very little in return. Spoiler alert, my low expectations were met with a couple of mild surprises. Let’s take a look.

As the box mentioned, 4 packs and a total of 50 cards and a BONUS! Before we open everything, let’s do a little inventory. The 4 packs were of 2015 Topps (2), 2016 Leaf Babe Ruth Collection (1), and 2016 Gypsy Queen (1). The white box of surprises had a little mini Twins baseball guy which was quickly jacked by the toddler. There were 53 cards in the white box, so i’m already ahead no matter what happens. Here are some Topps highlights.

Justin Upton and Clayton Kershaw were the only names of significant note for me. Hey, notice the vintage table pattern, apparently the table has been in the same location for over 50 years…i imagine it’s been moved a time or two to sweep though.

A couple insert cards. High leg kicking Carlton and top 40 Free Agent Robbie Cano. One of these guys is going in to my collection and the other one is going in to the Phillies box i got in my basement. Let’s take a look at the Gypsy Queen cards!

A couple of real DBacks.

BB GQ McCovey

A power alley McCovey.

BB GQ mini Drury

And a mini Brandon Drury…a Diamondbacks hot pack i guess. Now lets take a look at the Ruth cards.

Two odd photos of Babe Ruth, kids and bats.

Two odd photos of Babe Ruth swinging things that aren’t baseball bats.

BB LR Ruth 1

One photo of Babe Ruth doing baseball warm ups, his Career Achievements card…but what about that white box? Mostly junk wax stuff, but kind of fun to look through. There were three cards of note that made me want to take a photograph of them, and here they are…in order of how much i like them, from least to most.

BB box Jackson Winfield

Some Yankee stuff

BB box Posey

A Posey Bowman.

BB box Jeter

A Jeter Diamond King! Yay! This was by far the best card in the bunch, pretty nice card. I think i may have a copy or two of this one, but it’s still a nice little piece to pull in a cabin in the woods.

the end…

Something that’s hopefully appropriate for this post…family member, Paul Riddle on the drum kit here.

I can make a M’s hat more famous than a Mariner can

Posted by cardboard hogs on December 7, 2013

I took some artistic licensing with the well know Jay-Z verse on this post.

Robinson Cano is no longer a Yankee and I am kind of sad about that.

Next to Jeter, he was my favorite baseball player…a very close second mind you. I loved his hitting and his quiet confidence on the field, some may say it was apathy or laziness. I’m going with subtle greatness. The kind of numbers he put up, you had to love him as a baseball player. Even if you are a Yankee hater. I have complete respect for Dustin Pedroia and you should have respect for Cano.

My admiration for him will continue to keep him in my personal collection for the duration of his career, albeit less of a priority now to Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg. I can take some joy in the fact that he is now a Mariner and I don’t hate them. I actually like the M’s and have the opportunity to watch him more frequently on TV and possibly in person…if I can convince the wife to take a trip or two up to Seattle. Which is never too difficult! The great thing about Panini cards is that they only need to change New York to Seattle. DONE! No additional photoshop skills needed!

As for the Mariners locking him up for 10 years at $240M, i can’t believe that’s a great contract for them in their market. Now, i’m no market analyst, but i’m just thinking that when I pick through the great baseball franchises the Mariners rarely come up, if ever. That’s not to say I don’t like them. I am actually a fan of theirs and tried my hardest to make them my second team when i moved to Portland…but I just couldn’t do it. Other than Ichiro, they didn’t have any player that I could latch on to. Griffey, A-Rod and Randy Johnson were gone and they were a franchise sinking away. They have King Felix, whom I love to watch pitch, but doesn’t really do it for me.

I really hope this signing helps catapult them into relevance as Seattle is a phenomenal baseball town with a gorgeous ballpark. I just don’t know if his contract is going to allow them to get the various pieces they need to compete year in and year out against the thrifty A’s and powerful Angels and Rangers…and Astros.

Robbie is going to continue to put up great numbers and play well for the M’s, but i’m thinking in 3-5 years he will end up getting dealt for prospects to a larger market team. Maybe the Yankees?

Don’t go Cano!

Posted by cardboard hogs on December 3, 2013

There are rumors that Robbie Cano may be joining the Seattle Mariners. I’m torn. I would love to see him stay with the pinstripes as he is currently my favorite player on my currently favorite team. He’s demanding a boat load of money and with the amount of dollars the Yankees spent today and last week, i’m not sure they can afford Cano…i’m also not sure he wants to return to the team…or maybe Jay-Z doesn’t want him to re-join the Yanks. Did you know that Hova can make a Yankee hat for famous than a Yankee can? Maybe he’s trying to outshine Cano, i don’t know.

Here is a shiny colorful gold parallel card of Cano sidearming the ball to what i would assume is first base.

Ellsbury is not worth $20+ million a year.

Holy crap, that’s a lot of cash.

Box Break: 2013 Bowman

Posted by cardboard hogs on June 1, 2013

Bowman is one of those in between sets for me. Do I buy packs? A box and build the set? Pull my favorites out and part ways with the rest of them?

I’m not a prospector, but I love to pull some of the great rookies that I read about.

I don’t put together too many sets, but I love to buy packs and sometimes a box of cards that I enjoy openings packs of.

I like inserts, but too many of them become overwhelming.

Bowman has a way of providing a response to each of these contradictions in my collecting habits. When Topps brought back the Bowman cards in 1989, my friend Alex and I were all in. The cards were weird and big and didn’t fit well anywhere, but they were cool and had a Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card. Griff was the man in 1989 and his rookie cards were something every kid in America that collected cards wanted. I had them all, and loved the oversized Bowman version (after the Upper Deck version of course…) Although the cards weren’t that great. The photography was a little grainy at times and the overall design was weak…plus the stat on the back were quite confusing and took some getting used to. Either way I was going to collect this set…and all other versions that would come out in the future. That was, until 1992 rolled around. The card quality became significantly better and the rookie class was pretty stellar at the time (I still have my Raul Mondesi in a screw down holder, iknowright!). 1992 was also the time I began to realize I can’t collect everything…because I couldn’t afford it. So I never completed the set and ended up getting rid of my other sets from the previous years.

Fast forward to the future that is today. The card quality has improved exponentially and in relation to the other stuff that’s being issued, Bowman is quite affordable. I’ve purchased a box of these the past three years and took a bigger step this year and bought the jumbo pack box from Dave and Adam’s card world. Here is my review.

Card Design – 3 of 5

The overall design of the cards is quite simple, which I love.

No extra weird things going on here, just some simple graphics and all the basic information you need on a baseball card. I do like the subtle variation on the front of the card that differentiates the Bowman Prospects from the Major Leaguers. Bowman also carried this through as they do on the back of the card with the numbering and color of the card stock.

Photography – 3 of 5

The photographs are your typical action photos mixed in with awkwardly posed for photos of young men in uniforms. There are a lot of beards and facial hair in general around the world these days and the major league baseball franchise is no different. I’m thinking Panini needs to do a facial hair card set. Maybe Josh Reddick get the coveted #1 card?

Hits – 4 of 5

Like I said before, I’m no prospector. I simply don’t have the patience or wherewithal to invest in people I don’t know and Bowman counts on people doing this. That’s what makes this set so wonderful though. If you do pull a great auto of a young talented player or a refractor you have a nice piece of cardboard. If you don’t, well, you have something shiny to look at i guess. Another thing with the hits is that you have to wait a couple of years for these guys to pan out and get a year or two under their belts. Just because you are a top 100 prospect doesn’t mean you are going to be a star in the bigs. All that said, It’s nice to get the ‘First Bowman card’ of a potential star.

Another thing that i really enjoy about the Bowman cards and the young stars is the names of these kids. Damn.

Review

Bowman is always fun to open and the cards are always a very solid quality. I’m not sure if I will buy a jumbo box next year unless i plan to start building the sets again…but getting 32 cards in a pack is pretty cool.

The overall look and feel of the cards is great, nothing to complain about here, plus the price is right with Bowman, especially for what you get.

Mini’s are cool.

So are Flags…

and blue or maybe purple cards?

$13 BB Brett Gerritse Blue Refractor 60:250$ and who doesn’t love them some autographs!

$13 BB Yordano Ventura Refractor Auto 79:500$

The Mettle of Cano’s Mettle

Posted by cardboard hogs on April 28, 2013

I really like this card.

I wasn’t sure what the term mettle meant, so i looked it up…’A person’s ability to cope well with difficulties or to face a demanding situation in a spirited and resilient way.’ I would say that describes Robbie pretty well. He’s having to deal with the HGH allegations as well as being the team leader every day on the field without Jeter, Teixeira, Granderson and A-Rod. I would say that’s definitely courage and fortitude at it’s finest.

Cool pose and a nice chunk of mettle, and you can see the mettle in his eyes and confident smile. It’s all coming full circle now kids. A full 360 degrees. Robbie Cano donchaknow

NOT GUILTY!

Posted by cardboard hogs on April 22, 2013

It seems that Robbie Cano has gotten mixed up in a little guilt by association that ESPN’s Outside the Lines has been tracking. Sure hope Robbie isn’t guilty on this one…that would surely be a heartbreaker for me. I love watching the guy play. Guess we will have to wait and see what happens in the next few weeks.

Look at that face…That’s the face of an innocent man!

My GQ Post

Posted by cardboard hogs on April 10, 2013

Each year when Gypsy Queen comes out, I get a little excited about the cards…but it’s always tempered. I think the cards look great and the photography is really nice, but i don’t love them. Don’t hate them either. Kind of indifferent I guess. My annual buy in is maybe a few hobby and retail packs, possibly a blaster or two from target, but that’s about it. I think my aversion to the cards is the lack of statistical information on the back…or it could be the overly ornate border? As an architect, i’ve been trained to have a dislike for ornament and decoration so i guess that has carried in to my hobbies as well. The celtic-like border is nice, just not my cup of tea.

One thing that i really do like about GQ is the inclusion of age old veterans in the base set. Topps does a nice job with these and making them blend in nicely with the other modern players. Rarely do the players appear dated and they are never irrelevant to current collectors. PLUS, i always think it’s great to include HOF’ers and past great players so the young kids can learn a little history about the game and have a card from someone their parents or grandparents enjoyed watching play.

I also do enjoy the inserts that GQ comes up with. The two cards below are a great example of this. It’s nice to have the a highlight reel play represented on a card. We all remember the Trout catch last season as it was shown incessantly on the MLB network as well as the mothership.

Mini’s. Can’t go wrong with minis and you can’t go wrong with these two guys. One thing i enjoy about the mini cards is that i can put them at my desk at the office for a little while to enjoy the new pieces of cardboard. How great was Eddie Mathews? When people talk about the all time greats, i feel like he is always forgotten. Imagine if he played in New York how much more popular he would be? And just look at Lou Brock…chillin…total GQ pose…the other one.

Not overly excited about these inserts, but both pitchers are/were pretty great and the photos capture their intensity well.

Here is a ‘hit’ from the rack pack i bought. It’s Jacoby Ellsbury. He’s pretty big here in Portland since he played at Oregon State and from Madras…but he’s a Red Sock, so i’m not too excited about him…he is pretty great though. Love that they mention how great a player he is when he’s healthy.

And the best has been saved for the very last. Mr. Cano donchaknow. Pretty cool to get the base and a retail white border card in the same rack pack of a player you collect. Wonder why Topps removed teh vertical portion of the elegant border on the left and right sides as well as the name panel on the bottom?

Box Break: 2013 Topps Heritage

Posted by cardboard hogs on March 18, 2013

Have you ever had a hot box, or better yet, been hot boxed. Well, I was hot boxed over the weekend and it was wonderful. I saw blue refractors everywhere while listening to the Stones. There were giant heads and men shooting imaginary arrows after pulling ripe plantains out of their pants. Others were smiling, giggling and simply staring in to space…and I swear I saw a Marlin with photos taken before and after a clean shave. It was all magical, and now the trip is over…the flashback is now Monday night and I have a hangover.

Topps Heritage is a set that I LOVE putting together each year. I know a lot of folks out there are indifferent or hate it, but I really enjoy the set. I love that it’s set at a decent price. I also love that you can complete a base set with minimal headaches while managing to still eat lunch each day. I admit the SP’s and SSP’s are a little bit of a pain, but isn’t that what collectors really want? They can definitely come off as gimmicks, but they also represent the desire to chase and build sets. Part of my enjoyment with collecting cardboard is that I know I can’t have everything I want…even though I really want everything. To me, that is the joy in collecting. The chase. I have binders of the flagship Topps set with all the cards in their proper position. I have binder of Topps Heritage with huge chunks of cardboard missing. It’s infuriating at times but I can’t quit it. It’s like that girl in high school that talked to you enough to be a friend, but you just couldn’t get closer to her…it was the chase. You didn’t hate her for it, you knew deep down that nothing would ever happen, but it never stopped you from trying did it? That’s what I love about Heritage. I will never complete all the Heritage sets I’ve started, but I will try and will buy boxes to open packs to put in sleeves…that’s what I do. That’s why I collect.

To chase the un-obtainable.

Ok, I’ve been rambling a bit here tonight. Each year I buy a few boxes of Heritage throughout the year to build a full set with all the SP’s. This year I ordered my boxes in advance from Dave and Adam’s cardworld and have slowly started to open them. Just out of curiosity, I did something I’m a little embarrassed about. I weighed each box on a small digital scale my wife uses around the kitchen. I found three different sizes of the boxes 1lb 4 3/4oz, 1lb 5oz and 1lb 5 7/8oz. Hmmm. Think I’m going to open the heavy box first. Glad I did as it was what must have been a HOTBOX!

Holy Hot Rocks I’m Hot, so give up the props – just a little something from Redman to lead into the magical Blue Refractor imagery.

$12 TH Jeter Rivera Blue Refractor$

I also managed to pull an awkward looking Adam Jones Clubhouse Collection White Jersey Card.

Here is the archer/plantain man. Just watched him lock it down against the Netherlands. Any fans of the WBC out there? I’ve really been enjoying it this year, plus the Dominican Republic team is stacked like an all star team.

A young stoned Stones. This photo was taken before Keith Richards made his deal with whatever devil that allowed him to live to 150. Maybe he’s a vampire?

Lots of gigantic heads in the ’64 remake here. Wonder if that was the trend in the mid 60’s, to get right up in a man’s face and release the shutter? I’m not up on my camera lens history, but I imagine a lot of fixed lenses back then creating the up close shots. One of the many reasons I like Heritage is their attentiveness to focusing on the mimicked set. My one complaint about it would be the photos though. I think Topps could take easily use the same angles and focal lengths, but get sharper photos rather than attempting to copy the grainy old school photos. I know, I know…that’s the whole point of this set. I just think the technology of today shouldn’t be limited in order to duplicate what couldn’t be done 50 years ago.

I got a Heritage Suite card too, SSSP?

The thing I love about this card is these two guys look like a before and aftershave photo. Maybe Mr. Mattison can find a razor and trim that beast up a bit?

Nothing to hide.

This guy is WAY TOO INTENSE.

Card Design 3.5 of 5

This isn’t one of my favorite designs, it’s a little too simple for my liking. The backs are great and I think Topps has done a great job matching the original design and feel of the cards again.

Photography 3.5 of 5

The photography is what it is. They are matching what was done previously. Just think more can be done, especially with all the technology we have now.

Hits 3.5 of 5

Although this box was pretty dope, I can’t say that Heritage has great hits. They just don’t and that’s what has a lot of folks upset. That’s not my concern though. I like the Clubhouse Collection cards as simple and non-descript as they are, I think they work for this price point and set. The box toppers are only nice if you don’t get a panel. The panels are terrible because you can’t really do anything with them and nobody wants them…at least that I know.

Review

I have a long way to go to completing this set, but I am going to enjoy every minute of it regardless of what people think. I like the simple non glossy cardboard that is Heritage. It reminds me of the cards I collected as a kid, only better stock.