Rickey goes to Powells

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 10, 2015

…but only to browse…

I ~~like~~ love books, especially those big books with lots of images. The books with eye candy, great graphic layouts and really cool images. Sometimes I even read the words that are printed in the books…but that takes more time…so it doesn’t happen as much. One of the great things about working downtown is being close to Powells, one of the greater things about working at the office I work is having Powells right across the street…like, i can see if from my desk across the street…well, not at my new desk, but at desks that i’ve sat in before. Powells is a great place to stroll around after lunch and see what’s out or what’s on sale for that month. Most of my visits are just visits and not purchase visits…you know, to get inspired. I need that as an architect, visual inspiration!

So, Rickey and I went to the art+architecture section which is in a much better spot with the revised layout. they always had a layout table there, but the one that’s in now is much larger and better for laying out books, but this visit wasn’t about laying out books, it was about finding photo ops for wallet card Rickey! The first stop…was…wowza…Not really sure what’s going on here, but hey, Rickey thought it was cool.

Rickey is all about helping and lending a helping hand. Sometimes the greatest of the greats need some inspiration, like LeCorbusier. It’s not easy being an architectural genius and making ribbon windows and pilotis look magical all the time…but Rickey is there to lend a smile and a wave a wand of confidence!

Rickey likes space. I liked Interstellar. So this was appropriate for the moment. This book was pretty cool actually. Lots of great images of different space suits and equipment from a fashion perspective.

My favorite architect is Peter Zumthor. You kids in LA are about to be blessed with his renovation and complete reworking of how LACMA is being laid out. Before the wifey and I got married, i convinced her to visit a thermal spa in Switzerland, which really didn’t take much arm twisting. Anyways, the Therme Vals is a spectacular place to visit if you ever find yourself near Zurich. Rickey likes it lots.

At this point, Rickey wanted to see photos of Rickey’s greatness. Rickey likes him some Rickey…and Donny Baseball.

But most of all, Rickey likes it when Rickey sets records. Unbreakable records. Rickey is also pretty fond of this jersey.

Wallet card Rickey has a hot date tonight.

Podoley Mail Day!

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 8, 2015

Mr. Hog got some mail today from the electronic bay. A very nice copy of Jim Podoley’s 1959 Topps card graded PSA 8. Quite a nice card with no real visible marks or scuffs on the surfaces. I’m guessing it was graded an 8 due to the off centering as the corners are pretty sharp.

Jim played for the Redskins for four seasons (1957-1960) making the Pro Bowl in 1957. He crossed the end zone 13 times which isn’t too bad considering how poorly the team played during that stretch going 13-31-4…wretched! Although you would never know it with a smile like that!

Looking at Jim’s stat’s he looks to have been the old timey version of a deep threat or had ridiculous YAC totals racking up an average gain of 23.8 yards for his 16 receptions.

Unfortunately, Jim passed away in 2010 from melanoma…please remember to get your moles checked, wear sunblock and stay out of the sun as much as possible…for real. That cancer is no joke.

Ode to the Glory days…not really.

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 7, 2015

The Redskins suck. I get it. They are a terrible football organization owned by a man who cannot make a good, sound football decision to save his fans lives. Each time they try something that seems like a good idea, it bottoms out and the wheels fall off way too often. One beacon of hope is the hiring of a legitimate, talent finding General Manager (Scot McCloughan) that has been highly involved with two, currently, well run organizations (Seahawks and 49ers…also Packers). They guy is an apparent scout savant. I’ve always wanted to be a savant at something. But my talent is limited and my skill-set has not reached great levels in anything of relevance. I am a pretty decent collector of things and at one time a great organizer of said things…but those days have been altered by life and the responsibilities of being a grown up.

Collecting cards and organizing them is a huge stress relief for me. I can get lost in them at times and love looking at the dated styes of the card design, jerseys and equipment. As i’ve finally gotten around to organizing my Redskin team sets and realized i have a gigantic amount of duplicates, i thought what better way to organize them then to make a Redskins Frankenset! Yes! A Frankenset. I will take all of the duplicates and numerically add them to a new binder filled with ultra pro platinum sheets purchased from my favorite LCS The Sports Room! Wonderful!

I’ve come up with a couple of basic rules:

1. no duplicates of the same set on each page, don’t be fooled by some of the images here, those are just cards behind missing spots in the binder.

2. all time favorites will get their card numbers, i.e. Art Monk get #81 and John Riggins gets #44. this may be tough as it could be difficult for some players…or not?

3. a unique player on each page, so no duplicate sets or players on the same page.

These are fairly generic as of now and i’ve still got quite a few cards to go through before i can add anything to the Frankenset, but it’s a start.

At some point, i will create a spreadsheet and track all of this wonderful stuff.

side note…Rickey went to Buffalo Wild Wings today for lunch but didn’t really want to make an appearance, Rickey doesn’t like wings apparently…

Record Shop Rickey

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 6, 2015

With my minimal card purchases lately and a revival in the Hogs Blog, i’ve decided to do another wallet card post with Rickey. Now, Rickey can be a moody fella and not always interested in some randomness, so i dragged him along to my annual post lunch Tuesday record shop visit. Working downtown, i have two great options for vinyl digging…Everyday Music and my personal favorite 2nd Ave. Records. Today’s visit was Everyday. Now, I wasn’t on a hunt to buy anything (that’s for my lovely wife) but to see what was out and what may peak Rickey’s interest…Take a look at what we found.

Being an lifelong fan of the rap music i always look down that aisle first. Taking a quick scan, what do i see, but the classic doggystle album! Rickey isn’t a fan of soft core porn so he did his best job of covering up the booty on the cover. Unfortunately, that bat is in an odd location…Snoop isn’t too crazy about Rickey blocking the booty, so he gives him a lil’ nudge.

Sometimes you can look in to the mind of a great artist and see greatness. In this case Flying Lotus’ beam of light is actually Rickey Henderson! The glowing orb from a glowing legend, look at that Rickey smile! Side note, this album is wonderful…my favorite Lotus album to date.

There are a couple of things that Rickey doesn’t like. One of them is the way this dude spells his name…and that suit. Jeezy Creezy! That suit man. I can overlook the finely feathered hair, but that suit! They name though had Rickey up in arms…sorry for all the Ricky Skaggs fans out there, I know there are multitudes of you people.

Now, hanging out in a dusty old record shop (which this isn’t really one of those…), you run in to some Riff Raff. This Riff Raff likes babies and puppy huskies, but who doesn’t really. I love puppy huskies. They are soft and cuddly. Babies on the other hands are crazy work and will pee on you. Whether or not you believe Riff Raff is a Neon Icon or not, this dude is blowing up like crazy…not my cup of tea, but to each his own.

Rickey had a good day…but not as good as Riff Raff’s life right now…

Rickey visits Target

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 5, 2015

First day back at work and the first day of toting a baseball card in my pocket all day long. This is a fantastic way to start the year…in order to save some money around our house, the wife and i have been diligently packing our lunches on a daily basis. Typically i hate left overs, but i hate not having money either…that really sucks, like really really sucks. I also really hate staying in the office all day long so it’s a double whammy for me. My solution has been to eat quickly, not stomach cramping quickly, but fast enough to make a nice little walk around downtown P-Town for 30-45 minutes to look at people and things. It’s also a great time to hit up the Target for few random requirements like lithium batteries and cliff bars. These are both vital to me staying active and healthy. The battery for the bike speedometer and the cliff bars to keep me from donking off mid-day. Today was special though. It was a chance for wallet Rickey to see the world…unfortunately i was in a rush today so we didn’t spend too much time with the photo shoot, but needless to say, Rickey likes transformers…you can’t wipe that smile off his face.

See, he has a huge smile…it’s so great to see Rickey being Rickey in the toy aisle. Rickey will be making a trek to the record shop tomorrow afternoon and just might make an appearance at Whole Foods. It’s a big day for Rickey, so he needs to get some rest…his corners are rounding out. It’s time for a nap.

A New Year, A New Post

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 4, 2015

Man, oh man…it has been a very, very long time since i’ve had the time to post anything here. Not sure if anyone has checked in periodically or just assumed i’ve dropped off the face of the blogosphere earth. I still collect, i still read other blogs and i still am trying to get organized. That has been the main reason for my absence, well, that and a very active and passionate 2 year old exhausting all of my free energy. I love him dearly, but i have cards to write about…

As i mentioned, i am still doing all the things that we do as collectors and i’ve managed to make some great progress in getting organized and up to date on my checklists…thanks to a few late nights on the home computer and an extended vacation from work. My main focus has been on getting everything logged from the 1950’s-1990’s. Everything was sweet until i hit the abyss of the mid 90’s when subsets and serial numbers and various parallels became all the unreasonable rage. This was also the period of time when i put the hobby aside to be a 20 year old male. I’ve regained my focus and will have some checklists updated in the next few weeks to months as they get incorporated in to google docs.

Enough with the words. Here are some photos of a few cards from the 1950 and 1952 Bowman sets i’ve picked up the past 6 months.

Normally, bloggers like to save their best for last. Not me. This one cost a few nickels but was very much worth it to me. It’s a beautiful card and centered fairly well…the corner are in pretty nice condition too. I looked at a few 8’s that were available on eBay and were well outside what i could spend and feel ok with myself. This one wasn’t too bad and it’s in great shape.

One of the things that i wanted to do with my set was get each of the Redskins cards from 1959 and earlier graded, so i searched around and picked up what i could from eBay and from the local card shop just around the corner from me, Hoopla Sports. The guys there are great and have nice deals on what i’m looking for…this isn’t one of them though. This one was scooped from eBay. Love how i drop the curve on you huh? completely unrelated story and then this image.

I love the smaller format cards from the 50’s. The card designers and artists did an amazing job with them and holding these pieced in your had you can really appreciate the amount of work that had to go in to each layout.

Collecting redundancy happens quite a bit in our hobby. You pick up multiple variations of cards…red cards, yellow cards, blue cards…rarely, but sometimes, you pick up the same card that comes in two different sizes like this large Dick Alban…large Dick…

OK, here’s my shot at ending on a high note. Another Slinging’ Sammy Baugh card…1952 Bowman Small. I waited and waited on this card in hopes of finding one at a great price from eBay and finally stumbled across a guy that had it listed as BIN. I made him an offer that he quickly refused and came back with something a little better. After another number from him, i finally got it shipped. A little more than i hoped to get for it, but much less than others had their versions priced at.

We have two shows coming up this month and i’m hoping to make one of them. The Cedar Hills show is much closer to me but tends to be less occupied by dealers and i end up walking away feeling like i wasted my time…but it is closer…if not, i will hit up the show at Mall 205 to see what they have going on…hopefully my friend from COMC, Tom will be there?

One last item, i am going to attempt to do the wallet card “challenge” and see what 365 days in my side pocket will do to a 1986 Topps Rickey Henderson. I chose this card because it has my favorite player on it in my favorite baseball teams jersey…and it was the first set i ever completed. Here is day one, which started yesterday…so 363 days in my side pocket.

…side note, i’m rockin’ a money clip this year as i do not like wallets, so let’s call it the money clip challenge here.

Vintage ‘skins

Posted by cardboard hogs on September 29, 2014

hey, you got any vintage Redskins cards from the 1950’s you lookin’ to unload? i need some help!

1950’s Washington Redskins checklist

where in the hell have i been? doing this and that, getting organized…that’s where. seriously though, let me know if you have any buried treasures with redskins logos on them…help a brother out.

Crazy Card Show success!

Posted by cardboard hogs on March 9, 2014

This past Saturday, Mall 205 had their monthly show (although there wasn’t one in February). I hadn’t been to a show since the end of last year (although I stopped at the Cedar Hills show for about 20 minutes) and was really excited to see some new product and pick up a few cards for my various personal collections (way too many of those things for me right now). As usual, I stopped by Tom’s table.

Tom is always my first stop. He’s extremely personable, easy to talk to and is more than happy to pull cards for the regulars…like me. He also works at Check Out my Cards (COMC.com for the cool kids)…which is cool…really cool. They seem to be one of the few companies that are working to strengthen the hobby rather than dictate it’s direction. Their new plan for databasing cards seems like a wonderful idea and one that the hobby is in desperate need of. I’m not really sure how the details work for the database creation, but that’s not my job to figure out…only to contribute in some way.

Now that i’ve completely lost track of what I was talking about…I should get back to the card show.

Tom’s table.

So a few weeks ago, I sent Tom a list of cards to fill my Redskins Topps team sets and didn’t think much of it. Apparently Tom took the list very seriously and hit me off with a huge stack of cards from the 70’s and 80’s nearly obliterating my checklist.

Redskins Lot 1

So freakin’ wonderful. Plus! He put them all in penny sleeves and top loaders. Double Plus! He told me he pulled most of them off the COMC.com inventory, which saved me a few dollars in shipping and more than likely a few dollars in the asking price.

Needless to say, I was blown away. The only bad thing was the stack of cards was going to cost me my card show budget for the day. I sifted through what Tom had and saw he had a few other cards I didn’t need. Pulled the ones I wanted and needed and we made a deal that allowed me to troll around the show for a few other bargains. I was more than happy to part with a chunk of my cash for this chunk of cards.

I need to get my checklists updated for the 90’s and 2000’s now. Gotta keep Tom busy, you know. Once again, Tom, if you are reading this…thank you very much. You saved me some money and no telling how much time.

Here is a peek of some of the other Redskins cards I got from Tom. New stuff and some rando’s that will soon be crossed off a list thas has yet to be generated. Yes, those are mini cards, not some weird proportion bending photo.

There were also these kids. Some new rookies, some Cooleys and some 2000’s thingys.

I did pick up a few other Harper’s, Hanley’s and Strasburg’s at the show which I hope to scan and post in the coming days (months depending on the lil boys needs…)

2014 Topps S1 – Packs 7 and 8

Posted by cardboard hogs on February 27, 2014

Yeah, it’s been a while. I haven’t posted since the 10th. I was on such a roll too! Life.

I’m going to stick with the 2014 Topps Jumbo duo pack breakdown because I like order and crossing things of off lists. It’s a problem, but it’s my problem. I pray to whatever you choose to believe in that you have already seen these cards, so that none of them should be eye openers. My hope though is that i can knock it out of the park with my witty narrative…or not. You will be the judge of that.

I’m going to go ahead and start with the box autograph ‘hit’. Not because i’m super excited about it, but because if you are reading this, you probably pulled this auto as well. From what i’ve seen on the other blogs, this card is a popular pull from this years Topps. Way to diversify your packs Mr. Topps company. Andrew Lamb-oh everyone.

I did get a couple of Harper’s in one pack. My first look through the pack and i completely missed the Power Player logo on the lower right of the card. It’s a Harper parallel and an insert. Nice. Here’s hoping the Bryce kid tears it up this season and avoids walls.

Another nice little pull from these two packs was a Casey Janssen black border card. See! It has a black border!

Next up is a Derek Jeter All Rookie Cup team. It’s not the athletic supporter type of cup, which is probably best for us all considering how many gift baskets this guy has handed out. He is stellar in his accomplishments on and off the field. A legend.

Maddux Mini. Why is the border yellow? WHY!

A gimmicky base card from Topps that you have seen on every blog from everyone that has opened a Topps pack this year. I can’t wait to put this one in a 9 pocket sleeve in a binder and forget all about it. He’s catching a football. Maybe I should get out my Nolan Ryan slinging the pigskin card out and put them side by side.

I pulled two buy back cards and this one is a very Brave Ralph Garr, no relation to Terry Garr I imagine. Maybe thirds cousins?

Sean Doolittle closing it out with a very red and pubic-y beard and 90’s Oakley glasses and a t-shirt that has words on it. Great photo selection Topps. Great selection.

Two more packs to go with a nice thick card that will make some of you smile, and then it’s back to some good ole vintage Redskins…or maybe a few card show pickups from a future show.

Oh hey, i’ve gotten around to posting a few very random cards on ebay. Please take a look if you are interested in bidding on them. The cards that don’t sell will be available for trade, or will end up back on ebay.

2014 Topps S1 – Packs 5 and 6

Posted by cardboard hogs on February 10, 2014

I’m now 6 packs deep and haven’t pulled a big hit…but I’m going to show you what i’ve got anyways. Because I know you all love to see some scans of base cards and stuff.

Donny Baseball was one of my favorite players growing up, not Rickey Henderson favorite, but way ahead of whomever was third at the time…maybe Nolan Ryan or George Brett? Mattingly was always an elusive pull or me. I never got his card in the packs I bought during the 1985 and 1986 seasons. I got a whole bunch of 1987 Topps though…damn that set was so overproduced. I think I had about 4 complete sets that year due to everyone in my family buying me boxes from Sam’s. Mattingly seemed destined for the Hall of Fame and put up phenomenal numbers especially with a healthy Rickey Henderson hitting in front of him. Seeing this young skinny photo of Donny baseball brings back some great memories of being a young collector. I appreciate Topps pulling old stock photos of baseballs legends and the players that were really good. It keeps the older kids connected and provides a great lesson for the kids that are starting to collect.

Topps has also provided the kids with a look at their previous card designs, which is also a very good thing in my mind. Although, i’m not sure if copying the late 80’s and early 90’s is the way to go. Best to make up for it by making these babies die cut.

Here are some Power Player cards that have powerful players on them. Yadi would like to salute you and Giancarlo is getting a Marlin cortisone shot to the knee…sorry…I couldn’t think of anything else to add to these cards. It’s a parallel that could have been more parallel-y in my mind. I guess changing the border color has been done a million times. Maybe if they edited out the backgrounds…I don’t know, crap. I actually didn’t notice these were Power Player cards at first pass. My oversight was corrected when I realized that these ‘base’ cards should not have been in the middle of the pack. I’m sleuthy!

Love the Mo cards. Love the bottom one the most though. Such a great baseball moment.

The next two cards are last because they deserve to be last.

Although the back of Melky’s card doesn’t suggest anything about PED as Night Owl had suggested it should. I find it telling that Topps decided to quote A-Rod with the very insightful “He’s a big, big, big-time player.” That’s three bigs. I would have gone with he’s a big, bigger, biggest time player but that wouldn’t make much sense either. Don’t do drugs kids, especially if they are to be inserted with needles.

Lastly. This guy. The finger pointer. Topps was smart enough to not drop any photos of him with eye black. I’m finding it difficult to justify writing what I feel about his homophobic eye black last year. He seemed to play it off as ignorance and something that wasn’t a big deal.

But, I’m an adult and I know words can be filled with hate and bad intentions. My dilemma though, is that I’m a die hard Redskins fan. Another term that has been deemed as hateful or oppressive. It’s an unfair position for me to be ok with one derogatory term but not with another. It doesn’t really matter if one is worse, if the words offend someone than it’s an offensive term…besides, what’s with finger pointing at the cameraman? Who does that?