A Sunburn and a New Puppy: a Trade Post

So I was gone for a week or so there.  Did you miss me?  I missed you.

I was aboard this floating monument to excess:

In my entire tenure there (outside of the Mississippi River delta, at least) I was without phone and Internet - it was wonderful. 

We had some fun, got into a little trouble, and tore the roof off the sucker in general.  Two of my friends got married (to each other), and I lost a little money in poker but made it all back at the craps table.



My one good hand all week



We stopped off in Progreso and Cozumel, and we drank lots and lots of rum.

I mean lots.

Nearly there.....

Close enough.


But now I'm back on dry land.  The sunburn I picked up at Playa Mia lingers in that stage of healing between itching and peeling; my keys and cell phone once again weigh down my pockets; and I find myself having to occassionally drive a car, prepare my own food, and face the world with steadfast sobriety.

Before I left I pre-wrote five posts to be published in my absence.  All were on cards from 1991.  I wrote them, set the little date dealy on the right side toolbar, and left it.  When I got home I noticed none of them published.  Clearly I missed something.  Anyway, I started publishing those one at a time since my return to civilized society.  Now I'm fully back and raring to write snarky stuff about Griffeys again.


While I was gone I received two trade packages from a couple of Dodgers fans/all-star baseball card bloggers. 

The first is from Jim at GCRL.  The star of his package was this oversized Rusty Staub postcard:

Rusty went to my high school in New Orleans and once signed an autograph for my Dad when he was 10 (my Dad, that is).  My Staub collection is a bit rusty (humor joke!), but thanks to Jim I have this great new addition as well as these:



The technical name for a group of Kittles is a "bench."  A bench of Kittles.



I feel like Chuck Finley cards are incomplete without his trademark Chuckstache
 even though 98% of Chuck's cards are from the post-Chuckstache era.



I believe this is an Angels team set which means Chuck
is in there somewhere.  I'm no seal-breaker, though....




I love Cal Ripken - he's one of my favorite players to collect, and everybody loves the guy.  I find that sending someone Cal Ripken cards is a lot like giving someone a bag of Skittles.  Regardless of whether the recipient actively likes Skittles or not, you know they're going to eat those things at some point.  Skittles are good.



Maddux is more like Mike & Ikes.



I don't know what it is, but I really like mascot cards now.  I've been setting them aside ever since I pulled my first one from a pack of 2012 Topps.  They're all so....furry.




Just a sweet mullet.





I also collect Griffeys.  Were you aware?

Many thanks, Jim.  Everybody should go send him their double-play cards and whatever Dodgers he needs.....


I also got a trade package from Mr. Night Owl, standard-setter for card blogs everywhere.  I scoop up a fistful of '75 Topps minis for Greg at my local monthly card show whenever I can make it.  There's a kindly old gentleman there who has boxes and binders of the things and lets them go for pretty cheap (as far as I know), and you all know how much fun it is to help someone with their want list.

Anyway, here's a fun mix of cards from Night Owl:

I've been wanting one of these since I learned of their existence.  Bonkers card.

Cow, MooTown Snackers.  Coincidence?  That Flair card is sweet.

Chuck has a real "Do you think I'm sexy?" thing going on in that Triple Play card.



Classic Kittle.  This may be my Halloween costume this year.





A beautifully miscut '75 mini, and one of the silliest
names in baseball.  He coached Griffey from the bench
in Cincinnati for a short time.  Didn't do great.



In honor of Mr. Owl: Griffeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeys!!!!

That mid-90's Bowman Chrome is a beaut, but the real star of the show is this guy:

This was one of the few base cards I don't have.  I learned this because I started writing the post for that Topps set before scanning.  Then while scanning I realized I had the Opening Day issue but not the flagship base card.  Derp.  Felt pretty dumb.

Plus that picture is sa-weeeeet........

Thanks, Greg!  Go update your '75 minis want list ASAP.  I think the next card show is right around the corner, and I'm just going to end up printing that thing up before I go. 

Everybody, go send Night Owl some Dodgers.  I would tell you to read his blog, but I bet dollars to donuts most of you already do.  Keep doing that.

Oh, and we totally did get a new puppy.  More on that later.....

If It Fits, It Ships: a Red Cardboard Trade Post

The hits keep coming from Matt at Red Cardboard, and this time he sent a PWE that has to be some kind of record (it certainly is here at Junior Junkie HQ). 

The engineering that went into making these cards sit flat but also remain protected was astounding.  I didn't even disassemble it right away (mostly because I physically couldn't) because it was a masterwork of plastic and tape, and it demanded my respect.

I would also like to mention that we were experiencing torrential rain in New Orleans the day this PWE hit the mailbox.  The envelope was almost entirely translucent with rainwater by the time I got it indoors. 

Opened it up - every card was bone dry.  THAT is how you put together a PWE.



I have very little of this brand in general let alone 2013's.  These look great.



That Piazza is a Card Your Mom Threw Out.  I love that set.  Plus Honor Roll is a pretty
well put-together design.  All awesome cards.

 

Dupes, baby.  I love 'em.



So, final tally: 8 full-size cards plus 3 minis and a letter.  Should I call Guiness?

I've got a Priority Mail box packed solid with hundreds of Reds already en route to you, Matt.  I hope it's got something you need.

A Veritable Clusterbonk of Trade Fodder

I recently received trade packages from Marcus of All the Way to the Backstop, Matt of Red Cardboard, Zenus of The Prowling Cat, and Josh of Royals and Randoms.  Wanna see?

First up, Marcus from All the Way to the Backstop sent me a healthy Griffey stack, but who really came here to see Griffeys?  Probly nobody.  That's why we're gonna start things off with this.....thing:



Yikes.


It's the eyebrow curl and the off-putting smirk.  Was he going for sexy?  Did Austin Powers direct this photo shoot?  I love Jeff Bagwell and passively collect his cards, but dude.  This card is just.....dude.....

The addition of that Bagwell to the trade stack was both hilarious and topical.  Studio '13 is rebooting this very design - let's hope the same silliness ensues (come on, big white parrots!).

OK, enough fun.  Let's get down to Griffness:

That's one of the illustrious #855 cards from '08 Upper Deck.  It's not one of the short prints, but it is a good-looking card and features one of the last years of really great Upper Deck photography. 



A 1992 Topps Gold "Winner" and the first year of SP.  Great stuff!



I can't get enough '89 UD reprints.



Metal Universe and a Fleer throwback design.



Another early SP card and it's die-cut parallel, and an awesome SuperGriffey comic card. 
And as a child of the 90's, I still love David Justice and think he can do no wrong.



Phew!  That was a lot of Griffeys.



A bunch from "The Griffey Years" die-cut set.  Didn't these come from a restauarant or in a product of some kind?



And finally, some Chiz-uck.  This card features a great shot of the south Louisiana native stickin' it to some poor batter. 


Thanks a bunch, Marcus.  Marcus loves the Padres and Tony Gwynn.  Go read his blog - it's one of the good ones!  And when you're done, send him your autographed Tony Gwynn 1/1 patch cards.

Matt from Red Cardboard also sent me some excellent examples of Griffeytude.  This mention is coming super late as I had lost the scan I made of Matt's trade cards and had to e-mail him to get a reminder of what he sent me:



This has been a very SP-heavy trade day.  That Topps Highlights card showing the sweet post-swing moment of Junior's 600th dinger is a favorite of mine, and I'm very nearly finished assembling the massive Griffey Circuit Victory set.


Matt's a huge Reds fan and a swell fellow.  He informed me also that he has a much more substantial stack en route, so I'm preparing myself emotionally for that.  Go peep his blog!  It's fun and a little snarky, just how I like 'em.


Zenus, purveyor of The Prowling Cat, sent me a box containing some very unique Griffey items:



I love these old Starting Lineup figures.  This one is unique as it has a wall - Griffey is robbing somebody of a homerun.  I hope it's Barry Bonds.



Pocket schedules!  I never knew these were so awesome.  They kind of make more sense to collect than baseball cards if you think about it.  What an awesome surprise.


Zenus wants your pocket schedules!  You never know what you're going to see on his blog - he collect lots of different things: Nascar, Team business cards, Justin Smoak.  The guy is all over the place! 

I'll be sending him a stack of New Orleans Zephyrs pocket schedules I got from the dry cleaners near my house as well as whatever cards of players he collects I may have and pretty much anything Nascar-related I can find.  Thanks, Z!

Josh from Royals and Randoms posted recently about an amazing Craigslist find: uncut sheets of Mother's Cookies cards.  I saw them and immediately posted how much I wanted to own them, then proceeded to forget I did that.  Josh went out of his way to contact me and get my address to send me this amazing sheet:

What an amazing collector's item - and one that is not cheap to ship.  It measures a little bigger than 24x36, so I'll be getting a 27x40 movie poster frame and a nice mat for it sometime soon.  Pics to follow.... 

I'll be sending Josh a hairy man-stack of Royals and whatever else I can find that he collects.  Go check out Josh's blog, too.  It's where I learned that Juan Gonzalez played for the Royals at one point (still not buying it.....).  His blog is also a little snarky at times.  Thanks a ton, Josh! 

It's been an crazy couple of weeks for trades over at the Junior Junkie.  Just when I get back to square with all you fellow bloggers, you surprise me with more great stuff.  I'll be assembling packages and shipping them out this Saturday so we can all continue to be friends.

Confessions of a Junior Junkie



I've been a bad blogger. 

I suppose I'm still relatively new to the community, so I don't know "the rules."  I do know that my internal sense of morality takes issue with a few of my own blogging practices of late.  I've always been one to come out and ask before proceeding with wrongness, hence this post.

Now here's all the things I'm guilty of.

I look at my view counter.  It's true - I do.  It's not like I go out of my way to see it.  It's right there at the top of the page and one of the first things you see when you pull up the home page whether.  On a related note, I'm currently on the brink of a milestone: 10,000 page views since December 14th, 2012.  I should do a giveaway at that time.

I don't read every post by my fellow bloggers.  I used to, even the hockey ones, every one.  But I subscribe to far too many now and I can't keep up.  I find myself scrolling through them now and reading only the ones that pique my interest the most, then once I've been through all those I go back and read as many others as I have time to.  I still miss a whole lot.

I have no system for choosing what cards to showcase next.  It's still a very random selection process.  You may notice, though, that posts come out more frequently when the cards covered in the post are from the early to mid-90's.  That's my wheelhouse, so I need less research to be factually accurate.  On the other side of the coin:



This set remains a mystery to me.  Why taupe?



There's still a lot I don't know about these cards.  I am a relative expert when it comes to Griffeys printed from 1989-1997, but beyond that I depend heavily on research for my posts.  I could sit and write from the top of my head about 1995 Donruss, but when it comes to 2002 Topps, I have to spend a lot of time gathering information before I feel I can get it right.  This has made it so it takes longer to put together an accurate post for later sets.  Hence:

I spend way too long putting together each post.  I don't feel like I have to write a novel about the history of every set, but for sets I don't know anything about the completist in me has to put a lot of time into gathering information and condensing it all for the Griffey collectors of the world.  I'm on baseballcardpedia,  other blogs, checklist sites and even Wikipedia and Google making sure I have the right information.  And yet, as time-consuming as it is putting together a decent post......

I don't spend as much time on blog posts as I could.  This past weekend I sat and watched movies for hours.  Tonight I'm going to see Yo La Tengo at Tipitina's.  Tomorrow we have our sand volleyball league.  Friday we are helping friends with their wedding music selections.  Part of me is hoping I'll need some minor in-patient surgery so I have a little time to just sit and type.  I'm going to have to start blowing off social engagements in the name of baseball cards. 

I have a dozen unfinished blog posts.  When I think of a good idea for a post I spend a minute typing and save it.  It shows up in my list of posts with a little orange "draft" next to the title.  Some of these I've never gone back to complete as I've been so busy trying to put new Griffeys out there.  I have some great ideas for new posts coming soon, too.  You probably wont see them until I'm done, unless.......

I sometimes hit the Publish button early.  When I do you get to see the first picture and the first few sentences of writing for the next post.  Most recently it was for the 1999 Pacific set "Invincible."  That post is definitely not finished yet, though, as I am waiting for the base card to come in the mail from COMC.  I wish Blogger allowed for easier redaction of posts or perhaps a less oops-prone "Publish" button.



I need to buy this.



I'm terrible at Fantasy Baseball.  I guess this is not a crime, but I did take a spot in the card blogger league having never played fantasy baseball.  I'm great at fantasy football, so I figured my skills would carry over.  They didn't.....  I'm still not sure whether my team is especially injury-plagued or if my general ineptitude is to blame for being in dead-last place.  Sad pandas are we....



Finally, I think I do a pretty good job keeping up with trades, but I get the feeling there may be a couple that slip through the cracks.  I keep an Excel spreadsheet now to try and nail down all the transactions I have going on, and that does help.  I do have a list of people who are due something from me, so if you are one of them, don't fret.  I'm just talking my sweet time.  I've also begun a system of just picking out people in my trade list at random and sending them stuff for no reason.  We'll see how that works.

I throw myself on the mercy of the blogsphere.  I promise to be Mark Grace-ish in the fulfillment of my sentence.

Happy Hump Day, everyone....

Napkin Doon's Griffey Rookie Sandwich: a Trade Post

I received a trade package from Napkin himself from The Adventures of Napkin Doon.  I had sent him a 1996 SPx Paul Wilson from his want list that's been collecting dust in my collection for 14 years.  In return he sent these:



Check out the generic "Photo Quality" logo.  What is that?



I love receiving packs. I've started setting some aside just to send off in trades.  Something in me loves a sealed pack, so I don't always have the heart to open them. 

Then again, sometimes I hold onto old packs until one night I have too much to drink and get frisky, then my brain starts thinking "Hey, there may be a Frank Thomas NNOF RC in that pack of Topps.... No, there's almost definitely one.  Bust it!"  And I, being inebriated and having little self-control, tear that thing apart like a six year old on Christmas morning.  Then I feel shame.

This never happens with packs that are set aside for specific bloggers, though - those are off limits.

Anyhoo, the real gem was tucked in between those packs:

Woo-hoo!  A crisp '89 Fleer Griffey rookie with a sweet doodle of an anthropomorphic napkin man.  This is the sweatiest Griffey card out there, so the presence of a napkin is appropriate.

I definitely got the better end of this trade - thanks, Nap!

Jedi Jeff Jettisons Juniors to Junkie - Junkie Jumps for Joy

I got a PWE from Jeff at 2x3 Heroes that was loaded with class, history, fun, and mystery, in that order. 

Take a look:

Class

I'll admit that I've never been big on the Allen & Ginter cards.  I was raised on the sparkly, the glossy, and the refract-y.  But after 6 months of being back in the game, they are definitely growing on me. 

That being said, these black bordered minis are super-classy.  The detail is great on a card so small and the design is attractive and timeless.  Awesome card.



History



Victory is another set I've never really taken a shine to.    They seem so plain and unremarkable compared with all the great stuff out there. 

The specimen above is the exception.  It's a well put-together card with a lot of historical clout.  Daddy like.

Fun

The modern takes on antique designs are one of my favorite trends going on.  I really enjoy the Topps Heritage sets as well at the '75 minis in the 2013 flagship set.  I find them cool and instantly likeable.  This particular card is a lot of fun. 

One question: Is that a batter at 3rd base?

Mystery

Which brings us to the mystery part of this PWE.  Unfortunately I'm in the same boat as you, Jeff, in not knowing why this card made it into the stack.  I must admit though, it's a pretty baddass card - certainly one of the better "play at the plate" cards I've seen from the peak of the overproduction era. 

Plus the 10 year-old Braves fan in me likes seeing Kelly Gruber get dirty (even though he's probably safe).

Thanks for the great cards!

A Trio of Tremendous Trade Triumphs

I got a package from Kerry aka madding over at Cards on Cards.  He send me Griffeys pretty regularly, and they tend to be unique and easy to find a place for in the collection.  I recommend you trade with him....

Look at all the people on that sheet of stickers - it's like a who's who of card collecting in 1998!  Here's the reverse:

A lot of great players on this one sheet that I collect to this day.  Awesome.

There are a lot of dual cards out there that feature Griffey and a young player that doesn't end up going anywhere or a single-season superstar that doesn't stand the test of time.  Here is the exception: Griffey and Larkin.  There's a lot of skill on this little card. 

The Reds had a great lineup in the mid-00's.  I'm really surprised when I read about how unsuccessful they were in that time.  Reds fans, I'd like your input on this.

Kittle!

Geaux Hornets!  Er, I means geaux Pelicans?  Hm.  That sounds weird.  Anyway, I don't know who this guy is.

I remember this card from my collecting days.  I was really psyched to find it in that trade package as I have no idea where mine went.  A great piece of cardboard history.

Thanks again, Madding!

There is a beast living in my soul that thirsts for all the Griffeys of the Earth, and it is sated not just by new Griffeys but also by duplicates.  Bert at Swing and a Pop Up sent me a package loaded with delicious duplicates of Griffey goodness.  Bert, your offering has pleased the beast.

That's not your computer trying to catch up with your scrolling.  Those are lots and lots of duplicates!!!

There's so many of everything, plus a Donruss rookie!  This package was truly awesome.

He also included these which were too numerous to scan effectively:

Griffey Sr, Griffey Jr, and......Jim Abbott?  I'll never understand the player selection here, but dammit if they're not fun cards.  I may have to look more closely as building the whole set.  They will definitely be getting their own post.

I see Bert just updated his want lists, so go check 'em out.  Thanks, Bert!

Last but certainly not least, Spankee from My Cardboard Mistress sent me a package he assured me I would enjoy.  It was gigantic because the cards inside were stored inside this:

I'm a sucker for small boxes.  I don't know why, I just like them.  This one shows a Griffey signature which is amazingly cool.  The cards inside were just as impressive:

That's five serial-numbered Griffeys.  And that's not even all of them:

That big postcard-sized mamma-jamma is also serial numbered!  Plus that Fleer Triple Crown card is news to me, and who doesn't love collector coins?  He sent two.

Thanks, Adam!  You were right - this was a really fun one to go through.

I've just sent out a massive wave of trade packages.  My memory is not great (thanks, college), so I'm hoping I'm square with everybody.  I try to keep up with everybody using an Excel document, but it's far from perfect.

And if you sent me something and have gotten nothing in return, don't be afraid shoot me an e-mail.  I embrace every opportunity to mail out free cardboard.