October Refractor Report

Still need a couple more participants in the DK Card Draft!  Comment on the original post to reserve a spot.  If you have a spot already, go ahead and send payment when you are able.

If you read this blog at all the last 9 months, you know I'm collecting refractors this year.  Any refractors!!  The goal is 1000 for the year.  This is my monthly report.

Here is the monthly progress report for October!

Obligatory graphic.  Posts are always better with graphics.

As of October 31st, I have the following:
779 - Baseball Refractors
58 - Football Refractors
55 - Basketball Refractors

892 total Refractors!  That's 90 added over the last month.  Wow!  That's two great months in a row!  2 months left and I only need 108 to reach my goal!  I'll keep the pedal to the metal even if I pass 1000, but dang, I'm getting so close.

More math...

I have 89.2% of my goal of 1000 Refractors.
I have been accumulating refractors at a pace of  2.925/day (slightly down from 2.937/day for the 1st 9 months of the year).
I am on pace for 1070 refractors.

Big thanks this month to Oscar at All Trade Bait, All The Time, Spiegel from Nomo' Sushi Platter, and this months high contributor with a sweet total of 31 refractors, Dustin from Coot Veal and the Vealtones!  Thanks guys!!

As always, let me know if you have refractors to trade!

Nomo Doin' Work

**After you read this, go sign up for my card draft, a few spots remain!

Work sucks lately.  But today it was a little brighter.  A few days ago, a co-worker and I were talking and somehow, the fact that I collect cards came up.  I didn't think much of it, but today he brought in the cards he had from his youth for me to look at.  A bright spot in an otherwise dull day!

Now all the cards he had were all in the 1988-95 range.  No big hits or anything special, but he did make me take the three cards below because I must have made appreciative grunts when I saw them.

The McGwire, I immediately recognized as one I don't have.  Since I have 630+ different McGwires, one this common is a surprise.  I grunted appreciatively.  He offered me the card.  I accepted.  The fool!

The Kukoc and Mourning are oversized tall cards from 1995.  The die-cutness of the Kukoc attracted me and the Mourning is a pop-out.  Sweet!  So after a minute of me sounding like Monica Seles (see here for an example), they were all mine!  Some of you may look down on my blatant use of this poor soul, but hey, he brought cards to work!  OK, it wasn't that bad, but I did walk away with three cards and a slightly nicer workday. 

Also, I recently received a package from Spiegel of Nomo's Sushi Platter.  He sent a very nice assortment of cards (including refractors!!), but I already put all of them away, so I'll just show the centerpiece of the trade:

A Gorman Thomas on card auto!!  Here's the story:  I was involved in a card draft recently, when Spiegel took this card a few spots ahead of me.  I pulled out my patented grunt (in the form of a comment where I whined that this was the card I wanted, how dare he take it!).  Just like at work, it worked like a charm!

So in short, I apologize to Spiegel and my nameless, faceless co-worker, but thank them both for the sweet cards.  Rock on!

DK Card Draft sign ups now open

OK, I got lots of feedback and it looks like we are a go on the first Diamond King Card Draft!

Here are the details:

-here are the cards up for grabs.  57 'hits' (relic or auto), tons of serial #d, some vintage, rookies etc.  214 total cards.
-I'm shooting for 10 drafters.  Those who commented that they were interested in my previous post have first dibs on a spot as long as they confirm before Wednesday morning, so if you are not one of those, don't send the $$ until I let you know you are in.
-$16 per slot, send it to paypal, use the gift option.  The paypal address is kmattson2002 at yahoo dot com
-random.org for the draft order, snaking rounds.
-I will have a optional draft kick off on the first day of the draft (date and time TBD).  This will be a gotomeeting (screen sharing) session with a conference line so we can (trash) talk.  I'm thinking about 1 hour.  This will officially kick off the draft, and the first picks will be made.  If you can't make this, just send a list of picks and I will fill them in for you.  After the kick off, all picks should be made with lists so we can keep this moving.
- I was hoping to get this under way asap, but I hear there is some kind of super-storm, and then some election.  So now I am thinking Wednesday Nov 7th as a target date.  Feedback?

Big Mac of the Week - Week 3

Week 3 of this here series.  Here are weeks 1 and 2.

This weeks entry is a 1997 Leaf "Dress for Success" insert.

The front is canvas and the Athletics text is slightly raised.  Feels pretty cool.  I enjoy cards that the manufacturer took extra steps on.  This is a good pose and layout IMO as well.

Here is the back.  Unlike the front, this is a slick, glossy finish.  Very jarring at first glance, but then I saw the serial numbering and decided it was all good.  You can tell from Mark's body language here what a speed demon he was!  Built like a cheetah, right?

Ha ha, come back next week for more!

Passing on Refractors

Why would I pass on free refractors?  I, the chaser of all things refractory, for the last year?

I, the man who still finds himself 198 refractors short of his goal for the year?

Actually, its pretty simple.  The Triple Crown.

I consider myself a baseball history buff.  I enjoy the nostalgia of it.  I also love how baseball numbers and feats seem to mean more than in other sports.  Numbers like .400, 3000, 56 and even broken numbers like 4191, 755 and 2130 all mean something to me.  Not just the records themselves, but the stories and triumphs behind them.

One feat that lives in baseball lore is the triple crown.  Every player ever to accomplish it is a Hall of Famer.  It implies a skill level so far above average that its been done a total of 14 times since 1900.  And only 4 since 1950.  And until this year, not since 1967, 45 years ago.

I remember as a kid, watching the stats accumulating through the year.  I had to read the newspaper to get the stats, and there were not nearly as many as today.  I remember honing my math skills by extrapolating the league leaders current totals to what they might have over 162 games.  I'm still pretty slick at arithmetic today, mostly because of baseball statistics.

The 2 most important things I watched were first, home runs.  The single season homer record was often 'challenged' early in the season, but as the summer wore on, nobody could keep it up.  The other was the triple crown.  This was even more hallowed in my mind, since even early in the season, very few had a real shot at it.

Yaz has grown in stature in my mind and collecting habits specifically because he won the crown.  And now, the newest crown winner has cost me refractors!  You see, I recently won a contest over at Arpsmiths Sportscard Obsession, and one of the possible prizes was 3 refractors.  Gold mine for me!!

But also offered was this:

Done deal.

Big Mac of the Week #2

Mock if you must, but I collect Mark McGwire.  I've been a fan of McGwire ever since his rookie season when he hit a still rookie record 49 (presumably steroid free) bombs.  This series is supposed to be weekly, but I whiffed after week 1.  Not a great start, but I'm the boss of this here blog and I decree that I get a mulligan.  So...

Here's week #2!

This here is a 1993 Topps 'Black Gold' #39. In person, it shines a lot more than in the scan.  But the scan does show off the crosshatch design that Topps used to get this version of the 'Gold' parallels to be one of collectors favorites.

This card was for the 92 season, in which Mark bounced back from a disastrous 91 campaign where he had hit just .210 with only 22 HR's.  He was already battling knee and back problems even though he had not yet hit 30 years old.   I guess that's what a heavy, 6'5" frame gets you.

I remember whispers even back then that Mark must have done something drastic or even *whisper* against the rules to make such a quick turnaround.  Personally, I doubt it was the roids that early, but you never know.  For comparison, how about Adam Dunn's horrible season last year.  He hit .159 and only 11 HR.  This year he bounced back to 41 dingers.  Sure, he only improved his average to .204, but that's .045 better than last year!

In that light, McGwire could have done what he did legally too.

Thanks for reading!

Fun and Cheap - the 1st DK Card Draft?

I'm thinking about putting together one of those card drafts that have made the rounds lately.  I'm thinking 8 participants, 20 rounds.  I have about 50 GU/autos, a healthy helping of vintage and a load of other fun stuff.  I'd be looking to make this very well worth it, probably looking at a $15-18 a slot.

I'd probably require a list from each participant every 2 days (if the old list has all been picked)to keep things moving.  This would take place late this month or early November.

Any interest?  Please comment or e-mail!

Card show - Keepers and For Trade

Before we get this post under way, I have added the 2001 Topps Archives Reserve set to my wantlists.  I picked up a few of them at the last show (not pictured) and think I want them all.  So send them my way!


On to the show pickups!  Of course, the show was fun, since it was.... a card show.  Good assortment of dealers and customers.  I picked up a 50+ card stack of older cards on the cheap.  By older, I mean commons from the early 50's to the mid 60's.  I didn't scan those for this post.  I also found good dime box deals on refractors and picked up between 30 and 40 of them.  Sweet!  Again, not pictured here.

Here are a few of the cards I picked up.  This first scan are all cards I plan to keep.

The Carter is a 76 SSPC card. Very interesting.  I also picked up a Fisk, Tony Perez and Don Sutton from this set.  The Giambi is a 92 Staduim Club Dome, woulda been pretty sweet back in the day.  Not so much now.  The Posada and Darvish are my first RC's of each.  The Rose is from the tough 84 Fleer Update set, plus I'm a sucker for Rose in an Expos uni.  I think this might have been the last of his Expos cards I needed.  A framed Ichiro DK finishes up this eclectic bunch.

Now some stuff I really didn't need, but picked up anyway.  All is for trade!

 And more!

The McCann and Jones Die-cuts are up for trade, just like the rest of this page, but I really like them.  It'd be nice to get back a die-cut of a player I might like more in return.  However, that is not required, if you want em, make an offer!

MLB scheduling woes

So I'm in Annapolis Maryland on business this week.  I knew about this trip for a while, so I was rooting for the Orioles to make the playoffs.  I figured, as a wild card, they'd be away for the first 2 games, then home for two, right during this week when I'm close.

And they did it!!

But for reasons I still don't understand, MLB didn't go with the 2-2-1 schedule I remember, but a 2-3 schedule.  That's 2 games in Baltimore (before I got here) and then 3 in NY.

Bummer, I wanted to see Camden Yards!

Big Mac of the Week

Mock if you must, but I collect Mark McGwire.  I've been a fan of McGwire ever since his rookie season when he hit a still rookie record 49 (presumably steroid free) bombs.  I have 633 different McGwires and will continue to accumulate them.

One of the best things about collecting Mark is that the card companies don't make cards of him any more.  I assume that it's a combination of him being a steroid pariah and (I assume) him not giving them his permission.  Even without any new cards of him being produced, I bet there are between 3-5000 different McGwires out there.  Unfortunately, most of those that I don't have are very much of the High Dollar variety.  Oh, well!

So with 633 different Big Mac cards, I have enough fodder for a little over 12 years of 'Big Mac card of the Week' posts!  Here's #1!

This here is a 2001 Topps Hobby Masters insert #HM1.  It's extra thick and the words 'Hobby Masters' have a plasticy feel too them like they are a sticker applied after the card was made.

Thanks for reading!

What took them so long??

In several holiday posts over the life of this blog, I have lamented the fact that none of my family ever gets me card related gifts.  Not on Christmas, my birthday, veterans day, Halloween, World Radio Day, International Widow’s Day or even Day of the Seafarer!

This shocking lack of love is probably due to the fact that they know absolutely nothing about cards, and are afraid to get me a dud.

But hey, even a dud would be nice if I get cards, right?

But wait!  As you may have guessed since I'm writing this post, the drought has ended!  And I'm only writing about it 3 and 1/2 months later.  I guess that'll teach them!

OK, so I didn't get any (good) cards, but this is a start.  The day was Father's Day.  I am a father.  This entitles me to pampering, mockery and usually a gift or two.  This year, I awoke to four black frames divided into four horizontal sections.  The horizontal sections each had five clear plastic cases in each.  The cases had sports cards from the junk wax era in them.  Something like this, except the cards in mine were much worse:

So, as a family, we laughed, we cried, I thanked them profusely.  Then I went and put some real cards in my new frames!  I apologize for the pics, they are not very good, but you get the idea.

 First, I put most of my 2003 DK Evolution set into one.  It looks great on the wall!

Next, I went through my Mark McGwires and picked out some pretty ones.  This also looks great!  I haven't spoken much about my Big Mac collection on this blog, but I have over 600 different McGwires!  These are all doubles!

Another less publicized part of my collection is the 'funky' cards.  Here are 20 baseball funkys.  I thought they would look good on the wall, and since the only reason I have these colorful and shiny cards is for them to be gazed upon with awe, respect or disdain, the wall is a perfect place for them.  This one looks MUCH better in person, since when you move, you get a kaleidoscope of color and movement!

Why I saved the worst picture for last, I don't know, but I put basketball funkys in the last frame.  Much like the baseball funkys, this one looks great in real life.

Over time, I will replace the cards with others for variety's sake.  Thanks to my fam!  And keep em coming!

September Refractor Report

If you read this blog at all the last 9 months, you know I'm collecting refractors this year.  Any refractors!!  The goal is 1000 for the year.  This is my monthly report.

Here is the monthly progress report for September!

My wife says this picture is too cheesy for my blog, but I think cheesy is the perfect description of my blog, so...

As of September 30th, I have the following:
717 - Baseball Refractors
30 - Football Refractors
55 - Basketball Refractors

802 total Refractors!  That's 143 added over the last month.  Assessment:  Oh yeah!  Last month was (hopefully) the last in a series of disappointing months, but this one was the bomb!!

More math...

I have 80.2% of my goal of 1000 Refractors.
I have been accumulating refractors at a pace of  2.937/day (up from 2.72/day for the 1st 8 months of the year).
I am on pace for 1072 refractors.

Big thanks this month to Mike at Ba Benny's Baseball Card Buffet, Mark from This Way to the Clubhouse and, this months high contributor with a whopping total of 58 refractors, Sam from The Daily Dimwit!  Wow, I gotta send Sam more stuff.  Thanks guys!!

As always, let me know if you have refractors to trade!

Motivation!

To any hardy readers who have not given up on me...

For the month of October, if you notice a gap of four days between posts on this blog and are the first to comment to that effect, I'll send you 100 cards from the team of your choice, with at least 1 relic or auto in the bunch.

There, that oughta get me posting again!  Stay tuned for tomorrows September Refractor Report!

August Refractor Report

If you read this blog at all the last 7 months, you know I'm collecting refractors this year.  Any refractors!!  The goal is 1000 for the year.  This is my monthly report.

Here is the monthly progress report for August!

As of August 31st, I have the following:
581 - Baseball Refractors
26 - Football Refractors
52 - Basketball Refractors

659 total Refractors!  That's 37 added over the last month.  Assessment:  Ouch!  For the first time, I'm behind on the pace!  Never fear, I have some honey coming up later in the year, specially designed to attract refractors!

More math...

I have 65.9% of my goal of 1000 Refractors.
I have been accumulating refractors at a pace of  2.72/day (down from 2.92/day for the 1st 7 months of the year).
I am on pace for 996 refractors.

Big thanks this month to reader Steve who sent me 12 fractors this month and Speigel from Nomo's Sushi Platter who I sent 16 fractors.  Thanks guys!!

As always, let me know if you have refractors to trade!

Technical Difficulties

If any of you are waiting for e-mails from me, I am having major computer troubles and will get with you soon.  In the meantime, here is a couple of gratuitous pictures for your pleasure:

 Magic air-kneeling Papelbon!

And magic uniform-expanding beast!  I wonder how heavy that bat is?

Two for trade, 8 for keeps

I just got an ebay purchase in the mail.  It was from one of those sellers that offered free shipping after the first card, so I grabbed a few!

The top 2 here are for trade, so let me know if you want em!  The Berkman is #'d /50.

And the rest are keepers for me, but you gotta see them!!

The Ripken Gold Medallion is kind of cool.  I love me the 72 set and if Billy Martin doesn't look pissed at something, then the photo that shouldn't be on one of his cards!  The Guerrero isn't overly wonderful, but it is a serial #'d Diamond King and I need most of that 'Rookie DK' set.  The coolest, in my opinion, is the Jim Thome!  It's from the Christie Brinkley Collection inserts from 96 Pinnacle.  Boxing gloves?  Christie Brinkley?  Are we still talking about baseball cards here???  Great card!

This was the card that got me started on this purchase.  Edgar is revered here in the northwest, and I had no relic of his.  It's an interesting card.  I think I like it.

The Thome was sweet, but this has to be my favorite card of the bunch.  Psycho-George and Cheerful-Al!  Words fail.  Whoever took this picture was not surprised when George went loco at the pine tar game.

And finally, the basketball!  Cheap Ewing RC!  Insanely die-cut Pippen!  These are the kind of hoops cards I'll go for all day long.  At least at the cheap-o prices I got them for!

July Refractor Report

If you read this blog at all the last 7 months, you know I'm collecting refractors this year.  Any refractors!!  The goal is 1000 for the year.  This is my monthly report.

Here is the monthly progress report for July!

As of July 31st, I have the following:
545 - Baseball Refractors
25 - Football Refractors
52 - Basketball Refractors

622 total Refractors!  That's 61 added over the last month.  Assessment:  Much better that the last few months, but I still need to pick it up!

This month I have verified that the refractors from the following sets are not marked with a 'refractor' label anywhere on the card:

1993 Finest 
1994 Finest
2007 Topps Heritage Chrome
2011 Topps Chrome

I'm looking for any other sets with no label on the refractors.  If you know any, let me know!  Fact-check?!?!

More math...

I have 62.2% of my goal of 1000 Refractors.
I have been accumulating refractors at a pace of  2.92/day (down from 3.08/day for the 1st 6 months of the year).
I am on pace for 1068 refractors.

On pace still!  But barely.

Big thanks this month to Mark from Stats on the Back who sent me 13 fractors this month and Kirk from Eutaw Street Cardboard from whom I purchased 26 fractors in his 'Selling for the National' project.  Thanks guys!!

As always, let me know if you have refractors to trade!

Featured Diamond Kings set of the month - June

Welcome to yet another series inspired by my blog goals for this year!  Every month, I will feature a Diamond Kings set in depth.  Gotta stay true to my roots!

June is only a bit late.  I'm getting better!

Back into the distant past!  Where dinosaurs ruled, dirt was still a recent invention and Jamie Moyer hadn't even made the major leagues yet!!  It's the 1984 Diamond Kings set!

If you were around back then, you may have noticed that Donruss cards were harder to come by than Topps or Fleer that year.  In fact, I didn't see a single Donruss pack in any of my 'go to' spots for cards the whole year.  Only later did singles from 84 Donruss start making their way into my backwater town.  It is that very phenomena that makes the 84 Donruss Don Mattingly RC the most valuable card of the year.

And of course, there were Diamond Kings.  Donruss went in a radically different direction, design wise, for their 84 set, and the DK's were no exception.  The 82 and 83 DKings were almost exactly the same design, so close that they're hard to tell apart.  The 84's are their own animal.  The border design is frillier and the hard, linear backgrounds are replaced by softer, mellower, almost blurred backgrounds.  A very nice addition to the standard headshot is a tiny 'in-action' thumbnail of each player.  That's cool.

1 Robin Yount - classic
2 Dave Concepcion - kinda boring looking, but a good pick
3 Dwayne Murphy - No good A's?
4 John Castino - Who??
5 Leon Durham- Awesome!! The glasses are impressive.
6 Rusty Staub - anything with Staub on it is cool...
7 Jack Clark - he looks pissed and sunburned
8 Dave Dravecky - pre-snapped arm, well designed card
9 Al Oliver - This one makes me happy.  The smile, the Expos uni, the frighteningly bright yellow background...

10 Dave Righetti - Rags!
11 Hal McRae - underrated
12 Ray Knight -
13 Bruce Sutter - Hair!  Lotsa hair.
14 Bob Horner - Speaking of hair!  Big bad Bob.
15 Lance Parrish - I like this one.  This is exactly how I remember Parrish
16 Matt Young - Umm... Mariners was a tough call this year I guess.
17 Fred Lynn - Freddie!!  Love it.
18 Ron Kittle - Kittle was gonna be big in 84.  Didn't happen, obviously.  Nice glasses though.

19 Jim Clancy - Clancy looks like he was mixed with a rodent of some kind.
20 Bill Madlock - Mad Dawg!  Very nice looking card.
21 Larry Parrish - Eh
22 Eddie Murray - As Tony the Tiger would say, Grrrrrrrreat! Eddie's the man!
23 Mike Schmidt - Classic looking card of a classic 3b.  For once the DK borders don't clash with the art colors.
24 Pedro Guerrero - Man, this takes me back.  Pedro!
25 Andre Thornton - He's mostly forgotten.  But he could hit!
26 Wade Boggs - Chicken and Beer.  That's Boggs for you.
NNO Checklist

Oh, and to add to the 'character' of this set, there are errors!  The artist credit "Perez-Steele Galleries", found on the backs of the cards, was misspelled "Perez-Steel Galleries" on cards from packs. The only corrected versions came in factory sets.  Weird!

Previous months:
January
February
March 
April 
May

The King is a Pimp!

Time to pimp my Kingly guts out!!

You have already seen these, if you have any card-blog-viewing-skills at all, but if not, check it out!

DrewsCards - Drew has made a milestone of 1000 posts and is celebrating with a contest.  He's giving away 4 large groups of Obak cards.  It's easy and fun, thanks Drew.

Eutaw Street Cardboard - Cool contest that can involve helping him raise money for the National!!  I took most of the refractors for my project, but there are still tons of cards you might like.  Give it a shot!

</pimp>

June Refractor Report

If you read this blog at all the last 6 months, you know I'm collecting refractors this year.  Any refractors!!  I'm only 10 days late this month, so I'm getting better!!  Again, this month was my worst month so far, but the numbers did go up, so that's better than nothing!

Here is the monthly progress report for June!

As of June 30th, I have the following:
485 - Baseball Refractors
24 - Football Refractors
52 - Basketball Refractors

561 total Refractors!  That's a whopping 5 added over the last month.  Ouch!

OK, here is where I get to ask a couple of questions that impact this quest.  First, are these considered refractors?????

The Robinson has a rainbow-y, refractory look to it.  The Koufax, not as much, but both are shiny.  It seems like I have seen these referred to as refractors, but I'm really not sure.  Next question...

I have several 2011 Topps Chrome cards that have been sent to me as refractors.  They look refractory, but do not have any 'refractor' label on the back.  Here is an example:

Are these refractors?  I think they are (hope actually, since I have several and I'd hate to take my numbers down even further than they already are) , but I'm not sure.  Any knowledgeable folks out there??  Are there any other sets with unlabeled refractors?  I seem to remember that the refractors from the 1st year or 2 they were produced were unlabeled, but are there any others?  Help me out!!

Anyway.

More math...

I have 56.1% of my goal of 1000 Refractors.
I have been accumulating refractors at a pace of  3.08/day (down from 3.71/day for the 1st 5 months of the year).
I am on pace for 1122 refractors.

OK, so another terrible month, but I'm still on pace for a HUUUUGE year, so no biggie.

And as always, let me know if you have refractors to trade!