Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The process

This post will be a two-parter, but don't worry. There's no cliffhangers.

First, I'd like to show my far-from-scientific method of how I get some of my ideas for my random posts.

But before that, I'd also like to pose this question to my readers who have blogs of their own:

How do you come up with the ideas for your posts? Do you come up with ideas beforehand and then save them for later posts? Or is it just "I want to make a post now. I'm going to go find a card to write about..." where it's mainly just a spur-of-the-moment thing?

For my themed posts, I usually have a couple ideas already rattling around beforehand. I usually know what I want to write about when it comes to those.

But for random posts like these, it's a bit harder to come up with a specific idea because there's so many cards around, all over the place.

But that's part of the fun, isn't it?

For some of my random posts, I'll come up with an idea the day before and use it.

But most of the time, it's basically just this:

1) Randomly pick a team binder. I picked the Indians today for no particular reason.





2) Go through the binder a few pages at a time. Repeat until you find something.




Pretty simple, I know. But it's worked thus far and I'm sticking to it.

Okay, here's part two of the post. The part about, you know, the actual cards.

I finally found a card I wanted to write about after a little bit of searching.

A card that both intrigues me and confuses me at the same time.




This card comes from the 2004 Topps Cracker Jack Mini parallel set.

Apparently, there were two different Lajoie cards in the original 1914 Cracker Jack set, an error (shown above), and a corrected version.

It's funny, but what they called an "error" and a "correction" back then means "Update" in today's world of baseball cards.

Topps reprinted both Lajoie cards in the '04 Cracker Jack set. Here's the "corrected" version:





This card was updated to show that Lajoie was now property of the Philadelphia Athletics. The "Cleveland" on Lajoie's jersey in the error version was airbrushed out. (Or whatever they called "airbrushing" in 1914.)

What confuses me a bit is how the name "Lajoie" is printed on each of these cards. Why does one have it as "La Joie", but the other has "Lajoie"? I originally thought that the name was the error on the original card, but after looking into it a bit, I think the "error" was the non-updated team.

By these standards, a lot of the cards from the first series of Topps would be considered "errors". I bet Albert Pujols will still be featured as a Cardinal on his base card, and Prince Fielder will still be a Brewer.

It's funny that "collectors" back in 1914 wanted up-to-the-minute uniform changes on baseball cards. Baseball cards stayed up-to-date, and they were a way to keep up with all the goings-on around the league.

In that regard, I guess the hobby hasn't really changed much.

6 comments:

Spiegel83 said...

I don't really have themed posts on my blog. I usually post about some cards that I have just traded for, purchased or a TTM auto. Also, during the baseball season, Dodger players do a lot of autograph signings and I usually attend some of those and post about my experience there.

I like your style though. You always post about some cool random cards and that keeps people interested. You probably have readers that are fans of collecting as opposed to a more team oriented blog.

Keep up the good work my friend!

Nick said...

Much appreciated!

I guess you could say I collect every team in a way haha. But you basically hit it on the head, I try to just post random cards I find cool or funny or interesting, andI try to mix up the teams as best I can (I guess that means no Indians posts for a while!).

Hackenbush said...

I have a bunch of series, Blow Out the Candles (daily birthday posts that usually include cards I own), Autographed Cards A-Z, Song for a Sunday Night(songs I've been think of or just come across), From the Vault (my pictures from Wrigley in the 70's), Fan Pack Fun, A Collector Collects (highlights from non-card collections of mine), Classic Clippings (highlights from my clip morgue from the 70's). Then there's the usually show and tell of course. I also post random cards I find in my collection from time to time (Card of the Day). Sometimes I'll be inspired by something in the news. Well, I'm boring myself so I'll stop. I've got your Dempsters pulled. Hopefully I'll get them out to you this week.

night owl said...

I have lots of themes because it helps a busy guy like me when I can't come up with something at the spur of the moment.

I also write down ideas that I ignore constantly. There are ideas from 3 years ago that I haven't done anything about.

Spur of the moment is fun -- wish they could all be spur of the moment and good, too.

Nick said...

I really enjoy your "Blow Out the Candles" posts. I'm excited to see if you've got any birthdays I don't already know about for my b-day (Feb. 19).

Also, thanks again for those Dempsters! No rush at all on the shipping. Let me know if you need anything from me in the future in return for those, I'd be glad to send something back your way.

Nick said...

Night Owl, you got that comment in there right as I was typing the reply for Hackenbush haha.

I've only physically written down a couple ideas thus far (the "He Played for That Team?" post you just did was on my short list, always love posts like those).

I like theme posts because it gives the blog a certain direction while the random posts go all over the place. It's a nice mix.

On a different note, I should mention also that I always love everyone's trade posts as well. I guess those count as "random" posts, after all.

Every time I read one I think, "Where would our collections be without trading?". Heck, I often wonder if I'd still be collecting if I couldn't do any online trading.