Talking shop and another LCS visit

Some of you may remember my shock of actually finding a decent LCS around these parts.

I took another bus ride up there yesterday because Brian, a loyal reader and the fellow collector who I met during that first LCS trip, wanted to meet up there for a second card store run since he's moving to Milwaukee within the next week or two.

Brian wasn't in the shop when I got there, so I took it upon myself to start doing a little digging. The first time I hit this store, the guy had a dollar binder behind a glass case. This time, he had a dollar box out in the open.

There were actually a handful of dollar-worthy cards in there, which is more than I can say about a lot of other dollar boxes I've seen, LCS or not. I started pulling a few cards out when I remembered that a) I'm supposed to be saving money for the National and b) I had less than ten dollars in cash in my wallet at the time.

I didn't end up buying any of the dollar cards, although I can always pick them up during my next trip there. That's part of the beauty of a good LCS.

Instead, I asked the shop owner to see the quarter Cubs and White Sox binders he has stashed behind the counter, hoping he might have a few new additions to look through.

That, he did.

The first dozen or so pages had about seven or eight copies of each Cubs/Sox Series 2 base card, and there were handfuls other 2015 singles spread throughout. If my first visit to this LCS had me eager to return, this this second trip made me a regular customer. 

All I can really ask from a card shop is to have the new stuff in stock. A lot of other LCSes I've been to still have packs of 2007 Topps displayed behind the counter as if they're the latest and greatest product. I'm not expecting dime boxes as far as the eye can see, but I'd at least like to be able to pick up singles from newer sets. 

I don't think that's too much to ask out of an LCS.

Thankfully, it wasn't for this one.

While I'm sure there'll be quite a few vendors at the National with boxes of 2015 singles on display, I decided to drop some quarters on various Series 2/Archives/GQ Cubs and Sox yesterday. (Most card show vendors separate out the hometown teams and jack up the prices anyways.)

The lot I picked up included (among other things) my first three cards of Jon Lester as a Cub (including the outstanding Series 2 press conference shot that might wind up on my "Cards of the Year" countdown), my first Addison Russell, a couple Rizzos, my first singles of Adam LaRoche as a South Sider, and a "First Pitch" McKayla Maroney.

Because I guess I've decided that I'm going for the entire "First Pitch" set now.

After seeing all those 2015 Cubs and Sox, I figured the owner would have to have a few other miscellaneous 2015 singles available.

He only had a small stack at the ready when I asked, so I figure he sells most of his other 2015s online or something. No matter, because I did find quite a few I needed from the miscellany. But, like the dollar cards, I again had to remind myself that I couldn't buy every single one. (These were also a quarter per.)

I settled on about nine or ten "must-haves" from that pile (the Bazooka Jenks was actually from the Sox binder, but I needed it because of its "zero-year" status). The sight of players like David Eckstein and Vlad as "old guys" in a set like Archives made me feel ancient.

All in all, I ended up forking over eight bucks for the whole haul, which is about as good of a day at the LCS as I could ever want.

Even after all my digging was done, Brian still hadn't shown up.

Turns out that between a big move and a young toddler like Brian has, things can get a little hectic. Brian invited me to swap cards and talk shop at his apartment instead, which was only a few blocks from the LCS.

I went over, and, although the first thing we did was give each other the cards we'd set aside, the visit was far about more than just trading. Brian was an extremely gracious host and was even nice enough to show me a few of his binders. He's a big TTM guy, and he had by far the best autograph collection I'd ever seen.

It didn't dawn on me until I was on the bus home, but it was the first time I could remember that I'd dug through the collection of a seasoned card collector. Brian's been collecting for longer than I have, and, after looking through the jaw-dropping amounts of autographs he's accumulated, it certainly shows.

But, yes, as I mentioned, the two of us did trade some cards, and Brian put together another awesome stack for me.

Like our first in-person swap, Brian dropped quite a bit of 1999 Fleer Tradition on me.

Brian is one of those rare collectors (like myself) who collected through his college years. He didn't know it then, but the fact that he opened a lot of '99 Tradition at the time was extremely beneficial to me, in an oddly selfish way. 

These types of late '90s issues can be difficult to track down, and you often need someone who was there first-hand to find them nowadays.

Again, like our first trade, I found a good amount of 1996 Score in this stack.

I've said it before, but I've always found this to be one of Score's more underrated efforts in their long history.

Even towel-on-the-head shots have a certain charm on this design.

Brian even included a couple base-parallel combos, which is always a treat for this self-proclaimed binder guy.

The beauty of cards like these side-by-side in a nine-pocket page will never go away.

Brian even jumped aboard the mini-collection bandwagon as well.

Here's a play at the plate featuring Mike Redmond (with a Moises Alou cameo) from his playing days with the Marlins in the late '90s.

Little did he know he'd be unceremoniously canned by the club as a skipper about fifteen years later.

Another couple mini-collection hits from '99 Fleer Tradition (the Ripken is an insert designed to replicate one of Fleer's old designs from the '60s.)

I actually ordered that adorable J. T. Snow in a past Just Commons batch, but the one they sent was the Millennium parallel. Now, thanks to Brian, I'll be able to add the standard base card to my collection.

Yup, that'll be another beautiful base-parallel combo.

A couple for the "double dip" and "pitcher at the plate" archives.

The Drabek is a rare American League variation on the latter.

Also among the madness were a few of these oversized Fleer Extra Bases singles.

They obviously don't fit in my nine-pocket pages, but they do make for nice display pieces on the fronts of my binders.

A toast to oversized cards.

Here's a headless Aramis Ramirez, a guy who, as I just found out, was dealt back to the Pirates this afternoon, the spot where his career began back in the late '90s.

I was planning on posting this card anyways, but now at least now I have a reason besides the horrifying baseball card decapitation seen here.

Brian tracked down a couple early Mo cards for me as well.

Including one of him on a Yankees-christened boat, for some reason.

To round it all out, here's a fantastic black-and-white card of The Human Vacuum Cleaner himself.

Brian tells me that there's some decent card shows up in Milwaukee, so maybe I'll shoot up there one of these days and pay him a visit. (All the best on the big move, Brian.)

Yesterday, I got to spend some quality time in an LCS, knock out some 2015 needs, complete an in-person swap, and talk shop with a fellow collector. All in the span of a few hours.

That's a stellar day of collecting, if you ask me.

Going micro

About 99 percent of the "keeper" cards I own are currently housed in binders.

I have a small collection of non-sports cards in snap cases on my night stand, and a few other snap cases of miscellaneous cards (multi-player, multi-team, etc.) on a shelf. My oversized cards are scattered around in various locales, and a handful of my best vintage cards are on "The Wall," as I like to call it.

Pretty much everything else goes in the binders. Or so I thought. A recent package from John of the terrific blog "Johnny's Trading Spot" put a little wedge in that plan, but more on that in a bit.

As many of you probably know, John always puts together monster trade packages, and this one came in the form of a flat-rate box that produced quite a few binder hits for my mini-collections.

This shot of big Vizquel and little Vizquel was a fantastic never-before-seen addition to my "cards with kids" theme.

These go into the "bat barrel" and "autographers" archives.

Like I do any time I receive an interesting minor league card, I checked to see of Adell Davenport ever made it to the big leagues. Sadly, no.

He was out of baseball by 1995.

A couple tips of the cap from a couple top-notch hurlers here.

This is one of my newest mini-collections, and it's quickly become one of my favorites to build.

John even pored over the flip-sides for a few more themed hits.

I'd actually had the Lofton in my binders for a while now, but I never noticed the "behind the camera" shot on the back of it.

And I'm severely disappointed in Upper Deck for not featuring a pissed-off Rance Mulliniks on the front of that card.

John always manages to find new cards of the most prominent John in my collection, John Olerud.

Much of Olerud's career took place in the mid-to-late 1990s, which means that he was featured in almost all of the gluttony of brands/sets that were released during that time period.

He probably has thousands of cards I'll never track down, but at least there's always something to chase.

A scan like this presents two possibilities.

Either I have a really big scanner, or these are really small cards. The latter is correct, of course, and this is why I brought up the topic of my binders earlier. These, if you don't know, are part of the Topps Micro brand that was released for a few years in the early '90s.

I'm not exactly sure how these were originally packaged or how one obtained them, but I do know that these are probably the smallest baseball cards known to man. A good twenty-five of them (out of about three-dozen that John sent) fit into this scan alone. Most are bite-sized mini-collection hits.

I dropped them about three times as I walked over to the scanner, which made me feel like I was playing 52-card pickup all over again.

For scale, here's a Topps Micro "Oil Can" Boyd in comparison to another standard-sized card that John sent.

I have many types of minis in my binders. A&G, Gypsy Queen, Topps Mini, etc., etc. They don't exactly look fantastic in nine-pocket pages (though I don't seem to mind it as much as other collectors), and they have a tendency to shift around quite a bit. (Yes, I know they make mini-style pages, but I don't own any and they wouldn't fit with my filing system.)

Topps Micro represents a bit of a dilemma for me, because these things are a heck of a lot smaller than your standard minis. In the end, I decided that these would be the rare cards that I store outside of my binders. They'd probably slide straight out of a nine-pocket page.

For now, I can say Topps Micro is definitely a fitting name for these minuscule pieces of cardboard.

Hopefully you didn't need a magnifying glass to read this post.

Zistling the night away

It seems like so long ago that I first started using Zistle, but it was only last September.

Maybe it feels like ages because it took me about ten months to complete Phase 1 of my Zistle experience. A couple weeks ago, I finally finished cataloging the contents of my 19 "official" (whatever that means) mini-collections.

The main reason I did this was because I wanted to see all my themed cards in one place (a virtual place), as they're spread out throughout my team binders/frankenset boxes in my physical collection. On top of that, having them cataloged makes for a nice and easy way to check and see whether or not I have a card I'm not sure about. (As opposed to having to drag out a binder/box every time.)

One of the unexpected side benefits of Zistling, however, was the fact that it forced me to quantify a few of my mini-collections. When is a double play card a double play card? When is it not? I had to make these tough, heartless decisions as I got further and further along with my cataloging.

I used to say that a baserunner had to be in the frame in order for a double dip to be a double dip, but I've loosened that rule a bit. Baserunner or no baserunner, the Ronnie Belliard you see above is obviously a double play shot.

And a beautiful one, at that.

I used to have an "interviews" mini-collection, but, here in post-Zistle land, it's morphed into an "interviews/speeches" mini-collection.

This shot of the Great Bambino isn't an interview, but I felt like it fit the mini-collection mold in some way. I briefly considered composing a separate "speeches" theme, but, in the end, I decided to lump them all into one.

Basically...if it has a microphone, it fits into this theme.

But I had to draw the line somewhere.

Unlike my double dips, I decided that a play at the plate cannot be a play at the plate without a baserunner. Double dips are more about the fielders. To me, PATPs are just as much about the runners as the catchers, which is why I ended up excluding cards like this Kendall.

It's still a great shot, of course, but not quite mini-collection material.

(Don't worry, Jason Kendall has a lot of other PATPs.)

Lastly, I decided to not include flip-side mini-collection hits for the time being.

I did this for a couple reasons. 1) Zistle doesn't allow you to display cards backside-first, which would make seeing them in a list of other standard, front-side themed hits a little odd. 2) This project was time-consuming enough without having to check the back of every single card I own. I might catalog the backs one day, but I'm good with just the fronts for now. (Sorry, Ricky Jordan.)

But, after all was said and done, I'm glad I took the cataloging plunge. As of this writing, I have 5,437 cards spread out over my 19 different mini-collections, and that number seems to grow with each passing day. Here's the breakdown, ranked by how many I cards have in each individual theme.

#19 -- Turn Ahead the Clock (9 cards)
#18 -- Putting the Band Back Together (11 cards)
#17 -- Tribute to 42 (14 cards)
#16 -- Say the Magic Word (28 cards)
#15 -- Behind the Camera (34 cards)
#14 -- Multiple-Exposure (81 cards)
#13 -- Cards with Kids (85 cards)
#12 -- Broken Bats (92 cards)
#11 -- Anthemic (122 cards)
#10 -- Tip of the Cap (128 cards)
#9 -- Interviews/Speeches (131 cards)
#8 -- Award Show (135 cards)
#7 -- Bat Barrels (333 cards)
#6 -- At the Wall (353 cards)

#5 -- Pitchers at the Plate/On the Basepaths (507 cards)

Coming in at #5 is the oldest of my many mini-collections.

Pitches at the plate/on the basepaths were one of my first fascinations as a young collector, and, while I haven't always called it a "mini-collection," I've been chasing these my entire life, it seems.

I'd say about a third of them feature that familiar sacrifice bunting form.

#4 -- Autographers (569 cards)

One of my favorite aspects of baseball is seeing players interact with the fans, and this mini-collection brings that joy to cardboard.

I especially love the especially meta images of ballplayers signing baseball cards...on a baseball card.

#3 -- Plays at the Plate (638 cards)

Even with the baserunner restriction I mentioned earlier, my plays at the plate ended up with the #3 spot.

They're probably the most consistently action-packed cards you'll find.

(P. S. -- "Bush Whacked," hee-hee.)

#2 -- Throwbacks (862 cards)

Throwbacks were my second mini-collection love.

I discovered retro jerseys shortly after cards of pitchers hitting, and I've hoarded them ever since. Teams seem to wear throwbacks a lot more often than they did five, ten years ago, which means they show up a lot more often on cards these days.

Some might say that's watering down the charm and innovation of retro jerseys. I don't think so.

The more throwbacks, the better.

#1 -- Double Dips (1,369 cards)

I had a feeling double plays would be my biggest mini-collection, but I didn't know it'd be this much of a rout.

None of my other themes came within 500 cards of my turning two collection. Card companies have produced them left at right, but, if this Eric Young is any indication, that hasn't taken away from the beauty of a nice double dip. (There's a bonus "tip of the cap" shot on the back, too.)

I've done all this cataloging knowing that there are still thousands of themed hits I haven't tracked down yet. That's part of what makes this whole mini-collecting thing so fun, though.

Besides, I've already started on Phase 2 of my Zistling. Cataloging my Vlad and Ichiro collections.

See you in another ten months.

The dime box frankenset, Page 73: Numbers 649-657

Let's take a look at how last week's frankenset voting played out.

Win -- 1993 Upper Deck #645 Phil Hiatt (13 votes)

Place -- 1985 Donruss #647 Kurt Bevacqua (10 votes)

Show -- 1992 Topps #646 Craig Wilson (5 votes)

This round was actually much, much closer than I expected it to be. Personally, this was one of the easiest decisions I've had to make, as Hiatt won in a runaway for me. It's probably one of my five favorite cards from '93 UD, which, knowing the greatness of that set, is quite a compliment.

But the glamour-shot-gone-wrong Kurt Bevacqua kept it close the whole way and eventually lost by just three votes, his 10 to Hiatt's 13 (of 33 total). A great card, no doubt, but I think Hiatt deserved the win at the end of it all.

Kudos to Kurt Bevacqua, though.

We're back to a full nine nominees this week on this, the second-to-last page in our frankenset.

Let's meet the newest hopefuls.

2014 Topps #649 Jordan Danks

The rare double dip-throwback combo. 

1994 Topps #650 Andy Van Slyke

Not the most elegant of on-deck hacks. 

2014 Topps #651 Denard Span

A tip of the cap for the hometown crowd. 

1994 Bowman #652 Bobby Jones

The appearance of the ballpoint pen means we have a coveted autograph shot here.

 1969 Topps #653 Aurelio Rodriguez UER

The infamous batboy switcheroo.

1991 Upper Deck #654 Alex Cole

Ball four, take your base.

1994 Topps #655 Charlie Hayes

A picturesque example of the understated beauty of '94 Topps. 

1996 Collector's Choice #656 David Bell

Double dipping with an exceptionally loud background. 

1991 Topps #657 Mike Kingery

This week's page closes with less-than-ideal bunting form.

The polls are now on the sidebar.

Happy voting!

No coincidence

I was recently the grateful recipient of a big ol' box of cards from my buddy Alex of the terrific blog "Chavez Ravining."

As usual, the cardboard Alex sent was fantastic, and we'll get to it in a minute. But first, I'd like to address the fact that Alex, a collector around my age, recently decided to put collecting on the back burner. Though he did check in when 2015 Stadium Club hit the shelves, he's said that his blog will remain dormant for a while.

Most people are rightly concerned about the lack of kids in the hobby, but I'm just as worried (if not more so) about the small percentage of collectors my age these days. Now, I don't know if the college-age crowd was ever a particularly big demographic in the hobby, but it seems especially low now. There are a few reasons for this, I think.

I have friends who, like Alex, work a lot of hours and go to school. A couple of my buddies have multiple jobs and/or work 60+ hours a week. They don't have time for cards. On the flip side of things, a few of my other friends (like me, unfortunately) have trouble finding steady work. They don't have money for cards. I make do with what I can, which isn't much. (I probably average around $10-$15 a month on cards.)

I don't want this to sound like some manifesto on the state of the twenty-somethings in today's society, but, in the end, it's no coincidence that there aren't more people my age in the hobby.

In the end, I guess I'm one of the survivors.

But, with any luck, people like Alex will keep a distant eye on the hobby and check in on the blogs every now and again. In the meantime, let's hope baseball cards still exist when Alex and I reach middle age, because I don't want to be reminiscing about the "good ol' days" when I could find cards at a Target a block away.

Here in the present day, however, Alex made it painfully obvious that he hadn't lost his touch for putting together killer boxes of cards.

This one knocked out a bunch of my 2014 A&G base and insert needs, and I especially love the Hendrix/Handel pairing.

Next up were a couple 2014 Topps wants, and the Tanaka was actually the final base card I needed from 2014 Flagship.

The Tanaka hype was in full force this time last year, so I wasn't able to get my hands on a copy at the time.

Still, over 365 days later, I finally own his true Topps rookie card.

Alex really went to town with the 2014 inserts in this box.

The Samardizja commemorates what must've been an odd All-Star experience for the former Cubs hurler. If memory serves, he was traded to Oakland just a few days before the 2014 Midsummer Classic.

Though he was technically an AL'er at the time, he suited up for the National League (although he wasn't allowed to actually play in the game for the NL).

Wonder if we'll ever see something like that again?

Alex made a right turn into the valley of short-prints about midway through this box.

It's an absolute joy to receive anything St. Louis Browns-related here in 2015.

Back to the inserts, and, specifically, an insert I've been desperate to own since Series 1 hit the shelves.

I've always thought I should be more into the White Stripes than I actually am. Jack White seems like a cool dude either way, and I'm glad to own this baseball card of his.

Points for the throwback jersey, too.

Alex went on to do some mini-collection hunting with this box.

There seem to be quite a few cards of Orel Hershiser at the plate, more so than most other pitchers in my collection.

The guy was a .201 career hitter, in case you were wondering.

It wasn't all set needs and mini-collections, because Alex was sure to give the random machine a whirl as well.

That Garret Anderson reminds me...I need to pick up a cheap box of Metal Universe one day.

Now that would be a fun break.

I've been planning to rewatch of Eight Men Out recently.

This card gives me all the more reason to do so.

Alex didn't skimp with the oddballs, either.

The Ryan comes from a special Mother's Cookies subset, and the Bulldog is one of the rare OPC issues that isn't merely a Topps stunt double. So, did I enjoy these two oddballs? Oui, oui!

(Sorry, that's the only French I know.)

As far as oddballs go, Drake's stole the show.

At first, I thought Alex merely included a handful of these 1981 Drake's cards, but a little further investigation showed that he actually sent me the entire set.

I guess Alex doesn't give out bites.

In what was definitely one of the most well-rounded trade packages I'd ever received, Alex capped off the fun with a budding stack of minis.

The Great One didn't appear in Topps's "First Pitch" insert series, but I'm glad to see that he cracked Ryan's custom set.

I don't buy many packs of A&G (who can afford it?), which means that about 98 percent of the Ginter minis I own have come from outside sources.

Alex certainly upped that number with this box. These were only a fraction of the ones he sent over, in fact.

Dig the Bo trifecta.

Are those enough minis for you?

No?

Well, then bask in the glory of some '89 minis from Alex.

And some more.

And how 'bout one more?

The '89 mini design didn't seem to go over very well last year, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. Alex just about doubled the amount of them I'd had in my collection prior to his generous stack of cardboard.

Like I said, Alex may be taking a sabbatical from the hobby, but he hasn't lost the ability to put together monster trade packages. Or boxes, in this case. So, Alex, if you're reading this, I thank you for this wonderful mix of cards, and I hope to see you around the blogs every now and again.

I do hope you return to the hobby one day, because we twenty-somethings will revolutionize the card industry when we're all millionaires at 35.

Right?