Contest Reminder

Just a quick reminder that you can enter the BIG PILE contest through Sunday.  Post a comment on this page to enter:
http://royalsandrandoms.blogspot.com/2011/11/big-pile-contest.html

The BIG PILE Contest

 

Boom!  With the addition of Spiegel, I now have 25 followers to my blog.  That's including me...(yes, I follow my own blog -- I have to see what semi-clever things I come up with to write about).    Therefore I think that to thank you it's time to run my first-ever contest. So I am hereby announcing the kickoff of the:

ROYALS AND RANDOMS

BIG PILE CONTEST

Why are you calling it the "Big Pile Contest", you may ask?  Because I've got a big pile of cards that I want to be giving away to TWELVE WINNERS.  Each winner will come away with part of that pile -- at least 15 cards each.  There aren't any hits, but it will be lots of base/inserts/parallels of stars from the last 30 years in baseball, football, and basketball. 

Entries will be accepted through the end of Sunday, December 4th.  If you want to be WINNING like Charlie up at the top, here's how you enter.  To enter:

• Leave a comment on this blog post 
• For one entry: Name one player you would like to see as part of the giveaway pile.
• For a second entry: Promote this contest on your blog (please post the link)
• For a third entry:  State that you are a follower of my blog (if you are, in fact, a follower).

I will randomize all the entries and announce the winners next week.  After that, the contest will begin.  It will be a draft format, but with stealing allowed.  I will post the full rules/procedure in a later post.  I am hoping to show some of the cards that will be in the pile later this week as I get them scanned.

One card that will DEFINITELY be in the pile is Mr. Reggie Jackson - 1975 Topps #461.

  

My wife says "Tell them that they should expect more than 15 cards apiece.  You have so many cards -- you should give away more."  :-)

Enjoy!

Shiny Parallels and their Non-Shiny Brethren

I never expected to use the word "Brethren" in this blog, but look in the title -- there it is!

I have to show off some brethren cards that I got in Colbey's most recent group break (check out Cardboard Collections for good cheap group breaks on a regular basis).  KC was the big winner on parallels in this break (several Pinnacle products).  The checklists for each team were not super-deep, so I was able to get the base cards for them, too.

These are all 1995 Pinnacle Summit.  The base cards are on top, while the "N-th Degree" parallels are below.  They are pretty shiny, as the scan indicates. 

1995 Pinnacle Summit #120 Joe Vitiello, #121 Jon Nunnally, and #139 Joe Randa

These guys were from the 1996 Pinnacle Aficionado box that Colbey opened, too.  These cards are really neat in that the faces on the right are a dot-picture (like you would see in the Wall-Street Journal), but the texture of them is such that the dots are raised above the level of the card stock so you can feel it as you run your fingers across it.

1996 Pinnacle Aficionado #65 Kevin Appier and #128 Johnny Damon

The final product that I wanted to show off featured a young (that is, short-haired) Johnny Damon and a young (that is, still thin) Sal Fasano.

1996 Summit #124 Johnny Damon and #169 Sal Fasano

I love discovering these less-prominent sets that I completely missed during my hiatus from card collecting.  Thanks for bringing them out into the open, Colbey.

30 Royals a Week Habit

(I wish I could get 30 new Royals every week!!)

A couple weeks ago I sent some cards over to Robert at $30 a Week Habit.  It was some 2009 O-Pee-Chee for the set he is putting together, one serial-numbered card for the Insanity, and a bunch of random Jays.  I've enjoyed his blog over the past few months, and he is always friendly and usually responds to any comments I've posted there.

He was kind enough to send me a great package in return.  Lots of Royals, especially some from recent sets/seasons, which is great because I don't have a ton of recent stuff in my collection.  I don't buy much retail these days, so it was great to get them.

Here's some of the highlights:

Some of the 2011 Heritage:

2011 Heritage Lorenzo Cain #341 and Billy Butler #275

A Couple Topps 60 from this year:

2011 Topps 60 Billy Butler #T60-28 and Danny Duffy #T60-141

Some coolness:

2001 Fleer Futures Mike Sweeney #175 and 2009 O-Pee-Chee (Black) Jose Guillen #303

And my favorites from this pack...a sweet 2-Pack of Hosmers:

2011 Topps Update Eric Hosmer #US188 and #US155

Thanks so much, Robert.  Everything was cool and packaged really nicely.  I hope we can come up with another good trade in the future. 

Trading with a Superstar

Every subculture has its stars.  Lifestyle Design has Tim Ferriss.  Trivia has Ken Jennings.  And Card Blogging has Night Owl.  His frequency and quality of posts is unsurpassed, in my opinion.  Needless to say that I was taken aback when one day I saw a note from the king himself.  He had seen my post on the Classic garage sale cards and wanted those purple Dodgers.  I was more than happy to oblige, so I shipped him that Purple Haze along with a bunch of other miscellany.

He told me that he would send me "Random Royals and Orel Hershisers," which sounded great to me.  Last week I opened up my mailbox and saw that little yellow envelope we all love to see.  Without further ado, here are the highlights of the goodies from Night Owl.

Some Young Guys:

 

 2011 Bowman TP15 - Mike Montgomery, and 2007 Topps TP16 - Brian Bannister

Some Old Guys:
(Does he have these things just lying around??  AWESOME)

1982 Topps Stickers (#193 Frank White, #191 Dennis Leonard, #196 Willie Aikens)

One Hunched-Over Guy:

1972 Topps #178 Paul Schaal

And two more guys that I can't help but like -- the Mexicutioner and the Mustache I want:

 2011 Allen and Ginter #174 Joakim Soria and 1982 Topps #495 Dennis Leonard

Not only did he have a bunch of Royals for me, but The Bulldog came through, too.

1990 Collect-A-Books #6 Orel Hershiser

It's not every day you get another "Lanceur" for your collection:

1985 Leaf #38 and 1991 O-Pee-Chee #64 Orel Hershiser

And I saved my personal favorites for last...I never had many Sportflics.  I started collecting in 1987, when a pack of 15 Topps cards cost 40 cents and a pack of 3 Sportflics was a buck.  You can guess what 7-year-old me bought more of.  Even though they were super-cool, my pocket-change-budget could not get the Flics very often.  So when I saw these, I giggled like a little kid:

1987 Sportflics #43 and 1986 Sportflics #9 Orel Hershiser

Thank you, Night Owl.  This package was a blast.  You made this blogger very happy.

Chasing Down Some Chicle

I have a 2-year-old son.  I'm still new to this whole blogging thing.  I am also very lazy.

Those are the three main things that contributed to me not hooking up my new scanner for over 2 months.  And since I didn't have a scanner connected, I didn't want to show the results of any of my trades.  But tonight, a sudden wave of productivity washed over me, and I installed the darn thing.  And it works great! 

Back in September, Justin at The Hopeful Chase and I worked out a trade through Zistle.  These guys came my way in one of the familiar yellow bubble mailers.

2010 National Chicle Royals (#152 / #153 / #20)

AWESOME.  Love me some David DeJesus (and all Kansas City Royals), and Alex Gordon is on the way up.  I never got attached to Rick Ankiel as a Royal (there wasn't enough time before he was traded!), but I mostly collect the name on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back. 

There was one other card I had requested of him:

2010 National Chicle - # 65 - Clayton Kershaw

Art/Painted cards are some of my favorite, and I thought this one was cool-looking.  Besides, aren't there some Kershaw Kollectors (yes, I just made that up) that are reading this now?  If anyone needs it, it's for trade.

Finally, as the blogging veterans know and I am still discovering -- the generosity of many out there is so great as to add "throw-ins" of extra stuff the recipient might like.  Justin was generous to me and tossed in these two beauties:

2011 Topps Stickers!! - Alex Gordon and Mike Moustakas - Number 73 and 76.

These were my first 2011 stickers (believe it or not) and was happy to see them.  Just a few more needed for the complete base set.  :-)

So, thanks again, Justin!  You can see his whole post on what I gave him (Eddie Murrays).  It was a very smooth trade, and if you ever get a chance to trade with him I would jump on it.

Month in Review - October 2011

As I mentioned in last month's post, I am trying to put together a compilation of my favorite card blog posts from the last month.  Here's the post for October.  It's only a few days late.  :-)  My son's 2nd birthday was this week, so there was some hubbub around that which kept me from posting earlier.

Without further ado, October 2011!

Post of the Month
Napkin Doon's New Nemesis -- As Lisa Simpson says, "Everybody needs a nemesis.  Sherlock Holmes had his Dr. Moriarty, Mountain Dew has its Mellow Yellow, even Maggie has that baby with the one eyebrow."  It looks like Napkin has found his.

Runner-Up
Create Your Own Moustachas Card -- Dayf and Eric teamed up for this one.  :-)

Other Greatness
Reading Between the Sheets -- Night Owl examines the color combinations and printed page layouts of the 1975 Topps set. 

The Marshall Fogel Collection -- Link to a video on NBC of a collector who is way past "hobby" territory. 

Steve Yeager -- Cardboard Gods isn't so much a trading card blog, as it is an autobiography with a trading card framework.  He's got a young kid, so I can relate to some of what he's talking about as he discusses parenting here.  He's got a really unique voice which I really like.

Fun with Cards -- Original Baseball Card Rap illustrated with card

The Best Liquorfractor -- What a great pull!! :-)

The Hierarchy -- Another Night Owl post -- how he organizes his cards by brand.  This looks like his "Brand Power Rankings" to me. 

The Danny Woodhead Collection -- DW Supercollector