Cigarette Cards - The Ginter of the Past (and the Future?)

I recently saw a link that the New York Public Library had digitized their giant collections of cigarette cards.  The navigation panel on the side of that page has hundreds of different sets that you can look at, ranging from historical notables, "beauties", flowers, ships, animals, birds, military, etc.  If you are interested in any way at the "oddball" (non-baseball) parts of Allen and Ginter, set aside a little time and go for a browse through that archive.

While I have not looked at all of them yet, my personal favorite thus far was the "How To Do It" sets (Set 1 and Set 2) from Gallaher's Cigarettes.  

The first card I liked was "How to Draw an Ellipse" (seen above).  The front of each card features the drawing showing you what to do, and the back features the descriptive text like this:

This is the kind of knowledge we need today!!  You could put these out on a subset of Allen and Ginter and give people instructions so they wouldn't have to use that new-fangled internet.

That set also included:

How to draw a duck with the pencil still on the paper:

How to judge the freshness of a lobster:

How to bandage your foot:

How to read the gas meter:

How to tie Useful Knots:

Having done a lot of camping when I was younger, we learned a lot of knots for various uses.  This is the subject matter that I would LOVE to see replicated in an upcoming subset of  Allen and Ginter.  Please make it happen, Topps!

Comment:  After looking through that archive, what cigarette card set did you like the best, or what would you like to see on a future Ginter subset?

Royals Rookies Roster

There was an announcement this week that the Royals had added Raul Adalberto Mondesi to their World Series roster, even though he had never played in a Major League game before.  That's all well and good, but the big impact is going to come from these two rookies here:

Those are my two little guys, repping the Royals with their new shirts from Grandma and Grandpa.  One of the helmets was my souvenir from going to my first Royals game in 1986.

This is an exciting time to be a Royals fan.  We stole Game 1, and then Cueto dominated in Game 2 to put us up 2-0.  Tenets of Wilson's projections have us at an 82% chance of taking the series now.

My little guy is almost two...He has never seen a World Series that didn't have the Royals in it -- what a charmed life.

Bonus points to anyone who recognizes the trading-card-related item that's seen in one of the pictures of my sons.  Can you spot it?

Any Jose Altuve Collectors Out There?

Leave a comment or send me an email.  I pulled something that may interest you.

Big Greg and Little Willie

P-Town Tom hooked me up with cards above (in March).  Starting off with Willie Wilson and Alex Gordon at the top -- those are beautiful cards.  I love the "Spring Fever" cards every year, but never manage to get to a hobby shop for that promotion, so I am very thankful for any KC ones that come my way.  No, these cards aren't minis...they are regular-size.

So what does that make the Greg Holland?  That thing is a 5 X 7!  It's huge, but the hilarious part is that it came in its own giant toploader!  Nicely done, Tom!!  :-)

He also sent me a similarly-gigantic one of Alex Gordon that is not shown in this post.  Why not?  As soon as I opened the envelope, my 5-year-old son started begging for it.  AG #4 is his favorite player, so he thought it was amazing.  I asked him what he wanted it for, and he said he would put it up above his bed.  We got my roll of blue tape, and stuck it right there on the wall, where it sits to this day.

#CollectingTheNextGeneration

Chipz on Sale

Public Service Announcement -- My Target has Topps Chipz marked down from $2.00/pack to $1.50/pack.  Does yours?

At that, I had to try my hand at one pack.  I picked one up and realized that it was sticking to another pack...had to be a magnet chip in there.  Bought it, and ripped it with my son the other night.  The magnet was "Pirate Parrot"....That's a pretty fun pull to get a mascot magnet.  He immediately seized it an stuck it on his closet door handle.  Fine by me.  :-)

A Good Pack

How do you know it's going to be a good pack?  Open the back and see this:

Cael Me Maybe

Spankee ran an "NFL Score Streak" contest this year, and while my team stunk, I won the "bonus prize" he offered.  There was no mention of what this prize would be, so I was happy to see a yellow mailer show up in my mailbox (last December).

Here's the highlights of what showed up:

This is the gold parallel chip:

Billy Butler - 2013 Topps Chipz - Gold

This one is die-cut, autographed, and #/100.

Alexis Rivera - Donruss Elite Aspirations Signature - #82

Here's my favorite:

2009 Press Pass Fusion - Cael Sanderson - Bronze - #/150 - #89.

There are very few (proper) wrestling cards out there, let alone one of my favorite wrestler from my beloved Iowa State Cyclones.  159-0.  That's all I really need to say about him.

Thanks so much! 

Royals Sweep the Angels

I just back from watching the Royals sweep the Angels in Anaheim this weekend to go to 6-0 on the year.  I think my thoughts on the matter are adequately summarized thusly:

Favorite 2015 Topps Card - David Cone

2015 Topps - Free Agent 40 - #F40-13 - David Cone

What makes a good card?  Photo?  Color?  Design?  Subject?

I think it's a little of each of those, which is why my favorite card thus far this year is the David Cone  "Free Agent 40" card shown above. 

David Cone is a guy who isn't really "on-the-map" for current cards, so it was great to see one of him in this current release, especially in a Royals uni (rather than a Mets one).  The scan does not do justice to the colors on this one -- they are very saturated, and the glossy finish plus the foil make it really pop.  And it's all in delicious Royals blue. 

Last-In, First-Out

When dealing with inputs/outputs, you have to decide how to process them.  You can process them either as First-In, First-Out (FIFO) or Last-In, First-Out (LIFO).  FIFO is used by grocery stores to stock their shelves so that you buy whatever is oldest before you buy the new stuff.  LIFO is what you use for stacking plates in your kitchen cabinet...whatever you just cleaned gets put on the top of the stack and used first the next time.  Selling stocks can use either method, depending on what you want your basis to be.

Why am I talking about this?  I think most bloggers (myself included) try to use a FIFO method for posting our trade packages.  If someone sent me something 5 weeks ago, I want to show that off before I show the stuff I got today.  However, I am hopelessly behind (I have a 1-year-old....it's been a crazy year) on a bunch of the stuff that has been sent to me (including the JBFJ "Ton of Bricks" that he sent me WAY LAST YEAR and I still need to show off), but I still want to post some of the recent stuff in a timely manner. 

I won a recent contest run by Arpsmith.  He and I are neighbors.  Well, not next-door neighbors, but with our recent moves, we now live in the same 'burb.  We haven't met yet (I can't be friends with a Giants fan after last October ;-)), but we are card buddies.  From his contest he sent a bunch of 2015 Topps and some Royals goodies.

First of all, a bunch of 2015 Topps base:

Next, he gave me the two relics from his box that were NOT Nolan Ryan:

Finally, he tossed me a package of  Royals that I needed...my favorite of which makes me want to go for a sprint:

How happy did all this make me?  Very happy.  Like....SALVY-HAPPY.

Thanks, Adam!

Just Relax

I'm not dead yet.

That's the good news.  I posted right before Game 7 of the World Series, and have been absent from the blog ever since.  While the loss for KC that night was heart-breaking, it was not what sent me away.  I was gone because of LIFE.  Full-time work + wife + two little boys + holidays + church involvement + sleep push the ol' blog farther back on the priority list.  I still am reading everything (and don't even have a #WalletCard yet), but just haven't been posting.

One thing that I saw around New Year's Day was the proliferation of "Goals" posts.  "How I did on my 2014 Goals"- and "These are my brand-spanking-new 2015 Goals"-type posts filled my feed for about a week.  It's fun to see what people are collecting, but each of them made me feel a little....sad.  This is because every recap features FAILURE.  I didn't see a single one where someone said "10-for-10....it was a perfect year in my collection!!"  It was more like "I only added 1 auto of Player A instead of 3, and am only 62% done on my 19xx Topps set.  What a bummer."

May I offer some advice?  JUST RELAX.   You're not a "BAD COLLECTOR" because you didn't meet the arbitrary standard you set for yourself.  Our human nature is to try to prove to ourselves by our own performance that we are valuable and that we belong at the cool table.  However, this hobby is not something where you have to earn your way in.  It's a big table with room for everyone.  Don't stress and don't feel bad if things don't go as you planned.  It's OK.  I will read your posts no matter how frequently you post them or whether you have finally organized your card desk.  This is all for fun - you don't have card-obligations to anyone else....we can give each other grace not to be "perfect collectors" all the time.  However, I do chuckle/cringe whenever I see the "I'm sorry I only posted 5 times instead of 7 last week" posts....that will never be me.

Can we do that?  Can we just enjoy our cards, have fun, help each other out when we can, and let the Chipz fall where they may?