Baseball Sheep - Contest Reminder

The response from the card community to this year's Baseball Sheep contest has been AWESOME.  We already have more entries this time than we did in the last iteration.  Remember that the deadline to enter is this Sunday (12/16/18), so submit a set of responses if you haven't yet done that!

The original post with all the rules and description is HERE.

The link to the questions is HERE.

Happy sheeping!

CONTEST: Baseball Sheep 2018

IT'S BACK.

In 2014 I ran a little contest called "Baseball Sheep" - we got 34 entrants, answered some fun questions, gave out some prizes, and had ourselves a ball.  LET'S DO IT AGAIN!!

How to play:
I have created this form (http://bit.do/BaseballSheep2018) which has 20 baseball and baseball card-themed questions.  (Click on it now to see the questions.) There are no right or wrong answers.  However, your goal is to put down the answer that you think will be the most-common answer to that question -- it is not necessarily how you would answer it yourself.  Think of it like the baseball version of "Family Feud."  Don't be too original!  Don't be too wacky!  Remember, you are but a simple-minded sheep who follows the rest of the mindless flock (who also happens to like cards and read blogs).  

How to win:
Once all of the entries are in, I will tally the answers for each question.  You will receive the number of points equal to the number of people who shared your answer on a given question.  For example, if I said "What is a team in the AL East?", and the responses were (Yankees - 12, Red Sox - 7, Orioles - 1), then each person who said Yankees (the biggest sheep) would receive 12, the Red Sox respondents would receive 7, and the one guy who said Orioles would just get the single point for himself.  I will sum up the score for each of the 20 questions -- HIGHEST SCORE WINS.

Deadline:
I will accept responses until 11:00 PM Pacific on Sunday, December 16th.  After that I will tally the scores and make a post about it.

Prizes:
1) I will have a prize for the 1st-place finisher...likely some '70s-era vintage, or modern-era relic cards, or MLB Showdown cards, or a bubble-mailer full of the winner's favorite team, or something from their want-list (if I have it), or a combination of all of these.. 

2) There will also be a similar prize for one of the game entrants drawn at random from all the entries -- so even if you are a big loser with your responses, you still can win!  If you promote this contest on your blog or twitter (post a link in the comments), I will include an extra entry for you in that second-chance drawing.  


I would love to see us have 40 (or more!) entrants in this contest, and I can't wait to see what all the answers are!

So make sure you fill out this form ASAP!  Who's in?

2018 Post Grape-Nuts MLS Soccer Cards

I hadn't seen these mentioned on the blogs yet, so I figured I'd post about it. My wife tossed me this box after she had finished her cereal.  The back of Grape-Nuts (or "grape-nuts" as it is now styled) contains four MLS soccer cards.  This particular one had Jozy Altidore, Graham Zusi, Bradley Wright-Philips, and Miguel Almiron.  I believe there are four different panels to collect.

It's nice to see more food-issued cards whenever we can get them -- I loved the Marketside Pizza offering a few years back -- so glad to see Post doing the MLS cards.  Heard a rumor they would be doing hockey cards, too. 

Finally, since I am not a soccer guy, does anybody need these?

I'm a White Guy

2014 Panini Immaculate - Frank White Autograph - #/99

I must admit, I'm a "White Guy".

Now, that's not saying anything about the pigments of my epidermis, but rather, my fandom for Royals legend Frank White.

The man won eight Gold Gloves, and got immortalized in this Bobblehead for it:

But still, he doesn't show up much in trading card releases since his retirement...let alone have many autographs or relic cards.  The last Topps product he was in was 2013 Archives.  However, Panini has done a little bit better job with Frank -- including him in 2013 Hometown Heroes, 2013 America's Pastime, and 2014 Immaculate.  Apparently he had a low-numbered card (#/3) in a repack product called "2017 Leaf Greatest Hits", but I have never seen that one.  The only relic card I have of his is 2002 Topps Gold Label. 

But going back to the card at the top of this post, that is an on-card autograph from 2014 Panini Immaculate that arrived at my door yesterday, and it only cost me $1.75 total.

How?  Last week Ebay released a short-term coupon code ("PERKMEUP") for $5.00 off of any purchase of $5.01 or more. (**Hat-Tip to The Lost Collector and $30/Week Habit for posting/liking this code on Twitter so that I saw it.) I had been watching the White auto for awhile, but wasn't willing to pull the trigger for $7.  However, I could do it for less than $2!!  

It is numbered 30/99, signed in blue pen which goes with the uniform, and is a great addition to my Royals collection.  I would have to say that collectively the Immaculate line is probably my favorite product out there in the last several years, so getting any more Royals from there is awesome.

Did anyone else use the PERKMEUP code or score any crazy deals lately?

A Blue Chicken and Some Sparkly Suits

Back in late July I made a purchase from "Erik's Fire Sales" on Twitter (@EriksFire)...well it was really a large quantity of very small purchases.  He was posting tons of cards for sale, and you could claim whatever you wanted.  Here are the highlights for my keepers...in addition to these, I grabbed some cards for the PCs of my frequent-traders.

Obviously, my stack would always start with Royals.  I love the red Guthrie, the green Holland, the Black Gold Montgomery, and an assortment of unusual Salvys.

Here are some Basketball Coaches.  This is a VERY minor, back-burner PC of mine, but I grab them when I can.  However, I've got to say something about the Panini photo selection here...is this the best you can do??  Coaches just standing there - arms crossed or hands on hips?  Do these guys actually DO anything?  Can I get a pointing and a screaming coach, please?

On the plus side, it's not every day you get an X-Fractor of a guy in a suit.

 I grabbed a few football cards:

1. Kurt Warner - my favorite player ever.
2. David Johnson - another UNI alum and prime contributor to my Fantasy Football success in 2016, so I have a small PC of him.
3. Alan Page - Just in case anyone doesn't know his story, the guy had a Hall of Fame football career, got his law degree while he was still in the NFL from the University of Minnesota, and THEN became a member of the Minnesota Supreme Court.  What a life!  

Brush with Greatness:  When I offered to pay my dime for the Alan Page card....his wife liked my Tweet.  :-)
https://twitter.com/DenHartogJ/status/1016475151372836864

This blog is called "Royals and Randoms" for a reason...I do like my oddballs. The chicken is a blue parallel and my sons are trying to get me to trade it to them.  I like that I am developing two oddball collectors.

His prices were quite reasonable...I don't think anything you will see here was more than 50 cents --  the Luminescent die-cut was the most expensive.  He hasn't run a sale in the last month or so, but he's definitely worth following on Twitter for some good cheap pickups next time he runs a sale.

Which of these cards was your favorite?

More Than One Penny Sleeve

Longtime blogger (and new Twitter Buddy) Jon from A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts went on a generosity streak after finding a ton of Topps Buybacks for sale.  He asked me if I wanted some.  Of course I do!

His mailer arrived with these six "REDISCOVER TOPPS" stamped buybacks.  I love the 1987 Topps set anyway, so getting new versions for these are great!  Especially Willie Wilson.  The cards on the top are all silver-stamped, while the three on the bottom are bronze-stamped.  

However, that was not all that was in the package - Jon included two unexpected manu-relics, also!

The Jackie Robinson buyback is beautiful, contrasting the blue in the Royals uniform to the blue in the medallion.  Moose's 1st Home Run is my second one of these relics -- the first was Alex Gordon.

Thank you, Jon!  These are much appreciated and will find a great home!

  

Oscar Azocar's Long-Lost Brother

The '90s were a weird time.