2016 Donruss Optic!

Jason Heyward DK Purple Refractor.. 

It's so pretteh.  I picked up one of them there $9.99 "Value" packs, which, for this release anyway, are actually just a fat pack with three packs worth of cards plus a pack of exclusive parallels all in one instead of separate.  Probably saves on packaging, or at least on the amount of crap being thrown out after you're finished.

Hard to tell by the scan, but this is a refractor..

I'm not going to get too deep with this post, because I think I'm gonna to post the pack to APtbNL sometime in the next couple days if I don't get lazy.  So for now, I'm just showing the keepers, of which there were surprisingly many.

These two are base..

The first thing that caught my attention when I found out about these not long before they came out were the chromed out Diamond Kings, and they do not disappoint.  It certainly didn't hurt my enjoyment that a full quarter of the pack was comprised of these beauties.  I'm all in on piecing together a set of them, plus *any* parallels I can get my saucy little mitts on (I'll accept base Donruss DKs & their parallels too).  So if you have any for trade, I WANT THEM. I want them all...

Kris Bryant Purple Refractor!

My keepers weren't all Diamond Kings, however.  I leave you today with the big hit of the pack: The above KB purple refractor!  Epic score for a Cubs fan on an extremely limited budget like me.

In summation, these cards are great and you should get you some (and send me all of the Diamond Kings you pull).  I know I'll be getting more when I'm not so heinously broke.

That's all for now.  Thanks for stopping by!

Until our next...

The Topper

I picked up the topper to a full player collection earlier this summer.  It arrived not long after all my technologies went haywire on me.  That's why I'm just now getting around to posting it, and many other things, in the here & now, in case you're just catching back up with me at this post.  The thing about this PC though, is that I didn't know it was a full player collection at the time.

2016 TSC Robinson Cano Lonestarr Signatures Gold #'ed 8/10 *manly grunting*..

Yeah... Pretty nice, huh?  Shortly after completing another small trade with him (the highlight of which I believe was a blue Archives Michael Brantley parallel #'ed 1/199), the legendary Night Owl pulled this beauty out of blaster and tweeted about it, so I offered up every decent Dodger (amongst other surprise oddities) I could dig up and sent them his way.

The back..

Now, about the premise of the post.  I have a bit of an affinity for second basemen because, in the long, long ago, that was my natural position in little league.  I have a full collection dedicated to Ryne Sandberg, because DUH, and Single Page Sensations collections going for a lot of the better players to play the position, from the very old to very new: Roberto Alomar, Jose Altuve, Luis Aparicio, Craig Biggio, Rod Carew, Ray Durham, Jackie Robinson (though he's not here merely for the position he played, obviously), Devon Travis... and of course, the subject of this post himself, Mr. Cano.

Greg mentioned being happy the card went to a Cano collector, and I dwelled on that for a bit, wondering why I don't just take the plunge and make him a full player collection.  I mean, that's my position, and he's already the best to have ever played it, despite probably still having another 3-4 solid offensive seasons left in the tank, and now I suddenly have the showpiece to make it complete when I finally break the 100 card mark a little ways down the line.  And that was that.  Robbie is the real deal now.  A full Player Collection.

~~~~

It's kind of an anti-climax, and barely even related, but while I was writing this up, I found the Brantley scan and edited to size.  I can't think of any other reason I might have for posting it later though, so I'm gonna leave you with that.

Here's Mikey!

eBay 1/1! :P

Thanks for stopping by!

Until our next...

The Trading Post: Cards from Cards on Cards (on Cards)

This is the only redbird you'll ever likely see on this blog..

I have another trade in progress with Kerry from Cards on Cards, so I better get this older one posted already!

He loves him some Cardinals, and I hates them so, but I often manage pull them by the buttload, and he is the primary beneficiary.  He struggles similarly with Cubs, and some of them make it back my way.  The competition for Cubbies is often fierce in the cardsphere (even when they stunk), however, and my collecting habits are... eclectic, so I tend to have to mix it up, and this post will be no exception.

3/4 of the major additions..

The Gold BowChro Cespedes came from a Loot Locker pack, I believe, and was the catalyst for this deal.  Cain was a late request as well.  I wasn't expecting the Heritage Chrome, but it was a welcome surprise.  While Lorenzo Cain's page is still in the early stages, my Yoenis Cespedes single page collection is now nearly complete. :)

2016 Bowman Solers..

The undercard of this trade was a lot more Cubs-centric, though there was a psychedelic Allen Iverson base card from the late-'90s in there too.

Some new Jakes..

Finishing up strong..

We'll close it out with a couple nice Schwarber RCs and the last of the four big scores in this trade, that there Kris Bryant RC.  I also wasn't expecting it, but I will never ever turn down a KB RC, even if it's my third copy of the same card.  It's an instant classic too, cropped enough to see the concentration in his eyes.  Great, great card, amongst a package filled with many.

That's all for today.  Thanks for stopping by! :)

Until our next...

When In Doubt...

... Post sketch cards!

Josie by Fer Galicia

Yeah, I've been keeping up with my scanning surprisingly diligently now that I have a desk and the scanner is at eye level, but I haven't gotten around to following up my latest attempt to get this cannoli stand up and running very well.  So at this point, I have no idea what scans are supposed to go where, or when... or why.  Thus, random sketch card pick-ups it is!

Pulp Girls sketch card by...

...Dennis Budd!

I scored this trio of 5finity sketch cards as a cheap lot from what turned out to be the same seller as Raz' bunch from his recent post not long after he picked up his at auction (this was a BIN of multi-time failures to sell).  They only set me back a grand total of $9.99 + $3.50 shipping.  Well under $5 a card, even after shipping.  I think I've only managed a better per-card rate on lots maybe three times in all my years of collecting sketch cards, and they were all at least 7 cards strong.  One was an absolutely insane 57, but that's another story for another time...

The Pussycats by Kate Hayward..

Sketch cards don't even have to be that great for me to be willing to pay under $5, but that wasn't really a problem here.  Fer Galicia is one of favorite sketch card artists, and the main reason I picked this trio up.  His card probably worth what I paid for the entire bunch alone, and I'm happy to add another to the binder.  Dennis Budd is another nice name to get from the lower end of the sketch card marketplace as well.

Happily, everyone signed their names, which doesn't always happen..

I'm not as enamored with the art on the third card, which is by Kate Hayward.  A quick search of cards by her available on eBay indicates her work can vary in quality dramatically (my work is the same way, tbh), and while I this isn't one of her strongest efforts, it looks like she has some legitimately great stuff out there, and I wouldn't hesitate to pick up more of her work should it fall in to my ever feeble price range.  As for the card in my possession, it does feature the entire band on it and the colors are excellent, so I still like it enough that I don't really have any inclination of moving it without a pretty good reason for doing so.

That about wraps it up for this post.  Thanks for stopping by!

Until our next...

And We're Back... Again!

Yes, and I might actually hang around for a little while this time!

Some noticeable changes have taken place over the past month.  First, the reason I disappeared all of a sudden.  Both my computer AND my tablet ate it within a few days of each other, somewhere in the 8-12th of July neighborhood.  However, my most likely extremely annoying penchant for aimless wandering allowed me to luck into a very nice, very cheap new laptop before the month was out.  It's specs are pretty much baseline, but that's what you get for $250 (well, $400 originally, but it was on sale), but it does everything I need it to right now.  It also has an excellent 7-ish hour battery life as its one real plus tool (seems to charge hella fast too).  I've spent these first couple weeks getting acquainted with it and adding a lot of my typical bells & whistles (Open Office, MAME, etc), and now I'm finally starting to get into the swing of things again.

I didn't forget that I owe a few people some cards, which I will try to get done before Halloween, at the latest.  It will probably be sooner, but I'm still under the gun even more than usual money-wise, since I'll be paying my laptop (and the service plan) off through at least October, so I'm just trying to be cautious with the date & not get anyone's hopes up.

Around the same time I got the laptop & started getting it ready for action, my little brother was in the midst of his big move to Texas to be with his girlfriend (which may have been the single most successful, relatively drama free long distance move in human history).  Anyway, this is worth noting because he left me his ginormous desk on the way outta town.  Not that there was room for him to take it with him anyway, since it's a good three feet long in one direction, five feet in the other, and both sides are two feet wide, but he is, at least for the time being, leaving behind journalism for what seems to be a job that's more along the lines of social work.

So yeah, I'm typing this from that desk right now and it is amazing.  It's not completely set up how I want it yet, but it's already working out quite well.  I have room for my computer, the scanner is at eye level now, and there's still plenty of room for me to draw (or paint, he left me a watercolor sketchbook & some paints too, as well as a little box with an unused Munny and a few action figures), and keep some binders and a few of my favorite toys on it.

Oh, I started running again too!  I'm slow as molasses (I was never remotely fast even at my peak anyway) and my knees are trash, but being active makes me feel better and a little more functional.  I wonder if Antwon moving on played a part in making me take it back up too.  Maybe watching life moving on without me lit a small fire under my ass.  I dunno, but I'm going again, and I like the way it feels.

Losing the computer and tablet hurt, but maybe, just maybe, things are starting to look up.

Since you indulged my babbling about life stuff, I'll leave you with a card stuff.  Here's a recent eBay pickup I just scanned for you to enjoy.  Thanks for stopping by!

2016 Topps WWE Eve Torres..

..Gold Parallel #'ed 4/10!

Until our next...

Wild Chibis Appear!

The previous post ended with a preview of June's small-ish COMC shipment, but these oversized cards/mini paintings from my recent impromptu Twitter #artswap with @chibi_celina just came in yesterday and they are so freakin' rad I had to bump them up the list.  Behold!

She-Hulk, Rogue, and Starfire!

They all measure somewhere in the 3x5" range, with Rogue being slightly larger than the others and on lighter stock.  You can't really tell in the scan, but most of Starfire's skin & a lil of her hair also has this amazing shimmery effect that is makes her even more mesmerizing in person.

If you like these, you can probably hit up Celina at the above link to her Twitter and see about commissioning her, or possibly work out an #artswap of your own if you also happen to be an artist.  She's a cool cat, and as you can see, she does great work!  I'm delighted to finally get some of her famous chibis (the first time we swapped, I got a more traditional piece, which she also does well, if the chibi style isn't really your thing).

That's all for this one.  Thanks for stopping by!  Enjoy your Independence Day celebrations safely.  Packs are hard to open when you're missing a thumb (h/t @JunkWaxTwins on Twitter for that joke).

Roll that stone away.. ♫

Who Knew...

...that the weekend I was talking about in my first post was actually six+ months away?  Well, here we finally are.  Blog attempt 4.0 (at least) is finally set to happen.  Well, briefly anyway.  Don't call this a comeback, and don't think of it any kind of great big meaningful return, for I am only passing through.

An unfortunate, and self-inflicted (of course), event I've chosen to use as an opportunity merely presented itself as an excuse for a brief un-retirement from card blogging.  My tablet's camera broke, so I have had to start scanning things in order to document them again.  Thus, I figured I would shake out a few posts worth of content with them, and the scanning I will be required to do over the next few months as well.

It will all be fine as long as I don't overburden myself into another lengthy hiatus, as I've done numerous times in the past.  So far, so good on that front.  If nothing else, the handful of posts worth of scans I have on hand should at least see the light of day over the course of the next month or so.

The digressions and explanations have been made, and there's nothing left to say for right now (other than thanks for stopping by!).  So here goes whatever... again.

2014 Leaf Best of Basketball Damian Lillard Sketch Card by Jim Kyle..

Until our next...