Baseball Card Blogs » -Blog Profiles

Focus on – “1988 Score”

admin — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 19:48:06 +0000

1988 Score’s first post – June 12th, 2008:

Fist post and Pack One

Greetings all.

Why 1988 Score? This set gets very little respect, and it probably doesn’t deserve much in the long run. But I like it.

Because twenty years ago, when I was seven years old, before I got into Topps, Donruss, Upper Deck and the like, the first packs of baseball cards I bought were 1988 Score.

A lot has happened in the world of baseball cards since I bought my last cards in 1994. But a renewed interest has been sparked, and I wanted to go back where it all started.

Bens Blogger Profile:

About Me

I’m 27 years old and my interest in baseball cards randomly reappeared after buying a few packs of ’08 Topps. I’m not sure why, and I’m not entirely sure it’s a good thing, but I’m enjoying it. I collected heavily from 1988 until 1994 and then for whatever reason didn’t buy another card, and never expected to, until 2008. I graduated college in 2003 with a degree in professional writing. My other hobbies are reading, writing, music (playing and listening) and playing around with my ’06 Subaru Impreza.

Focus on – “30 Year Old Cardboard”

admin — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 19:52:27 +0000

30 Year Old Cardboard’s first post – August 8th, 2008:

I’ve decided to create this blog to record my journey back into the hobby of baseball card collecting. Baseball card collecting was a huge part of my life growing up and after 15 or so years away from the hobby, I am back! I’ve done a little reading and surfed online trying to get reaquainted with a hobby that I once knew an incredible amount about. Today, I feel like a stranger in this ever changing world but am eager to jump back in. I have decided to focus most of my attention on collecting cards of players that played in the 80’s as this was the time that I enjoyed basbeall the most. I also plan on jumping in and out of basketball cards too and again will focus most of my attention on the players that starred in the 80’s.

So sit back and relax as I take you along with me. I hope that I keep you entertained along the way and I certainly welcome any and all comments as we share this experience together. Please don’t be too upset with me if my blogs get off course every once in a while as I am also eager to share my thoughts with you on the NBA, movies, music, pop culture, and other fun and entertaining outlets.

Brian

Brian’s profile:

My name is Brian Applebaum, and I have decided to blog about my journey back into the hobby of collecting baseball cards. I have begun taking baby steps into a world that was a huge part of my life growing up.

As I began to research what is out in the marketplace today, I saw way too many things that weren’t at all familiar to me. So, my focus will be on collecting what I am calling ‘30-year old cardboard’. This will be a great opportunity to reminisce about what I consider to be the glory days of baseball and baseball card collecting – the 1980’s.

Had it not been for a handful of ego-driven and power hungry newspaper and yearbook editors throughout my high school experience, I fully believe that I would have some type of job as a journalist. Since I didn’t stay on that path, I will use this blog to keep my creative mind flowing and hopefully will entertain my audience(not matter how small) in the process.

Read and Enjoy!!!

Focus on – “7th. Inning Stretch”

admin — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 19:54:26 +0000

7th. Inning Stretch’s first post – August 19, 2008

It’s Free and it’s better than ever
Posted by Tuff stuff

Welcome to all of you joining us at the new and improved www.tuffstuff.com, a digital representative of Tuff Stuff’s Sports Collectors Monthly magazine.

As the editor of the magazine, I have my hands full trying to produce a magazine that gives our readers the most accurate and up-to-date multi-sport Price Guide in the hobby as well as providing editorial content that keeps our readers both informed and entertained. It’s a tough balancing act to try and provide the best of both worlds but when each issue is done and on its way to our customers, I get the satisfaction of knowing we did exactly what we set out to do when we started putting it together.

While the magazine will continue to be your No. 1 source for all of your pricing needs whether it be cards, autographs, figures or limited-edition collectibles and great feature stories, the plan for www.tuffstuff.com is to provide more of the same online and then some. With its user-friendly setup featuring interactive Forums, Videos, Surveys and Contests and a variety of other Interactive opportunities for our users, the new-look www.tuffstuff.com should provide something for every collector.

While there are other sites out there that try and provide card pricing for collectors, unlike our competitors, we are totally unbiased and provide the most accurate pricing available absolutely FREE.

We encourage you to visit the site frequently, as we’ll continue to unveil new features in the coming weeks. We also encourage you to use our Forums to connect with other collectors, suggest ideas for future stories and let us know what you like/dislike about the site. Enjoy the site.

Focus on – “A Pack A Day”

admin — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 20:27:57 +0000

September 2, 2007:

OK, this is one of my favorite basketball card sets: an earlier set unmarred by inserts, flashy design, and subsets–sort of the anti-1993-94 Upper Deck. So when I ended up at Madison-Bouckville last summer, I found a full box for $10. A call-out on the side of the box actually highlighted the fact that coach cards were randomly inserted in packs, and they’re not a subset or an insert, just cards of the head coaches around the league. Pretty fantastic.

Here’s the breakdown, in order, from the first pack:

1. Michael Adams, Denver Nuggets
2. Greg Anderson, San Antonio Spurs
3. Willis Reed, NJ Nets (my first randomly-inserted coach card!)
4. Alton Lister, Supersonics
5. Jose Ortiz, Jazz
6. Greg Kite, Charlotte Hornets
7. Kenny Walker, Knicks
8. Larry Nance, All-Star
9. Mychal Thompson, LA Lakers
10. Frank Johnson, Rockets
11. Terry Catledge, Bullets
12. Dale Ellis, All-Star
13. Bob Hansen, Jazz
14. Rik Smits, Pacers
15. Spud Webb, Hawks (dunking)

Not a bad pack. No truly great players (except for Willis Reed), but Adams (scored 51 in a game and was drafted in the 3rd round), Smits, Webb, Sky Walker, and Thompson make it worthwhile, not to mention me-first Dale Ellis and the other half of one of the most even trades in the 1980s, Larry Nance (for Kevin Johnson, Suns-Cavs). But what really makes this a good pack is Jose Ortiz. I’m sorry, but who exactly is Jose Ortiz?

Focus on – “Achiever Card Blog”

admin — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 20:49:41 +0000

Achiver Card Blog first post – June 27, 2007:

Birth of the Achiever Card Blog

Hello and welcome to my blog. I am Motherscratcher and I apparently have way too much time on my hands. For those who are wondering my name and blog title are taken directly from Coen Brother’s movies. Not that anyone was wondering. Someone would have to read it first to wonder.

OK, lets get to it

1. Why did I make a card blog?

About a week ago I discovered my old baseball cards and fell into a sort of hallucinatory mania trying to get them organized. Basically I fell back in love. For how long I do not know.
I was on the interwebs looking for answers to my many questions and stumbled across some blogs. Most notably Sports Cards Uncensored. I thought it was fantastic. I figured that considering my abundance of intelligence and wit, not to mention my dashing good looks, hoards of people would flock to read all of the interesting things I have to say. This may be a good way to get some of my questions answered.
I also thought that it may be interesting to document my observations as I attempt to navigate the ridiculous scorched earth, nonsensical landscape that sports cards have apparently become. At least it would be something for people to read while they are taking a break from searching for porn.

2. What do I plan to contribute?

Not a whole hell of a lot.

3. Will I ever do something to improve this blog’s settings and layout?

I sure hope so.

4. What will I promise faithful readers of my blog?

I personally promise to send, with free shipping, a custom tee shirt with a picture of a bowling pin to anywhere inside the continental United States to the person who post the 5,000th comment on one of my posts. This is assuming that it is possible to track these things.

Things not to expect from my blog:
Intelligence
Cohearence
Any type of worthwhile information
A reasonable return on your valuable time

I will be back soon with another post as I attempt to scan a card and present it on the interweb for all to see and enjoy. I will also attempt to clarify the types of things that you can expect to find on this ridiculous blog. Thank you for your kind attention.

Why do I get the feeling that I’m talking to myself?

Motherscratcher’s Profile:

OK…about me…what is there to say? I was one of the original authors of the Port Huron Statement. The original. Not the compromised second draft. If you’ve ever heard of the Cleveland Seven…that was me too. With six other guys. In the 80′s I was a roadie for Metallica. Speed of Sound Tour. Bunch of assholes.

Is this a…what day is this?

Focus on – “Attic Insulation”

admin — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 21:11:57 +0000

Attic Insulation first post – May 27, 2008:

First Post (Probably one of the last also)

I made this blog because I like so many other people collect baseball cards. I remember being very little when my dad took me to card shops and shows. I really had no idea what was going on, but it seemed like sports cards were the real deal. This was in the early 90′s, before all the bullshit parallels, autographed cards, memorabilia/game-used cards, serial numbered cards, and even parallel autographed game-used serial numbered cards. It was just about collecting.

I remember being in Myrtle Beach one summer (I think 1992), I was 5 at the time and my dad took me to a card shop. It was late August and the Football sets were about to be released. My dad bought a bunch of packs and the shop owner was very pleasant, and seeing how he appreciated my dad’s business, he asked me who my favorite player was, which meant I was probably going to get a free card or two. So instead of saying “Kenny Lofton”, I said “BIP ROBERTS!!!”. The owner looked really confused and my dad said “yeah, he likes odd players.” That is my first memory of cards, and probably why I like to collect oddball stuff like MLB Showdown (which this blog will talk about frequently.

Lately, I really haven’t bought any packs because most of the ones I want to buy are out of my price range (stupid stuff like SPx that is $20 a pack when I pull a Dennis Sarfate auto, yeah no thanks). So I look to the almighty Ebay and scour the Grady Sizemore cards. Outside of Sizemore, I’m going to try and finish my Fleer Metal baseball card sets and my 1989 Fleer set (all Ripken Varients and RJ Varients included).

Hopefully I’ll have maybe 2-3 more contributors aside from myself, but that’s wishful thinking.

Focus on “Auto-Matic for the People”

admin — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:14:32 +0000

Automatic for the People first post – January 7, 2008:

What the heck is this

This is the first post of my new blog Auto-Matic for the People. It is a 1991 Classic Draft Picks card of Mike Kelly, the second overall pick in the 1991 draft by the Atlanta Braves, graciously signed by Chris Harris of Stale Gum.

I received this card directly from Chris in a trade. It is an official 1/1 card, there is no other like it in the world, unless Chris traded with a huge Mike Kelly fan recently. This is the first of many autographs that will be posted one per day, to so I can get organized and you can enjoy my autographs. Stay tuned, I’ll explain this further (or you could click here) and there will be many autographs to come.

Auto-Matic… For the People.

Blog Profile:

Why this blog exists

All right. Some of you may be asking what in the world is this thing. Well, it’s a blog. Ha, ha, funnyman. We knew that. But what is it?. What is it’s reason for being? Why does the interwebs need yet another blog cluttering up the joint? Well, let me explain.

You can get the full interesting story here. Here’s the boring antiseptic version. I have a lot of trading cards. All kinds of cards. Baseball, football, basketball, hockey, non-sports, game cards, playing cards, business cards, a whole lotta cards. Some of them are special cards. Rookies, inserts, relics, autographs, again, all kinds of cards. I want to organize these cards – at least the good ones – and post a list online so I can pull up a page and see what I have.

Ok, we get it. You have a lot of cards. Buy why the blog? And why autographs?

The reason why I’m posting all my autograph cards is simple. After really sitting down and thinking about it, of all my “expensive” cards, I believe the autographs are the most worthwhile and will in the long run retain the most value. While rookie cards and relic cards and short printed serial numbered cards are popular and can be sold for a lot of money in the right circumstances, they are are in essence just pieces of cardboard. Cardboard with artificially inflated values. Don’t get me wrong, I love cardboard. Cardboard is wonderful. I have a lot of cardboard. Even the relic cards, yeah there is a little slice of memorabilia in there, but it’s still just a little object embedded in cardboard.

Get to the point.

Ok. The thing about autographs is they represent a tiny little piece of another person’s life.

Come again?

An autograph – any autograph – is the result of a physical act by a person. It takes about 3 to 5 seconds of that person’s life to grab a pen and scribble their name. It’s something a lot more personal than an object they may have touched at one time. That autograph came from their own hand. Even if it’s faked someone had to write it whether it’s a forger, or a bat boy or the player’s wife.

So… you don’t like relic cards, but you do like forgeries?

No. You’re completely missing the point here. An autograph is personal is all, and I find them to be more interesting than other insert cards.

Ok, autographs are interesting. So why a blog?

I want to organize my autograph cards in a way where I can easily see what I have and who I have. Writing them all down in a notebook just won’t cut it. Neither will putting them all in a spreadsheet or database. Sure, I would be able to sort them all, but I couldn’t actually see them. I could dump them all in an image bucket, but that would require some work and would limit the amount of info I could include on each card. Now, in a blog I can post a scan of the card, include relevant information about it, and label it for easy reference. I can also share them with everyone else. Why have a neat collection if it’s just going to sit in a musty box in the basement until you croak and your wife sells them to the first card shop that will take them for about .001% of book value? I might as well show ‘em off.

In other words it’s more fun?

Yep.

Ok, so you like autographs and like blogging. So what’s up with the name?

It’s a pun. Auto… autograph… I’m sharing them in a blog so it’s for the People…

Well, Duh, but why a reference to an old R.E.M. album?

I went to the University of Georgia in the early 90′s. Automatic for the People was the first album they released while I was a student there. There has a huge deal made about it since it was the first one since Out of Time completely blew up and sold about 30 billion copies. The title was a reference to a local restaurant, Weaver D’s. I think it was a soul food place. I wanted to go there because R.E.M. liked it but I was a chickenshit freshman too scared to leave the dining halls. Oh well. Basically it was a nice pun from a kick-ass album by a really good band.

So is that your favorite R.E.M. album?

Nah, Out of Time is better simply because Texarkana is one of the best songs ever. If I had to choose one I’d probably pick Fables of the Reconstruction. It’s still a decent album though and Drive is one of my favorite songs from them.

So you really think you’ll get sued by R.E.M.?

No, that’s just another joke. Stranger things have happened though, I guess it depends on whether their lawyers get paid by the lawsuit. If I get a C&D order, I’ll probably write back asking for an autograph and change the name of the blog.

You’d want Michael Stipe’s autograph even if his lawyers threaten you?

Sure, why not? I was one of the only people at UGA to go through my entire college career without having an R.E.M. sighting so what the heck. I’d take an auto. I wouldn’t ask for Stipe’s though.

Whose autograph would you want then?

I’d ask for one from Mike Mills. Stipe probably gets pestered for autographs all the time, but no one ever shows the bass player any love.

So what would you name the blog if/when you get sued?

Planet Claire.

Planet Claire?!?

Yeah, it’s a B-52′s song. The B-52′s are ten times as good a band as R.E.M. anyway.

You’re really weird, do you know that?

I blog about baseball cards, what did you expect?

I didn’t expect you to talk to yourself in a sort of fake interview.

Oh, I can explain that. That’s going to be the structure of the posts. I’ll have five questions on who, what, where, how and why for each card that I will answer. It will make things easier on me and it will keep me from bullshitting for twenty paragraphs on every card.

Interesting. What are the questions?

Here they are:

Who is this?

What is this?

Where’d I get it?

How much did it cost?

Why is this so special?

Those five questions sum up the card pretty well.

Why isn’t there a question for when?

Man, I’ve been collecting for 25 years, I can’t remember when I got all these cards. I’ll be damn lucky if I can remember the where and how, let alone the when. Any extra info I have will end up in the why answer anyway.

You already have a baseball card blog, Cardboard Junkie and you post regularly on A Pack A Day. How are you going to keep up with another one?

It really won’t be that hard. It takes all of 10 minutes to scan nine cards front and back. The post structure keeps things concise and to the point. I can probably knock out a month’s worth of posts in a couple hours. I want to get a lot of these done quickly anyway, to build up the inventory and then I can dole them out one per day with no additional work.

So it this how this blog is always going to look?

No. I found a template I could live with for now, but I plan to create a logo eventually and do some tweaking with the design. Set a background, add some links, that sort of thing. I’m going to build up the posts before I mess with that though. This looks good enough for now.

Alright, man. Good luck with that.

Ok thanks, um, me.

You really are weird.

I can’t argue that.

Focus on – “Autographed Cards”

admin — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:19:06 +0000

Autographed Cards first post – August 10th. 2008:

Ross Gload- any card where he is not a Royal or a White Sox.

Coco Crisp- Any Allen & Ginter card.

Mike Jacobs- Any card that has him as a Met or a Met minor leaguer.

John Bale- Any card.

Esteban German- Any card where he is not a Royal.

Ron Mahay- Any Card

Joakim Soria- Any card besides his ’08 Topps U&H and ’08 Topps Heritage.

Dave Owen- Need ’85 Donruss #483.

Frank Howard card when he is with the Senators, can be old or new, but must be in decent condition (no creases, stains) because I want to get it signed.

John Mizerock- need ’84 Donruss #380

John Gibbons- need ’87 Donruss #626

If you have any of these cards to spare, let me know and we will work something out.

Zman40 Profile:

I used to like collecting autographs as a kid. After many years away from the hobby (and baseballcard collecting as well), I have gotten back into it. I figured this would give me something to do and to show other collectors some of my cards.