October Card Show Haul

I wouldn't say the show was a complete bust.....

...but I am not sure mankind has invented a device to measure the distance between my card show experience and a complete bust.  You are looking at the sum total of my purchases.

And to top it off, the roads were so clogged up from game day traffic, I didn't even bother going to the LCS and look at that Schmidt rookie card. 

Added in Edit:  And, the final insult?  The Aaron card above I spent $12 on?  Already had it.

Card Show Weekend!

This weekend there is a two day card show up in OKC.

It has been a while since I've done much hobby activity.  In the last two months, I have completed one trade and spent a grand total of  $2.25 on one Ebay purchase.
 

I had scaled back because, as I have related elsewhere, we discovered that one of our mares was pregnant and I had to build a whole bunch of foal safe fencing in a short time.  I had about 1000 feet to build and quickly knocked 200 feet off.  All that time,I had something nagging at me.  The pregnancy diagnosis was done via a blood test performed by an assistant vet fresh out of school.  I just wasn't comfortable with the diagnosis (particularly since she was an assistant to a vet that we only use when our regular guy is unavailable), so I loaded the mare up in the trailer and took her in to our regular vet for a proper pregnancy check (don't ask, suffice it to say that it involves a shoulder length rubber glove.)  Well, good news, she wasn't pregnant after all! The fencing project needed to continue, but the time pressure was off.


Of course, it was at about that time our dishwasher decided to die and, since there must always be complications, we had to pony up a small fortune to get an ADA compliant dishwasher because our kitchen counter was 3/4" too low for us to get a standard sized dishwasher installed.  So, to make a short story long, I am still broke.  With the holidays coming up, this weekend is probably my only hobby related activity until January.  So, I am going to need to make it count.

My goal will be to knock off at least half of the remaining cards I need for my 1973 set (70 base cards and 18 unnumbered checklists.)  This will depend on Roger Nuefeldt, from Sports Memories of Oklahoma, being there.  I am hoping he will be, since it is a two day show and he hasn't done a local show since early spring.  If he is there, it is likely I can knock off most of the high number commons I need and maybe one of the higher value cards. 

If he isn't there tomorrow, my intent will be to pocket my cash so that I can 1) stop off at one of the local card shops on my way home, pick up the Mike Schmidt rookie card they had in the display case the last time I was there, and 2) have a bit left over for filling some 1973 needs cheaply on EBay.   Whether that happens or not is always questionable, since I have a tendency to get all Tommy Boy at a card show and never leave empty handed.  But, given the upcoming holiday lull, I am going to to do my darndest to stay focused on 1973.



What I am listening to: Rogers Park by Justin Townes Earle

BWAHAHAHAHA

How did I ever miss this?

That is awesome!

A New Blair PC Addition

1971 Topps Tattoo

This is the 104th unique "card" in my Paul Blair player collection.

I don't have much to say at the moment.  A combination of insomnia and being in the middle of a big business decision at work, I am too tired to write much.  I have been thinking of doing a look at the Yankees and how I think they should move forward from this season.  But, I haven't had the energy to get going on it.  

In short, don't hold your breath.

A Sad Day

Waiting Until Next Year

The title of this post is something of a double entendre.  I have mostly completed a trade with Tom over at Waiting 'til Next Year.  I say mostly because I got his half of the trade in the mail today, but won't actually ship off my half until this weekend.  In short, I helped him out with a couple of his player collections and in return I got some huge help with my 2009 Tristar Obak set. 

 He sent one base card, the short print J-Hey and Dale Murphy card above.  He also sent 12 of the T212 minis.  2009 Obak overdid the minis, with 60 total (not counting variations).  With this trade, Tom basically cut my want list on the T212 in half.

I haven't made any progress on this Obak set in many, many months, so this trade was most welcome. Your cards will go out tomorrow, Tom.

So, getting back to my opening, why does "Waiting until next year" have two meanings?  Well, I am going on hobby hiatus for pretty much the rest of this year. 

See, last year we were in the midst of a drought and a friend of ours lost her horse boarding business to a wild fire.  Since we were one of the few people who had appropriate fencing, we took in three of the horses she boarded: two Clydesdale mares, and a Drum Horse stallion.  They were here about 6 months and, one day in January, the stallion managed to get out of his pen and, to make a long story short, appears to have bred one of our mares.  With a due date in December, I need to upgrade about 1000 feet of fence to be foal safe.  Then we need to deal with the vet bills associated with the delivery.  So, money is going to be tight for a while.  I have a little bit of money set aside for the October OKC show, but that is probably about it until January/February.
 

The Fleer Autograph Project - Part 25

A little longer than 4 months after I shipped them out, three cards from my 1963 Fleer set are back in my hands.  By way of review, I had sent them out to Chris Potter Sports to be autographed in their May/June signings.  Unfortunately, in the end, only one ended up being signed.

Don Lee here is the 25th 1963 Fleer card I have had autographed.  Jerry Kindall and Art Mahaffey came back unsigned.  That is a disappointment, but with many of these players in their 70s and 80s, it probably isn't surprising that health or family issues may interfere. I do see that they are going to try to reschedule Mahaffey early next year.  So, there is still hope there.

This project has pretty much ground to a halt.  I have been keeping an eye out for more signing opportunities, but I haven't seen any since the signing this card was sent to.  Even Sandy Koufax hasn't seemed to have his annual private signing.  Ah well, it is still pretty cool having nearly 40% of the cards signed.