Chaos and Kanji is the blog where I write about my adventures through Japan!

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Saturday, July 30, 2011

Going Postal: Crawford On Trades; Videos and Hits

Today's Postal exploits begin with a trade package from Scott Crawford. I forgot if I mailed his cards, and had to research to verify that I had. My mind has been elsewhere lately!

Scott and I have exchanged cards before, and I spent some time searching his want lists for anything I may have missed for the Zoo collection.
 He started by including four cards from 1980-1983 Cramer Baseball Legends set. He included one card from each series, because the card numbering and copyright info changes from year to year, but I'm going to keep it as listed as one set. All four of these guys have needs in the Awards/Leaders collection, so they all have a home anyway!
 Scott tossed these in at the last moment. I have been on the fence on whether to collect the set or not, but I can't turn down these attractive 3D beauties. Yes, I purposely put a Dodger and a Giant side by side in the scan. They can get along in my collection!
 Here are seven more cards for the Zoo. You'll see these all this week, as I took the opportunity to scan the fronts and backs for use over there. In fact, two of them have already posted by the time this post goes live!

Thanks again, Scott, for a very helpful trade! Looking forward to the next time!

Now, some cards that didn't come in trades:
 I don't think I have the 2009 Goodwin Champions set. I picked up this set from eBay with some SPs and an SSP or two included. I'll put the full set together over time. I'll have a wanted list posted when my recent SP purchases arrive. I like this set for the paintings, even if most of the players aren't in action. I wonder what the lawsuit said about Upper Deck using game images, because I'm sure the artists could just not include any team logos. It's kind of boring after a while seeing card after card of some guy in a suit and tie. It's still a nice set!

Goodwin's set design inspiration came from Allen & Ginter, though the Goodwin set is much simpler in its release. Ginter has several insert sets, mini and standard sized, plus multiple parallels. Goodwin contains five parallels (plus plates) if I remember correctly, two insert sets, a box topper set, and the relics and autos. Other than the rarest relic/auto sets (Entemology, for example) and the 1/1 parallel, I can easily acquire everything Goodwin.

For Allen & Ginter, I knocked two more mini sets off my want list:
 I like this set, just by design alone. It is done in the style of the old carnival sideshow posters. Night Owl just mentioned that the Bed of Nails write-up says this is an easy trick, and it is quite easy - I've done it before. It's all about physics.

I like the Knife Throwing card the best, partly because it's backwards from what I would expect. Usually it's the cute assistant in the skimpy costume who's strapped to the spinning board, while the magician in the suit tosses the blades.
 Portraits of Penultimacy blah blah blah second to last blah blah blah words wrong blah blah blah. Enough has been said about that already. I like this set because Toto's in it. Poor little Toto. Toto reminds me of DragonCon a few years ago - yes, I would go, but I never dressed up - this attractive young (younger than me by a few years at most) lady in a sexy-ish (not slutty-ish) Dorothy costume sat next to me and talked with me as we waited in line to get into a panel. What can I say, I'm easy to please.
 HA! EBAY SCAMMERS I DEFY YOU! If I had the time and the care, I'd go ahead and solve that. I stared at it for about 15 seconds and solved at least 6 letters.

Okay, for the rest of the post, you have two choices. The first choice: if you're happy or want to be, play this video.
If you're sad or want to be, or just like Scrubs, play this video.
I miss Scrubs, but it had to end eventually. I can proudly(?) say I've seen every episode at least once, many two or more times. Screw Zach Braff. I watched it for Dr. Cox, blonde doctor, and Elisabeth Banks.

So what does this have to do with cards? Glad you asked:
 I overpaid for this, but I'm still glad I have it. This will be one of the more difficult relics to showcase in its collection, mainly because it's really difficult to find quality hi-res photos of Picabo Street from her medal years.

Okay, let's keep with the videos. That's fun. How about this other Sesame Street video:
What does that have to do with this card? NOTHING! But some of you might enjoy it anyway.
 Elmo's up, Elmo's down, Elmo's running around! Cahill's not a bad pitcher. I don't see him sticking around long. He had a much better year last year than this - he's striking out one more batter per 9 innings on average than 2010, but his walks per 9 innings are up almost as much, and his ERA is up by half a run. So I guess Elmo's control issues are Trevor's as well? Okay, one more card, one more video.

It's a party in the USA! I hear this song piped in through music systems occasionally, and every time it comes on, I spot a decent percentage of people bopping their head to the beat. You gotta admit, it's catchy. How does that relate to the card? Why, it's another printing plate for my collection, this time from the 2011 Bowman International parallel. Did you know there are twelve printing plate sets in 2011 Bowman? Meaning, 12x4=48 different "1/1" plate sets.
This is Ryan Ludwick, who must come from Florida. I've been lucky with plate pickups lately, which I'm glad for - being "1 of 1" cards they're some of the hardest to come by for the Zoo collection.

I've done the scan prep for some more fleshy posts this coming week, if I can tear myself away from other projects to write them!

By the way, I listen to more than just pop. I'm in a poppy mood, though, so deal! You can blame Picabo Street and YouTube's suggested videos for that.

2 comments:

  1. I really like those 2020 cards, I'll prboably pick up the Giants ones on sportlots.

    I think Cahill will stick around because he's dominant for long stretches and looks like an ace. Just sometimes, he'll get absolutely destroyed and his ERA shoots up.

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  2. I can see Cahill moving to a better club. The A's don't keep good players for long. Gio too. I'm glad to see Suzuki still there, and I miss players like Swisher.

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