2008 National Sports Card Convention Review

The Big Show is down the street from my house...literally. I'm so glad I took the week off so I could make the effort to go to the National being held in Rosemont, Illinois. The plan this week is to go today (I just left the show) and Saturday. Today is the, "let's go see what everyone has to offer day." Saturday will be, "Spend everything you have day!!!"

Lots of stuff on sale, lots of booths selling everything from early tobacco cards to the latest product causing mass hysteria, Topps Allen & Ginter. Junk packs? There are at least three booths selling it. Insert sets and singles from 2007 backwards? At least four to five booths.

Tons of sellers with "vintage" meaning 1950's to 1970's cards and earlier.

All the big brands were there...Topps (or more like it, eTopps was there), so was UD, and Donruss had this nice huge area too. In The Game, and Press Pass were there too. Probably the biggest buzz was to be found in the Razor booth. I'm sure that the two men there answered the same questions over and over by collectors as to what they were going to do with their recently signed draft picks and when to expect a set. They were even giving out these Razor Tim Beckham promotion cards that Stale Gum was talking about today. You fill out a survey, you get a free Beckham card. Now, I'm no prospector, but I'm not about to say no to a free card. So needless to say, gasp, I have a non Topps card in my possession. And I'm sure the Bay will be happy to get rid of it for me rather quickly.

It was disappointing that the Topps company didn't have a prescence at the National, it was a decent consolation that their eTopps brand was there promoting their site. Their deal was that if you sign up as a new eTopps customer, you can get free stuff. Sadly, I signed up back in 2000, but I've never taken advantage of the program. All the same, they considered me an old member, so I didn't qualify for the free stuff.

Today was also the day that Bartman was supposed to show up, pick up that $25,000 bounty, and sign his name on a picture of that infamous foul ball. As expected, he didn't show up. But the people running the spectacle sure made it interesting.

I'm not really into autographs, but while I was there, they had the '85 Bears in the autograph booths. William Perry (I didn't know he was in a wheelchair), Dennis McKinnon, and Dan Hampton were among the athletes at the booths when I passed by.

The Dmitri Young PSA Gem Mint 10 rookie card collection took up three displays at the PSA booth. Needless to say, he has quite the collection. Even has the only PSA Gem Mint 10 1969 Topps Reggie Jackson RC.

The crowd was all right I guess for a Thursday. Not too many people compared to the Saturday show that I went to a few years back. I think that the weekend will bring heavier crowds to the show for sure. I can't wait to go back. Until then.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Updating the 2008 Topps Updates and Highlights Checklist

Today is the trading deadline for MLB (which means teams can trade at will without having to go through waivers first). Lots of big names were sent packing:

• Ken Griffey Jr traded from the Reds to the White Sox for Nick Masset and Danny Richar
• Ivan Rodriguez traded from the Tigers to the Yankees for Kyle Farnsworth (wonder who got the better of this deal???)
• Mark Texiera traded from the Braves to the Angels for Casey Kotchman
• Arthur Rhodes traded from the Mariners to the Marlins for Gaby Hernandez (gee I wonder why...)
• Manny Ramirez, Jason Bay, and Andy Laroche all involved in a Red Sox/Pirates/Dodgers three way where the LA gets Manny, Bay goes to Boston, and Laroche, along with Brandon Moss, Craig Hansen, and minor leaguer Bryan Morris goes to Pittsburgh.

There were a lot of TBD's on the initial Topps U & H checklist. There are at least 160 veteran spots to be filled. I think we can lock up at least fifteen spots with the trades since Monday.

August should be fun.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Topps Helping Kids Get Ready to Back to School???

So we know Topps has this program where a student (should be elementary/junior high age) goes to a card shop, shows off his or her report card, and the store owner gives a reward based on the grades the kid earned.

Now Topps is going one step further in our children's education.

I don't recall seeing these in my children's back to school supply list...but hey, anything for the kids!

In conjunction with the Fairfield Company, Topps has created these little packages that includes four packs of Topps Baseball cards (in this case, two packs each of series 1 and series 2) for parents to buy for their kids who, if you have school age children, are now facing three to four weeks of freedom before they head back to school. These cards were found at the local Target, with all the school supplies. These also came in Hanna Montana, Camp Rock, and High School Musical packages (and no, I didn't buy those...) as well. Each four pack of the baseball cards cards come with two exclusive Topps cards that can only be found in these packages. There are apparently 10 cards in this set (looking underneath, I could see the cards are numbered TB3, TB8). I found five of them:

TB3-Grady Sizemore
TB4-Ken Griffey, Jr
TB5-David Wright (with Mr. Met)
TB6-Ichiro Suzuki (with the Mariners Moose)
TB8-Chipper Jones

I am now going to go to other Targets to see if they have the other five cards in this set. And so help me, I get the eerie feeling that WalMart might be in on this too.

So the search continues.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

A 3 Pack Break of Allen & Ginter

After reading blog after blog singing the praises of this year's edition of Allen & Ginter, I decided that even though I already paid for a full set that I'd buy a few packs, just to see what all the hubbub is about. Needless to say, I was not disappointed by the cards that I got after opening the packs.

Now, instead of typing out the cards that I did receive, I figured that it would be easier to just scan all the cards from each of the three packs at once, and then make my comments afterwards.

Pack #1 had:

Not a bad pack. Got a Manny, an Alex Gordon Nebraska card, but the key to the pack...a card of the Pope!!! I should have read the checklist a little more closely, because I don't remember seeing Pope Benedict's name among the world leaders on the checklist. If I didn't get the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo card (President of the Philippines), this isn't a bad card to have instead.

Pack #2:

Nothing to write home about here...except for getting a Griffey card, along with the Soto mini.

Pack #3:

We have a winner!!! Got Joba? Check. Got "Rampage" Jackson? Check. A Joey Votto RC Logo card? Check. A relic card of someone good? Carl Crawford is good.

Decent pack breaks. The relic cards seem a lot easier to come by this year, so I'm glad I pulled at least one. Seeing these makes me look forward to getting the rest of the set.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Congratulations to the Newest Members of Baseball's Hall of Fame

Congratulations to Rich Gossage and Dick Williams, two of the newest members of Baseball's Hall of Fame
Today, six men were formally inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame. Among them were Bowie Kuhn, MLB's Commisioner from 1969 to 1984; Walter O'Malley, owner of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers; Barney Dreyfuss, owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates; and Billy Southworth, manager for the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Braves.

The last two men inducted today spent two seasons together in the warm sun of San Diego.

Rich "Goose" Gossage, after eight years of waiting, finally got the call that he was voted in by the BBWAA. Dick Williams, along with the four gentlemen listed above, were voted in by a revamped Veterans' Committee. In the two years that they were together, Dick Williams led the San Diego Padres to 175-149 record and a National League pennant in 1984. Gossage had 15 of those wins, along with 51 saves. and was an All-Star both years.

Both men found incredible success with other teams of course, Gossage with the Yankees in the late 70's and Williams as manager of the Oakland A's in the early part of the decade. And although both men are going in with different logos on their cap, today was a celebration of that two year period, when a manager and his star closer went into Cooperstown together as Hall of Famers. Somewhere on stage, as both men gave their induction speeches, Tony Gwynn was grinning from ear to ear, seeing his teammate and former skipper on stage.

It was truly a great day to be a San Diego Padres fan.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Weekend Comments, or Why I Couldn't Sleep Until 4:00 AM CST

To answer dayf's comments about the Team Orange, sadly, I'm serious. That is the checklist for ten "fictional" ball players in a mini card insert set called "Team Orange." Figuring that one of the Ginter Code cards is titled "Team Orange," I thought that there would be a connection to it. You never know.

Anyway, while one of the reasons why I couldn't sleep last night was because I was up creating a six-layer rainbow Jello dessert I was making for my son's birthday party today, other reasons were the backlash on both sides regarding a donation button on the Baseball Card Blog. The fact that there have been numerous posts about it means that Ben truly has the most influential blog on our Hobby. The fact that it has even become a topic of discussion only shows how far of a reach the guy has and how much of an influence he has on bloggers who have been around since he started. And trust me, there is nothing wrong with it.

Rainbow Jello. This is six flavors in one huge gelatin mold. Takes 3 1/2 hours to make one of these babies.

One of the first people to comment on my blog said, "Remember if people are posting that they disagree with you, you're doing something right." If that is the case, then the guy who disagreed with Ben's reasoning must be doing something right, otherwise, he would not have inspired the posts that came afterwards. Understand that the guy is entitled to his opinions just as much as others are entitled to rebutting (with or without mercy). Without mentioning the exact blog that started the whole mess, thanks to the Sports Card Blogroll, I have counted at least four bloggers responding in kind, defending the reasons why there is nothing wrong with the practice, and in my opinion, just slamming the guy for voicing a differing opinion. I will admit I made a comment on his blog, and in a sense, I agreed.

I see no problem with Ben and his blog, and now that he is posting on a more frequent basis, will be more inclined to read what he has to say. If he wants to put a "donate to the blog", then that is his right. Heck, some blogs (the blogger.com ones) have the option to put an adsense thing so that any ads clicked can give some extra income. That's all well and good. I even saw nothing wrong with putting a blog post just talking about having the button on there in the first place. It was when he put the reasons why we should donate to the blog that bothered me.

This is what I wrote in the comments to that particular article:

"...asking to donate is one thing, but to give reasons like "because I may have inspired you to get back into the hobby or start a blog" is a bit too arrogant in thinking."

In my case, I've always been in the hobby, and read a few posts of his and others only because using a search engine to look up stuff comes up with his and other blogs. I didn't really begin commenting on anyone's blog or e-mailing a blogger that I liked until I dove in to the blogosphere myself. I even admitted in my first post that I do not have Ben's literary skills, so being a blog clone was not the idea when I started. He could have used better reasons, or he could have just left it alone without reasoning whatsoever. To me, it was a tune off (meaning that I tuned out the rest of his message), and for that I diagreed with the reasons.

So for that I won't be donating to the blog, or anyone else's for that matter. Not that I would never want to, but I don't have PayPal to do it (nor do I want to sign up for it...story for another time). Now if he decided to do a pay-per-view blog, where we would have to either register or pay a fee every time we want to see what he has to say, that's when I'll draw the line. But until then, I am happy to see him being more active on his site, regardless of the reasons why. Could we now all please get along and go back to doing what we do best, talking about baseball cards???

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Ready to Crack the Code???

Thanks to the Beckett Message Boards for putting all 20 cards together and their codes:

WGV1 Kerri Strug -
Y-W-T-E-Q-Z-G-D-S-U-O
R-T-G-H-Y-L-A-W-L-O-P

WGV2 Mark Spitz -
G-3-4-E-R-N-J-2-I-S-O
H-T-E-I-W-Y-H-C-T-D-S

WVG3 Jonas Salk -
B-R-E-I-E-T-Q-N-F-H-A
6-E-P-Q-W-Y-7-E-N-B-E

WGV4 Man Walks on the Moon -
6-M-J-D-U-R-H-T-B-E-N
E-T-6-D-H-Q-M-A-S-O-P

WGV5 John Lester -
E-M-O-F-T-R-I-B-N-U-5
H-F-R-3-M-S-N-L-W-2-1

WGV6 The Fall of the Berlin Wall -
M-X-K-D-H-Y-R-U-A-T-C
N-C-T-U-2-H-D-L-P-M-Q

WGV7 David and Goliath -
H-D-T-E-2-G-I-L-D-A-C
H-W-T-Q-U-7-V-S-B-A-W

WGV8 Gary Carter and the '86 Mets -
C-M-M-B-F-Y-N-Q-O-S-A
K-R-J-U-D-B-C-T-N-W-E

WGV9 The Battle of Gettysburg -
S-G-G-L-D-F-N-E-W-R-E
T-R-N-1-Y-L-W-V-P-S-A

WGV10 Deep Blue -
W-P-K-L-D-N-I-N-H-9-S
T-6-W-R-R-K-L-M-A-B-N

WGV11 The Allied Forces -
A-I-N-3-P-F-G-Q-N-T-S
A-J-K-E-8-T-H-E-J-C-S

WGV12 Don Larsen -
P-5-L-N-C-V-Z-N-F-X-I
V-Z-H-S-K-X-H-E-Y-2-9

WGV13 Truman Defeats Dewey -
S-K-S-L-E-O-B-Z-Q-T-Y
D-E-E-B-6-W-T-H-Y-U-M

WGV14 The American Revolution -
K-F-1-T-H-I-T-D-E-A-N
V-B-W-N-H-F-I-4-L-A-W

WGV15 2004 ALCS -
E-J-R-8-D-G-S-D-A-L-K
R-Y-A-C-N-E-O-Q-0-P-J

WGV16 The Battle of Thermopylae -
S-5-E-P-G-W-T-8-H-Y-S
S-B-D-G-H-T-H-T-U-J-D

WGV17 Brown v. The Board of Education -
G-E-7-S-F-H-J-T-R-Y-C
5-F-H-T-U-W-N-7-V-A-C

WGV18 Team Orange -
A-O-P-E-F-S-C-T-O-R-E
T-H-H-F-G-6-S-N-B-A-K

WGV19 Bill Mazeroski -
D-P-O-E-J-F-M-D-O-D-H
S-H-P-L-A-H-W-B-O-D-B

WGV20 Cinderella -
P-E-G-8-B-Z-R-A-P-A-P
F-G-3-R-Q-T-Y-A-M-K-C

Good Luck!!!

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

P.S. Will these help???

Team Orange

TO1-Cornelius Franks
TO2-"Mittens" McCluskey
TO3-Capt W. P. Mantooth
TO4-"Wheelbarrow" Walker
TO5-Archibald Clinker
TO6-Minty Beans
TO7-Francisco Fiasco
TO8-Thurgood Cartwright IV
TO9-Enzo DiStubbs
TO10-Sir "Wagonwheels" Stevens

Possibly...never know...

jba