Day of Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Here are some things for which I am thankful.

I'm thankful that mustaches don't make you creepy.  Being creepy makes you creepy.



I'm thankful that, after four years of participation, Team Lame-MO has finally raised over $1000 for cancer research.  We're currently at $1107 this MOvember with over one-week left to donate, so if you'd like to help us climb even higher please go HERE.

I'm thankful for such supportive friends and family that have helped me be the leading fund-raiser for Team Lame-MO again.

I'm thankful for mustache cards.

And, most importantly, I'm thankful that I have a wife who will put up with this ugga-mug for an entire month in the name of raising awareness and funds for men's health.

I hope this Thanksgiving season finds all of my friends in the card-o-sphere healthy, wealthy, and wise. 

Halfway There

Today marks the halfway point of MOvember which means I'm currently sporting the in-between stache.



Let's just hope that Nick Offerman's words of wisdom hold true.

Even if they don't, at least I have portraits of men with mustaches that I can attempt to emulate.

And then there's me.

I've continued to receive pity donations, $225 as of today.  And my teammates and I have raised $855, which is a team record.  With our goal of $1000 creeping closer and closer, I'd love it if you'd consider donating toward this worthy cause HERE.

UPDATE: Many thanks to Dennis of Too Many Verlanders for making a generous donation toward my Mo. It is greatly appreciated.

A Little Tobacco in My Mustache

As promised, I'm here to give a MOvember update and show off some of my "Portraits of Guys with Mustaches on Cards" Set that I built sporadically over the past year.

Coincidentally, this week also marks my two-month anniversary of being tobacco-free (although, thanks to daily fistfuls of nicotine gum, I'm not yet nicotine-free).  After a dozen years of using chewing tobacco, my wife finally persuaded me to give up the habit in exchange for a new golf cart. 

I've already put thousands of yards of golf on these wheels so it's definitely been a great trade in my book.

So, to tie it all together, mustache cart - tobacco = tobacco-era cards featuring guys with mustaches.

Dr. Livingstone, I presume?

And, by scanning these gorgeous cards, the tobacco card itch may be the one that needs scratching to get me back in the game.  Maybe I was being a bit hasty in my wanting to sell off the Murads.  Guess I need to think it over a little more before I pull that trigger.

And, what I'm sure you've all be waiting for, the unveiling of my week-old mustache.

Isn't it fabulous? 

*crickets*

My MOvember team, Team Lame-MO, has grown to a robust 14 participants and has raised a team-record $660 so far this month.  Our goal is to raise $1000 for prostate and testicular cancer research, and I'm very proud of how we are progressing.  If you would like to donate to this very worthwhile cause, please go HERE.

Selling the T51s & MOvember

I'd like to sell my T51 Murads.  That's right, I'm giving up my quest to track down the entire 150-card set, even through I'm over halfway there (88/150, 59% complete).  I've recently emailed with a guy who is two cards away from completing the set, which he's been working on for nearly a decade.  Obviously I don't currently have the funds or desire to spend the next 8 years trying to finish the set, so I'm going to try to cut my losses.

Therefore, I'd like to give my blogging friends the right of first refusal on them.  I want to sell the entire lot and not break them apart if at all possible (and unless it's a rare Hochevar card, I don't want to trade them away).  If I don't hear from anyone within the next week, I'm going to throw them up onto eBay.

Send me an offer.  Thanks!

 ___________________________

In unrelated news, I'm once again doing MOvember, wherein I grow a mustache to raise money for testicular and prostate cancer.  If you'd like to donate toward the cause, please go HERE.

In the spirit of MOvember (and in an attempt to reignite my blogging fire), I'll be posting weekly MOvember mustache progress updates throughout the month, complete with cards featuring mustachioed fellas.  Stay tuned.

Gimme a Break

Well, kids, as the MLB regular season comes to a close, I will be joining the KC Royals in starting the off-season.  I recently took a different job in my school in an effort to regain my sanity.  The good news is that I'm completely sane again.  The bad news is that my new found lease on life came with a 66% pay cut.  Yeah.  I know.

So, as you can imagine, I will have very little disposable income, and lately I've found greater joy spending money on the golf course than on eBay.

Hopefully a little break is exactly what I need to rekindle my love of collecting cards.  And I'm sure I'll pick up a card here and there.  My hope is to check in once or twice a month between now and opening day next year.  And I'll definitely be stopping by your blogs occasionally. 

Don't think of this post as a good bye, it's just a see you later.

* Insert Austin Powers Joke/Pun Headline Here *

Because this post has "Mini Me" and "GOOOOOLLLLDDDD" written all over it.

Or, I guess I could have gone with a "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" reference.

Stepping Up To The Plate

Grabbed another printing plate.  If I was a good blogger, I'd go through my collection and find out how many of these fellas I have.  But I'm not.  But I do have a bunch of them and this is one.

Which goes nicely with these:

And, yes, I still dislike this picture. But I do like being 50% complete on another printing plate set.  One of these days I'll complete the 4/4 quadfecta, and that day will be grand.

Birthday Cards

My family is pretty cool as they continue to put up with my odd (to them) hobby of card collecting.  So when my birthday rolled around, I was pleased to see some birthday trading cards attached to my birthday birthday cards.

From my wife, some Masterpieces:

From my sister and brother-in-law, a chromey Series of 1s and 2s:

And, finally, an eBay seller threw in some Bowman extras with a card to be shown later:

Opening packs sure is fun.  I just wish I had a greater desire to seek out packs more often.

Back to the Basics

One of the great things about the Hochevar Buy-Out was that it brought me back to the basics of why I restarted my card collection.  Showing off these Hochevars is probably definitely way boring for most readers, but he's the reason I collect cards again and he's the reason I found the card-blogosphere, so I'll continue to show them.

Here's a back from the 2010 A&G base card that, prior to the HBO, I'd yet to own.

And the rest of the backs.

And, if you're keeping score at home, I'm half way through the 2010s, which means that I'm over half way done showing off the HBO cards.

Enjoying Some Birthday Pi

Today I turn 31.  My 30th year had its ups and downs, so I'm glad to have entered my 31st trip around the sun.  As I usually try to do, I have requested that my family bring me birthday pie instead of birthday cake, since pie is the superior dessert.

So, feel free to join me in enjoying a slice of red "pi" on my big day.

(So this was the post I was planning on doing today, but my lovely wife preempted me by putting up the below post.  Good thing she's so damn cute or I'd have to be mad at her.)

Happy Birthday, Fella

Because you only turn 31 once.  

Happy Birthday, Pal.

Zooming Out To See the Big Picture

About a year and a half ago, I lamented how much I hated the picture of Hochevar that Topps used for his 2010 flagship card.  Looking at the two cards below, a red/orange border parallel and the team set card, it's plain to see that the tightly cropped picture is way worse than the wide shot.

And, since showing off rainbows is what I do now, here are my non-chrome 2010 Topps cards.

Lots of sweet variations of an awful picture.

The Scanner Was Out Of Commision For A Week

No, not the machine. It was fine. When I say "scanner", I'm talking about the person responsible for scanning my cards.  That jackass decided to take last week off. But he's/I'm back. I can tell you're all very excited to hear that.

How about we hop back onto the HBO-train and enter the 2009 section of my purchase. Since the blog had cooled off for a week, a polar bear decided to set up shop on the scanner when I got there.

Not too shabby of a little card.  Here are the rest of the '09 Topps T206 cards in my collection.

Now that the scanner is back in town, be on the look out for some more HBO purchase cards.

Picture This......

......card featuring a picture of the person who signed it.

How cool would that be? 

Buying A Card Sight-Unseen

Will often sometimes lead to owning a headless autograph.

No, I'm not becoming a Broxton collector.  It just so happens that this is my first two-sided autograph card.  Numbered 4/5, the other side of this coin card is another Tristar "cut" graph for my Hoch collection.

Awful design. No picture. Unnecessarily encased in a giant lucite holder.  Ugh, being a player collector is broo-taal when there's a monopoly in town.

3/1

I'm half tempted to only collect the 1/1 cards of the 2012 A&G Hochevar release.  I mean, I'm already over half way there.

Oh, who am I kidding.  Feel free to send me your extra 2012 A&G Hochs.

Black Shirt

No, not the Nebraska Cornhuskers' defense.  The "black shirt" I'm talking about is the piece of All-Star Futures Game game-worn jersey.

And my rainbow continues to grow.

In fact, it's about too big for my scanner.

Box Topper

Being a player collector sure is fun. Take for instance this SPx Rookie Signatures card.  I have no idea how many times I came across a similar card and passed it by because I thought I already had it.  Well, this particular card was listed as a "box topper" in the eBay listing, which piqued my interest. 

After a little research, I learned that it was indeed a parallel to the SP Rookie Signatures card I already owned.

Now, anyone looking at these two cards notices right away that they are different, but when I'm scanning eBay, I don't always do a card by card comparison to the ones I already have in my collection.  So, mega thanks to the eBay seller who was smart enough to label this one correctly as a box topper.

Patchey Elegance

Another recent eBay purchase is this 2007 Tristar Elegance Showtime game-worn patch, and it is absolutely AMAZING looking in person.

It goes great with the other Elegance cards I got in my HBO purchase.

Royal Blue

I'm going to take a little break from showing off the HBO winnings and feature a handful of recent eBay purchases.

First up is a 2004 UD USA Baseball blue autograph of Hoch.

With this new addition, I'm getting really close to finishing off this rainbow set.

I know I still need the blue autograph jersey card, so I'll keep my eyes peeled for it and will wrangle it into my collection as soon as possible.  Also, I like how each different version of the card features a different photograph.  Way cool.