Post Christmas Post

Hope everyone had a nice Christmas ! We certainly did. I added some baseball items to my collection which I will post later. I also have some holiday letters to get out.My intentions were good, my time management was not! I planned to send a Christmas greeting to everyone I have traded with in my "rookie" blogger year and enclose a card that I thought they would like. After printing out a list of all the bloggers in my email contacts, I discovered I have many more new friends than I realized. I was careful to keep track of who I sent to and who I didn't, so many of you will be receiving a revised Christmas / New Year greeting. That's the first thing on my agenda.Then I have 7 mailers that I need to catch up on. Some are the return half of trades and others I need to fulfill our trade obligations. When I get that finished, about the middle of July (hopefully long before that !! ), I am opening up a second blog.

Looking back on my first full year, I realized my blog content was not nearly what I intended when I started. Making trades has become such a big part of the blogosphere, all my Tribe information has gotten put on the back burner. Now I love doing the trades, although I have to devise a plan for the new year to make sure I keep track of everyone, I still want to talk more about my Indians (who are starting to shape up a little). The new blog will be called "Baseball Dad's Trading Post". A little play on words there. ( Trading post as in early American settler days and Post as in blogging........ sorry 'bout that ! ). The trading post will have my want lists as well as many cards I have available for trade.I also may have some occasional posts on other non-Indian sports card subjects.You can still contact me through this blog as well, I just want to try and confine most of my trading deals to the trading post to help keep them under control.

Monday morning, my youngest son Andy will be headed to Boise to cover the BG Falcons in the Humanitarian Bowl. That's after he goes to Browns game tomorrow. His girlfriend gave him two, 50 yard line tickets for Christmas. What a sweetheart ! She doesn't know that he and I are going and she's staying home ! (YEAH, RIGHT !!) Too cold for me anyway.

Well got to get started on some of this stuff, let's see , who's next on the list ? NY_hitman_23, Capewood and others. Gotta' get started, I'm off work until Wednesday morning.

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to All !

May there be peace and harmony throughout the world today and let us spread love and happiness to everyone regardless of our personal beliefs.

2009 Topps 206 - My first sighting.

Merry Christmas !

This is the 24" tree that sits atop of my desk for the holidays

as part of my Baseball Christmas decor !

I worked today,until noon.When I got home and walked in the front door there was this wonderful aroma.This is what I saw upon entering the kitchen. My wife (in the background behind my oldest son Josh) along with two of my sister-in-laws. If you look close in the bottom left corner you can see what they were up to. Christmas cookies !!!!!!!!
So much for my sugar count.

But here's what you really want to see. I stopped at Target on my way home to check on Topps Unique. No luck. But I did find T-206.

First pack held these:

Start with a couple pitchers.

John Maine Mets

James Shields Rays

Then both ends of the baseball spectrum.

A rookie and a HOF'er
Bailey had a good year for Oakland

and what can I say about Gehrig that you don't already know!

David Wright Mets

Not bad for the first gold parallel.

Albert Puhols , the first mini.

Also not too bad!

Pack 2

My first Triber. Yeah !

And my first ex- Triber!

Gil Meche Royals

Mel Ott N.Y. Giants

First National Leaguer to reach 500 HR's.

Tommy Hanson Braves

Rookie Gold

Dice K mini

Both minis were regular Piedmont backs but Puhols had an obvious pale yellow colored back.

Does that mean anything?

Just what Tommy's Mom wants to see on his 1st.(?) baseball card!!

Seems like nice cards but I'm still not a set collector.

Someone just might find some of these in a Christmas card.

( If you ask Santa !)

A year older but I'm back!

My PC is finally up and running again,although a bit slow. I had had some plans for my 1 year anniversary but that has come and gone now so I'll just say thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read any of my ramblings and also for all the great trades.I have 5 yellow mailers to be posted and get returns in order.My apologies for the delay for all involved. Thanks and welcome to the new followers also! I have to work 1/2 a day tomorrow and then I hope to get back to some posting.We pretty much have all of our Christmas decorating done so I should have some time to relax a little now.

Oh, as of very early this morning I have entered the final year of my fifties. 59 today! Really don't feel that old. One bargain to mention.How about a 2009, 18th Edition of Sports Collector's Digest standard catalog , all 1,848 pages plus a copy on a cd, for $7.87 !!! At Ollies

Quickie post !

Well, I had some big plans for my one year anniversary on Friday,but without my computer it's all going to be delayed. I'm amazed that I've been able to keep this going for a whole year,but now it's time for some slight tweaks to the whole concept which I hope will make this blog a lot more interesting and informative.Also, there will be a whole new venue for trading.The changes are going to be exciting for me and I hope for others too! Thanks to all who have been reading and hang in there,the parts for my pc are supposed to be here next week!

PC IS DOWN !!

Thursday night our PC would not power up.Fan and monitor, but nothing else.Hope to be back early next week!

More on Fan Paks with Checklist

Fan Paks by Enterplay

I have seen at least two other posts on this relatively new product so now I thought I'd add my 2-cents worth.

Six card packs sell for $1.99

Six pack blasters sell for $9.95

So far I have only seen them at Target, although I'm sure they are, or will be, available elsewhere.

Each pack has 2 Standees, 2 Headline Cards, 1 Trivia / Game Card and 1 Tatoo Card

They are available in three different wrapper designs. If you know me and my wrapper collection, you know I had to buy one of each !

Here are the three wrapper designs.

The green finger wrapper features David Ortiz and Josh Hamilton.

The orange finger wrapper features A-Rod and Albert Puhols.

The blue finger wrapper features Ichiro and Jimmy Rollins.

Cards 1-35 are "Headline" cards with player photos on the front and simulated newspaper stories on the back.

No's 36-70 are called 'Standees". The center, player section, of these die-cut cards punches out, then folds on pre-scribed lines and locks together to form a stand-up player card.

The back of each Standee has 3 trivia questions about the featured player.

71-88 are Trivia / game cards.

They feature several trivia questions and facts on both sides of the cards.

Tatoo cards are numbered T-1 through T-22.

They have team logos, catch phrases and other misc. baseball related symbols.

I have two of the Hanley Ramiriz Standees,so he became the guinea pig for folding .

These are kind of neat. I've always liked odd-ball items anyway.

The checklist for these cards can be found here : enter-play

The biggest complaint I have with these cards is the odd size @ 3 3/8 " square, which can create storage problems.
They are a fun set and, for you canucks, there is also a Hockey Fan Pak set !