Mailbag

I got a couple more little yellow envelopes in the mail, and that always makes my day. Just wanted to share the fun.

First up, my buddy Derek over at Tomahawk Chopping sent me a surprise package. He sent me an email saying he sent “a couple card you might like”. Umm, yeah, I think so!

Yeah, I’d say those are pretty awesome. A purple border Topps Chrome Adrian Gonzalez (#’d /499) and a super sweet Matt Barnes Bowman Sterling auto. I’ve finished the Topps Chrome regular cards a dozen times over, but I’m still “chasing the rainbow” with the different borders. I didn’t have any for Gonzalez until now. The Barnes is just strait up awesome. I had been trying to score that card off ebay for a solid month now. Derek must have been reading my mind. He also sent along a bunch of Topps Opening Day from what he opened recently. Thank you sir! An awesome surprise indeed!

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Varsity Trading Cards

So, a last week as I’m talking about custom cards and how I’ve always wanted to do some (and actually print them), Chris from Varsity Trading Cards stops by and says “hi”. We exchange a few emails and turns out that he’s got a really awesome business going on. You probably know Chris from his card blog Crackin’ Wax, but over at Varsity Trading Cards he’s combining his love for photography and design and creating some really neat stuff for high school kids. Not only is that an awesome idea, and one I wish I had thought of, but he’s producing some really nice cards.

While professional and college athletes have long been the standard subjects of trading cards, we give High School student athletes the opportunity to be part of trading card history. Unlike yearbooks, class rings and Letterman’s jackets, our cards are made to be shared with family, friends and fans. By using in-game photography and actual player statistics, our cards offer a unique view into a special moment in each student athlete’s lives.”

Now that’s cool, and a completely awesome idea. I think Chris has hit the jackpot on this one. I know dozens of photographers who shoot for Little League and parents just eat up those 5x7s. I even know someone who brings a dye-sub printer to the field, with a generator, to crank out pictures on demand. There’s certainly a healthy market for it, but once the kids grow up there seems to be nothing in between until they get to college (or get drafted). I think Chris is filling a great need. I know I would have wanted my own cards when I was a kid. Hell, I still want my own cards now, lol. I even talked to him about that. He might be making me a tiny run of memorabilia cards at some point. Now those are truly works of art. Anyway, if you have a kid in school, playing any kind of sport, check out the Varsity Trading Cards website, Chris has some great looking stuff.

I wonder if he has franchise opportunities, lol.

Game Review: SSX

With my allocation of time and money being spent in other directions these days, I’m getting pretty picky about my video game selections. If it’s not a AAA title or a $2 indie game, I’m probably not buying. One series that always gets my attention is SSX. I’ve been dieing for a good snowboarding game, or sequel to the original Xbox masterpieces, on a current generation system, since Shaun White Snowboard failed so miserably to impress me. SSX was always about 2 thing: back country powder and insane tricks. The new SSX doesn’t disappoint, but it is one of the most aggravating pieces of fun I’ve played in a long time.

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3rd Party Cluster

A word of advice to my baseball card friends. If you see something posted to the “Aggravation” category on this blog, it’s going to be a legendary post. Also, NSFW, lot’s of angry words. I know, it’s a personal flaw, I’m working on it. If you’re offended by f-bombs, I’d suggest finding funny pictures of cats instead of reading this post.

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Cross them off the list

I’m beginning to love the sight of my mailbox’s little yellow flag being up. Another day, another yellow padded envelope. This time with a purpose. Normally I use group breaks as an opportunity to see (and acquire) sets I don’t have. 95% of the time, if the set list is small enough, I walk away with my goal – a Red Sox base set. I then chase any parallels or hits online or through trade. Sometimes I come up a couple cards short. That’s where COMC and Sportlots come in. I swear I’m not getting paid to mention them in every damn post, it just so happens that the occasional $2 here and $5 there seem to be going to one of those sites on a regular basis these days. This week it’s finishing off some sets. For $4.34 I managed to finish off 2006 UD Future Stars, 2007 SP Authentic and Rookie Edition, Topps 2012 and sneak in a couple sweet refractor goodies.

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