eBay

During my younger days of collecting, there was no eBay.  I bought my packs at LCS, card shows, or traded with my friends.  I never really thought about a card as being a must have card.  I ended up with my cards mostly due to the randomness of packs.

eBay is a good and bad thing to me.  I enjoy browsing through listings and seeing ridiculous starting bids, weird lots, and unknown (to me) cards.

This one seems a bit unnecessary...

The bad thing is when I get lost in it.  I have only used eBay twice since I started back with the hobby.  Both times they ended with me thinking to myself, "why I am doing this when I have a mortgage and student loans to pay off?"  Luckily, I have been able to keep myself in check before things get too out of hand.

My second round with eBay ended last week.  I ended up with most of the things I was watching while only missing out on a couple.  I should have enough yellow padded envelopes and boxes to go through soon to keep me busy for a bit.

Zistle Trade

I completed a trade on Zistle recently.  If you are not familiar with Zistle, then I highly encourage you to check it out.

This trade was a rather quick one.  Sorry for the quality of the photos.  I do not have a scanner, so I had to use a potato...

Part of the trade included some 2010 Topps National Chicle.  I usually enjoy nostalgic cards like these, Topps Archives, and Topps Heritage.  These cards are also from the period when I did not collect, so they were new to me.  I think it was the art work that intrigued me the most about these set of cards.

The card set design is based on the 1935 National Chicle Football cards.  Apparently, this was the first nationally released set to feature only football players.  

Topps used a handful of different artists to create their all-painted baseball card set.  Some of the art work is a little bland, like those pictured above.  Tom Seaver looks like he wants to take over Gotham.  Some of the artists did a great job, though.  The best looking of the cards I received are pictured below. 

I read a number of reviews from when these were originally released.  Most reviews were pretty negative in terms of value, but most complemented the art work.  It is a bit weird to have baseball cards inspired by football cards (or vice versa), but I think, for the most part, it works here.

  

Number One

Well, after reading a number of blogs for the last number of months, I have decided to start blogging.  I am new to blogging, so please bear with me as I get acquainted to this whole thing.

First, a little about me...

My first experience with baseball cards was in 1989.  I remember my brother receiving a complete set of 1989 Topps baseball cards for his 10th birthday.  At the time, he loved them and I thought they were cool.  A couple years later, I was given a complete set of 1991 Donruss baseball cards for my 8th birthday.  I guess Mom thought I was a little more mature.

My brother lost most of his interest in cards by that point, so I ended up with what was left of his cards.  I started saving chore and birthday money to buy packs of cards.  My Dad would also take me to card shows at the local Don Carter's All-Star Lanes.  My friends and I would get together to trade and play with our cards.  Anyone remember Flip?  We probably bent a lot of corners playing that game, but we were none the wiser back then.

I continued buying packs here-and-there over the years until I started college.  Work and school took a backseat to collecting cards.  

I returned to collecting last year.  I was in Target with my wife when I thought about how long it had been since I bought any baseball cards.  I shared my thought with her and she said I should get some.  Obviously, I did and it has been fun returning to an old hobby.

I will attempt to blog about baseball cards, the hobby, the New York Mets, and various other related topics.  I will add more things (trade bait, wish list, etc.) to the blog as time goes on.

Stay tuned!