Adding Silk to the Rainbow

Wow, it's almost been two months since I've posted to the blog. Just wanted to share with everyone the latest addition to my 2013 Topps Joey Votto Rainbow project. This silk card appeared a few months ago on Check Out My Cards and I knew I had to add it to the collection. Numbered 9/50 this is the first (and will probably be the last) silk card to enter my collection. I'm now up to 34 different Votto cards in this project. I'm still on the hunt for 6 more cards to wrap up this project. In case you're interested they're: 2013 Topps Factory Orange numbered to 230, 2013 Topps Wrapper Redemption Silver Slate numbered to 10, 2013 Topps Printing Plate numbered to 1, 2013 Topps Opening Day Toy's R Us Purple parallel, 2013 Topps Chrome Camo Refractor numbered to 15 and 2013 Topps Chrome Pink Refractor numbered to 5.

A Tour of the Cave

For the past few years I've had posts on this blog talking about purchases for the "Man Cave". This included anything from tin signs to posters and memorabilia. Essentially, anything that's been spoken about on this blog is in the Man Cave. While it's not 100% finished, I thought it was about time to take you all on a tour of the cave. I still need to frame and hang my World Series newspapers, but either than that, the room is essentially finished.

Here's the view if you're looking from the back of the room. While there is a foosball table and television in there for entertainment, it would have been nice to have a pool table in there as well. Unfortunately, there's just not enough space.

 

To the right of the foosball table are my seats from Riverfront Stadium. I refuse to call them Cinergy Field seats because I still don't agree with the whole stadium naming rights thing. Above the seats is my tin Louisville Slugger sign.

At the far end of the room are two additional tin signs (Topps baseball and a Shoeless Joe Jackson shoe sign), an autograph card display of some of my favorite former Reds players, and my autograph Joey Votto jersey.

To the left of the jersey is my desk where I scan most of the cards you see on my blog. On the top shelf of the desk you'll notice my trifecta collection (Rookie card, printing plate, and certified autograph) for Jay Bruce, Aroldis Chapman, Johnny Cueto, Homer Bailey, and Joey Votto.

To the left of the desk are a couple of Reds signs. The large street sign fits perfectly above the access doors on the knee wall. The Reds felt logo sign is just a neat piece detailing the various logos the Reds have had throughout their existence. 

To the left of that is where the heart of my collection resided. I have two bookshelves that are completely stocked. In between the bookshelves is the futon with a Reds felt blanket my wife and daughter made for me a few Christmases ago. Behind the futon are panoramic prints of Riverfront and Great American ballpark.

The bookshelf to the right of the futon contains all of my Reds autograph baseballs, a few bobbleheads, my Pete Rose autograph glove, my World Series tickets and all of my Reds Team sets. I also like the old school pennant behind the Big Red Machine bobbleheads.

To the left of the futon is my other bookshelf that contains the rest of my Reds bobblehead collection, a display of my old Reds player's ball gloves, and binders containing the few sets I have in my collection.

Finally, across from the futon is the TV, guitars and amp. Hopefully I can eventually add one more Fender guitar and another amp. But this is a baseball card blog and I won't bore you with that.

So, that's it... my "Man Cave". With a collection that's taken more than 15 years to put together, I enjoyed every moment of this hobby and I'm glad that I'm part of a blogging community that enjoys the sport as much as I do.

The Genorousity of Others

It amazes me just how generous the members of our blogging community are. I read all the time about packages many of you receive from others containing cards that are now permanent fixtures of you collection. Case in point, last week I received two packages. The first was from Jared over at Cards My Mom Didn't Throw Out. He contacted me about an Alex Rodriguez relic card he had that I needed for the 2003 Fleer Authentix set build. Not only did he send the relic, but also a TON of Reds cards. Shock and awe! There were a ton of Heritage Reds cards in there as well as a nice mix of Stadium Club. The 2016 Chrome Sepia Stevenson Jared sent has me pondering chasing that parallel set once I have a few other projects wrapped up.

The second package I received was from Fuji over at The Chronicles of Fuji. Fuji always has a nice mix of oddballs in his packages and this one didn't disappoint. While there were some nice Bowman and Topps cards in the package, my favorites are the Chris Sabo Starline cards and the Chef Boyardee Eric Davis. That's the first time I've ever seen those cards. I might have to track down the other 38 Starline cards that make up this set.

Thank you guys for the cards!

I Dig it!

A few weeks back Gavin over at Baseball Card Breakdown was looking to send some of his CDs to a good home. Those interested could send him some cash to cover shipping and he would take care of the rest. I sent Gavin a quick message to let him know that I was interested and this past weekend a box stuffed with CDs arrived at my front door.

 Talk about a selection of music. The Beatles, Guns n Roses, R.E.M., Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bob Marley, Hendrix, The Ramones, Violent Femmes...a little bit of everything in here.

 These are probably my favorites in the package. I'm still in shock at Gavin's generosity.

 In addition to the CDs, Gavin also included a smattering of Reds cards, many that will be going out in the mail for my TTM project! He ALSO included a few of his custom cards that he's so well known for. Finally he sent along a 1982 "Official" Baseball Card price guide.

 Thanks again Gavin! I definitely dig it all!

Changing My Mind

It's not very often that I change my mind when it comes to things. Once I decide something I try to stick with it (in terms of my collection anyway). This helps me to stay focused and prevents my collection from growing out of control like a giant blob gobbling up my funds and leaving behind nothing more than despair and destruction. A while back I had posted that I was trying to complete the 2003 Fleer Authentix set with the exception of the relic cards. While I had intended on sticking to that goal, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I really liked the look of some of those cards. Granted, I don't like everything that's in that set (the Hometown Hero subset) but there are plenty of cards that I like. Case in point, the Game of the Week is a 10 card relic set that consists of two jersey swatches from two separate players with a replica ticket that's embedded in the card. You can either get the common "ripped" version or the more limited "unripped" version that's limited to 50. 2003 Authentix also has a 10 card bat relic set and a 25 card jersey relic set. Each of these sets only include 1 relic from a player with a replica ticket embedded in the card. There are "ripped", "unripped", and "All-Star" variations with those cards. So after a lot of thought, I've decided to chase those relic sets because it comes down to the first rule of collection...collect what you enjoy. I definitely enjoy these cards. Besides, with the way technology is going, I'm sure there will be a day in the not too distant future when you can't even get a paper ticket to go to a game. Instead you'll be required to get an electronic ticket on your smartphone.  

Manufactured

I normally don't go for manufactured "relics", but I had to make an exception in this case. When I saw these 2017 Topps Independence Day Commemorative MLB Logo patch cards I had to purchase one....if a Reds player was in the checklist. Luckily there was one and I added this Joey to my collection. For anyone interested, there are 50 cards total in this set. When Topps released their 2015 MLB Logo pin cards I had hoped that a Reds player would be included within that set but unfortunately that wasn't the case. Regardless, I'm happy for this latest addition to my collection.

My First Base Card

Here it is....my first base card (not the other base cards we as collectors are accustom to). For the past fourteen years I've been working on the 2003 Fleer Authentix baseball set. I've tracked down all but 4 "base" cards and I still need the Ballpark Classic and Ticket Stud inserts. According to baseballcardpedia, during the 2003 All-Star game this Jeter card is part of an eight-card set that was available exclusively through a redemption program at the 2003 All-Star Game FanFest in Chicago. Each card company got to issue two cards for this promotion. In a twist from previous FanFest sets, the first four cards in this set all feature a piece of a game-used base that the player took part in. Each of the four game-used cards are serial-numbered to 2000 copies. You can view a checklist of the set here. I have the Konerko FanFest card as well from this set. I'm looking forward to purchasing the Ballpark Classic and Ticket Stud insert sets in the coming months and since I don't consider parallels or relic cards to be necessary for a master set, in my humble opinion, I'll be on the verge of completing my first master set!