A sampling of some of the baseball cards from Shane

A while back I posted a really cool hockey card that came from a box that Shane of Shoebox Legends sent me. I promised that someday I would show some of the baseball cards that were in the box as well.

Now, this is just a very small sampling...and may even include cards from a different box, also from Shane, because, while I do have it written down, I didn't actually pull up my notes to make sure. It just didn't seem important to leave out a card or two if it came from a different box, when they are all from the same source and the same topic, you know?

And I've just scratched the surface...I'm a little overwhelmed by life right now so most of what I've gotten since last September or so is socked away for a later date. I do have a plan formulating with them, but I'll reveal more on that at some future date...if I stick with it. I may change my mind...

 2015 Topps was just a great design. So good that I posted both of the cards I scanned from the set, instead of just one.

 I'm assuming that he must have had a bunch of these as the Red Sox are his team.

 1987 Topps Update

 I know these two are both the same set as well, but they are a different design, so I posted them both as well.

 1988 O-Pee-Chee...photo apparently taken during a nuclear blast as he really looks like that on card.

 1987 Donruss. I like the little ball design on the sides.

 I like this design as well. I have been (finally) working on scanning the 2016-17 Donruss NBA set, which pays homage to this design. I like that as well.

 1989 Fleer

 1994 Pinnacle. I actually know someone named Steven Cook, but he has no E on his name.

 1994-95 Fleer Excel, a minor league card.  Why the Emeralds have blue sleeves is unknown to me.

2005 Donruss Team Heroes...a set I had never even heard of before this one came out of the team bag.

 This set is pretty hated in the hobby, and the complaints are valid...team logo partially obscured, 3 of the 4 corners of the image lost to computer generated graphics...but in hand, it's not really all that noticeable or distracting, to me.

 I actually like the back of the 1992 Donruss design more than the front.

 I love the 1991 Fleer set. The yellow is so bright and cheerful, it just makes me smile to see it. I do feel like the card back design could have benefitted from swapping the border and info box colors, the yellow on the cardstock used for the back is dulled a little.

 The 1992 Pinnacle design, I'm not a fan of. They used it in hockey too. It's just kind of...meh.

1991 Upper Deck. It's ok but I fail to see the set as groundbreaking, as UD is usually claimed to be...maybe that's just the earlier sets. There's nothing wrong with the card, by any means, it's just not even my favorite 1991 card in this post.

 Food promos are always fun. This one appears to be Panini style, IE, scrubbed of all logos.

 1993 Topps. This design was used in baseball and football but never appeared in hockey or basketball for some reason. I actually like the design better than those used for the NBA or NHL instead.

 This isn't baseball, obviously, but it felt like a good place to fit it in. I like national team cards in the sports I actually collect, but only one or two countries ever get representation. So, it was pretty cool to see six different countries on the six cards from this set that I pulled out of the box.

2019 Topps. This would be a really great design if the names were not backwards. That's just stupid, and it kills the whole thing, in my opinion. Everything else is great.

1984, the year of my birth, was the only year I was missing in my collection from the debut of standard sized cards in 1957 to the 1994 lockout. Shane took care of that, sending me a bunch of them. That's a pretty good collection for somebody who doesn't actively collect the sport, if I don't say so myself!

I missed scanning 2012 Topps and 2007 UD Future Stars, but they will have to wait, as I've filled the cases and it's time for a sorting/Excel chart updating again. I didn't wait to wait any longer to get these posted.

A visit to a Post card exhibit at a local museum

As you may recall, earlier in this year, I wondered aloud if post cards were part of my card collection, or if they are a separate thing, totally different? It's been on the backburner because I just could not make up my mind, even though I have begun to add some whenever I can-particularly using them in place of trading cards on the various adventures my brother has been taking me on.

Well, I made up my mind today. They DO count. The exhibition I saw today cemented that idea. What pushed me to finally make my decision? The fact that the post cards on display are all local. One of my rarely-discussed on here but high priority in real life interests is architecture. It almost never appears on trading cards. But it does appear on post cards...in fact, it's one of the main topics of post cards, at least in my experience. 

Today's exhibit, called "Vintage Views", featured scans of 1500 local post cards and dozens of old photographs, circa 1910, of Poughkeepsie, NY, which is where I tell people I'm from- my actual home town is pretty small and most people have never heard of it. Poughkeepsie used to be a major city, and is still pretty major in my book. 

If I want to have places and things I know- home, essentially- in my card collection, I have to be willing to include post cards. So, that's that. Decision made. 

The Museum that hosted this exhibit was the Clinton Corners Historical Society. It was held in a building built in 1777- the building itself is incredibly awesome...and even has it's own Wikipedia page.. I had never been in Clinton Corners, NY, before today. It's a little bit northeast of Poughkeepsie, and it's not really built up. (That's a great thing). It's mostly farms, separated by swaths of forest and old houses, some of which are spectacular. I never had a reason to go there before. It's a ways away from the roads to get to Lake George, and it's well north of the route taken to get to Connecticut. But I liked the area. After we left, instead of going home the same way, we decided to go left and ended up following the Salt Point Turnpike to it's conclusion, and then just following Route 82 home. The ride, to me, was just about as fun as the museum. I used to go for rides all the time, back in the day. Some were pretty far ranging- one of the most memorable ended up involving three states, for example. But, over time, car problems and health problems had put an end to them. While the health problems are still a concern, and are actually worse now, as I've also noted, I'm tired of getting beaten by my own body. I decided I wanted to see and do things, and just deal with the pain. You've seen the fun things I've been doing, some that I always wanted to do, some I had no idea existed so couldn't possibly want to do-it's a result of that new mindset, of wanting to see and do these things while I'm still able. 

I ended up taking 497 photos on the day, and I won't be posting them all. I will post that give a solid overview of the trip, with a link to my website with the rest. 

The building

A photo of the old railroad station. The tracks in Poughkeepsie lead directly to Grand Central Station in NYC. The building with Feed and Flour on the roof survived, abandoned, until about a decade ago...I remember seeing the faded words and empty window frames every time we went into Poughkeepsie. Although the photo is not dated, this train station was replaced in 1918.

I remember seeing this plant. Was torn down circa 1999. I also have some comic books that were printed here, and I've seen a car that was built here- extremely rare-that has lived in Dutchess County 

it's entire life.

There were too many photos to get each one individually, so most were done in groups of 4 or 6 depending on size. The Smith Brothers cough drops were world famous- even parodied on Popeye cartoons- and were in Poughkeepsie. The location of their factory is now completely overgrown, nothing of the building survives. Vasser Hospital, I owe my life to. Although that building no longer survives, their later building is where I was taken when I came literally 5 minutes short of dying in 2013. I have seen this photo before- there's a copy in the hospital lobby.

 An overview of the photo wall

The Mid-Hudson Bridge- visible in the center left- is the main way I get to the western side of the Hudson River and beyond. Every trip to Lake George, to Toledo, etc, always go across that bridge. It opened in 1925, and connects Poughkeepsie and Highland. A relative of mine was part of the crew that built it- my great-grandmother's brother, to be exact. 

Hmm, I wonder if I can find a working copy of that camera type...

 They have a section of the wall that's made of clear glass or plastic, where you can see the inside of the original wall.

An overview of some of the many post cards on display.

 It was hot today- got up to 93 degrees according to my brother's car- and we saw some cows standing in a pond. It's the second time in my life I've seen a cow or cows taking refuge from the heat in a pond!

 Thought that was a nice photo.

 That church on the top left is about 5 minutes from my house- it's still there. Main Street in Hughsonville is in walking distance from my house. There's no sidewalk and that road is crazy busy these days, so I don't actually walk to it- but if there was a sidewalk, I could, easily.

 That Staatsburg Fire Apparatus is now in the FASNY Fireman's Museum- I saw it in person a couple of weeks back! You can see it at the very end of the aisle in the second photo in my post about it. I didn't choose to post the full photos I took when I made that post.

This is a hand-made dress that was made by a person named Chloe Clinton around 1910! 

 I wish I could have seen the ships plying the Hudson. There are a LOT of cards issued for them. If I ever choose to actually start spending money on hobbies again, I will begin chasing them in earnest.

The Mary Powell is a very famous local ship- she was included in the 1961 Parker Brothers American Heritage Steamboats set, I believe.

I had no idea this was ever around here! 

A rare image of the auto racing held at the Dutchess County Fair in 1908. This appears to be part of a set produced by the Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, which is now known as the Poughkeepsie Journal- and is the second oldest newspaper in the entire USA, having been in continuous production since 1785. Now that I know this set exists, I will begin looking for a copy for my own collection.

Despite being in operation since the 1770s, this cemetery, which is still active, is not very full. There were wooden headstones back in the day that do not survive.

 I was pleasantly surprised to see that an old car had parked right next to my brother while we were in the museum. It's a 1981 Fiat.

 Out here on the Salt Point Turnpike it's mostly farmland.

This photo, which is actually a failed attempt at capturing an old car parked in somebody's driveway, shows the rolling hills and farmlands of Clinton Corners. 

Although it will take several hours, all of the photos I took- 485 after eliminating the blurry ones- will appear on my website HERE. Edit to add: They finally finished uploading at 9:08 PM. it only took a little over two hours, that's actually surprisingly fast.

Oddly enough they did not have any post cards of their historical building available for purchasing. 

here's MY card

I have been eagerly awaiting an order of cards to come in the mail...but they aren't traditional trading cards, not by a long shot.

I ordered myself some business cards from Vistaprint! I had seen their ads on TV and I thought it would be better to have some of these on me, rather than trying to write out my website(s) when I need to, if I can find a piece of paper to do it on. My handwriting is not the best and this just looks so classy.

I guess since I don't own a business- all of this is hobby- they are really more like calling cards rather than business cards. That concept died in the 1880s, perhaps I can make it make a comeback? (Yes, that is a joke)

I left the back blank and I chose non-glossy so I can write whatever I need to on there- you'll notice no phone number is printed. (I hate, hate, hate talking on the telephone) but I can write it on if I need to. I actually have a secondary thought too...if I ever see someone I want to get an autograph from, the back of my own "business card" would make a pretty cool surface to do it on. And...a little tease here...I'm going to meet at least one, perhaps 2 or 3, ladies whose autograph I plan to get in September.

Mostly I got this idea because my model club has been talking about getting cards made. I decided to take the initiative and get my own printed up. I went very plain, on purpose, but you can do colors and even pictures for no extra cost, so if the club does get some made up, we will have our logo on it and probably even a map to our location on the back. I figured even if the clubs don't want to go for them, at least I have some of my own to carry around and possibly give out.

The very first one out of the box, the one I'm holding in the picture, will be stored in with my card collection. I only got 100 of them so I'm not going to throw them around, but if any of you guys want one...I can include one in a future mailing. I'd even be willing to sign them in your ink color of choice, if you so choose...I don't expect people to want them very much, so I won't be offended if nobody asks for one. Since I did pay for them I don't want to start including them in every mailing only for them to get thrown out, you know what I mean? The main idea is to give it to people when I take photos of their car so I can get them looking at my photography pages.

I chose not to put the address for this version of Cardboard History on there. I did think about it, but I decided it would be too much...and let's face it, I pretty much never meet anybody who would want to come here and read my writing that doesn't already...and it's linked, heavily, on the Cardboard History Gallery. If I go to any more card shows I can always write it on there...I left plenty of space.

Maybe if I do run out of these I will print some more and include it. I went back and forth on it for several minutes before I decided against it.

Since they do allow you to upload pictures, even your own full design, I could, in theory, print my own card sets...Hmmm...I think that would be pretty awesome. But I doubt I could move 100 copies of cards of myself, LOL. Just thinking aloud. Anything else would run into copyright issues, I'm afraid.

Either way, even I end up keeping all 97 of them available (my mom and brother are getting at least one, too) I still think it's pretty cool and I'm glad to have them.

Surprise #1 - Gallery of Hits

I'm a base card guy. I've said this many times. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy getting autographs, relics, and especially serially numbered cards. (which, I am aware, most people don't consider a hit...my website, my rules)

As I was working on uploading by Set to the Cardboard History Gallery, I secretly had created a section visible only to me where I was uploading all the serial numbered, autographed and relic cards to their own album. Unfortunately, the idea didn't occur to me until after I had finished the NBA- the largest portion of my collection- so I had to go back and do them later, at the end. That took me an entire day to do, luckily, it was a pretty easy process.

Now that I have finished, I've made it public. I suspect this section may end up getting the most views of all of the Cardboard History Gallery.

Click this link to see it. 

Click me to see larger! 

I wanted to take a screencap that showed three different topics, as it changes the image with each refresh. But when one of the most important cards I've ever pulled- Dale Jr.'s autograph- came up as the sample image, I had to stop and screencap it then.

Provided  I didn't miss anything- not a guarantee- it shows that I have 1136 autographs, 2264 relics, and 4816 serially numbered cards- you can tell I am addicted to them! I know there are a couple more that I lost the scans to in a the oft-referenced hard drive crash of 2016.

I also have at least one or two of each form of hit awaiting scans, too. I actually have more autographs and relics than I realized. I knew I was closing in on 5000 SN cards, at one point believing it possibly I would hit that mark in 2019. Since I've stopped buying cards for myself I no longer expect that...but I am sure it will happen someday.

My plan is to maintain it on a daily basis, in that, whenever I get a new auto, relic, or SN card, I will upload it then- not wait until the 1st of the month like I do with most of my uploads. In fact, I've already done one card in real time- the Omari Spellman pink parallel from Chronicles I documented a couple of posts back went into the album the day I scanned it, making it the first (and so far only) hit I've added to my collection since the album was created. More will come- as soon as I ship my COMC cart, for sure, but probably before then. As I've mentioned before, whenever I get some money in COMC, I usually sort by serially numbered, sometimes autograph or relic, and pick off as many cheap ones as I need until I run out of money. The lowest numbered card in the albums is 1 of 1, and the highest SN is one of 10 million. In 1991, that was considered a limited run.

One thing unusual about this section- one of only two sections where it appears- is that everything is all mixed together. Most everything else is separated by topic. Not here. All sports and non-sports are mixed together in one album. The only other place that happens on the website is the Alphabetical Directory.

Interestingly enough, the oldest card I have from each album- they are sorted chronologically in each album- is a NASCAR card. I suppose that's fitting, because even though I have more NBA than any other for all three special topics, the first I ever had came from NASCAR in all three cases.

Phase 2 is complete!

It was a lot of work, but Phase 2 is now complete on the Cardboard History Gallery! I finished Phase 2 at 11:41 AM today. Now, all the cards I've scanned* are posted in albums by set, both front and back, on the Cardboard History Gallery.

This was the final scan to go up to complete the phase: Car & Driver Cadillac #58 reverse

As you can see from the screenshot of the Stats page, I've now uploaded more than 314 thousand scans...wow! This is going to be more than I ever thought. And some of them were lost...

* = in 2016, my first remote hard drive crashed and {proverbially} burned. It took a lot with it, including pretty much every back scan I had made for a year. I don't have a number on how many that was, but it was a lot. After it crashed, I now keep a record on Excel listing everything scanned, which I store a copy of in three places, so even if I lose my files I'll know what I need to do to recover. Let's hope that I don't have to do that.

Phase 1 was by team, where applicable. I started with that first, and it's still one of my favorite things to go in and look at. At some point I will do NASCAR by team but that's a ways away. Basketball, hockey, baseball and football are all posted by team.

Phase 2, which I finished today, is by set, which I began working on back on January 1st. It is the only place where I store my front and back scans together. Eventually, I will go through each album and actually read all my card backs...who knows when that will be though?

Phase 3, which I started before Phase 2, but put on hold to work on Phase 2, is by person. That's next. I've got a bit of a head start, in that I've already posted all of Non-Sports people and all other sports. I still have basketball, which has the largest number of people, hockey, which might pass basketball by the end of the year for different people, as well as most of auto racing, but I've already done letter A and B in full. Baseball and football bring up the rear. They won't be a lot of fun to do because most of the people in my collection from those two sports have 1 card, maybe 2 or 3. I don't know if there are any baseball or football people to even clear ten cards. Since my main goal for this project is to track history, be it of the person, team or whatever, larger uploads are more interesting.

There is no Phase 4! Once I get everyone up by person, I will just have to maintain it with whatever I scan in each month. That's a long way away....I don't expect to finish Phase 3 in 2019. I am also going to run into space concerns again as well. Although I'm at 61% of capacity I should be able to fit them all in, as they stand now...but I scan every day, or darn close to it, and each front scan gets posted in at least two places, most in three. So that will add up. I'll have to do one more upgrade at some point, but I'm not sure when.

I do have two surprises coming soon...one should be ready to talk about by the end of the week, and both might be. One I'm building in secret and will reveal when it's fully formed. The other will be built publicly and anyone will be able to watch me upload in real time, if they so choose. I suspect Surprise #1 may end up being one of the most-viewed sections of the entire site. I will put up a post when I'm ready to reveal it, which could be as soon as tomorrow or Monday...stay tuned.

Back to work...