Random card thoughts

Sometimes I get into a little bit of a blogging funk and think "Why bother"? Any cards that I get, unless they truly are 1/1s, are just one of thousands, maybe tens of thousands and are most likely going to already be blogged about somewhere, or part of a preview review of some product that is coming out. The one thing that keeps me going when thinking like that is the thought that my take on the individual card is unique. I might be the only one who actually likes a particular card or set out of the hundreds (or is it thousands?) of card bloggers out in the blogiverse (Blogsphere to most).

I don't do those custom jobbers like some bloggers do. Well I don't normally make custom cards, I do have a digital one (front only) as part of some of my logos. I wonder how many of them (the custom cardmaker bloggers) actually print-out their creations? Or do they just keep them digital like E-Topps sort of was mostly? 

I do know that there are some super popular trends, or at least continual trends of the card manufacturers that I really can not stand *cough*rip cards*cough*. I could list them here but I don't want to offend any of my two or three regular readers that may like those particular trends.

**Sigh** Negative thinking often reminds me that most of my collection right now resembles a hoarders nest. I know what I want to do with most of it but gettting motivated to do it and taking the time it will take to do it is one of the things I lack right now. Oh and Yes I do use zistle.com (My Zistle) I am far from having EVERYTHING listed there.

Sometimes I wish there was an organizing company that you could ship a box of cards to with instructions on how you like your cards organized and they will sort and organize and put your cards into binders for you, or whatever containers you prefer. If I knew I could make money off doing that and "retire" from my regular job I would maybe consider doing something like that.That whole concept however would be impractical and would cost tons to ship the cards and then you would have to wait for your cards to be returned, and insure your treasure for tons and determining how long it would take to organize and... Oh it just wouldn't work out for anyone. Or would it? Getting fellow collectors to help you organize wouldn't work either because they would be envious of some of your collection and pester you for some of them. Some more devious collectors might even try to "palm" some cards off of you. OK forget I said any of that organization stuff.

OK now just to keep up with the randomness of this post here are some random cards (fronts only):

1972 Topps Baseball 11 Bobby Valentine Dodgers

 1976 Topps Football 145 Roman Gabriel Eagles

1984 Fleer V 21 "Ready For Action" 

Faye Grant as Juliet "Julie" Parrish

I feel like showing a ton more cards for some reason. OK maybe one more since the Hockey season will probably NOT happen this year here is a card I don't have anymore I either sold it or traded it away. It was my first freebie from sportscardforum I had won it in one of their forum contests. I think it was a new members contest.

2006-07 Upper Deck "Be A Player" Signatures -

JS Jason Spezza Senators

OK so there you have it how much more random can I be? Oh one final thought If you are following me and have my blog linked on your blog, but I don't have yours linked Please let me know so I can reciprocate.

Tom Seaver 2012 Topps Archives

Before I get to the juicy part of this post I will show you the 2012 Topps Baseball Archives card #18 of Hall of Famer Tom Seaver. This beauty of a card uses the 1954 Topps design. The 200 base cards of current and retired players have older designs as follows: Cards 1 - 50 use 1954 design, Cards 51 - 100 use 1971 design, Cards 101  - 150 use 1980 design and Cards 151 - 200 use 1984 design.

As a kid Tom Seaver was one of those players who I had a few cards of and would try to collect more of. I wasn't a big Mets fan but he was one of the All-Stars of the time so he was on my list of players to collect. Here is his 2012 Topps Baseball Archives Card it shows a youthful Tom (Much younger than I remember from my 1970s cards from back in the day):

 2012 Topps Baseball Archives 18 Tom Seaver Mets

1954 Design (Front and Back)

Now here is the fun part of this post. In a group box break on one of the forums I frequent, the 2012 Topps Archives was one box we broke, and it is a favorite product of this particular group. In this group break I had the Nationals and the Mets as my teams. Well we pulled a real One-Of-One not an Ebay 1/1 but a true 1-of-1. This beaut of a PRINTING PLATE.

2012 Topps Baseball Archives 18 Tom Seaver Mets

1954 Design - Magenta Printing Plate 1/1 (Front and Back)

Before I got this I had never had a printing plate, never seen one in person. I hated the idea since Hey it's a "manufactured 1/1" made only to promote the whole "one of one" thing. Plus why wasn't it a mirror image? Well I learned that the current printing process used for cards uses regular image plates, not mirror imaged ones. So yeah OK they are legit. Well after seeing it in person I kind of started liking it. Then I liked it even more and now am not a printing plate hater like I was. I am still a game used hater, manufactured patches hater and a Rip Card hater, but those are rants for a different post. I am now PPP (Pro Printing Plates).

Oh and that black dot on the right side to the left of Tom's head in the mini action pic unfortunately is something on the plate. At first I thought it was a speck of dust on  my scanner that got scanned, but I checked the plate and it is on it. Not sure if it is a particle of dust or another foreign object or a dent/surface scratch of some kind. There are a couple of tiny surface scratches that the scan didn't show.

I noticed via a Google search that the Cyan Printing Plate sold on Ebay in September for $25 bucks.  So two of the four plates have surfaced. I think it would be cool for someone to eventually have the full set of plates, but in the meantime I'm holding on to this one.