Blasting The Past: I Wonder Where It Stopped?

So a few years back I had a contest or two just for the fun of it in what I like to call "Random Acts of Cardness". I think most can figure out what that means. On one of those adventures I came up with this interesting piece:

Front of RAC Card

Back of RAC Card

The links at the end of this post give the full story and details, most of which I forget. The basic gist was I held a contest and then sent the winner of the contest some cards along with this homemade RAC (Random Acts of Cardness) Card. My original idea, as it starts to come back to me, was to start the card on a year long journey to as many card collectors as possible then back to me at year's end. Procrastination took hold of me and I didn't send the RAC out until Early Aug 2013. I Tracked it's progress along the way to see how many people had received it. If you remember getting it you're an OLD FART blogger. Kidding. It was only 3 years ago, Oops 4.

I had gotten the idea from some forum posts at TCC Both were a kind of "Pass it on"/"Pay it forward" type of ideas. One was an old site tradition of a wooden coin, or a lucky coin or something. I think it was a homemade thing that was hand-marked "TCC Lucky Coin" or something similar. Not sure cause I never got it. It had an index card that accompanied it on it's travels that the recipients were to write their name and where they were located. The idea of it was if you were lucky enough to get it you passed it on to another member at random. The lucky coin or whatever it was has long stopped somewhere unknown. That is what usually happens with these kind of things.

The other TCC post that prompted the RAC idea was called "The Chain". It was a "pick one card, leave one card" package. It soon morphed into a pick whichever cards you want so long as you replace them with an equal or greater number of cards. That would morph into including larger items and memorabilia at one time, which made future Chain packages have to make rules to limit what could be placed in the package. At one point there was a full 500+ card set, a signed baseball and maybe something else that added to the shipping cost of the package. For later rounds large items and memorabilia were banned from the package(s). The originator would send the package to the first person on the list, that person would choose a card or two, add a card or two equal to or greater than the count of what they took, then pass the package onto the next person on the list and so on. The person at the end of the list would ship the package to the originator of the package. A fun element was when the originator of the package listed the original contents (and possibly provided a picture or scans of the cards), and then by the time it got back to the originator what cards were in the final package.

As you can see from the tracking info below, it went halfway across the good old USofA, took a late summer vacation in Portugal (to see all the lovely lady cards I bet) back to the States and then in late December around Christmas time disappeared somewhere in the back alleys of Illinois. It may have made it out of that state, but me thinks it crossed da family somehow and is now swimmin' whit da fishes.

Here is how the unskilled trackers at CK42HQ shadowed shadowfly  followed The RACs journey:

START: Silver Spring, MD
03 Aug, 2013: Shipped to Channelview, TX
05 Aug, 2013: Arrival in TX
07 Nov, 2013:Arrival in Lisbon, Portugal (via Channelview, TX USA)
21 Nov, 2013: Back in the U.S.A. Norridge, IL
13 Dec, 2013: ? wherever GCRL is/was. IL?
23 Dec, 2013: Plainfield, IL
?
END: ?

Didn't reach Final Destination: Silver Spring, MD back at the end of 2013.

Does anyone know where the RAC Currently is?

Anyway there have been times I've thought of sending another of these things around. Maybe this time I won't ask for it to be returned just that it gets PAID FORWARD to other collectors and update me with a heads up to its current location from time to time?

Past Random Acts of Cardness Posts:
RAC Card Update: In The Bargain Bin
RAC Card Update: European Vacation
RAC: RAC Card Tracking
RAC2: The Finale
Update: State Of The Blog (Sort Of)
RAC2: Reminder - Any More Entries?
RAC2: Random Acts Of Cardness Part Deux
RAC1: Contest Winner (Plus a Bonus)
RAC1: Contest Over
Random Acts Of Cardness Contest Number 1

Guess I should show a card maybe two. OK maybe just one quick Card of the Whenever.

This card I have mentioned the cards I had gotten the same day as this one on 04 April 2017 my birthday in fact. At first I thought it was the same package but I double checked my mail day "blogs" and it was in a package by itself. I had to battle a little for it. It was from an Auction at Sportlots got it for $1.25 with $2.25 shipping.

 1959 Topps Football: 126 Los Angeles Rams Pennant Team Card

Not sure what that "kids" name/signature is. Brian Room? Brian Rook? Brian Ross? Brain Room? Brian Junior? Brian Roo? Brian Root? anyway the name is blue ink scripted Brian something.

RAC Card Update: In The Bargain Bin

The RAC Card is back in the USA from it's vacation. It is currently with Nick of Dime Boxes. To see where it has been check out the Tracking post.

RAC Card Update: European Vacation

Here is an update on this card:

The card has made its way to Lisbon, Portugal. An overseas adventure that I'm sure would be an exciting tale if only cards could talk. Check out the updated RAC Card Tracking post it isn't much but hey its an update. Thank you Ana for the email and post.

I wonder where the card will end up next?

RAC: RAC Card Tracking

Random Acts Of Cardness Card Tracking:

 (Newest entry first)

Monday 23 December 2013: Jeff of 2x3 Heroes received the RAC card via Jim (GCRL) sounds like it was a drive by, I mean in person pass off. As the year is winding down there might be one more pass off not sure since the year end holidays are upon us.

Friday 13 December, 2013:
Just got an email from Jim at gcrl saying he had received the card via Nick's Dime Box. Man I so wish I had started this thing closer to the beginning of the year, things seem to be picking up steam.

Thursday 21 November, 2013:
The RAC Card has returned from visiting Ana on it's Vacation in Portugal (I hope it took some cool pictures) and is back in the U.S., back in the U.S., back in the U.S...A. with Nick from Dime Boxes. It has a little over a month before heading home.

Thursday 07 November, 2013:
WooWhoo! The RAC Card seems to be taking a winter holiday in Europe. I got an email from Ana Lu of the Hobby Cards Europe blog. She lives in Lisbon, Portugal the RAC Card made its way to her via Commishbob. Thank you Ana for the update and thank you Bob for paying it forward overseas.

Monday 05 August, 2013:
Finally I got this into the mail this past Saturday (03 August 2013) heading to the winner of my RAC2 Contest Commishbob. Yes I was procrastinating some, I procrastinate in just about everything dealing with cards for some unknown reason. I sent him some cards that he should be receiving/has received today according to USPS Package Tracking Service (was "Delivery Confirmation"). There was nothing too spectacular some vintage and some newer Orioles cards. Hopefully there are at least one or two cards he didn't already have. Hopefully he can Pay Forward the RAC Card to someone soon, and I'll hear from that person about the card status.

I originally thought I would be on top of things and have almost a year for this "Pay It Forward" RAC Card experiment, but with all my dilly and dallying it will only be a little more than 4 months.Hopefully those who receive the card will follow the instructions and keep me updated when they receive the card, and it will be returned to me sometime in January. I'm not expecting to have any cards come with it, but who knows there might be some.

I will keep track of where the card has been. The only mention of "who" has it will be int my updates above. If given the sending dates I'll include those below, if not the dates will just be date received.

RACC Trip:
START:
03 Aug, 2013: Silver Spring, MD --to--> Channelview, TX
05 Aug, 2013: Arrival in TX
07 Nov, 2013: Arrival in Lisbon, Portugal via Channelview, TX USA
21 Nov, 2013: Back in the U.S.A.Norridge, IL
13 Dec, 2013:
23 Dec, 2013: Plainfield, IL
END: Silver Spring, MD

Related Blog Posts:
RAC2: The Finale
Update: State of the Blog (Sort of)
RAC2: Reminder - Any more entries?
RAC2: Random Acts of Cardness Part Deux

RAC2: The Finale

HEY I woke up on this! Sorry I had this on hold for so long. In case you might have forgotten I was going to giveaway some cards. Lets see where is that list of entrants? Ah! Here it is.

RAC2 Entries in no special order:

1. gcrl
2. spiege183
3. Mike M
4. Nick
5. irondequoit36
6. The Dimwit
7. Richard Nebe Jr.
8. Chunter
9. Commishbob

Now we plug the names into the old random.org machine and grind them up real good.

Randomized once:

There were 9 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. gcrl
2. Chunter
3. spiege183
4. Mike M
5. Commishbob
6. Richard Nebe Jr.
7. Nick
8. irondequoit36
9. The Dimwit

Timestamp: 2013-05-30 16:54:05 UTC

Twice:
There were 9 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. irondequoit36
2. Nick
3. Chunter
4. Richard Nebe Jr.
5. Commishbob
6. Mike M
7. gcrl
8. The Dimwit
9. spiege183

Timestamp: 2013-05-30 16:55:46 UTC
You have randomized this list 2 times.

And Thrice:
There were 9 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Commishbob
2. Chunter
3. Nick
4. The Dimwit
5. spiege183
6. gcrl
7. Richard Nebe Jr.
8. irondequoit36
9. Mike M

Timestamp: 2013-05-30 16:57:34 UTC
You have randomized this list 3 times.

The WINNER of the brand new car (OOPS sorry no car) is COMMISHBOB!
Congratulations Bob. Please contact me soon with your mailing address and a list of wants, stuff you collect  and I'll start looking for some stuff to send you. No guarantees of how many cards/memorabilia will be included or how big or small the package will be. I know you are a vintage guy so I'll see what creased old water damaged stuff I can send you. Just kidding about the water damage, I'll try to find some decent conditioned stuff to send. OH and don't forget I will be including this:

So be sure to have an envelope nearby to shove it into to Pay It Forward to someone.

Thank you to all who entered this contest and thank you for your patience in my lamebrain  delay.

Update: State of the Blog (Sort of)

Just a quickie update to let folks know I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth (yet). No I have not forgotten about the RAC Card contest I am holding (held?). I haven't randomized the names of those who entered yet. I'm in a trading card funk, a pretty big one. I have had many other things on my plate of life and I really haven't cared that much about trading cards these last few weeks. Well maybe "not caring" is not really the right phraseology, but yeah a funk is a funk. I still have some cards coming in (I just paid for some Sportlots auction wins) and I am still active on several of the forums I'm involved with but I haven't been keeping up with the administrative portion of collecting lately. That means I haven't updated my blogs lately, I haven't forum blogged about my 3 most recent maildays, I haven't checked my collection vs. wantlists on offers of trades. I haven't scanned stuff (that isn't much of a difference anyway). I have only partly added some of those cards from my recent maildays into zistle. I'm still thinking about some of the future posts I'll write, or want to write eventually.

I don't know when I will actually do some of the stuff I need to do. Recent car problems have sort of sidetracked me knowing when I'll next get to the Post Office on a Saturday to mail anything out.

I'm not sure why I decided to post this or even write it up in the first place. I guess I just wanted to let people know that even though I have been a bit inactive I am still thinking about and am concerned about a few of my card commitments (or perceived commitments)

RAC2: Reminder - Any more entries?

Just checking to see if anyone else wants to enter. The clock is still ticking on this and the alarm could go off at any second...OK it hasn't yet I thought it had for a second there. For details see my Random Acts Of Cardness Part Deux post.

RAC2 - Random Acts of Cardness Part Deux

RAC2 and the Journey of The RAC Card
(or the Pay It Forward Edition)
 

I figured it was time again for a "Random Act of Cardness". I need some more good Karma anyway so I might as well also give some.

To Enter all you gotta do is:
1) Comment: Yep that is it just post a comment to this contest post and you will be entered for the random drawing.
2) Follow My Blog: If you already follow this blog, then great you don't need to do anything else (unless you are the random winner) If you don't already follow my blog please do so you never know when I'll commit another "Random Act of Cardness" (I won't always announce RACs on the blog).

Extra Added Fun:
Feel free to spread the word about this contest and to pimp it.

Enter Now while you are reading this because anytime between now and the end of March I will randomly (via random.org) pick a winner from the list of folks who have entered . I will then post the winner and request their mailing address and card collecting info (team/players/set whatever their collecting habits are). I will try to send some fun stuff from what the winner collects, plus some random stuff of course.

Now here is the hard part, I am going to try to track the pay it forward ripples from this random act of cardness for the entire year. I will include with the package a special marked decoy card (blank, dummy, teaser, sucker) aka: "The RAC Card".

I request that the winner will then at some random yet relatively short period of time randomly send my decoy card to someone else to "pay it forward". Perhaps they will slip it in with a random trade or in their own contest. Then hopefully that next person who receives the RAC card will contact me so I can track where the RAC card has been, and then they will pay it forward.

This might not work, but lets try it.




As always if you want to trade (or just gift me) my teams are Nationals/Senators, Orioles, Redskins, Rams, Capitals and Pre-1980 vintage, OK and Bullets/Wizards. I am mostly concentrating on the baseball right now. You can check my Zistle to see what I already have cataloged in and don't need, plus my master want list has some of what I am still looking for. I am trying to get all my lists updated, but I think there is still a very long way to go. I also do some Non-Sports, mostly sci-fi and the pre 1,000s of inserts and sub-sets (Pre-late 1990s) years. The Non-Sport is my most picky I think. I tend to be more whatever attracts my eye with Non-Sport.

RAC1 Contest Winner (Plus a bonus)

Looks like my First Random Act of Cardness contest was a success. Now to determine the winner - Good luck to all. Here are the people who entered the contest in comment order:
Skroeker
dawgbones
Dan
Chunter
Dhoff
Mariner1
Play At The Plate
Grag Zakwin
High-Five Man
cynicalbuddha
Hackenbush
Nathan
Kev
Ryan
Jeff Laws

Now the Randomized list:
There were 15 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Play At The Plate
2. Nathan
3. Chunter
4. Skroeker
5. High-Five Man
6. cynicalbuddha
7. Dan
8. Grag Zakwin
9. dawgbones
10. Ryan
11. Jeff Laws
12. Dhoff
13. Mariner1
14. Kev
15. Hackenbush

Timestamp: 2012-05-22 13:58:37 UTC

Congratulations Brian at Play At The Plate. Grand Winner!

BONUS: I'm feeling pretty generous with the random cardness so I'll go ahead and random two more winners:

There were 15 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Mariner1
2. Chunter
3. Ryan
4. Skroeker
5. Kev
6. Play At The Plate
7. cynicalbuddha
8. Hackenbush
9. High-Five Man
10. Dan
11. Nathan
12. dawgbones
13. Jeff Laws
14. Dhoff
15. Grag Zakwin

Timestamp: 2012-05-22 14:02:49 UTC
You have randomized this list 2 times.

Congratulations Mariner1 at Emerald City Diamond Gems our 2nd place winner.

And now the 3rd place winner:

There were 15 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Dhoff
2. Dan
3. Hackenbush
4. Kev
5. Jeff Laws
6. cynicalbuddha
7. Grag Zakwin
8. Ryan
9. High-Five Man
10. Mariner1
11. Nathan
12. Skroeker
13. dawgbones
14. Play At The Plate
15. Chunter

Timestamp: 2012-05-22 14:04:52 UTC
You have randomized this list 3 times.

 Congratulations Dhoff of Coot Veal and the Vealtones our 3rd Place Winner!

Winners please send me your mailing address to my yahoo email account in my profile. I will get the cards out this weekend hopefully. Congratulations to our Winner(s).

RAC1 Contest over

My Contest "Random Acts of Cardness" Number 1 is officially over. Thank you to the 15 folks who entered the contest. Looks like the contest got me a couple of new followers, however I also lost one for some reason. I will announce the lucky winner later today.

Random Act of Cardness Contest number 1

It seems that contests on blogs attract attention, or at least get a few sure comments. People like it when you give away stuff even if it is an old piece of cardboard with some ink or maybe paint on it, maybe with a piece of cloth glued into it or a splinter of wood attached. So I thought I'd try my hand at one here on my blog hopefully it will attract some more readership. I have done a few contests over at TCC that I have titled "Random Acts of Cardness" they range from the simple "first one to respond" to a random trivia question to "guess the number" to the slightly more difficult "guess what?' type that requires a little thinking.

This will be a random drawing contest open to people who comment to this post. Just simply post a comment with your favorite MLB baseball and/or NFL football team to be eligible. The contest ends Midnight Eastern Time Monday/Tuesday 21/22 May 2012. The winner will be chosen at random from the list of entrants via random.org. The lucky winner will receive a batch of cards from their favorite team.

This contest is open to residents of the US and Canada ONLY. Sorry sending mail to other countries tends to be a little more expensive, takes a long time (longer than most people's patience) and package tracking can't be confirmed.

RAC1