UStream UGH

I recently checked up on my account at UStream to review how to do stuff there. It had been several months seven to be exact since I had last "broadcast" according to my account. I discovered that with the changes I had noticed a few months back that now my archived videos were GONE. I don't recall getting any notice that things would disappear after the changes, if I did get them I just thought it was typical updating with no real action required. I was wrong. With my BASIC account after 30 days any videos are automatically deleted. If you pay for a premium account you can keep whatever. So now any of the box break videos I had done here and the pack breaks I had done, anything I had UStreamed is GONE. I never thought to save my broadcasts offline. Why should I when the server that broadcast them in the first place was storing them?

The thing that really sucks is all the links I had made on this blog, and on some of the trading card forums now lead to an error page. **Sigh** I suppose I should do something about the links on my blogs that I can fix. Everything else OH WELL.

This reminds me of a few years back when Yahoo got rid of the personal photo albums. I hadn't backed up all of the photos I had there (most of them were stuff from emails that had been long deleted and swimsuit pics I found on the web) and so after the shut down anything I didn't have saved any where else was gone. Occasionally when I remember an image and can't find it anywhere maybe it was something from there.

This comes after I noticed that my Logitech webcam wasn't doing offline videos. Apparently as of 31 July 2013 Logitech no longer supported the software for my particular webcam for making videos. They suggest using Skype. Well I don't want to do Skype I don't even know how to use it. It is on my cellphone, not on my laptop. In someways with online videoing I am a super amateur newbie.

I toyed with the idea of using one of the box break services like UStream, but Blog.TV is now part of something else (YouNow?) and doesn't look like you can actually record what you broadcast. I looked into how to record on YouTube and it looks like that will work. I might need to do some practicing, and eventually I should get a better quality webcam. Who am I kidding so long as the cheap webcam works and as long as what I record isn't anything that would totally devastate me if it were lost I'm not going to get a new one.

This checking up on video making came about because I got word that a package I am expecting the sender wants the mailday opening to be video taped. The packaging has a surprise or a story or is in some special kind of order or some such nonsense like that. I was told the package was shipped out on Tuesday, so I should get it today or tomorrow (Saturday)

Notice: Blog Group Box Break Coming

Attention readers: I will soon be hosting a group box break here on my blog. It will be a Baseball break with products from 2007: Bowman, Topps Heritage, Topps Turkey Red, Upper Deck Artifacts and Upper Deck Masterpieces. I am ironing out the details and making my plans for it. Since it will be the first break I've ever hosted I want to have as much as possible planned out ahead of time. That is one of the reasons why I already have the boxes in hand (another is I live in an apartment and waiting for UPS to show up on a specific date sometimes is not an option).

My list of Group Break generic rules/guidelines.

Here is what we will be breaking:

2007 Bowman - 24 packs, 10 cards per pack. 2 Bowman Chrome cards per pack. 1 Autographed Rookie or Prospect card per box.

2007 Topps Heritage - 24 packs, 8 cards per pack (packs with relic card have 7 cards). Ancient stale gum in every pack (I'll be tossing the gum). Look for random "Real One Autographs" (Not guaranteed). Team Emblem felt patches box toppers.

2007 Topps Turkey Red - 24 packs, 8 cards per pack (packs with relic card have 7 cards). Look for 2 Autographed and/or Relic Cards. Box Loaders could include Cabinet Cards Autographed by artist Dick Perez.

2007 Upper Deck Artifacts - 10 packs, 4 cards per pack. Look for 3 numbered memorabilia cards per box.

2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces - 18 packs, 4 cards per pack. Average of 3 Memorabilia Cards and 1 signature for each box. (Means there could be less than 3 or there could be more)

I made a preview video on UStream sowing the boxes I will be breaking. I will be giving more details later (on Tuesday I think) so Please Do NOT sign-up just yet. Wait until I post the official post my "Box Break Number 1" post that will include a sign-up list.


NOTE: The images of the boxes I got from online to save time. Scanning the boxes would have caused brightness issues due to scanner lid being at weird angles and heights. Taking digital pics would have taken my more time. They are the proper boxes though.

Going to the Polls

I set up a couple of polls here concerning group box breaks. I'm seriously toying with the idea of hosting a Baseball one right here on my blog. I was thinking of hosting a Baseball group break on one of my regular card forums. I'm not sure if I want to do it there since there are some simple guidelines you need to follow and I don't want to mess them up. Plus with forum breaks you usually need to poll the members about what boxes to break before collecting payment, when to do the break, how to do it etc. You also usually need to have just about every single type of card supplies available and I don't have some of the larger toploaders for the thick GUs. I usually have some of the slightly larger than normal toploaders for regular GU but lately it seems GUs and Artifact cards have gotten really thick.

I have seen other bloggers host box breaks so I began toying with the idea here. The advantage to doing a break via your blog is the "Your Blog Your Rules!" rule. For my breaks I would be fair, but I would feel more comfortable having the product in hand before filling the break. The drawback to doing it this way is initially I would eat up the cost of the boxes, which is often why many breaks collect money around the time the boxes are being decided and they fit the boxes to the budget. I guess I want to fix the budget to the boxes.  Many forums as I said above you need to consult the members for every little detail to be the fairest. In my breaks I will try to include a variety of product and I would even include some products I don't personally like but are popular.

For many of these breaks I would buy a team myself, even if I did a Basketball break I would maybe take the Wizards/Bullets (the only basketball I really do). I figure if I do some breaks here and get used to hosting I would feel more comfortable doing a break for one of my forums.

The first break I am thinking of doing is Baseball. Now for baseball my teams are Nationals and Orioles, but for many of these breaks I will take just the Nationals, sometimes just the Orioles. For football I will take the Redskins most of the time, sometimes just the Rams with the  occasional change up of the Ravens. For Hockey my only team I'd take is the Capitals so they will rarely be available. Basketball I'm only Bullets/Wizards so if I did any of those breaks I'd take them sometimes or no team at all.

For most of the breaks I would do the one slot gets you 2 teams one you choose and one random. I would host the breaks on Ustream.com and save them there since I have an account there and am used to the way it works. I would post the big hits here in my blog and try to put up scans before sending them out. I will at least mention what hits were pulled.

Important Shipping Note: Due to shipping costs and mailing customs and speed of delivery etc etc I will only allow members who live in the US and Canada to participate at this time. After I get used to doing these things maybe I will open things up to the rest of the world. If I do decide to go "International" Foreign payements would be limited to Paypal International USD funds ONLY.

Also due to my current work schedule the only day I get a chance to get to the post office in time is Saturdays. So Saturdays would be shipping day which means the breaks will be held on Thursday or Friday Nights.

I will make a static page of my group break rules soon. It is in develpment.

That was easy, Don'tcha Know!

(Sarah Palin picture snagged from The Ryno's Horn)