Big Bag O'Cards- Saturday Randomness

Earlier today I realized I unplugged my scanner earlier this week because I kept hearing a noise and tried to figure out what it was.  I've tried for over a year honestly, but it finally bugged me so much I looked for the source.  At first I read it could be the heat on the roof causing the noise which seemed legit because I don't notice it as much in the winter months, but one night I couldn't sleep because of it and it wasn't real hot and it also was rainy that day.  So my second guess was maybe bugs or something (maybe bees) were inside the wall.  It seemed plausible but I still didn't think that was it.  I always had an inkling it was the plug in itself, but I never did anything about it because my desktop and all the components as well as the scanner and something else was plugged in.  I finally had enough and realized I hadn't used the desktop in a few weeks and all that I used recently was the scanner, so I decided enough was enough and I unplugged everything from the outlet.  About 30 minutes later the noise subsided and since then I haven't heard it (I thought I did last night, but that could have been a tree limb about to fall that is close to the window).  So now I'm a bit cautious to use the outlet because I'm not sure if something will happen, but I might try it again in a couple weeks when I use my desktop again.  In the meantime, I'll find another outlet for the scanner, but I can do that tomorrow.  I might be over cautious but a few years ago I had an outlet at our old house catch fire at about 4 AM right as I was about to go to sleep.  I was the only one in the house and if it started 15 minutes later I would have likely slept through it and that scares the hell out of me because the outlet was 20 feet from me at most.  Luckily, I had the lights all out and noticed it was bright near the outlet and was able to unplug everything before it really did anything.  There were flames though, so I'm just glad I noticed it when I did.

At any rate, today is the last batch of scans I did before I unplugged the scanner, so it is mostly baseball cards, but a few others thrown in as well.  Once I finish this I might go ahead and scan more so I'll be ready for the week ahead.  For now, let's dig in and see what else came in the big bag.

I'll start with randomness. A couple football cards to begin with one of which is Bryan Cox.  I don't remember a lot about him but for some reason I liked him.  I remember him on the Bears though, but did remember he played for the Dolphins.  Next is a guy I never heard of, but its a Summit Edition Score card which I didn't really know what that meant as a kid because I had hardly any of them.  It was nice to pull a Michael Jordan card, even though I'm not his biggest fan.  Though I will admit I never collected a ton of basketball cards, I've never had a lot of Jordan cards.  In fact if I looked them up, I could only remember less then 25 ever, so seeing this one, while not real valuable is still pretty cool.

Next I'll go into the promo/sell/junk/whatever cards.  I guess I'm too late to enter the Worlds Most Valuable Card contest, but it is fun to see things like that.  Equally as fun is seeing the old Topps binder that you could buy.  In one way I wish I would have gotten something like that as a kid, but I never mailed in much of anything (except Kool Aid points, we were big on those), so I'm not sure if I missed out or not.  Today I do points things for Coke and the Missouri Lottery and Kellogg's but its a lot easier.  Just type in codes and earn points to get stuff.  No mailing in necessary, and that works better for me.  I also do the Savings Catcher through Walmart and about to get something from them, but not sure yet.  I was planning on saving up for a Roku, but not sure I really want it now.

Next is a couple checklists.  I've never been big on them, but back in the day, they were pretty vital since you didn't have online checklists.  Now they do seem obsolete, but in a way I'm glad they still make them (or do they, I don't remember the last one I got on a new set in a while).  However these cards do bug me a bit.  Why waste cardboard to put your logo on one side when you could just have a double sided checklist and save a couple cards per set.  If it was because it made the sheets uneven, the add an extra player into the set, or maybe the commissioner like some sets did.  It just seemed pointless to me.  Another thing that bugged me but at the same time I liked was listing the checklists by team.  Sure it helped if you was building team sets, but what about building an entire set?  What if you missed a checklist or two, how was you to know who you was missing?  This is where I give 1991 Fleer some credit (among other sets).  They listed all the team together so not only was it easier to know what cards your team was, but it also made the checklist in order.  I wouldn't mind a current set putting the teams together again like that.  I know for bigger brands like Topps who come out with two series (and an update) that might make it a little harder, but a 400 card set would be fine if they released them all at once.

Lastly is a Super Bowl ticket card from Pro Set (I forget if it was 90 or 91).  I had a few of these as a kid, but this might be only the second one I have now after restarting again.  I think a nice insert set for football cards would be a card with a ticket and a program from each Super Bowl on it.  It could be double sided or make it a 100 card set.  It would be something different (not entirely, but different in terms of the same inserts every year with the same guy 30 times).  This set only reached to about 23 or so, so an updated version of this would be nice.  As for this set, the only one's I'm looking for are the ones the Chiefs were in, Super Bowl I and IV.  I did have IV before I sold off my collection.  If they did make a new version of this, I would go after the Super Bowl Tampa was in and maybe a couple others.  Maybe a cool feature for a new version would have each card having a QR code which would allow you to scan it and pull up a recap of that season and the game itself.  Any chance to show off some history would be fun.  I would like other sports to do this too, NBA, NHL, MLB, even MLB and wrestling.  WWE could show a program from Wrestlemania and a ticket and with a QR code have a detailed recap of the show.  NASCAR could do one showing programs from Daytona 500 or I guess any race, even the final race of the year.  I think Daytona would work the best.  Maybe instead show a program/ticket of the best race of each year.

Nothing here to get me too excited.  I guess its cool to pull a Diamond King, even if it is Tommy Herr.  Somehow they made him look more real than Jack Clark does, so kudos to that (I think).  For whatever reason, as a kid I always liked Chris Bosio.  I never saw him pitch so I assume I had a lot of his cards and figured he was good so I liked him.  The same could almost be said for Ruben Sierra, but I didn't have as many cards of him, but knew he was an all star, so I liked him ok.

I really have nothing else to say about this batch.  1990 Donruss was okay, I liked it better than others, but none of these players made me too excited when I pulled them from the bag.

Another set that never raised my excitement level was 87 Topps.  I don't know from looking at this scan if some were Tiffanys or a newer batch or what but some look different.  As for the players themselves, the selection is a little better than Donruss at least.  I like the Jimmy Key and especially the Jack Morris, but could do without the rest.  Though the Dennis Lamp is tempting to keep.  I remember having a few of him growing up.  I have never heard of Ray Soff before.  Which is odd in itself, but more odd since he was a Cardinal.  I know I was collecting in 1987, but I loved reading baseball history and even after I got internet I would read up on rosters and history, and I don't remember ever seeing his name.  I guess I'll have something to look up when I'm bored next time instead of watching 90's boy band videos (yeah, I kind of did that last week, I wanted to see LFO's Summer Girls video and it resulted in watching a few hours of more cheesy videos and finally a few episodes of the S Club 7 TV show.  I don't regret it but could have used the time more wisely).

The final scan of the night is more 87 Topps.  I will say I was a bit surprised there wasn't more 80s stuff in this bag, but I'm not complaining one bit.  The card of the day has to be the R.J. Reynolds card.  His smile, the team hat, just everything about it makes it great.  I might even have to keep that one.  The Mark Bailey card I can add to my people from Missouri collection as he was born in Springfield and also went to college at Missouri State (then called SMSU- Southwest Missouri State University).  He is a current coach for one of the Astros Minor League teams as he has been for years.  One day I need to start working on that people from Missouri collection.  Maybe I'll work on it soon... or I could watch more 90's music videos.  Maybe I could compromise and do both.  I could sort Ryan Howard cards while I sing Spice Girls.  Now you know why its probably not a good idea I don't post Youtube videos about collecting because I could totally see myself doing that.

Anyways, another day, another Dwight Gooden card.  Not much to really say about the card other than he had some skinny legs.  Overall I'm sure he was skinny overall, but they look really small there.  At this point it seems I've run out of things to say about these cards, so it might be best if I wrap it up.  I'm hoping to see if Ichiro hits 3000 (unless I already missed it), maybe catch the Royals on the radio or find something else to do (no 90's music as I spent a good part of the day listening to a random mix of Rammstein, Joe Diffie, Whitney Houston, and anything in-between, though I can't thing of anything that wouldn't be in-between that aside from Caribbean pan flutes and I haven't seen my CD of that in years, seriously).

Thanks for reading and if I get stuff scanned tonight, I'll have blogs this week, if not, than maybe by Tuesday I'll have a new blog up.  If nothing else, just thoughts on the MLB trade deadline.  I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend, and hope the new week is a good one too.