Catching Up With A Topps Update

A bit ago I showed off a Holiday box of Topps cards from last year.  Before that I had actually bought a box of Topps Update cards and I never showed them off.  I thought I would today.  I also decided a couple bonus packs I bought the same day and got a nice surprise.  Let's take a look.

A nice way to start with some All Star cards.  I don't think I've ever seen Home Run Derby logos on cards before, that was a nice touch.  Not a bad collection of cards, but the Harper and David Freese would be the definite keepers in the bunch if I decided not to finish the set which I haven't decided against yet.  Maybe in ten years I can find the rest of the cards.

More nice pulls with Scherzer fitting into my Mizzou collection, and Hosmer in my Royals.  I can add Zobrist to my Once Royals collection as well.  The Steven Wright I showcased just because I see his name trend on twitter and always think of the comedian.

Nice that I got the Perez card, especially since I don't care about collecting the inserts as completing the set.  It will fit quite nice.  While I'm not the biggest fan of Ichiro, it was also nice to get one of his cards.  I'm glad they didn't produce a 3000 card set for Ichiro for each of his hits.  Though I wouldn't be surprised if they did.  I was happy as well to pull the Ortiz card since it was his final year and its a S/N card.

Some Rookie Card reprint/mockups are next.  They don't impress me much, but I did like the design of the 94 set.  After that is another set I don't care about but I'll keep the Harper in a binder for now.  Maybe I should start a Corey Seager collection since I have so many of his cards.

Rounding out this bunch is some First Pitch cards.  Since I'm not getting any 2017, I don't think I'm in a rush to get this years First Pitch cards either.  In fact I still need to finish the Update ones from last year and a few more from 2015 as well.  I don't care too much about chasing these cards but might if I like the person or if they are Royals.

I really like the Ty Cobb and Lou Brock cards, they are really nice.  Its very possible I will chase that set.  As for the rest of these cards, ehh.  I'll keep them in the binder for now, but only if I have enough card pages.  I've noticed I've run low so I need to conserve space.

With this box I was also promised a special card of some sort so here it is.

R-to-the-IZZO, eh, who am I kidding, I'm no Jay Z.  This was an acceptable pull but I don't care one way or another.  I haven't looked up the price on ebay, but maybe I will, I'm not married to the card.

Here's the back of the card, which I scanned for the Trading Card Database, but someone already scanned it.  Oh well, at least I'll have it ready if I do decide to sell it.

So that's it with the box, but like I said I bought two more packs and I'll show them off too.

A nice assortment of rookie cards, which is pretty nice to get.  I really should make an effort this year to get to know them more.  Also I was a bit sad to pull the Jose Fernandez card, but I'm not sure if I have any of him, so I was happy to get one.

I was pretty excited to pull a double dose of Salvador Perez.  Though the Franklin is now a double, but I'm fine with that.  I'll keep it because I think its a perfect card to get signed at some point.

So that pack wasn't too bad, but this next pack was much better.

So far this isn't a bad pack, I mean not anybody I really collect but not a bad bunch.  I mean if this was all I got sure I'd be disappointed, but I like Paul Goldschmidt so it would be a complete bust.

The top four cards aren't bad either, but still not what I was getting to.  First I was happy to pull the Aubrey Plaza card as its another First Pitch I won't have to chase down later.  I just wish they would actually show the people throwing the ball more instead of just standing there.

As you may notice beside the Plaza card though is the reason I got excited.  Before I pulled the card, I never heard of Adam Conley, but anytime you pull an autograph card, its pretty exciting.  Even more exciting since it was from a random retail pack from a gas station.  I don't think I've bought anymore packs from there since, but I think it would be hard to beat this pack if I buy anymore from there this year.

So that wraps it up for today.  Overall, I think I did pretty well, even though the box may seem a bit basic.  The autograph card in the pack makes up for it in a day I got up to date on Topps.  I added more First Pitch I didn't have and that is good too.  I seriously doubt I'll finish the update set, but it was fun to open packs and maybe if they go on sale I might buy some. Especially if I need a fix and there is only 2017 cards.

So thanks for reading, and I should have some more posts soon.  I can't say of what, but I got a package in the mail which should be fun to discuss, and with Wrestlemania this weekend, I may do a wrestling post as well.  We'll see how things go.  I know this is posted late, but again, thanks for reading and have a great weekend.

Card Blogger Goes Against The Grain (Story Continued On D-6)

One of the things that I can do for now since I decided I don't have to do a blog on a daily basis or close to it as I have the last couple years is I don't have to scrape for content unless I feel people think I have abandoned my blog.  I'm not posting today for that reason, but it allowed me to do something that doesn't force me to keep up with the Joneses.  When I saw the design of the 2017 Topps set, I wasn't impressed. In fact the 2016 set didn't appeal to me much at first either but I did eventually buy cards.  So far in 2017, I have not bought a current baseball product.  It's refreshing because I can wait until the set is all out and probably go to Just Commons and scoop up the Royals cards I want and a few other guys cheaper or about the same cost of spending on a full blaster box with maybe 10 cards I really want and 60 or so that I could do without.

Having said that, I still get urges to get some cards, and on a recent trip to Walmart, I wanted to get some cards.  Ideally I've been looking for a blaster of the 2017 Donruss NASCAR set, but my local Walmart hasn't stocked it yet, and I am doubting they ever do.  Maybe they will clearance them later this year and they will finally stock them.  So instead I had a choice- 2017 Topps baseball, whatever hockey or basketball they have, or last years baseball.  Nothing really interested me, and last years baseball boxes weren't marked down yet so I didn't want to risk get more doubles of Topps cards.  I held tight against my word of essentially boycotting the 2017 set (as well as the Opening Day and similar looking sets, I'll decide later if I want Archives or any other Topps sets), and got a box of 2016 Topps.

2016 Topps Holiday Pack that is.  Now full disclaimer, when I first started seeing these cards pop up on Listia, I thought these were cards inserted as bonus cards into the 2016 Topps base set for some Holiday bonus to get folks to buy more sets.  I wasn't aware they made a full set of these cards that look like they have snowflakes on them.  When I saw they had a box for sale I really didn't want them, but I wanted something, so I got them.

Let's take a look at some of what I got.

On one hand, I can say I have a Trevor Story rookie card.  However he's had 4,997 rookie cards in 2016, and that's just from Topps alone.  I'm glad I have one of them, but just because they release a card with him on it in his rookie year, it doesn't mean its a rookie.  Then again, most of that only really matters if I plan to sell the card at some point, and right now, I don't.

As for the other cards, I couldn't do a Holiday set without posting a Matt Holliday card even if I'm not a big fan of his.  Same goes for David Ortiz, but I am a fan of his, so it was nice to get.  The Kinsler card will go into my Mizzou collection, so that was a nice grab, as was the Shelby Miller which I have a small collection of.  I think or at least hope he will bounce back this year after a rough 2016.  Lastly is a Royals card, one of Lorenzo Cain.  The problem though I spotted immediately was while he is the focus of the card, he is in the background.  I know the Rangers catcher is blurred a bit and Cain is clear as day, but why choose that photo when he isn't even fully shown?  I mean the least Topps could do was spend an extra 10 bucks to a freelance photographer to get a better shot.  I think what makes it worse on this card is the snowflakes take a lot of the focus out of the rest of the photo and it is pretty obvious.  If there were no name or logo and you had to guess which player was featured on the card, I'd imagine over 60% would say the catcher, and they would be right in assuming that.  Oh well, I got a Royals card, that's all that matters.

BAM!  Another A-Rod to add to my collection.  I'm okay with card collector's hating A-Rod, that means I can get some of his cards for cheap.  Sure he's not the nicest guy, but he admitted his mistakes, and I'm over that.  I do think the Yankees kind of screwed him over last year, but he was declining so oh well.  I'm glad I can add this to my collection.  I'm also happy to add the Strasburg, Verlander, and McCutchen cards to my collection.  All three are guys that I collect if I get, but don't go out of my way to get.  The Jose Bautista card I was happy to get as well, but I can't say I'm his biggest fan.  I can say though that I believe he follows me on twitter, so there's that. 

One guy I would be super happy to have follow me on twitter is Eric Hosmer.  He's had a hot spring and it worries me a little.  Scott Boras is his agent and this is Eric's free agency year and they want a big contract.  I'm not saying he doesn't deserve it, but the Royals look to implode after the next year or two so all the money they have they need to use on as many players as possible to stay and if Hosmer gets the money he wants, guys like Moose, Cain, and others will likely have to go.  I understand its just business, but at the same time, what the point of having a 200 million dollar player when there is so little talent on the rest of the field to get them to win.  Depending on the day, I wish they let him sign elsewhere (or trade him) so they can free up that money for the other players, but I also know it doesn't guarantee those other players will stay either.  If I had to guess, I would say the Royals will either entertain trade talks for him at mid season, or will try unsuccessfully to get him to resign at the end of the year.  Best case scenario is both sides will realize how much the city wants him to stay and will work out a great deal benefiting both sides.  SUPER BEST CASE SCENARIO is Hosmer firing Scott Boras (who I think also represents Mike Moustakas) and works out a deal that benefits him, but doesn't throttle the Royals too bad.

Here is some more keepers for my collection, mostly guys that I don't collect but I would like to at least have one card of them.  I do collect Prince Fielder, so that wasn't a bad one to pull.  I also was glad to pull the Bartolo Colon since its amazing how good he is at his age.  The Smith and Rodon cards I kept because I like to keep some of the younger guys in case they really break out and I can easily start a collection.  This isn't the last of Rodon on this post.

Here is more cards I pulled, and I think its a stellar collection.  The top row aren't guys I really collect with exception of David Wright for some reason, but I still wanted to keep these cards.  The bottom row is guys I do collect, with exception to Matt Harvey.  I think if I had to pick a favorite National League team, I would way its the Mets, so pulling so many isn't really a bad thing.  Though the trio of Cardinals I pulled is better to me.  While I don't like Yadi, I needed a card of his for my binder (I have other Yadi cards but they don't merit inclusion into the binders).  As for Carlos Martinez, I have high hopes for him and try to collect whatever I can within reason (i.e. whatever I pull or find dirt cheap).  I also had high hopes for Oscar Taveras and Kolten Wong though, so hopefully CarMa pans out (though Oscar I think still would have been a superstar, and Kolten, well, I hope he is successful).

The reason I collect Jaime Garcia is interesting but not at the same time.  I'm only a fan of his and collect his card because a few years ago I bought a repack box and pull an autograph card of him.  It was when he was in the minors still, and since then I've been a fan.  I'm not sure if I've ever watched him pitch a game, but I love to hear when he does well, or as of late, when he's not injured.

So speaking of Carlos Rodon....

I pulled a random relic card that at some point Carlos Rodon touched.  Sure I was promised one in the box, and at least its a guy that has potential and not a guy I hate (yet... I mean he is on a rival team), but how excited can I be at a piece of cloth that has no importance other than a guy wore it at some point but most likely not in any meaningful instance?

Having said all that, here is the card along with others I pulled.

Don't get me wrong, its a nice relic card, and I'm glad its not a plain white card, but still, It has no significance other than he wore it at random.  Now what Topps should have done is bought the scraps from all the jersey's Chis Sale cut up last year and made a "What Might Have Been" relic set and inserted them into 2017 packs.  That would have been something.

As for these other cards, you might notice a slight difference from these and the other cards I've been showing.  These are some sort of parallel set that came one in every two packs or something.  Not that I didn't care, but I wasn't expecting much from these cards, but was happy to pull Once Royals Zack Greinke and Jake Odorizzi.  It was also nice to get a rookie in Taillon, and also Matt Duffy.  However I also got another Trevor Story (another rookie!) which is pretty nice.  I could have done a lot worse on these cards, but I think I did good.

Overall was the box worth it?  Well, it was new product for me so every card I pulled would be first time cards, and I don't hate the design, so that's a bonus.  I kept my word and didn't buy 2017, so that's good.  I can't say I have buyer's remorse over getting these, but I do wish I had gotten another Royal or two.  I have no real desire to build this set, but it was still fun to open.  If I had to do it all over again I probably would have bought these, but I don't see myself buying anymore unless they are discounted.  If I go back and have an urge to get some cards, I most likely will buy a random pack or two of 2016 (as long as they have them) or got to Dollar Tree to get some repacks.

So that wraps it up for today, I hope you enjoyed reading.  I have scanned some other cards I've gotten recently and in the next couple days I should be getting an order from Dave and Adam's that should get some good posts.  I haven't bought from them since I started this blog, but did order from them just before I started and if you look in my archive I did a post on Ninja Turtle cards I opened, and I got those from them.  Don't have high hopes for the posts, its not new product, and to be honest I didn't buy them to blog about, but I will once I open them.  If I remember I might even record it just so I can post a video to Youtube since I haven't in a long time.  Anyways, time to go, I hope everyone has a great night.

Ranting and Raving: NCAA and NASCAR

Last week the NCAA basketball tournament began.  I filled out a bracket like most but this year I haven't been into the game much.  Mostly I will admit because my Missouri Tigers were in the dumps.  It's been like that for a couple years and I figured that was the reason.  So this year I continued my yearly plea to fans everywhere- watch for the game!  It simply means enjoy the game for what it is, and don't root for teams just because you picked them in your bracket.  How awesome was it to see Louisville go down, and Villanova?  It killed my bracket, literally as they were my final two teams, but the games were amazing...

So most people said.  See I had a problem.  As the games began I watched some of the games, as its my favorite time of the year.  It transitions from winter sports and once NCAA concludes, its time for baseball.  It's perfect.... except this year it isn't.  I watched the early match ups and something didn't seem right.  It wasn't seeing familiar teams like Kentucky playing, or underdogs like Middle Tennessee, it was something else.  It wasn't the announcers or seeing Tracy Wolfsen on the sidelines (which is always a highlight), it was something else.  It wasn't the passion of the crowd or the fury of the coaches, it was something else.

By the fourth game I watched on the first night, and the first night game of the tournament it hit me.  It's the style of play.  Long ago I stopped watching the NBA because the style seemed to change.  The quality of it just seemed to diminish.  Sadly I think the same is starting to happen in college too.

I first noticed it while listening to Mizzou games in the last year or so but just figured it was their playing style and the reason they were losing so much.  However it seems to be the norm now.  I'm a big proponent of defense in basketball.  I'm one of the few guys who doesn't like dunks all the time.  Low scoring games don't bother me as long as they are shooting good shots and playing great defense.

This isn't happening.  It's becoming a 3 point contest.  Every play is either a three ball or a dunk.  I think centers that can hit threes are both interesting and disheartening.  They aren't supposed to shoot threes, they are supposed to be the big man under the basket to either get the ball and make baskets (mainly dunks) or allow the lane to open up so a shooter can drive to the basket.  Centers have become obsolete in this new era and its sad.  Another position that has really been diminished has been a sharpshooter.  I loved Dan Majerle and Kevin Johnson that could hit a three almost automatically, however they didn't take 60 shots a game from 3 point land.  They picked the right time to take the shots and left the defense guessing.  The only guessing anymore is which player will shoot a three on a play.

Shooting threes each possession isn't fun to watch.  The only thing worse though is teams that can't hit three's continuing to try.  Even worse still is team winning by 20 still hitting three's and with about half the shot clock left.  I'm not saying never take a three, I'm saying save it for either when you need to shoot one (losing badly, shot clock about to go off) or if you are super open and can easily take the shot without anyone nearby.  Also I'm okay if you doing it sparingly to keep the defense on your toes.  Also I'm obviously okay if you are on fire and everything is falling in, but that doesn't happen as often as many believe.

However shooting threes and dunks exclusively isn't the only thing missing with college basketball.  Defense is missing too.  I think part of it is the refs are calling a lot more cheap fouls like hand checks more frequently which not only extends the game, but is pointless because it cause players to worry more about fouls instead of playing quality defense.  I also blame the coaches for this too.  I know the game evolves, but this evolution is making college coaches look bad in my opinion.  I know their top concern is winning games, but they are also should be teaching these college players how to play quality basketball.  They don't seem to be developing quality players like they use to.

My biggest pet peeve though is the fact that players don't rebound.  If you see me tweet about basketball you will hear me complain most often at halftime about how a team would be doing better if they would rebound better.  That's still true but nobody listens to me.  As soon as a player hits a three most of the offense runs down the court to play defense and the other team gets the ball.  Unless they know its a terrible shot they usually expect it to go down and go to play D.  Besides the fact nobody plays defense anymore (as I said before) it is beyond stupid to just expect every shot will drop, especially from three point range.  If you want to hype yourself up into thinking you can't miss that's one thing, but your teammates can't think like that too.  Somebody need to try to rebound.  Its gotten to a point where stats are meaningless anymore because of lack of anyone trying.

All of this just suddenly hit me as I watched a Thursday game and I turned off the late game, it just kind of sucked after I realized what the games were lacking.  Friday it was more of the same and I watched maybe two games all day.  By the night game I opted to watch more reruns of Miami Vice.  Saturday I heard Villanova lost, and so did Louisville, and even Wichita State, but I didn't watch them, I just wasn't into it.  Maybe when the last four teams play I might give it a shot and watch it again, but I don't hold high hopes.  At this point I'm just waiting for baseball to begin.

On a different front, NASCAR made some rule changes lately to battle dropping ratings, and I was somewhat vocal about how I hated it.  After watching a few races, I admit, I don't mind them that much.  In fact I think it works pretty good.  I don't think it will fix ratings but I think it will make fans interested in the entire season.  Here is a secret to fix the dropping ratings though and this I've been very vocal about too- return to your roots.  Sure to some extent I mean return to your southern roots and feature more tracks down south, but I also mean feature the Monster series (the top level of NASCAR) to broadcast television.  Better yet, keep the races on a single network the entire season.  Either Fox or NBC, or maybe CBS or ABC but make it a weekly ritual.  "It's Sunday? Time to turn it to Fox for NASCAR"  When they leave fans guessing each week what channel they need to turn it to, it makes people not care as much.  Also I understand NBC and Fox are trying to build their cable sports channels, but keeping it on broadcast TV will give the sport the best ratings and also give the networks more revenue from the races. 

Also and I'm possibly alone in this, maybe put less emphasis on the west coast swing.  I don't get why there is a big deal on the races in Phoenix, California, and Vegas (which is getting a second race next year).  Broken down to the simplest terms, once the race begins all you see is the track and the cars, it doesn't matter where they are racing as long as they can get fans to come.  I hear that races are losing fans showing up and aside from the reasons already mentioned, maybe its because tracks are getting two races a year.  I once said they should shorten the season and I still believe that, but they should also limit it to one track one race a year.  If they sell out, then they know they can raise prices.  If they don't either try a new track or lower prices.  They try to gain fans in Canada and Mexico by forming series in those countries, why not have a race in each of those countries each year or rotate.  That might gain more fans too. 

Okay, that's enough ranting for now, thanks for letting me get things off my chest.  Thanks for reading and have a great night, or morning whenever you read this.

Savvy Shopping: Five For... Jumping?

At this point my music listening has been mainly whatever is on the radio and it seems like its the same mix of songs everyday.  Classic Rock stations play the same 45 songs, the Jack FM format plays about 30 or so (at least I only hear 30 because they have the most annoying commercials ever) and after that I just turn it to Miami Vice on Sling (I don't know what I'll do when the trial runs out).  So recently I made a trip to my local thrift shop, Savvy Seconds, and was on a mission to find some CD's.

I always look everytime I go but the last two trips I had more of a focus on it.  I was hoping to find something different or new.  I have a crap-ton of music on my hard drive  so some days I do listen to stuff on there, but its so mixed up I usually only listen to the same songs.  So I needed to find something new.

I found plenty to show off and listen to.

OH YEAH!  It's an evil Kool-Aid Man compilation CD!

Oh, wait.... It's a post 2000 Bon Jovi CD.  Not nearly as exciting, but it does have a couple good songs (well 3 if you count the remix version of one of the songs).  Who Says You Can't Go Home (2 versions) and Have A Nice Day are on this album so for 50 cents its worth it.  Anymore if I find 1 good song on an album its worth the 50 cents, I mean Itunes charges a buck, so it works out better.  Though I also blindly buy CD's and take the risk.  A 50 cent risk isn't too bad I think.

So what else did I get?

Say what you want, but I liked Lindsay Lohan's song Rumors.  It is included as a bonus track so it was worth 50 cents just for that song.  The rest I might like or I might hate, but it can't be much worse than anything on the radio today.

I was pretty happy finding these.  Code of Ethics was a Christian band from the 90's and while I remember hearing their name quite often, I couldn't remember any of their songs.  The reason I was happy though was earlier in the day I was going though my music folder on my hard drive and clicked on the folder Code of Ethics.  I was disappointed to see it was empty.  I've lost a lot of music in recent years due to hard drive crashes so I think they were a victim, I just don't know why I had a folder.  However now I have two albums to listen to.

Speaking of Christian albums, a family must have deep sixed their CD collection, because I found more.  I have an Erin O'Donnell CD but this was one I didn't have and possibly her debut album.  I got it because I liked her sound.  I've listened to some of this album and it isn't as polished as the one I have, but I'm not disappointed.

Charlie Peacock is another Christian artist I've heard of many times but can't remember any songs.  I've never owned any CD's so I figured I'd pull the trigger.  I haven't listened to it yet but hope to soon.

When I was heavy into Christian music, I LOVED Sampler CD's.  Usually 3 bucks or less or free with a CD purchase they had mostly artists you knew but songs that were either new or they pushed so you could buy the album.  This one I never saw before but there weren't a lot of Christian bookstores for me to choose from so I know I missed a lot.   This particular one as seen on the cover has some pretty good names.  Newsboys, TobyMac, Superchick, and Stacie Orrico were staples in my CD player around that time.  I listened to the others, but those were my go to.  I didn't listen to much of Out of Eden or Jump 5 because I didn't own any of their CD's.  Maybe one day I'll buy a bunch of Jump 5 CD's.

This other CD is called Pray For Rain, and is by Pray For Rain.  I never heard of them and I have zero expectations for it but the cover alone was interesting and that was enough for me.

Hmm, I guess I won't have to wait until one day to buy some Jump 5 CD's.  That day is today!  The best way I can describe the group is just imagine a Christian version of the Kidz Bop CD's.  But with singers that are really trying and are putting full effort into the recordings.  I mocked them when they came out because they were young kids and I wasn't really in their age demographic, however their songs were solid.  They did a ton of cover songs though and I think that's why they were successful for a while, but also why they never made it further in the industry.  The top two were studio albums, the bottom left one is a compilation of their hits, and the bottom right is a Christmas album.

Though it kinda sucks to only get 4 albums from a group named Jump 5.  Unless you count that other one they were on, but I have that covered too.

The VERY BEST OF JUMP 5!  Sure I could have just bought this and passed on the rest, but hey, I'm only about 4 albums away now from their entire catalog, so I have something to shoot for now.  The first track is an original song called Spinnin' Around and it might have been their first song released.  It's actually pretty good for the genre, and I think its worth a listen.  I'm not in the mood to post a Youtube link, but when you have free time its worth wasting some time on.

I bought some other CD's too that aren't by Jump 5.  One was a total crapshoot.

I never heard of Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr. before but the cover as simple as it is caught my eye.  I looked at the track listing and I was even more intrigued.  Those look like Frank Sinatra songs.  This could be either a really good find or a really good drink coaster.  50 cents I have to take that risk, after all as the album title says, That's Life!

Well if you need a drink coaster I have a suggestion.... Don't use this CD!  This was an outstanding album.  This CD probably has enough solid songs on it that it was worth paying 5 bucks for.  I got it mainly as a risk and at best hoped my mom might like it, and she did.  I ripped the CD and I might just listen to it as well.  I'm going to have to look into this guy some more.

So one more CD, and at this point all these CD's were 50 cent's a piece.  Including this last one I spent a total of $7.50 on new and old music.  I think I got my money's worth but its a bit of a stretch to be honest.  So this last CD has to deliver to make this a great deal.

I was skeptical at first of this album because of the plainness of this cover.  It looks like someone might have ripped a CD and try to pass it off as a real one.  Luckily when I ripped it when I got home the ripper knew it immediately and I have no doubt it was a real CD.

Moving on from that, look at this track listing!  Full disclosure I got it only for Yazoo's Situation because I've wanted that song for a long time and now I have it.  Beyond that though, George Michael? Michael Jackson? Prince? New Order?  This was worth like 5 bucks alone.  This is the score of the year so far!

Overall I think I did a great job but now it might be a while before they get more CDs in, but hopefully people will donate more when folks start Spring Cleaning. Not that I need more music, but for no other reason it gives me a chance to possibly find random albums I either always wanted or never heard of before, and that's just as fun as buying them.

Before I go I got a package in the mail a couple weeks ago.  I wasn't expecting anything so I was excited.  When I opened the package I was a bit perplexed.

It's a beer bottle coozie.... Where did this come from.  It took me a few minutes but I realized that last fall I entered a bunch of random contests from different companies and I guess I entered one from Sam Adams.  I don't drink but I thought this was cool.  I don't know what I was trying to win, but the next time I buy a bottle of root beer I'll try this out and see how it works.

Anyways, that will wrap it up for today.  My plan for this year wasn't to basically kill my blog but I've always believed write when you're in the mood not to meet a quota, and I just haven't been in the mood lately.  Last year I set a lofty goal of writing more but by the end of the year it became a chore and I hated that.  Once I get back in the mood I'll start writing more, but for now thanks to all of you who have stuck around and continue to read.  Thanks for reading and have a great night!

Ebay For So Long

You ever get in a lull?  I mean just don't feel like doing anything but finding Miami Vice on the El Rey Network and looking up random things on Ebay?

Just me?

Okay.... Well, I very happy for you then.  As for me in all honesty that's what I've been doing for the most part lately.  I've done other stuff and have a few things to blog about but just didn't feel like it.  I was going to rant the other day about Kim Anderson and the Missouri Tigers, but I wrote about 300 words or so and then just stopped.  It made me question if I was going to ever do another blog post.  In fact as I write this, I have the mentality of "I don't want to write a blog today".  But I know if I don't post something soon I will totally give up and I don't want to do that.  So today I'll combine something that I've been doing lately into a post so it might ease me back into it.  I like the Ebay postings so it is fun to do, but there was no real theme to it.  As usual- I'm not endorsing these sellers or soliciting to purchase these items, I am merely showing these for pure entertainment purposes.  Let's dig in.

I have that shirt!  See I have proof!  No way I spent 80 bucks on it and I don't recommend anyone else doing the same, but it is one of my favorite shirts.  I got mine from an outlet store a couple towns away.  In fact my mom and sister bought it for me and I think they paid 8 bucks.  I even remember at the time saying that they shouldn't have spent that much on it (because I'm cheap mostly).  Looking back though, I'm glad they did.  Here is the link if you are interested though.

I was reminded of this item last year when my mom and I had to quickly decide what to keep and what to not keep while cleaning out our house.  This was one of the casualties mainly because we didn't have a need for a VHS rewinder and also because the cord wasn't with it.  However I remember my dad loved this thing back in the day.  I don't remember where we got it but we used it often.  You would push the license plate in to open it up and then close it and it would rewind the tapes.  Though to be honest I'm not sure why it was really needed, but it was pretty cool to look at.  Just over 40 bucks is a bit steep I think for it, but I do remember it fondly.  If you are in the market for one of these, click here.

A Tony Schiavone autographed wrestling card? That'll put butts in the seats.  I've stated on many occasions I grew up a WCW fan and I will never waver from that.  Just don't get me started on Goldberg, I never cared for him.  However one guy I did like was Tony Schiavone.  He was the announcer pretty much from 1983 until WCW closed shop in 2001.  He started with Crockett Promotions  then after Turner bought them out and they became WCW he took a year and went to WWF.  He then came back and was there until their last day in 2001.  He now is an announcer for the Atlanta Braves AAA team the Gwinnett Braves.  I try to listen to a few games a year thanks to the Tune In app (which I can now listen to on my Roku).  Anyways Tony doesn't really talk about his wrestling stuff but it was largely because nobody asked.  Recently however he started doing a podcast called What Happened When, and each Monday a new one is posted.  Topics discussed so far have been Goldberg, DDP, the first Monday Nitro, the first Clash of the Champions, and a few others.  Each week a poll is posted on their twitter account and a topic is voted for.  He also works with the Georgia Bulldogs and I might have to try to meet him if he travels with them to Columbia the next time the football teams meet.  However, I wouldn't pay 15 bucks for his autograph unless I met him in person and saw him sign it.  If you would though, here is the link.

When my dad was alive he always talked about this movie.  He asked me and my sisters to try and find it for him.  I remember looking numerous times on Ebay for it but I never could.  At the time I had never seen it, so I didn't know what the fuss was about, but he loved it so I kept looking.  About 2-3 years ago I was on a torrent site and someone had a copy on there.  I try not to download stuff much anymore since I got caught about a year or two before that downloading a couple movies, but I risked it for this movie.  I finally got to see it and I really liked it.  At any rate, I was on another site recently (Oldies.com) and that site is the best site to find movies and I use that site often.  Anyways I saw that they released Scavenger Hunt on DVD and Blu Ray in January and I just now found out.  In reality, I think 18.22 for this is a fair price, but I don't have a Blu-Ray player so I'll probably get the DVD on Oldies.com and add a couple other movies while I'm at it.  The movie is a comedy basically about a Scavenger Hunt.  An old man died and these groups of people go on a wild goose chase to find the most items before the time limit and the winners get the money left in the will.  The names in this movie is incredible my favorites in it were Cleavon Little, Richard Mulligan, and Roddy McDowell.  There are too many others to mention though, but to see the listing click here.  To find it on Oldies.com (which it is priced higher) click here.

I'm not lying when I said I've been watching Miami Vice a lot lately.  It is on the El Rey Network and I've been trying to watch them before they change them out, but I'm falling behind.  El Rey also has Knight Rider too.  I think both are on Hulu, so I might watch them on there when I get it back but at any rate, here is a model kit of the Daytona Spider from the TV show, still sealed.  I'm not sure what the shipping is, but if I made models, I think the price is pretty fair.  I don't think I'm going to bid on it though, I enjoy watching the show more.  In just the first season they've had some interesting guest stars.  Burt Young, Charles Dutton, Penn Jillette, Dennis Farina, Bruce Willis, Pam Grier, and a ton more.  Jimmy Smits was Crockett's original partner even.  What's better than that is the music.  Not just the music licensed to the show like Phil Collins, Glenn Frey, U2, and pretty much any 80s song you could think of, but Jan Hammer was a magician scoring those episodes.  Here is the link for the model.

At slow speed-a, we all seem-a, focused!  Despite him over enunciating ever word-a in-a the-a song-a, I still loved Alien Ant Farm.  On a farce I looked up posters of theirs and came across this beauty.  I say beauty because in 2001 I went to this show.  Well, not in Vancouver, but in Columbia, Missouri.  In fact it was October 15th of 2001.  I remember it for a couple reasons, but the date I remember because I did an internet search for it.  The concert itself I don't remember a whole lot of to be honest.  I remember being about halfway in the middle of the crowd when the show started and Dredg started playing.  I didn't think they were bad, but I didn't think they really fit in with the other bands.  They weren't too well received by the crowd.  Pressure 4-5 pumped up the crowd though.  I inched a little closer to the front by the time they played.  I don't think I ever made it to the front of the crowd by the time the show ended, but I still really enjoyed the show.  The funny thing to me is that I went because I only heard of Alien Ant Farm but to this day I've never owned one of their CD's.  That's odd because I did/do own CD's from Dredg and Pressure 4-5.  If you never heard of either you should Youtube them.  My favorite Pressure 4-5 song is "Beat The World" with "Melt Me Down" a close second.  I'm shocked that Dredg toured with them that many shows, I figured they only did about 5 or so shows with them.  As for the poster, I don't need it, but if you are interested, here is the link.

I have a friend who's never seen Clerks.  That may not surprise a lot of people, but he is the closest thing to a movie buff I've ever seen.  If you mess up a movie quote, he corrects you.  Not in a jerk kind of way, but more of and educational thing.  His reason for not watching Clerks was because it was in black and white.  It baffled me.  However he isn't real big into the View Askewniverse as I am so I partially understand.  Kevin Smith has directed 12 films, but not all are part of the Askewniverse.  The ones that are as follows:

Clerks
Mallrats
Chasing Amy
Dogma
Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back
Clerks 2

Also included is the animated Clerks series as well as some other random stuff.  I've seen all the movies and the animated series but not the shorts or other stuff.  I did just read about another Jay & Silent Bob movie being done in place of Clerks 3 which has been scrapped.  I'm up for it.  Though I would like to see another Mallrats movie done.  I think its underrated to be honest among all the movies.

As for Clerks 2, I really liked the movie except the ending.  However I wanted to buy it on DVD since I had the rest (and at once had the cartoon series too, but I sold it), so I went to Best Buy and got this special edition when it first came out.  I still have it in fact, and I think that's a fair price unless shipping is high.  However if you have the movie there are some of the boxes with the rest of the stuff for cheaper.  Here is a link.

I was a Kim Anderson fan since day one, and it really sucked they parted ways with him.  However I understand, but I still wish it didn't have to happen.  However, as much as I like him, no way I'd drop 40 bucks for his autograph.  I'm sure I could find his address and send something to get signed for cheaper.  Though I do like the photo, and if he was getting the 40 bucks, maybe I'd consider it for a couple minutes.  Here is the link.

They made a videogame for this?  How was I not aware of this until now?  I might have mentioned before how I only saw this cartoon a time or two but I loved the Hurricanes.  It was a cartoon about soccer players  that were like teenagers.  It was around the time of the 1994 World Cup and was used to get kids into the sport, and in a little way it worked for me, though I did rewatch a couple shows on Youtube not long ago and laughed at how bad they were.  I've spent almost 2/3rds of my life not knowing about this game, so I can do without it.  However if you want to see it, here is the link.

Ok, last item.  This one is going to help you remember that the power.... IS YOURS!

FUNKY BUTTLOVIN!  That's like the ultimate Captain Planet collection.  I see the planeteers and even Sludge  and a bunch of play sets too.  Notice the planeteers even come with rings.  Now if I had money to blow, sure I would buy this, but I'm cheap and I'm not wasting it on this.  I won't loot or pollute to get them either.  I was reminded of the show after watching an episode of Comic Book Men and a woman came in looking for the comics.  They sold her either most or all of the set (only 12 issues were released) for 10 bucks.  Not bad I think, though after they left they wondered if the comics were made with recycled paper.  Good question.  Now not to get too political on here, but now would be a perfect time to reboot Captain Planet.  They could make a comeback and teach Donald Trump the effects of Global Warming... It would be huge!

Oh, I forgot the link, here it is.

So that wraps it up for today, time for me to find something to watch, I might take a break from Miami Vice, but I think NASCAR might be on, so we'll see.  Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.