Quick Hobby Shop Stop - Part 2

And now, the thrilling conclusion to yesterday's after-work stop at my local hobby shop, Central Sports Cards in Pawtucket, RI...

First up, some more quarter box loot.  Nolan Ryan, Will Clark and Cal Ripken were the three players I collected most as a kid, so I'm still drawn to their cardboard to this day.  I simply couldn't resist the temptation to add this great cartoon from 1993 Upper Deck Fun Pack to my budding Ryan collection.

Frank Thomas was the only other Fun Pack cartoon to be found, so I grabbed him as well.

I have really fond memories of these Home Run All-Stars holograms from '94 Collector's Choice from when I was a kid.  I really should put this insert set together since they're so cheap nowadays.

For now though I acquired Albert Belle and David Justice for a grand total of 50 cents.  As a child of the late '80s/early '90s I think it's an unwritten rule that I have to like holograms.

I was pumped to pick up just my second Buck Leonard card for a quarter.  This is a promo (the promo card is almost as '90s as the hologram, isn't it?) from Front Row's 1992 All-Time Great Series.  It's a good hobby shop haul when I add a new Homestead Grays card to my collection.  There were one or two other copies of this one in the box, and I'm kicking myself for not picking them up for trade partners.  Next time.

I'm powerless in the presence of a good minor league card, and this trip resulted in a pair of them.  From the 1989 CMC AAA All-Stars release, catcher Sandy Alomar...

...and from 1991 Classic Best, slugger Jim Thome!

I picked out this Topps HD Boggs card because it's super thick and heavy, and because I enjoy cards from Wade's brief tenure in Tampa Bay.  It's not my favorite Boggs Devil Rays card, but for a quarter I'll take it.

I have no plans to hold onto this one long term, it's a little too beat up for even my tastes.  I was intrigued by the writing on it though.  Besides, I've seen this one in the quarter boxes at the shop for what feels like years now and maybe someone I trade with would like to give it a good home?  Leave a comment if so!

I grabbed a few more vintage beaters that aren't in quite as bad a shape as that Ed McGhee, including a pair of LA Angels from '63 Topps...

...nice shades Eli!

One more '65 to go with the pair I showed in yesterday's post.  Again, if it's a mid-'60s or older Topps card that I don't have a copy of at all then I don't mind paying 25 cents for a placeholder.

In one of the quarter boxes I found a nice little chunk of really mint 1981 Topps cards.

I know these are pretty much "worthless" in the eyes of some.  The thing is, 1981 is probably the Topps flagship set that I had the least number of cards from prior to grabbing these.

I ended up plucking seven of them to take home with me.

My favorite is this Ozzie Smith Record Breaker, I can never get enough cards of him from his time in San Diego.

All seven of the cards I chose feature HOFers.

Best photo of the bunch easily belongs to this Eddie Murray, what an awesome card.

For less than $2 total it feels great to finally get some better '81 Topps representation in my collection.  The more I see of this set, the more I appreciate it.

Last quarter card, I'm a total sucker for stars in uniforms that seem strange.  This is also the final Topps card issued of the greatest Red Sox pitcher I've seen in my lifetime.

Three more dollar box cards to show here quick, starting with a pair of blue parallels from 2010 Topps Pro Debut.  Hector Noesi came up with the Yankees (the Trenton Thunder are their AA affiliate), and is now playing over in Korea I think.

Tom Stuifbergen is a Dutch pitcher who I know nothing about at all.  I picked this one up just because I love the Beloit Snappers logo.  I had a Snappers fitted hat that was my go-to for a couple of years there in high school.  Both of these blue parallels are serial numbered to /369.  I'll probably get rid of the Noesi at some point, but hang onto the Snappers card.

The final dollar box card is perhaps my favorite of the bunch.  Jordan's '95 Upper Deck baseball card is about as iconic as a card from 1995 could be, and I jumped at the chance to add its Electric Diamond parallel to my collection.  Just an awesome piece of cardboard.

While I was checking out I was feeling the urge to rip a couple of packs, so I did something I rarely do and caved on some wax.  I didn't go crazy though, just three packs of 2016 Topps Series 2 for $10 total (no Update in stock yet).

I hadn't opened a single pack of 2016 Topps in any form, and though I don't care for the design I figured it would be interesting to at least hold a few in hand to see if I felt any differently about that.  Besides, maybe I'd get lucky and land a buyback for my franken-set?

Well, in short I didn't care for the cards any more with them in my hands than I did from seeing scans on other blogs.  If anything these three packs were a reminder of why busting wax just isn't my style.  The most interesting card to fall out of the first pack was this David Ortiz/David Price golf cart combo.

The second pack wasn't really any better, though I did land a Red Sox insert in this Berger's Best Yastrzemski card.

The third pack yielded what was probably my favorite card from the trio of packs.  I love the concept of this Wrigley Field Celebrates 100 Years insert set, and I actually learned an interesting fact from this one too:

I had no idea before receiving this card that Gehrig hit a home run in Wrigley as a teenager in high school, pretty cool!

I might have struck out on buybacks in my 2016 packs, but the good news is I found one lone straggler in the dollar boxes anyway.  Best of all, Denis Menke is the first #184 buyback I've landed so far so he's already tucked inside the binder!

Franken-set Progress:  146/792 (18%)

That was a fun hobby shop haul if I do say so myself.  If you ever find yourself in the little state of Rhode Island be sure to check out Central Sports Cards!

Quick Hobby Shop Stop - Part 1

Had a few minutes free after work today, and managed to stop by my local shop for the second time this month, after going probably 6 months or more without a visit prior to that.  Spent $19 on quarter and dollar cards, many of which are ear-marked for trade packages.  Here are a few I'll be hanging onto for now though...

This mini card from the non-sport 2013 Topps 75th Anniversary set was unique enough for me to pluck it from a dollar box.  It's a reprint of a 1954 Scoops card, and is quite a bit smaller than an average modern-day trading card.  I don't have any original Scoops cards, so this is the closest I've got for now.

There was a giant stack of 2015-16 Upper Deck Ice base cards in a box on the counter, looked like maybe someone busted a hobby box or two and left all the regular cards though I'm not sure about that.

Since I'm a total sucker for anything acetate I grabbed a few including two of my favorite current players in Vladimir Tarasenko and the great Jaromir Jagr.

I also threw a quartet of retired stars into my stack.  I was both surprised and pleased to see Marcel Dionne included in this release, as I feel like he doesn't seem to get a lot of hobby love for a guy who is 6th on the career points list.  Would have been perfect had they featured him in one of those retro yellow Kings sweaters, but I'll take what I can get.

I already miss having Teemu Selanne in the league.  He's an absolute lock for HOF induction when his time comes.

I've been a Jari Kurri fan since the days when his Topps rookie card was among my most prized hockey cards as a kid.

Lastly, Paul Coffey from his time with the Pens.  At a quarter a piece, I probably should have snagged some more cards from this set.  Maybe next time.

Speaking of quarter cards, I ended up with a few off-condition vintage cards from the 25 cent boxes.  I have a hard time avoiding cards from the mid-'60s or earlier at a quarter or less because they make good placeholders until I someday upgrade.

I picked this one up because it was one of the better condition vintage cards in the quarter boxes, and also because Milt Pappas has been appearing frequently on this blog of late.

It should be fairly easy to tell what attracted me to this one...that glorious All-Star Rookie trophy.

Though I'm certain I could have found this next trio for less than a quarter each, I really don't stress over trying to save a few pennies.  This is supposed to be fun, after all.

Besides, I love a good oddball, and I have fond memories of the K-Mart boxed sets from the '80s.

It's getting a bit late here, so I'll wrap it up for tonight with two more cards plucked from a dollar box:

Dunkin Donuts used to (not sure if they still do) print up perforated, uncut sheets of cards for the Red Sox AAA team, the Pawtucket Red Sox.  This card of pitching coach Rich Sauveur was autographed, most likely at a PawSox game given that this card shop is located right in Pawtucket.  Rich pitched for half a dozen MLB teams over a career that lasted from 1986 through 2000 before he got into coaching.  A nice, obscure addition to my Red Sox collection for a buck.

Last card for tonight is probably my favorite in this entire post.  I love the giant Angels logo in the background on this one, and I'm an absolute sucker for the colored Topps parallels (bring back the borders in the flagship set PLEASE!).  These green parallels were retail-exclusive in the 2014 set.  Not that I have very many, but I think this may be my new favorite Pujols card.

This might not be the most mind-blowing batch of 15 cards you've ever seen, but I think I did okay for $6 total.  I've got plenty more great cards from this stop-off and I plan to show the rest over the weekend, along with a great surprise package I received this week from my buddy Gavin at Baseball Card Breakdown.  Until then!

The Death of Zistle? (or the Perils of Contributing to a Website You Don't Own)

For me, there is a single website that has, more so than any other, defined the way that I collect cards over the last number of years; Zistle.

It all started for me back in 2009 when I posted here on this very blog about a rinky-dink Access database I was working on to track my collection digitally.  I wasn't that happy with the results, and didn't want to maintain and upkeep it, but I knew that tracking and organization was critical to my enjoyment of the hobby.  After all, if a card sits in the dark in a box and you don't even know that you have it, what good is it really doing you?

A couple of days later I received an email from a kind woman named Ashley asking me to check out a site she and her husband had developed for exactly this purpose called Zistle.  I was hooked.  Ashley and her husband Josh were motivated and responsive, and the site was everything I had visualized but didn't have the time or skill to bring to life myself.

Thanks to this wonderful (and free!) online utility I completely digitally organized my card collection to the point where I could tell you with a couple of keystrokes exactly how many cards I had of a certain player, team or set.  I could look at the collections of my hobby friends in the same way, making for super efficient trade packages.  I "met" (virtually) and traded with dozens of other collectors who found a home in the same place.

As one of the early adapters, I told everyone who would listen how great the site was.  I communicated with Ashley and Josh constantly, they were receptive and added features that collectors were looking for.  At one point they even did a blog post about my collection on the Zistle blog (now offline).  Hell, to this day it's my Zistle collection you see a screenshot of on the homepage for the site (can't miss that Whalers logo):

Well, earlier this year I got a bit of crushing news when I learned that Beckett was suing Zistle for copyright infringement.  I don't personally see how you can "own" the intellectual property that is a checklist for a set, but that's not the point of today's rant.  I knew that Beckett was a big bully just trying to push a competitor out of the marketplace; basically "COMC lawsuit round 2".

The thing is, COMC is a huge company who I'm sure has its own legal team and the resources to fight a giant like Beckett.  They did, and they won.  I think if Zistle had pursued the same course they would have ultimately won too, but we're talking about a husband and wife team here, presumably with limited funding, both of whom I believe have other careers as well.  I got a knot in my stomach right away.

Once the lawsuit was filed, there was basically no news or updates provided at all from that point forward.  A couple of months later I started to notice oddities with the site.  Zistle had always been about the collectors building the library through their own contributions, but I began to notice that less and less adds/changes were being approved.  I began having issues using the site with certain browsers.  Nothing huge, but little annoyances that years ago would have been tidied up by Josh or Ashley promptly.  I started exporting my collection from the site on a monthly basis as a CYA maneuver, but I wasn't ready to give up just yet.

Then, finally, in the last few weeks, came the news that I fear is the final crushing blow.  Some keen observer noticed that on Josh's LinkedIn page it was noted that Zistle was sold to Beckett.  It was a punch to the gut to say the least.  A few days later, the site's SSL certificate expired, making it totally unreachable for most without some browser settings changes.  It has since been renewed and the site is online again, but the same issues that existed before have gone unaddressed.  For example, I can no longer add any new cards to the library using Firefox.

If Beckett was smart (which they are not), they would take this buy-out as an opportunity to use the Zistle framework/platform to overhaul their own online collecting site.  After all, theirs is so awful that it's one of the main reasons people flocked to Zistle in droves to begin with.  Hell, if they just rolled the Zistle site over and re-branded it as Beckett I would happily pay $10 a month or so just to keep using it.  I have no confidence that this will happen though.

At this point I think the lawsuit accomplished its goal; to bully two young, motivated individuals with a huge following right out of the hobby.  Hell, Ashley and Josh never even said a word about what was happening, and stopped answering my emails as well.  I'm sure they have no choice, and were forced to sign some sort of non-disclosure agreement not to speak about anything as part of the buyout, but man does it hurt after all these years of contributing my valuable time.

If I had to make a prediction, it's that Beckett renewed the SSL cert for one more year just to cover themselves legally for anyone who had paid for a 1-year Zistle "Gold" membership.  I don't think they will touch the site ever again after that, and I expect that a year from now, or whenever the last Gold membership expires, it will ultimately be shut down.

So, now I find myself at a crisis with my collection (this is the definition of a first-world problem, I know).  Sure, I've exported it out of Zistle so I haven't lost my inventory, but what fun are spreadsheets after years of a vibrant, online community and a slick site with great presentation, search capabilities, photos, and even an automated trading engine?

Is anyone else reeling from this as badly as I am?  Any suggestions for digitally tracking a collection?  I still don't know exactly what this means for the future of my collection just yet, but I do know it will mean drastic change in one form or another.  I can tell you one thing, now that the jerks at Beckett have sued both of my favorite hobby sites within the last couple of years and really put a damper on the hobby for me, I will never buy another one of their shitty price guides again.

Josh and Ashley, if you ever see this, I'm sorry it had to end this way, and I truly appreciate all that you both did to make collecting an absolute blast for me over the last 7 years...

Buyback Franken-set: League Leaders

I'm still reeling over the seemingly impending doom of Zistle at the hands of the evil overlords at Beckett.  In fact, I typed up a giant rant on the topic last night but I'm trying to stay positive so that one will be staying in my drafts folder for now.  Instead let's look at a nice little order of a dozen buybacks I placed on Sportlots a couple of weeks ago now in an effort to further grow my franken-set...

1967 Topps #24 - Bob Allen

Seems like a good day to lead off with an Indians card, as they have a shot to punch a ticket to the World Series this evening.  Bob Allen was a career Indian too, he never played for another team during his 5 MLB seasons.  There's nothing overly spectacular about this card, but Bob makes the set for now as the only #24 buyback I've got so far.

1967 Topps #40 - Rick Reichardt

The twelve buybacks in this order came to just about $12 on the nose, so you figure a dollar each on average.  In reality though a couple of them were $2, and others like Rick Reichardt here were less than a buck.

Rick was a very highly touted two-sport star coming out of college.  His career was off to a promising start in 1966 when an illness forced him to have a kidney removed.  Though he'd ultimately return the following season and would last a few more years at the Major League level, he was never the same player as he was before the operation.  Rick makes the franken-set uncontested as well.

1968 Topps #267 - Herman Franks

I'm a sucker for a good manager card as it is, but with this one those awesome shades really put it over the top.  Herman's a pretty interesting figure, too.  He was actually a big league catcher in the late '30s and '40s, and even caught a no-hitter for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1940.  He served in the Pacific during WWII, rising to the rank of lieutenant.  After that he got into coaching, and depending on whose story you believe may have been the guy in center field stealing signals when Bobby Thomson hit his "Shot Heard Round the World".

At less than $1 this turned out to be one of my more interesting buyback purchases to date, happy to welcome Herman to the set in slot 267!

1968 Topps #308 - Pittsburgh Pirates Team

The Pirates were a mediocre team at best in 1968, failing to finish above .500 and finishing 6th in their division.  On top of that, this card is beat to hell, possibly the worst conditioned card of any of the buybacks in the franken-set thus far.  It only cost me 50 cents though, and it fills a spot in the binder that was open previously.  Also, this is probably the closest I'll ever get to having a Roberto Clemente card in the franken-set, so it has that going for it.

1976 Topps #70 - Roy Smalley/Roy Smalley Jr.

I want my franken-set to be as interesting and diverse as possible, so I jumped at the opportunity to land this Father & Son combo card of Roy Smalley and Roy Smalley, Jr.  In actuality, the Roy Smalley on the left here is actually Jr. and the one on the right is Roy Smalley III.  I love this unique buyback (you can barely make out the stamp in the dark, upper right), but it has some competition for slot 70...

This Milt Pappas card actually just joined the franken-set earlier this week, and it's already got a challenger here.  Not much of a contest here, as Milt Pappas has more than one card in the franken-set currently.

Milt is out, the Roy Smalleys are in!

1975 Topps #232 - Diego Segui

You had to know there would be at least one Red Sox buyback in this order, right?  Born in Cuba, Diego Segui was a forkball master.  He might be best known for having pitched in the first ever MLB game for both Seattle franchises (the Pilots in '69 and the Mariners in '77).  With no current competition for #232, Diego is sitting safely inside the franken-set binder.

1959 Topps #190 - Bill Virdon

This Topps Heritage Bill Virdon buyback represents my best bargain of this particular order.  I guess the pencil marks and crease in the upper right corner must have scared off a few prospective buyers because I landed this one for just 50 cents.  Not bad for a former NL Rookie of the Year!  Even better because I didn't have a #190 buyback previously, so the franken-set count increases by one.

1985 Topps #761 - Jerry Remy

I was drawn to this Jerry Remy for two reasons.  First, I can't even imagine how many hundreds of hours I've spent listening to Jerry's voice over the years as color commentator for the Red Sox here in New England.  In addition to that, this is a nice high numbered card.  In fact, it's the first buyback I've managed to pick up so far that's number 700 or higher in its set.  There's a bunch of empty sheets before and after this card in the binder right now, that's for sure.

1970 Topps #279 - Bill Lee

When I stumbled upon this buyback of Bill "The Spaceman" Lee's rookie card for just $1, I couldn't add it to my cart fast enough.  I picked up the O-Pee-Chee version of this card from COMC a while back, nice to have a buyback to accompany it.  Aside from the fact that Lee is one of the more interesting personalities in team history, I love that the Green Monster and Citgo sign are prominently featured.  This one makes the cut at card 279, and I highly doubt it will ever be replaced over the lifetime of the franken-set.

2012 Topps #192 - Active NL Home Run Leaders

Now we reach the portion of the post from which I derived its name; league leaders cards.  For just 75 cents this was a great opportunity to add three big names to the franken-set in Chipper Jones, Albert Pujols and Andruw Jones.  Just one problem, there is already a card in slot 192...

Both 2016 Topps buybacks, both red foil, but one features three stars and the other features a so-so shortstop with a badly damaged corner.

Sorry Mario...

1978 Topps #201 - 1977 Batting Leaders

We'll close out today's post with the two buybacks that I ponied up $2 each for.  First up, two big names (though only one is enshrined) on this 1977 Batting Leaders card.  Dave Parker paced the NL with a .338 average in 1977.  1978 was even better for him, as he again led the NL with a .334 average en route to his lone NL MVP award!

Rod Carew is represented on this card thanks to the insane .388 he swatted in '77.  Unreal.  Easy to see why he was voted AL MVP that year.  Like Parker, he'd win a batting title again the following year, for the 7th and final time in his impressive career.  Pretty cool that both of these guys would repeat as batting champs again the year this card was printed up.

I already had this 1979 Topps record breaker buyback in slot 201, but how can the record for most unassisted double plays by a second baseman in a game possibly hold up against those numbers I just mentioned?

Well, quite frankly, it can't!

1973 Topps #64 - 1972 Stolen Base Leaders

Last buyback for today is another great league leaders card, this time from the 1973 set.  First-ballot HOFer Lou Brock swiped 63 bags in '72, one of eight times that he would lead the league in stolen bases.  Campaneris stole 52 that year, the 6th and final time that he'd pace the AL in that category.  These speedsters have competition for card 64 though...

...just not much.  I don't think there are too many collectors, Astros fans aside (are there any?), that would choose Bob Bruce over Brock and Campaneris.

I'm certainly not one of them!

This was probably my favorite round of buybacks yet.  Out of 12 cards, 8 were slots that were empty previously and the 4 that had conflicts all won out over the competition.  With a little luck I can get over 20% complete over the course of the next couple of buyback posts.  Thanks for reading as always!

Franken-set Progress:  145/792 (18%)