RIP HP Deskjet F4180 - 6/11/2012

It's a sad day here at Shoebox Legends world headquarters.  My trusty friend, the HP Deskjet F4180 scanner that has sat alongside my desk for what seems like forever now, has scanned in its final card.

This little piece of machinery is responsible for every single one of the thousands of card scans I've posted here since I started back in January of 2008.  In fact, this thing has produced more than 20,000 card images in total over the years.  Earlier today though, it just kind of sputtered out and died doing what it enjoyed most (some O-Pee-Chee mini hockey cards were on the scanning bed at the time).  It's not a software or configuration issue, in fact it makes an awful grinding sound and does try to scan, but the hardware is shot.  Definitely got my $50 worth out of it I guess.  Anyone have any recommendations for a basic all-in-one that just prints and scans exactly what you have in the bed without cropping edges or anything?

In the meantime, I've got a healthy backlog of scans to keep me going for quite some time.  In fact, I'm usually so far behind in posting that you probably won't notice a difference.  For now, here's one of the final cards that made it in before the scanner went to pot.

Great looking card of Brooks.  The Orioles logo in the corner is cool, but the patch on Robinson's shoulder is even cooler.  This one set me back less than the cost of a blaster, which is a good reminder to myself as to why I should stick with vintage.

Well, that's about it for tonight.  Guess I'll go haul my scanner out with the recycling...