Where I've Been/Christmas Kin Part I

***DISCLAIMER***
There are a few paragraphs of music talk at the beginning of this post.  If that's not your thing, there are indeed cards below, just scroll down and I certainly won't be offended (or even know that you did!)
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Well, I inadvertently stepped away from the blog for a little over a week there.  Quite honestly, there has been little to no time for sports cards since I last posted here.  Since my previous post the Sunday before last I've been busy traveling all over New England for work, spending time with family, dealing with an injury that our dog sustained, and attending holiday parties for my job in multiple states, in addition to the normal day-to-day load of responsibility.

Oh, and that's not all.  If you've stopped by here with any frequency over the years you may know this already, but I'm a huge music fan.  It's maybe the only hobby that trumps sports cards for me.  I play the guitar, and have been pretty well obsessed with all aspects of music since very early grade school.  Because of this, I'm an admitted live music/concert junkie.  In fact, earlier this year I posted here on the blog that I caught one of my all-time favorite bands, Radiohead, twice this summer during a vacation from work.  Then, in September, I was fortunate enough to catch another favorite, Pearl Jam, play two shows at Fenway Park.  Well, this past week I capped off one of my greatest years for concerts ever with the third band in my "all-time favorite artists triumvirate"...

...Dave Matthews Band!  I expect to get some flack in the comments from someone, as I know there are a lot of folks who don't care for Dave Matthews for whatever reason.  To each his own, but I think they're one of the most talented groups of musicians that I've ever witnessed play and have been a devoted follower since the mid-'90s or so, really as soon as I reached an age where I branched out and developed my own taste in music.

From just about the moment I got my driver's license in 1998, my friend and I caught every show the band did that was within conceivable driving distance.  This went on for years, through high school and college, and obviously those are very formative years for taste in music and many other things, further entrenching the band among my all-time favorites.

Well, that same friend is still my best friend all these years later, and he now manages a hotel by the casinos in Connecticut.  He managed to get free seats to the Dave Matthews Band concert at Mohegan Sun Arena last Sunday through a business contact, and as you can see from the picture above they were damn amazing seats, too.  In fact, I've seen DMB play probably more than 20 times now, and this might have been the best seat I've personally ever had.

Sitting at work on Monday, I couldn't stop thinking about what a great time I had.  I'd been reading online how many fans feel that the band is really pursuing this year's new album and tour with a renewed vigor that has resulted in some of their best live shows in close to 20 years.  I couldn't agree more.  I found myself looking at the tour schedule (old habits die hard I guess), and it turned out they were playing SNHU Arena in Manchester, NH on Tuesday.  Well, guess who has an office across the street from that arena, and was already scheduled to be in that office on Tuesday?

There was no way after the amount of fun that I had on Sunday that I was going to be parked a stone's throw from the arena just three hours before the show and not go to this concert.  So, I did something I hadn't done in years and bought a single ticket.  Had a couple beers and some dinner when I got out of work at 5, and had an absolute blast at the concert, this time sitting on the opposite side of the stage, as you can see above.

My work validates my parking when I travel, and my mileage payout for driving to Manchester was more than my ticket set me back, so it was pretty much my second "free" Dave Matthews Band concert in the span of three days.  You can probably piece together what happens next here...

Yeah, there was one last show within reach, this time at TD Garden in downtown Boston Friday night.  Picked up a pair of good seats, made some dinner reservations beforehand and made a date night of it with my wife.  Man was I blown away by how talented these guys still are.  I could watch Carter Beauford drum alone for 2 1/2 hours, they were that good. 

So that is the brief story of how I saw Dave Matthews Band play three times, in three different states, in one week.  I will absolutely see them this summer if they tour this area again, fingers crossed.

Anyway, as you can see, baseball cards just haven't been on my mind (or my calendar) since I wrote here last.

That all changed yesterday though, when I arrived home from work to find an unexpected early Christmas gift in the mail!  My buddy Kin, who writes Bean's Ballcard Blog and is active on Twitter, sent me a fantastic package of cards completely out of the blue, and out of the kindness of his heart.

Inside were a handful of team set bags containing a variety of cards.  I haven't opened them all yet, preferring to stretch these out over a period of days (and a few blog posts).  Tonight I've got the contents of the first team set bag to share with you, and if it's any indication I think this is going to turn out to be a whopper of a surprise package.

This first bag contained a nice mix of both hockey and baseball cards.  First out of the bag were a couple of obscure Boston Bruins Young Guns rookie cards.  Zane McIntyre was a 2010 draft pick by the team, and he's still with the organization today.  He actually made it to the NHL for an 8-game stint in 2016-17, but went a pretty rough 0-4-1 with an GAA close to 4.00.  I love cards of obscure, short-term players though, and this fits the bill.

This one's cool too.  O'Gara was a 2011 draft pick for Boston, after a solid career playing defense for Yale University.  He got into a handful of games with the Bruins over the past couple of seasons, and played in over 20 games for the Rangers after being traded to New York in February.

Along with those Young Guns, I also got this great Artifacts Rookie redemption card of winger Anders Bjork.  Still just 22 years of age, Bjork has already appeared in 50 career games for the Bruins.  This is my very first card of Anders, great stuff!

Kin rounded out the first team set bag with some great additions to my Red Sox collection.  As an example of just how few modern cards I buy these days, not only did I need this base Archives card from two years ago, but it's just my second card from the set (the other being Xander Bogaerts).  I'll never complain about a new Mookie Betts card.

From the glorious 1990s, a Bowman's Best Franchise Best die-cut insert.  Everything was done to the max in the '90s, and so there are multiple versions of this card I discovered.  This is the "Mach 1" version, serial-numbered to 3,000 on the back.  Love it.

Much more rare than the Garciaparra, this Gold Refractor Josh Beckett from 2006 Bowman Chrome is numbered to just /50.  I'm six cards in here, and already I'm blown away by Kin's generosity!

Perhaps the most interesting card in the first section for me was this 2015 Choice New York Penn League card of fan favorite Andrew Benintendi.  This is from his time with the Lowell Spinners, the AA franchise for the Red Sox.  I truly enjoy minor league cards, but had never even seen this Benintendi, this one really brought a smile across my face.

To tie back to the first part of this post, I once saw Wilco play a show at the Lowell Spinners' stadium in Lowell, MA!

I got not one new Mookie Betts card from this first bag, but two!  Actually there was a third, a copy of that recent insert based on the vintage Transogram cards, but I already owned that one so it's been shuffled off to my trade stack.

We'll close it out with a rookie card of 22-year-old World Series champion Rafael Devers!  This is hard to believe, because it's one of the few modern sets I truly enjoy year in and year out, but this is actually the first 2018 Stadium Club card to enter into my collection.

Kin, I can't thank you enough for sending me this fantastic batch of cardboard, but I'm certainly going to try a few more times anyway!

To everyone else, thank you for stopping by, especially after a somewhat lengthy absence by my standards.  I'll try not to make it so long between this and my next post.  Until then!

Merry Christmas! (and My Other Hobby)

Merry Christmas everyone!  This is the tenth Christmas that I've celebrated here at Shoebox Legends, and I figured it was the perfect time to show off one of my favorite ornaments on our tree, The Great One himself!

Instead of posting any cards today, I've got something a little different for the holiday.  Recently I mentioned that my spending on sports cards has taken a downturn due to another hobby.  Well, here it is...

Yup, after quite a while spent researching and saving I finally got a nice hi-fi setup going to play vinyl records.  Music has always been both a passion and a hobby for me.  I've played the guitar for many years now, and live music has been a big part of my life since I was just a teenager.  I've attended easily north of 100 concerts, and I can remember asking for and receiving albums as birthday gifts as far back as sixth (The Beatles) and seventh (Led Zeppelin, Nirvana) grade.

When I had part-time jobs growing up, my friends and I would hit the local Strawberries music store any time we got paid and load up.  At one point I had literally hundreds of CDs, in fact despite downsizing over time I probably still have that many today.  I went digital long ago though and hadn't purchased a CD in ages, but I've wanted a proper turntable setup for years now.

Well, in 2017 I finally made it happen, and I couldn't be more pleased.  For those of you who care or are interested, the turntable is from U-Turn Audio, and the speakers are made by Audioengine.  The speakers are powered so I don't need a receiver, and also have a built-in bluetooth receiver and DAC (digital audio converter), which is pretty great as it lets me enjoy my entire library of digital music, or any other streaming source like Pandora, from my phone with the same high-quality sound.

At this point I have to say I couldn't be happier with either product.  I can honestly say I've never heard music sound so crisp, clear, and rich before.  The only thing I plan to upgrade at some point is the pre-amp (the little black box on top of the right speaker).  My current one was a cheap ($49) but highly-rated model off Amazon.  I'd like to get something a little nicer aesthetically speaking, since my wife is being a good sport and letting me keep this in the living room.  Actually, she's been enjoying it just as much as I have and has already picked up quite a few records herself!

The long term plan is to get some vertical vinyl storage for either side of this little table to hold more albums and to move the speakers onto, but this is fine for now especially since it's getting cramped a bit by Christmas decor.  I picked up the stand on Etsi, handmade from reclaimed sanded and stained wood.  Had the look I was going for and only set me back around $150.  It should hold around 100 albums or so, which is perfect.

I don't have a ton of records yet, but I do have three Christmas-themed albums in the collection so far, with this Bing Crosby being the first.  When it comes to holiday music, I definitely gravitate towards the classics, and this album is chock full of them.  One of those where pretty much every song is a classic that you've heard countless times on the radio, in shopping malls and in holiday movies over the decades.

With these tracks having been recorded in the 1940s, this is a great album for the vinyl medium.  This was one of the first records I picked up, and it's gotten quite a few spins this holiday season.

Much like the Bing Crosby album, Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song" is another seasonal classic where just about every track is a staple for this time of year.  I like this one every bit as much as the Crosby album, maybe more.

Collecting vinyl isn't all that different from collecting cards in some ways, there are rare pressings, serial numbered releases, and even colored vinyl!  As you can see based on the sticker, my copy is an exclusive "Red/White" pressing of the album, released by Newbury Comics, a regional chain here in New England.

Here's what the actual record looks like, almost equivalent to a colored parallel or refractor in the baseball card world I guess.

Here's the last of the holiday trio we've accumulated to date, the well-known and well-loved soundtrack to "A Charlie Brown Christmas", performed by the Vince Guaraldi Trio.

This one's my favorite of the three.  Jazz sounds really spectacular with the setup I have, in fact this is one of the records that really got me into exploring more jazz artists over the past few months.  A true holiday classic in every sense of the word, and pressed on seasonally appropriate green vinyl to boot!

Well, now you know what will be competing with sports cards for my hobby funds in 2018!  Don't worry, I am still enjoying collecting cards too, and have plenty of great cardboard already stockpiled to feature in the coming year.

Merry Christmas to those of you that celebrate it!  I hope you are spending the day enjoying the company of loved ones, and I thank you as always for taking a few minutes of your day to stop by and read my ramblings.  It'll be back to sports cards tomorrow!

My Inability to Focus

If you check in here frequently (and my thanks if you do!), you might be under the impression that all I collect is buybacks.  For better than a year now I've been somewhat obsessed with them as I work to complete a 792-card franken-set.

In truth though, my collecting interests are all over the map.  I think my most recent shipment from COMC, which arrived just a few days ago, does a good job illustrating that.  Of the hundred cards I had shipped in that group, about half were buybacks.  From the other half, I pulled ten random cards to post here today...

In 2015, Upper Deck released a set of dinosaur cards.  These appeal to my inner child, as I've always been fascinated by these creatures.  This fascination was further enhanced when Jurassic Park was released in theaters when I was just ten years old.

Anyway, I wasn't too impressed with the Upper Deck Dinosaurs set on the whole, but the one thing that really appealed to me were the 3-D inserts.  These are printed using lenticular technology (think Kellogg's baseball cards of the '70s and '80s).  There are 42 in total, but I'll never complete the set as some are extremely short-printed.  Nonetheless, when I come across one for less than a buck like I did here it's hard to resist.

There have been some great sets released recently for Star Wars fans, and I rate the Topps Tek sets high among them.  This "Blue Rainbow" C-3PO from last year's release is numbered to /99.  This is the third of these parallels I've been able to secure now, joining Jabba the Hutt, and Luke Skywalker.  There are 112 of these in the set, who knows maybe I'll be crazy enough to pursue it one day.

Here's a neat one from last season's Stadium Club Premier release.  Timing is perfect here, as the 2017-18 BPL season kicked off just this weekend.  In fact, earlier this morning I had the pleasure of watching my favorite club, Liverpool, come back twice in their game against Watford, only to give up the lead in the waning minutes and have to settle for a tie and a single point.

You get one of these 1st Day Issue parallels per box, and since I kinda whiffed in my hobby box, I was happy to right that wrong with this card for less than $2.

Xander Bogaerts is having an off year so far in 2017, batting well below .300 which is unusual for him.  He's still my favorite current Red Sox player though, so I seek out cheap additions from time to time.  This "Career Stat Line" parallel from 2017 Donruss set me back all of a buck and a quarter.  It's numbered to /337 in the upper left, though it's a bit difficult to make out in this scan.

Here's one towards my 2011 Topps Chrome Atomic set build.  I still maintain that the Topps Chrome Atomic Refractors are some of the most beautiful cards released since I got back into the hobby around 2007.  I'm more than halfway to the 220-card set now, nice to cross another one off the list for cheap coin.

Nothing screams early '90s quite like holograms.  In the '91-92 Upper Deck set, there was a 9-card insert set of Award Winner Holograms.  Probably had all nine as a kid, but none have survived the passage of time.  I grabbed this Mario Lemieux for nostalgia's sake, and because it was less than 50 cents.

After three straight shiny cards, let's cleanse the pallet with some vintage.  I've built a small little collection of 1954 Bowman cards over time, almost exclusively care of COMC.  I can't resist these oversized beauties when the price is right, and that was certainly the case for this Del Rice at a dollar even.

I'm still under the delusion that one day I'll accumulate all of the Legends Variations from the 2011 Topps set.  Unlikely, but I'm a tad bit closer now after adding Larry Walker here in his powder blue Expos uniform!

Herb Pennock's 1922 American Caramel card is high up there on the list of pre-war Red Sox cards that I'm on the lookout for.  It's not the easiest card to find, nor the cheapest, so in the meantime this 1960 Fleer Greats of the Game was a nice fill-in for a buck.  I got this one during an aggressive sale by the seller, and was surprised to find it at just a dollar given the great shape it's in.

Last card for the day, and we end on a bit of a somber note.  I'm into all kinds of music as an adult, from folk to jazz to electronic to rap.  I grew up as a child of rock and roll though.  Some of the earliest albums I remember owning were of The Beatles, my favorite band ever, Pearl Jam, and of course Soundgarden.

I got a copy of Superunknown on CD for my birthday when I was in 7th grade, and I must have played it through 100 times.  Hell, I still have it on my iPhone today, and still view it as one of the most solid overall rock albums of the '90s.  While I don't really post about these types of things, Chris Cornell's passing earlier this year really made me realize how old I'm getting and how long it's been since I first heard his band play.

I figured this Pro Set SuperStars MusiCards card was a fitting tribute to the man, and the band, for my collection.

Well that's a wrap for today.  As you can see, COMC really feeds into my inability to focus!