A Random Mish Mash of Sunday Happenings

Well, ever since my wife and son flew back to the states my house has been A) way too quiet, B) way too lonely and C) way too boring.

So what have I used all this extra time for?

Well, cardboard silly.

I spent a decent amount of time yesterday and today getting my 2008 Topps Set in order, to find out what holes need to be filled. I also counted EVERY single one of my Houston Astros cards in my team collection (this does not include my Richard Hidalgo cards) and came to a VERY large number, one that was much larger than I thought it would be.

-- On the 2008 Topps set, these are my needs:

• Series 1 - 150, 220, 298

• Series 2 - 343, 348, 349, 354, 364, 365, 370, 371, 376, 402, 405, 409, 415, 423, 450, 455, 463, 496, 514, 516, 536, 540, 547, 553, 562, 571, 576, 579, 580, 584, 595, 597, 615, 619, 624, 628, 631, 632, 642

-- Total number of Houston Astros cards in my team collection (mind you, this is autos, game used, inserts, parallels, base, etc.) is a whopping four thousand, one hundred and seventeen or, 4,117, for those less inclined to read a number out. Like I said, much larger than I thought, though it is fueled by my excess of doubles on 80's and 90's junk wax.

-- I also worked on my Astros Topps team sets, but have yet to record the ones I need. I plan on doing this over the following week, since I have very little to do then.

-- I will also have many, many new cards to post soon, as I have 17 auctions from eBay I still have not received. One won't arrive until the beginning of July (4 boxes of Allen & Ginter, my first box purchases in about 4 years), while the rest should arrive within the next 7-8 business days.

-- For the rest of tonight (it's already 9:23pm here), I plan on typing up my COMPLETE trade list of all my serial numbered and non-serial numbered inserts, parallels, rookies, the few game used I have and the odd auto or two I didn't sell, so I can post it as it's own separate entity and hopefully work a few trades soon.

-- Finally, within the next three weeks or so, I will FINALLY deploy to Afghanistan. I do not know which day yet, as I have things I am getting done back here in Germany (shipping my household goods back to the states, clearing housing, general Army stuff), but I will give everyone a rough estimate, when I do know. Don't fret, I am sure I will post with the same in frequencies as I do now, but maybe with some odd stories peppered in.

As per usual, if you got any questions, comments, gripes, what have you, feel free to email me (anicolausk at yahoo dot com), leave a comment, or hit me up on Twitter (@BalkFour).

Bob Bonner: An Orioles Future Star

You didn't think I was seriously going to do an entire post about Bob Bonner, did you?

I'm sure one of my fellow bloggers would truly enjoy this rookie (i'm looking at you Beardy) and I am glad to have picked this up relatively cheap off of eBay recently.

I was always a huge fan of Ripken growing up. Not just because of the Streak, but just because he played the game the right way. From running out ground balls, willing to move from SS to 3B to help out the team and always giving his all, he was quite the role model for a budding young little league star.

Oddly enough, even though I am an Astros fan, he influenced my decision to pick my playing decision moreso then any other player (SS) and also influenced the way I played and practiced. I was (and still am not) the biggest of guys, so I played to my strengths, which has been as an exceptional slap hitter, speed, solid defense and an immeasurable amount of hustle. Not to mention, my ability to play through injuries (including getting hit in the head TWICE in the same game by throws or pitches).

With the poor play in Orioles land recently, I think a good shake up at the top should result in Cal as coach. Imagine him instilling the Ripken way from the top of the big league team to the bottom. Imagine Adam Jones, Nick Markakis, Matt Wieters and all that young pitching garnering his advice and putting it to good use.

The youth of the O's depends on them having a leader who has experience on the field and the ability to hold ones self to a higher standard off of it (not that they have any off the field problems, but it never hurts).

C'mon Beardy, join me in my fight to get a TRUE Oriole as the leader in that clubhouse.

Nationals, Marlins and Celtics, Oh My!!!

Well, if you have been living in a cave, under a rock or on an isolated island the last week or so, I am glad to inform you that Stephen Strasburg, the most hyped rookie of all time, will be making his major league debut today, against the AAAA Pittsburgh Pirates.

Not to be forgotten, wunderkid Michael Stanton will now be patrolling the Florida outfield, starting with tonight's game. is promotion comes at the expense of yet-to-prove himself, young "phenom" (I use that term loosely) Cameron Maybin.

Of course, the biggest game of the night, is Celtics-Lakers, Game 3 NBA Finals. The only thing that pisses me off about this series, is the absurdly awkward days off. Why have two days off between Games 1 and 2, if no travel is involved and then only one day off when you travel THREE THOUSAND miles across the country for game 3? Can anyone rationally explain this? I mean, did the Celtics players need an extra day for shopping on Rodeo Drive?

Needless to say, I will watch both Strasburgs debut and the Celtics-Lakers game, albeit only part of the former and all of the latter. Though my heart lies in baseball, my hate lies in Kobe Bryant.

I was going to live blog during the game, but I would much rather follow along Bill Simmons' live blog, from court side in Boston, and chirp along via my Twitter stream (@BalkFour).

Feel free to follow me there (just click on the link or at the top left there) or hop on ESPN.com and follow along with the Sports Guys' live blog.

A Century Old

Of course by century, I mean 100 posts, but you get the gist.

Two posts ago was my 100th post, which actually came at a much slower rate then I would have thought. Then again, I haven't been able to keep a passion for writing in me.

I feel like it has just been a ton of things that have been keeping me back. Stress from my upcoming deployment, stress from my wife not being back in the states yet, stress from the Astros terrible season so far and my overall lack of motivation to write, though I always have something going through my head.

I changed the way the blog looked. That didn't help. I recently came into a little bit of money to help feed my collecting. Hasn't helped much (but maybe the mail days I have will).

Hell, I didn't even notice my 100th post until BA Benny's Baseball Card Buffet had his 100th post contest (which, by the way, happened at a much quicker rate than mine did) and posted a little link to it, which happened to be my 101st post. And then, not even that encouraged me to post.

Maybe it's the fact it has been tough for me to put my words into action since, well, since I drank my way through two semesters of college? I was a brilliant (well, I thought I was brilliant) writer all throughout high school and even in my two semesters of college, but then I stopped writing. With no assignments (and no blog at the time) I had no reason to write. I spent all of my free time (IE: time not working) wooing girls, playing video games, drinking, experimenting with plants (it was short lived, but still, it happened), playing sports and hanging out with friends. Not to mention, my collecting habits stalled because A) less funds available (it's a lot tougher blowing money when you are no longer living with your parents) and B) busy having a social life, with not much room on the side.

So now, it seems the only time I feel like writing (when I am not tweeting randomness) is when I drink. Since I drink a lot less often then I used to, I blog less often than I used to. Which sucks, because I need a way to get whatever pops into my head out of there.

Ok, enough with the ranting randomness.

I've hit two round numbers recently: 100 posts (which you know) and 40 followers (which you may not know). Yay me, I supposed. More importantly, I am closing in on two big collecting goals for this year: my total number of cards in each of my primary personal collections, Javier Vazquez and Richard Hidalgo. Thanks to Check Out My Cards, Sportlots and a rash of cards on eBay, both of my goals (400 total Hidalgo cards and 300 total Vazquez cards) are within reach and may be surpassed by July 31st.

Which leads me to my next point: I haven't shared much of my recent maildays, but I am scanning more often, so I hope to show them soon. I have new autographs, low numbered parallels, a 1/1 or two (or three, maybe), a little prospecting (which I will talk about soon) and even random rookies and a nice hall of fame autograph or two.

Since I sold off all of my game used and autos from my non-p/c, I have decided everything I buy will either be PC or prospecting, so I haven't strayed from that. Add in that I came into a decent sum of money for collecting purposes only and you have a recipe for success.

Uh, if you have made it this far, thanks for letting me rant and ramble. I try not to do it often on the blog, but it seems to be happening more often than not lately. For your dedication to this post, I leave you with my latest eBay win that brought a super big smile to my face:

Newest Autos to the PC Collection

Well, over the past few months I have been able to pick up auto cards of my two main PC guys (Richard Hidalgo & Javier Vazquez) at pretty considerable amounts, so I felt like showing them off.

Javier Vazquez

First up, I will start with one of the newer auto sets, from 2010 Chicle.

 This is an Artist's Autograph, numbered 6/10. I really like two things about the Chicle set: on card autos and, well, I really like the art work on his cards.

Next up is a hard to find Leaf Certified Material Mirror Gold auto.

 Now, onto the three recent Richard Hidalgo auto pick ups, starting off with something from far south of the border.

 This is a 94-95 Line Up Venezuelan auto, shipped from, well, Venezuela. The seller has two other autos up for sale, but for more than I paid for this one, so I am holding back on buying them. Please note, this isn't a bad scan, just what is on the "top loader", which seems to just be a crazy piece of plastic all around the card.

 2003 Donruss Team Heroes auto, 74/100. I've seen a few here and there, but usually for BINs much higher than I would be willing to hit on, even for a PC card. I hate sticker autos, but it doesn't look TERRIBLE on this card, in my opinion.

 1997 Scoreboard Visions Signings auto. These are generally easy to find, but some of the bigger names in the Scoreboard sets have a tendency to be faked, so a lot of people ignore this set. A great early, on card auto of Hidalgo.

Well, those are all the auto'ed cards I have gotten in recently. I have a few more big mailday packages coming in soon, including 2 from Check Out My Cards, one from sportlots (just a large handful of base, but more to knock off of the ol' checklist) and a decent sized lot from Syndicate Sports Cards, in an off eBay deal, where they were willing to take an offer of less than the total combined price for all of the cards. And, yes, the 3 larger lots include more autos.

Thanks to the sell of all of my game used and auto cards that were not PC, I have been able to work very diligently at my 2010 Collecting goals and should be able to knock out a lot by the end of the year.

Thanks for looking guys.

Favorite player of yore...

Well, my mother-in-law couldn't think of anything to buy me for my birthday, so she just sent birthday cash instead, which, is never a bad idea for a card collector.

So I spent some time diving around eBay, looking for something nice to pick up and settled on an autograph of one of my favorite players of all time (oh, and it has a jersey piece too):

Tony Gwynn

 I received it in the mail yesterday and was terribly pleased with the quick shipping from the seller (not to mention the free shipping). This card of Gwynn will be one of the few non-Hidalgo or Vazquez cards that will be in my PC. And, to make things even better, my mother-in-law happened to be a huge Gwynn fan growing up as well and even did a little card collecting of him when she was younger. Small world, huh?

I know she still doesn't collect cards, but I have a decent amount of Gwynn base cards laying around, so I may go ahead and get those together and give them to her as part of a gift (maybe for like Christmas or something), to help bring back the memories from her youth and the enjoyment she had collecting his cards.

You may be asking yourself, "Now, how come you never mentioned Gwynn being one of your favorites and why did you wait so long to pick up an auto of him?". Well, this isn't the first auto of Gwynn's I have owned (nor is it the best). The previous auto I once had in my possession was foolishly sold with the rest of my earlier collection to purchase random boxes and an XBOX (yeah, I know, gambling and video games, who would have thought, huh?). I had my reasons though: I was having a string of good luck with pulls from boxes and someone had recently stolen my XBOX (the original, not the 360, it was quite some time ago) and some of my games, so I needed entertainment at the apartment (no cable, no internet, so it was kind of the dark ages there).

Why have a waited so long since then? Outside of a few choice cards (a Beltran Super I won for a guy who couldn't afford it, the Hidalgo Red Crusade and the Hidalgo 98 Donruss Signature Series Century auto being the three), I had never spent more than about $15 on any one card. Maybe i'm cheap, maybe i'm selective, I don't know.

The good thing is, it is one more thing knocked off of my 2010 Goals list, meaning I can now aim for slightly more expensive autos (Mike Piazza and Nolan Ryan, as a matter of fact).