Riding The Rails

After a busy Wednesday it was great to come home, and find some trade goodies in the mailbox. Until I opened the manilla envelope I had forgotten about this trade being on its way. These goodies came from fellow pocket schedule collector Dan. Not only was it a schedule, it was a magnet schedule.

Since the creation of this team I have been a fan. Not because of the cat name, but for another reason altogether. I had only been collecting pocket schedules for two years, and had started the baseball teams business cards at the same time. The RailCats were a new team on the independent league circuit. My first time writing the team was for a pocket schedule, and some business cards. What was sent back was a stack of pocket schedules, business cards for everyone on the teams staff, and their group outings brochure. While it was a simple return for the team it meant a ton to this fairly new collector. These brochures made their way into the collection until the team stopped doing them a few years ago.

All this treatment has made the RailCats one of a very few teams I collect anything I can get for the team. This is where Dan has come to the rescue. Dan lives close to Gary where the RailCats call home, and has been hooking me up for a few years now. Our trading relationship is the best of anyone I trade with in any hobby.

Like shortprint baseball cards, some schedules seem to be shortprinted. If either of us come across these our first thought is to either contact the other, or set some aside for when we next e-mail each other. Often other things make it into our trade packages. This package was no different as Gary added to my RailCats items with another interesting treat.

Now the mystery of what I should do with this coaster is my new dilemma. Part of me says it should go in the binder with all my other RailCats items. Another says put it on a shelf or something. The last says it needs to go into a frame with other fun stuff for constant showing off for anyone who walks into the hobby room. No matter what happens its an item I'm glad to add into the baseball goodies.

A Garage Cleaning History Machine

My usual Monday run into town was a quicker trip this week as we have been trying to do some cleaning. The plan is for a hopeful garage sale this upcoming Memorial Day weekend. To make this happen we have been working extra hard to try, and see if there are items we don't use. While I've had some bins full of item for a couple years as we planned to do one last year, but never got around to it. This is the perfect time to see what other goodies we can live without. Monday it was me tackling the garage while the wife was at work, and the daughter at school. Going through the bins of things I've collected over the years I came across this little treasure.

Seeing this little whatever you want to call it got the memories flowing. I lived south of where the show was located by approximately 25 miles. Small towns is what you had with Provo not exactly being that big at the time. Far as I knew this was the first ever card show for the area. I do know that this was the first ever card show I'd been to until we moved north to Oregon. Adding to the coolness was this show was right before my birthday, and added to why I got to do this show.

Being almost seventeen, and not knowing a ton about baseball. Only what I had self taught by watching games on television. Having two former baseball players signing autographs was just the coolest. I remember showing up at the opening time so I wouldn't risk missing out on seeing these two players, and getting their signatures.

While it's obviously a simple book that was done on a copier I was thrilled to get it, and read the interesting information on both players.

Another fun tidbit was the history of cards pages where it gave you two pages worth of history on where the baseball card was, and how it came to its current point.

Finishing up is something that if you think about it is kind of strange. 'So You Want To Collect Trading Cards?' Seems pretty irrelevant if you ask me. I am at a card show, and you want to ask me if I'm interested in collecting cards? Looking closer though reveals that it gets into the different approaches you can take towards collecting. The article breaks down the idea of set collecting, player collecting, or team collecting. It also breaks down where you could find cards at the time to build your collection. Still seems strange to me as you are at a card show so odds are you already knew all these tidbits.

The lower article for a naive me was interesting, and very informational to the collecting at the time. Living in the area we did the idea of keeping your cards in the best shape possible wasn't something we thought about. We were still going through them all the time, and just throwing them back into the box. The only cards that we were willing to spend the money on pages for were the cards we loved the most. Not even those cards were treated with the respect  you would think our favorite cards would be treated with. Who didn't mistreat our favorite cards as a kid though?

It was a blast finding this thing. Brought back some great memories of my very first card show as a kid. If history is any indicator it'll end up misplaced again, and found in another year while I'm cleaning my hobby room, or the garage again. Then just like this time I'll give it a look over, and read it again. Its amazing how something so simple still entertains me every time I find it.

Some Fast, and Some Not So Fast Cards

Just got back from a run to the store. While I've been making some trips recently, this was the first I was able to check out the card section. On Saturday we made a couple trips for cleaning supplies, but cleaning was top priority so cards didn't happen. This trip though was for some cinnamon rolls for breakfast. While there I took a stroll down the card aisle, and picked up two packs. First the fast cards.

I have no idea why I even bought this pack of cards. I'm going to go with two different reasons, neither of which is very good. One is that the All-Star race last night was still fresh in my mind, and said you need to buy a pack of these cards. The second is I just wanted to see what they looked like, and hopefully get a Kyle Busch card. I told you neither was a good reason. Looking through the cards you can tell there is no Kyle. So all five cards are up for trade if you need any.

The second set had a little more reasoning behind it.

For some reason I like the look of these cards. I don't like them enough that I'm going to go out, and buy a bunch of packs to build a set. I will buy some every so often in hopes of turning them into cards of the players I do collect. How often will remain a mystery even to myself. With that in mind all except for the chrome De Leon card is up for trade. Another collector threw out his wants for this set, and De Leon was one of those cards. Not shown is a Carlos Beltran card that was in the pack as well. 

The Cat Reels In The Big One

If you have been following the blog for awhile you know about my other hobbies. The main hobby happens to be collecting business cards. While I have been collecting off, and on for years it was twelve years ago I got serious. This seriousness led me to my current goal of a business card from every baseball team in the MLB, minors, and independent leagues. The goal has been tough going the last few years as it's been holding around five teams with no business card in the collection. Its a tricky goal though as I keep up with affiliate changes. So the amount of teams needed during any season fluctuates between the main five, and the changes.

Monday everything changed in the collection as one of the five missing finally sent a business card. I have been trying for years, and after the bad luck that I've had this season getting this card is a game changer. I started late last year with the artelopes project, hoping that the artwork would help finally bag a big one. While the initial results were great things slowed down lately, and had me feeling down about all the poor results. Now I'm pumped more than ever to start drawing, and get more sent out.

I started the envelope out by just doing the W, and the N thinking it looked like a cool idea. That is when I decided to show the daughter what she was missing by not doing this artelope herself. This is when her creative juices got flowing, and she came up with the idea of the baseball flying, and the tail as flag stripes. Personally I think it turned out great, and the results show the same.

Before I show off the crowing jewel, how about the other goodies that were included. This is by far the best results ever from the Nationals. While I've gotten postcards, and small player cards I have never gotten anything near what was sent this time. Starting off was this cool picture of Jason Werth.

Following Werth was a sticker, and the schedule that was part of the main request.

This is where things got interesting.

While I'm not a Nationals fan I am actually looking forward to reading this magazine. We usually buy these each time we go into Seattle. They are always full of great information about the team, so it should be a great read.

Ending the large envelope was the great white whale that this whole thing was about. The business card that I've been trying to get since the team became the Washington Nationals. My reason for all this excitement is this card finishes off the major leagues for me. Unless another team pulls of the whole Florida Marlins becoming the Miami Marlins. I am set for business cards from the bigs, and can work on those last couple teams in the minors.