If I Could Vote For The Hall, Roger and Sylvia Would Get My Vote

While many a fan of the two players elected today to the Hall-Of-Fame are sharing their thoughts. I have a pair of collectors who may never get into the Hall-Of-Fame, but still has my vote. Roger, and Sylvia who do all their work at the online trading group TradingBases.

 Not long ago another post thanking a member of the group got a couple trade offers. One of those offers came from Roger, and Sylvia. Despite my slow moving, and coming up with very little to send their direction. The two hit me up with a batch of cards that have me screaming their praises from the rooftops.

Starting things off were these nine very rarely hit 2008 Documentary cards for the Rockies. Those cards alone would have been an amazing trade. Luckily for The Cat the pair weren't finished there.

Something I hadn't though of when building the Rockies set was collecting the cards for the other team. Roger, and Sylvia were one step ahead of me. Included in the mailer were seven cards for the games Rockies played in, but were for the team they played against.

The Mariners got their share of goodness as well as the Rockies. Showing that they aren't one trick ponies the duo added in five Mariners cards from the same set.

Not satisfied with the previous damage done to both teams sets. Much like the Rockies, and the cards for the other teams popping up. Seven cards for games played by the Mariners joined in on the party.

Like all the players in the actual Hall-Of-Fame showed they could do more than one thing. Roger, and Sylvia showed that they were well rounded traders. Closing out the trade were ten 1995 Collectors Choice Special Edition Silver Signatures.

I can't say thank you enough Roger, and Sylvia for all these great cards. Sorry, that I took this long to give you your due for sending these fine treasures. What it has done is gotten me thinking that maybe I do need to make one resolution for 2016. I need to get my butt in gear, and get back to people much faster than I currently do. Then once things are completed I need to give thank you's faster than I have been recently. 

My Day Summed Up In Cardboard (History)

On Sunday when we woke up there was what around here is referred to as snow. If you were to ask my opinion it was a thick frost. The problem is later on in the day that snow turned into freezing rain. Monday morning came, and while taking the dogs out I felt like this.

Why you ask? Monday's are my day off, and so I didn't get forced to leave earlier than normal in what is unsafe conditions to drive to work. So no hopping in one of these.

Anyone who did probably felt like they needed to do this before going on any drives today.

I know that I did when the wife announced we needed to head for the grocery store. By then it wasn't as terrible outside, but I still wanted to see everyone following me like this.

It didn't happen though as other drivers didn't care it was slick outside. Two stops later at the post office, and the gracery store. We made it back home where I was feeling.

Now all that is left is to thank Billy the head man over at Cardboard History for 51 awesome Kyle Busch cards. Without those cards I wouldn't have been able to sum up my day in cardboard.

As for the remaining cards that didn't get their time today. If all goes well I want to get back to summing up Kyle Busch's NASCAR season each week. During that time those cards will make appearances in those posts to be done every Sunday evening, or Monday morning.

2016- Forging Ahead

While most have already posted either bloggerlutions, or plans for the new year. Here at the cat house we are running behind as I was still being hit with working. This was a far cry from the days off I had hoped for to watch bowl games, and hopefully do some blogging.

Much like last year I am going to go the route of giving an overview of things I plan on accomplishing this year. Doing this last year worked quite well except I didn't have the trading goal, or post goals. This led to less trading, and later in the year my posting amount took a serious slide. Trading's big drop was due to the increased focus on doing artelopes. This year I need to get it together, and find a way to balance both trading, and artelope requests. One of the most fun things about blogging is the trading, and interaction with fellow bloggers, and readers who enjoy your work.

Originally I was planning on doing this post by breaking things down much like last year. Back then I laid out a road map each hobby was going in. This year I am going to mix it up, and do it by the blog.

--The Prowling Cat--

Being the main blog, and the one I enjoy doing posts at. That will continue only with some minor, and major tweaks that have already started. The major thing will be a huge change in the things, and way I write.

Since day one I had spent most of the posts sharing things that were bought at thrift stores, or swap meets for the hobby room. While it's fun to share the treasures I've found in these journey's. The problem is starting to arise that the room is really coming together. What that means is the amount of times I find anything has taken a dramatic dive. Yes, I have lots of work still to go on the room, but purchases for the room is at a crawl. I do have a post, or two for sharing, but not like it has been in the past. Another is I need to do a little more trading, and get a better mixture between the two worlds.

One direction that is a possibility will be sharing the room once it is completed. Hopefully by summertime that will be a reality. Who knows though as not long ago I started to change the plans I had for the room. Those plans included a change in the cabinets, and more room for pictures.

Another of the huge changes will be coming in the collection. I have some big plans in my head that will once again freshen up my enjoyment of baseball cards. As crazy as it sounds the best thing about having three hobbies is when a hobby starts to fade I have another to focus on. In my mind that keeps me from getting bored. Honestly I think I have some form of hyperactivity that has never been diagnosed. Business cards has been my favorite for many years now, but baseball cards, and schedules keep rotating.

So, my idea is this. I am going to go through the few binders that my baseball cards currently sit in. Do some reorganizing of how things are set up. Add in some sets that are currently just boxed up, and not in binders. I'm just starting to feel that what fun are these sets if they are sitting in a box, and not where I can enjoy them. Seeing the pictures of other bloggers, and their binders full of cards has inspired me to do the same. Luckily I still have the unopened box of 100 nine pocket pages bought over a year ago. Odds are the thing that I won't have enough of is the binders. Those are always plentiful at the local Goodwill so not a problem there. The problem will be figuring out what color binders I want to find. If you've followed long enough you know that I like to color code my binders by what is in them.

The wantlists will be getting some changes too. Lingering out there are a couple cards that I picked up in the past at a card show. Those cards are for sets, or subsets that I've wanted to try, and complete. I plan on sitting down, and bindering these before making a wantlist.  I know this will include atleast three new sets, and it might even be more.

 Even bigger will be a huge undertaking that will be making an appearance on the site eventually. As a kid I collected the Fleer Team Action Football cards. Almost all the cards are gone except a select few that might make one set. The stickers I know are long gone, and I'd be lucky to find maybe one or two laying around in a box. Most people like to collect  50's, 60's, or 70's baseball sets because of the nostalgia. To me these football cards, and the original Star Wars cards do that. I will be thrilled to death any time I can even find one of these cards as I know they aren't the most popular cards ever made. That seems to be the story of my collecting life though. I'm always trying to build the stuff that had very little interest, so adding any cards are quite an adventure.

--The Prowling Cat's Hobbies Madness--

Going into 2015 I had big plans for this secondary blog. Odds are you won't recall, but my plan was to do a post a day. That fell apart real fast, and ended setting a bad trend. After the year was over I had only done 32 posts overall. In 2016 I will do better, and that I can guarantee.

If you are one of the few fans that either enjoy the artelopes project, pocket schedules, or business cards. You will need to visit the blog, and follow, bookmark, or put it on your blog reading list. Right now its only link is on the sidebar here under 'My Blog List'. As a treat you can click on the logo above to go there right now. It's not a blog that I will be promoting the crap out of, but it will get mentions here every so often.

For those that don't know about the artelopes project here is a simple rundown. Not long after starting 'The Prowling Cat' I came across a post about how a certain baseball player would respond faster to letters that had drawings on them. Inspired I thought why not start doing this with the teams I wrote to for pocket schedules, and business cards. The hope was that these would increase the odds of getting a business card from the teams still missing in the collection. By sticking out, or being something memorable to the teams these are sent to. Some have taken a couple different attempts before getting results, but if you asked me I would say it has been working.
         In the posts about these I show the artelope, and give a rundown of what the idea was behind the drawing. Finishing up the post with what the return was. They aren't the longest of posts, but are fun to share. 

Much like the road map for 2015. Hopefully these are all things within reach as I feel they will help enjoy the three hobbies more. The trading will hopefully become easier if I can hit a couple more card shows this year. The longer I blog it seems the more I am able to keep other bloggers interests in mind when visiting either a card show, or card shop. Sometimes I even do better in hitting others wants than my own. No complaints though as the trading has been fun, and is the thing I enjoy most in these hobbies. So, here is to another year of hobby fun in 2016.

Wrapping Up 2015

When it came to 2015, and doing bloggerlutions I went the way of the Rebellion this year, and just let things run.

Yes, the first two years I had a list of ten things I wanted to accomplish. Doing so, so the first year, and then doing great the second. Then a few others started mentioning that they were giving up on the bloggerlutions. Being I honestly never was a resolutions person I though why not join the bloggers just going with the flow.

Despite not having any set goals what I did do is lay out a plan of some things I was looking to do during the year to keep the hobbies moving forward.

--Baseball Cards--

For 2015 I wanted this to be a year where I focused more on the quality of the cards rather than the quantity. I think I did a great job in accomplishing just that. While sad to say I didn't get to more than maybe three card shows this year. What I did do was buy very few packs, and focus more on adding players to my collection. This put me in a spot that during those shows when I saw a card that I'd normally balk at purchasing. I ponied up the cash, and came home with some cards that would have normally escaped me.

Thanks once again to some great trades even more cards that I'd never consider joined the collections as well. While it wasn't the amazing year of adding 30 cards each of Mike Trout, Rosario, Seager, and Arenado. The cards that were added had a potpourri of amazing, and regular edition. All this made it well worth going this route.

I didn't go without buying packs though as Target had an amazing sale of Opening Day this summer, and I bought a bunch of packs for the sweet price of 69 cents. That was a great way to feed the pack buying desire, and not break the bank at the same time. It also reminded me of why I was going the route I did. Very few of the cards served any purpose to the personal collection. It won't stop me from doing it again this year as we all need the reminder sometimes. Who knows, I might even attempt to build Opening Day, and all its subsets this year. Still haven't learned from all the cards still missing in the 2013 attempt.

On the downside to all this player collecting was the set collecting didn't fare well. At the end of the year I added a bunch of new cards from trades that still need to be shared. All these trimmed down the wants for some of the sets, but didn't close any of them out. One set did manage to see completion and it was the 1993 Triple Play Action Baseball. Hopefully 2016 will see a few more through to completion.

--Artelopes--

This was an interesting year for the artelopes. Going into the year the mindset was to create more like the one above. Instead of doing nothing, but drawings that contained the team logo, or some variation. Some teams got the new look of a drawing that kept the logo out of the equation. Yes, the team logo thing in either its original form, or some sort of variation is cool. Sometimes you have to mix it up, and I think both the daughter in her few, and myself did a great job in mixing things up. Hopefully we can keep the trend going as it was fun doing artwork like the one above.

In the creating these, and sending them out it was the biggest year yet. During 2014 there was 59 requests with the artelope label on them. 2015 went way beyond that in just the return category. A record 72 requests came back, 15 went missing, and 5 are still unaccounted for due to being mailed out in early December. I still have hopes for four of the missing, but the fifth was to the Steelers, and with the NFL preparing for playoff football I'm not holding out much hope.

Still this was an amazing year for artelopes, and honestly may never be duplicated. With the business cards list shrinking, and for some teams this being the reason for the request. I still have the teams for the schedules collection, but some of those haven't been getting the artelopes touch. Who knows maybe I will change that up to keep this project running strong.

--Business Cards--

Quite possibly being my favorite of all the hobbies I do. The sports related business cards hobby was one I had vowed to put serious focus on in 2015. Going into the year I was still working on getting my wantlist for every sport updated as it was insanely out of date. There were teams that hadn't existed for a couple years on the lists, and new teams missing from the lists.

Once I got the lists in order it was time to start the attack. Starting of the year I had vowed that teams missing from the collection would not get past without atleast an attempt to get a card. As you can tell by the 92 artelope requests that were sent out I held true to that goal. If there was a team on any of the wantlists they got an artelope. Any team still on the wants are because they are still holding out in sending a business card. Maybe soon they will finally learn because eventually they will end up in the collection.

A very minuscule amount of teams went belly up, and never did send a business card, and are now a lost opportunity. Unlike the past though I can't kick myself over these as the missing card is due to their failures not mine.

Statistically the new attitude paid off as 35 teams were either added, or had their business card updated. Second biggest was the NBA Developmental who added 9 cards, and remains at 5 missing now.  First though was minor league baseball who went through a bunch of new teams, logo changes, and affiliate changes. Only 11 were added though so it was a close race in who would win out.   

--Recap--

Despite not having any hard set goals for the year in hobbies. I would have to say 2015 was a great year in moving all the collections forward. Hopefully what I have planned for 2016 will keep the momentum going, and who knows. If all goes according to plan the hobbies will all be organized for the first time ever. I'm not sure though if that would be a good thing or not. Organizing our cards, and playing with them is the fun of hobbies. If your totally organized does that change things, or do you do other things, and enjoy them on another level. Hopefully by years end I will get to know that answer.