A Covfefe ... er, um - Contest!

A post that doesn't mention covfefe?  I can assure you, this post will not discuss high level Twitter mishaps.  No comments about smart phone tweeting at midnight from the Throne Room.   Not at all.  Instead, this post celebrates a milestone, one that slipped right past me.  It’s taken awhile but I’ve actually hit the 100 post mark!!   I wanted to take a moment to thank you for the big and continued welcome to this community.  I’ve not seen a negative post or comment in reference to newcomers or regular bloggers.  You are a good and generous people!  I’d tweet it around the world but am not a twit. 

courtesy Google Images

I’ve been giving away a lot of cards recently, always within a trade post.  That will continue.   Most all bloggers with reason to celebrate do so with a contest, many with a pimp clause.   I’ve never done this and think it’s past time for a pimp – or pimping.  [Please note -  I’m not  looking for part time work.]  

So here are the rules:

A >    follow my blog if you haven’t already 

B >    post a link on your blog to tell your readers about A Cracked Bat.   If you don’t  blog but tweet instead, TWEET me!    I’ll even give you a link.

C >   comment below with a link to your post or tweet which shows the pimping.  You can post AND/OR tweet but only one entry per person.   

D >   you must live in the USA, Canada or Rambouillet France.

E >    all previous winners are eligible

What’s the prize this time?  One 400 count box of my disCards!  There will be no junk wax.  Cards are from the 90s right up thru 2017.  There may be a relic or auto, some shiny or numbered cards but zero junk.  If you don’t like surprises then maybe this contest isn’t for you.

There is a short window of opportunity.  The contest will close Friday, June 2^nd at 10pm EST.   I’ll announce the winner sometime Sunday evening.  Randomized  FIVE TIMES, the winner will be the last name from the list.   Last place wins!   All contests I've ever entered have me falling somewhere in the middle.   It's a good time to be last!

So don't be a loser!  Enter this contest!

A Bait Post

Oscar loves bait - all the Time!  His blog says so.  At the beginning of our beloved baseball season, Oscar sent mailers round the blogs to feed our Spring Fever.  I haven't yet traded with him so it was a surprise to find myself included!  Thank you!  I'll soon be sending good cardboard thoughts around and will certainly include you Oscar!

I like bait too.  This past Saturday, my trade post included another 300 count box giveaway.  A few readers found this offer enticing.  Eleven commented, with eight asking to be included in the contest. Trade posts can often go unnoticed.  I want others to see the great cards bloggers have gifted to me. I've been including these giveaways within these posts to thank those who take the time to peruse, or even read the post.  

So without further delay, let's look at the Random results.  This time we went four rounds, with the fourth person on the list being our winner.  

NICK, our Dime Box junkie gets the box!  Congrats!   There will be a next time - at least two more! Please try again.  I have so much fun giving this stuff away!

Have a safe and fun Memorial Day Weekend!

Spotlight On ...

Over the course of  eight months, Johnny has made several appearances in my mailbox.  Not literally of course.  He is one of the more prolific traders around.  Most of us have been recipients of big fat mailers and boxes full of our favorite teams and players.  I had three trade packages from him ready to share and just when I thought I was done - along came yet another package.  Here's a few cards from the most recent package:

That is one shiny lot of refractors!  All but two were needed for a team set.  The pennant was a great accent to this picture and made me smile when I found it tucked in a toploader.

Love these 87 Coke cards.  I have a few of these packs still sealed and tried opening one but it didn't go so well.  I will eventually have the whole set with the help of trade partners. I should put a list together.

John included three post-card size team sets:

1988 Kroger

1989 Marathon Gas

1990 Kroger

 A little bit of Leaf Preferred and Pinnacle Zenith

New Heritage

2005 Topps 205 - like these a lot!

 A smattering of Tiger greatness in Fan Favorites design.

    

   A very cool schedule!  I can't say old since there's only ten years difference between it and me!

Thank you John!  If you are new to the blogs, be sure to check out two of his regular features:

Shadow Shots and Wacky Wednesdays.  Both are favorites of mine.

And new or not, you are welcome to join now in another giveaway from the disCard pile! We'll let this one run through Wednesday night, 8pm EST.  That gives me time to have it on the way to our winner before the holiday weekend!  Open to all 50 US States, with  previous winners excluded. Your part?  Comment on this post and ask to be entered.  One catch... your comment must be different than other comments.  For example, I'm in can only be used once. Count me in and please count me in would be considered the same as would I'm down or put me down.  The point is to be original. I'll randomize the list four times and post the winner on Thursday evening.  Oh, and the winner will be the fourth name on the list.  Your prize will be a three to four hundred count box.  The cards are random - a mix from 90s to now.  There may be an older card or two but junk wax is not part of this deal.  The 80s find their way into nearly everything - a bit like cockroaches.

Have fun with your comments - and thank you for reading!!!

Frankly, It's a Trade Post

Is there an obligation to share when trading? This post is a tribute to a good number of trade partners. Until I can share some of the cardboard glory from bloggers kind enough to send it, trading doesn't seem right.  That's my conscience talking certainly, but those are my rules.  We all live busy lives and when the cardboard comes a knocking, there isn't always time for scanning.  It certainly put me behind.  Once I found time to return to the blog community, I had a massive amount of trades to scan and share.  My aging scanner gave me the opportunity to take an easier path and use the smart phone camera.  

First up:  Jedi Jeff of 2x3 Heroes' has likely forgotten about these cards by now.  My favorites included a Cat and his litter along with awesome tattoos, a nice relic and a mini!!!  Thank you Jeff.  I appreciate the grace given for the time it's taken to share these!

 Our second Jeff of this post,  Bubble gummer Jeff Jones packed a lot of pop into a small mailer:

The 2008 Verlander First Day Issue is a sweet looking card.  Nice addition to the JV collection! Thank you Jeff! I appreciate your thoughtfulness!

Rolling along with the JJ's, here's a peek at a mailer from The Junior Junkie. There's a lot of shiny to be found with Pacific die cut base cards and Trammel in his Dufex Foil glory.  Hope to see you on the blogs again soon TJ - thank you!

Skipping over a few letters of the alphabet,  it's Angels collector Tom this time, who sent a package made to order.  A Porcello Rookie and a sweet Salt Lake Bees Ty Cobb can be found among a smattering of high school grad photos from 92 Stadium Club Dome and an overall great selection of cards.  Thanks for this fun lot of cards!!!

All of these packages contained more than the cards shown here. I have learned it isn't necessary to share all the cards however, it's always necessary to say thank you.

Happy Hot Dog courtesy Google Images

Box Busting - Cracked Bat Style

Hey, do I have style? Not in any kind of fashion sense really but I do have my way of getting things done.  While attacking the remaining boxes from a bedroom closet, I finally hit carpet!  I do have four more large boxes to tackle but finally feel like progress is happening.  Our featured box today:

I have Turkey Reds!  Look at that Yogi!  Great card I'd forgotten having - so I bid on and won it again, quite possibly twice.  Sweet Ernie Banks with bats.  America's Pastime and Cooperstown, some of  Panini's best efforts!  

The boxes within the box:

FLEER STICKERS!  I picked up the whole box for around $5, thinking at the time to put them in a binder but many will make it around the blogs.

Two 200 count boxes revealed some nice base/parallel cards sampled below:

A colorful array of 2015 Museum!  Upfront are Altuve, Piazza and J Foxx who will find homes in my PC boxes.  Most of these cards were intended for trades.  They will soon begin their way around the blogs to new homes.

2013 Panini America's Pastime - the thick base cards are all limited to 125.  Insert sets Decades and Barnstorming Brilliance are on my list to complete.  I love the old program look of Barnstormers, a great tribute to the Negro Leagues!  I do have some dupes to share but may complete the base set at some point.  I picked up over half of it on a late-night auction for less than $20 shipped!  The lot included these cards:

A closer look at Yogi reveals a Christmas card!

There are a couple hundred singles in the main box.  I'll keep some and trade others.  I'm sure MadBum will be moving on.   He is numbered 1/10.  An Ebay 1/1 - a description which always keeps me from bidding.  HATE IT!

 I found a young and full-faced Molitor:

and an also young Tiger favorite, Bill Freehan on one of the best insert designs ever:

I am truly enjoying the journey through these boxes, never knowing just what has been tucked away! Expecting to find more cards I've repurchased,  it's surprising how few dupes have turned up so far!

There are literally hundreds of cards from miscellaneous packs going to the SA donation box, most are commons and 80s junk.  I'll be giving away a few more boxes here. Recipients will receive DIScards in bulk with some minor and major league stars mixed in alongside a few inserts and, like any box of cards, there will be commons. That's the fun of it and it doesn't cost you a single dime! You can bust a box, Cracked Bat style!

It's time to announce our second recipient of Discards! There were 12 entrants.  This time everyone who commented was entered.  Randomized three times, the second name on the list -our winner - is the man who gave me the idea for these giveaways - Cardboard Clubhouse Adam!

This is so much fun for ME!  I hope the recipients of the DisCARDs find something for their own collections, cards to giveaway and mainly,  just have fun going through their box of cards.   There will be more given away so please keep trying and thank you for reading!

Help Wanted: Spring Cleaning Continues

Yikes!  I am buried in cardboard!  It's not the most terrible way to go but I'm just not ready!  I pulled two more boxes from the closet.  One was mostly for trading and the other contains cards purchased just before moving in June of 2015.

1500 or so cards

Topps, Upper Deck, SP, Chrome, Pinnacle - this box held a bit of everything and needed sorting, of course.  I hired some help about a year ago too but having no thumbs, Jingles is paid to do very little.

Taking a union break

Adding cards to the Salvation Army box.

She is the sweetest kitty.  A year old this month, she and her two siblings were abandoned in a box by the vet's back door at three days of age.  One was adopted, the other sadly did not live.  Jingles was bottle fed by the vet until she was old enough for me to bring home.  She has only known love. Jingles likes kisses and will pull your face to hers when she wants one. Still...what a freeloader!  

With her help, over half of the cards made it to the trade stacks.  Others will be donated and some added to the discard box to be given away later.  The trade cards must be moved into their team spots. There is one small problem...SPACE!  When I began this project a few weeks back, I had one big box for trade cards which has morphed into three.  I have at the very least, another 500 cards to squeeze into these which doesn't take into account those yet undiscovered. 

Original trade box on the left.

In the midst of the sorting, I took some time to edit trade photos.  There is a fellow out there, a non-blogger who puts a great trade package together.  I don't know how many of you have swapped with him but he comments as Xavier Higgins and trades as Rocky Quinn.  He sent two packages months ago and one just recently,  probably 100 cards total.  I can't possibly share all of these but here are some highlights:

1992 Topps with Micros!!  Love these tiny cards!

FOOD ISSUES: 92 Mother's Cookies Pudge and 96 Pizza Hut Piazza

VINTAGE TIGERS AND A BUCKY DENT

PLAYER COLLECTIONS

2017 HERITAGE

ALTUVE AND MIGGY

SWELL!!!!

NICE KINSLER RELIC  AND A GORGEOUS TICKET REFRACTOR

I don't collect hockey at all but do love that Hawks Jersey!  Xavier remembered my player collections too.  I so appreciate this!  Thank you for the diverse selection of cards.  It was great fun!  Sorry it's taken so long to share these.  I want bloggers to know how generous you are!

Spring cleaning continues.  If you've made it this far then my reader friends, you deserve a chance to claim another Cracked Bat disCARD box!  I did mention there'd be another giveaway later.  There are cards to move. To be eligible for  a random chance, you must live in the USA - any one of our 50 great states will do.  The other little detail - you aren't a past recipient of a discard box.  I want to spread good will around the blogs.   We'll keep the opportunity open through Sunday evening.  I'll run the Randomizer around three times.  The box will go to spot number two.  Now all that's left for you to do is comment.