Some Loose Ends (and a Contest Winner)

I kind of got a mixture of things going on and none of them really deserve their own write-up so this might be kind of a disjointed post.

I updated my 2014 Cubs tab up at the top to include the two Opening Day Cubs cards I pulled from my blasters. As far as 2014 cards of Cubs go, if it isn't there, I don't have it and as far as I know, its not on the way to me. I do have a couple mystery trade packages on the way but don't let that stop you from offering something up. I held back from buying any Heritage and Donruss knowing that I'll be going to a card show in two weeks. 

With that said, I did blow $20 on two blasters of Opening Day the other day because I knew I would be trying to complete that set to complement my 2014 Blog with the Mascot insert set and to see if there were any photo changes from Series 1. I've added a tab at the top with my Want List from that set, so any help would be appreciated.

I've been adding my niche collections to Zistle to make it easier to keep track of what I have. My Horizontal and Ivy collections are up to date but the general Cubs collection is a work in progress. I was going to add it line by line from my Excel file, but I have decided to do it card by card instead. It will be slower, but I'm hoping to have a fresher memory of my "haves" for when I go to the card show. I'll also be more confident adding it to the online collection if I've physically seen it recently as opposed to on a spreadsheet I've built over the past couple of years. I'd love to work out some more trades this year than I have in the past, so check out my collections here. You can browse through the list or search for a specific card. I've also added links in the right hand column near the top for easy access once this post drops down from newer posts.

Speaking of niches, there's not much of a point in hoarding collecting something and not being able to show it off, so I'm thinking of adding special posts for them. Either one day a week I'll show my newest/favoritist additions or maybe doing a second post every day in the evening to show off a random one. I'll work out the details. Here's one now from my Opening Day blasters that I think is a sneak peak at Series 2.

The catcher is former Cub (current at the time of this photo), Dioner Navarro. I don't see the ball in this picture so I'm going to assume it's already in Navarro's glove. Look for that joke again when I get around to breaking this card down in Series 2!

For a lot of brands, I just buy the Cubs team set. Previously, when I bought packs with no intention of building the set or repacks, I would generally sort into two piles, the Cubs and the non-Cubs (trade pile). Starting the 2014 Topps blog and branching out from my Cubs-only collection with a couple of niche collections have both been real eye opening experiences. Breaking down each card has made me notice a lot of things I would just skip past before. And when I asked last week what other mini collections my fellow bloggers had, I was amazed at all of the variety.

While working through the equivalent of a monster box worth of repack cards, I pulled stacks of cards that met these requirements that I had casually tossed aside as non-Cubs. Many of these cards I've seen dozens of times over the years, but I never really looked at them.

Here are a few examples.

A very small sampling of double plays

Bunters, including HOFers

Cards with batting doughnuts

Players being interviewed

Signing autographs. A frickin' bird. Bunting while blowing a bubble.

Throwbacks. Grips. Rookies. Jersey numbers. The list went on and on. 

Some of these cards I'm even tempted to keep for myself, but that is a slippery slope into a collecting nightmare that I don't think I'd recover from. So horizontal cards and cards that show Wrigley Field's ivy covered walls in the background are all I'm looking for. And Cubs in general. The sooner the rest leave my house and are out of sight, out of mind, the better.

Which brings me to the contest. Stealing an idea from JediJeff over at 2x3 Heroes, I'm actually going to announce two winners. The first one after the list has been generated 3 times will get a niche lot and the last in the list gets a team lot. Thanks to everybody who has supported the blog (either or both).

Congratulations go to petethan (niche lot) and Chunter (team lot)! I'll send an email to get your addresses as I don't think we've traded before. And that was the whole point of this contest! Nice!