Q&A with Napkin Doon

There has been a gaping black hole in the “blogosphere” since Napkin Doon left it on March 4, 2014. The Adventures of Napkin Doon was one of my favorite blogs out there. Nap is a Rangers fan, but has a love for vintage and lesser-collected sets. He also has a kick-ass LCS named “Cleve’s”, and I think we’ve all been jealous of it a time or two from the weekly auction stories he used to share.

Napkin Doon also held a contest/game called “Big Fun Game.” Creative name, eh? Actually, Nap wanted to rename the game at one point, but I threatened his life and forced him to keep the “Big Fun Game” name. You don’t just throw away a perfectly good name like that. For those who never had the privilege of playing, it was essentially a Yankee Swap/White Elephant game where one could steal another man’s prize. It was ruthless. Actually, it was quite civil. Too civil.

He hung up his blogging shoes a little while ago, so I decided to reach out for a quick Q&A to catch up with the legend. For those of you unfamiliar with his work, go read the archives. They are free for all to enjoy RIGHT HERE.

Enjoy!

The Lost Collector: What have you been up to?

Napkin Doon: I guess I should just be honest-  I spent the last 3 months in a federal prison on a money laundering charges.  I made some decisions based on advice from the wrong people, and I paid a hard price.  It wasn't so bad.  In a sense, it was a pretty relaxing break, and the food was better than expected.  Obviously being away from the family was extremely tough on me, even with weekly visits.   Now that I'm out, I truly appreciate what it feels like to be free.  Thankfully, it was a white collar prison and the other guys were not exactly hardened criminals, so I felt pretty safe.  Actually, I'm making all of that up.  I don't really even know what money laundering is.  In real life, we just finished moving out of our old house and are bunking in an apartment for the next 10 days while the new house is being finished.  So that's sort of like prison I guess.  Add to the stresses that come with moving and building a new house, we are 2 people short at my office so I have been dog paddling just to stay afloat for a few months now.  I know, poor Napkin!

TLC: Any Cleve's stories lately?

ND: I hadn't been to Cleve's in almost a month before this past weekend.  I haven't done anything with auctions to speak of lately, but on my last visit, I went in guns blazing and bought my first ever vintage Mickey Mantle!  I also picked up a 1980 Rickey Henderson and a 1961 Warren Spahn.  I'm looking forward to getting back to another auction soon though.

(TLC Note: Napkin Tweeted at me last night that he got his ass handed to him by an old geezer at Cleve’s while bidding on some vintage Bowman)

Napkin Doon's first Mantle!

TLC: You always appreciated unloved sets, such as Topps HD. What are your top 5 favorite sets, and a few unloved ones collectors might enjoy?

ND: My 5 Favorite Sets Off The Top Of My Head:

     a- 1952 Bowman

     b- 2009 Topps Sterling

     c- 1999 Flair Row 1

     d- 1999 EX Century

     e- 2003 Diamond Kings

As for unloved sets, I always thought the "All Star" Cards that came inserted 1 per Rack Pack in the 80's were great cards.  Glossy, star studded and simple designs and they are super cheap to purchase.

TLC:  How's the sampler album coming along?

ND: It's coming along great!  Maybe it's because I'm still in "moving" mode, but I've really moved away from mass purchases and accumulation and wax busting, and am just concentrating on a few things.  The Sampler Album is basically satisfying all of my collecting urges and has been super easy to contain and keep up with (I have an album of 1 page for every base Topps set for those that don't know what I'm talking about).  In fact, I've been purging a lot of my bulk cards and will probably get rid of a lot more over the next few months.  I'm starting to become a "less is more" collector.  It also makes big purchases like the above Mantle easier to handle.  That said, I only need 2 more 1951 Topps to fill the 1951 page and then the album will be full.  Then it's just a matter of changing out cards as I see fit.   The 3 cards I mentioned from Cleve's all went to the Sampler album.  I'd like to only have 1 card of any player (2 or 3 is ok if it's a superstar like Aaron or Koufax or someone) and trying to make sure every page has a few cards with interesting tidbits.  For example, on my 1968 page I have a card of Sam McDowell, who was the inspiration for the Sam Malone character on Cheers. On my 1965 page, along with cards of Mays, Aaron, and Koufax, I have Masanori Murakami who was the first ever Japanese born MLB player.  I've actually toyed with the idea of reviving the blog at some point and just dedicating it to my sampler album and writing about 1 page per week.  So that would give me 60+ weeks of blog material.  But I doubt I do it.

(TLC Note: DO IT! DO IT NOW!)

TLC:  One of my most read posts ever was titled "Napkin Doon is a Jerk". How does this make you feel? (read the post HERE)

ND: A little sorry for you, if that's the biggest draw you could muster.  You should try "Fuji is a Mother F*cker" or "Night Owl Made a Pass At My Woman"  Then you'd get some ratings.

(TLC Note: Those are his words, not mine. See? He is a jerk.)

TLC: You stopped blogging during Spring Training. This season, the Rangers suck. Is there a correlation between you not blogging and the Rangers sucking?

ND: Yes. Next question.

TLC:  Are Doon Discs permanently discontinued?

ND: We are dealing with some, shall we say, unintended side effects from a few of our customers.  At this point it's a legal matter and I can't go into much more detail.  But trust me, Doon Discs are everything I ever said they were, and I am not responsible for any misuse or unsupervised distribution to children or the elderly.

TLC: Any other message for the "blogosphere"

ND: AVENGE ME!!!! AVENNNNNGGGGE MEEEEEE!!! WOLVERINES!!!!!!

Thanks to Napkin Doon for answering my questions. Hope you all enjoyed this look in to one of the most mysterious (former) bloggers out there.