Contest results!

First off, thanks to everyone who joined my contest! I was honestly expecting the usual suspects for baseball books, and saw a ton that I hadn't heard of now hope to read.

Here are the books that were listed:

• The Baby Bombers by Bryan Hoch (The Lost Collector)
• Toronto Blue Jays 1992 World Series Champions (hockey Kazi)
• Rookie by Jerry B. Jenkins (Scribbled Ink)
• The Teammates by David Halberstam (Matt at Diamond Jesters)
• October 1964 by David Halberstam and You Gotta Have Wa (Ryan G)
• Historical Baseball Abstract (Dan)
• Cardboard Gods (San Jose Fuji)
• Big Hair and Plastic Grass by Dan Epstein (A Cracked Bat)
• Ball Four by Jim Bouton (White Devil and Joe)
• The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by WP Kinsella (Kyle McCarty)
• Shoeless Joe (Eric H)
• The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America by Joe Posnanski (@TheCBrockShow)
• Men at Work by George Will (jcouvy)
• The Bad Guys Won by Jeff Pearlman (Stormy)
• The Wax Pack (RickQ)
• The Natural by Bernard Malamud
• Man on Spike (PizzosCards)
• The Glory of their Times by Lawrence Ritter and Baseball Scorekeeping by Andrews Wirkmaa
• A Great and Glorious Game by Bart Giamatti (Trevor)
• Over the Hedge by Jay Johnstone (bnchile)
• Lords of the Really: The Real History of Baseball by John Heylar (Tnfan20)
• Green Cathedrals (Flasah)
• Playing With The Enemy
• Baseball's Best: The MVPs (PKSteinberg)
• Life Begins on Opening Day by Tom Boswell (David)
• The Tour to End All Tours by James Elfers (Jon)
• Pinstripe Empire (Yankeesjetsfan)
• The Hero Two Doors Down by Sharon Robinson (Lesley)
• Satchel: The Life and Times of American Legend (Bcanaday)
• The Catcher Was A Spy (Matthew)
• Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero by David Maraniss (Collecting Cutch and John Sharp)
• The Glory of Their Times (jaradb)
• Ballgame by Josh Lewin
• Whole Different Ballgame by Marvin Miller (Steve at 1975baseballcards)
• Fantasy Baseball by Alan Gratz (Rod)
• The Celebrant by Eric Rolfe Greenberg (mr haverkamp)
• Five O'Clock Comes Early: A Young Man's Battle With Alocholism by Bob Welch (bbcardz)

Now on to the drawing. I had 35 names. I had to omit those who answered as "unknown". I listed all 35 in order in which they were received, then randomized. I'd also flag that if you didn't win and are interested in a bookmark, feel free to reach out and we can work something out. I have sold a couple on Twitter so far and I'm happy to discuss.

With that, congrats to....Julie at A Cracked Bat! Julie, shoot me an email with your address and also let me know which int he photo below you might. Thanks again for everyone who participated.

Thanks again!

Last chance to enter my contest!

Good morning!

My contest closes tonight at 11:59pm PT! Make sure you get in at the original post HERE. No entries from this post will be counted.

Good luck!

Contest time! Bookmark it

It's been a long time since I've done a blog contest. The last one I did was in 2018. So with Opening Day just a few weeks away, how about another?

As many of you know, I like to take baseball card scraps and turn them into some sort of craft or artwork. I don't know why, but I've always hated to throw away baseball card packaging.

One of my favorite items made from recycled packaging are my custom, handmade bookmarks. I'm honestly not sure if anyone even uses bookmarks in 2020, but they look pretty cool:

See? These are made with actual wax wrappers from each product.

They would fit nicely in your favorite baseball book. That's where the contest comes in! The winner will receive one of my bookmarks of their choice!

Details:

Only one entry per person. All you have to do below is comment with what your favorite baseball book is. That's it! No problem if there are repeats on the list. Hopefully you'll share some that aren't too common and others will be inspired to read it too.

Contest ends Sunday, March 15 at 11:59pm PT. I'll then take all the entrants and randomly choose a winner.

I guess I need to share my favorite baseball book too, right? I don't have a no-doubt favorite book, but one that I've read in the last few years and really enjoyed is The Baby Bombers by Bryan Hoch, which details the Yankees newish approach over the last few years of developing talent and building a team that is on the cusp of a championship. What this book doesn't account for is all of those players getting hurt!

Anyways, looking forward to seeing what you all choose. Thanks for participating!

Johnny delivers a contest prize

A week or two ago, there was a pretty quick contest over at Johnny's Trading Spot. First 10 comments won a prize. I was number 8. Easy enough!

My prize came quickly, as Johnny never takes long to send anything out.

The grand prize was this Hall of Fame Heroes stand set. I left the shrink wrap on for now, although I do feel like I have to open it and enjoy. I'm not saving it for anything! Still, sometimes I have a hard time with whether or not to crack something open.

John also threw in a team bag full of goodies, including a ton of Yankees minor league cards that should be fun for TTMing.

Thanks, John!

The Baseball Card Olympics (A Contest Entry)

Daniel over at "It's like having my own Card Shop" is holding a contest with quite a few ways to enter yet. It's entirely possible I missed it, but I'm not sure if anyone has taken him up on "create at least five events for a baseball card Olympics, so I decided to enter his contest under that topic.

Here's what I have, although I'm sure you all might have others and feel free to leave more ideas in the comments:

1. Timed set collating and bindering

Each Olympian will have a 792-card Topps set dumped in front of them. The participant who can not only correctly order there set, but then binder it, will be crowned the champion of this maddening event!

2. Spot the SP

A few days ago, I was flipping through some 2012 Topps card, and I found a Pablo Sandoval SP that I didn't know was in that pile. I probably missed it the first time around. Spotting an SP can be a skill, especially if one doesn't take the time to check those itty bitty number codes on the back. This would test a contestants eye, as well as knowledge of a product.

3. Card stacking

Stacking is always a fun event. There's such things as cup stacking, and even Oreo stacking, so why not card stacking? Highest stack takes the gold.

4. Name that player

A referee will open packs of junk wax cards, and without seeing the names, each Olympian must correctly guess each player. Last person standing wins.

5. Card flipping

Going back to the roots of what our dads all did with their Mickey Mantle cards, some good old-fashion card-flipping for Olympic glory.

6. Identify the autograph

Exactly how it sounds! Without being given any other hints, contestants much correctly guess from a series of autographs, with each one become harder...and scribblier...than the previous.

So what awesome events did I miss for the Baseball Card Olympics?

My card of the year

The last two years, I've done with a Topps NOW card as my card of the year in P-Town Tom's excellent yearly contest.

In 2016, it was the debut duo of Tyler Austin (now a Twin), and Aaron Judge.

In 2017, it was the Rookie of the Year celebration for Aaron Judge.

In 2018, I'm changing it up a little. I had a weird relationship with cards in 2018. I didn't buy as many. I was, and still am, unenthusiastic about many of the releases and the lack of creativity on inserts, and sets in general. My best pickups weren't even from 2018, such as my Ty Hensley Superfractor to complete my 2013 Bowman Draft Rainbow.

I've been harping a little on it on Twitter, but during my card sorting process recently, it's so hard to look at inserts of the '90s and early '00s versus some of the current releases. They are an afterthought; often a way just to shove more legends in a set and celebrate things like first hit or first home run. Which is all well and good, but the insert sets over the last few years have all blended together into a forgettable mass. Even the ones that stray a little and have some design element to them feel lackluster, such as 'Legends in the Making' or 'Don't Blink' from 2018. I think part of it is a lack of texture or interesting printing techniques.

Aside from the ramble above, cards were hard to find in 2018! I went to Target a bunch of times in search for newer releases, and my Target was usually pretty empty. Sure, there is a little thing called the internet, but the day I order a blaster online will be a first.

Regardless, I did have a favorite insert set this year. It dawned on me that in a few different posts, I consistently said that I thought the 1983 Topps Chrome Refractors were the nicest cards this year. Because while most inserts may stink, especially ones that continue to beat old sets into our brains, Refractors are the same awesomeness in 2018 as they were 25 years ago when they first debuted.

Side note - how was there not an 'Ode to Refractors' insert set on their 25th Anniversary??? (1993-2018)

So with that, my card of the year is this Giancarlo Stanton 1983 Topps Chrome Refractor:

Why Stanton? Well, I think 2018 will always be remembered by me for his debut season with the Yankees. It was right at this time last year when ninja Brian Cashman made the move to obtain Stanton. I remember watching coverage late into the night, hardly believing it was a reality. It definitely defined the 2017 offseason and 2018 season for me. Giancarlo was a Yankee.

He had a fine year, with 38 homers and 100 RBIs. He was a good teammate and I think he enjoyed being in a winning environment after his years in Miami. Sure, it wasn't his 59-homer MVP season from 2017, but it was a good year. And part of me thinks his year 2 will be even bigger, just like Alex Rodriguez's second year in New York.

1983 is also the year I was born, so we've got the whole birth-year set going for me. I've never really had an attachment to 1983 Topps, but still, just an added element to this card.

So there you have it, my personal nominee for my card of the year.

Contest results...from November!

My apologies for this.

I ran a contest in November, and due to some logistics wasn't able to give the prize away until now. Well, we're in business now. The winner below will take him this beautiful Buddy Lewis autographed Pacific legends card.

The original contest post featured a Q&A with MLB agent Joshua Kusnick, who has been living it up in DC this week while representing NL All-Star Jeremy Jeffress. Joshua has completed the 1988 Pacific Legends set signed by everyone who was alive when the set was released. Go back and check out the original post here to see some awesome cards. CLICK HERE.

Now for the winner. I entered each of the 28 who commented, and added an additional entry for anyone who gave some recommendations on how to display it.

With that, here are the results:

Congrats to Tony Burbs!

Tony, I'll get this out in the mail to you pronto!

Again, my apologies for the delay here. And if you're interested in following Joshua on Twitter, CLICK HERE.

Last day to enter my contest

Just a reminder that this is the last day to enter my contest. Go HERE.

More important than the contest, check out the Q&A with the awesome Josh Kusnick and the incredible collecting feat he accomplished.

Contest Results

Thanks to everyone who entered the small contest I had for a grab bag from the LCS I visited while on vacation. 33 entrants! Nice.

I hope the lucky winner is kind enough to show what ends up being in the bag.

I drew the results on Monday after the contest closed. I placed all 33 names in a random.org drawing. And here are the results:

Congrats to JayP of Cards My Mom Didn't Throw Out! I actually don't think we've made a deal before, so nice to send someone new some cards!

JayP - please email me with your address(thelostcollector AT g mail), and I'll get this in the mail.

Thanks again to everyone who entered!

Contest reminder

First off, thank you for all the condolences after I posted about my grandmother's funeral on Friday. I certainly appreciate them all.

I'd like to give everyone a quick reminder to enter my contest!

I'm giving away a grab bag purchased at my "vacation LCS." Click here for details.

My Top Ten Tinos*

I’ve been meaning to enter Collecting Cutch’s contest about showing the top 10 Tino cards in my collection, but I’ve been crazy busy and just haven’t found the time. Now I have.

I’ve also been a little conflicted on what to show. See, last year I participated in Junior Junkie’s Best Binder Page, and I didn’t just want to re-hash that. I could have just chosen those nine plus one. But I felt like that’d be a little lazy of me.

So instead I gave myself an additional rule, hence the * in the post title. I’m going to show my Top 10 Tinos…from Pacific. I absolutely grow fonder of Pacific with each passing day, and some of my favorite Tinos come from this underrated brand. Brian, I hope it’s ok that I bent the rules a little bit. I did it in the name of new content, I swear.

I’m also going to cheat and show four honorable mentions. These are cards I scanned but didn’t quite make the cut. Man, bending rules left and right, eh? I hope I'm not disqualified.

Ok, now it’s time for my Top 10 Tinos from Pacific.  

10. 1997 Pacific Crown Collection #154

I’m starting off with a base card. While this might be too much gold foil for some, I’ve always been attracted to this set. I love the horizontal design in the instance, as it really captures Tino’s swing from a unique angle.

9. 1996 Pacific Crown Collection #404 Printing Plate

This is the only card where I’m allowing Tino to be featured as a Mariner. It’s also my only Tino 1 of 1. It also came from Brian of Collecting Cutch. Brownie points!

8. 1997 Pacific Prism Blue #52

I loved this set when it came out, and I remember the day that the base card arrived in my mailbox the summer between 7^th and 8^th grade. I had just started buying cards in the AOL forums, and this was one of my first purchases. This is the blue version I got a little while back on COMC. I’m a sucker for clearcuts to, and the area behind the headshot is acetate. Pacific loves acetate. I love acetate. Hence, I love Pacific cards with acetate.

7. 2000 Pacific Revolution #98

I had a hard time picking between 1998 and 2000 Revolution, but went with the slightly crazier Y2K edition. This was basically 1995 Fleer on more potent drugs. Think about that.

6. 1999 Pacific Crown Collection Checklist #10

These are hard to find! One thing I liked about Pacific was turning the team checklist card into an insert. This is diecut, to boot.

5. 2000 Pacific Prism #200

These had at least 13 variations, which is tough, and some were numbered. I’ve always like this drops one or whatever it’s called. Prizm was always a sweet set, going back to the early ‘90s.

4.  1999 Pacific Crown Royale #99 (Opening Day Issue)

This look is a classic from the brass knuckles set. I have a few different ones from different years, but it just reeks of an iconic Pacific look, so I’ll let this one represent them all.

3. 1997 Pacific Crown Collection Latinos of the Majors #LM13

There’s so much I like about this card. The big, block letters behind the player image is so great. Latinos of the Major Leagueswas a staple with Pacific due to the bilingual nature of the product, and while this one doesn’t quite read “Latino” like some of the others do, the in-your-face block letters seal the deal for me as one of the favorite cards in my collection.

2. 1998 Pacific Invincible Photoengravings #10

I’ve written about this card more than once. I love the design and texture of the card. It feels special. It feels premium.

1. 1998 Pacific Crown Collection In the Cage #11

This might be favorite Tino card of ANY brand. It’s a special card, both die-cut and laser-cut, and the design is just so awesome. Pacific always went wat out there with cards to resemble batting cages or foul poles or hockey nets. It also comes from a time where Tino was on the verge of stardom following his 44-HR effort, so it was an exciting year for me as a collector seeing my favorite player pop up in elite insert sets reserved for the game's biggest names. While he never quite made it to Griffey or Piazza or McGwire insert status, for a short time in 1998 card releases, he was right there.

Not a bad group of Tinos, if I say so myself. I’m sure I’m missing one or two amazing Pacific issues, but I’m content with this list.

Thanks for the contest, Brian.

Contest winner announced

I had nine entries in my contest for my spare Juan Gonzalez TTM auto:

I listed all nine in order of when they commented, and did one Random.org list randomization this morning:

And the winner is Johnny of Johnny's Trading Spot! Johnny, I'll be sending this card out to you this week.

Thanks to everyone who entered. It definitely wasn't a contest that appealed to many, but still happy to give away a spare auto I don't need.

Feeling Chipper

When I was younger, I liked to enter contests. Contests back then took a little more effort, not like these ‘leave a comment on my blog’ or ‘retweet my post’ contests (by the way, don’t forget to enter my currentcontest – just leave a comment on yesterday’s post!). I never won anything big, but I always like to put in the effort.

Being semi-artistic, I always liked contests that involved sports artwork. I routinely entered those “your drawing could be on a sports card” type of contests. I cannot remember if it was Beckett or Tuff Stuff, but in 1996 or so, there was a contest for the best Chipper Jones drawing. Although he was a Brave, that was right up my alley.

I don’t have a photo of the artwork, but I do remember drawing a picture of Chipper, and he was pointing toward the sky. I also drew him on clouds instead of a baseball field. I don’t know, I was 12 or whatever. Not sure what my train of thought was. Kind of morbid, looking back.

My memory also fails me as to what the grand prize for winning was. I think it was a trip to meet Chipper.

Regardless, I finished my picture, using my finest colored pencils I might add, and sent it to wherever it needed to go. A few months went by, and I never heard anything, but then one day this showed up in my mailbox:

Again, details escape me, but I don’t think any letter or anything came with it, but I’ve always just assumed it was a consolation prize for my drawing. Regardless, it’s pretty cool to have a small signed photo of a future Hall of Famer.

Now go enter my contest.

TTM Success: Juan Gonzalez (and a contest)

Ok, I feel a little bad about this. I got another Juan Gonzalez TTM success.

Over summer, I got my first Juan Gonzalez TTM success. But then JBF had a tradeathon, and I snagged a Gonzalez from one of my favorite insert sets growing up: 1997 Studio Hard Hats. I requested the card with the sole purpose of getting it signed. It looks great, although it smeared just a tad. Still, cool to have it signed. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore.

TTM etiquette-wise, I really don’t like to re-send to players, unless it’s a guy I regularly write to, like Ty Hensley. I always throw in extras and whatnot if I do. My general thought is to not inundate someone with so much mail that they stop signing. I’m all about sharing the wealth a little bit.

Now I’m going to share the wealth with you. You see, I included an extra card and Mr. Juan Gone was nice enough to sign it as well. But I don’t need it. I got what I wanted. So, leave a comment on this post to enter, and I’ll randomly draw someone’s name and will send the card out via a PWE. Please keep in mind I cannot guarantee the authenticity of the signature, but I'd like to believe it's authentic, of course.

Feel free to share, although I’m not going to award bonus entries. One per person. Entries close at 11:59pm ET on Sunday night. Good luck!