Secret Santa Hath Visited! Whoa...

MERRY BLOGGIN' CHRISTMAS!

There are a number of bloggers that I have immense respect for and see their blogs as integral pieces of our niche blogosphere. Bob Walk the Plank created by Matt was one of the first blogs I found when getting back into spewing about cards. He was also a huge influence in changing my blog name to something catchy. He is such an awesome guy for putting together Secret Santa for us. Thank you Matt!

Angus from Dawg Day Cards blog, and I am sure many other media places, got stuck with me for Secret Santa...and he crushed it! I have seen some posts that lead me to believe I am a part of a large number of us who feel like we suck at being Santa and received much better gifts than we gave out. Its most likely not true at all but I know my package wasn't as personalized and perfect as the one bestowed upon me. I hope, hope, hope he stayed within the price limit and if he did he is one of the best deal finders on Earth. I know I spent half a day shopping for my secret person but did not send a package that looks anywhere close to as thoughtful and as much time consuming as the was put into mine. For that, my gift person, I hope you enjoy the package and hopefully next year Angus draws you.
Anyway, like steroids shot into A-Rod's butt; here is the package that has beefed up my collection:

Angus sent this awesome card depicting old Yankee Stadium (which I was lucky enough to visit) with the scoreboard lit up with an afternoon matinee with the Tigers. So awesome! I'm probably going to try to get this autographed its so cool.

Angus visited Comerica Park and got these sweet Tigers sunglasses. I was hoping to keep them in the collection but they have been claimed.

Big time vintage with big names! The Gene Lamont RC has been on my wishlist forever.

More vintage gems and not just Topps! Luckily, Angus put notes on most of the items so I knew what I was getting, not everything is what it seems in this hobby.

The backs of these are cooler than the fronts!

The man!

The '73 Tigers had some big names!

Big Daddy could knock down some Grand Slams!

Super awesome Tram. The condition is amazing!

I have often thought about collecting a set of these, I may have gotten the trigger to do so now!

Okay Angus, where did you find this? I can't find anything about it anywhere! I haven't had a ton of time to research but all the easy searches came up with nothing.

I didn't realize until now, I bought Sugar Crisp while grocery shopping and my wife asked why. I guess this card stuck in my head.

Another new Willie Horton! I think hes doing a signing coming up. The next time you see this it will hopefully be scribbled on.

1993 Tigers Gatorade jumbo team set. 29 Cards! This team is the first team I really remember watching and following hard. I love this set!

I had no idea the Tigers had so many stickers in this set! Absolutely awesome.

NOW FOR THE REAL JAW DROPPER FROM THE PRESENT:

Come on Angus! There is no way all this kept you under budget dude. This should illustrate how much effort my man put into this gift. I hope you have an awesome Christmas Angus! Expect a thank you package very soon!
 These cards are amazing! I am going to get them framed after Christmas. They are the coolest fishing cards I have to date. I have to really research their existence as I have never seen them before. I love them, I get pumped every time I see them.

My Favorite Card of 2017

I Have to Pick One?!

I'm finding out about all these cool contests and giveaways I missed out on by not blogging in 2016 and now I am taking full advantage. A lot of the other bloggers out there come up with some thoughtful posts to get the blogosphere to interact in fun ways and its awesome.
P-Town Tom of Waiting 'til Next Year , who has made many appearances in this blog has a contest running that I am super impressed with. "What is your favorite card of 2017?" That is such a great question and a tough one to answer. I can't wait to see what others choose. For me, there is one card that combines two of my passions in a retro/classical way. Lucky for me, Tom will let me squeak by without this card actually being in my possession; yet. I know I will obtain it at some point and the hunt is part of the fun. Here it is:

The 2017 Topps Ted Williams SP #US18. My time spent living in New England educated me on the non-baseball aspects of Mr. Williams life, especially fishing. You'd be amazed at the amount of fishing paraphernalia that sport Ted Williams name as a brand. The picture on this card shows a crafty Ted stripping line on a fly rod from the front of a small boat. I know I have been in this same position in my canoe many times, maybe not with the flair for fashion Mr. Williams had. I can't wait to add this card to my collection. It is hands-down my personal favorite from 2017!

In the meantime here are two other cards that came to mind but didn't exactly fit the criteria for this post but I do own.

This Ted Williams from 1959 isn't current but still illustrates the same love I have for the first card. The Allen and Ginter sailfish card was the last one I needed to complete the set. This set opened my eyes to a vast collecting potential of fishing tobacco cards of the past. Plus, I was able to attend my first Bassmaster weigh in this summer and had interesting cards for the anglers to sign for me. I am still building that collection. 2017 helped integrate two of my biggest passions in the world.

Give a Man an Auto...TTM Return in 4 days!Aly

 The Thing With Pro Fishing Is...

Aly Akers (right), Host of Major League Fishing returned my TTM request in 4 days!

As I've posted about before I love Professional Fishing and collecting autos and stuff from those guys! Two differences stick out in my mind between Pro Fishing and Pro Baseball; size of fan base and circulation of money. Both of which are much smaller for Fishing than Baseball, but I would have to argue that Fishing might be the national pastime; historically. If you didn't know, these guys can, and do become millionaires through the sport. If you visit the Bassmaster website you can see each angler's career earnings in just tournaments alone. Some of the numbers are staggering.

I had a very interesting interaction with an up-and-comer fisherman last week that I had some thoughts on I'd like to share. If you recall I attended the Bassmaster weigh in when it was here at Lake St. Clair and got autographs and took pictures. I printed some of my favorite pictures and have been trying to contact the guys in them to see if they will do TTM autographs for me.
The first guy I contacted was Jacob Wheeler. My favorite fisherman hands down. I sent him an email via his website and received a response the next day saying he would love to sign my picture. He is awesome. The dude literally just tied the knot and might not even be back from his honeymoon yet. I have always been blown away with how interactive he is with fans in the community.

With that success under my belt, I sent to 3 other fishermen. Two are pretty successful, award winning guys and the third is like I mentioned earlier an "up-and-comer" in the sport but quickly becoming more popular. I haven't heard back from the 2 more successful guys yet.
I messaged the rookie via social media because his website is broken. I asked him if he had a fan mail accepting address that I could send him a photo and a SASE to for a signature. He is the one guy I expected to say "Heck yes" because of him just coming off his rookie year. He messaged back 2 days later and said he had no address and could not sign. Here are my self-righteous, deserving, disgusting uber-millenial disappointed thoughts on this:

First, this speaks volumes to how great Jacob Wheeler is with his fans. Wheeler has career winnings of $1.37 million and this other guy has made $159,454. To put into Detroit Tiger terms it would be Michael Fulmer compared to Buck Farmer where Fulmer signed for you and was instantly your best friend and Farmer denied you. I know these guys have free will and don't have to do anything I want them to but my next thought explores a little more of that.
Pro Fishermen rely on sponsors. They are walking, talking billboard ambassadors. Their jerseys look like Nascar vehicles with logos plastered everywhere. Their boats are no different. Now, do I drive a certain brand car because some Nascar dude does? No, but I am not a racing fan. Do I now throw Gene Larew plastic baits while fishing in a pond pretending to be Jacob Wheeler on Major League Fishing? Yes. I would think a guy who is sponsored and depends on those sponsors would go a little farther for the fans.
Lastly, this is where racking my brain over this gets into the (for the lack of a better term) shitty side of society. The gentleman that denied me is not Caucasian. He competes in a very white dominated sport that has the majority of its fans in the southern states. I hate to think this way but maybe he was afraid of his address getting out. I don't know. I expected a reply like "Yeah send it to my sponsor with my name on it." I didn't need the guy's home address. The funny thing is I sent an email to Aly Akers the host of Major League Fishing who is a former Miss Oklahoma, I believe. She replied instantly "Yes, send it here." The current state of the country would lead you to believe Miss Akers would have more to fear giving out an address than the other man, but who knows. This world is crazy. I could be wrong about all of it and the guy is homeless and lives off his boat.

I am still a fan of his and hope he stays successful and maybe if the Bassmasters come back to Lake St. Clair I can get him to sign the picture for me. In the meantime; Aly Akers signed for me adding to my huge stack of fishing autos I need to create a display for.

She tossed in some stickers for my canoe too!

Allen & Ginter Fishing Legend Lefty Kreh, GIVEAWAY Countdown Continues

POST 96 

An ebay snag for 90% less than the other 4 listed on the site. Its a great photo of fly fishing legend Lefty Kreh. I don't think many traditionalists in the fly community would appreciate him holding a largemouth in the pic but he probably reeled him in on a 5 weight after chugging a popper somewhere. I love when my passions collide. A memorabilia/relic card of a fisherman?! Hell yes. This one gets locked up in the PC forever. 

!!!!!!!GIVEAWAY DEETS!!!!!!!!!!

My SUPER-AWESOME-FANTASTIC-MEGA-CRAZY-COOL-BOSS-SWEET-NAME MY BLOG CONTEST is still going on. Check out this past post :  CONTEST DETAILS to enter! Anybody, and I mean, anybody who enters will win something. You need not be a google+ member, blogger, follower, or even card collector to win. Comment or email me to enter.