If I Owned Donruss...

In my opinion Topps is getting a little big for it's britches. Putting out an insert set in 2018 depicting their own "print as needed" Topps Now best sellers is the last straw. Pat yourself on the back on your own time, don't waste a spot in my pack for a card of a card you suckered people into buying. I know how big of a deal licensing has become and many people don't give unlicensed product the time of day. I don't think that is the other companies faults 100% and they put out some great looking cards even without logos. Here are two moves I would make if I controlled Donruss to give the company a little shot in the arm and take a shot at Topps.

1. I would make up mock teams to fill in for the lack of licensing. The Detroit Kittens, Kansas City Princesses, New York Federals and Suburbans in the NL. I would create logos of these made up teams to fill in the blank spots until I got a license agreement. I would sell hats, jerseys and shirts of these fake teams too. This is probably illegal in a million ways so as soon as the lawsuits came flooding in like TTM requests in spring training, I would start selling ad spots where logos should be.

2. Topps likes to "celebrate" its own designs from the past every single year. This year the 1983 design is being shoved down our throats with so many variations its not even worth collecting, I just trade them for junk wax.
If I was Donruss I would make a set called Donruss Deja Vu. This set would use the design of the most overproduced, most nostalgic, and least valued set of all time: 1990 Donruss.
Instead of making countless numbered and variations I would reproduce the errors from the original set. Aaron Judge would have a reversed negative picture like the Juan Gonzalez card from '90. Justin Verlander would have a King of Kings diamond king card like Nolan Ryan with all the error variations. Garrett Cole's picture would be on Lance McCullers's card like the Glavine/Smoltz error from '90. The MVP cards and the Diamond Kings inserts would be there along with the Rated Rookie set. There would have to be a puzzle so I guess it should be....Jim Thome in an Indians uni.

POST 100: Better make it good.

www.scribbledInc.blogspot.com  IT IS!

 

You found me!

My Name the Blog contest gave me the new title "Scribbled Ink," welcome. Unfortunately too many tween girls have taken all the good url addresses that would have applied to this blog better and Blogger has a lazy strict I mean privacy protocol to allow blogs that were made and have never made a post or haven't posted in 10 years to stay inactive and claimed. I hope all my friends from my old address were able to find me at www.scribbledinc@blogspot.com, it was the best I could do. Since I'm going all in with the new digs I decided to take this thing public and have added twitter (@scribble4me) and instagram (@scribble4me) to the arsenal to generate some fresh trade partners and friends. Feel free to add me on those apps and bookmark this new page.

TTM Returns? Yes, PLEASE!

Juan Gonzalez was good for one. He's a top notch signer! He was the man in Texas, I pretend he was never a Tiger.

Another former Tiger. He will live in Cleveland Indian lore for generations. I always respected Rajai Davis's game. I wish it had been a Tigers card but A&G crushed it with this card as it begged to be scribbled on. This makes me 25/136 signed for the year with 96 still floating around in space. I have some non-baseball cards to send out and need to get on that to keep it around 100 floaters.

 TTM Soap Box is coming up...feel free to skip.

Unfortunately, baseball is a business right down to fan interactions of past players. Companies are scooping up athletes left and right and are exploiting their fan base. I would rather my card not get returned ever and leave me with 1% hope than send a donation request back to me. I get it; guys are busy and get a lot of requests but we are all human right? I took time and money to send a letter of appreciation and a card to him for a signature to send back in a SASE. I'm not going all millennial thinking I deserve someone's time and effort but its guys like me that buy the tickets and branded crap that pays them to keep their jobs. Thats at least one way to look at it as lame as it sounds.

Its a strange thing; grown men asking other men, sometimes younger than them, for an autograph. For me, its nostalgic, fun, and keeps me busy. I sent to everybody at the Tigers this year including coaches. So it wasn't as if I was dying for Lloyd's auto, I just thought it would be cool to get the coaches and like sending personal notes to them to let them know I appreciate their work. I don't see a time when I would ever pay anything let alone $15 for Lloyd McClendon's signature. I like the guy and root for his success in whatever position he works but I do not need his ink that bad. Sad.

2017 Topps Fire Target Blaster Break

I have been avoiding spending money on Topps Fire or Update since I am not chasing Bellinger or Judge cards and those are the buyers these products pander to. I have however bought one blaster of each. I noticeably did not receive either hot rookies in the boxes which is probably all for the better as I would just trade them away. Here are the highlights of what melted out of the box for me:

All of this is for trade just check with me on availability.

Hey, two PC guys!

Rookie Davis obviously has the coolest name in baseball. Well, maybe had the coolest name now that he no longer is a rookie. I guess he'll always be a Rookie.

Boone really needed to be included in this set...NOT. More Yankee pandering for the New Yorker who would have opened this Judgeless box.

Bryant, Trout, Goldy, Kershaw are all promised and heading out tomorrow.

I have no clue what the difference is in any of these cards! I won't even pretend to. I am guessing the Gold ones are good. Here is the only actual numbered card out of the box:

How can a guy have a baseball card blog and not mention the Babe until Post 100?! Blasphemy!

Numbered /25 thats not bad.

Feebay pickup

I honestly didn't know this set existed. They are very cool and hope to add the rest of my PC guys to my collection soon. I got this beaut for $1.49 to my door with tracking.

Breaking all the Rules: Card Show Finds

I hope this wasn't a swing and miss.

 A little frustration mixed in this week with other collectors and vendors so skip ahead to the pictures when my whining gets annoying. I usually have no problem with others and communicate pretty well and politely as those skills were honed in my first life of customer service oriented careers. I can usually brush off anybody that annoys me but this week I must have been more stressed than most. First, this conversation from a prospective trade partner was confusing and annoying:
me: "What do you collect?"
them: "Mostly vintage."
me: "Okay cool. I'll look at what I have, whats your team?"
them: "Diamondbacks."
me: ...
So let me look through my vintage 1998 cards. WTF.

Next, I had been waiting for this last card show for a while. I knew I wouldn't have much to spend but was looking forward to spending some time digging through nickel and dime boxes with my brother. Unfortunately, life forced him to stay home. Bummer. So I went alone with a strict list of rules to make the most of my thin wallet. I broke every self imposed rule I made. It wasn't a complete bust but it was not what I expected.

My rules were;
1. Buy for myself, stop seeing every card as a trade opportunity
2. Find something vintage to take home for myself
3. Spend 95% of whatever funds I had at dimeboxes

So I did what I always do and found treasures for everyone else, bought vintage for other people and spent 60% of the small amount I had on singles and the vintage I looked through. I also got pissed off after being accused of trying to pull a fast one on a guy I buy from regularly. When I pointed out his sign was worded wrong he then accused me of making his box out of order. I buy from the guy all the time and the dispute was that I was trying to buy a vintage card for $1 that was marked $4 but his sign said everything was a dollar. So that ruined part of my day and he lost a customer that used to be happy to see him and always stopped at his tables first over a misunderstanding that would have cost him $3 that I was happy to spend if he would have been normal about it and not crazy. I am sure he had some terrible customers probably before my arrival that got him started off pissy but that's the nature of the business. Anyway, I did spend about 2 hours digging through nickel boxes and quarter boxes and found some decent stuff but it wasn't the blast I was hoping for. Here is some stuff:

I am now 2 cards short of having the Fish Inserts from 2017 Allen and Ginter done. Now, the question is how do I display them or do I start a new project like getting them signed by fishermen holding the records for those fish or something? I donno. If anybody has #13 or 16 I need them!

I picked up this little box of 1986 junk for $1. It had a lot of great names on the checklist on the back. I think I'm going to break up the box so if anybody needs any of the cards inside other than the ones I laid out let me know. You can probably find the checklist online pretty easily since I didn't upload it and I'm too lazy to go do it now.

Tigers:

I have always wanted that Brian Hunter card. The Upton is cool and Sheff and Morris cards are aesthetically pleasing. I have always been a sucker for one hit wonder Tiger bullpen flame throwers like Zumaya and Anderson.

Big Daddy PC pick ups:

Got this card for .03! The rest were 10 centers.

I honestly haven't gathered all my Cecil Fielder cards together so I may already have all of these but at .03-.10 a piece I may as well just grab them.

More PC guys for pennies:

Always been a Wainwright fan. 

Some more gold:

These two might go out for TTM autos.

Team USA familiar names and faces:

One vintage card for an upcoming signing:

Bought a pack of Topps Chrome even though I don't enjoy the set due to the poor surface endurance. I did however get some good new guys:

I love the look of these Diamond Kings and really want to see one signed in black sharpie. Yelich really impressed me during the WBC so maybe I will try to get him on this one:

Lots of rookies and prospects:

All these were .03! Three cents for Haniger and Renfroe RC's? DEAL! I really enjoy watching McCullers pitch.

.03 cents a piece.

Finally a Trevor Story RC.

And the legends:

Wish the Scherzer was for Detroit. Wish he was still a Tiger.

The basketball cards are clear, very cool up close.

Great Knuckin' deal on these gems!

If only I had this Morris 2 months ago. It would have looked so sweet with my '78 Rookie Project.

Just in case my son gets into collecting. (His name is Nolan)

Overall, I had a good haul of cards and this is just highlights of the 500+ cards I took home. The nickel box I spent most of my time in was really 5 different sets and rarely any wax but if you bought 33 cards it they were $1. That dude's quarter boxes were ten cents if you bought 50. I made out pretty well. I did pick up some mystery items for AJ and Oscar to add to their contest prize envelopes  boxes. I will get those out to you guys on payday this Friday. I am excited to get this stuff to you guys and hope its all new for you.
This weekend is the "Garage Sale Trail" on the coast near me that is a super long string of garage sales. I hope to find some goodies on that and maybe even hit a show too. We'll see.