A Huge Loss, A Big Gain, and 3 TTM Returns

A Tough Loss

I am a bit behind on posting and shipping packages. My wife's Grandmother and wife of the infamous Papa Jack passed away from ALS this past weekend. She was the matriarch of the family and will be missed everyday by a lot of people. Thats about all I'll post on here about it.

A Big Gain

The blog must go on I suppose. I was able to get up to Papa Jack's place on Sunday to be with everybody. The snow was a bitch and I put 18 hours behind the wheel over two days to get there and back. Wouldn't change it and definitely wish I could get up there way more often. Anyway, Papa Jack loaded me down with cards and memorabilia again. He had a huge tub loaded with cardboard and found some sweet posters and plaques to give me to take home.

My "What's In Papa Jack's Box?" segments will carry on for years with all this stuff on top of all the stuff I haven't even gotten to from previous gifts. I am going to post some of the treasures that got me excited as I peeked around in some of the boxes.

Yup, these are legit. I have never really handled cards from the 1950's but I knew right away they felt different and were an odd size. I took them down to the LCS and sure enough; they are the real deal and in crazy good condition. I will post more about them soon!

I finally have one!

So check this out...I open this box expecting a bunch of sorted junk wax and behold: 4 boxes containing 1989 Topps Traded TIFFANY sets. The cards are pristine. I have never had cards graded before but I am probably going to have to.

There were five sets of 1991 UD Football and they all have this card in them.

3 TTM Returns, Suddenly!

Some cards are just so cool you have to send them out no matter who the player is. Hellickson is no bum and this card is magnificent now!

My first Granderson return. Both he and Hellickson's card were sent out on Valentine's Day 2017.

The greatest inscription ever scribbled.

TOPPS 2018

I finally found some 2018 Topps. Here are some cards:

Of course my first card is bittersweet.

Contest Winners and Where is all the 2018 Topps?

Contest Winners!

There were not a lot of entries but I will take quality over quantity. I had fun reading the revenge plots of others and I hope everyone else did too. Everybody who entered is a winner and prize packs with a miggy card and some PC stuff will go out soon to each one of you. Thank you! Your humor helped me through the difficult Tigerfest hangover I was in. Brett Alan, find my email address under my contact me link and email me an address for you.

Matt from Diamond Jesters got me thinking with his glitter bomb idea. Whilst writing a handful of Spring Training TTM letters I decided my revenge will be sending all the littered edges from all my other letters to Miggy. I know from experience it will never get to him anyway. Someone in some office will open it and have the edges of all my paper littered all around their work space. They will  have to send me the dreaded donation request letter in return. Thus, forcing the Tigers to pay people to waste time returning fan mail. Also, the custodial crew will have an awful time trying to clean up the mess costing even more man hour money. All this extra money dished out to deal with my litter stuffed envelope will cause the Tigers to raise ticket prices. The team as a product being as bad as it already is and having already raised prices will lose attendance, drastically. The city of Detroit will turn its back on the team as tickets become too expensive and fans would rather go watch the new thriving Pistons down the road with new superstar Blake Griffin. The organization will eventually have to relocate to Las Vegas and win the 2024 World Series and become a Dynasty for a decade. Detroit teams will suddenly start to leave one by one until the city once again is returned to its post-apocalyptic, dark comic book-esque, villain filled cesspool environment....So maybe I won't do that.

USPS Detroit: HELP WANTED

I have posted a bunch of places about the local USPS distribution centers having a horrible time getting mail to recipients as of late. Rumor has it they are 4 days behind on sorting and can't catch up for lack of help. I read this online, it may or may not be true. Anyway, I finally received the package I had been waiting on for weeks that bounced around and fell off the face of the Earth for a while. I am too poor to go chase and actual rainbow of a card but someday when I do I would not want to be missing any pieces I could have gotten cheap in the meantime. I found this cool little piece on Ebay and the price was too good to pass up. I know most rainbows of a card are just numbered's and color variations but I thought this would complete the rainbow well someday.

5 Card Cello Pack with Jones RC on top!

2018 Topps, Where you at?

I visited a number of stores Wednesday looking for a single pack of 2018 Topps and found NOTHING. Target must have been sold out and Walmart and Meijer are never stocked on time or well at all. There are 3 Walmarts, 3 Meijer, and 3 Targets within a 20 minute drive of me. I would assume the same person is responsible for stocking mutliples of those. I was forced to buy one pack of 2017 Update to dry my tears. Nothing special but the Josh Donaldson SP shown above. I am so burned out on "SP" and "SSP". When they are selling for $1 on ebay they can't be printed all that short.
That leads me to the multiple facebook card group posts I have seen lately from last year's bandwagon Judge/Bellinger card flippers complaining that they aren't getting their money back when buying 2018. "Last year I could buy 3 blasters, sell the RC's and buy a bunch more when it came out. What happened?" Two monster rookies and Topps don't mix. I have a very strong feeling this is the end of the current collecting era and we are due for a hobby ice age mirroring the Junk Era. It empowers us to have a high population in the hobby but an ignorant population is never a good thing. Solidarity people.

Tiger Porn : 2018 Tigerfest Redemption

Tigerfest Redeems Itself

First off, I am curious to see what happens to my page visit count when throwing the word "Porn" into it. Probably nothing but its in Goolge's hands now.

Pics are at the end if you don't want to read the story.

Tigerfest 2018 was terrific for me. It wasn't improved from last year, probably got worse as less people attended but that made no difference in line waits and mass bad attitudes from staff and attendees. Don't get me wrong, the event is still the most unorganized scary mess you will ever see that pisses off at least 75% of its attenders. This year however, luck was on my side and having gone to so many I take it all in stride and leave it all to chance.
The Early Entry passes I scored made the difference. We got in line at 7:30am for the 10am open and had 150 people in front of us. So much for the idea of less people attending this year. One cool thing that happened was Ron Gardenhire, our new manager, showed up in the line and sat down and played cards with some fans and took pics and signed a little. Justin Verlander kind of started that last year and I think it was a nice touch for the new manager to do that for the fans. I found out in line (in Detroit Tigers form) Alan Trammell would not be signing at all at the event. Rumor has it his contract with DC Sports a memorabilia shop around my area wouldn't let him. So the list of guys not attending/not signing not claimed another signature I needed. I can't believe the Tigers would let this happen but nothing should surprise me with this organization anymore. I thought Tram would have to be one of the early entry signers because there were no other big names there. In line my brother and I got the low down on early entry from veterans of the early pass. As you enter you have a choice of left or right. Green ticket or Red ticket. It is very Matrix-y. My brother and I decided we would split up and then get back in line based on who was signing. The guys outside said every year they are able to get back in line and get both signers. They were wrong this year, which sucked for me. My brother chose correctly and got Michael Fulmer for Auto Session 'A' and I got Daniel Norris who is no slouch but I already got his auto this past summer and who's track record did not seem to me to be one of an early entry signer.

We rushed to get back in line and both went left to try to get another Fulmer but by then the "Normies" had been given entry and we got the next batch of signers. On the left was Craig Monroe and Daniel Stumpf. I need C-Mo for my next card project but Stumpf doesn't even have a MLB card out that I can find. Luckily, I had a card of his from the kids day giveaway at the ballpark last year. I told my brother I was going to trade somebody to get into the right line. Jordan Zimmermann was signing on that side. I really wanted Zimm's scribble so I waited for my chance. We got to the very end of the line and I spotted a drunk guy (10am) looking my direction. I worked out a trade with him and got into the Zimm line! My brother wasn't real happy and said I broke etiquette but you have to do what you have to do. The drunk guy got two autos instead of one and as we found out later when he spotted us leaving he met Jordan Zimmermann three other times that day. It all worked out for Auto Session 'B'.
Next, we scrambled to find the downstairs to get into that autograph line because the veterans in the morning line said downstairs always got the bigger names and the line seemed shorter. Well, this year there was no downstairs line. They were wrong, again. The time we wasted moving cost us Auto Session 'C'.
We found a line for Auto Session 'D' upstairs somewhere and got really lucky. Behind the press boxes we got JaCoby Jones! A PC guy! Brandon Inge was in attendance but I wouldn't get to see him. JJ is the next best thing. With Fulmer, Zimm, and Jones my brother and I both agreed our day was made and everything else was icing on the cake.

We found a shorter line on the concourse hoping for Session 'E' after asking 3 unhelpful employees upstairs how to get downstairs with the other hundred or so people frantically stuck out on the overhang with all obvious exits blocked off. We got in line and found out it was Daniel Stumpf and Johnny Barbato and Auto Session 'D' was still going on. Having already gotten Stumpf and having nothing for Barbato to sign we rolled the dice and walked to the back of the line for Auto Session 'E'. While in line Nicholas Castellanos was lead by his handler in error to our auto area. Pitcher Chad Bell was the lone signer for 'E' and had the unfortunate luck of having to sign for reluctant fans. Of course everybody started cheering and chanting and then the young woman found out she brought him to the wrong place so she took him away and everybody booed at being teased with a decent signer. My brother and I got Chad Bell who I jokingly chanted "Chad, Chad, Chad" for as he signed and he laughed and said that wasn't the first time Nick had been brought to one of his tables in error and that happened. He was cool.
We had time for one more auto so we jumped back in the same line for Auto Session 'F'. A security guard who had been monitoring that line all day said Nick Castellanos had not been to that table yet all day. Another person in line said he had only been in that line all day and rattled off all the minor leaguers he had gotten lone autos from and the only session he missed was the only mutli-player table with Brandon Inge, Todd Jones, and Spencer Turnbull. He had still done better than I did the year before but he was having a rough day. We expected the last signer to be someone decent. It was overdue. For some reason there was an hour between Bell leaving and the next signer showing up. People were getting a little rowdy for the unnecessary wait. Some of the Tiger cheer leaders or whatever they are came in and gave away three $10 gas cards. I had never seen giveaways for people in line before. I don't know why they don't do that more to keep spirits up, it cost them $30 to take our attention away from our throbbing knees and hips for 10 minutes. My brother actually won one.

This was the longest line we stood in. The line turns and heads up a three turn ramp just before the little bit of open light you see at the farthest point of the picture. We got free BitBits in line (Miguel Cabrera's candy). I ate them because I was starving, reluctantly. I would have rather seen one media post from him saying "Sorry I couldn't be there" instead of some candy samples.

Finally, the doors open and Nick Castellanos comes through with his entourage holding his son's hand. I knew he was never going to sign for an hour with his kid and family with him. Of course, the idiots in line started cheering and chanting as he walked past the table and booed as he went out the door and got in a car. I was actually surprised he stayed as long as he did. Fulmer was posting thanks for Tigerfest around noon and it was now 3:30. Drew VerHagen came in as the lone last signer. Most people bailed and left. We got Drew and then headed for home as the last lines were shut down early like they always are.

5X7

5X7

In sharpie because I used a Retail Logo ball instead of OMLB

Overall, our haul was good and we had a good time like always. I get a kick out of all the negative feedback this event gets but it really is just terribly planned. I really don't know why the Tigers even bother at this point with so many upset people every year. I am glad they put it on but if you're a Tiger fan be warned. You are better off paying for private signings than trying to get something signed at the ballpark at this event or a game.

MY PREVIOUS POST HAS A CONTEST THAT IS STILL GOING ON UNTIL NEXT SATURDAY. GET IN ON IT!