Baseball Card Collecting Blogs

Below are a list of some of our favorite card collecting blog articles. The links that follow them are to up to date feeds from recently submitted articles to each respective blog. Each blog gives its own unique insight into the baseball card collecting hobby. Read through these to gain more information on today's hottest cards, brands, sets, and players in the collection industry. The feeds from each blog are rotated, so check back often for new articles and information.

The House of Cardboard
Updated :

Wait, he did what?
Unless you've been a hole, you've probably heard that Jon Lester threw a no-hitter tonight against the Royals.  As part of their coverage of this feat, ESPN posted a list of all the no-hitters in MLB history.  So I was perusing the list when something jumped out at me.  In 1991, there was the combined no-hitter for the Braves by Kent Mercker, Alejandro Pena and Mark Wohlers.  This is a memory that is etched into my mind and will never forget it.  So I keep looking at the list and I see in 1994 Kent Mercker threw another one for the Braves.  Wait...what?  It seems that the fact that Mercker tossed a no-hitter against the Dodgers went by the wayside when The Strike happened that year.  Kent Mercker might be the most unlikely player to have multiple no-hit credits to his name.  Him or Bobby Witt.  But the thing is, Kent is still playing.  He's on the 15-day DL right now for the Reds, but he's still playing.  Kent hasn't reached the level of performance he had when he was with the Braves, but he's been pitching well in recent years.  In fact, he was out of baseball in 2007, but got a spring training invite from the Reds.  He went to the minors, but was called up to the big club.  Hopefully, he can get off the DL and have some quality relief for the Reds, because I've always liked Kent.  Except when he blew games for the Braves. 

Mr. Anderson......
I'm done with finals and can finally catch everyone up on what's been grabbing my attention in the card world lately. When I collect, my main focuses are Braves and Chipper Jones specifically. However, when you're trying to collect a player of Chipper's caliber, the price of cards can get really high really quick. So I decided to look for someone, a Braves player, that I can collect and get high end cards of and not break the bank. After doing some looking around, I settled on a guy that caught my attention when I went to spring training. So here, for the first time, is my collection of Josh Anderson
While I don't have that many right now, what I do have are good quality and upper end cards. I don't think I've payed more than $10 total including shipping for any of these, with most coming in the $1-$3 range. Josh might not be a star right away, but flashes of brilliance were seen last year with the Astros. He might be the answer to the outfield platoon in left that the Braves have had for so many years. Also, my one complaint is that I need more cards of Josh in a Braves uniform. Even on the Co-Signers card, he's airbrushed. Tisk tisk Topps. So this is a call: If you have any Josh Anderson cards for trade, let me know. I might take them off your hands.

Seriously I'm not dead
I've been in exam mode for awhile now.  They just started yesterday and I'll be done with them next Thursday.  So expect more posts after that.  and hopefully I'll have something about a new player collection I've started recently soon as well.

2008 Spectrum
I went and got a blaster of Spectrum last night. No detailed breakdown, but you'll see how the box went in the style of a 1st grader: 2 words or less and pictures.




2008 Allen and Ginter
Well I know where my money is going. The sell sheets for this went out today and I'm highly anticipating this set. I do need to finish last years set though. Just looking over the checklist, here are some of the non-baseball highlights with some still to be determined:

Stevie Williams - Pro Street Skater

Matt Biondi - Olympic Swimmer

Kerri Strug which will probably feature either this or this image

Nicky Hayden - Motorcycle Racer

Joey Chestnut - Pro Eater

Bonnie Blair - Olympic Speedskater

Dan Jansen - Olympic Speedskater

The DNA card makes a return and instead of there just being one, there are 8 subjects which are slated to be Abraham Lincoln, John Adams, Andrew Jackson, JFK, Jackie O, Alexander Hamilton, a Wooly Mammoth and a dinosaur fossil. World Leaders, Baseball Icons, US States and Ancient Icons are all inserts now, making the master set that much harder. Cut Sigs are back with Daniel Webster, John Paul Getty, J. Edgar Hoover and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle leading the way of what has been determined at this time. A cut sig of L. Ron Hubbard is included in the list which should be put on e-Bay as soon as someone gets it in hope of Tom Cruise paying a lot of money for it.

The Future Is Now!

While trying to get caught up on my blog reading and everything else, (yes yes, apologies about the lack of posts. Hopefully once exams are over in mid-May, there will be more posting) I was reading that dayf had a prediction about the inclusion of celebrity autos becoming more commonplace in the hobby. Well low and behold 2008 Spectrum did just that, which dayf missed in the sell sheet, which is even more hilarious because he commented on the Winkler auto over at Wax Heaven (you know I'm just ribbing you dayf.) So after looking at some stuff and taking a gander on e-bay for what's available right now, here's my thoughts on the whole thing. I figured it might take a few years to get to the point where the "stars" that are signing the cards are at the level of the utility infielder/rookie autograph that is often the hit of a box. Nope, looks like they went for medicority right out of the gate with most of the autos (at least the ones that are on e-bay right now) being from 80's hair metal bands and not the people that you've usually heard of from said bands. Oh sure, there's Sebastian Bach and Dee Snider, but for every one of those, there's 5 Dan Dokkens or Mark Mendozas listed. The best ones I see listed are a few Tom Bosley, Larry Hagman,and Eric Roberts cards. There's one Henry Winkler and it's a die-cut SP. There is also one of the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. I mean, couldn't you get all of the people that played bit parts on Seinfeld to sign cards? And I'm sure Michael Richards isn't doing a whole lot these days. At least most people would recognize them where as no one can tell the difference between the bassist from White Lion and the lead singer of Ratt. Get Jaleel White, Jodie Sweetin, Bob Saget, Craig T. Nelson, Dustin Diamond even someone like Jeff Probst who might just be a host, but I know who he is. I'd feel like I'm getting some value out of the cards at least then. Also, if you're a new collector, around the age of 13-15 and are being drawn in with the celeb autos as being one of the selling points, wouldn't it make sense to have autos of someone these kids would recognize? I'm not saying make every card someone from the Disney Channel, but maybe make some cards that are known by both the older and younger set like Hillary Duff or Shia Labouf. Now I understand that you can't make every autograph a big celebrity like Matt Damon or Bruce Springsteen, but there are recognizable faces that are more than willing to shame themselves on reality shows for weeks and weeks. I think they'd be open to doing one day of autographs and I know UD has the money. So basically what I'm saying is that if I want a box of overpriced crap celebrity autographs, I'll buy a box of Donruss Americana because at least most of those people I've heard of.

Jordan Schafer - HGH User
http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/braves/stories/2008/04/08/schafer_0409.html

The top prospect in the system has now been tainted. Hopefully, he'll not be effected by this and still be a great hitter when he makes The Show.

I'm not dead, but my bracket might be
Sorry bout the lack of posts.  Between school, other stuff and being in and out of town, it's been kind of hard to post.  But I'm still alive and kicking and hopefully will have some good stuff next week.

Best Job Ever, Next to MLB GM
Great article here on Gregg Forwerck who shot the '92 Bowman Chipper Jones Shorts card.

COTW for 3/9/08: 1994 Topps Finest #327 Marvin Freeman
"Starvin'" Marvin Freeman was one of my favorite players on the Braves in the early 90's. This was mainly because he was the only Brave to ever give me an autograph at the ballpark before the game started. He played for the Braves from 1990 to 1993 when he was released by the Braves and signed by the Rockies. When The Strike happened, Marvin was having a career year going 10-2 with a 2.80 ERA for the Rockies. Somehow, Marvin learned how to pitch in the thin air of Coors Field. Because of The Strike, he never got to be an All-Star. He pitched in the Majors until 1996, but never regained the form of 1994. Some say the incident with Jim Rome combined with his dwindling effectiveness sped up his departure from baseball. Marvin now is an assistant coach for a high school baseball team in Illinois.

RSS feeds
Increase Search Engine Traffic