I’m back, and in 3/4 effect!
For those that are curious, the wedding went off without a hitch (aside from the near or possibly record low temperatures and biting strong gusts of wind. At least the rain had stopped by that point so we could take pictures outside). Andy took tons of video with our blog’s awesome new camera (more about that come in the future). The bride didn’t run away after all, and now my left hand is a little heavier. Pretty amazing weekend all around.
But now it’s over. Now I have time in between thank you note writing and selling our old wares to make room for the new wares, and playing our new PS3 (mostly playing our new PS3 — L.A. Noire, bitches!) to get back into some card stuff again. Oh how I missed it. I was even able to essentially flesh out and finalize a few pre-wedding trades, which will find their way on here once their time in the rotation comes up.
In the meantime, this is a loooong overdue trade post. The scan in my folder was from February! And the trade actually originated from my junk wax “giveaway” last Thanksgiving. What is wrong with me?
I know what you’re thinking, “He doesn’t post anything for over 2 weeks then comes back with a trade post?” Well, look, thank you notes aren’t just for wedding gifts. I’m far behind on thanking people for all the great stuff they’ve sent my bachelor ass the past few months. The Mrs. wouldn’t like it if I all of a sudden became rude. We’ll get to more topical stuff another time. For now, I want to send this thank you note post to cubsfan731 of Justin’s World.
I'm glad I missed out on buying 2007 Topps
This is the very first Red Back I’ve ever seen. I’m really not a fan of variations at all. There are some I tolerate, and some I can’t stand. This falls in the latter. If I’m going through a dime box at a card show, I don’t want to be flipping every damn 2007 Topps card over in hopes that it has a different color of text. I should be able to distinguish the difference at a quick glance, and I should be able to do so from the front side. Plain and simple. With that said, I’m still very happy to have this card – mostly because it means I won’t have to spend extra time looking at backs of 2007 Topps cards nearly as much anymore. In fact, I love getting this simple non-numbered or high-numbered variations in trades most of all. Rarely do I have the luck to pull them in packs myself, and it’s usually pretty tough to find them for anything less than $3 shipped on ebay, which is simply way too much money to spend on a stupid variation that shouldn’t exist to begin with but I’m going to collect because I’m a masochistic player collector.
Boy, ain’t Demp funny? I’m sure Henry Blanco was rolling in the dugout when he saw that crazy wig. And I’m sure Kerry Wood tripped over him on accident, putting him on the DL for the rest of the season.
The squares remind me of the Atari 2600 game Yar's Revenge. Anyone?
For good measure, here’s the front of the card. This actually wasn’t from Justin, but rather the regular Topps issue I acquired some other way that I can’t remember. I have a few copies of this card, so my guess is that it ended up as a bonus in a trade or two.
I hate to keep harping on it, but the colored squares confound the hell out of me. I’m not one to typically psycho-analyze a baseball card design, but what do they mean? If they’re supposed to be bases, then why aren’t they diamonds? I feel like I should be able to interlock my cards with other cards, a la Legos. There’s probably some hidden military code embedded in the set that gave away Bin Laden’s whereabouts, and the U.S. Government just recently emailed Topps for the code to decipher it.
All the card really means to me is another Dempster card down, and another Dempster card with him pictured in front of some little league field. I don’t know why there are so many like that. It must be because he’s so child-like and goofy.
There are stupid variations of this set too.
Then we come to 2008 Topps. This design isn’t much better, to be honest. I’m glad I reintroduced myself to packs of cards in late 2009, because if I tried either of these two years, you would not see me writing in this blog today. Who am I kidding? Yes you would. I’m being too negative here. There are positives to draw from this card. 1) It’s not a practice field shot. 2) The facsimile signature is great (still glad I have no autograph to chase with him in a Cubs uniform). 3) Despite the crappy limitations, the space is utilized quite well. Ryan looks like a Tetris piece just ready to drop.
The only thing this Chrome is missing is spinners.
Lastly we end with a parallel I don’t mind as much. Topps Chrome. I guess in 2006 they basically chromed up the entire set for some reason. I don’t know what the purpose of that is, really but I’m glad they’ve since pared it down. You know, it’s interesting. I’ve received a few Greg Maddux chrome cards in trades now, and they’re always the Gold Glove/Award Winner subset cards. I have the Black Refractor of this card, and I have the regular and refractor of the 2007 Gold Glove card. Trust me, I’m not complaining. I love having all of them. I just thought it was interesting how that worked out. Man, this guy was good, wasn’t he? 15 freakin’ Gold Gloves.
Thank you, Justin, for helping me unload some of my junk wax and for sending some great stuff over in return. I’m glad I was able to close the books on it in under a year. Hmmm…close the books. I think L.A. Noire is calling me.
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