The cure for card aisle and writing doldrums

I believe I've established that there's nothing new in the card aisle this year that will get me to run to the store specifically to shop for cards. I expect the 2016 card doldrums to last just about the entire year.

In more concerning news, I've been fighting writing doldrums for months now. I put on a good front (writing is what I do, you know), but the desire is just not as strong. I still have ideas -- some pretty good ones, too -- but the thought of spending an hour or two to search for the right cards to pull off the posts is inching its way into "do I have to?" territory.

This isn't good. I need that incentive I had back in 2009. And the only place I can find that incentive right now is in the latest COMC order.

Cards that are wildly interesting to me will always -- at least temporarily -- cure the doldrums.

So let's see what can still get me excited that isn't strutting around in a tube top.

Like I said: "wildly interesting to me." 2009 Upper Deck First Edition may not be much better than what's hanging on the hook in Target right now, but cleaning up some more recent Dodgers team sets is a main objective right now. Unfortunately, I came one card short because First Edition includes two cards of Manny Ramirez for reasons that will only be revealed after we've advanced as a species.

These 3 cards, however, did complete the 2015 Heritage High Numbers Dodgers set for me. I feel pretty foolish throwing cash at a card of a player who never competed for the Dodgers (Cahill). But we're living in a collecting world where people are dashing to Walmart to buy mediocre pizza they'd never eat otherwise. One card of Cahill in a fake Dodger uniform I can reconcile.

This elusive card, plucked off my Nebulous 9 list, completes last year's Jackie Robinson Story insert set.

I get to show it to you now:

Cards 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ... and, because nobody at Topps has ever seen pages in a binder before ...

... 10.

Here is another recent project of mine: Tracking cards of players shown or listed as a Dodger but shown or listed with another team. These are the nemesis of any team collector (and since Upper Deck was a huge perpetrator of this, a special thanks to them). I still have one more of these dastardly things to go from this particular set.

You ever make reference to a certain card on your blog and instantly feel sad that you don't own it?

That's what just happened with the famous "Pete & Re-Pete" card from '82 Fleer. It is now mine and I can read about Rose's "faithful and loyal son" on the back, because Rose Jr., apparently, was a good doggie.

The best part of wandering through online shopping sites is simply seeing what cards jump out at you. Having never owned a Dodger baseball card that also included a basketball player, I figured now was the right time, given that it's Kobe's farewell season and all (OK, that was all B.S., I don't give a wit for Kobe or the NBA).

This card also gave me an idea for my next COMC purchase, which hopefully you'll see in a month or two.

Another card that jumped at me. As an announced lover of "moment in time" cards, I couldn't believe there was an insert set devoted to "moment in time" cards and that one of them was of Hideo Nomo (with the same photo featured twice for reasons apparent only to card manufacturers in the late 1990s).

This card commemorates a rather nondescript victory by Nomo in which he beat the Expos and also doubled. But at least the top of the card features slats like an old-time radio!

I am always apprehensive about sketch cards. The sketch can make or break the card like nothing else. But this 2015 Museum card features a nice illustration of Kershaw and is well-presented. It's going to look even better after Clayton mows down the Padres on Opening Day.

Look! Mr. Kotter would like to announce the beginning of the '70s portion of this post.

This is the latest card to go into the '70s TV/movies binder. "Welcome Back Kotter" basically introduced me to the appeal of sitcoms as a kid. I had a lot of trouble selecting just one card for this show, but this combines Mr. Kotter and Horshack, so that's pretty good.

Yes, I went a little wild with 1975 Topps buybacks. These are all cards that I either pulled from packs in 1975 or saw in 1975. Each and every one I thought was cool as a 9-year-old.

This brings my total of '75 buybacks to 60 cards. After reviewing what's out there, I know I will have no problem reaching 100. And I'll surpass that number with little trouble, too. I think, though, somewhere between 120-140 cards I might have to do some work. One person on COMC in particular is selling buybacks for crazy prices and I'm not biting on that.

This last group of cards is the most important. I pulled in some more 1972s and really tried to clean out my last remaining pre-No. 500 cards. The cards above are in the 400s or 500s.

This card is in the 600s and part of the evil sixth series.

So are these two (no. 720 and no. 711). Figures, they're both Giants.

And the final card is one of the last remaining superstar that I needed for the set. Seaver isn't a high number, but his card number (#445) and his status made me avoid this one for a little while. (Still have Rose, Brooks Robinson, Garvey, Kaat, and In Action cards of Rose and Marichal to go).

With these cards, I need just 31 cards from the 1972 set to complete it. It might be in the top 3 of completion tasks once I get it done.

And that is one post where I won't mind spending a couple hours to pull cards.