Staying connected

 

I may whine about all of the promoted platforms for obtaining cards -- according to who you talk to, the best place for finding cards is ebay, sportlots, COMC, TCDB, cardbarrel, Facebook, Twitter, or something I don't remember because that's too many places -- but I recognize the importance of staying connected.

If you want to trade like we did on the blogs in the old days, you either have to add a platform to your inventory -- something like Facebook or TCDB -- or stay connected to as many bloggers and former bloggers as possible.

 

The latter can be a lot of work, bloggers aren't as accessible as they once were. Everyone seems to be busy. Fortunately, I've been around for quite awhile with a high-profile blog so bloggers of all sorts -- current ones and former ones -- think of me when distributing cards.

 

Thanks guys!

 

 

You're looking at the first-ever die-cut card. Who knew that Post was offering die-cut parallels in 1962?

This homemade jobbie arrived from The Diamond King. He came across it somewhere and shot me an email. "You have it?" I thought I didn't. It turns out I did. But I didn't have the die-cut version! (For those of you who are still confused, no, there were no die-cut parallels then. Card companies had more sense in the '60s).

Here are my now TWO 1962 Post Koufax cards.

Yes, the top one looks like the Pacific coast of Oregon. The second one looks like what happens when erosion hits your state.

 

Kevin added this autograph from Garrett Gould, a former Dodgers prospect from about 10 years ago who made it as high as Double A. Now don't you feel silly reading all those prospect analysis sites back in 2012.

 

Moving on to some cards that arrived after former blogger or once-a-year-blogger (depending on your definition) Bob Walk The Plank reached out with a whole batch of current Dodgers from stuff, well, I'll never see in pack form ever.

 

There you go. A mess of 2021 Dodgers from sets like Bowman and Panini Absolute, even a couple of Series 2 insert needs.

BWTP has been pretty successful scooping up 2021 cards from Target's online store and he's not shy about encouraging others to do so, too (I'm starting to think he owns some Target stock). I know he got me to stop whining about no cards on store shelves.

You may have noticed a couple of players in that photo who are no longer Dodgers.

Yup, these two cards arrived on the exact day that the Dodgers made the big deal with the Nationals. At least I'll always remember the day I got these cards.

 

I want to show this card again because I haven't seen anyone else point out that Sandy Koufax cards have moved from Topps to Panini. Topps has been churning out Koufax cards for at least 10 years now and then, all of a sudden, nothing in 2021. That's apparently because Panini has the license now!

I don't consider that good or bad, just different. I would appreciate maybe not being hit over the head by Koufax cards like Topps was doing, but Panini hasn't shown any self-control either so I'm not expecting much.

 

Finally, one last card from another blogger, although it's not a Dodger. It is however a Yankgel! or an Ankee.

OPC cards sure are fun.

This is the only card I nabbed from Diamond Jesters' most recent Time Traveling series. I will try to land any O-Pee-Chee card that shows a player with two different teams.

So, now, the only part of staying so connected on the blogs is distributing cards back to those kind people. I've been pretty lax in that area lately -- I'm so damn busy now, too. But I'll get there.

I'd rather stay in the blog community for my trading -- I both know the people better and I don't have to keep track of too many outlets. But if "staying connected" means searching on instagram and twitch and god knows what for cards, I'll do it.

It's not going to be nearly as fun as the blogs though.