Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Listia Loot: Old Post Cards

Here are a three post cards which I picked up on Listia a few months ago.

Don't remember what they cost but they were too neat to pass up.

This first one is my favorite but it was a close vote between it and the second card:


In real life the colors are more vivid than a scan can reproduce.

If you live anywhere that is actually affected by this awful winter then this card might make you wish for spring(and baseball) that much harder.

The paper has a smooth back on this card and the next one but the fronts of both have the same 'air cushion' effect applied to playing cards.

Here's the back:


Going by the one cent postage I think it is safe to assume these predate most of us.

I notice the typography is, by today's standards, low class but it was probably grade A back then.

Plus, that font used for "POST CARD" is beautiful.

Here's my second rated card(although I would mind being there right now):


Nice picture of where I would love to be instead of this white wasteland of Illinois.

Colors are, once again, more vivid in real life.

I've been playing so much GTA 5 lately that I feel I have been there since the game is based in about the same area of California.

The back is about the same as the first card except for the purple palm tree on it. And the typography seems to be much lower quality than the first one so I think it might be a few years older than that one:


This last card was more or less acquired since it was included with the first two and has since not grown on me:


Not a very exciting subject but it appears to have been made of higher quality paper(gloss replacing the 'air cushion' effect") but the back is the same as the other two:


Yea, post cards!

On another blog note I'm going to get back to my Topps Without Borders series soon and continue my Conlin Cards series which I have not done much on in the last oh.......half year or more.

I'll get to posting some other stuff but this winter is like a big writer's block. I look out at planet Hoth outside my window and hope to at least see a Tauntaun galloping across the tundra to pique my interest but it doesn't happen and I just sort of blank out on anything to do(or more accurately, the motivation to do it).

With the Cubs reporting to spring training tomorrow and unveiling their massive new $84,000,000 spring complex(renderings below) there might be something to get me out of the blogging doldrums.




Video: Cubs unveiling new spring training facility

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Not so fast, Mr. Morales!

Just opened my first two hanger boxes of 2014 Topps and I like the overall product.

I love the fact that there are more parallel sets, especially the yellow border cards.

There are a lot of good action shots in the set and many great photos overall.

But one card stands out, not for the action, but for what is happening on the card.

First a recap of why the card is interesting:


That is Kendrys Morales, formerly of the Angels.

That is a player experiencing the highest of highs as a ball player and immediately suffering the biggest agony of da feet(had to say it). Or rather a broken leg, from celebrating the event.

According to this article it made the Angels adopt a plan that they have used since that day.

Which brings us to the card:


Here we see a Morales that is being cautioned to slow down while entering the group of teammates.

I guess the Mariners are in the process of adopting a similar philosophy to celebrating.

No agony on this day, Mr. Morales.
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