Tales from the Closet - Part 1: Hidden Autos!

When I moved up to Alaska 15 years ago, I really didn't know what I was going to do with my life.  I might have been up here for only a few months and eventually make my way back down to Wisconsin.  Turns out I fell in love with Alaska and decided to stay like so many people do.  So before I left to come up here for the first time I boxed up all my old comics and trading cards and put them in a closet beneath the staircase in my parents house and when they sold that house and moved I moved everything to the new closet underneath the stairs and that's where the bulk of my childhood collections still sit.  While the wife and I were down visiting my folks I ended up taken a little time to dig through the boxes and boxes of stuff and pulled out a bunch of stuff you mail up and to bring back with me.  These are the tales of what I brought back!!!!!!

While not everything I jammed into flat rate boxes and a spare suitcase is worth all that much there is a lot of memories associated with most of the stuff I chose to bring back up with me.

First up we have some long hidden autographs.  Years ago when my father retired from the army and the family moved back to Wisconsin I lived in the sleepy northern Wisconsin town of Tomahawk.  One weekend Cal Eldred and Jaime Navarro were doing a free autograph session at the mall in Wausau about 30 miles south.  So my brother and I dug through our card collection to try and find all the cards we could for those two.

When we got there the line was long, but not too bad.  You could get one thing signed by each player. Well after our first trip through the line my brother and I still had a bunch of cards to get signed so we got back in line, over and over again.  Eventually I think Cal just signed the rest of my cards.  I knew these were in the closet somewhere, but for the life of me I couldn't remember who signed them until I found them.

I've already gotten Jaime through the mail, but have yet to find a good address for Cal.  As you can see I had quite a few more Eldred cards than Navarro and both have great sig's.

Nothing like finding nine autographed cards in a random box in your closet.

2013 Score Football...Already and not for the cheap anymore!!

So I just happen to be checking out the release calendar for upcoming products and I noticed that Panini is already releasing it's 2013 Score football product.  Wow that just seems really early, but they are putting out the first 2013 product from any company, that means first new rookie cards from this years draft and autos!!

I also noticed that Score has now doubled in price.  And while that still makes it one of the cheapest products out there I use to love being able to pick up a box of Score for under $30.  Well no more.  Panini has decided to follow the trend and now each box will contain one auto or relic card. 

The relic cards are new for Score.  A product that use to put one to two autos in per case.  I remember pulling a Peyton Manning auto number to just 10 and almost pooped my pants!  

Score is also offering Jumbo boxes with 3 hits guaranteed.  Panini must be subscribing to the Topps model on how to put out a product now.

I was looking at the sell sheets and the one thing I noticed missing was an example of the base card. But Panini is pushing the rookie aspect of the set and there will be 110 rookies like usual.

I also noticed that there will be hobby and retail now too.

And celebrating the 25th anniversary of the first Score set, this years rookies will be on the 1989 design, didn't they already do that?  

Of course since Panini is now following the Topps example there will be multiple colored parallel cards, yes I now Score already had Gold, Red and End Zone, Score Card, Artist Proof, ect parallels, but I don't see these listed for this year except for the Artist Proofs.

The Rookies will also have Red and Blue parallels. I'm not sure if these are Wal-Mart and Target exclusives, but they're in the sell sheet.

There are also Hot rookie inserts and an autograph parallel

And an Inscriptions auto inserts too.

And while I have no example there will also be Super Bowl cards featuring the Ravens.  There probably will be other inserts as well.  I also noticed that the glossy parallels aren't mentioned.  I don't think anyone will be sad to see those go.

Free Comic Book Day: The Haul!

Started way back in 2002 to help Comic shops and the industry help gain new interest in the hobby and the medium Free Comic Book Day, or FCBD, has been an annual nerdfest for well over a decade now.  I wish I could say I was there for the first one, but alas I was not, I'm not sure what year I finally made it to a FCBD event, but even when I was living in Haines, Alaska, I still made it to a participating shop.  And why not, who doesn't love free comics?  And some of the books even get valuable.

This year I hit up both Bosco's locations in Anchorage and made my wife go with me.  Bosco's policy is you get 5 books per person, so taking my wife along we get 10! And hitting both stores means I get 20, or more importantly most of the books I want.

The one I was most interested in getting was the free Walking Dead comic with new stories and it was stated that none of the stories in the free issue will be put in the trade paperbacks, plus the Walking Dead is still insanely hot.  I ended up picking up a copy in each location, but to be honest the store had tons of copies so it's not like this comic was short printed.

After I got home I started paging though a lot of the comics and I noticed just how many of them were actually labeled as first prints and had original stories.  That a big plus not just from the collecting side, but also for the fan who enjoys comics.  Here are the other 18 I ended up getting.

Last year Archaia went crazy and actually gave away a small hardcover book.  Not this year, but they do have an cool original Mouse Guard short, my wifes' favorite comic, and it's a flip book, like a lot of the free books, with Rust on the back.  There are also a couple other shorts inside as well.

I always pick up Bongos Free-For-All. Love 'dem Simpsons!

I couldn't resist Dynamites free book featuring Grimm.  Plus this is one of my wifes' favorite TV shows too, so I guess I really got it for her, right?

It's been along time since the Turtles have been the Turtles.  After Archie got a hold of them and now Nickelodeon they are a far cry from the original, but I can't resist a TMNT comic.

Don't ask.

I was really into Valiant back in the early 90's, I'm glad they're back, for now.

Hard to pass up a Star Wars comic, it's also a flip book with Avatar on the back.

Dark Horse's other Freebie was the Mass Effect/Killjoys flip book.

Archie had a free Digest comic.

DC had this awesome Superman with Jim Lee cover.

And this DC Nation sampler comic.

Avatar's (the publisher, not the Airbender or blue guys) offering.

Hermes Press offers two digitally remaster Sunday insert stories from the original Sci-Fi good guy.

One of Marvel offerings

And the other.

Kaboom's super sampler.

Arcana's Steampunk/Oz story

Oni Press' new series.

And there you go.  A nice haul if I do say so myself.  Ok now back to baseball cards.

cb out.

Hey Tomorrow's Free Comic Book Day!!!

Go get yourself some free comics.

Check out FCBD's website HERE to find where you can get yours!

I'll show off what I get tomorrow I hope

I'm back and now I need a vacation from my vacation

Wow it's been a little over two weeks and now I'm back.  I know I posted a couple mobile posts from the three ball games I got to go to, but they weren't real posts.  I also hate to call what I just did a vacation.  I never consider visiting family a vacation.  But it was good to see everybody and get out of Alaska for a few weeks.  Of course I was hoping for better weather, but what can you do.  This is just a summary of the trip, minus all the boring family stuff.

When the wife and I flew into Chicago we ended up spending the night at my wife's aunts house.  We got in early so we crashed and later that night took in the second home game for the Cubs.  And it was cold, really cold!

We lasted till the 8th inning and then sought refuge across the street at a bar for wings and beer and to watch the rest of the game.  Oddly enough two years ago we ended up going to Wrigley for the second home game as well.  The Cubs won both times.  They were playing my beloved Brewers.

We also took a trip over to Minnesota tothe  Mall of America.  My wife had never been and the weather was nice for the drive.   I also got to go to my first Lego store.  It was a little overwhelming for a Lego fan.  I'll post about that over on my Lego blog.

I ended up getting sick half way through our trip and finally felt good enough for the drive.  If it had worked out better we might have stayed the night and gone to a Twins game while we were there, but we ended up just driving back to my folks house in Northern Wisconsin.

After about 10 days with my folks we headed south again to visit another one of my wife's relatives in Oshkosh and along the way we stopped at Lambeau for lunch.

I highly recommend the bacon beer cheese burger on a pretzel roll, unbelievably good.
I ended up going through the Hall of Fame again and my wife went shopping for me at the gift shop.  There was quite a bit on clearance so I am now fully stocked on Packers apparel.
I also wanted to see all the Lombardi Trophies together.

They also had a new exhibit featuring the photography of the late Vern Biever the Packers' official photographer from 1941 till he retired in 2006.  It was really cool.

Then we hoofed it down to Milwaukee to take in a couple Brewers games at Miller Field.  I had yet to make it to a game there and was pretty excited to see the place.  Both games were against the Cubs and the roof was closed for both, which was probably a good thing as it was still pretty chilly.  This was also right in the middle of the Brewers 9 game winning streak, I do believe the two games were 6 and 7 of that streak.  I also got to see my favorite Brewer prospect Logan Schafer make an appearance in both games, replacing Aoki on Saturday and an ejected Braun on Sunday.
The first game we were close to the worst seats in the house.

The worst seats would have been two seats over from mine on the left there.  I also got to see a few old college friends I hadn't seen in about 9 years, just by chance.

Here's a view from the very top row of the 4th level.

That is a long way down.

On Sunday it was bobblehead day and we scored a pair of George Scott bobbleheads.  I think half the folks there were like "Who the hell is George Scott?"  Luckily I know exactly who George Scott is.

George played with the Brewers from 1972 to 1976 and racked up 5 Golden Glove awards while with the team. Hence the gold gloves on the bobble.

Both games were a lot of fun and we had great seats on Sunday.  Second Level row two on the third base line.

We ended up back in Chicago for my wife's birthday and had great weather so we headed downtown to the sky deck of the Sear's Tower, now called the Willis Tower.

I also have a large cache of baseball cards and comic books at my folks house.  I've been meaning and planning on eventually moving all that stuff up here, but haven't.  I did dig through it and mailed a bunch of stuff up to myself and I'll have a few posts on what treasures I found buried.

Good to be back.  CB out.

Better seats today!

Hoping the boys can make it seven in a row

At Miller Park

And loving it. Hope they can make it six in a row. Cb out