Waterlog (yeah, a new name every time!) has certainly thrown herself full-throttle into baseball fandom.
We just ordered delivery of the baseball cards she garnered by entering Million Card Giveaway codes from Topps (mostly from the 2010 Update series, which consists of players traded or rookies who made their Major League debut during the course of the season; they cover the All-Star Game, too, which is something they didn't do back when I was initially collecting and it was simply called the Traded set). Participants could actually trade the cards they acquired with other participants to get cards they would find more desirable than what they had, which is pretty damn cool. Waterlog had a series of trades maintained right up to the end of the MCG promo, offering several cards (one or two of which were more valuable than what she wanted) in exchange for one of Bob Uecker's cards from the 1960s. She really wanted his Braves card, but would've taken a Cardinals or Phillies. Nobody bit at those, unfortunately, but somebody did take a 5-for-1 she offered in order to get Trevor Hoffman's rookie card--sure, it's a card I already have by way of owning the entire 1993 Topps Baseball set, but she wanted one of her own, and now it's coming. 'Inordinately happy' would be a good way of describing her state of mind immediately after finding out the result, yes.
(I think I've a single of it around, too, but good luck finding it...)
The MCG promo ends tomorrow, but that's not the end of this sort of thing for Waterlog--Topps is celebrating its Diamond Anniversary with--well, pretty much the same thing, but with diamond rings 'n stuff. She's around 50 cards from completing 2011 Series One, and has some cards lined up for her on the new promo site (nobody mega-special, and trading won't be available for awhile yet)...man, I dunno how far it'll go. Collectible cards of ANY stripe began getting kind of expensive when I was originally collecting, which was a big portion of the reason why I stopped for the most part in 1995; it has not gotten any better in the years since, obviously.
(I blame and name Stadium Club; a specialty card series, then, that became the forerunner of what we get as a matter of course today. Maybe I'm showing my age--blah blah blah 40¢ for a pack of 14, they were only a little glossy on one side blah blah holy cow and postage stamps went up to a quarter OH NOES...wait, I'm not allowed to do this sort of thing until I'm sixty? Dammit.)
IN ANY CASE, true then and now, it's naturally far cheaper to buy the complete base set when it's released and chase down any wanted insert cards (something ELSE that didn't really exist until the early 1990s; now where're my trifocals?!) on their own as they are made available (eBay, for the most part)...but she's having fun doing it exactly the way I used to do it--pack by pack. I'd be remiss if I didn't point that fact out, but I'd be a real dick to take that fun away from her.
Guess I'll just stick to jokingly grousing after having dinner at a nice restaurant. "$43.65? Well, that was a Leader-class Transformer. Or three Deluxes and a Scout..."--
+++PRIME OUT+++
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Do you guys collect sketch cards? Or do you know about the whole sketch card scene? I am looking for someone to explain them to me.
Not much to explain. Sketch cards (or redemption cards for same) for a given card series are inserted into packages (sometimes of only certain types or pricepoints) for that same card series. (If we must keep it roboplastico in nature-- :) --the Transformers Armada card series from now-defunct Fleer had Sketchagraph Redemption cards randomly inserted into the card packs--find one, send it in and you'd get a little piece of hand-drawn art*. The 2007 movie card series from Topps inserted the actual sketch cards into the card packs.)
They're generally (but not absolutely always) drawn by any number of artists that have had some previous dealings with the property in question (stuff from Marvel Comics? Artists who have drawn their books. Armada? Dreamwave staff. 2007 TF Movie? Bit of a hodgepodge, I think--IDW and some artists whom we hadn't known previously). When they're hired for the job, they're shipped some number of blank cards and let loose with whatever media they choose or are asked to use. They may be allowed to use any extra blanks (ones they haven't used in filling the quota if they screw up a few), or pull a few back from what they've done, for their own purposes. We got a Bumblebee sketch card from one of the artists who worked on the 2007 Topps set this way ($100 well-spent, sure).
In any case, it's a simultaneous extra awesome little thing to find, if you find one, and a guarantee that you will never, ever truly complete a card set.
*...well, you would have if you found it and sent it REALLY QUICKLY...we think the sketch cards were delivered to Fleer very late, and Fleer folded in the middle of the redemption period. We've only ever seen one actual sketchagraph card out in the wild, and any others wound up in Upper Deck's hands and were probably randomly sent to anyone who sent in ANY redemption card from any of Fleer's promotions...send in one from an NBA set and you'd probably get some NFL card; Upper Deck couldn't be bothered to take care of it all properly. I found one while UD was handing the stuff out willy-nilly, but knowing the situation, I held onto it.
NOT MUCH TO EXPLAIN BUT I WROTE A FRICKIN' BOOK WHAT THE HELL DOOD
>blinkblink<
Never got into those baseball card things. I did have a small collection of Garbage Pail kids way back when, that was about the extent of things.
'Ay, speaking of which, I need to find a home for my old "animayhem" cards. Either of you two interested? Lemmie know. I got some thinking I could draw the art on them and then found, well, I'm not that much of an artist. (actually, I suck at drawing lol)
Scratch
(Verification word: twigom. That thingum that growsum on a treeum.)
Hey thanks a tryptzillion for that. I'm going to do a show soon including interviews with two sketch card artists but I don't know anything about sketch cards. I didn't want to sound like a total dumbass (I at least wanted to maintain my normal level of partial dumbass) so your help helps. Your book on sketch cards answered all the questions I had, especially about the Transformer brand's appearances within the sketch card scene. I'll tell my three listeners to check this post out.
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