Christmas Pack #41

Does this pack expose the identity of the second spitter?* 
We have a pack in which I have heard of everyone, which features two Hall of Famers, two Padres players and a Padres coach.  Keith Hernandez is featured with hometown favorite Dale Murphy, while Tony Fernandez (Padres player) Cal Ripken (HOF) and Alan Trammell (HOF, Padres coach) are featured on another card.  Andy Hawkins represents the third Padrograph that is represented in this pack.  

Christmas Pack #40

Proset Musicards come through with a pack containing only two bands I had never heard.  I would think that if you haven't heard of  most of these people you weren't a fan of contemporary music in the 90's.  Bobby Brown helped found New Edition when he was nine years old.  He went on to a solo career and married Whitney Houston.  Vanilla Ice costarred in a Ninja Turtles movie.  I will always remember Simple Minds because of Don't You (Forget about Me) from The Breakfast Club.  Eric Clapton was featured in the movie, Tommy and is a legend amongst guitar players and music fans.  He has sung in many bands and had more hits than I can think of.  Al B. Sure was a hot R&B singer.  Madonna was the favorite musical act of one of my coworkers. Madonna has had more hits and more personas than many people.  She has reinvented herself many times to stay relevant in the music industry.  The Alarm started as a punk rock band called The Toilets. They opened for U2 and Bob Dylan and built a following.  Off the top of my head I can't name any of their songs.  U2 was introduced to me by my younger brother, he is seven years younger.  He got to see them for 92¢ when they were first coming to the states as a promotion with one of the local radio stations.  I have liked most of their music, some of the stuff in the middle years I didn't like so much.  I have never heard of the final two bands perhaps they should tour together and it would be the Giant-Trouble tour.  

Christmas Pack #39

I have decided to only show the cards that are not dupes that I receive in each pack.   I have heard of everyone here and the were big in country music in the 90's.  Clint Black, Shania Twain, Diamond Rio and Lee Greenwood got major play time on the radio.  Riders In the Sky and Clinton Gregory were a little less popular.  
I was attending a citizenship naturalization ceremony a few years ago and was surprised that a music video was played which featured the song, "God Bless the U.S.A.".  It seemed an odd choice given the diversity of the group being naturalized and the political correctness of so many things.  

Christmas Pack #38

I have already started stockpiling blasters and packs for next Christmas.  I have decided that I will open a complete blaster or box, try making a set and then document what I got.  Opening a pack a day is not working with my other card activities and this thing called life.  I am going to continue with this project, until I get my den set up and can sort the cards instead of just piling them up.  
In this pack I had heard of everyone but Bob & Justine.  The Big Bopper had a big hit with Chantilly Lace, he perished in the plane crash with Buddy Holly and Richie Valens.  Bill Haley had what many consider to be the first rock and roll hit with Rock Around the Clock.  Smokey Robinson has solo hits and with the Miracles.  He just performed Sunday at the 2019 Grammy Awards.  Simply Red had multiple hits during the 80's.  Donna Summer, had many hits including an awesome rendition of one of my favorite songs, MacArthur Park.  Andy Gibb, was the younger brother of the Bee Gees.  He died just five days after his 30th birthday from a combination of depression and drugs.  Dee Dee Sharp a hit with The Mashed Potato and in the disco era with a cover of I'm Not in Love.  

Christmas Pack #37

 I bought this online to see what it was, it came directly from Topps.  It was well packaged, first in a cardboard box, then in a 50 count box with a Topps sticker wrapper sealing the plastic box.  Then inside the plastic was a pack that had been hermetically sealed on Funk & Wagnells porch.  It is very shiny as you can see, my fingers have never shown in a photo on here before.  All the cards are mini reproductions of the 2018 Topps cards, from series one and two and the update set. 
There were two one of one cards, Willie Calhoun and the 1983 All Star Insert of Chipper Jones.  There were three cards that were serially number out of twenty five.  Brian Anderson, Wilmer Flores and Jose DeLeon, are 3/25, 34/25 and 25/25. 
Then there are the rest of the cards.  Wouldn't you know I didn't get a single Padres card out of the whole bunch.  The two 1/1 cards are going on eBay everything else is up for trade. Eagle eyed reader Brett noticed that 34/25 should not exist, so I went back and checked and the Wilmer Flores card is actually 3/25.  Thanks, Brett. 

Christmas Pack #36

That top row of players rings no bells at all.  Everyone else I had heard of or remembered.  Andres Galarraga was one of my sons favorite players for awhile.  I think I read a book by Frank Tanana once.  Walt Weiss was the third AL Rookie of the Year for the A's back in the '80's.  Tony Gwynn I had the pleasure of meeting once or twice.  I got to sit and hand him stuff for a couple of hours at a card show in the early 90's.  John Kruk ain't an athlete, he's a ballplayer.  He and Tony were roommates in rookie ball. 

Christmas Pack #35

 Over to the left are the guys I haven't heard of.  If you haven't heard of Tommy Lee, I would like to know what rock you have been living under or how young you are.  The drummer for Motley Crue has been in the tabloids for dating everyone from Heather Locklear to Pamela Anderson, both of whom he has been married to.  Charlie Slade is the overlooked member of AC/DC but his drumming is awesome and is the backbone of the band.  Steve Howe of Yes and a couple of other bands is an awesome guitarist that I saw in concert once.
From 1976 to 1979 I was stationed at Naval Air Station, Alameda.  If you don't know where that it is it is adjacent and south of Oakland, CA. While I was there I attended several concerts at the Oakland Alameda Coliseum and Arena.  One of the most memorable was Donovan and Yes.  The curtains remained closed and someone put a chair in front of the curtain and Donovan came out and sat down and performed what was basically an unplugged set.  After a suitable intermission the curtain opened and Yes began.  Rick Wakeman had like 12 keyboards, each guitarist had upwards of 10 guitars, the drummer had a huge kit and a set of tymphony drums, Jon Anderson, the lead singer, had a rack of percussion and other instruments, plus a harp near the drum kit.  It was the sharpest difference I have ever seen between an opening act and the headliner. 

Christmas Pack #34

 I will never get all these packs documented if I just do one pack a day so I will try and get as many in as I can.  Today another of ProSet Musicards, legendary bands & solo acts.  The Doors, Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek and friends gave us too many hits to name.  Kool Moe Dee was one of the first rappers to win a Grammy and was the first rapper to appear on the Grammys.  He had a long time feud with LL Cool J, who KMD thought disrespected those who came before him.  LL is now more widely known as an actor having played former Navy Seal Sam Hanna on NCIS:LA for 10 seasons.  Vanilla Ice, will always be remembered for Ice, Ice Baby and (at least in our house) for Ninja Rap from TMNT.  Last time I saw him he was a contractor and had a remodeling show on HGTV, I think.  Janet, Miss Jackson if you're nasty, emerged from the shadow of her brothers, The Jackson Five to become a superstar on her own.  George Michael, left Andrew Ridgely and Wham behind to have a successful solo career.  Would he have been as successful with the success of Wake me Up before you Go, Careless Whisper and Everything She Wants.  Who knows for sure?  POCO came out of Buffalo Springfield and begat Loggins & Messina, The Eagles, and Richie Furay.  Jimi Hendrix, is one of the greatest guitar players of all time,  my personal song of his is the Star Spangled Banner, performed at Woodstock.  To me it embodies so much of the time.  I have never heard of Forbidden of Vio-Lence.

Christmas Pack #33

Pack #33 pretty much the same as Pack #6 this was the only card that wasn't a dupe in this pack.  The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band also performed as the Toot Uncommons on Steve Martin's King Tut. 

New Frankenset

I have decided to start a new Frankenset.  I might actually like this one.  It is going to be an all autographed set.  This is the first card in the set, #19, Tony Gwynn.
Here are my rules for this set.
1.  Real autos
2. Have a card number, not a couple of letters
3. Be numbered 585 or less.  585 is divisible by 9 so it will fit exactly in sheets.  (I upped the number to make sure I got the 88 Fleer Flannery in the set)
4. No dupes, unless it is Tony Gwynn, Tim Flannery or Bip Roberts.
5. All sports, non sports, signed custom.  So if you have a custom of your own and you sign it and send it to me I will put it in the set.


So far I have two cards in the set, #19 Tony Gwynn and #63 Huey Lewis from ProSet Musicards.

Here we go.

Christmas Pack #32

Another pack of Country Gold, it yielded the box's first duplicate.  The Billy Dean card is a dupe.  My wife and I got to see Lori Morgan in concert when she opened for George Strait at Memorial Coliseum years ago.   I remember I collected the singing Cowboy set at some point.  I really like the image on the Mark Collie Card.   I had heard of everyone in this pack except for Ricky Lynn Wagner. Hank Thompson and Whisperin' Bill Anderson are well known to us old time country fans.  Tracy Lawrence's song Find out who your friends are is the theme song for us and our best friend's family. 

Upgrading Padrograph #506, New Padrographs #1123 & #1124 and Christmas Pack #31

 Cameron Maybin, was one of my earliest attempts at a custom card.  I used a photo from Photoday and sent him the card on the right.  He signed it and sent it back.  Somewhere along the way it lost the back. When I had the opportunity to upgrade it I did.  I had the chrome card for awhile but it had fallen behind a book case and I just found it yesterday.




I was checking out the Padres card an autograph dealer had and somehow I found two cards I did not have. Richard Steik, played for 4 seasons in the Padres system between 2004-2007.  Played two games at AAA.  Chris Kolkhorst, played for 5 teams in two years (04 & 05) in the Padres system. 







This is my favorite pack of Rockcards so far, because it features Diamond David Lee Roth.  This pack also features more people that I have heard of than any of the previous packs. 

Padrograph #1122 and Christmas Pack #30

Rob Mackowiak, came and went in the US Mail in 15 days, to and from Wesley Chapel, Florida.  Rob played in 28 games for the Padres in 2007.  I made the card and sent it to him. 
On to the Christmas pack, another pack of Country Gold.  Out of nine cards that were only three that I had never heard of .  Jeff Chance, made a couple of albums and sadly passed away in 2008.  Zaca Creek was a band of brothers, the four Foss brothers performed from 1989 to the band's breakup in 1994.  Kevin Welch, is a prolific writer and singer who has been performing since 1990.  Looks like another person to add to my Pandora, between the rockcards, musicards and country cards, I have added lots of variety to my listening.  All of the other acts showcased here are well known.

Padrographs #1120, #1121 and Christmas Packs #29

 Two more custom Padres, sent to their homes and then signed, sealed and delivered yesterday.  (Listening to Stevie Wonder sing Signed, Sealed and Delivered as I begin this post).  I mailed both of these out on January 12 and they both came back January 28.  Miguel Olivo, played in 34 games for the Padres in 2005, he split the season between Seattle and San Diego.  This card went to Sacramento and back in sixteen days.  Ronn Reynolds played in eight games for the Padres in 1990, the last year of his major league career.  Travis (punkrockpaint) transformed Ronn in a Las Vegas Stars uniform into a Padres uniformed Ronn Reynolds.  In the same sixteen days that it took Miguel's card to go to Sacramento and come back, Ronn's card went to Wichita, Kansas and came back.

This American Bandstand pack was chock full of people I knew.  Chubby Checker, Bobby Darrin, Buddy Holly, Fabian, Annette Funicello and Jerry Lewis.  Let's play word association
Chubby Checker-The Twist
Bobby Darin-Mack the Knife
Buddy Holly-Peggy Sue and The Day the Music Died
Fabian-Tiger
Annette Funicello-Beach Party Mouseketeer
Jerry Lee Lewis- Great Balls of Fire.

Christmas Packs #28

It is less eleven months until Christmas 2019 and I am not sure that I will finish documenting all the packs from Christmas 2018 by then.  The box still looks pretty full.  I may be able to see better when I get moved into my new room for my stuff.  So we have two upstairs room that I had one of and the other was a guest room, which didn't get used that often.  One son's family lives across the river in Vancouver, WA so they don't stay overnight and the others son's family lives in Vegas so they don't visit much.  So my wife and I  decided that she would move upstairs and use both rooms for all her sewing and fabric stuff.  I would move into the room that she had been using.  I got all my stuff moved out of the room and it is now stacked on the dining room table.  She has been making improvements to the rooms she is moving into so the room I am moving into is not yet available.  So some of my stuff is not accessible, my printer is hooked up and setting on an end table in the living room. 
With all that said let's dive into a Padre heavy pack of 1988 Fleer.  This pack had nobody that I hadn't heard of.  It had four Padres, one of whom is a Hall of Famer and one who is deceased.  Mark Thurmond, played for the Padres for three years, including pitching in the World Series in 1984.  I remember talking with him in the stands at a Portland Beavers game, when he was with the Las Vegas Stars.  He told me that he had one leg that was shorter than the other due to a childhood bicycle accident.  Mike Aldrete, played with the  Padres in 1991 and is now the first base coach for the A's.  I will make a card for him and send it to him care of the A's this year.  Dave Winfield was the first player identified as Padre when he was inducted into the Hall Of Fame, he played for the Padres from 1973-1980 before joining the Yankees.  He now serves as Assistant to the Director for the Players Association.  Chris Brown played for the Padres in 1987 & 1988.  After baseball he drove tankers in Iraq for Haliburton and came under fire.  He passed away in 2006 due to burns he suffered at a vacant house he owned.  This is the card I have signed for my Padrograph collection.