Three Months Later

I've been out of the blogging loop for half a year now, and really only in the loop intermittently for the six months prior to that. I still have a lot of interest in my collection and I've been adding to it on a regular basis, but I have a hard time getting myself to take pictures and write posts. For the last few months I also pretty much stopped reading other card blogs. There's been a lot going on and I can't keep up with everything.

I've documented some of my struggles with depression, anxiety, my MBA program, life and work here in my sporadic recent posts so I won't rehash them too much. Collecting cards is still fun. Collecting artwork is still fun. Tweeting about my cards is still fun. Blogging about my cards is hard because it takes a lot of effort to turn out something that feels like more than a show-off post.

So without further ado, here is some of the stuff I've been up to and some of the cards I've been gathering over the last little bit.

It was pretty fun to get this Brian DeGuire sketch card of Princess Leia. I like his work and I've picked up a couple of his sketches, but until I won this card I hadn't been able to land a Leia in his style. This card is perfect.

DC's Power Girl is the focus of my other major art collection, and I was able to land another couple of artists whose work I enjoy featuring Superman's cousin from Krypton. On the left is a PSC by John Monserrat, and on the right is a sketch card from Cryptozoic's Superman: The Legend set by Cami Fortuna.

I also snagged a couple more wrestling autographs for my collection. I am pretty sure I didn't have Nikki Cross or Lita represented in my collection yet, so I went ahead and got these two signed cards. I've gotten to where I really don't know what I have and what I don't anymore, so I almost expect to find duplicates in my collection if I ever sort it. Over the last couple of days I've been putting all of my cards into 5000-count boxes and putting all of the 5000-count boxes in one spot, which should make it easier to restart the sorting process that I've failed to complete many times. I think I'm up to 25 boxes or so, which by my estimate is roughly 110,000 cards. I don't think each box contains a full 5,000 cards, especially the boxes with a lot of top loaders in them.

I know that I have a Tomb Raider relic already, but I didn't have this particular Tomb Raider relic yet. What I really want is a Tomb Raider autograph, but those are a pricey proposition. Maybe someday I will be able to get one.

I spent the second half of June in South Africa with my dad and his uncle. My dad is on the left, I'm in the middle, and his uncle is on the right. It was a hunting trip for my dad's retirement. I've seen some talk about trophy hunting among card bloggers on Twitter recently, so I hope that posting about this won't cause me to lose friends. I haven't posted any hunting pictures here, so you can scroll down and read without worrying about seeing that.

I tried to take a picture of the giraffe drinking water, but I was too slow. This still turned out to be a good picture.

I was conflicted about the idea of hunting animals in Africa when my dad invited me along. I like animals a lot and trophy hunting seems kind of wasteful and cruel. I've never done much hunting before, with my previous hunting experience limited to discharging a shotgun in the general direction of a duck when I was a teenager.

I have killed animals, though, because we had a farm and we killed rabbits and chickens for meat and I had to kill a handful of sick animals during times when my dad wasn't around to do it.

This ostrich hung around the gate all the time. She finally got into the compound and visited my room.

I had to study the industry before I agreed to go hunting. While there are bad apples out there, the majority of the hunting outfitters in Africa are quite ethical, and my reading and my experiences while in South Africa convinced me that in the current political and social climate, managed hunting essential to the conservation of African wildlife.

A good outfitter will have all of the permits for all of the animals hunted, they will carefully manage the animal populations on the land they hunt, and they will make sure that you are hunting for older animals who are past the end of their breeding life. The trophy fees on these animals keep the outfitter in business, which acts as an incentive to keep the land set aside for game animals rather than converting it to agriculture, industry, or residential use.

In Africa the animals are only as valuable as their meat, which is not all that valuable when you consider that it is easier to raise domesticated creatures on that land. The trophy fees that hunters pay ensure that the habitat remains set aside for both game animals and the other non-huntable species that occupy that land. I hunted on hundreds of thousands of acres that were set aside specifically because of the hunting industry.

The meat from animals hunted for trophies gets used. Some is used to feed the hunters in camp, some is sold at markets, and some is donated locally. During our trip we spent one day hunting Impala on a tribal concession specifically for meat that the tribe had requested from our outfitter. Although hunters do take the trophies home, they don't waste the meat.

The economics of it also help to grow the populations of less-numerous species. On one piece of land that we hunted we spent a lot of time talking to the land owners about their business operation. One particular antelope species, the Sable, had been driven almost to extinction by hunting and habitat loss. In response, the trophy fees for Sable went through the roof. A lot of outfitters and game ranchers sought out Sable for their land specifically because the trophy fees were so high, and the Sable population has rebounded. The land owners we talked to had been able to place 3 Sable bulls on their property, and when those three bulls are hunted the trophy fees will allow them to place a breeding herd on their property, which can then increase in size over time. Without managed hunting I think the Sable would have just been hunted out, but the value of trophy fees convinced the land owners and managers to ensure that the population was protected. And the large trophy fees for the Sable also ensure that the land will be set aside for the Impala, Wildebeest, Giraffes, Zebras, and other species that also occupy the land.

A Giraffe and a herd of Zebra

I am not saying that everyone should hunt, because not everyone is inclined to that lifestyle. I just think that people think of hunting in Africa as being like Bison hunting in the American plains, with hunters out there blasting the species into oblivion. In countries without managed and controlled hunting it still is that way to a degree, but in countries like South Africa hunting is an important and essential component in conservation.

I don't think ecotourism can make up the difference, because I don't think that a photographer will be willing to pay the same prices that a hunter will, especially for some of the really common game that is the bread and butter of hunting in Africa (Impala, Warthog, Springbok, Kudu, Blue and Black Wildebeest, and similar). There were many times that my Professional Hunter pulled me off of an animal that we had stalked because it was too young and still had breeding years left in its life. I went out of my way to hunt only non-threatened species and to focus on shooting animals that had aged out of the breeding pool, and I think most hunters and outfitters do the same. That way our trophy fees go toward killing animals that are at or near the end of their lives anyway, but keep the land viable for the herds that are breeding and growing. To me, the evidence undeniably suggests that countries with legal and managed hunting show increases in game populations and land devoted to wildlife, while countries with hunting bans see their game populations decimated and pushed out in favor of other human interests.

I love Basset Hounds, and I was glad to meet Astro on one of the hunting properties.

There are some species I wouldn't hunt even if I had the money, like Rhino and Elephant, but I also know that those hunts are highly regulated and that a hunter who wants a Rhino will pay at least $200,000 to do so and an Elephant hunter will pay $50,000 or more. If those animals are hunted ethically at the end of their natural lives, that is a lot of money that can go toward preserving the land for the rest of the herds to live on.

I don't think that I am some kind of conservationist hero because I tried to hunt ethically and I believe that managed hunting is an important part of conservation, but I do think that the public vilifies hunters without getting the full story. There are plenty of bloodthirsty douchebags who hunt and give other hunters a bad name, just like you find in every group of people. I don't think all or even most hunters are that way, though, and I think most hunters truly care about the animals they kill and the land they hunt on. I probably am not going to change anyone's mind here, but I think there are often more sides to every story.

To get back to the cards, this Josh Reddick Superfractor popped up on eBay and I grabbed it up. I built a bit of a rainbow for this Bowman card a few years ago, and it was kind of cool to have the big card out of the bunch pop up long after I'd given up on seeing it.

Here are some more cards I pulled out of boxes of wrestling cards, which I've been opening a lot of lately. I go through phases, I suppose, and for the last little while I've been pretty big on wrestling stuff.

The really big pull from the wrestling cards was this Dana Brooke Kiss Card Autograph, which is a tough pull and a fun collectible. I would still like to get my hands on one of those Goldust Kiss Cards that Topps put out a while back.

And the biggest pull recently, and quite possibly the best pull of my life, goes to this Carrie Fisher autograph that I pulled from a box of Star Wars Galactic Files. It's the White parallel, numbered just # 3 / 5. I would be hard-pressed to think of a better card than this for my own personal collection, and to pull it out of a pack myself makes it even better.

Blog Bat-Around: What I Collect

I don't think I've ever participated in a Blog Bat-Around before. I tend to do things on my own schedule, and by the time I am ready to participate in something like this, everyone else has moved on. I think most people have already moved on from this one, too, but I'm posting about it anyway. I think credit goes to Night Owl for starting/inspiring this one, entitled 'What I Collect.' It's basically an excuse to list your various projects and collecting interests. Some people listed theirs in order of preference, but my collecting habits are too random for me to do that.

I'll start off with baseball. I mainly focus on player collections, although there are some other things I chase. I would say the primary player I collect is R.A. Dickey, but Jon Singleton is up there and I also have tried to put together a decent Josh Reddick collection. Evan Gattis is a guy I've tried to start an accumulation for, but I get distracted from that one too easily. He's probably one of my favorite players to watch, though, outside of Jose Altuve. Singleton's available cardboard seems to be drying up, as it doesn't look like he's going to pan out anytime soon. Maybe I'll change my focus to Gattis or someone else once I feel like I'm done getting Singleton cards. I also pick up Munenori Kawasaki cards when I can, but I think he announced his retirement in the last few days, and he doesn't really have a lot of cardboard out there anyhow.

Because I can't reasonably expect to get all of the cards of any given player, I just try to get the ones I like best, and the ones that are available at a reasonable price. I will grab random hits and cards featuring other players I like, such as Max Scherzer, but when it comes to single cards I am usually pretty focused on a handful of guys. I did pick up a whole lot of Topps Now cards from last season, mostly the ones featuring Astros. I also like to get some of the oddball cards that Topps prints for the Now program, like the card that talked about the Royals' Rally Mantis. I will generally grab any that include a donation to charity. A couple that come to mind are one Topps did for Hurricane Harvey relief and another donating to veteran's charities for Memorial Day.

I usually buy a factory set of Topps and a set of Update from eBay. In most years I collect the blue foil parallel set out of Opening Day. Sometimes I buy a set of Heritage after busting enough of it to realize that I can't possibly build a set without spending a whole lot of money on packs full of doubles. I typically buy a box of Allen & Ginter for Gint-a-Cuffs. Usually I find one other product that I buy a bunch of. Last year it was Bowman Platinum. There are other collections that I sometimes add to, like Wally Moon, Rollie Fingers, Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, vintage sets, Fan Favorites autographs from Topps Archives, and oddball releases.

One big focus of mine has been sketch cards and full-size artwork. I have a few main character collections. The primary ones are DC Comics' Power Girl and Leia from Star Wars. I also have small collections of Marvel characters She-Hulk, Squirrel Girl, and Scarlet Witch. I've accumulated quite a few Captain America sketches, as well as a small number of M.O.D.O.K. sketch cards. I will pick up sketches of other subjects, too, if they catch my eye.

I also collect Star Wars cards, but not all that obsessively. I just get what interests me. Topps puts out a lot of Star Wars products, and keeping up with them all would be a full-time collection. I don't have that kind of focus. I gather cards featuring Leia, interesting relics, and autographs from other characters that I like.

I like wrestling cards. They are a lot of fun. Again, I collect just about anything that catches my eye. I don't try to get all of the Topps Now WWE cards, but I get one or two every few months if a wrestler I like is featured. I like autographs of classic guys like Sergeant Slaughter. I also have collections for Nia Jax and Bayley. I started a Charlotte Flair collection after I met her last year at a book signing, but I don't have an autographed card from her yet. John Cena is too popular for me to collect, but I should really track down an autograph of his.

I've gathered a couple of Iron Sheik hits over time, and I went out and got that Trish Stratus autograph recently. Most of my collections are grab bags of single cards that I pick up on eBay, with the occasional box break or group break thrown in.

I also collect trading cards of Japanese women wrestlers. BBM puts out an annual set that covers a wide range of promotions, and the Stardom promotion puts out their own card set every so often. The Stardom packs are really hard to get, so usually I am limited to whatever singles pop up on eBay. I have a pretty good source for unopened BBM True Heart cards, though, and between eBay and Yahoo! Auctions in Japan I am able to get most of the cards I want. I have a full run of Command Bolshoi (the masked wrestler up top) autographs dating back to 2003. That's my best Japanese wrestler collection, but there are several other wrestlers that I collect. I am currently waiting on a large shipment out of Japan, which includes the complete 2004 set, which almost never comes up for sale. A couple of high-level Japanese wrestlers have transferred to the WWE recently, and that has driven up interest a little bit in these cards. 

I collect UFC cards, too. I have a couple of fighter collections. Neil Magny is one of the primary ones, and Randa Markos is one of the others. I really just like to collect a little of everything, though. I will usually grab just about any relic or autograph if it is cheap enough, and especially if I don't already have something featuring that fighter. I gather up low-numbered parallels if I can, from just about any product. It seems like every year I go pretty hard on at least one product. Last year it was Museum Collection and Chrome. This year I might go after those same products.

I chase NASCAR cards, mostly focusing on a handful of drivers. Most of my favorite drivers have retired, so I am looking for new people to collect. I haven't settled on anyone yet. In reality most of my racing card money goes to Danica Patrick cards and the occasional box break. I am thinking about starting a Darrell 'Bubba' Wallace collection, or maybe collecting one of the Busch brothers. Other racers I collect are Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Josh Wise. I also have a small collection of drag racing stuff, with the main focus of that collection being the Force family (John, Courtney, and Brittany). 

I guess this scan represents pop culture celebrities and other sports. I gather autographs, relics, and other cards featuring people that I've heard of from outside of mainstream sports. Goodwin Champions is a good source for those, as are Panini's various celebrity offerings. I've got a fair number of cards featuring Olympic gymnasts, a decent Felicia Day collection, some singers, some authors, and some people who are mostly famous for being famous or being related to someone famous.

Basketball cards were the main thing I collected during my teen years in the 90's. It is mostly a fringe collection now, but I still gather cards for my main player collections (Hakeem Olajuwon, Gheorghe Muresan, Manute Bol). I will also pick up any Houston Rockets cards I can find, but I don't often go out of my way to track them down. 

Football cards are pretty far down my list, but I still have a couple of NFL collections. Most of the cards I add picture former Broncos' tight end Shannon Sharpe. I like getting Terrell Davis and John Elway cards. I will collect just about anything with Tim Tebow on it. I also recently started a Jake Butt collection, because how often does someone named Butt play for your favorite team? I've picked up one or two Von Miller cards over the last couple of years, too, but I have a hard time focusing on football. The careers are so short, and the sport just hasn't been as exciting for me as it was previously.

That's a quick rundown of my collecting world. I am not a very focused guy, so I bounce around from thing to thing as new products release and my interests change.

Leia Sketch Card by Bianca Thompson

My kids watched Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back this evening, so I thought I'd do a Star Wars post tonight. I would have watched it with them, but a friend of mine was fighting in Invicta FC 27 and I wanted to watch her. Her name is Sharon Jacobson. She won her fight by decision, which I was pretty happy to see.

I picked up this sketch card of Leia on eBay from the store of the artist, Bianca Thompson. I already had a sketch of Leia as Jabba's slave from Thompson, but when I saw this one featuring her with a blaster pistol and the classic bun hairstyle, I had to get it. There are usually a ton of neat cards in her shop, and they cover all kinds of pop culture properties. Her airbrushed art style is fun and unique, and I like browsing her stuff periodically to see what new work she's done.

My collection organization project is going okay so far, with nearly 2,000 cards sorted and entered into the Trading Card Database. I'm sure my pace will fluctuate at times, but hopefully I can keep plugging away at it and get my cards into some kind of order before the year is out.

Two Sketches by BeckaDoodles aka Beck Seashols

I've got to work the weekend, so I am putting out a quick post tonight instead of the longer post I've been thinking about since my Cyber Week Breaks ended a couple of days ago. This is still a good post, though, because it features a couple of neat sketch cards by a fun artist.

The artist here is Beck Seashols, who has a website, an Etsy shop, and various social media profiles. Mini doodles like the ones above are available on the shop, both as pre-drawn cards and as commissions. When I visited her site, the Leia sketch was already available for order, and I custom-ordered the Power Girl sketch. Turnaround was pretty quick, and I like her cute interpretations of the characters. She has worked on a few licensed sketch card sets that I'm aware of, and I think I've got one of her sketches from a Cryptozoic superhero set ready to post at some point in the future.

Here's her business card. She posted on Facebook the other day that she is trying to boost her Instagram follower count, so if you're on that platform you can visit her here: BeckaDoodles Instagram.

Cyber Week Breaks: Day 23 - Spoiler-Free Star Wars

Today marks the end of my Cyber Week Breaks. It's been a lot of fun, and I got some cool cards out of it. This evening after work, I went to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi with my eldest son. I thought it was pretty good. There are a couple of characters who I'll need to track autographs down for when I get a chance. Today's breaks include the last pack in my 2016 Topps Star Wars Masterwork box and my last box of 2016 Topps UFC High Impact.

Here are the base and parallels from the Star Wars Masterwork pack. Nothing too crazy here. Supreme Leader Snoke represents the newest films, while Greedo and Wicket come from the original trilogy.

Between the two trilogies falls the Great Rivalry of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Maul. That's the base Great Rivalries insert card for them. After three autographs, my last hit in the box is a medallion. At least it features Leia, a character I've got a pretty bog collection for. It's the base medallion, so there aren't any serial numbers or anything. Kind of a ho-hum way to close out the box, but that's kind of what you have to expect from these things.

Closing out the break is a Valerie Letourneau Femme Fighters insert and a Jared Rosholt autograph. The Letourneau is a double from the break, but doesn't have the damage that the first one did. The Rosholt is new to my collection. At this point in the break, getting a new autograph is good enough for me.

Those were the last two packs in my Cyber Week Break. I guess it's not too bad that they got me through 23 days of posts. I know some bloggers can stretch just one box of cards out that far, but I don't have that kind of control. Even making these breaks last this long was a chore for me.

Boise Public Library Comic Con

I am working every weekend between now and the end of September to make sure all of my work gets done before the government's fiscal year is over, but I took off a little early yesterday to attend the Boise Public Library's Comic Con. For a library convention, there was a surprisingly large amount of stuff to do and see there.

The local Star Wars cosplay groups were out in Force, with representatives from the 501st Legion's Timberline Garrison for the Imperial cosplayers and the Takodana Base on the Rebel side. One of the Stormtroopers let my 8 year-old hold his blaster rifle. Our 6 year-olds were too intimidated to be in the picture.

Some of the cosplayers had their own trading cards printed up, and I grabbed whichever ones I could. I think I wound up with four of them, but they got tucked away in my wife's purse and I haven't asked her for them yet.

There was a pretty big room set up with LEGO displays and a table with a lot of pieces for kids to build. One of the twins focused his energy on building the tallest tower possible. He also liked the Great Ball Contraption that was set up on one side of the room, basically a LEGO Rube Goldberg device that moves little plastic balls around a loop of different machines.

The other twin built a complicated aircraft, while our eldest spent most of his time looking at the builds on display and asking us to come and look at his most exciting finds.

There was a pretty impressive guest list in the Artist Alley, with local artists as well as artists from around the Northwest and beyond. We were able to obtain a few sketch commissions, with the first being this Nightcrawler sketch by a local artist named Joe Bradshaw.

Steve Lieber was probably the biggest name on the guest list as far as published comic book work is concerned. We got a head sketch of Rogue from him for a very reasonable price. My social anxiety ramps up when I am out with the whole family, so I found it difficult to approach and interact with the artists. Luckily my wife was able to do most of the talking while I hung back and derped around.

Finally, we commissioned two small sketches from artist Ron Chan. We asked for Power Girl and Leia, and these sketches are perfect. I really like the Power Girl sketch. For the Leia sketch we asked for any version except Leia as Jabba's slave, and he surprised us with General Leia. I hadn't even considered that version of the character, but once I saw it I was really happy to have it. I think this might be my first sketch of older Leia.

I wasn't sure what to expect from a local library comic convention, but this one was really a nice surprise. There was plenty of stuff to see and do, and I wish we'd had more time and money to spend on art. There was enough stuff to keep the kids occupied, and there were a lot of panels and exhibitions that we didn't even get to see, like a display by the local wrestling club, some craft activities, belly dancing, a cosplay contest, and discussions for people looking to break into the comics industry. It might be worth checking to see if your local library has a comic convention or similar event.