And So It Begins…

My very first post on my very first blog. I just wish I knew how to customize the look of this thing a little better to reflect the theme of the blog. Well, whatever. It still looks better than DEFAULT. Yipes.

SO… what’s the point of all this? Crackin wax? Do I like to break perfectly good albums? Do I enjoy whipping candles? Yeah… no. Invariably if you’re here, you should already know what the title infers. For those of you not quite sure what you’re doing here, let’s just get the gist of it out of the way.

My childhood was filled with many things. School, baseball, soccer, swimming lessons, late night barnyard treason (and this is the last time any of you will hear of that). One of the things I most enjoyed in the mid-80s through the early 90s was breaking open a fresh pack of baseball cards. If only I had known then that all of those cards from that era would be worth just barely more than month-old used kitty litter. It was the thrill of completing a set without cheating (i.e. buying a factory collated box). It was the fun in trading away your Jose Canseco rookie card for the Brian Harper card you needed to finish out your 87 Topps Twins team set.

Eventually, though, my childhood ended. So, too, did my card collecting hobby. My cards lay dormant for years in a crate tucked in the upper shelving of a closet. It took until the early part of 2007 for me to finally rediscover my poor neglected collection. It was upon finding such gems as my 85 Fleer Kirby Puckett and the 87 Topps Barry Bonds rookie card that I never knew I had that got me curious. Just where had the hobby gone since I last cracked a pack of wax in 1993?

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!

Here’s what I remember. Topps. Upper Deck. Fleer. Donruss. Bowman. Stadium Club. What do we have now? Topps. Upper Deck. Fleer. Donruss. Bowman. Allen & Ginter. Goudy. Ultimate. SP. Turkey Red. Heritage. ‘52. Exquisite. Sweet Spot. The list goes on and on and on and on… Of course, though, most of the new off-shoots are produced by either Topps or Upper Deck, but… COME ON! Give a collector a chance!

I will admit, though. The first time I pulled a card with a 1 inch by 1 inch game used jersey embedded within, I was awfully stoked. And the first time I pulled a certified auto? Could have fainted. Turns out, though, that those GUs are saturating the market about as badly as 1988 Topps baseball cards. While the AUs are cool to find, most of the ones you get are from players that leave you saying “who?”

Oh, and don’t even get me started on all of those parallels, mirrors, chasers, inserts, and… GAH!

Overwhelming? Uh… yeah. Understatement? What is “obvious,” Alex.

It’s a good thing, though, that I am a huge fan of baseball (Minnesota Twins in particular) and will likely be hunting down certain cards until I’m either bored of the hobby or dead. With that in mind, we come to the mission statement of this blog.

I will sample all of the 2009 baseball card products that I can reasonably afford. I will also rant, rave, and review those products right here. I will try to provide live breaks, and possibly even a video break now and then. I will actively hunt down cards that are of interest to me and trade away those that are not. I will also show off my custom designed cards from time to time.

Be you a card collector or not, I hope that you will join me for all of my card breaks and help me find out just what in the hell happened to my favorite childhood hobby.