A decade.

Hey everyone, it's been a while.  Today marks the 10th anniversary of the beginning of Cards from the Quarry.  Although, I don't know if it is fair to really call it an anniversary.  That would be like a married getting separated, but not divorced after 4 years and then celebrating a 10th anniversary.  Kinda weird, huh?  I know some of you from back then have gone right along and kept churning out really good stories and talk about cards and baseball in general.  I have kept the blog going technically as I have been constantly updating my want lists for the Rockies, but I have done so quietly.  Nevertheless, I felt like today I should check in with something that was a big part of my life for several years and just say hello if nothing else. 

I'll start with what I have been up since my last real post in June 2015.  I have maintained my presence in the hobby.  In fact, I have experienced nearly all aspects of the hobby which I will go into for anyone curious.  I was part of a Breakers community for over a year.  I was a "big hit" eBay seller in that time as well.  I was also part of the Beckett trading community for a while, but only with basketball.  More recently, I have been a Sportlots buyer/seller for the past 2+ years.  I have also recently gotten back into the blogging community via the great group breaks at Cardboard Collections and Nachos Grande.  Let's take a look into my opinion of the pluses and minuses in each of those parts of hobby.

Breakers

I spent a lot of late night time in 2016 and 2017 on the Breakers.tv website, specifically a break room called Card Collective.  I was drawn to it because it's a fairly small break room that focused more on the lower end and mid range stuff as opposed to most break rooms which would shut down without ridiculously overpriced like National Treasures or the rest of the high end stuff was unavailable.  But CC always had a nice mix of cards including non-sport stuff that I even started liking a bit.  He did hit drafts, team auctions where you bid on teams and could get stuff on the cheap, and stuff like division breaks where you got all the teams in a division for a set price.  I stopped going there because I was basically losing a lot more money than I realized.  It was fun, but it was not the same fun as here.

 

Pluses -  Lots of cards to see and acquire.  I got a lot of really nice cards there that I would have never seen otherwise.  Lots of time to chat about cards and sports in between breaks.  Very diverse when it comes to collectors and cards, some very good people.  I learned a lot about hockey, football, racing, non-sports, and other parts of the hobby that I had ignored completely.

Minuses -  Can get sneakily expensive.  It was very easy to overspend there.  Most collectors there weren't collectors at all.  They were the mojo buyers that didn't care one iota about the cards, just the value.  Even the people I liked were more into the money side of things than I was.  

 

eBay

Everyone knows what eBay is, so I am not going to bore you with a description of the site.  My time spent as a "big hit" seller sort of coupled with my time as a breaker.  On Breakers, I focused on the Rockies for myself, but I also got a lot of other stuff that just didn't fit with my collection, so I just did what came natural.  After I started selling on eBay, I tried buying groupings of cards (such as a lot of 50 parallels from a set) and selling them individually as well.  Which worked fairly well.  I stopped selling on eBay around the same time as leaving Breakers mainly because eBay stopped supporting the listing tool I was using and it became far less user-friendly for me.

 

Pluses -  Large audience.  Very secure money and shipping.  You really can make a lot of money there.  Could be fun at times such as searching for the lots. I would keep the ones I wanted and sell the rest and usually make a decent profit.

Minuses - I ended up with a lot of cards that didn't sell and I didn't particularly want to keep.  I still have a lot of them to this day as well.  Not a very interactive side of the hobby.  I like talking cards as much as collecting them and when you sell to an anonymous person, it's just not there.  

 

Beckett

I have noticed that one of the most divisive words in the hobby that can really set some people off is the word "Beckett."  Some people love it, but some people think it is one of the worst things about the hobby.  I am somewhat in the middle.  I do not care about Beckett's "book value" of cards at all, but their trading community was surprisingly nice.  I joined the Beckett trading community several years before I even joined Blogger, but I left once they started forcing you to buy price guides in order to trade there.  I did rejoin in late 2017 with the intent of trading away my inventory from my Breakers/eBay stay.  Although I only ended up getting my basketball stuff on there, I did make quite a few trades.

 

Pluses - Practically every card ever made in all genres is on their database.  You can't ask for much more than that.  It was very easy to find both owners of cards I wanted and more importantly people that desired the cards I had.  It was also easy to find team/player collectors to trade away not only the "good stuff,: but the common cards as well. 

Minuses - The cost is the biggest minus.  You have to buy a price guide subscription in order to trade there.  As large as the community was, it wasn't really that active.  Most trades I completed were ones I asked about.  Very few offers came toward me.  I enjoyed finding the right home for a card I had as much as getting something for myself.  I just didn't feel that many people shared that vision.  

 

Sportlots

Since 2018, I have found a home with Sportlots under the name "zebuflew" which is a portmanteau of my eBay ID "Richmond Zebu" and my ID everywhere else of "hiflew."  I have been regularly selling there for over two years and have built up a decent amount of credibility and a few regular customers there.  It started relatively slow maybe selling enough to buy a couple of blasters or few trips to COMC  a month, but once the pandemic hit, my sales skyrocketed.  I don't want to get into the numbers, but let's just say this summer I was selling a lot of expensive cards.  The rookie card boom and my selling coincided very nicely.  As a collector I hate the rookie card boom, but it really helped me as a seller.  It has since leveled off somewhat mainly due to my inventory of big rookies being depleted, but I am still pulling in decent sales specifically with basketball cards right now.  They are just super hot.

Pluses (as a seller) - A great place to unload unwanted cards in turnkey fashion.  I basically check the site once a day and if I have no orders move on.  If I have orders, I print, package, and am usually done in 10 minutes or so.  You get paid altogether by the site at the beginning of the month, so the amount is greater than expected most of time and I can buy bigger things without having to save for myself (something I have never been good at).

Minuses (as a seller) - Only getting paid at the beginning of the month means you need to keep a small bankroll to pay for shipping the cards because you don't see that money until the beginning of the month as well.  It takes a long time to inventory all your cards.  In fact, I have most of my basketball listed, but baseball is limited to 2012-2019 right now.  Eventually I plan to list everything I have, but it takes time.

So I have been a very diverse collector over the past 5+ years.  I have also been a regular commenter on several sports and card websites under various names.  The one thing that has not changed is my Rockies collection is still thriving.  I am currently around 24,000 unique Rockies and my personal inventory database is nearly complete.  I have everything catalogued except multiplayer Rockies cards.  I have 23,033 plus an estimated 800 multiplayer cards right now.  I also have a bunch sitting in my COMC mailbox since April, but the less said about that, the better for now.  I should pass the 25,000 mark somewhere around March.  Considering when I started this blog, my Rockies collection was around 250, I should thank a lot of you for helping me get to the current insanely high number.

I may decide to post regularly again.  The reason I stopped was a crippling case of writer's block and by the time I finally got over that, I just didn't think anyone really missed me that much.  I'm not "pity-partying" here, I just didn't feel what I was doing really mattered that much to people.  But I digress.  I have ideas, both old ones that went unfinished and new ones that I have not seen done anywhere.  So I may come back to explore them along with showing off my collection and maybe trading some as well.  I don't want to promise, because I don't know for sure right now, but I really do want to catch the writing bug again.  

Anyway, thanks for reading if you are around.  I know my number of followers remained around the same so I assume I was just hanging out at the bottom of most of your blogrolls for a long time.   Either way, thanks for reading and maybe we can talk again later.

Just a Quick Check In and the First Cards of the Newest Rockies (assuming they sign)

Hey everybody.  I hope you all haven't forgotten about me.  I have been hard at work both in real life and on the 2015 Quarry Unlimited set which is moving along at a really nice pace.  I think it looks really good so far with the exception of a couple of teams (White Sox, A's) that just won't satisfy me.  But I should have those minor issues worked out by the time I am ready to show it off.

Anyway the main reason I checked in today is to show off the first? cards of the newest Rockies draft picks.  Of course I didn't Photoshop fake Rockies uniforms on players that have never worn them, so you will see some unfamiliar uniforms to say the least.  I am using the templates from each of the first three years (1986 Topps, 1977 Topps, 1988 Score) of the Quarry Unlimited series to showcase the new guys.  Let's take a look at the future Coors Field superstars.

Round 1 Pick #3 Brendan Rodgers - high school SS

Rodgers was called the best "talent" in the draft by several sources.  I like this pick a lot more than reaching for a pitcher.  The great news is that he has reportedly already agreed to terms with the Rockies and will probably begin his career in either Grand Junction or the Rockies new affiliate in Boise.

 Round 1 Pick #27 Mike Nikorak - high school P

 This is the pick that the Rockies got for losing Michael Cuddyer.  Nikorak is rated very high and he sports a 97 MPH fastball, but then again so does everyone else nowadays.  Although unlike everyone else, Nikorak throws a knuckle curve which I am excited to see in action.  Like Rodgers, I think he will begin his career in either Grand Junction or Boise and he will probably be a starter.

  Round 1 Pick #38 Tyler Nevin - high school 3B

 With their competitive balance selection the Rockies took third baseman Tyler Nevin.  In case that name sounds familiar, yes he is the son of former overall #1 pick Phil Nevin.  The younger Nevin is projected to be a big time power prospect and will probably end up at either first base, third base, or the outfield.

Round 2 Pick #44 Peter Lambert - high school P

Finishing off the Rockies first day was their second round pick Peter Lambert.  I am a bit more worried about this pick because Lambert's best pitch is his curve ball and those tend to not work very good at altitude.  He is also going to be a starter more than likely because he does have 4 pitches.  

The best thing about Lambert has to be that he attended San Dimas High School in California.  I don't know anything about the baseball team at that school, but I know for a fact that San Dimas High School football rules.

EXCELLENT!

I will probably be checking in a few more times before the season finishes, but I still want to spend my time working on my customs.  I feel I contribute more to the community by taking a sabbatical while doing the Quarry Unlimited set instead of making bad jokes and forgotten 80s references a few times a week.

Thanx for reading.

I Hope You Didn't Forget About Me...2014 Quarry Unlimited Set COMPLETE

Good evening ladies and gentlemen.  I am FINALLY finished with this year's Quarry Unlimited set.  I hope that a few of you that kept me on your blogroll while I was out.  When I was last posting in June I thought I was so far ahead of the game that I would be finished very quickly this year, but obviously I was completely wrong with that assumption.  But I still got finished earlier in 2014 than in either 2013 or 2012, so I've got that going for me.

For those of you that didn't see or have forgotten my preview back in June, this year's Quarry Unlimited set will be based on (but not an exact copy of) 1988 Score.  For the majority of the set, I stayed relatively close to the original set, but I did design a couple of new subsets that I feel are faithful to the original set as well.  I am not going start revealing the set until next Monday because...well because that's the way I want to do it.  Actually I will be starting with subsets and since I have 6, starting on Monday will make my schedule work the best.

The subsets for this year's set will be reminiscent of last year's, but just a little bit different.  Here is the schedule I intend to showcase next week.

Monday 11/3 - Managers
Tuesday 11/4 - Career Retrospective similar to Reggie Jackson in 1988
Wednesday 11/5 - AL All Star Cards
Thursday 11/6 - NL All Star Cards
Friday 11/7 - 2014 Quarry Rookie All Star Team
Saturday 11/8 - 2014 Highlights

Following that it will be 3 teams per week in the order of my preference of teams on a Mon-Tues, Wed-Thurs, Fri-Sat schedule with Sunday being reserved for either no post or regular postings.  Sorry non-Rockies NL West fans, but you will have to wait again.  I am also going to write a couple of posts in the meantime the rest of this week, because I definitely have a lot to get off my chest about 2014 Topps Update. 

I really hope you will enjoy the 2014 Quarry Unlimited set, because a lot of work went into it.

Thanx for reading.

Where I've Been + A 2014 Quarry Unlimited Preview

The inclusion of this video will make sense shortly.

For the last couple of months the state of the blog has been nearly non-existent.  That doesn't necessarily mean I have abandoned the blog.  I have been keeping my want lists up to date and reading and commenting on many other card blogs not to mention trading.  Regardless, I have not been putting any new material on this blog.  I do have an explanation though.  I have a limited amount of time per day to allocate to blog purposes and for the past two months I have devoted that time to preparing the 2014 Quarry Unlimited set.  Yes it is coming back for a third consecutive year and I have a really good jump on things this year.  In order to get that jump, I had to take the time away from writing.  I am not going to give away all of the secrets of the 2014 Quarry Unlimited yet, but I guess I can give a few teasers as a mea culpa for my unexplained absence.



We will start with my 2014 Quarry Unlimited header which will accompany every post.

The 2012 header was fairly generic, because I was just figuring things out back then.  I liked the color scheme and knew that I wanted to fit the 2013 version with the time frame of the set.

Since the 2013 header was based on the 1977 Topps set, I used a font based on my favorite movie from 1977, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  It was fairly easy to choose something from 1977, because I don't remember 1977.  I was born in October 1976, so I while I was around in '77 needless to say the culture from that year did not leave an indelible mark on me.


1988, however, was right in my adolescent wheelhouse.  I had a problem in that there was too much stuff from 1988 that defined the year to me.  For me, Guns n Roses (seen above), the Disney Afternoon cartoon lineup, Beetlejuice, Alf, and the Kentucky basketball scandal dominated that year.  However, the one thing that dominated my life more than anything that year, including baseball cards, was my Nintendo Entertainment System.  I played Nintendo constantly whether I was with friends or alone.  I loved it!  Therefore I wanted to use some type of font related to Nintendo as my 2014 Q.U. header.  But I wanted more this year.

Not this font though.

One other thing that made its debut in 1988 that impacted my life for the next several years was my favorite television show of all time, Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Not this font either.

Now I didn't actually see it until it started on Comedy Central a couple of years later, but it debuted in 1988.  Either way, I was hooked from the first time I saw Crow, Joel, and Tom Servo making fun of Ed Wood, Steve Reeves, and Gamera among many others.  I wanted to incorporate both my memories of NES and MST3K in this header and I think I accomplished my goal.  Check it out and see how I did.

The theater seats shadow was a no brainer, but I tried several different fonts.  I finally settled on the font that gave me PLENTY of headaches in 1988.  This font came up whenever a game froze up and hundreds of letters filled the screen.  It was cause of many thrown controllers and general aggravation, but sometimes the aggravating events in life are the ones we remember the most.


But now onto the cards themselves.


Unlike the first two years of the Quarry Unlimited set, this year's set will not be based on a classic Topps design.  This year's set will be based on one of my favorite non-Topps sets of all time, 1988 Score.  Yes the classic "Skittles set" will be all over this blog throughout the fall and winter of this year.  My biggest problem was that the card back was a very important part of the 1988 Score set.  The back was the only inclusion of the logo, team name, and a HUGE write up on each player.  It was also the first set to ever feature a full color photo on the back.  Since I only do card fronts, I had to improvise and improve a bit when designing my set.  I think I have not only improved the set, but I have also kept the original spirit of the set intact.  I have made a six pack of teaser cards, one of each color.  Since I am doing my first non-Topps set, I figured the "poster boy" of the set should be the biggest name not currently signed by Topps, Matt Wieters.  Check out the Wieters rainbow.

As you can see, my only major change is replacing the three stars from the original set with a team logo.  Additionally, I replaced the name Score with the name Quarry.  I had avoided putting my name on the first two sets, but nothing else I tried seemed to work in that space.  As a note, this is not the "official" Matt Wieters 2014 Q.U. card, just the prototype


What do you think?  Is the header just the greatest thing you have ever seen?  Does the 1988 design still work?  Did I do it justice?  Why does a silly cartoon bird head make the Orioles look so cool?  Do any of my obscure references need further explanation?  Let me know the "score."

Thanx for reading.

The Triumphant Return of Hiflew

Since I returned to blogging just in November of 2013, I had adopted the user name Cards from the Quarry.  It worked pretty well, but it also required me to switch to the Google + account which I never use.  Therefore, I am switching to my original Blogger profile along with my original Blogger user name of hiflew.  Some of you may not know me as that name, but here is my introduction. 

Hello, my name is hiflew and I collect Rockies baseball cards.

The main reason I am changing is because whenever I commented on someone's blog my email address was showing up as noreply@blogger.com.  That makes it difficult for the other person's blog to reply to my comment if they are so inclined.  I know I get annoyed when that noreply@blogger.com address shows up whenever I try to reply to someone's comment on this blog, so I am switching.

You can still call me Quarry or hiflew or Johnny or even that crazy guy with the purple fetish.  Just make sure you are offering a good trade if you use the last one.

I'll be posting the latest Rating the Rookie Cups later tonight, so make sure you check that out.


Thanx for reading.