May 30th 2010-Rob Moore TTM

Friday bought me former Jet and Cardinals wide receiver Rob Moore. The Jets selected Moore in the 1990 Supplemental Draft and was a Jet from 1990 to 1994. His best season as a Jet was 1994 when he caught for 1,010 yards with 58 receptions and 4 TD's. He made his first Pro Bowl but left the Jets after that season and went to Arizona where in 1997 had his best year when he caught for 1,584 yards with 97 receptions and had 8 TD receptions.He made his second Pro Bowl and first All Team All-Pro. He is now the wide receivers coach at Syracuse. I sent the cards there and got them back in 10 days. Great addition to the Jets collection.

Why Is This Man's Autograph So Hard to Get?

This, my friends, is Matt Nokes. He is a former catcher who's played with Detroit and The Yankees, most notably. He was a good catcher with some pop in his bat. He once hit 32 home runs for Detroit. he never equaled that amount, but was still good for about 20 home runs, he averaged 16 in his 3 plus years in NY. He also played with San Fransisco, Baltimore and Colorado.

I had found out he was a coach in the independents last year, I forget for what team now. I sent a letter and never recieved a response. Last week I track him down to the Potomac Nationals, where I had heard he was a coach. I check the team website and sure enough he's listed as their hitting coach. I write a quick letter and send my card to the team address I found on their site. Yesterday, I get the letter back as an RTS. The post office claimed the address is unknown and there is no forwarding address. Hmmmmmmm.... Not sure if that's correct. I'll have to check again and resend it out. This is strike two, but I'm no easy out. I'll keep trying till I get his autograph into my Yankees PC. Stay tuned dear readers.

Memorial Day weekend

Just want to take time to wish everyone a happy memorial day weekend, especially those brave men and women who have fought for our country. Please say a special prayer for those who have given us the ultimate sacrifice and lost their lives so that we can live freely in the greatest country in the world.

I have quite a daunting task for the up coming weekend. I wish to finally get all my Yankees cards put into their collective binders. I have thousands upon thousands of Yankees baseball cards sitting in boxes. I have been lazy long enough and will devote my weekend to putting them in their collective binders. It's quite a task, but one I know I'll have alot of fun doing.

I also want to put up pics of my recent pick ups. My internet at home has been giving me problems, yet again. I am posting this from work, so I cant load up any pictures. Please stay tuned. I hope to get the situation at home finalized by Friday.

Early Saturday Morning

It's about 9:30 on a saturday morning. I'm waiting on a bus that will take me to the White Plains card show. I'm hoping it will be a good one. I'm really not expecting much however.

Today, I'm on a budget (aren't I always?) and will be looking to add to the Teixeira PC. I'll also be looking for bobbleheads at a good price and maybe anything nice for the Yankees, Jets, Knicks or Devils PC's. I'll post if I find anything decent.

Friday, Baby!!

I am so glad the weekend is here. It seems that as I get older the weeks get longer and longer. Going to the movies tonight to see Iron Man on IMAX , card show tomorrow and Yankees game on Sunday (Please dear God, don't let Mitre start, PLEASE!!), so it will be a busy weekend for me.

I spent a lot of the week making a list of the Mark Teixeira cards I already own. I should be finished with it sometime this weekend and will figure out a way to post it on here in case anyone has anything I need and wants to make a trade. I was gonna make of list of the cards I need, but gosh, it's a long list. He has over 5,000 cards and I don't even have 200 yet, lol.

I took a break last night and was started to organize my Jets cards. Looking them over, I had to admit to myself, I love cardboard. I love collecting, I love trading and I love looking them over, like precious jewels. As much as I love the base, I think I love inserts even more. Card companies can be creative in making inserts. I think they add a certing oomph to a card collection.

I love the look of these two. Both will be in my player PC's for life. I also think that they make a plasyer pc stand out more. Sure, you can go for Rookies, Autos and game used, but depending on the player (in my case Brodeur), the autos can be very expensive. Chasing inserts, I believe, not only helps grow your collection, but makes it quite unique. I guess I'm kinda old school in the way I think. I may be one of the few people who loves 90's sets for all those inserts.

I recently discovered a blogger who goes by the name Waxaholic. Great read. If you haven't read his blog, do so. You won't be sorry you did.

Why I collect what I collect.

So, the other day, my buddy mentions the White Plains Card Show, which will be this weekend, May 15th and 16th at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, NY, and lets me know that Scott McGregor is signing for free there. I pretty much say no thanks. His response is never turn away a free autograph, which has some validity to it. However, there is a reason behind my response of no thanks. which is not a commentary on Mr. McGregor, who was a good pitcher for the O's.

When I first started collecting, I was collectiong everything and everyone. If I had a card, It would get signed. If there was a card set, I tried to complete it. After a year or two, I realized I was trying to do too much with my collections and wasn't having fun with it. I was too busy trying to see if I can get a shortstop I never heard of, who played 2 games at the major league level for the Montreal Expos to sign a card I had. I sat back, thought things through and decided to alter the way I collect and what I collect.

I'm a die hard Yankees fan. Have been since 1976. I love the Jets and have since 1981. I enjoy watching the Knicks and have been a fan since 1983 and when it comes to hockey, I love watching my Devils. That love affair started in 1990 and I also follow the Islanders. That said, I decided those were the teams I would focus my collection on. Instead of putting together complete card sets, I would work on team sets. I would go after autographs from athletes who played for those teams. I would buy bobbles from those teams only. Figures, pictures, apparell. Only from those teams. I will admit to some rules with the autograph collecting.

My first rule is they have to be wearing a Yankee, Jets, Knicks, Devils or Islanders uniform in the picture or card I add. Secondly, they have to have actually played with the team be it an at bat, shift, or down, they have had to had physically played with the team. I will admit to owning autos of players from the farm that never played for any of my teams. I put those in my farm team collection and try to wait until they hit the majors before pursuing. I'm no prospector, but I sometimes will try to get a player to sign before they hit the big time and become an impossible auto.

With bobbles, As my collection grows, there may be teams in my collection that I don't collect. Reason for that will be whenever I go to watch a game, I will pick up a bobble. I will either pick up a mascot bobble or a generic bobble. I already have generic bobbles from the Brooklyn Cyclones and the New York Mets from Shea Stadium. I would like to add a Mr. Met from Citi Field this season.

So, based on all this, my collection is more personalized and I enjoy it more. Plus, there are tons of stuff from these teams that will have me pursuing new autos and items to add to my collection for the rest of my life and I will love every second of it.

Bobbleheads

Today, I was able to meet up with Andy Matz, who I met on the Spawn boards. He has a collection of bobbleheads, McFarlanes and Starting Lineups that would make even the most experianced collector swoon. He has most in his office in midtown Manhattan, which is where I met up with him this afternoon. After inviting me to sit down (on a seat from Dodger Stadium no less) we talked about bobbles.

He's been collecting them since the late 80's. It was a progression that started from his collecting of Kenners Starting Lineups and grew from there. He has just about every bobble you can think of from stadium give aways to retail. He has just about every team in baseball represented. also has a nice collection of hockey bobbles. I think I might have seen some football as well. His collection of Starting Lineups as well as his McFarlane Sports Picks also took up residency in his office.

Some of the nicer bobbles were the stadium give aways. I saw a bobble sporting the old Toronto Blue Jays powder blues, a Roberto Clemente, a very nice Joe Torre Dodger bobble and a Mr.Met that caught my eye. His collection of McFarlanes were no less impressive as it seemed like he had every single one on his walls, including the Team Canada figures, the boxed sets and a lot of baseball. He even showed me some autographed Starting Lineups signed by Darryl Strawberry and Willie Randolph.

He reached out to me when I posted a thread on the Spawn forum asking if anyone had any bobbles of teams I collect. He had replied and told me he had three I might be intrested in. A Mariano Rivera Yankee Stadium SGA, a Jason Giambi Yankee Stadium SGA and a Hideki Matsui Trenton Thunder SGA. We negotiated a price and I went to pick them up today. When I went to pay, he told me they were on the house. He wanted to help jump start my bobblehead collection. I was overwhelmed by his generosity. Andy, If your reading this, I'd like to thank you again for your hospitality, your time and generosity.

Now, on to the bobbles

Mariano Rivera Yankee Stadium SGAJason Giambi Yankee Stadium SGA

Hideki Matsui Trenton Thunder SGA

Martin Brodeur Gold Base Team Canada Bobble that I bought from a Canadian Spawn Boardie. Beautiful piece.

Now the rest of my collection

From left to right; 2002 Derek Jeter Upper Deck Bobble, 2003 Hideki Matsui Upper Deck Bobble, Derek Jeter Forever Bobble, Mark Teixeira World Series Champion Bobble, Whitey Ford Cooperstown Forever Bobble, Phil Rizutto Forever Bobble

From left to right; Patrick Elias, Jamie Langenbrunner, Zach Parise, Martin Brodeur, Chad Pennington training camp give away. The Devils Bobbles were part of a partial plan. Bought tickets to 4 selected games and you got the set free. Looks like not a lot of people bought them so they sold the set in the team stores then gave them out during game one of the playoffs.

Lastly, from left to right; my Spiderman bobbles; comic and movie versions; my generic Mets bobble I picked up at Shea and my generic Brooklyn Cyclones bobble I picked up at Keyspan Park. The Pennington you see here is a statue.

Here's my goal. I want to collect as many bobbles from my teams (Yankees, Jets, Devils and Knicks) as well as a HOF collection. I also will pick up a bobble from every stadium, arena and park I visit. If I could have a collection that comes halfway to Andy's, then I'd be a very happy camper.