cards for trade

to continue to get back into card collecting and trading, i suppose i should have some cards to trade. while i dont profess to have anything super exciting to trade at this point, it is a starting point. here are my current cards available for trade:
all are from 2007 Topps Series One Baseball:

• 141 - Rich Aurilla Gold Parallel #'d 773/2007
• 301 - Derek Jeter Gold Glove - First Edition
• OTG2 - David Ortiz Own the Game
• OTG6 - Jermaine Dye Own the Game
• OTG19 - Alex Rodriguez Own the Game
• GN9 - Ryan Howard Generation Now -HR9
• GN73 - Chase Utley Generation Now - Game 23
• DS1 - Duke Snider Distinguished Service
• DS10 - Douglas Macarthur Distinguished Service
• Unlock the Mick card 4 and 5

See the previous post for my current want list. In particular I am interested in game used, autos and the generation now inserts for Hanley Ramirez.

the first post - a renewed interest

One of the main catalysts for my recent explorations of the internet has been my renewed enthusiasm for baseball card collecting. Back when it was the cool things to do in the early 90s, you could actually go into a store here and buy a packet or (gasp) even a box of baseball cards. There was a great chain of card stores called "The Card Shaq", and you could even buy boxes at department stores like Grace Bros! Now, since the bubble has apparently burst, there does not seem to be a single physical card store in the whole state! And those on the net all seem to be heavily focused on basketball, which was never my sport of choice. So, that left me to explore the mainly American sites to scratch what became quite a significant itch. I don’t know what it was, perhaps I am going through a quarter life crisis and want to relive the golden days of my youth? Maybe that’s also why I have taken to wasting hours playing Mario Kart on the Nintendo 64 as well?

Anyways, I found a dealer for my habit in ebay, and ordered a few blaster boxes of Topps 2007 Series One baseball. This series apparently generated a lot of publicity and gained popularity through an “error” card featuring Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees, with George W Bush and Mickey Mantle air-brushed into the background. However, none of this excitement was heard in my neck of the woods.

Although the cost of shipping these little treasure troves of goodness from half a world away was enough to make me think twice, I was relieved to find that the magic of opening fresh boxes and packets has not been lost, even though it was more than 10 years since I last cracked a pack of 1994 Upper Deck Collector’s Choice. The smell. The sharp edges on the cards. The excitement of trying to pull a great card. Even my girlfriend got drawn in by it all. After a short while and with packets lying everywhere, she pulled this beauty:

A Hanley Ramirez Season Highlights Auto. With a Beckett value between $10 and $25, this quickly became the pride and joy of my so far quite unimpressive collection, and perhaps Hanley will be someone I try and collect more of in the future. His stats at the moment are pretty impressive, and he is in the top ten in MLB for batting average, hitting .333.

After enjoying blasting through six blaster boxes I then invested in a hobby box to try and hit a few inserts, and complete the set. While I didn’t hit any inserts as good as the Hanley auto, I did get a few nice A-Rod cards, some Distinguished Service inserts, and I almost finished the set. And yes, I got the Jeter card!

So to finalise my first real post, here is my want list to complete series one before I move on to series 2. If you are interested in trading send me an email.

TOPPS 2007 SERIES ONE BASEBALL
6 – Edgar Renteria
7 – Mickey Mantle
36 – Gregg Zaun
81 – Ian Kinsler
163 – Dave Roberts
170 – Chien-Ming Wang
275 – Greg Maddux
281 – Chris Narveson (RC)
301 – Derek Jeter (GG)

a post for the ages.....or not?

So here I go. I am entering a new frontier in the internet. With the production line of Australian Idol clanging quietly on the TV in the background, and my partner reclining on the couch immersed in the intrigue of Harry Potter and the half blood prince, I find myself tapping away on my first ever blog post. Despite surfing the net since the age of 16, I never thought about reading (let alone writing) blogs. I guess I have been ignorant of the whole blog thing, not getting into myspace or facebook or whatever. However, in recent times, the planets have aligned to have me exploring new frontiers of the internet like a pioneer striving for gold. After wasting away on wikis, finding fun on forums, getting hooked on ebay, and spending weeks looking at new and different websites, I thought I had seen it all. 10 years of wasting time on the net - I have seen it all. The internet is dead. There is nothing new out there. If you’ve seen one website you have seen them all. Forget it.

But then I discovered “blogging”. I said to myself “why can’t I do that”, and set about checking out all sorts of blogs about the place. I have opinions. I have thoughts. I have things to talk about. I have a bit of spare time. I have opinions. I am net savvy. So why not have a blog.

After meandering through some of the interesting blogs out there, I figure that it might be a bit of fun to have one for myself. It doesn’t cost anything, I don’t have to live up to any standard, I can do it for a bit of fun. I have a few hobbies that lend themselves to discussion and commentary, and I don’t always like hearing what others write, so why shouldn’t I write it myself? This can be an outlet for the little bits of creativity that the world has not yet ground out of me.

Also, I have a lot of ideas and do a lot of things that I lose track of. I want to keep track of movies I have seen, or music I have heard, things I have done, cards that I have and those that I want. I guess you could call it a diary of sorts, but I would prefer to think of it as a record of stuff, things and ideas.

So here it is, I present me (and you) with THIN MAN’S HAT, a place to write about tv, sport, baseball cards, movies, books, and anything that sparks my interest. Who knows, I might even write the odd political piece! Gasp. Thanks for checking it out. Drop me an email at thinmanshat@gmail.com.