The Verdict

After breaking the three 2011 Topps baseball card boxes, I'm left with two hundred and twelve missing cards out of a nine hundred and ninety card base set.  Thats about 78.6% of the base set.  I think I would trade some of the inserts cards for base cards.  There were a lot of inserts.  The break down is below.

The Hits
Series 1 
Tim Hudson Silk Collection 42/50
Victor Martinez Topps 60 Game Used Jersey T60R-VM

Series 2
Johnny Bench Leather Name Plate MGL-JB


Update Box
Cole Hamels All Star Workout Jersey AS-71


Inserts Breakdown
47 Topps Town
44 Cognac Diamond Parallels
27 60 Years Of Topps
27 Kimball Champions
26 Diamond Anniversary Parallels
24 60 Years of Topps
23 Diamond Duos
23 Gold parallels serial numbered to 2011
17 Diamond Giveaway Codes
6 Diamond Stars (1 Double)
4 CMGR Reprints
3 60 Years Of Topps The Lost Cards
3 Black Parallels serial numbered to 60
2 Black Diamond Parallels serial numbered to 60
2 Before There Was Topps
2 History of Topps
2 Original Backs Reprints

Numbered Parallel
293 Harmon Killebrew
630 Cognac Diamond Joe Morgan
US138 Paul Molitor

I did pick up an extra 10 packs of each series to see if that would impact my missing base set.  I was ableto fill about 50 holes in the set and picked up a Sal Bando Jersey card. Since the Series 1 boxes have crept up out of my price range, I'll be relying on Ebay to complete the set.  It has been fun but expensive.  Next I'll break my 2011 Football and Hockey boxes and let you know what I find.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

Who is this guy?

Zoe met Santa this morning.  She feigned indifference.  Thats my girl.

I caught the bug again.

Currently Reading:  "Bloodshot" by Cherie Priest
Currently Listening: "Hats off to the Bull" by Chevelle
Currently Watching: Terra Nova (I know but DINOSAURS!!!!!)

Of late hobbies to me have been more of an affliction than any true form of escape or entertainment.  Liquidation of my comic collection was a bitter sweet chore.  An activity I had been participating in since I was eleven has changed so drastically in price and content that I can no longer participate in a traditional manner.

Sports card/Game card collecting reached that point for me in the mid to late 90's.  A baseball strike, being a relatively poor college student/recent grad and a change in the hobby to chasing short print cards and inserts lead me to dropping the hobby outside of team sets and the occasional single for the Carolina Hurricanes.  I felt so certain about the hobby that I tossed all my cards save for a few personally important ones in 2005.

Recently I've decided to return to card collecting by chasing some current base entry level sets and chasing some base sets starting from the first year of my favorite athletic teams.  I'll be looking for Topps Baseball Complete Sets from 2005(Washington Nationals first year) and up, Score/Upper Deck Hockey sets from 1997/1998 and up (Carolina Hurricanes first year), and Topps Football Sets from 1995 and up (Carolina Panthers first year.)

For the older sets, I'll be looking to find base sets or factory sealed sets.  I don't really care about chase cards or insert cards at all.  For the new sets as they come out, I'll be chasing the set the same way I did when I was a kid, pack by pack.  I've been curious as to how feasible this will be and how much it will cost.  Depending on the cost, I may ditch the idea for factory sets but until then, join me on my ridiculous quest to recapture a small part of my childhood or more appropriately, run screaming.

Next post I'll cover my box break of

1 - Series 1 Topps Baseball Box
1 - Series 2 Topps Baseball Box
1 - Update Topps Baseball Box

Still turning every table when it's needed.

Currently Reading: Bloodshot by Cherie Priest
Currently Listening: No Kings by Doomtree
Currently Watching: Too much Football according to Trina ;)

Pretty quite weekend to follow an excellent Turkey Day.

Finally got a chance to visit the park in the new neighborhood. Looks like it will be frequented on the weekend.

Current Digital Comics Breakdown

Gold Shirts

For Boom!
Incorruptible
Irredeemable

For DC
Action Comics
All Star Western
Batman
Bat Wing
Demon Knights
I Vampire
Stormwatch
Wonder Woman

For Image
Morning Glories
Skullkickers

For Red 5
Atomic Robo: Ghost of Station X

Blue Shirts

For DC
Animal Man
Aquaman
Batwoman
Catwoman
Frankenstien Agent Of Shade
Justice League Dark
Men of War
Swampthing

In a Red Shirt and just sent down to a dangerous planet with a bunch of Blue and Gold Shirts

For DC
Detective
Grifter
Justice League

He's Dead Jim!

For DC
Bat Girl (Gone after two issues)
Captain Atom (Gone after two issues)
Red Hood and the Outsiders (Gone after two issues)
Voodoo (Gone after one issue)

Budding Audiophile (Not Really)

So about three years ago I decided to put some money into quality ear buds since I listen to music/podcasts on my laptop/iPhone/iPad pretty much everyday. Up until about 2009, I was a loyal Sony Ear bud user (most likely the equivalent now is the Sony MDR-EX57LP) but they tended to fall apart in about a year for me. It was time to explore my earbud options. To my horror I was confronted with dozens of choices some easily eliminated by price and others not so easily.

I settled on Ultimate Ears 200vi for around 70 bucks. Those fell apart at an unlikely spot around the casing in about six months. Twitter to the rescue. Tweeting my disappointment lead to almost immediate contact from Logitech/UE support for a replacement set of 220vi's. They have been A+ since February of 2010. Unfortunately this weekend I lost my last set of small in-ear buds and I felt like it was time to try something else. I did order replacement buds but I'm converting the UE's to my running/exrcise/yard work headphones since they have iPhone controls.

My Klipsch S4's arrived last night. (For the true audiophile my spending limit is under a hundred bucks so no super fancy triple armatures or anything like that.) I was a little disappointed because they were little tinny for my taste. I tend to hit the base pretty hard so I had to set the equalizer to Small Speakers for the iPhone for things to fit what I think sounds good. So far the MacBookPro sounds great with the same settings. No Kings from Doomtree sounds good anyways. The in ear fit is a little better and the sound quality is the same with a little tweaking. So far A+ for sound and we will have to see how the S4's hold up over time.

Riveting stuff, right?

Digital Comics as it Stands

So I probably owe some explanation as to why I've switched back to the old blog as opposed to the name based blog. I think I just liked my old blog better. I liked using blogger and not being nickel and dimed for every possible feature. I like keeping my web presence under the google banner. I missed the old name. The name may be a bit lame but if you've known me for any length of time, it is appropriate.

I've pretty much made the switch to digital comics from the floppies. I kept and will continu to purchase three old favorites in the floppy form Flash, Usagi Yojimbo, and Savage Sword of Conan. I still get way to many trades but I'm no longer weighed down by individual issues as I once was. Other than that I'll try my best to do digital as much as possible.

This shift in digital from floppies has also changed how I get the continuing series I do purchase. I've had to switch from DCBService.com to a brick and mortar outlet here in Woodbridge, VA. I've not really been a regular at a store for almost six years, and was surprised at the what I found. I hit my local store to see what I could do to secure my monthly books and just see what there was to see.

The place had plenty of product on the shelves but not much in the way of indy books or back issues. I expected to find a couple of Usagi Yojimbo issues I'd missed but the number of issues available was pretty slim and limited mostly to the big two's tights offerings with a smattering of others publishers. A metric ton of trades were available but due to the prices and no discount at all, they will be my third choice for trade purchases behind InStockTrades.com and Amazon. To start a subscription with them I got dinged for an immediate 10 bucks to "secure" my bag. If the location was not so optimal I would have balked at that.

When I frequented an LCS before my move to the DC Metro one of the main draws was the level of discourse about the industry and the products offered. I decided to test this and asked the clerk if the store had seen any decreases in business since the digital offerings went day and date. I got called bro about 30 times and received a profanity laced response and several shots at how digital offerings are crap and have no real value compared to a floppy. I didn't really want to respond with, hey digital is the reason I'm only going to be buying two issues of anything from you every month and I'm only getting those to satisfy my ever dwindling nostalgia for the floppies of my childhood. (Note: ** I never bought Flash or Usagi Yojimbo as a child; ever)

I think he missed the point completely about digital comics. Rare is the new issue that gains any real value. Most new issues go for far, far less than cover price on the secondary market just a few months after release. I made a tenth of my collections cover price "value" when I sold it all off recently. In short I've found my local shop but I'm not sure how much I'll really like it.

I'm really enjoying the new DCU on my iPad.

Here is how things shake out for my monthly digital intake

Gold Shirts

For Boom!
Incorruptible
Irredeemable

For DC
Action Comics
All Star Western
Batman
Bat Wing
Demon Knights
Stormwatch
Wonder Woman

For Red 5
Atomic Robo: Ghost of Station X

Blue Shirts

For DC
Animal Man
Aquaman
Batwoman
Captain Atom (artwork)
Catwoman
Frankenstien Agent Of Shade
I Vampire
Swampthing

In a Red Shirt and just sent down to a dangerous planet with a bunch of Blue and Gold Shirts
For DC
Detective
Grifter
Justice League
Justice League Dark
Men of War
Red Hood and the Outsiders

He's Dead Jim!
For DC
Bat Girl (Gone after two issues)
Voodoo (Gone after one issue)

Closing Time, You Don't Have to Go Home but You Can't Stay Here.

Well it is time for a change because honestly my life has taken on some solid change in the last year or so.

In September I married my girlfriend of the last five years.

We had our first child, Zoe, a little early at the end of April.

And least significant I finally have a job I'm proud of and coworkers I can stand. (Sorry Brian)

I've decided that Trickyankles.com is no more and ,since there is not enough narcissism on the web, I've moved to RichBrassell.com at tumblr. The trickyankles domain will be around for another year or two but it will forward to RichBrassell.com. After that I'll be letting it go.

If you have been using the rss feed it is changing to http://feeds.feedburner.com/trickyankles/ApnT

Update those feeds folks.

So in short I've no more beer and the world will just have to fix itself now. we out!

-Rich