A slew of cool Indians cards from @GypsyOak! Thanks to @MDAubrey!

A friend of mine many of you may know, Mark Aubrey (of Mark's Ephemera fame), shared some very cool pieces of art on Twitter with me. I suppose the proper vernacular would be something akin to: @mdaubrey tagged me in a Tweet showcasing some #Indians items made by @GypsyOak.

I reached out to Jeff at Gypsy Oak to see what Tribers they had and to inquire about purchasing some. Well, some turned to a "slew" and the slew turned into a whole freaking bunch! Now, in the name of full disclosure, I did not pay for all of the items you see here. Many, many were actually marked "FREE GIFT" and were thrown in for nothing! How great is that!?

I'm not even sure where to begin, so I'll start with the Artist's Proofs. These are 4x6 prints of some of the amazing work produced by Gypsy Oak. Each one has a label on the back indicating the player pictured and the Artist Proof Number out of 10. Yeap, there are only 10 Proofs of each player! Just. Wow!

Joe Wood (#07/10)	Ray Chapman (#07/10)
Tris Speaker (#05/10)	Addie Joss (#04/10)
Cy Young (#03/10)	Joe Jackson (#03/10)

In addition to these incredible player depictions, I received a wood-burned "card" about the size of a T206. The one I received features Bob Feller, which I found a bit ironic (though, I am probably not using that word correctly in this context) since it was on his birthday that I had previously retired from writing here.

A set of cards that I did purchase in addition to the Proofs above: Helmar Brewing Art Stamps. In my correspondence with Jeff, I learned there were 20 Indians in the set, so I bought them all. I'm not exactly sure how the "sets" work because I received an additional 9 cards (29 total):

The backs of the cards have either a "2015" or a "MMXVI" (2016) in addition to some text. The thing is, there are 18 of the "2015" and 11 of the "MMXVI" cards. I'm sure someone somewhere can explain - or perhaps Jeff just misspoke about the number. Either way, I am not complaining one bit!!

Now, you are probably thinking, "DANG! That's a lot of stuff, there, man!" And, you'd be right. But, that's not the end! In fact, in terms of "types" of cards, we're only halfway there (cue the Bon Jovi music...)

The next three cards are thick. I don't points of thickness from a hole in the wall, so I can only say they are about as thick as a standard relic card. These are also T206-sized. The Chapman is dated 2005 while the other two are dated 2014.

The back of the Chapman has a rubbed off coupon for Helmar Brewing while the other two feature an "ad" for Colgan's Chips:

Those are some seriously cool cards! I have not done any research into the make/model/pricing of these nor do I know if they are considered "fan art" or collectibles. I don't really care. As far as I'm concerned, these go into my personal collection and add the value of "those are freakin' cool!"

Gypsy Oak also included two custom cards with pennies in them! The cards are the same thickness of the ones I just mentioned, which makes sense since these actually DO have relics in them!

The Feller has a 1952 penny and the LaJoie has a 1933 penny in it. These are great cards! 

Rounding out the incredible package I got, there were three MICRO Indians cards plus an entire strip of 12 micro cards featuring all kinds of players!

Now, when I say MICRO, these little babies measure 3/4" x 1" each. Yes, you read that correctly. These things are tiny and are oh-so-good! 

First of all, I want to thank MARK for hooking me up with the incredible talent of Gypsy Oak! And, I want to thank Jeff for not only sending what I ordered, but for also surprising me with an INCREDIBLE array of Indians cards greatness! 

Setting Free a Stand-Up Guy - 1934 Boze Berger Batter-Up

This is a 1934 Batter-Up card of Boze Berger. I bought this card back in 2008 on eBay. At the time, this poor fella was trapped in a PSA-graded sealed containment unit. It was graded Poor-Fair 1, which I can only assume is just as low as you can go. I didn't care. I wanted the card and I wanted to set it free. So, I bought it and did just that.

It's hard to tell, but the card is die-cut around the top half of the player such that one could fold the card and create a mock 3-d stand-up of the player. From the looks of it, someone had done that. I did not. It actually looks as though the person folded it in half before punching out the player, thus the crease at the belt line. That's a bummer.

Berger played for the Tribe in '32, '35 and '36. He played all over the infield along the bases. He also played for the Red Sox and the White Sox during his career. As an Indians player, he mustered a .144 batting average. He hit .238 in 1935 with the Tribe, which turned out to be his best season in the majors.

As he embarked on that 1935 season, he remarked, "...I’m going to do the best I can and if that isn’t good enough it’ll be just too bad for me." I think a good many players would be served well to hold the same attitude.

He gave 20 years of service for his country, serving in the Army then the Air Force.

Sources:
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=bergebo01
http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/1ca2f2ed

I bought a #Repack. Let's do a #ShowYourHits post

I spent the day with my wife and daughter, which means we went shopping. While in target, I decided to grab a repack box that had an auto'd card and four packs of wax.

I managed to snag a 2016 Bowman Michael Brantley, so score one for the Tribe fans! Wahoo!!  I also snagged a few inserts along the way, so I'm sharing those here, too.

We have a Charles Brewer auto card (that was the auto that came with the box) that arrived in a penny sleeve. Do we still call them penny sleeves? I do because that's what they were called when I was a kid. They are probably more like dime bags now. Er, never mind.

We also scored a 3000 Hits Club Kaline and a 500 HR Futures Club Fielder. The Trevor Story Youth Impact is a fine specimen of chrome, but you can't tell it in the scan. We round things out with another cool bit of chrome in the Scouts Top 100 , Gleyber Torres.

The rest of the cards were standard pack cards from various brands/sets, but all were from 2016. At least the repack box wasn't full of junk wax from the late 80's/early 90's, right?

For the Love of Cardboard #thehobby #collecting

It happened. I never thought it would, and it didn't take long. I heard the call.

The truth is ever since I hung up the keyboard around here, I've felt the pangs of separation. The Hobby kept calling like the siren that it is. I kept ignoring it. Then, a funny thing happened. Well, a couple funny things, really.

First, I ended up in a Crackin Wax charity break (er, I think that's what it was, I'm afraid my memory fails me as I type this) in which I scored some rather nice Bowman Chrome and some Topps 2016 cards. I knew then I would have to make a post about them. I fought it as long as I could, but as you see, obviously, I gave in.

Second, this crazy blog has gained a readership I never would have expected. I am blown away by the number of folks that have come by since my retirement from writing here. Several of you have taken the time to reach out to me and I cannot tell you how much I have appreciated that over the past few months.

The past few months... Frankly, it feels like I quit several years ago. The time away from sharing cards and stories about cards has felt like several seasons have passed and yet, really, I didn't even make it to the start of the new season. The call, the pull, the siren song is just too great.

I don't know what my posting schedule will be or what the content will be. Okay, that's not true. We all know that the content will focus on Indians baseball cards. As for the other stuff (Pack-A-Daily, etc), I cannot say. Like coming back into any relationship, we're taking things slowly, cautiously.

The Hobby is a sweet, seductive songstress, whose clutches often leave the victim with much less money than when s/he started and, all too often, with that money vested in bits of cardboard worth much less than the amount spent. That's not really what it's about though. There are mutual friends, surprises, cherished memories, and the promise of memories yet to come. And, that, my friends, is why I have dusted off the keyboard and pulled the rubber band off the bits of cardboard.

Today, we start Tribecards 2.0. Welcome Home.

Tribecards Announces Retirement: The End of Tribecards

NOTE: The following post was written over the course of several months before the Indians had clinched the ALCS and long before the World Series. The outcome of the World Series, whatever that happened to be, had no bearing on the timing and/or content. My intention was to release this on Bob Feller's birthday. And, thus...

Dear Tribecards Friends, Family, and Fans,

I come to you today with my final Tribecards blog post.

I have written and re-written this post many times, trying to explain - perhaps justify - my reasons for hanging it up. I've struggled with finding the words to say that could allow you, my readers and friends, to understand the thought processes behind this decision.  There really are no words to explain, so let me simply say farewell.

I have been writing here off and on since August 10, 2007. Though the site started out as a place for me to create and post checklists for Indians cards and show cards from my collection, my true passion came by way of giveaways.

I suck at trading, always have. So, instead of trying to work out even trades (or trades at all), I decided that I would help further the hobby by giving away cards that were either duplicate Indians or were simply cards I didn't collect (basically, anything NOT an Indians card). That grew into much more.

I've had all kinds of giveaways. I think my favorites were the 12 Days of Christmas series. It was so much fun to try and put together packages with readers' favorite players and teams. I've enjoyed the Pack-A-Daily seasonal breaks, too, but as you are keenly aware, those were not really so "daily" as time went on. In fact, I still owe the managers the cards from those. Everything *WILL* get sent out. Just because I am not going to be posting anymore doesn't mean I am backing out of my duties to get your cards in your hands!

But, I am hanging up the keyboard here at Tribecards.

I have met some wonderful people through my blogging - some famous, some infamous, and some very near and dear to my heart. I will miss you - miss reading your comments and your emails.

I think that will be the hardest part of walking away.

Baseball card collecting is a close-knit family and the fact that we can take advantage of the Internet to meet up (virtually or in-person) and extend that family has been an absolute blessing to the hobby and to those who fall under its spell. Looking back, it amazes me to think of the folks that we have seen come and go. Some of you have become Facebook and Twitter friends. Some of you have become more than Facebook and Twitter friends. I have watched your kids grow up through this online world. We have seen births, we have seen deaths. We've gone through engagements and marriages, and we've walked through divorces and new loves. Those are things I will miss most.

As for the hobby, this blog, and all the folks who have stopped along the way to read it, you all helped take my collection from about 2000 cards or so to more than 15000 non-duplicated singles since 2007. Holy smokes!! Thank you so very much! I never would have thought that I'd have some of the coolest cards I've seen let alone the sheer number of them. I never would have amassed my collection without each of you that dropped some cardboard in the mail for me. Again, Thank You!

If you're reading this, I hope you are one of the folks I was, or am (since I am still sending packages out at the time of this post) able to help further YOUR collection.

Take care of yourselves. I mean that. Look out for one another in the hobby. Things get weird in our little cardboard world and we need to stick together. The real world is already crazy enough.

Keep collecting! I'll be around, reading your blogs and leaving comments. So, I hope to see you again soon.

Always,
--David (Tribecards)

PS - The release of this news on Bob Feller's birthday is purely intentional.

Note: There is a chance that the domain name (Tribecards.net) will lapse in the future. Posts can be found at tribecards.blogspot.com