Giving by Proxy and Speaking to The Hobby #collecting

Despite the title, I'm starting with the second part of it: Speaking to The Hobby.

Earlier today, I had a message from "The Hobby" delivered through Mark Aubrey. Many of you in "The Hobby" will know him from his posts over at "Mark's Ephemera." "The Hobby" and I had grown a bit distant following the season's pack breaking, and I have no choice but to admit (and accept) fault there. I stepped away from the hobby, at least online anyway. I still have packs to put together from the summer's pack breaks. I know, I know. But, there is no getting around it. Frankly, I had grown of tired of seeing "The Hobby" every single day. I took a break. That break stretched into something that lasted longer than a Kardashian marriage and an A&E suspension added together. The road ahead is still pretty grueling: namely, I am still sorting through cards to be sent out to all your GREAT readers that played along this past baseball season. But, as I am off for the holiday break, I can assure you that the packages will be mailed before January 10, 2014. No more messing around and putting it off.

I received a plethora of packs for Christmas from various friends and family members. That simple act also helped me rekindle the love I have for collecting these bits of cardboard. My "Non-Indians" collection has been seriously lacking over the past few years, and several of the cards I got for Christmas will find their way into that collection. I also bought a couple packs of Panini's latest offerings. I bought 1 pack each of "Cooperstown" and "Hometown Heroes."

Here are some samples from "Cooperstown." I pulled a Triber! That's a sure sign "The Hobby" and I are well on our path to recovery. I also pulled a disc and a "Museum" card (among other cards in the pack):

The "Hometown Heroes" cards are an interesting lot. I pulled a lenticular disc, Joey Votto (posting that one for Joe C), and Josh Reddick (among others). I posted the Reddick to show off what can be done with a skilled Photoshopper. In fact, all the cards have a pretty well-done sleight of hand, considering Panini has no MLB licensing rights due to the Topps monopoly, er contract.

Now, getting to the "Giving by Proxy" portion of tonight's post: I received a couple packages that were temporarily, er, misplaced during the past month or so. One was from Backstop Cards with no note or anything! That one has a TON of cards in it! I will scan some of those and have them posted soon. The other envelope was from Brian Snider over at "Play at the Plate." Inside was a note that reads: "From Mark Aubrey via ME! (Enjoy!):

THANK YOU so much, Brian, Mark, and Marcus!!  It's good to be back.

Dude, Where's My Cards?

Believe it or not, I am still sorting and sifting through the cards we busted during the regular season! Holy smokes! I did not realize how many cards were still waiting to be handed out to their respective owners. Just when i thought I was getting close to done, I found another 800-count box that I thought was empty.

Let's just say it'll be a at least a week or so before I start shipping these out. While sorting, I did make a discovery or two. First, somehow Javier Vasquez was assigned to both Dayf and Jafronius. Dayf is the actual owner, according to the draft cycle. Second, I have several players that seem to have dodged the draft completely. Third, there were more than 100 players still left unclaimed after the last draft.

What's left to do? Let's enumerate, shall we?

1. Finish sorting claimed players
2. Assign multi-player cards to their owners
3. Distribute all remaining cards randomly among managers
4. Package and mail cards

Oh, speaking of packaging: Anyone that scored over-sized cards will receive at least two Tribecards from Outer Space packages. One will be a box (or boxes) of standard cards, and the other will be a mailer with the over-sized cards. Enjoy!

Package Mail-out Update

Hey everyone! It has been quite a while since I've written here, so I thought I'd let you know what is happening in the world of Tribecards.

I will be sending out the Group Break packages this weekend.

The Pack-A-Day/Outer Space packages will start shipping on Monday.

Sorry for the delay, but you're going to enjoy the cards for sure!

Thanks for reading and playing along!

Tribecards from Outer Space: 14 Rounds of Final Draft

Hey everyone!  Sorry it took so long to get the final draft done. What a doozy! We ended up going 14 rounds before everyone's picks played out. No one got shut out. Terry Francona scored the highest number of picks: Nine. Jafronius tried to sneak in a Curley Neal pick, but I caught it. Haha! Next season, I'll add in every card we uncover. Well, okay, maybe not EVERY card, but certainly some of the non-baseball.

I will update the player/manager list later this week and will get everyone's cards passed around this weekend. I should start mailing those out next week.  Upcoming posts will include a wrap-up and a couple surprise boxes I received! Wahoo!!

Here's how the final draft played out:
Notice one says "I'm not really Night..." That said that the person was not really Night Owl, but that Night should have the Steve Lyons card. I got a kick out of that. Whoever entered that, thanks for the laugh!

Here is the random order, minus the "I'm not Night Owl" entry:

Everyone placed in the random order: Jafronius is in white because I pasted his picks from an email.

You'll have to click on this one to see the final results. I included ALL the results since it went for 14 rounds! Whew!

I can't thank everyone enough for the patience and GREAT sportsmanship throughout the season breaks! I realize I was a bit "persnickety" at times and I fretted over things most folks never gave second-thought to, so I truly appreciate the camaraderie you had with/for each other when weird things would come up!  Thanks again!

Tribecards Final Draft: Delay of Game

I will post the draft results on Wednesday. I hit a bit of a snag with Google docs. If you tried to put in your picks and couldn't, please let me know. I've got Jafronius' picks that were left out.

List of folks with entries:

davidinark

Backstop Cards

bconrad

2x3 Heroes

scottcrawfordoncards

gcrl

Patrick.m.smith1984

dawgbones

P-town Tom

cattlerustler

Thorzul

dayf13

Dominicfdny

akgonzolyn

paul.hadsall

I'm not really Night Owl but you should give him Steve Lyons just because.

ajpca07

Play at the Plate

Bpweber

irishtribefan

Jccsst1022

Donsherm

communitygum

Workman

Bo Rosny

mark.aubrey@gmail.com

Trhdds

Captain Canuck

matthew.t.wilson

(plus Jafronius, as mentioned above).

Thanks for playing along!