On December 7, 2011, a guy named Nick started up a blog called Dime Boxes - The Low-End Baseball Card Collector's Journey. Do you know what I was doing then? Enjoying being a father for the second time, as my daughter was born 10 days prior. On one hand, you have a young guy thinking "I should start a blog!", while on the other hand is a not as young guy thinking "How can such a tiny thing produce that much poop?" Everyone travels there own unique path.
One thing Nick shares with my daughter is an abundance of kindness. Shortly after my daughter celebrated her self-professed life as a "pre-teen", Nick celebrated his blog's life by giving away some cards.
As is my luck with such giveaways, I came late to the table and the majority of cards were already claimed. I was able to snag a red Sox MVP and four Hall of Famers though:
When I said I was a late comer, I meant it. I even double checked, there were 26 people who claimed cards before me. How did so many people let a 61 year old card of a Hall of Fame pitcher slip down to me? I'm amazed. Grateful but amazed. It was fun to get that Carlton card too. I knew it couldn't have been from the 1977 set, but it wasn't until I had it in hand that it was a cloth sticker from 2012 Archives.
Of course, Nick included bonus cards, and they were nothing short of amazing:
A couple of online cards, an oddball Ted Williams, and a pair of Hostess Hall of Famers highlight the group for me.
Favorite Card: Hal Newhouser and that great 1961 Fleer design
Thanks for the cards, Nick! Here's hoping your blog's "pre-teen" years will give you less grey hairs than my daughter is sure to give me. Happy blogaversary!
My daughter was also born in 2011!
ReplyDeleteThat Yaz card has an interesting background. Cleveland?
Those Hostesses are a pretty good extra. As far as the Newhouser goes, I don't think that there's too many bloggers collecting him, or the set, and there's only a couple of Tigers collectors; so it's not too hard to see how he could've stayed on the board so long.
ReplyDeleteBonus Hostess? Awesome!
ReplyDeleteI stumbled on to Nick's blog in 2013, Blew me away, he and my oldest daughter are just days apart in age.
ReplyDeleteNot bad for the 27th person to claim cards from Nick! :)
ReplyDeleteThe throw-in Sox are excellent, especially the Duran and Betts.
I was hoping to give away enough cards so that even the latecomers got a few nice trinkets, and seeing what you were able to claim makes me happy! Glad you enjoyed the extras too. Still have a hard time believing the blog is already "Spinal Tap" age!
ReplyDeleteThose Hostess cards are a sweet bonus. I'm sure glad Nick decided to start his blog. Seeing all of his dime box pickups over the years provides years worth of extra motivation to climb out of bed and head down to local card shows and flea markets in hopes of finding cool deals like his.
ReplyDelete