2017 Year In Review

Since 2018 is upon us, I thought I'd take a look at my blog and collection. While other bloggers have written about yearly goals, this post serves as more as a benchmark for me, since this blog is so new.

2017 Highlights

• Obviously, the biggest thing to happen here on the Diamond Jesters blog in 2017 was the creation of the blog itself! After months of being a lurker on other collecting blogs, I finally took the leap and started up one of my own. It's been a fun and rewarding experience, and I can't wait to see what I come up with during the new year!
• One of the big pluses to joining the blogging community has been joining an incredible community of people. I'm reminded almost daily how friendly, supportive, and generous my fellow collectors have been, and the wealth of knowledge freely shared is mind boggling. I'm glad to be a small part of this.
• From a collection standpoint, I've slowly worked my way back in after a long hiatus. As such, this year saw some firsts for me - my first baseball card relic, my first graded card, and my first TTM autograph success! Lots of good stuff!

2017 Diamond Jesters Blog Stats

Number of posts: 140 (Not bad for my first year, especially since I didn't post anything for almost the first 4 months!)
Month with the most posts: 32 posts in May (This is when the 30 Day Challenge was in full swing, and I made a point to post almost every day!)
Top 5 viewed posts: (Oddly, all these posts are from December. I guess it's reflective of my blog becoming more well known..)

1. Single Elimination Challenge - The Finals! (193 page views)
2. SEC - Semifinals Match Up #1 (150 page views)
3. The Best Free Stuff Is The Stuff You Stole (146 page views)
4. Secret Santa Revealed! (137 page views)
5. Instantly Iconic (133 page views)

Most commented post: Single Elimination Challenge - The Finals! - 12 comments (I pimped this on the TCDB forums, so I'm happy with the results!)
Most commented post (Non-SEC post): Secret Santa Revealed! - 11 comments (9 if you eliminate my own comments!)
Followers: 28 (Thanks to each and every one of you!)

My Collection

(Stats courtesy of the Trading Card Database)

Total number of cards: 35,428 (Unofficial - still cataloging my collection)
Cards from 2017 sets: 576 (Lower than I expected - a bland base set will do that I guess)
Red Sox cards: 2510 (Almost a thousand more than any other team!)
Autographed cards: 11 (4 new this year: Junior Guerra, Josh Sale, Luis Tiant, Christian Yelich)

Thanks Tyler!

Graded cards: 1 (New: David Wright)

Thanks Paul!

Relic cards: 5 (4 new: Ellis Burks, Dan Uggla, Eric Chavez, John Lckey)

Thanks Brian!

Package from Scribbled Ink

Paul from Paul's TTM Blog recently hit his 100th post, and decided to commemorate the occasion by changing his blog name. After inviting many good suggestions, he rechristened his blog "Scribbled Ink". (If you haven't already, go check it out!)

Paul was nice enough to send a thank you package out to those who offered suggestions. Even though my suggestion didn't get used, he sent along some good stuff:

I wasn't expecting this from a Tigers fan!

Starting off with the non-card contents, Paul included some Brewers swag - a beaded necklace and a promotional DVD from the Brewers 2010 season. I actually looked up to see what kind of season this team had. For a 3rd place team, they had 3 guys reach 100 RBI! (Ryan Braun is the given, can you name the other two without looking it up? I'll reveal the answer at the end of this post.)

Intersting..Ichiro does better with the change-up than Ruth?

Paul also included some cards from the short-lived 2010 Topps Attax card game. The two Champions cards are promos. Not bad, even if they are Yankees! I never played the game personally. From reviews I have read, it was just an over-glorified version of the game War.

He also include an autographed card of former Phillies Prospect Jiwan James, and an unopened pack of 1990 Topps Big. I can make out the top card as former A's pitcher Rick Honeycutt, but I'll open the pack later to see who else I ended up with.

The highlight of the package was a mint graded 2005 Donruss David Wright Rated Rookie. This just happens to be my first graded card, which is pretty cool. Wright was on the fast track to Cooperstown before injuries derailed him. He seems like an easy guy to root for, so hopefully he can make it back someday.

Thanks again for the package Paul!

Everyone else, be sure to check out the new and improved Scribbled Ink at: https://scribbledinc.blogspot.com/ (Notice the web address uses a "c" and not a "k"!)

Brewers Trivia Answer: Corey Hart and Casey McGehee