Friday, August 30, 2013

Explain Yourself!

The name of my blog is, It's like having my own Card Shop. Let me explain why.

I've collected baseball cards since I was 8 years old. I've seen lots of Card Shops come and go. There was a time when there were 5 different card shops within 10 minutes of my house when I was growing up. I could walk to two of them. I've had a co-op case at two different Card Shops over the years. I used to spend hours every Saturday at the Card Shop; opening 3 or 4 boxes (this was when boxes were $30 - $50), having pack wars, watching games on tv, attending auctions, watching other guys open packs and boxes, and just hanging out with other collectors.

Then things changed. My life changed. The hobby changed.

I never really stopped collecting, but my financial priorities changed as I got married, bought a house, worked on a Bachelors and then a Master's degree, started having children, etc. and so buying cards became less and less frequent. Back in 2009 my wife and all her friends were really into blogging and so I wondered if there were any blogs about baseball cards. There were. It was great! Looking at others collections, pack and box breaks, trade packages, etc. was like being at the Card Shop for a hours on a Saturday again. So I started my own blog.

At that time there were only three Card Shops that I knew of that were still open. The closest about 35 minutes away with the others being about an hour away. I choose to call my blog "It's like having my own Card Shop" because 1) I've always wanted to own my own Card Shop (it's on my bucket list) and 2) I wanted it to be a place where I could share a passion for a hobby with others that appreciate it as well. I wanted to be able to trade cards, open and watch others open packs and boxes, and just hang out with other collectors.

Now, explain yourself!

Leave a comment as to why you named your blog what you did or if you have a post explaining why leave a link below. I know some blog titles might seem self explanatory but I still want to hear from you. To increase participation I'll randomize all those that explain themselves and provide them with a "small" prize.


















Get it? "Small prize"? It's a bunch of Allen & Ginter mini cards. Anyways if you promote this on your own blog and let me know, I'll give you two spots. I'll give everyone a week to respond and randomize the minis next Saturday, September 7th.

28 comments:

  1. Blog Name: Waiting 'til Next Year

    Why? Um, yeah. I'm a Cubs fan and we're ALWAYS waiting 'til next year. In the meantime I thought it would be fun to keep an on-line journal of what this Cubs fan does while waiting. Slowly, but surely, it has morphed in a blog in which 90% of the posts feature cardboard.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ATBATT's name is a little self-explanatory as well.

    I started my blog absolutely because I wanted to find trade partners and build my collection.

    It's been a real blast, and I've even expanded beyond trading and into right proper blogging. I love it.

    But the essence of my blog will always be showing- All trade bait - all the time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "Dime Boxes"

    Because I love dime boxes, of course. More specifically, though, the discount glory of dime boxes are pretty much what helped transform me into the collector I am today.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ooooh. Minis! Especially want that card at the top, fifth from the left.

    Night Owl Cards 'cause I'm you're not-so-average night owl. I used to post all the time at 1, 2, 3 in morning on my blog. Now I save that time period for the set blogs I have. But I'm still up all night with the cool people.

    ReplyDelete
  5. At any given time, various piles of cards and boxes and whatnot are splayed out all over our guest bed (my hobby work table), so my wife started calling cards "my mistress". It made sense as a blog name, so I started My Cardboard Mistress.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Part vanity, mostly self-explanatory! Growing up, I was not a big sports fan, couldn't stand baseball at all, having only getting into it with the 2009 World Series. The other side of the coin, I was always thin growing up as well, we are talking I was 5'-10 when I graduated highschool, tipping the scales at 115-118 tops! Somewhere along the way I picked up the nickname Bones. over the years, I got married and we've adopted several animals, now settling in with 4 dogs, hence the "DAWG" in dawgbones.

    As for the rest, it's simple, really.
    "Dawgbones, a Phillies Phan!" I was born a Phillies Phan only because I could not root for them any earlier!

    As for my blog, I, like you, found it a way to share my collecting bug with like-minded individuals. And make a few trades, and a lot of friends that I wouldn't otherwise have had the awesome fortune to know!

    And if I win, I'll be sure that Night Owl gets that card at the top, fifth from the left. And if anyone else wants some, I can share the love around... except for the Sig Hansen, it'll be hard keeping that one for myself if my wife sees it first! We are huge Deadliest Catch fans.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, and I've placed a P.S. on today's post for your contest. if you've not read today's post, you might find it interesting. (http://dawgbonesaphilliesphan.blogspot.com/2013/08/help-from-blogosphere.html)

      And I'm also contemplating a name change for my blog, been kicking it around for some time now...

      Delete
  7. Lifetime Topps is fairly self-explanatory if you consider the longer name, which is "Lifetime Topps Project". I'm chronicling my attempt at all the Topps sets since 1980, when I was born. Including the inserts and the Traded sets - which I decided along the way. I know I'm not unique in doing this kind of project - but maybe the first blogger to try to follow it from beginning to end. Collecting every Topps set since 1980 was always something I wanted to do. Rickey Henderson is one of my favorite players, and since his rookie card is from the year I was born - that always seemed to go well. And using a blog to track what I'm doing seemed like a great idea. Along the way, I've made a lot of trades, learned a lot about baseball cards, and certainly gotten sidetracked from time to time!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I went with the obvious approach. My 2008 Topps Set Blog was originally just a way to showcase the 2008 Topps cards that I was getting autographed for my son. As I began to read other blogs and make friends you guys inspired me to expand beyond that.

    ReplyDelete
  9. 2x3 Heroes? Simple - calling my blog 2.5x3.5 Heroes looks really dumb. And don't get me started on metric.

    It was the word "heroes" I wanted to get into the name. Baseball was life to me from 8 yrs old thru 15. It was then I walked away from playing (and even watching/following) because I road the pines for the first time in my little league career. I found my way back to watching baseball about 15 years later, and I realized what a profound affect the game had in my life growing up. I come from a broken home so I never had a father figure to look up and emulate. With all the years (until 15) I spent around baseball, the players were the ones that taught me, in a sense.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wrote about it four years ago this month:

    http://plaschkethysweaterisargyle.blogspot.com/2009/08/poppin-proverbial-cherry.html

    ReplyDelete
  11. Tenets of Wilson

    I started it originally with the intent that I would blog about any and all of my interests, hence it was simply all about me (Wilson), but it morphed into mostly a baseball card blog. I'll still occasionally slip in something outside of cards, usually something vaguely mathy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Promoted here:

      http://tenetsofwilson.blogspot.com/2013/08/everyone-loves-talking-about-themselves.html

      Delete
  12. Nachos Grande

    When I started the blog, it was a mix of sports, politics, life experiences, and recipes (mostly sports though). I wanted a name that would evoke sports and yet allow me to write about a hodgepodge of other things. Nothing seemed more appropriate to me than Nachos Grande. Also, Nachos are delicious.

    PS: I added a bit about you contest on this post: http://fanofreds.blogspot.com/2013/08/good-listia-or-bad-listia.html

    ReplyDelete
  13. Playing With My Cards
    http://playingwithmycards.blogspot.com/

    When I was a kid my Grandmother always used to see me sorting and say, "Oh, you're playing with your cards." And it would piss me off because I took it so seriously. As an adult, I've embraced the fact that it's all about having fun. I am, most definitely, Playing With My Cards.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Waxaholic.

    kinda self explanatory. I love busting wax. I need to go to meetings or something to stop. Maybe a 12 step program.
    Being a set collector makes it worse because every few packs or box I bust, I then have to try and finish the set.

    I need help. Figured I may as well write about it and see if there are any others like me out there.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I started getting back into the hobby with the help of my 10 year old son Kyle who found my trove of totes in the attic from my collecting days in the early 90's. Yeah mass production of garbage I know , but none the less , they are up there and have been brought back to life by a kid who has re lit the flame.

    The name of my blog is to pay homage to the first 2 blog sites I encountered. 30- Year Old Cardboard and Foul Bunt. Hence the Name Old Foul Cardboard.

    ReplyDelete
  16. another one picked to explain itself, I hope. not a fan of the collectors who think the base cards are just to-be-thrown-out filler material for the randomized lottery distribution system of the 'hits'. baseball cards are enjoyable on their own, as baseball cards, not autograph platforms.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Two reasons:
    1.) When I take a swing at opening packs I rarely get "hits".
    2.) Joe Castiglione, the radio voice of the Red Sox will use that term (in a very deflated tone) when the batter pops out for the 3rd out, rather than driving home the tying or winning run.
    It seemed like the perfect name for my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I touched on it here:
    http://www.section-36.blogspot.com/2013/01/five-years-five-years.html

    Short version: some extra room on a custom scorecard led to a blog named after the section the game's tickets were in.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I knew I wanted to use the Wrigley Field marquee in my header and I liked the alliteration in Wrigley Wax. I also started my blog when Mario at Wax Heaven was the king of card blogs, so I thought including the word Wax in the name would be a good thing.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I called my blog The Chronicles of Fuji for two reasons:

    #1 - I loved the C.S. Lewis books as a child.

    #2 - The blog is truly a diary of my hobby history.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I went with Play at the Plate because catchers are my favorite players. I played catcher when I was in Little League and it's always been my favorite position. I did a little checking around when I started and no one had that name so I went with it and it's been great for me.

    ReplyDelete
  22. My blog is "The Lost Collector." I did love the TV show "Lost", but the name isn't a tribute to that.

    It's because I came and went from the hobby a few times, and every time I came back, I felt lost. Think about going away in 2002 and coming back in 2010. A lot changed in that time, such as the quantity of relic cards and autographs. Oh, and the exclusive Topps deal.

    Plus, I feel like a very unfocused and unorganized collector. My cards are all over, and other than collecting Yankees, I feel like I have no real goals or something to get behind. Sometime I get passionate about a player collection or TTM, but mostly I'm just...lost.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I have two sons who still collect to some extent, thus, I'm a Baseball Dad.

    I love the Cleveland Indians, thus, All Tribe Baseball !

    Simple and to the point !!

    ReplyDelete
  24. When I joined the blogging community, I was at a crossroads, personally/professionally, I almost bought a building to open MY OWN CARDSHOP, ON THE CORNER, and suddenly HOT CORNER CARDS came to be...then I discovered the blog world, and then a year later I am here....ONE DAY, I will have MY OWN CARD SHOP, ON THE CORNER!

    ReplyDelete
  25. OK mine is pretty self-explanatory. My online nickname is CaptKirk42 (the first part being my real name is Kirk and yes I am a Star Trek fan, not a lost track of reality trekkie or trekker just a fan of the show and sci-fi. The 42 could be for Jackie Robinson but no it is I am a fan of Douglas Adams "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" books and franchise. My blog is CaptKirk42s Trading Cards Blog (http://captkirk42.blogspot.com) I also have a regular personal blog which I had before the card blog that is why the card blog has "trading card blog" in it's title. About a year ago I started up an exclusive Washington Nationals/Washington Baseball blog since I'm a Nats fan and at the time I didn't see any cards blogs devoted to the Nats there were tons of Braves, Phillies and Mets "Oh My!" but no Nats that I could find. There were "Nats" blogs but they didn't deal in cards. That one I call "Curly W Cards" (http://curlywcards.blogspot.com) which should be obvious

    ReplyDelete
  26. Beckett is a website that allows people to create their own blog and to focus on their passions. I love this blog because it is a creative outlet for me. I love to write and share my stories and experiences with others. Baseball cards online store

    ReplyDelete