Possibly the Most Unique and Cool Addition to My Collection Ever

There are certain cards that us regular collectors can only dream of having.  The T206 Honus Wagner.  The 1952 Mickey Mantle.  Cards that are so famous they transcend the hobby.

Another is the 1869 Peck & Snyder Cincinnati Red Stockings Team card, the card that is generally regarded as the very first baseball card.



I could certainly never afford one of these, but I may have found the next best thing.  :)

First, a bit of background.  For those not familiar with this card, in 1869 a sporting goods company called Peck & Snyder was looking for a way to sell more baseball equipment.  They decided to promote the sport (and themselves) by producing this card featuring the very first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings.  The Cincinnati Base Ball Club was formed in 1866.  They barnstormed around the country, compiling a perfect 65-0 record in 1869.  The back of the card features an advertisement for Peck & Snyder.

OK, so why am I talking about this?

In 2009, 72 year old Bernice Gallego of Fresno, CA stumbled across an old looking baseball card in a collection of old items.  Having no idea what the card was, she decided to put it up on eBay for $10.  Luckily for her, someone she knew saw the listing and immediately told her to take it down.  She had discovered an honest to goodness copy of the original baseball card!  She ended up selling the card through an auction house called Memory Lane Inc. for $64,073.

As part of the auction, Memory Lane Inc. apparently produced 100 serial numbered reprints of the card and sent them to various high-end collectors they thought might have interest in participating in the auction.  And I just got my hands on one!!

I can't afford the famous card, but I CAN get a piece of the auction of the famous card!!

As part of my purchase I also got the little book full of articles about the card that Memory Lane sent to potential buyers:

A DVD of Bernice Gallego's appearance on Jay Leno to talk about her historic find:

And also the original letter sent to a Mr. Clark Cato that came with the reprint:

How cool is that?!

WINNER of First Annual MLB Prediction Contest is....

Back in March I launched a contest to predict the top performing teams and players for the 2012 season, and as I said way back then, now we know who was a PROGNOSTICATOR and who was a FOOL~!  Your winner is......

CHUNTER of Chipp 'n' Dale and Things Done to Cards fame, come on down~!

1. Chunter - 99 points
2. Steve D. - 89 points
3. Play at the Plate - 82 points (PATP won the mid-season prize)
4. Kyle4KC - 81 points
5. The Lost Collector - 76 points
6. Milwaukee Southpaw - 76 points
7. Greg Zakwin - 74 points
8. AdamE - 51 points
9. The Angels in Order - 41 points
10. JoJoBoom - 35 points
(You can click the contest link on the right-hand side of the blog page to see what the predictions were)

What makes Chunter's win even more impressive is that he didn't take advantage of the "change one pick at the All-Star Break" rule, and he still beat the rest of us.

As expected, most of us fared much better trying to predict which teams would win their divisions or the wild card than in trying to pick who would win the stat categories, but that's where Chunter separated himself from the pack.  SEVEN of his 10 player picks finished in the top 10 of their category; only two other players (SteveD and Play at the Plate) got six.  The real clincher was that he nailed both the ERA and Strikeout leader (Kershaw and Verlander), getting the full 10 points for each.

No one managed to get all 5 playoff teams from either league, but The Lost Collector came the closest - in the National League he got two of the division winners (after switching from Philly to Washington at midseason) and nailed both wild cards, but his pick of Milwaukee to win the NL Central was (regrettably) not correct.  In the American League no one got more than 3 of the teams correct.  There were a lot of Boston, Anaheim and Tampa Bay picks, and of course NO ONE took Baltimore.

The stat categories were a very mixed bag.  Surprisingly, only ONE person managed to pick a player that finished in the top 10 for home runs (The Angels in Order, G. Stanton).  Only two people scored points in the Holds category.  On the flipside, 7 out of 10 scored in Strikeouts, and 8 out of 10 got points in Stolen Bases.

So Chunter, it looks like you collect Chipper Jones and the Braves in general.  Lucky for you Chipper is one of the players I keep a small player collection of.  :)  E-mail me and let me know if you have any other collecting interests that I might be able to include in your prize package, and don't forget to give me your address!

Thanks for playing everyone!  Hopefully we can get even more people involved next season~!

Mark Sanchez - The Beast?????

Last night was the 666th edition of Monday Night Football.

The Jets entered with this man at QB:

At the end of the game, Mark Sanchez's passer rating for 2012? - 66.6

His yards per completion? - 6.6

Touchdowns? - 6

Interceptions? - 6

Jersey Number? - 6

SOMEBODY PUT IN TEBOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!!  :)

The Great Big Cat Safari - Jaguarundi Captured~!

This is my first post in a while regarding my goal of collecting all of the cats from Goodwin's Animal Kingdom patch series.  In the interim since the last post the 2012 Goodwin set was released, and wouldn't you know it, there's a few more cats to get!

New cats for 2012:
AK-128 - Bobcat
AK-169 - Clouded Leopard
AK-178 - Siberian Tiger
AK-182 - Asiatic Lion


On the one hand - sweet, more cat cards!  On the other hand - ow, my poor wallet.....Note that most of those are in the higher rarities, so I don't know if I'll ever be able to get them.  But it's good to have dreams!  :)

Anyway, on to today's subject, and the newest addition to my collection, the Jaguarundi!









The Jaguarundi is native to Central and South America.  They are actually a fairly small cat, weighing just 8 to 20 pounds.  They are found in two colors called "phases" - either red or gray.  Jaguarundis are the least "cat-like" of all the cats.  Their long bodies and tails led to their nickname of the "otter cat."

Brothers from another mother?

Unlike many other cats, the Jaguarundi is most active during the day rather than at night.  They eat mainly smaller mammals, occasionally also going after rabbits and fish.  They seem to be even more shy and reclusive than most cats.  Jaguarundis are known for having a wide-range of vocalizations, including a bird-like chirp that you can hear in this video of two young Jaguarundis fighting over food (warning: don't have the speakers up too loud!)