Good News and Good News

I just got back from a meeting with my college counselor.  I knew that I was getting close to being able to apply for graduation.  I counted only 2 or 3 more classes left.  Today's meeting was about making sure I had enough credits and to fill out some paper work so, I can obtain my associates degree.

The counselor was very helpful and told me that only two more classes for my associates in history and one more class that is required to transfer to Cal State Northridge.  Next Spring, I am going to work less and crank out the last few classes.  Getting my associates degree is going to be a huge accomplishment for me and by next fall I will actually be on a campus of a state university, taking classes, searching for parking and finishing up life goals.

2013 is going to be the start of the Decades of Spiegel.  I can't wait until next year.

Since, I am full of a lot of spirit and energy, it is time for a long form trade post.  This trade post is going to feature cards from blogger superstar named Night Owl who runs a blog that the world has read.  Night Owl sent me a lot of really nice Dodger cards.  He sent them in a little box.

Night Owl is above using bubble mailers.  He prefers sending a stack of baseball cards in a cardboard box.

This card is instantly one of my favorite Mike Piazza cards.  Piazza won the All-Star Game MVP in 1996.  The game took place in his hometown of Philadelphia and it was also the city that I was living in at the time.  It was big news in the area that the city was hosting the All-Star Game and for a local boy like Piazza to win the MVP honors was a perfect story for the game.

I am not sure if this card has been on the Dodger Card Countdown that Night Owl is running.  I don't remember seeing it.  This Piazza may have a chance.

Oddball cards featuring Dodgers always have a binder spot in my collection.  Even Dodger players that I prefer not to look at, get a placed in a binder if they appear on an oddball card.

This is a fantastic action shot of Steve Garvey.  It shows him crushing a baseball and showing off his popeye forearms.  The bottom blue part on the bottom takes away from this photo a bit.  Topps needs to acquire the rights to this photo, revamp Stadium Club and churn this card out for the masses.

It is only that simple, Topps.

These are some of my first 2012 Topps minis.  I have been staring at boxes and packs of these at my local card shop for weeks.  I have been tempted to buy a box or at least a handful of packs.  I must refrain from doing so and just wait until the hundreds of Dodger bloggers out there get some dupes and mail them to me.

The Javy Guerra card is a neat daytime celebration photo.  It would be better if Dioner Navarro wasn't in this picture.  I am surprised the Dodgers actually won this game with Navarro in the line-up.

Are collectors getting frustrated with the over saturation of parallels.  We have all different colors or parallels and also mini sized ones.  When is too much of one card.....too much of one card?

Night Owl has been purging his collection of relics since the card companies got involved in a scandal.  The scandal involved the card companies knowingly buying fake jerseys from some scumbag and sticking the non-game used jerseys in cards.

I understand Night Owl's frustration.  I still would like to obtain cards that have photos of Dodgers on it.  The prices of relics has dropped and the ease in which bloggers mail me them has been beneficial in my quest to obtain Dodgers.

Night Owl gladly dumped a handful of relics on me and I gladly accepted.  He sent me a couple Shawn Green cards.

This is a well designed relic of Paul Lo Duca.  It has a tiny photo of his face, a tiny piece of cloth and a tiny version of a Dodger Stadium ticket.  Fleer added a lot of stuff on this card and I like the effort.  It gives my eyes many things to look at and focus on.

This card is also slightly smaller in size and has a perforated edge on one side.  I miss the creativity that Fleer used to bring to the table.

How many more years until MLB gives another company a license to compete with Topps?

 
One of the relics that Night Owl included features a dude that I never heard of.  He is wearing a Dodger uniform and it stumped me.  This doesn't happen very often.

I had to Google Mike Nixon's name and look up his stats.  Nixon was drafted out of a baseball player factory called Arizona State University.  The Dodgers picked him in the 3rd round of the 2002 draft.  Nixon didn't pan out for the club and his baseball career ended in 2005.

He does have a spot in my collection though.  I may never own a Mike Nixon base card but, I at least have this one of him.  I really like the mountain and the brick building in the background of his photo.  The stadium that he is in is probably pretty nice with a mountain popping out of center field.

This was a wonderful trade and it took me a while to pick out some cards that I wanted to feature at the Platter.  That is usually a good sign of how well received this trade box was.

Thank you for the cards, Night Owl!

Platter Substitute

Over the course of many years, I have seen many different types of teachers in school.  I have had teachers that are always positive and seem motivated with a high energy level.  There have been some teachers that I have had that seem to be more babysitter types, that just hang out in the class room and coast through lectures just to get it over with.  Teachers that are burnt out and are sick of delivering the same lecture for the thousandth time.

Another type of teacher that I have encountered is the teacher whose style is of a rambler.  The lectures often veer off the point into another zone completely.  The teacher even acknowledges this problem but, still can't control it.  Each discussion can go on for several minutes at a time without the teacher mentioning anything from his outline that he just wrote on the board.

The rambler type is especially fun to have as a history teacher.  The rambler in a history class may start a class by discussing the reconstruction years post Civil War and mention such "key" Civil War figures such as Herodotus, Napolean, and Richard Nixon.  I seem to learn a little bit about every era in a history class like this.

What if a rambling history teacher wrote at the Platter?  Lets find out......

Paul Lo Duca was a pretty good catcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1998-2004.  This card, here has a piece of Paul's jersey in it.  I looked at this card closely and studied it.  You can see a speck of blood from a Giant that Paul Lo Duca must have gotten on his jersey after stepping over his rival.

Oh, I almost forgot to introduce myself.  My name is Mr.Dryskell.  I am filling in for Spiegel and taking over his writing duties for the day.  I am a history teacher by trade and always wanted to try my hand at blogging since blogs were invented in 2009.  The Platter is getting to be so big time that Spiegel now can afford a substitute to write for for him as he is off getting into hot night clubs due to his blogger fame.

This card was sent to Spiegel by an individual named Night Owl.  According to my records, this Night Owl guy writes a blog and lives in New York.

Lo Duca was born in Brooklyn,New York.  He was born to be a Dodger because Brooklyn is where the Dodgers were born.

Television and radio icon Larry King became a Dodger fan during the Brooklyn years.  King claims to have been at Jackie Robinson's first game as a Dodger.  Many other folks also make this claim.  Spiegel told me he was also in attendance at this game.

Roger Kahn wrote a good book about the Brooklyn Dodgers called The Boys of Summer.  I recommend this book.

Photography must be a key component of collecting baseball cards.  I was never much into collecting baseball cards.  I do see the appeal after seeing a photo like this.  This photo is evidence of Shawn Green hitting a home run against the Giants.

The Dodgers and Giants are major rivals.  The games between these two teams are filled with passion, anger and lots of grit.

The Russians and the United States had a huge rivalry during the Cold War.  These two countries fought against spreading one another's ideals across the globe.  The race to build more missiles and the race to have the best space program was also part of the Cold War.

I really enjoy old Civil War photography.  The black and white photos that are now tinted yellow for the most part.  Color photos are okay but, I love seeing the darkness in the eyes of the subjects in old Civil War photos.

Whoa, this is too shiny.  Spiegel must have given me this one to write about because he knew it would temporarily blind me when light reflects off it.  People are pranksters at the offices of the Platter.  There are clowns all over this building.

No wonder Spiegel posts only once a week.

I remember reading a good book about clowns.......ummmmm.......I forget the name now.

I think it was written by a famous writer from the Bay Area.

No, I am way off, the book is called "It" by Stephen King.  He is from a place slightly worse than the Bay Area called Maine.

This card is much classier than that Mike Piazza catastrophe.  A Gypsy Queen card of Matt Kemp with a nice frame.  I researched Spiegel's records and found that he doesn't have many of these framed 2012 Gypsy Queen cards.  That is a shame due to the beauty of these cards.

This card is pure art.  If this was blown up into a big enough size to hang in a living room, I am sure this would be hung up in the White House.  Barack Obama is a big baseball fan.  Obama, probably is a huge Matt Kemp fan even though he pulls for the White Sox.

Night Owl sent Spiegel some very nice cards.  Maybe I can sub for him more often because he has a bunch of other stacks of cards to go through.  The Archives Department at the Platter needs to work extra hard to get through this.

Peter the Great was once the ruler of Russia.  He was a hands on type of leader that would actually help to build ships for his military.

Nickelodean used to have a show on called the Adventures of Pete and Pete.  I just remembered that.  It has nothing to do with the Russian Czar Peter though.

I got sidetracked, I am sorry.

I will end my first post with a thank you from Spiegel to the Night Owl.

Winning by Association

There was an end of year contest that was held at JayBarkerfan's Junk that was won by the great Night Owl.  JayBarkerFan was giving out prizes for this contest.  I believe he gave out cards to the top 3 winners and the dude that first nominated the eventual winner.

The random dude that picked Night Owl first was me!  I didn't expect to get any cards but, some were sent over to me.  I am glad that many other people think Night Owl is the best blog because I got a healthy stack of Hideo Nomo cards for my collection.  I counted 37 Nomo cards plus one gold coin that was sent to me from Wes.

This package has to be a Platter record for most Nomos' in one bubble mailer.  I usually get sent a variety of Dodgers but, this was just a bundle of my boy, Hideo Nomo.  I picked out a handful of my faves from my winnings.

Of course, all the cards that I picked were from the 90s.  That was when Nomo was at his peak and the decade that I feel baseball card sets were at there peak.  The card sets were at there peak due to volume of sets, variety of look, and sheer creativity.  I didn't know that Topps Gallery was out in 1997.  This set looks high end so, at one point it was probably out of my price range.  I was still digging Fleer products and Collector's Choice in 1997.

Metal Universe was a set that my friends and I were stoked about in the mid-90s.  This set was made to appeal to kids. Old school collectors that worked in hobby shops probably hated it when little kids would come in and ask for this product.  Some older collectors that didn't work in a hobby shop probably despised this set when it came out.

I still think it is cool and unique.  I don't think Topps would take a risk like this and release it in 2012.  Too many traditionalists would be up in arms.  Leaf Metal tried to make a comeback at the end of last year but, the set looked like silver foil.  It wasn't inventive and just bland.

I love the 90s card sets.  There is so much non-sense going on here but, I still love it.  I am a collector that loves a ton of shine, colors and photos to be all on one card.  I also like cards that are simple like Allen and Ginter.  No middle ground for me!

This was super cool of Wes from JayBarkerFan's Junk to throw this coin in.  I have no info on this set.  I didn't want to rip this card from it's packaging to read the back of it.  I am also not sure how I am going to display or catalog this card.  Those are good worries to have because this is oddball and golden cool.

I got all of this plus other cards for somebody else being the best.  Awesome stuff, Wes!  Thanks!  Also, thanks to the greatness of Night Owl for getting some votes.  Thanks to all the people that voted for Night Owl because without your support, I would have never gotten a stack of Nomo cards.

Trading With The Blog Of The Year

Being able to trade with the Blog of the Year is a huge accomplishment for a little blogger like myself.  The winner of the Blog of the Year was Godfather Night Owl.  I am sure everybody has heard that already.  The Godfather has been super busy since being crowned the champion of the blog world.  I am shocked that he still has time to send cards to the Platter.

Godfather Night Owl sent me a big bundle of Dodgers my way.  Many of the cards are needs of mine.  He must have put together a package for me in between interviews with major news outlets like TMZ and CNN.  I am grateful that he took the time for me.  It must be because we both love Los Doyers.

This is one of a million Hideo Nomo cards that were released in 1995.  The baseball world had Nomo fever and so did the card world.  It will take me a very long time to ever collect all of his cards from 1995 alone.  I wonder if Topps or whoever is running the card industry in 20 years, will release more Nomo cards.  Nomo was highly collectible in the 90s and I wonder if he will show up in 90s retro sets.

This is an awesome looking 1975 Topps Joe Ferguson. It is mini and is of a cool action shot.  I am positive that Ferguson made the play at the plate and tagged this dude out.

I am still trying to build up my 70s Topps Dodgers collection.  I may need to get a separate section for the minis of this era.  I will try to compile the regular Dodgers team set from 1975 as well as the mini set.  Please keep'em coming blog world.

 I remember going to Kay Bee Toys as a kid.  I would get some GI Joe action figures there. They are probably gone but, they made a cool looking baseball card set.  That should have been stated on the tombstone of Kay Bee Toys.

I almost forgot that Vicente Padilla was a Dodger in 2011.  He hardly played and was injured.  I enjoyed his time on the team in 2009-2010.  I wish I remembered any accomplishment that he had in 2011.  I just loved having a psycho lunatic on the pitching staff.  When Padilla was on the mound, at any moment he could lose his mind and bean the batter, kick an umpire and shoot himself in the leg all in one sequence of delirium.

That would have been an awesome sequence!

2008 Topps Stadium is a beautiful set.  I am glad that Topps had time to take a photo of someone's kid brother.  They even gave him a uniform and everything.

I'm just teasing you, Chin Lung Huuuuu.  I miss you, kid.

This is off-topic, but do you guys use the site Groove Shark to listen to music?  This site has everything to listen to for free.  I am currently listening to Operation Ivy.  I used to this to them a ton back in Jr. High.  Listening to them right now will make me a better blogger and a better human being overall.

Godfather Night Owl helped me out with some cards for my 2011 Allen and Ginter insert set collection.  The World's Mysterious Figures set is eerie.  This set gives me chills when I read the back of them.  The Babushka Lady creeps me out.  She filmed the Kennedy assassination from a good point of view.  According to the FBI she has never come forward with her film footage from that fateful day.  Where did she go?  Who is she?  Did the FBI track her down and cover up her footage?  That is so strange.

Get back to being famous now, Night Owl.  Thanks for the cards!

The Godfather and Graded Goodness

Trading baseball cards with a fellow Dodger fan is the way to go for me.  I feel better about myself when I know that the cards I have sent will help out with a Dodger fan's want list.  The joy of helping out another Dodger fan is an added perk to trading online. 

Night Owl is the Godfather of Dodger card bloggers.  I thought I should reintroduce that, just in case I have any new readers.  If your new to the blog world check out Night Owl's blog.  You will be entertained on a daily basis and you may even be inspired to start your own blog by reading his. 

I love getting graded cards that have no business ever getting graded.  I can't imagine what was going through the sucker's mind that sent this one in for grading.  This is just the type of card that I love acquiring in a trade.  There probably aren't too many 2000 Bowman Draft Chin-Feng Chen Graded 8.5s out there.  This makes this card a little more rare.

This Chen card also fits into my failed Dodger prospects collection.  Chen was a power hitter in the Dodgers minor league system but, couldn't handle major league pitching.  Chin-Feng Chen cards will be placed alongside cards of Andy LaRoche and Karim Garcia.

I also wish that you had to turn in an explanation every time you send in a card to get graded.  You would have to write out the reason why you think it is a good idea to get a specific card graded.  Some possible used explanations could be for future investment, its your favorite player or team.  Then if the graded card ever turns into a poorly made decision, the explanation sheet would give the card a good back story.  The explanation sheet could travel around with the card like a certificate of authenticity does for autographs.

Night Owl was kind enough to send me this 2004 Cracker Jack Mini Paul LoDuca GU.  Retro cards plus mini plus game used equals awesome!  This card was an unexpected gift from Night Owl.  The generosity in the blog world is off the charts. 

Gypsy Queen has just disappeared.  I am not sure if I will ever open another pack of this set.  I really enjoyed it this year.  But, I haven't seen a rack pack at Wal-Mart in months.  I haven't even seen many in trade packages or at the card shop.

This is a green bordered Matt Kemp from 2011 Gypsy Queen.  I am looking forward to the end of the baseball playoffs so, I can see if Kemp gets named the MVP.  I am totally confident that Clayton Kershaw has the Cy Young locked up.  Bu, when it comes to Kemp, I am not so sure about his MVP bid.  I am pulling for him though.

Here is another one of those quickly vanished Gypsy Queen cards that luckily appeared in my trade pack from Night Owl.  This is a cool action shot of Kurt Suzuki tagging someone out at Fenway Park.  I should have stocked up on cards from this set when they were available.  It is a collector's blunder that I will try to make up for.

Thanks for the trade,Godfather.  You once again sent me a solid variety that I appreciate very much.

The Return of Godfather Night Owl

It always makes me feel better to trade with a fellow Dodger fan.  It is nice to know that you share a common bond with someone because they root for the good guys.  I always have a ton of Dodger dupes.  I get doubles of inserts, parallels and of course base cards.  This makes it a great option to trade with a fellow Dodger collector.

Godfather Night Owl always seems to know what cards I have and what cards I need.  I don't have an overly comprehensive wants list on my blog.  I am not focused and organized enough for that.  Night Owl must have special powers to know what to send me.  Him and I have made several trades together.  When he sends me a lot, there are usually at least 90% of them that are new to me.  That is really good and done on a consistent basis.  Night Owl runs a solid blog and is a great trader.  Oh yeah, he also roots for the good guys.

1977 Topps is a sweet looking set.  The more cards that I see from the 70s, the more I love the designs that came out of that decade.  My next set building project is going to be building Dodger team sets from the 70s.  This will take more time but, I do have a decent dent in those sets. 

I sent Night Owl a 3-D Kelloggs Steve Garvey and he sent a Fernando back my way.  These cards are really cool, have a cool shape and stay in really good condition over time.  The Fernando is from the 1983 set and appears like it was just pulled from a box of cereal.

I am a sucker for the Topps Gold Parallel.  I have been collecting such parallels since my childhood in the 90s.  Gold still enriches a card in my opinion.  It gives the card some extra class.  The 2011 Topps Heritage Casey Blake appears to be covered in green slime.  But, I think it is supposed to be some sort of a green refractor.  It must be from a retail pack, maybe a Target exclusive parallel?  Anyways, the green slime reminds me of Double Dare.  That bit of knowledge in itself makes that Blake an awesome card.

Night Owl must have somehow have known that I don't buy any Topps Attax cards.  Those special powers of his really came through this time.  He sent me two Topps Attax cards of the Dodgers two best players.  Kemp and Kershaw are the beasts of the team.  Things would be even worse if these two weren't playing so well.

Night Owl also sent me a Topps Attax card of the worst player on the Dodgers.  That player's name is Juan Uribe.  Things are so much better with him on the DL.

This is one of my favorite cards of all time.  Upper Deck Masterpieces had a really good thing going on.  The cards were well made and the framed parallels were a nice touch.  This Sandy Koufax card is a work of art.  I wouldn't mind having this card blown up and framed on my wall.

Night Owl had gotten a bunch of these 1984 Fun Foods pins as a gift.  He had some doubles to trade and I jumped at the chance to get this Rick Sutcliffe button.  This shows Sutcliffe as a Cub but he was a Dodger also.  I also like his grizzled beard and woodsman hair cut.  That beard alone earned him a few victories in 1984.

My hunt for the 2011 Allen and Ginter Ascent of Man set is going really well.  I have been receiving some in trade and picked up a few at my local card shop.  Night Owl sent me a handful of these to help with my quest.  I am almost done with the set and when I am finished then, I will move on to trying to get some cards from the 70s.

This has been another great trade with Godfather Night Owl.  Thanks for the solid variety and the Ascent of Man cards!