Sports Collectible Show - Newsletter History

We started doing our show at Tanglewood in January 2012. Somewhere along the way I started writing a monthly newsletter to keep our friends informed about what was going on with the show. As time went on it became more than that. For better or worse it became a commentary for me to talk about collecting, about sports in general, and about whatever else came to mind.
I've kept copies of many of these, and here they are.

March 31, 2014 (March newsletter)

At long last, baseball is upon us. Opening day for most teams is today. It's that happy time of the year when Spring has sprung and hope springs eternal in the hearts of baseball fans everywhere. Everybody's team is in 1st place and all dream of October celebrations. Go Braves! Of course, the interminable NBA season grinds on with some 53 teams still hopeful of making one of the 49 playoff spots. And certainly the NFL is never far from the headlines with their draft coming up early next month. And I believe the NHL is still playing for those half dozen fans in this area (just kidding - I know it's a wonderful sport beloved by people in all sorts of foreign countries such as Canada, Finland and Minnesota - lands of eternal winter). I may have to give up my part-time job as weather forecaster, since I've been predicting Spring since January. And we had snow again just last week. But mercifully it was very short-lived. I'm maybe going out on a limb to predict no more snow here in Roanoke this winter! At least I don't do much worse than the "meteorologists" on TV.

May 9, 2014 (April newsletter)

Okay, I know I'm late again with this, and I know you've all been anxiously sitting with your fingers on the email button waiting for it. Your wait is over. It seems like Summer has bypassed Spring - at least yesterday and today with temperatures pushing 90 degrees. Seems like a good time to be indoors at a nice air-conditioned mall (hint). The NFL draft 1st round was last night. The coverage by the sports media rivals coverage of the outbreak of World War III. It's amazing to me how much breath is spent anticipating, covering and reviewing this event. I think it's perhaps the biggest evidence of the marketing genius of the NFL - or maybe second to the Super Bowl. I'll be interested to hear what our pal Jim has to say about his Browns taking Johnny "Football" as their 2nd first-round pick. They've had such good luck with QBs. Hope everybody had a wonderful Easter holiday or Spring break as the case may be. Of course, every week is a break week for me - just saying.

June 9, 2014 (May newsletter)

Now that you've maybe gotten over the thrills and chills of the NFL college draft, we can discuss the MLB first year player draft. Not quite the excitement of the NFL draft, probably because, unlike the NFL, it may take two or three or four years to find out if a BB player can make it in the big leagues. And, unless you're really hard-core into it, it's pretty impossible to get a handle on more than just a tiny handful of the top prospects. But if you want to "prospect" on some of these picks, keep in mind that many of them have already appeared on mainline cards. See this Beckett article for more info: [Sorry - this page has been deleted by Beckett]. Many of them can probably be found at our next show. As far as I know there won't be any NFL draftee cards in their new NFL uniforms until next month. But there are still lots of cards of those draftees that will be available.

July 8, 2014 (June newsletter)

I hope everybody had a fun-filled Fourth and didn't eat too many hot dogs. The weather cooperated a little bit. My wife Sue was off Friday the 3rd, and we had a fun day furniture shopping - always a great way to spend a day off. Of course, ALL my days are days off, so I can spare one now and then. For the first time in many years, I actually watched some NBA, especially the playoffs. For no particular reason I was sort of pulling for Miami, so of course they lost - the "Curse of the Woody". The big news for NBA fans (if there are any) is what will the big-time free agents do (Lebron, Bosh, Wade, Melo). Probably we'll know the answers by the time of our show this month. The MLB All-Star festivities are coming up next week. I personally have never been a big fan of all star games. I don't really get it. But this time it serves as a reminder that it's the last time around for Derek Jeter, so if you haven't already done so you might want to grab on to his cards. It's also time to do a little "prospecting" in the baseball futures. Topps, Bowman and UD Extra Edition all offer lots of prospects. There are so many it's hard if not impossible to track them all. A good reference is Baseball America.

August 2, 2014 (July newsletter)

I guess we're smack dab in the heart of vacation time, so I hope those of you who have traveled (or will travel soon) had (or will have) a safe trip and loads of good weather. I see that school starts back up soon (8/25 in Roanoke county and 9/2 in the city, if I've got that right), so I know all the young'uns are excited about that. Or maybe not so much. At the last show somebody reminded me that I neglected in my last newsletter to mention the FeeFiFoFum "World Cup". For Ken Arritt's benefit, let me remedy that oversight now. Of course we all know that the "World Cup" was won by, uh, somebody - but not us. Probably some third world country. And of course we remember those exciting zero-zero (or "nil-nil" as the soccerheads like to say, for some reason - I believe there's an inordinate amount of Brit influence here - they also talk about playing on the "pitch", which according to Wikipedia is a "viscous substance produced by plants or formed from petroleum", which may go a ways to explain why the game is so slow), anyway, those exciting nothing-nothing ties between Bora-Bora and Uzbekistan, or maybe it was Feliz Navidad and Minnesota. And the guy with the broken back. And some guy bit some other guy. And some other guy got hit in the head and had to ask if he was playing in the "World Cup" - concussion or just bored: you decide. I'm sure I'll never forget the excitement! It's rivaled only by bowling or maybe T-ball in thrills. Now we can put soccer back into its little compartment and forget about it for another four years. Maybe by then U.S. soccer will have advanced to the point where they can hire an actual American to coach the team.

Speaking of (real) football, both college and pro teams are now in training camps. The NFL preseason actually kicks off this coming week while the NCAA kicks off later this month. For a surprising story, if you haven't already heard, Panini has got the NFLPA exclusive starting in 2016 - read more here. In other sports news - if there is any other sport in this country besides FB - the baseball trading deadline came this week with several blockbuster (or blockhead, if you prefer) trades. If David Price was that good in Tampa Bay, how good will he be in Detroit? Might want to check out his cards.

September 9, 2014 (August newsletter)

Hi, gang! This month marks, I believe, our 33rd show at Tanglewood. I don't know how many of these newsletters I've sent out during that time, but as the months have passed I've tried to make the letter a little more entertaining as well as informative. I find, however, that my idea of fun is not necessarily the same as everyone else's. I take a little shot at Saint Derek the Captain, and somebody gets mad. I pick a little bit at soccer, and somebody gets mad. Well, I've learned my lesson - hereafter I will only poke fun at safe targets that won't offend anybody. That means, of course, Paul! Let's see - How many Pauls does it take to change a lightbulb? Oh, you've heard that one. Okay, Paul walks into a bar with a parrot on his head. Aw, you've heard that one, too. All right, to heck with it. Let's poke fun at baseball! Many people think baseball is boring. In a game averaging three hours in length, only about 11 minutes is actual action. Now that's boring! Although that reminds me, in an average NFL game which lasts three and a half to four hours, studies show that there's only about 11 minutes of actual action. But baseball is boring. All that spitting and adjusting of batting gloves. Of course, in football you have all that stupid dancing every time a guy makes a routine tackle, which is what he's paid to do. And the exciting shots of players running on and off the field or the cheerleaders or the funny-dressed weirdo fans in the stands. My favorite is after a team scores, you go away for several minutes of truck or beer commercials. Then you come back, there's a kickoff which goes out of the end zone, and you immediately go away for several more minutes of beer or truck commercials. That's entertainment. Not to mention the endless blathering of pre-game and post-game shows where you suffer through hours of Chris "Boomer" Berman. But, baseball is boring.

October 3, 2014 (September newsletter)

Seems like Fall just kind of fell on us all of a sudden. I know football has been cranked up for a while and now baseball post season has started, but the weather has gone all autumnal on us. Back in the distant past, when I used to run a lot, I always thought September and October, and even sometimes into November, were the really great times to be running outdoors - cool days but usually sunny, with maybe a little breeze. My wife Sue does not really like Fall, because it reminds her that Winter is just around the corner, and she hates Winter. But all the seasons have something about them to appreciate - like how in Fall the trees turn those wonderful orange and maroon colors! As I said the baseball post season has started. Since my Braves pretty much stunk up the place in the last couple of months of the season and managed to finish a hundred games or so out of the race, I'm not sure who I'd root for. Maybe "anybody but the Nits", I mean, Nats. And of course the NHL season has started, I think, for those two or three fans out there who care.

Strangely enough, the NBA also starts up their 82-game regular season this month, which will, of course, be followed by their 143-game playoff season. And the NFL is into their "2nd quarter".

Not many NFL rookies have been impressive, at least from the collectible standpoint. Sammy Watkins, maybe, and Bortles, Bridgewater and Carr are getting some playing time. Who do you think will be the collectible 2014 rookies at the end of the year?

October 30, 2014 (October newsletter)

I saw our pal Ken A this afternoon, and we commiserated together on the fact that baseball is through for this year. I told him that to placate him a little bit I heard that they are producing a two-hour dvd which will recap all the action for the entire post season. I don't know if that includes commercials or not. But seriously, I watched as much of all the playoffs as I could. Some of the games extended past my bedtime so I missed out a little. And some were blowouts so I cut them off early. Unusual for me, up until the World Series every team I pulled for to win - or to lose - actually won (or lost). I was sort of pulling for KC but it was not to be. They couldn't deal with Madison Bugarman, I mean Bumgardner, and his snot balls. Didn't you love the way he was always honking his nose then wiping it on his sleeve, or, worse, on his glove? I'm surprised Posey doesn't wear rubber gloves to catch him. And you'd have to search far and wide to find two more unlikely looking hitting heroes than Sandoval and Pence. All that probably means nothing to the 98% of you who didn't watch the playoffs.

In exciting NFL news, word is that Robert Griffin (let's just call him that, not "Robert Griffin the Third" - do we need to distinguish him from a Robert Griffin the First or Robert Griffin the Second playing in the NFL?) will play this Sunday for the Washington football team. At least he may start the game. I'm not sure what the over/under is on how many minutes he will actually be IN the game.

Ken wanted me to take some shots, I mean, say a few words about the NHL. I really don't know much about hockey. I know it's played on ice, for some unknown reason; it's very popular in many strange frozen foreign lands such as Norway, Canada and Minnesota; and many of the players are missing a lot of teeth. I believe hockey (not unlike soccer) has only three rules, none of which makes any sense. In normal society "icing" is a good thing - it makes cakes better. I also think it resembles NASCAR in that the fans are really waiting for the fights (collisions) more than all that skating around (left turns). And if you watch it on TV you have very little chance of actually being able to see the hockeyball, which is not actually a ball at all but is something called a "puck" - perhaps named after the Shakespeare character or maybe the guy who sells pressure cookers on TV.

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