Ok, let’s kick the ol’ tires here and see if we can’t get this kitten purring again. I’ve been busy – trading, playing sandlot, raising a pair of little ones with seemingly boundless energy, adjusting to the new job, the start of a new school year, etc. I know y’all probably don’t expect too much, but I would really like to get up to a consistent two posts a week. Today’s post features a trio of TCDB swaps that arrived this week from some not-quite-Marcs. Up first is a batch from Mark (allofthis30 at TCDB), and we’re going to start off with the heavy-hitting HOFers in the bunch. The Ripk ..read more

If you read the mega-post the other day, then you would have caught word that the site was down for a few days back in June. This was supposed to go up after that, but I got busy, and then, well, the stuff in the last post happened. Anyhow, go read it. I left the intro to this post the same. While there was a (very mild) disaster around here the past couple days, things have not completely fallen apart – and this post isn’t really about that! I just wanted to show off a bunch of cardboard that arrived in May. And because I can’t get into a consistent posting habit, you’re going to get a deluge ..read more

Well, I certainly didn’t anticipate being out this long. I mean, I know I start out with ambitious posting goals every year, but this one was a fairly lengthy hiatus, that stretched on a bit thanks to some happenings. If you, for some strange reason, swung through here about a two months ago, you may have hit the site when it was down for a few days. You see, I had gotten a hankering to come kick the tires again, and slapped together a dozen more drafts to eventually polish into posts. Then I started some site upgrades – mainly updating to the newest version of WordPress and a handful of plug ..read more

It’s Sunday night and I have an unexpected and somewhat unwelcome day off tomorrow, so instead of playing a little catch-up, I’m here, indulging in a bit of procrastination. I say “somewhat unwelcome” because this was clearly unplanned and I have three big things in motion at work right now, and having to eat a day of time off is not really helping that. Hence why I’m on the computer after the kids are in bed: attempting to make up a bit of that missed time and stay on top of things. I’ve hit a wall, though, and need to recharge my own batteries, so it’s bloggin’ time! I’ve got 8 months left ..read more

Alright, 2023 is here! I suppose I should post a few goals/resolutions. If you’re kicking around the House of Cardboard Discord* server, you would have already seen this list. *If you’re reading this and you find yourself jealous, reach out and I’ll shoot you an invite. Anyone reading this blog is already cool enough for an invite. 2023 Hobby Goals Make 4 custom sets. Add 24 new Astrographs (or upgrade non-Astro placeholders to Astros). Blog at least twice a week. Set up a nice hobby corner in my office. Read at least 6 of the baseball books languishing on my shelves. Send out 200 TTM reques ..read more

Well, if it’s late December then I must be making a mad dash to get some posts up on this ol’ blog. I’m going to try and finish off the TTM Reports for 2022, and if I get one a day then I just might get caught up. Oh, sure, there’s plenty more things worth posting which have basically been left undocumented around here, and if I can get myself back in the rhythm then some of that will see the light of day as well. Maybe I can find a few things to highlight as my “best pickups” of the year. At any rate, here’s the TTM Report for March. It’s going to start off with a bang, I can promise that muc ..read more

I say this a lot, but I really do mean it: I would like to become a more consistent blogger. Not necessarily an everyday blogger, but I’d like to keep up with the fun stuff in a timely manner. It’s been pretty busy around these parts, and when I’ve had free time I’ve been pouring myself into other projects – several of which still need to get posted here! I’m going to try to kick-start that catch-up process with some more of these TTM Reports. At the very least, I’ll get these already-prepped drafts out of the way. I made a little goal to try and write 1 request per day for the year. I’m behi ..read more

When this post was a freshly formed draft, I noted that if I was successful in catching up on my TTM Reports, then this would be published right around the beginning of February. It was not. But, the train rolls on! I’m going to work hard to be caught up by the end of July. I’ve only got 6 more of these to file until I’m once again on time, and I should be able to sprinkle these nicely throughout the rest of the month, along with some other things I want to cover. So let’s travel back in time a bit, to the beginning of this year, and see what hit the mailbox! Jorge Soler: 3/2, 272 days. W ..read more

Alright, next verse same as the first: we’ve got a double-duty TTM Report on deck today, which will finally bring me into the current year. There were three and four returns in the respective months, with a few private signings mixed in here and a handful of customs scattered throughout. Let’s have a look at what arrived at the end of last year. Craig McMurtry: 1/1, private signing The first one up was a cheap private signing. Wendy had spotted it, and she reached out to see if I had made a Craig McMurtry custom. I had indeed, and he’d signed a copy. However, when I went to pull the file t ..read more

Let’s catch up with another TTM Report! I quit filling the hopper last summer, and so the final four months of returns were leaner. Thus, these next two posts will cover two months at a time. I don’t want to make any promises, but perhaps I’ll get caught up in time to file that June report in timely fashion. I had 7 returns grace the mailbox across September and October, so let’s drop the chatter and get to it. Kevin Romine: 4/4, 10 days First up is a quick quartet from Kevin Romine, a former Red Sox outfielder who played parts of 7 seasons in Boston, and of course: a double baseball dad ..read more