Baseball cards

Well now - a winter storm is heading our way a Mid Latitude Cyclone actually should hit later this afternoon  - not unusual at all. The battle for spring is nie.  

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My boring life has been consumed with a baseball draft where I believe I have the St. Louis Card and Brewers bullpen and bullpens are going to be very interesting this year.   Seems having a starting pitcher with 150 innings will be rare.  Very very few starting pitchers go more than 5 innings now.  

In the minor leagues big changes.  Some leagues will have larger bases (18 inches ) and one league will have an AI behind the plate umpire calling balls and strikes. With analytics showing umpires call games differently for home and away teams and particularly in extra innings.  NOT complaining. 

One league will make it so defense shifting will be outlawed.  You MUST have 4 infielders on the infield and another league has a 15 second clock on the pitcher.  

OH - and Strat-o-matic was hacked between 2 dates and we all got a warning to watch our CCs. WELL - I have a friend in LV at the moment but I'm pretty sure he did not try to use my card for a $375 zip line ride on Fremont.  Four other league managers who also had their cards used in Las Vegas last week.   

for my troubles I can get 2 free years of SOM 365 (I have 2 already for winning the World Series)  OH - a BIG congats to by friend balderdash for winning his SOM 365 World Series

OR

I can get 1400 career cards in real SOM which is sort of neat. 

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We're getting the interior of our house painted next week after 14 years and we are WISHING we had a good reason to change out our siding for a different color.  But no. 

OH - and the porch is up for another award. We already won the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI), and Contractor Of The Year (COTY) awards for the porch and now it's nominated for the Badger Craftsman Award. 

HOWEVER - at the same time I'm giving the builders (Michael F. Simon Builders) a call today to get our door changed - it's literally dangerous the way it's installed.   OUR FAULT.  It's SEEMEd like the right decision at the time. 

 

Notice the door opens to the outside and goes down the steps - BAD IDEA!!  In order to go from the deck to the porch you almost have to go down a step and then up to the deck.  And if you want to bring a chair out to the deck?  YIKES  Holding a heavy chair over the railing and balancing on the edge of the stairs is doable but  . . . .  The door needs to open to the deck . . not the stairs. 

Like everything else it will cost $1000 or $10,000. One of the two.  LOL 

and YUP - that south facing corner is AWESOME in the spring.  Sunny days the temp is 20 degrees warmer.  When it's 35 the temp is 55 in the corner.   It's been up to 75 so far,and yea - when it's 80 degrees outside it's like 100 in the corner LOL    

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Rubber shortage is coming - rubber comes from trees that have their bark ripped off from small plantations in Thailand, Indonesia, China and West Africa which provide 85% of all rubber in the world.   The South African Leaf Blight is a HUGE problem and has already killed Brazil's rubber industry and now add covid.  

In fact the entire car industry is having issues with electronics not arriving to America and many parts not getting here from other countries.  The Honda Civic is basically not being made at the moment as key parts are just not available. 

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Dungeons and Dragons is HOT.  Sales of D&D are up 33% this year and the 6th year in a row with increased sales.  Magic the Gathering is up 24% and small shops are getting the trickle down (sorry Jason) with a 46% profit margin on the cards. 

Baseball cards are a hot item also. I have a big stock in Ken Griffey Jr rookie cards.  Me and the bookie barber went in and for $2 a piece we purchased 100 cards in 1989.  I was looking at prices this morning and they from from about $250 a card to $400 a card.  SWEET  

I see in that set is also Randy Johnson's rookie card which is 4 variants with one at $350 because there is a Marlboro sign in the background.

Gary Sheffield's card is in that one and is $40 each   

My Billy Ripken F*ck Face cards are up. Somebody wrote F*ck face on the bottom of his bat and it was not caught. Those are $150 a card.   (of course they are worth what you can ACTUALLY get).   

Now I gotta see how much Willy "The Dupe" Dipkin is. OH found it - latest sale was $14.95  

I also have 100 Junior Felix cards if anybody wants to buy them - all 100 for 50 cents or whatever you got on you. 

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Milwaukee County is lowering the fine for possession of cannabis to $1    

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Nuff said today