You Know What They Say About Imitation...

Short post today because the world is burning and I live too close to an epicenter to relax.  I need to do something to shift my focus and save my mental health, so why not blog about a problem so minor that Major League Baseball is looking to contract it?

They say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.  With that old adage in mind, I guess I should be blushing right now:

That right there is a listing for an "ACEO Art Card," listings which often pop up in my saved Ebay searches for obscure Cubs players of the past.  For those who may not know, ACEO is shorthand for "Art Cards Editions and Originals" - basically, a blanket term for custom cards.  Much like "Broder" and it's relationship with counterfeit and unlicensed cards, ACEO has become a part of hobby lingo.

Now, I have absolutely no problem with people whipping up their own custom trading cards; after all, I create my own and share them online for the whole world to see.  In fact, I'd say that seeing other hobbyists creativity on the blogosphere and wherever else on the internet is the most fascinating part about collecting in the 21st century.  Also, while technically frowned upon due to copyright infringement and intellectual property when it comes to source photographs, mimicked designs, and intellectual property, I don't take issue with people selling their own creations either.  All in all, as long as your not marketing your custom creations as the genuine article or purposely aping Topps, Panini, Upper Deck, etc. with deceptive intent, I'd probably be more than happy to lay down a few bucks for a well-made ACEO custom.

Thus, on it's face, I shouldn't have a problem with this listing - the seller has made it abundantly clear that this card is not from the Topps printing presses.  However, the sticking point here is that I know this particular vendor didn't create this card.  And how I can be so sure that they didn't whip this up in Photoshop or InDesign?  Well.... uh...

...that's because I'm the wannabe artist.

I created this fantasy 1966 Topps pasteboard to fill in a gap in my Cubs All-Time Roster Collection.  You see Bob Raudman appeared in 16 games for the North Siders from 1966-67.  With this cuppacoffee being his only MLB action, "Shorty" never appeared on a bubblegum card, be it in a Cubs uniform or any other colored laundry.  However, I was able to dig up a potential TTM address for the former player, so I whipped up a custom to mail off in hopes of creating a piece of memorabilia worthy of my CATRC tome, to fill an otherwise un-fillable slot.

As you can tell by the image above, my mailing attempt was unsuccessful; however, it appears as though someone saw my work, even if it wasn't my intended target.  Unless I have a split personality who happens to only sell baseball cards on Ebay (and how boring that would be), I don't think this guy is selling his own work.

I'm not going to name the seller, but I will say that he has a prodigious presence on the ol' auction site.  I'll also add that he has the same, unusually combative description for every item that he lists:

"####FREE COMBINED SHIPPING BUY 1 OR 100 FOR THE SAME PRICE, INCLUDES CANADA TOO ##### THIS IS A NOVELTY CARD THAT IS CUSTOM MADE. IT HAS NO VALUE, IT IS FOR COLLECTING ONLY. IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT A CUSTOM CARD IS, PLEASE BUY FROM SOMEONE ELSE. THESE CARDS ARE THE SAME SIZE AS A NORMAL CARD BUT NOT AS THICK. IF YOU WANT A THICK CARD THEN BUY FROM SOMEONE ELSE. IF YOUR GOING TO DISPLAY YOUR CARD IN A TOPLOADER, WHY DOES IT MATTER HOW THICK IT IS. IT WILL LOOK GREAT. CARDS ARE MADE ON 140LB CARD STOCK"

It's always in all caps too - that's not me editorializing.  Seems level-headed and rational.

Once again, I have no personal problems or vendetta against people selling their creations, even if it is technically against some rules.  However, this person is apparently taking images that he or she finds online, printing them out on photo paper, and selling them as their own.  THAT does rub me the wrong way.

I have to wonder just how many of these ACEO cards that they are selling are also pilfered from other corners of the internet.  Any of the above selections look familiar to anyone?

I should also note that there is a little bit of egg on this vendor's face.  As I detailed in my original post on the TTM failure, I made some critical errors on this card.  For one, Raudman's 16 games in a Cubs uniform came in the outfield, not on the mound.  In fact, I can find no record of Raudman having ever taken the mound in a professional setting.  Furthermore, the photo that I culled from the internet is actually of former Cubs catcher, Randy Bobb, not Bob Raudman. I got the wrong Bob. I have no idea what I was thinking when I created this comedy of errors.

It's quite doubtful that this person actually cares about the accuracy of the ACEO's that he's hawking, but it does make me feel a touch better that this particular piece is such a screw-up.

Bob Raudman, courtesy of the Duluth News Tribune.

Anyway, I realize that I have no legal claim to my Raudman "card' and that it was created from an image and design that I hold no intellectual property over.  Not to mention the fact that I openly shared it on the internet without so much as a watermark to stop such practices.  This situation just rubs me the wrong way and I felt compelled to rant about it just a little bit.  What better place to rant than on my baseball card blog, after all?  With everything that's going on right now, it feels good to complain about such an insignificant "problem" for a little bit.

Also, if you're in the market for true ACEO's, I recommend you stay away from listings that look like this and steer towards guys like Gary Cieradkowski and Gypsy Oak, among others.  There are plenty of talented artists out there, with a passion for baseball, who create some truly binder - nay - frame-worthy custom baseball cards that are much more worthy of your attention.

In fact, I'll have another post coming up that's dedicated to another creator whose work I recently discovered.  As a bit of a preview, I'll say that this card-tist's work covers an era of baseball that is all to often ignored by card companies and fans alike.  Keep an eye out for that Wrigley Roster Jenga post in the next few days.

In the meantime, stay safe out there.  Remember what is being protested and to mentally separate the protesters from the opportunistic agitators.  The system is rigged, brutal, and needs to be shocked - people live in daily fear, based on the color of their skin, fear that they might be killed while jogging, while entering their own home, for wearing "suspicious" clothing" and a further infuriatingly long list of other reasons. 

Hopefully, we emerge on the other side of this turmoil in a better place as a society. 

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Everytime I think the world has bottomed out, we manage to sink another level... From one runner to another, these 2.23 miles were run for a man who should be on all of our minds right now. This is the world we live in... #irunwithmaud #irunwithahmaud #justiceforahmaud

A post shared by Tony Burbatt (@burbs_is_the_word) on May 8, 2020 at 2:30pm PDT

Temper Tantrum

Most of yesterday afternoon was spent at my sister-in-law's birthday party in Joliet, IL.  That sounds all well and good until you realize my sister-in-law is only eight years old and her festivities were hosted by my in-laws at the local Chuck E. Cheese, a.k.a. a giant pit of chaos, teeming with sugar and pizza-fueled demon spawn... errrrm... I mean beautiful bundles of joy.  Needless to say, there were plenty of tiny bodies to dodge as they ran around like madmen in hopes of high-fiving a high school kid being forced to wear a sweat-stained rat costume and dance for his meals.

In all actuality, my cynicism is a bit over-the-top; truthfully, the event went off without much of a hitch and everyone, especially the birthday girl, appeared to have oodles of fun with, surprisingly,  nary an outburst.  The star of the day was basically able to buy out half of Chuck's prize stock with the bundles of tickets she earned.  Plus, I basically had to pry my wife away from the skee-ball lanes so that we could move on with our day.  Fun was had by all.

Though I do enjoy a cheap, greasy pizza (truly, I do - that's not cynicism), most of my fun was had after the birthday party had ended.  You see, the rat-infested arcade is just a couple of miles down the road from a card shop and I was able to convince my wife to let me swing by the storefront, after all was said and done.  The discovery that her Doodle Jump game from Mr. Cheese's was also available as an iPhone app kept her entertained as I meandered about The Baseball Card King.

   

After having spent the entire afternoon with a bunch of over-stimulated kids, I fully expected to encounter at least one or two temper tantrums during the course of the day - it just comes with the turf.  What I did not expect was that said tantrum would occur in the card shop and NOT the mecca of free-reign children that is Chuck E. Cheese.

That is actual irony, Alanis Morissette. (sorry, I spent a lot of my weekend listening to 90's on 9 on XM radio)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, while I flipping through the box of '55 Topps in search of Tony Jacobs' lone baseball card and the binder of random Cubs singles, there was another pair of individuals opening boxes of Archives Signature Series.  The store is made up of two levels and the objects of my search were located on the upper floor; as I browsed, I could hear the shouting from all the way upstairs.  In short, the gentlemen were none too happy with what they pulled from their purchases.

The quote that really caught my attention was "I feel like I'm getting bent over and f*****d in the a*****e," at a volume level that was far above a whisper - when is it ever okay to shout that in a store?  This was followed by a continuing shower of profanities and complaints about the low value of the cards he was pulling as he doubled and tripled-down by purchasing a couple of more disappointing Archives boxes.  I don't know what cards he ended up with, but they definitely weren't Mike Trouts.  Then, the focus of the customer's ire shifted to his friend and the shop-owner, slamming them for not buying back his "spoils" so that he might recoup some value and accusing them of shady dealings.  It was really quite awkward; I'm just glad that I was on a different floor while most of this was going on.

I am a decidedly low-end collector and I have a notably narrow collecting focus.  This is why I don't ever buy boxes of product, especially something as "bang or bust" as Archives Signature Edition.  The chances of one pulling something that makes the price point worth it are slim and the chances of it fitting into my collection are infinitely slimmer.  To me, baseball cards are a relaxing, joy-bringing hobby -  if I wanted to gamble, I would buy some scratch-off tickets or take a road trip to Las Vegas. Of course, people can collect however they so choose, but investing/gambling are not for me.

However, should I ever take the plunge, I would never take out my inevitable frustrations in public and on my fellow collectors or the vendor, especially is such a hostile and profane manner.  Just minutes before the "show," there has been a kid in the store with us... I mean, come on... have some dignity and/or class.  It was a sorry display and more befitting of one of those kids "all jacked up on Mountain Dew" at the prize counter in Chuck E. Cheese, a few tickets short of their desired stuffed animal, than a full-grown adult in a hobby shop.

Anyway, while all of this was going on, I struck out on my Jacobs quest; however, I did succeed in finding a pair of needed "Cubgrades" for my Cubs All-Time Roster Collection binder... cards, I'm sure, that would have thrown our angry friend into a tizzy should they have fallen out of his boxes.

This beat-up '63 single is far from mint and lacks anything flashy.  It's rounded corners and slight wrinkles put it into my price range.  As it turns out, it is crew-cut Dick Lemay's only card as a Cub and was thusly required as an upgrade for his CATRC representation.  Previously, his card from the previous year had been slid into said pocket, as a placeholder:

Obviously, a Giants card is not as appropriate as a Cubs card in this Northside rooter's mind.  That said, while the former lists him as a member of the Wrigley natives, it obviously shows him in a Giants uni in the main photo, with a crude "C" super-imposed on his hat on the inset.  Nevertheless, it is the best option on the market, as the obscure reliever only received these two cards during his brief, three-season MLB career.

All of these "flaws" considered, I highly doubt that, had Dick signed this card for the Archives checklist, our non-FCC compliant friend would have been too thrilled.  Meanwhile, I was happy as a clam to come across this imperfect gem.

Accompanying LeMay in my purchase pile was another piece of well-loved vintage:

The front of this 1955 Bowman isn't too bad - though the corners are less than crisp and the edges are quite chipped.  Most of the damage that brought Brosnan down to my price range comes on the back-side:

Those are some pretty hefty gum stains over the player bio and pitching record... and these aren't super-short-printed, gimmicky, variations that'll sell for big bucks on the Bay either.  Nope, just regular, old-fashioned sugar marks left over from a long-since chewed stick of bubblegum.

Overall, the card is more than passable in my book and adds another "Cubgrade" to my premier binder.  Until yesterday, Jim Brosnan had been a *shudder* Cardinal in my book:

As much as I love the '59 set, as a whole, anytime I can replace a Cardinal card is a good time - Cubbie blue looks much better on the journeyman hurler (who came up with the Chicagoans) anyway.  Plus, who doesn't love the color television set?

All told, this pair of vintage discoveries that filled collecting needs cost me  a measly four bucks and I was more than content.  Meanwhile, Mr. Pottymouth downstairs was spending upwards of $100 in search of high-end autographs he could flip on the secondhand market and getting absolutely hosed.  Different strokes for different folks, but that is why I could never be a "sick hits" collector.  That said, no matter how one collects, this hobby (like anything in life) is fraught with it's own, unique frustrations.  But, as the old saying goes, a man's true character is revealed in defeat and the downstairs temper tantrum certainly peeled back the curtain on that collector's temperament.

I was more than happy to get out of that establishment, as the rant was still simmering while I was checking out.  The moral of the story is the behavior of a middle-aged adult should never be outshined by unsupervised children on the Chuck E. Cheese floor.

Act your age, not your shoe size, people!

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

As collectors of small, fragile squares of paper whose value is almost entirely based on good condition, I'm sure we all have out horror stories when it comes to building our collections - especially when we order cards through the mail.  Some mail carrier shoves an envelope into a box, a sorting machine rips through a PWE like a cheetah into a gazelle, a sudden and violent rain shower dumps puddles of water into a slightly cracked mailbox... it happens to the best of us.

The worst of all card-shipping sob-stories, at least in my humble opinion, is when the card(s) in question never show up at all.  What in the hell happened to them?  Does some fellow collector without a shred of a moral compass work at the post office and is pocketing our loot?  Did that same "lost forever" sinkhole that steals half of my socks suddenly open up at my mailbox too?  I understand that this is the risk you take when you order cards on the internet; I'd just like some closure, y'know?

So, after pulling the trigger on a card I was rather excited to find and spending a little bit more money than I normally do on such a purchase (doesn't it always happen this way?), the expected arrival date came and went... and then another week passed.  The tracking history did nothing to lift my spirits:

As you can see in the screenshot above, as of yesterday, the card I'd ordered on the 14th of January had been sitting in the same facility for 11 days... that's generally a bad sign.

After taking to the interwebs to do some research on CHICAGO 2CMETRO, I can't say that I was feeling any better about my little predicament.  According to the Ebay forums, this particular office has a list of complaints regarding lost parcels more than a hundred deep... as of last fall!  In the immortal words of Scoobert Doo:  "ruh roh."

However, in the course of my panicked search, I also read that the USPS has a rather stellar reputation when it comes to customer service on Twitter, @USPSHelp.  I'm generally skeptical of such services and was really just expecting to hear that my package had been evaporated; but, desperate times call for desperate measures.

By the way, this seems like an opportune time to mention that I've recently started a Twitter account to cross promote Wrigley Roster Jenga on social media; so, ummmm,  follow me?

Anyway, after waiting for a day, I didn't get a response from them.  Of course, I wasn't at all expecting to hear back so quickly; I'm sure they have hundreds upon hundreds of complaints come in daily.  Patience is a virtue after all.

Even so, I did make sure to check the tracking information again this morning:

Well imagine my surprise - that's quite the sudden turnaround, now isn't it?  Of course, this could all have easily been a fortuitous coincidence; that said, I'd like to believe that somebody from help called CHICAGO 2CMETRO in a huff, J. Jonah Jameson style, demanding answers and threatening punishment to save my precious cargo.

Yea, right.  But, does anyone out there in the blogosphere have any experience with USPS Help? How'd that go for you?

Anyway, I am once again a happy camper and the U.S. Postal Service seems to have an exceptional customer service department (if they truly had a hand in it).  Of course, I haven't been home yet to actually check my mail - so, this could all be some cruel joke and my card might still be MIA.  I highly doubt that's the case, but then you never truly know.

In summation, the moral of the story - don't be afraid to ask for help.