Friday, March 29, 2019

Will our blogs outlive us?

I heard about how recently MySpace ended up losing all the old music artists had uploaded to the site back in its heyday. They said it was a server migration error or something, but rumors are they just wanted to free up the space all those files were taking up. It was a bummer for me since I had a couple artist profiles there: my main "band" page, and a secret alter-ego rap/hip-hop joke project. There was also a page for a little wannabe "record label" I started with some online musician friends back then. I know MySpace is essentially dead and those songs probably only got like maybe 1 or 2 real human listens per year, but it was still nice to know they were out there.

And of course when something like this happens, as a blogger you can't help but to think about Blogger (and/or WordPress) and how quickly our blogs and their archives could be wiped away forever, either on purpose or accident. That would suck. Hell, I frequently use my own blog as a resource.. looking up when/how I got a certain card.. what I need.. what I have... stuff like that. And our blogs are basically journals of our collection (sometimes branching out into real life stuff too), and it's nice to think they'll be around a long time, perhaps even tell our stories after we're gone.

Anyways, something to ponder, but that was basically just a click-bait intro to trick you into checking out some new 2005 Topps Retired auto pickups of mine...

This Don Mattingly refractor has a story behind it. When I opened up the package from the seller, there was a David Ortiz stickergraph/relic instead. The seller was apologetic and cool about correcting the mixup. Thankfully the guy who accidentally got the Mattingly was cool about returning it. Chances are he was a Red Sox fan, so the Donnie Baseball probably grossed him out. But it all worked out and the correct cards made it to the correct people.

I had to look it up, but seems Mattingly is still currently the manager for the Miami Marlins. It's a living.

Hall of Famer Monte Irvin was a fun one to get. There's a little story behind this pickup, too. When this card originally popped up on eBay, I made a reasonable best offer that was declined. A month or so later, the seller came back with his tail between his legs asking if he could have a do-over and accept my old offer. I took my time.. even considered making a slightly lower offer than before.. but ultimately took the high road and went ahead and re-submitted the same offer.

Ok, so we've had a New York Yankee and a New York Giant.. time for a New York Met...

This Gregg Jefferies refractor had been sitting on eBay for a while, and I finally pulled the trigger on it with the help from a discount code. Great looking card. Seems even extra shiny.

Casual baseball fans who hoarded hot rookie cards in the late 80s/early 90s often consider Gregg Jefferies one of the game's biggest busts due to how crazy-hyped he was around 1988/89. And while he didn't live up to his "future all-time great" promise, looking at his numbers, he still had a very fine career that pretty much any ballplayer working their way up would kill to have.

Here's a base auto, not a refractor, as you can probably tell by lack of rainbow shine, but still happy to snag this Ron Gant, a favorite player of mine since I first got into baseball back in 1990.

Like Jefferies, not quite a HOF career, but still some impressive numbers on the back of his card.

That wraps up this batch of 2005 Topps Retired autos.
Have a great weekend!


  1. I was a fan of Gant, but I always thought he was short. I can see his height listed on that card at 6'. Just blows me away. lol.

  2. Very jealous of the Mattingly card. Really surprised at the numbers I see on Greg Jefferies card. Makes me wonder why several of the teams didn't hold onto him for more than a year or two. Gavin, we have to put together another trade soon.

  3. That Mattingly is awesome!

    And what a scary thought. I feel like Google is going to do away with blogger at some point.

  4. I've never worried too much about blogger shutting down or losing my data. I remember wiping all my data (as best I could) from Myspace before I closed my account. The same for Xanga... ooh, Xanga. I've been doing the same with Facebook for a while too. I mainly do it for safety reasons, but still figure if I've abandoned them, no need to keep data on there. As for blogger, if they lost some of my early entries, I'd be a bit bummed, but not too much. I figure most of my audience has seen my posts that want to.

    By the way, nice cards. It is a shame you lost data on Myspace though. I probably would have checked out your music. Makes me a bit glad I never tried to upload the awful music I made a few years ago.

  5. A. Love the autographs... especially the refactors.

    B. Man... I don't even want to think about Blogger one day deleting my blog. It feels like I just got punched in the gut just thinking about it.

  6. I would be heartbroken if blogger died. I have all of my set needs, etc built into the blog

  7. Great pickups. I really like how you photographed these cards to really get the shine.

  8. nice adds to your majestic collection! thought provoking prelude though. Im surprised blogger is still free and for that, perhaps Google will one day hold us hostage to pay up or be deleted. With so many users, I can't imagine they would shut it down.

  9. I think I tried to save some of my early posts a while ago. Don't remember if I came up with a way to do it to more than one post at a time, though. Might have to research that....

    BTW, I have your '79 Yount, Stargell, Brett and Carlton from shows this weekend. Will ship out in the next day or so.