Happy 1 Year Anniversary...well, almost...Top Ten Leap Year Cards!

HAPPY 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY GBCARDGUY!!!

Well almost.  The technical launch day anniversary date is March 1st, but...It's Leap Year.  So in light of having to wait one more day for the anniversary I decided to do a top ten George Brett cards that were released on leap years.  These will be in chronological order.   The front and back of all of the cards and almost 1000 other George Brett cards can be seen on my website "The Unofficial George Brett Card Catalog".  My top ten lists, unless otherwise stated, are limited to cards that I currently own.  The lists are strictly base on my opinion.  Cards might be listed because they have some memorable back story, cool design, or something that simply sticks out, too me, about them.  Feel free to comment, I love talking to other collectors. 

1976 SSPC #589 with Al Cowens Checklist

One of George's funniest cards in my opinion.  Not only funny because of Brett's face, but Al Cowen's last name is also misspelled.  I'm sure that this was one of his highlights.

1980 O-Pee-Chee #235 

This card was hard to come by.  I lost at least 3 ebay auctions over a year's span trying to get one of these cards.  Finally, out of frustration I ordered one at a price way higher than I should have pad for it.  A week later I won one on an auction at a fraction of the price that I just spent.  This was a good lesson to me.  If I lose an auction on a card, there is a good chance that another one will show up sooner or later.

1984 All-Star Game Program Inserts #120

Not your typical baseball card.  These cards sized at 1 1/4" x 2", so they are very small.  These came in the All-Star Game program in a panel and were cut into cards.  I like the back designs of these.  

1988 Royals Smokey the Bear #20

This is one of the easier decisions of this list.  If you have read my all time Top Ten George Brett Card List this shouldn't be a surprise.  I love this entire set.  It makes me smile when I see them.       

1992 The Baseball Enquirer  #25

I wasn't going to put this card on this list.  This was a card that I kinda had in my collection because it just another card.  I was just now going through all  my 1992 cards and saw the back of this card for the first time.  There is a short Q&A session with George Brett and, I would guess, some reporter.  George was known for his quips and this Q&A made me (literally) laugh out loud.  I recommend going to my site and seeing the back.

1996...If you were doing the math, you are probably saying, "Wouldn't there be 11 leap years since 1976?"  Well unfortunately, I do not have a 1996 card.  As far as I can tell, there wasn't a Brett card made in 1996.

2000 Fleer Club 3000 #GB 

If this was a regular century mark, there would not be a leap year, but since it was a millennium...science says there's also a leap year.  There something about die-cut cards that I really like.  Something about not being the traditional rectangular, sharp cornered cards that intrigues me. 

2004 Leather & Lumber Hall of Fame #3

This card is one of the newest cards added to the database.  I have really turned my attention to this era of cards from 2002 to 2005.  There are a lot of interesting cards from this era.  I have picked up several serial numbered cards here recently.  This one is numbered 1683 of 1999.  

2008 Topps Triple Threads #53

This is another recent entry, entered in December.  I only had 2 2008 cards to choose from.  Tough decision.  Had to go with the Topps though.  I like the design and it's also a serialized card.  The Triple Threads cards are fun to collect.

2012 Topps Archives Cloth Stickers #GB

This is starting in the era when I got re-started collecting again.  My #4 card on my all time Brett card list is the 1977 Topps Cloth Sticker card. This is a remake of it.  Like the 1980 OPC card, I learned a very valuable lesson about this card.  That lesson was: when a brand new card comes out...don't try to buy it right away.  Wait a week or even a month, The price will probably drop a little.  I decided to get in a biding war with another buyer and won, but spent way too much money.  Oh well.  

2016 Topps - Berger's Best #BB-24

Up to the present, Finally! Against siting my All Time Top Ten Card list, the 1975 Topps/OPC card is my favorite all-time card.  Every time they come out with a remake, I try to add it to my collection.  This set is a nice tribute to Sy Berger, one of Topps original card designers.

Well, year 2 is shaping up to be another great year.  I do not know where God will lead me, but I'm ready for the ride.  But for now, it's late and this guy is ready for bed.  Good night!

  

It finally feels like 2016

The new cards are here!
The new cards are here!
The new 2016 George Brett cards are here!

2016 Topps Berger's Best #24 & #39

So I had to Google who Berger was.  Sy Berger was one of the original Topps designers of cards in 1952 and this 65 card set is as Topps puts it, "A nod to him".  I can understand the classic look and the importance of the 1975 card, but I yet don't see the importance of the 1990.  I know he won the batting title this year, but still wouldn't of called this a "best".  They also made a 1987 Bo Jackson one that I will probably pick up at some time.  For the last couple of years I ask myself if it is worth continuing to collect George Brett cards.  Then every year they come out with some more and keep my interest up.  For the last couple years I eagerly wait February to see if Topps or Panini puts out any new George Brett cards and so far there has not been any let down.  If there is ever a year in the future, like 2011 or 2009, where there really wasn't very made GB cards made and the ones that were are very rare, I might hang it up for a while.

There is not to many things that I eagerly wait for.  I try to live a pretty content life and so I don't get to eager very often.  New cards are one exception.  Another exception is part of my job.  One of the many parts of my job is selling musical items, usually vintage, on ebay.  I can get pretty nerdy when talking about old drums, saxophones and other musical instruments.  I make up stories in my head of the history of the instruments and now I am a part of this instrument's history.  When I put them on ebay for a week auction I eagerly wait for those last seconds to tick off the clock and see what the final bid is for these treasures.  I have been doing this for long enough that I rarely ever get surprised any more, but sometimes the ending bid amount totally shocks me.  Many times in a good way, but sometimes way under what I thought it would sell for,  

I'm sure we all have main things in our life we are eager about.  My last post I wrote about a perspective that I have started looking at when it comes to my relationship with Christ and my relationship with the world.  Understanding that God is in control and, for starter, I am not.  Just like Daniel knew that even though he was forcibly engulfed in the Babylonian culture he knew that he was still an Israelite, and that was his home and his time in Babylon wasn't permanent.

As a follower of Christ I have also come to the understanding that this world in not my home.  Do I live here?..Yes.  Am I engulfed in the cultures of this world (even sometimes forcibly)?..Yes.  But am I a citizen of this world or am I a citizen of Heaven?  For me its Heaven.  I know that my time on this earth will one day come to an end, everyone's will. Does that mean that I do not care about what is happening on this world?  No, I care very much, because it is my current residence.   God has entrusted me with a beautiful wife and 2 wonderful children, one who is turning 11 tomorrow, that rely heavily on me.  God has entrusted me with a vocation that is working with coworkers and clients on a daily basis.  God has put so much before me that he has entrusted me with, that I do not have the time and frankly the desire to focus a ton of my attention on things that he hasn't entrusted me with.  Many of those things I keep myself aware of, but they don't dominate my life.  Do I, as in Philippians 3:20 say, eagerly wait for my savior to take me home.  Yes, but in the mean while I'm still here, I know that I have not fully fulfilled all of His plans for me.  That is something that excites me, that God has more for me to do on this Earth.  But for now my bed is eagerly waiting for me to go lie down.  Its late and this guys is ready for bed...Good night!

The voting is done and the blizzard is currently winning

Because of the white powdery stuff covering my sidewalks and my desire not to scoop it all off right now, I'm making a executive decision to show case one of my newest cards collected.

2014 Topps Gypsy Queen - Framed White #185

Looking out my window you can also say that it is "framed white", but with a lot more speckled white inside of it.
So I live in Iowa and once every four years, people in the USA(ok, really it only Washington D.C.) seem to care about whats going on in Iowa.  Politicians do and say everything they can to make us think that they care.  To be fair, I think that there are several that do care.  But now that the caucuses are done, they leave and go on to the next state and Iowa is mainly just a faint memory to most of the candidates,  I'm cool with that.  Iowans are a people that band together when things get tough.  We don't throw out a lot of blame and when disaster strikes, we band together and help rebuild, usually without any national attention.  As for me, I keep a watchful eye on what's going on in the political field, but don't let it rule my life.  It wasn't always like that.  I used to have to keep my eye on the national news and watch or listen to certain interpreters of the new.  Yes, I said interpreters.  If you have read my last couple of post, I am a follower of Christ.  Am I always the shining example I should be? No.  But I thank God that he is chipping away everything that doesn't look like Him more and more everyday.  So the balance between politics and my relationship with God is something that I have struggled with. Mainly because I use to think God took a passive roll in politics and it frustrated me.  Why were people that appeared to me to be very ungodly and against Yahweh getting into power all over the world.  A couple of years ago I made the decision that God wasn't passive, but very active, but we weren't able to understand why he was doing what he was doing.  We had to just live by faith, but recently I started reading through Daniel and I think God has revealed a couple of things to me with the help of some very studied scholars. In the first 2 verses of Daniel it states "In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it. The Lord handed Jehoiakim king of Judah over to him, along with some of the vessels from the house of God. Nebuchadnezzar carried them to the land of Babylon, to the house of his god, and put the vessels in the treasury of his god."  There are three points that I have taken out of these verses that has changed a lot how I look about how God works.  1st it states that the Lord handed Jehoiakim to Babylon.  Meaning that it wasn't that Babylon won the battle, God gave Israel to them.  There are also other numerous verses that state that kings and rulers are put into the positions they have by God.  So first thing I take from this is that God is in control of who's in control.  That is both a scary and comforting thought,  2nd thing, why is God doing this to his chosen people and not laying judgement down on Babylon?  Simply, God disciplines and redirects His own children, before destroying the enemies of His children.  Babylon was destroyed, but much later.  Israel had fallen so far away from Him, that he needed to discipline and redirect them back to Him.  God states very clearly in scripture that God will put his children trough times of trials and discipline us.  It is one of the ways to know that we are His,  3rd thing I got from the passage is about how Nebuchadnezzar took some of the items from the temple, but most of it was destroyed.  What I get from this is, God will preserve that which hasn't fully fulfilled God's purposes.  We read in Ezra that the current king gave those items back to Israel to put back into the new temple.  Which makes me not hold on to things to tightly and treasure what God has entrusted me with.

 I think if Christians understood these 3 principles:
1. God is in control of who's in control
2. God disciplines and redirects His children, before destroying His children's enemies
3. God will preserve that which hasn't fully fulfilled His purposes
it will change their perspective about the life that God has given them.  The ultimate question is are we as Christians comforted by the understanding that we are under the rule of a fully Sovereign God? It will change how we look at everything: Politics, education, occupation, and basically life in general.

I said in the last post that I don't consider myself lucky any more, but blessed.  God is showing me that more and more everyday.  Luck had nothing to do with where I am today.  But it is late and I need to get up early tomorrow shovel the blizzard away from my sidewalks.  I am hoping that someone will snow blow them for me.  We'll see if God chooses to blessed me in that way.  If not, oh well, God is still very good.  But for now it's late and this guy is ready for bed.  Good Night!