Things I Like That You Don't (and vice versa)

Dime box Nick started a Blog Bat Around of Ten Things You Like That I Don't Like, and I thought I'd put my own spin on it with a list of Things I Like That You Don't Like. However, I couldn't come up with ten things for either list, so here's five and five:

Things I Like (That You Don't Like)

1968 Topps Baseball

Aaaah! Not the burlaps! I love this set more than any flagship issue of the 1960s. It's not the best design in the world and the cards are not all the same shade of beige, which is a little aggravating. But when I was a young collector in the late 1980's-early 1990s these were the oldest singles that were attainable and affordable at my local card shops. It's the source of a lot of great memories (despite the fact that I wasn't born until long after it was released) and it's the reason I was so excited about 2017 Topps Heritage.

Graded Cards

I know, I know. It's a scam. Grading companies play favorites. Cards aren't meant to be locked up in plastic prisons. The premiums people pay for slabbed singles could go toward buying lots of (other) cards, and far too many trimmed/altered cards have passed through PSA undetected. All legitimate gripes. Yet I can't get enough graded cards in my collection. If I'm going to spend more than $5 on a vintage card I want the peace of mind that comes with appraisal and authentication. I want it to be in the best shape possible. In some cases I'd rather have a near-mint non-star than a well-loved legend.

Thick Base Cards

In my opinion, there are way too many "high-end" products with 1-6 cards per box priced at hundreds of dollars a pop. And what are you likely to pull? A plain one-color relic, an autographed card you could buy for about $10, and two numbered base cards that often sell for less than the cost of a one-touch holder. COMC is overflowing with these discarded non-hits, and I've accumulated almost enough of them to fill a monster box. Immaculate is my preferred brand but I'm happy to snatch up any big base card from a high-end set, especially at a dollar or less.

A lot of things I like might not be super popular but I know at least a couple people who enjoy them. For example, hockey is widely considered to be the fourth major sport (in the U.S. anyway) while some sports fans and media types don't consider it a major sport at all. Hip-hop and pop music dominate the airwaves and download charts, but some of my favorite rock bands have large, loyal followings and still sneak into the Billboard Top Ten once in a while. And then there's...

Coldplay

Coldplay are probably one of the three most successful rock-adjacent acts of the 21st century. They've had some incredible songs, from "Yellow" and "The Scientist" to "Fix You", "Viva La Vida", and "Life In Technicolor". And for some reason they are disliked almost as much as Nickelback. They were supposed to be the half-time headliner at the Super Bowl - until the image-obsessed NFL responded to criticism for selecting a vanilla soft-rock band by overshadowing them with Bruno Mars (who I like) and Beyonce (who I don't.)

I like Coldplay a lot. They're not one of my top-five favorites, and I'm not really into their new stuff. But chances are I like them more than most people you know - rock fans or not.

Young Adult Fiction

For a long time nearly all of my books were about sports. And then after graduating college I started reading John Green novels, which led me to a few other Young Adult authors and series. I'm looking forward to the day when I can read these books to my daughters - or discuss the stories with them after they've read a few on their own. I just heard about a YA series called The Loop and bookmarked it. In fact, if I ever follow through on my empty threat to take a blogging break it will be to catch up on reading some books including Turtles All the Way Down (which I still haven't finished..)

Things I Don't Like (That You Likely Like)

Oddballs

Nearly every card blogger I know loves oddball cards. I'm a huge fan of 1961 Golden Press. The Conlon Collection sets are great. And I've got an entire mini-album for box toppers and oversized cards like these Perez-Steele Great Moments jumbos. But most oddball sets do not interest me. Everyone seems to love the Kellogg's 3-D Super Stars. Those things curl and crack! And how many mini-sets did Topps, Fleer, and even Score produce back in the day? Too many if you ask me.

Call me boring if you want, but when I'm dime box diving I almost always pick singles from traditional, mainstream sets. There's more than enough of them to keep me satisfied.

Upper Deck Hockey Cards

If you're a fan/collector who disregards hockey, you're not missing much with Upper Deck. All they've done for the past four years is devalue some of their most popular sets by selling 'digital' packs through ePack and allowing singles to be transferred to COMC. It's great for buyers (I guess) but it turns a huge chunk of their product line into one big race to the bottom. The latest culprit is Synergy - a product that looked interesting to me until a slew of serial numbered singles started popping up on COMC for under 50 cents!

Also, Upper Deck keeps recycling the same old designs. This is the 30th anniversary of their first hockey set. How did they celebrate? With a 30-card insert set recycling all of their past designs. Topps does that, too - but at least they use more than three players in Archives. I used to try and complete every flagship UD set, including the short-printed Young Guns rookies, until they started hiding "update" cards in SP Authentic. (And don't get me started on the overpriced SP Authentic line. Bowman Chrome baseball is a much better value!)

Michael Jordan

I've always gravitated toward the underdog, the underrated, the overlooked. I love small-market franchises and Cinderella stories. I have nothing against greatness. There are plenty of legendary players who never gambled obsessively, never hustled their own teammates, never turned their Hall of Fame speech inward to stroke their own ego, never treated their family like an afterthought, never used their clout to keep a rival (who beat him twice) off an Olympic team, and never got so much favorable treatment from referees that the rule book was practically rewritten to accommodate only him. 

I don't like the Yankees or the Cowboys or the Patriots, but a lot of people don't. I don't like Tom Brady or Alex Rodriguez or Barry Bonds, but a lot of people don't. I really do not like Michael Jordan - and everyone seems to worship the guy.

College Sports

I've always enjoyed watching the NFL Draft, and I watched the NBA Draft even when I wasn't watching the NBA. Nine times out of ten I didn't know anything about the drafted player's college career - because I have never been a fan of college sports. Bowl games never interested me. There were a few years where I followed UConn basketball and filled out an NCAA Tournament bracket despite the fact that I knew next to nothing about any other team (I picked Kansas to win it all far too many times.) I have no school ties, and I'm not a gambler. Is it exciting when a 15 seed upsets a 2 seed? Sure. But unless you have a vested interest in one of those particular schools you are rooting for a number.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

There are 24 movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). I have not seen any of them - not even the one that my friend Brandon actually appeared in (as an easter egg). None of the kids in my neighborhood read comics. No one in my family read comics. I just wasn't a comic book guy. So when the Marvel movies started blowing up I sat them out. I saw a couple of X-Men movies because Jennifer Lawrence was in them. I'm not quite there with Brie Larson. Heck, I haven't even watched an entire season of Supergirl - and I adore Melissa Benoist.

One of the guys I work with was trying to sell our former co-worker on the MCU. She'd seen Black Panther and maybe one other movie. He explained that they're all connected and that if you see one you'll want to know that character's origin story and so on. I'm afraid he's right. What if I watched Captain Marvel and it led me to another one (and another and another)? Two dozen movies and counting -- who has that kind of time? I've got blogs to read.

On that note..let's see your list! :-) Post them up or link them in comments and I'll make the rounds this weekend. 

Thanks for reading, and happy Easter!





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