Been cleaning for a party tomorrow, which means I’ve got to put some cards away, and thought I should note a few things:

* Got my 8th box of 2007 Bowman Chrome last weekend for my birthday, and after 8 boxes, a few retail packs, and numerous email purchases, I finally completed the base set–well, the cards BC56 and above.  I still hate that they split the set like that, and making it a different design was even dumber.  I think they had to for baseball due to new rules from the Players Association around rookie cards, but why use a format forced upon you for baseball for football?  It’s not like more people were buying the baseball because of the switch–they were buying them because they still wanted the rookie cards.  And after my 2007 Baseball Bowman purchases, I doubt I’ll be going back in 2008, which may mean I’m done with baseball cards altogether.

* Downside to the box–no printing plates, the autograph was just a Chansi Stuckey, and I already had every refractor that I got in the pack (and none of them were rookies).  So I’m still in need of a lot (roughly 87) refractors to get that set completed.  If anyone has any and would be interested in trading, drop me a line at tony(at)thefootballcardblog.com, or post in the comments below.  I don’t think I need any of the big name rookies (other than maybe a Brady Quinn), so we can work something out.

* Werid Collecting Habit #1–I actually save all of the hobby boxes I buy.  I think I even have a few in storage from when I was a kid somewhere, but since I’ve been back in the hobby (and they’ve started splitting hobby & retail into different models), I think I’ve saved every empty hobby box.  Not the retail boxes, those go right in the trash (although I’ve learned to at least wait until I confirm that I got all the inserts I was supposed to).  Am I the only one?

* Weird Collecting Habit #2–You know the blank white thick cards they put into packs so people can’t search through the box and pull the hot packs?  I save those too.  I have almost a full 800 count box of them now.  Anyone else do that?  I think I may have finally found a use for them–I came across a post at Wax Heaven about Custom Made Cards, and I was thinking maybe I would get some cards designed of my Great Uncle Howie Schultz, and see if he would autograph them for the family.  But before that, I have no idea why I saved them.  I did NOT, however, save the contest inserts that make me register to try to win a trip somewhere.  If anyone collects those, maybe we can trade contest forms for blank inserts <GRIN>.

Like I said, just some random thoughts for the night.  I’m hoping I might get a chance to run over to the local card shop this weekend, as I haven’t been in for a while, but I’d be surprised if anything came out of it, since I’m not into baseball as much, and last time I was in he was still trying to convince Upper Deck that he was legit (so he probably doesn’t have any SP that I could grab).  Might check out a couple of Web sites that I’ve seen recently, though, to get something–I’m thinking I might try to do a video box break with the new web came I recently got…