Life in a Cardboard World

Returning...

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 11:29:00 +0000

It's been a while. The podcast, UK CardCast, has been on hiatus, I haven't posted here since November, and I haven,t been to a dedicated non-sport trading card show in 5 years!

Well, that all changes shortly. As you can see, I'm posting here now. I can't promise it will be a regular thing, but I'll give it a go. Secondly, the podcast will resume in a month or so because, thirdly, I'm returning to the Philly Non-Sport Trading Card Show in Allentown PA in May!

Very much looking forward to this trip - it's my first solo US trip since 2011, when friends and fans of the podcast paid for me to go the the Fall Philly. This trip is entirely funded by me, and involves a couple of side trips.

Given access to wifi, I hope to post here on what I find at the show and elsewhere; once I return home, there will be podcast episodes galore!

Also, there are a couple of card projects at the show in which I have an involvement - more on them shortly.

It's goo to be back...

Shows, Shows, Shows

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Mon, 23 Nov 2015 11:37:00 +0000

It's been a while! I've been on Facebook more than on here, but I'm back now and (hopefully) posting more.
Last weekend was the MCM ComicCon (aka The Show Formerly Known as Memorabilia Birmingham) and I picked up a few new additions to my card collection, including some new sketches by an artist new to me, Mike Hannan.

This beauty by B Jones from one of Cult Stuff's Mystery Packs:

and this Hattie Hayridge autograph, also from one of the Cult Stuff Mystery Packs:

I skipped most of the celebrity signings, but I did make a beeline for Simon Fisher-Becker, who was signing copies of his memoirs "My Dalek Has a Puncture"; Fisher-Becker is, perhaps, best knows as Dorium Maldovar, the Blue skinned wheeler-deeler who comes to a sticky end during the Eleventh Doctor's arc, but (partially) comes back and is a key plot point later in series 6!

(Yes, I DO appear to be wearing a tweedy jacket, a blue bow tie (which is cool) and braces. Just imagine an older looking, less gangly, thinning on top, grey bearded, bespectacled Matt Smith...)

The show was busy for a Sunday, but there was a higher concentration of Manga/Anime and cosplayer related stands and fewer old-school collectibles - the aforementioned Cult Stuff, Paul Hart, Non-Sport Update, Matt Dixon, Carolyn Edwards and Anthony Lee (among others) representing the old school.

Thre was a larger than usual Artist Alley this time - every show it seems to grow, and there was quite a cluster of people there, so presumably it's doing OK for the artists.

The least said about the train journey back the better - it didn't quite spoll the weekend, but it did close it on a down note...

That difficult Second Season...

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 22:38:00 +0000

UK CardCast has been quiet of late - this is because of circumstances out of my control (i.e. I was laid off work) and I had to investigate all the possibilities (i.e. find another job and make sure the mortgage was covered) before moving on wit hthe podcast.

Now, however, there is some good news (i.e. I have another job!) and so planning has started for what I am going to call the Second Series/Season of UK CardCast - beginning with what would have been the 'lost' Episode 31, featuring Harris Toser and Don Norton talking about the recent (at time of recording) Chicagoland show.

Plus, there is the NEW show to work on - namely "Behind The Canvas", the show that will concentrate on artists and their work. I had a few interviewees lined up before the enforced hiatus and pretty much all of them have agreed to pick up where we left off! I'll be recording the shows shortly and releasing them over the next few months, alternating with the regular UK CardCast episodes.

I've had a lot of messages of support, on eMail, on message boards such as NSU's Card Talk and Scoundrel, as well as on Twitter, and I am extremely grateful for all the offers of help and support! It made me realise that I have more people out there who are vaguely interested in my stuff than I at first thought and I am touched!

So, let Season 2 commence (soon!)

uStream if you want to...

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 19:28:00 +0000

The UK CardCast exploration of uStream continues - last night, just before recording an interview for Episode 30 of the podcast, I started up my Mac, connected the iSight webcam and had a play with uStream - eventually sending out a test broadcast to 5 viewers! It wasn't recorded (there is an option to do that but I didn't select it yesterday!) and it was not on any particular subject; I just wittered on and responded to messages submitted on the associated chat page by the viewers.

It was a worthwhile experiment, and one that I fully intend to follow up on a regular basis - I'm looking into seeing if I can have more than one person appear on screen, as that would enable me to do a video podcast!

A lot of artists have regular uStream shows, and the advantage thay have is that they can point their camera at a blank page and draw, whereas all I can do is talk and wave a card from my collection in front of the camera, and I don't think that would be all that interesting. That said, if I can come up with a 'theme' for a broadcast, with relevant items to show, then perhaps viewers could come in on the chat and ask questions, or discuss relevant items from THEIR collections?

What do YOU think? Worth doing or just an ego trip for yours truly? If I go ahead, I will post here AND on Twitter (oh, and if you fancy following me on Twitter, you'll find me here: @ukcardcast

"A Knight in San Diego"

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 23:20:00 +0000

Episode 29 is working it's way online now - if you can see it in the RSS feed on the right, then you should be able to get it from iTunes and other Podcast directory services, or you could download it or stream it diretly from the CardCast.co.uk website!

Entitled "A Knight in San Diego", Episode 29 is the annual SDCC show report, this time presented by Bob Hulsart (aka 'Batman' on Non-Sport Update magazine's Card Talk message board!) Plus there is a very special announcement by Billy Shipley of Versicolor Productions about a new set...
I am already working on the next episode, #30, which will be the annual Artist Special - I have four artists lined up to appear and I'm just working out some recording dates before getting started! And after that, I have another guest lined up for an exclusive interview in (probably) Episode 31, and I'm lining people up for episode #32 AND for the End of Year episode... (I'm getting a bit too organised - something is going to go badly wrong very soon!)

Procrastination...

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:23:00 +0000

I'm in the process of editing the new episode (#29, if you must know!) (it seems like I'm ALWAYS editing a new episode!) - I don't do this all in one go, but tend to edit 10 minutes at a time. I was doing so last night and was progressing rather well, when the diverting diversion itch flared up (as it has done now - I'm editing on one PC and writing this blog post on the other)
Artist CK Russell (Twitter: @virtualcara) tweeted that she would be on Ustream to do some live card drawing, with cards at a very reasonable price to anyone interested. Despite discussing the Ustream idea with Kris Kersey of Sketchcollectors.com, I have never been online at the right time to catch one of these streaming broadcasts, so I thought I'd give this one a go.
I'm glad I did! Not only did Cara do a card for me (of Irina Spalko - another for the increasing collection! I'll post a scan when I have it in my hot little hands!) but I had great fun chatting with her and some of her followers. I was made very welcome and I'd like to thank Cara and her followers for a great first Ustream experience!
Not familiar with the idea? It's really quite simple: someone hooks up a video camera/webcam/similar video device to a computer, signs up to a Ustream account and, having announced a date and time, broadcasts whatever they feel like to the wide virtual world. (That is a drastically simplified version of the process!) There is a text chat box, in which viewers can send messages to the broadcaster, or to other viewers, and the broadcaster (if they have a microphone hooked up as well) can answer questions or respond to comments via the audio.
It's great for artists because they can showcase their work AND show work in progress as it actually, erm, progresses!
Cara is not the only artist to do this sort of thing - in fact, if you pop along to Kris' website (link above!) you'll find a list of a number of artist Ustreams, and you'll find more if you look on the Scoundrel art board.

Technology still has the power to amaze me - Ustream is a case in point. Once upon a time, if you wanted to commission an artist to do a piece for you, either you'd have to go through the email/post process and wait ages to see if what the artist was doing was what you actually wanted, or you'd have to hope that you'd see an artist you'd like at a show or convention.
Now, you can watch the artist at work onscreen and, if you like what you see, a quick PayPal and onscreen text message gets you almost instant 'as it happens' access, with direct input into what is being drawn.

I'm inspired! In fact, if I can work something out, I may well do a Ustream of my own some time - possibly if I can get the iSight hooked up to the Mac at some point, and I can lay my hands on a sealed box of cards, I might do something for the NSU Open That Box Day next year! (unless I can come up with a better idea beforehand!)

Super Babes!

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:41:00 +0000

Just received two new PSC's from Fer Gallicia:
This one is the latest addition to my "Irina Spalko" collection:

And this one is Season 7 Buffy:

I'm happy...

In other news, Episode 27 of the podcast is being converted for uploading shortly - hopefully, it will be available AM Thursday!

Delays and complications

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 21:58:00 +0000

Stuff happens! I Was hoping to get the new episode of UK CardCast online a couple of weeks ago but for various reasons (some technical) I had to delay until now. Bah! It IS online now though (and should be appearing in the feed shortly, if it isn't already) and features me talking to Billy Shipley of Happy Jack Collectibles and Marco Jansen of Catawiki.
There's a really cool Free Promo offer too - exclusive to listeners of the podcast and extremely limited (so limited, in fact, that I haven't got one myself yet! You lot better not get one before me or I will thcreem and thcreem and thcreem until I'm thick. And I'll record it...

Change of Plans

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 17:21:00 +0000

Well unfortunately the guest I was going to interview is still unwell, so I have decided to postpone that chat until the next episode. So, all being well with the world, the new episode should be online sometime in the next couple of days, will be shorter than usual and will feature the return of Harris Toser, International Trading Card Celebrity (as seen on TV)!

In the meantime, more updates to the Philly Card Show promo page on my website - I found a batch in an album that had somehow escaped being scanned, so I scanned them!

Bleaghhh...

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 18:02:00 +0000

Unfortunately, Episode 25 (part of which has already been recorded) will be delayed - I want to record one other regular cntributor, but they are going through a bout of lurghi and I am now as well...
Fear not - it will be available sometime soon!

Another new sketch - plus another new episode!

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 02:16:00 +0000

I ended the break from podcast producing last month and you can find the results of this in UK CardCast Episode 24 - I had great fun chatting to The Sucklord and Tom Lichtman about the Suckadelic Action Art Card Series 1 cards they released at the end of 2009. There is an illustrated review on the UK CardCast Review Page (a new addition to the website, to which I hope to add more reviews (hint hint!))

Today (well, given the time I'm writing this, yesterday) I attended to some housekeeping on my homepage (http://www.paulbines.co.uk/ in case you were wondering) and posted some scans of cards recently added to the collection, including one new addition to The Spalko Gallery:

The card is a PSC drawn by Kate RED Bradley (who has appeared on the podcast on numerous occasions!) and which was specially commissioned by a friend as a Christmas present - which was given to me on Saturday, this being the first time I've had the opportunity to meet up since last year!

You might notice, by the way, that I have added an Amazon doohickey over there on the right - if you use it and buy something, I get a small top-up on my Amazon Associates account, which helps to keep me in books, CD's and DVD's! It points to Amazon.com - if I find a UK version, I'll set that up too! (I'm nothing if not mercenary in fuelling my habits...)

Belated...

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:18:00 +0000

Happy New Year All!
For some reason, I didn't post about the most recent episode of the podcast, Episode 23, which IS now online (along with a 'Christmas Gift' of an unedited recording of the NSU Card Talk Gathering at the Memorabilia show last November.

I've taken a break from trading card activities (including the podcast) for the last month or so and this break will continue probably until next month, when I might have someone to interview for a new episode!

In the meantime, I received some really nice cards from friends for Christmas:
This one, by artist Sanna U, from CSI Dave:

And these, by artist Chris Henderson, from a very generous 'Secret Santa' on the Scoundrel artist board:

And two others, which you can find on my website!

The Curse of Kevin McNulty

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:15:00 +0000

Episode 22 "The Curse of Kevin McNulty" is now online (iTunes and other podcast services will be updated shortly, once the RSS feed has circulated around the web!) - it features Don Norton talking about Autograph packs and a brief rundown of what visitors to the NSU stand at Memorabilia and Collectormania can expect!

Shows, Shows, Shows

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:20:00 +0000

Winter show season hits the UK big time in November and it is looking increasingly likely that UK CardCast will be at at least two shows! Memorabilia Birmingham lands at the NEC on 21-22 November and Collectormania London hits Earl's Court Olympia on 28-29 November; Regular contributor Harris Toser will be setting up the Non-Sport Update magazine stand at BOTH shows and I'll probably be lurking behind the table too, so if you're at either show, come and say Hello! You'll also get the chance to meet a number of visiting artists - Kate RED Bradley is coming over from Canada for both shows, Belfast's Patrick Hamill will be at the Birmingham show and Nik Neocleous will be at the London show.
No info yet on a talk or gathering, but watch this space (or, indeed, the NSU Card Talk board, or Facebook, or Twitter!) for more news as it is announced!

Before that, however, there is another Special Episode set for release, this time in co-operation with Non-Sport Update. You'll have to hang on until November 9th but it will be worth the wait (I hope!) NSU's Harris Toser and I talk about "The White Album" project, a book created by 13 artists (many familiar names in the workd of non-sports and some of whom appear in the episode!) who got together to create a book inspired by "The Beatles", the double album popularly know as "The White Album". Harris will be bringing a strictly limited number of signed copies over to the UK shows, so if the Special Episode piques your interest, pop along to the NSU stand!

Chatty Artists!

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 23:46:00 +0000

Yes, there's a new episode - and it's another two parter. Episode 21 (which you should find in the list on the right as well as at the usual places, such as the UK CardCast website, iTunes, and other podcast services) is entitled "The Return of the Sketch Artists" and is a bumper collection of interviews with artists who have worked on trading cards - Ingrid Hardy, Dane Ault, Trev Murphy and Brandon Kenney. Plus contributions from CardCast regulars Harris Toser and Kris Kersey.

I haven't updated the website with the relevant links yet - editiing the podcast zonked me out for a bit - but I will do so soon (probably this weekend)

I'm working on some ideas for the next episode, which may or may not be a UK Show themed episode, depending on how long it takes me to get around to recording it! In the meantime, there will be a special episode at the beginning of November, a co-production with Non-Sport Update. More details on that one once I've got it sorted out!

In other news, I let go of my Leonard Nimoy Skybot TOS S3 autograph card (that was a lucky pack pull way back when the sets came out!) on eBay. It went for more-or-less the NSU price guide price, which was nice; though it was a bit of a wrench to see the card go, once I made the decision to sell it, that was it.

As one card leaves the collection, however, two cards join! Ted Dastick Jr posted an offer on the Scoundrel board (links galore in this post!) and I took him up on it - the two cards I picked arrived last weekend and here they are, spliced together:

Totally Non-Heinous, Dudes!

Originality?

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:46:00 +0000

There has been some discussion, (primarily on Scoundrel and NSU's Card Talk) about 'copies' of sketch art - the most recent example being that of a Brian Kong sketch of Albert Pujols (made for a Topps sports set) that has, to be scrupulously generous, been 'emulated' more-or-less line for line by another 'artist' in a card listed on eBay. I will not name names as far as the seller is concerned, nor will I post a link (if you want the details, visit either of the aforementioned forums!)
The topic also came up during a recorded concersation I had with an artist for the next episode of UK CardCast, and it got me thinking.

Art has, throughout the ages, been inspired and influenced by earlier work. It has evolved and expanded and explored new types of medium, new styles and new subjects. At the very heart of it, however, is the sense of new artists learning from the old, new styles being developed by those given experience of the old styles. As part of the education (whether formal or informal) artists learn from their mistakes, learn from the limitations of their chosen medium and, above all, learn from their predecessors - and in that respect, there is a certain amount of copying that goes on, if only for the exploration of technique, or the desire to explore the boundaries of variation.
Artists have taken subject matter that interests them and have adapted it to their own style, usually adding their own touch of originality to the original and so making it different and unique. Roy Lichenstein used the imagery of the comic strip to produce his legendary 'pop' art; Andy Warhol used pre-existing imagery (grocery labels, iconic photographs) to produce some of the most well known 'modern' art of recent time. Those artists, and many more, both before and since, have added to the originals and created a whole new piece of art.
However, with the use of such methodology comes great responsibility, and in recent years some 'adaptations' have cause controversy. Damien Hurst was criticised for one of his pieces (entitled 'Hymn') which appeared to have been based on an educational anatomy model (Wiki here); Shepard Fairey used a photograph by Mannie Garcia as reference material to create the iconic image of Barack Obama used to great effect in the 2008 US Presidential Race. (BoingBoing article here)
It is the latter example that is most relevant to the current issue over the alleged reuse of a Brian Kong sketch by another artist. In the Brian Kong case, a card he did for a Topps set, which was authorised by Topps and the relevant image rights holder, was 'copied' by another artist who, presumably, does NOT have the authorisation of Topps, or the subject of the sketch, Albert Pujols (or his personal or team management nor that of the relevant sport governing body), the copy being made not for the enhancement of drawing skills, or for the personal study of sketching technique but for profit - the card is, as I type, on eBay (having been sold and relisted).
How different does a piece of art have to be to be unique? Can an artist take a copy of an existing image, add a little crosshatching, or tweak the colouring, and thus claim to have produced a '1 of 1' unique image? Should said artist reveal that he/she has used a pre-existing image as the basis of their own work? Should they seek permission from the originator of the existing image? Should they credit the originating entity? What happens if the original image is officially licenced to someone else?

"So What?" you might say, "How does this affect me, the Non-Sports card collector? The Brian Kong card is for a sports set!" Well, yes, it is, but artists who have worked on non-sports sets have already reported copies of their work being offered for sale, usually as '1 of 1' cards and with no indication that they are not original pieces but copies; in one or two cases, the cards have been offered under the name of the original artist and so can be considered fakes or forgeries. This sort of thing does not reflect well on the hobby, and exposes the collector to potentially expensive risks.
I'm not criticising those who use other images as reference material; most who do add their own individuality and their own original touches and enough of both to make the end result an entirely unique item, and usually do it within the generally accepted 'code' of behaviour!

What am I trying to say? Well, "Buyer Beware" probably, but it's a shame that people who (possibly) have a talent and who could be capable of great things if they used their own imagination rather than indulging in a line for line appropriation of someone elses feel the need for greed seem able to not only get away with it but who also manage to turn the collector into a more cynical person. We need less cynicsm in the hobby and more creativity.

Hats, Prizes, for the drawing of...

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:19:00 +0000

UK CardCast (the podcast) has been helping out with Nik Neocleous' "Cosmic Eye" prize draw - Nik has had an art book published and, for a limited number availble directly from his website, he was offering a prize draw ticket. Well, the draw was held on August 1st and included in a special episode of the podcast - look to your right and you should see it in the RSS feed!

The next regular episode, #20, is being recorded this weekend for uploading sometime next week - it will be our annual San Diego special with NSU's Harris Toser reporting on the show.

Thanks to Harris, there are plans for another episode (which may tie-in to a thing NSU is doing) later in the year - watch this space... and I haven't forgotten about the Artist special I was planning - I'm still planning it, so bear with me!

In other news, SadLittles.com has started to take pre-orders for the "Legends & Lore" set, which will start shipping on August 20th - some of the artwork from the set can be found on regular podcast contributor Kris Kersey's website Sketchcollectors.com

@ukcardcast

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:05:00 +0000

Oh, I'm sure I'll regret this, but I've dipped a tentative toe into the Twitterverse - the id is @ukcardcast and you should find a link down on the right somewhere! Don't expect a lot except when I'm about to put an episode online...

Thinning out the collection

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Sat, 30 May 2009 17:41:00 +0000

At the moment I'm going through my card collection, and taking a serious look at the cards sets I'm unlikely to complete. I've alredy sold a few on eBay and I have a few more on there now (These are 5 day listings and may well have closed by the time anyone reads this, but it might be worth clicking on the link anyway - if the listings they are closed, they will probably have been replaced with some others!)

No reason for doing this other than the fact that the cards are just sitting in albums and would probably do better if they were in the collection of someone who loved them more! I have a shortlist of cards that probably won't be sold - either because they have a sentimental value (a gift from a friend, say, or a favourite card), or because, in this buyers market, I'd be lucky to get more than the starting price (and I'm starting pretty much everything at 99p!)

In the meantime, life goes on, as does the podcast - Episode 18 of UK CardCast is online as I type and features interviews with Harris 'Ubiquitous' Toser, Marc de Groot and new soon-to-be 'Regular Contributor' Kris Kersey. Plus, I have already recorded the feature interview for Episode 19 (due out at the beginning of July - no names, no pack drill, but I REALLY had fun recording it and I think it should be extremely popular with listeners!

Back to my collection, and I have more-or-less completed my Thunderbirds The Movie set; I've been working on this for a little over a year and the last piece dropped into the binder a couple of months ago - for this set I consider a 'Master' to be all the base cards and chases, all the autographs, all the costume cards, all the promos, a wrapper, the box, at least one sketch and the two preview sets. I don't have a sell sheet for the set, so I may well keep looking for that, and I don't have a sketch example for all the artists who contributed to the set (currently looking for a Warren Martinek, a Joe Corroney, a Claire Ramsey, and possibly one of the painted cards (though I suspect they are out of my unfeasably low price range!) so I may well keep looking for cheap sketches as well, but otherwise it's done.
I also completed my autograph-less Sabrina The Teenage Witch set, thanks to a trade with a Jolly Nice NSU Card Talker, Greg Geert, who helped me to finish off the foil chase set.

Now I need to find some super cheap Star Trek boxes (the new movie set that is) and let The Hand pull the Simon Pegg autograph, then I can be happy for a while!

On the subject of Happy For A While, let me show you the most recent card that made me feel that way:It's Stewie from "Family Guy" as Irina Spalko from "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" drawn by Elaine Perna with Tony Perna and was a personal commission (made via the Scoundrel message board; I recently been picking up a collection of sketch cards showing the Spalko character (mainly because they have been cheap) and I now have quite a few - mostly from the official Topps sets, but two being PSC's (Personal Sketch Card) - one being the above, the other being one that Denise Vasquez did for me! (if you click in the 'Happy Fans' link on Denise's website you may well find a picture of me holding her card!)
If you want to see the rest of the "Spalko Collection", you'll find them here

Open That Box Day

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:44:00 +0000

Well, I did as promised in the last entry and recorded, edited, compiled and uploaded the latest episode of the podcast in one day - I started recording at around 14:30 and the episode was online at 22:00
The inspiration for this was "Open That Box Day 2009" which was held today (April 4th) and organised by Non-sport Update magazine; the episode featured an actual box being opened, and a chat with Harris Toser, Production Manager of NSU.
The episode should appear in the list on the right, and more info (including, would you believe, pictures!) can be found on the gallery page of www.cardcast.co.uk, the podcast home page.

Another Month, Another Episode

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:32:00 +0000

Episode 16 of my non-sport podcast, UK CardCast, went online at the weekend and features the usual chat with Harris Toser of NSU magazine, a conversation with Nathan Ohlendorf (aka SadLittle) about his "Legend and Lore" set (more details here: SadLittles.com and some interviews recorded by Harris at the New York Comic Con last month - interviewees include Dennis Budd, Brian Kong, Uko Smith and Nar!

I'm planning for the next episode, which will be my contrubution to NSU's "Open That Box Day" - I'm going to record myself opening a box "live" and attempt to edit and upload the recording on the same day, April 4th - this will be some feat as it usually takes a week or more for me to edit the various interviews and links for a regular episode!
More info, by the way, about "Open That Box" day here

Best of 2008 Revealed!

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 12:10:00 +0000

Episode SP03 of UK CardCast is now online (the feed should update shortly)

Three posts in a row!

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:19:00 +0000

I neglect the blog for months, then three posts in a row! Ho Hum!
I'm in a couple of card Secret Santas this year - one on NSU's Card Talk board, and one on the Scoundrel board. The latter turned up at the weekend, and it is a really rather nice pair of Star Trek sketches by artist unknown (update: The artist is, in fact, Nathan 'SadLittle' Ohlendorf!):

Whoever the artist/Secret Santa donor is, Thank you! I'm most decidedly chuffed!

Economic Downturn? Bargain Central!

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:12:00 +0000

I've been picking up some amazing (for me at least!) bargains recently as far as cards are concerned. At Memorabilia I picked up some boxes for £1 each, and a Julian Glover autograph from one of the Topps Indiana Jones sets and a Grant Gould sketch of Irina for, respectively, £2.99 and £1.99.
This week, some eBay bargains arrived, including one of the two Thunderbirds The Movie autographs I was missing (Rose Keegan, aka "Transom") for which I paid a couple of quid - I now only need one more autograph, two of the more difficult promos and the Woolworths/The Sun redemption set to make as close to a master as I'll ever get!
Bad time to be a collector? I don't know. As is mentioned in the latest episode of the podcast (#14), there were plenty of bargains to be had on comparatively recent stock at the Memorabilia show; how much of this is due to dealers feeling the pinch and how much is just a lot of stock clearing I don't know, but whatever the reason is, I'll take advantage whilst I still have a (very) small amount of disposable income to spend!

Birmingham: The Return...

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Bines) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:10:00 +0000

Episode 14 of the podcast is now online; entitled "Birmingham: The Return...", it looks back at the Memorabilia show and features Harris Toser and myself, with contributions from various artists, ealers and other attendees at the show.