oil-lighting?

i drive a car with an internal combustion engine. i plan for my next car to be a hybrid or an electric vehicle, but for now, i am beholden to the gas companies who employ the "rockets and feathers" theory to gasoline prices. meaning, prices climb quickly (like a rocket) when the cost of crude oil (the primary ingredient to gasoline) rises, but then fall slowly (like a feather) when the cost of crude oil drops.  i understand the need for a bit of a lag, but last month it seemed like the feathers were still attached to the birds flying in the sky.

here's a card from 2009 upper deck 20th anniversary

that notes gas prices were high in the summer of 2008. the back explains things a bit more

even though upper deck can't spell "barrel" correctly twice on the same card.

so, with a barrel of crude oil hitting $147 a barrel in 2008, the average price for a gallon of gas peaked in the united states at $4.14 a gallon, according to the american automobile association. we passed that mark earlier this year, although not if you consider inflation.

this year, the cost of a barrel of crude oil again passed the $100 mark around the first of march, and gas prices rose as well. both peaked in mid-march at around $125 a barrel and $4.30 per gallon. when i wrote this post last saturday, the cost of an opec barrel of crude oil was about $100 according to statista, but the average cost of a gallon of gas was still $4.08 (again, according to the american automobile association). that's about 20 cents per gallon more than it cost when that barrel was last trading at $100 in early march. still, it would seem that the feathers are finally falling back to earth.

thanks upper deck, for making a card about oil and gas prices.

i've got a mind to show some cards from my parallel collection

what if there were a parallel universe where there were only base cards? back in 2005, there were so many parallels being produced thanks to releases like diamond kings and studio portraits. actually, studio portraits was all parallels with no 'base' cards, really.  here's a kirk gibson card from that set that came my way via trade last fall with greg of the collective mind:

that is a diamond kings red parallel card, one of 56 different cards from this set for the 1988 national league mvp. daunting.

here's another parallel, one that is far easier to come by - a 1992 topps darryl strawberry gold winner card:

and another, a 1994 upper deck electric diamond tim wallach card:

now for something somewhat different - here's a 1998 donruss preferred mike piazza

nope, not a parallel. just the second of his cards in the base set - noted as 'grandstand' for obvious reasons. there are parallels of this card, but this isn't one of them.

same goes for this 2003 playoff absolute memorabilia shawn green card

just a simple base card that also mentions 5/23/02 on the back.

this 2004 donruss adrian beltre

features don drysdale and one of the dodger stadium murals in the background

here's a 2005 donruss leather & lumber rivals insert featuring beltre and the big unit

and a 2005 donruss elite adrian beltre carreer best

you guessed it - that one is a blue parallel.

here's another parallel - this one is a radiance parallel of hideo nomo from 1998 upper deck spx finite

these cards had some high serial numbered print runs - this one is numbered to 4500.

now for some 2004 donruss elite paul loduca parallels

the 'turn of the century' parallel is for some reason numbered to 750 (and issued in 2004), while the 'aspirations' parallel is die cut and numbered to 84. the numbering of the 'aspirations' parallels varied from player to player, but doesn't seem to be tied to anything as far as i can tell. i wonder if donruss was just spinning wheels and picking numbers out of hats when it came to deciding what treatments and numbering to give to parallels back then.

here's one more - a 2005 donruss team heroes derek lowe blue showdown parallel

these blue parallels weren't numbered, but the bronze, gold and silver versions were, with the silver being numbered to a smaller print run (/10) than the gold (/50). make sense? 

in addition to dodgers, greg and i came to an agreement on some other cards to be sent my way including a nice batch of vladimir guerrero cards

featuring more parallels!

and finally, some 2009 upper deck 20th anniversary inserts of varying subjects

i had at one time given some thought to building this set until i realized that many of the photos were used on multiple cards. still, it was nice to see a variety in what greg sent - that dr. j card is fantastic.  here's a closer look at my favorite, however

i put this card of qe ii in my lurker mini-collection thanks to old friend johnny oates being present. the oriole shaking the hand of hrh is ellie hendricks, i believe, although it could also be tom mccraw, al jackson, curt motton, or even frank robinson, i suppose. this meeting occured about a week before robinson was fired and oates was named the manager of the o's, and all of those men mentioned were on robinson's staff.

thanks for the trade greg!