Feedback

[aljurgela]

Hey y'all....

Hope everyone is having a great night. I wanted to see if I could get some feedback on a YouTube project that I have going. As most of you know, I have a pretty large negro league card collection and I frequently get questions from people on the board (and eBay & SGC registry) about the cards, so I decided to make some videos.

I would love your feedback on the first two that I did. One is an intro, so not too important, but the 1909 Cabanas one is more important as I plan to do one on each Cuban / Puerto Rican set and another one for each key player (HOFers and other stars that are near HOFers).

Before I replicate something that everyone hates, would love to correct the errors. My wife has been kind enough to note the following:

1. Camera angle could be better / higher
2. Too much glare on when showing the cards
3. Do something besides sit there (I am not sure what I could do... but she says that I seem a bit bored)... change my intonation
4. Do not give enough background on the players or the history... but I was thinking of doing that in the specific player ones

Anyway, would appreciate the help as I will be putting in some time in hopes of helping educate the community on these cool pieces of history.

I am not exactly sure how to search YouTube, but my name on there is EPIC Cardboard and the first video is called Negro League baseball cards intro.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBi...xNtlijS0aGCpEw

Thanks for the help.

Al

[58pinson]

Watched the intro video. You've got me hooked! The video quality is crystal clear - as good as I've ever seen. I don't have a Youtube account so couldn't leave a thumb up (which I can't stand anyway) or a comment. Will find time later to go back and see the first of the card videos. Looking forward to it.

You mentioned that you're writing a book on the best of the Negro League cards. I'm sure it will have a large audience. I also look forward to your covering the soccer (football). Since you mentioned that you have spent some years in Central/South America will the football coverage be centered on that area? One of my favorite football books was "Soccer In Sun And Shadow" by
Eduardo Galeano, and he painted remarkable vignettes of the game as it evolved in South America.

Looking forward to all that's to come.

[prestigecollectibles]

I enjoyed both videos and look forward to seeing more of them.

[aljurgela]

When you get a chance, please watch the Cabanas one... I really want to make sure that I hit everything that could be important about the sets, so anything to add or leave out or any other feedback will be cool...

On the soccer / football side, I will have those on focus of the players and I plan on doing the top 100-200 players (where there are cards).... but will do the negro league cards first... appreciate the book reference!

[savedfrommyspokes]

Informative video Al....thank you for posting

[ethicsprof]

I,too, enjoyed your offerings. I'm weak in this area of scholarship and have been eager to see presentations such as these for some time now.
Noting that your wife's critique was so well done, I thought I'd add my own.

I was so 'hungry' to see cards and was disappointed that there were none shown in the intro. video of 15 minutes or so. I had the same 'hunger' as I turned to the second video and waited around 8 minutes or so before seeing, admittedly, some absolutely gorgeous cards. After a bit, you presented your 'one of ones' which were exquisite. Please don't wait so long for us to see your fine collection. Then we can see more and more and more!

I would offer a few more suggestions which you may wish to incubate a bit.
I'd like to see more of your collection on those shelves behind you!!! Perhaps a change of set design might be helpful.
You swing your chair 'to and fro' and scratch your nose a bit much. I'm sure you weren't aware of doing so but now you know.
Your presentation of your cards to the camera needs work. Perhaps putting them on a small stand or the like would help you not move the cards around so quickly and give the observer more of a chance to relish them. Perhaps there would be some way to leave them on the table off to your side so that we could continue to see them.

Very positively, your diction is clear and precise. I was pleased to see you stay focused on the history and scholarship with minimal 'ad libs' and limited excursus.
Your use of the original language of the cards at times was most pleasing.
Your recap (summary) was quite helpful. I hope to see these continue. I
appreciated your underscoring the rarity of your collection without any arrogance or ostentatious self-absorption. In fact, I applaud this.

Bottom line, I'm eager to see more of the videos. Congratulations on this very needed offering, Al.
My several cents,
all the best,
Barry

[conor912]

Great stuff, Al! Super cool to have collectors with depth and breadth sharing their knowledge like this.

My only piece of feedback is technical, and that would be to try and jigger it so that you're not looking slightly off camera. I assume you were looking at the monitor and not into the lens itself. It felt like you were speaking to someone standing behind me

[aljurgela]

Originally Posted by ethicsprof

I,too, enjoyed your offerings. I'm weak in this area of scholarship and have been eager to see presentations such as these for some time now.
Noting that your wife's critique was so well done, I thought I'd add my own.

I was so 'hungry' to see cards and was disappointed that there were none shown in the intro. video of 15 minutes or so. I had the same 'hunger' as I turned to the second video and waited around 8 minutes or so before seeing, admittedly, some absolutely gorgeous cards. After a bit, you presented your 'one of ones' which were exquisite. Please don't wait so long for us to see your fine collection. Then we can see more and more and more!

I would offer a few more suggestions which you may wish to incubate a bit.
I'd like to see more of your collection on those shelves behind you!!! Perhaps a change of set design might be helpful.
You swing your chair 'to and fro' and scratch your nose a bit much. I'm sure you weren't aware of doing so but now you know.
Your presentation of your cards to the camera needs work. Perhaps putting them on a small stand or the like would help you not move the cards around so quickly and give the observer more of a chance to relish them. Perhaps there would be some way to leave them on the table off to your side so that we could continue to see them.

Very positively, your diction is clear and precise. I was pleased to see you stay focused on the history and scholarship with minimal 'ad libs' and limited excursus.
Your use of the original language of the cards at times was most pleasing.
Your recap (summary) was quite helpful. I hope to see these continue. I
appreciated your underscoring the rarity of your collection without any arrogance or ostentatious self-absorption. In fact, I applaud this.

Bottom line, I'm eager to see more of the videos. Congratulations on this very needed offering, Al.
My several cents,
all the best,
Barry

Thanks for the time and dedication in the responses... I really want everyone to enjoy these cards as much as I do and want to present them as best as possible. I will try to improve as I go and welcome "requests" and feedback. Need to enlist the help of my 12 year old to clean up some stuff here, but REALLY appreciate the great feedback

[Shoebox]

Really enjoyed the videos and the content. A way to improve the presentation of the cards in future videos would be to acquire some basic Adobe or similar video editing software. When you record your video instead of holding the card in front of the camera just talk about it as if it can be seen. Then take your footage into the video editing software and overlay parts of it with high quality scans of the card. You can also add annotation graphics to point out features like the name variations. This will let us see more cards and let you concentrate on narrrarating and not focusing on your on-camera appearance.

You are doing an excellent job with the typical record and upload format most people use. However, utilizing Adobe Photoshop, Audition, and Premier Pro or similar products you can greatly enhance the quality of what you create.

[samosa4u]

Since you are a collector/dealer of soccer cards, you should discuss some of them. Also, make sure to do a video on Pele's early issues as well, such as his Quigol, Titulares, Alifabolaget, etc. A PSA 5 Quigol recently went for $15,000 USD, which is mind-boggling.

[aljurgela]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

Since you are a collector/dealer of soccer cards, you should discuss some of them. Also, make sure to do a video on Pele's early issues as well, such as his Quigol, Titulares, Alifabolaget, etc. A PSA 5 Quigol recently went for $15,000 USD, which is mind-boggling.

But am trying to finish a book on negro league cards first... I will target soccer next, but that is likely a few years away at my current (slow) pace...

We may have one of those moments on the Quigol card where $15k someday looks super cheap! Can you believe where the Mantles / Ruths are these days? Is there any question that Pele is the Babe Ruth of soccer which, despite its #1 place in sport around the world continue to strengthen and get bigger? That card may have even more legs... Time will tell, but I think that soccer has HUGE potential....

And by the way, I am not a dealer... everything that I have on eBay are dupes from my collection. I am just a collectors who has too much stuff (like many on this board)!