Probably the last post of the year

Today, I wanted to highlight a few nice cards I recieved during the last month or so but have neglected to post because of the craziness that is called the winter holidays in retail. 

About a month ago, Greg at Night Owl Cards held his epic 10th anniversary giveaway, and I was lucky enough to have this Donruss Kyle Seager jersey card slip to my pick, so I happily scooped it up, and he quickly shipped it to me, along with a nice Anthony Banda card from the 2018 Archives set. 

 I may have written about it before, but I have been going to Rays games at Tropicana Field since their first season in 1998, and have probably been to 50 games, maybe even closer to 100. This past June 10 was the first time taking my son Kyler to a Rays game at the Trop, and it wajs really special. I went in early to get autographs, and my wife watched Kyler from the comfort of the air conditioned car as he napped. He woke up midway through batting practice, and woke in time to help me get an autograph from Kyle Seager.

 Someone standing in front of us who knew Seager from Seattle took my card and handed it to him, and he signed it and handed it back (I had my son my arms, and it made getting cards out of my box that was sitting on the top of the dugout pretty difficult). I think if I hadn't had Kyler with me, that the guy would've just ignored us, so I'm thankful he helped out. So now, the Seager autograph, Seager relic from Night Owl, and the Tropicana Field card that I wrote the date of the game and all of the people who went with us on, are all sitting in Kyler's card album, which is a 90-card album, and almost getting full.

 Here is myself, Kyler, and my wife after the game.

A few weeks after getting the Seager and Banda cards, I held a contest, and Fuji from The Chronicles of Fuji was one of the winners. I sent him 3 customs of A's players, and even though he didn't need to send anything back, as I repeat, he WON a contest!!, he went above and beyond, and decided to send me 2 jersey cards of former Rays Johnny Gomes, and BJ Upton.

I was stoked to get both of them, as I remember seeing both Johnny and BJ in 2003 play for the Orlando Rays, and got their autographs that year, and since they are my first jersey cards of the pair. It is always a nice thing to get Rays cards, but even more special when you weren't even expecting them in the first place. Thank you so much, Fuji!

I hope to make some more trades this next year and add to more bloggers collections, as well as fill up some holes in my Rays collection. I recently ordered some cards from COMC of some missing Topps Rays, and will try to get them shipped out soon. I have been following the Rays since day 1, but my Rays only take up 2 binders, and if I were to enter all of my Rays cards on TCDB, I am probably missing Rays from about 95% of all of the sets they are in.

Wes from Area 40 is in the midst of his epic pack/box break, and there's a chance I will have some more Rays cards when it is all said and done. It looks like he has already pulled some good cards, and I don't think he has posted the half of what he as pulled, and it isn't even over yet. Even if you haven't signed up for any teams in the break, I would just check it out for the once in a lifetime experience of seeing that many packs opened at one time. I would probably pay to watch a live feed.

Lastly, as far as customs go, I am working on the 1984 Topps set still. I'm getting closer to the end of the NL, and am having a friend help out with the AL, and that should be finished towards the late winter/early spring of 2019. Now that the holidays are (basically) over with, I should be able to get back into the swing of things, and after '84 is done, I will work on the '93 project I started on, as well as getting the checklists from 1970-1982 finished. Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy