Recent card pickups

 It’s been a little longer than normal since I’ve posted, but that’s to be expected when you work in a retail bakery during any major holiday. I get a few slow days before the last one of the year, and have a decent schedule coming up with an off day on Friday and another one on Monday, so just a little bit longer and everything should be back in a routine. 

I’ve had a decent amount of cards come into the collection since my last post, but the photos wouldn’t cooperate, so instead of chronological order, they will go from newest to oldest. 

About 2 weeks ago Tom from The Angels in Order offered some 1989 Fleer World Series sets. I love highlight cards, and also collect Orel Hershiser, who appears in the set a few times, so I asked for one, and he kindly obliged. TCDB says I have the Hershiser’s already, so the entire set will go in the highlights binder, giving me a nice game by game look at the 1988 World Series. Thanks, Tom. 

Next up, is my haul from John of Johnny’s Trading Spot. I apologize for the lack of pictures, I was stoked to get the cards in my boxes. 

As many of you know, we live about an hour and a half from each other, so I’ve been to his place three times now to exchange cards. I had a stack of Braves, mini collection and player collection cards for him, and he let me dig through his trade boxes. Among the many sets he helped me get closer to finishing were 1986 Topps (43 cards), 1996 Topps (11 cards), 2002 Topps (73 cards), and 2006 Topps (228 cards). I also found a number of 2012 Topps cards, but my wantlist for that set is a mess, as that set had a number of errors on the backs of Series 1 cards, so it’s almost impossible to make a wantlist on TCDB that just says you need 1 version of each card number. I’ll probably go through that set again and list out which numbers I have from each team and then individually mark which ones I need on the site. John showed me a good way to make a paper wantlist while I was there. Basically type out the numbers 1-792 in Word or a like program, save it, and erase all haves from the set you are making the list for. He was able to fit multiple sets on a single page, and I think it will help me in my effort to complete every Topps base set. I’ll try to work on making some paper lists on Friday and bring them the next times I’m digging through boxes at shows, etc. I think TCDB is still a good tool and will help me know what I need when the list isn’t with me. Thanks again, John, for letting me dig through your trade boxes and showing me the most efficient way to make a paper wantlist. 

Last Wednesday, we were at Big Lots getting a gift for one of Kylers friends, and lo and behold they had a blaster of 2022 Optic at a reduced price. Overall, I feel like it was a good pick, as I got another De La Cruz rookie (must be Donruss luck) and an autograph. Unfortunately, my luck of pulling DeLand-associates guys ended, and I pulled one of a guy who was accused of a rather disturbing deed. I really hope he didn’t get his hands on that sticker. Aside from that one, I got some nice rookies of Tiger Spencer Torkelson, Pirate O’Neil Cruz, and a few pink parallels. 

Also pulled an insert of Max Scherzer, a guy I collect, another Tiger, this one a parallel of Matt Manning, and one of a hopefully lifetime Ray, Randy Arozarena. 

Last, but not least was a trade with Bill of Death Stare Cards. I remember back when I first was introduced to card blogs, Thorzul, Dimebox Nick, Stale Gum, Night Owl, Fuji, and other bloggers/blogs seemed larger than life. Now 10 or so years since then, I have traded with most of them, and while they still do a way better job than I do, they are all just down-to-earth people like I am who just want to trade cards, and that was what my first experience trading with the legendary Thorzul was like. Nothing big, but just a simple trade of some Brewers cards he can hopefully use for the Ray, Tiger, and 2 PC guys I could. 

A nice first trade and hopefully one of many more to come. Thanks, Bill.

I'm sure you all are asking "But didn't you get any cards for Christmas??". Truth is, Kyler got a number of packs from Series 1, 2, a repack box, and one of those things with a few Sereis 1, 2, Update, a jumbo card, and the Flagship Collection packs. The adults in our family usually don't get eachother gifts, as we spend enough on the kids already, but somehow I usually end up getting a pack or two from someone, whether it be from my mom, one of my sisters, or Karen's mom. That's just how this year ended up, and I got a hanging box of Series 1 from Karen's mom. While I already had the complete 2023 set, I figured I would open it, since places usually don't let you return cards and it still had inserts. It wasn't anything too life shattering, but it was the thought that counted. It was actually a Rat-Birds hot pack with the insers as I got a Anthony Santander rainbow parallel, an '88 redux Eddie Murray, and a Stars of MLB insert of their overrated rookie catcher. Kind of makes the blue parallel of the Nationals team card the highlight of the box. I'm still happy as they were free cards and I got something to open this Christmas. It may not be the last cards I open this year, as we need to grocery shop at least once before the year ends, and I'd like to see what Heritage High Number has to offer. 

I saw that while the 2024 Topps design isn't out yet, oddly, the (retail) sell sheets are. I don't know what that means. Maybe Topps actually reads my blog and knows that I want some info from them as to when the set will come out and what is in it, that I'm not a flipper and won't buy hobby if I don't have to, and that I have been known to make satire sell sheets in the past. At any rate, the set won't be out in January, as a release date just mentions February. There are more holiday-themed parallels with the retail stuff, which I hope doesn't mean flippers will be leaving the shelves bare again. Anyone know how to de-value parallels? The most stupid parallel is one that just takes away the base card design and leaves you with nothing but a 2.5 by 3.5 inch photo. Didn't we kind of do the same thing with the original Stadium Club Master Photos? What do they do for an encore, make a parallel with no design, no photo, just a white piece of plastic, slap a 1/1 on the back with a player name, and call it a day? I get they are trying to cut back on everything, eliminating the foil on everything except for the logo, but cut with the cheap stuff, Topps. You can go cheap with Opening Day, oh what's that, you don't make that anymore? At this rate, I might just have to stop opening packs with Kyler and not take him to games, just so he won't get sucked into the sport and collecting. Contract values are insane, making already expensive ticket prices to skyrocket, and same thing is happening with cards. There are no entry-level sets you can complete without SPs that are readily available for purchase 6 months out of the year at retail outlets. You can't go to a game without spending 20-40 bucks per person for upper deck seats, that much for a hot dog and tapwater, same for parking, plus the 3 hour drive to the nearest ballpark from us. Insane. Kind of why I got out of ttm autograph collecting. All of the free signers I had basically already gotten, nobody who is a current player signs anymore, making my success rates drop, and a number of free signers in the past are now charging 5-10 bucks a pop thanks to a few idiots who cornered the market and convinced these guys to sign for a fee and give them a percentage of the cut. Ruth signed for free. Why can't Lonnie Smith? May all the people getting rich off of baseball have their money die with them. It's just a game and everyone deserves to enjoy going to a game, maybe getting an autograph at a game, and then go to Wal-Mart on the way home and select from 5-10 different $1-$4 packs of cards and pull a card of a player they just saw. That's the only way it's going to carry on to a generation that is into video games. Not by pitch clocks, new rules, bigger bases, or a ghost man in extras. I hope Topps and Manfraud read this one. And if you are, ol' Robby, I WILL be making card of you in a dumb pose once the 2024 Topps design does come out! You can guarantee that!

Perhaps on my last off day of the year (Friday), I'll revisit some 2023 collecting goals and you can make fun of me for not making all of them, and I'll set some for 2024. 

Thanks for checking out my lastest post.

-Jeremy