Happy Bama Elimination Day, and lots of cards

 It has been a good while since I’ve posted last. Lots of stuff has been going on in my life. It has been a great time in sports for me. On Sunday, Bama got eliminated (Happy Bama Elimination Day!!!!!), and later in the day, the Bankee$ lost out on Juan Soto. If only they miss out on Bregman, Alonso, Burnes, and Fried!). 

I feel like Karen's health problems just keep getting more confusing. She got in a car wreck about a month ago, and the effects of it have made her head hurt to the point where she can barely function. We think the jolt from the wreck may have got her shunt out of whack, and we have an appointment on Monday to get everything looked at over at Shands in Gainesville. Hopefully they can adjust some settings and get it where it needs to be. *Update on that, we just got back, and the shunt setting in her head was off a little and they were able to change that. The back one looked like it was off from scans she had done, but they were unable to read its setting (or change it) with an electronic device. Her neurosuegeon is going to get back to us and they may end up having to open her up so they can check the setting and set it at where it needs to be. Hopefully they can get that done asap and get her some pain relief and squeeze it in between the holidays and before the surgery for her lungs in Jan 2025*

I've been picking up cards from tons of places, and I don't know where to start. On Friday night, I went to Wal-Mart, and they had boxes of '24 Topps Holiday, and although I really don't see the need for the set, I bit. The box was a winner for me, so it was a good choice.

A few of the mid-tier rookies and my Tigers and Rays. Another Caminero for what may be a player collection. On to the bigger rookies with Pete Crow-Armstrong and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

I got the Elly De La Cruz and Paul Skenes, which are probably the 2 best cards to pull from the set. Only 1 guy I collect, but I'll take a Jordan Hicks card any day. The relic from the box was a Tiger, Spencer Torkelson. The 5 silvers I got were nothing special, and really disappointing with 2 Padre$.

Here's where it starts to get good. The SPs (I guess that's what they are) were cool. Mookie Betts has a holiday hat (it's yours if you need it, Night Owl), Corey Seager has a light necklace, and Yuki Matsui has antlers (I spent about 10 minutes trying to find them). 

Here comes the BOOM!!  I pulled a blue parallel of Elly De La Cruz. If I was a flipper, you would already be seeing this card on Tik Tok, Instagram, X, and the like. I also got an ornament box topper, but that shall remain a secret as it will be going in a trade package.

One of the strangest ways I have got cards to date has to be this next one. Karen works at an assisted living facility, and unfortunately, one of the residents passed away on Wednesday. He was a football coach (not sure of his name, but Karen said he was a coach at the University of Georgia. Aparently, he was into cards, and he had some in his room, and one of his kids let Karen have them when they found out I collect. 

It was some of what I expected with the cards being from 1988-1997 (almost), but it looked like his collection was more of a player collection with many cards of a few different players. That was good for me, as it helped me out with a bunch of '90's inserts, parallels, and sets I hadn't had much of in my collection. I will take '94 Stadium Club Golden Rainbow cards all day, especially a sunset card of Nolan Ryan, and the card of Frank Thomas giving us the bird. I finally have the iconic bubble blowing Griffey card, as well as some '94 Donruss inserts that I have been drooling over since I was a kid.

Why can't card makers make inserts and cards like they did in the '90's?

This '95 Elite Greg Maddux would've been the star of the show, but there was 1 card that topped it. That was hard to do, as this card is absolutely beautiful. I never realized the Elite inserts were die cut.

Serial numbered on back to make just an amazing card. 

This 1961 Topps AL Home Run leaders card, though, was the star of the show, as it was in fabulous condition considering the age. How many times do you just get gifted a collection with a '60's Mantle in it? Thanks, and RIP, Coach. 

I've been on an eBay binge lately, picking up things like a partial '95 Topps Cyberstats set, autographs of guys in my favorite player collection, and some autographs of some Rays I didn't have. 

Austin Meadows, Shane Baz, and Yandy Diaz are the latest autographs I got (along with a Blake Snell that came in the mail on Tuesday, and a Junior Caminero that in in transit). Speaking of Junior, I figured I should pick up a jersey to put the icing on his collection. Mason Miller isn't a Ray, but he is a Type 1 diabetic, so I was happy to add his autograph, and will be adding his All-Star game jersey card when it gets delivered in a few days. 

But that's not all. I went to visit John from Johnny's Trading Spot a few weeks ago, and got to dig though some of his trade boxes. I landed a bunch of cards from 2006 Topps, 2014 Topps, 2015 Topps, and 2017 Topps that will help me complete some sets eventually. I must've found a box that had some extras from when he was updating his player binders, because I found about 20 cards of a guy I collect because he is on the Dutch National team, Xander Bogaerts. 

I also picked up my prize for winning one of John's latest constests, and ended up with a 1983 Donruss Wade Boggs rookie, and a 2019 Topps Heritage Miguel Cabrera relic. Thanks, John,  for letting me come over and for the cool cards you let me snag.

Among the most unusual ways I've got cards this year was from an actual player himself. In August of 2017, I sent an autograph request to former Big Leaguer Danny Boone. I had made 2 customs and sent them with my letter, and added my phone number in case he wanted more. Well, years went by with no response, and I figured it was lost. On Monday I was driving home from work, and felt my phone vibrate. I usually don't get texts that time of day, and though nothing of it, and didn't check my phone until like an hour later. It just said 'Hi Jeremy, are you still at this phone number? Dan Boone' At first, I thought it was spam, but I responded, and he mentioned I put my contact info with my letter, and that he had found a pile of mail that he misplaced and wanted to verify my address. We swapped a few more messages, and I told him to contact me any time he wants to talk baseball, and I really think he will. I am expecting those cards back in the mail any day, and I've added a few more of his cards in my SportsLots box as I think I will add him to my favorite player collection. 

I had to mention SportsLots, as I have probably close to 900 cards that will be in the box. I'm just waiting on it to be filled. As soon as my SportsLots box comes, I will have the 1995 Topps Spectra, 1981 Topps Traded, 2001 Topps, 2001 Topps Traded, 2002 Topps, 2002 Topps Traded, 2003 Topps, 2005 Topps, 2007 Topps, 2007 Topps Update, 2008 Topps, 2012 Topps, and 2016 Topps Update sets completed. That will be nice, because I need to update my TCDB list and perhaps start trading again.

Just a ton of places I've been gathering cards from, and I am grateful to have been lucky enough to get such a smathering of cards lately. It helps me take my mind off of the crap life throws at you sometimes. 

Tons going on the next 2 weeks. Work will be getting busy, I’m sure. I’ll get to hang out with Karen on Wednesday as she will be getting her IVIG infusion in the morning, and I always enjoy going with her when I’m off. A week from Thursday she has an office Christmas party on a yacht with an open bar, so there is no way I’m not going to that. I might hang out with my youngest sister and brother in law at some point before Christmas, and there are always all of the hundreds of family members wanting to get a piece of you during the actual holidays. I’m sure we’re invited to some Christmas parties we are invited to,  and we might make an appearance, who knows. The band will have a service to play at church on Christmas Eve, and I’ll probably rush to that after work. Probably have at least 1 more event, but that’s just the name of the game during this time of year. 

If I'm not back on before Christmas, I wish everyone Merry Christmas and may you have a great holiday season and a Happy 2025!

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy