Things have been busy here at Topps Cards that Never Were HQ. Kyler is in a kickball league that plays every Tuesday and Thursday. They are basically teaching the kids the rules, and the teams swap out every week. When he’s not distracted, he’s been doing pretty well. This past Thursday, they played 2 games, and he went 5-5 with a run and an RBI. He’s been playing near shortstop in the field, and doesn’t really get too many balls kicked near him.
Ive had 2 shelves from a bigger bookcase that we got rid of, and I’ve been wanting to trim them so they would fit my binder bookshelves. I finally got a hand saw and hacked them down to size and got a little more real estate to work with, and was able to move my trade box inside and get a little more organized.
I’ve always been an aquarium guy. From the time I was like 10, I was always trying to catch minnows and I would put them in a bowl, aquarium, or whatever I had and watched them swim. I’ve had a 55 gallon tank and one point, and had live plants and guppies in it. The last time I had fish was before I got married. I’ve thought about getting a tank a few times, but life happened, and I just worry about having time to devote to it. Well, Karen has been getting the itch, and now lo and behold we have a 35 gallon tank. She really wants colorful fish, and I am dead set on live plants, guppies, and ghost shrimp. We compromised, and she got some colorful fake plants and decor. I got a few live plants, and I’ll get some guppies and ghost shrimp. Kyler will pick some fish tomorrow when I get off work, and I’ll get the shrimp, an algae eater, and maybe some snails. Some friends of ours have tons of guppies, so we’ll get them the next time we see them. Here is our tank right now without the fish.
I got a new phone, as mine couldn’t hold a charge, and the difference is amazing. This is going to help me in a week. More on that later.
The mailbox has been good to me the last week or so. Tom from The Angels in Order posted about a 1995 Collectors Choice trade card that he got in a trade. I mentioned that I had a Marquis Grissom from that set if he needed it, and he reached out to me on TCDB, and we hammered out a trade.
I got some guys I collect in Shairon Martis, Jayson Nix, and Jordan Hicks, a Tiger in Bonderman, some 2011 Topps needs, and 2 ‘70’s Angels cards that Tom threw in for free. It’s always a pleasure trading with Tom. Hope you enjoy your end of the deal, Tom, and thanks for the great trade!Next up is a pwe that I got from The Diamond King. Kevin had a giveaway with a few Paul Skenes cards and an Aaron Judge. I was able to claim a 2024 Bowman Chrome Skenes, and Kevin showed how great of a guy he is with the freebies he sent with it.
Most guys will just send a card, but I can tell that Kevin went the extra mile and looked in my wantlist, because not only did he send cards of 2 guys I collect, but he sent 2 cards that I need as well. Thanks, Kevin, for the Skenes, and the 2 extras you sent!
My Skenes collection is getting pretty good for a guy who really just opens packs and goes to card shops maybe once every 2 or 3 months. I have his 2024 Bowman, Bowman Chrome, all of his 2024 Topps/Update cards, a 2024 Donruss Unleashed insert, and a couple of his 2024 Topps Holiday cards. I hope that he stays healthy not only because it will make his cards worth more, but because he is just fun to watch. It kind of feels like the kind of hype that Mark Fidrych had where people would see if he was starting before getting a ticket.
I decided to save the coolest envelope for last. Back in 2017, I sent out a ttm autograph request to Dan Boone. He pitched in the Majors in 1981, 1982, and 1990. Boone had a cool career and SABR has a nice article on his baseball journey. Along with the request, I sent 2 customs I made, a 1983 Topps one, and a 1991 Topps one. I put a note at the end of my letter telling him to let me know if he wanted additional copies of the customs and included my phone number and address.
Years went by and no response. I figured it was lost, or he quit signing. A little before Christmas, I get a text saying ‘Hi Jeremy. Are you still at this number? - Dan Boone’. It took me a while to figure out who it was, but I texted him back, and he let me know he had my letter and cards and that they had gotten misplaced. We’ve been texting a little bit and I’ve made all of his missing Topps cards and will be getting him some copies of those in the near future. He sent me back the cards as well as a nice autographed photo. Definitely one of the coolest things I’ve got in the mail in a while.
Karen ended up having the video appointment with Dr. Lazzaro on the 9th, and he wants Karen to come up to his hospital in New Jersey, and he is going to do a broncoscophy on her. He hopes it will give him a good picture of what he is dealing with when he will do the mesh surgery. Depending on what he finds, there are a few options. The mesh surgery in about 10 years old, and he is finding that patients take 6 months or so to recover because their lungs need to be strong and it takes a while for patients to breathe the right way with all of the incisions. Dr. Lazzaro will do the bronch, and he may opt to have Karen do 6 months of lung physical therapy and then do the mesh surgery. He may think she can do the mesh surgery without doing the PT before. He may think that the stent trial with the custom stent could work and elect to try that before the mesh surgery. Or, he could think that the mesh surgery just couldn’t be done with what he sees, and I guess we’ll get other options. We’re hoping for some version of the mesh surgery to be the outcome, but this is all old hat for us, so we’ll roll with whatever happens.
So next Saturday, we will be flying into Trenton, and I believe the bronch is Monday, and we’ll meet with the Dr. on Tuesday. Depending on how both of us feel, we might drive 1 1/2 hours to New York City and see some of the landmarks. While I am disappointed that Kyler won’t be coming, I am over the moon that I will be getting to take my girl to New York City. I’ve been there in 2008, and it will be cool going back. We’ll probably see snow at some point, and while it probably won’t be the coldest temp I have felt in my life, it will definitely be the coldest I will remember. I’m going to bundle up even more than I normally do, that’s for sure. I don’t know if there are any card shops nearby, but I’ll be bringing my want list just in case. If not, I will be doing my best to save my money for 2025 Topps packs and not blow it on 2024 Archives, Prizm, and whatever else happens to be out by then. Hopefully I will come home and all of the fish will still be alive.
With all of the stuff coming in the mail, it goes without saying that stuff needs to go out as well. I have a trade going on with Stuart from SR 75 Cards. He got some set cards that I sent, and I have some Rays and Tigers coming in. I sent 2 PWE’s to some bloggers, I have a bubble mailer ready to go out to another, and depending on what cards I find from packs or my binders in the next couple days, I might have some more stuff going out. I think Friday will be the best option to go to the post office, as my other day off is Monday, but it just happens to be a school holiday, so post office is closed, and I’ll be on kid duty. It will be a good day to finish off my Giants binders and get that much closer to having my NL binders (mostly) up to date. I just have 4 more cards waiting to get in my SportsLots box, and I’ll have that sent. I’ve accounted for the SL box with a few of the latest team binders I’ve worked on, but some of the first ones are going to need to have cards from my SL order added to them, as well as cards I’ve acquired since organizing them.
That’s about it. Perhaps I’ll post more about the aquarium as we add to it.
Thanks for taking the time to read my latest post.
-Jeremy
I hope the trip goes extremely well, stay warm. I like fish too.....Gortons, Mrs. Paul's lol. They go great with ketchup.
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