Incoming cards, another 1/1, and some changes

This will probably be the last post I get to before heading up to New Jersey for the rest of the year. 

I’ll start off with the cards first. I’ve been getting a few packages in the mail from bloggers, and that is always a good thing. First up, are some cards that Kerry from Cards on Cards was giving away. 

I will always add new Rays cards to the collection. I don’t know what set thesw cards are from, as I couldn’t find any listing on TCDB, but they hold the amount of foil that I feel should be normal for a standard base card. I want to say the Kiermaier card has a photo of Hunter Renfroe, but I’m not positive. I just know KK is a lefty. Mike Simms is a favorite here at Topps Cards that Never Were. He signed some cards ttm one time, and added a note, so I attempted to draw his 1992 Topps card with colored pencils and sent it back to him. He wrote back that he enjoyed it and threw in another card. I now (basically) have his 1992 Topps rainbow finished, with the base, Gold, and Gold Winners card, but could branch out and try to get the 1992 O-Pee-Chee and 1992 Topps Micro card to really corner the market. Kerry threw in the Klu-Bot card, as he knows I collect him, which was a nice touch. While I don’t collect ad Komminsk per se, I am a fan. In 2004 or so, one of the youth leaders at my church worked for a phosphate company. They were having a golf tournament in March, and many players and coaches from the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers were going to participate in it, as Detroit held spring training in Lakeland (where the tournament was held), and Cleveland was in nearby Winter Haven. Well, my youth leader was an exec with his work, and got to be on a team, and he picked me and one of his friends from church to be on a foursome, and we would get a pro to be the 4th member. Brad was a minor league coach with Cleveland during that time, and he ended up being our 4th member. We finished near the middle of the pack, I didn’t contribute much, other than making the last putt to finish out our round, but everyone there knew it was a big deal for me to be there and took it in stride. Brad told some stories about Pascual Perez getting lost on the way to the ballpark, said Garry Maddox was a great centerfielder, and signed some cards for me after the last hole. Somewhere, I have a picture of our foursome. Next year, I went to Winter Haven to get some Indians autographs in Spring Training, and Brad recognized me and introduced me to pitcher Jason Davis, who was walking with him. Wish I would’ve had that Komminsk rookie back in 2004. Thanks, Kerry for the nice package. 

Stuart, from SR75 Cards, who affectionately calls me his ‘little brother’ since I never had one, reached out to me a while back about what Heritage cards I needed from 2025. I gave him a list, and my older brother delivered. 

I needed all of these, and I think I just need SPs to finish my 2 favorite teams sets. I usually don’t chase hard after them, so the sets are complete in my books. I feel like I have been getting parallels of just about all of the Tiger rookies this year. I have 2 or 3 of Jung, about 4 of Jobe, and 1 each of Dingler and Malloy. The Green Bradley marked my 2nd one of that parallel for the Rays as I pulled a Yandy Diaz from a pack. Thanks, Stuart, for the package. I’ll dig through your list first thing next year and see what I can send up to Michigan. 

John from Johnny’s Trading Spot held a giveaway, and it must’ve been like he could read minds or something. Night Owl got his winnings and posted them recently, and got the exact page he wanted. I would’ve been happy with any Topps card I needed, but I’ve always held a little fascination with guys who have barely any cards or guys I don’t acquire many cards of. I saw the page with Astros prospect Cameron Drew, and thought ‘I wouldn’t be upset if I won that page’. Look what appeared in my mailbox a few days ago. 

Of course it was the one with the Cameron Drew card. I appreciate the Greg Blosser card as well, because it has a photo that is different than his 1993 Topps card. Have you ever seen that one?  It traumatized me a little as a 10-year old when I pulled it in 1993. Why, you ask? I’ll spare you posting one, but just google 1993 Topps Greg Blosser. There’s just an unhealthy amount of chest hair sticking out from his jersey. Not Austin Powers territory, but a lot. It was cool that I could actually add all of these cards to TCDB as well. Thanks, John, for the contest and for your esp. 

 Last Saturday, we went to the outlets in Daytona to get some clothes for our New Jersey trip, and stopped at Books A Million. I checked the magazine section, and sure enough, they had the Beckett Vintage magazine with Night Owl’s article in it. I picked it up, and will probably check out the rest of the articles while we are driving up. 

Speaking of the famous Night Owl, I recently picked up some 2025 Topps Holiday boxes that I think were meant for him. 

My apologies. The first one was some pretty decent luck, and if I were a flipper, I would be happy, but the second one was probably one of my top 10 pulls from a pack, which could be another post entirely. (Top 3 might be 2005 Bowman’s Best 1994 A-Rod autograph, 2017 Bowman Blue Ronald Acuna, Jr, and maybe a 2007 Upper Deck Jose Contreras printing plate). 

This was really a Dodgers hot box. I pulled a Sasaki SP, an Ohtani snowflake back, and an Ohtani silver. The Gold Chrome Henderson wasn’t bad either, but I can’t stand the Orioles, and I’m more excited about the silver of Stetson alum Logan Gilbert to be honest. Besides the inserts, I pulled Sasaki and Ohtani’s base cards, as well as Blake Snell, Teoscar Hernandez, and Dalton Rushing. As with the next card I’m going to show, I’m torn on if I should keep them or send them away. 

2 days ago, we went to Target to get a few things before the trip, and I got another Holiday blaster. There was some flipper/scalper in front of the cards almost blocking my way to them. As I inched closer, he finally scattered, and if he was a flipper, I got the last good card from that product in that particular Target. The cashier who rang us up was friendly, and saw the cards and said that he collects Pokemon, and wished us good luck with our packs. I don’t know if what he said worked, but man, I almost want to come back and thank him. 

We got home and I had planned on getting to bed around 6 cause I had to be to work at 2AM, so I figured I would open the packs quick and log them in to TCDB the next day. With a few packs left, I felt a really thick card. I figured a manu patch of some sort or a dual jersey maybe. I flipped the card over and found this. 

Apparently it is a gold sparkle parallel. 1/1. 3rd 1/1 I’ve pulled from a pack, and 2nd one I’ve found in a month with that Matt Holiday one from the dime box in Ocala. I have a conundrum on my hands. Do I keep it, send it to Greg, send it to John, send it to someone else, sell it?  I don’t know. I’m going to hold on for now and let it settle for a while. I’ll have plenty of time to think about it when I’m in NJ. 

 

I have 6 shifts left, and then we’ll be driving up Wednesday, taking 2-3 days to get there. We might do something in NYC or Philly for our early anniversary depending on how Karen is feeling. Between now and then, we need to pack for a month, Saturday is basically wasted as family is coming up to do an early Christmas, and I am going to spend a good couple hours cleaning our fish tank on Tuesday and hopefully Karens mom won’t kill them or over feed them and I’ll have fish left when we get back in January. 

There are some changes and potential changes going on right now through all this that kind of scare me, but I am pretty confident they will work out. Karens boss has been riding her ass all year and are just about putting residents in the rooms, cutting staff, and having her do 3 management positions for the salary of 1. She has been on the fence for a while, but the put in her resignation, so she will be jobless when we are in NJ as she recovers. She will probably apply to some places and I’m sure she can get work as a nurse. I’m just nervous there will be a huge salary discrepancy and it’s going to enable her mom to have an excuse to stay here longer. We’re going to be in a hotel for a month, but I feel like we can survive for a few months. Karens brother set up a Go Fund Me page, and it has already had the goal met, and many people at our church have reached out as well. I got a bonus check at work, and wasn’t really expecting that. 

I’ve had some issues at my work with my boss, and I’ve dealt with them for 7 years, and I’m 75% leaning to tell our store manager to transfer me if he isn’t going to go. Wish me favor in that conversation. 

If 

When we get back, I’ll have some cards to go through. I ordered a few complete sets on eBay, and I should have a 1997 Bowman’s Best, 1998 Bowman’s Best, almost complete 2014 Topps, and 2025 Topps Update set in hand, as well as a 2025 Topps Rays team set. If anyone comes across a 2025 Tigers team set, let me know. Only one on eBay is going for 30 bucks, when the Pirates one with Skenes is 15. Maybe NJ will have one in WalMart. 

We will hopefully be getting back on the 31st of December if Karen meets all the recovery goals, and sometime during that first week of January is that Bethune Cookman-FAMU basketball game that my buddy Jim and I hope to go to. I knew I had some cards of FAMU coach Charlie Ward, and I just didn’t know where. I found about 5 boxes of my basketball card when looking for Christmas stuff, and I dug through every single one and found 7 different Ward cards, plus another one of Reggie Theus, Bethune’s Coach. 

Found a bunch of Jordans, but must not have taken pictures. 

I didn’t think I had the Hoops Mark Jackson, but apparently, I did. I also found a card of Andrew DeClercq. He had some central FL connections, and coaches a high school team and attends a church maybe 45 minutes away from me. I might have to try to arrange a way to get an autograph, kind of like I did with Patrick Mazeika earlier this year. 

Well, that is probably it for now. I’ll probably post something at some point in NJ. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving, and please, support striking Starbucks workers and boycott them, shop local, boycott any company that goes against what you believe in or who doesn’t pay their employees a living wage. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy