2023 Archives blaster and ‘23 Update set

 Well, I did go to Wal-Mart last night and got to pick up a blaster of Archives. It was a fun break, and felt like I got like 5 cards of 3 or 4 teams and zero of others. 

The Braves, Cubs, Dodgers, and Cardinals were the first of the teams that I kept pulling. The Maddux is an insert which has Smoltz on the back. It is yours if you need it, John. Wish I would’ve pulled some of these before I went to the post office, but oh well. 

The Giants, and Rat-Birds were 2 of the other ones I got tons of. 

The only Tigers or Rays I pulled were Taj Bradley and Miguel Cabrera. No players I collect, but some decent rookie names. The Baby Boomer Josh Jung is sweet, and while I can’t stand the Rat-Birds, the rookies I pulled are good ones. 

2 hot New York rookies close out the blaster. 

I got home from work today and expected to put some Brewers cards into TCDB. Instead, there was a big package in the mailbox, and I was pretty sure it was the 2023 Topps Update set that I had ordered on Tuesday night. Somehow in 2-3 hours, I got the cards into TCDB, separated the rookies, guys I collect, Rays and Tigers, and then Kyler helped me organize them into teams. 

When I got the 2023 Topps set, I noted the number of rookies compared to everything else, and I can say the Update set is worse. Here is the set broken down for you. 

L-R we have rookies, AL, NL, Rays, Tigers, players I collect, 1 card for the highlight binder, and 1 Stephen Strasburg sunset card. Also keep in mind the Rays, Tigers, and PC stacks had a few rookies in them as well. Over half the set was rookies. I know because I put them all in penny sleeves and went through over 1 1/2 packs. I’m not an investor or anything, but I really wish they would put more guys in the set besides rookies. Either put the whole team in the set or take half of the rookies out. If they would’ve had this many rookies in the 2021 or 2022 set, I might have more Brody Koerner cards to chase. 

On the bright side, while I have purchased a number of blasters this year, just logging cards into TCDB has shown me that either the number of inserts and ratio of pulling them is down this year, or I have got less packs this year. One thing Im really proud of is that I only purchased 1 hanging pack of Series 2 and nothing from Update. Cut down on the doubles but missed out on inserts. I can live with that. 

We’ll see how far I get with the TCDB project next week. I’ll be happy with a few hours and then I’ll get back into the swing of things after the holiday. If I don’t post before then, be kind to retail employees and have a nice thanksgiving. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy

Busy card week

 Today I felt like I wouldn't have much time to do anything, but I was able to get alot done. I had hoped to get some labwork done, go to the post office, and perhaps finish putting my Dodgers into TCDB. I was able to do all of that, and I still had a little time left to post this. I also straightened up the area in my card room where all of my envelopes/sleeves/trade cards & materials are. 

I have had a few stacks of cards ready to go out in the mail to different collectors, and I was able to get everything out except for 2 people on different sites that I wasn't able to get an address for in time. It did feel good, however, to get a few packages sent out, as I have been wanting to send some trade packages out for a while, and just didn't have the time, or money, or enough cards to justify sending them. I still have a few people I want to send stuff to, but am just waiting for my stacks to grow a little bigger, which could happen tonights, as we should be going to Wal-Mart and I hope to find a blaster of '23 Archives. 

I finally got my bonus check from work. Currently, I have been full time for 7 years. I get 2 weeks of vacation that I can take, and 2 weeks worth of time that I can either use for vacation or cash out. I have cashed it out every year I have had it, but with my boss, sometimes I wonder if my mental and overall health would be better if i just used the vacation in 2-3 day increments every month or so. This year it didn't happen, and coming up on one of the busiest times of the year, I feel like we have done well so far. Please, if you need to shop for Thanksgiving, get it done early and don't be one of the people that comes in on the last 2 days and drives the volume of production up. Your retail employee friends will thank you. I work tomorrow, Saturday, am off Sunday, and then have the dreaded 3 day stretch before Thanksgiving. Not really looking forward to the holiday either if I am honest. We'll be headed to Lakeland, about 1 and a half hours south on Thursday, and I have to be back in to work at 3 AM on Friday morning. I'd be fine with visiting if we do a morning event, but no, people want their dinner, so I'm going to already  be dead from working the day before, and won't get much sleep on Thursday. Everyone says 'Oh, you can leave whenever you want and sleep in the car', but I can guarantee we'll probably end up staying till 7PM and everyone knows sleep in a car isn't the same quality as sleep in your bed. And they wonder why I have been saying 'bah humbug!' the last few years...

I do have some cards to brighten up the next week. Not really anything earth shattering, but I did order some cards and a set with some of the bonus money which should be getting here between the 20th and early December. 

I ordered the 2023 Topps Update set so I can put the 2023 Topps sets to rest. One of the newest guys I collect, DeLand, FL native Nick Fortes had a jersey card from '22 Triple Threads which I won for a few bucks on eBay. We were lucky enough to see him play in DC this year, and he signed a card and talked with us for a little bit. Hopefully he stays in the Majors for a while and Kyler and I can follow his career. I also picked up some Brody Koerner singles. His uncle is married to my wife's aunt, and I got to hang out with him at a Dave & Busters in Orlando. He pitched 2 games for the Yankees in 2021, and is now retired, married with a 2 month old, and looking to get into coaching. I am already the #1 collector of his on TCDB, as he just has minor league cards and a card in the 2015 Elite Extra Edition set, but I while I have all of his minor league issues and all of the regular EEE cards except for one last 1/1 parallel, I don't have many of the certified autographed cards. There were like 4 or 5 available online, so I went ahead and ordered them all, including one numbered to 10. There are some 1/1s and low numbered ones still to get, but this will get me pretty close to owning just about everything possible. Perhaps the missing ones will pop up, and maybe even some of the printing plates. I

I also got a few traded singles to complete some sets. I figured some of the traded cards from sets are a little hard to find, and being only 8 cards from finishing the '93 Traded set, I could justify spending 15 cents or so for a few cards, especially if they are all shipping from the same place. I'll probably wait to update everything into TCDB until it gets here, but I believe if I have my numbers right, I only need a few random 1996 Topps cards, and 2 easy to find 1990 Topps cards, and that will give  me the entire Topps base card run of the '90's, and that's pretty cool. Maybe I'll go for the '80's next. 

I'll probably post pics of the cards as they come in, and see how far I can get logging the Brewers into TCDB this next week. If you live in Watertown, NY, Mansfield, TX, or Portland, OR, be on the lookout for some mail, and if you feel like I owe you a package, please reach out to me, I may be sitting on a stack of cards that the next trip to a card shop should grow into a stack that is sizeable enough to send. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

2022 Topps Gallery blaster

 Last night we went to Wal-Mart, and they were out of 2022 Bowman Platinum blasters. I would’ve probably got something else anyways, so it wouldn’t have mattered, but I was wondering how long they would leave the product out. I decided on one of ‘22 Topps Gallery, and it did pretty well, although the Rays and Tigers were lacking.  

I’ll just post the fun ones. Pulled a Chipper Jones for my player collection. The Bichette Next Wave is a green parallel which was numbered to like 300. I got some nice names (except for Jeter) with the Printer Proofs. The Trout is a rainbow foil. The rookies were good in my book as I pulled Josiah Gray (who I think might be decent for Washington), Jeremy Pena (Printers Proof parallel), and Spencer Strider being the main ones. 

I can’t remember if ‘22 Gallery was released in late 2022 or early 2023. That brings me to my big question. If a brand can release a set for the previous year 3-6 months after the year ends, will the rookies still command the value? Say something would’ve happened in 2018 and Bowman didn’t get released until mid 2019, would the Acuna or Ohtani cards still command the value as the typical star Bowman rookie?  If a set releases any time after January 1, I feel the companies should have to follow the rules and not make it be a set for the year before. With the ‘21 Big League embarrassment, collectors deserve something better. If companies can’t release products when they are supposed to, MLB or whoever oversees the companies should take away 1 high-end product for that season. It would be 1 less product to make, the companies would take it serious because the high end products are key to the bottom line, flippers would be pissed and perhaps get driven away, and it could realistically give companies an idea of how many brands they really can put out every year without sacrificing quality or release dates. Maybe set release dates in stone beginning with year 1, and have the qc people do a check 1-2 months before the release and they would give the yes or no. If it looks like the date will be pushed back, push it back, and no Triple Threads later in the year. Maybe have them suspend online only or on-demand projects for a month if a physical set release date is pushed back. Missed out on making the  De La Cruz Topps Now rookie because of a release date penalty?  Oh well. You get to make his card next year. If only I ran the hobby…

I only got through logging the 2002 Astros sets into TCDB this week. Just bad luck all around, mainly due to one or more of the family being sick and the holiday tomorrow. Next week should offer a better chance to log cards in, perhaps I’ll finish the Astros and Dodgers. I should also have the 2023 Topps Update set ordered at some point in the next week or so. This week will end pretty well as Saturday Karen and I are going to an escape room and dinner with some friends, and Sunday we have a nice lineup of piano/keyboard driven songs I’ll be playing with the band at church (Lion and the Lamb, Living Hope, Cornerstone, and Glorious Day), and Kyler will be having his (late) birthday party at the bowling alley afterwards. Maybe the 2024 Topps design will get released this week as well. Might as well put that out there so they might do it. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy 

Oops, I did it again!

 On Thursday, we went to Wal-Mart, and of course, I checked out the card aisle. There were quite a few products to choose from, with Prizm, Update, and some bargain boxes. I decided to get ‘22 Bowman Platinum one last time. Figured I would try to get that De La Cruz card and maybe hit a parallel. 

Well, I struck out on both fronts. I think it’s time to just cough up the extra 5 bucks and switch to something newer that doesn’t have a discount sticker. How do I know it’s time?  I’ll explain later. I should’ve known better than to buy a product just for the chance to pull 1 base card. I struck out so many times on ‘11 Bowman trying to get a Bryce Harper and never pulled one. I tried so many times to get a ‘22 Topps Chrome Wander Franco, and got nothing. About the only products I got the hot rookie on were the ‘10 Topps Chrome Stephen Strasburg and the ‘22 Heritage Wander Franco. I should’ve known I wouldn’t get the De La Cruz. 

First, some cards. Did well and got 2 Rays. The Brujan is a double. Also got an Ice parallel of Xander Bogaerts, a guy I collect. 

I somehow got my finger in the way of this shot. The Thomas Ice parallel is a nice card. The other 2 are the reason I might need to switch. I’ve pulled the Tyler Black and Blaze Jordan Ice parallels before, and when you start pulling doubles of inserts/parallels, that either means collation sucks or you’re pretty darn close to completing the set. Either way, this might be the last of the ‘22 Bowman Platinum. 

It’s been a weird couple of days. Thursday my throat was a little sore, and figured it was allergies or the start of a normal cold. Friday I went to work and had zero energy, nose was running like crazy so they sent me home. I did a little cleaning and put some clothes in the wash and took a good hour nap. Really wanted to post the cards that evening but I was just so freaking out of energy that I went to bed around 8 and didn’t post anything or check out the blogs. That really isn’t like me. Usually I end up staying up till 10:30 or so and get a little more done around the house before lying down, but I didn’t care last night. I took some Benadryl earlier that afternoon, and it usually knocks me out and dries my nose, but that didn’t do anything, but I had some NyQuil before bed, and that must’ve been the winning combination along with the 2 or 3 extra hours of rest. Saturday I got up at 3:30, went to work, worked the whole day and got everything done, and felt a great deal better. Nose was still running some but not as much as on Friday, and the medicine I took must’ve kept it from going into full on waterfall mode. After getting off work I drove home and then we made the 1 1/2 hour drive to Lakeland to celebrate my stepdads 70th birthday. Saw my mom, youngest sister and her husband, and one of my nieces who is staying with my younger sister. It was a fun night, and Kyler was the star of the night with his nonstop talking and random facts. His birthday is Monday, and he got some nice gifts, including a blaster of 2023 Series 2, and I got a belated gift of a pack of ‘23 Heritage. I got a card of Kenley Jansen (who I collect), and an SP of Alex Verdugo (believe you might have it, Night Owl. It is on your list, but it’s green). Kyler opened only 1 pack of the Series 2, but got a McGwire ‘88, and a Fathers Day manu-patch of O’Neil Cruz. Im off tomorrow and Monday, so we’ll do church tomorrow, hopefully get a nice nap, and Monday I’ll finish entering the Marlins into TCDB, and start on the Astros. Perhaps I’ll be able to check off the whole Marlins team set of ‘22 Bowman Heritage. If I don’t, it might give me an excuse to by more. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy

A special set completed

 I have a ton of cards ready to go into binders at the moment. 5-6 monster boxes worth. They are organized by teams, then year, alphabetically by brand, then alphabetically by player. With that many cards, a few are bound to get out of order. Heck, while putting in all of my non-Topps cards into TCDB, I’ve found cards within the wrong year, and probably a few wrongly alphabetized cards per team binder. 

While putting in all my Topps cards to TCDB, I’ve discovered I was 2 cards away from finishing the 1990 Topps set, and 1 each from completing the 1990 Topps Traded, 1988 Topps, 1997 Topps, and 1998 Topps Inaugural Rays set. I purchased the ‘97 Topps, ‘90 Traded, and ‘98 Inaugural Rays set, so I would think they would be all there. Especially the 1990 Topps Traded missing card, as I have a 2nd set because it came in a lot of sets. My doubles are piled into cardboard boxes which are stacked up in my already jam packed garage, so there’s no way I am finding the missing Scott Radinsky Traded card. 

I was hoping that as I get to putting more cards into TCDB, and eventually into binders that I would come across some missing cards from sets I really thought were complete. 

I was off today, and was able to finish entering my non-Topps Reds, and got midway through 2004 with the Rockies. Even better, I found the 1 missing card from my 1998 Topps Inaugural Rays set. 

A nice surprise, as that card would’ve probably cost me a least 2-3 bucks with shipping, and was the most expensive of all of those cards keeping me from completing sets. 

The 1998 Topps set was a fun set to complete just because it was from the height of my days of watching baseball and being in high school. I was homeschooled, so I had a ton of free time which went to organizing baseball cards and watching games. Back then, I didn’t have much money to by packs, so it usually was Collectors Choice or a random Topps pack once or twice a month as far as card purchases. 

I remember my first 1998 Topps pack came from Toys r Us, as we had to go there for something and it must’ve been early 1998. The only way to see what the new designs would look like was from Beckett, and I hadn’t seen them yet, so the cards were new to me straight out of the pack. I loved the design with the team logos repeating themselves behind the name, and the prospect cards were really cool with the baseballs in the background. I was really looking forward to finding cards of the Rays and Diamondbacks, but they wouldn’t be in the set until Series 2. I pulled a Minted in Cooperstown Steve Karsay parallel, and loved the big Hall of Fame stamp on the card. The draft pick cards were another cool sunset with the repeating photos on the sides. 

The sad thing about that year was that they had the Inaugural Rays sets. A special set with the Rays Inaugural Season logo stamped on them. I wasn’t going to be able to afford a regular complete set in 1998, let alone the Rays one. Fast forward 25 years later or so, and the value was still holding steady and I just had a single token Rays Inaugural Season card in my collection. I now had more money to spend on cards, but less time to organize and still little hope of finding a set under a hundred bucks or so. 

Looks like individual team sets are going for 20-30 bucks on eBay right now. Well anyways, I found a set for 46.25 including shipping at the beginning of this year, and I jumped on it. After putting the cards into TCDB, I was somehow short one, but now I can say it is officially complete, with the David Ortiz, Kerry Wood, and Roy Halliday rookies and all. I never thought I would complete that set before I completed the regular 1998 Topps set, but I have. I may still try to finish the regular version, but that’s going to be way on down the line. 

While I don’t know how I missed logging this card in, I have a feeling I know how it got there. Sheffield’s uni just looks white/gray and black, and if you just glance quickly, it looks like he’s in a Rockies uniform. I probably quickly glanced at it and thought it was a Rockies card and threw it in their pile. Now if I’ll find the other missing cards while putting my non-Topps stuff in TCDB remain to be seen, but there’s a chance. Hopefully I’ll have some time tomorrow and I’ll make progress on Colorado. 

Thanks for taking the time to read my latest post. 

-Jeremy 

Package from Too many Verlanders

 When I got home from work today, I got a surprise package in the mail from Dennis of Too many Verlanders fame. 

About 2 weeks ago, Dennis posted some stuff he got from FB Marketplace, including some trade bait cards, which are included here. First, before I show off the cards, I have to mention that bloggers are the good guys in the hobby, and out of those, Dennis is probably one of the best. He included not only the 3 cards I asked for from the last post, not only a bunch of Rays (he always sends nice cards of favorite teams to guys who are team collectors), but also went the extra effort to look at my Ultimate Topps Project wantlist and knock some cards off of my lists. 

The '04 MLB Showdown Rey Sanchez is my first card from that set from any team. The '05 Bowman BJ Upton relic would've been a hot card back in 2005, and I think because I'm a Rays fan, I still get excited when I get hits/rookies/autographs of Rays guys who have long been discarded into the commons bin. The '08 Topps Moments & Milestones cards must've come from the aforementioned purchase, as I remember seeing some cards from that set in the post. The '08 Upper Deck First Pitch cards might get me finished with the set, I still need to enter my non-Topps Rays to TCDB. 

The 2 Derrick Gibson E-XL cards and the Edwin Moreno autograph were the requested cards. Why do you collect 2 nobodys like them, you ask? Well, Derrick was a huge guy who hit a ton of HRs in the minors in the '90's, but never panned out like I thought he would. In a game I attended, Moreno pitched a no-hitter through 6 or so innings in the 2002 Florida State League Championship Series, and I got a game-used ball from the game, and got him to sign it. One of the most dominating pitching performances I've seen in person. The 1996 Topps cards got me within 27 cards of completing that set, or re-completing it, I should say. As with a number of these sets, I got many cards from them autographed ttm or at games I attended, and when I decided to sell my autographed cards, I ended up breaking up a number of complete sets that I had purchased. Good news is that I did some preliminary looking on cardbarrel.com, and a number of cards can be had for a few nickels each, and I think that might be the way to go. 

Checking out the back of the '96 Topps Andy Benes made me realize how good the 1995 Mariners were. Benes got traded to the Mariners late that year, and went 7-2 for the team, but had an ERA close to 6!  That has to be some kind of record, and just shows what you can do with an offense that features a prime Griffey, A-Rod, Edgar Martinez, Tino Martinez, Jay Buhner, and Paul Sorrento. Not that Benes was a bad pitcher, as he led the NL in K's the year before, but the AL must've had his number in '95. 

The 2002 Topps set is a fun one, which could be one of the first ones I try to complete. The main set shouldn't be too difficult as I have most of Series 1 & 2 (missing 265 cards). The Traded set is going to be a tad tricky. I'm 126 cards short, but the first 110 cards are SPs. I think I have all of the key rookies, so I just need to find any of the SP cards in Chrome versions, as they aren't SPs. They might be a tad more expensive than a normal common, though. I still think I might try to complete it, just because it brings back so many memories from the height of my card collecting in college, and I know so many of the players. 

A number of these cards are also guys I collect, so as a bonus, I not only add cards to my player collections, but I knock cards off of sets as well. Such is the case for Chris Johnson and Corey Kluber. The '12 Topps set has been a challenge for me to list needs on TCDB because all of Series 1 has error and corrected versions of every card. I will have to go in there an manually uncheck variations from some of these sets, which is a royal pain. Darn error/variation collectors!

The set that had the most cards was 2015 Topps. I'm 223 cards away from finishing it, which is a pretty low number, since 2015 was when I kind of got back into really collecting after getting married in 2012. Also included were some of the 2015 Update set, which is 134 cards away from being done, but with some of the rookies, it might take a while. I did get a fairly big one crossed off, as Dennis included the Joey Gallo Rookie Debut card. The Kolten Wong card is an SP, which if not for TCDB, I would've never known. 

The last group includes mainly 2016 Topps/Topps Update, with a stray '18 Topps card at the end. '16 Topps is 247 away from getting done, while the '18 set is only 97 from being finished. Not surprising, as I definitely purchased more packs in 2018. Ah, the good old days of collecting before Covid and flipper brah's. 

I have some cards set aside for Dennis (and a few other bloggers) that I will be adding to and sending off in the near future. Thanks for the great package, Dennis. I will hit you back soon.

I'm hoping to go the main card shop around town and browse for cards I need as well as some trade bait. It seems like there are shops popping up all over town. There is Pops, the main one I go to. There is one, I believe called Premiere Sportscards, in Orange City, which is the one I went to a few days ago.  Then there are a few I haven't been to. One within walking distance of my house, which looks like it might mainly be Pokemon crap. Those 3 have been around the longest, each for 5+years. Of the newer ones, there is one about 2 miles away called 'Gem Mint Cards', which I will probably avoid like the plague just because of the name. Finally, there is another 1 or 2 in downtown DeLand. Seriously, ever since the pandemic, they have been popping up like crazy. 

Besides entering all of the cards Dennis got me into TCDB, I have finished the Cubs earlier today. That makes the Diamondbacks, Braves, Cubs, and Tigers all entered completely into TCDB. There may be a few stragglers of the first 3 teams, such as rookies, combo cards, parallels, jerseys, and the like, but basically I know what I need for each of those teams in any set thanks to TCDB. It is fun to see what players have the most cards, and I can't wait to analyze everything once each and every card is entered. I will keep entering cards until then. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

2023 Bowman Platinum and LCS trip

 It’s getting the time of year where things start getting crazy around here. Usually, it’s the crazy volume at work due to the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years holidays. This year, there are just more things we’ve been invited to and a whole new uncharted territory of having a kid that is a year older than last year. This year it seems like we have a ton of Halloween events instead of just the trick or treating that we had last year. We drove to an event about an hour away yesterday in order to meet up with my sister and brother-in-law, we had dinner at Kylers best Benny’s house at a Halloween themed night that Bennys parents threw, and went to another event at a church near their house beforehand. This week I think we might have 1 or 2 events as well. Throw in all these idiot bikers clogging up the roads for Biketoberfest (we’re 45 minutes away from Daytona Beach), Karen’s birthday tomorrow, and Kylers birthday 13 days after that, and I feel exhausted before the real crazy times even get here. 

On the bright side, there have been some chances to get cards during all of the chaos. I can’t even remember when it was, but we went to Wal-Mart at some point in the last week, and I was able to pick up a blaster of 2023 Bowman Platinum. Then a few days later, Karen got her hair done, and since it was so close to my work, Karens mom offered to pick up Kyler from school and watch him so we could grab an early dinner date. After I got off work, I still had some time to kill while Karens appointment was still going on, so I drove to the card shop near my work and killed an hour or so. I finally had my Topps wantlists, and although I didn’t think they would have too many old cards, I was pleasantly surprised. 

Unfortunately, I have cards from both trips combined so you’ll have the ‘23 Bowman Platinums in the same photos from the LCS trip. 

The LCS usually has mainly Pokémon crap and overpriced packs, but I am usually able to find parallels and stuff for my player collections, but while digging through boxes and letting the owner know what I was looking for, he dug out a box from the back of older cards. They don’t have many boxes in the store (only like 4 or 5), so I was really surprised he had this one. It contained ‘78 Topps cards, mostly in numerical order with 5-6 of each card, and some basketball and football cards thrown in. I was surprised to find that ‘78 Topps had checklists, so so nabbed the one I found. I found a few ‘80’s Topps cards of HOFers in other boxes, and I was stoked to find a floating heads Cubs team card. The Bowman Platinum have a cool design but many of the photos are tough to make the players face out on because it’s just a dark design on many teams. 

The ‘78 box had a number of team cards and managers which I scooped up as well. My favorite card from the trip was the 2007 Topps Barry Bonds. It is card #661, and is an SP. I opened a ton of that set in ‘07, and I can’t remember it’s exact story, whether it was included in the complete set or an SP added to the checklist late, but I noticed the card like the day before when I typed out my ‘07 Topps checklist for the blog, and then low and behold, I found it at the LCS the next day. 

While not a Yankees fan, I was happy to find the Billy Martin MGR card. I tried to limit my purchases of favorite players, Rays, and Tigers, but did find some fun ones. We met DeLand native Nick Fortes at a game in Washington in June, and I found 3 of his cards, including the ‘22 TSC. 

The Andrelton Simmons ‘16 Donruss parallel is really cool looking. Found some early Bowman Chrome Rays, a few parallels and rookies, and got lucky to pull a Taj Bradley in the ‘23 Bowman Platinum blaster. The ‘94 Triple Play Medalists card was one I couldn’t leave behind. Those cards were hot in ‘94 and I probably have 10 ‘94 Triple Play cards in my entire collection. I was surprised to find the ‘22 Royce Lewis rainbow and ‘22 Topps Chrome Witt in the boxes they were in as most of those cards were quarter and 50 cent ones. The whole stack of cards at the LCS was 30 bucks and I was happy with that, especially with the Bonds SP, a few rookies, parallels, and all of the ‘78’s. Heck, if I go by the TCDB ‘pricing’ thing, the David Freese ‘09 Topps was like 4 bucks (I’d maybe pay 50 cents for it). 

The Bowman Platinum blaster delivered a ton of keepers, probably 3/4 of the blaster for me. Some cards that I would assume are rookies as they all were drafted in 2022, a rookie of the top Rat-Bird hitter, and the 4 ice parallels per blaster. 

I got a bonus along with the 4 regular Ice parallels and pulled a green one of now Mets prospect Drew Gilbert, who was acquired from the ‘Stros in the Justin Verlander trade. I hope this parallel could turn out like the Blue one numbered to 150 that I pulled in a pack of ‘17 Bowman of some Acuna guy. 

The other 2 Nick Fortes cards I already have, but I know Jim (who I mentioned in the last post) needs. He actually texted me that evening after our dinner date and let me know he got my ‘21 Topps Logan Gilbert signed at the Stetson University banquet. Maybe on one of my days off, I’ll head over there and do some trading. 

I’ve been doing a little work on TCDB and have put in a number of my Braves non-Topps cards. I’m on the 1996 cards currently, and I might keep doing that project on off days and put the wantlists for the blog on hold, as I have an official one on TCDB. The site is really a game changer as far as knowing what you have and what you need. Problem is that I just have so much stuff. Dime Box Nick posted the other day that he has 90+binders. While every binder isn’t a 3 or 5 inch one, if I include 1 inch binders, I’m at 98 or so, with plenty of empty ones waiting for me to put cards from my monster boxes in. It might be 1-2 years before everything is put in the site, but it will be worth it. 

I have Monday and Tuesday off work, but Monday will be mostly busy and I plan to head out to Karens work and surprise her with flowers and lunch, and then pick up Kyler from school and have him do a card for her and probably clean the house up at some point as well. Tuesday will probably be the day to do card stuff and if I end up going to a shop, Jim’s house, or anything noteworthy, I might post about it then. 

I just need to find moments in between all of these commitments to relax and have some card time. Or wait til 2024….

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy