Card catch-up

Back to a baseball post. It has been a little bit since I’ve caught up on the collection. There have been a number of cards that have come in, coming from the DeLand card show, cards John from Johnny’s Trading Spot dropped off to me while meeting up at the show, 2 packages and 2 envelopes from Greg of Night Owl Cards, and a trip to Pop’s Sportscards in DeLand. 

We'll start with the cards from the DeLand card show. Unfortunately for me, the show was on a Saturday, and I had to work. It was still a great time, and had I had a few more hours, I could've done some real damage. I was immensely impressed with the people running it. 

I got there around 3, after picking up Kyler from home and changing out of my work clothes. Aparently the air conditioning had gone down and many dealers had packed up and left. It was fixed when I got there. 

I paid for admission, and since Kyer was under age 10, they gave him a fake $50 dollar bill that he could spend at the kids area. It had a mixture of boxes from different sports. Some were dime cards, and some were $1-$5 cards. Ky immediately found a box of dime cards, and actually looked at my Topps wantist, and found a few '79 Topps cards I needed. He got a few cards of guys he liked in Yogi Berra, Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Christian Yelich, and Bryce Harper. We also came upon a stack of various Topps parallels, and got a '16 Gold Buster Posey, a '16 Vintage Andrew Miller, a '16 Gold of John Jaso, but the real steal was the '16 Pink of Stetson alumni Corey Kluber, which was numbered to 50. 

The first picture kind of skips around the day, so bear with me. Towards the end of the show, we came upon a discount pack bin, and I found one that said '1998 Score All-Star Game'. Thinking it was a promo handed out at the '98 game, I got 2 packs. They turened out to just be regular '98 Score cards that contained a special insert, but I did pull a Showcase parallel of David Segui. 

My birthday was the next day, and when I came home, Karen had a blaster of '26 Donruss and a blaster of  '26 Topps Series 2 waiting for me. Donruss had some cool stuff with a blue parallel of Skenes, and a Gold one of some rookie for the Jays who must be doing well because his card prices are decent, but I haven't heard of him. I pulled a Josh Wilson jersey from the Donruss blaster as well. The Topps one had a pink holo parallel of Liam Hicks, and must've been a Luis Torrens hot box, as I pulled a green and rainbow parallel. Doesn't someone collect him? I would be happy to send them out. 

The real highlight of the day was finding a dealer who had a lot of cheap vintage Topps cards. They were beat up, but commons were 10 cents, and stars were like 50 cents to a dollar. I met up with my autograph buddy Jim and he showed me the table, and helped me go through my list by years. 

Tons of big names. Almost too many to name. I love the 4 player '72 Leaders card and the '72 (Phillies) White Sox Allen. 

I focused mainly on the '72 and '73 sets, since I figured I had a number of them.

There was a good selection of everything in that table's boxes, from managers, leaders, team cards, yearly subsets, and highlight cards as you can see. 

The last part of the picture are the '79 and '16 cards Kyler helped me find at the kids table. 

When I ended up leaving, I walked with Jim to his car, and he had a bag full of goodies for me from his recent trip to Texas and Colorado. He got me some Rangers cups, ice cream helmets, and a full sized vintage one. The real highlight of the bag was a birthday card that said thanks for being a great friend. That was worth more than the Rangers swag in my opinion.

At some point in the show, I met up with John, and introduced him to Jim and Kyler. I gave him the box of Braves I had for him, and he handed me a nice box of Tigers and Rays. 

The box was chocked full of interesting stuff that were mostly wants, and if you have ever recieved a box from John, you know that the pictures don't do it justice and that there was so much more that wasn't pictured. One of the most interesting parts of the box was a few Fleer stamps. I vaguely remember hearng about the set, but never obtained any. There were Donruss box bottoms, Fleer glossy cards, and 1st issue cards that I just never had the chance to open packs of when the sets came out. 

There was never stuff, including tons of rainbow parallels, tons of Topps non-flagship stuff, and almost full teams sets from the '25 Topps Montgomery Club set. 

I'm really stoked about the season Dillon Dingler is having. I have picked up a ton of his rookie cards from just busting packs, and a decent amount are parallels. Montero is having a good season for Detroit as well. If things break right, both of my teams might have a shot at the playoffs this year. 

The Rays started off in the early '00's, with some much needed Fleer stuff. I was stoked with the '99 sechedule as well, as I had one already in my favorite player binder with my Rolando Arrojo stuff. There were a few Turkey Red parallels, and I have a feeling that John was going through Blake Snell at the time, as I ended up getting a bunch of his stuff. 

There were some nice Bowman cards that I needed included. I think I may have all of the Rays from Bowman and Bowman Draft, including the Chrome versions. There were more '25 Topps Montgomery cards as well. 

I wish I would've found that '25 Pepiot parallel earlier, as I sent him out an autograph request the other day, and he signed my '25 and '26 Topps base cards of him. It will still look nice with the rest of my '25 Topps parallels. 

Thanks, John, for the awesome box of Rays and Tigers, and for entertaining Kyler for a little bit while checked off my list. 

I also have to note that John put my haggling skills to the test. I believe the dealer offered me 58 for the vintage cards, and in my head, I wanted to counter offer 50, but didn't say anything. John encouraged me to counter, so I did at 50, and it was accepted. I need to work on my courage at shows and shops. 

Next up are the cards from Night Owl. He had posted a giveaway of some non-flagship Topps stuff, and I must've checked Blogger just as he posted, because I had the first comment on the post to claim the cards. He graciously sent not only 2 envelopes filled with Topps cards I needed, but 2 bubble mailers full of Topps goodness. 

There were some needed Rays and Tiger parallels. The '08 Ludwick I believe completed the Update set. I will probably order some more cards from Sportlots or just make some trade offers on TCDB, as Night Owl's package probably got me down to needing 30 or so cards to have a 1980-2026 Topps run. I am actually short about 20 cards of Series 2 2026 Topps. Sometime this summer, I will finish the run!!!

The first package had a lot of Topps Opening Day, Topps Fire, and Topps Bunt. I pictured the cards in stacks so you can kind of see how many cards there were. I pulled a number of favorite players like Xander Bogaerts, Kenley Jansen, Drew Stubbs, and Ormond Beach batting cage owner, Stetson alum, and Mets legend Patrick Mazeika. 

I must've been so excited with organizing that I forgot to take pictures of the 2nd bubble mailer. It has some cool stuff, including a ton of '22 Topps Fire, '17 Topps Bunt, and a bunch of '24 Topps mini's. Sorry about the missing pictures, and thanks, Greg, for the generous giveaway and extra Topps needs for me. 

Last up is a trip to Pop's SportsCards. I went by myself as Karen and Kyler were away at the Crayola Experience at Orlando and I had just got off of work. 

I dug through the dime boxes, finding a few cards that I weren't sure if they were needs, but at 10 cents each, would be worth getting. I ventured to the back of the shop and found a few random complete sets, including a decent priced 1996 Bowman's Best set. 

This set gave me a run of '96-'98 Bowman's Best complete sets. 

There were some cards in dollar bins, and I was really looking forward to going through the vintage boxes. I noticed an Ozzie Smith rookie the last time I was there, and wasn't sure if I needed it or not, and it tured out I did, so I was hoping it was still there. 

It turns out that it was, and I grabbed it up, along with these gems. 

These cards were 3 for $2, and the bottom were 3 for 5. A tad overpriced, but I mainly got them for the Tom Selleck SP and the Nakken insert. 

The dime cards produced these needs. The Babe Ruth card was a promo, and there were about 50 copies in the box. I still haven't located it on TCDB. Just some random Rays, Tigers, and some parallels to make it an even number that ended in '0'. The Fried '25 Holiday card was one of the last 2 needs of that set, and I am down to needing the James Woods rookie to finish that set. 

I have been having a minor medical issue the past few weeks. It started when my arm would start killing me at night and I had pain that was so bad that I just wanted to get up and walk around to try to get the blood flowing so I could try to find a comfortable position in bed and get back to sleep. While that was going on, I started getting some red patches on my hands, wrists, and face, and the index and middle fingers on my right hand were pretty much numb 24/7. It was so bad that I played piano with basically 2 fingers and bass notes one Sunday because of the pain. 

I went into a new primary care doctor about a week ago, since I hadn't been in years, and they ordered blood tests, gave me some oral steriods, and some ointment. Well, the steroids have done a number on my blood sugars, making them close to 400, but they have done a good number on the pain, making me oversleep and miss my alarm for work twice already. But the pain is gone!!!  I have most of the feeling back in my fingers, and the red patches aren't nearly as bad. The bloodwork shows I have certain antiboties, and I need more labwork, but the diagnosis is leaning towards dermatomyositis, an auto-immune condition. I think the symptoms can be managed with medicine, so I will be glad to get with a rheumatologist and have it under control. 

Other than that, life is going pretty well. Lit some fireworks on the 4th, and had friends that weren't relatives over to our house for I believe the first time since we purchased it in 2016. I am organizing my Braves binders currently, and will have Thursday and Friday night to work on them, and I'll be off on Friday, Tuesday, and Wednesday coming up. Might see if I can sneak Kyler over to K n T Sportscards on Tuesday or Wednesday and go through those dime (or maybe Kyle jacked them up to .50 cent) boxes.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

Opinion on why CCM music changed

Earlier this week, I saw a post on Facebook basically asking what happened to  Contemporary Christian music and why it went away. While this blog is 90 % baseball and baseball card related, I wanted to use this post to give my thoughts on the question since I have many thoughts and it would never fit in a FB post. 

I will try to keep the post as short as I can, but I feel like I really need to go into depth for some parts. I humble ask if you are reading this post for the CCM question that you take the baseball stuff in stride, and that if you are reading it for the baseball stuff that you take the this CCM post in stride. 

I wanted to start off with a kind of background of my life, telling when I started listening to CCM, and why it was important, and just giving relevant facts on my point of view. If you don't want to read my life story, just scroll down. 

I was born in 1983. My parents went to church, and had cassette tapes of the popular groups back then like Carman, Sandi Patty, the Imperials, Larnelle Harris, and Amy Grant. By the time I was 4 or 5, I loved listening to Carman’s ‘The Champion’ tape, and called it the ‘pop tape’ because I thought the sound of the snare drum on some of the songs sounded like a popping noise. We moved to Florida in 1990, and the closest thing to a CCM station was WCIE, and they played most of the popular CCM artists of the time. I attended a private Christian school owned by our strict Baptist church from 2nd-5th grade. They didn’t approve of Christian rock, and I wasn’t sure where I stood on the subject. I knew I enjoyed listening to Carman and the stuff of WCIE.

We attended a Carman concert in 4th grade, and in 5th grade, changes happened. We got pulled out of school and were home schooled by my mom. We started attending a church within walking distance of our house, and they were Southern Baptist, had a drummer, and sang the modern praise choruses of the time instead of 100% hymns. 

Sometime around then, WCIE changed ownership and became the Joy FM, and they played all of the modern CCM artists of the time. In 6th or 7th grade, I started going to the youth group at the church we started going to. I wanted to be popular and have people like me, so I figured if I learned everything about the Christian music on the radio, that people would like me. I listened to the Joy FM whenever I could, learning about the bands and artist. Every Saturday the 20 the Countdown Magazine would come on, and I kept a running list of every #1 song from like 1997-1999. Wish I still had it. 

I took piano lessons from 2nd-5th grade and learned scales and chords after getting drilled on them and trying to improve my speed on the drills. This framework taught me what I needed to know to play piano at church and how to figure out chord progressions in songs. This was big. 

After being home schooled through 10th grade, my parents decided to put us in public high school. I went there my last 2 years, and was shy and used to bring my CD player to school to listen to instead of talking to people. I did meet a friend named Gina who introduced me to PfR, a popular CCM artist at the time. Popular artists I listened to in high school were PfR, Michelle Tumes, Out of the Grey, Point of Grace, Chris Rice, Rachael Lampa, DC Talk, among others. In the summer of 2001, I went to Festival Con Dios, and saw Earthsuit live for the first time. I fell in love with the rapping and singing mixture in their song ‘One Time’, and that began a love affair with the band that lasted almost 20 years. I didn’t have enough money to get their first big CD Kaleidoscope Superior, but did have enough to buy an earlier tougher to find CD that didn’t even have an official title, but is called ‘Headless Clown’ after the clay clown on the front cover that had its head broken off. I went to camp the previous 2 years with my youth group, and we stayed at the dorms at the University of Mobile each year. I got some info about the school, and for some strange reason, thought it would be a perfect fit. An out of state private college that just happened to be a Christian school. While in college, many things happened. I got Earthsuit’s Kaleidoscope Superior CD. It is still one CD I could listen to start to finish on repeat. I went to a few CCM concerts over the 2 semesters I was there, including Winter Jam with Newsong, Michelle Tumes, Paige, Pete Orta, and others. I saw Nichole Nordeman, Rachael Lampa, Out of the Grey, and even Bleach. 

One of the biggest things that happened was I got a cheap Casio keyboard. I took that thing and penned out the songs that had been in my head. I got a cheap tape recorder and made recording of them that sound worse than a Barry Manilow song. I found 3 other guys who played guitar, drums, and bass, and we formed a band called ‘A1’ (Audience of One). We played the popular praise and worship songs (basically stuff by SonicFlood and Ten Shekel Shirt), and while we never played a gig, I recorded most of our practices with my crappy recorder. I figure it was around that time when all of CCM changed. That first SonicFlood album, along with Third Day’s Offerings album, and Darlene Zschech’ 'Shout to the Lord' single changed, in my opinion, the course of CCM forever. 

I came back home to FL after 2 semesters. The Joy FM still played their music (which included Saturday nights with harder bands like Broomtree, Grammatrain, any ska bands, and then had Sunday nights with Christian jazz and introduced me to Glenn Kaiser and Wayman Tisdale’s work), but the music was starting to change. More worship stuff, and every other song seemed like it was either Casting Crowns, Mercy Me, or Avalon. 

I want to stop right here and say that I’m not trying to criticize any station or band or artist. I’m just trying to prove my theories and sometimes I need to point out something I observe with a radio station or band or artist. 

In 2002, I joined a praise and worship band comprised of guys in my youth group in FL. We never played anywhere, but did do worship for our youth group every Wednesday night and a few worship nights every year. It was there I learned how to play worship songs with scales and chords and where I was just allowed to be free to play whatever I wanted to. I still consumed CCM, but I really made a few CDs comprised of the entire Earthsuit, PfR, Out of the Grey, and Michelle Times collections that I had. I listened to those CDs very often over the next few years. 

In 2005, my friend JT from college allowed me to come back up to Montgomery, AL and visit. I had known JT since the first weeks of college, and that man would be an important part of my life from then on. He was my roommate the last semester, and introduced me to a few recording programs. I spend spring break with him at his house in Montgomery, and I remember laying in bed and worrying if I was coming back to school the next semester because of money being tight. I just remember God saying to me that he would provide for my needs. I left school after that spring semester in 2002, and attended a local school in FL for a few years after that. Anyway, I went back to JT’s house for a few days in December 2005. I showed him an idea for a silly song about penguins, and he helped me with the melody, and I recorded it when I got back to FL. After that, I just had the urge to lay it all on the line and try to start a band. I convinced JTs parents to let me stay with them for a few months while me and JT tried to start a band. Somewhere in 2002, Earthsuit broke up, but in 2004, 3 guys from the band formed MuteMath. I saw 2 shows in FL, and timed my move to Montgomery so I would make it there before they played in Montgomery. I saw them play another 10 or 12 times in different cities over the next 7 or so years. I spent 3 years in Montgomery, and they really shaped me musically. I didn’t really follow CCM anymore just because MuteMath and PfR just had so much talent and creativity that everything else seemed boring to me. 

I got connected with many groups of musicians over those 3 years, including a college aged Bible study group led by Ryan John. Ryan let me play how I wanted to, even though it was wild and reckless at times. He allowed me to lead worship a few times, and I performed an original song in 2008. 

I led worship for another college group and a youth group at different times. I played a few worship sessions for different events, and had the opportunity to do a 4-song opening set for Christian band Thalon in 2007 as well. 

JT ended up getting a traveling job, and I had some low points in Montgomery, ending up couch surfing, and working a 7 dollar an hour job for 50+ hours a week shoveling dog poop. It was during those times that songs like ‘Brave’ by Out of the Grey and ‘Missing Love’ by PfR helped me through. 

After the band thing with JT didn’t work out, I decided to move back to FL in 2009. I was kind of running from God then. I still attended some churches, but was just disappointed that I couldn’t find steady work and that the band didn’t work out. I didn’t really listen to CCM during those next 3 years. I ended up getting with a few different bands during that time, playing 10-15 gigs. I played a few with His Vessel, a Christian rock band in Lakeland. I played 5 with emo rock band Hooks for Ladders. With Hooks, I had the opportunity to play at the Orpheum in Ybor City, a stage I saw MuteMath play on a few years back.

 I played with Kim Grieves. With Kim, we had the opportunity to play in a Battle of the Bands at Wet ‘n Wild waterpark. 

Somewhere in the 2000’s, Florida got another CCM radio station with Z88.3. The Z hosted the event, and I wish I was listening to them at the time. 

In 2011, my life started turning around. I had a full time job at the time that gave me enough money to start saving. I met my future wife in November, saved for a ring, and proposed to her in February. I talked with JT a lot during that time, recorded some crappy versions of my songs and some of his. JT was my best man when I got married in December 2012, and I was one of his groomsmen when he married my youngest sister in March 2012. 

I had music in common with my wife, and she got me listening to much more than my Earthsuit, MuteMath, PfR, and Out of the Grey diet. I even (unfortunately) gave country music a try for about a year. Better than that, I started listening to the Z. 

The music changed alot since 2001 or so when last listened. It did, however, expose me to many different artists. Some of the early ones that caught my ear were For King & Country, Chris Tomlin, and Colton Dixon. 

Life with my wife hasn’t been easy since then. We had high points when we had our son in 2016 and on all the multiple road trips we’ve been on. We’ve had some really low points with 20+ surgeries that my wife has had for different issues, a miscarriage in 2021, and just the average trying to make ends meet.

I have been playing piano at our church for the past 10 years or so, and have really learned the art of holding back while playing. We do dozens of worship songs that have been on CCM radio, including old ones and current ones. My wife sings, and my son (the genius), has filled in on piano once or twice for me although only being 9. 

CCM has helped me through the low points. I got diagnosed with depression, and wanted to end my life in December 2025. Through therapy, my wife’s support and one CCM song, I am back and stronger than ever. 

I have always been a 'music first guy' with lisening to music, just always caring more about the melody and chord progression than the lyrics. During one bad day, I heard the song 'Flowers' by Samantha Ebert on the Z. Hearing the sad chord progression, the lyrics telling me that God has a good plan, and just hearing the pain in Samantha's voice had me crying. That has never happened to me when listening to a song. I still get teary eyed when the song comes on. I hope I get the chance to see Samantha perform it live and get to meet her. 

****************************END OF MY LIFE STORY*****************************

That about takes me to where I am now. I listen to the Z exclusively. It is very different than what I listened to in the '90's. Some is good, and some isn't. 

Now we get to the queston of what changed and why? 

There are 2 easy answers. The first is the worship album. 

'Shout to the Lord' was one of the first worship singles that was popular. That song, along with SonicFlood's debut album, and Third Day's Offerings album almost singlehandedly changed the direction of CCM forever. Many bands had 1 or 2 worship songs on an album. Carman did, Rich Mullins did, Michael W. Smith did. After the 2 albums I mentioned came out, just about everyone did a worship album. Rebecca St. James, Newsboys, Phillips, Craig, & Dean, and just about every popular band did one. Now there was no going back to just having regular albums. 

The other answer is that either the producers or the record companies just took over at some point and made everything sound similar. There are many instances when I see it (especially from a musicians standpoint). 

First, I feel like there was a point after the worship albums were introduced where many bands that sounded unique just stopped sounding unique, almost like the producers took over their albums and took away their originality. I can almost name the points where this happened for certain bands. 

3rd Day had thier song start sounding similar after their Conspiracy #5 album.

Somewere in the middle of 'If I left the Zoo', Jars of Clay lost their unique songs.

After Nichole Nordeman released 'Holy' hers started sounding similar.

Michelle Tumes took a different turn on her 'Dream' album.

Ginny Owens lost her origniality after her 'Something More' album.

Matthew West sounded like he was going to be a breath of fresh air with his first song 'More', but after that, it was like the record company took over, and all of his stuff since then is just impossible to distinguish for me because it just isn't unique. 

I feel like Jars of Clay could've been mega stars, but after the 'Zoo' album, they have just faded into oblivion. Same with 3rd Day. They had a few popular worship albums (and they were good), but then faded after the record companies took over. Nichole Nordeman is a great songwriter and deserves to be left alone so she can write her songs, but she is hiding somewhere releasing independant stuff.

I feel like somewhere in the early 2010's, producers started just having 2-3 writers do all of the songwriting for the whole studio, and while doing so, they resorted to doing the same chord progressions for most songs, and also using the same guitar/keyboard effects im many songs. 

There is a country producer, Shane McAnally, who does a ton of songwriting for that genre. While he has many hits under his belt, a plethora of his songs have the repetative 4, 1, 5, 6 minor chord progression. There is a video that took some country songs from that era, put them in the same key/speed, and you can see the similarities. 

I feel like in the early 2010's, CCM did the same thing. A ton of songs with the 4, 1, 5, 6 minor progression. A few years later, 6 minor, 4, 1, 2 minor was the big one. After that, 6 minor, 5, 1, 4 was big. The past year or two, 1, 4, 1 with the verse, and 6 minor, 4, 1 for the chorus was popular. 

If you listen to Phil Wickham's 'Hymn of Heaven', and 'Living Hope', you will see many similarities (chord progression, repeat of a 3rd verse, going to a 6 minor chord after the final chorus and tagging the final line). Nothing wrong with it, I just think with a little creativity, songs would sound unique. 

I also noticed the chord progressions would add a subtle difference at some points during the past 5 years or so. Some examples include adding a 2 minor chord in the 2nd verse where a 4 chord was used in the 1st verse. Sometimes a 2nd bridge would have a slightly different progression. Sometimes, a final chorus after a bridge was slightly different. It just kind of comes off as a gimmick to me. 

I also notice similar guitar or keyboard effects in songs. There is a guitar effect on We the Kingdom's 'Jesus Does'  at the end of the first chorus that is used in songs by other band like Chris Tomlin. This year, there is a keyboard effect that almost sounds like a music box that has been used in Mercy Me's 'Make it Well' and Tasha Layton's 'Meet me in the Valley'. Another thing that seems a little lazy and cliche. 

Another way the producers have taken over seems like the lyrics. I feel like many songs are written by 'prosperity God' authors. While not bad in itself, when pastors like Steven Furtick are adding thier theology to songs, it takes the focus of the truth of scripture and almost makes it the opinion of a therapist the focus. God doesn't owe us anything. Songs like Katy Nichole's 'In Jesus Name', while true that God can make anything possible, make it sound like all you have to do is pray and you get what you want. I prayed, and it didn't make the heart of our miscarried baby beat stronger during the 7th and final week of its life so it would be born and come into this world. It hasn't cured my wife from all of her medical issues. Songs that present this kind of prosperity and miracle theology need to be careful to err on the liberal side of the issue. Brandon Lake, Furtick, and others have some good theology in thier songs, but then have some that make this mistake.

One final way that I feel producers have taken too much control is that I notice many songs have the same 'keyword' or phrase idea in the past 10 years. For a while, the phrase was 'Dead of Night' (Chainbreaker by Zach Williams, 'I will fear no More' by the Afters, 'Desert Song' by Hillsong United, and 'Good Good Father' by Chris Tomlin. Another one is 'House' or 'House of the Lord' ('House of the Lord' by Phil Wickham, 'If the Lord builds the House' by Hope Darst, 'The Father's House' by Cory Asbury). The latest one is 'Breakthrough' ('Breakthrough' by Red Rocks Worship, 'Breakdown' by Andrew Ripp, 'Won't Start Now' by Seph Schlueter, among others). It just feels like the producers are pushing a keyword and making the writers make a song about it.

All of these things make me feel like the record companies are just pushing out product to make money and all of the creativity is gone. There are SOOOOO many good artists that were doing their thing in the late '90's, and then the producers came in, and they are either now out of work or just pushing out cookie cutter crap. Ones basically out of work include Michelle Tumes, Out of the Grey, Daily Planet, Denver & the Mile High Orchestra, Chris Rice, Shaun Groves, Sara Groves, Bebo Norman, Over the Rhine, and Misty Edwards. There are creative ones who really never got a shot like Nathan Tasker, Jenny & Tyler, Smith Band, Nevertheless, Paige, Ronnie Freeman, Thalon, and Ellie Holcumb. Ones who just let the producers take over the music include Matthew West,  Mercy Me, Third Day, David Crowder, Point of Grace, Ginny Owens, Michael W. Smith, and the final stuff from the Newsboys. It is just a shame to me how all of these artists and bands had unique, creative stuff, and now most of them are out of the business and doing a few independant albums that will never be on CCM radio, or they gave in and all of their new stuff just sounds similar and is played on CCM stations. The only people that win is the record producers. 

I know I can choose which CCM type I listen to and can find a Spotify station with '90's CCM artists, but if the record companies hadn't taken over and the big worship album craze hadn't been so big, we might just have some original CCM artists on your local CCM radio staion. I still enjoy some recent CCM bands, including Andrew Ripp, For King & Country, Cain, We the Kingdom, Pat Barrett, Samantha Ebert, Jordan St. Cyr, and Anne Wilson, among others. I just hope that some original artists can sneak through and keep that bright light of creativity shining in CCM radio for the next generation. 

Thanks for checking out my point of view, and listening to my story of CCM in my life and the reasons I think it changed. 

Card shop trips and some pack ripping

 Over the past couple of weeks, I have acquired a good amount of cards from various sources. Most of them packed a good punch as well. Let's check them out.

First up is a blaster of 2026 Bowman that I got from my local Target. Max Clark represents my Tigers in a Bowman Sterling insert. The rookies were represented well with a Trey Yesavage Under the Radar insert, and Roman Anthony and Sal Stewart base cards. I hit a few parallels with a Speckle Refractor of Braden Montgomery, a blue pattern of Blaine Bullard, and a Reptillian Refractor of Konnor Griffin, which may have been the best card of the blaster. 

I'm going to skip ahead to a fat pack of '26 Donruss that I got during my trip to Premiere Sportscards in Orange City. The owner usually charges a little more for packs, and it was 15 bucks, but I was feeling lucky. 

It was nice to see guys like Leo Durocher in the set. He is one of those guys who was famous, but doesn't appear in many card sets. Browsing the checklist on TCDB, I also saw Brewers manager Pat Murphy got a card. It's nice to see managers getting some love in sets in 2026. The base cards weren't too thrilling (Yadier Molina, yuck!!!), but the Optic parallels were nice with a Nolan Ryan and an Andrew Painter rookie. I pulled a Bobby Witt, Jr. parallel (Laser, maybe?), a Coming Attractions insert of Hagen Smith, and a Signature Series Red parallel of Carter Johnson. A Marlins prospect isn't too exciting, but I'm happy with it. 

Between the '26 Bowman blaster and the Premiere Sportscards trip, I took a trip to Pop's Sportscards in DeLand with Kyler. We mainly searched through the .25 cent bin and came out with some Rays and Tigers, and I thought I snapped a picture, but I guess not. 

Back to the Premiere Sportscards haul, I mainly searched though his boxes on the top of the display case. He never has prices on them, so sometimes it's scary when you get the final price, but I think I did a good job. I had about 150 cards, and he gave them to me for .25 cents each, and along with the '26 Donruss pack, I came out of there at about 55 bucks. 

I found 2 '74 Topps needs, one being a Hall of Famer. There were some cool cards of favorite players. Ky Bush is one of my newest favorite players, and I found a Holo parallel of his 2025 Topps card. Richard "Dick" Fitts is also a new favorite player, and I picked up 2025 Heritage SPs of him and Logan Gilbert. Ceddanne Rafaela is also a new favorite player, and I found 3 cards of him, a 2024 Bowman Mojo Refractor, a 2024 Topps '89 redux card, and a '24 Topps Chrome Stars of MLB card. After meeting Luke Weaver last winter, I have been picking up more of his cards, including this 2020 Donruss Holo Blue parallel. 

Up next are the Tigers. There was a nice chunk of 2021 Bowman Draft cards in the boxes, and not your usual stack of the same 20 cards and no stars, but stacks that weren't picked through,. I found rookies of not only Dillon Dingler, but also Colt Keith, and Spencer Torkelson. I am kind of a wierd Tigers fan. I like Alan Trammell. I have met him a number of times, and got his autograph about 10 times, but I never thought he was good enough to be a Hall of Famer. I have many of his cards, including his rookie, and some cool parallel cards, but I don't really go seeking out his cards, even though I probably should. Every now and then, I find a cool looking card of Trammell, and I'll pick it up. That was the case with the 2020 Donruss Holo Blue parallel. 2 of the coolest cards of the Tigers bunch were 2025 Bowman Mojo Refractors of Jackson Jobe and Kevin McGonigle. I'm hoping McGonigle is a franchise player for Detroit and this pickup could be my card of the year for 2026. 

The Rays portion of the trip started off with the same 2020 Bowman Draft lot. I recognize many of those cards, but surprisingly, I have parallels and Chrome versions of those cards, and without looking at TCDB, I picked up all needs and didn't have any doubles. No real big names, but they were guys I needed for my team set. I picked up 2 McClanahan rookies in 2021 Donruss Optic and 2020 Topps Heritage. I'm pretty stoked about the parallel of Randy Arozarena's '89 Topps All-Star redux insert. We close out this photo with a few 2024 Topps parallels. 

The rookies were probably where I did the most damage on the trip. As much as I can't stand Derek Jeter, I know a 1995 card of him is probably a good pickup, even if it is a minor league card, so I picked up both of these 1995 Upper Deck Minor League cards. The 2020 Bowman Draft set pile still had some great cards that were begging to go in my collection. I just picked anyone who has got off to a nice start in their career, including Pete Crow-Armstrong, Emerson Hancock, Jared Jones, Tyler Soderstrom, Spencer Strider, and Jordan Walker. I always hear about how Ronald Acuna Jr's brother Luisangel is going to be better than him, so I figured an early Bowman Chrome card was a good pickup. 2024 Bowman had George Lombard, Jr. and Kyle Teek rookies. I think Nick Kurtz is going to be pretty good, so any time I see a card of him, I will try to pick it up. I found his 2025 Bowman, 2025 Bowman Chrome, and 2 2025 Bowman Chrome Mojo Refractors. Counting the one I pulled from a pack last year, that is the 3rd one I have!  I have also pulled 2 Black parallels of Nick from 2025 Topps Archives. The Thomas Saggese is a Red RC Logo version. Another Kurtz rookie with his 2025 Topps Holiday card. The last card is a Brady House Yellow Holo parallel from 2026 Topps. 

The last group is parallels and random cards. There were a few Metallic Topps Holiday inserts, so I picked them all up to maybe use as trade bait. After seeing Andrew McCutchen get his 2,000th career hit in 2023, I figured his 2023 Topps Rainbow parallel would be a nice pickup to remind me of the game. As soon as I saw the Grant Holman card, I knew somebody passed over a nice parallel and it landed in a group of base cards, and I immediately put it in my stack.  Just above his name is a 1776-1976 stamp, and I believe it is numbered to 299. I don't really go after Starting Lineup cards, but figured somebody might want them. The Alonso and Tucker All-Star inserts from 2022 Topps Update weren't picked up because I collect either of them (although Pete is a former Gator, and the fact that I met Tucker in 2017 or so in Corpus Christi, TX. I just knew some of those All-Star inserts are tough pulls, so I got them. I hadn't heard of Konnor Pilkington, so I picked up his 2022 Topps Holiday card. I thought the city insert of Alex Bregman was a rare one, so I got it. After picking up the Mick Abel, Connor Norby, Edgar Quero, and Christian Walker on thier 2025 Topps Holiday cards, I am just missing 2 cards (Max Fried and James Woods) and the set will be complete. I picked up the Fedducia Chrome card since he is a Ray. Same thing with the '22 Topps Holiday Richie Palacios and 2022 Bowman Platinum Joe Rock. The last card is a Paul Pierce Topps rookie card, and although I already had 1, I couldn't leave it sitting in the box. 

So, how did I do with the Premiere Sportscards haul? Did I still pay too much? 

If so, I'll have a few chances to make up for it in about a week. On the 7th, I will be meeting up with reader Jerry at Pop's Sportscards. I have a stack of custom cards to give to him, and I'll probably hang out for a little while and dig through some of the .25 cent team boxes. 

On June 13, there is a show called the DeLand Coast to Cast Card Show that will be going on from 9 to 6. I work until about 1:30, but I think I might rush home from work, change clothes, and take Kyler out to the show. I'll probably meet up with John from Johnny's Trading Spot and finally get him a nice stack of Braves that I've been piling up for him, as well as my friend Jim from DeLand. 

If I don't get enough cards by then, the next day is my birthday, and I'll probaly get a box or 2 from Karen, so I'll be good on cards for at least a few weeks. By then, Series 2 is out, and I'll be on the hunt for Nick Fortes cards and parallels. Kyler has been asking me like twice a week if he is in the checklist and will have his first Rays card, so it will be nice to finally pull one for him so he can see what it looks like. Hopefully by then the Tigers will have turned it around and decide to keep Skubal on their way to their first title since 1984. As for Tampa, they may sneak into the playoffs, but with an owner willing to sign Craig Kimbrel to a Major League contract, I can guarantee you they won't trade for anyone of value during the deadline, and may even end up dumping Yandy Diaz or Drew Rasmussen. Makes me think of lthe last few years, getting rid of Eflin, Arozarena, Paredes, and others.  I guess that's what I like about baseball cards. I organize them by year and going through binders, you can see who was on the team, see who (if anyone) they picked up at the end of July, and many times you can see if they made the playoffs (if they made subset cards of the playoffs) and how they did. Just a fun way to view history and remember historic seasons and player accomplishments. And that begs the question: should the cheap owners not offer MLBPA a decent contract, will there be a 2027 season? Should there not be a 2027 season, will we get any cards in 2027? I might be ok with that if it would get most of the scalpers off of the bandwagon. It would drive prices down for everyone, and most collectors would spend the 12 months of 2028 concentrating on enjoyable parts of their collections, and hopefully they could acquire some cards they really enjoy instead of spending money on 2027 packs. Maybe an interesting topic for a post in a year or so. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

The long awaited SportLots order and trade from Nick

A little more than a week ago, my SportLots order finally arrived, and after logging everything into TCDB, I am still short a few cards from having a complete 1980-2026 Topps run. After marking off my paper wantlists, it appears the main reason for some of the missing cards was just my clumsy typing and erasing when editing the lists. All in all it’s maybe 30 cards, and I might just put out a plea on the TCDB messageboards and hopefully get some trades going to help finish the project. Might as well post it here too:

2003 Topps Traded

T149 Jerome Williams

T162 James Loney

T300 Robinson Cano

2008 Topps Updates & Highlights

UH49 Ryan Ludwick

UH309 John Bowker

2009 Topps Update

U43 Koyie Hill

U93 Pedro Martinez

U256Tim Wakefield All-Star

2010 Topps Update

U74 Ryan Church

U183 Luis Atilano 

2011 Topps

37 Vicente Padilla

592 Dyan Viciedo

2012 Topps Update

U156 Troy Patton

U190 Francisco Cordero

2013 Topps Update

U35 Andrew McCutchen All-Star

U72 Adam Jones All-Star

U81 Casey Kotchman

U219 Pedro Alvarez HR Derby

2014 Topps

5 Lance Lynn

142 Zack Grienke

230 Andre Rienzo

470 Cole Calhoun 

516 Mike Belfiore

608 Jeff Locke

2014 Topps Update

U33 Grady Sizemore

U79 Clint Barmes 

U145 AJ Pierzynski

U296 Tyler Moore

2016 Topps

174 Jered Weaver

249 Carlos Gomez

429 Kenta Maeda

489 Aideny Hechivarria

508 Jaime Garcia

568 Diamondbacks team

629 Patrick Corbin

683 Carlos Gonzalez

2017 Topps Update

U44 Cubs combo

2018 Topps Update

U42 Teoscar Hernandez

I’ll probably post something when I complete everything. 

While not nearly the whole picture of my SportLots order of nearly 2,000 cards, I figured I would post a few of my favorites. 

A couple of cheap 1951 and 1952 Topps cards start us out. The 2 Jayden Hylton cards were not autographed when I got them, but he plays for Stetson University, who we have season tickets to, and I got them signed about a week ago when they played against Bethune-Cookman University. Rafael Bournigal cards I don’t have are getting harder and harder to find. I got an autographed Ky Bush card to add to my ‘Kyler collection’. Jurrangelo Cijntje is not only a switch-pitcher, but a member of the Dutch National team, so I had to get a jersey card of him. Jordan DeJong and Eric Dinyar are favorite players that I found minor league cards of. I wanted to add some Finest cards of Tigers from the first 2 years of the sets, but only found cheap ones of Cecil Fielder, but I’m ok with that, as I collect him. The Nick Fortes 2025 Topps Purple card gave me the top spot on TCDB for Fortes collectors. I saw the 2026 Topps Series 2 checklist has him in it, so that gives me the opportunity to boost my lead. Kelly Hunt is a great guy who gave me his full game-used bat after the last game of the 2005 Lakeland Tigers season, so any time I can find a card of him, I pick it up. Keith Kimsey is a guy I probably should’ve collected for a while now. He is a former Detroit Tiger farmhand who not only played for Lakeland, but is from there. My 5th grade hoops coach used to know him. Kyler Meccage is another addition to the Kyler collection. I’ve always liked Doug Million because of his name and his potential, and ever since I met my wife, fighting  asthma has been very important to me. Million passed away from the disease, so I collect him, and this 1995 Bowman foil is a new pickup.  Last 2 cards are a Netherlands map, and a card of Todd Revenig, a guy with ERAs so low that it’s impossible to justify him only getting a cup of coffee in MLB. Seriously, check his minor league stats before injuring his arm in 1993. 

We start off page 2 with a Jonathan Schoop WBC card and an SP of DeLand High School Hall of Famer Luke Weaver. Last for the favorite players is another Lakeland native I should’ve collected sooner in Sean Whiteside. Only 2 Tigers I decided to show, but one is another 1952 Topps, I believe making it 2 originals I have of the Tigers. The Cobb 2025 Archives completes my team set. Next are some rookies of note in my set completion process. Rizzo, Cole, Yelich, Swanson, and Devers. The only big one I’m missing in my 1980-2026 run is Robinson Cano, and I swear I have that card, but I must be mistaking it with the ‘03 Bowman card. The last 3 cards are just some rookie parallels that I pulled from packs that Karen got me during the last week. I believe the Connor Griffin is numbered. 

A few weeks ago, I reached out to Nick from Dime Boxes and we got a trade together. Nick really helped add to my Tigers collection with a number of older cards, food/oddball issues, and cards from sets that I just never opened many packs of. 

The Cochrane and Gehringer cards are the oldest of the lot, coming from 1960 Fleer. Nick included some nice vintage cards, including samples from 1960 Post, a 1972 Topps Willie Horton Boyhood Photos of the Star subset, and cards from Kellogs 3D and Hostess sets (I am not sure on the years without looking them up). The Kirk Gibson is an O-Pee-Chee version. 

Gibby appeared in a number of Fleer boxed sets. The Jose Lima is a Platinum Team version. A 2005 Donruss Diamond Kings Justin Verlander rookie somehow snuck its way into the package. The Sega Card-Gen of Rick Porcello is my first from the set. There was a Heritage insert of Miggy, a few Gypsy Queen cards (some of the sets I haven't busted many packs of), a Museum Collection Scherzer (one I have never even SEEN a pack of), and 1984 and 1986 Topps redux cards of Miguel Cabrera (from sets I have busted tons of packs of but never pulled those particular cards).

The Tigers close out with more Miggy Topps redux cards, a Chrome Platinum anniversary Kaline, and 2025 Stadium Club parallels of Tarik Skubal (Green), and Jackson Jobe (Sepia). I think the day after I got the Gage Workman Chrome was the day he hit his first career HR. Nick sent a number of 2012 Topps parallels of the Rays (a Gold Wade Davis, and Gold Speckles of JP Howell, Casey Kotchman, and Carlos Pena). I'll have to see how close to the regular set I am. The last 2 cards are a 2022 Heritage Chrome refractor and a 2025 Topps Chrome Raywave refractor of Brandon Lowe. So many cool cards that will be added to my Tigers and Rays binders in the near future. Thanks, so much, Nick!

I have been shut out with 2026 Bowman and Donruss during my last trips to Target and Wal-Mart, but that doesn't mean I have been shut out on cards. After getting the first 1/3 of the Stetson University team set (and getting it autographed), I picked up the 2nd third of the set, and was able to get my friend Jim to pick up the last third as I was working during the last game. The team made it into the ASUN tournament, which starts tomorrow, so I'll be at the game tomorrow cheering them on, and hopefully getting the 15-20 cards signed to finish the set. The game is a single-elimination game, so I'm going to need to do a great job picking out the players, but if I can get the pitchers and seniors, I'll be happy. 

With the SportLots order in, I've been able to start putting cards from boxes into binders. I wouldn't mind going right down the NL teams in order, but I decided to go with the smallest teams, and started and completed the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the next 2 teams will be the Marlins and Rockies. Then, I'll just finish out the NL, move to the AL, and then the fun binders (rookie cards, relics/parallels, Tigers, Rays, and favorite players). That should take me until the end of the year to finish, but maybe not. 

My evil plot to get every 1998 Topps version of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays is almost complete, as I have finished the base, Minted in Cooperstown, Inaugural Devil Rays, Inaugural Diamondbacks, and Chrome team sets. The only card missing is the Chrome Refractor of Fred McGriff, and there is a version on eBay for about 25 bucks. I would rather pay 10, but not sure if I could find another for that price, as the only other one I see is closer to 70 bucks. 

I'll probably post later in the year when I have more binders done and maybe I'll have some more new cards to post by then. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

Cards, cards, and more cards.

 Lately, I had made a number of purchases on eBay of random grouped stuff. It has varied from Rays team sets, Topps box bottoms, favorite player relic/auto cards, some preview cards, and some Traded/Update sets. Sometimes it feels like between cards coming in the mail, getting packs at a store, and the occastional stop to a card shop, that it's nothing but cards, cards, cards in the house. 

The Traded/Update card sets included 1991 Fleer Ultra, 1988 Score Rookie Traded, 1992 Score Traded, 1993 Fleer Update, 1994 Fleer Update and 1995 Fleer Ultra. With everything except for the last set, I figured they were for what I figured was a decent price, they had a handful of good rookies, and I already had 90% of the base set, so why not get the Update version?  

I was randomly looking at some box bottom cards, and I kind of wanted to finish the 1989 Topps version, as it had a card of Don Sutton and Tommy Lasorda. Sutton didn't get a card in the base set, and this could've been his sunset card. The Lasorda was just cool because it was different than original version. I ended up finishing up that set (along with a double of a full sheet and some loose ones). The same lot had some 1990 cards (I wanted the Fred Lynn Tigers card), a few from the '90 Fleer set including a Blue Jays team logo, and some from Baseball Card Magazine. Those were fun because they contained cards of Billy Ashley and Brady Anderson, who are guys I collect. 

Speaking of guys I collect, I have added a number of new guys in the last month or so. Mainly just Dutch guys who I didn't realize were on the team. They are:

Druw Jones- Dutch National Team member

Cedane Rafaela- Dutch National Team member

Ozzie Albies- Dutch National Team memnber

Chadwick Tromp- Dutch National Team member

Bruce Maxwell- Guy who stood up for what he believes in

Austin Martin- Guy who was born in DeLand

Sean Whiteside- Detroit Tiger who lived in Lakeland

Jurrangelo Cijntje- Dutch National Team member

Ky Bush- Kyler collection

Kyler Meccage- Kyler collection

I purchased a jersey card of Jones, Rafaela, Albies, Martin, Cijntje, and autos of Tromp, Maxwell, Martin, Bush, and Meccage. Most were from eBay, but a few are from my Sportlots order. More on that later.

I came across a few preview cards that I thought were interesting. There was a 1992 Topps Gold preview of Tommy Lasorda. The front of the card looked basically the same except for the 'manager' postion bar was missing. The back was way different. Much like a regular card, it had a bio and no stats, and the picture of the stadium was a good deal bigger. 
There was also a 1995 Topps preview of Travis Fryman. I can't remember which set contained the previews, but they had a 10-card 1995 Topps preview pack. There were 9 of the regular previews, and 1 Spectra Light/Cyberstats parallel. They have the Spectra Light texture on the front, and the back were normal instead of black and blue colored. They almost look like normal cards, and an untrained eye would easily mistake them for normal cards. There was a Griffey Spectra Light preview on there that was pretty cheap if you want to get a Junior card for under value. 

The Rays team sets were where the real damage was done. The 1998 Topps Rays set is the 2nd year that the Rays appeared on a Topps set. 1997 was really nothing. Just a few team prospect combos and I can't remember if they had a Draft Pick card or not, but no parallels or Chrome cards to chase after. The 1998 Topps set was a cruel siren. There was the base set. There were versions of the complete set with both the inaugural Rays and Diamondback logos stamped on them. Those are tough to find, but I perservered and found complete sets at good prices and got those ones checked off for the team set. The regular set had a parallel found 1 in every 8 packs called 'Minted in Cooperstown'. Each Minted in Cooperstown card featured a bronze stamp that was added to the card in Cooperstown, NY. I came across a team set and jumped on it. That is a semi-tough set, but the Rays part is now finished. 

The 1998 Topps set also had a Chrome version. Since they use the same design, I feel like I need to finish not only the Chrome versions, but the tough Refractor parallels. I'll list my needs below. The Chrome version is probably just a few eBay purchases from being finished, but the Refractors are a little tricky. I've picked up a few on eBay that are getting me closer, but a number of them like Bobby Smith, Miguel Cairo, Roberto Hernandez, and Quinton McCracken are priced kind of high. I feel like most guys who are commons (even stars really) should be priced from 3-5 dollars. Most of the ones I need are 7-10 bucks. The biggest problem will be Fred McGriff. There are only 4 or so on eBay, and they go from like 25-60. There have to be a number of collectors of the Crime Dog, so I'm sure if a good deal pops up online that I might jump on it. 

Here are the lists of Chrome needs:

251 Pablo Ortega/James Manias

344 Wilson Alvarez

404 Terrell Wade

468 Rich Butler

472 Brooks Kieschnick

500 Dutin Carr/Luis Cruz

REFRACTORS:

349 Fred McGriff

404 Terrell Wade

430 Roberto Hernandez

462 Quinton McCracken

464 Miguel Cairo

466 Bobby Smith

Just 12 card away from having a true 'Master Set' of 1998 Topps Rays. Base, Inaugural Diamondbacks, Inaugural Rays, Minted in Cooperstown, Chrome, and Chrome Refractors. Maybe by the end of the year.

I just got the last items for my Sportlots box to come in, so I requested shipping. Once it arrives, I will have a ton of cards to put in my binders, and it should complete my Topps run from 1980 to 2026. I believe there are 1 or 2 missing ones, but I'm pretty confident that I will be able to hunt them down. 

I got some cards that I just never had access to pack of. A few Triple Play stadium cards, some mascots, some 1993-1995 Bowman singles, some 1993 and 1994 Finest singles, a number of cards of favorite players, a few of the Netherlands flag, and a few Stetson Hatter guys. 

On Tuesday, the 3 of us went to Melching Field and saw Stetson take on USF in baseball. USF has former big leaguer Daniel Schlereth as a coach, so I had to try to get his autograph. His 2009 Topps Update checklist card features a picture of him and his father together. His dad Mark, is holding a piece of paper and a plastic bag. I have always wondered what was in it, so I finally had the opportunity to ask him. He signed my 2 cards, and confirmed that the photo was from before his MLB debut, but couldn't remember what was in the bag. Mystery solved. Well, kind of. 

Earlier on Tuesday, I was on lunch at work, and I decided to check out the USF roster. My friend Jim, who collects autographs, let me know before the season that Schlereth was on USF and aside from their manager who is on a 1991 Line Drive AAA card that I didn't have, there were no other guys with cards. When I checked the roster on my break, I found out that Dave Eiland was a coach at USF. I let Jim know, and we met up at the game and looked out for our autograph targets. Sure enough, Dave was there, and he signed our cards, and we reminisced about the 1998 Rays and all of the HRs that Esteban Yan, Dennis Springer, and Tanyon Sturtze gave up. A fun time was had by all, and we had a nice surprise by getting Eiland. 

Earlier in the week, Jim let me know that a friend of his is going to a 'Bannana Ball' game, and will be going to a meet and greet for the teams. Some players there will be 50 HR club member Ryan Howard, Jackie Bradley, Jr., Nico Hulsizer, and a few minor leaguers I had nothing of. I gave Jim a few cards, and hopefully in a few weeks, I'll have a few more guys in my autograph collection. That's what cards are all about. Helping each other out. We will have a few more opportunities to help eachother in May, as there are 2 more dates that Stetson will be giving away their baseball card set. So far, Jim, Kyler, and I are perfect, getting the first 10-card set autographed by everyone. We are missing a guy, Angel Gomez, from last year's set. From what I've researched, I believe he is a redshirt at Stetson (not sure if he is on campus or what), and will be transfering next semester. 

I have been doing some trades online, and mailed out a few care packages recently. I'm in the process of getting some stuff ready for Nick of Dime Boxes, just need a current address for him. 

I was lucky enough to come in 3rd place in the Cards on Cards annual March Madness tournament. Kerry sent me a pack of '25 Stadium Club, and there were some good cards sitting in it. My favorites were the Cade Horton rookie, and the Nick Kurtz rookie. Thanks, Kerry, for the contest and the cards!

I was also a recipient of a care package from Rod of Padrographs. I got number of Marlins and Rays, AND a card of a DeJong guy in Paul DeJong. Some of my favorites are the Encarnacion autograph, the Aranda refractor, and  Basabe Archives black border. Thanks, Rod, for the cards!

That's really all that we have going on and coming up. There will be a vacation coming at some point, but we are just focusing on a few doctor appointments and raising a puppy. 

I will plunge into the deep dark deaths of  '50's, '60's, and '70's Topps cards when my Sportlots stuff comes in. It will be a long time sorting, putting into TCDB, and figuring out if there are any gremlins and what to do for them. I hope that a few months after that, I can have all of the loose cards into binders, and just keep buying new stuff so all I have to do is put the newer cards at the back and I won't have to disturb 3-4 albums. I just have to convince Karen to buy a ton of plastic sheets, binders, and probably a bookshelf or two. All in all, life is good right now and looking up for the first time in a long time. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy