Trade with Johnny’s Trading Spot and some LCS fun

 A few days ago, I received a surprise package from John of Johnny's Trading Spot. Inside were a whole bunch of Rays to help me out with some of my sets. 

The first 2 were from the 1997 Lykes A Franchise is Born set, of which John sent me a ton of the last time he sent me cards. I have a feeling I am really close to finishing that one. 99% of the non-flagship Topps were new ones to me, including the cards from Upper Deck, Stadium Club, and Leaf which you see here. My Topps flaship run of Rays cards are now complete, but I still want to complete as many Rays sets as I can, and I will be really happy to finish off an Upper Deck set sometime. Those sets are bigger than you think. As for the flagship Topps cards, many of those can be moved to my rookie card binder, or like the 2006 Topps team leaders card, can be filed next to the base card of the player as well as at the end of the Rays set as I display them in my binders. I haven't purchased an Allen & Ginter or Gypsy Queen pack in almost a decade, so all oif those card are new. 

pps team le 

The Bowman's are new to me as well, since I haven't purchased (or see a pack in the wild) any Bowman this year. Haven't seen any Fire, Gallery, or Gypsy Queen in the wild this year either, so most of those are new as well. I love the foilboard Meadows Fire card. I've had good luck with Heritage, but I think 1 or 2 were needs for me. 

It's nice to get spatterings of base cards because for guys who I collect (like Ryan Yarbrough), I put their cards in my Player Collection binder first, but still like to get a 2nd copy of the card to put in my Rays binder. John helped me do that with the '20 Heritage Yarbrough. He also sent some Paul DeJong's to add to his spot in the aforementioned Player Collection Binder. I love the Gold Fire card. Other favorite players represented are Tony Saunders and Ryan Yarbrough. The next 4 cards are ones I have already, but they are lucky enough to go to my rookie card binder. Shout out for sending the '20 Gypsy Queen Randy Arozarena! While I haven't officially started collecting him, I am starting to end up with a ton of his cards, as you will soon see. Thanks, John, for the nice surprise package!  I'm saving up some Braves inserts/parallels, and as soon as I get a decent stack, they will be headed to GA or FL.

I wanted to go to my LCS today because the last time I was there, it taught me a lesson. A few weeks ago, I had some cards I wanted to mail out to some bloggers, and I decided to stop at the post office first, since it would be easier on me while driving (I would be driving past my LCS, but the post office would be on my right, and so would the LCS on the way back, eliminating some left-hand turns into busy traffic). I sent out the packages, and then went to the card shop, digging through 3 .50 cent boxes, and promptly finding a ton of cards I could've added to the packages I had just sent. Today, I decided to go to the card shop first and brave a few left-hand turns in order to add some more cards to stuff I had planned to sent out today. I got there and dug through the usual 3 .50 cent boxes they had, and was able to help out someone with an insert set they are collecting, I found a card for a guy who collects a certain player (which I actually haven't sent out yet), and found a few other cards to add to some envelopes that I have just sent out. A good payoff for deciding to go the the card shop first. 

I even found a few things for me as well. I was hoping to find some Randy Arozarena cards, and I wasn't disappointed. The last time I went, I was mainly looking for refractors and newer Rays cards, so I basically skipped over all of the Prizm stuff, and I missed 3 Randy's. I also missed one from Optic, but I found them today, and I believe I have tapped that .50 cent box out of Randy A. cards, really only skipping over some '18 Topps cards. I was hoping to find some '20 Topps Update cards (I am only 8 cards away from completing the set). I should've looked closer at my list. I picked up the Christian Yelich card, but I didn't need it. Still 8 cards away....I also found some shiny cards for players I collect, and a card of Logan Gilbert that I figured I would get since I don't have many cards of him. 

I'm still on the fence about collecting Randy, just because he is so young and because of the incident he had with his ex. Maybe later this year I'll bite the bullet, but I'll still be on the lookout for his rookie cards just because of how hot they've become.  Here is a picture of all of the cards of him that I've gathered so far.

When you break it down, that’s 4 cards I’ve pulled from packs (Donruss,Red Stadium Club, Topps, and Topps Update), 1 from a Complete set (Topps), 1 from a team set I got on eBay (Update), 9 from the .50 cent boxes at my LCS (Bowman, Optic x2, Optic Lime Green, Prizm, Prizm Red White & Blue x2, Chrome, and Chrome X-Fractor), and 2 sent by nice people in trades (Gypsy Queen x2). 

I would like to point out that it wasn't all luck with these, as if Randy had been a touted prospect like Wander Franco, none of his cards would've got past the flippers, and they wouldn't have found their way into the .50 boxes. I also had the chance to add a dual bat card of Randy in September or so. I was looking at purchasing a few Rays team sets on eBay, and being fairly naive to how eBay works, I was trying to add something from the same seller in order to combine shipping. The seller had a '20 Diamond Kings dual bat card of Randy for 4 bucks, but for some reason, I didn't get it, and it's probably at least 20 bucks now, so I'll have to wait awhile to acquire a memorabilia card of him. 

Before I go, I must say SHAME ON THE RAYS for dumping salary when you were 2 wins away from winning it all!  Stuart Sternberg has the money to spend! After all, he is rich enough to own a baseball team. How can you let down your fans? You put all of the pressure on the GM to make sly trades in order to compete because you won't spend money. You can't expect them to win all of the trades, and eventually, they are going to be cellar dwellers again. Nobody will come to the games, and you are going to be forced to sell the team at a low price, or move them. Everyone loses. The Rays were maybe a #2 starter and a decent hitting catcher away from winning it all and competing for the next few years. If you have someone who isn't a baseball fan who owns a team, they don't care about winning a championship. The team is almost like some idiot who wears the latest Jordan's even though they don't know a lick about baseball. It's just an accessory. Sternberg goes and trades away our #1 pitcher, lets the #2 leave for free agency, and re-signs our weak-hitting catcher. The Rays are never going to compete with Sternberg as an owner, and he needs to sell the team to someone who hopefully keeps them in St. Pete. I'm still going to suupport the Rays, but I won't be expecting them to compete for another 10 years, and I'm counting the days Keven Kiermaier has left with the team. Randy A., you are next...The Tigers will hopefully give me something to watch while Tampa gets it's crap straight. Suck it, Sternberg!!

If you were wondering where the stuff I dropped off at the post office is going, the zip codes they are headed to are 13601, 48105, 61615, 97202, 97230, and 98662. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

2021 Baseball Card Goals

I have never made a collecting goals post before, but I figured I would just so I could see how my goals changed over the year and how I actually did at the end of 2021. 

There are a number of things that I can think of off of the top of my head. Some of them are attainable, others might take a little bit of work, and others will just come down to luck. These are in no particular order. 

1. Spend less on retail. 

Even with the flippers and their despicable ways, I have been able to get my hands on a decent amount of retail this year. The beginning of the year, I had a number of hanging boxes that my wife got me of Series 1, Opening Day, Donruss, and Heritage. Once the flippers pulled their crap, I missed out totally on Bowman, and got my hands on 2 hanging boxes each of Big League and Series 2, and 1 of Stadium Club. Once Update came out (which I suspect Topps may have double or triple printed), my wife was able to find a good amount of it at Target, and I got like 6 hanging boxes and a 16 pack box worth, enough to leave me just 8 cards short of completing the set. When I add all of those packs up, sure it was fun to bust all of them and get some inserts, but I ended up purchasing the 2020 complete set, so most of the cards I got in those Series 1 & 2 boxes were just dupes that I wouldn't have had if I had just waited until the complete set came out around July. I will still probably purchase a hanging box of each series just to get a taste, but after that (at least for Topps Series 1 & 2), my money is better spent online or at a card show or my LCS. 

2. Pull a printing plate

I've pulled 2 printing plates in my life. a 2007 Upper Deck Jose Contreras, and a 2017 Topps Mark Canha. The Canha I traded away to a guy who collects him, and the Contreras I still have. It would be cool to pull another one in my lifetime (even if it turns out to be a Yankee).

3. Complete the Rays/Tigers Topps team sets in 2021

Shouldn't be that hard to do, but with flippers, I'm skeptical if I'll even see any 2021 Topps packs on the shelves in retail, and my LCS will probably charge 8 bucks a pack. At least trading and eBay are still around.

4. Add some nice relic cards and autographed cards. For relic cards, I still have some big names I would like to add to my collection (Jeter, Trout, Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Wayne Gretzky, Mickey Mantle, Randy Arozarena, Ronald Acuna, Ohtani, Pete Alonso, Paul Goldschmidt, Andrew McCutcheon, Joey Votto, and just some of the upper-echelon guys in the past 20 or so years). For autographs, I would love to add some guys to my Rays binder that I don't have, like JP Howell, Carl Crawford, Jorge Cantu, Kevin Kiermaier, Randy Arozarena, Tyler Glasnow, Brendan McKay, Brent Honeywell, Greg Vaughn, Fred McGriff, Scott Kazmir, and Blake Snell). 

5. Pull some Rays postseason Highlights cards

Topps just did 4 World Series cards for the winning Nationals and none for the losing Astros in the 2020 Flagship set, so unfortunately, it looks like I will have to get some from 2021 Topps Heritage. I would love to pull a few Arozarena cards, one of them winning the '20 ALCS. and one from the Brett Phillips/Randy A. game (trades are welcome!)

6. Complete my Rays Topps run with cusom cards. 

This one might take a while. I have all of the missing Topps Rays cards listed out, and I would ultimately like to start printing out the ones I haven't printed yet. I would most likely start from the beginning with the 1998 set. It would be really cool to thumb through my Rays binders and go through each years' Topps set knowing that there are no players/cards missing. 

7. Finish the 1994 Topps Traded, 1998 Topps Traded, 1991 Topps & Traded, and possibly one other complete custom card set

I am almost 1/2 way done with the '94 Traded set, the '98 one shouldn't take too long, and I don't think 1991 will be that difficult with all of the random minor league sets printed in '91. After that, I think 1991 is really calling my name, but with only 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, and 2000 being left in order to finish up anyone who played a season in the '90's, I may just have to go with 1995. We'll see.

8. This isn't really for me, but I would like for my son to pull his first hit.

This one will be tough for me and will really show if I am a decent person or not. I think I'll be excited for him to pull an autographed card or a relic, but I think part of me is going to wish I pulled the card for my collection. Maybe even more if it is a Ray/Tiger or someone I collect. I could go on about personal goals for 2021, but let's just say I hope to grow as a person/husband/father/employee in 2021 as well.

Lesser goals:

I would also kind of like to get all of my loose cards in binders, but with my cards organized by years, it is kind of a problem. I have a few new cards to put in that are before 2018, but the majority is newer stuff. With 28 teams at 2-3 binders per team, is it really worth it to put in a card from 1981, and then more cards over one by one for 10 years of junk wax before finally putting another new one it? 

I also kind of want to organize all of my duplicates by teams and year so I can find stuff for team collectors I trade with more easily.

Finally, I wouldn't mind going through all my basketball and football cards and organizing them by teams. 

I think that about sums it up. What do you think about the goals for 2021? Are they achievable? Is there anything you think I missed? 

The holidays are finally over, and work will finally be slow again for a few months. It will be nice to have a little free time after clocking out and getting to do customs/organize cards again. I'm working tomorrow morning, have a day off, and am working the next 4, so I won't do anything big for new years, but as bad as 2020 is, I'd just rather get ready for bed, and quickly fall asleep, becuase for as long as I usually feel asleep, it will almost go away quicker if I go to bed than waiting 2-3 hours for midnight. Not to mention that I would be a wreck in 4 hours when I would have to get up. 

The new year might not change anything, but I think as a whole that 2021 at least has a shot of being a better year than 2020. If we had another healthy kid in 2021, my wife would slowly get less headaches and not have to have another surgery, or the Rays/Tigers/Auburn football wins a championship, I think that much in itself would do it for me. Whatever situation you find yourself in during 2021, I sure hope your year is better than the last one and that you pull some nice cards for your collection and that I can trade some with you to help it.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

Updating Update

 Just a quick post to try to get some help completing my 2020 Topps Update set. Saturday, while my wife was at Target, she purchased me the complete 2020 Topps set, and what she thought was the 2020 Topps Update set. It turned out that the Update cards were just a 16 pack box, but with the 4-5 hanging boxes that we've found, I am now just 8 cards away from completing the Update set. Those cards are:

43 Alex Blandino Reds

88 Craig Kimbrel Leaders Cubs

89 Brian Johnson Red Sox 

102 Kevin Ginkel Diamondbacks

165 Kyle Wright Braves

185 Max Scherzer All-Star Nationals

234 Gavin Lux Rookie Debut Dodgers

249 Aroldis Chapman Leaders Yankee$

With all of the hanging boxes that I (probably shouldn't have) purchased, I have a good amount of doubles from Series 1, 2, and Update to trade if you are up for trying to help me out and have needs from this year. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

Career Topps Run: Chris Gwynn

 I haven't done one of these in a while, but I hope to do posts like these more frequently in the future, especially as I get more cards done. The players will be selected as I run across ones I think would be easy to do.

First up today is Chris Gwynn. Chris is the younger brother of the late Tony Gwynn. He attended college at San Diego State University, and played on the 1984 US Olympic baseball team, winning a silver medal. After college, he was drafted by the Dodgers in 1985. He quickly shot through the minors, and got called up to the Bigs in 1987 by the Dodgers, and got into 12 games for the World Champion team in 1988. He stayed with them through 1991, and was traded to the Kansas City Royals in the offseason of '91. He played the 1992 and 1993 season with them, before signing with the Dodgers as a Free Agent. He spent 1994 and 1995 with them, before getting the chance of a lifetime and getting to play with brother Tony and the San Diego Padres in 1996, Chris' final season in the Majors. 

Chris got his first Topps card in the 1989 set, made it into the set in 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994 sets, before getting on to his last Topps card in 1995. 

By my count, Chris is missing cards from the 1985 Topps Traded card (Team USA), 1987 Topps Traded, 1988 Topps, 1989 Topps, 1992 Topps Traded, 1993 Topps Traded,  1996 Topps, 1996 Topps Traded, and 1998 Topps cards. 

Now, I will show all of Chris Gwynn's Topps cards, including ones made by Topps, giving you a nice look at his entire career Topps run. 

1985 Topps Team USA custom

1987 Topps Traded custom

1988 Topps custom

1989 Topps custom

1990 Topps

1991 Topps

1992 Topps

1992 Topps Traded custom (with back)

1993 Topps

1994 Topps

1994 Topps Traded custom

1995 Topps

1996 Topps custom

1996 Topps Traded custom

1997 Topps sunset custom

Well, there you have it. I hope you have learned a little bit about Chris Gwynn and have enjoyed seeing his career Topps run. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

2020 Favorites

 I’m sure as 2020 is nearing a close that a ton of these posts will start coming out, but I figured I would get mine out of the way since I don’t really figure to get any more cards before 2021. I would love to see some of your answers to these catergories or perhaps if you feel like posting, we can make this a Blog Bat Around. 

I’m basically going to go with a few different catergories, like pack pulled, purchased on the internet, and purchased at a card show/card shop. Each catergory will have different types of cards, with some not applicable to each catergory. 

First off will be pack pulled cards. These will be cards opened from any pack in 2020, no matter the year of the pack.

Card of 2020- 2020 Topps Stadium Club Randy Arozarena

Got this one from a blaster that my wife purchased me a month or so before he went on a tear in the playoffs. 

Favorite memorabilia card- 2020 Topps Update Lance McCullers, Jr.

This card was pulled recently from a blaster. I love jersey cards, and I love the ones with the All-Star game workout jerseys. The only issue I have from this one is that it says it was from 2017. Shouldn’t this card have been in ‘17 Topps Update? Did Topps have leftover all-star jerseys pieces of McCullers that they just had in a warehouse waiting for a season where the game was cancelled so they could put it in the Update Series?

Favorite autographed card- 2020 Topps Big League Sandy Alomar

It is one of only 2 autographed cards I pulled this year from a pack, but even if not, this one would rank pretty high. Sandy has always had a nice autograph, and I remember him being very fan friendly during his career. Glad I was able to pull a sig of his this year. 

Card from a Favorite Team-2020 Topps Advanced Stat Niko Goodrum

This card was pulled from my first packs of 2020, and it was just a surprise because I have never pulled an advanced stat card like this ever, and it was so cool to pull one from one of my 2 favorite teams. 

Favorite card of a favorite player- 1994 Stadium Club Rafael Bournigal 

While technically not in a 2020 pack, since I did the majority of them from 2020 product, I figured I’d let this one slide. I purchased a box of ‘94 Stadium Club that I was imagining opening with my 4 year old son and adding the cards to my collection after we were done. My wife thought we were opening the cards and they were going in my sons collection. It didn’t matter because eventually, my cards are probably going to go to him anyways. A few packs in, my kid pulls a Rafael Bournigal. I met Raffy in person, and he is one of my favorite players ever. My wife told me that any doubles from the box were fair game, and sure enough, about 10 packs later, my son pulled a Raffy for me. 

Next are cards from online purchases. These won't have any pictures, but you will see them once my COMC order gets here sometime in March of next year.

Favorite card- this could change at any moment, but I guess I’ll go with a 2001 Topps Prospects Josh Hamilton. I have just about every other version of this card, but the regular Topps one. It was the one card keeping me from finishing the 2001 Topps Rays set, and once COMC delivers it in March, it will be mine. 

Favorite Memorabilia card- 2020 UD Goodwin Champions Casey Mize

I’ve been wanting an autograph of jersey of Mize since he was with Auburn and got drafted #1. After a few years, I finally got one. 

Autographed card- 2018 Bowman’s Best Best of 2018 autographs Logan Gilbert

One of the guys who led Stetson University’s ‘17-‘18 team to the College World Series, I have been collecting him since then. Not a big name, but a cool looking card, and he does have upside

Card from a favorite team- 2005 Donruss Champions Materials Bobby Higginson bat. Higginson was a nice guy during his tenure with Detroit. Always signed autographs even when he was a big name. I had a bat card of him since 2003 or so, he signed it during spring training one year, but I ended up selling with with my autographed cards. I don’t have another autograph of him, but I got the bat card back. 

Card of a favorite player- 2013 Leaf Trinity Patch Autograph Kohl Stewart 

Kohl is a Type 1 diabetic and one of my newest favorite players. This patch/autograph combo was pretty cheap, and a great addition to my collection of him, which is only 3 cards deep including this one. 

Next are cards from card shops/shows. I didn't go to any shows this year, so these are just purchases from my LCS in 2020.

Favorite card- 2020 Topps Chrome X-Fractor Randy Arozarena. 

It’s a refractor, a card of a hot rookie, it only cost me 2 quarters, and the only way it could’ve been better is if it pictured him as a Ray. 

Favorite memorabilia card- 2002 SP Legendary Bat Don Baylor

The Kaz Sasaki Jersey card I pulled from one of the 4 dollar foil packs was nice, but I don’t care for cards that open like books, so Don Baylor (an excellent player, manager, and hitting coach) gets the nod

Autographed card- 2020 Donruss Signature Series Adbert Alzolay

The other autographed card I pulled from a pack this year, it is still a cool card, and who knows how he will do in the future. 

Card from a favorite team- 2020 Donruss Optic Lime Green Randy Arozarena

This card has everything except for a logo, but a card of Randy A. that is a parallel, pictures him as a Ray (or in Rays colors), and one that I basically stole from my LCS at 50 cents is a runaway winner for me. 

Card of a Favorite Player-1991 Line Drive Basilio Cabrera

I found a few cards of favorite players at my LCS, but Cabrera only has minor league cards, so finding one of his at my LCS that is only a year and a half old with limited selection was like finding a needle in a haystack. 

That about covers all of my favorite cards from 2020. Hopefully 2021 will offer us all some great cards, the ability to get cards from retail stores without the cards being double-printed. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

Cards from Angels in Order and finishing the 1992 Topps Traded set

A few days ago, I got some cards in the mail from Tom of  Angels in Order fame.  I sent him some cards around the same time after he initiated the swap.  

Now that I have complete my Topps Rays run, I think I’ll be getting more Upper Deck and parallel Topps flagship/Heritage/non flagship Topps brands in trades, and I’m cool with that.  It would be cool to nail down all of the Upper Deck sets (‘98-‘10) as well. 

Tom helped with the Upper Deck sets as his envelope contained cards from 4 different UD base sets as well as some sets like UD Choice and MVP.  All of these cards are needs and will headed into my Rays binders sometime in March when I get my cards from COMC.  Thanks Tom for the great cards!

 Today I finally finished the 1992 Topps Traded set, making a dream a reality. 5-6 years ago, I came across some custom cards on a blog, and I was fascinated with the idea of creating cards that Topps missed out on. I was a huge fan of the 1992 Topps set, as it was the first set I remember purchasing with my own money. At one point, I had tried to get the entire 792 card set autographed, getting over 500 done. I questioned whether a complete set of missing cards could be possible to be made, and I wondered if backs could be possible. I succeeded with the regular set a few years ago, and while making Traded checklists for each set, I did the 1992 one, not really expecting to work on it. After finishing the '93 set earlier this year, I decided to go after the 1992 Traded set, hoping to get it done by the end of this year. I started going after it pretty hard core during free time on off days, and today, I am happy to say that it is finished. That means that anyone who played a game in the 1991 and 1992 seasons has a 1992 Topps card picturing them with the correct team (either in Topps's main sets, or one of mine). Here is a link to my 1992 Topps behemoth. Here are some of my favorite cards from the Traded set.

Steve Lyons Braves, one of 3 Steve Lyons cards in the Traded set (4 if you include the main set as well)

Steve Lyons card #2

Jeff Kent's rookie, one of 2 in the Traded set (since he was acquired from the Blue Jays in '92)

Tim Salmon rookie (this card would've been RED HOT in 1993!)

Kirk Gibson (from a picture I took in Spring Training in 1992). 

Billy Hatcher that I liked the photo of

John Wathan (I searched far and wide for a photo of John Wathan in an Angels uniform from 1992, finding nothing. When I finally searched 'California Angels 1992 team photo', I came upon a photo from a fight they had against Seattle, with Wathan, albeit not facing forward, right there)

Jackie Brown (note the Donruss logo on the scoreboard)

Mike Fetters acting crazy

Steve Lyons #3

Jose Canseco (a HUGE traded card that missed making the Traded set because he was traded so late in the season)

David Cone (see Canseco reason)

And finally, another Jeff Kent rookie.

This set was fun, but I really don't want to ever make a set with backs again. This took probably 3 times the amout of time as a normal set has. I'll be glad to make regular front-only sets from now on. I believe I'll start on the 1994 & 1998 Topps Traded sets as my main sets, while working on the 1986 set to help the ARAIG guys.

I eventually want to get the Traded sets done and work on the ‘91 Topps main/Traded sets. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy 

I stuck it to the flippers!

 Today, I used up the 2nd to last of my vacation days. Would've loved to have spent it with my wife and son traveling somewhere, but life just got crazy, and the responsibilities with both of our jobs didn't allow for it to work out. Here's hoping for 2021. I basically have today and tomorrow to myself, and I thought it the perfect time to grab my mask and head to my LCS. There have been 3 monster boxes I have been wanting to go through, and they didn't disappoint. 

While I haven't been able to find a steady supply of cards in retail places, the first monster box had a good amount of 2020 Topps Series 1, 2, and a tad of Update and Chrome. I was hoping to find some Randy Arozarena cards and some Tigers to finish up the 2020 set. 

While I'm not much of a flipper, I think they would be proud of me, as all of the following cards were found in a 50 cent box. I never thought Raines should've been in the Hall of Fame, but a rookie of him for 2 quarters still seems like a steal. There were a few each of the Benintendi, Tucker, Swanson, and Riley rookies in the boxes, and I figure I got my money's worth with each of them. I struck gold with Randy A., as I found copies of his 2020 Bowman, Optic, Optic Lime Green, and Topps Chrome X-Fractor card. Pretty sure I dug out the only cards of his in the boxes. It's kind went all downhill with the Rays after Game 6 of the World Series. Charlie Morton is gone, Blake Snell might be traded, Wander Franco is being examined for an injury, and now Arozarena is being investigated for a domestic incident. I think he should serve whatever punishment he gets if he is indeed guilty of anything. It just sucks that the Rays were so close and perhaps 1-2 big free agents from competing again in 2021, and now I doubt they will make the playoffs. They do have a decent pitching staff, but many of them are rookies. Speaking of rookies, I didn't have any Forrest Whitley cards, and I hear a lot about him, so I picked up his Update insert. 

I almost finished my 2020 Topps Tigers set. I'll get to the '85 Topps Traded Tiffany Walt Terrell in a minute. The '15 Bowman Cam Gibson is my first card of his, as is the 2019 and 2020 Bowman Riley Greene's. I liked the shimmer on the Prizm Spencer Turnbull, so I picked it up. The Joe Jimenez card is a Advanced Stat card, and I only knew this by looking at the back and spotting the serial number. Too bad, too, because I didn't find the base version of the card, and I needed it for my set. It's kind of funny, because I pulled a Niko Goodrum Advanced Stat card in Series 1, so I now have 2 of the cards for the Tigers team set out of a pretty difficult set to complete. 

The Casey Mize and Kohl Stewart cards will go into thier parts of my Favorite Player Collection binder. The Vogelbach is a Negative Refractor (or maybe Sepia?), but if P-Town Tom needs it, it is yours. Otherwise, I'll add it to my Refractor binder. 

They have these stacks of cards wrapped in foil at the shop that feature either a relic or autographed card in it, and they are all 4 bucks. I dropped the 4 greenbacks needed to get one, and it must've been a hot pack or something, because I've only opened packs with this many hits in weird dreams. The first card out was a Adbert Alzolay autograph, and the next 3 were the Purple Refractor, Chrome, and Red Border Heritage cards of Hosmer and Shelby Miller. After that, I had the Tim Olson numbered rookie and the Shilling (which happened to be a card serial numbered to 100). It dropped down to earth after that with 3 '85 Topps Traded Tiffany cards (including the Terrell) and a few other random cards, and then got kicking again with the Benintendi, the Kerry Wood '98 Gold Label rookie, the Dominic Smith rookie, and relic cards of Eric Chavez and Don Baylor. I don't know about you, but I think for just under 16 bucks for 4 Randy A. cards, a few '15 Bowman rookies, an Advanced Stat parallel, some Tigers for my sets, a Tim Raines rookie, a few parallel cards, an autographed card, and 2 relic cards, I certainly beat the flippers today. 

My LCS is kind of strange. The only other one I frequented growing up was pretty fair with prices, they had dime boxes, and a huge selection. This one is less than 2 years old, has some cards, but mainly tries to sell replica rings, autographed stuff, and crap that I'm not interested in. They have a few newer packs for sale, but the prices are very high, like 7.50 for a pack of '20 Opening Day. They said they will have 2021 Topps in, but I'm scared to ask how much. They seem to know their stuff on big name cards/players, but I just can't get a read on really how much they know. They had a 2020 Topps Update Randy A. card for 15 bucks, but then I got his Bowman, Optic, an Optic parallel, and the X-Fractor for 2 bucks. Maybe they just don't have time to dig through everything they get in card-wise? It may have took some time to dig through 3 monster boxes, but I'll keep doing it if I can get cards I want for less than market value.

I had mentioned in my last post how I was getting some cards together to sent out, and I'm happy to mention that today I mailed out 3 bubble mailers and 2 PWE's. I wish I would've waited to send them out until I scoured the boxes at the card shop, but I promise I will do that next time and try to help guys I trade with out. I was surprised at what they had, so next time I will be ready. I still hope whoever gets packages from me is happy. They should be there around Monday.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

Left to my own devices

 My wife was at Target today while I was at work, and she found a hanging box of Update, and got it for me. I have whined a little about Update, but when you're starved for opening packs like most of us have been lately, I was happy for the chance at some new cards. 

One of the cards was of Reds lst Baseman Matt Davidson. What I first noticed about the card was just how the photo looked like a posed shot that almost looked like the background was photoshopped and reminded me of an 8 by 10 that would be sold at a team souvenier store. 

The second thing that I noticed is that he is wearing a smart watch in the photo. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is the first card ever showing someone wearing a smart watch. Has anyone else noticed a smart watch on another card?

This kind of got me thinking about other kinds of technology and devices on cards. I know there have been cellphones on cards ever since the '90's, and that Rob Murphy's '90 Upper Deck card even pictures him on a laptop, but the card that really stood out to me was Jason Johnson's 2006 Topps Heritage card. 

Jason is on my Favorite Player List because both of us are Type 1 Diabetics. I'll try to keep it short, but I do want to explain in short what treatment options a Type 1 has (and if you want to know more about the disease, the last link has some). In order to live with diabetes, both me, Jason, and all other Type 1's need to take injections of insulin in order to help get our blood glucose level in a normal range of 80-150 mg/dl. Some people choose to use shots, and ever since the early/mid '90's, there has been another way to get insulin. A person without diabetes has a pancreas that produces insulin and makes more when you eat food and the blood glucose level goes higher. A diabetic has to check their blood glucose level constantly, and eat food if it is low, and give the correct amout of insulin when it is low. There are different types of insulin, some types that work slower to keep the sugar from raising while resting or sleeping due to inactivity, and other types that are faster acting and help sugars not to get too high immediately after eating. People on shots usually take a slow acting insulin twice a day, and fast acting insulin before they eat. Depending on how many times you eat a day, that can be a ton of shots. In the early '90's, insulin pumps have become popular. It is basically a device that looks like a pager, and holds a few days worth of fast acting insulin. There is a small tube coming from it that is attatched to you via a small injection site that stays in you for up to 5 days. The device is programmable, and it injects insulin in you throughout the day (similar to a long acting insulin), and is also able to give you insulin when you eat and your glucose level is too high. During the last 10 years, a device has come out that can be attatched to you for 5 days like my insulin pump site, and the device measures the glucose level in the top of the fat cells, and is wirelessly transmitted to your insulin pump, and if your sugar goes above where you want it, it will give you enough insulin to get it at a good level again. It does wonders for Type 1's. 

*Update* Here is a picture of my pump. 

Back to the Johnson card, I never realized it, but I was looking through my cards of Jason a while ago, and looked to see if I could spot his pump, and sure enough, just above his glove on the '06 Heritage card, is a black rectangle, which I easily knew was his pump. You can get a real good view of it on his 2004 Topps card, which I think will end up going on my Top 12 list soon. 
The '06 Heritage card will always hold a special place in my heart, and I'm stoked that I found the '20 Update Davidson card, and hope it becomes a card on bloggers want lists, just like the '72 Topps Billy Martin middle finger card, the '93 Upper Deck Mike Perez card, and the 1997 Collector's Choice Omar Vizquel card. 

I also wanted to give a shout out to the bloggers out there who did posts showing what they were thankful for. This year, for me, I'm not going to lie. A ton of it sucked. People went crazy at the store during the start of the pandemic, and I'm still scared I'm going to catch it from a careless customer or co-worker and pass it on to my immune-compromised wife. We have seen a shortage of card product on shelves, and tons of small businesses (like card shops) have closed.

But with all of the crap, there still are things to be thankful for. I still have a job, and will probably come out better financially than the year before due to more overtime and our company giving us gift certificates to the store every month or so. My wife has had 2 surgeries recently, and although they are always challenging and sometimes require me to fulfill the role of parent and guy who cooks/cleans, I think we may have found one of the problems with the excess cerebral spinal fluid, and perhaps we can get it at a level that won't give her the constant nausea and headaches. While there hasn't been much card product on the shelves, I have opened hanging boxes of Donruss, Topps Series 1, 2, Update, Heritage, Stadium Club, Opening Day, and Big League. Not the volume of a normal year, but just about the same number of products as usual. My LCS has also stayed open. Also during this crazy year, my 4-year old son has got into opening packs. When going up to Gainesville for appointments/surgeries, we've found packs of 2020 Topps MLB Stickers, so I got the book, and probably about 20 packs, and he's enjoyed opening the packs and putting them into the book. I might have to make a wantlist for that pretty soon. My wife and I stumbled upon the Nat. Geo. Wild channel a few months back, and have watched some of their zoo documentary programs, and our family has been hooked. We love the one about the Columbus Zoo and the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa (one we've actually been to). It's cool learning about the different types of animals and how the zoos are trying to breed animals and how they are cared for. 

I really hope 2021 will be better for everyone, but even if not, we'll always have stuff to be thankful for. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy