Package from Too many Verlanders

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy