Trade with Crocodile Sports Cards

 A few weeks ago, Greg from Crocodile Sports Cards reached out to me about making a trade. He had a bunch of 1982 cards for my set completion, and I had some newer Chrome and Heritage Twins that he could use. 

I received the cards from Greg today, and since I was off work today, was able to add them into TCDB and cross the off of my physical wantlist as well as get a bunch of other card stuff done. 

Greg sent a huge stack of probably 150-200 cards and got me around to only needing 200 or so to finish the set. Back in the late 2000’s I was living in Lakeland, FL, and my LCS came upon a box of 1982 Topps rack packs. I probably got close to 10 of them trying to hit the Ripken rookie. Never did. It did, however, give me a good portion of the set, including the few other key rookies in the set (George Bell, Jesse Barfield, Kent Hrbek) besides the Ripken. With Greg’s ‘82 lot, the finish line is a lot closer. 

Some of my favorite cards from the stack were who you probably expected, the big names. Tom Seaver, Harold Baines, and base and subset versions of Rod Carew and Fred Lynn. The Gorman Thomas was a cool photo. I’ve always been a fan of Bob Boone. Got his autograph a number of times at spring training games when he was manager of those hapless late ‘90’s Royals teams. With the HOF getting watered down with Jim Kaat, Alan Trammell, and the aforementioned Baines, people should give a longer look at Darrell Evans. 414 HRs, a HR crown, decent number of walks every year. If you let Ron Santo, Gil Hodges, and Jim Rice in, you have to at least take a look at Evans. Mauer got in first ballot with fairly pedestrian number compared to positions other than catcher and was aided mainly by a couple of batting titles, an MVP, and a weak class of catchers to be compared to. I never thought Ted Simmons was a Hall of Famer, and when you stack up Mauer next to him, of course he’s going to be first ballot. 

Back to the cards, a card of the 3rd manager in Rays history and a guy I would actually vote into the Hall (based on his manager credentials mainly). Another Hall of Famer who I feel is in the bottom tier compared to many other HoF outfielders in Winfield. As much as it hurts me as a Tigers fan to say, I think that Jack Morris shouldn’t be in the Hall except for his postseason performances. His career stats are so close, but just not enough without the 4 titles. That card gets me a few away from a 1982 Tigers team set. The next 2 are no-doubt Hall of Famers with Carlton and Ryan. That also helped me finish the Highlights subset. Fernando and Barker aren’t close to being in the Hall but were solid pitchers who both threw no-hitters. 

Remember when I said I never pulled the Ripken rookie?  Well now I have one. Greg told me he had a spare with some condition flaws and that he would include it for cards to be named later. This card is easily the top one of the trade and the best card I’ve acquired in 2024. 

With the toughest card in the set gone, the 219 cards I need to complete the set should be a breeze. There are a few Hall of Famers needed, but most are just stats and commons. The toughest card might be a Lee Smith rookie, but last I checked, the only Hall of Fame reliever with an expensive rookie is Yoda Rivera. Next toughest card is a Dave Stewart rookie, so the 1982 Topps set might be finish-able this year. 

In my Ultimate Topps project, I’ve opted to go with non-mint cards and even reprints to help cut the costs down and get me close to realistically finishing the dream. In 2001, I pulled a 2001 Topps Traded ‘82 Traded Ripken reprint, so all of my 1982 Ripken are finished. As long as the reprints have the correct front and back (which this one does), I don’t care. How do you think I’ve knocked the ‘52 Mantle off of the list so quickly? There are my ‘82 Ripkens next to each other. If only I had kept the autograph I got from him at a Rays game in 2001 to go with it. I believe I have a bat card of him, so that will have to do for now. Thanks, Greg, for getting me close to finishing the 1982 Topps set and for the great trade. 

Earlier I mentioned I had a productive card day, and I wasn’t lying. Besides getting the 1982s updated, I finished uploading my Nats binders to TCDB, and I finished off the first binder of the Rat-Birds (Orioles). I know a bunch of Rays fans who are Yankee haters first, and their second worst team is usually the Red Sox. I actually enjoy the Sox, as they are the anti-Yankees, and with all of the antics last season with the Homer bong and them stealing the division against a decimated Rays pitching staff, my #2 least liked team has to be Baltimore. I’ll be happy to get done with the Rat-Birds binders and get on to the next team, which happens to be Boston. With the Nats being done, that means basically all of my National League cards are logged into the site, save for big name rookie cards, highlight cards, various parallel cards, jersey/bats cards, and any special cards. If you count the total by binders, I have 41 left, give or take 1 or 2, as I have most of my Yankee$ cards not in binders but in boxes. I’m at 76,557 cards according to TCDB, but that number is off a little, as somehow I have an extra 1992 Topps set added, and an extra 1994 Topps set as well as variations added to the site. Not sure how to quickly fix those issues, but I figure at some point I will pass 100,000 cards and maybe finish close to 150,000 when I log in everything. Once that happens, everything is open and I’ll be a trading whore. Start getting your lists ready and I’ll try to help you finish your obscure Pacific sets or your Allen & Ginter inserts or hook you up with Heritage SPs. Just give me some Topps cards I need and we’ll get a trade going. I’m aiming for June or so to finish the project. Or if you are patient with me and lucky enough to do a trade for cards from a team and not sets (like Greg was with this one), I can just look through my binders and boxes and try to find stuff. TCDB just makes it quicker and easier with sets to see what I need, and with not all my cards uploaded, it’s just a process to look through a team binder for a set that I may or may not have in that binder. I really like TCDB, and although it has quirks, I will continue to use it as long as it is available, and eventually I’ll probably purchase one of their t-shirts. 

Tomorrow is going to be a fun day. In the late ‘90’s, our youth group would go to Rock the Universe just about every summer. It is a concert series at Universal Studios theme park in Orlando. 10 or so Christian bands come and perform each day on a Friday and Saturday. I’ve been to about 5 or 6, and we’re going back with our church band tomorrow. I have many great memories from past ones. Seeing MuteMath (one of my all-time favorite bands) perform for the first time live in 2005, getting a set list from Toby Mac and getting his autograph on it another time, meeting Tiffany of Plumb in the middle of the park and getting her to sign a CD. My favorite memory was when I somehow stumbled into what must’ve been an unannounced meet and greet event towards the front of the park one year. I went on some ride, and saw there was a door at the end of it that led somewhere. I followed it, and there was a room with people waiting. I asked, and they said Out of Eden was going to do a question and answer session. Soon, we went into another room, which had chairs and a stage, and they answered questions for like 20 minutes, and signed a CD booklet for me after. I went back around, and saw Raze, a techno band. They signed a poster for me, and the last one was a real great one. When I went in the room the last time, it was none other than the Newsboys, the headliner of the night. I got the whole band besides their guitarist Jody to sign a poster which is hanging up in my man-cave. Lead singer Peter Furler have a great observation when he said that music is so creative. He said there have been millions of songs written since the beginning of time, and you can take them all and put them in the same key, and while many of the chord progressions could be the same, that the melodies aren’t and that more songs will be written and there still won’t be one that is a repeat and that it just shows the creativity and genius of God. While I don’t know if I will stumble into a meet and greet session, I’m still going to have a good time (although my focus and energy will be different as an adult than as a teenager). In the ‘90’s, I was hoping to meet a cute girl, get autographs from the bands, and go on rides. This time, I’ll be going with my cute wife next to me, I might get something signed if the opportunity arises but will mainly be down with watching the bands and listening to the chord progressions, and I might go on rides but not crazy upside down ones. Maybe I’ll do a review of the night on the next post. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy

2023 Heritage High Number blaster

 While we still have a little over 3 weeks until 2024 Topps drops, I’ve been getting an itch to open some retail. The local Wal-Mart has been bone dry the last few times I’ve been in, but I was off Saturday and we ended up at Target to return an air filter that was the wrong size. I wasn’t expecting too much as it’s mostly basketball and Allen & Ginter lately, but they had blasters of Heritage High Number and Chrome Update. I figured there was more of a chance of new cards with the Heritage High Number, plus Night Owl is collecting it, so why not?

I believe I got a few doubles, but mostly new cards. Night Owl gets first dibs (and you better believe he gets first dibs on any 2024 Heritage cards!!). 

I must’ve picked a partially bad blaster, as I believe I pulled the Casas insert in the last one, as well as the Hank Aaron one on the next photo. No worries, as there are tons of Red Sox collectors to trade with, and I actually need the Aaron because I gave it to John of Johnny’s Trading Spot last time we met up. 

This blaster was a good one for me, as I got 3 more Rays, a Tiger, and 3 guys I collect (deGrom, Gomes, and Profar). After logging my Rays into TCDB, I confirmed my suspicions that I do not have any completed Heritage Rays (or Tigers) team sets. I’m still 4 or 5 SPs short of this years set, but I have most of the base cards, which I’m happy with. I’ve never really been a big Heritage guy anyways. Maybe when the ‘91-‘98 sets come up, I’ll try to go for the set, but I just never got the big deal of the ‘72 and ‘75 designs, probably because I wasn’t born until 1983 and didn’t grow up with those sets. Let’s hope they keep the brand alive until the great ‘90’s designs make an appearance. 

Didn’t really get any big name rookies in this blaster. Maybe the Peraza, but that is a high-number that is earmarked for the great Night Owl (I’ll have to check his wantlist). The other 2 SPs were Wade Miley and Freddy Fermin. 

Those are the SP backs. At some point, I’ll log all of my Heritage SPs from every year into TCDB, and let the vultures go after them. Hopefully they can put dents into a few Topps sets. I have a feeling the next few ones I’ll try to complete will be 1982 (have a number coming in a trade), 2004 (need 1), 1989 (need 3), and 1996 (need like 15). Might just do a bulk order from one of the cheap common sites when our tax refund comes in and see if I can add some sets done. Hopefully I’ll find some difficult ones that won’t be easy to run across later. At any rate, I’ll be able to finish at least a few Topps sets this year no matter what, and hopefully I’ll have some stuff that will help others complete sets or add to a player collection. That’s really what collecting and trading is all about. I wish flippers could buy into that. Packs need to be opened in order for more inserts and base cards to get out into the open, but hoarding boxes and charging over market value for them and driving up prices and grading everything doesn’t help the cause. I hope 2024 is the year that the bubble bursts and cards are so overproduced that they start losing value. One by one the flippers will quit the hobby, there may be a few card shops that are casualties, but then there will be product on the shelves at retail outlets, and it will hopefully be priced decent as companies will want their products to sell. Collectors will be the ones opening the majority of the products and will get more of the cards they want to enjoy in their collections. We can only hope. 

I have some stuff in the mail already, and will have some more out either tomorrow or Tuesday. Some is for bloggers, some are parts of trades on other sites. I’ll hopefully start putting my Expos/Nats into TCDB tomorrow as well. It will be a nice way to relax after a long day at work. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy

Vintage Topps pickups and my Rays rankings

 A few days ago I got an envelope from Kerry of Cards on Cards. He was wanting to get rid of some cards that didn’t fit his collection and I was able to add some vintage cards to my Ultimate Topps Project. 

The Aaron and Marichal Traded are probably my favorites, but you can’t beat a ‘68 Topps pickup or any Detroit Tigers additions. I always wonder if Neil Chrisley is related to Todd Chrisley. I forgot how we started watching the show, but we used to live watching Chrisley Knows Best when it was on and seeing all of the shenanigans the family got into. Thanks for the nice vintage Topps cards, Kerry. 

I finished uploading my Giants cards to TCDB, and instead of finishing up the NL and doing the Nats, I had the itch to see where my Rays numbers stacked up, and I uploaded all 5 of my Rays notebooks. 

According to the site, I am #5 on the Rays list and 6 on the Devil Rays list. I’m sure there are dealers and guys with tons of disposable income who are on the list, so getting #5 and 6 on the list isn’t too shabby. I am also #15 on the Evan Longoria list and 7 on Carl Crawford. Not too bad when I don’t actually collect these guys and have just accumulated cards of them. Next week, I’ll start the Nats and hopefully finish off the NL by the end of the week. 

There probably won’t be much posting until the end of the week as I’m off tomorrow, and then working 5 straight and off next Friday. The next posts should be good ones, as I pulled off a trade for a number of ‘82 Topps cards which will get me close to completing that set, and you never know when we’ll end up at Wal-Mart or Target, and if they have cards stocked, there’s a good chance I’ll pick something up. I better get to bed or I’ll end up sleeping my off day away. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy

2024 Topps Rob Manfred custom

Didn’t get as much time as I needed to work on this one today, but here is the 2024 Topps Rob Manfred custom. I don’t know when it happened, but MS Paint is completely different than what I was used to, with layers and new things that made this take hours to do instead of 45 minutes. The 2024 Topps design is different with the neon stuff. I definitely see elements of 2003 and 2004 with the baseball field and lines across the bottom. Even 2015 with the changing colors on the borders. Like a number of people, I’m not a fan of the neon. The curved lines are a nice change instead of a rectangle or slashes. The team name and logo is kind of redundant. Maybe a position name at the top and a number where the position abbreviation is would’ve worked better. Also, the space at the top right leaves not very much room for a team name like ‘Diamondbacks’. I feel like I’ll enjoy it better than 2023 and the double photo, but not as much as 2022, which was one of the best designs since 2014 and 2015. Before that, 2011 and 2012 were good, and 2006, 2008, and 2009. The only other set in the 2000’s I would consider good was 2001. My favorite stretch was probably from 1991-1998. 

I hope this years set has League Leader cards so we can celebrate the first Rays batting title. The way things are looking, that will be the only positive Rays moment this year. Go Tigers!  If the Rays won’t spend to get over the playoff exit jumps, why should I attend games and root for them?  Detroit will have a better shot if their GM (who I don’t think is all that good) will give up his analytic boner and just look at the stats on paper, he will find good players and we all know Detroits ownership will spend. 

As for the guy on the front of the card, I hope he gets caught up in some kind of illegal activity and is ousted before Spring Training. The game could look like a game of cricket combined with a celebrity softball game if Manfraud gets his hands on it fully (don’t forget to have your bets in before the 1st Inning, courtesy of DraftKings, Fanatics, and famous breaker BreakFlipThenGradeHitz4320). 

We’ll see if this post gets my custom at the top of the Google Image searches for 2024 Topps this year. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy
 

2023 Heritage High Number and DeLand Comic Show

 This weekend was just what the doctor ordered after a 3 day stretch at work that the boss made feel like 4 or 5. When I finished my shift on Saturday, Karen and Kyler were at the nearby Target, and I met up with them. They had 2023 Heritage High Numbers blasters so I got one to get a sample. It was a nice pickup which I’ll show later. After getting home, we changed clothes and went for a date at Fords Garage in Daytona, a new restaurant with automobile themes. The food was pretty good. I had a burger which probably ranked in the top 5-10% of burgers I’ve had in my life. I also had a flight of different beers. I’m more of a fruity beer guy with Angry Orchard being my poison of choice. I can’t remember exactly what I had but I got an extra cup as the waitress put the order in wrong. I know 1 was an Angry Orchard, another a My Boy Blue Blueberry ale, one was a pomegranate lager, there was a fruit beer from Persimmon Hollow, a local DeLand brewery, and the last was some kind of sour. 3 out of the 5 I would probably have again, those being the Angry Orchard, the pomegranate one, and the My Boy Blue. A nice evening, and Sunday was right up there with it. 

We went to church in the morning, and had 4 tricky kind of chordy songs, but I played pretty well, not really messing anything up that I couldn’t play my way out of, and then got home and was able to print out my Ultimate Topps Project wantlist and put it in a folder. 

After that, drove about 10 minutes away to the DeLand Fairgrounds for the 2023 DeLand Comics & Collectibles show. John from Johnny’s Trading Spot was there, so I met up with him and we hung out for a while. There weren’t many tables with baseball cards there, probably between 5-10 out of 40-50. The only table I purchased anything at had a number of vintage cards at 25% off. John was nice enough to get Kyler a Lego set from Fred’s table, a guy whose table he frequents at the Jacksonville show. It was a nice end to a nice weekend. Currently I’m chilling out on the couch for the rest of the night, I’ll have a nice easy day at work tomorrow, and then off again on Tuesday. 

As for the Heritage, I had a number of cards I’ll add to my special binders. Let’s take a look at the blaster. 

It was a little surprising to see big name guys like Kershaw in High Numbers, figuring they would add him to the first series. 

Looks like the Fanatics guys fixed the gaff with the blank flag for LA Angels players, but I swear, American League isn’t much better. Why can’t they just put Los Angeles or LA/Anaheim or something similar?  In my first pack, I pulled the Judge/Maris card, but I don’t know if it is an unannounced SP or what. More on that later. This blaster delivered for me on players I collect, teams I collect, and rookies. Nick Fortes is one of the newest guys I collect, a DeLand native who we met last year at a Marlins/Nats game in DC. Taillon lived in Lakeland, FL (where I grew up and lived for almost 20 years), and marks one of the first times I’ve pulled a jersey card of a player I collect. The Toussaint stamp insert was a surprise as I didn’t even remember he was with them, and certainly didn’t do impressively with them, only going 4-6. I guess the Sox didn’t have many players left to choose from, so I’ll take it. Next up are 4 Rays for the team set. Not sure how close I am to finishing it, but whenever I put the Rays on TCDB, I’ll know for sure. I pulled a card of the guy who will probably be their starting SS in 2024 in Caballero. If I were the owner/GM, I would just sign Matt Chapman to play 3B and slide Isaac Peraza to Short. Why have a good field/no hit SS replacing a great hit/decent field one? The Tristan Casas cards are nice pickups as I hope he does well for Boston. 

SWEET YANKEE$ MOJO HITTZ!!!!!!!! I could’ve swore that Volpe had a RC in the first installation of Heritage, but even if he did, I have one base one from High Numbers and a Chrome Refractor numbered to 374. The 2 SPs are #d 715 and 719 and are Night Owl’s if he is collecting the set. I was surprised that the set only goes from 501-725, as I figured the SPs would be at least 50-100 cards, but apparently there are only 25 cards for collectors to spend every last penny to get chase. 

Here are some backs. There is the back to the Judge/Maris card I mentioned earlier. Why is it card #100 if High Number is cards #501-725?  Was card 100 missing from the first edition?  I don’t believe I pulled it earlier and I just don’t know why it would be issued in High number packs if it wasn’t some kind of correction or something. The Volpe refractor back, and 2 SPs are the other cards. 

Let me go off path before I get to the show pickups. I recently watched a video on YouTube where the breaker on the channel theorized that 2024 Topps Series 1 would be delayed until March or April and gave reasons why. After getting the Heritage blaster I can understand why. The guy mentioned the 2023 Stadium Club product was delayed due to printing issues like blank backs. With the Series 1 Heritage Judge/Maris card getting into the High Number pack and the issues with Stadium Club and other issues getting delayed, I could totally see it. No reason not to have a design mock up, but hopefully they can get the qc issues fixed. 

The show cards were a mix of cards from 1958-1976. There was also a 1975 Topps Nolan Ryan record breaker card I somehow didn’t get in the picture. I felt like I got a decent deal on it, but John, the expert at getting a deal thought I could’ve done a little better. I was still happy with the cards I got and was happy to be leaving with cards. I didn’t really have enough cards to use my wantlist folder at the show, but I marked them out at home. Next time I am at a decent show or a big card shop, I’m sure it will pay major dividends. The one table I looked at just had a box of mostly HOFers and I focused on cards I thought I was getting for under their value. The ‘76 Aaron was my 2nd playing career-issued Aaron, as I have his ‘75 as well. The 2nd year Yount was a good deal. I believe the Sparky Anderson is a 2nd year. I was happy to add 4 Tigers to my collection. The ‘69 team set is slowly getting closer to getting done with the McLain Wins leaders card. 

That wraps up the account of a nice weekend. Hopefully next week will. E good and the weekend will be another one like this one. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy

Cards from Dimebox Nick and finishing my wantlist

Back when I first started blogging, I believe Dimebox Nick was one of the first blogs that I started following, and one of the first ones I traded with. We've made a few trades over the years, and its always a pleasure to read his blog. 

Nick recently celebrated a blogging anniversary with 12 years of blogging under his belt, and he held a giveaway. I was able to snag 2 vintage Topps cards for my Ultimate Topps Project, and they arrived in my mailbox a few days ago. 

I'm grateful for any cards I can get for the project no matter the condition, and to be from a legendary blogger and part of an unexpected giveaway makes them even more appreciated. Thanks, Nick for the cool cards, and I wish you many more years blogging and collecting!

 Today I finally finished typing out all of the cards to my Ultimate Topps Project wantlist. As soon as I get some printer ink, I will print them out, and then have a physical copy of my wantlist to bring to shops, shows, etc. that I can use to mark new cards off of and just see if I need a particular card I want with. Much thanks to John of Johnny's Trading Spot for the tips on how to organize the checklist. A number of sets are just a few cards away, and while I have lists up on TCDB, and have tried to put some up here, I'll go ahead and try to link to my Google Docs page so you can access them there. 

Next up, I'll probably be getting back to logging the non-Topps portion of my collection to TCDB. I also will be trying to finish up a custom project I have been working on, and hopefully I will have some news on it once everything is done. It's nice to have the holidays over for a while. I just didn't have time to do anything non work/housekeeping/errand running related since a week or so before Christmas, and I just need it to be slower at work for a while so I can recover and just get back in a routine and work on card stuff a few days a week after work. I was off work today, and although I didn't touch any of my cards, it still was relaxing to get these lists finished, and I hope to start logging my non-Topps Padre$ in the next few days. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

2023 Collecting goals revisited and 2024 goals

 It appears back on January 3 of 2023, I set some collecting goals for 2023. Let's laugh at me and see how unrealistic my goals were.

BIG GOALS

1. Complete a run of Detroit Tigers Topps base cards from 1980-2023 (including Update). 

I wasn't able to do this. I feel like I got a little closer to finishing off some of the sets, and even did finish a few via completing some entire sets, but I know for sure I didn't get the 2 2005 Verlanders. FAIL.

2. Complete a run of Topps sets from 1980-2001 (including Update).

I wasn't able to do this as the process of logging cards into TCDB just took alot longer than I had hoped it would and I never was able to start on digging through common boxes as soon as I had hoped. FAIL. Speaking of TCDB....

3. Log all of my cards into TCDB.

I have logged all of my 'Topps' cards into TCDB, but still have Topps inserts, and all of the other brands to put into the site. I have made progress with it, as the NL is finished except for the Padre$, Giants, and Nationals. After that, the entire AL, and random binders, and my entire collection will be logged into the site. Maybe in 2024. FAIL.

SMALLER GOALS

1. Get the 2023 Topps Rays set.

I accomplished this goal as I got the entire 2023 and Update set. COMPLETE!

2. Finish the 2023 Topps set. 

This goal was also accomplished with the set. COMPLETE!

3. Get the complete 1995 and 1998 Topps set. 

This one was technically not finished, but I did get the '95 set and the '98 Topps Rays Inaugural season set. I'm counting it! COMPLETE!

As far as other goals, my boss is still here, but almost got transferred. If not for a family issue, he would’ve been gone, but the higher ups felt sorry for him and left him here. That issue has basically been resolved, so I’m hoping to have him gone in 2024. Our assistant manager is great and a real team player, so maybe we can get an in store promotion. 

I was able to go to opening day in 2023, but the Rays really disappointed me by not inviting the 1998 team to the game. I’m almost through with them and their penny pinching ways. 

I was able to celebrate my 40th birthday driving between Washington, DC and Alexandria, VA. Not a memorable day of my birthday, but the trip we were on during it was great. Got to see PA for the first time, and Pittsburgh (specifically the drive into it coming out of the tunnel) was amazing!  PNC Park is high up on my list of stadiums visited, and the Nationals had a beautiful stadium as well. Getting to visit 3 MLB stadiums in a year is a good year no matter who you are. 

Karens head issues are still there with headaches sometimes ruining plans but at least we didn’t have any surgeries this year because that opens up the door to seeing other doctors. 

I don’t know if I grew too much as a man this year, but I feel like I’ve learned through various interactions with different people this year that the things my boss accuses me of and ways he says I act are mainly him and his personality and that I actually AM a good baker and I handle criticism well and have things going for me. I still want to figure out a way to be less angry and handle when I get angry better (if you have any tips I would love to hear), and be better about making time for Kyler when he gets home instead of going straight to the cards. 

Card goals for this year 

BIG

1. Complete a Topps run from 1980-1989. 1986-1989 is basically finished, and I have a good chunk of 81 and 82 done. I think this all depends on how much gets uploaded to TCDB and how many trades I can pull off. 

2. Upload the rest of my collection to TCDB. This might get done as almost half of my binders are done. 

3. Get my cards in binders. This could get done once I upload them to TCDB. Might take the remainder of the year once I get them uploaded, but perhaps I can do it. 

SMALL

1. Finish my ‘90’s Topps run. I just need a handful from 1996, so this is pretty doable. 

2. Finish off a the 2002 Topps set. Another pretty easy one as my recent trip to John’s better a number of the set. 

3. Finish the 2021 Topps Update set. Just need David Hale, and I have a feeling it will be at my LCS next time I go. 

Other non-card related goals include seeing a new MLB stadium, visit new states, I would love to move out of Florida and get a little distance from relatives, get better control of my diabetes, maybe get a man-cave, and spend a little less time on my phone. There are many other things I would like to do, but are kind of far off lifetime goals. Getting some of my original songs recorded, get in the Guinness book of World Records, throw a first pitch at a game, be on a real baseball card, travel out of the US, get another pineapple to bloom in my garden, and win the lotto. If I could get just one of those, it would be a win this year. One of two final ones would be to see the Rays or Tigers win a World Series, and to see the Bama and Yankee$ dynasties finally broken up for good. 

I hope to check back periodically and make some progress on these goals this year. I wish you all the best of luck with cards and life in 2024!  

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy