Upper Deck Documentary

 No, don’t let the title fool you. I didn’t get cards from a boring and horribly done set from 2008. I am rather going through some fun Upper Deck rookie subsets and giving my thoughts. 

In 1989, collectors were introduced to the Upper Deck set. Not only were they introduced to the premium set, but they were also introduced to the Star Rookies subset. 

The subset came and went during the 1989-2010 tenure of Upper Deck, really only taking the 2006-2009 seasons off. We were also given rookie subsets like Diamond Debuts and Top Prospects as well. Let’s take a look at the rookie subsets starting with 1989. 

In '89, we were given the Star Rookies subset starting with card #1, Ken Griffey, Jr. it was a decent play on the base design, and the long write up on the back gave you vital info on players who you may not have heard of since they played most of the season in the minors. 1990 was basically the same as 1989. A play off of the base design and more write ups on the back.

1991 gave us 2 subsets, Star Rookies and Top Prospects. I always thought the '91 Top Prospect design looked like a bullseye. I prefered the Star Rookie design just because of the batter in the background.

1992 was the start of the 3 subset rookie design. We had our first Diamond Debut cards. While the Star Rookie and Top Prospect designs were similar, UD kind of helped us distinguish the two by putting one logo on the left, and one on the right, doing the same with the Upper Deck logo, and finishing it off with 3 different color bars to distinguish the 3 sets. Flip the cards over, and aside from color changes and background changes, they are the same cards. 

1993 gave us another dose of 3 rookie subsets (4 if you include Draft Picks). While Star Rookies and Top Prospects were similar designs on the front and backs, Diamond Debuts was totally different. 

1994 gave us designs that had a number of horizontal layouts. If not for the Chris Turner Star Rookie card, I would not have any cards from that subset. I think I enjoy the Diamond Debuts design more. This was the first year that Upper Deck did a 1-per-pack parallel set, and each of these subsets are available in Electric Diamond versions. 

1995 was the last of the 3 subset years, as Top Prospects was the one that wouldn't make it to 1996. If it were me, I feel like the Diamond Debut theme should've been the one to go. I probably favor the Top Prospects design for 1995. For the '95 set, each card came with an Electric Diamond 1-per-pack parallel, and a tougher Electric Diamond Gold parallel, which off of the top of my head was like a 1-36 pack pull.

1996 is probably my favorite Star Rookie design. Diamond Debuts was ok, but I just like the angles and colors of the SR subset. I really love the silver crest with the debut dates. Upper Deck should've ran that element into the ground until 2010. 

The crest appears again in 1997,  as does a ton of gold foil in the Diamond Debut subset. I don't know if any other collectors are like me, but on cards like the Diamond Debut one, I have a bad habit of running my fingers over the foil areas and feeling the different levels of gold foil and regular card surface. Same thing with embossed cards. It tends to make the foil rub off, so I try not to do it very often. The Star Rookie subset for 1997 is almost a 1A as my favorite Star Rookie design of all time. 

From 1998 to the rest of Upper Deck's baseball run, they only had the Star Rookie design, as they did away with the Diamond Debut subset in 1998. I think out of all Upper Deck sets, 1996 and 1998 are my top 2 favorite sets. The Star Rookie design for 1998 is another one that is high up on the list, probably #3 for me. 1999 and 2000 are towards the bottom. Just too much foil and you can't really read anything. 

From 2001-2005, the subset played off of the base design. 2001 and 2002 only got the Star Rookie mention by the team logo and the UD logo. The subset was scrapped from 2006 to 2009, and brought back for the final Upper Deck issue in 2010. The Star Rookie logo appeared where the second player photo would be, and played off of the base design. 

I figured I would go ahead and highlight the Collector's Choice version of Star Rookies, which was Rookie Class cards. The subset appeared in all 6 of the company's issues, from 1994-1999. My favorites in order are 1997, 1998, 1994, 1996, 1995, and 1999. 

1994 has a nice borderless photo with a huge position icon and the Rookie Class logo. I could've used a smaller logo, but it was a nice looking design. 1995 went all weird on us, as most designs in 1995 did. All lower case font, different shapes, random curved writing, and words on top of other words. You should really check out some 1995 subsets. 1996 was almost like a flag design. The name could be hard to read at the top with the small font and the red on blue color. Not bad, but definitely needed improvements. My favorite Rookie Class design was 1997 without a doubt. It almost looked like a picture frame, and my only knock on it is that some of the photos covered up the Rookie Class logo, and they could've maybe done colors that matched the team instead of the weird red color. Still, a great design for a card. It just screams classy and high-end. 1998 was different, but I like what they did with the squares, the debut logo, and the colors. 1999 is just a big mess. Half brown, half black and white. Words written on top of other words. Almost giving us too much information with a player name, team, position, and number, but the number is written over the black position bar, and  you almost can't read it. Maybe the design was the reason why we didn't have a 2000 UD Choice Collector's Choice set. 

And that is a brief history on some fun Upper Deck rookie subsets. Most of the guys appearing on it were flops, but there were some who made it big, like ol' Star Rookie #1, Ken Griffey, Jr. 

There is a lot going on with life right now. Dr. Luzzaro, the surgeon who is going to be doing the mesh surgery on Karen, kind of gave us a plan on how he wants to do things. A few months ago when Karen went to the ER with a weird heart rhythm, the heart Dr. wanted to do an oblation surgery that will correct the abnormal rhythm. That is scheduled for the last week of October. Luzzaro wants to wait a few weeks after the oblation is done because he wants her body to be strong for the mesh surgery, which will require a decent amount of time for recovery. Plus, he doesn't want her heart going crazy during the surgery. We have an appointment with 2 or 3 different doctors in NJ (including Luzzaro) scheduled for September 24-25. I have to try to get those days off from work and will figure out tomorrow if I can. If I do, I'll fly up to NJ with Karen for those appointments, probably just using those 2 days as my normal days off, and possibly taking 1 more in case we can't get a late afternoon flight back. After that, the next thing is the oblation surgery in Daytona for the last week of October, and then going up to NJ to do the mesh surgery maybe mid-November, early December, or just waiting until the new year. It is just rough trying to figure out what days I can take off of work, especially with the holidays coming up. It would be better to get the mesh surgery done this year just so Karen's breathing can get better, but also because I have enough vacation time for it. I can only roll 10 days over into 2026, and I have to start accruing them before I can use more than what I roll over. For the actual mesh surgery, I'll probably have to take 2-3 weeks off, as he wants us to stay in the NJ area in case something goes wrong in the week or 2 after the surgery. There are just alot of dates to remember, things to process, and sometimes I feel overwhelmed. Her blood sugars are still dropping, but she has an appointment with endocrynology in about a week where they will go over blood work and maybe give us some answers. Thats all we want is a few answers. We will get the answers for the heart with the oblation surgery.  Possibly some for the low sugars at the next appointment. The breathing will hopefully get some with the mesh surgery, whenever it will be. The headaches will probably get pushed to the forefront after all of this is done, and who knows, maybe we can get the shunt setting perfect, and things will get to where we can have a somewhat normal life. I heard this song called 'Flowers' by Samantha Ebert a few months ago, and I am the type of person who doesn't cry during a song. I cry at some stuff that makes me emotional, but never during a song. This one did. It had the perfect storm. A great chord progression in the opening with a minor 4 that drew my ears to it. Vocals that made you feel the pain and emotion. Lyrics that made you think. Basically the song is about how she got Lyme disease, and was in such pain that she was bed-bound in the hospital for months. She was down, and saw the flowers that someone had brought her, and realized that flowers have to get rain in order to grow. I've heard that message in a song tons of times before, but this one is the only one that tells the truth almost from God's point of view. 

VERSE 1

Well, blue skies and hillsides feel so far away

And I wrote in my notebook that I've seen better days

than the ones as of late

I can't bear the weight.

The rain won't stop pouring out my windowpane

and I haven't left my bedroom in 76 days

I wish something would change

'cause I'm losing faith.

CHORUS

So I brought it up in a desperate prayer

Lord, why are You keeping me here?

Then He said to me

'Child I'm planting seeds.'

'I'm a good God, and I have a good plan.

So trust that I'm holding a watering can

And someday you'll see that flowers grow in the valley'

VERSE 2

So whatever the reason I'm barely getting by

I'll trust it's a season knowing that you're by my side

every step of the way

and I'll be ok.

CHORUS 2

'Cause I brought it up in a desperate prayer

Lord, why are You keeping me here?

Then He said to me

'Child I'm planting seeds.'

'I'm a good God, and I have a good plan.

So trust that I'm holding a watering can

And someday you'll see that flowers grow in the valley'

VERSE 3

When I'm on the mountain and looking down below

I'll see a valley of flowers that needed time to grow

and I'll thank You for the rain. 

The hurt and days of pain.

CHORUS 3

And I'll bring it up in a grateful prayer.

Thank You, Jesus, for keeping me here.

You know just what I need, and You've planted seeds.

'Cause You're a good God with a real good plan

and You hold my world in a watering can

so I can have peace, 'cause flowers grow in the valley.

Here's the video for it. 

Just an amazing song that makes me cry every time I hear it. I feel like I'm in the valley right now, but I'm holding out hope that one day I will be on the mountain. Sometimes we need that little reminder that things might turn out fine, and that song does that for me.

Enough with the mushy stuff. I got that 1998 Upper Deck lot a few days ago, and it was about what I expected. I cautiously hoped for most of the Eminent Prestige SPs and maybe the Mike Piazza Marlins SP, but of course, the lot was picked through pretty good. I ended up with most of the Star Rookies, most of the Hall of Famers, Rays and Diamondbacks team sets, and a good 70% of the set when added to what I already had, but no SP cards, so I'm stuck with a set that will probably never be complete, but it still was a fun time digging through the cards and finding random guys you remember watching in 1997 and 1998. Unfortunately, Stuart, nothing that you needed for your set, but if I come across any in dime boxes, I'll pull them for you. 

Speaking of dime boxes, does anyone know of any good card shops in NJ, or for that matter, any bloggers I might know of who live there? We will probably be staying in the Toms River area. Should Karen be doing well after the mesh surgery, we might venture off to New York City, or maybe Philadelphia, since we are going to be driving up there. I'm hoping the trip will be a preview of a future road trip we will take, because we will be going through some good cities. Probably Charlotte/Concord, NC where many of Karen's relatives are, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and then New York City is near NJ, so I could knock off Philly, and both NY ballparks should we do a trip next summer. Possibly a mountaintop moment in 2026. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

Hidden Bowman Gems and the FB groups

 It has been a while since my last post. It’s been busy. Karen had the metal stent trial about 3 weeks ago. It seems like it helped her take in more air during the 2 days it was in, and it sounds like the doctor in NJ will proceed with the mesh surgery. She has a video appointment with him on Wednesday. She has had some breathing difficulty the last week. We’re just kind of taking that day by day. 

The real difficulty is her blood sugar levels. They just drop unexpectedly and she get lethargic and we’re just trying to get her to eat and she has difficulty understanding what we are trying to do, and she can eat a huge bowl of pasta with bread, 2 glasses of sweet tea, and fries, and it might get above 130, and 15 minutes later be in the 50s. I’m a Type 1 diabetic, and mine can get in the 50s and I can barely think or make coherent sentences. Karen had a reading of 18 before the last surgery, and one of 24 when she was in recovery. They gave her a few IV bags of glucose and it helped, but sometimes at home, it’s impossible to get her to eat enough and we don’t know what to do. She saw her endocrinologist on Thursday, and she prescribed a continuous glucose monitor for Karen, and they are going to try to find patterns of when the sugars crash and also do some blood work to try to get answers as to how much insulin her body is making and when. I don’t know if that will help anything, but we will see and have a follow up appointment in 2 weeks. She also has a heart oblation surgery scheduled for October to help correct the abnormal rhythm her heart has been having. So while some of these health issues are complicated, at least we have some answers and solutions coming up. 

I’ve been doing a bunch of purchasing on eBay just trying to pick off some of the more difficult rookie singles from Topps sets in the past 10 years or so. I think I knocked out all of the really big ones, as I believe these 5 will be Hall of Famers one day, with Acuna really being the only question mark with his injury history.

The Judge and Betts both came in plain white envelopes with very little protection. If I’m paying 5 dollars shipping for a key card in the set, I need it to come in a bubble mailer with tracking. I left positive feedback, but did mention the fail with the shipping. I feel like the cards I purchased gave me a realistic shot at now completing a Topps run from 1980-2025, as the key rookies are basically done. The only tough rookie cards I see from those years that are on my wantlist are Gerrit Cole, Nolan Arenado, and Christian Yelich from  2013 Update, Xander Bogaerts and  Jose Ramirez from 2014, a Carlos Correia Rookie Debut from 2015 Update , a Matt Chapman rookie and a few random Judge All-Star cards from 2017 Update, and a Rafael Devers from 2018. But to have the Ohtani cards from 2018 crossed off of my list is HUGE!  Same with the Betts card. 

That’s not all of the eBay stuff. I randomly was thinking about the 1991 Bowman set and how fun it was, and decided to see if I could find a cheap set. I found a listing for a 1991 set along with a 1990 set at a decent price, so I bit and now have those 2 sets. 

The set didn’t offer many favorite player additions, and I knew it would t. I was just looking forward to the random names, random minor leaguers, and some of the sleeper rookie cards. The 5 favorite player additions included 2 Brady Anderson cards. 

While not high-dollar rookies, Bowman had a decent crop of rookies in 1991. Guys like Jeromy Burnitz, Eric Karros, Kenny Lofton, Mike Mussina, Tim Salmon, and Jim Thome missed out on 1991 Topps cards, and Chipper Jones and Dan Wilson had draft pick cards in the 1991 Topps sets, but the Bowman cards were more scarce, so they were good pickups in my book. 

I consider myself to be a ‘90’s baseball guru, with 1995-2000 being my strong suit. Tell me a team, year, and position, and I can name the player, along with a few backups. While many of these guys appearing in ‘91 Bowman never made the Majors, most did, and there were 1 or 2 I had never heard of. Out of this page, I had never heard of Carmona or Smith. Funny thing is now I have 2 Willie Smith cards. A few of these guys have 1992 Topps Debut cards and maybe a Stadium Club card and that’s it other than minor league issues. Elvira had a 1991 Upper Deck card. I want to say I recognize Howard from being a replacement player in 1995 for the Padres. Gary Eave is a fun pickup for me. He has a 1990 Donruss card and a 1990 Score card besides the ‘90 Bowman. Do yourself a favor, and if you have a card of him, look up his address on an autograph collecting site, and if he has any recent successes, send him a TTM autograph request. You won’t regret it. 

The other thing I like about 1991 Bowman are the random cards with the gold foil on them. Let’s go to the bottom 3 first. I guess all 3 of these cards you can justify putting in the set as it was the 40th anniversary or the Thomson HR and Reese was celebrating his 75th year in baseball, and as Colin Powell helped the US during the war. Then again, there is no mention of the anniversary of the shot on either the front or back of the card, the last time a coach appeared in a Topps set was 1974, and why Powell but not Norman Schwarzkopf or George Bush? With that being said, all of the random cards with the gold foil are cool and I almost wanted more. 

Now let’s look at the ones on the top. Really zoom in if you want nightmares tonight. I can tell that the hats and uniforms are airbrushed, but are the faces as well? The Tim Howard card on the photo before also looks weird. Others from the same subset look normal, but there is something on those 3 in particular that just don’t look real, and it’s not the airbrushed hats. 

In 2010 or so, I purchased a box of 1990 Bowman from my LCS, and it came with a poster inside of the box. It is hanging up in my garage along with some random stuff. I’ll have to figure out some way to display the poster along with the complete set box. 

I also had a trade on TCDB that gave me a collecting milestone. I traded some Heritage Tigers for a ‘61 Topps Charlie Maxwell, a ‘62 Topps Rocky Colavito All-Star, and a 2025 Topps Stars of MLB Corbin Carroll. Why the Carroll, you ask?  I have never completed an insert set to my knowledge. I guess the 1995 Topps Cyberstats Season in Review set counts, but I have never had a desire to finish an insert set. Unfortunately for my wallet, I opened enough packs of 2025 Topps that I was just 3 cards away from finishing the Stars of MLB insert set. From BOTH series!  After a trade a few weeks ago, I was down to the Carroll, so I put it on my wantlist, and got it in the last trade. I probably won’t go after any other insert sets, but complete base sets are another story. 

I’ve kind of been fascinated with mid ‘90’s Upper Deck sets lately. 1996 Upper Deck is a severely underrated set, and so is 1998. Same with 1996-1998 Collectors Choice. I almost want to do a future post on my favorite Star Rookie and Rookie Class subset designs over the years. 

Well, I recently found a cheap ‘96 Collectors Choice set on eBay, and am in the process of a deal on FB to acquire 635 1998 Upper Deck cards. I’m trying to watch the budget for the next week or so, but there is a 1998 Collectors Choice set calling my name on eBay, and if I can find a cheap 1996 Upper Deck set, I might have to jump on it. There are also some decent priced 1996 and 1997 Bowman’s Best sets, so why not jump on them and get some early Rays and Diamondbacks cards as well as some cards of random ‘90’s guys?  

Jafronius asked me about the FB group that I’ve been trading cards on. The first one I joined is called Junk Era- All Sports- Keep it Real- 1980-1998. The group does have a bunch of guys that seem like flippers, but I’ve found some deals on sets and it was where I found the ‘98 Upper Deck lot. The other one with set builders is called Baseball Card Set Builders Unite- Trade Only. I’ve made some trades and have helped people get close to finishing 2025 Topps sets mainly, and helped one guy finish 2 1992 Donruss sets. It’s just more of a flipper free group, and although it probably has some guys that buy out the blasters and are just trying to make sets to sell, since it is a trade only group, you are at least getting cards back and the profit is kept off of the site. I know FB is a cesspool, but these 2 groups make it worth staying on for now. Speaking of FB trading groups, I had the idea to make a trading group where it is more team-based trading. I am trying to compile a group of guys who collect certain teams with the hopes of having every team represented, so when members get a pesky Marlins refractor or another darn Jeter card they don’t want that they can go on the group and trade with someone who actually collects those teams. If you feel so inclined, please join the group and post what teams you collect and what you want to get rid of, and maybe we can help other collectors out and find out exactly who collects the Marlins, White Sox, and Royals. 

I hope everyone has a good Labor Day, and if you do end up having to work, try to give it just 70 % instead of 100. Remember, if you give 40%, but all you have to give is 40%, you gave 100%. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy

Trying to complete some sets

 I’ve been on a FB complete set builder group, and let me tell you, although the internet can be loaded with D-bags and flippers, there are still some good people out there who just care about completing sets and helping others out. I have seen some guys on the group who you can tell probably buy Target out of blasters who are trying to complete ‘Master sets’ and are mainly looking for inserts, but a majority of them are guys trying to finish out 2025 Topps sets and are missing the same 10-20 cards that I am because the collation sucks. 

I’ve been doing a lot of trading on that page lately. One trade I gave some 2025 Topps needs and got a 220 card lot of Rays. I had a ton of dupes, which is bound to happen being 12 cards short of the #5 Tampa Bay Rays collector on TCDB, but I got cards from sets I never had, like 2022 Topps Pristine. 

Another guy needed some random sets like 2016 Topps Chrome, 2007 Topps Heritage, and some older sets I had tons of dupes of, like ‘93 and ‘94 Topps. I sent him a good 500 count box of needs and got back a box almost as big with Topps needs ranging from 2010 to 2018. 

I got a pretty big stack of all Topps needs, and it darn near took the whole afternoon to mark them off of my paper list, computer kist, and TCDB list. 

I am darn near completing a few Topps sets from that era now, including 1998 Topps (just a John Smoltz card), 2005 Topps (Jermaine Dye), 2016 Topps Update (Robert Stephenson),2001 Topps Traded, (a 1976 Topps Traded Willie Randolph which I will accept either the reprint or the original), 2007 Topps Update (Scott Baker), 2002 Topps (Shane Reynolds), 2007 Topps (Vinny Rottino), 2005 Topps (2002 Topps Update (just a Brian Hunter SP and Eric Cyr), 2003 Topps (Carlos Pena, Mike Hampton, Jeff Kent All-Star), 2018 Topps (12 cards), 2017 Topps (42 cards), 2010 Topps Update (20 cards), 2018 Topps Update (22 cards), and 2015 Topps (55 cards).  The ‘18 Update might be tricky, as I need an Ohtani Rookie Debut and the Acuna Rookie Debut, but if I can be patient, I can probably get the Ohtani for 20 bucks or so, and the Acuna is surprisingly around 5 bucks. So all those sets are at 90% complete or more. Most of the ones missing fewer than 5 are just due to my stupidity when placing my SportLots order. I may just due a big order at some point in the next few months and try to complete some of these. I am excited that I have got so close to completing some of these Topps sets, and I can now realistically see having a complete run of Topps and Topps Update sets from 2016 to now, which will give me a run of sets for every year my son has been alive. If I really worked at it and spent a little dough and time on SportLots, I could probably fill in the holes from 2003-2015 as well. I have a few years complete in that gap as well, including (almost) 2005-2007. 2008 just needs a complete Update set, so really the only set I’m seeing that is surprisingly expensive is 2014. If I can get it for 40 or 50 bucks, I might bite, but I never see it for under 70-90, and just because it has a Jose Ramirez rookie, I still can’t justify spending that much on it. I’ll get these sets eventually and be looking at a Topps run from 1980 to now. Maybe not this year or next year, but in the next 5 hopefully. (Late Update, I found the 2018 Update Ohtani Rookie Debut for a decent price, so that set has all the toughies knocked out other than the Acuna, which I think I can get for a fiver or so). 

I’ll have 1 more package from a trade coming in this week. I helped a guy finish his 1992 Donruss set, and I have no clue what’s coming back, but I’m sure 👍🏻 I’ll be able to cross some cards off of my Topps wantlist. 

I added links to all of these sets just in case anyone wanted to see what they have and do some trading. As with John from Johnny’s Trading Spot, I’ve been trying to organize some of my dupes in order to make trading easier. I’ve done everything up through 1989, there is a big junk wax gap, and have basically everything from 2021 to 2025 in numerical order. This should make it easier to trade Topps doubles, and I can basically use TCDB for non-Topps stuff. I’ll get the 1990-2020 stuff organized at some point, and I’ll be able to know pretty quick if I can help out anyone in the FB set collectors page, or anywhere else for that matter. 

The part that is circled are the 2021 to 2025 doubles that are in numerical order. The rest of the box is is 2018 or so to 2020 sets that need to be organized. 

I basically have 4 days of work left, and then I’m off Sunday. Karen and I will travel to Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville Sunday afternoon, and she will have the stent trial on Monday, and we’ll see how it does the next few days, and I’ll basically be off the grid until Saturday when I’ll probably be back in DeLand and at work. Hopefully it will improve her breathing and we can get the mesh surgery in the coming weeks after that. I’ll probably take my laptop with me. There is a card shop in Jacksonville that my brother in law likes, but I doubt I’ll have a chance to stop by. I’ll probably make some customs on my laptop, getting to finish the 2007 Topps Rays set, and maybe finishing 2007 Update and getting some 2008 Rays done. I’ll definitely post those on FB and if I can, I’m going to try to print the 1999-2007 missing Rays customs that I’ve done and put them in with the regular set and maybe post them. Hopefully the trip will bring some new customs, a little rest, and most importantly some improvement on Karen’s health and a go-ahead for the mesh surgery.  

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy

I guessed right

 Oftentimes when digging through dime boxes, it comes to a matter of guesswork. Do I have a certain card of a player?  Do I need a regular or Chrome version of a card?  Wantlists can help out immensely with this, but as a team collector of the Rays and Tigers, and a player collector of 50+ guys, it often times comes down to guesswork. A good amount of the time, I guess wrong and end up with some doubles. I’m sure it happens a decent amount of time with team collectors who don’t lug around a phone book sized list. It’s just one of the things card collectors deal with. 

I kind of wanted to go to K n T’s one more time on Tuesday, as it was the last day off before school starts again, and I was able to go, although I had the little one in hand again. He was a little more hyper this time, and I had to remind him not to spin on the chairs and keep his feet on the ground. 

While at the shop, I was able to add some needs to my collection, but not without the doubles. 

While this stack makes it look like my guessing game was off, I can assure you that it wasn’t that bad. Let’s look at the keepers, and I’ll explain why. 

For the favorite players, I was pretty good with the guessing. The Brady Anderson, Rob Ducey, Nick Fortes, Mason Miller, Max Scherzer, and Jonathan Schoop pickups were all guesses. The ‘95 Emotion and Stadium Club cards were hit and miss, with a few new ones making it. Both team sets are 1 card short, I believe. 

The 1998 Upper Deck set is where I struck gold. The set was released in 3 series. I have a good number of series 1 as a friends dad collected it and gave me just about everything from that series that he had that wasn’t an insert. I purchased a few series 2 packs, and maybe 1 series 3 pack, so those were on the thin side in my Tigers binder. Fortunately for me, there were a few chunks of 1998 Upper Deck in the dime boxes the last 3 times I went to the shop, and my 1998 Upper Deck Tigers team set is now complete. I don’t even think that the 1990, 1991, or 1992 UD Tigers sets are complete, so that is a cool accomplishment. The 1998 Upper Deck set is a vastly underrated set. The design is cool, despite sometimes having names and teams being hard to read. All-Stars, retiring players, and rookies all have a circle emblem notating that at the top, and there are some short print Eminent Prestige cards that are somewhat tough (1 in 4 packs), but only 3 of them, so they are attainable. The Manning, Baez, and Rainer were right guesses, as was the Nate Lowe. I have seen the 2019 Topps Update Josh Lowe card enough to know that something was off with the photo of the one in the dime box, and sure enough, I pulled an SP. The last correct guess of the photo was the ‘23 Donruss Kyle Manzardo. I knew I had a parallel, but wasn’t sure if I had the base version. 

The first part of this group had some good guesses, and some bad ones. I could’ve sworn I had the ‘24 Chrome Curtis Mead, but I didn’t. The ‘23 Jonathan Aranda was a dupe, but the way he has performed this year, I’m happy to add it to my rookie card binder. I swear I picked up a Chrome of the Colt Keith Rookie Debut card and that TCDB said I needed the base Chrome, but I remember picking it up from SportLots. I picked one up, and sure enough, it was a double. I’m still not sure what the Chrome card I need of Keith. Perhaps a parallel?

The best guessing came with 1999 Stadium Club and some Heritage sets. I had remembered that the 2001 Stadium Club sets had SPs that were draft picks and prospects, but wasn’t sure about 1999, so I took a gamble. Turns out the ‘99 set did, and I netted 3 more. 

The Heritage were the biggest guessing gamble for me. I knew one of the recent years of Heritage had SPs that were numbered 1-100, not 401-500, but wasn’t quite sure. There was a chunk of the 2023 set that had random cards numbered in the 400s and less than 100. I gambled that 2023 had SPs numbered 401-500, and I guessed RIGHT!!  Even picked up a few dupes of SPs. There were only 2 of the 2025 Heritage set that were SPs, but I’m still happy to add 2 more. I also had to guess on some of the high number SP numbers. I wasn’t sure if they started at 700, and saw about 3 copies of 2023 Heritage #700, but didn’t pick it up. I should have, as it was in fact an SP, but maybe the next time I go back it will still be there. I normally don’t go through Heritage stuff unless it’s the beginning of the year and I need Rays and Tigers, so I’m glad I decided to look. The SPs will help me out with some TCDB trades as well as helping out fellow bloggers trying to complete some Heritage sets. 

The last batch involved some bad guesswork. The Mojo refractor was a dupe. I found a stack of 1992 O-Pee-Chee, and dug out the Dodgers and Braves, hoping Night Owl and Johnny’s Trading Spot needed them, and according to their wantlists, I don’t believe they do. Oh well. Not bad cards to pick up for 10 cents. There were 3 pickups of guys who haven’t got much cardboard. Bobby Chouinard only has 5 major cards, a 1996 Bowman’s Best, a 1997 Fleer, 1997 Topps, a 1997 Ultra, and the 1997 Upper Deck I picked up. The next guy, Curt Lyons, stumped me. I followed baseball die hard from around 1996-2011, and you would be hard pressed to find a random player you could tell me about that I hadn’t heard of. I can tell you about Brett Hinchcliffe, Brandon Reed, Stephen Smitherman, Kevin Polcovich, and other random names. But I had never freaking heard of Curt Lyons until picking up his 1997 Upper Deck from a dime box. He has an autograph insert from 1996 Bowman, and 1997 Circa card, a 1997 Metal Universe insert, and the 1997 Upper Deck card. Ron Witmeyer could be a candidate for Night Owl’s 1 card wonders, but I’ll let him be the judge. As far as major brands, he just has the 1992 Stadium Club you see here, and a 1992 Topps MLB Debut card, a random boxed set. Other than that, just minor league cards. 

The only Topps needs I found were the 1977 Rodriguez and 2010 Paulino. I always like 1992 ToppsGold cards, and the Templeton was a need. It is also his sunset card. Joe Randa is always a favorite of mine. Back in 2004 or 2005, he was a free agent, and I had added him on MySpace, and he put out a bulletin saying that he was debating on signing with the Pirates or Yankees. I sent him a message begging him not to go to the evil Yankee$, and he surprisingly messaged me back and told me that he was weighing out options and that he was surprised how strongly I felt about it. I like to think that I helped keep him from signing with the Yankee$ and got him to become a Pirate. 

Chad Mottola is the guy helping the Rays hit .200 and under, and the Rays aren’t planning on firing him anytime soon, so I pick up his cards for potential autographs when I see them. I told Kyler how I got autographs of Sandy Alomar Jr and Sr, so I picked up the 1997 Upper Deck of Junior. Kevin Witt was a nice guy when he was with Detroit. I have a few of his game used bats, so I picked up his ‘99 Fleer Warning Track parallel card. I don’t know how the ‘06 Bowman Gold Miguel Perez card got in my stack, but I’ve seen him play, so I’m cool with it. 

The best part about the trip was that it was only 5 bucks. He would’ve done 10 had I used a card, but I had a crisp 5 dollar bill burning a hole in my wallet, and it served its purpose. That included 1 card from the dollar bin, a 2024 Topps Blue Tyler Glassnow. For all of those SPs, I think I got a deal. Hopefully, I can be as good at the guessing game during the next trip to the shop. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy

Latest K n T trip

 I had a day off on Friday, and I figured it would be the last chance I had to go to K n T’s Sportscards and spend a whole afternoon there before school starts again, so I made the trip to Ormond. I have always went by myself, but Karen convinced me to take Kyler. I knew trying to keep an 8 year old occupied while I dug through dime boxes wasn’t going to be easy, but I figured if I could have him go through stacks and find Tigers and Rays that I could search for favorite players and Topps needs. 

I found a good assortment of stuff, including a few of players that I had never heard of that appeared in majors sets. I figured, why not, they weren’t going to break the bank. The Mike Linskey was one of those, as was the ‘93 Team Stadium Club Brian Deak. The Nolan Ryan’s before the Deak cars were ones Kyler picked. He has been hung up on Ryan after hearing he threw the world’s fastest pitch, and has also been hung up on Honus Wagner and his famous tobacco card after hearing about it. I might have to find a cheap reprint of it. 

The ‘94 Team Stadium Club Tyler Houston is one of the few cards of him as a Brave. Kind of weird that he was a #1 pick of them, was with them up through 1996 (when they were just starting to field good teams and appeared on tons of cardboard), and still has very few Braves cards in major sets. Just a 1990 Score and Topps Draft Pick card, 2 Bowmans from 1990 and 1991, the Team Stadium Club card from 1993, and 2 issues from 1996, a Pinnacle Aficionado, and a Score Summit card. Just strange for a prospect from a popular team to have been in the organization for 7 years and only have 7 cards during the overproduction era. The ‘95 Emotion cards were nice finds, as was the ‘95 UD Minors Daron Kirkreit. My friend Jim (who I’ve mentioned in a few posts) was getting rehab on his knee a few years ago, and happened to have Daron as his therapist. He asked me if I had any cards, and I had a Fleer Excel minors card, so I gave it to Jim, and he got it signed for me the next time he went in for exercises. The Stadium Club SP of Pat Rapp comes from the 1996 set. It was one of the first base sets in the modern era to feature SPs. These, I believe, were 1 per pack, and I always try to pick them up when I find them. 

Alex Delgado was another new to me player. Robert Smith was a guy selected by the Rays in the expansion draft, and another Braves prospect with very few Braves cards. Sal Fasano is one of the most friendly players I have ever met. I saw him 3 times over his career. The first 2, which were 2 Spring Training games in 1996, I must’ve got his autograph at least 3 times. I had a 1989 Topps Royals leaders card which he signed for me, and then at each game, I had a baseball, handed it to whichever Royals bullpen guy was signing, and they would pass it around the bullpen and sign it, and I ended up with 2 balls signed by Fasano, who was in the bullpen. Then, when he was with the Yankees and I finally had an actual card of him, I got Sal to sign his 2006 Topps Update card. I sold most of my autographs, and now have about 10 unsigned Fasano cards, but still have the baseballs. I never knew Roberto Hernandez appeared in the 1998 Fleer Diamond Ink program. I’m counting this as a Rays card, as I am the 1998 Stadium Club Bobby Abreu. Many people don’t know that the Rays selected him in the expansion draft and then traded him to the Phillies. I don’t think a photo exists of him as a Ray, but I do have the Stadium Club card with the Rays logo on it. I always love picking up 1998 Diamondbacks cards, and the fact that the Jay Bell I found was from the nice looking 1998 Upper Deck set was even better. The 2005 Bowman Silver Parallel must’ve snuck in the stack. Kyler saw it was serial numbered and I explained to him it was a different color, and I don’t think it made it back in the dime box. 

Now we switch to the more modern parts of the dime box dig, and get more Rays and Tigers. I have picked up a ton of Carlos Colmenarez cards from K n T’s over the past year or so, but have rarely heard about him on Rays sites despite him being in so many Bowman inserts. Looking at his stats, he is hitting in the low .200’s in A ball. If he’s a good fielder, he could start next year with the ‘Rays Way’ of valuing defense. I’m just glad that he’s a shortstop and that there are guys that hit better like Carson Williams ahead of him on the depth chart. 1/2 of a season more of Taylor Walls hitting .150!!!!  I picked up a ton of cards of Curtis Mead. He was recently traded away, so I’m hoping I can maybe find some of his Rays cards at a discount. I am disappointed at the Rays and Tigers for not going all in at the trade deadline. The Tigers should’ve traded Max Clark or one of their top prospects for Alcantara, Gallen, or Kelly, and also tried to get Eugenio Suarez and a closer. Charlie Morton should be retired, and the #5 starters and non closers they got for the bullpen are a joke. They deserve to get knocked out in the first round of the playoffs and Scott Harris needs to get fired unless it was an issue with ownership not wanting to pay money. Might be time to start rooting for a team that spends. Garrett Mitchell is the newest addition to my favorite player collection. He is a Type 1 diabetic, which I found out after reading the back of his ‘25 Heritage card. 

I found a ‘25 Topps True Photo variation of Jose Berrios. No clue how rare these are, but I had to pick it up. I only found a few Topps needs, but for a dime, I’ll take ‘70’s Topps cards all day. I also picked up the final 3 cards I needed to finish my 2025 Topps set. I probably shouldn’t have done it by busting blasters, but how would everyone have cards I’ve traded to them lately, and the dupes have also helped me with some trades. More on that shortly. Not sure how I am going to complete the ‘25 Update set, but maybe a hand collated set from eBay would be the best route. 

While I didn’t go to the National, I did pick up a Curtis Mead National Chrome card. Strangely, it has a Bowman back. The Finest ‘93 reimagined insert is neat. Lately, Kyler has been fascinated with the fact that I’ve pulled a Junior Caminero card from just about every blaster Ive purchased. I had to get a few Juniors, and a Chrome rookie insert isn’t a bad one to have. 

I don’t have the best memory like I did when I first started collecting (or maybe just have thousands more cards), so I had a decent stack of dupes at the end of the day. Not a big deal, as I can use them to trade, as well as put in other areas of my collection, such as rookies, parallels, and refractors. When you factor in the fact that out of everything I got that 5 were dollar cards, and I payed 10 bucks for all of those, I think it was a great trip. With an off day on Monday, I might have to see if I can go back. 

Actually, it might be a better idea to leave some time to go to the post office. I’ve found a set builders page on FB, and have made a few trades to help me finish the 2025 Topps set. One netted me a 320 card box of Rays that should arrive tomorrow. I am in the process of trading some Heritage, Chrome, and 2025 Topps extras to a guy on the page for a good stack of 2000’s Topps needs. I may just finish out the 2018 Topps set with what he has for me. I have a 500 ct box of stuff for him, and I need to find out the best way to ship it. There are probably a hundred or so other needs I could include, but then could I ship it in a priority mail flat rate box?  I haven’t done one before, so I have tons of questions. Do you just get it at the post office and load it up with whatever?  Are the boxes free?  Do I have to buy packing peanuts and tape, or can you just use them from the post office for free?  I might just bring the 500 ct box and ask the clerk at the post office tomorrow or Tuesday. However I end up shipping them, I’ll have a box about the same size of goodies coming back, and maybe I’ll finish a set or get very close. 

I’ve never been a huge Ryne Sandberg fan, but always felt he was a top notch player. I pulled his 1994 Topps Gold base card from a pack and thought I was going to retire rich. I was shocked to see that he passed, as I just saw a post from a FB ttm autograph page a few days ago saying that people were getting autographs back but that he included a note saying that he was stopping ttm autographs starting in August. 

I never actually got to meet him, but I was able to get his autograph. I lived in Montgomery, AL from 2006-2009. I moved prior to the minor league season, and Ryne was a coach at West Tennessee in 2009. They came to Montgomery for a game, and my friend Rob got me a ticket signed and sent it to me in Florida. 

I also have a bat relic card of him. I went up to Montgomery in December 2005 in a trip that would change my life. I went up to visit a former college roommate, JT, and some other friends from college. I stayed with JT, wrote a song with him, and that convinced me to move to Montgomery in a few months, allowed me to meet people over the next 3 years that would shape my piano playing, and strengthen my relationship with JT. He eventually became my brother in law when he married my youngest sister, and we still record music as comedy duo ‘The Younger Griffin’ and serious duo ‘Resiliency from Obscurity’. Long story finished, I picked up a jumbo pack of 2005 Topps Update from the card store there, and pulled a Luis Castillo All-Star jersey card, and the Ryno bat card. RIP, Ryno. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy

Trades, eBay, and random other stuff

 Another stretch with no posts for a while, but I think at this point of my life, that might just be the normal and I’m ok with that. While things have been going on during the past moth or so, that doesn't mean I haven't received any cards and stuff.

First off, the things that have kept me busy. It seems that every week at work something goes on sale buy one get one free, and I have just been slap tired when I get home from work. It's taken all I have to get the normal mundane things done around the house like washing clothes, cook dinner, wash the dishes, get the trash out, and other things. 

2 weeks ago, Karen got a call in the morning from a sheriff in North Carolina telling her that her father passed away. It was kind of complicated because she hasn't been really close to him. Her parents split up when she was 2 or 3, and he wasn't big on hanging out with family. I can't blame him because I'm the same way, but he never did the family thing around the holidays, and out of the 4 grandkids he had with Karen's mom, he only saw the oldest once, and never met Kyler. We drove up to NC for a few days, and hung out with some of her family and went to his service at the funeral home. Karen's Uncle Barry had us over to his house to swim one day, and he had a nice music room with one of the best sounding electric acoustic guitars I have ever heard. Barry played drums, and Karen's brother Kevin played that sweet electric acoustic, and I played the nice grand piano that was just outside the music room and we played a few songs together, including 'Lovely Day' and some other song I had heard before, but couldn't tell you the name of. The progression was B minor, A, E, and I threw in some nice licks on the keys. 

The service was one of the most reverent ones I have ever been to. Her dad was in the Air Force, and some military personnel folded the flag that was over his casket, and they were so reverent and serious when they folded it. It took a good 5 minutes. The fired 3 guns outside and gave Karen's stepmom the bullets. Finally, they played 'Taps', and loaded his casket into the hearse. It almost made me want to join the armed forces so I could get a funeral like that. Karen ended up with the folded flag, and her brother got some of his service medals. 

Karen is doing ok. Sometimes she was happy, sometimes she was sad. On August 18, we have the stent trial up in Jacksonville at the Mayo Clinic. It will be with a metal uncovered stent, and if she breathes better with it, they will take it out after a day or so, and we expect Dr. Lazarro in NJ to give the ok to do the mesh trachea surgery shortly after that. 

As for cards, I received some packages in the mail, got some stuff from eBay, and am doing a lot of trading. Let's start with the stuff in the mail.

A few weeks ago, I got a package from Stuart from S.R. '75 Cards. I had sent him some needs for his '97 Fleer set, including the Ortiz, and he hit me back up with a ton of Rays and Tigers. 

Stuart busted a bunch of Heritage last year, and must've busted a good amount this year as well, and he sent me some Rays that I needed for my team set, and some nice parallels from the sets as well. I'm stoked for the Bigge refractors, as those are my first cards of the guy they got in the Paredes trade. Stuart also sent a good chunk of the 2002 Upper Deck 40 Man set. I am probably less than 10 cards from finishing that team set now. 

Stuart also sent some 1992 O-Pee-Chee Tigers. Back when I was in the 3rd grade, this gas station close to our house had a whole display of card boxes. A number of them were O-Pee-Chee cards, and I just didn't have the money to get any of the boxes, and couldn't convince my parents to get them. At least I have my 'big brother' Stuart to help me out. 

Finally, I got some Heritage Tigers. The Maddon is a great looking card, and I'm happy to have the Jobe Chrome. I believe I have 4 different parallels of him between his 2025 Topps and 2025 Topps Heritage cards. Hopefully he comes back well from Tommy John surgery next year. Thanks, Stuart, for the great additions.

Another grade school story sets the background for my eBay pickups. Around 2nd grade, I started attending a Christian school, and my mom got me some school supplies from Wal-Mart. They had some folders of baseball players that were replicas of 1989 Topps cards. I picked Alan Trammell, and used it for the next few years. I don't know what happened to it, but I found a Trammell and Orel Hershiser on eBay for 1 buck each, and ordered them. 

Here is one with a normal sized 1989 Topps card on the bottom left for size comparison. 

The back is normal except for the bar code on the top right. 

I tried to fit the Hershiser in a big sleeve, but it didn't fit, so I stuck it in a flap in the Favorite Player binder that Hershiser is in. 

The inside of the folder basically looks like a normal folder. 

The next order takes me back to around the same time. We moved from Michigan to Florida when I was 8 or so, and one of our neighbors, Richard, was a little off, but he was always nice to me. My dad and I went to his house for some reason, and he has all of these nude pictures that he called 'art' hanging up around his house. I swear one time, I found a 'Showgirls' movie ticket stub in his lawn. I guess being a 40 or 50 year old single guy makes you not care about what others think about your taste in things. 

Despite being a little creepy, a few times Richard would give me some baseball posters. I remember ones of Orel Hershiser, Mike Scioscia, Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Terry Steinbach, and maybe a Kevin Mitchell and Will Clark. I got them before I really started following baseball like crazy, and I hung them up in my room. I had no idea where they came from or how many were produced. 

I did a search on eBay for 'Jose Canseco poster 1990's', and found out that they were sold in 4-player packs. There were ones for certain teams and league leaders. I found a lot on the 'Bay with a Twins team set, a League Leader set with what I believe was the Canseco that I had, and a Dodgers team set that I'm sure I must've had. 

There is the Twins pack. 

The Hershiser that was hanging in my room in the early '90's. 

The backs just like I remember them. 

Aparently they made 4-packs for each team, as this stat paper came with each pack. 

It also had a checklist. I'm not sure if the entire league set was made as there was a disclaimer that if a player is traded, they might not be included, but if they did do the whole league, I want to get the Tigers pack.

I saw a post on a FB autograph page that somebody sent former NBA player Reggie Theus some cards to sign. Apparently, Theus is the Athletic Director and basketball coach at Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, which is about 45 minutes away from me. I dug through all of my non-baseball cards, and found 3 cards of Reggie. I'm not sure when the college basketball season starts, but perhaps when it does, my friend Jim and I will go to a Stetson/Bethune Cookman game in DeLand or a Bethune game in Daytona and try to get a Theus autograph. 

Our fish tank had an algae bloom recently, and I did a water change and put some algae clearing solution in it, and now it looks clear as ever. 

We tried out some loaches in the tank. They are mainly bottom feeders, and we have 3 different varieties. I'm not sure which variety this one is, but I love the spiky fins on its back. We have 2 of this variety.

I believe we have 4 of this kind, which are called Dojo Loaches. The other variety we have are Khuli Loaches, and we have 4. They like to hide out a lot more, and are smaller and more of a brownish color. 

That is the entire 35 gallon tank. The 3 green plants on the center and right are Amazon Sword plants. We have a few mollies, 3 guppies, 3 angelfish, a pleco, 3 blue rainbow fish, and 2 or 3 amazon rainbow fish. The rainbows like to dart back and forth when we feed them. I'm trying to convince Karen that we need a 75 gallon tank and am on the lookout for a cheap or free one on FB. 

The coolest purchase I made was a near complete 1998 Topps Inaugural Diamondbacks set from a guy on a FB group. I already had the Inaugural Rays set, which I got for around 35 bucks. The D-Backs one cost me around the same. The only thing that was missing was the Orioles team, and a few stars like Griffey, Bonds, and Jeter. No biggie. I got most of my Tigers, Rays, and players I collect. These sets were so tough to find, and are always like 100 bucks when you can find them online. 2 cool sets from my childhood that I thought I would never own, and now I have both of them (mostly). 

Both boxes together. 

For some reason, the D-Backs one didn't have the serial # sticker on it. 

I have the Braves that Johnny from Johnny's Trading Spot needs and I will give them to him next time I head over to Ocala. 

Speaking of Johnny, I went over to his place a few weeks ago, and got a box full of Topps set cards I needed, and of course some Rays and Tigers. 

Nobody really big, but just commons and semistars that help get me closer to completing sets. He actually helped me complete 2 sets, with a 1980 Topps Graig Nettles and 1986 Topps John Wathan that I needed. I'm also 2 cards away from finishing the 2001 Topps set thanks to him. The cards on the left side of the box are all of the cards I got from the trip to Johnny's. It's always a nice time when I see Johnny and dig through cards while talking about life, baseball, and cards. Thanks, Johnny, for letting me come over and raid your traded boxes. 

The last source of cards has come from a FB set builders page. I am in the process of making 2 pretty good sized trades on the page, as well as one on TCDB. Trade #1 is in the process of going through the mail, and will get me a few 2025 Topps needs, as well as a lot of Rays cards. Trade #2 will hopefully get approved, and will net me a number of Topps needs from the 2000's. The TCDB trade is also going through the mail currently, and will help almost complete my 2018 Topps and 2018 Topps Update sets, as well as helping me out with some 2010's Topps set fillers. I think once I get the last of the trades logged into TCDB, I will make a post with some of my sets that need 5 or so cards to complete. A few sets, like 1992, 2001, 2002 Traded, 2007, 2007 Update, 2016 Update, 2018, and 2025 need less than 10 cards to finish. My Google Docs page has the official list, but I'm pretty sure what I listed off of the top of my head matches up with it. I have a feeling if I can make a few more trades (and perhaps get a SportsLots order) by the end of the year, I can get my 1980-2002 Topps run complete, and the 2018-2025 Topps run complete as well. 2005-2007 can be finished quickly, and with a few trades, perhaps 2008 can be added to that run as well. Other sets have the base set completed but have a number of holes in the Update sets, or have the Update sets complete and the base set have a few holes. I'll keep plugging away, and eventually, I will have a 1980-2025 run completed, and will then focus on older cards. 

Thanks to all of you guys who are helpling me out with trades, supporting the blog by reading and commenting, and who just are concerned with my life in general. It means alot for you guys to be a part of my journey, and it is great to be a part of other bloggers journeys as well.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

The rest of the story and trip to K n T’s

In my last post, I mentioned about having the chance to trade Kenny Rogers' 1994 Pinnacle Museum Collection card to his mother, and Jafronious asked me the background of the story. I figured I would start off this post with the whole story.

The Rays were starting their inaugural season in 1998, and I scored tickets to a few games that year. The first one was on April 27, and it would be my first ever MLB regular season game (I had probably been to almost 10 Spring Training games by then). The Rays played Oakland at the Trop, and I was stoked, because Rafael Bournigal (who I met earlier that year at the YMCA by my house in a whole other story) was the backup infielder for Oakland, and I was hoping to see him play. Raffy didn't start, but he was called on as a defensive replacement in the late innings of the game. I did get to see Rickey Henderson play in person. I booed him when he came to the plate the first time, being a 15-year old Rays fan, and not knowing I was seeing greatness. Rickey didn't steal a base, but I'll take seeing him live. According to the box score, Rickey walked twice, Bournigal came in as a pinch-runner for Jason Giambi and played Shortstop, and Fred McGriff hit a HR in a 7-6 A's win. 

After the game, I tried to get autographs. I was lucky, and 2 people from the Tampa area (Kenny Rogers and Kurt Abbott) came over to sign autographs after the game. Abbott somehow ended up in the stands, and I got a picture with him. 

I don't really have any regular pictures since my mom and sisters decided to make a scrapbook. The top left is me and Kurt, the top and bottom right are of Kenny Rogers. 

So after getting Kurt to sign his 1994 Topps card, I went to get Kenny to sign his 1994 Pinnacle Museum card. A lady saw it and mentioned how she had never seen the card before. She mentioned that she was Kenny's mom and asked me to trade it to her. She pulled a stack of his cards out of her purse and offered a 1 for 1 trade. Nothing really stood out to me, and she kept pushing his 1990 Upper Deck card with him holding a football. I realized she would enjoy the '94 Pinnacle more than me, and swapped it for the '90 Upper Deck and got Kenny to sign it. Unfortunately, I sold the majority of my autographed cards, and that was one of them. Still, it was a cool memory. 

We got a t-shirt for signing up for a Rays credit card, and I got a picture with it. I wish I still had it. I do still have the ticket stubs from the game. One of the pictures of the field shows Rafael Bournigal during infield practice between innings. Had I been a more seasoned autograph collector, I would've came during BP and did a lot better, and also taken more pictures. It was still a fun game, and I'm happy to have the pictures and stubs from it. 

On Tuesday, I was off work, so I went to K n T Sportscards in Ormond after getting Karen lunch at her job in Port Orange. I feel like I made out pretty well, getting 20 cards from the dollar bins, 2 2-for-$5 cards, and a slew of dime box cards for 40 bucks. I didn't get too much time to dig through the dime bins as another customer was in the corner most of the time, and I didn't want to stay too late, but the guy was nice, and we actually talked about custom cards. He was needing a custom with a jersey piece and an autograph spot. I told him that was above my skill level, but mentioned Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown or Tanner from Tan Man Baseball Fan were good candidates. 

Those were my 2.50 cards. 

Most of my dollar ones were Rays parallels, and Junior Caminero rookies. If he turns out to be decent, the Rays sign him to an extension, or I have a good in-person experience with him at a game (when I start going again when the Rays change ownership), I might have to collect him officially. According to TCDB, I have 42 cards of him, including a ton of rookies, one jersey card, and one autograph. 

I found a handful of Topps needs, and somehow, a stack of cards I didn't need got in the pile (stack on bottom right). I was hoping to find a chunk of 2025 Topps cards to look through, as I am only 69 cards away from finishing the Series 1 and 2 sets. I didn't find any, but I did find a 2024 Topps Tyler Cropley to re-finish the 2025 set. My friend Jim, who collects Cardinals, and autographs, went to the first Stetson University baseball game back in February or March, and told me Cropley was a coach for Iowa, who they were playing. He didn't have a Cropley, and I had just the one, so I let him have it, and he got the autograph, and I figured I could replace it later, which I did today. I found out a few weeks ago that Jim's stepson passed away suddenly. They both collected cards and autographs, and Jim is up at his stepsons' house right now going through his things. He said he'll probably bring some of his collection down to DeLand and we could go through it together, but both of us are in no rush, and it will happen when it happens. It's nice to have a card friend like Jim to both have help you out with a need and who you can help out, and not only that, but just the friendship that happens from spending hours at games or wherever talking about cards, baseball, and life. I've texted him a few times during the last few weeks to check on him, and hopefully the rest of his year is smooth.

The dime cards were a hodgepodge of different things. I didn't organize them before I scanned them, but the basic groupings are as follows: Tigers, Rays, guys I collect, rookies, 1998 Upper Deck finds, and 1998 Fleer Tradition finds. While not normally a guy to pick out a non-Topps set, I think 1998 Upper Deck has a great design, and the '98 UD cards they had in the box were from Series 3, the ones that feature the first cards of the Devil Rays and Diamondbacks. Same thing with the Fleer cards. 

There were also some cards that probably shouldn't have been in the dime boxes. There was a '93 Select Jeter rookie. I loathe Jeter, but a rookie of his for a dime is a deal I couldn't pass up. I already have one, so if anyone is up for a trade, I'll be happy to throw this one in. The '25 Heritage Rays were all SPs. With last year's set having SPs in cards 1-100, I am sure there are a lot of dime boxes in various shops that have SPs thrown in them. I almost passed over the '20 Topps Update Devin Williams rookie, but when I flipped it over, I noticed a serial #, and noticed that it was a SABRMetric Stat parallel, so I picked it up. 

Most of the Rays were needs. The 2007 Upper Deck John McDonald is the one with the Hello Kitty notebook on it. The Quinton McCracken was a need, and with the amount of his cards that I have, it doesn't happen very often. 

The 2 Donruss cards came from what looked like a pack that someone left in the box. I was stoked that the 1998 Upper Deck Fielder was in the box. The Robert Campos looked like a normal Topps Pro Debut insert, but was actually a green parallel. I hear a ton of hype around Kyle Teel, so I took a gamble on his rookie, especially for 10 cents. The Astros World Series Heritage card is an SP, and the random '89 Bowman Stan Royer was just a cool card for me. I made most of his Topps cards that he didn't have, and I believe I used this card photo for his '89 Topps card. Most of the teams in the 1989 Topps set had #1 Draft Pick cards, but a few teams, like the Tigers, Royals, and A's didn't have any. Royer was the A's #1 pick, so he never got the '89 Topps card, so I feel like this '89 Bowman makes up for it. 

I kind of want to go back to the shop. Maybe next week. Hopefully they will have some '25 stuff in the boxes. We will see. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy