Incoming cards and my first Sportlots order

This is going to be a pretty long post, but bear with me. I want to start off and say RIP, Fay Vincent. I really wasn't following baseball when he was the head of the game, as I started really watching games in 1993 and 1994, but I wished I could've watched the sport when he ruled over it. A true baseball fan, he called out Selig, Manfred, and others, and truly wanted to see labor peace in the sport, and for all teams to be competitive. 

I was reading up on the collusion that happened in the late '80's, and came upon Peter Ueberroth's wikipedia page. It mentioned how he said owners were 'damned fools' to lose money in order to win a World Series title. It was guys like him who have screwed this game and prodded owners to not spend money on payroll (I'm talking about you, $tu $ternberg!!!). Vincent came in after Giamatti passed away (another true baseball fan), and banned $teinbrenner, made the decision to suspend the World Series after the earthquake in 1989, then picked the correct time to resume it. He stopped the league from going on strike in the 1990 preseason, banned Steve Howe, and had some good plans for realignment before he was ousted by the owners. While I don't agree with his thoughts about banning the DH, I agree with just about everything else he did or was planning to do. I knew I had to add his card to my SportLots box. It arrived just a day or two before Mr. Vincent's death, and I was really bummed, because I was going to try to mail it to him and ask for an autograph. Perhaps I'll add the certified autograph version to my collection soon. RIP, Mr. Vincent. 

I recently got 2 packages from Rod of the Padrographs blog.  Many bloggers have been posting about Rod lately, as he opened a bunch of blasters during the holiday season and distributed the non-keepers to team/player collectors around the blogosphere. I was lucky enough to get the Rays and Marlins. 

I decided to highlight a portion of the cards. Here is the stack of what wasn't highlighted. 

The Marlins part starts out with a John Lynch baseball card. The NFL Hall of Famer played in the minors for the Marlins during the early '90's. I actually got him to sign a minor league card after a Monday Night football game against the Rams in either 1999 or 2000. It was a hell of a game, as the Bucs came from behind to win. There was a lateral during the comeback drive to win. My youth pastor hooked me up with the tickets, and we had club seats. We sat near Mike Alstott's mom (more on him later), and she would blow a train horn every time he ran the ball, as his nickname was 'A-Train'. The Eury Perez green parallel is a cool looking card. I hope he can salvage his career. I got a few more Junior Caminero's, with the Bowman's at the bottom. 

I'm really stoked about the Space Mountain Heritage card. That card just shows how tuned in Rod is to other collectors. I live 45 minutes from Disney World and have been on Space Mountain a few times. While I know generally where some bloggers that I've traded with live, I don't think I've included cards like that Heritage one. Makes me want to dig through some of my oddball cards and see what I can come up with. A few more Caminero's with the Big League and Stars of MLB one. Also got a few parallels with the Rainbow Raley and the SP Chisholm Big League. 

A week or so later, I got another package from Rod with more Rays and Marlins. 

A number of cards I needed, as I haven't purchased any Bowman other than a pack or two, and absolutely no Bowman Draft from this year. Same with Chrome Sonic and Donruss (save a blaster). Hopefully the Rays rookies from Bowman Draft pan out. 

Here's where it gets good. More Juniors. A '24 Topps insert, and not one, but TWO '24 Topps Update parallels!!  Blue shimmer and gold! The '24 Archives Morel is the first Rays card of him that I got. One last Junior with the Trading Card Day card. 

One last photo with some refractors, and random cards. The bottom card is a film cell card, my first of that kind I've ever got. Very cool. Also got another DeJong card with the '24 Topps Paul DeJong, my first White Sox card of him. Thanks, Rod, for the awesome cards!

Coming back to Mike Alstott, I collect him, and have a few cards and a bobblehead. I did a trade on TCDB, where I got rid of 4 Heritage Yankee$, including some Jeters, and practically stole 20 or so '70' Topps cards from another member, including a few Hall of Famers. Any time I can dump Yankee$ on someone and get cards I need is a big win for me. I got my batch of the trade, and when I opened it up, there was a ticket with Alstott on it included in the package. When I looked at the ticket closer, I realized it was a ticket from the first game at Raymond James Stadium. What a cool pickup!!

A few weeks ago, Tom from The Angels in Order held a giveaway. I chose a 2014 Topps green parallel of fellow Type 1 diabetic Mark Lowe, a '63 Topps Tony Gonzalez that I needed, and a 2000 Fleer Gamers Jose Canseco that finished that Rays set. Thanks for the cool cards, Tom. I hope to get settled and back in a routine in a few weeks and maybe get some cards in a pile for a giveaway. Stay tuned. 

So that Sportlots order came in, and I didn't know what I was in for. I assumed it would be in a box, and I would just pick the cards out of it. I didn't know that it was just a package that had probably a hundred envelopes, small packages, and bubble mailers. I had to open each one, work around the tape, take the cards out of toploaders, and after about 2 hours of doing that, I could finally organize and catalogue 900 or so cards. I kind of feel like you should get a little bit of a discount for doing all of that work. 

The bulk of the order was singles to finish my 1980 Topps, 1981 Topps Traded, 1995 Topps SpectraLight/CyberStats, 2001 Topps, 2001 Topps Traded, 2002 Topps, 2002 Topps Traded, 2003 Topps, 2005 Topps, 2007 Topps, 2007 Topps Update, 2008 Topps, and 2016 Topps Update sets. While i thought I finished each of those sets, I still came up missing a few from some sets. Probably because my paper list must've somehow got off from my TCDB wantlist. Anyways, what I am missing is:

1980 Topps 

63 Bob Stanley

221 Joe Cannon

710 Graig Nettles

2001 Topps 

93 Brian Buchanan

169 Pete Harnisch

594 Troy O'Leary

2001 Topps Traded

124 Willie Randolph '76 Traded reprint

2002 Topps 

566 Shane Reynolds

2002 Topps Traded 

8 Brian L. Hunter SP (willing to take a Chrome version that isn't an SP)

188 Eric Cyr

2016 Topps Update

254 David Ortiz All-Star

I have a credit from Sportlots, so perhaps I'll try to finish off everything with that.

The favorite players were highlighted by a number of my newest favorite, Dan Boone. I got a good bunch of Nick Fortes cards, including some parallels of his 2024 Topps card. 

Including the Sportlots cards, I have the base, All-Star, Aqua, Easter Bunny, Rainbow, Silver Ice, and Yellow? 2024 Topps Nick Fortes cards. 

We have 2 Type 1 diabetics next to each other with Joe Jiannetti and Jason Johnson. The card of Johnson is the first one I know of to show an insulin pump on it (the black thing on his belt). The Patrick Mazeika is the first jersey card of him that I own. The Tony Saunders '98 Topps card is a big one. I had every version of his 1998 Topps card besides that one. Rainbow completed.

Base version (with a TTM autograph), Inaugual Devil Rays, Inaugural Diamondbacks, Minted in Cooperstown, Chrome, and Chrome Refractor. 

I decided to pick up some 1998 rays parallels and higher end sets. More Inaugural Diamondbacks and Minted in Cooperstown cards. '98 Topps Chrome and '98 Gallery as well. I picked up a few parallels of my favorite ballpark, Tropicana Field. I hope to attend a game there again. I added a few Randy Arozarena rookies. It sucks pulling cards of him as a Mariner. I don't collect him officially, but I have a ton of rookies, including these '20 Update versions. 

Base, gold with IP autograph, rainbow, Chrome, and UK version. Maybe someday I'll pick up a Chrome refractor of some kind. 

The 2 newest Raymond cards, and a 2024 Topps Chrome X-Fractor of Caminero. A few key rookies from my setbuilds were the '81 Traded Raines, '01 Traded Justin Morneau, and '03 Cole Hamels. An interesting sunset card is the 2001 Topps Traded Roberto Kelly. He finished his final season in 2000, and although he signed with Colorado and hoped to make the majors in 2001, he never did, making this a rare Traded sunset card that is also a zero year card. Better grab this one, Nick!! The United We Stand card was cool for me, as I was so close to finishing the subset, but never seen a picture of this card until now. I picked up a '99 Upper Deck checklist of Travis Lee because it highlights the first Arizona Diamondbacks Home Run. The 2003 Topps and 2005 Topps postseason highlights cards are some highlights as well, as they basically show teams sending the Yankee$ home. 

Overall, it was a fun time going through that Sportlots box. Now that I know how it works, I will be able to make better decisions on the site. Hopefully I can finish the list above and get a complete Topps run from 1980 to 2002. 

New Jersey came and went. The doctor wants her to do a stent trial in Jacksonville at Mayo Clinic. He said basically that he can't help the top of Karen's trachea because it is too narrow, but he might be able to help the bottom. The stent trial will have them place a custom made stent in the bottom of the trachea, and if it helps her breathing after 2 weeks or so, they will be confident that the mesh surgery will be successful. If that is the case, we'll probably go back to NJ a few weeks later to have the stent taken out and the mesh put in. 

We were kind of tired on the day we wanted to go to NYC, so we just hung out at the hotel. We ate at a pizza place, a local bar, a diner, and were able to go to an escape room (got about halfway through). Maybe we'll visit NYC this spring if the stent trial is successful. We're expecting to hear from Mayo any time, and I figure a few weeks and we'll have the stent trial. A little disappointing for me, as I was hoping he would go straight to the mesh surgery, but just got to keep my head up and know that it's just maybe 2 surgeries away, and then maybe Karen's breathing will get back to normal, I won't have to take on so much, her mom will feel like she's not needed and will start seriously looking for other living options, and I can have the life I dreamed of (or just a normal one with the wife, kid, house, and minimal health problems). 

I'm almost done putting new cards into binders for the National League teams. I got a few binders, so perhaps it will be enough to finish the AL. I have so many projects going on right now, and I want to do something with all of them, but it might be more productive to just devote time to one. 

My brother-in-law and I have a comedy band called 'The Younger Griffin'. We've been recording some music using A1 programs to put music to the vocals and lyrics. There are a few songs we could put out with that band. We do some serious songs under the band name 'Resiliency from Obscurity'. I have 10 or 12 songs that I could contribute to this band, and they are good. Good to where I've just played parts of them on the piano at church before the service starts, and people have said they were the perfect feeling, and have asked me what song I was playing a few different times. I really want to record the piano parts to the songs, sing the basic melody, and send a copy of the piano music, and one of the piano music and vocals to my Resiliency partner. He can record his (better) vocals on them, add the AI additional instruments to them, and we can release them to the world, and these songs that have been in my head for the past 20 or 25 years can finally get out there and maybe make a difference in someone's life. 

Besides that, I need to get those AL binders done so I can just get my cards organized. I realize that is a neverending battle, but if I can just get my loose cards down to 1 or 2 monster boxes, it will just help me be more organized, and I can just add newer 2025 cards to the back of the binders and keep the cards going into the monster boxes to a minimum. 

I have custom cards I want to make. I want to finish the Rays Topps run (currently have 1998, 1999, and 2000 finished). I have someone wanting me to try to do some 1975 Topps customs, and I need to finish making missing player checklist for a few sets (2023 and 2024 for sure, maybe 2022 and 2021). 

Just a lot of projects/hobbies that I want to do, but not much time. I could also add my oddball Allen/Ginter cards and my duplicate cards to TCDB and try to trade like crazy. I feel like the music and AL binders should take priority, with the music needing to be #1, but I think the binders will end up being what I work on until it's finished. I think UltraPro will be my best friend for a while. 

Tons of cards and stuff happening. Story of my life. Glad I'm getting such cool cards. 

Thanks for taking the time to check out my latest post.

-Jeremy

Latest mail pickups

 Things have been busy here at Topps Cards that Never Were HQ. Kyler is in a kickball league that plays every Tuesday and Thursday. They are basically teaching the kids the rules, and the teams swap out every week. When he’s not distracted, he’s been doing pretty well. This past Thursday, they played 2 games, and he went 5-5 with a run and an RBI. He’s been playing near shortstop in the field, and doesn’t really get too many balls kicked near him. 

Ive had 2 shelves from a bigger bookcase that we got rid of, and I’ve been wanting to trim them so they would fit my binder bookshelves. I finally got a hand saw and hacked them down to size and got a little more real estate to work with, and was able to move my trade box inside and get a little more organized. 

I’ve always been an aquarium guy. From the time I was like 10, I was always trying to catch minnows and I would put them in a bowl, aquarium, or whatever I had and watched them swim. I’ve had a 55 gallon tank and one point, and had live plants and guppies in it. The last time I had fish was before I got married. I’ve thought about getting a tank a few times, but life happened, and I just worry about having time to devote to it. Well, Karen has been getting the itch, and now lo and behold we have a 35 gallon tank. She really wants colorful fish, and I am dead set on live plants, guppies, and ghost shrimp. We compromised, and she got some colorful fake plants and decor. I got a few live plants, and I’ll get some guppies and ghost shrimp. Kyler will pick some fish tomorrow when I get off work, and I’ll get the shrimp, an algae eater, and maybe some snails. Some friends of ours have tons of guppies, so we’ll get them the next time we see them. Here is our tank right now without the fish. 

I got a new phone, as mine couldn’t hold a charge, and the difference is amazing. This is going to help me in a week. More on that later. 

The mailbox has been good to me the last week or so. Tom from The Angels in Order posted about a 1995 Collectors Choice trade card that he got in a trade. I mentioned that I had a Marquis Grissom from that set if he needed it, and he reached out to me on TCDB, and we hammered out a trade. 

I got some guys I collect in Shairon Martis, Jayson Nix, and Jordan Hicks, a Tiger in Bonderman, some 2011 Topps needs, and 2 ‘70’s Angels cards that Tom threw in for free. It’s always a pleasure trading with Tom. Hope you enjoy your end of the deal, Tom, and thanks for the great trade!

Next up is a pwe that I got from The Diamond King. Kevin had a giveaway with a few Paul Skenes cards and an Aaron Judge. I was able to claim a 2024 Bowman Chrome Skenes, and Kevin showed how great of a guy he is with the freebies he sent with it. 

Most guys will just send a card, but I can tell that Kevin went the extra mile and looked in my wantlist, because not only did he send cards of 2 guys I collect, but he sent 2 cards that I need as well. Thanks, Kevin, for the Skenes, and the 2 extras you sent!

My Skenes collection is getting pretty good for a guy who really just opens packs and goes to card shops maybe once every 2 or 3 months. I have his 2024 Bowman, Bowman Chrome, all of his 2024 Topps/Update cards, a 2024 Donruss Unleashed insert, and a couple of his 2024 Topps Holiday cards. I hope that he stays healthy not only because it will make his cards worth more, but because he is just fun to watch. It kind of feels like the kind of hype that Mark Fidrych had where people would see if he was starting before getting a ticket. 

I decided to save the coolest envelope for last. Back in 2017, I sent out a ttm autograph request to Dan Boone. He pitched in the Majors in 1981, 1982, and 1990. Boone had a cool career and SABR has a nice article on his baseball journey. Along with the request, I sent 2 customs I made, a 1983 Topps one, and a 1991 Topps one. I put a note at the end of my letter telling him to let me know if he wanted additional copies of the customs and included my phone number and address. 

Years went by and no response. I figured it was lost, or he quit signing. A little before Christmas, I get a text saying ‘Hi Jeremy. Are you still at this number? - Dan Boone’. It took me a while to figure out who it was, but I texted him back, and he let me know he had my letter and cards and that they had gotten misplaced. We’ve been texting a little bit and I’ve made all of his missing Topps cards and will be getting him some copies of those in the near future. He sent me back the cards as well as a nice autographed photo.

Definitely one of the coolest things I’ve got in the mail in a while. 

Karen ended up having the video appointment with Dr. Lazzaro on the 9th, and he wants Karen to come up to his hospital in New Jersey, and he is going to do a broncoscophy on her. He hopes it will give him a good picture of what he is dealing with when he will do the mesh surgery. Depending on what he finds, there are a few options. The mesh surgery in about 10 years old, and he is finding that patients take 6 months or so to recover because their lungs need to be strong and it takes a while for patients to breathe the right way with all of the incisions. Dr. Lazzaro will do the bronch, and he may opt to have Karen do 6 months of lung physical therapy and then do the mesh surgery. He may think she can do the mesh surgery without doing the PT before. He may think that the stent trial with the custom stent could work and elect to try that before the mesh surgery. Or, he could think that the mesh surgery just couldn’t be done with what he sees, and I guess we’ll get other options. We’re hoping for some version of the mesh surgery to be the outcome, but this is all old hat for us, so we’ll roll with whatever happens. 

So next Saturday, we will be flying into Trenton, and I believe the bronch is Monday, and we’ll meet with the Dr. on Tuesday. Depending on how both of us feel, we might drive 1 1/2 hours to New York City and see some of the landmarks. While I am disappointed that Kyler won’t be coming, I am over the moon that I will be getting to take my girl to New York City. I’ve been there in 2008, and it will be cool going back. We’ll probably see snow at some point, and while it probably won’t be the coldest temp I have felt in my life, it will definitely be the coldest I will remember. I’m going to bundle up even more than I normally do, that’s for sure. I don’t know if there are any card shops nearby, but I’ll be bringing my want list just in case. If not, I will be doing my best to save my money for 2025 Topps packs and not blow it on 2024 Archives, Prizm, and whatever else happens to be out by then. Hopefully I will come home and all of the fish will still be alive. 

With all of the stuff coming in the mail, it goes without saying that stuff needs to go out as well. I have a trade going on with Stuart from SR 75 Cards. He got some set cards that I sent, and I have some Rays and Tigers coming in. I sent 2 PWE’s to some bloggers, I have a bubble mailer ready to go out to another, and depending on what cards I find from packs or my binders in the next couple days, I might have some more stuff going out. I think Friday will be the best option to go to the post office, as my other day off is Monday, but it just happens to be a school holiday, so post office is closed, and I’ll be on kid duty. It will be a good day to finish off my Giants binders and get that much closer to having my NL binders (mostly) up to date.  I just have 4 more cards waiting to get in my SportsLots box, and I’ll have that sent. I’ve accounted for the SL box with a few of the latest team binders I’ve worked on, but some of the first ones are going to need to have cards from my SL order added to them, as well as cards I’ve acquired since organizing them. 

That’s about it. Perhaps I’ll post more about the aquarium as we add to it. 

Thanks for taking the time to read my latest post. 

-Jeremy

2025 Topps design is out!!

 It looks as if the 2025 Topps design is out. 

Here is a link to the write up and more photos. 

I guess I struck out big time with my guess. 

The design is nice. It kind of feels like the big thing with the team name on it is going to weigh the left side of the card down and make it topple over. I like how it is the team color. The field is nice, although I would’ve liked to see the position written out. I wonder what they will do on Ohtani’s card (or all DH’s for that matter). 

The big problem is the last name. On some photos in the link, there is a white glare (?) across the silver bar, and some of the teams have the last name in white. It makes it very difficult to read. 

Other than that, a solid design, as was 2024. I’ll work on making fun of Manfraud with a card of him in the new design either this afternoon or tomorrow. Happy 2025. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy