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.
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
You are welcome. Besides the few Topps boxes you didn't get too, I've added a few more....Not to mention the 20 or so boxes of Topps from the last 4 years, lol....I know you completed those already.
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