Incoming cards, another 1/1, and some changes

This will probably be the last post I get to before heading up to New Jersey for the rest of the year. 

I’ll start off with the cards first. I’ve been getting a few packages in the mail from bloggers, and that is always a good thing. First up, are some cards that Kerry from Cards on Cards was giving away. 

I will always add new Rays cards to the collection. I don’t know what set thesw cards are from, as I couldn’t find any listing on TCDB, but they hold the amount of foil that I feel should be normal for a standard base card. I want to say the Kiermaier card has a photo of Hunter Renfroe, but I’m not positive. I just know KK is a lefty. Mike Simms is a favorite here at Topps Cards that Never Were. He signed some cards ttm one time, and added a note, so I attempted to draw his 1992 Topps card with colored pencils and sent it back to him. He wrote back that he enjoyed it and threw in another card. I now (basically) have his 1992 Topps rainbow finished, with the base, Gold, and Gold Winners card, but could branch out and try to get the 1992 O-Pee-Chee and 1992 Topps Micro card to really corner the market. Kerry threw in the Klu-Bot card, as he knows I collect him, which was a nice touch. While I don’t collect ad Komminsk per se, I am a fan. In 2004 or so, one of the youth leaders at my church worked for a phosphate company. They were having a golf tournament in March, and many players and coaches from the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers were going to participate in it, as Detroit held spring training in Lakeland (where the tournament was held), and Cleveland was in nearby Winter Haven. Well, my youth leader was an exec with his work, and got to be on a team, and he picked me and one of his friends from church to be on a foursome, and we would get a pro to be the 4th member. Brad was a minor league coach with Cleveland during that time, and he ended up being our 4th member. We finished near the middle of the pack, I didn’t contribute much, other than making the last putt to finish out our round, but everyone there knew it was a big deal for me to be there and took it in stride. Brad told some stories about Pascual Perez getting lost on the way to the ballpark, said Garry Maddox was a great centerfielder, and signed some cards for me after the last hole. Somewhere, I have a picture of our foursome. Next year, I went to Winter Haven to get some Indians autographs in Spring Training, and Brad recognized me and introduced me to pitcher Jason Davis, who was walking with him. Wish I would’ve had that Komminsk rookie back in 2004. Thanks, Kerry for the nice package. 

Stuart, from SR75 Cards, who affectionately calls me his ‘little brother’ since I never had one, reached out to me a while back about what Heritage cards I needed from 2025. I gave him a list, and my older brother delivered. 

I needed all of these, and I think I just need SPs to finish my 2 favorite teams sets. I usually don’t chase hard after them, so the sets are complete in my books. I feel like I have been getting parallels of just about all of the Tiger rookies this year. I have 2 or 3 of Jung, about 4 of Jobe, and 1 each of Dingler and Malloy. The Green Bradley marked my 2nd one of that parallel for the Rays as I pulled a Yandy Diaz from a pack. Thanks, Stuart, for the package. I’ll dig through your list first thing next year and see what I can send up to Michigan. 

John from Johnny’s Trading Spot held a giveaway, and it must’ve been like he could read minds or something. Night Owl got his winnings and posted them recently, and got the exact page he wanted. I would’ve been happy with any Topps card I needed, but I’ve always held a little fascination with guys who have barely any cards or guys I don’t acquire many cards of. I saw the page with Astros prospect Cameron Drew, and thought ‘I wouldn’t be upset if I won that page’. Look what appeared in my mailbox a few days ago. 

Of course it was the one with the Cameron Drew card. I appreciate the Greg Blosser card as well, because it has a photo that is different than his 1993 Topps card. Have you ever seen that one?  It traumatized me a little as a 10-year old when I pulled it in 1993. Why, you ask? I’ll spare you posting one, but just google 1993 Topps Greg Blosser. There’s just an unhealthy amount of chest hair sticking out from his jersey. Not Austin Powers territory, but a lot. It was cool that I could actually add all of these cards to TCDB as well. Thanks, John, for the contest and for your esp. 

 Last Saturday, we went to the outlets in Daytona to get some clothes for our New Jersey trip, and stopped at Books A Million. I checked the magazine section, and sure enough, they had the Beckett Vintage magazine with Night Owl’s article in it. I picked it up, and will probably check out the rest of the articles while we are driving up. 

Speaking of the famous Night Owl, I recently picked up some 2025 Topps Holiday boxes that I think were meant for him. 

My apologies. The first one was some pretty decent luck, and if I were a flipper, I would be happy, but the second one was probably one of my top 10 pulls from a pack, which could be another post entirely. (Top 3 might be 2005 Bowman’s Best 1994 A-Rod autograph, 2017 Bowman Blue Ronald Acuna, Jr, and maybe a 2007 Upper Deck Jose Contreras printing plate). 

This was really a Dodgers hot box. I pulled a Sasaki SP, an Ohtani snowflake back, and an Ohtani silver. The Gold Chrome Henderson wasn’t bad either, but I can’t stand the Orioles, and I’m more excited about the silver of Stetson alum Logan Gilbert to be honest. Besides the inserts, I pulled Sasaki and Ohtani’s base cards, as well as Blake Snell, Teoscar Hernandez, and Dalton Rushing. As with the next card I’m going to show, I’m torn on if I should keep them or send them away. 

2 days ago, we went to Target to get a few things before the trip, and I got another Holiday blaster. There was some flipper/scalper in front of the cards almost blocking my way to them. As I inched closer, he finally scattered, and if he was a flipper, I got the last good card from that product in that particular Target. The cashier who rang us up was friendly, and saw the cards and said that he collects Pokemon, and wished us good luck with our packs. I don’t know if what he said worked, but man, I almost want to come back and thank him. 

We got home and I had planned on getting to bed around 6 cause I had to be to work at 2AM, so I figured I would open the packs quick and log them in to TCDB the next day. With a few packs left, I felt a really thick card. I figured a manu patch of some sort or a dual jersey maybe. I flipped the card over and found this. 

Apparently it is a gold sparkle parallel. 1/1. 3rd 1/1 I’ve pulled from a pack, and 2nd one I’ve found in a month with that Matt Holiday one from the dime box in Ocala. I have a conundrum on my hands. Do I keep it, send it to Greg, send it to John, send it to someone else, sell it?  I don’t know. I’m going to hold on for now and let it settle for a while. I’ll have plenty of time to think about it when I’m in NJ. 

 

I have 6 shifts left, and then we’ll be driving up Wednesday, taking 2-3 days to get there. We might do something in NYC or Philly for our early anniversary depending on how Karen is feeling. Between now and then, we need to pack for a month, Saturday is basically wasted as family is coming up to do an early Christmas, and I am going to spend a good couple hours cleaning our fish tank on Tuesday and hopefully Karens mom won’t kill them or over feed them and I’ll have fish left when we get back in January. 

There are some changes and potential changes going on right now through all this that kind of scare me, but I am pretty confident they will work out. Karens boss has been riding her ass all year and are just about putting residents in the rooms, cutting staff, and having her do 3 management positions for the salary of 1. She has been on the fence for a while, but the put in her resignation, so she will be jobless when we are in NJ as she recovers. She will probably apply to some places and I’m sure she can get work as a nurse. I’m just nervous there will be a huge salary discrepancy and it’s going to enable her mom to have an excuse to stay here longer. We’re going to be in a hotel for a month, but I feel like we can survive for a few months. Karens brother set up a Go Fund Me page, and it has already had the goal met, and many people at our church have reached out as well. I got a bonus check at work, and wasn’t really expecting that. 

I’ve had some issues at my work with my boss, and I’ve dealt with them for 7 years, and I’m 75% leaning to tell our store manager to transfer me if he isn’t going to go. Wish me favor in that conversation. 

If 

When we get back, I’ll have some cards to go through. I ordered a few complete sets on eBay, and I should have a 1997 Bowman’s Best, 1998 Bowman’s Best, almost complete 2014 Topps, and 2025 Topps Update set in hand, as well as a 2025 Topps Rays team set. If anyone comes across a 2025 Tigers team set, let me know. Only one on eBay is going for 30 bucks, when the Pirates one with Skenes is 15. Maybe NJ will have one in WalMart. 

We will hopefully be getting back on the 31st of December if Karen meets all the recovery goals, and sometime during that first week of January is that Bethune Cookman-FAMU basketball game that my buddy Jim and I hope to go to. I knew I had some cards of FAMU coach Charlie Ward, and I just didn’t know where. I found about 5 boxes of my basketball card when looking for Christmas stuff, and I dug through every single one and found 7 different Ward cards, plus another one of Reggie Theus, Bethune’s Coach. 

Found a bunch of Jordans, but must not have taken pictures. 

I didn’t think I had the Hoops Mark Jackson, but apparently, I did. I also found a card of Andrew DeClercq. He had some central FL connections, and coaches a high school team and attends a church maybe 45 minutes away from me. I might have to try to arrange a way to get an autograph, kind of like I did with Patrick Mazeika earlier this year. 

Well, that is probably it for now. I’ll probably post something at some point in NJ. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving, and please, support striking Starbucks workers and boycott them, shop local, boycott any company that goes against what you believe in or who doesn’t pay their employees a living wage. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy

More busy-ness

 It's been a busy week or two, and things aren't going to slow down for another week or so. 

Karen's birthday was a little over a week ago, and I was off work, so I decided to drive out to her work and pick up some lunch before I came. We tentatively had plans to go out with some friends when she got off, and the plan was to leave from her work. She had some work stuff to attend to, so she suggested that I hit up K n T's Sportscards in Ormond, and who was I to say no to her?

I dug mostly through the 10 cent bin, but did pull some mainly Tigers and Rays out of the dollar boxes. A 2022 Chrome Torkelson rookie, 2023 Chrome PrismFractor rookie of Jonathan Aranda, a Bryce Ranier rookie, and a 1968 Topps Red Sox rookie combo were some of the rookies I pulled. I found some numbered parallels of Rays from 2024 Topps, and with any luck, maybe I can find enough to finish the team sets for one of them. The Brujan was a mini that I believe was numbered to 100. 

I managed to find a few Topps needs to add to my collection. They were mainly 1953 reprints, and surprisingly, some late '70's cards, which I didn't expect since I had that load of '70's cards from John a few weeks before. 

I managed to find a bunch of Tigers in the dime bins. The Willie Hernandez was a fun card. I'll explain why in a little bit. The '94 Bowman Tony Clark rookie would've been a hot card in the late '90's. There were a number of '95 Collector's Choice Silver Signature parallels in the bins. Some random sets from the late '90's, mid '00's, and 2020's finish out the haul. 

The 1985 Leaf Willie Hernandez card was interesting, because it mentions his Cy Young and MVP awards on the back behind the statistics. The only other time I have seen this was on a 1989 Donruss All-Star card of Ozzie Smith that notates that he received the most All-Star votes in 1988. I wonder if there are any other Donruss/Leaf cards like them. 

I picked up the Selig card from the 2025 Prism set from a dime box. That marked my 3rd different Seig card, along with the Chronicles dupe. The dupe went to my friend Jim in DeLand, who is hoping to get a ttm autograph of the former commissioner. I have an autographed photo of Bud, but if Jim is successful, I might try the cards. 

The Rays section was a bit more modern with some 2024 Heritage, and both 2024 and 2025 Prism making the majority of the bunch. 

I found some cool cards of random guys I collect. Aardsma is the first MLB player alphabetically, and its a rare find to get one of his that I don't have. The Phil Clark minor league issue was very cool. I don't care what anyone thinks of Carl Everett, but he has some darn cool cards. I'll have to do a post with some of the cool photos and poses that are on his cards. Some people think he's a little nuts and a hothead, but I've got his autograph in person, and he was a great guy, and I can name you dozens of guys who are 'fan favorites' like Nelson Cruz and Yadier Molina who are more hot-headed than Carl. I found some 2025 Chrome cards of guys I collect like Bogaerts, Gilbert, Miller, Scherzer, and Taillon. The Andruw Jones card was the first one of its kind that I've seen, and I opened enough packs of 2006 Topps to where I would've pulled one. I was excited to get the Brooks Kieschnick card. He doesn't have many Brewers issues. I have a parallel of the Waechter card, but not the base, so I was glad it was sitting in the dime box for me to find. 

Some random cool cards in the dime box included an SSP Golden Mirror Ryan Feltner card, the aforementioned Selig, a sticker of the Senior Professional Baseball League logo, and a few old Topps cards that didn't make it into sets with the Dykes and Craig cards. I thought the Brian Hunter card was a Tigers one, but it isn't, and will go into my Astros binder, as will the Roy Oswalt sticker. It was sticking to a Rocco Baldelli card from the same set. A few months ago, I traded with Tom from The Angels in Order, and gave him the 1995 Collector's Choice Trade-In Marquis Grissom to help complete his set. I managed to find the Grissom, and 3 of the 4 other cards needed to finish the trade-in redemption cards. Just need the Fernando Valenzuela. This won't be the only Collector's Choice card needed to complete a set. Stay tuned. 

There is the back of the Feltner card. That marks the 2nd Golden Mirror card I've pulled from the dime boxes, as well as a true photo variation card. 

After hitting up K n T's, Karen wasn't feeling well, so we both just headed home. She enjoyed her birthday, though. 

On Thursday the 30th, DeLand High had a football game, and during halftime, they were honoring people elected into the DeLand High School Hall of Fame. Among those elected was Yankees reliever Luke Weaver. Jim's wife Paula was his 3rd grade teacher, and Luke's mother goes to their church, so Jim was almost positive I could get an autograph at some point. Kyler and I went to the game armed with some Weaver cards and a black sharpie. We found Jim and Paula before the game, and waited around to see if Weaver would come by. I was pointing out something on the scoreboard to Kyler, and Jim spotted Luke about 15 minutes before the game started. Paula got a picture with Luke, and then Jim introduced me, and Luke was kind enough to sign all of my cards. Kyler was distracted and more interested in the scoreboard, and after Luke left, was like 'who was that?', thinking I just handed my Luke Weaver cards to some random guy to draw on with marker. I told Kyler that it was Luke, and that it had happened so fast that I thought he realized what was going on. We'll have a chance to get some more autographs in a few days, so hopefully it will be a little more fun for him then.

Luke signed a USA jersey card, a 2017 Topps rookie, a 2018 Chrome Pink Refractor, a 2019 Topps Update, 2022 Topps, and 2025 Topps card. I'll have to go through my collection and try to see what year I am missing from having an autograph on a Topps card. It was nice to get a 2025 card done. 

We stayed through halftime and watched Luke get his Hall of Fame plaque. DeLand won by almost 50, and stayed undefeated. 

On Thursday, Stetson baseball has a fall game, and we hope to attend. Jim will be there as well. Kyler and I need 2 more autographs to complete the 2025 Stetson team set, just missing Angel Gomez and James Hays. Hays is on the roster, but the jury is still out on Gomez. When the card was issued, he had already left campus for the summer, and we're not sure if he transferred or what. Jim got me the 2 cards of Christian Pregent, who is now coaching for Stetson. A good guy to ask about Gomez would be Steve Trimper, Stetson's head coach. I made the custom of Trimper, and hope to get it signed on Thursday, as well as give Steve a few. Lastly, Don Robinson is a pitching coach for their opponent, so maybe we'll get a few of his signed. I really want to ask him if he ever received a 'Stargell Star' and what it was like being a teammate of Dave Dravecky in 1989 during his comeback season. 

I recently got a complete 1998 Collector's Choice set on eBay. Not much to show as far as rookies or anything. I just really like the design, as well as getting more cards of players I followed in the late '90's and first cards of Rays and Diamondbacks. 

The rookies are really just Millwood, Magglio Ordonez, Jason Varitek, and Kerry Wood. The Ordonez card for some reason pictures him in his minor league Louisville uniform instead of White Sox gear. I believe it is the only card in the set like this. The Wood card was issued in complete sets, and is numbered 202B. Card 202A is Philadelphia Phillie Tony Baron, and I need that card to complete the set, since the Wood card took it's place in my set. 

The latest card purchases I made were 2 boxes? of 2025 Topps Holiday. Just to warn you, between my boxes and the one my brother-in-law got, many cards were off centered, had blurry names, and some chipping on the edges. I pulled a decent amount of Tigers, including big names like Jobe, Jung, and Skubal. The Rays were great, with a guy Kyler says we always pull, Junior Caminero, Yandy Diaz, Chandler Simpson in what his 2025 Update card will probably look like, and a Silver parallel of Shane McClanahan. 

Many of the rookies were new guys who will be in 2025 Update. Guys like Drake Baldwin, Kristian Campbell, Cade Horton, Nick Kurtz, Marcelo Mayer, Cam Smith, and others. 

The only Chrome I pulled was a Blue Wave of Zeby Matthews. Not sure if he is any good or not, but as a Tiger fan, I hope he isn't. If any bubble blowing collectors need that parallel of McCray, it is up for grabs. 

The parallels were nice. A Light Blue Trout, holiday versions of Judge, Soto, 2 of Skenes (!), and back variations of Seager and Chisholm. 

Those ones have snowflakes on the back instead of a logo. 

The Suzuki relic was neat, since I got an Imanaga one a few months ago. 

It was definitely a Skenes hot 2 boxes with a base and 2 holiday parallels. Hopefully he still stays hot.

We finally got a date for hopefully the final surgery for Karen. December 8 (our anniversary). The date works out well for me, since the doctors want us to stay up in NJ for 2-3 weeks after in case any problems. That should put my return past Christmas, and with 2-3 days driving, it could put it past New Years. That just leaves 1 crazy holiday that I have to work during, and I'm ok with that. I might actually be in the Christmas spirit this year instead of the normal Scrooge I am dealing with all of the insane amount of bread/cookies/etc I have to bake. For me, it will be a time first, to help Karen out as she recovers from the surgery. Secondly, I’ll have some good time to relax and regain energy after a long tough year. I’ll have a good chance to make a bunch of customs. Maybe finish the 1976 set, go from the 2010 Topps set and see how close I can come to finishing a Topps Rays missing player run. Karen mentioned maybe going to New York City a few days before the surgery and celebrating our anniversary early, and that would be so exiting getting to take my girl to the biggest city in the world and seeing it with her. Hopefully the next 2 months will include lots of healing, favor, and baseball cards. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy