1969 Topps missing Detroit Tigers

 After doing the 1985 Topps missing Tigers yesterday, I went to making the missing '68 team guys in the 1969 set. Again, it wasn't as difficult as I thought, with the hardest one bieing Bob Christian, who I found in a team photo. Here are all of the missing Tigers from the 1969 Topps set (yearbook style), with ones made by others noted:

Eddie Mathews by Cards that Never Were

And that covers all of the guys who won a championship with the Tigers since Topps started making cards. Pretty sad, huh? You would only have to go back 8 years to have all of the Boston players from their last 2 titles. I have a feeling that the Tigers will be back in it during the next decade if they play their cards right. Don't get me wrong, Seattle, Chicago, Kansas City, and Toronto will all be alot better, and you always have the Yankee$ and the Red Sox, but the rest of the AL just doesn't have it to sustain a long playoff run unless a ton of big free agents are signed by them. I think in the NL that Atlanta, LA, Milwaukee, the Mets, Phillies, Cardinals, and Padres all have shots (some of them lesser shots, but again, free agency). It will be fun to see how all of this plays out in the next 10 years. 

I have a few ideas for new posts. Logan Gilbert, a guy I collect just made his MLB debut, so I might show off his cards, and I just got some cards back in the mail that were signed by Leo Daigle (another guy I collect), so I might do posts on them, and I'm sure I'll have the cards that John sent in the mail and perhaps other ones too. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

1985 Topps missing Detroit Tigers

 It has been far too long since I've posted customs on my blog, especially since the main focus on the blog when I started was customs. It's not a bad thing, I guess it just means I've been getting alot of new cards, and I think when I started the project of putting my new cards in binders that it kind of shifted my focus for a while. 

In my last post, I mentioned how I was eventually wanting to finish the '69 and '85 Topps Detroit Tigers sets to honor the '68 and '84 championship teams. I decided to look on my '85 Topps Reference page and see how close the Tigers were to having their missing cards done. It turns out it was only 10 or so cards short, so I went ahead and finished up the missing ones. Here they are, with credit given to the ones I didn't do. 

Dwight Lowry by Paul B.

Glenn Abbott by Lynn P.

Roger Craig Coach by Richard B.

Alan Trammell World Series Highlights by Bob J.

Kirk Gibson World Series Highlights by Bob J.

Tigers Celebrate World Series Highlights by Bob J.

Jack Morris World Series Highlights by Bob J.

Marty Castillo World Series Highlights by Bob J.

I think my next project might be to work on the missing guys from the '69 set. I know I've done the coaching staff. 

I had kind of casually mentioned to John at the show that if he had any Tigers out of that mostly vintage box that I'd be happy to trade for them. After he took it home and realized that they were dupes and that I was trying to get the '69 Tigers set, he commented on the last post that they were about to be mailed out. I'm greatful for great bloggers like John who see someone mention that they need a card or cards, and hop to it and just mail them out, no questions asked. Night Owl also did the same thing, saying that he could help me out with the pre-'79 stuff I was lacking with the Tigers. It's stuff like that which makes me thankful for the great bloggers/readers out there and makes me want to pull some great stuff from packs/shows/shops that I can help out other bloggers with. 

I don't know if it's as bad as I think it is, but my brother-in-law sent me a pic today of a Target that had a sign in the card aisle that basically said that as of May 14, trading cards weren't being sold in stores until further notice. I have a feeling it's because of those a-holes that ended up getting into a fight in a parking lot with a gun being drawn over trading cards. It's a shame, and I hope it's not true, because that means the only way I'm going to see any new product is if I get lucky and get something at market value on eBay or if I get it directly from Topps' website (I can just pick 1-2 packs of Series 2, Opeining Day, Stadium Club, Big League, Chrome, & Bowman and they are still regular price with no shipping charges, right?). Might have to hit up my LCS for .50 cent cards and hope they don't over charge me and just be content with waiting a few months and finding the complete set/Update set online. I was really hoping to pull some of those Black Gold inserts out of Update. Maybe by the time Update is out the unemployment will stop, flippers will have to get real jobs, and Target will sell cards and they will all be on the shelves for everyone. Us bloggers will have to band together.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

I promise real cards next time.

-Jeremy

Packs, packages, and plants

 I’ve got a few packages in the mail over the last few days, as well as a pack of cards or two. The cards came by way of 2 Targets that my wife graciously let me hit up while we were in Georgia and on the way home. The one in Georgia was located in Alpharetta, which is a really cool little town (at least most of the parts we went by). It had 1 hanging box of '21 Heritage left, and I got it. The Target we drove past was in Daytona, and it only had packs of '21 Opening Day, so we were able to get 3 packs. I would've probably got a few more if not for the 3 per rule, but at least there is something there for the collectors to purchase.

Seems like your average Heritage/Opening Day packs. 

No Sp's in Heritage, but I did pull some (meh) rookies, and I got 2 mascots from the Opening Day. Unfortunately, for me, the Cubs mascot was the 3rd one of that card that I have, as I purchased 2 before we went to the Cubs game in hopes of getting one signed for me and Kyler. I guess one will go in my Cubs binder, one will go in the area of my shiny binder that is dedicated to mascots that I hope to pass on to Kyler when he gets a little older, and the last one I might just add a second one to the mascot section or if anyone wants it, add as part of a trade package. The Heritage Meadows is a dupe, but the Opening Day one is new. I also have the "In Action" version of deGrom in the years' Heritage, and the Casey Mize Opening Day card will go nicely in his section of my favorite player binder right next to his '21 Donruss, Topps, and Heritage cards that I pulled. 

As for the pacakges I was talking about, both came within a day of each other, one a package from Bob of The Best Bubble, and the other from Night Owl Cards. 

I had reached out to Bob about sending him some bubble blowing and car in the background cards. We had traded about 2 years back (oddly enough, both times were shortly after coming back from vacations). He sent me some nice 30+ year old cardboard featuring Tigers. The McLain is the first actual non-reprint playing days McLain card that I own, and as excited as I am to get cards from the '70's since I only have maybe 1 Tiger card from any set from 1951-1979 or so, I was really excited for all of the 1985 Topps cards. I always enjoy cards being "yearbook style", where the players are pictured with their teams that correspond to the stats on the back (aka, the year before the card was issued). Since the Tigers won the World Series in '84, I consider the 1985 Topps set to be the best set to collect to honor the 1984 championship team. It's nice to get a little closer to completing that set. If only I could get a few (dozen) more to complete the 1969 set honoring the '68 team. I think so far I just have Norm Cash, Darryl Patterson, and Mayo Smith. 

Night Owl sent me a few cards each of the Rays and Tigers, and one of noted failed Dodger prospect/favorite player Billy Ashley. I always figured Ashley would hit 40 HRs in the Majors, and to be fair, he never really did get the 200+ At-Bats in a season to adjust to the majors. The Smyly card is a rainbow. I've always admired how nice Jeff Niemann was to fans during his career, almost always signing autographs when he had a chance. I'm sure he would've signed his '08 Allen/Ginter mini had I had it around that time. I swear I am close to completing the Tigers (and Rays) from the 2015 Heritage set, but even with the new Gose card, I'm still close to 10 short. I think because of SPs and the High Numbers. 

Thanks, Bob and Greg, for the great cards. 

I think we are supposed to be getting rain the next few days, which I welcome. Late last summer, my coworker, Butch, gave me a plant that I still don't know the correct name of. It looked about the same as the big leafed plant in the picture below. Well, winter came, and it ended up drying out and dying off. I cut off the dead branches, and a few weeks ago, when we got a day or so of rain, started to notice some little shoots coming out of the area where the original plant had been. Sure enough, it looks like this today, and good news is that it has already rained a little today, so hopefully they will start flowering at some point as long as the rain keeps up this summer. I added another pineapple (at the very bottom right corner) which needs the rain pretty bad, and there have been a few gladiolus coming up as well. All of those died off last year, so between that and the on Butch got me, I have some decent plants that come back every spring. 

Out in the back, the same 3 pineapples are there, perhaps one that will bloom this year. I think on the right are some sunflowers, and the yellower of the two must be something my sister got me that I planted. I also planted some pea and bean plants that she got me, I don’t think I’ll know where they are unless some of the fruit? starts blooming. Just like in the front, the gladiolus are popping back up, and in the very middle is an orchid that Butch gave me some seeds for. I had success with one in the front, and when he told me how big they get, I decided to transplant it to the back. It didn’t survive, and I was afraid all hope was lost as I had planted most of the seeds he gave me with no luck. I planted the last seed and waited to do so before a rainy day. I didn’t get anything for almost a month, and I checked back about a week ago after we got some rain finally, and sure enough, it stuck it’s head out of the ground. I had the boxes looking nice about 2 months ago, but the weeds are starting to show up again. 

That’s about it. Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy

Getting stuff accomplished

 Well, I feel pretty accomplished today. I was able to mail off all of the packages/envelopes I have been meaning to mail off for the past 2-3 weeks, and I was able to put all of my new cards into my shiny/refractor/game-used binders. That only leaves me with my Tigers, Rays, and Favorite Player binders left. It also leaves me with a question. When do I update those ones. With some of the cards I am mailing out, I know I will have stuff come back, as I have emailed back and forth with the people I am sending to. I would say that for sure, I know I will have 2 packages coming back. With the other ones, I'm not sure, but I figure that once I update the remaining 3 catergories of binders, that I'll get a package in the mail, and I'll get some cards that I need from 2003 for the Rays/Tigers binders, which are organized by year, or a card of Rolando Arrojo for my Player binder, which is alphabatized. I don't want to be ungrateful for getting packages or put the pressure on anyone I've traded with or sent stuff to. I just don't want to jump the gun too quickly with probably my 3 favorite catergories of cards. 

I figure I will wait maybe 2 weeks, and definitely until I receive the 2 packages I am expecting. There is also an idea that Johnny from Cards from the Quarry was kicking around about sending a 2000 count box around to maybe 6 bloggers at a time. The idea is to pick out the cards you like, replace them, and send them to the next person. I think I would be in on that. I could at the very least pick out some shiny cards or perhaps a few from a favorite player, and maybe if I'm lucky, pull some nice Tigers or Rays. Then on the flip side, I can get rid of tons of Yankee$ cards, and guys I really don't like, such as Manny Machado, Yadier Molina, Hunter Pence, Gerit Cole, anyone who's ever flipped a bat, etc. If the ball gets rolling on Johnny's idea, I think I'll probably wait until I go through the box before I organize anything. The way my binders are organized now, I don't think it will stop me from getting packs, as most binders are organized by year, and it's not too difficult to put 2021 cards in. I do put team logo sticker cards in at the very end, and one of these days, I'm going to take them out and affix them to the front of my team binders. I actually need to purchase a few binders. Next time I make a big Wal-Mart run, which could probably be in a week. 

As far as the stuff sent out, if your zip code is 13601, 40475, 43606, 48105, 60703, or 97202, you will either be getting a package or pwe with some fun stuff in it. Again, I apologize for getting your hopes up that it was going to get sent out earlier, and don't feel like you have to send stuff back so I can get my binders in order. I will probably just wait a few weeks and start with my Tigers. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

5-1 Jacksonville card show

 Yesterday I was able to go to my first card show in probably 2 years. After getting the vaccine 2 months ago, it felt safe to go out to a show and see what I could find. 

I was able to meet up with John from Johnny's Trading Spot, and I had a box of Braves/PC guys for him, and he had 2 big boxes of Rays and Tigers for me. It was probably a good 250-300 cards that he had for me, and combined with the ones I found at the show, I probably had close to 500 new cards to add to my Rays/Tigers/PC binders. 

I basically dumped all the cards together and took pictures, not really bothering to separate ones from different sellers or show ones from John's ones. There were just so many cards. 

I did a good job adding some Rays cards to fill in some older sets. 

John helped me put the 2021 Donruss set to rest as far as the Rays were concerned. He also introduced me to Fred, the dealer who hooks him up with great deals. I had a good stack of cards from Fred's table, probably 60 or so cards from a dollar bin, and he charged me 40 bucks for it, but when I found John (who was at another table), he figured he could've got a better deal than that. Not to worry, though. I thought I had a good deal, and I know to have John with me next time. John got some stuff from Fred's table, including the '20 Archives Arozarena rookie, 21 Donruss, 21 Donruss Blue, and '21 Opening Day Arozarena's, and hooking me up with them. The Archives, Donruss base, and Opening Day cards were all ones I had hoped to find at the show, and the others I had hoped to find ('05 Topps Verlander and '18 Bowman Casey Mize) weren't there. There were a number of nice Rays cards I found, including a Shane McClanahan autograph, and a '21 Topps Gold Adames card. 

There were a ton of OPC Tigers that John hooked me up with. I believe the '67 Horton and '69 Patterson were from Fred's table. 

More cards from John, lots of Bowmans I needed. 

Did I mention the John gave me a ton of cards?

The '02 Bowman Grandersons were show cards. I remember when that card was super hot. 

I was happy to find the Tony Giarratano autographed card. He hit for average in the minors, and I hoped he would stay in the Majors longer. 

Newer Tigers, all from John, save the Blue Garcia Bowman rookie. 

Stuff from when I didn't collect very much. 

I think my favorites from these are all of the Chromed up cards. I looked at some of these, and they were just dripping with Chrome (I believe Dime Box Nick came up with this term). My absolute favorite was the Christin Stewart relic/auto. It was listed for 17, and I tried to get the guy down to 10, as it was my last 10 left, and he was solid on 12 bucks, but John gave me the 2 bucks I needed to get the last card of the show for me. 

Favorite Player guys. The Stadium Club Chrome X-Fractor was from John. He had it in one of his previous posts, and I was super jealous of the card when I saw it. Just a spectacular looking card. I found a Dee Gordon autographed card at Fred's table for only a buck. Many of the Andruw and Chipper Jones cards were from a table of a guy in the 2nd room of the show. The guys running the show basically split it up into 2 rooms. The first room was the main one, and it had the the 'true' dealers. The second one, you could tell had 95% flippers. Tons of blasters, graded crap, no quarter boxes, and you could just sense that the guys there were trying to make a buck from the sick mojo hitz. One table had a box that looked worth digging through, and that's where I found the Jones cards. The guy at the table next to him was a freaking freshman in high school selling NBA stuff. I hope our hobby can survive the crap that came from the pandemic. On the bright side, the one flipper table had some cool '90s inserts like a Pinnacle Epix card, a Myster Finest card, and a Pinnacle Spellbound card. 

The flipper also had a '98 Topps Minted in Cooperstown Jayson Werth rookie. I got the card for the other guy on it, Dan Reichert, a Type 1 diabetic. I found a ton of Casey Mize cards. The Profar card is either a base or a SP. I have another version of the card in my binders. I believe the Weaver autograph and the Tebow rookie were another purchase from Fred's table. I believe the Weaver was 15, the Tebow was 5, and I had one other card with it, and he let me have it for 10. 

Just look at all of those cards dripping Chrome! 

I cannot wait to put these cards in my binders. The problem is that I need to get a few new binders and probably at least a 100 ct box of pages. I had a few more card I got that I didn't take pictures of, some autographed rookie cards that I'm going to have to re-adjust my RC binder for, a Carlos Beltran jersey card, and a '98 Pinnacle Epix Maddux, among others. Also not shown are 1 or 2 cards for other bloggers that I found which should be in packages soon. Haven't found time to get everything in envelopes, and I only have 2 days until I'm flying to Atlanta for an award ceremony for my wife. She is nominated for an award at work, and I get to go along with her for all of it. We will be out of town from Wednesday to Friday, and I have my work schedule, I just haven't looked that far ahead. I promise I will mail stuff out soon. I'm sorry I've been bad about getting stuff out.  

Next binder on the list will be the shiny/game-used and refractors, followed by the Tigers, Rays, and Favorite Players. I will probably run out of pages by the time I'm partially done with Detroit, but I'll probably get some ordered in the next week.

Overall, it was a great card show, it was fun talking with John and having him answer some questions, tell stories, and work his magic with the dealers, and I hope to get a Saturday off again that coincides with the Jax show so I can go again.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy