Package from Baseball Card Breakdown

A while back, I had sent Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown a few cards that he needed for the 1982 Topps set. I didn't expect anything in return for such a small mailing, but he came through above and beyond yesterday when a nice bubble mailer showed up in my mailbox full of Rays cards and other goodies.

 First up are a ton of Rays cards. I have a number of Rays cards from purchasing packs and singles over the years, and I am happy to say that not only did I get many cards from sets I had never had before (like '13 Pinnacle and some of the Topps non-flagship sets), but I also got a crapload of cards that I actually need. There might be 1 or 2 that are dupes, if that. I would also like to mention that Gavin included a few refractors and autographed cards. What a guy!

 Next up are some nice cards of guys in my Favorite Player Collection. I got a '99 Pacific Prism Rolando Arrojo, an '08 Bowman Chrome Justin Ruggiano, and a '10 Topps Opening Day Blue Ben Zobrist. On the right is an '81 Donruss custom of Mike Reinbach that Gavin made. Having a blog dedicated almost entirely to customs, I am happy to have a custom that someone else made in my collection.

Finally, on the back of the note Gavin added with the cards was this '90 Fleer inspired Cody Bellinger/Aaron Judge custom. I think I am going to cut this one out and add it to my Dodgers binder.

Speaking of binders, I have been going through the 3 boxes of cards I purchased a week or so ago in hopes of putting all of those cards, as well as my other loose cards, in binders. I am almost halfway done (finishing up the Giants and Expos/Nationals in the NL) with sorting the cards, and then on to the arduous project of putting them in binders. It has taken a while, but has been fun getting to sort them after work each day. I think I will be able to put a big dent in them next Tuesday (or whichever day they give me off at work besides Sunday. We have a new manager at work, and in spite of a few hiccups, I think it is a good thing).
My '98 Topps custom set is coming along. Still muddling through the Twins, and making progress. There is still a chance at finishing it before the end of the year, but it will depend on how I do with these cards getting organized.
Thanks for the nice cards Gavin, and thank you for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

Card sorting and a package from Fuji

So this past weekend, my wife went out of town to see her brother and family while I was stuck at home taking care of the dogs and working. I had planned on working on my 1998 Topps customs and maybe updating my Player Collection pages, but fate had another thing in store.
I had been seeing some commercials for the Offer Up app on TV, and had kind of been wondering if they had baseball cards on the app. I never downloaded the app, but decided to check Craigslist to see if anyone had some baseball cards for cheap. I found an ad for 3 4,000-5,000 count boxes for 20 bucks about 45 minutes away from me, and I figured it might be worth a shot. I got the feeling from e-mailing the guy that they were all probably '80's and '90's cards, but maybe I could knock him down to 15 or so for all of it. I met up with him on Friday, and after looking at the boxes, the smallest one looked like it had some late '90's sets, so I just gave him the 20 and came home (eventually after some bad patches of traffic) with the 3 boxes about 2 hours later.

 I had thought that it wouldn't take that long to sort those cards, but 2 days later, the are just sorted into teams. I still need to sort them by years, and I also need to then combine them with the rest of my cards in boxes. Once that is done, I would love to put them into binders, and ultimately only buy newer cards in an effort to make organization alot simpler.
I found mostly '80's and '90's cards that were dupes (which I expected), but was pleasantly surprised to find a good number of '96-'98 Fleer, Ultra, Collector's Choice, and Topps cards. I had purchased a few packs during those years whenever my teenaged budget could afford, but I am really missing stuff from many of the sets those years. The gems of the collection had to be 3 '97 Fleer, 1 '97 Ultra, and 3 '98 Topps David Ortiz rookies, and 3 '90 Donruss Juan Gonzalez reverse negative errors.

 I will be sorting the rest of those cards for a while, probably pushing the finishing of the '98 Topps set into 2019, but I will still post the 50 card blocks of the set as I get them done.

I also got a prize package from Fuji for commenting on his autograph BBA post and being one of the top 5 in the random draw. He sent some nice Rays/Devil Rays hits, including a Juan Salas autograph from '07 SP Rookie edition. I pulled the redemption for this card back in '07, sent it in, got the autographed card back, but then ultimately lost it when I sold most of my autographed cards, so I am happy to now have it back. Thanks for the nice cards, Fuji!

Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

1998 Topps #1001-1050

I unexpectedly got some free time today after work, and got to finish almost 100 cards in the 1998 Topps set, and make a few posts. Here is the one I did for this blog, with the next 50 cards in the '98 Topps set. 

 Lloyd McClendon Coach by Richard

 Tony LaRussa Manager by Richard

 Dave Duncan Coach by Richard

 Busch Stadium by Richard

The Cardinals presented many troubling cards, and I couldn't find any photos for some of them. If anyone can find better photos for some of them, please let me know. That Scott Livingstone card killed me. I have about 275 cards left to do in the 1998 Topps set. If things go according to plan, I will have most of the day Tuesday, as well as the evening on Friday and Saturday to do work on customs. I hope to get some customs done then, as well as updating my Favorite Player Collection. I haven't updated it since April or so, and I would like to keep it as up to date as possible. Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy