Plethora of Pads

It's hard to believe that I've been a San Diego Padres fan for over forty years.  The only professional teams I have rooted for longer are the Oakland/Sacramento A's and the Seattle Seahawks.

Sometimes the fact that I have two favorite teams within one sport confuses people, but it's pretty simple.  When the A's play any MLB team other than the Padres, I root for the A's.  And when the Padres play any MLB team other than the A's, I root for the Padres.

It's only tricky when they play against each other.  Then it depends on who needs the win more.  Since both teams are fighting for first place in their divisions, I just sit back and enjoy the game.  That's what happened this weekend.  The A's won today, but the Padres won the series.

2022 Topps Opening Day #OD7

Figured it's a good time to show off some Padres cards that John (@ Johnny's Trading Spot) and Reader X sent me earlier in the year.

John is an Atlanta Braves' fan, while Reader X roots for the New York Yankees.  Since the Braves currently hold the best record in baseball, let's start with the cards John sent me...

1990 Panini Sticker #356

Although I love collecting baseball cards featuring my favorite players, I also enjoy adding team related items like this Panini sticker and these team cards:

2024 Topps 582 Montgomery Club #2

2025 Topps 582 Montgomery Club #39

John sent two partial team sets from the 582 Montgomery Club set.  Here are some of the bigger names:

I tried to join the 582 Montgomery Club the first couple of years, but it always filled up too fast.  Glad to have some of these singles for my collection.

He also sent me a partial 1985 Mother's Cookies Padres team set.  Here are some of the notable names:

But my favorite card is the one featuring Jack Murphy Stadium:

1985 Mother's Cookies Padres #28

He sent me a big stack of Mr. Machado cards.  Here's a sampling:

Plus there were some other parallels and inserts featuring some familiar names:

Next up are a variety of inserts and parallels from Reader X.  He sent me over seventy different Padres for my collection.  

Here are some of the highlights:

Tony Gwynn is my all-time favorite player... so I'm always excited to add new cards to my binder.

Fernando is my favorite current Padre:

He's really struggling this season.  It's been two months and he still hasn't hit a home run.  Hopefully he figures things out at the plate soon.

Machado has been struggling too, but that's not stopping me from enjoying his cards:

Honestly... all of the Padres big name hitters are struggling this season.

But Luis Arraez is hitting .323 for the San Francisco Giants this season.  The Padres could really use him this season.

Even without their stellar bats, the Padres still have the 5th best record in baseball... and are only 4 games behind the Atlanta Braves.  There's still plenty of baseball left to be played.

Let's go Padres!  Let's go A's!

Thank you John and Reader X for your generous contributions to my San Diego Padres PC.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Plugging Some Holes

When it comes to shopping for cards online... COMC's fall has led to the ascension of Sportlots (at least for me).  They've always served different purposes.  Sportlots helped me complete sets with their affordable commons, while COMC filled gaps in my player and team collections.

Since I've always tried to get the most bang for my buck, I avoided paying 20¢ for commons and preferred to find pricier cards over on COMC.  However their decision to restructure their shipping rates forced me to drain my balance, start using Sportlots more, and focus on card projects that have been collecting dust for quite some time.

1984 Topps Glossy All-Stars #10

1986 Topps Glossy All-Stars #7

1990 Topps Glossy All-Stars #8

Last week, I started shopping for some 80's Leaf Dave Stieb cards... which led me to plugging some holes in my 1984 to 1991 Topps Glossy All-Star project which was missing the entire 1986 set.  Well, I found one vendor with almost the entire set:

This lot puts me past the 50% mark on this project...

I'll be busy the next four weeks, but as soon as my summer break starts... I'm hoping to cross off the bulk of these needs with the help of eBay and Sportlots:

While shopping for those Stieb cards, I completed another set sitting in my office:

1990-91 Pro Set Hockey Set

Back in early April, Stuart over at S.R. '75 Cards sent me this set.  I'm a huge fan of early Pro Set sets and was happy to add their inaugural hockey set to my collection.  While flipping through the set, I noticed it was missing one card:

1990-91 Pro Set #298

No biggie.  That's what Sportlots is for.  If you're not familiar with this set, here's a quick peek:

Pro Set included everyone from draft picks to coaches to officials.  They even included a card for the puck.

They also honored the all-stars, award winners, and stat leaders.  Plus a ton of guys who would eventually make the Hockey Hall of Fame:

Speaking of future hall of famers, the 1990-91 rookie card class was full of them:

Jaromir Jagr is the lone player to not receive the honor.  But that's because he hasn't officially announced his retirement.  He last skated in the NHL in 2017, but was playing professionally in the Czech Republic up to last season.

Thank you Stuart for generously gifting me with this awesome set.

Let's wrap this post up with the two cards that inspired this Sportlots order:

1985 Leaf #54

1986 Leaf #68

Last week, I showed of this 1987 Leaf card of Dave Stieb that Adam over at Thoughts & Sox sent me:

1987 Leaf #72

I mentioned that I might chase down his other three Leaf cards from that era.  Two down, 1988 to go.

Like the Topps Glossy All-Stars... I'll target this card in a few weeks when I have more free time on my hands.

Until then, here is today's question of the day:

Where do you shop for cards online?  COMC?  Sportlots?  eBay?  Other?

If I were to break down the numbers, eBay and their vendors get most of my money.  However my purchases usually involve single cards or smaller sets/lots.  Sportlots is a distant second, but that might change this summer.

I look forward to reading and responding to your comments.  I apologize that I haven't replied to comments on my recent posts.  It's on my list of things to do this weekend.  Stay tuned.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

Let's Go Oakland!

Oops.  I mean Sacramento.  When I started writing this post three Saturdays ago... I was pleasantly surprised to see the A's and San Diego Padres sitting on top of their divisions.

Obviously it's been a few weeks and there's a reasonable chance neither still are, but regardless I wanted to show off some of their cards I have recently acquired, sorted, and added into my personal collections.

So grab your favorite beverage, sit back, and get ready for this scan heavy post that was brought to you by Reader X and John over @ Johnny's Trading Spot.  When it comes to care packages, these guys don't mess around.  They're heavy hitters.  Their care packages aren't measured by ounces.  They're measured in pounds.

I couldn't find any photo evidence of John's care packages, but they were similar in size to the one Xavier sent me in January:

John used a large flat rate box to ship his cards.  Xavier's preferred method is a shoebox stuffed with baseball card boxes:

Inside of each of these boxes weren't actual packs.  There were stuffed with team bags filled with cards.  Here's a peek at the contents of those team bags after I sorted them on my office floor:

Although the shipping packages were different... each of these guys sent me hundreds of new cards for my collections and students.

Today I'm only going to focus on my two favorite baseball teams.  Let's start off with the first place Athletics...

Reader X sent me a variety of stuff including this Gold Star parallel team set:

2023 Topps Gold Stars Oakland A's Team Set

He also included almost seventy rookie cards and parallels featuring hall of famers, fan favorites, and current stars:

A's Hall of Famers & Legends

Former & Current A's Parallels

More Current Stars

Reader X also tossed in a pair of buybacks:

And this Lazaro Armentaros super collector starter kit:

Not sure if Mr. Armenteros is currently playing baseball, but back in 2019 he peaked as the Oakland A's #5 prospect:

Last, but certainly not least... Xavier sent me this oversized Matt Chapman:

2017 Bowman Prospects 5x7 #BP110 (#'d 05/10)

Big and low numbered!

Next up are some of the A's John over at Johnny's Trading Spot sent my way:

Let's start with the three of the A's brightest stars:

Brent Rooker, Nick Kurtz & Jacob Wilson

All three of these guys have had some struggles at the plate this season, but they seem to be picking up steam.

Next up is a giant batch of Big Mac and The Pizza Man:

McGwire Oddballs & Piazza Inserts

1987 Barry Colla Mark McGwire Set

1987 Barry Colla Mark McGwire #10

Like Xavier, John also included a parallel team set in his care package:

2025 Topps 582 Mongomery Oakland A's Team Set

And what better way to wrap up a post, than with a six pack of Billy Martin cards:

Billy Martin Collection

Although I was watching and playing baseball by the late 70's, my earliest memories of attending games were from the Billy Ball Era.  His 1982 Donruss card captures a great shot of him having a calm discussion with Blue.  Some of my favorite baseball highlights from the 80's involved watching managers arguing with umpires... especially when fingers were pointing and dirt was flying.  Good times.

Thank you Reader X and John for these awesome additions to my A's collection.  I was originally going to show off some Padres cards too.  Unfortunately I've already been sitting on this stuff for over two weeks and this post is already running a little long, so stay tuned for the Brown & Gold cardboard.

Until then...

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

By the way... the A's are indeed still in 1st place.  Yee haw!  Billy would be proud.