Summer Goals

It's been a few years since I have sat down and hammered out some hobby goals.  But since I won't be teaching this summer, I wanted to get three hobby related things accomplished before the start of the 2026-27 school year.

#1:  Target a handful of set builds.

Whether or not I actually complete any sets this summer, I want to at least make the effort to cross as many numbers off of my set needs as I can.

#2:  Inventory my collection.

Two to three times a decade, I like to go through my collection and update my inventory.  This project will wreak havoc on my back, but when I'm finished... I have a better understanding of what I've been hoarding the past few decades or so.

#3:  Clean up my office and catch up on blogging.

I have stacks of cards all over my office.  Some are sitting on my desk.  Others are laying in 5,000ct. boxes.  Plus I have unopened mailers dating back months.  The goal is to sort, scan, and blog as much as I can over the next two months.  Sundays will be reserved for farmer's markets, laundry, cleaning, and sorting.

Being the first Sunday of my summer break, I'm going to hammer out this sorting tray filled with the remaining cards from Reader X's January care package.

Let's start with some baseball players I collect:

Next up here are some PC additions for my favorite team collections:

Xavier always sends some San Francisco Giants, San Francisco 49ers, Las Vegas Raiders, and Golden State Warriors for my students:

Plus he tossed in some San Jose Sharks and a few other hockey cards:

I'm honestly not familiar with any of these guys, but the three Las Vegas Knights autographs are dedicated to my mother who rooted for them in their inaugural season.

Xavier also tossed in some football stars, rookies, and inserts:

Most of these will eventually be passed along to one of my students, but I did end up holding onto the Select rookie card of Caleb Williams.  

Thank you Xavier for another generous care package.  Sorry it took me six months to document it on here.

And thank you to everyone who took the time to read this post as I document the first Sunday Sort of The Summer of 2026.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

School's Out for Summer

Have you ever been tossed by a wave and struggled to catch your breath?  That's sort of how I've felt the past month or so at work.  Teaching, testing, grading, and classroom cleanup is part of the normal hectic routine that educators go through at the end of each school year.

It's all the other stuff like the final spirit rally, grad dance, graduation, end-of-the-year picnic, and creating next year's leadership roster that had me stressed out and overwhelmed on what seemed like a daily basis.  Each time I had a chance to come up for air, I'd get pounded with the next thing on the list.

But school's out for summer.  Yesterday was the last day of the school year.  Grades have been submitted.  Keys turned in.  And this morning I submitted all of the lingering paperwork (like overtime and rosters) online.  Summer break is officially here.

That means it's blogging season in my area and I have a ton of stuff to write about including a bunch of flea market finds, a few card show hauls, eBay pickups, and even an estate sale purchase.  But before I get to those, I need to wrap up a few more thank you posts.

Today's post highlights some of my favorite Japanese athletes included in Reader X's and John's (@ Johnny's Trading Spot) care packages.  Together they sent me over one hundred fifty new singles for my Japanese athlete PC.

Let's start things off with this video game legend:

2025 Cardsmiths Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors Dreams #27

I wasn't a huge Street Fighter fan, but I do remember fighting against this sumo wrestler when I did play:

I'm hoping to track down another copy of this card for Ryan (@ SumoMenkoMan).

Here are some other big names and cool cards that Xavier sent my way earlier in the year:

This is my third copy of Masanori Murakami's First Pitch card, but I'm hoping it's not the last.  That's one of those cards I'm hoping to eventually fill a 9-pocket page with.

Shota and Masataka are experiencing slow starts in 2026, but this next player isnt:

Ohtani is having another amazing season and collectors can't get enough of his cardboard.  Neither can I.

Thank you Xavier for this latest batch of Japanese athletes!

Let's move on to the stuff that John sent my way.  

He sent me so many base cards, inserts, and parallels... that I expanded my Japanese PC binder collection from 6 to 7 binders.

Seiya Suzuki and Kodai Senga were two of the bigger stacks.  Some of them I already had... but most were new.

I was also very happy to cross off nine Matsui Rookie Chronicles cards from my set build.

Thank you John for expanding my collection.  Now that school is out, I'll get those Star Wars cards shipped out to you.

As for the rest of you, I hope you have a great summer.

Do you have any fun summer plans?

I have a few short trips planned here and there, however my main source of entertainment will be organizing parts of my collection and placing some Sportlots orders to complete some set builds.  Plus I'm hoping to attend at least one or two card shows.  Depending on the weather, I may or may not attend any flea markets over the next couple of months.  But like I said at the start of the post, I have a few flea market posts sitting in the draft folder.

Happy Friday and sayonara!

Mascots, Mustaches, and a Mystery

Sometimes collectors collect the craziest things.  I know, because I'm one of those collectors.

Back in March, Topps released their Celebration mega boxes which contain cards of one of my favorite side collections: mascots.

When I found out they inserted mascot relic cards into packs, I knew I had to own a copy of this card for my A's PC:

2026 Topps Mascots Relic #MAS-ATH

A few weeks ago, this card popped up for auction on eBay.  I entered my $5 bid with a few seconds remaining in the auction and discovered I was the only guy interested.  After paying $3.50 more for shipping and taxes, it finally arrived in the mail last week.

Yup.  You're staring at a mascot relic card.  Is this thing silly or what?  I mean... does anyone really believe that Topps cut up Stomper's jersey or pants and embedded a swatch into this card?  It's highly unlikely.  But as an A's and Stomper fan, I had to add a copy to my collection.

Right around the time I started searching for this relic card, Bob over at The Best Bubble sent me this:

2008 Topps Opening Day Tattoo #NNO

The 2008 Opening Day Tattoos were inserts featuring team logos and mascots.  I might have to look into finding a nice starter set of these on eBay.

He also sent me some other cool items for my A's collection.  Let's start by checking out some autographs:

This card appears to be a custom created by or for Mr. Jones:

Doug Jones Custom Card #NNO

It contains his full career stats, so this card was created sometime after 2000.  I honestly don't remember Jones playing for Oakland.  I mostly remember him for his mustache and his years in Cleveland.

Here's another memorable 'stache:

1984 Fleer #453

My facial hair game is weak.  Davey's was not.  Rest in peace Mr. Lopes.

Bob also tossed in a few oddballs and inserts:

The shiniest was this Tim Hudson refractor:

2000 Topps Chrome Refractor #275

This card is gorgeous.  These days Topps has drowned collectors by flooding the hobby with refractors.  Things were different back in 2000.  Back then, you'd find one refractor in every twelve packs.  In other words, when you pulled one... it was worth celebrating.

The final card in his bubble mailer was this vintage oddball:

1971 Fleer Quiz #NNO

I had seen a few singles from this set pop up on blogs, but I've never owned one until now.  According to The Fleer Sticker Project, there's another A's card with a different set of questions, so I'll be on the hunt for that one too.

Okay, now it's time for the mystery portion of this post.  I found these sitting in a stack of mail: 

1984 Oakland A's Pocket Schedule

I'm pretty sure they were from a different care package from Bob.  However if I'm mistaken and you sent me these cards, please let me know down below.

This vintage Kellogg's decal was also with the schedule:

1970 Kellogg's Litho Fusion Decal

Thank you Bob for all of these cool A's collectibles!  Let me know if you also sent me the pocket schedule and Kellogg's decal.

Everyone else, here are today's questions of the day:

Who is your favorite sports mascot?

Who has the best mustache in sports history?

I look forward to reading and replying to your comments.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

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!