Future of the Blog

Long time, no write.  I've been thinking a lot about the future of the blog, but before I get into that... let's look at some cards...

1985 AGI Rock Star Concert Cards #8

I was driving home from Starbucks this weekend when I heard on the radio that a bunch of musicians from my childhood were going to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

Pat Benatar (and her husband) stood out the most and was the inspiration for this post.

In addition to making cassette mix tapes of my favorite songs back in the 80's, I spent some time creating music video mix tapes.  Benatar's Shadows of the Night was on one of them.  Have no idea the numbers, but I watched and rewatched that video a lot.  Forty years later, I still know most of the lyrics.

She's one of my favorite musicians of all-time and I'm kind of surprised it took this long for her to be inducted.

Duran Duran was the other name that stood out when I heard the list of inductees...

J2 New Wave #11

They were one of my favorite groups when I was in elementary school.  I remember asking my mom to rent the Girls on Film video at the video store and inviting my buddies over to watch it.

That was probably right around the same time I purchased my first Duran Duran album: Seven and the Ragged Tiger.  The Reflex was a memorable video with the waterfall pouring onto the crowd.  It ended up being the group's first #1 single.

According to Wikipedia, the song reached #1 on June 23, 1984.  That would have been the start of my summer break (before junior high)... which means there's a chance I was listening to this song while sitting around opening up packs of 1984 Topps baseball cards.

I never came close to completing the set back in 1984... but thanks to a fellow collector who reads this blog... I managed to complete the set build that started back in 2018.

The plan is to one day slide this set into 9-pocket pages, so I can flip through this awesome set from my childhood.  Until then, it's home will be in a traditional 800ct. box:

Thank you Regan for sending me the final forty-seven cards I needed for this set.  And thank you for checking in with me and the blog over the years.  It's much appreciated.

I also would like to take a few seconds to thank all of you who took the time to read this post.  I'm not really sure what the future holds for this blog.

The past few months have been extremely busy for me, but that's only half of the story.  The other half is that I haven't been motivated to write.  I'm hoping the passion for writing returns soon, because I haven't stopped collecting and there are plenty of cards sitting around the office waiting to be written about.

Until then... here's one more card related to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2022:

1990 Bill Pucko Utica Blue Sox #27

Morgana wasn't part of this year's class, but Dolly Parton was.

Unfortunately I don't have any of Dolly's trading cards, so I went with someone with a similar body type.

Thanks again to all of you for supporting the blog.  I will see you around the blogosphere.  Just because I'm not motivated to write doesn't mean I'm not motivated to read and comment on your posts.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara for now!

Still Alive

I'm still alive and so are the San Diego Padres.

Same story as before.  Things are hectic around here... but I actually made it a priority to watch Game 3 of the Mets and Padres series.  I didn't catch the entire game, but I watched most of it.

1999 Decipher Austin Powers CCG #138

I'm pretty stoked about the Southern California showdown... although I doubt I'll be able to watch Tuesday or Wednesday's game against the Dodgers.  I'll be checking the box scores on a regular basis though.  The Los Angeles Dodgers dominated the Padres during the regular season... winning 14 out of 19 games.  But hopefully the Padres can build on their one game win streak... and give the best team in baseball a run for their money.

It's unlikely... but a fan can dream.

As for me... I have a few posts in the works.  One is a flea market haul.  The other is a post recapping a hangout involving a Dodger fan.   I'm also hoping to write a post based on this pack of cards sent to me by Reader X: 

1999 Decipher Austin Powers CCG

He actually sent me two packs.  One went into my unopened pack collection.  The other will eventually be covered over on A Pack To Be Named Later.  Thanks Xavier!

Until my next post... let's go Padres!

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Cropped and Colorful

There is no shortage of awesome looking Nolan Ryan trading cards.  Grab ten of his base cards and there's guaranteed to be at least one card that'll catch your eye.  Today is the 41st anniversary of Ryan's 5th no-hitter... which happened to be the only no-hitter he threw while with the Houston Astros.

I figured today would be the perfect time to show off a card that's been sitting in my draft folder for over a year now...

1982 Topps #90

The rainbow uniform is the first thing that caught my eye.  But it's the well-cropped action shot that sealed the deal for me.  I knew right away that I wanted to add it to my Classic Card Collection.

I ended up landing this card on COMC back in July of 2020 for $11.56.  I know graded cards aren't everyone's cup of tea, but it's a prerequisite for that particular collection.  These days with budget cuts and inflated prices, I don't even bother hunting down new cards for this collection.  Thankfully prices have started to settle, but as a bargain hunter... I don't have any problem waiting a little longer.

Getting back to his 5th no-hitter... he threw it against the Los Angeles Dodgers at the Astrodome.  Did you know that the Dodgers have been involved with the most no-hitters in MLB history?  Their pitchers have thrown 26 no-hitters (an MLB record), while their hitters have been held hitless 20 times (another MLB record)*.

*This is a prescheduled post that was written over Spring Break a few months ago, so the no-hitter facts about the Dodgers may or may not be up to date.

Here is today's question of the day...

What are your favorite Nolan Ryan base cards?

My personal favorite is one of Ryan's classic cards from the 70's...  

1971 Topps #513 

I love the well-cropped action shot with the RC Cola ad in the background.  I don't own too many cards of his, but if I could only keep one... this would probably be it.

Looking forward to hearing about your favorites.  Happy Monday and sayonara!

Tranquility & Calmness

Being an educator has a lot of perks.  One that often gets brought up by friends and family are the numerous breaks and holidays.  I typically use them to recharge the batteries and embrace a little tranquility and calmness.  Unfortunately there's nine week stretch between Labor Day and Veteran's Day where there is all work and no rest.

It's a good thing I have a few hobbies which help take my mind off of things after hours.  Obviously collecting cards is one of those things and we'll get to a couple of those later in this post.  Right now here's another hobby I began playing around with a few years ago:

Lego #10281

When I need it the most... Lego sets have provided me with tranquility and calmness.  This bonsai tree distracted me from the real world for about an hour and a half.  The best part about toying with Legos is they make great display pieces when you finish.  This set sits in my family room right next to my mom's photo.  The pair bring a smile to my face on a daily basis.

I built a few Lego sets over the past few months, but I chose to show this one off because it's related to a postcard I recently received in a care package from Reader X:

Not sure if bonsai trees and black bears have anything in common, but on the back of this postcard there's a really cool Forever stamp:

Here's a closer look:

The USPS released a set of Forever stamps in 2012 that feature five different bonsai trees.  Thanks to Xavier, I'm actively trying to hunt down one of these stamp sheets.

He's actually sent a few different care packages over the past few years.  Last year he sent me several eTopps.  Two of them feature Tim Lincecum:

2010 eTopps #6

2011 eTopps 206 #NNO

Timmy has been known to use another type of vegetation in his search for tranquility and calmness.  That's not really my thing... but these shiny cards sure are.

I'll just stick to collecting cards and building Lego sets.  I've also made plans to meet up with my friend's nephew to play 9 holes this afternoon.  Assuming my balls are flying reasonably straight... this will also help me find tranquility and calmness.

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!

No Logos, No Cry

When it comes to sports cards, I tend to be a logo snob.  But every now and then... a logo-less product comes along that I enjoy.  Actually... obsessed might be better way to describe my interest in 2013 Hometown Heroes.  Anyone remember me busting several boxes of that stuff?

Two years later... it happened again when I saw someone open a blaster of 2018 Sage Sport Kings on YouTube.  They're logo-less too, but I'll let the scans explain my obsession rather than words:

2018 Sport Kings #1

2018 Sport Kings #1b

There were two players with image variations in 2018.  Ty Cobb was one of them.  Walter Payton was the other.

2018 Sport Kings #9

2018 Sport Kings #14

No idea who Ross Barnes is, but according to Baseball Reference he was a three time batting champion... so I guess he was a king to some extent.  He's also early evidence that you don't have to be a hall of famer to be a Sport King.

2018 Sport Kings #16

Sage's artists tend to push the boundaries by painting partially exposed logos and team names on jerseys and hats.

2018 Sport Kings #25

2018 Sport Kings #30

2018 Sport Kings #31

You might have noticed that there are a bunch of missing numbers.  That's because this set contains athletes from a variety of sports ranging from bowling to swimming to beach volleyball.  There were 48 athletes representing twenty-five sports in the 2018 set.  Football was king with ten different athletes represented.  Technically there are eleven.  Tom Condon also has a card in the set, but he's listed as an agent instead of a football player.

Baseball slid into second place with seven representatives and the only other sport with more than two athletes featured in this set was basketball (4 athletes).

Most of you are baseball fans, so only scanned baseball cards.  Moving along to Volume 2:

2021 Sport Kings #52

Sport Kings returned last year during the pandemic after a two year hiatus.  I must have been distracted by Covid, distance learning, and hoarding toilet paper, because I completely missed the release of this product.  It's a shame it took me so long to get my hands on some, because this Babe Ruth wearing pinstripes is a great looking card and is the first baseball card in the 2021 Sport Kings Volume 2 set.  

2021 Sport Kings #54

Instead of restarting the checklist with card #1, they decided to make this a living set... which means the numbering continued from where they left off in 2018.

2021 Sport Kings #58

Volume 2 was reduced from 48 (50 w/variations) cards to 38 and contains cards #49 to #86.

2021 Sport Kings #61

2021 Sport Kings #69

The card's design is based on the Goudey Sport Kings from 90 years ago.  I'm a big fan of the little icons at the bottom of the card that represent the athlete's sport.  

2021 Sport Kings #76

They tend to stand out on some cards better than others.  The Alston is a good example.

2021 Sport Kings #83

2021 Sport Kings #84

Baseball was king in Volume 2... as it beat out football with 8 players in this set.

Several months ago, Sport Kings released Volume 3.  This time around there were only 36 cards on the checklist, but a whopping 11 featured baseball players.

2022 Sport Kings #89

2022 Sport Kings #93

Volume 3 also featured full body paintings of baseball players in action... which I hope continues into the future.

2022 Sport Kings #102

2022 Sport Kings #104

2022 Sport Kings #106

2022 Sport Kings #110

2022 Sport Kings #112

2022 Sport Kings #114

This Jackie is actually the inspiration for this post.  I saw this card featured on another blog a few months ago which sent me on a mission to track down blasters of this stuff (and Volume 2).

2022 Sport Kings #117

Between eBay and an online store, I was able to find a bunch of 2021 and 2022 blasters in the $17 to $18 shipped price range.

2022 Sport Kings #120

2022 Sport Kings #122

I'm not 100% sure if Sage is still the company producing these cards.  Sadly whoever did has a serious collation issue.  I ended up with a ton of duplicates, but struggled to find a handful of players.

If anyone else out there are building these three sets, hit me up and maybe we can help each other out.  Here's the link to my set needs.

So those are my thoughts on this logo-less living set...

What's yours?

Looking forward to reading and responding to your comments.  Until then...

Happy Thursday and sayonara!