Building Sets and Enjoying a Lazy Sunday

The end of my summer break has arrived.  Officially, I return tomorrow for training... and greet the kids on Wednesday.  Unofficially... I went into the classroom every day last week and worked over thirty hours.

I was really hoping to sit back, recharge, and enjoy a "lazy summer"... but it wasn't meant to be.  I pretty much had something to do on a daily basis from the very beginning to the end.  The first half involved road trips and family time.  The second half involved card related stuff (organizing and card show preparation), comic books (I inherited a collection a few weeks ago), and getting ready for the new school year.  If that wasn't enough... I had dentist appointments, lunch and dinner dates, and day trips sprinkled in here and there.  Plus... I even wrote a few future blog posts that have been scheduled over the next few weeks.

That's probably how things are going to be around here for the time being.  The start of the school year is usually the busiest time of the year for me the last thing I want is for blogging to feel like a second job.  Sure I will occasionally write a spur of the moment post (like this one), but be prepared... most will be written in advance.

Okay... let's check out some cards I recently added to some of my set builds.  The first four were part of my most recent COMC shipment.  Let's start with this vintage Joe Rudi: 

1971 O-Pee-Chee #407

Is this photo cool or what?  It's like synchronized swimming on the infield by Rudi and his New York Yankee partner.

But the real treat is on the back:

Yup.  Another floating head for my 1971 O-Pee-Chee A's team set.  This card was either poorly cut from the factory... or trimmed.  If you look closely... there's sort of a shark fin rising from the upper righthand corner of this card.  No biggie.  It only set me back a buck and some change.

The next three cards were pricier:

2014 Topps Museum Collection #44, 64, & 66

I spent a little over $6 for these three base cards, but they finished off my 2014 Topps Museum Collection set build:

More importantly... I can now remove this bulky set from my "set build" cubby and free up some space for other sets.

And while we're on the subject of set building, Greg over at The Collective Mind recently sent me six cards for four different set builds.  Let's check them out in chronological order...

1980-88 TCMA Baseball Immortals #88

Love this set and was very happy to slip this McKechnie into it's 9-pocket page.

One down.  Seventeen more cards to go.

Next up is a starter set I discovered in a box a few months ago.  Not sure where or when I acquired it, but this Keith Hernandez gets me one step closer to completing it:

1982 Kellogg's #23

I still have a ways to go.  This set was distributed as a complete set through a mail-in promotion and weren't actually inserted into cereal boxes.  

So if you see singles from this set, you know it was originally from a complete set.

He assisted me with one more 80's set build...

1984 Topps #600

I could have sworn that this card was sitting in my 80's binder... but it wasn't.  

Much like the 1986 Donruss set build, I'm in it for the long haul.  I could easily finish it off by going onto Sportlots, but I refuse to pay 18¢ each for commons.

The same can be said for my 2020 Topps A&G set build:

2020 Topps A&G #'s 37, 245, & 248

The past few shows I was hoping to stumble across some dealers with a bunch of this base sitting in boxes, but I've come up short.  However thanks to Greg...

 I'm slowly chipping away at this set.

Thank you Greg for this set building 6-pack!

Okay... I've got the whole afternoon in front of me.  I'm going to head downstairs, heat up some tamales, turn on the tv, take a nap, and relax the rest of the afternoon.  I might not have gotten my "lazy summer", but I still have time to enjoy a "lazy Sunday".

Happy Sunday and sayonara!