30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Friday, July 26, 2024

The 2024 Blogger National

The National Sports Collectors Convention is a bucket list item that I hope cross off one of these years.  Unfortunately there are a few roadblocks that I've mentioned in the past.  Until then... I'm content with attending local card shows and flea markets.

Plus there is Matt's annual blog bat-around:  The Blogger National 2024.

If you're not familiar with The Blogger National, it's an opportunity for bloggers who aren't attending the show to connect with each other by showing off some of our favorite (or coolest) cards or sharing a recent mail day.

I'm still in the process of catching up on (not so) recent mail days, so I'm gonna show off some of my favorite cards from a COMC haul from 2023 and a Reader X care package from earlier in the year.

Let's start of with the my favorite athlete of all-time:

2023 Archives 1957 Topps Hit Stars #57HS-5

Xavier sent me a few different Gwynns, but this is the one that stood out to me.  It features the 1957 Topps Hit Stars design that featured entertainers from the era.  I recently purchased a card from the set, because it was one of my mom's favorite singers.

Here are a few other favorites from his care package:

2022 Archives #305

Love this photo of Ohtani!  Wasn't familiar with the set design, but apparently it's from the 1954 Topps Scoops which focused on major events in world history.

2023 Topps Chrome Refractor #97

Last season, I was so stoked to see a Fuji playing for the A's.  His career in Oakland didn't last long... as he was traded to the Baltimore Orioles after only a few months.  That being said... I'm excited to add new (especially A's) cards of him to the collection.

It's sad that the Oakland A's will play their final game at the Oakland Coliseum exactly two months from now.  Next season... if I want to attend an MLB game, it'll have to be at Oracle Park:

2023 Allen & Ginter Only In... #OI-24

I should have posted this card back in May when I went there to see a Giants game with my cousin from Hawaii.  Unfortunately... I dropped the ball and didn't see this card until this week.

Time to switch gears and change sportsXavier's care packages contain cards for a bunch of my collections, including basketball.  He sent me a lot of Steph Curry and other Warriors cards for my students.  Plus a nice stack of Los Angeles Lakers for me.

Here's one featuring my childhood favorite:

1992-93 Archives #41

I absolutely love this card!  It's so cool to see Byron featured on my favorite 80's baseball card design.  Outside of adding a Kobe card here and there... I haven't given my Lakers PC a lot of love the past decade or so.  Maybe I need to start chasing down Byron cards and give him his own binder on the shelf.

The final Xavier card of the post features a really cool insert card of Joe Pavelski:

2014-15 Ultra Buckets #BB-24

Earlier in the week, Pavs announced his retirement after eighteen seasons in the NHLThirteen of those seasons were with the San Jose Sharks.  During his tenure the Sharks made the playoffs twelve times and Pavelski slowly climbed up the franchise leader board in almost every statistical category.

Staying with The Big Pavelski... but switching to a COMC mail day that goes back to early 2023... here's a minor league card of him:

2006-07 Choice AHL Top Prospects #49

Thanks for all of the awesome memories Little Joe!  Enjoy your retirement.

Next up, Big Joe:

2010-11 Pinnacle City Lights Materials #70

Cityscape cards are awesome!  But they're extra special when they feature your hometown.  Behind Thornton you get a glimpse of downtown San Jose.

And one more Shark I purchased on COMC:

1994-95 Finest Refractor #159

Once upon a time, Jeff Friesen was my favorite San Jose Shark.  If you don't follow hockey, you probably aren't familiar with him... but there was a time when he was #2 on the Sharks all-time scoring list.

Rounding out this blog bat-around is this cool coin card:

1997 Fleer Super Bowl XXXI Commemorative #NNO

I purchased this card off of COMC back in 2021 before hearing about the whole welfare scandal.


I'm a big fan of 90's cardboard ingenuityFleer went through a phase where they embedded coins into special inserts.  This one celebrated Favre and the Green Bay Packers victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI.

The bottom line is Favre might not be cool, but this card is.  And so is this blog bat-around.

Thank you Matt for kicking it off.  Thank you Xavier for the cool cards you sent me (back in January).  And thank you to everyone else who took the time to read this super long post.

Happy Friday and sayonara!

9 comments:

  1. What's a fuji? JK . The stacks here sitting for you are getting big, so I hope you get all of those past packages caught up soon, lol. Cuz I be gonna do sum mailin at sum point. Have a great weekend!

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  2. Fujinami just got DFA'd by my Mets today without ever making it to the 26-man roster, although he may end up back in their minor league system.

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  3. Just sent out a care package yesterday, priority, expect it post haste my cardboard brother. That Buckets 🪣 insert and the Archives set in general are the Kuckoo Banana 🍌 Bangers! Thanks for your most generous gift, most Honorable Professor. Looking forward to the next chapter in the Never Ending Saga that is The Chronicles of Fuji.
    Also That Stadium 🏟 Club Giambi Murphy was a Card I thought you'd appreciate. I'm glad you're able to pass along any cards to your students while being able to allow gems like the '78 McCovey to grace the presence of your Magnificent Collection.

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  4. Thanks for joining in on the BBA!
    Upper deck did an excellent job taking on fleer ans recreating with their touch the 90s inserts. Well done.

    The favre coin I didn't know existed. And for me, yeah it was a scandal, but didn't change the player he was. Brett could throw a ball really well

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  5. Nice minor league Pavs! I like the Shohei and San Francisco cards, too.

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  6. 1992-93 Archives was such a great set. And in my opinion it was the best Archives set that Topps has ever done, or ever will do.

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  7. Sorry for the late response guys. I'll try to respond more frequently from now on...

    the angels in order - thank you sir

    johnnys trading spot - lol. i did clear out a few... but there's still a pile. plus i still have a few items (like the wax packs and wacky packages) that i need to blog about at some point.

    brett alan - hope he makes it back to the mlb level at some point. he's only 30, so there's a chance it'll happen

    xavier - got the package you mentioned. i actually have another one of yours (from may) that i need to open first. i'm in the midst of writing an battle of the bay post. gonna try and use your care package to help me with that. thanks again for your generosity. i just brought a bunch of your giants, raiders, and niners stuff to my classroom last week.

    matt - thanks for kicking off the bba. i want to do the letter one too, but we'll see.

    chris - i went on a sharks minor league kick and grabbed a few different ones since they're pretty affordable

    jon - i really like that set too. i'd love to add one to my collection at some point.

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