Set Building Season

Summer break started on Thursday afternoon at 12:30 and I've been busy ever since.  Between family, friends, a flea market, and random errands... I have been working in the office organizing and targeting set needs on COMC and Sportlots.

I also opened up the first of three blogger care packages sitting on my desk.  It was from Jeremy over at Topps Cards That Never Were and as luck would have it... he had a few cards for my set builds.

The first set he targeted was my 2022 Opening Day Triple Play set:

Crossing these three cards off of my list leaves me with just one more:

The next set he helped me with is the 2006 Topps Opening Day SI for Kids:

Jeremy crossed off the only hall of famer I had on the list, along with a Padres I'm surprised I didn't already have.

After adding these two, I went over to Sportlots and picked up the final two, so this set will be complete as soon as it arrives in the mail.

He also helped me with a biggie:

It's the 2006 Topps Allen & Ginter set I started back in May.  With the help from a few fellow bloggers, Sportlots, COMC, and Jeremy... I can see the light at the end of the tunnel:

Jeremy also sent me a starter lot of 2025 Heritage Notable Americans:

I absolutely love this set, but it's big (100 cards) and I have never seen any singles sitting in dime or quarter bins.  However with Jeremy's push... I've added an eBay search for more starter lots.  I'm not going to create an actual "want list" until I'm at least 30% of the way though.

Moving along... here are some colorful Oakland A's cards for my collection:

This is the first Brent Rooker card I've added to my collection since his stellar All-Star game performance.  He came so close to becoming the first Athletic to win the All-Star Game MVP Award since Terry Steinbach in 1988.  Damn you Schwarber!

The coolest card in Jeremy's care package was this color-matched Reggie:

2023 Topps Archives Double Headers Green Foil #89DH-23 (#'d 37/99)

Mark McGwire is on the back...

McGwire and Jackson are #1 and #2 in home runs in Oakland A's history and both helped them win World Series titles.

The next card probably seems like a head-scratcher...

1990 Bowman #492

Until you flip the card over...

Check out that glorious gum stain on this Juan Gonzalez rookie card.  I'm pretty picky about which cards make it into the Damaged Card PC, but the rookie card of a 2x AL MVP Award winner definitely meets the minimum requirements.

Thank you Jeremy for helping with all of these set builds... and for adding cards to some of my personal collections.  I'll take a look at your want lists and see if I can help.  Regardless... I know I have some Rays I can send your way.

Happy Monday and sayonara!

One to Open, One to Keep

1991 Impel Laffs isn't going to be for everyone, but to a collector who enjoys building sets and opening packs... these two boxes brought a smile to my face.

Back in May, John over at Johnny's Trading Spot sent me these two unopened boxes that potentially could contain rookie cards of Steve Urkel and Balki Bartokomous.

For those of you who aren't familiar with this product, it focuses on three of ABC's TGIF television shows during the 1990-91 season: Full House, Family Matters, and Perfect Strangers.

1991 Impel Laffs #25

Full House kicked off Friday evenings at 8pm and was featured on the first 26 cards in this 80 card set.  I watched this show a few times in high school, but by the time this product was released I was in college... so Friday evenings were usually reserved for going out.

1991 Impel Laffs #28

Steve Urkel and Family Matters followed Uncle Jesse and the Olsen Twins in the 8:30 slot.  Impel gave them the next twenty-six cards (#27 to #52) in the set.  I also watched a few episodes of Family Matters, but this was my least favorite show of the trio.  That being said... this Urkel card is my favorite card in the set.

1991 Impel Laffs #56

And rounding out the evening and set of cards was Perfect Strangers which came on at 9pm back then.  This was my favorite show out of the bunch and the one I remember the most.  However by the time these cards were created, I had stopped watching it.

Each show received twenty-six cards in the set.  Two checklists rounded things out to make it an even eighty cards.  Within each show... there are actor cards, character cards, and a variety of scene cards.

1991 Impel Laffs #53

Each box has thirty-six packs with each pack containing five cards.  That's a total of 180 cards.  I figured that I'd easily be able to complete one set, but as Bronson Pinchot demonstrates... Impel's collation was terrible.

There were four or five cards that I pulled five copies of and a bunch of others with two, three, or four duplicates.

When the packs settled, I was left needing twenty-one cards for my set build.

Some of you might be wondering about the second box that John sent.  I debated opening it in an effort to complete this set.  But two things stopped me.

#1:  With the collation issues, there's no guarantee that I was going to pull all twenty-one cards that I need.

#2:  Johnny gave specific directions.  Open one box.  Keep the other.

I know he wouldn't mind if I opened both, but I enjoy collecting unopened boxes.  For the time being... I have added it to the collection with hopes of completing this set through trades or bargain bins.  If anyone else is building this set, I have a lot of duplicates.  Maybe we can help each other out.

Thank you John for sending me these two boxes.  It's always a blast spending a Sunday afternoon opening up packs in an effort to build a set.  I might not have completed this one, but in addition to opening this box of cards, I also opened up a COMC shipment that finished up two sets.

Complete Set #1:  2024 Topps Update

2024 Topps Update #US100

It shouldn't be too surprising that the hottest rookie card in the set was the final one I needed for my set build.  I paid $2.50 for this card back on April 15th.

Complete Set #2:  1992 Leaf Gold

1992 Leaf Gold #317

I purchased a complete set of these black bordered parallels back in 2021.  Unfortunately there were a bunch of cards that were damaged by "binder pinching".  Well four years later, COMC helped me cross off the final card I needed:

I spent over an hour organizing my COMC shipment into stacks.  Some of them I will write posts for... but most will go directly into my binders this week.

Speaking of this week, I have most of it off (except I needed to go into school today for a couple of hours).  My goal is to clean and organize my office... which includes the remnants of John's care package, the COMC shipment, some flea market and card show hauls, and a few care packages I need to open up.  I'm also hoping to hammer out one more post, before my final week of summer school.  So stay tuned.

Until then...

Happy Monday and sayonara!

A Blogger Inspired Purchase w/an Update

Are you ready for some flea market posts?  I hope so, because I have two to three posts worth of purchases that I'll be sharing soon.  There's even a card show purchase I made that hasn't been scanned and put away.

On a more productive note, I did scan two care packages containing forty-six cards for my 2006 Topps Allen & Ginter set build.  The first one was a PWE from Bo (@ Baseball Cards Come to Life!) containing eighteen cards for my set:

Greg over at The Collective Mind sent me thirty-nine cards.  Eleven were cards that Bo also sent.  Twenty-eight were unique:

The two bloggers helped bring my 2006 Topps A&G wantlist from 130 cards down to 84.  

Before

After

Thanks to Bo and Greg.... the set build is 76% complete (266/350) with 25 of the 84 missing cards being short prints.  My Sportlots focus will be on my 2011 Topps Update set, but as soon as that is complete I'm gonna try and wrap this one up.

In the meantime... here are a trio of Magic the Gathering Doctor Who cards I purchased off of eBay last week:

2023 Magic The Gathering Universes

Beyond Doctor Who #0148

2023 Magic The Gathering Universes

Beyond Doctor Who #0005

2023 Magic The Gathering Universes

Beyond Doctor Who #0003

I remember seeing Doctor Who pop up on PBS when I was a kid, but I never stuck around to watch it.  Then in the mid 2000's, I started watching the show when The Ninth and Tenth Doctors were piloting the Tardis with Rose Tyler.

Joe over at The Shlabotnik Report showed off The Fourth Doctor on his blog, which motivated me to pick up these three.

Well that's an update on my 2006 Topps Allen & Ginter set build as well as my latest blog inspired purchase.

My next post will most likely be the first half of my flea market finds from three weeks ago.  Until then...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Sweet & Spicy

This title of this post was inspired by a bag of Japanese rice crackers from Trader Joe's.  I was sitting down yesterday watching a few episodes of Andor, when I remembered I had purchased a bag of these snacks.

It reminded me that I hadn't done a Monday Munchies post for the month of May.  If you're not familiar with this series, it's where I review some Japanese snacks that Ryan @ SumoMenkoMan sent me earlier in the year.

Today's featured snack is two packages of 2024 Bandai Ive Wafers.  Here's a peek at the packages:

2024 Bandai Ive

2024 Bandai Ive

And here's a view of the contents in one of the packages:

The wafer is very similar to the inside of a Kit Kat bar, so it's definitely on the "sweet" side.

2024 Bandai Ive #12

2024 Bandai Ive #19

As for the group, I wasn't familiar with them until today... but according to Wikipedia they're a South Korean girl group.  Just like the wafer, they seem to be more "sweet" than "spicy".

Don't worry, because things are definitely going to heat up in this post.  Kenny over at Torren' Up Cards sent me a box with a bunch of autographs and memorabilia cards featuring some very attractive women.

Let's start with a ten card lot of Yumi Sugimoto costume cards:

Sugimoto is a Japanese model and actress.  Although she's wearing some short shorts and dresses, she comes off as being "sweet".

2010 Produce Yumi Sugimoto Costume Card #11

I'm guessing there was a time when Kenny was building this costume card set as he sent me ten out of the first eleven cards.

Next up were a stack of Honoka cards:

Not sure if Honoka is a model, singer, or actress... but she's definitely "spicier" than Yumi.

Check out that signature with the heart and a bunny rabbit sketch!  She definitely takes pride in signing her autograph for fans.

The final Honoka card is a signed costume card:

Here are more autographs from random models:

One of them was a little too "spicy" for the blog, so I had to blur things out.  No complaints though... because these were some gorgeous additions to my Japanese Model PC.

Here are four "cheki":

I learned about these over on Kenny's blog.  They're small Polaroids taken and signed by the models for their fans.  I started off with "sweet" on the left, but things get "spicier" as you progress to the right.

Before I show off my favorite autograph out of Kenny's care package, let's check out all of the unopened packs he included:

Kenny has been one of the biggest contributors to my unopened Japanese pack collection.  I might eventually open up the 2024 Topps Japan pack, but the other eleven are going into the collection.

Okay... here's my favorite:

2012 BBM Dancing Heroine Autograph #HO11

BBM's Dancing Heroine sets feature NPB baseball cheerleaders.  Out of all of their product lines, this is my favorite.

I'm not familiar with Yu-ka, but she might have been a cheerleader for the Softbank Hawks about a decade ago.  I like the simple design, well-cropped photo, and well-placed on-card autograph.  The flower in the signature is a nice touch.

There are a few more cards out of Kenny's care package that I want to share, but I'm going to wait until later in the summer (after I acquire a certain 2025 Topps Series 2 insert card).

Until then, let me wrap up this post with the latest additions to my 2011 Topps Update set build.

These twenty cards arrived last week from Greg over at The Collective Mind:

The other thirteen cards were from Chris @ The Collector:

They turned my wantlist from this:

To this:

Thanks to Greg, Chris, Tom, AJ, and Jim... I'm down to needing only fifty-four cards left for my sweet set build.

Thank you Ryan for providing today's snack packs.  And thank you Kenny for all of these "sweet" additions to my Japanese model and unopened wax pack collections!

Happy Monday and sayonara!