It's a Celebration Sensation!

School trumps sports cards... especially at the start of the school year.  There just aren't enough hours in the day.  So if you see a blog post published here during the work week, there's a pretty good chance I wrote the post over the weekend and scheduled it.

Not this one.  Today we're celebrating a special occasion.  It's Chris The Collector's 10th Anniversary... which he celebrated by busting open boxes and building special gift packages for supporters of his blog.  I was fortunate to be one of the recipients.

The padded envelope he sent included several team bags stuffed with cards and packs.  It took me just under two hours to sort and scan, so without further ado...

Let's start things off with a nice stack of A's cards:

He was able to get his hands on some popular products like Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary.

As you can see, he sent me singles from each of the first three sets in the product line.  As much as I love these cards, the Rickey Henderson 1955 Rails and Sails insert is my favorite card in the lot.

2010 Sportkings Series D #180

I was also excited to see this uncirculated Gwynn card.  Technically I already own this card, but this particular copy is still in the original top loader pulled from the pack.  In other words... I'm considering this to be a variation and keeping it.

He also sent me some nice shiny cards for my two favorite football team collections:

Plus four San Jose Sharks:

Thornton, Pavelski, Couture, and Burns are 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th on the Sharks all-time points leader board.  Anyone know who's #1?

He also sent me a four pack of Japanese baseball players, including the very popular Munetaka Murakami:

I don't write about them often, but for decades the Los Angeles Lakers were my favorite basketball team.  This guy was a big reason I became a fan:

1981-82 Topps #20

Kareem would go on to play eight more seasons with the Lakers and score over 12,000 more points than depicted on the back of this trading card:

This is arguably the coolest card in his anniversary package.  It's kind of hard to see, but this card has a wax stain on the front.  Back in the 80's, I would have been bummed to pull this card out of a pack.  Four decades later, I consider it to be an under-appreciated parallel.

Speaking of parallels, check out this color-matched Elway for my Stanford PC:

2024 Prizm Draft Picks Ruby Wave #37

And here's my latest addition to my Ray Lewis PC:

2025 Donruss Optic Light It Up #17

He also tossed in a pair of Joe Montana cards:

2009 Topps National Chicle Mini #C46

2024 Topps Chrome 1974 Refractor #74TF-18

These may or may not have been intended for my students, but both went into the Montana section of my hall of fame binder.

Rounding out the gift package were three unopened packs.  The first two will be added to my rainy day pack stash:

1991 Stadium Club 2nd Series Pack

2025 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary Hobby Pack

Back in 1991, this Stadium Club pack would have been a very hot commodity... as collectors were ripping into them in hopes of pulling Jeff Bagwell or Phil Plantier rookie cards.  Today... the 2025 Chrome Platinum Anniversary is the much hotter product.

Chris also included this 1986 Topps rack pack:

1986 Topps Rack Pack

It may seem like just a random pack, but he sent this specific pack to help me get one step closer to completing my 1986 Topps Glossy All-Star set:

Okay... technically I haven't opened it up.  Like I stated earlier in the post... my free time during the week is limited.  But don't worry... I'm going to tear into this pack on Sunday and when I do... I'll show off the highlights.

And after reading Jim's post this morning, I realized that I accidentally left out some left-handed pitchers.  Sorry about that Chris.  Don't have time to scan them before getting ready for work, so I'll show them off on Sunday with the Garvey.

Until then...

Happy anniversary Chris!  And thank you for this very generous giveaway.  Although I think it's sad that you made the decision to retire from collecting cards at the end of the year... I understand that we all must make big decisions that are best for ourselves and our families.  I'm glad that you plan on keeping your blog alive... as I always look forward to reading the different series you written.

Happy Friday and sayonara!

Wrapping Things Up

Time flies when you're having fun.  This summer was pretty awesome.  Busy, but awesome.

It was only the third summer in my twenty-eight years of teaching that I didn't work and there's a good chance I won't be teaching summer school again.  As much as I enjoy the extra paychecks, I enjoyed the free time to focus on other things a wee bit more.

Last summer, I read two of Alan Gratz's books.  This summer, I read one more:

Allies by Alan Gratz

Gratz is popular among young adult readers interested in historical fiction.  This particular book looks at the events of D-Day from the three different perspectives.  It was a really enjoyable read that constantly had me looking up facts about that day.

Summer is also the perfect time to binge watch a favorite show from the past.  This year I decided to rewatch the 2004 version of Battlestar Galactica.  I already mentioned this a few weeks ago, but I look forward to showing off my celebrity crush whenever I can:

2016 Baseball Card Breakdown

Pretty Girls Custom #1

Ten years ago, Gavin over at Baseball Card Breakdown produced a set of custom cards featuring nine pretty ladies.  He held a contest where the winner would receive a complete set.  As a bonus, the winner would get to pick a lady to be included in the set.  I won and chose Grace Park.

I also went on several short trips this summer.  Here are some wallet card shots I took to document those road trips:

Carnelian Bay, Lake Tahoe

Back in July, my brothers and I took a trip up to Lake Tahoe to visit my mother.  It was a gorgeous day and we were surprised that there weren't more people up there escaping the Central Valley heat.

When we got back to Sacramento, we stopped off at Whitey's Jolly Kone:

This place was packed, but the fresh peach milkshake was delicious.

Later in the month, my friend and I headed back to our regular vacation spot:

Pismo Beach

If this looks familiar, it's because we've stayed there three or four times since Christmas.

Morro Bay

I was hoping to get a good shot of Morro Rock, but the fog was rolling in when we were there for lunch.  We actually planned to drive down again, but we scrapped that idea and started going into our classrooms.

Speaking of classrooms, one of my co-workers gave me a bunch of San Francisco Giants stadium giveaways:

I only kept a few of the items, which I might show off in a future post when I decide where to display them.  The rest were offered up to other teachers.

Alright... let's wrap up the final post of my summer break with seventeen new Gwynns that Rod (aka Padrographs) sent me:

2012 Panini Cooperstown High Praise #10

2013 Pinnacle Clear Vision #CV68

2015 Finest Generations #FG-36

2015 Stadium Club #265

2019 Topps 1984 All-Stars #84AS-TG

2019 Topps Gallery #197

2019 Topps A&G Gold Mini #77

2020 Topps Decade of Dominance #DOD-11

2021 Topps Update Cards That Never Were #CNW-12

2022 Topps Chrome Silver Pack Mojo #T87C-36

2023 Chrome Platinum Anniversary Green Wave #442 (#'d 25/99)

2024 Topps Big League #TBL-18

It's not often I receive a Gwynn card serial numbered to 99 in a care package.  Rod ended up sending me a few.

2025 Topps 1990 Silver Pack Chrome #T90C-58

2025 Topps 1990 Silver Pack Chrome Aqua Refractor #T90C-58 (#'d 050/199)

2025 Topps 1990 Silver Pack Chrome Green Refractor #T90C-58 (#'d 21/99)

2025 Topps Call to the Hall Blue #CTH-21 (#'d 005/150)

2025 Topps Call to the Hall Green #CTH-21 (#'d 21/99)

Thank you Rod for all of these new additions to my Gwynn PC.  I still have one more post covering some of the other items you sent.  That should be published next weekend.

And thank you to all of you who took the time to read this post.  Some of you might be wondering when I'll be shipping out my care packages.  I haven't forgotten about them.  I just haven't finished building them.  Every time I remind myself to work on them, I get distracted.  But I'm giving myself through Labor Day weekend to build them.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

A Whale of a Sort

Summer break is over.  Technically I don't need to report until Thursday, but I've been working in my classroom since early last week.  It takes me a few days to set up my classroom and prep the first three weeks of lessons.

Not teaching summer school forced me to dip into my savings.  Outside of that... it was pretty amazing.  I'll have a recap post posted by the time students arrive on the 17th.

Today's post is a continuation of the Sunday Sort.  Last weekend I opened up three packages from Rod over at Padrographs and sorted everything into categories.  Phase two (which is the focus of today's post) is to sort and integrate the Tony Gwynn cards he sent.

But before we get into that, here's a Gwynn I recently purchased on eBay:

1992 Fleer Ultra Commemorative Promo #NNO

I have been trying to add this card to my 1992 Fleer Ultra master set for years.  It was handed out at the 1992 Fleer stockholders meeting and features Fleer's CEO back in the day.

The back talks about Gwynn and how he signed over 2,000 cards which were inserted into packs of 1992 Fleer Ultra.

I thought this card completed my run of 1992 Fleer Ultra Gwynn cards:

Unfortunately... while looking up this Mullan/Gwynn promo, I discovered that Gwynn also has a 1992 pre-production sample as well.  There are actually nine other sample cards I need to find, but I'm up for the challenge.

Okay.  Let's get to the Gwynns from Rod's care packages.  He sent over 200 Gwynns.  Obviously I don't have the time to scan them all.  In honor of Mr. Padre's jersey number, here are 19 cards that were added to my Gwynn PC...

1984 Fleer #301

Technically, I already have a copy of this second year base card.  But completed sets get priority over player or team collections. 

1992 Padres Police #NNO

1992 Padres Police #NNO

1993 Stadium Club Members Only #538

1994 Donruss Commemorative Anniversary #10

While originally sorting through all of the Gwynns, I thought this was his 1984 base card.  But upon closer inspection, it's from an insert set celebrating their ten year anniversary.

1995 Leaf 300 Club #13

1995 SP Championship Die-Cut #90

1996 Bowman's Best Mirror Image #7

One of these guys is not like the others, but there was a time when I thought Ben Grieve would end up being a superstar.

1996 Leaf Statistical Standouts #2 (#'d 1939/2500)

1996 Pinnacle Aficionado Slick Picks #15

1996 Topps Master of the Game #MG12

1996 Topps Gallery #147

1999 Fleer Tradition Diamond Magic #5DM

1999 Pacific Invincible Sandlot Heroes #17

2000 Fleer Focus Pocus #2FP

2000 Topps #240a & #240d

Much like the commemorative promo card above, I have been trying to complete the five card subset of 2000 Topps Gwynns for a few years.  Split between the two series, Topps highlighted the careers of ten players with a Magic Moments subset.  Each player received five cards that were short printed, which is why set builders may or may not consider their set complete with one of these singles.

2001 Fleer Tradition Grass Roots #13

2003 Topps Record Breakers #RB-TGW

If you've ever wondered how long it takes me to integrate and scan a large stack of cards into my personal collection, this Gwynn sort will help paint a picture.

1994 Donruss Commemorative Anniversary #10

Obviously sorting a few hundred cards usually doesn't take too much time, but thanks to the 90's... I had a lot of trouble figuring out which year some of these Gwynns were produced.  A card might say 1993 in the copyright area, but actually be listed as a 1994 card.  This also forced me to move some cards around in my collection.

Another delay I encountered were late 80's Topps and Donruss variations.  Holy cow.  Why did I ever decide to collect these?  Anyways... looking for missing periods, apostrophes, or asterisks with a magnifying glass took longer than expected.

Toss in a few breaks here and there... and this Sunday Sort took close to five hours.  This is by no means a complaint.  It's just an observation.  There are still seventeen stacks of Gwynns that I still need to integrate into the collection, but I needed to wrap things up and write this post.

Unfortunately... I couldn't stay awake last night and ended up falling asleep before I could finish, so this edition of the Sunday Sort gets to be published on a Monday morning.

Thank you Rod for these awesome additions to the Gwynn collection.

Happy Monday and sayonara!