Another Birthday, Another Memory

Back in 2018, Adrian Beltre passed Rod Carew to become the all-time leader in hits among Latin American born players.  Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera have since passed him, but that's not really the point to this post.

2018 Topps Now #40

I just happened to be at the game with my buddy Mike when it happened.  Sadly he passed away two years ago on his 51st birthday, but there's a special place in my collection that honors him and our friendship.

This Topps Now card commemorates Beltre's accomplishment and is the newest addition to my Mike PC.

It's a reminder of that special day at the Oakland Coliseum:

Unfortunately I don't have any photos with Mike at the game, but here's me with my nachos and soft pretzel:

Happy birthday Mike!  Miss you buddy.

Everyone else...

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Birthday Card Project

Topps Now isn't for everyone.  I get it.  People should collect stuff they enjoy and enjoy the stuff they collect.

Today I'm celebrating my fifty-third year on the third planet from the sun and I wanted to share a new card project that centers around my birthday and the Topps Now product line.

A few years ago, I started collecting stuff related to my birthday.  It started with magazines and comic books.  Then I started collecting autographs of athletes who share my birthday.  After that I started collecting autographs of guys who hit a home run on the day I was born.

2021 Topps Heritage News Flashbacks #NF-BF

About a year ago, I discovered a card honoring Bobby Fischer's win over Boris Spassky in the "Match of the Century" which took place on my birthday.

This card got me wondering if there were any other cards featuring key events on my birthday... which eventually got me thinking about Topps Now cards over the years.  I started looking at checklists and was surprised at how many Topps has created over the years. As of right now... I'm only targeting one from each year to kick off the project.

Unfortunately they didn't produce a birthday card in 2016 and the representatives for 2017, 2019, and 2022 are waiting to be shipped from COMC.   In the meantime, here are the other years I have already acquired: 

2018 Topps Now #669

This card celebrates Betances who became the first reliever to record 100 or more strikeouts in five consecutive seasons.

Sadly he would only record twenty-nine more strikeouts the rest of his career and that includes the fifteen he had the rest of the way in 2018.

2020 Topps Now #191

Five years ago, Alex Dickerson, Donovan Solano, and Brandon Crawford each drove in six runs for the San Francisco Giants.

This was the first time in MLB history that three teammates collected 6 RBI's each in the same game.

2021 Topps Now #743

Four years ago, Max Scherzer tied Clayton Kershaw for the second most games with 9+ K's and 0 walks in MLB history.

At the time, Randy Johnson held the record with 41 games.  Since then... both pitchers have surpassed him.  Scherzer currently holds the record with 44 games.

2023 Topps Now #800

Two years ago, Aaron Judge hit his 30th home run of the season to become the fastest player in MLB history to reach the 250 home run milestone.

He became the fastest to reach 300 home runs less than a year later on August 14th, 2024.  And back in July, he became the fastest to reach 350 home runs.  This guy is truly amazing.

2024 Topps Now #634

Last year on September 1st, Bobby Witt Jr. became the first Kansas City Royals player to hit 30 home runs in consecutive seasons.

That's pretty surprising considering the franchise has had guys like Bo Jackson, George Brett, and Salvadore Perez playing for them.  By the way, it'll be hard for Witt to extend the streak this season.  That being said the Royals still have twenty-five games left to play.

Well that's my latest card collecting project.  Hopefully something eventful happens today, so Topps will add a card or two for me to chase down over the next 364 days.  If not, there are thirty-three more September 1st Topps Now cards for me to chase.

Happy Labor Day and sayonara!

Old Friends and New Additions

I'm caught up with my Flea Market Finds posts.  Now it's time to catch up with my card show hauls.  While I tend to splurge on a variety of purchases at the flea market, I'm much more selective when I shop at shows.

In fact, the only reason I attended the Santa Clara Card Show back in late June was to hang out with my buddy who was setting up at the show.  Walking in with Ben saved me the $10 admission fee... but things balanced out, because I still had to pay for parking ($10).

This show shares the same story I've read across a bunch of your blogs: some sports cards and lots of Pokemon.

I did find a few guys with quarter bins and dollar boxes, but I only made a purchase from one of them...

Purchase #1:  Quarter Bin  $2

I'll happily hand over a quarter for PCA rookie cards.  This guy is super fun to watch.

The other five cards are refractors for the binders.  Although I'm happy to add these to my collection, finding them for 25¢ is a sad reminder that Topps is flooding the hobby with these shiny parallels.  

Purchase #2:  The Greatest Auto  $200+

1992 Pro Line Portraits Autographs #NNO

This card is a huge addition to my autograph collection.  It has been on my radar since the 90's, but honestly I never thought I'd actually own a copy.  Then I saw it sitting in Ben's display case:

He had a $400 price tag, but told me I could have it for $350.  We worked out a deal where I traded him two display cases (from my card show days) and $200 cash.

This purchase had me floating like a butterfly... but stung (my wallet) like a bee.

Purchase #3:  Oversized Stuff  $5

1997-98 NBA Hoops Great Shots #13

One vendor had some oversized cards sitting in a box.  This Kobe poster caught my eye and lured me in.  But buried in the stack below was this hidden treasure: 

2006 Topps Allen and Ginter N43 Box Topper #N43-4

At the time, I just thought it was a cool card of one of the greatest hitters of all-time.

But in regards to value... this was the best deal of the day.

Freebie #1:  Oakland A's Lanyard

While walking around the show, I ran into some old friends I hadn't seen in a few years.  Some of you are familiar with my buddy Mike.  Anyways... he introduced me to Alfredo and his wife about a decade ago.  They were regular vendors at the Serramonte Mall shows.  However since Mike passed away, I hadn't seen them.

Well they were set up there and it very nice surprise.  We shared stories and caught up.  Anyways, I saw this lanyard and tried to buy it.  But they refused to take my money.

Purchase #4:  An Ohtani Rookie Card  $20

2018 Topps Now #678J

After hanging with Alfredo, I went back over to Ben's table to tell him I was going to head out.  Saw this Ohtani in his display case and grabbed it. 

I'm not actively chasing all of Ohtani's Topps Now cards, but the "kanji" was interesting.

Well... that wraps up my purchases from this particular show.  I attended a card show last weekend as well that I'll try to recap next week.

Until then...

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

You're the Inspiration!

This post will be loaded with scans, but it's not a scan dump.  It's the contents from John's (@ Johnny's Trading Spot) latest care package.

Let's start off with two heavy hitters which were prizes from his December giveaways:

1975 Topps #620

Gary Carter was one of the best catchers from my youth, but this is my first time owning this card. This is a huge addition to my 70's binder.

By the way... does anyone else think Gary Carter kinda looks like Ryan Reynolds?

The other prize was one of Shohei Ohtani's first MLB cards:

2017 Topps Now #OS-80

Back in 2017... a lot of fans had high expectations for this guy.  However... I doubt the majority of those people thought he was going to be this good.  It's not often a guy wins three MVP Awards in a stretch of four seasons.

And it's not very often someone sends me an Ohtani card of this caliber.  But there was more... a lot more.

In addition to these two cards, he sent me a bunch of other cards.  Let's start with some 2024 Topps 582 Montgomery Club Oakland Athletics:

2024 Topps 582 Montgomery Club #688

It's sad to think that I won't be seeing Oakland on the front of trading cards anymore (or at least not on a regular basis). 

He sent me more than half of the team set:

In honor of these guys being the last team in Oakland... I'll probably try and pick up the missing cards.

Here are a few other Oakland Athletics in the care package:

My favorite card in this bunch is the 2021 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary card of Rickey Henderson.  But I've gotta admit that I was really impressed at how those two RayWave Refractors scans turned out.

When it comes to my collection of team mascots, John is the largest contributor.  He's probably sent me over fifty over the years.  Here are three more:

2001 Choice Omaha Golden Spikes #26

1993 Classic Best West Palm Beach Expos #30

1990 Star Miami Miracle #30

If you want to know my fascination with mascots... just feast your eyes on Jericho.  What a fantastic card.

He also sends me hundreds of Japanese baseball player cards every year.  This my sound like an exaggeration, but it's not.  This care package contained at least fifty.  Here are some of the bigger names:

He also tossed in a pair of NPB inserts:

2021 Topps Chrome NPB 1986 Topps Baseball #86-TY

2021 Topps Chrome NPB Stadium Sluggers #SL-23

Not familiar with either of these guys, but it looks like both had some solid years at the plate in the NPB.

I'll wrap up the sports card portion of this post with these three oversized Olympic cards:

1992 Collect-A-Card Olympic Games Oversize Posters #TSC-5

1992 Collect-A-Card Olympic Games Oversize Posters #TSC-11

1992 Collect-A-Card Olympic Games Oversize Posters #TSC-9

John actually sent me seven out of the twelve cards in this set.  You're gonna start reading this a lot... but I'm considering building this set.  

The second half of his flat rate box was filled with non-sport goodies... that I absolutely love.

Let's start with some 2024 Topps Chrome Star Wars:

He gave me a nice starter set of these... which inspired me to pick up a pair of blasters.  If I make a bigger dent, maybe I'll attempt to build the set.

John also sent me a ton of 2024 Topps Allen & Ginter inserts:

I'm also tempted to build the Best in Show and Sister, Sister insert sets.  It'll depend on if I can find any singles sitting in quarter bins at shows.

The last part of the box was filled with 2010 Wacky Packages Series 7 cards:

There were so many... I thought there was a complete set.  It was a few cards short, but fifty cards is close enough to completion for me to seek out the final five:

Speaking of set building, John also included this Acuna Stars of MLB insert:

2022 Topps Stars of MLB #SMLB-2

I'm wondering if he thought I was building this set.  I'm not... but I do need the Acuna for my 2024 Topps Stars of MLB set build.

Thank you so much for the prize/care package John!  It was a lot of fun sitting down and sorting all of this stuff.  It's not often that one package can inspire so many set builds.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!