Buried Treasure of Mystery

A little over a year ago, I bought two big boxes of baseball cards from a friend of mine for $30.  Inside were 183 mystery bags containing 35 to 40 cards.

Here's a peek into each of the boxes:

I had planned on opening these up during Spring Break of 2019, but then my mother passed away and priorities shifted.  The boxes had been buried in my garage under some books until I discovered them a few weeks ago while cleaning.

This morning, I finally got around to taking a peek inside a few of the packs.  I went with the 9 packs sitting on top of the first box:

The first pack had already been opened... but the other bags were sealed with staples... which I wasn't amused with.  I stuck myself at least three times opening these bags up.

I'm not really sure what I was expecting to pull, but depending on your perspective these mystery bags could be considered garbage or a pleasant distraction from the real world.  Sadly there weren't any nuggets of treasure that'll allow me to retire early or even fetch me a Happy Meal at McDonald's.

But there were 1 to 2 inserts or parallels per bag on average.  Whoever originally built them made sure to put a recognizable name on the front and back... with a couple of stars sprinkled in between.

Personally... the joy of opening up mystery bags made it worthwhile.  As a bonus, I actually found a few cards I could use.  The rest will either be sorted into teams and passed along to fellow bloggers... or brought into my classroom for future projects.

I'm not the biggest fan of scanning, so you'll have to settle for a 9-pocket page of my favorite cards/pocket schedules from each pack:

My favorite pull was the 1981 Donruss Willie Stargell.  I remember treasuring that card when I was a kid.

Baseball Card Giveaway

Since I definitely don't need to bring all of these cards into my classroom, I figured this would be a cool opportunity to give away some PWE's filled with cards from these mystery bags.  If you're interested, just put down the team or teams you're interested in down in the comment section below.

I'm not sure how much interest this will draw, so I'll go ahead and say I'll ship out at least 10 PWE's.  If more than 10 people are interested, then I'll use random.org to help choose the recipients.  The names will be entered and randomize 5 times, then I'll take the top 10 people on the list.

As of right now, I'm not going to set a deadline on this giveaway... because I don't know how long it'll take me to open up and sort all of these bags.  But I'm thinking it'll take me at least a week.

Well that's it for today.  Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Baseball Card Giveaway

Sorry about the confusion.  I guess I didn't think everything through carefully before I published this post.  Anyways... multiple people can select the same team.  In other words if four different people want to put down the Dodgers, that should be okay.

The Right Moment

A few weeks ago, one of those large flat rate boxes was delivered and when I saw the name on the shipping label, I knew that I was in store for a treat.  The thing is... I carried the heavy box up to my office and waited for the right moment to open it.

You see... when Woody from Sports Card Forum sends me packages... it's not just a bunch of Oakland A's cards.  He includes stuff from a variety of my PC's... and more.  I knew that once I opened up this box, I would need at least a few hours to sort and scan the contents.

Well... thanks to the current situation our world is in... I had plenty of time.  Unfortunately... my heart wasn't in it.  I noticed the box every time I entered my office, but didn't open it until the moment was right.

And that moment was this past weekend.  I kicked things off by opening the box and laying things out Friday evening.  I spent about an hour opening and organizing the 25ct., 330ct., and 400ct. boxes.

Then yesterday, I sat down and did one more final sort...

What you're looking at is over 2,000 cards spanning four sports... which included 11 complete sets and 5 incomplete sets.  There's obviously a lot to cover, so I'll go ahead and start off with one of the incomplete sets that I am super excited to try and finish...

The image above is kind of blurry... but essentially you're looking at three partial 1982 TCMA Baseball Greatest sets.  If you're not familiar with these, here's a quick peek at the card fronts and backs:

Each set is made up of 45 cards, which means they're perfect for being stored in 9-pocket pages.  I've already inserted all three partial sets into pages and designed a cover for the binder:

As most of you know, I'm more of a "Buy It Now" kind of guy when it comes to set building, but I'm a totally excited about tracking down the final seven cards I need for this project.  If any of you have singles laying around, here are the ones I can use:

All of these cards have one thing in common.  They feature Red Sox players.  As you might have guessed, Woody is one of the collectors who receives my Red Sox trade bait.

I was also excited to see a huge stack of 1990 CMC Collect-A-Books.  These books were originally distributed in three boxes with each box containing 12 books.  Woody sent me 35 of the 36 books.  The only one missing was Wade Boggs, which I happened to have sitting in one of my insert binders.

Much like the 1982 TCMA Baseball's Greatest set... I plan on putting this set into a binder as soon as I receive the 1991 Collect-A-Books set I purchase this morning off of eBay.

Next up is a peek at the completed sets Woody sent me...

1986 Topps Box Bottoms

1989 Topps Box Bottoms

1991 Topps Box Bottoms

I'll keep things plain and simple.  Box bottoms rule.  I'll definitely be showcasing one of these sets in the next few weeks.  Let me know if you have a preference down in the comment section below.

1990-91 Topps Team Scoring Leaders

1997 Fleer Ultra Checklists

2002 Topps Post

2016 Choice Nashua Silver Knights

Hey Zippy... you're my prospects guy.  Recognize any of these players on the Knights' checklist?

1989 Donruss

1990 Fleer

1990 Upper Deck

In addition to the plethora of sets, he included cards for my PC's.  I could have dedicated an entire post to these cards, but I've taken way too long to write this thank you post, so here are some of my favorites:

I will never turn down Ramon Laureano and Fernando Tatis Jr. rookie cards, Rickey Henderson parallels, or shiny Tony Gwynn inserts.

He also sent me a new addition to my Prime Number PC:

Oh and I almost forgot, he also threw in these three Line Drive 8x10 photos:

Plus this 8x10 insert out of 1997 Donruss Studio...

And last, but certainly not least... he sent me one of those cool rookie logo medallion cards of my boy Rickey out of 2020 Topps:

Thank you so much Woody!  This provided me with hours worth of entertainment.  I pretty much sent all of the Boston stuff I had laying around, but as soon as we're able to get out and about... I'll hit up some shows and start building another stack for you.

Happy Monday and sayonara!

Cards, The Gambler, and Mom

Daily routines are a part of our lives.  Well... at least mine.  One of the first things I do every morning is check my email and today was no exception.  

That's when I saw this:

I immediately thought of my mom.  She loved listening to Kenny Rogers.  When I was a kid, we'd listen to his Greatest Hits cassette tape all of the time... which explains why I know the lyrics to a lot of his songs.

Today, I figured I'd pull a Night Owl and write a Match The Song Title post in honor of Kenny.  If you're not familiar with Night Owl's very popular series, I encourage you to clear your schedule and click here, because you won't be disappointed.

In short, he matches up a song title (not necessarily the meaning of the song) to a baseball card.  I'm going to attempt to do the same with three songs that remind me of my childhood and more importantly... my mother.

#1:  The Gambler (1978)

1982 Donruss #1

Kenny has a lot of popular songs, but according to Billboard... The Gambler is #1.  And the first person that pops into my head when I think "baseball" and "gambler" is Pete Rose.

#2:  Blaze of Glory (1981)

2018 Topps Storybook Endings #SE-4

According to the Collins online dictionary, if you go out in a blaze of glory, you do something very dramatic at the very end of your career or your life that makes you famous.  Obviously Ted Williams is famous for way more things than what he did at the end of his career.

However I think the way he ended his career is pretty famous.  On September 28th, 1960 he smacked a home run in the bottom of the 8th against the Baltimore Orioles in what would be his final MLB at-bat.

A quick look at the 1960 Boston Red Sox schedule over on Baseball Reference reveals that they played three more games against the Yankees in New York.  Williams didn't play in any of those game.  I'm guessing the corporate brass wanted his final game to be played at Fenway instead of at Old Yankee Stadium.


#3:  Through the Years (1981)

1993 Topps Magazine (Fall) #TM 109, TM 110, TM 111, and TM 112

Through the Years is one of my favorite songs from Kenny and it's the song I chose for my mom's memorial service last year.  It will always remind me of her.  But she doesn't have her very own baseball card, so I decided to go with this sheet of cards featuring Nolan Ryan.

His career spanned four decades and this sheet captures all of them.  Topps did a great job summarizing his career highlights and statistics through the years of his career on this uncut sheet of cards.

Well that wraps up another post written during this time of social distancing.  Thanks for the memories Mr. Rogers.  May you rest in peace.

Oh... and before I go, here are the three songs from above:

As well as... your question of the day:

Are you fan of Kenny Roger's music?  Do you have a favorite song?

I look forward to reading and responding to your comments.  Happy Saturday and sayonara!