Holy Cow!

Vegas Dave just made more money off the sale of one card than I've made in twenty-plus years of teaching... and will probably make in my lifetime.  Holy cow.  Who says you can't make money off of cards?

The hobby is still hot and it's pretty darn cool to see.  As a collector who has been around the hobby the past four decades, I don't collect for financial reasons... but I'm not against it either.  People collect for different reasons and as long as you're not hurting anyone else... I say collect the way that makes it fun for you... and enjoy.

I missed out on picking up Trout rookie cards, which kinda sucks since I can't use the excuse that I wasn't collecting at the time.  I just completely whiffed and didn't chase any down before he exploded and went nuts.  Oh well.

At least I didn't completely miss the boat on The Black Mamba.  His cards soared back in January after he passed away and they've continue to rise.  Today I'm just going to focus on his 1996-97 Topps rookie card.  I'm not sure when these exploded in value, but they've been selling in the $250 to $350 price range the past week or so.

To put things into perspective... back in June... my buddy offered to sell me the entire 1996-97 Topps set for $80 and I passed.  That was right about the same time I wrote about how his PSA 10 graded rookie card was selling for over $1000.

1996-97 Topps #138

This card has been selling for over $5,000 the last two weeks.  Holy cow!

Okay enough chit chat about money and cards.  Let's shift the focus to care packages.  I received a pair of padded envelopes and a mystery PWE.

     

Let's start with a padded envelope from the Blogfather... Greg... also known as... Night Owl.  He sent me twelve more cards for my 2017 Stadium Club set build:

He is the fifth blogger to contribute to this project that I completely forgot about until a month ago.

Night Owl joins Bob (The Best Bubble), Alex (Chavez Ravining), Chris (Trouble With The Curve), and Tom (Waiting 'til Next Year...) in lowering my set wantlist from 160 cards needed to less than 40.  Holy cow.

Plus he hooked me up with a pair of Oakland A's for my collection:

     

2019 Stadium Club Sepia #174

2019 Stadium Club Black Foil #151

Thanks Night Owl for helping me take twelve steps closer to completing that Stadium Club set.  I'm actually even more excited to add one of the business cards your daughter designed to my Blogger PC.

Next up is the mystery PWE I received that contained a stack of Oakland A's cards:

There was a return address on the envelope, but no name.  Inside the words Ten on the Tenth and Athletics were written on a half sheet of copy paper, but that's it.

     

2020 Topps NBCD #20

I searched my emails to see if the address listed on the envelope popped up.  It didn't.  Then I looked through emails I recently sent that contained my address and Elliptical Man came up.  A quick search on his blog revealed his Ten on the Tenth post.

According to Merrriam-Webster, the word "elliptical" means "relating to deliberate obscurity".  Now I think I understand his username.  Or maybe he just enjoys working out on an elliptical machine.

Thank you Elliptical Man!  I always enjoy a good mystery.

The third and final care package I will be reviewing today was from Eric over at The Snorting Bull.  He offered to help me out with my 1975 Kellogg's set build:

1975 Kellogg's #10

Although my goal is to build the set with no or minimal cracks, I'll happily use this copy as a place holder until I can eventually find an upgrade.  That probably won't happen any time in the near future, as I have completely stopped looking at any of my eBay saved searches regarding 70's Kellogg's due to the extremely high price tags on individual cards I need.

Eric also included this very cool Durham Bulls minor league card of Hideki Matsui:

     

2012 Choice Sports Cards Durham Bulls #01

According to Baseball Reference, the Bulls were the last professional team that Matsui played for during his 20 seasons as a professional baseball player.  This card is pretty sweet.  Now I just need a card of Matsui where he's featured with the Athletics.

In addition to the Matsui, he also included a few other Durham Bulls...

Super stoked to see the Jake Cronenworth.  The guy hit a grand slam on Saturday night... the Padres fifth slam in six games.  Holy cow!

That Stephen Vogt is awesome too.  He was a fan favorite with the Athletics a few years ago.  If you want a chuckle watch this:

Thank you Eric for this awesome care package.

Not exactly sure when I'll hit you three back, but I will eventually.  This is by far the busiest time of the year for me... and this year is particularly busy.  I'm gonna predict that I'll get some blogger care packages together sometime around the Thanksgiving break... or maybe during the Christmas break.  So stay tuned.

By the way, I didn't have time this weekend to open the final care package I received last week, but here's a preview:

This huge box was sent to me by Ryan aka SumoMenkoMan.  Holy cow!

This thing was heavy and he gave me a hint of one of the items he was going to send my way, but the rest is a giant mystery.  Did I mention I enjoy a good mystery?  Not sure when I'll get around to opening this up.  I'm thinking it'll probably happen this upcoming Friday afternoon after my final class.  Stay tuned.

Happy Monday and sayonara!

Adapt or Die

When I walked outside on Wednesday afternoon to get some fresh air after completing the first day of school, it looked like it was snowing.  Ash was falling from the sky.  The sun was completely hidden behind smoke that you could literally taste.  My friends from work and I compared it to something from the movies.

As for work... this whole distance learning thing is "next level".  I spent tens of hours in webinars and professional development trying to prepare myself for this new style of teaching... yet I still feel so inadequate.

Have you ever felt inadequate within your career?  It's not a good feeling.  I know it'll get better.  It has to, right?  But for the time being... I'm just trying to put on my best "positive face" for my students, give them the best I have to offer, while continuing to learn new teaching strategies.  I'm also in the process of modifying the curriculum for one of the courses I teach to better fit online instruction while creating curriculum for a class I've never taught before.

I realize me whining doesn't help anyone.  Just wanted to document this new era of life and hoped that ranting would help my mental state.  The reality is... we're living in different times.  Adapt or die.

2004 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites #89

Did you catch the Moneyball reference?  When I typed that Billy Beane quote, I immediately thought of the Fernando Tatis Jr. controversy that took place earlier in the week.

Personally... I think this whole unwritten rule that you don't swing on a 3-0 pitch when you're up seven runs in the top of the 8th inning is silly.

2020 Topps 52-Card Baseball #JH

Seeing Tatis launch that grand slam on Monday gave me goosebumps.

2019 Heritage Clubhouse Collection Relic #CCR-EH

Seeing him get scolded by Eric Hosmer and then asked to apologize for doing his job and giving his team, teammates, and fans nothing but 100% effort made me sick.

If we were talking about Little Leaguers running up the score, I could understand the drama.  It's unsportsmanlike.  You might even convince me to buy into "not running up the score" with high schoolers, college players, friendly matches, or within international events.  However, we're talking about professional baseball players.

These are athletes who have dedicated the majority of their lives to this sport and make a pretty good living off of it.  Salaries are based on how well you perform in the batter's box, on the pitching mound, or in the field.  I think it's crazy to ask a player who is making seven or eight digit salaries to not try their best 100% of the time.

And even if you're able to convince me of situations where a player shouldn't try their best, this isn't going to be one of them.  The Padres had a 7 run lead.  That's nothing in baseball.  The Rangers have scored five runs in the bottom of the 8th twice this year.

I'm all about young athletes respecting their elders and Tatis showed a lot of maturity by listening to his coach and apologizing for his actions.  But if Tatis was my student and I shamed him for playing hard... who is the one that really should be apologizing?

Teachers are not always right... and neither are managers.  I personally think that this unwritten rule needs to adapt or die.

That's it for today.  I'll step down from my soapbox.  Most of us are fans of the game, but we're not always going to agree on how it should be played.  Regardless of whether or not we see eye to eye on this topic, I encourage you to leave your thoughts down below.  But let's be good role models and at the very least respect each other's opinions.

Seems like many of us already have plenty of craziness on our plates with hurricanes, unemployment, power outages, heat waves, fires, political and racial tention, homelessness, and COVID-19.  We don't need to add tension among sports fans to this list.

By the way... sports highlights aren't the only thing I enjoy watching on YouTube.  I also enjoy covers of famous songs.  This song came across my stream this morning and it was one of those perfectly timed gifts.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Legendary Lumber

My baseball knowledge is very limited compared to the average baseball fan who takes the time to read this blog.  Part of that has to do with the amount of information I retain these days.  It seems like a lot of sports trivia goes in one ear and out the other.  This especially applies to players and events that took place before I was born.

That's why I enjoy writing these posts.  With a few taps on the keyboard, I can quickly go back and refresh my memory on topics that were interesting to me at one point or another.

Today's post is about a hall of famer who is a member of the very exclusive 3,000 Hit Club.  How exclusive is it?  Well as of today, there have been over 19,000 guys to play at the MLB level and only 32 have collected 3,000 or more hits.

I'm sure you're thinking this is another post about Gwynn, Henderson, or maybe even Carew, Rose, or Ichiro... since I actively collect cards of these gentleman.  

However today I'll be writing about an old-timer who played his final MLB game over ninety years ago.  His name is recognizable to most baseball fans, but he doesn't receive the same level of publicity as legends like Ruth or Gehrig.  Yet he has more hits than either of them.

Meet Eddie Collins:

2002 Topps Tribute Milestone Materials #MM-EC

Collins played thirteen seasons with the Philadelphia Athletics and twelve more with the Chicago White Sox.  And yes... he was a member of that famous team, but he wasn't one of the eight players permanently banned from baseball by Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis.  As an A's fan, I remember reading about him being a part of the famous $100,000 Infield that also featured fellow hall of famer... Frank "Home Run" Baker.

According to his Baseball Hall of Fame page, he's one of only five MLB players with 500 stolen bases and a career .400 on base percentage.  He is also one of only ten members of the 3,300 Hit Club (yeah, I made that up).

Anyways... I have wanted to add a memorabilia card of his to my A's PC for years.  Then Jim over at cards as i see them wrote about his copy back in early June, which motivated me to add Mr. Collins to my eBay watch list.

Two months later, I bid and won the card you see above for $11.61 (+ $3.99 shipping and $1.07 tax).  In an era where collectors are paying outrageous prices for rookie cards of top prospects and for certain Project 2020 cards, I think it's pretty awesome that you can still grab (supposedly) game-used memorabilia cards of legends like Eddie Collins for less than $17.

By the way for bookkeeping purposes, this was actually purchased using an eBay gift card, so I didn't have to use any out of pocket funds.

On the other hand, I did have to spend $99.99 (+ $9.99 shipping) for this Fernando Tatis Jr. autographed full-size bat (JSA certified):

Here's a closer look at the signature:

It's not game-used and Tatis isn't a legend, but I was pretty excited to add this to my autographed bat collection that includes guys like Tony Gwynn, Frank Thomas, and Kurt Suzuki.

Well that's it for today.

Do you have any favorite old-timers not named Ruth, Gehrig, Young, Johnson, Cobb, or Hornsby?

If so, what's drew your attention to them?

Happy Throwback Thursday and sayonara!