Monday, August 12, 2024

Chasing Gold


Summer break is over.  The summer sort is over.  And the 2024 Summer Olympic Games are over. 

What does that mean to me?  It means things are gonna change and they're going to change drastically.  Obviously... I'm heading back into the classroom, so that'll replace things like cleaning, playing Red Dead Redemption 2, sorting cards, and binge watching The AcolyteThe Umbrella Academy and House of the Dragon.

My morning routine will also be different.  The past few weeks, I'd watch highlights from Paris (almost) every morning before reading blogs.  I was also waking up well after 6am on a regular basis... which is something I haven't done in decades.  Not gonna lie... it was nice.

However... during the school year... I like to wake up by 5am (5:30 at the latest).  Time permitting... I'll continue to read blogs before heading to work, but I'm gonna miss sleeping in and watching those highlights.

My favorite Olympic events were the track & field events that involved running, skateboarding, soccer, and surprisingly speed climbing.  One thing I just couldn't get into was break dancing... which kinda shocked me, because it fascinated me as a kid.

The bottom line is I'm going to miss watching all of those talented athletes competing for gold medals.  It was super entertaining.  Thankfully... collecting cards are too.  

And those aren't going anywhere.

1996 Finest #330

Today's post is headlined by this very cool card I received from Dennis over at Too Many Verlanders back in May.

In 1996 Topps adopted a tier system for their Finest products using three colored borders: bronze, silver, and gold.  As expected... gold was the rarest.  I didn't open up any 1996 Finest baseball, but I watched other people bust boxes.  At the time I was going through a huge hockey phase, so my money was dedicated to 1995-96 Finest hockey... which used the same tiered system.

I was obsessed with this product... as I was desperately chasing any gold cards I could get my hands on.  The gold refractors were especially popular among collectors that year... as Topps claimed that they produced no more than 150 copies of each card.

Well just like there was controversy over Olympic gold medalist Imane Khelif this year, Topps found themself in the midst of controversy back in the 90's.   A collector cornered the market on Greg Maddux gold refractors and accumulated 220 copies.  This led to the gentleman taking Topps to court and settling (out of court) for an undisclosed amount of moneyThe world sure loves drama

Okay... that's way too much writing dedicated to one card.  Let's move on to the rest of the care package.  Dennis sent me four team bags packed with cards.  In an effort to keep this post a reasonable length, here were some of the highlights:

2006 Upper Deck Diamond Collection Materials #DC-MA

Let's start with this card, since it continues with the "gold" theme.  I actually had this card already... however this one is an upgrade with that prominent pinstripe.


All four of these shiny cards were new additions to my Japanese player collections.  Hoping Darvish will return this season and help the Padres make a push into the postseason.

He also included this rare Hideo Nomo card:

2004 Leaf Silver Press Proof #293 (#'d 38/50)

Maybe Topps should have serial numbered those gold refractors.  It would have saved them a lot of money.

He also sent me some 2021 NPB cards.  Here's one of best National League rookies from last season:

2021 Topps Chrome NPB #204

Unfortunately he's only pitched in one game during his sophomore season.  Hopefully he'll bounce back in 2025.

Who knows... maybe he'll be teammates with this guy:

2021 Topps NPB #112

I climbed aboard the Roki Sasaki bandwagon back in November and hoping he finds success in the MLB eventually.

The card that stood out the most out of the entire package was this Ichiro:

2020 Stadium Club Widevision #244

In addition to utilizing an awesome photo... it's an oversized box topper, so it literally stands out.

He also sent me the McGwire from the set:

2020 Stadium Club Widevision #96

Another very attractive card.  It also features one of my favorite Stadium Club designs.

Next up is my all-time favorite Athletic:

2023 Panini Chronicles Obsidian #31

Dennis sent me three new Rickey cards for the collection, but this one stood out.  I'm not usually into Panini cards, but this Obsidian card is gorgeous.  Sadly... my scanner sucked at capturing this card's beauty.

It struggles to capture most shiny cards like this sweet Gwynn refractor

2020 Stadium Club Chrome Refractor #160

I love this card so much, it motivated me to seek out more on COMC.  So far, I've purchased a Stan Musial.  But there are a few other legends I'll keep an eye out for.

Well this post took a lot longer than expected.  Luckily I was still on summer break when I wrote it (yesterday morning).  However by the time it's published... I'll be in my classroom getting things ready for the upcoming school year.

Thank you Dennis!  I'm hoping to drop off a package for you at the post office this week.

Happy Monday and sayonara!

Friday, August 9, 2024

Late on Multiple Levels

This morning, I finally finished my "summer sort".  The plan was to have everything finished by Sunday, but life happens.

Unfortunately... the same philosophy doesn't apply to a care package I received back in January from Eric over at The Snorting Bull.  On Wednesday, I found it sitting in a box with some magazines, two Lego sets, and some stuff from my father's house.

Inside there were these three cards...

2017 Choice Durham Bulls #21

I'll start with this one, because the Durham Bulls and Blake Snell are the two things I associate with Eric the most.  Sorry Mr. Lankford.

Blake had stints in Durham in 2015, 2016, and 2017, so he's been following Snellzilla longer than me.  Personally he popped up on my hobby radar after winning the Cy Young Award with the Rays in 2018.

2023 Topps Update 1988 Silver Pack Mojo #T88CU-32

I became an even bigger fan when the Padres acquired him in 2020.   His first two seasons were solid, but his stats were far from his 2018 numbers.  Then last season he hooked up the organization and their fans with a second Cy Young Award performance.

2022 Topps Five Star Autographs #FSA-BS

This season he signed with the San Francisco Giants as a free agent and last week he pitched his first no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds.  Dang it.  One week late.  If I had only opened that banker's box a little earlier.

Thank you Eric for these three new Snell cards... especially the sweet on-card autograph.  Sorry it took me eight months to write about them.

While I'm on the subject of being late... I have been sitting on care packages from Dennis @ Too Many Verlanders, Wes @ Area 40, Gregory @ Nine Pockets, Bo @ Baseball Cards Come to Life!, and two boxes from Reader X.  These arrived in my mailbox starting in May and scattered here and there up through earlier in the week.

The game plan is to open all of these up in the next two to three weeks.  Fingers crossed.

Okay... let's wrap up this post with a quick box break that probably should have been opened back on July 29th when Yuto Horigome won the gold medal in street skateboarding.


One of the Olympic event I was most excited for was skateboarding and I remember Yuto winning the gold medal four years ago.  So when I discovered back in mid-July that he had trading cards, I picked up this box over at ABD Collectibles for $126.90 (+ $11.90 tax).  Each box contains ten packs:


Each pack contains two cards and one contest card, so twenty cards in total... and ten chances to win a prize.

The only reason I even considered this purchase was because each box is guaranteed to contain one signed card.  I pulled this one out of the third pack:


Two pack later, I beat the odds and pulled this one:


I also
won one of the prizes... which was one of these Jamie Foy boxes.

As for the base cards (based on their IG post), there appears to be three cards on the checklist:

AHollywood 16
BPortrait
CFranklin Switch Tail

Each of these cards have four versions: English text, Japanese text, English rainbow foil, and Japanese rainbow foil.

I pulled all four versions of the portrait, three versions of the Hollywood 16 (missing Japanese non-foil), and two versions of the Franklin switch tail (missing English non-foil and Japanese rainbow foil): 


I also pulled 9 duplicates.  Not sure how many bloggers out there will be opening a box of this product... but if they do, maybe we can help each other out.

By the way, I scanned what I pulled out of the first pack.  My plan is to write a post for A Pack To Be Named Later as soon as I finish publishing this post.  But don't be surprised if I'm a little late.

Happy Friday and sayonara!

Thursday, August 1, 2024

The Summer Sort

Have you ever started a project at home that you thought would take two, maybe three days... but it ends up taking three to four times longer than that?

That is what happened when I decided to start sorting two 5,000ct. boxes that have been sitting around in my office.  They contain a variety of sports cards that appear to be a combination of flea market finds and card show hauls with at least one collection purchase involved as well.

The first thing I did was sorted them by sport.  After that each sport were sorted into card typesbase, rookies, inserts, and parallels.  There's not enough space on my office desk to conduct this kind of sort, so it had to be accomplished on the floor (which wreaks havoc on my lower back).  Along the way I started adding cards into binder collections... while a handful of the nicer finds have been inserted into top loaders.  The rest are slowly being integrated into other boxes.

Unfortunately...  it's taking way longer than it would for the average collector.

You see... I have issues.  Seriously.  When it comes to card supplies for my personal collection... they need to be new.  It's part of my struggle with OCD.  In the past week or so... I have swapped out over 2,000 penny sleeves.

I honestly don't wish this obsession on anyone.  Most of the time, I accept it as the norm (my norm).  But this is one of those occasions where it has cost me hours, a very sore back, and an excessive amount of penny sleeves.

Don't worry... 99% of the penny sleeves will be reused.  Some will be used in care packages.  Others will be used for cards given away to students.  The rest will go to my buddy who sets up at card shows.  There is a small percentage that need to be tossed due to crumbling issues or they are just plain nasty. 

Ultimately... the goal is to have this project finished by next Tuesday so I can get back to opening up care packages.  At this rate, I don't think I'll even touch my Sportlots and COMC packages until after the start of the new school year.

I'm actually okay with that.  There's a part of my psyche that gets pleasure in knowing that I have cards waiting for me to sort.  I told you I have issues.

Well that's an update on my life.  Now let's show off some cards...

Let's start with some from those two 5,000ct. boxes:

1987 Fleer #369

This card brought back to the early 90's when I worked at my local card shopBo and 1987 Fleer were both super hot in the hobbyGood times.

Next up is a card that was released when I was on a break from card collecting:

2005-06 Topps Chrome #219

Here's some cardboard eye-candy.  She's not my type... but attractive is attractive.  And rounding out the summer sort singles are three new additions to my Prime #'s collection:

1999-00 Stadium Club One of a Kind #83 (#'d 001/150)
2009 Playoff Absolute Spectrum Blue #192 (#'d 75/75)
2001-02 Fleer Focus Jersey Ed. Numbers #121 (#'d 22/30)


Finally... here's a card that I was saving specifically for today:

1997 BBM Sparkling Fighters #SF27

Today is World Middle Finger Day.  Seriously.  People celebrate just about anything these days.  Anyways... I picked up this card from the card show dealer with all of those Japanese trading cards I met last year.

It has found a home in my Sports Card Smorgasbord binder next to these two guys:

1994 Stadium Club Golden Rainbow #285
1972 Topps #33

If anyone knows of any other "middle finger" cards, please let me know in the comment section below.

Well that wraps up another post.  I'm off to my office to continue the summer sort.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!