First 2025 card

 

The Joy of a Completed Set (kinda)

 My 1965 Philadelphia Football is kinda complete.  The last two cards I needed were Jim Brown and local hero Mel Renfro.  I used to work with a guy who went to high school with Mr. Renfro.

I say the set is kinda of complete, because before I bought these I ordered the other three cards I needed from COMC, I ordered them in late January and according to the website they will be shipped March 3.  This is the first time I have ordered from COMC, is this kind of delay normal?  So now that the Philadelphia set is kinda done I am working on the 1965 Topps football set.  Again I am looking for cards in poor to fair condition.  I found someone today who had one card at the card show.  So I guess it will be an Ebay quest.  

I met up with The Diamond King at the show today and he gave me a Blake Snell card I didn't have and the Bull Durham card featured in a recent post on his blog.  I mentioned that Fuji was coming to town and we are going to try and meet up with him.  Hopefully Gavin will be able to meet up with us also.  

Thanks for stopping by. 

In n Out

That would be nice but it's a two hour drive to the nearest one.  My meaning is that I have received things and I have sent stuff out.  

I went to the local card show last Saturday.  I headed straight for one table where I knew the dealer had 1965 Topps Football.  I picked up 14 cards and now only need 152 to finish the set.  Luckily I got some ebay gift cards for Christmas and was able to pick up the checklists for a reasonable price.  I have gotten one in and am waiting on the other.  They were kind of expensive, but then I still have Broadway Joe on the wantlist.  I also used some of the gift cards to further my pursuit of the 65 Philadelphia Football Set,  I am down to just needing 7 cards to finish that set.  Jim Brown and Mel Renfro are the biggest names still needed.  

On the outgoing side, I finished sorting all the packs and boxes that I got for Christmas.  So I packaged most of them up and sent them out.  Jim, Greg, Tom, Tim, Kerry, Jeremy, and Chris you are all receiving packages from me.  One of you is also getting a poster in a mailing tube.  

Thanks for stopping by.  

 

it was a down year (for me)

In 2024 my interest in cards waned, for a variety of reasons.  The price for cards got to high on some cards for my Padrographs and packs and boxes reached astronomical heights ($50 for a pack of Bowman Draft).  I would go to shows and see people walking around with armored briefcases.  I could go past half the tables because they were selling slabbed Pokemon cards, of which I have absolutely no interest. Another group of tables I would walk past is the dealers that had nothing but slabbed cards, I like to look at my cards and handle them and put them into binders (now back to back in pages, Thanks Mr. Owl).  I have never had the patience to look through 5000 count boxes of unsorted or barely cards.  I am an organizer, so that kind of disorganization puts me on edge.  I will stop if there appears to be cards sorted by sport or team or player.  

Set completed

I started the 1969 Topps football card set with just two cards.  Brian Picollo and Gale Sayers.  Ever since I watched Brians' Song with James Caan and Billy Dee Williams I have been fascinated with their story.  I read any book I could on them.  In 2024 I decided to finish the set.   I finished the set in November.  The set is in poor to good condition.  There are a lot of players in this set that I remember seeing on TV, watching football with my Dad when he was home.  He was in the Navy and would often be gone 6-8 months at a time as I was growing up.  Watching football was one of the few things we did together.  

Sets started 

I started two more football sets, 1965 Philadelphia Gum and 1965 Topps.  I only need 16 more cards to finish the Philadelphia set. I freed Bob Lilly from his slab and I am still getting used to my new scanner which is why that photo looks so weird.  These are the last four cards I received in 2024.   I think I should be able to finish the set before January is over.  

Padrographs

I now have 1302 different Padres autographs.  There were five Padres in Bowman Draft, with four of them having autographed cards.  I managed to get all of them for reasonable prices.  The only one who didn't have an autographed version was Clark Candiotti, son of Tom Candiotti.  The last one I received on December 21 was Kash Mayfield.  I am still missing several of last seasons Padres, Dylan Cease and Jurickson Profar among them.  

Christmas 

Our Christmas Day was a little different. It is just my wife and I at home now.  I woke up at 7 as she was coming to bed after working on a Christmas present all night.  Soon she came to see me and said we need to go to the Emergency Room because she had a kidney stone.  So we went and spent the first 4.5 of Christmas in the ER.  We got home and our granddaughter and her Mom came over to open gifts with us.  I got a cool t shirt and a mug from them.  After they left we opened gifts. I got lots of gift cards from my wife and about 20 blasters of cards from 2024.  Unlike last year I opened them all in about two days and they are sorted to be sent to various collectors in the next month.  

Sets I want to build this year

Or at least get started.  I am going to build sets from my birth year 1957.  That is Hockey, Football, Baseball, Basketball and 6 non sports sets.  

Blog goals

I would like to post at least twice a week.  Hopefully.  I won't find the time so I will have to make the time.

Thanks for stopping by. Aloha

Merry Christmas, to Everyone

 Merry Christmas to all.  I hope you find the cards you wanted under the tree.  Aren't we lucky that Christmas falls between the end of the World Series and the beginning of Spring Training.  Only 48 days to go. 

Hey It's Me

 I am still here and reading your blogs and plotting how to get cards to y'all after Christmas.  I finished the 1969 Topps Football set and am currently working on the 1965 Philadelphia Foot.ball set (I have 30 cards to go).  I have one card for my next set build which is the 1965 Topps football set.  I recently picked up all of the Bowman draft Padres autographs for this year.  I think that will put me over 1,300 Padrographs.  I know that I am getting many boxes of cards for Christmas and will be distributing them among people.  If there is something specific you are interested in please let me know.  

I have not retired from blogging.  I feel busier now than when I was working full time and I can't find time to blog, so I am trying how to make time to blog in the future.  I plan to start again shortly after the holidays.

Thank you for all your friendships.  See you soon.

Hello Again, I got a bobble card today.

 I am still reading blogs and collecting.  

I started a set build, 1969 Topps football.  I had two cards from the set, Brian Picollo and Gale Sayers, so I decided to build the set.  I have liked the set for a long time.  I am now at 24% complete.  I keep spending about $20 at a time.  I am not two worried about condition. So it is a good condition set.  

I am still opening product and sorting it to go to various collectors.  I have added a 2008 Topps card of White Sox utility player Josh Fields to my National Anthem collection.  I found an autographed one on eBay.  

My City Connect mini collection needs to be sorted by team and sleeved.  

I have added a few cards to my Padrographs collection.  

Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown sent me some cards of Tim Flannery that he had worked his magic on the cards.

I think my favorite is the 1985 Topps card.  I would collect a rainbow of that card.  The 1988 Fleer card is the aforementioned Bobble card.

1992 Padres Stadium Club Team set

 There seem to be a lot more action shots in the 92 set and fewer posed shots.  

There are 33 cards in this set, which is up 9 cards from 1991. With 33 cards that is several more than would be on the roster at any one time.  

I had all kinds of ideas for this series, but I don't seem to be able to muster the same enthusiasm for writing that I did when I started the blog back in 2008.  I still enjoy collecting and reading other blogs and trading, but the writing not so much, so you may see more picture filled posts from me.

1991 Stadium Club Skydome Padres

The Skydome set was produced in conjunction with the All-Star Game, which was played at the Skydome in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Padres team set contains two All Stars and three draft picks.

Greg Anthony was drafted as compensation for the Padres having lost Jack Clark in 1991.  He played for three seasons, getting no higher than A ball.  

Jon Barnes was also drafted by the Padres in the second round of the 1991 draft.  He got up to AA and played through 1995 in organized baseball and in 1997 he played for the Thunder Bay Whiskey Jacks in an independent league.

Sean Mulligan was drafted in the fourth round in 1991.  He made his major league debut in 1996 for the Padres.  He played a total of 2 major league games.  In 1997 he played in the Cleveland System, in 98 he played in Mexico, then for a couple of years in the Montreal and Baltimore systems.

Also in the set were All Star team cards of Tony Gwynn and Benito Santiago.

 

mini collection, City Connect uniforms

 In 2021 Nike and MLB started another cash grab, I mean a new program for team stalwarts.  City Connect uniforms are supposedly designed to reflect the cultural aspecet of each teams home city.  So far twenty teams have City Connect uniforms.  Eight more teams are scheduled to get them in 2024 and the Dodgers are expected to debut a new City Connect uniform this year.  The A's and Yankees are the only teams without a City Connect uniform.  The Yankees have said they do not want one and who knows where the A's will end up.

The Arizona Diamondbacks were one of the teams to get City Connect uniforms in 2021.  The color is called sand and Arizona does have a lot of that.  The uniforms feature the team "name" Serpientes on the front in black with a the players number in red.  

Serpeintes is an homage to Arizona's Hispanic Community.

So far I just have these three cards to represent the D'backs in my mini collection.

Up Next-The Boston Red Sox

Mini Collection, National Anthem

I found these two cards in the Topps Update that I opened. They struck a chord with me.  I had an ancestor who fought for the Union during the civil war.  My grandfather was in the National Guard during WWII.  My Dad served in the US Navy during Korea and Vietnam during his twenty one year Naval Career.  I served four years in the US Navy from 1975-1979.  I have lots of friends that served in the military. I have never seen any cards like these before.  I am aware of one other which was also in the Update set.  I ordered one of it.  

If you know of any others please let me know.  

 

1991 Stadium Club backs

 To me one of the coolest things about the first year of Stadium Club was the backs.  Not so much the stats but the rookie card of each player on the back.

Garry Templeton has the oldest rookie card in this set, 1977.  Every year through 1985 except for 1980 is represented in this bunch.  I hadn't realized that Whitson had broken in with the Pirates.

There are 4 rookie cards from the 1985 set.  Hobby legend Bip Roberts represents 1986.  Phil Stephenson is part of a set that came out for a few years that featured players with their major league Debut.

Many instances of the debut set in this bunch.  

1991 Padres Stadium Club team set.

24 cards, 2 Hall of Fame members and 2 players who are no longer with us.

Stadium Club

When I was opening my blaster of 2023 Stadium Club I was reminded how much I liked the photography and the look of the cards.  I was working in the LCS when they first came out.  I remember the Topps rep telling us about them and showing us the promo cards.  Once they were out everyone working there ordered multiple sets of the members only and the gold Nolan Ryan.  

I tracked down all the Padres team sets since 1991 and going to take a look at them here.

1991 Stadium Club was 600 cards issued in two sets of 300. There were 22 members of the Padres in the set.

The only two horizontal cards in the team are Dennis Rasmussen and future HOFer Fred McGriff.  These two photos demonstrate what you got in that first year, either an action photo or a posed candid shot.  Once in a while you would get an unposed candid shot.  

One of the Clark brothers appears in the set, his brother Phil will join the Padres later.  Oscar Azocars' nephew Jose plays for the Padres now.

10 of the 24 players in the set are pitchers, 2 catchers and the rest are position players.   

Tony Gwynn and Benito Santiago were the stars of the team in 1991.

Two of the members of the 1991 Padres team are now members of the Baseball Hall of Fame.  

Customs of 2024

So far I have made 5 custom cards.  The Mike Shildt card was for me and is at Spring Training to get signed for my Padres Manager collection.  The Puig and Qualls cards were made for an autograph dealer I work with.  Rich Puig played four games for the Mets in September of 1974 and that was the extent of his major league career.

Jim Qualls played for the Cubs, Expos and White Sox between 1969 and 1972.  63 games in all and 11 for the White Sox in 1972.

This card is also for the autograph dealer I work with.  Gary Alexander had a 7 year major league career between 1975-1981.  He played in 58 games for the A's in 1978,splitting that season with the Indians. He came to the A's as part of the trade that sent Vida Blue to the Giants.

John "Blue Moon" Odom had a legendary career with the A's from 1964-1975.  In 1975 he played with the A's, Indians, Braves and White Sox.  He finished his career with two games for the White Sox.  This was also made for the autograph dealer I work with.

 

 

My first look at 2024

 I preordered two blasters of 2024 Topps Baseball.  One to rip and one to put away for Christmas 2024.  I have three blasters of different product to put under the tree come December.

I got a bunch of cards for my City Connect collection.  First cards I have seen with the Red Sox, Mariners and Reds City Connect uniforms.  I need to sort through my city connect cards and see what teams I don't have yet.

 A couple more City Connect cards and Bobby Witt doing Superman into the base.  Of course it wouldn't be a box for me if I didn't get a Bobby Witt, Jr. card.

Nick Fortes presents Easter Bunnies.  I have no clue what is behind Corbin Carroll.

Kerry can pick a game for Nolan Arenado to go yard.  I still haven't figured out what is in the background of Gonsolin and Schanuel.

Some more inserts.  The blue print card reminds me of a Nike Tony Gwynn Hitting Machine poster from the 80's or 90's.

The lone Padre card in the box is no longer a Padre.  The Betts card is a chrome card.  

Overall I like the design of the 2024 cards.  I like the parallels that seem to have metallic ink on them.