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