Collecting This 'n' That

For the first time in almost three years my mother and brother made the journey to our town. Mind you we have been there to visit. There's no way you don't see your mama for three years. A weekend of fun last week - beaches, sightseeing, BBQ's, and backyard fun. Four generations just hanging out.  Of course there had to be a card angle in here. My brother brought a four row box of all top-loaded cards that a guy he knows wants to sell. In fact there are 5 such boxes but only one came to town. It was clearly a card dealer's $1-5 table box, from 2022-23. A whole lot of Julio Rodriguez, Juan Soto, Jasson Dominguez and lots of base inserts. There was maybe 50 or so 50's-60's vintage in there as well. I comped the best of the box and without fail the cards were all sticker priced at double of today's market. I made my offer - a message was sent - and the reply was NO. Oh well, good luck to them.  A fair bit of cool stuff has come in since we were last here, in no...

With the chatter about another potential postal disruption I have been shying away from any substantial mail ordering. Just chipping away with smaller stuff on Sportlots and TCDB.  This week the mail lady brought these goodies.  Sportlots order,  These are three of the final four for this set. Stay tuned...  For 20 cents a pop I added these 1966 Donruss Monkees to the order. At that price they can be a little rough.  _____________________________________ Sportlots auction, 1957 Topps Isolation Booth for the type binder. A 1929 Player's Curious Beaks, and a group of 1990 Red Rose Animals and their Young.  This is currently a mystery card, and the seller had no description for it. That's the reason I wanted it. The card measures 1 1/2" x 2" and is blank backed. It is printed on standard card stock of the era. Checking the books and catalogues provided nothing. A Facebook group of mostly UK members bounced around some suggestions but none hit the target. ...

What is new in hobby land here? Not a whole helluva lot. Family birthday events, summer home projects...you know the drill. I did grab a box of series 2 Topps this morning. The one positive is the number of cards per box, 84. That's decent. Other than that, nothing to get too excited about - run of the mill inserts, no numbered cards or SP's. I have watched quite a few Topps reels on Facebook and some cool stuff has been pulled!  On a recent trip into the city for an appointment I took the opportunity to hit a big box down there. Four clearance packs of 2023 Panini Chronicles came home with me.  This was the biggie from those packs, Take my word for it, it is numbered out of ten on the back. My scanner, other than needing to be cleaned, struggles with some types of cards.  The next pack had this,  This is my first Points card ever. I don't rip much Panini product so I've been fortunate not to have to deal with this. I don't mind straight up redemptions where I know ...

Cheap little lots are fun! This five card bundle arrived the other day.  You are not going to find these your local Pokémon err.. card show.    1909 Player's Nature Series 50 card set. This is the third of these in my collection. It is a little rough as the number in the top right has worn off. It is #15.  1936 Churchman's The Story Of Navigation set of 50. Also the third in my collection.  1937 Churchman's Treasure Trove set of 50. The first of its kind in the binder.  1931 Abdulla Autobilder Serie II 150 card set and another first card for me. These cards are 1 15/16" x 2 15/16" in size. Good quality stock and a matte finish. A very nice 94 year old card.  1961 Topps Sports Cars. 2 1/2" x 4 11/16" 66 card set. I will start to keep an eye out for these in VG-ish condition. I'm up to 5 so far.  They are not crazy expensive if you are ok with lesser condition. Decent copies of singles can be had in the $2-5 range. Watch for cards #32 and 60 as they...

  Happy Father's Day!  Without a doubt I can say   that   I wouldn't be here doing this if it weren't for my father's encouragement of collecting hobbies. Though he never dabbled in cards, he had his own hobby - stamps.  The Scott catalogues, Harris albums, and stock books galore lined the bookshelves of HIS den. My brother and I did join him in the world of philately for a while, but cards were my calling and well, my brother was never really a collector. Unless you count junk at the cottage.  We lost dad unexpectedly 16 years ago and there really isn't a day that I don't think about him at least once. I have his stamp collection all packed up in large Tupperware totes untouched. Someday, soon I hope, I will make time to explore it and remember those days.  Here is a preview of an upcoming set post that features a famous TV dad. Enjoy the day dads!  

Nearly an entire year had passed by from the release date of 2017 Topps Gallery to when discounted packs hit our local store shelves, and it had been over a decade since Gallery was a thing in the hobby so I wasn't sure of what to expect when I grabbed a couple of fat packs. Well hell, these are nice I thought. Two days later I returned to the store and bought all of the packs they had. And everytime they were restocked! Seven years later it is still one of my favorite binders to work on. My base set is still missing many SP's and some insert sets need work. This post will focus on the Canvas parallel. Canvas are fat/hanger pack exclusives, two per pack. The set includes the first 150 cards of the base set. No SP's were included. Thank god for that as the base SP's are tough falling at 1 in 20 packs.  The fellow on the pack was one of the first four Canvas that I owned. That first return trip to the store and pack buying frenzy netted me the big guy.  The decision was m...