Collecting This 'n' That

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Lots of new shiny to sort

karsal November 28, 2025

The smaller collection I recently purchased has hit the table and awaits my next move. Backstory - this was a local Facebook purchase from a younger guy (new father) who had been ripping a lot of retail and some hobby boxes. He has a nice framed piece full of recent New York Giants autos and relics. That's all he said he wanted to keep. Everything else was for sale. Something was off though. Where were all the base cards? He tossed them into the recycling, because in his words "they are just pieces of cardboard". I kept my mouth shut - zipped. Ironically, this collection had some of the obligatory early 90's pieces of cardboard. 1990 and 1991 Upper Deck, Score, and Pro Set hockey and some of the usual baseball suspects as well. I wish he had recycled those instead!! Now I have to re-home these via the donation center. He did try to pawn off two 1991 Fleer baseball factory sets. I left them there. On to the good stuff. Very preliminary grouping by sport for now. It...

Wondering.

karsal November 19, 2025

I didn't know what to expect from the lone pack of 2025 Topps Disney Wonder that landed in my shopping cart this past Sunday. Well, I was surprised. These are quite nice! The first thing that struck me was the card stock that these are printed on. They have a high end feel to them. Perhaps a little thicker than your basic entry level cards. Twenty-five cards per hanger pack yielded 24 base and one insert. That was a little disappointing but it is what it is for retail. Initially I thought the foil-y cards were parallels, but they are the "high numbers" in the set. I guess these could be considered short prints of sort with 3 per pack, though I am not certain about the breakdown for blasters and hobby boxes. Honestly, I don't feel they add to the set's make-up. I would have preferred the base set to be just plain base cards. Base card sample and a foil front. My sole insert, The rest of the cards, I may try a blaster or two if they are still available ...

Time to get back at it.

karsal November 18, 2025

You may thought I had given up on this little blog. Nope. Life just got in the way this summer and early fall. It started with a nice week long road trip along the shore of Lake Huron. The weather was perfect - full sun everyday without humidity - and things to see and do everywhere. A week is never enough. This Sea Stack formation on Flower Pot Island is about 50 feet tall. Stunning. Somebody thought these stairs were a good idea. Deadly! The Sweepstakes, lays in fairly shallow water of Lake Huron. The schooner sank in 1885. It was during this vacation that we made the decision that we were going to move to a larger house, and take in the in-laws. Are you crazy?!?! you may ask. Heck no, I have always gotten along very well with them and right now they are still in decent health. The real estate market here is a little peculiar with it being a military town. All the buying and selling occurs during posting season, in or out. That annual migration happens f...

Panini Prospect blaster & some Facebook hockey

karsal July 15, 2025

A quick blaster break today. I don't remember seeing this in the store earlier in the year so I grabbed the lone box today. Twelve base cards and twelve insets and parallels in my box. A bronze (/199) , holo (Optic-like), and two greens. Three holo ice parallels. Base insert and green parallel. Finally a name I recognize. Blue ice (/299) and a base insert. Green holo autograph, unnumbered. A fun little break. ______________________________________________________ When the sale of my hockey card collection was completed I swore that was it, no more! Well, I saw a Facebook Marketplace listing that looked like a good deal so I went and picked it up today. I did a quick comp on these when I got home and it turns out I paid 10% of market asking price. I can live with that margin...even if I don't know what I am going to do with these. As always, thanks for reading.

Family, dogs, and cards

karsal July 12, 2025

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...

The week's mail

karsal June 29, 2025

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. ...