4 MONTHS INTO 2025

      

       About 4 months ago we started 2025 so here's my New Years Resolutions for 2025 let's see how I'm doing at the 4 month mark.

1. Try to completing either my `03/`04 Topps or Upper Deck Basketball sets by getting LeBron James RCs. STILL WORK IN PROGRESS.

2. Try completing my `79/`80 Topps Hockey set by finding an inexpensive Gretzky RC. STILL WORK IN PROGRESS.

3. Meet at the National Sports Card Convention at least 3 people from the blogging world or 4 from Sportscardforum.com that aren't my friend Greg from The Collective Mind blog. 4 Months away.

4. Purchase a 1967 Brooks Robinson #600 under $300 HAVENT FOUND 1 YET.

5. Take down at least 10 names from my 1975 O PEE CHEE baseball list before the end of September. FOUND 2 So Far Thanks to Jeff Scott. 

6. Celebrate my milestone birthday by getting some great cards off from my lists. 2 Months 9 Days away still plenty time for my fellow readers to surprise me & buy me some great stuff HINT HINT!!!!!

7. Celebrate my 1 year anniversary of blogging by still blogging & have more insights for my readers to enjoy. 2 Months away still.

8. Hope by March madness rolls in to have at least 6 people take on an upcoming challenge that aren't my friend Greg from The Collective Mind blog. FAILED!!!!! 

9.  Find the elusive Bob Gibson Seagram's 7 baseball legends mirror (Stay Tuned about a piece about these mirrors) for under $100. STILL LOOKING ALONG WITH THE OTHER 2 REPLACEMENTS & need to get that post started soon.

10. Delete 10 sets from all 4 Sports by Game 1 of the 2025 World Series. Finished my `95//`96 Ultra Basketball 9 more sets to finish

          Despite the 1 failure I think I did rather well so far what do you think as Roger Hornsby once said about signing autographs for little kids "Any Ballplayer who doesn't sign autographs for little kids ain't an American, He's a Communist."

NOTHING TO SEE HERE FOLKS

 

               This is a post that will make you think so be prepared after all there's nothing to see here folks just keep on the path & not fall off the trail I figured that it be time for a post that will make ya am I seeing what I am seeing in these pictures correctly.

Back in 2021 I drove down to Mississippi to meet my friend Steve aka Spuds1961 on the Sportscardforum.com site to take him back with me to Michigan to then go to the National Sports Card Convention in Rosemont, Illinois which is where this years National will be held at. While I was there Steve & his wife Denise took me to a Flea Market in Flowood. There was 1 booth that had a bunch of cards but we couldn't go through much of them cause that vendor wasn't open but there were a few boxes that they allowed us to look through they had a bunch of the 1972 Topps High Numbers in the box that I recall but at the time I had my 1972 completed a year earlier had I knew someone who was needing any & the vendor was there I would have gotten you some anyways while there I had to do a double take on this booth see if you can spot what's wrong. I hope they had some fun in Arazona is that where the Grund Cunyon is located at. There's nothing to see here folks so lets keep moving shall we.

                Now back in August of 2011 I was at the National in Baltimore when I had to do a double take again at this dealers display case he was selling these fine items. It was in the midst of when Tiger was dealing with all the accusations of his fooling around with numerous women. The company's motto was "Guaranted a Hole in 1 every shot." as well Protect your wood shaft. then on the back had Tiger in a certain pose with a female screaming "Put it in the Hole Tiger!!!!!!!!" then opening the package you see Tiger finishing up his conquest to the Masters of the hole raising his fist pump like he would do after winning a tourney. Again nothing to see here folks lets keep moving on shall we.  

As many of you know I work at Dollar General on Wednesday of last week I was putting away some put backs at the end of the night I happened to stumble upon this actual product. Yes you are reading it right Horny Goat Weed Caps Unfortunately we didn't have any in stock so I could hold them up & do a selfie with them so again nothing to see here folks. This post was due to the fact how some baseball players have the names that make us just say nothing to see here folks.

Poor Dick & Rusty are 2 of many infamous names that brace cardboard immortality.

This post was also was a tribute to a classmate in school whom we called Dick Head its his real name but anytime we were around the principal we had to address our good friend as Richard only but he didn't mind being called Dick the funny thing Dick later became a head janitor somewhere he just rather keep on the downlow cause I guess his hiring supervisor told him he had to go by Richard. So I like to hear from my readers what some of the occasions where you had to say Nothing to see here folks until then I am reminded by Rogers Hornsby once said about signing autographs "Any Ballplayer whom never signs for little kids ain't American, He's a Communist." 

SPRING BREAK IS HERE THANK GOD!!!!!!!

 

                   The title says it all I am on spring break from my school job as of this date so now I can maybe work on some of the 3200ct boxes in my basement before I am needed to go to my other job at Dollar General. I need to work on these boxes before the May 3rd when I am setting up at a show so I can be more organized instead of having bunches of early `90s to early 2000s of Basketball for people to rummage through & maybe have the missing cards they need as well help out any of my readers that might have a list of that they need filling out minus of course the Jordans,Kobe,Lebrons ya get the idea. As well have a bunch of the `90s football boxes as well minus be name stars again. So if you need anything just let me know hopefully ya can knock out at least 25 of my needs as well as a start for all the digging Ill have to go through. As for hockey & baseball I don't have many 3200ct boxes but I have stuff so don't fret that I don't have anything in those 2 sports.  

               The card you see on top of my post is 1 that is on my baseball list of needs. Just maybe someone will come forward to help me out.  I really like to get some of my lists smaller if possible before I leave for Chicago for the National Sports Card Convention. I already know I might bump into Dime-Box Nick in his own backyard of a show so I am hoping Nick is reading my blog so if ya see me Nick say hi cause Ill be hitting those dime & quarter boxes again alot this summer & the fewer items I have to find means more new stuff to build or get lol. 

          So in other news the 1st games of the baseball season are in the books with the reining champion Los Angeles Dodgers are already in 1st place of their division after taking 2 games from the Chicago Cubs in a small 2 game series in Japan. It came to no shocker that Shohei Ohtani went deep in 1 of the games to please the hometown crowd I know somewhere Mr Night Owl is strutting his birds of a feather dance that his Dodgers are in 1st just remember that theres still 160 more games left to play though Mr Owl sir.

 I checked my schedule at Dollar General looks like I am going to only have Thursday off & Friday I guess its better than nothing to do on those days until then I am reminded of what Rogers Hornsby said about signing autographs for kids " Any Ballplayer who doesn't sign autographs for little kids ain't an American, he's a Communist."

WEMBY......WEMBY...THEY FELL IN

                   

         Last week Thursday I went to Walmart to check to see if they had any 9 pocket sleeves that I could use for my `07/`08 & `08/`09 Upper Deck Basketball sets. Unfortunately they didn't have any sleeves & with a fellow collector named Craig Rush helping me with my 2025 Topps baseball set by making it for me this year I tried to steer myself away from this years Topps cause I didn't want to crack any opened other than the 2 fat retail packs & 1 Hanger that I picked up a couple of days before my little brothers passing. So I picked up 2 blasters of the `23/`24 Hoops Winter to crack open. I was happy to pull these 2 cards out of the blasters. I at anytime can pull a big name rookie or star that normally is out of my price range to get later on right from the start is a great thing. I recall back in 2006 when I bought an `05/`06 Upper Deck Series II Hockey blaster the first pack yielded me a Victory Update of Squidney Crybaby (Sidney Crosby) RC the 2nd pack yielded me a double Alexander Ovechkin the first was the Victory Update RC but the card right after that was his Young Gun RC stay tuned to more about Alexander the Gr8 on a future post. So back to the present day I pulled the Wemby times 2 so that one less big name I need to worry about as time moves on as I make this set plus I have future trade bait if anyone else is making the set as well.

I can only hope the next time I go to a different Walmart that they have some fat packs or more blasters for me to get so I can get more cards & get closer to completing this set. Until then I am reminded of Rogers Hornsby once said about signing Autographs for little kids "Any ballplayer who doesn't sign Autographs for little kids ain't an American, he's a Communist."

 

SO MANY THINGS TO WONDER....

       

               The title from this post is from an early 1990s film called Mixed Nuts that's why your looking at Adam Sandler in the picture on top it was one of his earliest roles it starred Steve Martin & Rita Wilson in this great comedy film from 1994. Adam sings with the accompanying him on his ukulele an original song "So Many Things to Wonder" I feel the same way however I say So Many Things to Wonder to Get to complete my needs. Just yesterday I went through my 13 3200ct basketball boxes again to make sure that I located all the singles I have from the `07/`08 Upper Deck set as well the `08/`09 Upper Deck set removed & placed within the pile of the starter lot of the set build I am doing. Currently I have for the `07/`08 set 104/242 cards which is a 43% completion which is a semi-great start. As for the `08/`09 set that is at 100/266 card which is a 38% completion rate which way lower than I would like it to be but, that is what happens usually with me when I start late on sets that have been released & I didn't start when they first were released.

                 I have many reasons why I start the sets so later than usual. One of the reasons is does it appeal to me to make. Example the `07/`08 design is like this.

While the `08/`09 design is like this.

           Upper Deck pretty designs are much like the other sports I have sets of however I didn't do the 2008 Upper Deck Football set nor at this moment do I feel like doing that set. The reasoning is cause I have way too much to work on at the moment & with my job schedules its hard to find the time to do it.

               Another reason I look at is can I find a starter lot of the set that I am thinking of putting together I prefer to have at least 70% a completion rate or higher before I work on it plus can my LCS or trading partners/readers help me out in finding singles I need usually when I get someone to help me that usually about 3-10 cards now don't get me wrong its find every little bit helps but considering I usually send good portion of cards to trade to other set builders if the set has more that 200 cards.
             
               I am sure the only set builder that does research on the sets as well thanks to the TCDB.com site to help with my decisions. There I can see how many cards are within the set I am considering in making & looking at the images of the cards if available helps as well. Another feature I like is if I decide to do a master set with variations in it I know what to look for a specific example when I made my 1982 Donruss Sets (Yes I made 2 Master sets of them). As you can see in the pictures below are of Alan Trammell Diamond King card the one on the left is the error cause there's only 1 "L" in his last name while the right one is the correct spelling with 2 "L's" & sometimes I recheck the TCDB if there's anything new to locate like the Christy Matthewson's 1987 Hygrade All-Time Greats set pictured below I thought I had the set complete when this popped up in the Errors/Varations list lucky for me I was able to find the Outfielder card at my LCS for $.10 cause I already had the correct position of pitcher already. 

   

Being in Michigan the correction card is usually most sought after card.

Like Dime-Box Nick I always like a good deal on things.

                Another thing as when I consider doing when I am on the fence on doing a set is reach out to fellow collectors to see what their take is on the set. Like can they help me in completing the set. Can they point me in the right direction should I need assistance & they aren't able to help me complete it.  Do they want to hear my ramblings about why I am making that specific set. Are they willing to take any of my extras if they are building it as well. 

                 Since I dabble in all 4 sports on my set building I also wonder how many more sets for that certain sport am I willing to make. Yes I am clearly hearing my friend Greg from The Collective Mind Blog saying "I thought once ya started this football set you weren't going to make anymore football sets that as you know turned out to be false information." Currently I have 240 listings on my baseball wants that's prior to adding when it does get released the 2024 Topps Heritage High Numbers Inserts well as the minis. Only 61 listings for basketball. Only 63 listings in football & finally only 130 for hockey.

                So usually I have people constantly asking me to make them their sets for them since they are either too lazy to do it or they think I have enough cards in my 3200ct boxes to help them complete their sets. Don't get me wrong I enjoy making them its those that ask me to make the set only to back out of it just after I have done some digging or pulled the cards that they need from my boxes or go to my LCS or check with my connections for assistance. Case in point 2 months ago I had someone slam a 3200ct box asking me to make them a `93/`94 Fleer basketball set. A 400 card complete set with the only insert to them since they had a non-redeemed 1993 NBA Draft Lottery card that well...past expiration date so couldn't get it redeemed if they tried. I told him I would do it for $30 Non-refundable cause I had singles plus I have access to about 8/11 of the Lottery cards you got back in exchanged the only missing ones were Chris Webber #1 Penny Hardaway #3 & finally even though he was a Detroit Pistons pick #11 Allan Houston. I went to work on it 2 days later I get call from the guy he changed his mind after I pulled 376/400 cards from the set with 12 boxes to search through good thing I got my $$$$$$ up front. 

I consider this set the `93/`94 Fleer Glow Worms set cause how they look. You tell me am I right or not.

                 Yet as I try to convert all my 3200ct boxes of basketball & football by sets so its easier for me to find the stuff with my busy schedule from my 2 jobs & when I have the rare day off from any of my jobs I just want to go to a shop & see what I can find for myself or others & I slack in doing my own inventory when I should do it or hire someone to sort through them as a project with someone with OCD only if that was possible to locate someone like that. Well I like to hear what you think do I have so many things to wonder or not. As I am reminded by Rogers Hornsby saying about signing autographs for kids "Any Ballplayer who doesn't sign autographs for little kids ain't an American, He's a Communist." 

WHAT IF PART V

         

              On Monday when I was on my break at my Dollar General job. I read the latest developments in another installment of "What If" Series from my round table of discussions of friends who discuss matters that might changed baseball history from what happened then I proposed to include my readers of my blog to reach out to them & get their thoughts on the subject as well discuss what the group came up & as always there's no right or wrong answers just a bunch of baseball junkies who love the game but have great insights of the game. 

           You can see this is Topps glimpse of the 2091 card from the 2021 Topps Archives set. The What If topic was do you think baseball will continue with the pattern that started in 1904 that was repeated in 1994. Now you are asking what is the pattern well simple back in 1904 John McGraw was managing the New York Giants & lead them to the National League Pennant however he wasn't keen in playing against the American League Pennant winner that being the Philadelphia Athletics led by Connie Mack in what would have been the 2nd ever World Series so the World Series was canceled that year then resumed in 1905 & it ran every year up until 1994 when baseball fans were upset that the season as well post season year was canceled due to a players strike. So the question was to say should the MLB cancel the World Series in 2084 then again in 2174 etc.....basically every 90 years so I ask you my readers should they do it or not.  

             Some of the group members said that MLB sure if they don't change the amount of teams however if they expanded to more than 30 teams they should. So with that said I'm reminded of great Rogers Hornsby who once said "Any ballplayer who doesn't sign autographs for little kids ain't an American, he's a Communist." 

A BROTHERS TRIBUTE II

                

                   Yesterday was my little brother Ethan's 46 Birthday. It will be 2 weeks since he passed away tomorrow. Last week Monday we had a small viewing of him that included my folks and my nephew before he was cremated. It was the first time I saw him since the day he passed on. It was rough but I made it through by being there for my nephew & ex-sister in law as well my folks. It was extremely rough for my father it was his first look at him since he missed out on viewing him from the hospital. The photo on top of this post is a picture of him taken during one of his weekly pinball tourneys he would play in he has that famous trademark smirk on his face that I swear that our genes has from the likes of possibly cousins Burt,Ryan,& of course Harold. 

What can we say its the smile or smirk that our family make famous.

Either way we are charmers with the ladies in my case it came late in my life.

Don't hate my family genes cause of this trait.

Yesterday I went to brunch with my mother so she would go stir-crazy cause of the events in the last couple of weeks thinking I forgot about my little brothers birthday yesterday. I didn't forget instead I showed her the tribute I made on my blog on about him she was shocked on what all I had to say about him then understood why I had brought with me during the viewing the 1988 Topps Card of Bob Gibson Turn Back the Clock if your aren't familiar with the story I suggest you read my post dated on February 19th.

          Alrighty!!! Now I'll try to bring this blog post to an up lifting moment. During my time that I was off work from mourning I went through some of my many 3200ct to 5000ct Basketball boxes of stuff trying to find what can I possibly do with in making a sets with when I found a batch of the `23/`24 Donruss I have 126 out of 250 remaining left to find to complete the set so I am going to embark in trying to see how many I can locate on Tuesday before I put the list up on my wantlists. I am planning to go to the LCS where I usually get the 3200ct & 5000ct boxes of singles to see if I can bring the number down from 126 to a more easier number to find & yes before you even wonder I do need Wembanyama but I am not in a rush to complete the set or to trade for him I just hope that when I do go that I can cut the number down to maybe find 40 or less so stay tuned to my blog I plain on talking about this set later this week after I go to the LCS after my school job on Tuesday. I also haven't decided to figure if I want to go to a shop near Flint or go to a shop outside of the Detroit area after my school job on Wednesday. So stay tuned to see what I end up doing. With that said I am reminded of the great Rajah Hornsby who talks about signing autographs for little kids once said "Any ballplayer who doesn't sign autographs for little kids ain't an American, He's a Communist."