Merry Christmas!

 

I just want to take a moment and wish everyone a Merry Christmas! There aren't enough words to describe how much I truly appreciate all of my blogging world friends. I hope everyone has a joyful and blessed Holiday Season.

Merry Christmas!

In Christ,

Michael

Isaiah 40:31

My Favorite players that I don't collect: The New York Mets

 Since I started this journey of getting one playing days card of my favorite players that I don't collect in New York with the Yankees, I thought I might as well do the Mets next and get out of New York! The Mets have had all kinds of great players come through their organization later on in their careers like the Great Willie Mays. Problem is I don't associate Willie Mays with the Mets. To me he will always be a Giant. That being said, there are players that I like that I do associate with the Mets. So, here are my favorite players that I don't collect who were New York Mets. 

My New York Mets list is pretty short comparatively to the Yankees. 

My first thoughts of Gary Carter will always be of an Expo, but if not Montreal, its the Mets. Since the Expos are no more, I'm going with the Mets. Now, I'm not going to say that I'm a big Gary Carter fan, but I did always seem to root for him. 

My favorite card of Gary is the 1980 Topps. As I've said before, you can't go wrong with a catcher's card depicting him making a play. One of the best to play the game.

Honestly, my first memories of Tom Terrific are with the Reds. As I got older and became more of a student of the game, that shifted. Kind of funny that my favorites off of the Mets so far actually come from other teams! Seaver was so dominant in '69 with a 25-7 record and a 2.21 ERA. I think he was even more so in '71. He was 20-10 and his ERA was 1.76. How in the world do you lose 10 games with an ERA that low?

       

'69 Topps or '71 Topps will be my choice to represent Seaver in my team collections. I'm leaning toward the '69, which I've already got, but I like the '71. I just don't know that I can find one in the condition that I would want. 

Being in an American League city and the fan of an American League team, I don't follow the NL as closely as I used to. I do keep up with the Braves, Cardinals and Dodgers more than the rest, but I always seemed to see David Wright on Sportscenter making a defensive play or coming up with a big hit. He always seemed to play the game with that characteristic of "whatever it takes for my team to be successful" attitude. You hear alot of players talk that way, but Wright seemed to walk the talk. 

I'm a sucker for the action shot, especially when you can see the ball that's being played, and the 2011 Topps card is a great one. 

That wraps up my favorite Mets players. Not near as many as the Yankees, but what do you do? Now, I'm sure that there are some that will ask about some other Mets, like Piazza, but for me, he's overrated. He's got a cool story and I appreciate the talent, but there's another catcher from that same time frame that will always rank ahead of him in my eyes.

Peace,

Michael

Isaiah 40:31

Ramblings of an old collector

 Random thoughts about baseball, baseball cards, collecting and life. 

* Congratulations to the Dodgers for winning their 9th World Series and back to back since 2000. Back in the day when it was the Dodgers vs Yankees, I was always rooting for the Dodgers. Not gonna lie, I was kind of rooting for the Blue Jays this time. American League, its been awhile since they won and I'm not a fan of dynasties unless it's my team! LOL!

* I am a fan of Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts and glad that they picked up another ring. Probably a bigger fan of Ohtani than the other two, but they are in my playing days collection. 

     

* Speaking of Ohtani and Freeman, I am still trying to get a couple of their rookie cards. 

     

I see the Ohtani Debut card all the time, it just hasn't been the right time or price. As far as the Freeman card goes, I never see that one out and about. I'm sure that one day I'll run across both of them at the right price.

* League MVPs were announced and no surprise it was Ohtani for the National League. As far as the American League goes there was some competition between Raleigh and Judge and it didn't seem as clear cut as Ohtani. To be honest, I was in Cal Raleigh's corner until I actually looked at some stats. Judge was the right call. Better average (.331 to .247), only 7 behind in home runs (53 to 60), scored more runs (137 to 110) and only 11 behind in RBIs (114 to 125). Now there is an argument to made about who was the most important to their team and I can't answer that one. All I can do is base it on what I saw in the stats and much to my chagrin I'd have to vote for Judge. 

* Now its time for the  Rule 5 players, free agency, trades, 40 man rosters, etc... All fun stuff! I've been trying to follow what's going on, but it's getting harder and harder. There are more false stories generated by AI that make it difficult. It was already difficult to decide what information you could trust, now it's near impossible. People will post just about anything to get clicks. 

* Until recently, the only cards I had on my wantlist in TCDB were the cards I needed for sets. About a month ago, I put some of my player collection wants on the wantlist too. Ever since, the majority of trade offers that I've received have been on those player collection wants. I wonder if that's because it seems as if the majority of the hobby has gone away from set collections and to player collections? Who knows?

I guess that's all for now. 

Peace, 

Michael

Isaiah 40:31

5 Questions for collectors Part 2

I think one of my favorite parts of collecting cards is the community that exists between collectors. I enjoy reading other collector's blogs. Finding out what they collect, finds that were made at shows or hearing about card shops and trades that were made. I try really hard to comment on the blogs that I read. I don't always because sometimes, I don't have anything to say, but I do try to say something on most of them. 

I do like learning more about fellow collectors. What they collect, how they collect, where they find their cards, etc... Ever since I found out Johnny's Trading Spot is a Braves collector, Night Owl, the king of the Dodgers collector and Nacho Grande the Barry Larkin guy, just to name a few, when I run across something maybe I pick it up, or wonder if they already have it. Most of the time, I figure they already have it. I do know that if I pull a card and don't need it, but it fits their collection, I have no problem sending it their way.

All of that to say, I like learning about people and their collections. I learned quite a bit in my first 5 questions post. (If you missed that one, check it out and answer the questions!) To continue that, here's round two of 5 questions for collectors. 

 Question 1: How did you get started collecting cards?

I got started collecting back in 1980. The summer of 1980 I started working at a card shop owned by a family friend and Dr. James Beckett. I had some cards before I started working there, but definitely wouldn't consider myself a collector, just a baseball fan. Working at the card shop really piqued my interest in cards. I really got into collecting in 1981. In 1981 the hot card was the '80 rookie Rickey Henderson and there were a lot of collectors still chasing the '79 Ozzie Smith. 

     

The thing that drew me into collecting though was the release of the new Fleer cards. The Fleer error cards were a big thing at the time. Especially, the "C" Nettles card. I believe chasing the "C" Nettles card is what really got me into card collecting. 

    

From there it just took off. I will say, I used to think I had a ton of cards. After seeing some of the collections of others, I'm just small potatoes. Being small potatoes fits me just fine, because I can't even find enough time to do all that I want to do with my cards. 

Question 2: How do you store and display your cards?

My card collecting space is extremely limited. I have a storage cabinet in the garage that holds all of my non-Topps cards. I have two glass door cabinets that hold the majority of my cards. I have a couple of shelves to display some of my favorites. I do have some plans to build some wall displays for my cards. 

My complete sets are in binders...all but those that I haven't moved to binders. My subset collection gets put in a subset binder when they're complete.

    

I've got two different types player collections. First, are my main players that I collect. It's dominated by Rangers (of course!), but I've got some other guys I collect too. The main players that I collect are Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, Evan Carter, Wyatt Langford, Jacob deGrom, Josh Smith, Bobby Witt Jr., Shohei Ohtani, Mike Trout, Clayton Kershaw, Adrian Beltre and Pudge Rodriguez. I've got a pretty good start on Jack Leiter and several Nathan Eovaldi who might become a main collection too. Most of these in this collection are in top loaders. Carter, Seager, Semien, Langford, Smith and Witt Jr. are in binders. 

     

My other player collection is my Topps playing days cards. These are just some of my all-time favorites and their Topps base cards. These cards are also in binders. 

Question 3: How much do you consider condition/centering when adding a card to your collection?

This is a tough question to answer. The best way for me to answer this is on a card by card basis. The older the card the more leeway I give on condition and centering. I still want to see some border on all sides of the card and I don't want the back of the card to be so off-centered that you can't read it. I think the biggest thing I struggle with is paper loss. I'm better at accepting it if it's on the back of the card, but not interested at all if it's on the front. Just not a fan of paper loss. 

Question 4: What is your biggest regret when it comes to card collecting?

I have two regrets when it comes to my collection. First, was missing out on a '57 Roberto Clemente. I saw one that I liked at card show that I said I'd come back for and when I did, it was gone. 

The second one and probably the biggest is taking all of those years off between collecting. Basically, I took off card collecting from 1998 to 2017. It's been fun, but a little difficult trying to fill in the holes. I still have a long ways to go, but I'm enjoying it. I'm about to start looking for some starter sets for some of those missing years. So, get ready guys I'm about to come calling.

Question 5: When you are thinking about your cards, are you thinking about the ones you have or the ones you are chasing?

This is a really interesting question. I think I spend more time thinking about the chase than I do what I've already got. I'm not sure why. Is it that I enjoy the chase more than the card itself? I really like the cards, so I don't think it's just the chase. That being said, I really don't spend much time looking at my cards that I have either. Maybe asking myself this question will remind me to appreciate what I have already found and spend some time looking thru my collection. 

That's it for the 5 questions. Please take a moment and answer the questions! Let's keep growing the community of card collectors!

Peace,

Michael

Isaiah 40:31

Ramblings of an old collector

 When summer hit I just knew that I was going to be able to write more. Well, that didn't happen. I break it down into two reasons. 

First, I spent the majority of my time this summer with the grandkids. I have 9 grandkids. The summer was spent having the grandkids at the house and doing activities with them. The last two grandkids arrived just the other day. Twins. If the wife and I weren't hanging out the grandkids we were helping out getting ready for the twins. Before I knew it, the summer was over and it was time to go back to school. 

The second reason I didn't write this summer was I didn't have anything to say and to be honest, there wasn't much card collecting taking place. Makes it kind of hard to write about card collecting when there's not too much going on. 

I thought that I better get something out here before I forget about it and before people forget about reading what I write. 

On to the ramblings!

* I've completed my 2024 Topps Chrome All-Etch set. I seem to be more focused on finishing the subsets I collect than the main sets. I still haven't finished the 2024 or 2025 Topps sets yet. 

* Funds have been tight lately which makes collecting cards a little more difficult. Most of my pick-ups have been from trades on TCDB. I have been able to pick up a few Rangers cards from Ebay. 

    

Starting to get a decent player collection with Marcus Semien and Josh Smith. 

* My Rangers were, overall, a disappointment. I really thought they were going to be better. I never thought they wouldn't be able to hit their weight.

* Shohei Ohtani had another fantastic year. I used to see a bunch of his base cards on Facebook $1.00 to $5.00 claim sales, but not anymore. I really don't see that many of his cards on Facebook at all, unless it's a high priced auction. I can't remember when I last picked up one of his cards. 

* Cal Raleigh is another player who's played outside his mind. Hard to argue against Raleigh for MVP. I do question if he's another one year wonder like Brady Anderson. Anderson hit 50 dingers in '96. More than double any other year. As a matter of fact, he hit 16 homers in '95 and 18 in '97. Only time will tell about Raleigh. 

* I did add to my Bobby Witt Jr collection. 

Thought this was a cool looking card. Like Ohtani, I've had a harder time picking up Witt's cards too. I guess that's what I get for liking the best of the best. 

I guess that's all of the ramblings for now. Hope there are a few readers still out there. Leave a comment to let me know. 

Peace, 

Michael

Isaiah 40:31

The Return of the Ramblings of an Old Card Collector

 After taking 2 months off, I'm back to blogging. I didn't really take the time off, I just didn't have time to sit down and write. 

The with teaching, being the head coach for the first time and trying to stay caught up in life, writing the blog just kept getting pushed down the list of things to do. Several times during the hiatus I started writing but never was able to finish anything. When I'd come back to it, what I had written didn't even make sense to me. If it didn't make sense to me, I knew it wouldn't make sense to you. I can't tell you how many times I started writing but couldn't even finish a thought. I will tell you that several of the bullet points in this post were written some time in May. I didn't think it was enough to post and I didn't have any pictures either. Well, I'm back and hopefully I will be posting a little more frequently than every two months.

* I was able to pick up a Rangers 2024 Topps 582 Montgomery team set off of Ebay. 

  

I had several of the cards, but was still missing almost half of the set. I was able to get the set and a Rookie Wyatt Langford for less than it would have cost to get those cards that I was missing. If there's a Rangers fan out there looking for some of these, I'm pretty sure we can work something out. 

* My inaugural year as a high school head baseball coach came to a close with a loss. Just like every other team but one. The team finished tied for 2nd in district and went two rounds into the playoffs. It had been 17 years since our school has made it to the second round of the playoffs. The last game we were home team, down by 4 with 2 outs in the last inning and the bases empty. We tied it up to force extra innings. When the game ended 2 innings later, we were down 2 and had the bases loaded. I was so proud of the guys for how they battled and didn't give up. I guess if you have to lose, that's not a bad way to end it.

* Picked up the last 10 high number SP cards for my 2023 Topps Heritage set. 

  

I'm down to 49 SP cards in the 400s. I've updated the wantlist page on the blog. If you have any and want to trade, let me know. 

* Noticed that the noise about torpedo bats has all but gone away. I guess it was just good hitting and bad pitching...sounds like normal.

* Opened up a blaster of 2025 Topps and pulled this gem. 

Quality control at its best.

* Both Walmart stores in my area are downsizing their card displays. One employee said they are getting rid of them or putting them behind glass. I know that I've seen people steal cards from Walmart. Saw a lady steal a box of Pokemon cards. She scanned and paid for her groceries. Then she scanned the Pokemon cards and put them in her cart and left. I wasn't paying that close attention to it, but when I get to the register, there it is on the screen. Told the employee standing there and they ran after the lady, but didn't catch her. It's just going to make it a little harder to find retail around me. 

* Shout out to Night Owl...sent me a PWE of cards for my sets.

* Manfred decides that after you die, you come off the lifetime ban list. I guess because your lifetime is over? Lifting the ban means that Shoeless Joe and Pete Rose are now eligible for the Hall of Fame. The debates begin. 

* Made a purchase for a couple of '25 Topps Evan Carter cards and this is how I received it...

     

Luckily, the cards weren't damaged. I know that it wasn't an expensive purchase, but come on! What's the worst shipping you've ever received on some cards?

I guess that's a wrap for this post. Hopefully, I can get back on schedule and get more posts out.

Peace,

Michael

Isaiah 40:31

Ramblings of an old card collector

 Just some random thoughts about baseball, baseball card collecting and life. 

* Went to a 2nd card show in my own part of town. This one was worse than the last one when it comes to baseball cards. There were only 3 or 4 tables that had baseball cards. All the other tables were full of Pokemon or gaming cards. For those people, it was probably a pretty good show. I was able to pick up some cards from the few baseball guys that were there. 

The '75 MVP fills a hole in my set. I've only got a handful of '72s and '74s, but when I actually start trying to collect the sets I'll have some of the star cards. 

* I haven't seen any 2024 Topps Heritage High Numbers at all. I've seen some cards on Ebay, but that's it. Definitely haven't seen any retail. Did they release retail? I think I'm going to pass on this one. Maybe just pick up a few cards of players that I like. 

* The Rangers are off to a strange start. They are leading the West and its all based on pitching. If this team can figure out how to hit, they would be dangerous. 

* These 2024 cards being released in 2025 has gotten old. I understand the delay during COVID, but this is getting old. I say the card companies need to bite the bullet and just skip a year to get back on track. I know they won't because its money in their pockets. 

* Picked up the my Goudey Lou Gehrig reprint for my Favorite Players that I don't collect: Yankees edition. 

Wish it were the real deal, but this will have to suffice.

* It seems like every time a write about the coaching side of my life it feels like it's negative. It's really not. First, I've got great kids in the program. Just like any family, there's a one or two who will make me want to pull what little hair I have left out, but they're still good kids. Second, I still feel blessed to be their coach. 

* Gotta put a plug in for buysportscards.com. In the last month I've had 17 sales for a little more than $230.00. Most of my sales are in the $3 to $5 range. The good thing is I get a little spending money and move some cards out that I don't collect!

* Not sure what I think about the "torpedo bats". I know that they've been around awhile and it's not something new. If you go back and look at the bats from the late 1800s and early 1900s, the bats have evolved quite a bit anyway. I don't think I've got a problem with it. It's within the rules so more power to ya! I do think its funny that the Yankees go nuts hitting homers in one series and all of a sudden its the greatest thing ever to come to baseball.  

* I did pick up one other card at the small show I went to. I got this really cool Adrian Beltre card.

I thought this '24 Topps Museum Quad relic was a cool looking card. I think if I get the opportunity to get it autographed I will.

* Instant replay is starting to get on my nerves. I've seen more and more calls that are challenged and really look as if they should be overturned and they aren't. The most recent was Wyatt Langford vs the Dodgers. You run the video in slow-motion and you can see that his foot is back on the base before he is re-tagged. I can't find just the play, but it's at the 9:15 mark of the highlights from the game. I get it as to why the ump thought he was out originally, but if you're going to use replay at least get it right. 

* The regular season for my team has come to an end. We came in 2nd place and start the playoffs next week. Overall our record is 16-6-2. The team has been inconsistent throughout the year. I guess the best way to describe it is that they play to the level of their competition. Wish I had a magic answer to fix that. 

* Johnny's Trading Spot correctly guessed that Mattingly was the Yankee who got bumped from the Yankees that I don't collect. He was the first one to respond and got it right off the bat. I immediately started trying to think if I had said something in the past that gave it away. Then others responded with different players and it made me think I didn't necessarily give it away.  Anyway, Johnny I'm putting something together now to send out to you! 

That will wrap up this rambling. 

Peace, 

Michael

Isaiah 40:31