5 Questions for Collectors

 I've been writing this blog now for a little over 2 years. When I started I wasn't sure how long it would last. I had hoped to develop some dialogue with other collectors and I have. During the 2 years I have "met" some amazing people who collect cards. People that I've never met face to face, but definitely are my friends. I hope the feeling is mutual. 

One of the things that I noticed once I started writing was how much I enjoyed people commenting on my blogs. Made me realize that I need to do that too. I know there are several of you out there that do the same thing and I want you to know that it's greatly appreciated. The thing is, the ones who comment are the ones that the friendships come from too. I'm always looking for people to talk cards with. The more the merrier. 

To maybe open some dialogue with more collectors, I thought I'd ask some questions and see if people would respond. For some of you, some of the answers I may already know, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't respond. I may have forgotten, I am getting old!!

Question 1:

How would you describe your collection? 

For me, Topps Baseball sets 1972 to present. Texas Rangers. Playing days Topps cards of my favorite players, one or two insert sets from the more recent years, dabbling in Topps Heritage and Stadium Club. Oh yeah, one more...my favorite players that I don't collect.

Question 2:

Graded or ungraded. That is the question! 

I am not a fan of graded cards. It just doesn't make sense to me. Especially, being on a tight budget, I can't see spending the money to grade a card. I do have a couple of graded cards, but those were gifted to me. I haven't bought one and I really don't see me doing that any time soon or ever.

Question 3: 

 Do you have a grail card(s) that you want? If so, what?

Just so that we're all on the same page, a grail card is that one(or two) card(s) that you really want to have for your collection. Now to be realistic, I'm not talking about the Wagner or '52 Mantle...any card that any collector would relish having in their collection. I'm talking about that card that you really want that you don't have.  

For me, right now, its a '57 Roberto Clemente and 2011 Topps Update Mike Trout. Had a shot at the Clemente several years ago at a card show. Did the unthinkable and said I'd come back and when I did it was gone. 

The Mike Trout is from that time in my collecting career when I was just randomly scavenging  for cards and never got it.

Those are the two cards that I always have my eye out for.

Question 4:

What is your main source(s) for adding cards to your collection?

I guess it really depends on what I'm looking for. I guess number one would be buysportscards.com. It's pretty good for picking up low-end singles to complete sets or add to my player collections. 2nd on the list would be a tie between Ebay and Walmart. Ebay for the cards I don't find on buysportscards.com and Walmart for the new stuff. 

Another source for cards for my collection is card shows. There has been an explosion of card shows in the DFW area. Every other month is the Dallas Show that has over 700 tables. If you haven't been, it's a sight to see. Outside of that, there has been at least 1 or 2 shows every month in the area. 

My last source of cards is TCDB trades. Trades have slowed the last few months. Probably because I haven't had the time to invest in them. 

Question 5:

 

If you had the chance to revisit a time in your life before you started collecting cards, which year would you choose and why?

For me, it would be 1972, the year the Rangers started in Texas. I only have a handful of 1972 cards. With the high numbers and the large amount of cards to get, it keeps getting pushed down the list.

Well, there's the 5 questions and my 5 answers. I hope everyone will respond.

Peace, 

Michael

Isaiah 40:31

Ramblings of an old collector

Wandering thoughts of an old collector.

* Baseball season is here. Spring training has started with games right around the corner. It's that time of year that always gets me excited about baseball! Right now, no matter who your favorite team is, they all have a chance at winning it all. Okay, there are a few who don't, but for now, the optimism is at an all-time high! 

* '25 Topps is out. I still don't have any, but I will really soon.

* I've still got to finish my '24 Topps sets for my grandkids. I've struggled with staying focused on finishing them. I think it will be easier when they get a little older and we can do it together. 

* I've noticed that my YouTube baseball card watching has declined. I think it's because the videos seem to be on repeat. Everything seems to be the same. It's gotten boring instead of informing.

* Went to the local Goodwill store and not a single card in sight. I keep hearing about people finding all kinds of cards at Goodwill, but I've never seen cards there.  

* My youngest grandson was at the house the other day and was looking at the piles of cards on my desk and asked about his cards. I had an extra Evan Carter sitting on top and gave it to him to take home...he thought about it for a second and then tossed it back on the desk(it was in a top loader!) and was done. Maybe one day...

* Shout out to Johnny's Trading Spot! I got 4 envelopes stuffed with Rangers! 

 

Nice additions to my Evan Carter collection.

 

Love all of these 582 Montgomery cards. I think now I'm going to try and get the rest of the Rangers.

 

I really appreciate the Holiday Nice List cards. I bought one and was gifted one of the Holiday balls and didn't get any Rangers in them. 

 

Several of these fit nicely into the collection. A couple are dupes but they fit right in the Rangers collection.

* Do you know what drives me absolutely crazy? When I know I have a card, or cards, and it's not where it's supposed to be and I can't find it. 

* I've been updating TCDB with my player collections and found the rankings link. I'm in the top 25 of Corey Seager (Don't think I'll ever catch Night Owl!), #13 of Wyatt Langford, #3 of Marcus Semien and #2 of Evan Carter. Not that it matters at all. I've got to be very careful about checking it now that I know about it. I'm too competitive and will try way too hard to win and I can't afford that. 

* Speaking of my player collection, I've had them in top loaders and stored in boxes, but I've decided to change and put them in binders. Right now, I've only done Seager, Semien, Carter and Langford and they are all in one binder. The plan is for each to have their own, but I want different binders than what I put my completed sets in, but I don't know what I want.

* I keep seeing that there are more cards being graded than ever. At the same time I keep seeing more and more people say they are done with grading cards. I think graded cards will be around, but I'm pretty sure it won't be as prevalent in the future or at least a lot different than it is now. 

* I'm still looking for that sweetheart deal at a garage sale or estate sale. So far, no luck.

* Still working on my "Players that I like but don't collect" posts. It's really harder to do than I thought it would be. I do think that I'm limiting each team to only 9 players. 

* I have officially completed my 1986 Topps set. After a trade with bkrementz on TCDB, I was down to two cards. Off I went to buysportscards.com and picked up the last two cards for my set for 25 cents each. Now they do have a $3.00 minimum so I grabbed a couple of Clayton Kershaw's and an '82 topps Garry Maddox for my '82 set. 

All of that to say that I couldn't have completed the '86 set without the help of several trades over the last year. Now I'm looking forward to see what else I can complete.

For a bunch of ramblings, this turned into a much longer post than I anticipated. I guess it's time to call it! 

Peace, 

Michael

Isaiah 40:31

My favorite players that I don't collect: Yankee edition

 It doesn't take much from me to figure out that I do not like the Yankees. I'm not sure where this dislike comes from. Maybe it's because they kept knocking the Rangers out of the playoffs early on. Maybe it's because they were always winning and they weren't my team. Maybe it's because one of my best friends was a Yankee fan and was always rubbing it in my face when they won. 

Whatever it was, it worked...I'm definitely not a Yankees fan. 

However, being a baseball fan there's no way you can leave out the Yankees from your collection. So, I decided to start my "Favorite players I don't collect" collection with the Yankees. 

My goal is to get one card of my favorite players that I don't collect on a regular basis. I want it to be a playing days card, but it some cases that just won't be fiscally possible. In that situation I'll find a reprint or one of these modern cards that have become pretty popular showing these old school guys. 

I'm going to do the Yankees in two posts. I will probably do teams that have several players in two posts. 

My first Yankee that I don't collect but want at least one card from their playing days is Mickey Mantle. Mickey Mantle has always been larger than life for me. He's definitely the guy that I ignore the fact he was a Yankee. He moved to the Dallas area and that is probably why he first came on my radar when I was a kid before I became a baseball nut. 

I'm having a hard time trying to figure out what card of Mickey's I want to have. It changes quite often. 

Right now, I've narrowed it down to these four cards for my Mantle card. 

    

    

My guess is that when I find the one that I like that meets my budget will be the card that I settle on. 

My next favorite Yankee (Man, that's hard to type "favorite Yankee"!) has to be Yogi Berra. Yogi is most famously known for his Yogi-isms like "He hits from both sides of the plate. He's amphibious" or "Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical". I think those are my two favorites. 

What most forget is he was pretty good at baseball too. A 3 time MVP, 18 time All-Star and 10 World Series winner. A career .285 hitter. Yep, pretty good at baseball. I think the Yogi Berra card that I want would be the '54 Topps.

I really like the '54 card because it features him as a catcher and I love the background shot of him swinging. The more I look through the '54 Topps cards, the more I like them. Like Yogi said, "You can observe a lot just by watching". I don't think I'll ever go after a set like that but I do think I'll own a few one day.

Next on the list is The Sultan of Swat, the Colossus of Clout, the Great Bambino, Babe Ruth. Now, I'm sure that I'm going to upset some baseball purists, but I don't have The Babe as the greatest of all-time. That title, for me, goes to the Great Willie Mays. That's a whole other post and discussion. 

There is no doubt that Babe Ruth is one of the absolute greatest. His feats during his playing days helped build the game to greatness and what it is today. For that reason, he's one of my favorites. If I had the opportunity I'd choose the '33 Goudey or the '48-'49 Leaf for my Ruth card.

     

Maybe someday. More realistic for me, my Ruth card of choice is the '61 Topps #401

Such a cool card. So far, I don't own any Ruth cards other than those in a Stadium Club set or some insert, but to me, those don't really count. The '61 card is pushing it, but at least it's 60+ years old. 

Lou Gehrig is next on my favorites from the Yankees. I think his playing story of taking over for Wally Pipp is one of my favorites. I love the fact that he didn't take a day off for 2,130 games. You know as well as I do that he had those days of being sore, tired and just not feeling well, and played anyway. As a coach, that's something that I wished this generation of ballplayers had just a little bit of. Probably why I'm such a Marcus Semien fan. 

 My Gehrig card, of course it's way out of my price range, would be the '34 Goudey.

I love this card. Simple. The smile. Just a great card. The only way this happens for me is if I fall into a attic find somewhere. I'm probably going to find a reprint of this card (might just do the same with the Ruth too!) for my collection.

The last player for Part 1 of my favorite Yankees (there's that funny taste in my mouth again!) is Joltin' Joe DiMaggio. He was a .325 hitter, 2,000 hit club, 361 home runs and of course, the 56 game hit streak. How crazy is that? You'd figure in 56 straight games there'd be one 0 for 4, or an 0 for 2 with walks, something! I know if I was pitching during that streak, I'd pitch around him. Way far away around him. Just like I'd never throw Barry Bonds a strike either.

I'm struggling with what card to do for the Yankee Clipper. Obviously the '41 Play Ball is out of my price range. Maybe a reprint though?

Maybe the '83 TCMA #10. 

I like this card. He looks relaxed and I love the ballfield in the background. Yep, I think this is my choice for my DiMaggio. 

Looks like I've got some cards to put on my want list. 

That's it for Part 1 of the Yankees. Part 2 to follow soon!

Peace, 

Michael

Isaiah 40:31

Ramblings of an old card collector

 Wandering thoughts about card collecting. 

* It drives me nuts when people say opening packs isn't worth it. Would I be wrong in saying that if everyone abided by that thought, there wouldn't be any singles to buy???

* 2025 Topps release is right around the corner. 

     

I like the design. I think the team name down the side is a little difficult to read, but I like the team color aspect and actually like the position dots. It's different. I will say that I don't love the design like I did '24, but overall, its not too bad. 

* Still working on my favorite players from each team. It's a little harder to do than I thought. I'm sure that it will evolve as I go along. 

* So sad that we lost another great one in Bob Uecker. He loved the game and had the best sense of humor. So many great stories. 

* HOF voting is starting to come out. Ichiro should be a unanimous pick. 

What an unbelievable talent. Not only that he did it for quite awhile without much regression. I just remember every time he came to bat against the Rangers I would say just go ahead and put him on and save time and pitch count. I don't think he gets the attention in the card collecting world like he should. I know he hasn't in my collection. 

* I did manage to complete another set. I made a trade on TCDB and when I was putting the cards away I decided to look and see how many more cards I needed and I was down to 8. I went on Buy Sports Cards dot com and picked up the rest from one guy. I can now check my 1996 Topps set as complete. 

     

     

     

These are just a few of my favorites from the set. I really like the simple design of the cards. There are some cool shots like the Henderson, Jeter and Chipper Jones cards. Who doesn't love tribute cards in a set like the Mantle and Ripken cards. 

* I've reached the point that my current card room set up needs an adjustment to become more worker friendly. Just like about everyone else, there is limited room so I'm going to have to be creative. I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but I've got to do something. 

* I'm over all of these so called collectors who want absolutely nothing to do with base cards. I'm big on collecting what you want, but literally, discarding them completely and looking only for the inserts is something that I can't wrap my head around. Okay, that sounded really bad. They aren't so called collectors, they're collectors. They can send me their base cards though! 

* Question: What are your thoughts on the PED players, those that were actually caught, getting in the HOF? I'm of the thought that they don't get in because they cheated the game. I don't know that I'll feel that way forever, but that's where I'm at now.

* Speaking of cheating the game, Jayson Stark wrote in The Athletic That "voters are not looking at the Astros' infamous Bang the Can Slowly scandal as a This Dude Must Never Enter the Halls of Cooperstown kind of "crime"." I think that's worse than steroids. Okay, maybe not worse, but just as bad. Pretty sure that if I had a vote for HOF Carlos Beltran wouldn't get mine. 

* Back to my non-voting for the Hall this year, I think the only ones that I'd vote for if I had a vote would be Ichiro, Sabathia and Wagner. I'd probably vote for a few others to keep them on the ballot, but that'd be it. 

* I've heard that there's a lot of baseball card people moving to Bluesky Social. Any of you on Bluesky? I just downloaded it and thought I'd give it a look. 

I think that's it for now. Hope everyone has a blessed day!

Peace, 

Michael

Isaiah 40:31

     

Ramblings of an old baseball card collector - New Year edition

*Happy New Year! Okay, okay, I know it's already almost a week into the new year, but time is a precious commodity during the holiday season and there just wasn't time to write. I did start a post before Christmas, but never got it finished. Started another one before New Year's Day and that one didn't get done either. Well, I least I got this one done. 

*My Rangers re-signed Nathan Eovaldi. If deGrom is healthy that's a pretty powerful 1-2 punch in the starting rotation. If either Rocker or Leiter pan out, or better yet if they both do, that would be the best rotation the Rangers have ever had. 

*For the first time since I've started putting together Topps sets for my grandsons I didn't get them finished by Christmas. Still need to get that done. Good thing is they are both so young they won't notice. 

*The golden at bat rule that Rob Manfred mentioned has got to be the worst thing that could happen to MLB. I will say that the other rules, save one, have been good for baseball.

*I had a goal of completing more sets...failed! I did manage to complete a couple of subsets though. 

  

Covering the Field inserts is one of my collecting successes this past year. I'm not sure why I decided to collect this subset. Maybe it was because I had acquired a good number of them opening packs. I do really like the spray chart on the cards though.

*Just read that Rangers are on the short list for Roki Sasaki. Man, wouldn't that make the starting rotation hot!

*Had another goal of writing a post every week. I did pretty good at the beginning of the year, but the new responsibilities of head baseball coach was overwhelming. It's better now, but still failed on the posting to the blog.

*Quick update on the new head coaching job...They never tell you about all of the paperwork and hoops you have to jump through besides the coaching baseball part. I still really love coaching the guys and sharing baseball with them, but if I could just find someone to do all of the other stuff... 

*I've managed to pick up a couple of autographs of a couple of Rangers. I'm not a big autograph collector, but both of these came really cheap and they are two of the young guns that the Rangers have.

When the Rangers acquired Josh Smith and Ezekiel Duran, I told everyone that Smith was going to be the star of the trade. It didn't start out that way. Everyone thought it was Duran. I knew that once he got the chance he'd prove it. I love the way this guy plays. 

This is my second Carter auto. I really like this one more than the other one. The Topps Chrome auto is a nice looking card.

*Back to Manfred and the rule changes. The one rule that I'm still not a fan of is the pick-off rule. After two attempts it's almost like a freebie out there. I don't know if there is a magic number of attempts, but I'm not a fan of three.

*The other subset I managed to complete is the All-Topps Team.

I really like the design of these cards. I didn't hurt that there are two Rangers in it too!

I think that's all for this post. I hope each and everyone had a Merry Christmas and I hope and pray that everyone has a blessed New Year!

Peace, 

Michael

Isaiah 40:31

A new wing to my collecting home

 If you've read my blog at all, even just a little bit, it's not hard to figure out that I'm a lifelong Texas Rangers fan. All the way back to 1972 when they played their first game at the old Turnpike Stadium in Arlington, TX. The thing is, I'm not just a Rangers fan, I'm a baseball fan. 

I really like the history of the game. I love reading about the players from long ago. My favorite book so far, is 24: Life stories and lessons from the Say Hey Kid. If you like the history of the game, this is a great book to read. It covers his whole career and it's not just a stats book, but one full of stories. 

On my recent Fall break, I traveled to St. Louis and Cincinnati and was able to walk around their stadiums. I loved seeing the statues of the great players from each team. Some of my favorites from St Louis; Ozzie Smith, Stan Musial, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Enos Slaughter and from the St Louis Stars of the Negro League Cool Papa Bell. From Cincinnati, Pete Rose and Johnny Bench. 

Seeing the stadiums, the statues and remembering different players that I grew up watching play has added another wing to my collecting home. 

I've been collecting Topps sets from '72 to present. I collect some of my favorite players, Texas Rangers, Topps player runs from some of my favorites and the last couple of years I picked one or two insert sets to collect. I've also started doing Topps Heritage and the last two years I've added Stadium Club. That's more than enough to keep me busy, but NO! I've decided to add something else to my collection...I'm going to start picking some of my favorite players from each team and collect just one of their cards in that uniform. If I'm doing a Topps run of a player, they won't be included. This is just for those guys that I really like, but don't really collect. For example, I'm a really big Willie Mays fan, but only have a couple of his cards. I love Mickey Mantle and don't own a single one of his playing days cards. (Hopefully, that changes soon after Christmas.)

I'm not going to limit myself to just Topps and I'm not going to just do rookie cards either. I am going to try and pick a card from their playing days, but some will definitely be out of my price range. That being said, there are quite a few modern cards of some of the greats that I like and will fit my budget. I can always change out the cards I choose, but I'm keeping this as simple as I can.  

Some teams will have a bunch of players, while other teams not so much. As I write this my mind is wandering trying to think of any Miami Marlins that would make my list. Anyway, I think this will be fun. 

Hopefully, the first team that I choose will be posted soon. 

Well, I can't have a post about baseball cards and not post at least something that I've gotten recently. All 4 of these were picked up on Ebay. 

     

I've always liked the Topps Black Gold cards and how can you pass up two great rookies? Well, I couldn't.

     

Two more Corey Seager cards for the collection. The first one is is a 2016 Topps Update - Target Retail Exclusive Rookies and the second is a 2024 Topps Update Autumn Tales insert. I really love the Autumn Tales card because it captures one of the best moments ever in Rangers history. Seager's homer in the ninth to tie Game 1 of the World Series and the emotion he showed is priceless to this Rangers fan. I could watch that replay everyday. 

I guess that's it for this post and it didn't take a month to happen! 

Peace, 

Michael

Isaiah 40:31

Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner!

 If you've read my blog, you know that I like to watch YouTube videos on the hobby. I don't watch breaks because all they do is make me wonder how come I never pull cards like that! 

I don't watch all those "influencers" trying to create demand on certain cards. 

I do watch "Chasing Cardboard" where Ty Wilson goes around the country buying collections. I do get a little jealous of some of their purchases, but then I think, "Dude, you don't have that kind of money to spend on cards." and I get over it. 

I do like to watch "Showcase Showdown" where two collectors,  Mike Moynihan and Chris from Missouri compare their vintage collections of Hall of Fame players. The one drawback is that they are all about the grade. It makes the video work, but I'm not into graded cards. (Side note: I'm always pulling for Chris to win. Sorry Mike!)

I watch a couple of other ones, Graig Miller on MidLife Sports Cards and Mike on Junk Wax Hero. I watch these two when they are answering viewer questions or giving some info on vintage cards. 

So what does my YouTube habit have to do with Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner? Well, I found another YouTuber who posted a video on the passing of Pete Rose that I really agreed with so, I started following his videos. Brent Richards is a fellow Texan who roots for that other team in the state. He started creating videos about 3 months ago. He's an eclectic collector and has some pretty cool stuff. Anyway, he decided to do a giveaway and I won! 

I thought I'd share what I got.

I have no idea what I'm going to do with this. It's cool and I've become more of Jeter fan with listening to him during World Series broadcasts, but still don't know what to with it. 

     

This is a cool Ruth and Maris card commemorating Maris surpassing Ruth's record. I love the back of the card showing them looking out and their images in the sky. Cool card.

You can never go wrong with Nolan Ryan card. Especially one with him holding a Bo Jackson card. 

This is a post card from the Baltimore Orioles. Loved the way Cal played the game. I would say that I'm a fan, I just don't have a lot in my collection. Pretty sure that I'm going to frame this and hang it on the wall.

     

1984 hand-cut from the '84 All-Star program Don Mattingly with George Bell on the back. I never liked the Yankees and really didn't like my Rangers playing against Don Mattingly. I don't think Mattingly gets the props he deserves. He was really good and did it quietly. George Bell, meh...No disrespect intended because just making to the Show, means you can play and I know he had a decent career, but to me he was just another player. 

Bowman's Best Barry Bonds commemorating 756 home runs. I'm still unsure of where I stand on Bonds. No doubt he was using steroids and that was wrong so that puts me on being out. However, he still had to hit the ball which was no easy task. I don't know that I'll ever make up my mind on him. I would have to say right now, that I'm out. 

The first two slabbed cards in my collection. I'm not sure what to do with them. I really like both cards. but not a fan of the slabs. Thought seriously of cracking them, but then wavered because...I don't know, just don't know if it's the right thing to do. 

A complete set of 2000 Upper Deck One for the Ages. Not something I would have in my collection if not winning it in this giveaway. Pretty cool. This will go in my subset collection. 

This is actually a picture of Pudge Rodriguez and Juan Gonzalez looking out the window of the team bus that Brent took and made into a card. It's #2 of 5. I like that he's got his own logo in his card holder. Maybe Dillard's Dugout needs some of those. 

This card was in the giveaway in honor of Pete Rose and his passing. It was pretty fitting as it was Brent's video on Pete that connected us. 

This is the card in the giveaway that I really wanted. I have not ever ordered a Topps Now and have only picked up a small handful of the cards, but this one I wanted. I think this is a great card to remember the 2024 season. 

Thanks again Brent for the giveaway!

It only took me a month to write this. Unbelievable. Life has got to slow down a bit so I can do this more often. 

Peace, 

Michael 

Isaiah 40:31