TCDB Trade with Too Many Verlanders

I've been way more active on youTube lately, but I still browse the blogosphere often. For some reason, my laptop won't allow me to comment though, which is super annoying. Anyways, Dennis, over at Too Many Verlanders, sent me a package recently. I have started using TCDB this year to track my collection and I believe Dennis is the first person to look at my TCDB page before sending me cards. I love all cards, but it was nice that pretty much all of the D-Backs cards Dennis sent were needs for my D-Backs collection. Let's take a look at what Dennis sent. First up are some 2022 Topps Heritage D-Backs cards I needed.

Next up are a few Rnady Johnson cards, including a sweet 2001 Studio jersey card. I needed the Leaf card as well. I have the Upper Deck card, but I have a seperate binder for Randy Johnson, so I probably need this one for the team set. I will have to double check.

Up next are a random assortment of D-Backs cards, but they are all cards I needed. No dups!

Finally, there was a stack of 25 different 2020 Topps Heritage cards. Now I am collecting this set, but I don't have my needs updated on TCDB and I don't believe I have posted them anywhere. So Dennis, if these were sent to me by accident, let me know. If not, I do need some of them and I will put the others to good use.

Thank you so much Dennis for the awesome cards! Super glad to finally be on the TCDB bandwagon. I still have a long ways to go. I know a few other bloggers have recently posted about getting on TCDB. How about you? Are you on TCDB. If so, let me know your username and I will add you as a friend. I am dkwilson2430 on TCDB.

Funerals can get you thinking.

The entire month of January came and went without a single blog post from me. I have been more active on YouTube recently, but I don't want to let any more time go by without posting here. 

Life is crazy busy right now. My youngest is playing flag football through a local rec league right now and is still on a club baseball team. My middle son is playing basketball through a local rec league and has been going to open gym for volleyball at his high school. Tryouts are this week. My oldest finally got cleared to return to baseball after about 11 months (he tore his ACL). He has been practicing with the team since returning to school in January after the winter break and has been staying after practice to hit in the cages or will go to an indoor batting cage if he has free time. Tryouts for baseball are next week. He missed his entire Sophomore season due to his ACL and has been working hard to get back into baseball shape and is hoping to make Varsity, but will be happy on JV. 

Two weeks ago I went to northern California for my great uncle's funeral. My sister and I drove up and back. With stops, it was 14-15 hours each way, so we drove up on Tuesday, Wednesday was the funeral, and then we drove home on Thursday. Overall, it was a really nice trip. I enjoyed the time with my sister. We stayed with an aunt and uncle, which was really nice. Got to see a couple of cousins and another uncle at the funeral that I don't see very often. The actual service was nice. There was a brief program at the cemetery and then we went to a church for a service and luncheon. My grandparents and my great uncle and his wife were best friends and so whenever we would go to my grandparents each summer, they would be there as well, but he was 94 and I'm 41, so by the time I was born he was already 53 years old and by the time I was 10, he would have been 63 or 64 years old, so it was interesting to learn a bit about him as a child and younger adult through a video of pictures of him throughout his life. 

My first cousin once removed (pretty sure I got that right) is the one that planned the service. She is my great uncle's daughter. She did something that I thought was fantastic. My great uncle loved putting together model airplanes. He had tons of them that he had put together over the years. So at the luncheon, they had a bunch of his model airplanes out on the tables as centerpieces and everyone was encouraged to take one home with them as a memento. I absolutely love this idea! What a great way for each person to remember him.

This got me thinking and at my funeral I want there to be baseball cards on display and I want everyone to be able to take one home to remember me by. Now I don't plan on giving away my Hank Aaron or Nolan Ryan rookie cards this way, but there are plenty of awesome cards that are meaningful to me that could be given away in this manner. For example, how about the 1999 Topps reprint of the Nolan Ryan rookie card symbolic of my run of Nolan Ryan playing day Topps cards or this 2001 Fleer Platinum Postseason Glory card featuring Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling holding up the 2001 World Series trophy for my Arizona Diamondbacks.

These are the perfect types of cards that I think would be perfect to give away at my funeral and then best part is I have another 50+ years to pick them all out. I might even write something up about each card and why it's meaningful to me to be included. It should be fun!

Let me know what you think about my idea!

Merry Christmas Eve!

 It’s Christmas Eve, we’ll it’s Christmas Eve morning anyways. I wanted to take a moment to wish you all a Merry Christmas and say thanks to a few bloggers that sent me some cards recently.

First up are these three awesome O-Pee-Chee packs from Angus over at Dawg Day Cards. Angus saw my collection of Topps pack wrappers that I am working on and figured I could use these O-Pee-Chee packs/wrappers. He couldn’t be more right! These are awesome! Living in Arizona I don’t come across O-Pee-Chee cards very often, let alone packs! I think these are the first O-Pee-Chee packs I have ever seen in person. Thank you Angus!

Next up is this 1991 Fleer white border mod parallel of Nolan Ryan. 

Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown sent this really sweet solar modified 1991 Fleer Nolan Ryan card to me. I had read Gavin’s post about these cards the night before he arrived and so I was super excited when I saw the envelope in the mailbox from him.

It arrived with the holiday insert, which is great in and of itself! Gavin is super creative!

I am one of just four know individuals in existence who actually like the 1991 Fleer design, but I really dig the white border mod parallel as well. Thanks Gavin!

And a bubble mailer from Greg at Night Owl Cards showed up in my mailbox the same day as the envelope from Gavin. Greg sent me some recent D-Backs cards, which are always much appreciated! Thanks Greg!

Hope everyone out there has a very Merry Christmas and a great 2023!

I had no idea!

Johnny Bench recently celebrated a birthday. He turned 75 years old on December 7th. That means he was born in 1947. 

Do you know who else was born in December 1947? December 26, 1947 to be exact. 

I was made aware of this the other day and it did truly blow my mind. I think it's because I got to see Fisk play for a number of years, while Bench retired when I was just 2 years old. It's just hard for me to fathom them being born the same year, just a few weeks apart.

Even though Fisk retired 10 years after Bench, their career numbers aren't that far off. Bench began his career in 1967 and played continuously through 1983 (17 years). Fisk debuted in 1969, but did not spend any time in the majors in 1970. He would then play continuously from 1971 - 1993. (24 years) Bench played in 2,158 games compared to 2,499 games for Fisk. So even though Fisk played 7 more season than Bench, he had some years where he was limited due to injuries. 

Bench                                        Fisk

.267 career batting average    .269 career batting average

2,048 career hits                      2,356 career hits

389 career home runs              376 career home runs

1,376 career RBI                     1330 career RBI

When you look at the career numbers and take into consideration how difficult the catcher position is, both careers are extremely impressive, but I give the nod to Bench for all the he was able to accomplish in "just" 17 seasons. How about you? Bench or Fisk?

$100+ Cards in Dime Boxes

I posted about this on Twitter already and made a YouTube video as well, but thought I would post about it here as well because to me it's just too crazy not to.

I got to go to a card show the Saturday before Thanksgiving and I spent most of the time at the show digging through a bunch of dime boxes with one particular dealer, that I frequent every time I go to this particular show. There was another guy going through the boxes at the same time and I found this 1986 Donruss Jose Canseco Rated Rookie card early on and showed it to the other guy who was digging through the boxes and he immediately offered me a buck for it. I politely declined and kept digging.

The card was in a penny sleeve. After getting hime I decided it deserved a magnetic. For fun I looked it up in a couple different Beckett magazines. This particular magazine is from July 1991. Check out the price $100. I have never owned this card before so I was super happy to find it and even more so to be able to add it t my collection for just a dime.

I purchased 411 cards from the dime boxes. The dealer asked for $40 for the stack, which I gladly handed over. 

In addition to the 86 Donruss Canseco, I grabbed a bunch of Hall of Fame rookie cards that I just couldn't pass up for a dime. Guys like Randy Johnson, Jeff Bagwell and Larry Walker. Obviously Canseco isn't in the Hall of Fame. neither is this guy.

This 1990 Leaf Sammy Sosa cost me a dime. Check out the price listed in this November 1998 Beckett. $120. Crazy! I know I talked out this briefly in a previous post about the 1990 Leaf Frank Thomas card. I actually have a couple of copies of this card already, but this dime box snag will hold a special place in my heart.

I've gotten some great cards over the years in dime boxes, but these two cards probably have the highest peak price out of any cards that I've ever pulled from a dime box. What's the best card you've ever gotten from a dime box?

Black Friday 2022

It's Black Friday. I don't plan on doing much shopping. My youngest (below) has a baseball tournament this weekend. That means two games today, two games tomorrow and then the championship game on Sunday. That won't leave much time for shopping. We'll see if I'm somehow able to make it to any stores. Maybe I'll get a few things online. Best of luck to all of you that are making purchases today!

With Paul Goldschmidt Chrome cards on the forefront of collector's minds at the moment, due to the recent announcement from Topps, and it being Black Friday, I thought I'd share a couple of Black Topps Chrome Goldschmidt refractors from his days in Arizona.

What do you think Topps has in store for the Paul Goldschmidt and Aaron Judge 2022 Topps Chrome  cards they are offering store credit for at certain card shops? I have a couple of ideas, but am curious to here what your thoughts are. Let me know.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! I have much to be thankful for this year as always. I have an awesome family. I love my wife and have three amazing boys. 

On the hobby side of things I am extremely grateful that I found this 1955 Bowman Hank Aaron card. It was missing for at least 10 months. I had spent hours searching for it during that time.

I found it earlier this month. I had decided to look for it once again and moved some things around to get to the shelves where I had some 5,000 count boxes. I pulled off the top box and looked through it. Nope. I almost just put the box back and moved on, but I decided to check the box underneath it. There it was! I was so thankful!

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving season?