(Disclaimer - I cropped out the borders of the first two cards because it seriously looks as though the previous owner spilled coffee on them. Nonetheless, enjoy this Don Cardwell production)
Usually when people speak of action, you think of buff criminals with giant biceps speeding up the sides of tall buildings in motorcycles with a katana in one hand and a coke in the other.
Not stealing baseball cards out of boxes.
Last time I had a run-in with THE BOX I was able to rescue Greg Olson's 1992 Fleer card. THE BOX hadn't shown his face around the house until this morning.
It seemed to sense that I was approaching. And it was angry. It's difficult to describe what it's like to have an inanimate object angry at you, because it's not possible.
Clearly THE BOX wanted to have a rematch with me. The deal was simple; if I win, I get another card. If it wins, sorry Greg Olson.
Fortunately for me, humans have fancy things like arms and legs, and brains. Boxes are just awkwardly shaped rectangular prisms that imprison baseball cards. But hey, I won't turn THE BOX down, especially if it means saving another card from it's evil clutches.
THE BOX lunged at me. Typical first move. I channeled my inner buff motorcycle guy and dodged it before pinning THE BOX against the wall. Then, prying it's mouth open I was able to save one card before it slammed shut on my hand.
Getting bitten by a cardboard box is more painful than you'd think. Mostly emotional pain though, because you wonder how on earth an inanimate object without teeth can bite you.
Anyway, after this ordeal THE BOX snuck back into the closet it came from to nurse its battle wounds and defeat me when we meet again. Pfft. Like that'll happen.
I looked in my hand to see which of THE BOX'S captives I had saved from a life of mediocrity. And it was none other than....
Do you have a picture frame that you wouldn't even put your worst enemy's photo in because it would be too insulting? Well I know exactly what to do!
Obviously that's a bit of an exaggeration (maybe). But I did come across an interesting picture frame almost a week ago while re-organizing my closet.
It's a square picture frame made out of concrete (I think) with a bunch of lines in it and a tiny little panel for the picture to go in on the upper left-hand side. Maybe that sounds pretty bad, but perhaps not. Don't worry, you'll see it in just a sec. I remember somebody on my street was giving it away a while ago and I thought it looked interesting, so I took it. And it sat in my closet for a long time before I found it again.
At this point you may be thinking to yourself, 'Ginko, this has nothing to do with cards. It's called a 'card blog' for a reason. Why on earth would I care about a picture frame you don't even care about? Why the heck am I reading this blog anyway?'
Before you close the tab and crush my dreams, I would advise you to bear with me if you'd like to know what I did with the frame. It does have something to do with baseball cards, in fact, don't you worry.
I took a little bit to formulate an idea for the frame; at first I said I'd give it away as a wedding gift, lol. But I wouldn't want to insult the couple. Eventually, with the help of a brother who was hanging out with me at the time I found it, I came up with an idea to transform it from a rather ugly brick taking up space in the closet into a lovely card collector's mantlepiece.
I've been a Macklin Celebrini superfan for the better part of two seasons now (we've been over this on the blog before). However, I've never owned one of his cards. Tragic, isn't it? I typically prefer finding cards at the LCS or other stores that carry sports cards to ordering them online, but realize that my chances of pulling a Celebrini card are far worse and more expensive than just ordering one, especially since my LCS hasn't gotten any packs of hockey cards this year. So I did end up ordering one, for six dollars, which is more than I'd typically spend on a base card; but the way I see it, if he keeps performing at the level he's played at this season his cards are just going to get more and more expensive. And I want at least one of his cards without breaking the bank.
I ordered the 2025-26 Upper Deck#136 base card of Macklin Celebrini, which is an awesome card, not to mention the cheapest of his I found. So it's a win-win, right? Well, not exactly.
I ordered the card ages ago. It was 'scheduled' to arrive weeks before it actually did, and I was worried that it got lost in the mail. But in the end good ol' Macklin came through and I got the card. Better late than never, right? And it was a good test in patience too 😉
The San Jose Sharks season has been....interesting, to say the least. I think 'tortuous' is a better word. It's like watching a happy kid's show and then accidentally leaning on the remote to change the channel to a horror film. And then you find that both shows are interesting and you keep switching between them. The Sharks were looking so good early on, and absolutely fell off a cliff the last few weeks before the Olympic break. And to make things worse they lost out on trading for Artemi Panarin, and he went to the Kings instead, one of the teams they're competing with for a playoff spot. Wow, I just spouted off a huge chunk of my hockey knowledge right there....
No matter how well the Sharks play as a team, Macklin is performing like a beast, both in the NHL and Winter Olympics. He is in serious consideration for the MVP (Hart Memorial Trophy), with the likes of Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon. Should he win the Hart, that would make me a very happy superfan.
If the Sharks end up pulling through to make the playoffs, and if I live through the rest of the season to witness it, I will be absolutely stoked. If not, people may want to keep their distance from me until the Rangers start looking like they'll make the playoffs.
Well, now that I'm off this shark-fueled high, I'll leave y'all to the rest of your various card collecting. But not before asking a question: Do you have a favorite hockey player? If so, who?
Now that I've opened up the floodgates to such a deep and thought-provoking question, I will leave you with your innermost sports-related thoughts. Have a great rest of the week, thanks for stopping by the blog, and happy collecting!
You know something I love doing? I like going to the blogs I follow and reading the first post they ever made. I dunno why, but I guess I like seeing how the blogging greats got started. I also don't know why I'm posting this for a completely non-related topic. Aaaaaaaanyway...
The last couple weeks have been really busy, so I'm getting this post out a bit later than I would have liked. I think I only have one really long post on queue for awhile though, so I'm hoping to crush my projection of 50 posts this year.
This is part two of my flea market grabs from a week or so ago. This vendor sold a lot of packs, as well as the entire wall of individual cards I spoke of last post.
His dollar packs were all in a giant bowl, which I sifted through for about ten minutes before taking a quick look at his extensive collection of individual cards for sale. I left his booth with seven dollar packs (buy five get two free), and one lovely individual card.
I divided the highlights of the seven packs into three subsequent packs, which I named according to what they contain.
SHINY PACK:
I haven't been collecting Carter's cards as fiercely as I was a year ago. My PC continues to grow slowly, though it's still a bit smaller than I would like. It's only a matter of time before that collecting flame bursts up in me again and I spend way too much money on his cards lol.
I also got a handful of 2021 Topps Update cards in these dollar packs. If anybody is working on completing that set, and if I have any of your needs (or if you just want a card), let me know and I'll send them out to you. These are:
#US-19 Chase Anderson
#US-72 Aledmys Diaz
#US-113 Aaron Civale
#US-120 Seth Brown
#US-123 Kolby Allard
#US-134 Charlie Morton
#US-137 Trevor Cahill
#US-233 Nick Anderson
#US-254 Cole Tucker
#US-291 Eric Sogard
#US-311 Jake Arrieta
That'll do it for the flea market additions of a few weeks ago! Hopefully I'll be able to hit another flea market soon and make some more finds to add to the collection.
Thanks for stopping by the blog today! Make sure to have an amazing week, and happy collecting!
Also, Fuji won my Super Bowl Pick 'em! If you could shoot me an email confirming your address, I have a pack of 2025 Donruss football cards to send you. Thank you to all who played the pick 'em!
About a week ago I visited a flea market with the family. I haven't been to one in years, and boy was I missing out! There was a huge variety of really cool stuff there, from antiques to candy, power tools to wartime mementos. I enjoyed looking around at some of the awesome things people were selling; really old swords that were extremely cool, as well as coins over 100 years old, to name a couple. I'm afraid I don't collect swords (though a vintage sword collection would be pretty sick) or coins, but there were a couple booths selling baseball and football memorabilia, which caught my attention immediately.
The assortment of items these booths had for sale was most impressive - there were thousands of cards, some slabbed, some autographed, as well as packs and signed bats, balls, and photos. It felt a lot like my LCS actually.
I know from reading The Chronicles of Fuji that you can make some great card finds at the flea market, and I felt like a kid in a candy store staring at all the memorabilia that was displayed before me. I can't quite say I went crazy, unfortunately, but I came home richer in cardboard than I began with.
This post and the next one are dedicated to the purchases I made at each of the two booths. I think this is appropriate because of the difference in cards I acquired. I'll start with the first vendor I visited.
The man running this booth had a huge collection of baseball, football and hockey cards, and had a ton of autographs for sale, including two Mickey Mantle balls! Those were a little bit out of my price range that day, but I did come away with two pretty cool autos that were pretty well in my wheelhouse.
I walked into a room to grab something, minding my own business, when I found THE BOX staring back at me. I knew what it held imprisoned, and the faint sound of baseball cards crying out for help batted my eardrums. I had but one choice.
I sprung into action, grabbing THE BOX by the maw and pulling it open. THE BOX put up quite the fight - it was clear he wanted to keep his captives. A struggle led to me pulling one card free before THE BOX escaped back into the closet from whence it came.
Battered and bruised on the floor I sat, with the card I rescued next to me. Then I realized I didn't even know who it was I had saved! I looked to my side to see none other than...
