FINALLY!

    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 😉

    This is such a great card. The picture is awesome; Macklin really does look like a shark on the attack. Though this card was on the cheaper end of his cards, the picture is my favorite of all of them. I appreciate how much space the card leaves for his picture as well. This instantly becomes my favorite card in my small hockey collection.

    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!

The Final Flea Market Finds

    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:

    Here we have two really nice-looking 2022 Panini Select baseball cards. The light captured the design of the Matt Brash card wonderfully. Vladdy's card didn't show up too well, but I didn't want to change it. The slashes on Vladdy are on the penny sleeve and not the actual card, thankfully.

    Another nice shiny card. Panini typically doesn't get much love, but I kinda like this design.

    This is my second-favorite card from the shiny pack. The back left corner is slightly damaged, but I can't complain. The back of the card references Giolito's 2020 season, where he finished 7th in Cy Young Award voting. In 12 starts he went 4-3 with a 3.48 ERA and 97 strikeouts in 72.1 innings pitched. That certainly was a mighty fine season.

    The Rockies' colors are well represented here. The back of the card describes his mashing of my Texas Rangers in July of 2020...

    A colorful pair of Panini Prizm cards from 2021. 

    Of all the cards featured in the shiny pack, this one is the shiniest. I can see why Panini called this 'Mosaic.' Sixto Sanchez had a brief major league career from 2020-2024 where in 21 games (14 starts) he threw to a 3-5 record and 4.70 ERA. I thought he might be around in the minors, but I guess he's retired.

    Next up are a couple of Bowman Chrome Prospects, from 2020 and 2024, respectively. I hadn't heard of either of these players before. Bayron Lora last played in the minors in 2021 when in 47 games he hit .218/.413/.401 with 48 walks! Middle infielder Mitch Jebb is still around with the Pirates. Last year in AA the 23-year old batted .265 in 122 games with 33 stolen bases. Interestingly he hit no home runs, but his on-base/speed combination seems to be doing him well in the minors.

    And finally, my favorite card of the shiny pack. This is just a really cool card. I wonder how much time Sean will get with the Braves in 2026 with Rookie of the Year catcher Drake Baldwin playing. Both those guys have a lot of talent; Braves catchers are gonna be tough to pitch to this year.









    DONRUSS PACK:

    This time my favorite card of the pack comes first. Waino presents a strong Hall of Fame case, and I hope to see him get in when he's eligible. 

    I don't have many Skenes cards, so this is 2025 Donruss card is a welcome addition to the collection.

    Speaking of 2025 Donruss...

    ...we have a few retired greats. 

    And here's an Optic Circles Pudge card from 2025 Donruss. It's a bit less shiny, to the point that I didn't notice it was different from the other Donruss cards until I saw them under light. Otherwise it may have been included among the shiny cards.

    I put the packs for this post together about 2 1/2 weeks ago, and this card was included the Donruss cards. I dunno why I put it in here since it's obviously the wrong brand, but it's a card I would highlight due to its serial-numbering:

(432/2023)

    Though it makes no sense for it to be put with the Donruss pack, it wouldn't make sense for this card to be included in the final pack either

HOLIDAY PACK:

    When I saw an Evan Carter card I needed at the front of the pack, I knew I needed it. The Holiday set Topps put out in 2025 was a good one. I like the wreath going up the side of the card, though it makes the team name even harder to see 🤣

    I think I might make a 'Mouth Agape' PC that this Dylan Cease card would fit nicely into.

    We wrap up this pack with a couple really nice horizontal shots.

    And finally, the single card I purchased at this booth. 

    Drumroll please.....

    It's nice when you can hit a flea market not even expecting to pick up any cards, and leave with two new Evan Carter cards to go along with two autos. A couple bucks landed me this 2024 Topps Chrome Future Stars card. 
    Evan hasn't lived up to his 2023 hype yet, but I've still got faith for him this coming season. Maybe I'm a little bit naive? Well, I'll find out soon enough.

    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!

Who Doesn't Love a Good Flea Market?

     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 don't have a super ton of autos in my collection, but this one is in the top two in terms of how cool it is. From 1999, Spahn signed this card just four years before his death in 2003 (may he rest in peace). At 78 years old he still had a pretty nice-looking signature. The case this card is in needs to be replaced, which I'll pick up next time I go to the LCS. Definitely one of the coolest adds I've made to the collection.

    Mr. Carpenter was right behind to Mr. Spahn in the box of cards, so I picked his card up as well. From 2013, it's a little bit younger than it's neighboring card, but still a cool auto. I guess signing this card was good luck for Matt, who had one of his best seasons in 2013, when he batted .318 with 11 home runs and scoring a league-leading 126 runs. He finished fourth in MVP voting.

    It was certainly a pleasant surprise to find these two cards at the flea market. Somehow I didn't consider until I showed up the possibility of finding some additions to my collection there, and these two are a welcome sight into it. 

    I said 'cool' a lot in this post, but that was exactly what the visit to the flea market was. I enjoyed myself there much more than I initially thought, and it's definitely a place I'd like to visit again.

    By the way, I think I might have lied when I predicted 50 posts this year....my eight posts in January is the most I've published since March of last year, and I have eight more posts ready to go as it stands lol. Oh well, I'm liking it. Thank you all for checking out the blog! I hope y'all have a great rest of the week, and happy collecting!

Rescued from THE BOX - Ep. 2

     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...

...1992 Fleer Greg Olson!

    The expression on Olson's face is golden. It looks as though he just hit the ball, startling Homer the Brave (their mascot in '92), knocking him off the top of the dugout and into the nachos of an unsuspecting opposing fan.

    As for 1992 Fleer, I think it's a decent design as far as Fleer goes. It holds a respectable score of 6.2/10 on TCDB. The names, though sideways, are nice and easy to read, though under bad lighting the player's first name can get a little bit iffy.

    Greg Olson played five seasons and 414 games in the majors, all but three of which coming with the Braves. He accumulated 309 hits and a .242/.317/.342 slash line. Greg was an all-star in 1990, when in 100 games he batted .262/.332/.379 with 7 home runs. He holds a .798 career OPS in the postseason (16 games).

    

    I'm glad to save Greg Olson's 1992 Fleer card from the clutches of THE BOX. Don't worry Greg, I shall free the rest of your friends.

    Thanks for checking out the blog, have a great rest of the weekend, and happy collecting!

Latest LCS Finds (and the Winner of the Giveaway)

    The winner of my blogoversary giveaway will be mentioned at the end of this post. You can bear with me, or just skip to the end if you'd like :) 

    A couple weeks ago I went to my local card store for the first time in a few months to pick up the prizes for my football pick 'em and blogoversary contest. Unfortunately for me, 2025-26 hockey cards still haven't made their way into the store yet. There was a Dallas Stars box, however. There were very few autos, which is probably good for business, but not for my giveaway. Oh well.

    While I was there, I skipped the quarter boxes - a rare move for me - and looked through one of the dollar boxes and the Stars box. But not before grabbing a fistful of binder pages for the new hockey binder I'm putting together. I realize that most of my collecting habits at the current time are hockey-related, but when baseball season comes back around I imagine I'll be collecting more baseball cards.

    Though I spent most my time looking into the Stars box, I did grab a handful of baseball cards from the dollar box. And when I was paying I noticed a few quarter Buster Posey cards that were added into my little stack. All in all I ended up walking out of the store with a dozen cards added to my collection and twenty binder pages for my binder.

       2016-17 UD Artifacts #74     2016-17 UD Trilogy #26       2018-19 O-Pee-Chee 

                                                                                                                   Platinum #88

    I grabbed this trio of John Klingberg cards for one reason and one reason only - you guessed it! He's with the Sharks. But the cards look pretty nice too. I know Klingberg's been in the league for awhile and that he was originally with the Stars, but a quick look into Hockey Reference showed that he spent the bulk of his career with Dallas, from 2015-2022. He was a productive player offensively (though he's a defender), and scored 67 points in the 2017-2018 season.

2000-01 UD e-Cards #EC2

    Not only does this 2001 card of Hall-of-Famer Brett Hull look very cool, but I also notice the giant 'e-Card' slapped onto the front. There is a code included, under which are the directions, 'Go to upperdeckdigital.com to digitize your e-Card.' However, when I tried to visit the website my computer told me that I entered a website likely to have viruses 😅 It's a good thing a quick scan came up clean, but it stinks I couldn't check it out. I probably wouldn't suggest checking the website out unless I messed up the address - I'm not even going to try and find out.

2008-09 UD Biography of a Season #BS5

    Another really cool-looking card. Brunnstrom's career wasn't very long, spanning only three seasons and 104 games, but at least they gave him a neat card to show for it.

2022-23 UD Credentials #141

    I've always thought that ticket access cards were cool. I didn't notice until writing this paragraph that the card is actually serial-numbered 231/999. It looks like Fredrik Karlstrom had an assist in the final period of his NHL debut in the 2021-2022 season. He only played seven games after that, but it looks like he's currently active, skating in the AHL with the Islanders organization. 

2024-25 UD MVP Hockey #127

    Heiskanen is on the current Stars team that's tearing up the NHL alongside the Avalanche. It's a shame they're in the same division as Colorado and can't meet in the Stanley Cup Final. Heiskanen has been productive all year and has paced a talented Stars defense in points while also playing as one of the league's finest defenders.

    That does it for all the hockey cards I added to the collection at the LCS. Now onto the baseball cards.

2025 Topps Chrome Power Players #PP-8 and Chrome All-Etch #CAE-15

    The colors on these two cards are so vibrant it's impossible not to notice them. As far as inserts go, I really like the Power Players, and All-Etch isn't too shabby itself. I forgot exactly how many inserts there were in 2025 Topps, but I can only remember the names of a handful of them off the top of my head, so many.

             2013 Bowman #200                 2017 Topps #675                 2019 Topps #157

    And these are the trio of quarter card Busters. We have three nice action shots of Posey batting here. I'd like to think Posey will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer when he first hits the ballot in 2027. As of right now he still has a job in baseball as the president of baseball operations for the Giants, where he has made some big decisions, including the off-season appointment of Tennesee Vols coach Tony Vitello as manager. All in all I think he's done a very good job and that he belongs in his current role.

    That'll do it for my latest LCS additions. I hope to pop in again fairly soon and make some additions to various PCs.

 

   And now onto the winner of my 2nd Blogoversary's Giveaway:

   

    11 people entered the giveaway this year, and the one to have his name landed upon three times was...

 

    Congrats to Seager for the Win on winning my giveaway! I'll have the cards on the way in a few days.

    Thank you to all those who read my blogoversary post and to those who entered my giveaway. It's so fun for me to have one on the blog's birthday, and I hope to continue doing it every year.

    That does it for today's post. Thanks for stopping by the blog, have a great rest of the week, and happy collecting!

Rescued from THE BOX - Ep. 1

     THE BOX may sound intimidating - and if you're a little baseball card in this big world, it certainly is. You can get lost in a prison of cardboard, surrounded on all sides by fellow cards similar to yourself, doomed to an existence of lying sideways and never being appreciated.

    I've started to sympathize with my little cardboard buddies. Too long have I left them forlorn in the wasteland of a box, burdened with the fate of being ignored for years to come and eventually given to future generations, who will probably place them in the spokes of their hoverboards or whatever they'll be riding then.

    

    Okay, okay hold up. Perhaps that's slightly dramatic. Nevertheless, I thought it would be a fun undertaking if the cards residing in one of my boxes that usually doesn't see much light could be 'rescued' and then featured on a post dedicated to that specific card and the player depicted on it.

    I've found some pretty cool cards while sifting through these boxes, and while many of the cards being rescued likely won't be too special, at least I'll remember that I own them.

    Every other week (or whenever I feel like it lol) one lucky card will be saved from THE BOX and featured on Don Cardwell. This is the chance of a lifetime if you're a Topps card from the 1980s or a '90s Upper Deck or Fleer card.

    Now let us behold the torturous prison our little heroes have been trapped in as they await their salvation. It has many names: The Void, The Depository of Dejection, The Black Hole - but I have twice already called it by its name most relatable to card collectors: THE BOX

    As you can see, Dean Palmer is a victim of the perilous Packaging Tape of Terrors Untold. Don't worry Dean, we shall free you soon!

    Clearly I have a lot of work to do in order to save all these cards from a life of mediocrity and insignificance. 

    I can tell I'm going to have a lot of fun writing this series on the blog. And I hope y'all have fun reading it. Tune in soon for the freeing of the first card. Until then, have a great week, stay safe out in the crazy weather, and happy collecting!

My Blog Has Hit Its Terrible Twos!

     Holy smokes, it's been two years already? 

    It isn't too often that I'll use GIFs on my blog, but I believe one is in order today. Two years ago today I started up this blog, giving it a silly name and expecting nothing to come of it, and to only write for a couple weeks. And yet here we are two years later, alive and well. 

    This year was admittedly a slower one for Don Cardwell, as I posted only 44 times, contrary to last year's 126 posts. Though I've posted a handful times in January already, which has been good. I expect to crank out about 50 or so posts this year, which would be ideal. I already have six posts sitting patiently in my drafts ready to go.

    Though this year was slower in terms of posting activity, the viewership has jumped up A LOT (thank you bots). Whatever the reason for this, I like statistics, so be ready to get hit with the blog's stats for this year.

    

    My blog is now up to 70,277 views all time, and 56,412 this past year, which is so much more than I ever would have thought my blog would hit in a year, even with a bot invasion.

    My biggest single month of this past year in terms of viewership (not entirely fair for a blogoversary post since January is almost entirely cut out) was September, when the blog boasted 18,770 views; more than the entirety of the blog's views last year by almost 5,000. I only posted three times in September, which begs the question: how many of those viewers were human? Surely not many. Those three September posts received 1431, 1124, and 207 views respectively. But the post the bots loved most was my July 13th post, Grant Taylor in 200 Words, which received an absurd 4073 views. The single comment on that post would suggest that humans were not the main viewers.

    I think my favorite part about card-blogging is the comments y'all send my way. My 44 posts yielded a large number of comments, at 215. It's awesome to see what readers have to say about what I write. My most commented upon post is a tie between three, with eight comments each: Slowing Down (where I said I wasn't going to post as much), The Latest Grabs (when I hit the LCS for the first time in a few months back in November), and A Short Christmas Message (my Christmas post).

    I also added a trio of followers this year, putting me up to 19 total readers who also follow the blog. I'm glad to see some more interest in my humble little blog and in the hobby itself.

    (Next year's stats will be posted around New Year's; I feel that's a better time for stats since it's the beginning of the year.)

    I would like to give my sincerest thanks to all those who have checked out my blog this year. This is such a great hobby with great people in it, and y'all are what makes writing this blog of mine so enjoyable.

    Now that we're through with all the boring stuff, it's time for some fun: this year's giveaway! Sadly, I don't have much to give to the winner; autographed cards won't be in the mix this year because my LCS, the supplier of the prizes, was thin on autos this month. Nonetheless, the person who wins this contest will be receiving a pack of both 2025 Topps Update and 2025 Allen and Ginter, as well as a few shiny bonus cards. 

    

    All you need to do if you should wish to enter is leave a comment stating who your all-time favorite player in your favorite sport is. By doing this, not only will you offer me amusement, but you will also get your name entered into the whimsical spinny wheel. Whoever's name is first to be landed upon three times will be the winner of the contest. You don't need to be a follower of the blog to enter. I'm leaving this up to anybody who wants to enter, even if you've never seen my blog before. Though I wouldn't complain if you followed my blog if you haven't already 😉

    The winner will be decided on the morning of Thursday, the 29th. That gives y'all a whole week to enter!

    I also created this short questionnaire about my blog and the card collecting hobby. I enjoy making polls like these and seeing how people respond. 

    Click here to fill it out

    And finally, I've taken my fandom a little bit too far with the advent of a new blog, Macklin CELEBRATION - The Fan Club of Macklin Celebrini. I invented it on a whim, kinda like this blog, and will be posting once a month, or whenever I feel like it. If you like Macklin or the San Jose Sharks, go ahead and check it out. If not, I have failed you. 

    I believe that'll do it for this post. Thank you for checking out the blog today, have an amazing week, and happy collecting! Let's make this year better than the last!