Reviewing the 2026 Topps Baseball Design

     The design for Topps' 75th anniversary base set has finally been released! Though the set won't be available in stores for almost a month, let's take a quick peek at it and see how they've done on their design in this milestone year.

    It's an interesting design for sure. A few things strike me at first; the color scheme is pretty nice. The Red Sox colors are integrated into the card well. I like the font for Anthony's name as well. It's different than every other design, and I think it looks pretty cool. There is also a 75th Anniversary badge thing on the card, this one being in the upper right corner though I have seen other cards with the badge in a different spot.

    For example, the badge here is on the upper left-hand side. There is what looks to be lacing surrounding the left side of the card bordering the picture, and some other pattern on the card bordering that. I like what they did with the team logo on the bottom left as well. I feel that my wording doesn't make a ton of sense here, but it's what's my brain is thinking when I look at this 🤣

    There is certainly a lot going into every aspect of the card, and the more I look at it, the better a design I think it is. I think they did a good job this year.

    What do y'all think about this year's design? How did the folks over at Topps do compared with last year? 

    That does it for my brief review today. Have a great rest of the week, and happy collecting!

Digitally Collecting Cards?

     I've heard a lot about collecting cards digitally the last six or so months, and I read about it once again on another blog about a week ago. This time my interest was peaked. 

    I looked around for a few minutes to find a free digital collecting website, and before too long I found one, Upper Deck e-Pack. I ended up joining e-Pack a few days ago to check out the concept of online collecting and see how I like it. 

    e-Pack is free and easy to join, and every day you log on to the website you get a free small pack of cards. There is always the opportunity to buy cards digitally, but at this point I'm sticking with what's free.

   The bulk of the cards you'll see are hockey cards, but you can also collect football, golf, and wrestling, as well as entertainment.

    The website is very easy to navigate, and there is a legend on the top left-hand side of the page which shows what the symbols you'll come across on the website mean.

    In addition to collecting, e-Pack offers you the opportunity to connect with other users via a couple forums, similar to TCDB. But the coolest part of e-Pack, in my opinion, is the ability to trade your digital cards with other collectors on the site.

    Another interesting perk that I read about is the ability to buy the physical copies of cards on the website, and Upper Deck will go ahead and send them to you. This feature, combined with the ability to trade with the other site users, may very well come in handy in the future.

    I've only been an Upper Deck e-Pack member for a handful of days now, but it looks like a pretty cool website. I will make an update on how it's going at the end of every month as I continue to learn about the site and use it more (starting in February). I'm thankful to get the free opportunity to try something new regarding card collecting, and I hope it turns out to be a cool experience. I was also recommended the BUNT app shortly after joining e-Pack, which I'll likely check out if I enjoy the former.

    That's all I've got for this week. Make sure to come back on January 22nd for my Blogoversary post (I don't know why I'm pushing this so hard 🤣)

    Thanks for stopping by the blog, hold out until this evening and then have a great weekend, and happy collecting!

The NFL Playoffs are (Almost) Among Us!

     And that means it's time for pick 'em! I started a bracket free for anybody who wants to play. Unfortunately, I couldn't think of a creative name for my group, so I just called it Super Bowl Pick 'Em.

Click here to join

Password is superbowl. The deadline to join is when the first game of the playoffs starts on January 10th, 3:30 P.M. CT, featuring the Rams and the Panthers.

    I mostly have this up for bragging rights, but when I hit up the LCS for my Blogoversary post prize, I'll pick up a small prize of a pack of football cards for the winner (or baseball cards if they're out of stock).

    Good luck to your favorite playoff team (and the 49ers), have a great week, and happy collecting!

Bidding a Fond Farewell to 2025

    Happy New Year, unless it's still 2025 where you are. I'm making it a tradition to publish my New Year's  post at midnight, assuming I'll be awake for it. If it's still 2025, feel free to either come back in a few hours or get an early peak at my post ;)

    This year has had its good and its rough parts for me, but I think I've grown since the start of the year. As for my blog, it was a really boring year, with less than 50 posts, and a topic quite often straying from card collecting. This is mostly due to other things going on in life which have kicked my blog out a little bit. My time management has never been very good, and my blog has felt that the most. I'm not sure how many cards I'll be adding to my collection in 2026, but I'll be more on-topic this time around (in theory). I may not even get to posting 48 times this year, but I guess only time can tell. 

    Other than that, I'm not sure that I have any other resolutions for my blog. I just hope to have some fun with it without completely ignoring the 'card' in card blog. We'll see how that goes down.

    I'm don't reckon I have much else to say here, other than telling you to come back in three weeks, on the 22nd, for my 2-year blogoversary post, where I'll hopefully have a contest for some cards from the LCS. Make sure to tell your friends! (Teaser: the post is called My Blog Has Hit Its Terrible Twos!)

    I think that might do it for my New Year's post this year. It was a little more boring than I was hoping, but that's alright. I hope y'all have a great year in 2026 and don't date anything important incorrectly. 

    And now I'll leave y'all to get some sleep. Thanks for stopping by the blog, have a great YEAR, and, as always, happy collecting. I'll get back to my U2...