Wow...what a pull

     I hit the LCS a few weeks ago and picked up some goodies....unfortunately, if I try to mash all the cards I got into one post it would never get done. So I'll split them up into two or three shorter posts.

    Today's post will feature the packs I got. There were three such packs, containing a total of 73 cards.

    I also received a couple packs for my birthday, which wasn't long ago, and the contents of those will be shown off at the end of this post. There was quite the hit in one of these packs, but you'll have to be left hanging until the very end.  

    Coming first is a couple packs of 2025 Topps Stadium Club. These packs were four bucks for five cards. 80 cents per card doesn't thrill me, of course. I meant to grab one pack, but accidentally picked up two, and based on the scenario, I felt a little too silly to put one back. Yeah I know, I have social issues 
:(

    The first thought that came across my mind when I saw these cards was 'Holy smokes the photo quality on these bad boys is crisp.' 

    

    Even though $8 is a lot for these cards, I can't really complain. The Posey was a nice pull, along with the Chase Petty Sepia Parallel (never heard of that parallel before) and Schwellenbach insert. That Gerrit Cole card has a really nice picture as well.

    I actually found this pack while walking out of the store. There was a stack of cards from the LOTR card game, and the initial one I found was the 'Pippin Deck.' Then I saw this one, and if any of you have read my LOTR blog, you would know that I had to go with the Aragorn deck from The Two Towers. Unfortunately the price tag is covering our beloved Ranger's face.

    The 63-card starter deck is from the discontinued Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game (known simply as LOTR TCG) started in 2001. Apparently the goal of the game is to compete with your opponent to try and destroy the One Ring. Your opponent tries to stop you, either by killing your Fellowship or corrupting them. It's a pretty dark but also super cool concept.

   

    Now that I know that this game is discontinued, I wish that I had gotten all the decks while I had the chance. At $12-14 each it would come at a bit of a price, but not one I'd be unwilling to pay. Well, I should be able to hit up the LCS soon enough and see if there are any decks left.

    If you'd like to see what this Aragorn deck contains, I'm planning to open it up sometime soon on my LOTR blog, He's Known as Strider. Stay tuned for that post if you're interested.

    That does it for the three packs I bought, However, I did receive two birthday packs, which I will show off presently.

    The first such pack contained 14 cards from 2025 Topps Allen & Ginter. A&G seems a bit like a novelty design to me, and I enjoy ripping a pack every now and then.

    So you see we got some interesting stuff here. The little Matt Olson card is pretty cool. That Jack Morris insert looks like a Halloween advertisement.

    The last birthday pack I received was a 2026 Topps Fat Pack. Unfortunately, I seemed to have misplaced the bag the pack was in (though I know I would have put it in a safe place, don't you worry), except for that pull I mentioned at the start of the post. And without further ado, here it is:

    Few things are more exhilerating than pulling a sweet card from a fat pack. This was one of my better pulls over the years, as I'm a pretty big Matt Shaw fan. This card will find a home in the case of my 'prized' cards.

Marv is such a funny character lol

    That'll do it for the latest pack-pulled additions from the local card shop. Make sure to stay tuned for my next post, where I'll be celebrating a blogging milestone almost two and a half years in the making. Until then, thank you for reading the blog, have a great 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!

The Latest Grabs

     I went to the LCS a couple weeks ago for the first time in months. It was nice to be able to get down there again. 

    The format of the store is much different than the last time I went. I've mentioned in an earlier post that they've expanded to two buildings now, one of which houses sport cards and the other game cards such as Pokemon and the like. 

    Since the last time I've been, they've added some fun cards like Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Legos are being sold there too, which is cool (but expensive). They also added a dozen or so boxes full of just one player (Mike Trout, Dirk Nowitzki, Patrick Mahomes, and the like). More on that a little bit later though....

    Though the store has changed a little bit, I don't mind it at all and felt right at home going through quarter, dollar, and autograph boxes, and pulling out a number of cool cards.

    Why not start with the first card I pulled? To be honest, I had no idea who Houston Jimenez is, but there are two reasons I ended up grabbing this card. The first is that I found his first name interesting and also strongly Texan. The second reason is that we share last names. The day of my writing this paragraph (October 30th) is Houston's 68th birthday, so happy birthday to him!

    Perhaps it's from a lack of my looking, but I'd never seen the little stamp certifying the authenticity of an on-card autograph before. 

    I had never heard of Anthony Seigler before, but he had a nice autograph and the cards were cheap, so I picked these two up. I was also not familiar with Josh Breaux. 

    Seigler is a 26-year old catcher and infielder. He actually broke the majors this year with the Brewers and hit .194 in 62 at-bats. 

    Josh Breaux is 28 years of age and with the Phillies farm system. So it turns out none of them became franchise futures with the Yankees.

    This is the last autographed card I picked up, and my favorite card of the bunch, which is why it's unfortunate that the camera doesn't do it justice. Y'all probably know my affinity for shiny cards, and this certainly doesn't disappoint. There's a lot going on with the colors in the background of the card, but I'm cool with it. Harris is such a talented player -- I hope he can make an impact for the Rangers in 2026.

    The design of this card is really interesting....it looks as though Jared Jones is about to get sucked into a black hole. The top left corner is dinged just a little bit, but it's still a great-looking card. I'm a big fan of Jared Jones, and thought he and Skenes would make a dominating duo. I was so sad when that didn't happen this season. But, they're both young, so there's plenty of time for them both to assert their dominance in the league.

    Sometimes I love the way lighting affects my pictures. I also didn't notice until uploading this card onto the blog that the words 'Hometown Heroes' continue through Strider's body. He's another young pitcher who had to battle injuries this year, but I have a feeling he'll be just fine in 2026. I also bet that the Braves are headed back to the playoffs.

    I needed a little bit of help from TCDB to identify this card. The kind folks down there helped me to find out it's from 1947-1966 Exhibits. After asking on the TCDB which year the photo is from, users Musclebeech and BuccaneersDen hypothesize it would likely have been from 1948. If this is indeed the case, it would be one of my oldest cards. I made the picture larger to emphasize the dimensions of this card. At 3 3/8 inches by 5 3/8, it's a behemoth compared with the average 2.5 by 3.5 inch cards.

    For anybody (like myself) who isn't familiar with Eddie Waitkus, he was a left-handed first baseman who played with the Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies, and Baltimore Orioles from 1941-1955. In that time he collected 1,214 hits, 24 home runs and 528 runs. He was a two-time all-star, in 1948 and 1949. He was shot in the lung by a stalker in 1949 and almost killed. Thankfully he survived and ended up playing six seasons afterward. Wild. 

    I don't typically collect graded cards, but this one was priced so well that I couldn't resist. This is one of two graded cards I own. Mike Trout has a history of popularity among my family, which is definitely what induced me to purchase this card. We were pleased to see him play 130 games for the first time since his 2019 MVP season, even if it wasn't an amazing season.

    That'll wrap up my additions from the most recent LCS visit. I can't wait for 2025-2026 Upper Deck hockey to hit the store so I can get a few packs and hopefully pull a Macklin Celebrini card (he's my guy when it comes to hockey). Well, that's for a future post. For now, I shall leave you with this question: is it annoying when they stamp those price stickers onto a top loader or penny sleeve so that it leaves that streaky and sticky residue on the card protection? Just wondering.

    Until next time, have a wonderful rest of the weekend, and happy collecting!

Quick Additions

    I got the chance to take a quick look into the LCS a couple days ago. Time was limited to just a few minutes, so I had minimal time to poke around. The store had finished their expansion since the last time I had been there, and now had two separate parts of the building; one for Pokemon and gaming cards, and the other for sports cards. The latter is more in my wheelhouse.

    I took a look in one of the many quarter boxes (which they have many more of now) and pulled out four cards. These were the only cards of the whole trip. I forgot my wallet anyway, so a dollar ended up working out just fine.

    I also forgot that the same day was the day of the new Topps flagship release. I didn't know it at the time, and I think I may wait a little bit to actually purchase some of the new cards. They were selling at almost fifty cents a card in some of the packs.

    Anyway, the four cards I acquired were all part of 2024 Bowman Chrome.

    Why not start with Brandon Sproat? I scouted him out in a post earlier this year, and since then I have become very interested in him. I was not at all expecting to find his card, so it ended up being a pretty nice addition. I hope to see Sproat pitch in the majors this year. The Mets are looking pretty good for 2025, but maybe they could use a little bit of help on the starting pitching side.

    Honestly, I don't think it's a very good shot of a player (especially a prospect) when you can't even see his face. Anyway, Bryce Eldridge is another guy I hope to see in the big leagues in 2025. At 20 years of age, he has a lot of time to improve, and he has already shown a lot of talent in the minor leagues. The Giants (who I am still loyal to) could use a sturdy first baseman, and hopefully Eldridge can be that guy.

    I am very interested to see what happens to Sam Basallo as he hits the majors. He's shown a lot of talent and is expected to debut this year. However, Baltimore already has one of the best catchers in the game (if not the best), and Ryan Mountcastle is a pretty good option at first. I guess that's what DH is for.

    So all four of the cards were of pretty high-profile prospects. Roman Anthony is the #2 prospect for 2025 via MLB.com, and of all the prospects here, I think he's the one I'm most excited to see play. He possesses the skills to become a superstar in the near future, and should provide a boost to an already good Red Sox team. 

    That wraps up the grabs from the last LCS stop. I like these cards a lot -- I've always liked Bowman as I have said before, and think the design works very well with the chrome aspect of the cards. The photos do not do them justice; these cards are very nice. I will be paying attention to each of these guys in Spring Training and rooting for them to make the Opening Day roster. 

    Thanks for stopping by the blog, have a great rest of the week (we're so close to weekend guys), and happy collecting!

The First Card Shop Trip of 2025

     Due to some forseeable expenses coming up this year, I'm not really going to be able to spend as much money on cards. That doesn't mean that I'm going to hit the card shop less than usual -- I'm just going to have to spend less money there.

    The first of my trips to the LCS in 2025 came a couple days ago, on the eleventh. While I didn't spend as much money there as I may usually have, this wasn't really due to expenses; there were errands to be run, which limited time to pick through boxes and really look at cards.

    I had a few objectives with the card store trip, these being a couple birthday gifts. Once presents were through, then I could have some real fun picking through boxes for a few minutes before continuing the rest of the errands on the agenda.

    By now I'm probably boring y'all to death, so I'll just get down to the cards acquired (not including the birthday gifts, of course).

    The quarter boxes did well, yielding some chrome and a few refractors. Could you not tell that I like shiny? The Woodruff is my favorite card in the small stack. If I had more time to spend, I probably would have liked to sit down and find some more goodies, but as they say, tempus fugit.

    Another Merrill for my PC, in the form of a Bowman Chrome rookie. This card was in the dollar box; it may have been a little bit much, but whatever. It's great to get another Merrill pickup, and it's a goal of mine to come away with another Merrill card with each visit to the card store. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get the card out of its penny sleeve yet (which is why the image is blurred), and don't want to damage the actual card.

    This card made me the most happy of them all. I didn't actually buy the card - in fact, it had been sitting on a shelf since my last birthday, which was forever ago. I've been waiting to post it on the blog until I got the proper protection for it, which was found with this trip to the LCS. The card is from the 2024 Topps -  Postseason Performance Relic Gold set (thank you TCDB), and is numbered 16/25. I considered getting it graded, but opted not to. The grading process costs too much money, and the card probably wouldn't get an amazing grade, having been pulled from a hanger box from Amazon. Nonetheless, it remains a favorite in my collection.

    I got the pack of Comic Ball cards for 50 cents. I liked the 1990 Comic Ball set I received for Christmas a year or two back, so it was worth less than a dollar to pick up this 12-card pack from the 1992 set. 

         

    I love the use of major-leaguers on these cards -- Ken Griffey Jr. and Jim Abbott are visible on these ones. These are always fun cards to have. However, there were three dupes in this pack (cards 22, 128, and 134) which I am happy to give away to whoever wants to claim one in the comments.

    And, as promised, I finished out the trip with a pack of hockey cards (Upper Deck MVP). My collection has gotten a few nice little boosts these past few weeks, and I was hoping to get a few more here. The pack wasn't opened until the night before the publication of this post.

    I was surprised that I recognized more than half the names on the cards. Most notably was Brent Burns, who was once described to me as 'Santa Claus without teeth.' The other big name for me was Thatcher Demko. I think the design and coloration of the cards goes really well with the sport they represent. This was a nice eight-card addition to my still slowly progressing hockey collection.

    That'll wrap up the entirity of the first LCS visit of the new year! The whole deal cost me $10, which I'm more than happy to pay with my new card budget. 

    It was crowded in the store, which is good because I like to see small businesses succeed. It looks like they'll be expanding pretty soon, which is awesome.

    Thank y'all for reading, have a great start to the week, and happy collecting!