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!

More Help With the PC (and some mystery items)

     I've been working on the Evan Carter PC for about a year now, and while I can't say it's big (yet), I've gotten some sweet new additions for it, including two more from the biggest contributor of the PC, Johnny's Trading Spot. He sent me a package that arrived several days ago, full with lovely cards.

    

    I really like both of these cards. My LCS doesn't carry very many A&G cards that I know of, so I don't get my hands on very many. 

    The picture for the left-hand card really doesn't do it justice. It's a wonderfully vivid card, and of course, it's very shiny. These two cards are going straight into top loaders and then the PC box. Thank you!

    Now, this may have been the end of the post is John hadn't sent me a smorgasbord of other Rangers cards.

    Four more Rangers from the 2024 Topps Big League set. I'm really glad that the team kept Eovaldi around for the next three years. Hopefully he and Jacob deGrom can throw a pretty one-two punch. I hope Jonah Heim can rebound also after an abysmal 2024 season. 

    I'm remaining in 2024 with Topps Chrome Justin Foscue. Chrome and 2024 Topps looks like they were meant to be. They look so good together. I'm gonna miss the 2024 design. 

    Next we have a tiny little Josh Jung. I didn't mess with the size of the image to bring the point across. Though the card is small, I actually really like it; it looks old. I hope that Josh Jung can have a fully healthy season in 2025 that includes no hand breaking.

    I didn't know this at first, but this is a member of Topps Big League, so I probably should have put it with his quartet of friends earlier. Oh well. Die cut cards are so interesting to me. The first one I got was Steve Carlton from 2022 Topps, and my reaction was, 'It looks like they gave a two-year old scissors!' This card doesn't quite look like that. I like this one a lot, with the baseball directing the cutting on the card. It looks really nice.

    This is a last of the 2024 Cards(?). I think we all agree (from reading other blogs) that Topps did a really good job on their 2024 Holiday design. The Corey Seager ornament is fantastic. Besides just looking amazing, it also has a glorious shine to it, which makes it even more appealing. 

    This is 10 wonderful cards. And yet we're not done with this package! The generosity is really quite unbelievable. 

    This card looks like it came straight out of the '90s.....which would make sense since it's 2022 Bowman Heritiage -- based on the 1994 Bowman design. I wonder who the catcher is.

    The Lone Not-Ranger. I had to do my research on Spook Jacobs, because I did not know who he was. Jacobs was a second-baseman who played from 1954-1956 with the Athletics and Pirates (he played with both the Philadelphia and Kansas City Athletics). Before he played in the Majors, spook was a sergeant in World War II. Apparently a sportswriter gave him the nickname. Spook played 14 seasons and 1735 games in the minor leagues, where he slashed .300/.383/.364 with 1162 runs. He hit 9 home runs in the minors.

    Well that was a fun three minutes of research. Spook seemed to be a pretty cool guy. He died in 2011 at the age of 85.

    This is a cool little box full of near 35-year old bubblegum. I've chewed 1990s gum before (in the 2020s), but I don't think I'll be chewing this one any time soon. The box is really cool; that's my favorite Rangers logo. I actually really like this. I would not complain if this were a thing again. However, there's probably some law regarding food-borne illness which wouldn't let it slide.

    A huge thank you to John for all the amazing new cards! His generosity is shocking. I had never seen some of these before, but I really like each and every item inside this package. 

    Thank you all for reading, have a great rest of the week, and happy collecting! I'll catch y'all later.

    This post featured almost completely Rangers cards. While I'm on the subject of the Rangers (which it seems I almost always am), I have started yet another new blog. This one was the result of being turned down from a writing job. In my hopes of one day reapplying for that job, I've started Rangers Nation. This blog will feature bi-weekly posts on the Rangers upcoming 2025 season. I'm trying to keep the quality of writing on that blog to a peak, although it probably won't stay that way very long (once I get into rants and the like). If there are Rangers fans among us, you can go ahead and check it out. Or, if you're just interested, I won't turn you away.

Bad Reviews

     I've referred to a friend before (named Bobby) who sold me an Evan Carter rookie card. Well, he did it again just over a week ago, this time a pair of cards costing only a dollar.

    I really like the designs of this card. Topps did well on their Holiday design for 2024, which is usually a design I kinda ignore because they look the same every year. They did a good job making it different and appealing.

      I had no idea what the right-hand card was, and a couple minutes of research led me to figure out that it's set is Topps Chrome Cosmic Stars in the Night (a bit of a mouth full). It's a great-looking card in hand with very good artwork. One of the corners is just slightly beaten up, but still a great deal in my eyes.

    The post is titled the way it is because the night after I got the cards, I emailed him and jokingly said that I wasn't satisfied with my purchase. 

    I don't particularly like ordering cards online, so it's nice to get a good deal on cards from a friend who knows what I like. For just a dollar, I'm more than happy to add these to my growing Evan Carter PC. Hopefully I can continue adding to it and make it pretty large (right now it's my third largest PC, and not that big, to be frank). Thanks for the cards Bobby! They are much appreciated.

    While I'm on the topic of Carter, I have all the marbles on a breakout 2025 campaign. I really hope this happens; we've seen what he can do and it would be a shame to see all that talent go down the drain. Also, the Rangers might be in a little bit of trouble regardless of whether we have a performing Carter or not, so they could use him if they want a chance at a playoff run. The seasons starts in March -- it isn't too far away. We'll just have to wait and see what becomes of him.

    Y'all have a great rest of the week, thank you for reading, and happy collecting!

Christmas Cards From The Diamond King

    I receiced a PWE from the Diamond King's Christmas giveaway. I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- the members of the card blogosphere are extremely generous (I have another PWE to post on later). 

    Han Solo was the card I requested from the Diamond King. I have a few Star Wars cards, and Han makes for a very nice addition. Harrison Ford is in so many good movies, from Star Wars to Indiana Jones to The Fugitive.... anyway, back to the cards.

    

    Han Solo was already a nice card, but he threw in more than just that. I also found that he sent me two PC players. 

    I've never seen the UK edition card before. This is card #75 of the 220-card UK set. There doesn't seem to be much of a difference to the card design other than the Union Jack on the upper left-hand side of the card. While researching this particular card, I found that there are multiple international versions of the cards, but I don't know how many (I only saw UK and Japan, and was too lazy to look any further).

    And we finish things up with the reigning World Series MVP. Oh, I really like this card. This is the first Chrome-Strokes card I've ever owned. 2024 Chrome-Strokes is only 25 cards, so maybe I'll try and complete it sometime in the future. Haha, I say these things, but I'll probably never actually get down to it. I prefer to dig through quarter and dollar boxes at the card store. We'll see how it ends up going. 

 

    A big thanks to the Diamond King for some more great cards! And thank y'all for reading, have a great weekend, and happy collecting!

There's Nothing Like In-Person Trading

      Personally, as a card collector one of my favorite things to do is trade cards, usually helping to build up two collections  Also, whenever my friend John (Adventures of a Baseball Card Collector) pays a visit, my collection gets smaller (but better, so don't you worry). This past Saturday I spent some time trading with him, and acquired a rather interesting bunch of cards. 

    It's been my procrastinated goal for a while now to start collecting a few hockey cards, and John helped me take my first eight baby steps into a minor collection. I only intend to collect a few hundred hockey cards, but I tend to veer off my collective plan more often than not. These few cards made for a nice little start, as I'm really into the designs of the cards. These include 2016-2017 Upper Deck Artifacts, 2016-2017 Upper Deck Series 2, 2013-2014 Upper Deck Series 2, and of course, the 2013-2014 Panini Prizm. The only guy I previously knew in this small pile is Noah Hanfin, who I briefly had on my fantasy hockey team a few weeks ago. I hope my local card shop can aid me in my hockey card endeavors. I'll need to take a look next time I'm over there.

   

   I traded for this card purely because of the hilarious pink jersey. Laga played parts of nine seasons in the majors (1982-1990),  with the Cardinals, Tigers and Giants. In 188 games, the first baseman batted .199 with 16 home runs.

    These two cards came in the same trade, which also included the next card. I added another un-owned Ripken to my personal collection in the form of Studio '91, which I think was a decent design. The addition of the Craig Kimbrel was nice too. He looks so young in the picture! 2014 Topps Upper Class is a design that I really like. The red and gold mix really well with this card. The corners are a little roughed up on the card, as well as a small crease on the upper right side, but it didn't take much to get the card, so I don't mind. I hope Craig Kimbrel can clean things up in 2025, but he'll be 37 and coming off his worst season (5.33 ERA), so he may be done as a closer in the majors.

    This was the card I was seeking pretty much from minute one.  I have a soft spot for catchers, and the card looked so good, so it became the top priority in terms of trading. Christopher Wallace was drafted in the 16th round of the 2010 June Amateur Draft. Expecting to get drafted later, this pleasantly surprised him. Wallace played 5 seasons in the minors with the Astros and Indians, including 52 games and parts of three seasons in AAA. Across his minor league career, Wallace batted .270/.341/.445 with 39 home runs and 185 RBI in 315 games. 2015 was his last year of professional baseball, which he spent in the Atlantic League. Wallace batted .257 with 17 home runs in 129 games before calling it quits. 

    And my trading ends with a non-sports card. I was about through with the trades before this one caught my eye. This is card one of the five-card 2005 King Kong - Kong Flocked insert set (thanks for the clarification TCDB). The fur on Kong is....actually furry, which is a nice addition to an already awesome card. I've never seen the movie -- I like to stick to the original Godzilla films with the rubber suits and all that good stuff.

    That was already a great day of trading in my book, but then John dropped a half-dozen vintage Topps on me for no return. It made for a nice little surprise.

    It doesn't matter who the player (or usually even the set) is, I'll always like some vintage baseball cards. Though these cards aren't exactly in the best condition, I still enjoy them. Besides, they were free. The top four are all 1959 Topps, and the bottom two are '61 and '69.

    So ends the acquisitions from John's last visit. I really like getting the oppurtunity to trade cards in-person with people. It's nice to see what the fellow collector has brought along with him, and offers the oppurtunity to trade for cards I otherwise wouldn't -- like the King Kong card. It adds some fun into the day whenever John comes over.

    Thanks for the cards John!  And thank y'all for spending time at Don Cardwell. I hope you enjoyed, have a great start to the week, and happy collecting!

A Thank You To Johnny's Trading Spot

    Got a shorty for today. 

    Yesterday, a couple cards showed up from Johnny's Trading Spot. He very generously sent them to me for telling him some players born on October 31st. 

    Methinks John knows what I like: 2024 Topps, Evan Carter, and shiny cards. Can this day get any better? I submit that it cannot! And yes, the Stars of MLB card reads SMLB on the back (I don't know what the deal with SLMB is). 

    I am happy to add these new additions to my PC (now that I've decided to have one, though it's small). Thanks again John for the sweet cards! You've probably dealt me close to, if not half of the Evan Carter cards I own. 

    Now, I shall leave y'all to your days. Enjoy Sunday and the start of the week, and happy collecting!