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!

Redemption

    A couple years ago I gave this up in a trade; the green Holiday Bowman Luis Robert numbered 14/99. I tried for a long time to get it back from John (GTT), and succeeded to do so on my birthday this year.

    This is Luis alongside the guy I traded him away for (2016 Topps #447 Ben Zobrist). Let's just say I didn't yet appreciate, or understand, the value of serial numbering. Neither did I know what a parallel was. I didn't have to give up a ton to get the card back, and John was pretty cool with the deal. THANK YOU!

    My birthday was ages ago. I just never posted on my 'gifts' from my friend John, though I've been planning on doing it for a long time. Better late than never I guess. 

    Besides trading me back my Luis Robert for a pretty cheap return, he made some other trades with me, and sold me a bunch of cards for a nickel apiece.

    I shall start with the oldest card traded/sold to me that day. 1959 Topps is an interesting set. Honestly, I kinda like the design. I like the bordering for the pictures. I'm not a huge fan of facsimilie autographs though (and yet one of my favorite sets is 2007 Topps). Wally Post had a solid 15-year career with the Reds/Redlegs, Phillies, Indians, and Twins. He played 1,204 games and hit .266/.323/.485 with 210 home runs. He finished 12th in MVP voting in 1955 when he hit .309 with 40 home runs while playing a league-leading 154 games. 

    I also acquired a handfull of 1961 Topps. They may not be in the best condition (especially you Joe Pignatano), but I will never complain about cards over 60 years old, and John is my main source of these.

    Next we have some 1966 Topps. The most notable player here is Lee Maye, who had a solid 13-year career.

    Moving ahead a few years to 1980. I do really like this design, as well as all three of these cards. Frank Tanana is one of my favorites, and I could muse over Ozzie Smith for a long while. 

    We enter the 21st century with some Cal Berkely alumni. Of course, I had to get my hands on Marcus Semien, who cost me only a nickel, and then I added Tyson Ross to make sure Marcus doesn't get lonely. Ross played from 2010-2019. He didn't have the flashiest record in the world at 44-70, but he was an all-star in 2014. I also have the Mark Cahna card from this set, but forgot to take a pic :)

    Tulo is a PC guy for me, and I will not complain about his roommate, Bringer of Rain. The 2016 Topps Back to Back cards have a most interesting and unique design. I like it. The backwards letters are cool, and I like the effect starting on the top and going down the middle of the card where it looks all broken up. 

    I also got these. I like to gather the old contest cards and checklists, which makes it super easy to trade cheaply with every person I do face-to-face trades with.

    I wasn't entirely sure what to make of this card when I got it from John. It's cool to get a card of a senator/actor that has at least something to do with baseball. After reading the back I appreciate the card more.

    Also got the Ketel Marte rookie card. I didn't know who he was until I added him to my fantasy team in 2019. It's funny to think that I knew almost nothing about the baseball players until 2019.

    And I will finish with these two packs of 1994 Upper Deck Denny's Holograms. After seeing on the internet what these bad boys look like, I may open up these single-card packs soon, because they're awesome! It's only a 28-card set; once I open these, I will probably try for the whole package, assuming they're easy enough to find and the prices are acceptable.

    I got plenty more cards from John, but these were the 'highlights' of the day, so to speak. So, months later, I thank you again John for the cool cards. I'm looking forward to when we can trade again.

    I'm afraid I've reached the time when the post ends and I have to sign off. Until next time, thank y'all for reading, have a great rest of the week, and happy collecting! 

Snow on the Field and a Childish Third Baseman

    Sometimes when you're bored and tired, and just can't sleep, you go and look at your baseball cards. It was on one such day when I came across some cards that made the wheels in my head turn (hence the stupid name for the post). After all, I don't typically post with valuable cards or anything, so I've gotta make it interesting somehow, or you lose business. That's just how it works these days.

    Anyway, some of these cards indeed were interesting, and worth (at least I hope) showing on the blog. Maybe it's just because I was tired and so my brain wasn't working correctly. After all, it was a long day. I had just finished coaching the championship game of my little brother's team (GGs boys!), and boy, that game was 'lit,' so to speak. In the end, we won 6-5. After this, we went out to eat. Then I tried in vain to crash, so here we are.

    Shall we start with Trevor Story? This 2017 Topps gold card is numbered 1530/2017. Not gonna lie, even without the numbering, I still love this card. The action shot is perfect. In Story's rookie campaign, he smashed 27 home runs in only 97 games, one shy of Colorado's record. Again, where did it all go???

    While looking at this card, two things to mind; what is he pointing at? And, it's slightly eerie that the fielder's arm goes through the boundary of the card. I thought that the border was there to mark the end of the photo, but whatever. Anyway, nice photo for a nice card.

    If I didn't have multiple cards of Realmuto on the Marlins, I would probably forget that he ever played with them. It's amazing to think that at the same time the Marlins had Realmuto (who they traded to the Phillies after a stellar age 27 season), Christian Yelich (who was traded in 2018 after two solid seasons) and Giancarlo Stanton (who they gave away right after he hit 59 homers). I wonder what they would've been had they kept them all.

    I'll always appreciate some good old Topps Holiday cards. Evan Longoria appears to be throwing right into the midst of a blizzard. Hope everything turns out alright for the Gold Glover. Longoria retired after the 2023 season, and probably for the better. He had been fighting off injuries and bad seasons for a while. I wonder how he'll fare on the HOF ballot. What do y'all think?

    I could've sworn I saw Dansby Swanson before on this post. I'm not really sure why know why, but as soon as I laid eyes on this card, I had to have it. That'll happen with me sometimes. I probably acquired it in a trade with fellow blogger GTT one of those days not too far into the past. 
    It appears that Swanson is staring into the depths of the soul of his baseball bat. Bet it wasn't doing so good for him that day. I went ahead and did my research on this, and Dansby didn't have a good day on 2018 Opening Day, going 0-for-4 with a strikeout.

    At the all-star break in 2016, Paul Goldschmidt was batting .297/.417/.513 with 15 homers. In the actual all-star game he went 0-for-3 as a PH/1B as the NL fell (like usual) 4-2 to the AL.

    Straight from his days as a Dodger, Kenley Jansen pitched to a 2.76 ERA in 2014, collecting 44 saves for the team at age 26. He is currently second in active MLB players in saves with 429 across his 15 years of service time. Craig Kimbrel, who has also been around for 15 seasons, has the lead with 430.

    I'm not sure if it's the batter or the first baseman that David Wright has the beef with, but he should be more mature than to stick his tongue out at him. I mean, come on.

    This 2010 Bowman card is one of my favorites, not because it's valuable, but because it's a great-looking card from a great-looking set. David Wright is one of my favorite players, and according to the back of the card, he was one of three players to hit .300 with 500 RBIs since 2005. The other two were Albert Pujols and Chase Utley.

    I've got nothing to say about this card other than that it's nice to see a young Jean Segura. In 2016 Segura had a stellar season in which he hit .319 and led the league in hits with 203. He had 20 homers, 102 runs, 41 doubles and 33 steals, finishing 13th in MVP voting. 

    2012 Topps Archives is a sharp-looking set. Buster was just coming off the season in which his leg was devastated by Scott Cousins. He would come back in 2012 to win both the batting title and the MVP award (not to mention Comeback Player of the Year) en route to a Hall-of-Fame worthy career.

    That'll about do it for this post. I hope you enjoyed reading my analysis of every card posted today. Man, I need to get more sleep. Anyway, have a great Monday, and Happy Collecting!