Going off course: I had an amazing day yesterday.

 Tonight is just a teaser. Putting that out there to start. 

Many of you may have noticed that this entire year I have been (let's say) disappointed with the lack of deals at shops and shows. I even posted about branching out to shows and shops in other faraway cities looking to find the right spot. I spent one day all over the Orlando area and was completely bummed and gave up before hitting all of the shops on my list. Who knows maybe I'll attempt the ones I missed another day, but for the near future I got a place....A new place. I haven't been to Jax all year, and wasn't really thrilled closing out the 4th quarter last year either. Don't miss it. I started the year off cutting back the Tampa area shows (last year I was doing 3 a month). That wore me out, and the deals were on the small scale, even the couple from year. I like BIG deals, tons of cards, weeks of sorting if not months. What can I say? That's is how the first decade of this blog did things. 

My next Ormond post you are going to find that I'm not exactly thrilled with the trips I made this year, but if you look back at the posts on them, you may have figured that out. I may have very well made my last trip over there. I say may, because you never know and Daytona Beach is the hop and a skip away. Prices to me went from (example) $20.00 per monster box (dime boxes), to no less than a nickel a piece. Don't get me wrong happy to pay 5 cents for cards, I'm just saying. Think about it 3 hours driving plus $25.00 in gas.....Not really doing it for me. Anyways, I should probably get to the whole point of the title.

This summer is a first for me, as with my grandson just finishing his first year of big kid school, I am on call. (his father is pretty lame about his responsibilities to put it bluntly). Yesterday, nothing on the agenda so I did a deep dive on the internet looking for a new source of deals close by. Wala.....I found two shops not just close by, but right here in Ocala, (one of them I had seen on the way to Ormond each time, but I was always traveling before they opened at 1pm and coming back was either they were closed and/or I was hungry or tired and really just wanted to get home).

I planned my day to get 5 stops/errands done. Go to the bank, go to shop 1, then shop 2 (I was figuring only about 30 minutes in each shop), then the post office and fill up with gas before getting back home. Bank, done, onto shop 1, WOW. There website sucks right now they are working on it. I didn't make it 10 feet inside the door and I sat down for 4 hours.. Yeah. I'll give you much much more in a couple of weeks. Tonight is just a teaser. I noticed the time, and had to get out to make it to the post office before they closed. 

The rest of this is pictures. The teaser.

Yes....an original 1977 Star Wars lunch box. Thermos also inside.  Pretty cool. It is obviously, NOT mint or anywhere close to that, but I am completely stoked having this in my collection.  The lunch boxes were not at the front of the store where I originally stopped. Half way through my DIG, I needed a break and walked around the shop.....IT IS A HUGE store. And they are doubling the size too to properly display what they have to sell.  Now back to those first ten feet.

CHEAP BOXES. There was only one dime box, 95% basketball, but I found these gems in there.

(3 more below), but nearly the entire set missing just 4 cards which I probably already have.

There were another 10 monster boxes label 5 for a dollar (.20) or bulk deal 50 for $10.00. No, I didn't say anything about that not being a bulk deal....It's the same thing .20 a card. The register is right up front and the clerk there was friendly, I asked immediately about a real bulk deal. He said the manager was working with a customer in the back, but he'll go ask. He came back said yeah he'll work something out. The clerk was one of their Pokemon specialists, lol. The manager was the sports card guy. Like I said it is a big shop and apparently they have 5 or 6 guys rotate in and out as they are open 7 days a week from 10am til 6pm. There is SO MUCH MORE TO THIS STORY, but you will have to wait until I clear out the scan folders from the last ComC order (a week's worth), and then the post regarding this past Saturdays' trip over to Ormond ( a week's worth too). Until then. 

Later gators!

Clearing things up a bit

 My scan/post file is filling up with some smaller scans (fewer cards). To remedy that I am going to pop a few of them right into this post before starting one of the other larger/multiple posts.

The Braves Japan team set. I bought the entire 2024 Topps Japan edition for pretty cheap off of Ebay with April/May running together it was one of them. I also grabbed some set build needs from this seller who again was priced right (auction) but I won. 

I do remember trying to grab a couple more lots the next week, but didn't fair so well.

As you can tell the cards above came from Michael over at Dillard's Dugout. Apparently, I had guessed a giveaway correctly, and Michael threw in some more cards for me. He included a few others but the ones here were all needs. Thank you!

Love me some vintage OpeeChee. These cards came courtesy of an OCT trade buddy and they were even the highlight of the envelope!

No sir.  This was. Hank Aaron Forever stamp was. I noticed immediately from pulling it out of the mailbox. It was a Saturday. I opened the envelope to find the OPC cards and then I went straight to the post office and short story there.

I waited in line (there were only a few people ahead of me). Got up to the counter and the clerk (after I showed him the stamp on the envelope) said he thought they were discontinued. NO WAY! He asked his supervisor who was a 2 stations away (she usually helps me) and she said yes they had them, but they were in the vault. She asked me how many I wanted, I told her and the guy clerk kindly said you know that is going to cost x amount per sheet. I said yes, moved to her window she broke out the calculator and punched in the numbers, she asked If I was sure, I of course said no, double the sheets.  LOL! I bought twenty of the sheets. I am keeping two of them (1 for the Braves collection, one for the Hank Aaron PC, and I gave one to my brother). The rest are for mailing baseball cards, and I just mailed out 2 yesterday.

Have a great night, this cleaned up the smaller files. Now just a week worth of ComC posts plus another section from Ormond. I am going to have to get creative.....

Saturday Shadow Shots!

 Can you see what I see?

I see the back end of a dinosaur (with a very short tail).

I see a boot. 

I am going out on a limb here (pun intended). I see the beginnings of  a tee pee or 

lean-tu.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend folks!

Now for the "REST OF THE STORY"

 Okay okay I know that was a play on Paul Harvey, but I couldn't resist.

So tonight we'll wrap up the 2nd half of the 2020 cards from that huge Sport Lots' order back in May or was it April? Anyways. 

Here            we                    gooooooooooooooooooooo.

I'm not really a fan of those "artsy" cards Topps puts out. But I got to have my Braves.

There ya have it. Whether it was in April or May too long ago for me at this point, Between the hundreds of Braves from SLOTS plus the hundred or two from ComC which I still have to post those highlights all I know that that "other guy" remains 500ish Atlanta Braves cards ahead of me. Better than the 1100 he was staying at. I am adding several hundred new to me ATL Braves every month, I will catch him, especially since I am re-budgeting the bb card funds to accommodate such task. I haven't been to show since Webster, and I've only been to Ormond once since then. 

As of today the numbers for ATL have me behind 488.

I'm at 32, 204 and he is at 32, 692.

Now if we are talking "all Braves" I have him there.

I'm still #1 with the Milwaukee Braves and + 215 over that other guy

Boston I'm #3 (80 cards from #1) and + 222 over that other guy.

Throw in the Beaneaters, Bees, and Rustlers and I add + 88 more which overall puts me ahead by 50 cards, HUH!    lol.

Even the Night Owl beat that other guy out on two of those (Greg has 7 Beaneaters and 1 Rustler in TCDB). 

I did however buy those two new shelves and yes I did all of the re-arranging and all of that has been complete for over a week now. Looks good even my daughter said so which is always cool. I have bough several things off Ebay and gotten several care packages in the mail which all have to be posted and even 1 or 2 will inch me closer and closer to getting that #1 SPOT! Afterall, this is Johnny's Trading SpoT!

Have a great weekend folks! Try real hard not to slap anyone for that matter try not to think about wanting to slap someone, lol.

WaCKY WEdnesDAY

 Quick week, they do usually fly by in the summer. 

Here are this week's interesting cards.

A great mix all around. Mattingly on a football card, the Babe golfing, pitching and hanging with kids. A big bat, Deion in a helicopter. Basketball on a baseball card. and finishing up with the EE-YAH!

Have a good night folks.

Anyone up for some 2020's

 I certainly hope so because today and Thursday is what the scans will be. ;)

Here we go.

This is a good resting stop for tonight.

Have a great night (and might as well have a good rest of the week too!

Moving on to the 2010"s

 Next up from the SLOTS order are the 2010's. This one is a short post compared to the 2020's.

So I added a handful of Braves from this decade, but I really loaded up on the 2020's. In fact it take two posts to cover them. 

Saturday Shadow Shots and Flag Day! Plus a couple more for a nice Grand Slam of a day.

 Quadriple hit folks,  that's a Grand Slam!

1st up is Flag Day!

A couple June 14th birthday boys.

Got to throw this one out there too.... Happy Birthday Mr. President!

3rd up is the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. 

Finally, what you came here for today....You know the Shadows are coming next.

Keeping in the theme, I see an army helmet (and a salute) , but in reality I see a fellow wearing a hat and giving a hat tip.

A ferocious tiger.

I see a fancy smancy sword.

What do you see in the shadows? LMK below.

Now for a standing ovation to all of the father's out there. I wish you a Happy Father's Day tomorrow.

Have a great weekend everybody.

The 1990's: Part two

 Getting right to the cards to finish up the 90's from the last Slots order. The next decade up will be the 2010's which will be a shorter post. The 2020's however will take two posts like the 90's did.

The trifecta of Full Stats, Away and Home stats. Yea. I have now completed the trio with Maddux, Andruw, and Chipper. Now to get the rest of the guys.

That wraps up the 90's for now. I got my ComC order in. They appear to be back on their old ways of taking 6 weeks to ship out an order. Me no likey that. I hope that it was just a gliche (but seems like Greg mentioned it too recently). I ordered more and more often when they were moving faster. Time to back off a bit.....again.

In other news: I also bit the big one (had to overpay too) and bought two more matching (my current) bookcases. They will eventually be going in the living room which means some serious re-arranging furniture in the very near future. The cases were due in next week on the 18th and showed up yesterday. The preparation will take a week all by itself. Not sure the grandson will like it, but hey it's my house....LOL.

Wacky Wednesday

 To kick off this Wednesday, I had pizza AGAIN. This time from Hungry Howies and my expense including tax was $8.59, technically my daughters expense (she bought it). So much better than $62.00! Doing the BLUE again so maybe.....just maybe the Braves can win more than 1 game a week! 

I used a lot of the card backs from 91' Upper Deck to get some interesting shots.

Have a great night!

The last Sport Lots order that came in.

 Seems like it has been a full month since this order came in and it probably has been. I had better start posting the stuff I got in that order. First, an update on the "CHASE". Currently (counting the ComC Braves that just came in) I am sitting at 31, 181 unique Atlanta Braves cards (does not include Boson or Milwaukee). That "other" guy is at 32, 680 as of 6/6/25. 499 behind. I gained a little ground as well as total cards entered too. I still hold #23 for total baseball cards entered which has been there all year long, but I am working on inching that one in the right direction. #23 for non sports cards too (I dropped a couple there) and gaming too is #157. 

Now for some pictures. I'll be breaking the posts this go around by decades again. It is just easier to scan them before putting them into the appropriate binders. The 90's are up first and I will only do half of them tonight.

This batch had a lot of parallels, Canada, Tiffany, Gold medallions, Foils, and the like.

No matter how hard you try there will always be cards a team collector needs from the 90's.