Happy Birthday Charlie: RIP

 Rest in Peace my brother. One day we'll walk side by side. You make the biscuits I'll bring the Caro Syrup....we'll sop biscuits...mmmh mmmmh good.

Thank you Charlie for everything you did and for the AMAZING LEGACY you left behind. Every nation on Earth is carrying your torch, and will do so until the end of times. 

Let's do this! Using 'NEW MATH" When does 1 equal 3 and then 541?

 Let's do this! My last order from Sport Lots rather I should say my shipment from them had 3 orders. Most of the order of 541 cards were for my birthday binders (that rabbit hole I went down). There were some Braves of course and Elvis as well as a whole bunch of Star Wars (151 of them).

This go around I have scanned the cards by the seller. This way you can seek them out if you like. I will highlights pros & cons of each.

cot315ct: Because I use box shipping most of the sellers I buy from have zero cost to ship to box. Some have a very tiny ship to box rate. I "think" this guy was one of the super cheap ones. I don't order from him a lot so I don't remember for certain.

Both of the scans above came from inserts2 who I order from every time. He uses the zero to box rate. One con that I have is he goes on vacation often. Because my orders sit for a long time before I ship to my box not a big deal for me. Always packs the cards nicely.

lugnut80: another zero to box and pretty solid all around. (does auctions too).

ordner5x: another one I use a lot with zero to box.

uncorked: another regular with zero to box. also does auctions.

These were all singles from different sellers with zero to box or maybe .25-.30.

Here I forgot who these came from but my note says what they are and were new to my Elvis binder.

Last up is one of our former bloggers: AdamPark

I got 151 cards for 3 different Star Wars Chrome Galaxy sets. I scanned just one card from each of the sets. What I did do is jot down the before and after stats.

2021: Before I had 6/100. Now I have 73/100.

2022: Before I had 15/100. Now I have 88/100. I need the following 12 cards to finish it.

6, 8, 11, 12, 15, 17, 45, 65, 94, 97, 98, 100.

2023: Before I had 50/100. Now I have 62/100.

That covers the entire shipment as I did not scan any of the birthday binder additions. I have entered most of them and updated my TCDB stats for them. I still need to do 7/26 cards. I have stalled on those as I need to go get some smaller binders.

Just another Maddux Monday

 Alright, another week is upon us. Happy to be have woke up on this side of the dirt. 

I have a very busy week ahead (the rest of the month in fact). Which means probably a busy November too. I have 4 medical appointments in the next 7 days, then 2 the week after. THEN, the follow ups for those appt's still to come (the first 3 anyway). Then there is still at least one more that hasn't been scheduled yet to begin with, a little pissed about that.

Let's talk baseball. The Cleveland team is in, and Milwaukee beat the Dodgers. Last but not least RJ won again.....LOL. I think he has someone on the take at Random.org, hehe.

This week freebies:

 

Go get em folks!

Friday night

 Just a quick one tonight. One of members of Old Card Traders (OCT) posted a trade on our group. I closed the deal. 

Will you look at them them thar Indians, oops Guardians. 

Sure would have been nice to make this post after a game 5 win in LA, lol. But for even more giggles, at least the HR counter on the box, had it right for the Braves Dodgers series.

Have a good weekend.

One and done

 That would be win one LDS game and the Braves are done. OUCH! Maybe next year :)

I'd love to say (blame it) on the fact the Braves weren't hitting especially when it counted. The Braves left 23 men on base, but that wasn't because the LA left 29 on base.

I can't even go to production left on base with RISP. They went 1 for 23 over the 4 games, but LA was 0 for 15 until Pages last night. (Yeah, I know it was long ball or nothing for most of the post season so far this year) something the Braves should have been all over. But not for the LA series, nope (see my sense of humor- switched to Dodger blue). Simply put the only thing I can say it that the Braves bats just didn't show up for the LDS. 

Now to finish up that trip to The Villages card show. You know the "odd ball" day. Here are some more. Magazines a slew of them for $15.00.

The most recent induction edition including a Brave.

I've noticed that inside the HOF mags are "removable inserts/posters" You actually would have to cut them out, but they provide the dotted lines. I've considered taken these out of the books and putting them into one pocket pages and in a binder, but I haven't.

That's what the back look like.

Another money grab with Andruw's Induction.

This one's poster is Mel Ott, hence the stick note.

Buck Leonard with this one.

Some of these have three players inside.

This had Chipper Jones for the poster. Hank on the cover is a BIG bonus.

That clears out the stuff from this show. I've gotten a couple things in, be it from Ebay, Other traders, and my 542 card Sport Lots order.

Have a better night than I am, and Padres, and Yankees fans :(

Now it's time for the ChiSox to close out there run, and get to the League Championships, so that we can get to the World Series so that we can get to next season already :)

Wacky Wednesday

 Last night's loss to the Dodgers hurt a bit. Now it's a do or die night. Let's Go Braves!

Need a win!

Cooperstown: Hall of Fame Plaque postcards.

 I'm drifting back to the card show In The Villages last month. Let me start off with some numbers:

There are 354 members and I have "a" postcard of 265 of them. 75%.

Now, here is the tricky part. They (the internet) say there is 853 different versions of those 354 people. THEY ARE WRONG. I have probably a hundred variations that aren't listed so HA!

Yes, there are variations and just like baseball cards some are intentional, but make absolute sense. ie: Spanish. The others are mainly print variations usually pertaining to "what is printed inside the postage stamp box", but there are countless others. Of course the stated print date is one, but TCDB doesn't count those even though there is also typically a design logo that is different on them in the bottom left corner too.

I count them as being different because they are and in an obvious manner at that.

I have in my HOF plaque "box" 337 different (I've been too cheap to buy a 100 count box of the 4 pockets to store them properly in a binder). I should probably do that...wait a minute just a thought.....I can tell people who ask what I want for a Christmas that I want that (hopefully two people will get them, because I could use them all).

I forgot to jot down in my notes for this post how many out of that oddball box that cost me $15.00 were needs. Oh well, maybe I didn't do that because maybe I only scanned actual needs. Not sure at this point it has been a month.

I am leaning that way.

Ahhh. There is a stick note, stating that all of the cards in the box only 6 dupes went to the PC collection. BTW, pretty sure there are some in my PC's that probably should be in the HOF plaque (box-future binder). That makes it a real good deal for sure. 

Here are three of the back variations that I got in this box. Clearly they are different. Well, not exactly as they are not they same person, but you get the idea.

The differences can be in the stamp box, bottom left corner, not to mention the print date. That is not to say every year I want to buy a complete set to get different print date....heads up they actually don't print all of the cards each year.....just the new ones, and any "stock" that is low.

I don't have any yet from the last 3 inductions. Typically you'd pay .99 for each one directly but then you have shipping. I still need 89 people, but I don't mind waiting to catch them for a quarter or fifty cents at a show somewhere. 

It looks like I got 28 new to me plaque cards and pretty sure I only scanned the needed ones. 

Now it is time for what is probably going to be the most watched MLB division series game this season. GO BRAVES!

Just another Maddux Monday

 Talk about a ballgame last night between LA and ATL. Bringing it back to Atlanta all even. Playing two bull pen games to start the series was driving me nuts. Now that those 2 games are over and we have a very rested Chris Sale and Mahle to boot.....feels good. LA doesn't have that issue as they have a half dozen aces, lol, but then pen worked nicely for the Braves most of the year and certainly last night. Looking forward to Tuesday.

Last week's winner of the Greg Maddux cards was .........wait..... yep RJ! I was glad to see the comments getting back up some after the google blogger issues last month. At least they handled it unlike BECKETT media. I won't get into now, but talk about pissing people off.... Oh BOY.

This weeks freebies:

Later folks.

Well will you look at this?

 I certainly will. Dang straight! You betcha, yep. Without a doubt.

Awhile back I sent Gregory of 9 Pockets fame some set needs he was working on with no return needed. 

Gregory doesn't follow the rules, hehe. I for one am glad he didn't. Here's why.

Yessir JimBob! And he didn't stop with that awesome vintage Sports Illustrated.

How about another one. Oh yeah. Definitely a very very sweet return.

Thank you Gregory.....very much appreciated!

My Braves punched their ticket to Hollywood last night. Here are some stats of interest regarding this "wild card" format.

There have been 20 matchups and of those 19 of the game 1 winners moved on.

14 of those were 2 game sweeps. 

Have a great weekend everybody.

The Villages: part 1 of a really odd card show

 The weekend after that Apopka card show was a show locally in The Villages, and it would be their last one of the year. January will be the next show there. This go around I made 4 purchases......all odd ball items.

My picks at this show were more or less odd ball items. Added some stuff here for my Presidents Collection. 

Below is an album/record/LP

The two pics above make up the front cover.

The 2 scans here are side by side of the back cover.

The record cost me $5.00 (same as the cover price :). I haven't listened to it, but it looks clean and not scratched up. Not a bad deal for 1973 vintage baseball odd ball.

Across the aisle from where I bought the record was a dealer that had all kinds of stuff and on the very end was a small box of HOF plaque cards which I collect (more on those in another post). In the very back of the box some other odd ball items. He had per item price written on the box, but also $15.00 takes all. I counted the individual pieces and I took all.

In the back of the box were these "reprint" Red Man cards.

Happy to add a Braves card with those (I did already have 1 Brave from that reprint set, but not this one).

Only the last four make it to the PC binders, and I'm not sure what to do with the others. 

I will post on the HOF cards probably Tuesday, and one other post of some more odd ball items from this show to follow later in the week. Enjoy the baseball this weekend if you're still watching.

Wacky Wednesday

 Just watched the Braves lose one. Looks like we're playing tomorrow.

Ready for some more post-season WINS. Meanwhile here are some interesting cards.

Enjoy the baseball games folks.

No school today :)

 Alrighty, I can finally try to get back on track cleaning out the post/scan folders. Although there isn't a scan tonight. Nope, I guess about a 6/7 weeks ago (lol) I won another Sport Lots auction for a VERY near set of 2026 Topps Chrome. But before I dip into that pickup I wanted to talk about one of the grabs in my most recent shipment from Sport Lots. This time it was for a HUGE batch of the 2025 Topps Chrome Platinum cards. I grabbed a bunch of cheap singles to get me closer to the set build. Maybe 30ish cards helps. The total order had 548 cards in it. Most were actually for that rabbit hole I fell into with the birthday guys thing. Probably 2/3 of the order which was technically 3 separate orders sitting in my box and one shipment. I will post up some of that stuff in the coming days.

I am down to just needing 101 cards for the 500 TCPA card set (not counting the variations/SPs). This doesn't mean that I'll ever complete the set. You see I have yet to complete any of this brand sets. Topps Chrome Platinum.

Here is my current want/needs list from 2021-2025 (no set in 2024).

2021: 15, 112, 123, 139, 165, 222, 237, 301, 323, 332, 354, 402, 404, 409, 420, 434, 447, 453, 456, 458, 471, 491, 493, 499, 503, 506, 507, 512, 514, 520, 526, 533, 538, 554, 566, 574, 598, 600, 601, 603, 606, 610, 619, 621, 627, 630, 633, 641, 643, 644, 645, 649, 654, 657, 660, 663, 670, 678, 683, 685, 687, 695, 700.

2022: 21 CLEMENTE, 171 JROD, 200 JUDGE, 427 BRADISH, 457 TORKLESON, 469 GIL.

2023: 8 TURANG, 43B HARRIS (X2), 67B CARROLL (X2), 77B ADLEY (X2), 93B GUNNER (X2), 186B OHTANI (X2), 188B TROUT (X2), 200 OHTANI, 301 VLAD JR (X2), 332A, 332B JUDGE (X2), 350 CAROLL, 389 MORRIS, 396 JETER, 421 CLEMENTE.

2025: 2, 8, 12, 15, 17, 18, 20, 35, 36, 41, 46, 56, 63, 65, 68, 69, 71, 81, 90, 95, 99, 103, 105, 112, 113, 122, 130, 133, 136, 137, 138, 147, 159, 161, 173, 176, 180, 181, 187, 188, 197, 201, 204, 205, 206, 212, 228, 230, 241, 244, 247, 248, 254, 265, 268, 272, 274, 277, 279, 283, 286, 289, 291, 293, 294, 299, 311, 320, 321, 322, 323, 337, 338, 343, 344, 347, 350, 351, 363, 365, 366, 367, 374, 394, 396, 405, 407, 408, 448, 456, 458, 459, 468, 470, 476, 479, 484, 492, 495, 496.

The best shot at completing one of these is obviously going to be 2022 followed by 2023. We'll see though. I don't really pursue set builds like most people. Typically, I'll do a quick search of Sport Lots for singles here and there, then otherwise only when I see a deal for a lot of the set. Again, I don't really seek out the lots either. But yet I am a set builder, lol. I am literally working on thousands of sets......I know I'm nuts!

Bonus update. I did win a SLOTS auction about 6 weeks ago now for a near set of 2026 Topps Chrome. A super deal in my opinion, because it came with most of the key cards, missing Alvarez, but hey I'm sure in time that will find itself in a reasonable price range (hopefully a quarter box lol, but more than likely in time will be a dollar box.

Here is that very short want/needs list: 3 Alvarez, 134 Burns, 160 Painter, and 291 Crooks. I just need 4 cards.....

That near set very near set was $76.00 delivered. Not bad considering the gimmick of the buyback MVP guys would be 2/3 of that price and who knew Yordan would be knocking down that door instead of the likes of Judge and a few other potentials. 

Anyways, this post knocks two off of my list. Yea    yea   yea.

Later Got a ballgame to watch here shortly. (update: just watched the Braves take game 1).

Just Another Maddux Monday.... Free cards: Greg Maddux

 With the blogger issues being resolved (for now and until next time) still last week only had 3 commenters for the freebies. What? That is nuts. RJ pulled the win.

I'll have to scan up some more Greg Maddux cards before next week, but for now here are this weeks freebies.

There you go. To be eligible to win these 9 cards be a follower, US addressee and comment on this post before Friday night midnight EST.

It is POST SEASON!

Is the number 3500 a magic number?

 Yeah, I don't believe it's a magic number. It is however a big number especially in regards to baseball.

Both pitching and hitting have a "CLUB".

In pitching you have a 3500K club and just 11 members sit inside. Max Scherzer was the latest member joining earlier this year. Max is sitting 3 K's behind Justin Verlander all-time who joined the club last season. 

Here is the 11 members in order as of today.

Nolan Ryan

Randy Johnson

Roger Clemens

Steve Carlton

Bert Blylevin

Tom Seaver

Don Sutton

Justin Verlander

Max Scherzer

Gaylord Perry

Walter Johnson

In hitting you have a very short 5 member 3500 hits club:

Pete Rose, Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, and Tris Speaker.

But those are not the only baseball related exclusive clubs. No, here is another one.

This post marks my 3500th post on this blog. It seems like it should be so much higher, but it is what it is and has taken many years to accomplish it. I got there now let's see if I can hit the 4K and then 5K in my lifetime. LOL.

Adios have a great weekend everybody!

Last Call....SAY CHEESE

 Last call or in other words the last post from that Apopka card show from a while back.

This round are those PC gets from the 2 dollar box which cost me a buck. AS I stated in previous posts some were good deals, most were just spot on (which I hate paying more than 33% of value) I am cheap that way :), and some a good bit were just out right losers. 

One thing that isn't a loser is my trivia team (for the first time in a long time we were all present and accounted for). We took first place (192 points) which happens to be on consecutive visits by my brother and I. He and I only play every other week. The kids will often go on the off weeks here and there. As did just 2 of them last week and kicked butt too with a 178 final points (202 is the max when there is no bonus round double ups in play during the game. Dang I miss those. However 178 was only good enough for 4th place, still awesome, the week prior my brother and I took home 1st place with a doubled up final score of 118. Only had 59 going into the championship/final question which was 4th place at the time. Nailed it and won the $20.00 LOL. Last night was great especially with everyone there. Went into the final 1 point behind the leaders, and we nailed the final question which had multiple choices (we don't like that-makes it too easy). We knew the answer before the choices came up.  Cheese: the food item most stolen.

Okay I am betting that you're ready for some baseball cards.

Nothing wrong with an odd ball HOFer.

Scooping a late 90's Diamond King is awesome sweet.

These are the Braves for PC as I did have copies in the team sets. (above and below).

There ya go. This wraps the Apopka show. I went to the last show of the year in The Villages a week or two after that Apopka show which I'll be posting that stuff soon.