What? I went to a card shop.

 Yesterday I had a craving for some Lee's famous chicken tenders. The franchise has been in these here parts for as long as I can remember. Ocala had two locations one is way too far for me to drive just for a craving (to the other side of town). The original location which is closer and on my side of town is about a 15 minute drive. I headed that direction around 11:30am to get me some lunch. Just so happens to be a couple of blocks down from my LCS (Grand Slam) and I hadn't been in there for about 6 months at least it seems that way. As I approached Lee's I seen down the road to the shopping center where the LCS is located and decided why not.

I didn't stay but about an hour or so, everyone was like dang where have you been yada yada. This visit showed they had their cheap bulk boxes of cards back out front. However, a new sign was in place. Dime cards, sleeved cards .25, top loaded cards a dollar. This was a positive change from my perspective. I decided to dig into the dozen monster boxes, but in quick fashion as I was indeed craving that chicken. These cards are mixed and as far as baseball goes the bulk was 2025 and 2026 cards. I quickly built a stack of 87 dime cards, 38 quarter cards and 3 one dollar cards. I then hit those dang wooden boxes that house the higher value cards and are sorted by sport etc. I wasn't actually going through it thoroughly but quickly thumbing it and managed to "scan" over the 10K plus cards and pulling out just a few.

Posting up the Braves first. The mini Baldwin is the AG back, Strider is the refractor. The Spahn was already in my Braves team sets, but I needed wone for the set build. These were quarter cards.

The Acuna was a dupe but was still needed for the set build and it was a quarter. The 1969 Fleer cloth Patch was also a Braves dupe it too was a set build need. It cost $2.00 (probably overpaid but it is in nice shape. Now I know I over paid for Crandall auto at $10.00 but figured the extra is where I would take any discount off the days' purchase. Which in the end $4.00 was knocked off so I consider the cost to be $6.00, still high but hey certified on card auto and looks great for being 24 years old. Now that seems really weird stating that a card from 2002 is 22 years old. BUMPED MY BRAVES AUTOS TO 807/288.

I'll wrap here for the week and finish the rest up next week. Have a great weekend.

New to me with a twist

 I won a couple of Atlanta Braves autographed cards on Ebay. Thinking they were new to me, I was looking forward to getting them in and marking them off. 

Oops! Turns out one of them was a dupe. I had it marked off on all of my different sheets and pages except for one. The one I use to see who I have and who I don't. Weird is that on my web page and in my excel sheet for Braves I listed it with a specific NOTE that this has a copyright of 2025. Apparently I had issue with TCDB saying it didn't exist and that this card was 2024. The one I just got in does not have 2025 anywhere on it, just the 2024. So I will be checking out that Braves binder real soon to see what my brain was seeing and thinking back whenever I got the first one. I have stacks of Braves to binder up anyways. I might as well make it a all day thing. 

Here are the two Braves autos: Schwellenbach is the questionable newbie.

2024 Pulse and 2018 Bowman Platinum Top Prospects autos. Pulse is on card and the Bowman is a sticker. My new totals are as follows:

806 Braves different autographs and 287 different players. I hope to resolve that 2024/2025 on the other card real soon.

Thank you for your service!

 Say thank you instead of Happy Veterans Day.

Key Facts

Date & Origin: Originally established as Armistice Day in 1919 to mark the end of World War I (fighting ceased on November 11, 1918, at the 11th hour of the 11th day). It was renamed Veterans Day in 1954 to honor all U.S. veterans of all wars. [1, 2, 3]
Has been extended to all honorably discharged service members whether peacetime or wartime service.
Veterans Day vs. Memorial Day: Veterans Day honors all living U.S. military veterans, whereas Memorial Day (the last Monday in May) specifically commemorates military service members who died while serving. [1, 2]
Common Traditions: Features a presidential wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, local parades, community ceremonies, and recognition of service members. [1]

Proper Etiquette & Greetings

What to Say: While "Happy Veterans Day" is commonly used, many military organizations and veterans prefer a direct expression of gratitude, such as "Thank you for your service", since the holiday is a solemn observance of sacrifice rather than a festive celebration.


Now to add some athletes who celebrate (hopefully festively) their birthday on this day.




























Again for those who served "Thank You!" I'd also extend that to the families and loved ones that held down the fort while their loved ones served.

An EBay win. Christmas time is coming....

 It is getting close to the holidays. This was a 13 oversize d/c ornament get in one swoop. Only one was a dupe and I'll use that one for the PC. I'll have to put the Acuna in the Braves binders too.

The Murakami was the dupe. Combine the ones here with the three others I had from the Mega boxes I opened. I need these: 1, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11. I got the lot for $18.00 plus 6.50 shipping. 

Have a great night. I've got Thanksgiving on my mind.

Maddux Monday

 Much much better with the commenters this week. Our winner is Jafronius.

Now for this weeks cards.

With these posted there are 5 more weeks left with Greg Maddux cards. Let's keep those comments up there and go out with a bang. Then I'll come up with some thing else to post on Mondays.

Incoming

 Closing out the week with a few incoming Braves.

First up was a surprise from Mr. Keppel. Matt sent 6 Braves cards and hit with these two, thanks Matt.

The batch above came from 2 OCTer's.  My first in hand Update and a sandglitter from ser. 2 plus a Holiday Lights Acuna.

Have a great weekend. I WAS THINKING THAT I might head to a Tampa/Clearwater show this afternoon, and then head towards Orlando tomorrow. However, I've decided not to travel today. We'll see what I wind up doing tomorrow.

Wacky Wednesday

 Hump day again. Also trivia night. 

Straight to the interesting cards for this week.

A little fun above. I am thinking that the Allensworth might be a dupe or it just might be there because it is the gold medallion. I bet that is what the dealio is. :)

I'll have to scan up some Wacky cards for next week rather the week after. Next Wednesday is Veteran's Day!

Have a great night.

Taking Snapshots

 Last week or actually the week before that I hit up Ebay for some stuff as our other go to online places seems to have some issues. I specifically targeted some Braves stuff that I need. I came across an unopened box of 1998 Pinnacle Snapshots. 

I completely went brain dead for a moment. I totally forgot I was searching Braves, and I hit the buy it now button, thinking oh boy I can can rip some packs and get my Braves they have 18 different, and then some others for my PC. WRONG. Brain fart bigtime, it was a Braves box! Now I did recover before it actually arrived, and chalked it up to well I'll get my set and my Braves PC guys with some extras. 

Clearly a brain fart. Says so right there Braves, duh!

These snapshots are 4x6 as is the checklist.

These are the "packs" front and back. Now I only opened up three packs to get my set and PC guys. the rest are still in the box and sitting on one of my Braves book cases.

 

I am over it now, done. I did mark off 18 new to me Braves from the TCDB count. They count these as cards even though they really are photographs. So that leaves me with this: Do you think that TCDB should be counting these? I see and know that they count all kinds of things as "cards/items" some I agree with some I do not. What do you think? 

Now for a little fun.

LMK down below, don't forget to like and subscribe, lol. 

Yes, I voted!

Just Another Maddux Monday

 Last week officially brought us an end to the 2026 baseball season. I am already ready for spring training. Of course I am watching to see the off-season moves the Braves take  (or don't). I actually don't think that much has to be done. I do believe they should re-sign both Dubon and Mahle. I wouldn't risk losing them especially for just 1 additional year on the offer. If they would lock those two down, then the only things they have to do is add 1 more high quality starting pitcher and lock in a really good DH.

Okay now to Greg Maddux.

Some horizontals for you. Last week's freebies go to........ Fuji. Congrats Mark back to back. There were only 3 commenters last week. Let's see if we can increase that a bit shall we?

My new favorite song

 Throughout our lives most of us have a favorite song that from time to time changes. Well, I've got a new fave. For the last 2-3 weeks I've been listening to this and I just love it especially with the video. I know that some of you will love it too. I also know that it ain't everyone's cup of tea.

Here is a link to the video, turn the speaker/sound on.

May God Bless America

It's got a country (old school) feel to it. Love it!

Have a great weekend! and May God Bless America!

Wacky Wednesday

 The Rays prevented a sweep last night. extra extra extra innings too.

Now here are this week's interesting cards.

8 of 9 are continuing from 1997 Upper Deck, just the card backs this time on all but one of those.

Have a great night!

The Holiday Box #3

 In case you missed last night's post I got that complete Holiday set from Ebay that I bought on 10/21, it came in today. We can call this one a two-fer to count the completed set. Now all I need is finish the Braves team needs.

Box #2 was my Braves hotbox as it had 5 of the of the 6 Braves I got in all three boxes. This one had just 1.

There's my Brave! Colson is a holiday variation.

Blue Glitter Yordan.

Skubal is a back variation, and just in case you are wondering Kike is not an SP. I got both the red and green versions and they are getting ready to head north....HO HO HO!

Cruz Chrome.

Jac holiday variation.

That "wraps" the 3 Mega boxes, still bummed about wasting my money.  $29.99 per box. I got the complete set for under $45.00 plus $10.00 shipping, and got it in 5 days.

Just another Maddux Monday

 I certainly hope that everyone had a great weekend. Had dinner last night at the Outback with Hunter and Elijah, it was gurd. The food anyways, our waitress not so much (In fact- I tipped the bus boy as much as she got. He was great though throughout our meal). I even had some leftovers for tonight, mmmh. Tasty sirloin and Alexander Springs Chicken (minus the honey mustard).  Elijah cleaned up too, after polishing off his Chicken tenders kids meal (3 large tenders at that), he demolished a 6 oz sirloin. Good to see him eat something other than chicken, lol.

Last week Mark (Fuji) won our weekly giveaway. Mark I will add those with some more I have stacked for you out real soon in PWE's.

The World Series tonight in Tampa Let's see if the Rays can take all 3 home games and make the Series interesting. I already got that complete Holiday set plus another Ebay win from last week. Got them today.

2026 Topps Holiday: box 2 My Braves HOT BOX

 This one will be half the size of the post last night. 

I scan from each pack.... here we gooooooooooooooooooo.

Had to throw my first Braves pull. It is a base card.

Woo Hoo, my second Braves card. Unfortunately another disappointment for me was a total of 6 Braves cards in all three boxes. Two base cards, 2 red foil, and 2 green foil.

Three pack sin a row with a Braves. Lindor is obviously a Holiday SP.

What 4 packs in a row with a Braves card.  Teel is a back variation. You can see the Chrome too.

This pack didn't even have a good base card let alone the additional parallel card.

A blue parallel. DeLauter back variation.

The Holliday card is the base card.

Carroll is the Holiday SP variation.

There you go for my 5th Braves card in box #2. None in box 1, so box 3 had one for me too.

Have a great weekend.

You ain't gonna believe this.

 Then again....yes you will. We are used to this CRAP by now. I am talking about Topps gimmicks, tricks, and overall BS.

Last month was my birthday and a couple of my siblings gifted me money/gift card. I decided right away I would use those funds to take care of Topps Holiday and Update once they were released.

I pre-ordered three (3) Mega boxes of the Holiday 5 days later when they were available. Sure enough I got my 3 boxes on release day which was yesterday. A very small box containing all 3 was delivered to houses over by UPS, no biggie I still got them. Each box of the MEGA contained 10 packs with 10 cards each plus 1 over size ornament. Each box would also contain either a relic, auto, or a base chrome card. I was really looking forward to the latter. 

Just 2 of the boxes. the boxes had no unused space inside which is nice for a change.

The three OZ d/c ornament cards. There are other standard size ornaments again this year with stockings again,and I think gingerbread (not sure on that one).

Now for box one. I scanned all 100 cards. All 10 packs.

Pack 1:

Yes you see that correctly. Each pack (basically) gives you 3 three base cards, 1 other parallel usually the standard metallic/glitter (whatever they call it), 3 green foil, and 3 red foil cards. In essence, you are building three equally distributed per pack parallel sets. Here I thought 3 boxes would net me close to a full base set.....WRONG. 1/3 AT BEST!

next pack:

The Walker is NOT a base card it is an card back variation. The "difference is mainly around the border of the team logo on the back of the card, so stupid that I won't scan it. The are a total of 3 SP/SSP variations in each box.

pack 3:

pack 4:

pack 5

pack 6

Anthony is one of the regular Holiday Variations. Topps coded these ending in 006 and the back variations are 007. The standard base cards and the red and green parallels end in 977.

pack 7

Ah crap.. There is a Chrome base in this box meaning no relic or auto for me.

pack 8

Mookie is a back variation.

pack 9

box 10

Thanks a lot Topps. Now even 10 MEGA boxes isn't enough to build a complete 200 card base set. I should have stuck to my usual habit of just waiting it out and buying a cheap base set on EBay. (I may still do that just to complete the base set).

For boxes 2 and 3 (separate posts) I did NOT scan every card, just parallels for the most part and variations. Half the scans are gone. So those will be quickies that I'll do tomorrow and again on Tuesday.

I am so disappointed! I don't rip hardly any packs, and I was so looking forward to ripping these packs this year. But right from the first pack and definitively from the 2nd pack the wind was sucked right out of me. This was not good very bad. Now even after all 3 boxes were opened I didn't get any dupes, not a single one. But when you only get 3 cards (including the parallels) dupes would have made this so much worse, but alas no dupes of any kind at all across the board. NONE.

SPOILER ALERT:

1). I didn't get any relics or autos either. All three boxes had Topps Chrome SPs.

2) I have already gone to Ebay, found the cheapest complete set and made an offer and it was accepted. So for less than what I paid for just 2 of those Mega boxes I have the complete "regular" base set coming to me. I should have done that to begin with.