Hudson, Florida: first trip to this card show. Caitlyn Clark edition

 The Sunday following the Tampa show last month (August) I headed 2/3rds of the way back to Tampa to make my first appearance at the show in Hudson. Typically a smaller show, but I decided to check it out. Justin told me that Saturday that he was heading down immediately after the Tampa show that night. He was telling me that the "show promoter" was claiming it was going to be his biggest ever with hundred tables.  Well, that certainly didn't happen. The show is held in a high school cafeteria. According to the vendors it was a pretty lame show with only a handful of people showing up on Saturday.... That is a no brainer with the Tampa show at the same time. Sunday appeared to be even worse for attendance. I figured with the lack of buyers I could make some big deals....NOT. The unwillingness to negotiate was evident from all of them.... except for Justin. The only buys I made came from him and I bought a lot. Some good variety. In fact tonight will be just that.... something I do not collect, but bought anyways to save for a rainy day. With the should be all but certain WNBA rookie of the Year winner season officially coming to an end last week this should open up the Hudson show cards pretty well.

There was one more smaller set too that I thought I had put in my box, but guess not. Good thing these are all inexpensive/cheap cards.  One thing is for sure. She definitely changed the WNBA, and the other thing is NO DOUBT that her dad had some influence on her from early on. Guessing he was a basketball fan huh?

Who knows the WNBA might actually turn into something worth watching.....one day. The Caitlyn effect.

Now to put a little baseball into this post: I had a chance to attend both of the Braves doubleheader games today and I opted not to do so. Basically it was two seats for both games total price $50.00. Not the worst seats, certainly not the best either, but I passed.

Game 1 was a doozie! The last two innings that is. The second game had a much better outcome for the Braves. We made the playoffs! San Diego here we come.

In sad news, I just heard the Pete Rose has passed away. May he rest in Peace. 

Hurricane Helene is outta here. Tampa Justin finale

 Hurricane Helene is outta here, but is still wreaking havoc up the coast. I had 75 mph winds. Lost 1 (one) shingle. My brother lost about 10 ft of fence as did the elderly lady next door to me. A bunch of people had sever damage and lost power. I fixed the fence for the neighbor and my brother this morning. Couldn't find my missing shingle though. Valdosta, GA got tore up. Apparently tornadoes spun up there too. I heard the entire city was without power. Atlanta is catching the high winds this afternoon as I write this post.

Now let's finish up the Tampa cards.

That wraps up Tampa. I want to thank all of you for your well wishes and prayers.

Enjoy the weekend!

Hurricane Helene and Tampa card show Justin part 2

 For those inquiring minds concerned about where I am in regards to Helene. Well.... Ocala (Marion county) is in the NE quadrant, not a good place to be with a tropical storm because of potential tornadoes. Sustained winds expected 50mph, that isn't too unusual here in the summer (daily in summer 40 mph), now the gusts will be 75 mph Hurricane force winds so fingers crossed (and certainly prayers as I have been doing that for a couple of days already) for no damage and we don't lose power either. Other than that we should be good. Now let's get to the next round of cards from Justin in Tampa.

I classified the cards from Justin as two deals even though they were combined into one deal. I showed you the Olympic cards already which were part of the 2nd deal. 

It's been a month since I bought these so my memory isn't clear on the cost breakdown, but I want to say it was .07 a piece. Again memory has faded. 

I'll close out the Justin Tampa cards tomorrow (providing I have power and internet).

The following day I went to Hudson for a show and the only purchase was from Justin again and it was enough cards to be spread over 5 or 6 posts. Some great stuff in there.

My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone in the path of Helene.... Be safe, be prepared!

2024 Topps Chrome Olympic

 As in years past this set is half vertical and half horizontal. This year it is a 200 card set and here they are partially.

Knocked the inserts out first.

Love that Flag!

Easy to pick out the refractors.

For some reason I was thinking there were a whole bunch more cards from this set. Guess not. I do remember going over to Ormond to scoop theirs up out of the dime boxes, but I missed by a week. Ken a Gator alumni and works at the Showtime card shop in Jacksonville had cleaned them all out every last one.

I'll clean up the rest of the cards I got from Justin in Tampa next two posts.

On a side note (PUN intended). I updated my High and Medium Priority needs listed on the right of the blog. 

Later Gators (horrible start to the football season).

Tampa card show: The Braves and the LOW DOWN.

 A short one tonight. Reminder I only spent an hour checking this show out then another hour going through Justin's stuff sitting behind his table. Way too freaking crowded for me. This show used to be 80 tables then jumped to 100 and now it is 120 tables in the same space. The walk aisles were a nightmare instead of 6' between tables (left & right) 3'. It was literally chest to chest walking and elbow to elbow at tables. Not fun. I did get a whole bunch of stickers I mean a lot of the original 81-84 Topps stickers, and I also bought a 1991 Panini box and ripped them. 

That was all of the new Braves I picked up there that did not come from Justin. I broke up what I bought from him in Tampa into two posts. The one tomorrow night will be the 2024 Topps Chrome Olympic cards. I'll follow that up with the other stuff from Justin "IN TAMPA". I say that that way because the following day I went to a card show in Hudson, FL and go figure Justin was there for that Sunday. He did tell me he was going there when we were at the Tampa show when I mentioned I was going. Turns out a real DUD of a show. Justin spent the entire day at the Tampa show buying bulk boxes from the other vendors at the show. I spent Sunday going through those and wound up with 5/6 posts worth.

Adios amigos (and amigas)!

COMPLETED SET: 2007 Finest with SP's!

 Nice to have another high end set completed. Albeit a short set at just 166 cards in the set (there are some variations which I do have 1 of them). The last 16 are autographed prospects. 

There are 5 Braves in the set. Technically I am cheating my system as #22 Francoeur above should be in my team set, it is not. I do have the one for the team en-route already.

I like the Chris Carpenter (p) batting shot.

There is the one variation card I have. One of the prospects, but not one of the autographed ones. The scan above has the base version (last card above this scan). Here you can also see the back view of the base cards (1-150).

Here come the autos.

Another back view with the difference being the auto hologram. In the words from my youth...."Another ones bites the Dust"! Monday I'll hit you up with the new to me Braves from the Tampa show, and come back on Tuesday with the 2024 USA Olympic cards (near set--very near set) plus the parallels.

Have a great weekend everybody.

SLOTS: Round two

 This next week and half is going to be a nail biter for me regarding my Braves making the post season. Today was awesome 15-3 win over the Reds (sorry Chris) and the Major leagues first 18 game winner this year with Sale. A bunch of 3 run homers which probably isn't too odd for the Cincy ballpark. Okay now on the those set needs I picked up in that last Sport Lots order (next order should be here any day).

Bowman's Best is a small set thank goodness, but even then it is a pricey set to build.

Topps Chrome BLACK is an even tougher set to build due to pricing. Pretty sure I didn't pay more 35 cents for any of these and got some good names.

Topps Tribute another very pricey set, but like the BLACK not much more than a quarter.

I am getting close to completing the 2023 set, 2022 is doing pretty good as well, but 2021 still needs a boat load.

There you have the "set builds" I got in last month. Obviously wasn't waiting to complete the set to show them off as that might be a while if ever at all. I do have one set that DID get completed and that will be the subject of tomorrow's post.

Next week I will start to post the cards from the last Tampa card show and the Hudson show. The Villages show won't make for much of a post this go around. I think a few cards to show and maybe a phone pic of some sets. I didn't stay long there and most of what I bought were baseball books. On second thought I think we'll just skip it altogether this time.

Have a great night folks!