I got a couple of Bobbers!

 I got a few care packages in the mail recently. The most recent I didn't scan, but it was a very nice 1972 Kellogg's set build need a common Parsons, but a need nonetheless. The card came from Bob D an OCT bud and local Floridian. 

I did scan some cards that I got from a different Bob of "The Best Bubble".

I know for a fact that I didn't have that Muckdogs bubble. I still have to check the others. Bob also included some Braves and the two above were not in my collection so they have helped me out in that "QUEST".... You know the one.

Thanks to both Bobs for thinking of me. I will post the Padrographs cards on Thursday.

Shadow Shots!

 My o my, the Braves won another game the other day. They are still in a 3-way tie for the worst record in all of baseball, lol. 

Blue crab.

An upside down dog laying on the ground.

Going with a wig.

Hope your weekend is a good one!

A trip to the Webster Flea Market

 The Webster Flea Market is about an hour away from me. It has been around a very long time. In the old days it was only open on Mondays, yep Mondays. It is huge they are now open the weekends too. It had been a very very long time since I last went there. This trip reminded me just why that is. I absolutely can't stand the layout of the place. It is NUTS they way things are set up. No way possible to hit every aisle/building in a day for sure and worse to keep track of which ones you've been down. Alas, I did find a few cards and such in the place. They are even going to have a card show in May. That probably wouldn't be so bad because all of the card vendors would be consolidated together in one building. We'll see if I make to the show. I did grab a handful of Braves to inch me toward "that goal". 

I picked up 14 Braves cards and only need these 6. I was able to drop that Chipper from my SLOTS cart though. My memory failed here (it did yesterday too). I also grabbed an Orioles thing for the next time reader Bill makes to down here. I also grabbed another Orioles thing but I am keeping that one a 1959 Hoyt Wilhelm cover magazine. He's a birthday guy (not mine) that I collect. I probably should have scanned that too but I didn't. Oh well, you folks have a nice weekend. My Gators are National Champions once again. That is a bright spot in my Sports World as my Braves are still in a 3-way tie for the worst record in baseball, lol. Maybe I should have kept using that blue text font. Another bright spot is a few incoming packages that got. One came from Rod (Padrographs) and another one from Bob (The Best Bubble). I'll get them posted up next week.

Wacky Wednesday

 See it was the blue font, lol. My Braves have bumped themselves up from the worst record in all of baseball to tied for the worst 3 ways. Ah, it's all good for now. 

There ya have this week's interesting cards. I visited a different shop in Gainesville today. I hadn't been to this one before. I bough a lot of junk to rip to see if it would scratch the itch (it really didn't). I bought stuff from the 80's and 90's, and about 700 singles today. (update: the singles were just 459 of them). I might visit this store again before the year ends.  Maybe.  In other news the free answer at tonight Trivia was Hank Aaron.

Have a great night.

A little of this and a little of that.

 I just figured out the reason my Braves aren't winning. I wasn't using my Blue text font. So this should fix it, lol. 

last month when I met up with reader Bill at the card shop in Ormond I picked up some Braves.

I pulled the Braves team set out of the dime boxes, not that I needed them because I already had them sitting in my SLOTS (Sport Lots) box. The Waldrep auto was NOT in the dime boxes. I forget what I paid, but was probably 2-3 bucks. 

I finally got in that HUGE Slots order Saturday. 668 cards (a few were missing), but nearly 500 new to me Braves. I have sorted them, marked them off of my excel sheets (still need to remove them from my webpage), and finished putting them into TCDB yesterday. The team stat check updates daily, but go figure I added 500+ Braves and got just under 550 cards away from that #1 spot (according to my math). Rather it should have. It has been 24 hours, his numbers jumped up 50 cards (uh huh), and mine hasn't changed yet. Still shows me 1000 behind him. Every single card I put was a completely new to me Braves card, so not one of them was already in the system as a set build or PC anything like that. I'm telling you there is some funny stuff going on there (I've been saying that for 2 years now). 

Have a great night. I might update this tonight before publishing (it is early in the morning right now).

UPDATE: My cards finally got bumped up (31, 893 unique Atlanta Braves) This excludes all of the other Braves listings. His bumped up 3 more bringing him to 32, 447. This leaves me 554 cards short (for now). If the last 2 years has taught me anything, my guess his numbers will jump 500 cards before the month is done.

Ebay Braves

 Just like the start of the Braves 2025 season, Saturday was a bust in Orlando. Went to 3 shops, well one of them was no longer there. The other two not only only didn't have any "good deals", I'd say everything was a bit too pricey. I was back home around 3:30. Also noting the Braves finally put a win in the books, still worst record in baseball, but they sure did put on a show for the home crowd with that 10-0 shutout of the Marlins. Only 2 dingers as well, everybody was hitting that day. That one day. 

About 3 weeks back I won some great new to me Braves cards on Ebay. They all were from the same seller different listings though.

You maybe asking "doesn't John already or shouldn't he have the 2014 team set". The answer be of course I do. This was the complete set of mini 2014's.  I think I only had 1 of those.

Ginter X.

Another year of Ginter X. I do like the Black when it comes to A & G. The only thing I like better are the Glossy's, which are now 1/1's so probably won't obtain many if any of those going forward. Third in line would be the newer Ginter Chrome. The 2024 were great.

Finishing up with the complete B/W Braves team set. Loved getting the free shipping on the combined lots. Great adds to the Braves. Speaking of which I just got that monster Sport Lots Braves order in with about 400 new to me Braves. I will get those put it and see if my competition add a few hundred to his totals. 

Saturday Shadow Shots

 Happy Saturday folks! I'm planning on heading down to Orlando and hit up 3 or 4 card shops today. Wish me luck. I hope to find a new source of "great deals".

I'm not sure what I see in this shadow. Maybe a crab.

I see a Chess pawn.

I could say the head of one of the Pokemon, but I'll go with the body of a huge bird.

Clearwater Florida: The PC gets.

 Wrapping up that show in Clearwater with some PC pickups. Hopefully, I will need them like I did with the Braves gets.

This first (minus the auto) will be checked against set build needs before dumping into the PC boxes. I already know the Clemens SP is a set need.

The first row will go to the set builds too. I did in fact need the Adley's for those builds.

Now I know I didn't need the 87' Hygrades, but I didn't want to leave them.

Starting lineups for less than a buck, yeah I'll take them. The best deal was probably the Gold Fanfest Clemens.

Several great deals in this batch too.

I did take a bath on a handful of cards when compared to what I could get it for on ComC.

I am definitely a fan of the 90's Pacific brands inserts.

Some winners and some losers, but all in all I did get a bunch of really cool cards.

Have a great weekend (no post Friday). See ya with some Shadows on Saturday.

Wacky Wednesday

 Holy smokes, what a week and we are only on hump day. Let's see what I have done in the last 3 days.

1) Finished updating my G's PC guys.

2) Visited the V.A. in Ocala West side. (labs for an appt next week in G'veille.

3) Voted, took my brother too.

4) Mowed the grass.

5) Pulled out my H, I, J, K, L, M, N's. (Of course there is a ton of sorting for each of those, but I have consolidated the "letters". I should say "isolated" the letters.

6) Filed my taxes and for the first time in the last 24 years will be getting a refund. What, I didn't send them any money (none taken out either - that is how I've done it since 2003), yet I am going to get a whopping $10.00. I requested a check (y'all no I'm not a digital guy especially when it comes to finances), besides I may just frame the check. I haven't seen a refund in 2 decades. I really don't understand the refund even though I don't work and really have very little monthly income (roughly $142.00 a month) especially when I made more money (live on the savings I've had built up since 1976,   yes I was born in 1966, but was working and actually paying taxes since 1977. My mother had one rule half in the bank no matter what. I did that, and trust me spent the other half (usually invested some way to make more money). I did that since I was 10 years old (really 8 but wasn't enough to file taxes). Me retiring at 40 really makes since when you consider I paid into the system for over 30 years. I did work in the financial services industry, and learned very early, I am a ZERO RISK kind of guy, so less guaranteed meant more to me than the promises of potential. What little I did tuck away for later days (and wasn't that much) predominantly was in tax free stuff. I like that concept. I just hope I don't run through the savings and then wipe out those tucked away far from bank. My plan had me coasting right up until full Soc. Sec. age. Keep in mind my V.A. Doc told me to file for SSI over a decade ago and I refused after all I gave back my Army pension back in the late 80's. I figured I could always go make money if needed even with nightmare of bad back I have. Anyways, none of that explains the $10.00 refund either, but at least you can be puzzled the same as I am.

Now, I do kind of have an idea, but I'm not a CPA so can't be 100%. I will just have to except the $10.00. :) (I'm not going to frame it, I'll buy a pizza with it).

Alrighty, let's get to why you are really here.

I could choose any one of these to be the favorite on the page. There is something I still a dozen years later that I find interesting, different, or worthy.

Have a great night all.

Don't fall for any of those tricksters.

 Time for another birthday Holi-date binder post. April Fools Day. below you'll find a handful of athletes from baseball, football, Hockey, basketball, soccer, and Golf who share this day of celebration.

Remembering the good ole days. Playing pranks on people (loved it). Remember several years back when I think it was Matt who got a bunch of "us" clued in on a prank he pulled on these blogs.... You know where we all posted the Niekro card above. I do, that was fun and harmless. Like the most recent holi-date that past St. Patty's day, pinching people that weren't wearing green. Sure you can't say that was harmless, but in reality it was harmless when you consider all of things one has to worry about these days compared to what it was like when "we" were kids. Yes....the good ole days. 

The next Holi-date post coming up will be for Easter (and NO- shouldn't have any of those Topps Easter cards included). I say shouldn't because I could be pulling a prank on you tonight.... Ah huh, you'll just have to wait to find out if I pulled one on you.

Cards from Clearwater

 As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I did manage to drag myself south to the Clearwater show. I'd say this go around was 50/50 Pokemon/Sports. I made a one card purchase from a kid and probably my favorite addition of the day. The bulk I brought home was a vendor who struggles month to month, and I was going to help him out, but alas my gut says he'll not change. I had originally grabbed about 750 cards from his dollar boxes, but we couldn't agree on a price. It didn't take long while negotiating to figure out that the guy is just not going to last through the season. I quote "I can't come anywhere close to fifty cents a card". Yeah I knew I would weed out most of what I got. I don't take lists or books with me, so I go totally from memory as to what I need. I will say now, I did real good in that department with my Braves and the PC guys too. I thinned the herd, and will split the haul into two posts. This one will be my new to me Braves.

As you can see, lots of 90's needs.

Plenty of early 2000's as well.

Mid to late 20teens.

And of course lots of more recent Braves needs too.

Now it is time to show off that one card purchase I made. My favorite of the day.

A very nice on card auto. Man, I hope he comes back stronger and better than before....and soon. 

I'll hit up the PC guys Thursday night. In other news I finished updating my "G's" tonight! Yeah, moving on to the H & I's.

Saturday Shadow Shots

 I hope everyone is enjoying the start of the 2025 baseball season. I'm not as my Braves are off to 0-2 start. I can't say I'm surprised, but still I have hope they will get things going in the right direction.

I see a lizard man with a ponytail.

I see a fox with a saddle on it.  Gitty up.

I see a kangaroo (all but the head).

Enjoy the weekend.

Jeremy knocks it out of the ballpark!

 I've got quite a few post scans to carry me through the next week or so, probably 2 weeks worth. With today being the real Opening Day of the 2025 MLB baseball season, uh um I figured I'd chime in with the visit last week from Jeremy (Topps cards that never were). Jeremy brought me a stack of cards (I had a huge stack waiting for him too). Among the stack he brought were some PC guys which I did not scan because it was the Braves he gave me that knocked it out of the ballpark.

All Braves needs. I did tell Jeremy he didn't have to break up his 1998 Inaugural Rays set to get me the Braves, but he waivered and did so anyway. Pretty sure he pulled out his Rays and Tigers too. I still need the Dbacks Braves set and most of the 1993 Marlins and half of the Rockies inaugural sets so if you have them PLEASE....let's trade. Jeremy even mailed me another 2025 card I needed after he got back home. Not a Brave (Skenes cup card), but still was a need. Thank you Jeremy for the huge help in my quest for that ATL #1 spot. Which brings me to this     what is coming up. I have cards from Clearwater, more from Ormond, Ebay, and other incoming cards. And I also have a 600+ card haul coming in from Sport Lots which is probably 2/3 of new to me Braves cards. Combine that with themed posts of shadows and Wackys I am pretty set for a couple of weeks and then some. 

Have a great weekend everybody.

WaCkY wEdNeSdAy

 Apparently my brother has re-couped from his ailment and we shall be playing trivia tonight. It's been a month, not sure how we'll do, but the free answer for tonight is "The Godfather". 

1984 fleer offered up several interesting and iconic cards. I also see another baseball card make it on a baseball card. Not bad for junk wax. Now we have started on the 1985 cards.

Have a great night folks!

The DOLLAR boxes.

 Here we go, straight up went through every BASEBALL dollar box (maybe 7) at the shop. I say "at the shop" because pretty sure there are a dozen more baseball at Bill's house. Those will be fun to go through once. I only wish that I could go through them before they get put in the card saver plastics, also nice to not have to look at the other cards again. Maybe, next time I see Bill I will ask if that would be possible before he stuffs them into the plastic.

Of course I will lead off with the Braves.

Threw in the Dylan SP variation to fill the page so that I could keep the four below together.

Now moving to the PC guys.

There you go this closes out that back to back run to Ormond. 

Have a great night all!