Baseball cards: FREE PACKS!

 A couple of weeks back when I made the back to back day trips over to Ormond Beach and Kyle jacked the cost of the dime boxes (by the box) 3 fold and I whined I did get some free packs of cards. Yes, I am spoiled....who wouldn't be when for a decade plus you were buying monster (3 and 5 row) boxes of baseball cards for $5-25.00, then all of a sudden they $30.00, then very short lived jumped to $75.00. yeah I'm calling it sticker shock. I just bought 2 and 2/3 boxes that day and I'm probably not going to buy any box full from there again. That is not saying that $75.00 isn't a good deal with the kinds of cards in the dime boxes (that's .03 a piece) a very good deal. I however, am not going to spend $75.00 for them as 99% of them won't be needs of any kind for me. I can hand pick the cards I want, and because the last visit last Friday I grabbed 200 cards and got them for free. I expect that to be the case most of the time going forward, along with a reduced number of trips over there. 

My blog's profile since it's inception was about DEALS. So now I must journey back into the real world and find some DEALS. I actually look forward to taking some trips all over Florida looking for them. It may take awhile, but I'll find some you can bank on it. 

Kyle did make it up to me by giving me some free packs, a book case, a 8ft table, and that curio which was more beneficial to me than anything else I got that day. In an attempt to get my Star Wars all together and organized before May 4th, I visited a few used furniture stores. The closest thing I seen was kind of like the curio I got from the shop, the difference those in the "used" furniture shops were $1200.00. Yeah, that trip albeit shocking initially was a HIT for me. As for the free packs of cards on day 1 were 4 packs of 2024 Heritage and a slew of the 2025 Topps Hobby Rip night packs.

I wasn't able to complete the 15 card set from the first packs on day 1, but I got Kyle to give me some more of them on day 2 along with a few packs of 2023 Big League wrapper redemption packs.

He gave me some packs of the Trading card day too. After the 2 days of packs of the Rip night cards I completed the set but still need the base Crews card.

I slipped in the Soler Braves rainbow foil from 2025 to even out the scan.

The Big League wrapper set is just 100 cards and no short prints in the base. there are lots of parallels too. Did anyone see the one above? The autograph one of one?

The 1/1 is hard to see but it is in the upper left corner just under the BL. That pull would have been better if it was a PC guy or Braves card, but hey I am NOT complaining. I still have a couple more posts from the Ormond cards from those two days. The cards i pulled from the buck box, and then other cards. After those are done I will start on the Clearwater show cards, followed by some Ebay wins, and other incoming and then back to another visit to Ormond. Who knows what else I'll find before I get those posts posted.

Wacky Wednesday

 I am in utter tears right now. Just kidding. Seems like no one had seen those 2024 Topps Holiday Plaid parallels. I have shown two or three of them in previous posts, you must have just missed it. LOL. 

Time for another round of interesting cards for one reason or another, except for one thing. I am foregoing the pre-scanned run of cards I was going to post tonight and going with these instead.

Yes, I got my hands on some 2025 cards. I did NOT buy a ton of them. The dime boxes at KnT finally dumped about 10K of them into their boxes. They also had complete sets already in order so I got one of those and just picked through the boxes grabbing cards for my PC guys and my Braves even though I already bought my Braves team (they are sitting in my Sport Lots, box (well now those are dupes).

Snagged the cards above because simply they caught my eye. A couple of bat flips and a nice slide, a great catch, weirdness picture taking, and just look how high that little feller got up in the air. I figured while 2025 series 1 was still on most people's minds I would get out these and now can proudly place them into the back of my Wacky Binders. 

Have a great night everyone!

The other Dime Box cards

 This go around will be the PC cards that I pulled out of the KnT dime boxes two weeks ago. And before anyone mentions it, I know that I was going to post the "free packs" I got from the back to back days visiting Kyle's shop but yesterday was St Patty's Day (I hope everyone faired well). I will post those packs or most of the goodies on Thursday.

The shop did NOT have the base 2025 cards in the dime boxes as of this trip (they did the next week (this past Friday when I visited the shop with Bill K. I'll post on that some other time. I was surprised to see some parallels and inserts in there though.

As much as I'd like to complain about the paying 3x as much for a whole box of them (I no longer will be doing that), still the .03 I paid for these cards is still a good deal.

Flat out robbery on the yellow Ichiro.

Happy to find some plaid parallels too.

So that finishes off the dimes from those two visits. I did pick up another 150ish last Friday when Bill K. was there. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 I wish all of you the luck of the Irish. As is my annual tribute to this day I am opening it up to the baseball cards where the player/s are wearing their Spring training St. Patty's day attire or I at least think they are.

The next scans (not counting the first card below) will be the birthday athletes. The majority below are baseball, but I left the few others that are not in the binder.

There you have them. I haven't really added much to the Holidate binder in the last few years. But, I will try to do better....maybe. Also noting that yes I do have a few of those Panini National Treasure shamrock (green swatches) relic cards, but I don't keep them in this binder. Maybe I should especially if it isn't a Brave or PC guy. Let me know what you think, do I pull the ones in the relic binder and move to this one or not. 

Saturday Shadow Shots

 This week flew by pretty fast. It was a good week. blog reader Derek is visiting the area from our neighbors up North (Canada). We weren't able to work out a get together and he is flying home today. Likewise, reader Bill K was down this week as well. He too is flying home tonight, however we did manage to meet up twice. Thursday at my house good times we talked for about 8 hours while he picked through some boxes. Then on Friday we met up at Kyle's shop in Ormond. He pulled almost 200 cards from the dime boxes before heading back to Jacksonville where I'm sure he spent some time at the card shop there too. I got some PC updating done this week as well as Braves. On the PC update I am hoping to finish the "G's" by months end and start with the H and I's. (the I is for Ichiro) lol. There might be another player or two in there.

Now let's see what we see in the shadows.

I'll have take a guess at either a Sting Ray or Manta Ray.

Maybe a gorilla or a Scooby Doo monster.

This one is odd. I see the Wendy's girl logo (if you ignore the arm hanging down), but I'll have to go with an Elephant head.

Enjoy the weekend and don't forget to comment on what YOU see in the shadows.

Dime box cards

 Just a reminder that I paid a lot more (2.5-3x) what I normally pay for these cards. I admit I am spoiled at a penny or less per card. But I guess 2-3 cents a piece isn't bad, at least for this bunch. I did separate the dime cards into two post: one of my new to me Braves and the other is PC guys.

Alrighty then. That was the new to me Braves portion. I didn't really need the Archives because I already bought them and they are sitting in my Sport Lots box. But these were in my hands first so the others will be considered the dupes (some will be used for PC too). Pretty sure I got my dollar's worth on the Braves. I'll finish the other dimes cards next Thursday. Game update: Braves win 13-5.

Wacky Wednesday

 Won't be playing trivia tonight, my brother can't make it. He is a bit under the weather, and taking the high road and staying home. He's pretty sure it's just a cold, but you can't spread it if you don't go out. That is what most people should do but don't. I have no idea how he got sick seeing that he only leaves his house to go to Dr's appointments and to the dog park (3x) a week. My guess is the park is where someone didn't stay home with the sniffles. Either way, I hope he gets well soon and very thankful he skipped our regular Tuesday morning visit. Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day here in North Central Florida, a bit breezy March winds and all, but it was 78 degrees....almost perfection (minus the wind).

Reader Bill Kearney will be here tomorrow to dig through my dupe boxes. It will be interesting as the Braves played the Orioles today. The Grapefruit league isn't fairing so well this spring with only four teams ABOVE .500 as of this morning. My Braves are tied in fourth 2.5 games back at .500 (they are 7-7) again as of this morning. The Cactus league seems to be having a good spring. The Giants are tearing it up followed by the Jays and Dodgers. Apparently the Braves game had a little Wacky going on in the bull pen with a visit from a racoon.

Let's get onto the goofiness.

Ah yes, the iconic Glen Hubbard card. For starter's me no likey snakes, but that card is the card that kicked off my Wacky cards binder. 

Have a great night!

Some from Ormond

 There will be a lot of posts from the two days at Ormond. I will start off with some cards from day 1.

I did buy the complete 2024 Topps Chrome Galaxy set for $30.00 I now have every year of them 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. Normally I would scan the entire set and that would be the whole post. However, I wasn't impressed with the set this year. Not sure why because there are some great cards in there, just didn't really do it for me. I scanned card #1 for you.

On day 1 I hit up 6 cards (lol) out of the dollar box, the 2 2/3 boxes of dime cards and the cards below came from the 2 for $5 box.

In case you are wondering about "Ollie" that is a card from the 2024 Bo Jackson Battle Arena gaming set. Ollie is Matt Olson. You will see another Ollie eventually.

Take a 2nd gander at the Roy Halladay "BUYBACK". Topps has now added buybacks to the Holiday set, I didn't know that until I seen this card. Found another 2023 variation I needed plus a pair of inserts from the 2024 set. I like those.

The Battle Arena card in this scan is of Jackson Holliday.

I'll call that a wrap for tonight. I'll break out the dime cards on Thursday. I only scanned 1 post worth. I got a bunch of "FREE packs" on both visits to the shop, so those will have to wait until Monday and you do not want to miss that post.

P.S. It was also Bike week in Daytona.

Visitors, Updates, and some incoming.

 Starting the week off with a notice. Longtime blog reader Bill Kearney is in the house! Well, he will be on Thursday. Bill and I met up at a show in Jacksonville in recent years. I take it that he visits the great state of Florida every year during Spring Training. He said he caught a game this past weekend. Also of note another reader from way up north (Canada) Derek is also here visiting Disney. Not sure if he will get the chance to come by before returning home. He is welcome to though. It seems like their time is pretty much jam packed. There is still a chance I get drive down to where he is staying for dinner, we'll if time allows on both ends.

In another realm of my recent (this weekend): As I mentioned last week, I went to Ormond not once but twice on back to back days. I busted my keester all day (and night) Friday. I got the house in rambles, which is funny with company coming, but hopefully they'll understand. I did get the Star Wars stuff in it's new display. However, I was not able to include my Star Wars card binders with them. The curio display case is FULL! Over full even, but looks good if I have to say so myself. I had to move (relocate) 5 book cases and one of them still needs major work re-organizing the binders for it. I hope to have that done before Bill gets here. Two of the bookcases are eye sores (the ones with actual books on them), but for now it is what it is. I also had to relocate my mother's China Hutch. That is done completely and hidden out of sight, except when I am in my bedroom, lol.

I also ventured down to Clearwater for that monthly show. This time it was only 50/50 with Pokemon (slabbed Pokemon and unopened boxes mainly). I got to dig through some way over priced baseball boxes. I actually pulled 500 cards from the boxes, and because we couldn't even get close on the price, I put 350 of those back. I could have put them all back, but I really felt bad for the guy and I was trying to help him out. He has that same problem Justin used to have (thank goodness he turned things around). I offered the guy an opportunity to come get some "stock" from my garage, but he just kept making excuses....some people will always struggle. I bought what I bought, but pretty sure I won't do it again. I made a very nice 1 card deal down there. I didn't get anything from Justin this time as he pretty much had football with the exception of 2 10 player auto/relic book slabs. Numbered to 10 and book for about 5K. That is not the kind of cards in my budget for sure.

Now let's show off some cards.

These 8 d/c Ornaments were an Ebay purchase. I am now down to just 3 more to complete the set. The list BTW is under set builds, then MISC. and down at the bottom of that page. 

This Gold filigree numbered to /50 came via OCTer Bob D. It is just the 2nd one from this set (and all sets that include them I think).

There you have the current state of my card world. I do have an entire week's if not more of posts from the two Ormond visits. Today I got another package of stuff (4 auctions/BIN) from an Ebay seller and that gave a nice boost to the Atlanta Braves new to me cards. Got another package today from a different OCTer (former blogger of Nolan's Dugout) Kyle D. Those were set build needs (all Pacific brands). Not sure if I will scan them, probably not. I need to get back to sorting and "cleaning up".

Have a great night!

SATURDAY SHADOW SHOTS

 It has been way too long since I last run this theme/series. For those that weren't around, basically I'd post three cards with shadows on them and make a guess as to what the shadow looked like. IE: dinosaur etc. I used to keep these cards in a box and would just grab the next 3 in the box. Since then I have actually put them in a binder and in chronological order (for the most part). I will say right now that the vintage cards offer very little for the imagination at least until 74'. However, there are many cards throughout the binder that I have NO IDEA why I put it in there. Obviously, I don't remember so this will be like new all over again. Readers would also guess what they see. Sometimes it would be the same and sometimes they'd see something totally different. 

Here we go:

I see an old (very old) carousel pony.

This one if turned to the right would be a mounted gun of sort, but if tilted to the left a space age cartoon robot.

I definitely see a wolf (tilt your head to the right).

Your turn.. what do you see?

Making progress on multiple fronts plus a care package.

 I am making progress are numerous fronts. The one/slash two that comes to mind immediately are GETTING ATLANTA BRAVES I NEED, and re-organizing the Star Wars stuff. That one required a display curio. I went to Ormond yesterday and made headway on both of those fronts. 

There is some bad news to report though. No more $30.00 dime boxes. He now wants $75.00 as a guy now comes up to his shop every two weeks and buys all of what he has and pays $75.00 per box for them. I figure he is either going into business as a dealer or is a "re-packer". Either way, that sucks. I picked up 2 2/3 boxes. I squabbled a bit, and got the partial box no charge and reduced pricing down to $60.00 on the other 2. Lot of goodies though. Well, that is not speaking of the 4K of the cards that were from this years Panini Prizm release, loaded with all of the parallels too. I know you guys aren't into the logo-less cards, but dang if the boxes of that stuff are through the roof as if it were a high end set. Check the prices out for yourself.

I did also grab 28 of their 2 for $5 cards and six 1 dollar cards. Now, I am not a willing participant paying that kind of money for dimes cards (even though many of them can be found in dollar boxes as you will soon see- just not tonight. I am still spoiled getting all of those I have picked up for the last decade at $20-25.00. Anyways, I didn't put them back, as the shop also gave me one of their tall glass display curio's for free, and a short white book case that matches the taller one and the shorter one I already have, the book shelves that actually have books on them, lol. I couldn't get them yesterday so I had to go back today and get it and needless to say I hit up the dollar boxes pretty hard (170+), and 28 from the $5.00 boxes, a complete set of the 2024 Topps Chrome Galaxy Star Wars set, and got an 8' foldable legs table to boot. This time I got a super deal, paid less today than I did yesterday.

Okay progress made for sure with the Braves and the display case. Hopefully I get everything moved around in three rooms to accommodate the changes needed before May the 4th, hint hint. 

Now for tonight's real post :)

Blog reader Bill Kearney sent me a care package and a letter as he is coming to Florida in about a week. Hopefully, we can meet up. Bill hit me with the Braves you see above and below. These are just the needs, he sent plenty more but I did have those.

Bill also sent one more item that I didn't have.

This one is sitting side by side with my other Chipper bobble that Julie sent me a few years back (they are different). 

Thank you Bill, looking forward to seeing you down here.....AGAIN. We met up at the Jax card show a couple years back too.

Wacky Wednesday

 I did spend the weekend working on my Wacky binders, I have two of them. Likewise, I worked on my Shadows binder. Happy to say it is ready to go this Saturday Shadow Shots is back! Again. 

Now for the Wacky update. For those who weren't around the last time or the original launch of Wacky Wednesdays I will provide a little insight. Way back when, I looked for any excuse to keep a dupe. I must have had 50 mini collections that I no longer have per say. I remember doing a dump or two of them, the last being around the time my mom passed, rather just before anyhow.  I collected cards of pitchers at bat, on the bases too, turning 2,  plays at the plate, dirty uniforms, goofy cards, bunting cards, shadows, cards with kids on them, tractors/mowers, signing, weird things like ferris wheels, American flags, broken bats, bubble gum, (I still collect and have those last two and of course the shadows) and there are many many more. I say this because there in those 2 binders are remnants of all of those.

I have decided to go page by page (I have enough to probably last 2 or three years that way). One of the others things I would do is switch from the sports cards to the Wacky Packages stickers, I did that a few times too. It will be some time before I run out of cards to post up this go around. the one thing that bugs me a smidgeon is that the bindered cards are somewhat in chronological order. Say 90+% anyways. There are numerous spots where there was a dup in there and I replaced it with whatever was available. also When I separated the vertical and horizontal cards in those binders. I know there are those of you that like those, but unless I mix things up, you'll be 2 years down the road before i get to them. (they are in binder two). 

So, that's enough blabbing, here are tonights' NINE picks.

I do in fact have older vintage cards in the Wacky books, but most of them are in the front of binder two. Some scattered throughout binder 1. 

Here I'll explain why they made the binder. Probably won't do this much, but I felt appropriate for the night to kick off actually going through the binder for posts. I will say this there are some in there that I have no idea why it is in there.

1) the facial look.

2) bat barrel (another mini collection that I dumped a decade ago).

3) name play.

4) isn't just cute they way they are holding hands?

5) facial expression.

6) a baseball card!

7) pointing.

8) honoring the National Anthem.

9) name play.

Have a great night folks!

Recent Sport Lots Braves

 Last week I got in another Sport Lots order (the smaller one). I added a bunch of Braves to my TCDB collection, and low and behold I am now further behind than I was before I bought them. Beginning to think a little something fishy is going on there. Actually I've been thinking that for two years now. Anyways, I am getting ready by month's end to have the 600 plus cards (400 of which are new to me Braves), shipped to me. Two weeks ago that would have had me within a couple hundred away from that #1 spot, not anymore now I need just shy of 1200 more to get to the #1 spot. Which is where Bravesfan1 seems to keep the distance around 1100 between us. Driving me nuts. 

Hopefully, that next batch will keep the margin between us a bit more tolerable. Not sure how right now, but by year's end I want that #1 spot.

Have a great night.