Happy President's day!

 For those of you that have been following this blog for years, you've seen me on this day unload my entire Presidential collection. It is huge (tons of scans---several hundred maybe a thousand), and I love it. Doesn't matter left or right, it is a very nice collection.

 This year in fact recently, I received a packaged from our buddy Mark (Fuji). This was perfect timing, and I feel it worthy to be the sole representation this year. 

The first item from Mark was the deck of playing cards. I didn't scan these as the box covers the face cards which are the only ones with pictures.

Now the other item was an OVERSIZED complete set that I didn't own.

This is what that backs are like. That last line should also show that LBJ was also 6'4". Our current President is in third at 6'3".

That is where the set was printed. 

I included the card backs for person in case some of you wanted to read up on them.

God Bless the U.S.A.

Thanks mark, greatly appreciated.

Customs from The Villages

 My first purchase came from a seller who had a quarter box (5 row) that I dug through and as I did so conversed letting him know that I would be pulling a stack or two. Along the way I mentioned i should just buy the whole box. That got his attention. He kept trying to get me to make an offer which I didn't. He came out out with very high number and lowered it several times as I said nah, I'll just thin these out and keep a handful. Once I was done with the box I had about 500 cards pulled out. We kept talking the whole time, it was great. Then I looked at his other stuff, not for me, but then he had a display of his customs. He had sold out of a few, but I grabbed one of each that was left. Eight total. He had them at $10.00 each. I asked how much and he said with the box he'd take a hundred bucks. That meant I got him down from $150.00 to 25.00 on that 5K box. That made it work for me.

I should have removed these from the brand new magnetic holders before scanning. The cards look good, and are thick cards, not flimsy at all. You may recognize the use of  the Jordan rookie and Messi cards. The Dodger card will be heading north. Santa is staying with me.

I did remove the cards from the cases except for Jesus which are gifts for my sister Kathy. Caitlyn is staying with me. Who says you can't mix politics and religion, I just did. 

I've already used one of the cases for another card that I gave as a gift. I know that I need to clean my scanner bed. I did a lot of scanning this past week especially getting a whole bunch of the Maddux cards scanned really did a number on the imaging. I'll try to remember to do that before I scan anything else.

The Villages card show: In reverse.

 I only made two purchases at the show this time. The first purchase has two political items among a total of 8 custom items I bought (tomorrow's post) and a 5K count monster box that was basically 3/4 full of mainly Topps Chrome in gem mint pristine condition. Those I didn't scan as they were mainly 2021 and 2021 Update. There were also apx. 1K 2025 football cards in the box which I have donated to one of the members (Jared) of my trivia team (The Gang half) who will be distributing them to his PE students. Now the customs are great at least to me. One of them will be heading north, three are going to my sister Kathy (Jesus). The rest (4) are for my collection. Head's up tomorrow's post is a short one with just 4 scans.

Tonight is the second or you could say the last purchase made. A few tables down from the seller with the first purchase was a dealer who had several .25 boxes and dollar boxes. I grabbed up a bunch of Braves and other cards from him and made a deal on the price paying roughly .50 a piece. 

Yes, scooping up all of the Nick Kurtz at fifty cents (obviously these were in the dollar boxes).

The sky blue Fried, Pink Riley, and green Minter were needed Braves. 

This batch was set build needs.

High end sets and Holiday SP's and relics are always a steal @ fifty cents. I had a total of about 80 cards from those boxes.

The last thing from the seller was a Braves jersey they were originally asking $40.00.

I paid $40.00 for everything the 80 cards from there dollar and quarter boxes plus the jersey.

Now, I know this isn't a high end jersey (it was a stadium giveaway), but it was my size and I liked it. I was happy with the deal.

More good news to close out with is that Margie's Boys and The Gang (our trivia team) won last night. We started out strong leading the pack in round 1, and 2. Kind of stunk in round 3 but still tied for 1st, totally stinking in rounds 4 and 5 (where those two rounds had us sitting in 5th place going into the championship round). Those rounds are where we usually excel and separate us from the rest.....not last night. However, we nailed the final question (apparently the only team that did) and we bet everything and came out on top. Great night! 

Wacky Wednesday

 Trivia tonight with a full house. All six of us are expected, yea!!!!

Now for tonight's interesting cards.

It's hump day so enjoy the rest of the week!

Call me late to the PARTY! Padrograph surprises!

 Let me get this off of my chest (it doesn't need any aggravation). The 2026 checklist for Topps series 1 is out, which makes sense because release day is tomorrow. The Braves have 1,211 spots. NUTS. 12 cards in the base set each having ANOTHER 56 variations.

57 versions of the same card.......AGAIN.....Thanks but no Thanks Topps. Add in Holiday will use probably the same image too, plus others like 582 MONTGOMERY, and the "special event/holiday" variations. This might be the final straw for me, certainly reducing how many cards I buy this year. Beyond the base Braves, not sure I'll be seeking any. I'll take them, but I won't be looking for them. Here is the link to my 2026 Braves needs

Johnnys 2026 Braves needs

Now for some GOOD STUFF: The last couple of weeks the blogosphere has been posting up the goodies from the surprise mailers from Padrographs (Rod). I too received a glorious package and have included the highlights below. Thank you Sir Rod!

Kick starting the package are two autographs. My brother got all mushy over it today when I finally showed it to him. Trebek was his hero, lol. The Other will fit nicely into my USA Olympians.  The rest are new to me Braves.

I did have that Holiday Harris in my Slots box, that also came in the same day as Rod's package. I opened Rod's first and the other will go into that set build which should be almost complete by now....not sure. I completed the A & G set build, and had many Braves in that Slots box too, and still need a couple, but these were needs.

Update Braves needs in addition to the Slots cards.

Closing out the highlights with some Update inserts/parallels and some Chrome Udpate.

Thanks again Rod... Absolutely a wonderful surprise that did that TCDB quest some GOOD!

I'll finish the week with a couple of posts to wrap up The Villages card show after YES a Wacky Wednesday tomorrow (trivia night- we haven't played in a long while).

Just Another Maddux Monday

 I promised several weeks ago that once I ended the Shadow Shots that I would kick start the Maddux Mondays. Tonight is the first edition. The second edition will be in 2 weeks and most Monday after that. 

This is a GIVEAWAY post (all of the Maddux posts will be). Rules are simple. Be a follower of this blog and a US or Canadian resident. Just comment (once below on this post) by Friday midnight EST. I will randomize the entrants and the winner gets all 18 cards posted.

Here are tonight's cards:

I sorted the cards to give a good range of products and years. This one has a rookie! I scattered a few more Maddux rookies throughout the run of this theme. There should be a total of 30 of these Monday giveaways.

Later folks!

More from the Tampa show

 I still need to get some scanning done from The Villages show, Sport Lots, Rod package, Grand slam, and even Ebay. I'll be doing that over the weekend.

Here are the last cards that I scanned from the Tampa show. 

Some needed Braves. I bought a monster box from this dealer, mainly set builds and PC cards, but you know I was happy to add these Braves.

Have a great weekend folks!

TCDB monthly update along and a room with a view

 Before I get started with the numbers, while I was vacationing at one of my Local hospitals I took some pictures. I previously mentioned that the room was nice or rather equivalent to a hotel room. You decide.

The door was not your normal door. It was an oversized sliding glass double door. The curtain was for my privacy.

Here you can see a mini window, the sink, and a piece of the t.v. LOL.

Much better view of the t.v. and a board. You can't read it but that board shows that "I like baseball cards". The lady(tech) that did the echo cardiogram wrote that on the board.

That is the bathroom door which behind it was a large bathroom with a nice size shower (wish mine at home was like that one), and another window that looked out behind the hospital.

Same window here but from a different angle. This should be the last post containing my recent health drama. At least until something changes.

Now let's get to the January TCDB update.

Atlanta Braves: (as of today): 32, 975 still #2 behind that "other guy" he is at 33,616 putting me 691 behind him. No matter what I don't believe his numbers!

Total all cards: I jumped up one spot to #24 with 414, 133 unique cards listed.

Basbeall cards: I held at the #12 spot even though I added over 11K cards to it to get to 372, 757.

Gaming: I added none and dropped 2 spots to #100.

Non-Sports: I jumped 2 spots hereby adding 3,200 cards to get to #25 with 28, 662 cards.

I will be putting a regular baseball card post tomorrow as the Saturday posts are done for now.

Later Gators!

Wacky Wednesday and some story telling.

 This is/was the last scheduled/planned Wacky Wednesday, but in light of recent activities here at the home front I will probably continue to give myself one easy to prepare post each week. I hope you don't mind (I now a few that wanted them to continue anyway). 

Now let's do some story telling. This one is in regards to my recent health issue and how I got as my mother would have called them "FAVORS" along the way. Many people would say things like someone upstairs was looking after me or at least call them blessings. I'm good with favors and they have continued even through today. Doesn't really change anything, but I know I'm getting favors. Let me break several of them down for you (before we get to the baseball cards).

1) I had absolutely no symptoms of A-Fib. None whatsoever and that is why A-Fib can be/could have been deadly. I was at my once a year annual visit at the VA with my primary care Dr. I trust very few in the health care industry. I trust her. She knows me including my "white coat syndrome" which raises my BP and heart rate. My heart rate would have been in the 90's while in her office as it has been for the last 13 years. This time it was 113, that bothered me, they checked again it was 115 went through the normal routine and everything else was AMAZING....my best ever. Then she wanted to check again it was 120 and she really was very bothered immediately did and EKG and told me to go the hospital (local not VA). That my friends was one of the many favors. To think what if I didn't have an appointment with her that day? What would have happened? By the time the ER got me strapped in my heart rate was through the roof bouncing from 150 to as high as 240. She would have totally freaked had it been that in her office. She ordered 24 hour monitoring knowing that would get a whole bunch of tests done and skirt some VA bureaucracies. The hospital was unable to get things settled down and cut me loose at 26 hours with 2 medications that I knew would be for the rest of my life meds. I called the my Dr. the next day as I was instructed to do to schedule a 2 wekke follow up after a hospital visit. 

Favor 2: She called right back immediately and said she would get the records from the hospital and then give me a referral for a cardiologist in Gainesville at the VA hospital. The next day Friday morning I got a call and that appointment was set for yesterday. On Friday I then proceeded to the local card shop. What should have taken 2 weeks was handled and has now been taken care of. 

Favor 3: the determination that I could NOT do any of the tests for sleep apnea and that that was the cause for developing the A-Fib was made. I now know how and why this seemed to happen out of the blue. Doesn't change anything, but knowing is a comfort. I am a fix it get er done kind of guy, and don't believe in band-aids. Another favor I'll squeeze in here before moving to the next two favors is that it is possible for the A-Fib to go away all on it's own (especially if I can do something about the sleep apnea). That won't take the medications away as the new Doc made it clear those are forever albeit the actual heart med will change slightly as they figure out what actually works, so far nada. Because A-Fib can always come back if it goes away.

The Cpap, and dental devices are not possible alternatives for me. However, there is still another option and that is an implant which was to be discussed on my cardiologist follow up appointment on March 31st. For 2 more favors see below:

1) sent home yesterday by picking up the meds at the VA pharmacy with the changes made yesterday. However the clerk at the window handed me the wrong bag. Normally, I would have just taken the bag and left but she said that it's only 2 weeks and they'd mail me the rest. I said which one there's 2? She said no just Atorvastatin, I told her that is not mine, she did some work and yep not my script, told me to wait and they would get it (took an hour), but that was a favor her saying what she said or I wouldn't have known she gave me the wrong bag until bedtime.

2) The Doc told me that I'd get a call from the pharmacy to go over the refills of the blood thinner. I got that call today because the Doc's nurse called me to bump up my follow up three weeks another favor in and of itself. I mentioned about the pharmacy call and asked if had been scheduled, she said no got right on it and bam got that call today and took care of the Eliquis for a year. Favor.

My mom would have been wearing out that word these last 7 days for sure. I know that I have been trying. Now let's have some interesting cards.

All Upper Deck card backs....man those were the days.

Tomorrow's post will have pictures of that NICE hospital room they put me up in, lol.

You ain't going to believe this.

 Well, I went to meet my cardiologist this afternoon (got back an hour ago). I will show you guys some cards in a minute, but I have to tell this story first.

Probably not going to have my heart shocked, as she said I would still be on the meds even it it worked. That's #1. #2 She doesn't care what I eat including fast food, lol. (my labs really are that good). #3 If I drink alcohol, don't drink the brown liquor, switch to the clear. The only goal she has is to get the right meds to "slowly" get my heart rate down and stay that way. We'll be doing pretty much all future appointments over the telephone. In her opinion the A-Fib is because in her opinion I have sleep apnea (because I only sleep 4-6 hours a night for the last 40 plus years and those aren't continuous hours either) which can not be treated as physically I can't sleep with anything attached to me. I sleep very little and toss and turn non-stop all night wrapping up in whatever covers I have, it just wouldn't work. She really does want me to do the home test for it, but again guaranteed the mask thing would never stay on my face, not to mention the wrapping it up inside my covers. LOL. I flip from side to side every 15 minutes even when I am asleep, and rarely have I ever had REM sleep. She would prefer I not drink caffeinated beverages, but is figuring that too is a lost cause, lol. I will certainly give it a good reduction especially with the Mountain Dew. So there you have my first and more than likely only in person visit with my brand new cardiologist.

Okay, let get to purchase second and third purchases from the Tampa card show.

There was a dealer that had a stack on these original 1973 Wacky Packages in one of his cases. I paid less than a buck a piece. I actually needed two of the variations (* vs **), and two more were upgrades. The oldest in the batch two stickers from the series 4, there were also a pair of series 3, but the majority were from series 1. 

Purchase 3: A Braves autograph! Blue framed numbered to 50.

I probably paid the top value on this one, but still happy to have added it!

Have a great night!

I'm still here

 That's a good thing. I see a cardiologist tomorrow to see if the next step is the cardio-version (shocking) my heart to see if that gets it back to normal. Now before I went to my annual VA check-up appointment where I wound up in the hospital I had went to 2 card shows. One in Tampa on the Friday before, and the other was in The Villages on Saturday. I also visited the LCS here last Friday. So I have scan or two to show off. I plan on keeping them all short. 

Now Phil says 6 more weeks,  humbug!

This first post contains the goodies from my first purchase at the Tampa show below.

Pulled these oversized Marathon gas station cards out of a binder.

In fact everything I got I pulled out of that binder, made my deal and moved on to the next guy. Tonight, is just the binder pulls like that NEEDED Braves promo sheet above.

Love that Coke Ripken card.

That's it for tonight.