Shadow Shots

 Saturday again.

Let us peek into the shadows.

Donkey (from Shrek).

Camel head (and neck).

This one has lots of possibilities. I'll go with a Mahjong symbol.

Enjoy the weekend!

NEVER FORGET! R.I.P Charlie Kirk

Sept 11th changed America especially for my generation. I had little ones at the time. For the last 24 years and for the rest of eternity We will not forget. 

My children and the youth born after that have no real connection to that horrific event. It was supposed to be our job to make sure they knew what happened that day meant. I did my job. However, now they have their own NEVER FORGET MOMENT.

The world lost a Hero and Patriot yesterday. I am angry. If the hater's think for a second that they accomplished something....let me clue them in they DID NOT. Charlie himself was irreplaceable as a person, husband, and father, but the lineup to pick up the work that he leaves behind I assure you JUST GOT A THOUSAND TIMES STRONGER (maybe 1K x 1K). Just as was with MLK's assassination there will be a relentless never ending war to continue the work Charlie started (and to celebrate it), and I guarantee there will be a Federal National holiday for CJK in the coming years. And deservingly so. For the lives he reached over the last dozen years he is now a Martyr that will endure forever, those college kids, their kids, and their grand kids and so on and so on. 

I moderate comments so there will be nothing hateful allowed. Positive yes.

God bless and be with Charlie's family and may he R.I.P. I know where he is.

And GOD BLESS AMERICA!

WE WILL NEVER FORGET!.... EITHER OF THE ABOVE.

Wacky Wednesday

 Still not 100%, but getting there. My brother (Jack) was still willing to go play Trivia with the others, however Hunter (my daughter) is also still sick even though she's says she's better she too is NOT 100%. With that we should resume our conquest in 2 weeks.

YESTERDAY'S POST STIRRED SOME MEMORIES FOR PEOPLE, which is a good thing. :) Brain exercises.

Funny,

On the radio yesterday (in case your wondering where that idea came from), the dj's were talking about smells that would always take you back to your childhood. They submitted the question to the listeners, and the responses ranged from Old Spice to Play Doh and everything in between. I however, could not think of of a single smell that takes me back. Then again I'm sure if I walked into an old gym or locker room that might do it, but that is something that isn't going to happen. Other things do, but not a smell. There I go doing it again, now you folks are going to be thinking about that      hehehehehheheheh evil grin.     

Now for some interesting cards.

 

1993 Select has some good photos. I remember seeing Tom post the Sojo card not too long ago.

Have a great night everyone!

Using my time wisely.

 Throughout my entire life (specifically regarding education) I have been blessed to have done well. Going back to grade school when you were given an S, N, or U. The letter grades didn't really pop up for me until say 3rd or 4th grade. And yes...As I say heuh in the South....I wuz alwayz a purdy smart feller.  I digress, let's get back to those S, N, and U's. Some of you may recall that there was more to a report card than just the academics. The bottom half was typically regarding conduct, lol. Yeah, Not too many S's for there, usually N's and the sometimes U. One common and most certainly repetitive theme that never went away throughout K-12 for me was John doesn't use his time wisely. I can't say I was the class clown (some classes maybe) more of rebel than anything else, but I rarely paid attention to the teacher as I was doing my own thing. Seriously, My grades were excellent (oh yeah with the S, N, and U's there were E's too) so why mess with a good thing. My teacher's didn't really have a problem with it either ..... well except when I was disrupting the entire class. I am guilty. That did justifiably bother them. I doubt any of those teachers are reading this, but in case they are.... I apologize and I mean it too.

You maybe wondering what does any of that mess have to do with this blog. It doesn't really, but I wanted to let you folks know that That "lesson" using my time wisely has been a HUGE advantage for me as an adult. Most of my successes can be attributed to how I look at how to get things done efficiently. That is absolutely what took place this last week with me having the flu. I didn't feel like nor do I generally like messing with my cards when under the weather. I'm not a germaphobe, but a rather safe than sorry kind of guy. With all of that being said, I started and finished that 10 hour class I needed to complete and finish out my CE (Continuing Education) requirement for the next 2 years. (it is actually 20 hours, but I had done half of them already). See teacher's i did use my time wisely. 

Alright let's get to some baseball cards.

That is 21 cards of the insert set that also came out from that one row in that one box from Ormond. I also found at least one other card I pulled out from that box, but waiting to see if I find anything else to go with it for a post. Hopefully I am back to playing with my cards real soon. I am a lot better and hopefully will be all clear for trivia tomorrow night, but it isn't looking promising.

Later!

I forgot something....

 I forgot something Saturday in my post. I forgot to say how my glass was half full. By NOT attending the card show or the collectible show I didn't spend any money, or gas. That is a positive thing. It also means when I do get back into the wild, I have a little breathing room to maybe stretch what I might normally spend. 

Okay, now I promised Thursday to put some of the inserts that was in the ONE baseball box that had anything left from what I went there for. Basically it was one row in a 3 row box. This is a partial set that I pulled out of it.

I weeded out the dupes. Put some of those in the PC stack, some in the Rookie stack, and a few for the trade boxes.  Here we have 59 of 100 card insert set (too big of an insert set if you ask me). Plus one from the All Star insert set. I did already have some of these, but until I get around to updating those PC's I won't know. I'll do a much smaller insert set I pulled from that row tomorrow. Neither of which is what I was stoked about getting. It was all of the parallels, tons and tons of yellow's and orange, and you name it. I was disappointed.....but I was not surprised because I figured the reason he was dumping those other 15 (14) boxes on me was so he could get these to one of his buddies. I get it, but he should have just said so in the first place....Oh wait he still found something to gripe about what I did get, well....the price I paid. May his dime boxes build up, stack up and may he have no place to put them. 

Later Gators!

Shadow Shots: My glass is half full. Optimism.

 Optimism is a good thing, then again so is realistic. I am both all at the same time. My glass is definitely half full (not half empty). I was supposed to be going to the local Villages card show today. They only do 3 a year (every 4 months). Tomorrow I had been planning for 6 months to go to the Collectibles show in Deland it is HUGE (they do 2 a year). Alas, I am not doing either. I will have to wait until January to do both again. 

You may ask why? I have the Flu! Taking the high road and staying home so as not to get anyone else sick. I believe I have crossed from the worst of it to the backside recovery part, still a very snotty nose though. Maybe TMI there, but it is what it is. I could be all down in the dumps, but I am not per say. Sick yes, not messing with my cards too much. Just getting some rest after all, I have been burning it at both ends for months now trying to get stuff entered into TCDB. I will update you all on that now.

Braves first: I haven't been adding much into the system in regards to Braves lately. I am still 564 cards behind that other guy.

Total unique cards in system: I moved up the ranks to #29 a jump of 6 spots from last month. 

Total baseball: I up'd that by 1 spot moving me into #16. Pretty soon I'll be in the top 15 and then the top 10.

Gaming" jumped 12 spots to #149 (I only have 3,467 cards in this category).

Non-Sports: I stayed the same for 3 months now siting at #23 with 25, 217 unique cards. 

Now it is time to see what you see in the shadows.

I see a Gecko or is that a chameleon? A lizard either way.

I see one of those old timey cartoon dogs howling at the moon. Then again maybe it is just Daffy Duck.

A Gazelle?

Because I  am not participating in any hobby activities this weekend, scans are on the short side. I should be good for a week as it is right now. I will have to remedy that as soon as I am well enough by 1) visiting Grand slam (my LCS), and by 2) hitting up at least 1 of those Tampa area card shows.

We'll see :)

Have a great weekend people!

The story and some new Braves

 Okay, I got me some new Braves this past Saturday.

There you have 11 of the 12 Braves cards. I am missing #203. Now, I did have all of these sitting in my current Sport Lots cart, so I removed them. 

These cards are what created the story. After getting those 15 boxes (1 which only had 1 row of cards) technically there were only 14 boxes because 1 was a 5 row and 1 was a 4 row and Mike said they make the 15th box. I really wished that I had walked away now. If you recall, I said that I only bought them because they reached out and yes $25.00 is a good deal. I was hoping by doing so they would call again. When I got those boxes, they were going through a HUGE collection and had already sorted 10 dime boxes which I watched what was going in there, and that was the stuff I really wanted. 

A week plus goes by and I heard nothing, so I decided to go over and see if those boxes were there on the shelf or if they sold them to a guy named Tim. First, yep they sold them to Tim. However, when I got there Bill was running the shop again. Mike was a doing a 5th Saturday card show in St. Augustine and Kyle was in South Florida for the Notre Dame game. I didn't know that. I figured one or both of them would be there. They wasn't, so the first words out of my mouth were "what's the odds that I come over again and your here?" I immediately told him about Mike reaching out to me to buy those boxes that I 100% went through the last time I was there with Bill. I told him he charged me $25.00 a box, and that I had told Mike that I really didn't want them, but if this would kick start him calling me for other deals.  I explained to Bill my dissatisfaction with that previous purchase from Mike. I then went over and looked and the ton of baseball dime boxes that were there, Bill started complaining about all the crap they added over there, plus the ton load that was sitting by the door when he was last there (that would be those cards I wanted). I quickly browsed the boxes and seen that only 1 box had any of the cards from that wanted stash. I then pulled about 8 boxes out and sat there going through them. I found the 2025 Chrome (throwing back to the scans above). I took them all, filled 2 rows in a 3 row box that I brought in, Bill said is that your box, I said yes, NO, take the boxes they're in. I don't want empty boxes here. I usually have five 3 row boxes in my vehicle. So Basically that was too late for 1 empty box. I progressed through and found about 1 and half rows of 2025 Heritage, I took them too. I now had emptied 2 more boxes and had a bunch sitting on the table waiting to see how much Bill was going to charge me this time. I asked and he said don't worry about it. I decided to fill up the other 2 empty boxes with misc. sports and topped off the 2nd baseball box with that stuff too. AFTER 4 HOURS OF BEING AT THE SHOP I asked How much, Bill said what do want to pay? I looked at him and said 4 boxes of which I really only wanted slightly less than 2 of them, but didn't want to leave more empty boxes I told him $100.00 $25.00 a piece. He said okay. He even helped take them to my van. I said thanks and left. 

On Monday, Mike texted me raising hell....bitching out the ying yang. Basically stating that I wasn't supposed to get those boxes of cards foo $25.00. Said I told Bill that is all they charge me.  THAT is NOT how it went down. MY above description is 100% on the money on how it went down. I called him back, he didn't answer I left he a thorough voice mail explaining the above, and mention that I had only gotten 2 boxes of baseball slightly less and the rest was that soccer, UFC, etc.. stuff. I also texted him back telling him to check his VM. I never heard back. 

Needless to say...pretty sure I am done for REALS going to KnT. Meanwhile I do have lots of 2025 Chrome.

That's the story. I will post some of the inserts from that (1 box), not sure there is much other than set builds with the rest.

Wacky Wednesday

 Hump day has arrived and along with it another round of some interesting cards.

Baerga looks so stoned in that picture.

Have a great night folks!

Braves from Ormond (August)

 Last month when Mike from KnT texted me wanting me to buy those 15 boxes of dime cards at $25.00 per (me knowing that I had already been through them) decided for previously stated reasons went over and got them, I also bought a few Braves separately.

Needed all but one I think.

I also picked up 4 cards that I knew I needed.

A pair of the young Caminiti autos in the mix.

All but the Acuna were low serial numbered cards. 

Nice additions for TCDB. Now, I have another story to tell about a trip I just made this past Saturday to Ormond. (heads up- it's not a good one per say).

Have a great night.

Atlanta Braves from Sport Lots

 I picked up more Braves in that Sport Lots order than I remembered.

I knew the 2025 series 2 were in in it, but for the most part didn't remember the rest.

I also knew the 2025 Bowman were in there, but I have since picked them up. I put that 1,134 card order together in June and July, requested shipment in early July, but didn't get them until 2 weeks ago. I hope everyone had a good Labor Day!

Have a good night everyone. 

Shadow Shots

 What do you see in the shadows?

Beetle Bailey's boot (one of them anyhow).

A (front) parenthesis symbol.

I see someone about to throw a spear, just kidding I see see a person wounded lying on the ground begging for help.

Enjoy the weekend!

Oh yes we did!

 First yes, we won last night. Didn't really need much help, but we definitely had it. My daughter Hunter (who once dated a guy named Hunter in High School).  Okay side track. I live on a cul de sac.... 4 homes. At one time a decade ago 3 of the 4 houses contained a young person named Hunter. How weird is that? 

Back to last night.... my daughter, her boyfriend (his parents stopped by to say hello as they had massage appointments otherwise they too would have been there playing), his sister and her husband came, and at the last minute Hunter's friend Destiny and her husband (also named Hunter) came. Yeah, we had a team, and they good at trivia too. Here are the names.

John, Jack, Hunter and Jalen, Mariah and Jared, Destiny and Hunter). And the two that didn't play this time are Ernie and Heather. We were cruising along holding first place all the way through, and didn't really get/need much help except for some of the bonus "images". That was a big help, but again the images don't give you the opportunity to double up compared to the 5 question bonuses. So the scores stay relatively the same throughout when using images. After the 5 rounds we had 87 points, another big team (old elderly 70's +) was in third with 72 points and one team had 85 points, just 2 behind us. In the end the 85 point team didn't finish in the top 3. The 72 point team didn't wager anything on the final question and took home 2nd place with the 72 points, we however doubled up betting it all and got it right. So we finished with 174 points (that is 102 points ahead of team #2). Wow, what a finish.

Anyways, I'm sure we'll have 6, 8 or 10 people next time we play and hopefully do a repeat :).

Now, just two scans of the new to me Braves I pulled out of those Grand Slam monster boxes - the 21k). 

I must be honest, I did already have the 2025 Bowman Prospects sitting in my Sport Lots inventory when I bought these boxes, but hey I build the set too so win win. BTW, I got my 1134 card Slots (sport lots) box shipment in (took a month) last week. It was predominantly Prizm set builds which have already been sorted, recorded, and put in their binders. There were more Braves than I thought, although I probably won't be scanning them. Okay, I'll make some scans. 

Have a great weekend people, and I'll see you in the SHADOWS.

Wacky Wednesday

 Heading off o=to play trivia shortly. My daughter and her boyfriend will be joining us again, and lookie lookie, he is bringing his sister and her husband to play too! We'll show those 12 person teams who's boss. (Actually I kind of feel like we already do that when it was just the 2 us. Always being at or near the top before the Final question. 

A few whoopsie's here, and some first cards. How about that nickname....Sugar Cain?

Autographs and relic cards.

 There might not be any big names or names of players that most if not all of us have never heard of, but still. Well, I do recognize a few of them. The 21K cards I bought at 2 cents a piece from Grand Slam in those 7 monster boxes all every single one of them had autos/relics in them. 

Not all baseball. Not all certified, but still.... Several players have multiples too.

There were many more, but they were dupes or trips of the cards above which I tried to pull them from the scans. I have one more post from those boxes, but it is a 2 scan post. I'll put that up on Thursday.

Have a great night everyone!

The 2025 Topps All Star Game

 As promised (not that anyone was looking forward to this post) lol. I finally scanned the non Braves inserts and parallels from the 25' ASG edition I picked up last month. 

I know that I was supposed to continue with the autos & relic cards I pulled out of those Grand Slam monsters boxes I bought, but this gets these things out of the way and done. 

I did scan the insert backs as those are pretty nice. Good reading for sure.

The bottom four cards look like the base in this scan, but they are NOT, they are silver parallels, and in hand no doubt about it. Just didn't scan well.

These are ugly when grouped together like this, but individually they are okay.

DONE! Posting this early as I am going out to dinner tonight.

I'll get the autos/relics tomorrow from that 21K card pick up.