I guessed right

 Oftentimes when digging through dime boxes, it comes to a matter of guesswork. Do I have a certain card of a player?  Do I need a regular or Chrome version of a card?  Wantlists can help out immensely with this, but as a team collector of the Rays and Tigers, and a player collector of 50+ guys, it often times comes down to guesswork. A good amount of the time, I guess wrong and end up with some doubles. I’m sure it happens a decent amount of time with team collectors who don’t lug around a phone book sized list. It’s just one of the things card collectors deal with. 

I kind of wanted to go to K n T’s one more time on Tuesday, as it was the last day off before school starts again, and I was able to go, although I had the little one in hand again. He was a little more hyper this time, and I had to remind him not to spin on the chairs and keep his feet on the ground. 

While at the shop, I was able to add some needs to my collection, but not without the doubles. 

While this stack makes it look like my guessing game was off, I can assure you that it wasn’t that bad. Let’s look at the keepers, and I’ll explain why. 

For the favorite players, I was pretty good with the guessing. The Brady Anderson, Rob Ducey, Nick Fortes, Mason Miller, Max Scherzer, and Jonathan Schoop pickups were all guesses. The ‘95 Emotion and Stadium Club cards were hit and miss, with a few new ones making it. Both team sets are 1 card short, I believe. 

The 1998 Upper Deck set is where I struck gold. The set was released in 3 series. I have a good number of series 1 as a friends dad collected it and gave me just about everything from that series that he had that wasn’t an insert. I purchased a few series 2 packs, and maybe 1 series 3 pack, so those were on the thin side in my Tigers binder. Fortunately for me, there were a few chunks of 1998 Upper Deck in the dime boxes the last 3 times I went to the shop, and my 1998 Upper Deck Tigers team set is now complete. I don’t even think that the 1990, 1991, or 1992 UD Tigers sets are complete, so that is a cool accomplishment. The 1998 Upper Deck set is a vastly underrated set. The design is cool, despite sometimes having names and teams being hard to read. All-Stars, retiring players, and rookies all have a circle emblem notating that at the top, and there are some short print Eminent Prestige cards that are somewhat tough (1 in 4 packs), but only 3 of them, so they are attainable. The Manning, Baez, and Rainer were right guesses, as was the Nate Lowe. I have seen the 2019 Topps Update Josh Lowe card enough to know that something was off with the photo of the one in the dime box, and sure enough, I pulled an SP. The last correct guess of the photo was the ‘23 Donruss Kyle Manzardo. I knew I had a parallel, but wasn’t sure if I had the base version. 

The first part of this group had some good guesses, and some bad ones. I could’ve sworn I had the ‘24 Chrome Curtis Mead, but I didn’t. The ‘23 Jonathan Aranda was a dupe, but the way he has performed this year, I’m happy to add it to my rookie card binder. I swear I picked up a Chrome of the Colt Keith Rookie Debut card and that TCDB said I needed the base Chrome, but I remember picking it up from SportLots. I picked one up, and sure enough, it was a double. I’m still not sure what the Chrome card I need of Keith. Perhaps a parallel?

The best guessing came with 1999 Stadium Club and some Heritage sets. I had remembered that the 2001 Stadium Club sets had SPs that were draft picks and prospects, but wasn’t sure about 1999, so I took a gamble. Turns out the ‘99 set did, and I netted 3 more. 

The Heritage were the biggest guessing gamble for me. I knew one of the recent years of Heritage had SPs that were numbered 1-100, not 401-500, but wasn’t quite sure. There was a chunk of the 2023 set that had random cards numbered in the 400s and less than 100. I gambled that 2023 had SPs numbered 401-500, and I guessed RIGHT!!  Even picked up a few dupes of SPs. There were only 2 of the 2025 Heritage set that were SPs, but I’m still happy to add 2 more. I also had to guess on some of the high number SP numbers. I wasn’t sure if they started at 700, and saw about 3 copies of 2023 Heritage #700, but didn’t pick it up. I should have, as it was in fact an SP, but maybe the next time I go back it will still be there. I normally don’t go through Heritage stuff unless it’s the beginning of the year and I need Rays and Tigers, so I’m glad I decided to look. The SPs will help me out with some TCDB trades as well as helping out fellow bloggers trying to complete some Heritage sets. 

The last batch involved some bad guesswork. The Mojo refractor was a dupe. I found a stack of 1992 O-Pee-Chee, and dug out the Dodgers and Braves, hoping Night Owl and Johnny’s Trading Spot needed them, and according to their wantlists, I don’t believe they do. Oh well. Not bad cards to pick up for 10 cents. There were 3 pickups of guys who haven’t got much cardboard. Bobby Chouinard only has 5 major cards, a 1996 Bowman’s Best, a 1997 Fleer, 1997 Topps, a 1997 Ultra, and the 1997 Upper Deck I picked up. The next guy, Curt Lyons, stumped me. I followed baseball die hard from around 1996-2011, and you would be hard pressed to find a random player you could tell me about that I hadn’t heard of. I can tell you about Brett Hinchcliffe, Brandon Reed, Stephen Smitherman, Kevin Polcovich, and other random names. But I had never freaking heard of Curt Lyons until picking up his 1997 Upper Deck from a dime box. He has an autograph insert from 1996 Bowman, and 1997 Circa card, a 1997 Metal Universe insert, and the 1997 Upper Deck card. Ron Witmeyer could be a candidate for Night Owl’s 1 card wonders, but I’ll let him be the judge. As far as major brands, he just has the 1992 Stadium Club you see here, and a 1992 Topps MLB Debut card, a random boxed set. Other than that, just minor league cards. 

The only Topps needs I found were the 1977 Rodriguez and 2010 Paulino. I always like 1992 ToppsGold cards, and the Templeton was a need. It is also his sunset card. Joe Randa is always a favorite of mine. Back in 2004 or 2005, he was a free agent, and I had added him on MySpace, and he put out a bulletin saying that he was debating on signing with the Pirates or Yankees. I sent him a message begging him not to go to the evil Yankee$, and he surprisingly messaged me back and told me that he was weighing out options and that he was surprised how strongly I felt about it. I like to think that I helped keep him from signing with the Yankee$ and got him to become a Pirate. 

Chad Mottola is the guy helping the Rays hit .200 and under, and the Rays aren’t planning on firing him anytime soon, so I pick up his cards for potential autographs when I see them. I told Kyler how I got autographs of Sandy Alomar Jr and Sr, so I picked up the 1997 Upper Deck of Junior. Kevin Witt was a nice guy when he was with Detroit. I have a few of his game used bats, so I picked up his ‘99 Fleer Warning Track parallel card. I don’t know how the ‘06 Bowman Gold Miguel Perez card got in my stack, but I’ve seen him play, so I’m cool with it. 

The best part about the trip was that it was only 5 bucks. He would’ve done 10 had I used a card, but I had a crisp 5 dollar bill burning a hole in my wallet, and it served its purpose. That included 1 card from the dollar bin, a 2024 Topps Blue Tyler Glassnow. For all of those SPs, I think I got a deal. Hopefully, I can be as good at the guessing game during the next trip to the shop. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy

Latest K n T trip

 I had a day off on Friday, and I figured it would be the last chance I had to go to K n T’s Sportscards and spend a whole afternoon there before school starts again, so I made the trip to Ormond. I have always went by myself, but Karen convinced me to take Kyler. I knew trying to keep an 8 year old occupied while I dug through dime boxes wasn’t going to be easy, but I figured if I could have him go through stacks and find Tigers and Rays that I could search for favorite players and Topps needs. 

I found a good assortment of stuff, including a few of players that I had never heard of that appeared in majors sets. I figured, why not, they weren’t going to break the bank. The Mike Linskey was one of those, as was the ‘93 Team Stadium Club Brian Deak. The Nolan Ryan’s before the Deak cars were ones Kyler picked. He has been hung up on Ryan after hearing he threw the world’s fastest pitch, and has also been hung up on Honus Wagner and his famous tobacco card after hearing about it. I might have to find a cheap reprint of it. 

The ‘94 Team Stadium Club Tyler Houston is one of the few cards of him as a Brave. Kind of weird that he was a #1 pick of them, was with them up through 1996 (when they were just starting to field good teams and appeared on tons of cardboard), and still has very few Braves cards in major sets. Just a 1990 Score and Topps Draft Pick card, 2 Bowmans from 1990 and 1991, the Team Stadium Club card from 1993, and 2 issues from 1996, a Pinnacle Aficionado, and a Score Summit card. Just strange for a prospect from a popular team to have been in the organization for 7 years and only have 7 cards during the overproduction era. The ‘95 Emotion cards were nice finds, as was the ‘95 UD Minors Daron Kirkreit. My friend Jim (who I’ve mentioned in a few posts) was getting rehab on his knee a few years ago, and happened to have Daron as his therapist. He asked me if I had any cards, and I had a Fleer Excel minors card, so I gave it to Jim, and he got it signed for me the next time he went in for exercises. The Stadium Club SP of Pat Rapp comes from the 1996 set. It was one of the first base sets in the modern era to feature SPs. These, I believe, were 1 per pack, and I always try to pick them up when I find them. 

Alex Delgado was another new to me player. Robert Smith was a guy selected by the Rays in the expansion draft, and another Braves prospect with very few Braves cards. Sal Fasano is one of the most friendly players I have ever met. I saw him 3 times over his career. The first 2, which were 2 Spring Training games in 1996, I must’ve got his autograph at least 3 times. I had a 1989 Topps Royals leaders card which he signed for me, and then at each game, I had a baseball, handed it to whichever Royals bullpen guy was signing, and they would pass it around the bullpen and sign it, and I ended up with 2 balls signed by Fasano, who was in the bullpen. Then, when he was with the Yankees and I finally had an actual card of him, I got Sal to sign his 2006 Topps Update card. I sold most of my autographs, and now have about 10 unsigned Fasano cards, but still have the baseballs. I never knew Roberto Hernandez appeared in the 1998 Fleer Diamond Ink program. I’m counting this as a Rays card, as I am the 1998 Stadium Club Bobby Abreu. Many people don’t know that the Rays selected him in the expansion draft and then traded him to the Phillies. I don’t think a photo exists of him as a Ray, but I do have the Stadium Club card with the Rays logo on it. I always love picking up 1998 Diamondbacks cards, and the fact that the Jay Bell I found was from the nice looking 1998 Upper Deck set was even better. The 2005 Bowman Silver Parallel must’ve snuck in the stack. Kyler saw it was serial numbered and I explained to him it was a different color, and I don’t think it made it back in the dime box. 

Now we switch to the more modern parts of the dime box dig, and get more Rays and Tigers. I have picked up a ton of Carlos Colmenarez cards from K n T’s over the past year or so, but have rarely heard about him on Rays sites despite him being in so many Bowman inserts. Looking at his stats, he is hitting in the low .200’s in A ball. If he’s a good fielder, he could start next year with the ‘Rays Way’ of valuing defense. I’m just glad that he’s a shortstop and that there are guys that hit better like Carson Williams ahead of him on the depth chart. 1/2 of a season more of Taylor Walls hitting .150!!!!  I picked up a ton of cards of Curtis Mead. He was recently traded away, so I’m hoping I can maybe find some of his Rays cards at a discount. I am disappointed at the Rays and Tigers for not going all in at the trade deadline. The Tigers should’ve traded Max Clark or one of their top prospects for Alcantara, Gallen, or Kelly, and also tried to get Eugenio Suarez and a closer. Charlie Morton should be retired, and the #5 starters and non closers they got for the bullpen are a joke. They deserve to get knocked out in the first round of the playoffs and Scott Harris needs to get fired unless it was an issue with ownership not wanting to pay money. Might be time to start rooting for a team that spends. Garrett Mitchell is the newest addition to my favorite player collection. He is a Type 1 diabetic, which I found out after reading the back of his ‘25 Heritage card. 

I found a ‘25 Topps True Photo variation of Jose Berrios. No clue how rare these are, but I had to pick it up. I only found a few Topps needs, but for a dime, I’ll take ‘70’s Topps cards all day. I also picked up the final 3 cards I needed to finish my 2025 Topps set. I probably shouldn’t have done it by busting blasters, but how would everyone have cards I’ve traded to them lately, and the dupes have also helped me with some trades. More on that shortly. Not sure how I am going to complete the ‘25 Update set, but maybe a hand collated set from eBay would be the best route. 

While I didn’t go to the National, I did pick up a Curtis Mead National Chrome card. Strangely, it has a Bowman back. The Finest ‘93 reimagined insert is neat. Lately, Kyler has been fascinated with the fact that I’ve pulled a Junior Caminero card from just about every blaster Ive purchased. I had to get a few Juniors, and a Chrome rookie insert isn’t a bad one to have. 

I don’t have the best memory like I did when I first started collecting (or maybe just have thousands more cards), so I had a decent stack of dupes at the end of the day. Not a big deal, as I can use them to trade, as well as put in other areas of my collection, such as rookies, parallels, and refractors. When you factor in the fact that out of everything I got that 5 were dollar cards, and I payed 10 bucks for all of those, I think it was a great trip. With an off day on Monday, I might have to see if I can go back. 

Actually, it might be a better idea to leave some time to go to the post office. I’ve found a set builders page on FB, and have made a few trades to help me finish the 2025 Topps set. One netted me a 320 card box of Rays that should arrive tomorrow. I am in the process of trading some Heritage, Chrome, and 2025 Topps extras to a guy on the page for a good stack of 2000’s Topps needs. I may just finish out the 2018 Topps set with what he has for me. I have a 500 ct box of stuff for him, and I need to find out the best way to ship it. There are probably a hundred or so other needs I could include, but then could I ship it in a priority mail flat rate box?  I haven’t done one before, so I have tons of questions. Do you just get it at the post office and load it up with whatever?  Are the boxes free?  Do I have to buy packing peanuts and tape, or can you just use them from the post office for free?  I might just bring the 500 ct box and ask the clerk at the post office tomorrow or Tuesday. However I end up shipping them, I’ll have a box about the same size of goodies coming back, and maybe I’ll finish a set or get very close. 

I’ve never been a huge Ryne Sandberg fan, but always felt he was a top notch player. I pulled his 1994 Topps Gold base card from a pack and thought I was going to retire rich. I was shocked to see that he passed, as I just saw a post from a FB ttm autograph page a few days ago saying that people were getting autographs back but that he included a note saying that he was stopping ttm autographs starting in August. 

I never actually got to meet him, but I was able to get his autograph. I lived in Montgomery, AL from 2006-2009. I moved prior to the minor league season, and Ryne was a coach at West Tennessee in 2009. They came to Montgomery for a game, and my friend Rob got me a ticket signed and sent it to me in Florida. 

I also have a bat relic card of him. I went up to Montgomery in December 2005 in a trip that would change my life. I went up to visit a former college roommate, JT, and some other friends from college. I stayed with JT, wrote a song with him, and that convinced me to move to Montgomery in a few months, allowed me to meet people over the next 3 years that would shape my piano playing, and strengthen my relationship with JT. He eventually became my brother in law when he married my youngest sister, and we still record music as comedy duo ‘The Younger Griffin’ and serious duo ‘Resiliency from Obscurity’. Long story finished, I picked up a jumbo pack of 2005 Topps Update from the card store there, and pulled a Luis Castillo All-Star jersey card, and the Ryno bat card. RIP, Ryno. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy

Trades, eBay, and random other stuff

 Another stretch with no posts for a while, but I think at this point of my life, that might just be the normal and I’m ok with that. While things have been going on during the past moth or so, that doesn't mean I haven't received any cards and stuff.

First off, the things that have kept me busy. It seems that every week at work something goes on sale buy one get one free, and I have just been slap tired when I get home from work. It's taken all I have to get the normal mundane things done around the house like washing clothes, cook dinner, wash the dishes, get the trash out, and other things. 

2 weeks ago, Karen got a call in the morning from a sheriff in North Carolina telling her that her father passed away. It was kind of complicated because she hasn't been really close to him. Her parents split up when she was 2 or 3, and he wasn't big on hanging out with family. I can't blame him because I'm the same way, but he never did the family thing around the holidays, and out of the 4 grandkids he had with Karen's mom, he only saw the oldest once, and never met Kyler. We drove up to NC for a few days, and hung out with some of her family and went to his service at the funeral home. Karen's Uncle Barry had us over to his house to swim one day, and he had a nice music room with one of the best sounding electric acoustic guitars I have ever heard. Barry played drums, and Karen's brother Kevin played that sweet electric acoustic, and I played the nice grand piano that was just outside the music room and we played a few songs together, including 'Lovely Day' and some other song I had heard before, but couldn't tell you the name of. The progression was B minor, A, E, and I threw in some nice licks on the keys. 

The service was one of the most reverent ones I have ever been to. Her dad was in the Air Force, and some military personnel folded the flag that was over his casket, and they were so reverent and serious when they folded it. It took a good 5 minutes. The fired 3 guns outside and gave Karen's stepmom the bullets. Finally, they played 'Taps', and loaded his casket into the hearse. It almost made me want to join the armed forces so I could get a funeral like that. Karen ended up with the folded flag, and her brother got some of his service medals. 

Karen is doing ok. Sometimes she was happy, sometimes she was sad. On August 18, we have the stent trial up in Jacksonville at the Mayo Clinic. It will be with a metal uncovered stent, and if she breathes better with it, they will take it out after a day or so, and we expect Dr. Lazarro in NJ to give the ok to do the mesh trachea surgery shortly after that. 

As for cards, I received some packages in the mail, got some stuff from eBay, and am doing a lot of trading. Let's start with the stuff in the mail.

A few weeks ago, I got a package from Stuart from S.R. '75 Cards. I had sent him some needs for his '97 Fleer set, including the Ortiz, and he hit me back up with a ton of Rays and Tigers. 

Stuart busted a bunch of Heritage last year, and must've busted a good amount this year as well, and he sent me some Rays that I needed for my team set, and some nice parallels from the sets as well. I'm stoked for the Bigge refractors, as those are my first cards of the guy they got in the Paredes trade. Stuart also sent a good chunk of the 2002 Upper Deck 40 Man set. I am probably less than 10 cards from finishing that team set now. 

Stuart also sent some 1992 O-Pee-Chee Tigers. Back when I was in the 3rd grade, this gas station close to our house had a whole display of card boxes. A number of them were O-Pee-Chee cards, and I just didn't have the money to get any of the boxes, and couldn't convince my parents to get them. At least I have my 'big brother' Stuart to help me out. 

Finally, I got some Heritage Tigers. The Maddon is a great looking card, and I'm happy to have the Jobe Chrome. I believe I have 4 different parallels of him between his 2025 Topps and 2025 Topps Heritage cards. Hopefully he comes back well from Tommy John surgery next year. Thanks, Stuart, for the great additions.

Another grade school story sets the background for my eBay pickups. Around 2nd grade, I started attending a Christian school, and my mom got me some school supplies from Wal-Mart. They had some folders of baseball players that were replicas of 1989 Topps cards. I picked Alan Trammell, and used it for the next few years. I don't know what happened to it, but I found a Trammell and Orel Hershiser on eBay for 1 buck each, and ordered them. 

Here is one with a normal sized 1989 Topps card on the bottom left for size comparison. 

The back is normal except for the bar code on the top right. 

I tried to fit the Hershiser in a big sleeve, but it didn't fit, so I stuck it in a flap in the Favorite Player binder that Hershiser is in. 

The inside of the folder basically looks like a normal folder. 

The next order takes me back to around the same time. We moved from Michigan to Florida when I was 8 or so, and one of our neighbors, Richard, was a little off, but he was always nice to me. My dad and I went to his house for some reason, and he has all of these nude pictures that he called 'art' hanging up around his house. I swear one time, I found a 'Showgirls' movie ticket stub in his lawn. I guess being a 40 or 50 year old single guy makes you not care about what others think about your taste in things. 

Despite being a little creepy, a few times Richard would give me some baseball posters. I remember ones of Orel Hershiser, Mike Scioscia, Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Terry Steinbach, and maybe a Kevin Mitchell and Will Clark. I got them before I really started following baseball like crazy, and I hung them up in my room. I had no idea where they came from or how many were produced. 

I did a search on eBay for 'Jose Canseco poster 1990's', and found out that they were sold in 4-player packs. There were ones for certain teams and league leaders. I found a lot on the 'Bay with a Twins team set, a League Leader set with what I believe was the Canseco that I had, and a Dodgers team set that I'm sure I must've had. 

There is the Twins pack. 

The Hershiser that was hanging in my room in the early '90's. 

The backs just like I remember them. 

Aparently they made 4-packs for each team, as this stat paper came with each pack. 

It also had a checklist. I'm not sure if the entire league set was made as there was a disclaimer that if a player is traded, they might not be included, but if they did do the whole league, I want to get the Tigers pack.

I saw a post on a FB autograph page that somebody sent former NBA player Reggie Theus some cards to sign. Apparently, Theus is the Athletic Director and basketball coach at Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, which is about 45 minutes away from me. I dug through all of my non-baseball cards, and found 3 cards of Reggie. I'm not sure when the college basketball season starts, but perhaps when it does, my friend Jim and I will go to a Stetson/Bethune Cookman game in DeLand or a Bethune game in Daytona and try to get a Theus autograph. 

Our fish tank had an algae bloom recently, and I did a water change and put some algae clearing solution in it, and now it looks clear as ever. 

We tried out some loaches in the tank. They are mainly bottom feeders, and we have 3 different varieties. I'm not sure which variety this one is, but I love the spiky fins on its back. We have 2 of this variety.

I believe we have 4 of this kind, which are called Dojo Loaches. The other variety we have are Khuli Loaches, and we have 4. They like to hide out a lot more, and are smaller and more of a brownish color. 

That is the entire 35 gallon tank. The 3 green plants on the center and right are Amazon Sword plants. We have a few mollies, 3 guppies, 3 angelfish, a pleco, 3 blue rainbow fish, and 2 or 3 amazon rainbow fish. The rainbows like to dart back and forth when we feed them. I'm trying to convince Karen that we need a 75 gallon tank and am on the lookout for a cheap or free one on FB. 

The coolest purchase I made was a near complete 1998 Topps Inaugural Diamondbacks set from a guy on a FB group. I already had the Inaugural Rays set, which I got for around 35 bucks. The D-Backs one cost me around the same. The only thing that was missing was the Orioles team, and a few stars like Griffey, Bonds, and Jeter. No biggie. I got most of my Tigers, Rays, and players I collect. These sets were so tough to find, and are always like 100 bucks when you can find them online. 2 cool sets from my childhood that I thought I would never own, and now I have both of them (mostly). 

Both boxes together. 

For some reason, the D-Backs one didn't have the serial # sticker on it. 

I have the Braves that Johnny from Johnny's Trading Spot needs and I will give them to him next time I head over to Ocala. 

Speaking of Johnny, I went over to his place a few weeks ago, and got a box full of Topps set cards I needed, and of course some Rays and Tigers. 

Nobody really big, but just commons and semistars that help get me closer to completing sets. He actually helped me complete 2 sets, with a 1980 Topps Graig Nettles and 1986 Topps John Wathan that I needed. I'm also 2 cards away from finishing the 2001 Topps set thanks to him. The cards on the left side of the box are all of the cards I got from the trip to Johnny's. It's always a nice time when I see Johnny and dig through cards while talking about life, baseball, and cards. Thanks, Johnny, for letting me come over and raid your traded boxes. 

The last source of cards has come from a FB set builders page. I am in the process of making 2 pretty good sized trades on the page, as well as one on TCDB. Trade #1 is in the process of going through the mail, and will get me a few 2025 Topps needs, as well as a lot of Rays cards. Trade #2 will hopefully get approved, and will net me a number of Topps needs from the 2000's. The TCDB trade is also going through the mail currently, and will help almost complete my 2018 Topps and 2018 Topps Update sets, as well as helping me out with some 2010's Topps set fillers. I think once I get the last of the trades logged into TCDB, I will make a post with some of my sets that need 5 or so cards to complete. A few sets, like 1992, 2001, 2002 Traded, 2007, 2007 Update, 2016 Update, 2018, and 2025 need less than 10 cards to finish. My Google Docs page has the official list, but I'm pretty sure what I listed off of the top of my head matches up with it. I have a feeling if I can make a few more trades (and perhaps get a SportsLots order) by the end of the year, I can get my 1980-2002 Topps run complete, and the 2018-2025 Topps run complete as well. 2005-2007 can be finished quickly, and with a few trades, perhaps 2008 can be added to that run as well. Other sets have the base set completed but have a number of holes in the Update sets, or have the Update sets complete and the base set have a few holes. I'll keep plugging away, and eventually, I will have a 1980-2025 run completed, and will then focus on older cards. 

Thanks to all of you guys who are helpling me out with trades, supporting the blog by reading and commenting, and who just are concerned with my life in general. It means alot for you guys to be a part of my journey, and it is great to be a part of other bloggers journeys as well.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

The rest of the story and trip to K n T’s

In my last post, I mentioned about having the chance to trade Kenny Rogers' 1994 Pinnacle Museum Collection card to his mother, and Jafronious asked me the background of the story. I figured I would start off this post with the whole story.

The Rays were starting their inaugural season in 1998, and I scored tickets to a few games that year. The first one was on April 27, and it would be my first ever MLB regular season game (I had probably been to almost 10 Spring Training games by then). The Rays played Oakland at the Trop, and I was stoked, because Rafael Bournigal (who I met earlier that year at the YMCA by my house in a whole other story) was the backup infielder for Oakland, and I was hoping to see him play. Raffy didn't start, but he was called on as a defensive replacement in the late innings of the game. I did get to see Rickey Henderson play in person. I booed him when he came to the plate the first time, being a 15-year old Rays fan, and not knowing I was seeing greatness. Rickey didn't steal a base, but I'll take seeing him live. According to the box score, Rickey walked twice, Bournigal came in as a pinch-runner for Jason Giambi and played Shortstop, and Fred McGriff hit a HR in a 7-6 A's win. 

After the game, I tried to get autographs. I was lucky, and 2 people from the Tampa area (Kenny Rogers and Kurt Abbott) came over to sign autographs after the game. Abbott somehow ended up in the stands, and I got a picture with him. 

I don't really have any regular pictures since my mom and sisters decided to make a scrapbook. The top left is me and Kurt, the top and bottom right are of Kenny Rogers. 

So after getting Kurt to sign his 1994 Topps card, I went to get Kenny to sign his 1994 Pinnacle Museum card. A lady saw it and mentioned how she had never seen the card before. She mentioned that she was Kenny's mom and asked me to trade it to her. She pulled a stack of his cards out of her purse and offered a 1 for 1 trade. Nothing really stood out to me, and she kept pushing his 1990 Upper Deck card with him holding a football. I realized she would enjoy the '94 Pinnacle more than me, and swapped it for the '90 Upper Deck and got Kenny to sign it. Unfortunately, I sold the majority of my autographed cards, and that was one of them. Still, it was a cool memory. 

We got a t-shirt for signing up for a Rays credit card, and I got a picture with it. I wish I still had it. I do still have the ticket stubs from the game. One of the pictures of the field shows Rafael Bournigal during infield practice between innings. Had I been a more seasoned autograph collector, I would've came during BP and did a lot better, and also taken more pictures. It was still a fun game, and I'm happy to have the pictures and stubs from it. 

On Tuesday, I was off work, so I went to K n T Sportscards in Ormond after getting Karen lunch at her job in Port Orange. I feel like I made out pretty well, getting 20 cards from the dollar bins, 2 2-for-$5 cards, and a slew of dime box cards for 40 bucks. I didn't get too much time to dig through the dime bins as another customer was in the corner most of the time, and I didn't want to stay too late, but the guy was nice, and we actually talked about custom cards. He was needing a custom with a jersey piece and an autograph spot. I told him that was above my skill level, but mentioned Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown or Tanner from Tan Man Baseball Fan were good candidates. 

Those were my 2.50 cards. 

Most of my dollar ones were Rays parallels, and Junior Caminero rookies. If he turns out to be decent, the Rays sign him to an extension, or I have a good in-person experience with him at a game (when I start going again when the Rays change ownership), I might have to collect him officially. According to TCDB, I have 42 cards of him, including a ton of rookies, one jersey card, and one autograph. 

I found a handful of Topps needs, and somehow, a stack of cards I didn't need got in the pile (stack on bottom right). I was hoping to find a chunk of 2025 Topps cards to look through, as I am only 69 cards away from finishing the Series 1 and 2 sets. I didn't find any, but I did find a 2024 Topps Tyler Cropley to re-finish the 2025 set. My friend Jim, who collects Cardinals, and autographs, went to the first Stetson University baseball game back in February or March, and told me Cropley was a coach for Iowa, who they were playing. He didn't have a Cropley, and I had just the one, so I let him have it, and he got the autograph, and I figured I could replace it later, which I did today. I found out a few weeks ago that Jim's stepson passed away suddenly. They both collected cards and autographs, and Jim is up at his stepsons' house right now going through his things. He said he'll probably bring some of his collection down to DeLand and we could go through it together, but both of us are in no rush, and it will happen when it happens. It's nice to have a card friend like Jim to both have help you out with a need and who you can help out, and not only that, but just the friendship that happens from spending hours at games or wherever talking about cards, baseball, and life. I've texted him a few times during the last few weeks to check on him, and hopefully the rest of his year is smooth.

The dime cards were a hodgepodge of different things. I didn't organize them before I scanned them, but the basic groupings are as follows: Tigers, Rays, guys I collect, rookies, 1998 Upper Deck finds, and 1998 Fleer Tradition finds. While not normally a guy to pick out a non-Topps set, I think 1998 Upper Deck has a great design, and the '98 UD cards they had in the box were from Series 3, the ones that feature the first cards of the Devil Rays and Diamondbacks. Same thing with the Fleer cards. 

There were also some cards that probably shouldn't have been in the dime boxes. There was a '93 Select Jeter rookie. I loathe Jeter, but a rookie of his for a dime is a deal I couldn't pass up. I already have one, so if anyone is up for a trade, I'll be happy to throw this one in. The '25 Heritage Rays were all SPs. With last year's set having SPs in cards 1-100, I am sure there are a lot of dime boxes in various shops that have SPs thrown in them. I almost passed over the '20 Topps Update Devin Williams rookie, but when I flipped it over, I noticed a serial #, and noticed that it was a SABRMetric Stat parallel, so I picked it up. 

Most of the Rays were needs. The 2007 Upper Deck John McDonald is the one with the Hello Kitty notebook on it. The Quinton McCracken was a need, and with the amount of his cards that I have, it doesn't happen very often. 

The 2 Donruss cards came from what looked like a pack that someone left in the box. I was stoked that the 1998 Upper Deck Fielder was in the box. The Robert Campos looked like a normal Topps Pro Debut insert, but was actually a green parallel. I hear a ton of hype around Kyle Teel, so I took a gamble on his rookie, especially for 10 cents. The Astros World Series Heritage card is an SP, and the random '89 Bowman Stan Royer was just a cool card for me. I made most of his Topps cards that he didn't have, and I believe I used this card photo for his '89 Topps card. Most of the teams in the 1989 Topps set had #1 Draft Pick cards, but a few teams, like the Tigers, Royals, and A's didn't have any. Royer was the A's #1 pick, so he never got the '89 Topps card, so I feel like this '89 Bowman makes up for it. 

I kind of want to go back to the shop. Maybe next week. Hopefully they will have some '25 stuff in the boxes. We will see. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy

 

Some of my favorite parallels

 After getting a parallel from the 2025 Topps set that I really liked, I thought I would make a post of some of my favorite parallels of all time. 

For me, a neat parallel would be one that features a unique printing technology showcased, and a rainbow sheet also helps put it over the top. I’m not really concerned about the scarcity of a card, if it is a rare card, it’s a rare one. If not, it’s not. I’m going to not really go in a particular order since it’s kind of hard to judge between favorites, but I’ll definitely save my 2-3 favorite ones until the end. 

SET: 1994 Pinnacle Museum Collection

ODDS: 1 in 3 packs

Pinnacle treated collectors to Dufex technology in 1994, and boy, were these Museum Collection card beautiful!  The only way they could get better is if they had a rainbow sheen on them. While these cards were 1 in 3 retail pack odds, I would rather pull one of these than the rarer Artists Proof cards which just have a gold foil AP logo and are 1 in 22 retail packs. In 1998, I saw a Rays/A’s game at the Trop, and Kenny Rogers’ mom saw my ‘94 Pinnacle Museum card of Kenny, and she wanted it, and traded me his 1990 Upper Deck card for it. The card would’ve been beautiful with an autograph, but I’m still happy I got to trade it to her. 

SET: 2023 Topps Chrome Green Sonic Refractor

ODDS: 1 in 672 retail packs

While these are much tougher to pull, I found one at a LCS in either the $1 or $5 box. All of the shapes, the rainbow sheen, the only thing I wish is that I could’ve found a blue one to match the Rays colors. 

SET: 1998 Score Artists Proofs. 

ODDS: 1 in 35 packs 

In 1998, I was at a friends house, and his dad got the card bug watching the McGwire/Sosa HR race. He busted tons of boxes of product, and had a trade box that he let me pick a few cards from that day. I picked a 1998 Score Artists Proofs Todd Worrell. I loved the rainbow sheen that looked like water, I loved the red AP logo. Just a cool looking card. 

SET: 1995 Topps SpectraLight/Cyberstats

ODDS: 1 per pack

 An easy 1 per pack pull, these cards go by either the Spectra or Cyber name. The set was originally going to be called Spectra Light after the technology, and perhaps replace the ToppsGold series. During the ‘94 season, the MLB players went on strike, and Topps used a computer program to play the remaining games of the season and did the playoffs as well (the Indians beat the Braves in the World Series). They then called the set CyberStats, and added the computer season stats to the regular season stats and printed them on the back. The card front on the left is a normal one and the right is a Spectra, and the top is a regular back, and bottom is a Cyberstats back. I wish Topps added these to the 2021 set and finished out the Covid season. 

SET: 2024 Topps Chrome Ray Wave Refractor

ODDS: 1 in 9

These ‘Wave’ Refractors have been around for a few years now, this was just the first one I found in my binders. I really like the wave pattern that moves when you bend the card. 

*The next 2 sets are confusing, as they have a number of different parallels*

SET: 1998 Leaf Fractal Matrix

ODDS: various

These things are confusing, and I’m still not sure how many different versions there are. The Fractal Matrix parallels have normal cards, X axis die cuts, Y axis die cuts, Z axis die cuts, and Diamond Axis ones. From what I gathered from Baseball Card Pedia, there are 10 different sets, and gold silver and bronze versions as well. Nice looking cards, but confusing. 

SET: 1998 UD3 Die Cuts

ODDS: Various

UD3 was a confusing set as a base set. 90 cards, 3 subsets (power corps, the establishment, and future impact). There were 3 technologies (rainbow foil, embossed, and special fx).  On top of that, there were die cut inserts. I have versions of each technology of each subset, and only have die cuts of each subset. The die cut cards are bad, though. Look some of them up on COMC. They follow the the pattern of the design and are one of the neatest die cut sets I’ve ever seen. 

SET: 1994 Collectors Choice Gold Signature

ODDS: 1 in 36 packs

In my first Collectors Choice pack, I pulled a Gold Signature Robin Ventura. The fact that they were rarer than the Silver versions and feature player autographs make them favorites for me. As an autograph collector, it’s always cool to compare an autograph to a Silver or Gold Signature card. 

SET: 1998 Pinnacle Artists Proofs

ODDS: 1 in 39 packs

I’ve always liked the 1998 Pinnacle set because of the rainbow foil nameplate. I’ve never actually pulled one of these Artists Proofs cards, but darn, do they show off that Dufex technology. 

SET: 1998 Pinnacle Museum Collection

ODDS: 1 in 9 packs

I figured I would keep the ‘98 Pinnacle cards together. A different way to use the Dufex technology, the Museum cards are nothing to sneeze at. 

SET: 2004 Donruss Career Stat Line

ODDS: varies

Donruss parallels just don’t do it for me with the technology. I will give them credit for the Stat Line parallels, which number a card according to either a career or a season stat. 

SET: 2022 Topps Chrome Sonic Purple/Yellow Refractor

ODDS: 1 in 49 packs

This is just a bad looking card with the different colors and shapes on it. 

SET: 2021 Topps Orange Foil

ODDS: not listed

Actually, any of the color parallels are great looking cards, I just found the orange one first. The technology is unique, the colors have a rainbow sheen, and it is on the whole card and not just the border. 

SET: 2021 Topps Complete Set Shimmer Foilboard

ODDS: 5 cards per factory set

Why can’t they put parallels like this in the regular set?

SET: 1998 Topps Minted in Cooperstown

ODDS: 1 in 8 packs

This set was unique because the cards actually had the bronze logo minted on the card in Cooperstown, NY. It wasn’t a piece of cake to pull as they are 1 in 8 packs. 

We are down to the top 4. 

SET: 1998 Bowman’s Best Atomic Refractor

ODDS: 1 in 82 packs

Numbered to 100, these beauties were tough pulls. I love the crackle of the design and the rainbow sheen. They are also serial numbered on the back, an uncommon practice back in the late ‘90’s. 

SET: 1997 Topps Stadium Club Matrix

ODDS: 1 in 12

These cards have it all. A design that mimics Dufex, a cool logo, and rainbow sheens. Wish I could’ve found packs of this set when it was out. 

SET: 2011 Topps Diamond Anniversary Platinum

ODDS: 1 in 4

These cards wowed when they first came out. Just a beautiful technology over the whole card. If only it would have a rainbow sheen on the whole card. Some people have tried to build a complete set. 

SET: 2025 Topps Diamonte

ODDS: 1 per hanger box

When I first saw these on a blog, I was impressed. They were even better in hand. The technology with the triangles looks very cool. If only it had a rainbow sheen on the card. It still looks like some cool ice kind of thing. I really hope Topps keeps this technology in the future. 

That does it for my favorite parallels. I’m sure there are a few that I’ve missed, but hopefully it gives you some ideas for some new cards to add to your collection. I might stop at K n T’s Sportscards tomorrow and hunt for more. At the very least, hopefully they will have the missing 2025 Topps base cards and I can finish up the set. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy