The 2024 NFL Draft is finally over.  No.  I didn't watch it, but I did keep an eye on who the Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers drafted. Let's face it.  As much as I love baseball (my favorite sport)... neither of my teams are doing well.  In fact, I've been following the A's and Padres more closely this year than last year... and neither have winning records. That's why today is a good day to take a short break from baseball and focus on some football cards and memorabilia that a few fellow bloggers sent my way. Let's start off with this cool postcard featuring m ..read more

I'm always down for a Blog Bat-Around.  The topic currently trending around the blogosphere is posting your five best pack pulled hits.  It was inspired by Matt over at Diamond Jesters who utilized TCDB to create a list of all of his relics, autographs, and serial numbered cards in his collection.  He then isolated which ones were pulled from packs and voilà he formed his list. Regretfully... I have yet to inventory my entire collection of anything outside of my Steve Largent PC on TCDB... so my process will be a little more challenging and probably inaccurate (in the sens ..read more

1992 was a big year for me in regards to card collecting.  I worked at the card shop located less than a mile from my parent's house and spent most of my hard earned money on building a master set of 1992 Fleer Ultra baseball. That didn't leave me with a lot of money to spend on other products that year.  Fast forward three decades and I decided to add another master set of 1992 baseball cards.  This time it was Leaf's turn, but I wouldn't be opening up boxes and trading with card shop customers.  Instead... I headed over to eBay and purchased a complete base set as well a ..read more

Clear skies and fresh air have a way of drawing people out of their homes.  That's why the De Anza Flea Market was packed two weekends ago.  Not exactly a fan of large crowds but if it motivates more vendors to set up in the future... it's something I can live with. Made a total of eight purchases... which is more than usual.  So let's get to it. Purchase #1:  2019 Topps Clear Travel Packs  $Free I'll be teaching summer school again for the first time in four years, so I was looking for some cheap packs for a math lesson involving statistics.  I found a vend ..read more

I'm more of an early bird than a night owl... but right now a busy schedule dictates when I can blog.  And sometimes you gotta push through if you want to get things done. That's why for the first time in the history of this blog... you're getting back to back evening posts. I was hoping to join in on the current Blog Bat-Around that has been circling the blogosphere... but I need more time to get my list together.  I also have Flea Market Finds post sitting in my draft folder that's waiting to be completed, but I only have about an hour to hammer out this post and publish it.&nb ..read more

Time has a way with messing with my head.  On this date back in 1994, baseball fans celebrated the 20th anniversary of Hank Aaron breaking Babe Ruth's MLB home run record. At the time... two decades literally felt like a lifetime ago to this twenty-one year old collector. My memory of this historic home run came from baseball highlight videos and baseball cards like his card #1 in the 1974 Topps baseball set or his home run records card in the 1979 Topps set. Unfortunately... it's a school night and today was one of those long days where the hobby got pushed to the side.  So I don ..read more

Happy Easter!  I know today is a very big religious holiday for many of my friends and family members.  When I was a kid... it was more about decorating eggs, baskets of candy, and spring break. I know this year Topps released some Easter themed parallels in their flagship Series 1 boxes.  But since I haven't opened any... nor have I acquired any of those parallels... I decided to celebrate with some candy related collectibles in my collection. As an added bonus, I will rate the candy and players featured on the cards/collectibles using a scale of 1 to 10... with 5 being avera ..read more

It's a truly glorious day.  The 2024 MLB season has started... and I'm officially on spring break.  The bulk of it will be spent cleaning, resting, running errands, scanning and sorting cards, and possibly building a few Lego sets while binge watching Shogun.  But I also have a pair of day trips planned. I'll be driving down to San Luis Obispo one day... and headed over the hill to Capitola another day.  Both trips revolve around food.  I've got a couple of lunch dates and Easter dinner on the calendar. But the thing I'm looking forward to the most are a pair of ..read more

Bay Area sports radio tends to focus on the San Francisco 49ers and the Golden State Warriors most of the year... but this past week... baseball got a chance to shine. 2020 Topps Opening Day Ballpark Profile Autographs #BPA-RBM The week started off with news that Renel Brooks-Moon and the San Francisco Giants were parting ways after failing to agree on a contract.  I grew up listening to Renel on KMEL back in the 80's.  In 2000, she became the Giants public address announcer.  Although the split appears to be amicable, there are many Giants fans (and non-Giants fans ..read more

In celebration of today being the first day of spring... here are a pair of cardboard firsts. Let's start with this on-card autograph of Masanori Murakami: 2023 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Auto #08FF-MM Back on September 1st, 1964... Murakami became the first Japanese baseball player to play in the MLB.  In his first eight appearances as a relief pitcher, he didn't allow a single earned run while striking out thirteen, walking one, and only giving up four hits in 11 innings pitched.  That's a pretty impressive start to his MLB career. According to this article on History.com ..read more