I've seen some hot takes that people aren't happy with the commemorative batting helmet cards included as bonuses in 2022 Topps Series 2 blasters.  I've only ripped one blaster of Series 2 and my manufactured relic was of current MLB RBI leader Pete Alonso and my pick for the player who had the best rookie season ever.  I'm personally a big fans of these and I really like the texture of the helmet and the shininess of the metal on the inside of it that really catches the light when the card is in hand.  But honestly, I'm a sucker for just about every Topps manufactured patche ..read more

Sort of like those Exhibit postcards from the 1930s and 40s, I really didn't know where these famous binders from the junk wax era came from. I remembered Hygrade was an Ultra Pro-like company that made supplies but were they sold as binders individually or were they a mail order type of thing?   They are sized to hold roughly a complete set of cards and mine is currently being used to house my 1972 Topps set that is a work in progress.  Recently on a visit back home to Minnesota and Wisconsin, I stopped by Bloomington's Three Star Sportscards and stumbled upon where the binders ..read more

Somehow over the years, I've accumulated eight copies of Andy Pafko's iconic 1952 Topps No. 1 card. I don't think any would grade over a "2" by PSA and in the future I plan on sharing how that collection has grown over the past few years.  I mention it because although 1952 Topps is Pafko's most famous card, his first Topps appearance was his 1951 Topps mini game card and it is one of my favorites Pafko ever appeared on.  But in my collecting, this card has been overlooked. I picked up one to get if off my needs list but as one of Pafko's rarer appearances, it just hasn't popped up i ..read more

  For an upcoming post, I'm trying to identify all the signatures on a baseball I was recently gifted and I'm turning to you, Dear Reader, to give me your thoughts on whose signature is this. Here's what I know for sure:  It is very likely a Milwaukee Braves player from the 1950s or early 60s and his first name is Bob.  Here's the list of "Bobs" from the Milwaukee Braves era.  Bobby Avila Bob Boyd Bob Buhl (it's not Bob Buhl because his signature is already on the baseball in another location and it is clearly different.)  Bob Giggie Bob Hartman Bob Hazie Bob Hendley ..read more

Growing up, I have the distinct memory of being at my grandmother's house on many Sunday afternoons when the TV would get turned to PBS and reruns of the Lawrence Welk Show would be on.  The variety show focused on musical performances that were mainly pre-recorded. In general, it was so wholesome and portrays a world of the 1960s and 70s that seems absurd today in many ways.  Saturday Night Live honored the show many times through the years through their series of skits about the Maharelle Sisters...from the Finger Lakes. Flipping through a stack of postcards and odd-sized card ..read more

 I was surprised to find a 2022 Topps Minnesota Twins team set at my local Walmart when typically it is strictly Cubs or Cardinals with a random White Sox thrown in for some sort of equality.  But a little searching found sets for the Pirates, Nationals and Astros so it looks like a random assortment was sent to each store.  I miss that these sort of sets used to include an exclusive card or at least a card of the stadium (which I collect). The only thing "exclusive" is the card numbering which has a "MIN-" before each card number.  It's been an exciting year for the Twins ..read more

I recently got a pack of 1988 Donruss in a Fairfield repackage that I bought at a CVS in town. Over the years, I've probably opened more of this product than another other Donruss issue. It was my first Donruss set and I went a little nuts about these blue-bordered cards at the time when I was nine years old. It wouldn't be until the next year with the first Upper Deck set that I was introduced to the idea of paying $1 for a single pack of cards. Before that, a couple quarters could be me 15 cards plus a puzzle piece at my local Phar-Mor pharmacy.   The great thing about Donruss set ..read more

For a while I have had three of those trading card displays they sell at Michaels and other places with decorative frames. I've got one filled with my favorite Andy Pafko cards and one that highlights Central Illinois players (mainly Bill Madlock, Chuck Dressen, Del Unser and Walter "Boom-Boom" Beck).  I couldn't really decide on what to put in the last display and finally decided to do a tribute to my favorite baseball card book, the Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book written by Brendan C. Boyd and Fred C. Harris. Although I started Heartbreaking Cards be ..read more

It is interesting to me to think that as Marvel Comics entered its fourth and fifth decades in the 1970s and 80s that they didn't have a complete archive of the comics they printed, dating back to 1939 with Marvel Comics No. 1.  Issues were missing here and there and the idea of the possibility of issues lost to history is unfathomable with how prestigious and popular the comic book company would eventually become.   Thankfully, a collector by the name of George Olshevsky, a comic collector on a level that surpasses all others, was the only person in the world to collec ..read more

For whatever reason in my various forms of collecting that has extended from baseball cards to music to comics to 1970s horror magazines, video game collecting never really struck my interest.  I guess I always thought of them more as a tool than a collectible. I've purchased more games on Steam than I'm prepared to admit and while I've still got my original Nintendo and Sega Genesis, those old games from my childhood are boxed up in the basement. I really enjoy my Xbox Series S and I have no problem giving up the idea of owning physical games for the digital-only console.  Although ..read more