Monday, October 24, 2022

Building a football collection several sets at a time

Nothing is one at a time for me.   Baseball started all over the place when I got back into collecting, then I decided on just building sets between 1968-1986.  Still working on the first 5 sets (1968-1972), but there's no hurry.

Hockey was the same way, all kinds of cards as fast as I could.  Now, even though it's the lowest focused of the 3 sports that I collect currently, still have the goal of finishing 1970-71 OPC through 1989-90.  Only have 4 of those sets finished, again there's no hurry.   

Football seems to be headed in the same direction.  I've discovered just how great the football sets are in the same era as the baseball sets.   1968-1986 seems to be the timeline that I'm going to chase.  The early sets are relatively small in size, the 73-79 sets all look good (although I'm not partial to '78, more to come down the road on that set), and the early to mid 80's are solid and fairly inexpensive.

I recently completed a trade on TCDB that netted me a few cards from a couple of late 70's FB sets.


I do like '77 Topps, a lot.  I've seen the Spanish version of some of these cards as well which I get a kick out of trying to figure out what position the guy on the card plays.  

I didn't know that each team has their own checklist card as part of the set.   I like that.  It's a shame that there's no logos on the helmets as you can see on the Garo Yepremian card, but it's small in importance for me with these sets.


I wonder if John Dutton of the Colts knew that he would be the title character's name of a very popular show over 40 years later.  That reminds me, I need to get caught up on Yellowstone some day.


Notice that the Team Leaders card in the '79 set has the team checklist on the back, which is the opposite of the '77 shown above, where the Team Leaders are on the back.  

I haven't met a card back from the '70s that I didn't like.  When I have my reading glasses on and the eyes are focused, all the backs are great.  Easy to read, some good cartoons and the '74 set has a game as well.  

Thanks to Marco on TCDB for the great trade, it is appreciated!

Robert


Saturday, October 22, 2022

Flexing your muscles on the beech

It's good to be back.   Back collecting more.  Back posting more.  Back buying more.  Case in point was a recent transaction on the TCDB website that I started with a seller who had some '69s on my want list.  A bit of back and forth about the price and the cards available and I wound up with 14 more cards knocked off my '69 Topps set.



I am kind of leery about approaching folks on sites trying to buy cards.  You never know what you might end up with.  But I took a look at "musclebeech" 's feedback which is a clean 100% and saw some good reviews, so I took a shot.   Like I mentioned, things went very smoothly, I was provided with a tracking number on a Monday and my cards were here a few days later.   Perfecto.



I still have some distance to travel before this set is done, 174 cards to be exact, but it has been nice lately to start knocking off some card #'s that are in the 500's from the want list.  I didn't pick up any major stars out of this group, but you may recall some of the names if you're older or you've collected vintage sets in the past.  



I've been having some fun gathering the '69T set over the past few months.  At the beginning of 2022 it was probably the furthest thing from my mind, now I'm almost 3/4 done and looking forward to getting even closer before the end of the year.  

More trades to come, it's almost as if I haven't been away.


Robert

Sunday, October 16, 2022

More from the Battersbox

To go along with the Bobby Hull post from Friday, the remainder of the cards from the Battersbox that I received will be on display in this post.


I'm only at 10% of the '68 Topps football set complete, but I'm loving the cards so far.  The Hewritt Dixon card on the bottom of the scan features him in his Broncos uniform before his trade to the Raiders. He had just finished his 2nd season in the AFL when this card was released, finishing 5th in pass receiving the year before.  On Football reference, he is listed as a full back for most of his Raiders career, a position that is almost extinct in today's game.

Jack Clancy listed as a flanker, another name that is all but gone in the modern NFL.  Jack spent the '68 season injured when he ruptured a ligament in his left knee.  His '69 season was cut short due to ligament damage in his right knee.  His final season in '70 was with the Packers only catching 16 passes

Another victim of the lack of airbrushing is Bobby Hunt, who is featured in his Kansas City Chiefs uniform.  The last 2 years of his career were spent in Cincinnati where he only picked off 5 passes after his first 6 seasons where he gained 37 picks.  




As much as I love the '68 Topps FB set, the '69 may even be better.  These are the first 2 cards I have for the set; I'm hoping that someone can remind me of another set out there that features a black back with white writing.  This set is also quite light, just 263 cards.  The colors are really nice and some cards don't even have borders on the front.  I found the Vintage football card gallery site which provides all the cards available before 1979, so if you're looking for something to look at while the TCDB site is down for maintenance, this is your ticket.  


Keeping with the '69 era, a trio of Topps baseball cards finished out the order.  I can't access the TCDB site right now, but I know I'm closing in on the 75 % mark for this set, which is a big improvement over the start of this year when I might have had a third of that amount.  I find myself poking around ebay looking for the Reggie Jackson RC (there's a well-loved copy on the site for $90 right now).  Mantle, Ryan and a couple of others will slow this set build down a little.

Late 60's through early 70's football and baseball seems to be the sweet spot for me right now; I'm sure you'll be seeing more of these in the coming few months.


Robert



Friday, October 14, 2022

Just for the Hull of it

One card post time here on the blog tonight.  I recently received my latest order from the Battersbox seller on eBay and the one card that I bought on a bit of a whim was this one:


I'm still in the $1-$2 range when purchasing cards online for the most part, but when grabbing a few baseball/football vintage commons from one of my favorite sellers, this card caught my eye.

The price?  $10.50.   The listing said this card was "G/VG" so I figured why not take a chance.  I needed it for the 71/72 OPC set I'm still working on, and I'm never going to find a copy for this cheap again, so I put it in the cart.

You can't see it in the scan, but there's a crease running from the bottom center of the card through the Black Hawks logo forehead on the lower right.  There are a couple of soft corners in the top right and bottom left, and right above the "K" is a near pin hole.  (it looks like a dot in the blue border)


My big stickler as far as condition goes is on the back.  No Paper Loss.  A lot of people used to tape or glue cards onto paper or into scrapbooks, so seeing the back almost neat as a pin made me smile.

Good enough for me.  Don't think I'll chase an upgrade anytime soon.   Just 69 cards remain in this set.

More cards to come from this purchase, but I felt this one deserved its own post.

Robert

Thursday, October 13, 2022

Round 2

After taking a few months off both blogging related, and trading related, I've turned on the trades again at the TCDB website.   The site has made a few cosmetic changes, one of the nicest ones being when a trade is countered, the trade page shows the changes that were made (both additions and subtractions).  

I made a couple of small trades in the first few days, getting a total of 5 cards back in the 2 deals.   One of the trades netted me a couple of John Olerud cards for that collection...


 

Always liked the bright Pacific Revolution cards, this 1999 copy on the left shines just as bright in hand as it did in the scan.  Collectors Choice was always a nice cheap buy back in the 90's when you wanted a card fix for a buck to a buck and a half.  

On the back of the CC card was a Did you Know section which details John's college player of the year for Washington State in '88.  He hit .464 (!) and was 15-0(!!) as a pitcher for the Cougars.  WSU didn't make it out of the West 1 regional, losing in the semi-final game to Fresno State 7-6.  Stanford won the college WS in '88, beating #1 ranked Arizona State 9-4.



A trio of 2009 Allen & Ginter cards knocked my want list down to 7, as well as adding one to the Jim Thome collection.   I spent some time before finishing this portion of the post checking the '09 A&G Box to make sure I have the want list correct (I found one card I had checked as in hand missing), so here's what's left.

4,126,176,276,290,308,338

Couple of SPs, couple of athletes in Michael Phelps and Cat Osterman, couple of RC's and Jorge Posada round out the 7 cards on the list.  It'll be nice to knock this one off the list in the very near future.

Round 2 has begun.   

Robert

Wednesday, October 12, 2022

The I's have it

I've been in Florida since 2015 now, moved into my house in 2016.   In those years, I've been fortunate to have had to really worry about 2 hurricanes.

Irma in 2017, which caused some localized flooding and a lot of downed trees and power lines in my area, but nothing super serious that we couldn't deal with.  We cut down our coconut tree this summer as it had quite the lean to it, and we're thankful that we did.

In 2022, Ian moved a little to the left of Irma's track.  But boy what a punch.  My wife and I?  We were very lucky indeed, as we live only 90 miles from Ft. Myers Beach which was absolutely devastated.  

 

There were a couple of you out there who checked in on me while the storm was coming/going through the state, I thank you for that.  Made me feel good to know that I've made a few good friends in the card world!

The cards I'm showing off on this post I've had on the desk for about 2 weeks now (give or take a couple of days), but the absolute fatigue of helping out on the phones for my colleagues in the northern part of the state made thinking about posting a bit of a chore.  


But now that I'm up and running again, both on the home front, and in the card trading world (a couple of posts to come on that front), it's good to get some more vintage out there on the blog for the folks to see.



After several months away, I decided to get the TCDB trades going again.  I turned on trading as of September the 24th and already I have 2 completed and 5 on the go.  One of the 5 is actually a purchase which I rarely do on the site, but it is for a group of '69 Topps baseball which I'm working towards a state where I only need big name cards.  I'll be sure to show off the lot of 14 when they arrive in the next few days.

All I can say is if Idalia hits in 2023, it might be time to rethink the Florida retirement plan.

Robert

Saturday, September 24, 2022

Only a 55 cent discount, but still....

Over time I've been fortunate enough on eBay to get a few lots on the cheap.  Some evenings I'll spend perusing lots of cards on the site and if I find something that I might want to purchase down the road, I'll add it to my watch list so I can find it quickly (like most people do).  

Last week I found a 30-card lot of 1971 Topps football for just under $11, which was already a 10% discount off of the seller's original price.   I put it on the want list, thinking I'll check it out later in the week.

Next morning, for some reason I was wide awake at 3 AM, so I decided to check my email.  The seller sent me an offer with a further discount (yep, just 55 cents).   I figured it was meant to be so I hit the buy it now button and 4 business days later, the cards were at my house.


Not a perfect scan for sure, but it is representative of the cards that came my way.  I love this set as it shows red for AFC teams and blue for NFC teams, easy to remember.  It is also a smaller set, just 263 cards, of which I now have 37. 

One card I don't have currently but will have to shell out some big bucks eventually is the Terry Bradshaw rookie.  Another Steelers great also has a rookie card in this set, Mean Joe Greene.  There's also a lot of legendary QB's to chase, Namath, Starr, Unitas and Griese for starters.  

I'm hoping to find another lot or 2 on the cheap to get a good start to the set before I start knocking off the singles.   

Robert

Monday, September 19, 2022

It's the most wonderful time of the year

With apologies to Andy Williams and his classic Christmas song of the same name, if you're a sports fan, the September-October period is a sports junkie's Nirvana.  For me, it truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

Baseball winding down towards the playoffs.  NFL football starting up and already some good story lines developing.  NHL training camp getting ready to start this week along with NBA camps starting next week.  For those of you so inclined, European football seasons are well underway and in a couple of months the World Cup will be played.

It's even more exciting this time of year if one of your beloved teams is about ready to enter the MLB playoffs.   The Blue Jays season has been a bit up and down, but for the most part the team has played well and I'm looking forward to watching some Jays games in October.


While he doesn't have the HR/RBI numbers he's had the past couple of seasons, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. is hitting above .290 and playing both left field and a bit of first for the Jays.  Found a cheap bat card from the 2020 Topps set for a couple of bucks which became an easy add to the Blue Jays hits and autos collection.



While no longer with the Blue Jays, Ryan Borucki appears to have a good chance at getting some post season playing time this year with the Seattle Mariners.  Ryan was traded to Seattle exactly 10 years to the day after he was drafted by the Jays.   Ryan was struggling with Toronto in 2022, having an ERA near 10 before the trade; he's now having some success with the M's.


Enjoy the next few weeks folks, it really is the most wonderful time of the year if you're a sports fan.


Robert


Sunday, September 18, 2022

I'm still alive, I know it's been a minute

 Decided to write a post today, don't know why, I guess I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still alive and kicking.   Oh yeah, collecting as well.

I've really had to cut back on card spending the past few months, a lot of it due to some home improvements that have put a damper on my discretionary spending.  Life happens, right?

Over the past couple of weeks, I've begun to spend a bit of $$ again on cards; honestly, I've stuck to the old $30 a week budget that was the staple of this blog for years.

My spending has been concentrated on two fronts:


1969 Topps baseball.  Ever since I bought the Steve Carlton card from this set at the Baltimore National many years ago, I've always had a love for this set.   I've begun chipping away at this set, trying to knock out some of the cheaper high number cards.

Since I last posted, I've knocked a fair bit off of this set, so much so that I've passed the 70% completion plateau.   These 3 cards put me at 71.2%, still 191 to go but a lot better than where I was at the beginning of the year.  I actually updated the want list on the blog for the first time in 7 months this morning which led me to realize that I'm over 100 cards closer to completion.


Another facet of collecting that I've really developed a joy for in the past several months (when I could collect) was late 60's and 70's football.  From what I can see, there's not a bad set design in the decade plus of sets that I'm slowly chasing.  


Case in point, 1970 Topps.  



The backs are really sharp as evidenced by these 4 cards.  The fronts are an oval photo, not quite the same as the '59 Topps baseball circle design, while the background is all the same beige color.  I've had some good luck on eBay getting this set started, finding a cheap starter lot for around 30 bucks (if memory serves me) and I've poked here and there at some singles that are in really good shape for under $2 apiece.  

Another good aspect is the set size, just 263 cards which will make it a little easier on the wallet to chase and complete.  

I've been having fun the past 3-4 weeks trying to find some cheap lots on eBay, which hopefully will lead to a few posts here and there.   

I've been gone so long that I even missed my blog anniversary.  

Hope you are all doing well and see you in the blogs.

Robert


Tuesday, February 8, 2022

It was kismet

For the longest time on the blog, I haven't made any kind of reference to the $30 a week portion of the blog title that for many years was a staple.   It was definitely a good starting point for me, but as time has gone on, I've had the $30 "allowance" in my head, but most times at shows or online I'll go over.   It's even worse now with the "pandemic pricing" on a lot of products.

This past Sunday at the West Palm Beach card show, I only hit the one table, which had a good selection of vintage cards.  I went out hoping to get some '68 Topps baseball to add to the collection, but all that he had I already had.

I did find a few cards that either interested me, or I needed for other various want lists.


A pair of '71 Topps football to start off.  They each went for $2, not bad in my opinion.  The Dawson as you can see has a bit of damage on the right-hand edge, but the "mad bomber" is in really nice shape.  This set will probably be put together some time after I retire...



I right away recognized this as a need; Carl Lewis from the 2006 Allen & Ginter set was a buck and was happily put into the pile.

As a side note, I find that I'm struggling finding cards for this set on TCDB.  I only have 63 out of the 350 cards for the set.  If anyone has a stack of them that they wish to trade, please either comment or hit me up on TCDB (My ID is rmitchell6700)


This could have been another post similar to the 7 8 9 post from a few days ago.  Only this time it would have been 2 3 4.   The 4 cards for the '69 set either cost me 2 or 3 bucks, and the '71 Carlton was stickered at $4.  Sitting here thinking while writing this, I couldn't tell you the last time I bought a '71 card.   Months it's been.


I really have caught a football bug over the past year, so much so that I have:

  • Almost completed '86 Topps
  • '81 and '82 Topps are both more than 90% complete.
  • '79 Topps is about 40% done
For the most part, the cards have been really affordable, and these were no execption.  The Lott was the costliest as it was from his rookie year in '82 ($10).  The Payton was $5, and was a card that I needed for the '81 set.  The top row was all $2 apiece, and the Zorn RC was 4.

Was quite happy with what I had, it totalled if I remember correctly $42.  Brought it up to the dealer.

"I can do $30"   Kismet!!   Easiest purchase I've made in a while.

It was as if he knew me....

Enjoy what you collect!!

Robert

Saturday, February 5, 2022

Showing that I'm semi-serious about '68 Topps

I came into 2022 wanting to be a little more focused on just one vintage set want list.  My style over the past few years has been very haphazard to say the least, and I feel like I've been getting nowhere with any of the vintage sets I'm working towards completing.  Hopefully one day I will be able to finish another vintage set.

Well, the trade I mentioned last week came early enough in the month of January that I decided to try and start knocking down the '68 Topps want list.  When I have been hitting eBay recently, I've been focusing on picking up singles from that set from a particular seller.  While scrolling through their listings, I'll focus on the burlap set and maybe hit a card or 2 from another set, just like the 7 8 9 post from the other day.  

A trio of purchases have arrived and as promised here's 19 more cards from the '68 set to show off.


We'll get to those in a minute, I found a couple of '72s as part of one of those purchases and grabbing names like Frank Robinson for a few bucks is becoming more tolerable to me now.   I guess the old cheapo scrooge I've been for years is finally realizing that if I ever want to finish these older sets, $1-$2 cards aren't going to be everywhere...


Getting a few more known names for around $2-$3 hasn't been too bad, guys such as Wilbur Wood, Claude Osteen, Jesus Alou on this scan were affordable.  

Can't help but like the solid green helmet that Phil Roof is sporting, he's always a reminder of the original Blue Jays team during the inaugural season of 1977, even if it was just for 3 games and 5 AB's.


Poor scan, cutoff the bottom of the cards.  I don't make it a habit of searching for clean checklists, but the one in the top left corner is not marked on either side and is in really nice shape.  This scan was mostly in the $1.50-$2.50 range but using sellers that pay for shipping eases that just a bit.


Another nice find was the Hank Aaron all-star card which set me back just $12.  A couple of soft corners, but no creases and it became another card that I couldn't leave for that price.  

I was trolling around this afternoon on the computer and the wife asked me if I was putting together lists for tomorrow's card show.  (I wasn't)

I'm hitting the first card show for me in 2022, and I'm going with the same purpose that I've had over the past few months.   Just see what pops up.  I'll let you know what happens.

Feeling great about working on '68!!

Robert

Thursday, February 3, 2022

7 8 9

No, this post isn't about the old kids joke of why is 6 afraid of 7, it's about a trio of cards I picked up on eBay last week that just happened to cost $7, $8 and $9.

For me, they were three pretty nice pick-ups for 3 sets that are in the pipeline.



For the '81 Topps football set, a $7 Kellen Winslow rookie card dropped into my cart really easy.  This was the 3rd of 3 cards that I found from the same seller.


As I had mentioned a few days ago, I have started to pick up some more '68 Topps cards for that set and finding the Lou Piniella here for $8 I thought was a good enough deal to continue this purchase.  This was the first of the 3 cards that I found and as normal, I scoured the sellers store to see what else they had.  The next card up kind of made this purchase a great one for me.


Some pretty good names checked off

I pretty much have resigned myself to buying any Mickey Mantle cards for vintage sets much further down the road.  That's just how it is here.  But when I saw this '69 Topps checklist featuring Mickey for just $9, well boxes checked or not it was coming home.  I showed the card to my wife, and she immediately remarked on the checked boxes, wondering who originally had this card and the others that were colored in.

I'll be sure to let everyone know if I find more Mantle cards for less than $10 in the future.

Still enjoying the hobby!

Robert


Saturday, January 29, 2022

Didn't mean to be doing once a week posts

My wife encouraged me to get back posting on the blog again a few weeks ago.  She knows that I enjoy the hobby and talking about it whenever I can.  But when I started up again 3 weeks back, I wanted to try and write more than once a week but getting sick and having my brother-in-law and his wife come for a visit kind of kicked the writing plan to the back burner.  

Lack of new cards into the collection certainly wasn't the reason...

This trade with Marc (TCDB ID:  Save Da Kid) has been on the completed list for over a week, and when it was offered to me, I was quite surprised.


The majority of the inbound cards are in the 2 scans for this post (I didn't scan the pair of 82-83 OPC hockey cards).  

I wound up with 17 cards off of my '68 Topps want list, a welcome sight to say the least, and it's spurred me to start picking up some more '68s off of eBay over the past couple of weeks.  I'll be showing a few of those over the next few posts.


Most of the cards in the trade were of the VG or VGEX variety, which works for me especially since there are a few big names in the two scans.  I know that searching for higher grade copies of semi stars and stars can be a bit pricey, so these for the most part will do.  The Kaat isn't as cut off as the scan shows as well, and there are 2 or 3 that probably will be replaced over time.   But for now, knocking 17 cards off the want list was a welcome offer from Marc.

Now I'm hoping to get some more posts done this weekend so that Friday's only on the blog doesn't become a thing.

Still enjoying the hobby!

Robert


Friday, January 28, 2022

Starting from scratch

I have become an Allen & Ginter fan over the past 18 months.   Sure, I've collected it off and on since I started blogging, but I'm more in tune with it now, especially the original sets from 2006-2007.  I've kind of dedicated myself to building the set as it comes out each year now.

I looked at boxes over the summer, hemmed and hawed over the price and thought to myself that I really didn't want to spend that kind of money on a box when I could be buying singles for the infinite number of sets I'm still working on.

The 2021 A&G set kind of floated off into the distance for a few months, never to be thought of again.  Then, as the trades picked up on TCDB for me at the end of December/beginning of January, a lot of cards from other A&G want lists started coming in.  That's when I decided I'm not buying it, I'm going to try and trade for the base set.   I hit the button to add all the cards for the 2021 set to my want list, and already I'm closing in on 10% complete in just over 2 weeks' time.


I do like how the set looks so far and I'm looking forward to learning about new people which I always do when I get these cards in.   Daniel Kim, for example, is an analyst for the KBO (Korean Baseball Organization) and helped analyze games while they were on ESPN during the pandemic.  It would be interesting to see if winter baseball in the Caribbean would get more play on American TV sometime in the future.


Some of the guys just do not look happy in their pictures, Sonny Gray and David Price may have forgotten how much money they make.  I do like the alternate Washington Nationals cap that Schwarber is wearing.

I've even had SPs already offered and sent my way; the Yates and Baines cards on the bottom were a couple of the handful I've received in the first couple of trades.  Baines' late 70's/early80's White Sox uniform is a classic look that I like.

If you're on TCDB and have a few 2021 A&G dupes that you're looking to trade, look me up, my TCDB ID is rmitchell6700.

I have a few thousand cards on the site up for trade...

Having fun with the hobby!

Robert


Friday, January 21, 2022

500 is in the rearview mirror

Have had a good run of trades so far this month on TCDB, so much so that the 500-transaction mark that I passed on the third is already up to 507, with 8 trades in some form of progress.

I received a small one today, just 5 cards, but they hit 4 different want lists which I thought was great.  I had to send a few Flyers cards to Paul (TCDB ID: flyers4life) but the cards I got in return filled some pretty good holes...


Starting off with a couple of current Maple Leafs to help add to the Leaf collection, which I decided to move to one of those solid plastic 4 row boxes that BCW is now selling (Amazon link here ).  I really do like the product, it's very sturdy but not super heavy (yet, I still don't have it full).  I got it for Christmas which was great because the price point had the box on my "do I want it that bad" list.  


Slowly creeping its way towards completion, 1981 Topps has been a relatively fun build so far and hopefully as it gets closer to being done I can find a Joe Montana RC for a nice price.   

Wish me luck


Another set that came as part of the trade is the 86-87 OPC set, with Steve Yzerman being a nice card to add to the set build.  I started knocking down a bunch of commons on Sportlots a while back, and I have a few more in my current Sportlots box.   The set is small, just 264 cards and I'm now about 2/3 of the way through.  A lot of big names still to go, including RCs of several great players with the most expensive being Patrick Roy.



One day, I truly believe I will hit a vein of these cards somewhere on the cheap and put a good dent into this want list.  The 2018-19 OPC Retro parallel is a beast at 600 cards, and I've not even hit the 50-card mark yet.  My eyes did light up a bit when I saw this as part of the trade package, which some might think a little crazy considering the rest of the trade you've already seen above, but hey this guy thinks a bit different than most!!

Thanks for the trade Paul, it is appreciated.   Hopefully more trades are in our future.

Still having fun here!

Robert

Friday, January 14, 2022

$3.5 million?? I have enough trouble buying cards on Sportlots for over a quarter

Yes, it's been 2 1/2 months since I've decided to write a post and my first attempt at writing was inspired by a tweet from Logan Paul (whom I have no idea about) saying he was bilked out of $3.5 million on a fake Pokemon card scam.

First, why in the world would anyone pay that kind of money for cards?  Don't understand that thinking at all.   I guess if you have it you're more apt to blow it, right?

Second, if I WERE to spend that kind of money, which I'd have to win the Powerball to even think about doing, I certainly wouldn't hit the Pokemon card market.  I know that there are people out there that are into those types of cards, but I imagine that the market for that down the road certainly would not be as big as for baseball/football/basketball/hockey cards.  

Hell, in my world I still struggle buying cards for more than a quarter on Sportlots when I'm placing orders.  Yes, the "I can't see them in front of me when I'm buying them" still plays a big part of it, even though I've placed enough orders over the past few years to know the sellers that are reputable and those that shouldn't be grading 2nd grade math tests, let alone cards.

But I digress....

I've had lots of fun since I last wrote at the end of October, cards mostly playing a part of that.  I doubt anyone noticed that I stayed away from the New Year's "what I'm going to do this year" ritual that I've done for the past few years.  I'm going to do the same thing I've done for the past decade on the blog.  Collect cards, trade with the good folks on TCDB, write from time to time and try to finish some more sets.


1979 Topps football is one set that I've added to over the past couple of months, this one part of a trade on TCDB that also contained cards from a couple of A&G sets that are on the go...


While I've been away, I've managed to knock quite a few cards off of the A&G want lists thanks in part to a lot of great traders on the TCDB site.   My current want list total for Allen & Ginter sets between 2006-2020 is at 955 cards, which isn't bad for getting into chasing these late in the game.   I have 3 years (06,07 & 14) which all have over 200 cards each.   

I also haven't even started on 2021 yet, so there's still a bit of work to do.   

I tried to make a big push right at the end of 2021 to hit the 500-transaction plateau on TCDB and didn't quite make it (498), but it was good to get trading again as my job and my house (more on the house in another post) kind of put a dent into card collecting for a couple of months.  

Back and having fun...still

Robert