In a hobby lull (another downsizing post)

 

Did I show this 1941 Play Ball Whit Wyatt I got about a month ago? I don't think I did, I used to be more on top of stuff like that but that's the way it's been in the hobby for me lately.

 

The first half of the year I've been in a hobby lull. The combination of weather, lack of decent transportation and the general cost of everything, particularly cards, has really cut into what I usually do in the hobby. That isn't just acquiring, but trading and organizing, too.

 

Don't worry, the desire is still there. I grab a card here and there when I can. I finally landed the 2025 Chrome Shoehei Ohtani for something under $5 -- it had been going for anywhere from 10-20 bucks for months.

 

My latest '75 buyback arrived several weeks ago. It was the 544th buyback in my chase and a key one. I've been aware of the Ron Santo buyback for years but it was always selling for more than 30 dollars. I finally landed one for two-thirds less.

 

It's been mostly small victories like that over the last few months. No great influx. Small victories in the organizing, too.

 

 

I haven't had much time to continue reorganizing through the downsizing that I've done. The only thing I've done lately -- and it makes me quite happy -- is gather all the smaller binders (1 inch or 1.5 inches) and fit them into this narrow row that once had some boxes and other binders that lay flat. I really like this set-up, though that blue binder on the end on the right needs to be a 1-inch and I'll get to that -- WHEN I GET MY CAR BACK.

 

So, yeah, organizing is in a lull, too, and I haven't been running my downsizing posts every month like I had planned originally. So here is one now. Not too exciting but maybe somebody will be interested.

 

 

 These are some cards from some Topps "spin-off" sets from the last 20 years or so, mostly from the 2010s. That includes Opening Day, Bunt and Fire, mostly. About 240 cards in all.

 

 

Opening Day has seemed more and more pointless the farther we get from it. The only OD I am keeping are the sets I've completed (2006 and 2013) and that 2008 set, because it's red and weird. Everything else got to go.

 

 

Fire and Bunt, too -- what was the point of those? The Bunt is almost all from 2017 and the Fire from 2022. I probably have some other Fire cards I don't need but I'll start with 2022 and go from there. And there are are a handful of inserts from 10 years ago that are the precursor to an insert giveaway that I think will be coming.

 

So, again, if you're interested in this lot, be the first person to comment on this post and then email me your address if I don't have it already.

 

If no one wants it, well, I don't know if I can trash these cards, I might have to find some other means of ridding myself of these.

  

I hopefully will be able to get to the post office to send these in the next week, at least that's what the car shop is telling me (so many phone calls to that place). That'll be good news for the package that's been waiting to be sent to Jeremy, too.

 

As for what else I've been doing in the hobby for the last month-plus, I've been doing some virtual-collecting through a fun project on BlueSky (sorry, guys, I deleted the pictures and descriptions because I'm concerned about the viability of this whole thing with too much publicity).

 

Also, before I finish up this post and since I'm meandering all around, I want to thank The Diamond King for recommending the feedburner web address for getting my posts to show up on the blog roll/reader list. It's worked very well for Night Owl Cards and there's no waiting eight hours or the next day for something to appear. 

 

So, that's what's going on for me in the hobby while not much is going on. I'm looking forward to things picking up in the next six months or else 2026 is going to be one of the worst hobby years I can remember.

 

Here's to looking up!