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Sick daze

 
I took a sick day from work Wednesday. If I'm remembering correctly, it's the first sick day I've taken in 11 years. The previous sick day before that one was in 1995.
 
Then I forced myself into work yesterday. It went OK. But after four hours, I could feel my body shutting down and left. Whatever time-bomb head cold I acquired started slowly days ago until exploding into action Tuesday. Wednesday I could barely lift my head.
 
I'm feeling a little better today, but thinking long and leisurely about sports cards is not in me right now. This is why I trade with people: so I can have new card content queued up for when I am inevitably detained.
 
A new send from Doug of Sportscards From The Dollar Store arrived a week or two ago. I always look forward to these. He finds some fancy stuff that I'll never track down, and also delves into other sports ... so I don't have to.
 

There you go. Like some Sabres. Doug very nicely stuck to my interests in the non-Dodger sends by shipping just current Sabres or Sabres from when I was covering the team.

Victor Olofsson, who is having a not-awesome season this year, and Kyle Okposo could be gone after this season, which would leave only Rasmus Dahlin as a current Sabre among this crew.
 


Also in the package, a whole slew of current Bills sets. (Sorry for the grainy image, it was pretty gloomy out when I took these yesterday). I wish whatever requirement there is to squeeze legends into current products would end because it's still strange to me to collect a team set of current players and, oh yeah, here a couple of guys who haven't been on the team in more than two decades. Hello, Panini, Jim Kelly did not pass to Stefon Diggs.
 


There is Kelly again, with a bunch of other (mostly) currents from 2022 Donruss. I'm still committed to keeping all of my Bills cards in a single binder, but sends like this may make me find one of those industrial-size binders for the Buffalos.



Some cards of the Bills' Heartthrob. I don't know what those cards are across the bottom, but that seems like something that Panini was trying to sucker people into collecting like those Moments & Milestones cards.



More random cards. I kind of like the SQUAD card ... until I turned it over. In typical Panini fashion, it reads SQUAD again in even larger type and then adds some NFL-like vacant words about players "riding together like brothers".



Back to hockey. I almost forgot! A couple of 1991-92 Pro Set cards! Yay! Check out that giant VW ad!
 
 

OK, let's get to the key baseball portion. Doug's always finding stuff I don't have access to and would never venture out on my own to get. Heritage Minor Leagues is still a thing while Pro Debut got the boot. Neither of these sets needs to exist for me. I'm happy with team-issue minor league cards.
 
 



Three more "not necessaries" but yes, I will take them! If I lived in the U.K., I would definitely appreciate special Topps cards with the Union Jack on them. But if I lived in the '90s (and I did, but I didn't collect for much of it), I would not appreciate the word "SAMPLE" stamped across the face of the player I'm collecting. ... Nick Biddison is a former Virginia Tech player who was in Class A last season.


I am a status member! This is what team collecting will do to you. My cards tell me that Victor Arano was a Dodgers prospect and that's all that happened. He actually appeared in 40 games for the Nationals last year, but why would I have Nationals cards?



Two more fancies of former Dodgers. I don't think either of these will fit into my Dodgers binders, which is where all my non-thick relics are going now.



Last card, because it's the best kind of card (well, non-licensed, anyway). It's a current Dodger!

All right, I don't know how exciting that was for people but that's all I can manage in my state.

March never fails to throw everything it can at me. I should be recovered by the weekend, just in time for a lake-effect snowstorm that's scheduled to hit.

Did I mention there's a card show this weekend that I'm too sick/too broke/too busy/too chicken to drive through THAT to go to?

Can always count on ya, March.

Comments

Nick Vossbrink said…
So FYI that Topps UK set had a couple traded players who didn't make it into Update that year (eg Kris Bryant is a Giant). Zero idea if there were any Dodgers in that category but possibly worth checking out.

Also I'm very very worried that now that MLBPA includes the minor league players that that means that the MLBPA license with Fanatics has killed the MiLB team sets.
Hope you feel better soon!
That was a big package just sitting in queue.
John Bateman said…
Maybe the MLBPA deal will mean 1000 card Topps set of actual MLB players and minor league players - and leave all the All Star and fun cards as inserts.
Billy Kingsley said…
Get well soon! Love that Synergy card. Best not to have any expectations with Panini backs. They aren't usually able to live up to expectations even when the expectations are low.
bbcardz said…
Wishing you a speedy return to good health! Love that Diego Cartaya (Rancho Cucamonga Quakes) card. I recognize that outfield fence in the background. I was lucky enough to work a few games at the Quakes stadium last season--had never worked at a minor league ballpark before that. Hopefully I can work more games there this season. I've never been a bona fide team collector before but I'm thinking maybe I should at least collect 2022 Quakes cards.

Jon said…
I can't help but wonder how many people in the UK even care about baseball? I wouldn't think that there'd be enough to warrant Topps producing that set.
Fuji said…
A. Hope you feel better soon.

B. First sick day in eleven years? That's impressive... like Steve Garvey & Cal Ripken Jr. impressive.
Jafronius said…
Hope you're feeling better by now. I don't get the "Fantasy" cards (Topps did it too for the last year of their license I think). Big time numbers are put up...how are they calculated?
Bo said…
March is the worst. Hope you feel better soon.