Loose ends II

 

Ten years ago I titled a post "Loose Ends," which was just me trying to provide some updates on some things I was working on -- mostly trying to reassure people that I hadn't forgotten their trade package and such.

I'm much less worried about stuff like that now -- I'll get to it when I get to it. The list of to-do things that don't have to do with this blog grows daily and I've given up on "hobby responsibilities" for the most part. Things are much more casual with my hobby, there shouldn't be reason to worry.

To continue that theme, here are some things that are going on in my little corner that tell some sort of story but I don't know what that is. Doesn't matter. Just enjoy the scattered approach.

I received another monstrous box of cards from Johnny's Trading Spot over the weekend. It will take quite awhile to go through it (although much of the TCDB accounting is done). But one easy item to relay is he sent three Fleer boxed sets from the 1980s.

I love these things. All three are new to me, although I had a handful of cards from the set on the left, well-worn items found in thrift shop back in my old hometown. It's fun to see new photos of familiar stars from the 1980s. These sets are perfect for that.

It's also amusing to see who they thought deserved to join the likes of Mattingly, Gwynn and Brett in these sets. Mike Dunne? Really?

I have a growing binder to house all these sets, plus the Topps food issues from the time (Drake's etc.). It's getting so Topps and Fleer will have to split off into their own binders. But just because the cards come out of the boxes doesn't mean the boxes get discarded.

I think I've shown the boxed-sets tree before. It stands behind the door of my card room, tucked into a corner next to the card desk and the wall so it doesn't tip over.

 

It's three boxes taller now. Maybe someday it can stretch up to the top of the roll-top desk! I'll update you if it gets to that.

 

 

Just yesterday I showed my latest 1975 Topps buyback and mentioned there was another one on its way. Well, that card showed up today, an unexpected surprise!

Any new buyback is a treat these days and I can make any of those cards special to me. But the commons that show up so late in the process fascinate me. There was no evidence a buyback of Ted Martinez existed for seven years and now here it is. I hope there are a lot more stories like that ahead.

2024 Heritage should clear that up and there was something I saw on Twitter today that's related to that.

 

That's Fred Lynn signing a bunch of copies of his 1975 Topps Rookie Outfielders card (and some other less-interesting card on the left). I'm assuming these will all be inserted into 2024 Heritage.

I don't think these will carry a buyback stamp and I've always wondered how to fit signed buybacks, minus the stamp, into my collecting. But I don't think about it much -- if it's a buyback, stamp or not, it goes in the set.

 

 

More Heritage doings. I got these two 2023 Heritage High Numbers short-prints from Jeremy at Topps Cards That Never Were. Very nice of him.

 

He opened a box of that set and in typical suspect Topps collation, virtually every card he pulled was the same as what I pulled in the box I opened. The only exceptions were the inserts and a few SPs, two of which are here.

 

I said I wanted to add 160 Heritage High Number cards onto the 500 I collected for the main Heritage set, and I have a list of 160 players who are eligible (i.e. guys who I've heard of/played a fair amount in 2023). Neither of the above two are on that list. But given that 2024 flagship is coming soon and Stadium Club is already out, I don't know how much cash I'll have to keep collecting 2023 Heritage, which means I'll take what I can get!

Here is another Johnny's Trading Spot card tease, as this arrived in the box he sent. There are not a lot of Dodger cards of Joey Gallo so I'm always happy to see one, for all 44 games he played with L.A.

This card happened to be the 100,000th baseball card from my collection that I entered into TCDB, so, yeah, milestones of the kind only important to me! But I'm glad it was a card like this, instead of some Bowman prospect thing.

 

 

 Finally, another envelope from Zippy Zappy with exactly two cards that I needed. I really appreciate this. This is from a time period where I was just getting back into modern cards and didn't really know what was up. I completely missed lots of things.

I've caught up on much of it but there is so much from 2006, 2007, 2008 that I don't have when it comes to the Dodgers. The Garciaparra SPx card completes that team set for me (except for the dumb "autograph base card"). The Pedro Martinez wraps up the "Debut Flashbacks" portion of the 2007 '52 Rookies set. I had the Chrome Pedro for a long time and, yes, it bugged me I didn't have the regular one.

All right, so that's a lot of loose ends I've tied up. I feel much better.