We're all dealing with our various life issues. I, for example, look at the stacks of cards in the card room and the separate pulled cards for half-finished blog posts and think "what can I blog quickly in the hour I have to spare?"
But I know I have it good. Other folks can blog maybe once a week (maybe I should try that), or even once a month. Nick, of the blog Dime Boxes, put his blog on hiatus a couple of months ago to tackle those real world demands.
We few survivors in the card blog community often wonder what those departed bloggers are doing. Do they still read blogs? Do they still collect? Have they turned away from the hobby for a life at the country club? Are they wandering the streets aimlessly? What has become of them?
Well, I can report that Nick is alive and well. He is still "lurking" he says and, from what I received from him about a week ago, he is still going to shows/collecting like he's always done. There is no sign that real life has weakened his inventory.
Take a look at the array of legends cards that he sent me. I love stuff like this, especially the TCMA cards and the Detroit News Tigers teams. I had to look up the Nolan Ryan (and then look it up again for this post). It's from the 1993 Whataburger Nolan Ryan Recollections set, and that is about the most amazing new-to-me baseball card set name I have heard in months.
The legends cards didn't stop -- sorry about the crookedness, there ain't time for reshoots. More TCMA, Detroit News and food-issue goodness and I will always take a card using the 1970s Incredible Hulk design.
Even more with 1960s Post making an appearance! I can't imagine the excitement of seeing baseball cards on your cereal box in the early '60s, when there were like five cereal brands available.
The Bob Uecker weirdness is amazingly just my second Uecker card. It's a nonlicensed card from 1989, called the "Franklin Caramel Series".
Staying with the legends theme, the highlight of the whole package was a selection of 1999 Fleer Sports Illustrated Covers inserts. I mentioned a little while ago that I want to gather as many of these as I can -- expanding on my idea of collecting just the ones from the first year I had a subscription to Sports Illustrated.
Nick remembered -- a lot better than I did -- and sent seven of them. Wooo! I get to start another page! There is nothing cooler than periodicals on cards. I know nobody on social media gets this anymore but this is why I don't have a lot to say to anyone not born in the 20th century.
The eclectic nature of the package wandered over into Allen & Ginter minis, a staple of Nick's sends to me. The mission is to gain admittance into my A&G mini frankenset binder. There are no empty spaces in that binder, so each slot is a fight to the death. All five of the cards above survived. The Sophia Smith showdown was particularly brutal, knocking out broadcaster Hannah Storm.
I also received a couple of the Wordsmiths minis from 2010 A&G. I should put up a want list for this set. I own maybe half of it now.
As for Dodgers, Nick found several of those, too.
How about a bunch of 1988 Topps Tiffany Dodgers? Shinnnnnnnnny. Or rather, Glossssssssssssy.
Some newness with a few 2025 Dodgers, including a oddly-named parallel (diamante?) of Hunter Feduccia. Sorry about those names not showing up on the bottom row. It's like uploading 2009 Topps all over again.
The best kind of Dodgers sent to me, of course, are the ones I need such as these guys. Even better is a Dodger from a set that I had never heard of before -- a set from the 1970s that I had never heard of before. It's a tiny little thing from 1978 called Jack Wallin Grand Slam.
Often Dodgers I already have can be slipped into other collections as I believe most of these guys will.
But just a couple more highlights before I return to a week of tackling life issues.
These are three Dodgers from the 2003 Jewish Major Leaguers set. I just picked up my first card from the set a few weeks ago and now here are three more! It's not an easy set and about all that's left to obtain are toughies like Sandy Koufax.
Finally another set that doesn't visit my collection very often. No, it's not a 1952 Topps high number Joe Black (I wish). But it's still a pesky card from the 1983 Topps 1952 reprint set. This is just the third Dodger I own from it.
There -- now doesn't that remind you of the days when Nick would go to a show and pick out goodies for other collectors? I was pleased to see the return address on this package, good to know that he's collecting away.
I realize this is another "look-what-I-got" post, the second in a row. I try to mix them up more than that but it's all I can manage now. If you want more invigorating content maybe give my boss a call.
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