(*music fans, go to the end)
The National is this coming next week and I know several collectors who are attending. Many of them attend every year or close to it.
I'll be in my usual spot, spending much less money and happy not to deal with crowds. Meanwhile, I have some cards here from someone who is planning to go to the big show in Chicago, or maybe is already on the way to digging in discount boxes.
Some of you have also recently received cards from Stuart at S.R. '75 Cards. So this is my turn to decipher what he sent, because a lot of it was from that black hole collecting period of the early 2000s. As an example, I had neatly separated the envelope into cards I needed and cards I didn't. Per usual, I turned the duplicate cards over to signal to my future self that I had them.
One card on its reverse side at the top of the stack caught my eye.
Card-creating gentlemen, this is why you always serial-number your cards in gold foil. I was looking at a proof parallel, which I had unwittingly placed it in the dupes stack. No longer a dupe. OK, so this is how this send is going to go!! (Obviously I missed the "Signature Proof" line on the front).
I especially like the Topps Chrome cards of the legends, too. In some more deciphering, I turned over the Snider card to discover it was a refractor.
A couple of 2003 outliers, both previous needs. Apologies if any of the images look out of whack. Just to add to the image challenges of late, my scanning app decided to update and now I can't get into it.
There were some more-recent needs, too, from last year -- all parallels and inserts, of course. I don't have as much trouble deciphering these, or anything that's come out since I turned into a collecting mad man (i.e. started a card blog).
These two guys took care of the team set for 2024 Stars of MLB Chrome. Am wondering how many more years we have to deal with this Insert of Random Stars That Takes Virtually No Thought To Create.
Wooo, here's another Ohtani card for the collection from a similarly themed More Random Stars We Can Squeeze In insert set. Shohei Ohtani has just entered the top 75 in terms of most cards in my collection. This is without trying very much because Ohtani prices are kinda stupid.
Stuart also sent a number of O-Pee-Chee Dodgers. Many I already owned, but since I like to collect the main OPC sets, too, several of the 1981 Dodgers worked for that.
And that's mostly what stuck in the collection!
Now it will be on to Stuart's almost-impossible want lists, even more impossible than his bud over at The Collective Mind! Maybe it's all that National attending!
Don't worry guys, I'll find something. Have fun this weekend.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
*My Top 30 (week of July 13-19)*
Someone asked, so I'm going to post my top 30 songs list here, maybe every two months or so. I'm not going to explain the songs. I'll just say that these are all 2025 releases and are not anything from what passes for pop charts/hot 100 these days. These all reflect my music tastes, so no heavy metal or hip hop either.
Enjoy or recoil in horror after hearing the first notes, whatever.
1. Fantastic Tomb - Ty Segall
2. Dumb Feeling - Mei Semones
3. Emergency - Deep Sea Diver
4. Hey Baby - Florry
5. Don't Speak - Loaded Honey
6. The Lender - Tristan Armstrong
7. You Got Time and I Got Money - Smerz
8. Never Enough - Turnstile
9. Bonnet of Pins - Matt Berninger
10. Aerial Troubles - Stereolab
11. Champagne Taste - Sunflower Bean
12. Bloom Baby Bloom - Wolf Alice
13. davina mccall - Wet Leg
14. Been So Long - Durand Jones and the Indications, Aaron Frazer
15. Lighthouse - Anna B. Savage
16. I Can't Imagine Why (You Feel That Way) - Sharon Van Etten and The Attachment Theory
17. Spike Island - Pulp
18. Uno II - Viagra Boys
19. There's A Light Up Ahead - Alison Krauss and Union Station
20. Fire Sign - S.G. Goodman
21. Stranger - Alan Sparhawk, Trampled By Turtles
22. No Cadillac - Ma'aM
23. Two-Legged Dog - BC Camplight, Abigail Morris
24. Dollar Store - Ben Kwellar, Waxahatchee
25. You Got Me - Kristina Murray
26. Draggin' - Hannah Cohen
27. stingray - Rehash
28. Rain in the River - Bruce Springsteen
29. 25 Years - Zack Keim
30. Mad Catch - Heartworms
If you have any questions about the music, send me an email. I'd rather not have the comments dominated by music stuff, as this is mostly a card blog.
Comments
B. I need a non-Chrome version of that Ohtani Stars of MLB card for my set. Gotta admit the Chrome versions are way nicer, but I opened a lot of 2024 Topps.
C. Not sure if I know any of the songs on that list. In fact, the only artist I recognize is Bruce Springsteen. Guess I'm out of touch when it comes to current music. I only had time to look up the #1 song on your list. Good choice.