Henry the DBack

Sluggo and I ran up to the LCS to pick up some cards. I wasn't going to buy anything for myself but as usual, I don't do very good at that. I did only spend $10 and I came away with 23 cards (20 of those were $1) and a publication. You'll see those when they get randomed up in the future.

Today, you'll get one of the few Wolverines currently on a MLB roster. 

Tommy started 9 games this past season for the Diamondbacks. He doesn't have a ton of cards, mostly from the year he was drafted (see above). He's only had 6 cards this year and that is 1 Topps Now card with 5 parallels. I didn't even know they had parallels of Topps Now. I'm hoping since he was called up later in the season, he'll have a card in the Update release but I haven't checked the checklist yet.

These 2 cards came from Sportlots and give me 8 of Tommy.

Brave Franklin

I spent the day doing team lots. I finished the Dodgers, Expos and just have to bag up the Giants. I'll work on them again tomorrow. I'm certainly not going to finish before the Plymouth show on Saturday but I'll take whatever I have done.

Today's post is back to another former Wolverine currently in the minors.

I managed to get 3 more of Jesse Franklin, the 2 on the left are Pro Debut and the right is Heritage Minors. Pretty sure the Heritage is the same photo, just zoomed in a little.

These 3 give me 5 cards of him.

Not Joeless

Today was my last day for work this week. The plant shut down for the week because most of our customers were shut down. I managed to get some hours in so my check won't be too bad but while it's slow, it slows down my card buying. Luckily, I'm slow to post so I still have cards to post.

Since I have the next couple of days off, I'm going to try to get more team lots done. I've been making team lots to sell or give away to the kids at the Plymouth show. Some of the lots are up to 200 cards, no duplicates, and we will sell them for a buck. They are all common cards so it's more a matter of getting rid of the cards. Each team has an 80's lot, a 90's lot, a 2000-2019 lot and a 2020-2022 lot. Minimum cards is 50 but most lots have between 100-200 cards. I wanted to get them done for the Plymouth show but that's on Saturday and I'm only on the Dodgers in alphabetical order.

Today's post isn't the former Wolverine player post like we've been seeing lately. It's a former Sox, and a former Indian. Oh yeah, he was banned from the game.

I picked up these 4 from Sportlots. I have the Cracker Jack version from 1993 of that last card but this copy is from 1977, Dover reprint. The one next to it is a TCMA from 1983, the top 2 are newer. I'd love to have an OG Shoeless but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

These 4 give me 37 cards of Shoeless Joe.

Happy Birthday - Chris Wormley

Chris was born on this day in 1993, making him 29 today.

NFL Debut - October 8th, 2017

Years Active - 

• 2017-2019 (Ravens)
• 2020-current (Steelers)

Cards on TCDB - 210 cards (up 4 cards from last year)

Cards I have - 15 cards (down 5 from last year)

PC Rank - #55 (#304 overall)

TCDB Rank - #1

Where they came from -

• Sportlots (7 cards)
• Ebay (5 cards)
• Too Many Verlanders (2 cards)
• Sluggo (1 card)

Happy Birthday Chris!

Criswell, with my Soul

Sometimes I wonder how many people actually get what I was thinking when I title my posts.

I guess we might as well stay with the last couple of posts.

Another former Michigan baseball player.

I picked up a couple of cards of Criswell on Sportlots. These 2 give me 6 cards of Jeff. I have the paper version of the Chrome and the 1991 Topps look-a-like is the Pro Debut.

Jordan

We set up in Lansing today and actually had a pretty good day. I was actually amazed at how much Michigan gear I saw. I would say it was 2-1 as far as a ratio with Michigan having the 2 and State being the 1. I only picked up 1 card. I hadn't planned on picking any up but at the very end, a kid came up with some stuff to sell. Sluggo bought a card and I told him to throw in my card. It's an auto of a player I don't have any autos of. You won't see that today though.

Today you get a guy that we haven't seen on here in over 16 months. I only had 1 card of him back then, now I'm up to 4.

Pretty sure all 3 of those are the same photograph. Which is expected for the first 2 since they are parallels but the last one is a total different set. These are minor league sets as he hasn't made it to the majors yet. My other one of his is as well.

I cheated!

I cheated on Michigan today. I went to another Big Ten University and it had nothing to do with Michigan. I feel so dirty. I took my son to a college visit at Purdue, it was actually pretty amazing and I'm hoping that's where he wants to go because he's going into engineering and they are one of the best. 

I'm really going to feel like I'm cheating on Michigan tomorrow when I go to Lansing. We are heading up there tomorrow for a card show, in a mall. I'm actually looking forward to it just because it's in a mall. It's going to bring back all kinds of nostalgia from my childhood. That's where all the card shows were.

I'll sorta be cheating on my wife tomorrow as well since I'm setting up at a card show, on our anniversary. Shhh!

In order to clean my soul, I better post a former Wolverine.

I now have 6 different versions of this card and 6 total cards of Brett. The top 2 are both silver border, I accidentally ordered 2, not sure how. I checked Dennis and he already has 1 but it is serial numbered so technically, a different card so I'll just keep it. The purple is also numbered and the other is a Carolina blue.

I really didn't want to show Astros cards because obviously, I'm rooting for the National League this year. Hopefully the Padres, because of Cronenworth, but if not them, I'll root for the Phillies. Anybody but Houston or New York.

What base?

I supposed I should put up a post. I haven't been on it as I am normally. I've been working a bunch of hours so I've been wore out when I get home. Haven't felt like taking the time to post.

Today's post is another team post but a few more cards than that last one.

Both of these came from Fred. The Abreu is the rainbow foil and the Mercedes is only my 7th. The way he started off his pro career with the Sox, I figured I'd have a ton but after a really good month, he dropped out of sight and isn't even with the Sox anymore.

These 7 cards came from Sluggo. I gave him $5 for all of these and a couple of Michigan PC's. None of them are base cards and you can see the the manu relic. Thick as hell like most of them but this has the Chicago city flag. Sheets played quite a bit for us this past year and did well. I'm hoping he stays on the team which would depend on if we make any signings or not. This is my 11th card of Sheets. The 2 Rodon's give me 64 of him and the 2 Abreu's and the 1 above that give me 184 of him, which is quite a bit for a non PC but only my 2nd highest non PC players.

Dennis did the same thing as Sluggo only earlier players, no base cards and even a couple with serial numbers Here's a rundown of the players numbers - Albert Belle is at 55 cards, Josh Fields is at 22 cards (1st on TCDB, surprised me as well), Alexei Ramirez is at 77 cards (1st on TCDB) and Adam Dunn with 62 cards. You may have noticed I skipped Frank Thomas, well he's at 585 cards. Yep, you guessed it, he's my highest non PC player. Even with that many cards, I just barely cracked the top 25 on TCDB. Good old 90's stars have a crap ton of cards.

Dennis almost always hooks me up with a relic or 2. The other was a player PC (Funchess) and you've already seen it. This is my 92nd card of Dye and my 8th relic of his.

These all came from people as I've been more active on player PC's than my Sox collection. I technically purchased the ones from Sluggo but they came in a lot he purchased and I get first dibs on all the lots.

Hitting the Wahl

We got news today that we got into the Shipshewana show. It's a little over 180 tables and they only go four times a year and it's the biggest show in the area. A ton of traffic. We've been on a waiting list for over a year because there are so many people wanting in and the people there don't want to lose their tables so it's not often they become available. We're stoked.

Today's post is a quicky, just one card and it isn't even anything fancy. One of the guys we set up at multiple shows bought a collection and brought a 5000 count box to the South Bend show just to sort through. He came over and gave me this card.

I do like these TK Legacy cards, they introduce me to players I don't know much about or a lot of times, guys I've never heard of so they are certainly welcome in my collection. Al Wahl becomes my 221st different player in the Michigan collection. It's not surprising that this is my first card of him, according to TCDB (yes, it's back up) he only has 4 cards and they are all TK Legacy cards.

Thanks for thinking of me Jeremy.

A Day of Cards

 Sluggo and I didn't have any shows we were setting up at so we drove up to one in Zeeland, MI. It took a little over an hour to get there so it wasn't too bad. We went with the intention of buying but didn't come away with much. We were looking for more mid to high end cards and there was a lot of low end cards. Our secondary reason for going is we were checking it out to see if we wanted to set up at a future show. In just the hour we were there, the traffic was pretty good so I think we'll probably travel up there in February. We're already booked for their December date. I bought a few cards that I'll add to the list to post tomorrow. We are setting up in Lansing next week.

Came home and the Michigan game was about half an hour into it so I started it on the DVR and caught up during half time. We were rolling over their defense until we got to the endzone but we were shutting them down so we were slowly building a lead. Then they broke off a huge run to score and in the next series JJ threw a pick 6 and next thing you know, we were down 1. It was a little scary but after the half we dominated and pulled away. This team looks a little better every week. We have next week off before we face State. I worked on team lots while watching the game and afterwards.

Today's post is a tier 3 player who we picked up a graded autograph of today for the shop. You won't see that here but you will eventually on the shops Instagram account.

Dennis sent me these 3 cards as we both collect Ripken. I really like the Gold Label but I've always liked that set. My Ripken collection is my highest card count collection but I can't tell you what that is since TCDB seems to be down. I know it's over 900 but I couldn't tell you and exact number. My spreadsheets show 907 but I usually go by TCDB. They should be the same but they aren't always, I find TCDB seems to be more accurate as I tend to forget an occasional card on my spreadsheets.

Happy Birthday - Eli Brooks

Eli was born on this day in 1998, making him 24 today.

NBA Debut - n/a

Years Active - n/a

Cards on TCDB - 50 cards

Cards I have - 1 card

PC Rank - #97 (#2431 overall)

TCDB Rank - #6

Where they came from -

• Sportlots (1 card)

Happy Birthday Eli!

1987's, Relic's, #'d /99

Last year, on this day, I wrote down "I'm still mad at the Sox." Funny how a year later and I still feel the same. I haven't even been following the playoffs. Which makes today's post even harder as it is a current Sox player.

I got all 4 of these from Sluggo. I did give him $5 for a small stack of about 10 cards and these 4 were included. You can see why I was willing to give $5 even just for these 4. Even though it's a pretty plain looking card, the triple patch alone is worth $5. It's only my 2nd relic card of him. The green refractor next to it is numbered to /99. We've all seen the hundreds of different sets that look like the 1987's.

These 4 cards give me 125 of the Big Baby (that's actually a nickname he has).

the Grass and the Sky

Since this guy retired, it makes all of my tier 3 players retired. Although, now that I think about it, all my tier 1 players are as well but weren't when I first started collecting them. The majority of my tier 2 players are modern players (mostly).

Anyways, I was pretty sure I got these from Dennis but when I uploaded the pic, I was confused. When I scan the cards, I name them PCName.WhereIGotIt. For some reason, I went to upload the pic, it said I got it from Ripken.

The pic should have been named Zimmerman.Dennis but instead it was Zimmerman.Ripken. I mean, it would have been cool if Ripken sent me cards but I would also think I'd remember that. 

I have the base and the gold version but those aren't numbered. Both this green and blue are. These 2 Zimmy cards give me 381 cards of him. Another shout out to Dennis of Too Many Verlanders for hitting yet another player collection.

Yellow Sox

Just a 1 card post tonight as I'm sleepy. I never sleep well on Sunday nights because I sleep too much on the weekends and then can't fall asleep at a decent time in order to get up at 3:45 in the morning on Monday.

We saw a couple of these Topps Rookie Cups yesterday. This one is a yellow parallel which are numbered to /299. You can see the yellow background. I wasn't even sure they had color parallel's back in 2005. Good thing they didn't stick like they do now. Imagine how many more cards I'd have to get.

This Fisk also came from Dennis and is my 359th card of him.

Sunday's with Seaver

Sluggo brought over 3 more 5 row boxes for me to sort so I've been sorting most of the day. I got through a box and a half in the few hours I was working on them. I was hoping to get the team lots done by the Plymouth show which is in 3 weeks. Not sure that is going to happen since we keep doing shows on Saturdays, it takes away one of my days that I work on cards. I might have to start doing a little after work each day. Good thing sorting cards is my happy place.

Today's post is a Tier 1 player who I don't add to much too often anymore. He's my favorite player from when I was growing up, even though he played for quite a few years before I starting watching baseball.

I picked this up the other day from Sluggo. It's from 2022. I grabbed one for my White Sox collection as well, I believe it was Rodon who had a pretty good year this year for the Giants. 

Even with that card above, I was going to add more to the Seaver collection with these 5 from Dennis. The first 2 are from the Rookie Cup series and that Topps Fire is the orange parallel and is numbered. I definitely appreciated seeing these in the envelope from him. Thanks again Dennis.

Wrong Sox to the Good Sox

We never did go to the Baseball Card Exchange yesterday. We decided we didn't feel like making the 2 hour drive so we just hit the LCS. Sluggo picked up a few things for the shop. I went through a $3 each/4 for $10 box. I ended up pulling a few items for myself but ended up putting them back. It's just too hard to spend money right now with our hours cut back. I did spend $5 on a small stack from Sluggo though.

Watched the Michigan game today, it was a little scary for awhile but we pulled it off. Mike Hart was carried off the sidelines but I haven't gotten on the blogs yet to see why. They didn't really say much during the broadcast. I was hoping for a little better played game going into Penn State but hopefully Harbaugh can whip them up into shape before then.

Today's post is a guy who struggled all year (like most of the Sox) but I'm hoping it was injury related (like most of the Sox).

Fred brought this into me at work. It's the blue version of Select.

These 10 came from my last shipment from Sportlots. The top scan are the Red Sox and the bottom are the White Sox cards. It was a nice shipment of Moncada cards if I don't say so myself. Lots of shiny cards.

These 11 give me 183 of Moncada, closing in on the 200 mark.

Happy Birthday - Nik Stauskas

Nik was born on this day in 1993, making him 29 today.

NBA Debut - October 29th, 2014 (Kings)

Years Active - 

• 2014-2015 (Kings)
• 2015-2017 (76'ers)
• 2017-2018 (Nets)
• 2018-2019 (Trailblazers)
• 2019 (Cavaliers)
• 2021-2022 (Heat)
• 2022 (Celtics)

Kings

76'ers

Nets

Cards on TCDB - 779 cards (1 card more than last year)

Cards I have - 31 cards (same as last year)

PC Rank - #39 (#81 overall)

TCDB Rank - #3

Where they came from -

• Sportlots (18 cards)
• Ebay (9 cards)
• Too Many Verlanders (3 cards)
• Card Show-Elkhart (1 card)
• COMC (1 card)

Happy Birthday Nik!