Fun Saturday in KZoo

We set up in Kalamazoo on Saturday. The last time we set up there, John (John's Big League Blog) and Dennis (Too Many Verlanders) met up with us and bought some cards. KZoo is a little over an hour for us and around an hour and a half for Dennis and John lives there. Dennis and I traded some cards so we didn't have to pay postage.

First off, he contacted me about a Valient set on Facebook that he found. For those that don't know, the Valient set is the NIL set of the Michigan team. There are 110 cards in the set and I believe each player is represented and I believe they all get a cut from the set. They sell packs of the set and they aren't cheap, which is why I didn't have any. I don't think I would have normally dropped as much cash as I did on a set but we just won the National Championship with this team so I though if I was going to do it, I should do it on this team. It was a great price for the set so Dennis grabbed one for each of us and he brought it to the show.

These are what the cards look like and they are the 4 players that I already have PC's of. I'm sure there are a lot of other players that I'll have PC's of but I didn't feel like guessing so I'll just wait until I pull future cards of them then add them to their PC. That's cards 8 and 9 of Corum, 3 and 4 of Edwards and only my 2nd of Wilson. This is a really cool set and I'm glad I bought it and super happy that Dennis gave me the opportunity.

He also dropped a few other cards in the box with the set.

These 3 are Sox collection cards. 2 inserts and a color parallel. That's my 280th card of Abreu. The top 2 player never really grew on me in their terms with the White Sox.

This card is also a Sox collection card, but also a player collection. This Fisk insert surprised me because I've sorted a lot of A&G plus there is a bunch in the list stuff that I sort but I didn't have it yet. This is my 388th card of Fisk.

Dennis also hit me up with this Woodson and a couple of other guys who probably aren't any good. Ok, maybe good. I like the name of the insert, 3D with 3 top defensive players. This is my 60th card of Charles Woodson.

I did also buy 1 card while at the show, from Kevin. This Aqua of McCarthy earlier Bowman U. I wish it was the new Bowman U where they had a license because I hate when they make the helmet a solid color. This, and the other 2 at the top, are my 8th, 9th and 10th card of JJ.

It was a great show and a good time with some friends. Dennis also invited Jason and his wife who actually live just North of us. I believe Dennis met him on TCDB and trades with him. He's also the guy that made the Mike Hart jersey that Dennis gave me for Christmas. If you don't remember, here it is, along with the rest of us, including Kevin.

Freebies and new PC

I spent most of the day working on sorting cards for my LCS. I took back what I had finished last week and then picked up 2 more 3 row boxes and a bag of cards. I had to sort the bag of cards and the 2 3 row boxes I had to put in player lots. I got almost everything done, I'll probably finish up tomorrow but I took some photos and videos of my process and I'm going to work on a post showing what all I do for him.

However, today, you're going to get more cards from Sluggo. Technically, I got them from him but we were at the Lake Station show and I was shopping around. I saw a $.50/each box with a lot of color parallels and inserts so I told Kevin about it. He went over to the table and bought the whole box for $70 which was a great deal for us. So, as I always do when he buys a box, I went through it grabbed everything I need, this is what I came up with.

Did I mention there was a row of autos and relics as well? When Kevin asked, he was only asking about the 2 rows but once he bought it the guy through the lid on the whole box and handed to him. The first card is the rainbow parallel and the second is the Silver. The bottom is a dual relic of Demonico, not really a huge fan of relics anymore but it doesn't mean I won't add them to my collection either. Sadly, this was the only relic (or auto) that I needed in that row.

I picked up 1 other White Sox card, this is the sepia refractor of Moncada. At least he is still with the Sox, so far. It is my 227th card of Yoan. 

The rest were all former Wolverines as most of the box was football.

I've been picking up quite a few of Nico recently, including these 2. The left is the retail version, the right is Chronicles.

I've actually been getting quite a bit of Chris as well. It's nice there are so many Wolverines getting cards in the pros now. The left is the base Prizm, the right is the green Mosaic.

These 2 give me 53 of Evans.

Another guy I've been getting more cards of. This is his rookie Optic.  Last I heard he was on the IL, not sure for how long.

A couple more of Daxton Hill as well. The Prestige Galaxy on the left and the base Mosaic on the right. Always better when they are in the Maize and Blue.

2 more base of Ojabo. A Mosaic and a Donruss.

I'm realizing now that even though be bought that box for all the color, I came away with a lot of base, including the 2 above. I mean they are still shiny I guess, but not parallels.

This is a parallel however, it is also my 1st card of Mazi Smith. It is the Green Disco parallel from Donruss Elite. So another player collection started. It is my 131st PC, this is getting out of hand.

Last but not least, just alphabetically, I grabbed this parallel of Charles. It is the Holo parallel.

You'll notice that some of the above guys I didn't give how many cards I have, that's because I have more of them to come, in future posts. The next post will be the cards that I actually paid for at the Lake Station show.

A break for Sox

I got some time finally. There's been a lot of Birthday's lately and the days there isn't, I wasn't feeling it. I'm in a little better mood now since I have the next 3 days off work. The card show on Saturday got cancelled as well so I get 3 days at home, sleeping in. I did hit my LCS yesterday. I had to go to conference in town and it finished at 3 instead of my usual getting off work at 4:30. It was also right up the road from the LCS. I dropped off the stuff I sorted last week and since I had 4 days off, I went ahead and grabbed 4 3 row boxes of cards to sort so that's what I'll probably be doing for those 3 days. After I sleep in that is. I did pick up 1 card at the LCS so I'll get that logged and scanned tomorrow. Since I don't have it ready, you'll get another random post but this is a team post. Although they don't play much like a team which should tell you which team since I follow 2 and they are both at the complete opposites of the spectrum.

Fred at work gave these to me. I know some of them he picked up in a quarter box at the Shipshewana show. Some of the others he brought to me at work. I love the look of the cracked ice so you know I love the Sapphire set.

I got these from sorting packs. The flagship is series 2 as I've already completed series 1. The 4 Prizm are my first from the 2023 set.

All of these last 3 scans are list players that I sorted for the LCS. Hall of Famers are automatically on the list so Frank Thomas and Tim Raines are in and Bo Jackson and Sammy Sosa are popular players so they are on it.

The real announcement is with the addition of those 13 cards of Frank Thomas (and the one further above) I have officially hit 1000 cards of him. It's my first player to 1000 and it's not even a PC of mine, he just has that many White Sox cards. My official total right now is 1003.

These 6 cards are from Kevin. The top 4 came from a box he bought at the Mishawaka show, I skimmed through it and pulled some cards for myself. The bottom 2 are from his sorting of the LCS stuff.

Do you remember the Vintage stuff I picked up at the Plymouth show? I've already shown some of it, this was also on his table so I picked it up as well. I liked Madrigal before we sent him off to the Cubs plus it's a rookie auto and as I mentioned before, I like the Sapphire set.

I'll be back tomorrow with another birthday post before I finally get some time to post other stuff.

Lotsa Sox

I've been slacking lately, just haven't been in the mood. Think of it as a mini-vacation. I'm also low on posts because I haven't gotten around to getting new cards ready so I only have a couple of posts left. I've ordered my package from Sportlots but I haven't received confirmation that it's shipped yet. I was really hoping to have it before the weekend since that's when I usually work on cards. I'm only working a few hours tomorrow, I was going to come home and start working on my cards but I guess we're going to Indy in the afternoon so we'll be gone for awhile. Maybe Saturday. Probably no post tomorrow either as we probably won't get home until late.

Today's post is a team collection of a team that has finally got their crap together but it's probably too little too late. Which is frustrating because had they done it a week sooner, they might have a decent chance of making the playoffs. Now we have to win damn near every game, including 4 against Cleveland who haven't been losing either. Although we beat them in a make up game today.

These 4 came from Fred. A couple more Heritage in the mix.

These 13 came from Sluggo. I actually got them awhile ago and barely knew who Romy Gonzalez was but he's been playing and doing really well for the Sox so now that I see that card again, I'm even happier to have an auto of him. There's also another rookie of him up there. Those are my first 2 cards of him.

These 7 cards all came from Dennis at Too Many Verlanders. He surprised me with a package a little while ago (and last week) with these Sox cards. None are base and 2 relics and an autograph. I thought I had the Tracey autograph but I think I had a Carlos Quentin from that set but I got rid of it as it was a Diamondbacks card so it didn't fit in the collection. I should have known I didn't have it because Dennis and I are both on TCDB and check each others lists before we send to each other. We share a bunch of collections so it's easy to find stuff for him. He sent me another package earlier this week that I need to get through yet, hopefully this weekend.

There are a few cards up there who are my first cards of those players. Romy Gonzalez that I mentioned, also Brian Goodwin and a couple of those Bowman's. I did a spreadsheet to see how many White Sox players I have cards of and with those cards in this post, it bumped me up to 950 different players.

Finally

We officially have baseball back. The Sox had split squad games yesterday (didn't play today) and won them both against the Cubs. The game I got to see had Andrew Vaughn hitting the first pitch he saw out. He was the only starter in the game. Liam Hendriks pitched an inning as well. Also got to see Jordan Nwogu for the Cubs, he didn't start but he got a couple of at bats.

Speaking of White Sox, let's see some.

My 3rd card of Yermin, who's still with the Sox and my 59th of Rodon, who's no longer with the Sox. You should recognize the Gallery as you've seen them in the last couple of posts. Sluggo opened a blaster of them.

I ran across this in our dollar boxes when I was sorting in some newer cards.

Sluggo also opened some 2022 and hooked me up with all these cards (and 1 PC card). All base cards except the Royal Version of Crochet who I'm hoping to see a lot of this year. I think I read that he's going to be taking the long reliever roll that Michael Kopech had last year since he will be starting this year. Gavin Sheets as well, I'm hoping they find a spot for him starting as he did well last year. That's my 1st rookie card of Sheets but I have 4 other Bowman from a few years ago.

All coming together

Before I get started on today's post, I want to throw another blog at you. I've mentioned my cousin Sluggo here many times and he has moved up here and it's his dream to run his own card shop. He's starting a job in a week but he only plans on keeping it long enough to establish some work up here so he can buy a house. After that, he's going to open a shop. He's already looked at a few places but he wants to get a house first so he's not looking real hard yet. We made the decision to start listing stuff on Sportlots, right now it's all commons (over 13,000 cards) but it's a start. I'm helping with all the online stuff so I've spent a considerable amount of time listing all those cards and I have plenty more to list as I get the time.

Back to where I was going, I set up a few accounts for him on social media (including a blog) and I'm hoping to get some follows. He has the inventory to start a store and has some really awesome cards so I'm hoping to get over to where he's staying and click some pics and start posting more on social media. You can go to the blog - https://sluggossportscards.blogspot.com/ and check out the links in the first post. It's a pretty basic blog (and social media) at this point but I'm hoping to do more with them in the near future. Please give them a follow

Since my notepad that I keep my list of posts won't load up so I can't post it into the random, I'll pick one. Since we are talking about my cousin, I'll show some heritage that he gave me. Right now, I'm working for cards so I keep whatever I find in the common boxes that I want. A bunch of these are the SP's though so he let me pull those as well. He's bought me a couple of higher dollar cards at our last trip to the LCS, you'll see those when the random pulls them up.

We'll start off with the 2021. I had gotten some from Fred but these 4 were all new to my collection.

I let the pictures fall where they lay so we'll jump around a bit. These 3 I needed for the 2017 team set.

I needed all these for the 2020 set. They are all high numbers. The Seby Zavala is a SP, that wasn't supposed to be in there.

Here we have the short prints that he gave me. Minus the Seby up there that I scanned in the wrong one. They obviously like to put Abreu in the SP's every year.

Double Header Memorial Day

What a good way to celebrate Memorial Day than hanging with the family for a cookout at lunch and getting home in time to start a double header with Cleveland. Sox won the first game in a back and forth game in extra innings. The 2nd game is tied at 1 as I type this.

Today's post will all be White Sox as well. These were all the pick-ups on Sportlots in my last package. Just fill ins at $.18 to get the sellers up to 4 cards.

Make that down 3-1 to Cleveland now. That was quick. Anyways,

A couple of 2020 Stadium Club pick-ups. One of them being the league MVP for that price. I'll take it. He still doesn't get hobby love but I'm okay with that.

Also picked up 4 Bowman Heritage. The bottom 2 are of the prospects variety but the 2 on the left are no longer with the Sox. Zack is Yasmani's back up and Rutherford is in the minors.

Now going back about 16 years, I grabbed 5 from the Donruss Throwback Threads set. These 4 give me all the current players (in 2004) but I still need the 2 retired and the rookie players for the team set. Those 3 cards are all numbered.

Sticking with 2004, I also picked up this Sweet Sigs card of the Big Hurt. It gives me the 2 current players but I still need the 2 rookies for the team set. Those are both serial numbered as well. Must be a 2004 thing.

I threw the horizontals together. The top 2 are 2007 SP Authentic inserts and the bottom card is a 2004 Leaf Certified Cuts. I do like both of the designs but the Leaf one better, probably because it's shiny. The top 2 were our #1 and #2 hitters on the World Series team though so you know I love those 2 as well.

You can never go wrong picking up vintage White Sox cards for $.18. This Walt Williams is one of the low number cards which I have most of, the higher number is another story. I have 21 of 35 cards for the team set.

Lastly, I also grabbed another 1967 Sox card for the team set. I did pay a little more for for it though, got it for a quarter. It's my 17th of the team set which is just over halfway done, again, the majority of those high numbers.

I know by the time I finish this, most of our Memorial Day's are over but I hope you all had a happy and safe one. As in every day, my appreciation goes out to all the troops, current and past.

2020 Panini Sox

 This is the last of the 2020 Sox team collections posts this month. Apparently the random wanted to knock them all out in fail swoop. I still have a bunch of player collection posts coming though so I'm far from finished for the month.

This will be a no logo post though.

Up above I grabbed 3 players of both the Prizm and the Select. The Abreu on the bottom is a little weird. The only white jersey like that is their 1983 copies and those have red and blue so I'm not sure why they took all the color out. Maybe it clashed with the background. I'm nowhere close on those team sets. The Select shown are the only ones I have from that set. I have 4 cards of Keuchel, 6 cards of Grandal, and 118 of Abreu (he might have been here longer.) I paid $.18 for all of the above.

Next up, we have the Diamond Kings. I like that they brought back the Diamond Kings but I hate that they are pretty much the same every year. Not much difference at all. This is only my 4th of Mendick, my 16th of Collins, and 532 of the Big Hurt (again, he might have been here a little longer.) I picked these up at a quarter a piece.