Last cards of 2023

When I met up with Kevin before the show last weekend, he brought me a bunch of cards that he pulled from his sorting duties plus he picked up a collection. It gave me a milestone tonight, well, technically, last week. We'll go through the cards first.

I didn't know what these were but upon looking them up on TCDB, they are the 2005 Champions from Danbury Mint, they each came in plastic cases that I had to use scissors to free them from. I would have preferred to get some of the top names (4 of them are PC's) but they are still pretty cool.

A few oddball stuff from the earlier days of my collecting. The first 2 are from Coca-Cola, then Toys 'r' us. The bottom row is Denny's followed by a Fleer sticker back.

A couple of scans of newer cards as well. Rookies and stars, even an old coach. I didn't realize how many of those Chrome anniversary cards they put out for each team as I keep getting more and more of them. I have 235 of Tim Anderson, 154 of Lucas Giolito and 278 of Jose Abreu.

He also gave me a team card which I don't get too often anymore. I really need to pick up more of these Heritage team cards. I always forget about them until I see one.

Some more old school Strawberry's. A Fleer mini set and another Denny's Grand Slam of him. These 2 give me 159 of Darryl.

I also received a later Dwight Gooden. This gives me 164 cards of Doc K.

2 more of our now former closer. As I said, I keep getting these Chrome Platinum Anniversary cards. These 2 give me 39 cards of Liam. I hope he lands back on his feet.

Another Chrome Anniversary, this time of Eloy. This is my 212th card of Jimenez.

I'm not sure how I didn't have that Jim Abbott, I've probably skimmed right past hundereds of them doing my sorting and thought I already had it. It is my 288th card of him. You also see I did get 1 of my PC players from those card from Danbury Mint which I was happy to see. This is my 387th card of Buehrle.

I thought I had this one as well but it's apparently the silver parallel. I can't imagine how many parallels I went past before I used TCDB. This is my 127th card of our current coach.

2 more former Wolverines picked up. I have a bunch of Charles Woodson in the maize and blue because Panini pumps out a few a year. This is my 59th card of Woodson. I picked up another of Taco as well, this parallel is my 27th of him.

Another of PK, nice. I've picked up a few of him in the last month or so which is great. Another Chrome Platinum as well. This is my 763rd card of Konerko.

I told you at the beginning that I hit a milestone on my last pickups of last year. These 41 cards put me over 10,000 cards added to my collection in 2023. 10,016 to be exact. As I've said in previous posts, I've done that by spending less than half of what I did in 2022. I spent just over $1100 in 2023 as compared to just over $2100 to get just under 2400 cards in 2022. I would say it was definitely a byproduct of all the free cards I get from sorting.

As I've also said above, these were the last cards that I received in 2023, I logged them in (which is the day I consider them received) on New Years Eve day.

LCS Pickups

Kevin and I ran down to the LCS on Friday, we dropped off some stuff we sorted and picked up some more. I worked on that on Sunday and will probably finish the next few days as tomorrow is my last day at work until the 5th of January so I'll have plenty of time. I brought home 3 2 row boxes of baseball list players and 5 2 rows of football list players to sort. I probably won't end up with a whole lot for myself but I do usually end up with some.

While we were there, Kevin bought a bunch of colored parallels from them. We generally only pay a quarter a piece and throw them in our dollar boxes, or more if they are worth it. So while we were sitting there, I went through the box and pulled out a bunch for myself.

Everything above is a holo or refractor, lots of color up there as well. The Gavin Sheets in the top row of the top photo wasn't in the box, the LCS owner had set that aside for me and gave it to me, along with another card you'll see. The 3 Giolito's give me 153 of him. The 2 Anderson's give me 232 and the Abreu is my 275th.

Next up are Tier 3 pickups.

I picked up 1 basketball card and it's of Larry Legend. This insert is the holo parallel because yes, even the inserts have parallels. This is my 106th card of Larry.

2 more Tier 3 collections with this Stadium Club refractor of Steve Carlton and an Update Sapphire of Ripken. I guess technically the Sapphire isn't a color parallel as it's its own set but you all know I love the cracked ice. This is my 229th card of the lefty Carlton and the 976th of Ripken.

Next up is Tier 2.

2 more of Fisk, both in White Sox, both made to look like older sets and of course, not both parallels. The 1988 look-a-like is from 2023 and is an insert, the Platinum Anniversary Prism is from 2022. This is my 386th card of th OG Pudge.

I grabbed a couple more of the only star from last year's team. Let's hope he stays with the team and continues to get better. The 2022 on the left is another Prism parallel and the Optic on the right is the holo parallel of the insert. These 2 give me 203 cards of Luis.

The top card is a Stadium Club Chrome refractor, I already had the non-Chrome and the Chrome to go with it. The bottom card is the other card that the LCS gave me, it's only my 2nd relic of Moncada and these 2 give me 230 of him.

Really love the Buehrle, mainly because I don't pick up too many of him. It's only my 5th card that I've picked up this year and one of those was a week or two ago. It's also my 386th of him. At this rate, it'll be a few years before I hit 400. The purple Eloy is my 209th of him.

A couple of former Wolverine Tier 2 players. The Larkin is an insert parallel as it's the Holo and you can tell the Cronenworth is an XFractor. Oddly enough I have the SC Red, Chrome and now the XFractor but not the base. I have both of the base and the Holo of the Larkin though. The Barry is my 747th card of his and the 77th of Jake.

The LCS refilled his 1/2 off box and I went through that as well and pulled these 2 auto's. I feel like they equaled $36 and then half off was $18 but he gave them both to me for $10. He had others I wanted but I was trying not to spend too much. I grabbed the Burger just because I liked him and wish they wouldn't have traded him and I also like Sheets so those are the 2 I grabbed.

I am all caught up on posts, for now. We don't have another show until the 31st but I may go to the LCS with all my time off. I should finish the sorting so I'm sure I'll hit it sooner or later.

New PC and a new Auto

Last Friday, as I do some Fridays, I went over to my LCS. Kevin has breakfast with his dad in the mornings and then he'll come by and pick me up and head out there. We generally hang out for awhile and talk and while we were doing that, I got bored and started looking at his dime and quarter boxes. I picked out a few things and then the owner told me that I could have whatever I pulled out of there for helping with the sorting. I stopped being picky after that I pulled whatever I wanted. Here's the haul.

As per the usual, we'll start with the White Sox cards and go to Tier 3, Tier 2 and Michigan.

I picked up these 6 Sox cards, all color parallels and an insert. That is only my 3rd card of Noah Schultz and my 49th of Madrigal. For someone who hasn't played for us in over a year, I still keep running into a lot of his cards. Those 2 Donruss of Ventura give me 186 of him and 272 of Jose Abreu.

On to Tier 3.

I haven't seen the insert before so that was definitely a good pick up and an orange parallel of Donruss. These 2 give me 241 of Bench.

There were a bunch of Ripken's but this was the only one I needed. It's kind of a cracked ice feel to it but it's from 1996 so way before they were a thing. This gives me 974 cards of Cal.

I also picked up these 3 of Strawberry, all newer cards. Most of my PC are his 80's and 90's cards so it's always nice to grab newer cards of him. These 3 give me 156 cards of him.

I even managed to get a couple of Yaz. I had never seen that particular combo card although I have seen them, just not that one. Also a parallel of 2023 Donruss. These 2 give me 185 cards of Yaz.

Next up is Tier 2.

I managed to get another color parallel of a Donruss. This is my 382nd card of Pudge.

Another Donruss color parallel. Plus another parallel and an insert of Eloy. The Gallery is a Printer Proof if you didn't catch that. These 3 cards of Eloy give me 208 cards of him.

And Tier 2 Michigan cards.

A Nico is the Maize and Blue, yes please. I've been picking up his cards pretty regularly now, this one gives me 65 cards of him.

I believe I read where Haskins was injured but I've been picking up his card pretty regularly as well. This rookie base is my 19th but as I said, a lot of those have been pretty recent.

2 more of Paye and 2 more for the Michigan collection. These 2 give me 47 cards of Kwity.

I just picked up my first card of Mazi so it's nice to already grab my 2nd. This one in the Michigan uniforms.

I also found my 2nd card of Clark Elliott not long after finding my first. This one, the LCS owner found and held for me and gave it to me when I got there.

I pick up Franz cards pretty consistently so it's nice to grab a couple of his big brother. I hadn't added any of his since April so these 2 were nice to see. They give me 36 cards of him.

It was really nice to grab this cards of Moussa Diabate because it's my 1st of him. That right, another PC. This gives me 131 different player collections.

While all of the above I got for sorting, I did purchase 1 card that Kevin saw and showed me.

When he showed me this, I knew I wanted it. I didn't have any autos of my favorite Sox pitcher. He had $15 on it but he said he'd take $10 so I coughed it up and gave it to him. I don't regret it. I love having an auto of Buehrle. While it's my 1st auto, it's my 385th card of Mr. Perfect.

the Great Sort

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I sorted 4 3 row boxes of cards for my LCS. I found quite a few cards that I didn't have which surprised me because the majority of the stuff I sorted was, for the most part, just base cards. There were some inserts, but not a ton of them. Everything I got here, I get to keep for free for payment for sorting.

I decided to do the scanning by players instead of big scans, I just like it better that way so you'll get a lot of scans.

As you may know, I collect team cards as in team photo cards. I've probably flipped through thousands of 2023 cards and never thought to keep these for that collection but I did this time. All 3 of them kind of look like the team photos of the past and they seem to feature the whole team so I kept them.

I set aside the players to scan that I have over 50 cards of, and they are all White Sox cards considering I don't PC them as players. Frank (1017), Abreu (265), Ventura (182), Giolito (149) & Rodon (77).

I also did a scan of the younger players that I like and a couple of an older player. Garrett Crochet, I expected big things from before he got hurt. Oscar Colas is supposed to be our future. I really hated the Jake Burger trade and didn't understand but I still like him. I don't think I'll PC him just because he's no longer with us. Lenyn Sosa is also supposed to be one of our futures. You also can't go wrong with some new Dick Allen cards from A&G. Certainly better than a lot of the non-baseball cards they put in that set.

Next up are PC cards.

I grabbed 5 cards of Eloy. This is the first time I've seen the Cosmic Chrome, those are pretty cool. To be fair, I don't think they would have the luster they have without being Chrome. You'll see a lot of the above sets throughout this post. I now have 194 cards of Eloy, closing on a milestone there.

I picked up 3 cards of Robert, 2 of the 3 are actually inserts. I'm only a card behind Eloy with 193 cards of Robert and therefore, also closing in on the same milestone.

I'm still collecting TA, even though I haven't been real happy with him lately. We'll see if it doesn't get better next year. These 7 cards give me 217 of Anderson.

I only picked up 1 card of each of these players. Also like grabbing another Buehrle as he doesn't get much love from the newer sets but he did in the Platinum Anniversary set. I have 383 of Mark.

I picked up this insert of Cease as well. I haven't seen these Velo inserts from the Capstone set. I'm closing on a milestone of Cease's as well with this card being the 98th.

I also found 2 Fisk, 1 from each Sox and both newer. These 2 give me 383 cards of the original Pudge.

2 more of Johnny Bench, one being an insert and a die cut one at that. These make 232 of the Little General.

A couple more of the Platinum Anniversary cards. A lot of my PC players had a card in this set. That's my 348th of the Kid and 147th of Doc.

Always great to pick up some of the Tier 1 collection, especially when I'm adding 4 cards. These give me 572 cards of Tom Terrific which is my 4th highest PC.

2 more for the Yaz collection as well, both from sets you've seen a number of times already. These 2 give me 182 cards of the BoSox legend.

2 more singles. My Zimmy collection is definitely bigger than I thought it would be when I started it. It's at 399 with this card.

Barry's collection, however, I expected it to get pretty big because of when he played. It now sits at 3rd place of my PC's with 741 cards.

I haven't been searching for cards of Steve Carlton but I feel like I've added quite a few lately. I shall go look. I've only added 25 this year but 12 of those were in the last 2 months. He's now at 229 cards.

I'm always pleased to add more of this former Wolverine as well. Really liked seeing the Cosmic Chrome, they definitely look better in real life than scanned. These 2 of the former Rookie of the Year give me 73 of him.

These 2 A&G of Ripken also get me closer and closer to a major milestone of Cal. His PC is my largest at 960 cards. I'm not sure I'm going to hit 1k by the end of the year but I'm not real far away considering I spend 95% of my Saturdays at cards shows.

I said I sorted 4 3 row boxes. What I didn't say was 3 of those were baseball. The other, well, you'll see.

I found this DPJ among that box. This is my 40th card of him.

I've been getting a lot of cards of Nico as well lately. These 2 give me 60 cards which is 4th among my football PC's.

It's always nice to grab a former Wolverines still wearing the uniform. This Uche rookie gives me 12 cards of him.

The Rashan Gary is double that number with 24.

I only started this collection back in November of last year so it's only at 47 cards. I say only just because he has over 4000 cards. I've been searching them out though, just grabbing what comes to me.

Last but not least, I picked up some of Kwity. He only has 37 cards but 5 of them now are of the Wild Card variations. I have 7 Wild Cards and like I said, 5 are of Kwity.

Those were all the freebie cards I got from my LCS but when I'm in there, I try not to look around too much so I don't spend any money. I made the mistake of glancing in a case and seeing this card that I needed.

I cut me a deal on it but I still paid way more than I usually spend on cards. Its his pre-rookie or out of the Traded set.

As you can see, I added a bunch from this last sort but it wasn't one my usual sorts. He actually got 8 3 row boxes from another guy that I know and Kevin sorted the other 4 so he probably pulled some cards for me as well but he sorted football and basketball and he doesn't know all my PC's which is what sucks about not sorting everything. But, I get what I get and I don't pay for it so who am I to complain.