10 Years of Cervin' and Torren'

Today marks the 10th anniversary for this blog.

I remember it as if it were just yesterday. This blog had at least 3 different drafts brewing for the entirety of 2013 but I was more preoccupied with moving from Japan back to America and also more on being an anonymous commenter/trader than being a blogger.

Eventually I settled on a theme, blog title and a blog post I could stand behind as my first and Cervin' Up Cards finally launched on the last day of 2013.

One decade and a name change later, Torren' Up Cards still stands. Not as active as before and probably with a ton more snark and cynicism (though I'm trying to cut back on that), but still here.

I am a little surprised that I've been able to keep at it for this long. Card bloggers who are both older than me and younger than me have come and gone. Some got busier and couldn't keep up with blogging, others just stopped collecting entirely. Now that I'm also a member of a workforce with a growing number of responsibilities (and an alarmingly ever shrinking amount of space) every year I very much understand.

But I think I've been able to keep at it because I've never felt this blog was a burden or really all that time consuming. This blog is a reflection and log for who I am/have been as a collector, and to a smaller extent me as a person. It's transitioned and switched up just as often as I have because it's an outlet for whatever happens to be on my mind, and because of that it's very easy to maintain.

To give a brief timeline/recap, in the early years of this blog the key subjects were the Staten Island Yankees and T206 Highlanders. Then came the switch to the Torren' Up Cards era where the focus primarily shifted to Luis Torrens and Yankees prospecting. Then eventually came the gradual decline in interest for both. My interest in Yankees prospects basically stopping around mid 2022 and my interest in continuing my Torrens collection really slowing down in early 2023.

There were other things involved during that time like the Chunichi Dragons, New York Rangers (Filip Chytil in particular), Thairo Estrada, Anthony Davis, Star Wars, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Aldrick Rosas, etc... a bunch of stuff. Naturally most of those are a thing of the past now too although I do look back fondly on what I have left from those eras.

The only real constant during that time were TTMs and IPs, and I've pretty much put the kaibosh on both. Although moreso IPs since TTMs are still a bit easier if/when the mood strikes me.

Right now my current collecting interest is getting stuff out of my house. Most recently Kyle Freeland was a fun little collection I was building too but big shocker that's approaching the end of the line as I've assembled a big chunk of what I've wanted.

What comes next? I honestly don't know, the posts after this one will hold the answer though.

I would also be remiss if I didn't take time to acknowledge that another aspect that's kept me going this long is the small but very kind community of bloggers, collectors and commenters I've come to know over the years. I know I don't interact with many and I've lost touch with several, but there is still a part of me that's very happy every time I put up a post and when I check how it's doing I see that it's gotten one comment from an old friend. Maybe they're just happy I'm still alive, but just so you all know, I'm happy you are still around and (hopefully) doing well too whenever I see that. When I sign off my posts with "take care" I mean it. Thanks to every last one of you.

So yeah, 10 years of rambling and babbling about nothing. Thank you all for following along on my twists and turns. Who knows where this next decade goes.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.

Year-End TTM Roundup: 1/1/2023 - 12/30/2023

 The thing about TTMs is that even if you only send out like four in a given year, there's always a non-zero chance one from the past will come trickling in at a random moment. As such here's this post in case that happened.

Received On: 2/17/2023

Here's a super cool and super shiny return/purchase from Kira Buckland, the voice actress for my favorite character 2B in the English release of NieR: Automata.

Buckland hails from Alaska and her body of works goes as far back as 1994 as a child voice actress but she's more active since 2003, appearing in hundreds upon hundreds of different roles across a lot of different mangas, cartoons, video games, etc... If there's a popular video game that's been dubbed into English, chances are very good she's worked on it.

Received On: 2/28/2023

Love was originally drafted by the New York Giants in the 4th round of the 2019 NFL Player Draft out of Notre Dame. The safety was a backup for most of his early career before earning some time as a starter this past season and having one of the best seasons he's had to date in the process.

Following the 2022-23 season he became a free agent and signed with the Seattle SeaHawks. In the early part of the season he looked like he was batting hamstring injuries but did his role in filling in Jamal Adams.

Received On: 4/17/2023

Next up is a return from former NHL wing, Jason Pominville.

Pominville was originally drafted by the Buffalo Sabres in the second round of the 2001 NHL player draft. He made his NHL debut in the 2003-04 season and would go on to be a regular contributor at the highest level from the 2005-06 season onwards. After a stint in Minnesota he later returned to the Sabres for the 2018-19 season and then retired.

Received On: 7/17/2023

Another actress, this time a live action actress Emily Swallow who was doing a paid signing.

Swallow has been active since 2006 and was originally a theatre actor, performing in various Broadway shows. She would eventually begin to get cast in various shows and movies and after over a decade she landed what's probably her best known role to date, The Armorer from the Star Wars show The Mandalorian.

Received On 8/9/2023

Hark, a baseball TTM courtesy of Kris Bryant.

There hasn't been a whole lot to talk about regarding Bryant in recent times. Partly due to him playing for the Colorado Rockies but also just because he's been very hurt. Bryant did manage to play enough games in 2023 to get his first Coors Field home run which I'm sure was a big load off his back. He'd suffer another season with lots of injuries though, unfortunately leading to another down year. Hopefully he can get healthy and regain a lot of his past self next year.

Received On: 8/12/2023

Received On: 8/12/2023

Here are a couple of returns from former Rockie Randal Grichuk.

Grichuk was originally drafted by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the first round of the 2009 MLB Player Draft, famously one pick before Mike Trout. Unlike Trout, Grichuk's career has taken him in all sorts of weird directions and mostly filled with trades and injuries. While a top prospect he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in the trade that brought David Freese to Anaheim, he made his MLB debut with the Cardinals in 2014 and spent a few seasons going up and down MLB and triple-A before latching on as a full time outfielder as a Toronto Blue Jay in 2018 after being traded there. Before the 2022 season he was traded again to the Rockies in the Raimel Tapia trade. Eventually his journey went full circle as he was traded to the Angels before the 2023 MLB trade deadline, he hit a dinger in his first game as an Angel.

Sidenote: with all due respect to the other TTMs I've gotten, these are the first returns in a long time where I was really impressed with what came back. The ink is perfectly bold and the signatures were placed just right for both cards.

Received On: 10/17/2023

So I already blogged about the card itself, I think now would be a good time to go back to Rollie Fingers' Hall of Fame career.

Fingers was originally signed by the Kansas City Athletics in 1964, he made his MLB debut with the A's in 1968 and would go on to be a part of the three time World Series Championship teams from 1972 to 1974, winning World Series MVP honors in 1974. After that stint he'd go on to play for the San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers, of which his time with the Brewers brought him a lot of individual success as he won AL MVP and AL Cy Young honors with the Brew Crew in 1981. After a 17 year career establishing new records as a closer/reliever he retired after 1985 with 341 saves and would be instrumental in closers/bullpen arms having a more defined and crucial role in baseball games. Even though his records would be broken in years to come bullpen usage has continued to evolve and his contributions to it are still felt today.

Received On: 12/12/2023

So with the four requests I did send out in 2023 all successfully returned I assumed it would be the end of the post. Instead near the end of the year a sudden request came back from Nathan Eovaldi.

Eovaldi has had a very long and odd but overall successful MLB career. To date he's played for marquee teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox; and he's been a two time World Series champion with the Red Sox and the Texas Rangers. I can safely say I was not expecting to get this back after he just became a World Series Champ for the second time, this time in his home state. This return rocks.

So big thanks to Ms. Buckland and Swallow, and Mr. Love, Pominville, Bryant, Grichuk, Fingers and Eovaldi for the awesome autographs this year.

And as always thank you the readers for stopping by. Take care.

2023 TTM Count: 9

Sources:

*https://www.espn.com/nfl/player/_/id/4046675/julian-love

*https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/35881364/source-julian-love-agrees-2-year-12m-deal-seahawks

*https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2299231/

*https://kirabuckland.com/

*https://www.nhl.com/player/jason-pominville-8469506

*https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2646861/

*https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bryankr01.shtml

*https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/grichra01.shtml

*https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/fingero01.shtml

*https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/e/eovalna01.shtml

Jet Lagged Brain, Jumbled Thoughts

 So I took the whole month of November off and spent all of it in Japan. It was my first trip out there since 2019(!) and I wanted the trip to be as long as possible to justify the cumulative 26 hour plane rides. A lot's changed since COVID warped the world and I was eager to see what's changed.

And sort've by extension, I'm seeing how much I've changed too.

The day after I landed I met up with my longtime collecting friend Anco-san, his wife Fukurou-san and their child. We've known eachother for nine years now and we first met through the sports card collecting hobby, but we didn't go to a single shop this time. Partly because their kid is still super young, but also because none of us really collect sports cards like we used to. Those two have more important matters on hand (literally and figuratively), while my interests are just elsewhere.

That said I did pick up some sports cards during my trip just because I did visit two card shops I used to go to back when I lived in Nagoya, Match-Up! and Bits!. The key highlight was probably the Akira Neo autograph since prices on those finally dropped from the 30K JPY (think like 200 USD) to 15K JPY (literally half) thanks to the Chunichi Dragons bumbling his development.

I could go into the rest of my sports card pick-ups, a whopping 9 total cards, but I think that Neo's enough for now. Just not really motivated given how uninterested I was with sports cards for the month I was gone. The rest might get their time on this blog in the months to come. Maybe.

Although real quick, it was a little surreal seeing convenience stores have these packs of Bowman branded NPB cards just sitting there though. I snapped this picture and just bought one pack just out of mild curiosity. The contents were mid and will be sent to NPB Card Guy at some point since I think he'd get more of a kick out of them.

In general rest of my pick ups were just various pieces of merchandise and non-sports cards of VTubers, anime characters and video game characters. Both in volume and in terms of money spent.

Like that Yu-Gi-Oh! card in the center there of Ghost Ogre and Snow Rabbit is a 20th Anniversary Secret Rare parallel that cost north of 30K yen, it was easily my most expensive purchase on a single item on this trip and I didn't care, I just wanted one of those 20th Secret rares that took the hobby by storm during what was a brief popularity spike in the COVID-riddled 2020-22 era.

Also the Japanese yen was still down horrendously during my entire time here so I was just swiping my US credit card like crazy. I was doing my part to stimulate the Japanese economy damnit.

Other than that I'd say my cosplayer merch/polaroid collection got the biggest boost. Mostly because I got to meet two of my favorite cosplayers in person and it will never cease to amaze me that I somehow managed to squeeze in time to meet both during this trip. 

Beyond that I spent a little more of my time going to maid cafe's and "concept cafes" (think maid cafes but with other themes). I did not spend thousands of dollars on plane tickets to not be a degenerate. For me the best part was getting to take polaroids of them on the spot and having them decorate and sign it. It's a staple (yes these cost extra for those who're wondering).

Because I went to this cafe in particular the most, quick shout-out to Ashita no Cafe. Located in Shibuya (MAP), this cafe changes themes depending on which day of the week it is. Like on Mondays it's a beauty school, on Tuesdays it's your personal work secretary, etc... Each theme was designed by a cosplayer who wanted to bring their vision of a cafe to reality. If you're visiting Japan, maybe give them a visit. Though please pay attention to their pricing system. NOTE: this goes for any maid/concept cafe, the servers will give you a rundown of their pricing and it is essential you pay attention or get hit with a massive bill at the end.

All in all, it was a fun trip. Lots of good food, drinks and cute girls. With some cards here and there.

It also helped me in one huge aspect which was getting to the root cause of my burnout that was so bad I even blogged about it. I have a rough idea on what I can do to prevent that (because if what I think is correct it will be an issue again), but that plan will take some time to execute. Even so, just helping me gain perspective on what might've been the key issue made this trip a rousing success.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.

Them 60ths

 The specific era of major league baseball that I grew up with was 2010 through 2012. I've blogged about it before but I didn't grow up caring much for sports, it wasn't until halfway through my high school years that I got into baseball because it was great background noise when I got high.

As far as cards go two sets will always bring me back to my earliest days in the hobby and by extension the last of my teenage years.

2011 Topps and 2012 Sega Card Gen

I've been fortunate enough to continue blogging about Card Gen a bunch and will continue to for as long as I'm able to pick up new pieces from it whenever I can find them.

2011 Topps is something I rarely blog about but with me feeling sentimental and looking back on the last decade "Zippy Zappy" has been around I've been dabbling in it a little more and I figure it's time to talk about it just a little.

Mostly it's just been a cavalcade of coincidences and pick-ups that have had 2011 Topps refusing to leave my headspace.

The seeds for this revival was sort of planted two years ago when I went to a card shop named American Legends. Every now and then they luck into sealed older products and one of them was a hobby box of 2011 Topps Series 2. Seeing Joe Mauer on what was one of the first packs I ever opened was nice. I didn't buy it because I didn't have any use for a whole box, but the product did seep into my mind because of that.

Then later on in that year I got a bunch of cards signed by Hunter Pence. An assortment of both Card Gens and a shiny 2011 Topps parallel which later prompted me to pick up a Topps 60 autograph from 2011. It had to be from 2011, Hunter Pence from 2011 is a really key figure to me.

He was the first ever homegrown superstar type I ever saw get moved. It didn't matter that I wasn't a fan of the Houston Astros or Philadelphia Phillies, or that the trade in the long term didn't do much for either team, he was still a big name being talked about at the time.

After that brief reunion(?) with 2011 Topps S2, I thought about celebrating it a bit more but a blogpost never materialized and my mind went in other directions. It came back with 10x as much vigor in 2023.

Like here's another superstar who got traded in 2011 in Ubaldo Jimenez. I briefly showed off this and three other die-cuts in my burnout haul post. To this day I find those die-cuts cool, partly because I was lucky enough to get one myself (a Roger Maris!) back when the promotion was going on. I'll never build the set because it's too big but there are so many good names that teleport me back to 2011 in it. Roy Halladay, Felix Hernandez, Wandy Rodriguez, Tim Lincecum, etc...

From this point forward I will keep the focus more on autographs of specific players. I was in the market for ink of these players and when I saw that they were on that familiar and sentimental (only-to-me) Topps 60 insert design I picked these over other options.

Like Jeff Francis. Not the flashiest name ever but this is still an autograph of the first pitcher in Colorado Rockies history to start a World Series game for them.

Regarding the card itself though it's kinda funny in how it does two things wrong.

The first is that whoever applied the sticker just botched it because it's weirdly crooked and placed slightly more to the left. The fact that this is the older silver autograph sticker only makes that even more noticeable.

The second is that with a header that reads "All Time Colorado Rockies™Wins Leaders" on an autograph card you expect Francis to be the franchise leader in pitcher wins as of 2011.

But when you flip it to the back you see he was merely third all time. Apparently that's good enough to justify this card's existence.

Josh Johnson, remember him? He was a big name back then. 2011 was unfortunately when injuries started derailing him, and he'd throw his last pitch as a major league just two years later in 2013.

Early Craig Kimbrel was a force. Years of causing heart attacks in San Diego, both sides of Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and Philadelphia have made people forget but in those first few years of his career (particularly 2012) he was insanely good, practically striking out half of the batters he faced. He was so effective that nerds started tinkering with the idea of openers and doing wacky things with the best arms in the bullpen. Though ironically I feel like Kimbrel's been deployed the least in those strategies.

Also Kimbrel was the only one I got but 2011 was a good year for Atlanta Braves in these autograph checklists since you can also find Freddie Freeman, Jason Heyward, Tim Hudson and Julio Teheran.

And finally we reach the end with what's really felt like a full circle moment. With this one autograph that wasn't a Topps 60 autograph but, well, this...

Received On: 10/17/2023

This Rollie Fingers card on its own might not seem super special, but to me it was the first "oldest card in my collection". As part of the Diamond Dig Contest I was able to unearth this card from 1982. At the time I was in Japan but Topps only sent stuff to Japan if it was to fulfill redemptions, not these promo cards, so I was content to just let it be lost to time. But luckily Ryan from This Card Is Cool was just moving to Japan around that time and I had him redeem this and my Maris die-cut on my behalf and had him bring them over.

Since then it's remained with me through all of my crazy cardboard turnover. Also deep down I've been wanting to get it signed at one point, a sentiment which was further emboldened by how Fingers is someone who makes a living signing autographs across the country now. It was just a matter of waiting until he came to a local-ish show. Now I feel like I've been able to fully get the absolute most out of that initial ensemble of packs and cards from my early years in the hobby.

I know that there is a lot more to 2011 Topps than just Series 2, the autographs and promotional stuff, but for me these are what I've found interesting in recent times.

Going forward though I'm not sure how much I plan to reunite with 2011 Topps. I'm not going for a full set because I have no use or space for 900+ cards. I can already feel my interest in this all wane again the moment I hit the Publish button on this blogpost. Nostalgia's great but also fleeting since you are always brought back to the present, as you should be. But then again it's also very cyclical and can/will come back later.

I think the likely outcome would be for me to continue to just casually pick up whatever I feel like if I ever get the itch for specific players who happened to get cool cards in that set. It's what sparked this post and the pick-ups above, I can see it happening again once in a while especially as the odd cool card I didn't get around to the first time rolls around.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).

Good Lots, a Set Collector's Best Friend

 For the second year in a row I was able to luck into a really really good lot of Sega Card Gen cards on Mercari.

I'm not a set collector, but I'm familiar enough to know that the set collector's best friend is buying cards in bulk. And boy did this latest one fill in a lot of holes in two aspects of 2012 Sega Card Gen.

The Ichiro above is an "EX" card. I used to think it stood for exchange but now my understanding is that it's short for extra since these are extra short printed cards beyond the base set.

This latest lot came with five of these EX cards. This is absolutely huge to me because these EX cards were cards that were distributed in all kinds of weird ways, and these five specifically were distributed with cases. You see there was a brief promo during the 2012 Sega Card Gen season where instead of a normal card you'd get a redemption card and then you called over someone who was working at the arcade, give them the redemption card and then pick one case out of eight different cases. Each case came with one unique EX card.

During my time playing 2012 SCG I lucked into three of them and turned them into Ichiro Suzuki, Junichi Tazawa and Ike Davis. I gave one of these cases to The Lost Collector a few years ago.

Thanks to this lot I was able to get Yu Darvish, Hisashi Iwakuma, Norichika Aoki and Justin Morneau. Even got a second copy of Ichiro out of it! Cards of Ichiro from the day he got traded to the New York Yankees will always be cool.

Now all that's left for these EX cards distributed with cases is Munenori Kawasaki.

And for the other EX cards that were distributed in different ways (ie contest prizes) there's still Carl Crawford, Francisco Rodriguez, Grady Sizemore, Shin-Soo Choo, Joe Nathan, Magglio Ordonez and Roy Oswalt. Oy vey.

For whatever it's worth I've never seen the Sizemore/Choo/Nathan/Ordonez/Oswalt cards out in the wild except for screenshots on the Card Gen website.

So I need eight more shortprints. Now I know how Night Owl felt when he was building the 2008 Heritage set.

But enough moping about what I don't have, time to get back to being happy about what just came in.

Like more rare foils! The Curtis Granderson, David Wright and Jose Bautista foils were dupes but there is no such thing as bad Card Gen dupes. Especially not for superstar foils. Given where my head's been this past season I'm particularly thrilled about the Carlos Gonzalez foil.

Of those foils, Stephen Strasburg is the only one from 2013. 2013 Sega Card Gen is a set I will never collect because I never played it (I missed it entirely), but similar to 2009-2011 SCG I do still appreciate any I can get.

The lot also came with a few base cards, like eight Japanese MLBers from 2012 and one Iwakuma from 2013. The 2012 cards were all dupes.

And finally this lot featured 11 non-Japanese MLBers, one which was an Adrian Beltre from 2013. Everything from 2012 is a dupe. The Clayton Kershaw was always a favorite of mine because of the Brooklyn throwback unis but I've come to also appreciate the Miguel Cabrera since it gives the same aura when I see old photographs of Ty Cobb or other players from the early 1900's just sitting around and with a stern face like he's analyzing everything going around him. Also the Yadier Molina is great because it's a rare backstop catch at the net shot. Which sounds like a collection Dime Box Nick would have.

All in all this lot provided me a ton of fun with four new EX cards, four new foils and two new base cards from 2013 to my collection, along with some nice cards to just have around even if they are dupes.

2012 Sega Card Gen, the set that keeps on giving all these years later and all these kilometers away.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).

Premature Pat On My Own Back

 So after blogging about my burnout haul things have finally started to ease up. But before things finally calmed down I did decide to just go for one big card that I've wanted since 2014. Considering how this blog turns 10 years old this December, I'm writing it off as a premature 10 year blog anniversary present from me to myself anyway. Thank you very much me.

YEAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!

WEE WILLIE KEELER!!!

AFTER ALL THESE YEARS!

This Keeler set me back some coin, but unlike the commons and other T206es which inflated by like 100%, the price point for Keeler was about where it was nine years ago give or take another $20 (roughly 10%).

A Hall of Famer from one of the most well known sets ever was always going to go for a lot, to the point where this even had to go through the same authentication process my Shohei Ohtani autograph went through earlier this year, but it is kinda surprising he's not higher.

Works for me though.

So now I've been fortunate enough to get the three big names for the Highlanders team set out of the way. The two Hall of Famers in Jack Chesbro and Keeler, and first ever captain for the New York Yankees, Hal Chase.

Although the caveat is that while the big names are more expensive they're also easier to find. The rest of the Highlanders T206es include names I've seen at card show display cases maybe once.

For now I'm gonna simplify it by ignoring variations. One slot per player. At least until the individuals I don't have yet are addressed first. Kinda like modern day flagship photo variation SPs.

Anyway, now I need to stop and appreciate where I am right now. I've got Keeler, I've got Chesbro, I've got an Ohtani autograph, I've got a really nice Kyle Freeland collection (also yes I'm including the Freeland 206 in my T206 collection, it counts!), I once had the best Luis Torrens collection in the world. Looking back on all of it, if I really wanted it, I've probably been able to say I had it. Not really a fan of how self indulgent that all sounds, but I'm not really sure how else I can say that I'm thankful I've been able to carve out enjoyment in this hobby for myself like this.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).

A Return to Box Breaking, With Treats!

 The last time I purchased a whole hobby box of something was sometime in 2016. A bad combination of inflated prices and uninteresting offerings have kinda left me in a state where buying boxes and packs just doesn't seem worth it. A bad blaster box experience only made it worse. But then in the middle of summer I set out to do something insane, actually build a set of something via packs.

The set in question was Uma Musume Pretty Derby Wafer Cards! Volume 4!

Uma Musume Pretty Derby is a Japanese franchise that's mostly known for its mobile game, although it's branched out into a ton of other media. The basic premise is centered around anime girls named after actual racing horses. It's a popular intellectual property in Japan, you can tell because this is the fourth wave of cards distributed with wafer treats from this franchise.

When I was at a grocery store I noticed they had a box of these, for some reason I thought I'd just buy it and assemble the set. Being an adult means I can just buy boxes outright after all.

In my infinite wisdom it wasn't until I finally got in my car that I actually read the words on the box.

The box only came with 20 cards, and the checklist had 28 cards total.

I ended up with 19 out of the 28. I picked up another box three days later out of sheer stubbornness. Between the two boxes, I ended up with 25 cards out of the 28 card set. The last three I just got off of Mercari.

The cards themselves are nice and they can be broken into 5 categories as the checklist that's conveniently written right on the wrapper itself shows.

I also kinda find it hilarious that these wafer treats were sold in the candy aisle aimed at kids but the wrapper clearly says this product is intended for people ages 15 and up. Which... why is this even rated 15+?

1. Character Cards - Competitive Outfits

The first portion of the checklist were these character cards featuring a handful of the girls in what's described as their competitive outfits.

2. Character Cards - Uniforms

The next portion were character cards but this time when them in uniform. These are kind of the default outfits you see on a lot of the characters in the game.

3. SSR Support Cards and 4. SR Support Cards

Lumping these two together because they only had 4 apiece.

In line with the original game these cards are based on, these are based on the support cards that help you during the game. The pics don't show it that well but these have a very cool x-fractor like parallel shine effect on them that make them really pretty in person.

5. Bromide Cards

And finally the last category which despite the name are not bromides (think like postcard sized photos). These are just based on designs that would be used for bromides.

Between this and the Hololive NPB card set I assembled earlier this year, I think I've figured out the key to entice me to be a set collector, have cute anime girls on the cards instead of literally anything else.

Also having them come with wafer treats helps too. Food issues appear to be something that pops up pretty frequently in my orbit.

All in all this was an extremely fun and tasty set build. I probably won't go after any of the three waves before this one, or any that inevitably come after, but at least I can say I have wave four.

Finishing with both a scan and a close-up pick of my favorite card in the entire set, Curren Chan. She's just the cutest little thing here. She deserves that extra shiny refraction action.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).

Nearly Burned Out, Needed Cards to Heal

 Last week I was feeling severe burn out at work. I needed to really relieve some stress. I did a couple of things. I slept, exercised, drafted angry emails, became really passive aggressive with coworkers, vented on social media, anything to keep me sane in the moment. At the risk of being over dramatic that brief moment was pretty overwhelming and I needed a coping mechanism bad.

The most dangerous but also what ended up being my favorite outlet was just going hogwild on watch-list hits on eBay.

This Kyle Freeland 2014 Bowman Chrome blue refractor autograph was on my want list for weeks. Mine.

A Todd Helton autograph in general was on my want list for months, and after using rewards points to shave off most of the price, I managed to bring it down to $7. Solid deal for a future Hall of Famer. Mine.

Okay I don't want to repeat that same description ad nauseam so here's a bunch of scans.

In some ways this is basically a smorgasbord of stuff I've been known to collect. Just missing Luis Torrens and some Yankees prospects somewhere.

This is also just the baseball stuff.

Also quick shout-out to my former local card shop American Legends. I was in my old neighborhood for errands and stopped by to purchase supplies. I went ahead and purchased the T206 Chase in that store too. It reminded me how underrated it is when you're able to physically hold and inspect the card I want before committing to buying. Also y'know, not refreshing the tracking number every other hour and being worried the USPS is going to send to the wrong address or something.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.