Going Back To My Roots

13 years. 10 consecutive years of not missing one post. 6,280 total posts (once this one is published), three name changes. Loss of posts a few times but brought them back (barely). Almost retired twice. Close to 3 million views.

Sport Card Collectors has stood the test of time.

But it's been hard to blog on here full time anymore once my streak of daily posts ended and once I started to have two other spinoff blogs, but energy had shifted elsewhere.

Which is disappointing since my roots to everything I have accomplished in the hobby over the past 13 years was because of this blog.

This blog gave me my place in the hobby. It brought me friends, sponsors (at one time), given me plenty of writing opportunities on other websites, helped fill set needs, helped me give back to the hobby, and brought me joy with sharing my mail days, opinions and having some fun.

I guess by now you know where this post is going. 

In May, I am hoping to give this blog another go around and give the readers back what I used to post on here but improved. 

Get ready for those Sundays with Rodney Hampton. Maybe a few of those Caption This Cards. Mail day shares. My humor (you better laugh), having Sets (my favorite play on words), and who knows what else. But you will find it all in one place and not across three.

Get ready for the new-improved-revived Sport Card Collectors.

Driven

I am driven.

This year I am driven to blog more than ever and it's all because of you guys.

Thank you.

When looking at the results of the latest Nachos Grande 3rd Annual End Of Year awards, I noticed something immediately under the blog awards. Not one of my three blogs made any of the lists.

NONE.

Out of my almost 12-years of blogging, I don't think I have ever not made the list of blogging awards in some form or another.

Not that I am not happy for those of you who made the lists as some great blogs on here did, it just tells me I need to work harder like the ones who made it.

Here were the results to this years awards,

Last year, Cards Over Coffee made this list and pretty sure Sport Card Collectors may have been on there as well.

Same goes for Favorite Under The Radar Blog. Cards Over Coffee made an appearance on there as well.

And as you can tell here, Cards Over Coffee made this list as well last year. 

Well, there isn't much I can say about this one. Night Owl Cards always rules the day for Blog Of The Year in any contest. Congrats to Greg for another victory.

Because of these results I am driven to get my name back on these lists or at least one of them. As much as I would love to win Blog Of The Year for 2024, I know where that award will go again and that's okay. Just to be back on next year's list would be the goal.

So, I decided in order to get myself back on the list, I would go back home. By home, I mean Sport Card Collectors. As Daughtry sang, "Well, I'm going home, Back to the place where I belong" and since this is where it all began, this is where I need to go.

My focus in 2024 will be to get this blog fired back up and let my other two blogs go dormant. I know there were some fans of Cards Over Coffee, but the view numbers, comments going down and not making any of these lists tell me it fell out of favor last year. But don't worry, my coffee drinking days aren't over.

The positive thing is I have so much to share from Christmas on here with some amazing cards thanks to all of you. Hope you're ready to read because I am home, and I am driven.

The Post Without Cards

Here it is. A post without any cards which is the first time in the 9 and a half years this blog has been going on.

Normally, I would be showing off cards but I had no time for pictures today, so instead I will tackle a touchy subject, Covid-19.

I won't dive into any details, but yesterday was the first time ever I had to be tested for Covid. I am vaccinated and don't have any symptoms but the situation put me in that spot to be tested. Not to mention, my wife (who works in pediatrics) and family had to be as well.

For me, this is overly frustrating for someone who follows the rules such as mask wearing in big groups (even small ones, once again I am vaccinated), washes hands to no end, uses hand sanitizer when possible, and when gets take out in the car-if I have been somewhere like a store first- I will use a fork to eat everything with including fries, donuts and tearing apart a burger. I guess you could refer to me as Sheldon Cooper of Covid.

Why is it frustrating? So many don't follow the rules in place and some don't even believe the virus is real. I know everyone has their own opinions on it, but I think common courtesy would be to at least think about others who do in this situation. It's simple, wear a mask, wash hands at the very least. I don't expect you to get the vaccine, though that would be a huge plus, but please do the simple steps. Keep those of us who follow the rules safe. Keep all healthcare workers safe as well.

Thank you.

Cards will be back on here tomorrow.

Irene

10 years ago today, we experienced a weather system like no other in my lifetime of 38 years here in my small state of VT.

A weather system that caused massive flooding and damage throughout the state.

That system, Hurricane Irene.

Of course by the time it reached us inland after landing for it's 9th time in the Brooklyn/Coney Island area, it no longer had it's Hurricane status (it was a 3 but came up the east coast and weakened in the colder water) but it packed more than a punch. I, at the time, brushed off the idea of having such a system here. Didn't think twice about the damage it could do until I was driving in it.

My wife had just gotten out of the hospital in NH and we were released the day the storm came. The hospital did say that we could stay a little longer if we chose to do so, but said they were no longer responsible for us if we did. So we figured if we had to take care of ourselves anyway, might as well do it in the comfort of home.

Let me tell you, I wished we had stayed.

On the ride home, we saw water across roadways, branches everywhere and winds you could feel make the car move. It was predicted we would get 3-7 inches of rain and up to 45 mph wind speeds which probably doesn't sound like much to those of you who live in Hurricane areas, but here, that's quite a bit.

The scariest part of the trip was trying to come up our driveway. We have to cross a wooden bridge at the end of our road to make our way home and the water had almost reached the top of it. Picture driving your car on a surf board down a lazy(but raging) river. That says a lot for a usual low riding brook that you can see the bottom of. So we said our prayers, cried and crossed that bridge safely. It's a good thing to, within an hour it had not only surpassed the bridge but had flooded the lands and road around it.

I wished I had saved some of photos to my phone to share in today's post of what that looked like. It was mind boggling.

When I saw there was a card in 2011 Topps American Pie that featured the storm, I had to snag it.

 

Despite those memories never going away.

That day, almost every stream and river in the state flooded. Houses floated away, 100 year old bridges fell to their demise. Cemeteries near water were torn apart with loved ones having to figure out who was who. The storm decimated roads and costs for the state were close to 200 million to fix the overall damage. It was a lot of damage in a such short amount of time.

I look at the storm as a lesson, don't ever underestimate the power of weather.

25 Days Of Cardmas Preview

Christmas is by far my favorite holiday year in and year out.

The joy, the scents and meaning of the holiday (the birth of Jesus) all contribute to my passion for it. My grandmother who has longed passed also had her birthday on Christmas and she meant a lot to me and was the person who made me who I am today. Combine all of that and you have a real life Clark Griswold right here.

With this years holiday expected to look much different for me (and everyone else thanks to Covid), I wanted to add some more cheer to it. For me, it means no Black Friday shopping in stores, no family coming up from other states (which we always had a blast ordering food out, playing board games like Balderdash, experiencing a church led "birth of Jesus" celebration, and watching our annual National Lampoons Christmas Vacation together. Add in the so many laughs that you can't count them on all of our hands combined) and most likely a lot less gifts though that's not what the season is about. I will miss time with the family the most.

With all of that, I know we need some more excitement in our lives to help us celebrate this great holiday. That what led me to hosting a 25 Days Of Cardmas (name pending) in which I will be posting a Christmas related card for 25 days of December. 

This card or cards will be either posted with an item in my house that is Christmas related (I try to deck it all out as much as I can so I have plenty to show off ) or a memory about a Christmas I had or a song ,movie or even food I enjoy during the time. I hope to do a nice mix of everything so you get a look at what Christmas means to me.

If this all turns out successful, you can call this an annual celebration.

This also means no mail day postings that are non Christmas related for those 25 days or anything else non Christmas. Those will resume on December 26th.

All of this kicks off tomorrow, December 1st, along with a very red and green blog update as I change it again for the holiday season. That update will most likely take place later on tonight.

I hope everyone has as much fun with this as I know I will and hope you all will chime in with your thoughts on each post as well.

As Andy Williams says, It's the holiday season, So hoop-de-do and hickory dock.....and don't forget to hang up your sock' ....Cause just exactly at 12 o'clock....He'll be coming down the chimney, down.

It Only Took One

*caught a head cold so feeling very dreary today, and no, it's not Covid. Throats a little rough and nothing is better for a throat then some warm beverage. Wonders what warm beverage could sooth his throat....only one answer....*

Finding packs of basketball cards in retail outlets is impossible. I haven't seen a single pack of anything basketball since before Christmas and here we are almost a year later. Which in itself is hard to think about.

Why haven't I been able to find any retail basketball packs? Well, that's because of the "Wolf Pack."

The Wolf Pack isn't the fun one from The Hangover, this Wolf Pack comes to hunt down the vendor putting up stock to rip them apart for any sign of retail product they could flip.

 

This is what you will see from a distance if you time it right and arrive when the vendor is there.

When you get closer you will see them ripping ALL OF the retail out of the vendors hands and off the shelves like raw meat only to follow that same vendor to the next retail location to do it all over again. The Wolf Pack are relentless hunters.

Leaving only behind their death and destruction and a lot of Jack Links beef jerky.

 

Grrrrrrrr....

*takes a sip to calm the fueling anger I have for retail flippers, then is calm focusing on the main part of today's post*

Luckily for me, I got my hands onto my first basketball card pack via a contest on Instagram from welovesportcards. Otherwise, I probably would have gone the rest of the basketball season without any.

The pack, I won in a contest, was a 2019-2020 Chronicles basketball, which is one I was really hoping to open since I couldn't find any locally.

So what's next? Let's rip it!

*takes a sip, begins to rip*

 

Every hanger pack of 2019-2020 Chronicles basketball comes with 15 cards. I am not sure what the going price for these were when they came out. As I stated already, couldn't find any.

 

*another sip to soothe the throat*

 

The basis of Chronicles is a spread of different Panini products all into one. Most of the products included in the product do not have their own standalone product anymore but some are new specifically for it.

Each of the sets has it's own base set but fall in order of an overall base set that consists of close to 700 cards. Good luck chasing that down especially with this years rookie class.

My first four cards were not a bad start with the Beard and Chris Paul. 

 

Base Chronicles has 50 cards to collect and Panini Threads has 25 cards to collect.

Then came the league MVP Giannis in which Prestige has 25 cards to chase down .

Up next, Cam Reddish rookie. What little basketball I did open around Christmas it felt like Reddish was in every pack. 

 

Playbook has 25 cards to collect.

Wait...what's this? JA?! Yessssss! I didn't have any rookie cards of him, this years ROY. This pack was already worth the winning victory. 

 

Luminance itself has 30 cards to chase.

Trae Young is a beast. Base Panini has 35 cards to collect.

A Donruss Rated Rookie (Donruss has 5 cards to collect) and another Playbook rookie this time of Jarrett Culver

Wait...Tyler Herro in here? Man, nice! I didn't have any rookie cards of him either and he has been playing lights out in the playoffs. Great pack find. Also featured is his teammate Kendrick Nunn.

Kawhi Leonard  was found for Hometown Heroes Optic which has 20 cards to collect.

Shut the front door...Zion too?!!? Can this pack get any better? Top three rookies in this class all found in here. 

 

Essentials has 35 cards to collect.

And the good pack rip continues, we end with another Tyler Herro, this time a Bronze Parallel from Essentials.

*takes a sip before finishing up today's post and trying to decide how much Vitamin C to take today to help push this cold away*

Thanks to welovesportcards on Instagram for the fun pack rip and rookie card pulls for my PC. I had truly forgotten what it was like to open a basketball pack and I can see why the sport was so much fun this year.

 

As for the wolf packs, I do like how the hobby is booming right now, but at the same time its frustrating with them taking all of the retail in my area just to flip it. If only Zach Galifianakis led this wolf pack, instead of taking all of the retail the worse they would do is end up sleeping on the Walmart roof with someones baby and some pet of Mike Tysons.