Fuji Funds My Nest Egg

I was one of the luck 30 or so people to receive a mailing from San Jose Fuji over the last week.

First and foremost, I'd like to pause this post to go throw these in a safety deposit box...

...because my kids's college education is now set!

My favorite card of the package is this Joe Pepitone card. It's a fascinating card from 1968 Atlantic Oil. "Collect card 7 and win $10." That is a lottery! Baseball cards are gambling anyways. This card is very very cool. By the way, $10 in 1968 would be about $74 now. More nest egg fuel!

Fuji hit my PC guys with a Ty Hensley auto and a Tino RC. For what it's worth, I still consider this Tino's RC even though it's probably not factually correct. Oh well!

What a gift. Or two gifts! I really like these relic cards. Although I'm confused as to why the gray on each of these has a different texture. I assume they are taken from different uniforms, such as part of a spring training jersey or players weekend jersey.

Speaking of Severino, I'm very sad about his TJ Surgery news. He's such a talented pitcher, but this just doesn't bode well. Maybe he'll be back at the end of 2021, but with last year being mostly lost due to injury, and now this, there will be a lot of "what could have been" when looking back on his career.

Fuji rounded out the package with a TCMAs that are older than me, and a Ryan Sink Bowman Chrome auto.

Great package from a great person. Thanks, Fuji!

A manageble Zapping

Around Christmas, I got a large, large zapping from Zippy Zappy. I still haven't scanned it all to post about it. But I will.

Well, yesterday a PWE from the Luis Torrens Fan Club arrived, with a nice, moderate 3 cards. These are the kind of zappings that are right up my alley. A nice, non-stress inducing zapping.

The first card was this very attractive Aaron Judge from Panini Titan. Have you ever heard of Panini Titan? I didn't think so. It's so bizarre to me that Panini basically puts out as many sets as Topps. Where the heck to they sell them?

But let that fact not detract from the fact that it's a very, very cool card. There are shiny planets in the background. That is definitely good enough for me.

The next card is fairly trippy as well, featuring even more nebulae of sorts. Giancarlo Stanton also makes an outer space-like appearance. I always like Inception, although don't come across it or find it much.

The last card was a ZZ special, a card of Indiana Pacer Victor Oladipo. I best remember Oladipo as a member of the Indiana Hoosiers team that got absolutely swallowed by Syracuse's 2-3 zone in the Sweet 16 in 2013. He shriveled in the moment and I loved it. Outside of that, Oladipo is pretty cool and has proven himself to be a star in the NBA.

I couldn't remember if I made a comment about Oladipo or something, but ZZ sent it because he's a great player, and he was trying to coax me into a TTM attempt. Maybe I'll comply.

Thanks for the three card PWE, ZZ! One of these days I'll show the bombing from Christmas.

The Best Cards from The Best Bubble

Recently Bob from The Best Bubble reached out about a small trade. I hadn't traded with him yet, so it was an easy yes, especially because he promised some Tinos! Bob is a newer blogger and collects a bunch of fun genres, so go on over and check out his blog HERE.

The best card to me - at least in terms of that I needed - was this Tino Martinez from 2020 Pacific Paramount. I definitely didn't have the green foil parallel of this card, and was surprised to see it included in the package. Really nice card to check off the list.

And I told you there were more Tinos.

Bob also collects die cuts, so I hope it wasn't too hard to give away this card. It's so pretty!

As is this Luis Severino All-Star jersey card. The 2017 jerseys - from Miami - were such a bright blue!

One of my other favorites were these two cards from Stadium Club - Power Zones of Gleyber and Andujar. I've always enjoyed the Power Zone insert set!

Bob, thanks for reach out, and I promise to get you some cards in return very soon!

Touring Wrigley Field

Last weekend, I was in Chicago. After a few cocktails on Saturday night, I went back to my hotel room and realized that Sunday was a pretty light day for me, and that I should take a ride out to Wrigley Field, just to see the old park. I then had a crazy idea to google whether or not they did ballpark tours, and was happy to find they had a few openings for Sunday tours. I chose the 10am, which would run for a little over an hour. It cost $30.

I snagged an Uber and started the 4-mile, 12-minute drive. I got there about 20 minutes early, and this was the first thing I saw:

The famous sign. I know that for most this might invoke memories of Harry Carey, but for me, it means John Candy, the announcer in Rookie Of The Year. Sorry, I grew up in the 90s.

The only real bummer is that there was a fence and scaffolding around it, as the Cubs are making upgrades to their press box.

I then walked a few feet to the left and took in the Ernie Banks statue.

We had to meet our tour guide in the Cubs team store. Cool to be in there, but nothing for me. Still, I liked looking at some of the awards on display.

The tour started by entering a gate toward left field, right off of the famous Waveland Avenue.

After going through the metal detector, the very first stop was to walk up the steps in left field and take in Wrigley for the first time.

Pretty cool! Obviously bummed to see snow all over the field, but that was expected. Also as expected, the ivy was dormant.

The tour goes through three different clubs within the ballpark. The first was The W Club, where we probably got our longest history lesson of the day. Did you know the Cubs were originally intended to be called the Chickens? I didn't grab a picture for whatever reason, but you can see the Cubs batting cage through a window in the club.

Next stop was the famous(?) 1914 Club. I had never heard of it. It smelled kind of weird. It's a prohibition-style club made to look like it's straight out of The Great Gatsby.

Before heading to the final club, we were given a look around the visitor's clubhouse. I can see why opposing players aren't fond of the amenities. It was basically a high school locker room, and that's after it was recently remodeled. Seems pretty silly to jam 25-member teams plus coaches and personnel into here. I couldn't get a great photo of the full room because a few other tour members were in the picture.

The final club on the tour was the Makers Mark Barrel Room, which was neat. What's also cool is that you can swing open pictures on the wall and peep at the opposing team's batting cage.

The final stop on the tour is the first base dugout and the field! While I enjoyed being there, it wasn't until stepping onto the field that I had an "oh shit" moment.

Like everything else, the dugout is super small and cramped.

The tour lasted about 75 minutes. I hope to go back for a game at some point, but I'm really glad I got out and about and did this.

It was definitely $30 well spent!

NOW a Hall of Famer

Once he was elected to the Hall of Fame, I was excited to pick up Derek Jeter's Topps Now Card. Instead of the $9.99 directly from Topps, I spent $5 on eBay.

The card finally arrived.

I think I like the salute shot. I might have preferred something from one of Jeter's signature moments, but I think the wave to the crowd works well from the end of of his career.

I thought the back was well done. I like the accolades beyond traditional stats, and how they are represented with objects, like stars and trophies. The subtle shot of Jeter int he background at his HOF press conference was a nice touch.

I can't remember if Topps does NOW cards from HOF induction speeches, but if so I'll likely grab that one as well.

An actual Snapshot

I recently completed a TCDB trade with a user named NYMHall. I received two Tino cards, as well as an Aaron Judge, in exchange for five different Mets card. Rather, a few were cards of current Mets but shown on different teams, such as Marcus Stroman with the Jays.

The highlight for me was a 1998 Pinnacle Snapshot. I was surprised that when I actually opened the package, it wasn't really a card at all. It was a slightly larger...errr...photo, as the set name would suggest.

Now, I am certainly counting this as a Tino card, as it was an issued card set. Or something. I think I just expected it was a full bleed card of the snapshot. Sort of like Archives Snapshots have become. I didn't anticipate this being a photo on photo paper.

The other Tino was something I had no idea existed. I guess some of the 1998 Collector's Choice cards have different-shaped holograms on the back? What? I have no idea. I probably have about 25 copies of this card, so maybe I should go check the back of all of my Collector's Choice cards for hologram variations? What a pain!

Lastly, the third card in this deal was of 2017 AL MVP, Aaron Judge. Bowman Platinum isn't something I've ever opened or seen in the wild, so always nice to pick up cards from these sets.

Cool trade, even if it made me feel like a bit of a failure for not knowing these Tinos existed.

Tekky Tino & TJ

I have a bunch of TCDB trades to catch up on, as well as a big old Zapping to share, but for now I need to clean out my non-TCDB scan folder, so he's a bit of a photo dump.

I'll start with two new Tinos I got. I have this crazy idea to go after all 25 copies of this card. I'll never get there, but right now I have 3 of the 25, or 12% of the print run. There are currently two on eBay as well, with one being affordable and one being vastly overpriced.

I won't go hard after this, but I'll definitely keep an eye on them.

I also recently picked up this version. I guess it's the Refractor? I am always a fan of Hi Tek because of how cool they look and I'm a sucker for clearcut cards. The variations and parallels are annoying, but the cards look awesome. No denying that.

And while I recently picked up the "cheaper" Bowman's Best auto, I really wanted a TJ Sikkema Bowman Chrome auto, so was happy to snag this.

Otherwise, card-life is a bit boring now. Series One is out and I've said my piece. My Topps Yankees Project TTMs have been sent. Not much else going on.