SI for Kids nets me two Mantles

Cards are crazy right now. 

We all know that. The day trading that's going on is insane. Guy who has been meddling in the Majors gets off to a hot start, and his RCs go high. I've parted with several Tyler Naquin RCs over the past week for $3-5 each, and don't feel like for a second "maybe I should have held because he's going to be a star." Nice story of a 29-year-old who had a good first few weeks of the season. Nothing more.

Beyond low-end stuff like that, cards from the non-core sports are also in a similar state. When Hideki Matsuyama won The Masters, I was sad to see I didn't own an SI for Kids card of him (he doesn't have one), since those have been a go-to source for taking advantage of the topicality of an event.

I've mentioned a few times that I still hold a Sports Illustrated for Kids magazine subscription. A few years back I booked a flight on an airline I didn't often use, and accumulated a few frequent flyer miles. Since then, I've been exchanging these miles for an SI for Kids subscription. I do it strictly for the cards.

I always hand off the magazine to my son in hopes he might flip through. But he never does. Kids don't care about magazines or pro sports. 

Regardless, the cards are interesting because they feature a wide-range of subjects, from pro sports to olympic sports to college sports to extreme sports to motor sports. The oldies can be quite valuable, such as the 1997 Tiger Woods. Iconic, even.

One card that spiked in value in my possession was the Naomi Osaka 2018 edition, considered by many to be her rookie card. She's a terrific talent and excellent ambassador to the sport. But when she won the Aussie Open again, I immediately listed the card on eBay for $749.99...and sold it in a matter if hours. $750 for an SI for Kids card of a tennis player. Laugh out loud.

Image from Google because I sold mine...

The card has now settled in the $200-$300 range, and will probably spike again after her next Grand Slam title...probably some time this year. Maybe the card will be worth thousands down the road, but I didn't blink twice. It's nothing against her. She's incredible and I'm sure has many more Grand Slam titles in her. She's a role model for many young fans. But a tennis card sitting a box of other perforated SI for Kids cards really didn't mean anything to me.

After eBay got their astronomical cut, I had a bit of funny money to play. Most of my surplus goes into the stock market these days, but I decided I'd treat myself here. I considered buying new golf clubs, but ultimately chose to put a portion of it back into cards. Napkin Doon kept pressuring me not to back out and to buy something card-related. Peer pressure at it's highest form.

Without a want list or a current project I'm working on, I decided I couldn't go wrong with a few Mickey Mantles. So for one SI for Kids card, I bought these two Mickey Mantle cards, and had a nice chunk leftover after the fact:

1958 and 1964. I think many of us would make that swap any day. A card that came in a magazine for free and sat in another pile of cards ended up netting me two vintage Mantles.

There was no real reason I chose the two I did. I liked the look of them. It boiled down to that. These will immediately go into my "honey if I die unexpectedly just focus on this box of cards" box.

All that for a 2018 Sports Illustrated for Kids tennis card.

What a world.

Cards attached to cards

Recently, Kerry at Cards on Cards held another free card event. 

I feel like every time he does, there's something there that I want. Usually it's a Yankee. But in this instance, it was something else that caught my eye:

Look at that! A full, unperforated set of 1990 McDonald's SI for Kids Michael Jordan cards. I remember seeing these in my friends collection as a kid and being envious of them. The fact that Kerry had two full sets up for grabs was incredibly generous, and I couldn't claim one of them fast enough.

I've been on a bit of an SI for Kids kick lately, as I recently bought and older Jordan and Shaq, as well as a Nastia Liuken and Shawn Johnson. Since around 2014 or so, I've been receiving SI for Kids with unused airline miles. That actually has led to some really great first cards in my collection of people like Collin Morinkawa, Dustin Johnson, Simone Biles, and more. It also led to a recent $700 sale of a Naomi Osaka card from the magazine. Crazy!

However, the Jordans are for me to keep. MJ cards continue to be sought after, and something like this will always have a place in my collection.

Kerry didn't just send the Jordans. He sent me a big brick of Yanks. Along with the Jordans, this was stuck between two pieces of cardboard:

That is cool! It's a box loader card from 2020 Stadium Club. Are we bringing back Fleer Extra Bases?!

There was also a bunch of Yankees Turkey Reds, as well as Allen & Ginter cards, whose set designs are now nearly impossible to tell year over year.

I was happy to find this Jeter from 2020 Topps, as well as a 2021 insert of Gleyber Torres.

Thanks for the awesome package, Kerry!

Tork power

The May/June SI for Kids issue showed up this week. A couple issues back they went to a bi-monthly  release instead of monthly, probably one of the final steps before the publication folds all together as SI continues to get run into the ground by Maven. 

This is the second issue with the new card design. I thought it was a pretty solid issue, overall, especially in terms of cards of prospects and young players.

The highlight is probably Spencer Torkelson of Arizona State. Most MLB mock drafts expect him to go first overall this June to the Tigers, who seem to pick first every year. Them or the Orioles. Good thing they didn't feature Jasson Dominguez so I didn't have to see people on Twitter with shopping cards full of this magazine.

Immediately to his right is Ja Morant. I guess this is a RC, right? He's still in his rookie season and the likely NBA Rookie of the Year, even though Zion came on strong. FYI, I took Zion at +1800 before he came back, and he was down to about +400 or so at the time of the shutdown. He was coming!

But happy to have this Ja Morant card, for sure.

Obi Toppin is a likely top 5 pick whenever the NBA Draft is held. He had a huge year for Dayton, who has one of the most annoying fanbases on the planet.

Christen Press is a cool card too, as anyone on the US Women's National Team is cool in my book. They need more cards of that team. Or maybe they do and I just don't know. But seems like a missed opportunity every couple years. And if they do have cards, I apologize for my ignorance.

Shane Bieber has become an excellent pitcher for Cleveland. The Yankees hired the Indians' pitching guru in hopes of getting the same results for some of their young guys.

Derrick Henry is one of the best running backs in the game, and is responsible for me owning a Jeter autograph. He won me my fantasy league two years ago, and I used the prize money on the Jeter.

Megan Walker of UCONN is now an NY Liberty player, being taken 7th overall by the team in last months draft.

I can't say I know anything about Jamie Ortega or Megan Faraimo, but they are in good company on this page for sure.

I think my subscription ends next month, so I'll definitely have to re-up...as long as the publication is still going.

New SI for Kids card design

I never know when the next SI for Kids is going to show up. You see, I use leftover airline miles from an airline I don't fly anymore (if I can help it), and I get SI for Kids using the Mags for Miles service. I used to get SI as well, but they just ended up sitting in an unread pile. So I stopped doing that. If there's an article I want to read, usually it can be found online.

Like many print publications, SI for Kids as gone to an every other month cadence versus every month. I always think my subscription has ended, and then out of nowhere any issue arrives. Keeping track of every other month is too hard for my small brain.

This month, Shohei Ohtani was on the cover, which is cool. Unfortunately, he wasn't a featured card. Here's who was included for this month:

I'm probably happiest to have Anthony Edwards and Mikaela Shiffrin. Edwards could be the top pick whenever the NBA Draft is held.

Cool for Semien to get a card, although I can't imagine there's much of a market for him (sorry Fuji). He's a good player though. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has had a good year for OKC so far, averaging19.3 points. He was a daily fantasy basketball favorite of mine. Jordan Binnington is cool too, as he was the goalie on the Stanley Cup champ Blues.

One interesting twist this month was that the cards got a new design. Usually a design lasts a few years, so this should be here for a bit. It's ok. I don't love it, mostly because of the colors, although the font is kind of weird too. The colors alternate between black and gold, and not necessarily to do with a team color.

Shiffrin's card has a star in the middle above her name, which I'm not sure what that means. It's on the back too, without explanation. Maybe it signifies "middle card"?

The card backs are about in line with past designs as well.

Looking forward to my next issue, whenever that is! Can I get a Gleyber Torres in there, please?