Sometimes it’s little things that make you feel good. For instance, have you ever hit the “perfect pump” at the gas station, releasing the pump handle just as the dollar amount clicks to a perfect, round number? It doesn’t really matter in this age of pay-at-the-pump, but it feels good, right? Like tossing a wad… Read More 61 from ’64: Finishing the 1964 Topps Giants set
I really, really liked last year’s Topps baseball set. Not everybody did, but that slick, sharp, clean, modern look really did it for me. It was a bordered card that didn’t feel closed-in, it was a visually interesting card that didn’t feel cluttered. As far as base sets go, it was hard for me to… Read More More like Midds: Topps 2022 Series 1 Baseball
When I restarted my sports card collecting habit two autumns ago, global demand for cards was sky-high and global supply was super low. A would-be collector walking into a big box retailer anywhere in the country with a wallet full of cash in those days (at least a year starting in summer 2020) would almost… Read More Wow, there’s cards on shelves: Finding and breaking a booster of 2020-21 NBA Chronicles
Late last summer, when sports apparel and memorabilia giant Fanatics came out of nowhere and swooped trading card licensing deals with NBA, NFL, and MLB, one of the biggest side stories was the fate of venerable card maker Topps. The company has produced an MLB card set (or many sets) each year uninterrupted since the… Read More The Other Shoe: Fanatics buys Topps
I was watching a video on sports collecting the other day, and something the vlogger said triggered in me a strong vision of the future of the hobby. I’ll get to that in a bit. This vlogger was talking about something called graded pop reports: A pop report is the quantity of a given card… Read More A crash is gonna come: A vision of the somewhat near future of sports card collecting
I have talked plenty here before about how, in my card collecting hobby, I’m drawn to beautiful, interesting cards that aren’t necessarily what everyone else is collecting (and therefore aren’t as pricey as what everyone else is collecting). This is definitely more a decision on the collecting side of things rather than the “investing” side,… Read More On the shoulders of Giants: To collect the 1964 Topps set or not collect it?
It’s strange how one’s tastes can evolve over time, and sometimes over such a short period of time that the change is noticeable and remarkable. For instance, I used to see super-vintage pre-war cards as something I’d never really get involved in for several reasons. For one, most of them aren’t in great shape, and… Read More Football as art: 1935 Wills’s association football tobacco cards
A few weeks ago, I purchased one of those “Southside” City Edition Chicago White Sox caps online. I purchased it from the official Chicago White Sox online merchandise store, which, like the online merchandise stores for every other MLB team, and every NFL team, and every NBA team, and every NHL team, and every WNBA… Read More The a-Topps-calypse is upon us: Speculation on the Fanatics takeover of the sports world
Welcome back to The Singles Mixer, an occasional feature where I write about a few notable sports card singles I’ve either added to my collection recently. This time around, I’m going to dig through my football (American version) collection to highlight some cards in advance of the start of the 2021 NFL season. Since I… Read More The Singles Mixer: Football’s back, baby!
It’s always fun when something unexpected and good pops up, right? Getting two flat tires in a week courtesy of screws laying in the road (which happened to me earlier this month), that’s unexpected and bad. Not fun. Getting a chance to look through someone’s vintage card collection for the first time (which happened to… Read More Me, Hank, and the Mick: My first experience digging through a vintage sports card collection
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