The a-Topps-calypse is upon us: Speculation on the Fanatics takeover of the sports world

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

August 20, 2021 Andrew1 Comment

SportKings, Topps Gallery, and Panini Diamond Kings: Sports cards as art

When I was a young sports card collector, I didn’t really “get” the whole Donruss Diamond Kings thing. Diamond Kings was an insert in the Donruss baseball card sets with hand-drawn/painted images of some of the day’s most popular players. I always thought the drawings/paintings looked kinda lame, and the design of the cards was… Read More SportKings, Topps Gallery, and Panini Diamond Kings: Sports cards as art

February 23, 2021 AndrewLeave a comment

I hate/love Panini: A two-sided essay on the current king of sports cards

The weirdest thing to me about the modern sports card collecting industry, after having awakened from a 25-year slumber of sorts, is finding that an Italian sticker company previously unknown to the vast majority of American collectors had snuck in and taken over the hobby. I remember reading that Panini (like the sandwich?) had signed… Read More I hate/love Panini: A two-sided essay on the current king of sports cards

February 10, 2021May 19, 2021 Andrew3 Comments

The Singles Mixer: A few of my personal basketball faves

The thing about being a casual sports card collector in the year of our lord two-thousand-twenty-one is that I’m not really “in the running” for a lot of the more premium cards on the market. I don’t have the bankroll for the /5 autographed Luka Doncic jersey card pushing five figures on eBay with a… Read More The Singles Mixer: A few of my personal basketball faves

January 22, 2021April 30, 2021 AndrewLeave a comment

What did you SAGE? Hit High Series 2020 Football blaster box

As the 2020 NFL season draws to a close, I thought back to one of the only current-year football products I opened recently, something I had never even heard of: SAGE Hit football. As part of one of those eBay wax pack grab bags I purchased in the fall, I received this nondescript white cardboard… Read More What did you SAGE? Hit High Series 2020 Football blaster box

January 3, 2021January 3, 2021 Andrew1 Comment

The Singles Mixer: My favorite recent baseball purchases

I started the Blast From the Packs series to talk about my experiences opening actual packs of cards and essentially reviewing the sets they come from, but over the past month or so, the majority of my “allowance money” has been going toward purchasing single cards — colloquially referred to as singles — on eBay… Read More The Singles Mixer: My favorite recent baseball purchases

November 13, 2020April 30, 2021 AndrewLeave a comment

Blast From the Packs: Donruss through the years

I recently learned that the Donruss Trading Card Company was named for its three founders: guys named Doug, Don, and Russell. My first thought was “man, how did Doug agree to that? Total Doug erasure with a name like Don-Russ.” So then I was thinking of other names they could have went with, like: RussDoDon… Read More Blast From the Packs: Donruss through the years

October 26, 2020 Andrew1 Comment

I hate/love the trading card industry: A two-sided essay

When I started this little experiment in purchasing sports cards from my past off eBay as a way to spur my writing muscles awake from a much-too-long slumber, I said to myself, “this isn’t going to be a big new hobby, it’s more of a writing exercise. Besides, I can’t even afford to buy cards… Read More I hate/love the trading card industry: A two-sided essay

October 18, 2020October 19, 2020 Andrew4 Comments

What’s in the box? Checking out a Fairfield repack

Have you ever seen something like this in the trading card section or the toy section of a store and wondered what the hell it is? It’s usually between 5 and 20 bucks, and it purports to have a certain number of cards (usually between 30 and 80) and a pack or two, and sometimes… Read More What’s in the box? Checking out a Fairfield repack

October 12, 2020October 12, 2020 AndrewLeave a comment

Blast From the Packs: Clearly Canadian

How did I end up opening 30-year-old packs of baseball and football cards from Canada? It’s all thanks to the magic of eBay!… Read More Blast From the Packs: Clearly Canadian

October 7, 2020October 3, 2020 Andrew1 Comment

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