High numbers mess

 

While visiting my brother in Boise a few weeks ago, he insisted that we buy some baseball cards.  We went down to a store called Scheels, which is kind of a crazy store.  So much stuff.  Outdoor and sporting gear mostly.  It's a huge place, with statues of both famous people and generic athletes all over the parking lot.  Impressive, kind of.  There wasn't actually a dedicated sports cards section, but in multiple spots around the store, there were displays with blasters of various stuff.  Unfortunately, not much in the way of baseball, but we found some 2024 Topps Heritage High Numbers.

Now first, it was a fun rip, especially since it was with my brother.  Brought back memories of waaay to far back to mention, ripping packs together.  But as you will see, High Numbers is a bit of a mess.  

First, the box guaranteed 3 Green parallels.  It took a bit to figure out which ones were the green parallels, but they ended up being the 3 on the top of this pic:

The others are single color parallels, I guess.  Part of the reason for our confusion was that the backs of the 'Green' parallels say 'White Border' in tiny, tiny text.  Even more confusing, the Chapman and Pfaadt above also say 'White Border' on the back.  Close up scan:

The trademark/copyright text at the bottom of the back of the cards is even smaller.  I couldn't even make it out clearly with a magnifying glass.  Like size -1 font!  These next few are SPs and #d chrome cards, plus a mini.

And lastly, a few rookies.  I seem to have been having good luck with rookies lately.

One more lame thing about 2024 High Numbers.  Baseballcardpedia.com says that since it was released extremely late, more than a month following the release of 2025 Topps Series One, that they regard Heritage High Number as a 2025 product for rookie card purposes, rather than a '2024' set.  I don't know if that will catch on, but according to them, the above cards aren't even RCs. 

Come on Topps!!

Serial lot winner

 The winner of the serial numbered cards is...

With a guess of 72,222...

Jeff B!!!!!

The actual correct total of the serial numbers was 71384....

Jeff also got a bonus knock off of 10%, for a total guess of 72,138

Jeff, I hope to get the box out tomorrow!!  I do have an address for you, but it has been a while, so if you get a chance, shoot me the current one.

Observations on the guesses...

Rod had the most cards from his 10 player guesses, with 9.  No, he didn't pick 9 players out of his 10 picks, but Manny Machado has 5 cards in the lot, which bumped his total.  Don't worry Rod, none of the Machado's are from his San Diego days.

The average guess was 93715, which is 22331 above the actual number.  People guessed high this time, after collectively guessing low last time.

Here are the numbers of cards from everyone's player picks:

Elliptical Man-2

Matt-0

Brett Alan-0

Jeremya1um-1

night owl-0

Johnnys Trading Spot-0

Rod (Padrographs)-9

Chris-0

Brad C-0

Jeff B - Wax Pack Wonders-2

Fuji -1

OhioTim-1

The Angels In Order-1

gcrl-1

Derek-7

Thanks to everyone who participated, this will happen again sometime in the future!

Nuther serial giveaway

 Its back for the third time!

Up for grabs today is a stack of exactly 100 serial numbered cards.  This stack probably wouldn't be interesting to team collectors or player collectors, as I am betting that most of the teams in MLB are in here somewhere.  But if you are an omnivore collector like me, or want a quick way to accumulate trade bait, or just like serial numbered cards, this may be for you!

The rules this time might be a little convoluted, but I don't want to do the same thing every time.  

To enter:

-Leave a comment here on this post.
-Guess the total sum of the serial numbers the card in the lot.  So if there were three cards in the lot, one #/100, one #/ 999 and one #/25, the sum would be 100+1999+25 = 2124.  Obviously, with 100 cards in the lot, the number you will be guessing will be much higher!  This time, there is no penalty for going over, just closest to the number.
-Optional - in your comment, you may list up to 10 players that you think that there might be a card of in the lot.  For each card in the lot of a player that you guess, you will get 5% of the difference between your guess and the actual total knocked off your guess.  Example:  Your guess is 500 off of the actual total, but there are 8 cards in the lot from players that you guessed. In this case, you would get 40% of the 500 that you were off, or 200.  So your final guess would be 300 off.

Since I am allowing player guesses, no photo of the actual lot this time.  But here's a silly pic so that the post isn't all text.

He's not in the lot....

There are 13 Hall of Famers in this lot, but many of the cards are also of relative nobodies.  The COMC.com value of this lot would be somewhat high.... the actual resale value is much lower of course.

The highest serial number in the lot is #/9000 and the lowest is #/5.  I would not take the results from the last contest to be a perfect guide for your guesses, but do what makes you happy!

OK, that's all the hints, feel free to make your guess in the comments!  

Guessing will close on Thursday, April 24th at 5PM Pacific time!

Holiday for Judge swap

 So sometime late last year, I was picking through a dollar box at the local show.  And I found a Topps Chrome Aaron Judge.  Not usually a buy for a dollar, but as many of you know, you can take Topps Chrome cards of last year's MVPs in to local card shops for a $20 in store credit.  There were only a few days left until that offer expired, so I made a rare card shop trip.

The shop was a nightmare.  I doubt I will be back for a long time.  Over half of it was Pokemon, when it used to all be sports cards.  Tons of old smelly guys with annoyed looks on their faces pushing through crowded spaces.  Bummer.

But I found Topps Holiday Mega Boxes, which usually sell for $40+ for only $29.99.  And with my Judge to trade in, I got it for $10.  A fun rip, which for $10 seems like a holiday miracle for me.  Anyway, here is what I got in my box.

Variations and a 'hit'

Seems like the Judge Santa hat was a good trade for the Chrome Judge straight up.  But I got lots more!  Bichette had a brutal year last year, but I still believe in him.

Rookies.  Seems like I got most of the sought after ones.  Can't complain.  

And believe it or not, that's all the scans I took, back when this box actually got ripped.  So whatever other interesting cards were in there, you'll just have to use your imagination!

A few incoming

 I've been ungrateful.  Over the last while, a bunch of cards have made their way from various parts of the country.  Time to show some off!

First up, gcrl shot me some stuff for no reason, much appreciated!  Early Finest are sweet, and any McGwire that I don't already have is a rare treat!

Johnny sent me a prize win from his blog, this Carter RC.  I hadn't had a copy of that card since back in the 80s, very cool.  He also included the Doby from 2001 Archives Reserve, a set I have been slowly accumulating for years.  Not the last of those in this post!

Tom from The Angels in Order had a freebies post where I grabbed these.  Well loved vintage especially, is always welcome!

More Johnny.  Yep, you guessed it.  Another envelope chock full of Archives Reserve and Finest!!  Johnny doesn't play around.

Rod from my neck of the woods threw a big old package of Mariners my way.  This scan is by no means all of what he sent!!

More Johnny.  Johnny must have dug deep, because the Archives Reserve just kept coming!!

And more....

Well that's it for now.  I gotta thank all the amazing bloggers who keep the postal service busy.  Thanks guys!

Zoo time

Been a while since I posted.  That seems like a common phrase on this blog, and on many blogs in the card collecting community.  My main excuse this time that my computer died.  I ended up rebuilding it on my own, which took a long time due to my laziness, and needing to send back a part that was delivered to me broken.

But I do have a few posts mostly ready to go, so hopefully for the next 4-6 weeks, I should be posting somewhat regularly.

Since I don't have any other content for today, lets do a silly giveaway!

I've seen these Oregon Zoo x-ray cards from 2024 Allen & Ginter on a few blogs.  At a recent card show, I was able to grab some of them cheap.    Here is what I have:

Claim away in the comments!  Claim one card, claim multiple cards, no real rules.  PWE delivery...

Thanks!