On the good side of being down one vehicle for at least the next month is I won’t be able to act on any impulses to drive to Target/Walmart in search for cards.
The past week demonstrated how home-bound I will be (we’re a two-car family and opposite work shifts allow us to trade-off the remaining — older — vehicle). The only alternative for card purchasing will be online.
I’m well-aware of the online options. I’ve mentioned many times that there have been no reliable card shops where I live for decades. The monthly card show has been a blessing, but that brings me to another obstacle: the weather.
I had planned to go to the latest monthly show Saturday. I skipped the one last month because it was zero degrees with wind-whipping snow. But this time, snow reappeared again, starting overnight — more nasty angry-wind stuff. But the forecast promised it would wrap up by late morning. So, no sweat, the card show runs until 3.
Then the late morning forecast because “midday” and then midday became “afternoon snow showers”. The roads didn’t seem good. But consulting the weather outside, it looked to have calmed down enough around 1:45 for me to get out the door. I would just stop at the ATM that was right near the show and grab a little more cash as paying with card isn’t much of an option at this show.
I drove into the ATM lane and prepared to insert my card and saw the screen say “out of order.” Fantastic. By the time I drove back where I came, to the ATM closer to my home, and drive back to the show, it would be at least 2:15. And you know those dealers. They’re packing up 40 minutes early like they’re late for the theater.
So I just drove home. Screw it. I’ll find something online. Maybe this weekend will be the one to finally request shipment on my sportlots stuff.
So I signed on and checked my cart and that’s when I was informed that one of the dealers, who probably was part of one-third of what I wanted to order, was on vacation. And I guess you can’t order from people on vacation now? Sweet. Guess that weekend option was out, too.
That left ebay (COMC still dead to me), and as much as there is wrong with that site, it’s about the only purchasing site that has been there for me lately.
The 2024 Topps Holiday plaid Freddie Freeman arrived from there recently. I still love those plaids from last year — much more than the 2025 ones. The prices are a bit high for my taste (what else is new) but Freeman suited my budget.
This wonderful-looking 1976 Topps card of tragic figure Darryl Stingley arrived along with another ebay purchase. I’m doing a lot better at bundling my ebay purchases lately now that I’ve been relying on it more. Still not looking to build the ’76 set but golly these cards are attractive and nostalgic out the roof.
I made this upload as large as I could to get the message across that this is a 1986 Topps Super card.
Here it is on the bar stool, which is often a staging area for my card photos. A regular, base ’86 Hershiser doesn’t take up all that space.
Another presentation. Dad Hershiser with all of his little ones. Those are just the extra Hershisers (there are probably more unaccounted for).
I’ve been neglecting the mid-1980s Topps Super cards for my team set for too long. The ’86 Pedro Guerrero is in my sportlots cart and I’ve got my eye on a couple of others.
The landscape for buying 1970s Hostess cards has changed drastically since I first started trying to complete them around five or six years ago. Even as recently as three years ago it was almost nothing to find the cards and grab them for acceptable prices. I’ve mentioned before encountering a dealer at a show who practically begged me to take some Hostess panels off his hands.
Those days might as well be the early 1980s now. I’ve stopped looking for panels. And although I’m down to around the final 20 1975 Hostess cards in the set, I’m already encountering what I faced with just the single, final 1977 Hostess card I needed to finish the set. Cards completely unavailable, or for some stupid price.
I bit for the Gaylord Perry short-print. But I was able to take advantage of my rational approach to Hostess cards with the Doug Rader (misspelled “Radar”) short-print. Its bottom left corner is mashed and there’s a crease you can’t see well. But, hell, Hostess cards aren’t meant to be sharp! Kids were cutting them out with scissors, often too big for their hands! That’s how Hostess cards are supposed to look!
So, yeah, I’ll take that for 2 bucks. That Don Money, too, though it’s not an SP.
I tried finding a few more Hostess cards this past weekend but came up mostly empty. I found a couple dealers claiming cards were SP’s that weren’t, stuff like that. So we’ll see how long it takes me to finish this set. That Reggie Jackson is probably going to be a WHILE.
Ebay is definitely not perfect — I’m going to have to wake-up a seller again, I have a feeling — but at least it’s a place that wants to take my money. I never thought that this would ever become a thing.
