Did I show this 1941 Play Ball Whit Wyatt I got about a month ago? I don’t think I did, I used to be more on top of stuff like that but that’s the way it’s been in the hobby for me lately.
The first half of the year I’ve been in a hobby lull. The combination of weather, lack of decent transportation and the general cost of everything, particularly cards, has really cut into what I usually do in the hobby. That isn’t just acquiring, but trading and organizing, too.
Don’t worry, the desire is still there. I grab a card here and there when I can. I finally landed the 2025 Chrome Shoehei Ohtani for something under $5 — it had been going for anywhere from 10-20 bucks for months.
My latest ’75 buyback arrived several weeks ago. It was the 544th buyback in my chase and a key one. I’ve been aware of the Ron Santo buyback for years but it was always selling for more than 30 dollars. I finally landed one for two-thirds less.
It’s been mostly small victories like that over the last few months. No great influx. Small victories in the organizing, too.
I haven’t had much time to continue reorganizing through the downsizing that I’ve done. The only thing I’ve done lately — and it makes me quite happy — is gather all the smaller binders (1 inch or 1.5 inches) and fit them into this narrow row that once had some boxes and other binders that lay flat. I really like this set-up, though that blue binder on the end on the right needs to be a 1-inch and I’ll get to that — WHEN I GET MY CAR BACK.
So, yeah, organizing is in a lull, too, and I haven’t been running my downsizing posts every month like I had planned originally. So here is one now. Not too exciting but maybe somebody will be interested.
These are some cards from some Topps “spin-off” sets from the last 20 years or so, mostly from the 2010s. That includes Opening Day, Bunt and Fire, mostly. About 240 cards in all.
Opening Day has seemed more and more pointless the farther we get from it. The only OD I am keeping are the sets I’ve completed (2006 and 2013) and that 2008 set, because it’s red and weird. Everything else got to go.
Fire and Bunt, too — what was the point of those? The Bunt is almost all from 2017 and the Fire from 2022. I probably have some other Fire cards I don’t need but I’ll start with 2022 and go from there. And there are are a handful of inserts from 10 years ago that are the precursor to an insert giveaway that I think will be coming.
So, again, if you’re interested in this lot, be the first person to comment on this post and then email me your address if I don’t have it already.
If no one wants it, well, I don’t know if I can trash these cards, I might have to find some other means of ridding myself of these.
As for what else I’ve been doing in the hobby for the last month-plus, take a look at this:
I’ve been virtual-collecting.
None of the virtual collecting ways of the past (speaking of Bunt) have appealed to me. But on BlueSky you can collect virtual cards from all of Topps’ flagship sets from 1952 through 2011 (plus 2026 was recently added).
This was devised by a couple of former card bloggers and I’ve been spending far too much time on it. You can accumulate cards, move them into designated binders of the subjects of your choosing, trade cards with other participants, even swap or sell-off cards that you don’t want, plus a bunch of other stuff I don’t have time for.
Obviously I’ve accumulated the most 1975 cards out of all of the years.
But my inventory goes back to the ’50s and ’60s.
And even the ’90s. I haven’t jettisoned those yet — at least not the early ’90s cards. But like many of the participants, we get rid of late ’90s/’00s cards as quickly as we can.
Like I said, you can set up binders with subjects of your own choosing. My main one is my Dodgers binder. You can order it anyway you want — by year, by card number, by player, or just let the binder be complete chaos.
I’ve added several set binders to store my virtual cards. It’s interesting to me which years I’ve instinctively selected. ’71, ’72, ’75 and ’76 are pretty obvious. But I’ve added ’65 and ’67, too, and just recently set one up for ’59 (I also have a ’77 one to remind me how the set actually looks instead of that 2026 Heritage abomination).
You can put it in order by number like in the previous image or you can arrange it by “set order” with spaces for the cards you don’t have yet, as in this example.
That’s how my ’75 binder is set up. I like watching which pages fill up fastest. Right now the Ron Cey page is tied with another page with six pockets filled.
Here is a page in my binder for players/managers I have interviewed. I don’t expect this binder to be very big, but I’m already working on a second page!
Here is me at the pawn shop looking to sell my wares. Cards are assigned monetary values with the most costly cards from the ’50s/early ’60s. This is a good way to obtain “cash” for virtual cards you really want.
Packs are given out regularly during the day for anyone who asks on BlueSky and then you also get four packs a day of 10 cards each to open separately. It’s great fun and is perfect for me right now, being more homebound than I want to be of late.
Also, it’s a hoot to have a series of 1952 Topps cards in your collection, all looking sharp and immaculate! I pulled a ’52 Jackie Robinson a week ago and just pulled a ’52 Yogi Berra today!
It’s fun to see the refinements and improvements being made on the site.
So, that’s what’s going on for me in the hobby while not much is going on. I’m looking forward to things picking up in the next six months or else 2026 is going to be one of the worst hobby years I can remember.
Here’s to looking up!