Moving On

 The Olympics are over and I'm a little sad about it.  The wife and I enjoy both the winter and summer games and I love that they're no longer on the same year.  From the day that the 2026 games started (days before even the opening ceremony), our TV has been tuned to Olympics probably 95% of the time.  I don't think I'm exaggerating.  We talk a lot about things while we watch and that's one of my favorite things, spending time with and talking to her about the sports.  I'm fortunate that my wife truly is my best friend. 

We do differ a bit in that she likes the summer games more and I like the winter games, but we still love them both.  We've talked about that and it makes me wonder, which do folks like more?  I'd love to know in the comments which you like more.  

We also are big Christmas people.  We watch "Christmas in July" on Hallmark.  The Christmas season literally begins as soon as we come inside after handing out candy on Halloween night.  The tree and inside decorations are up for two months until it's time for the switch to our Birthdanniversary deco.  Both birthdays and our anniversary are all on January 29.  

As fun as the Birthdanniversary deco is, I still go into a funk most years on December 26.  My love of Christmas isn't the 25th alone and the gifts, it's the entire holiday season and I dislike how it comes to an abrupt end.  Piling on top of that, my wife and I have experienced more loss of family (both human and canine) from early January through mid-February than any other time of the year.  We really look forward to spring after Christmas.  

Living in Texas, at least the signs of spring are earlier for us than many in North America.  Every four years, though, we have the 2.5 weeks of games to help us bridge that gap.  The next three years are going to suck a bit from 'Happy New Year' until, for me, when the IndyCar season begins.  

It's been three days since the Olympics ended and the days have felt off.  Thankfully tonight our beloved Dallas Stars play tonight to return some sense of normality.  The biggest win for me is that IndyCar starts again this weekend.  Race day is Sunday March 1 and to my recollection this is the earliest the season has begun since my fandom started in May 2007.  

Oh yeah, this is a sports card blog, isn't it?  

The last two nights I've bindered up the 2024 and 2026 Topps Chrome Olympics sets that I purchased from eBay and Sportlots, respectively.  It was enjoyable and there's still more to do.  Years ago, I became a Shoebox Legends copycat and started a buyback frankenset.  I'm no longer a classic set builder, but have passively worked on the Parkside Indycar sets the last two years.  At some point in December, it hit me that I should put together a 2025 Topps Holiday frankenset and now I think most of my sets may be frankensets.  I'm going to do that with the 2026 Olympic set, so you'll see some posts on that in the future.  

I also wanted to mention that I used some new pages when bindering up the sets.  A YouTuber whose opinions I respect mentioned that he was using them and doesn't think he'll ever use any other ones.  I bought one box on Amazon and after using them, I agree.  I've been using Ultra Pro pages in general since the 1990s, but no more.  I am now on team BCW LaserWeld sheets.  They are clear, they lay very flat and are just overall aesthetically pleasing.  If you like your cards in binders, consider them.  

The start of the 2026 IndyCar season means that soon, likely by the end of March, I will have new cards in hand.  Parkside cards produces "Pronto," an on-demand set similar to Topps Now or Panini Instant.  They offer a discounted season subscription and I will buy one so that I have a complete set.  

The third race of the season is here in the streets of Arlington on March 15.  Turn 10 of the track is maybe fifty yards from my wife's office.  Yesterday I went to work with her just so that when we left I could ride on the track.  The city streets are still open but it's wild to see all the barricades and fencing.  

I won't be attending the race.  Road and street circuits are not enjoyable viewing for me because you see so little of the race.  However, I plan to go on Friday and hopefully will be able to get some cards signed during the autograph session they have at every IndyCar race.  This is also the inaugural race and is being promoted very well locally, leading me to believe there may be other signing sessions throughout Arlington in the days leading up to the race.  I have my cards and paint pens ready to rumble!  If I have success, y'all will be among the first to know.  

If you made it this far, thank you for sticking with my ramblings despite the lack of card content.  I really appreciate you.  

Please don't forget, I'd love to know if you prefer the summer or winter Olympic games, and why.  

What Could One Pack Hurt?

I had no plans on a post today.  I don't want to be like Kyle Lewis (or insert your favorite flame out), come out guns-a-blazin' and then just disappear in a short amount of time.  Then I went to Walmart. 

While there, I figured I'd look for some of the 2026 Topps Chrome Olympics, though I knew the odds were stacked against me.  As expected, nothing.  I saw some Topps Series 1 hanger packs and I figured picking one up wouldn't hurt.  There was no clear price but I figured for $5 I'd do it.  Much to my chagrin, when the cashier rang them up, it was $7.  That disappointment was just the beginning.  

I will be testing the Walmart no returns on cards policy because every card came out with a dinged corner.  Honestly, I'll just take store credit over another pack after all this.  My assumption is that the other packs will have similar damage.  Why can't Topps use the old cello wrappers like they did in the 1980s?  Packaging them in those, with the tightness, could have prevented this.  

These were the team cards in the pack.  I also got an Oakland A's one that I discovered when I went to put the cards back into the pack.  

I know less and less players as every season passes.  I don't collect or even follow home run derby...er...baseball.  Is there anyone good in this group?  I ask because I've never heard of any of them.  

This significantly smaller group of cards is the base cards of guys I've actually heard of.  I think a couple of them are pretty good and one of the collects cards himself.  

I've also heard of these three guys!  Heck, I even have a pretty good Cal Raleigh rookie card - his Topps Heritage Black Border parallel.  I probably should have sold it toward the end of last baseball season, but I'm not the best about selling.  I do like the "Profiles" insert set because it's nostalgic for me.  I don't recall the year those originally were done but it's certainly when I still had some interest in baseball.  I've typically liked the Topps Fire cards I've seen and that's what the Paul Skenes reminds me of.  Maybe I should go pull out one of my old Pirates hats that have been hibernating for at least a decade.  

Good moment to you wherever you are, thank you for checking this out and have a wonderful rest of your day! 

Twenty Five Years

 “We’ve lost Dale Earnhardt.”

Those words from Mike Helton, 25 years ago today, still haunt me.  

I was late for work that day (I was a college kid working part time at Walmart), but I had to see the end of the race.  Then it happened.  I waited for word that Dale Earnhardt was okay so that I could head to word.  I was even later than I thought I’d be because those words never came.  It was at work that Don, who was the door greeter (remember those?) told me it’d been announced that he died.  I was dumbfounded.  It didn’t seem real.  

It hit me that it was real when some asshole came to check out with me, every Dale Earnhardt diecast in his cart, and said “If I can’t 10x my money on these I’m bringing them back” and then laughed about it.  If not for knowing I needed that job to get by, that dude would have received a rage-fueled ass whipping that he’d still think about from time to time. 

He wasn’t “my guy.”  When I got into NASCAR in the mid-90s, Earnhardt was the guy that all the rednecks cheered for and I was not a redneck.  So I didn’t like him.  But over the next handful of years he grew on me and had become one of my favorites, even after edging out “my guy” for the 1998 Daytona 500.  Hindsight is always 20/20 and I’m happy he got that win.

I originally wrote the lines above for an Instagram post.  As I've decided to give blogging a try again, I figured I may as well post here too.  It's funny how things work sometimes.  In Night Owl's post yesterday, he said "I'm not a natural boaster and generally feel inadequate much of the time (though I'm getting better the older I get). I always assume others have more/are better." 

After nearly 40 years collecting cards, I often feel that way about my collection.  Looking through my Earnhardt collection made me feel a bit less that way.  I know there are cards that I have that many others would love to have in their collection.  So while the purpose of going through my cards was initially for an Instagram post, it was also therapeutic in a way and put a little spring in my step.  

Anyway, on to the cards.  When I talk about them I'll be referring to numbers, in order like you'd read. 

The first two cards are 1/1s.  Earnhardt's driving career ended 25 years ago today and that before the card manufacturers threw out as many 1/1s as they could.  Off the top of my head, I only know of one 1/1, non-printing plate out there.  I believe it was a High Gear "Solo" (get it?).  It sold within the last handful of years.  I know who has it.  I also know it won't be available any time soon.  

The first 1/1 is a Press Pass, post career 1/1.  Happy to have it, but it's not from my NASCAR fandom years so I'm not as in love with it as perhaps I should be.  On the other hand, I am much more happy about the "Team Pinnacle" plate.  It's driving-era and it's Pinnacle.  I love me some Pinnacle to this day.  It blows my mind that the dufex technology they used can't seem to be duplicated today.  

The third card is a card I wanted for years.  However, only one came available before this one and they wanted a stupid price.  About a year ago, my copy came available.  One of the corners has a ding.  The signature on the card isn't very bold.  Those two "imperfections" are the reason I have it.  If not for those, I never could have afforded it.  It's serial numbered out of 50, celebrates NASCAR's 50th season and depicts Earnhardt's celebration after winning the 1998 Daytona 500.  Absolute grail card for me. 

The fourth card is easily the most sentimental card for me.  It is both the first Earnhardt autograph I obtained, and I consider it a gift from my wife.  She isn't big on buying cards for me.  When she does, it's typically blaster boxes at Christmas and I've let her know the things I'd be interested in.  She also despises gift cards as gifts.  However, she gave me an ebay gift card one Christmas and I put it toward this card.  She doesn't buy me many cards (which I'm okay with), she doesn't usually give gift cards...and combining those two things make this a special card to me.  

The final card doesn't look impressive and I acknowledge that.  However, it is an EXTREMELY scarce and desirable card.  I believe what I saw in the past was that the estimated print run is less than 25.  Be that as it may, you will rarely find a copy of this card available.  I lucked into it a few years ago in a Facebook NASCAR group.  The seller had a partial set he wanted to sell, but didn't want to separate the lot.  About a year later he relented, reached out to me and after sleeping on it overnight pulled the trigger.  I've never regretted it.  

Some of you may be familiar with the first one, as it was a part of a Classic 5-Sport set.  That set was one of the first to introduce me to racing cards and brings back all the feels of teenage collecting when I look at it.  The two relics are some of the earliest relic cards produced.  Not just in racing, but in all of sports cards.  

I love the aesthetics of the relic card.  The card design, combined with it being a red parallel and a red and white relic makes it beautiful in my eyes.  He may have been "The Man in Black" but it just wouldn't look as good if it was a black and white firesuit swatch.  

The card below it is Upper Deck, die cut, a "checkered flag" parallel and /100.  What more could you do to make the card better?  I have no clue.  

The one vertical card is a Press Pass "Golden" parallel numbered to 50.  While that makes it desirable enough, it's also copy number three - Earnhardt's (most well known) car number.  

Oil Slicks parallels have print runs of 100 and are some of my favorite cards.  Press Pass missed by not making for more than a handful of years.  

Another favorite parallel is the early years of "MPH."  Look at that holofoil shine!  Press pass did a disservice in later years, really removing the shine from them, though keeping them numbered.  

I like these because I don't know much about them.  They are 24KT Artist Proof parallels.  Obviously enough is known about them for PSA to grade them, but I never had any luck figuring out the distribution on them.  Were they pack issued?  Were they backdoored when Pinnacle was shuttered?  In a way, not knowing everything about them adds to the appeal for me.  

This one isn't a card, but instead a ticket stub from the 1998 Daytona 500, which Earnhardt won on his 20th attempt.  This was a gift from my friend Logan.  He was at the race, held onto it for all those years and had it graded all before he gifted it to me.  Having cards (or ticket stubs) is great, but it's even better when there is a story behind it.  

If you made it this far, thanks for checking it out and reading all my rambling!  

A Trip Down the Blogging Memory Lane

I've been thinking recently about blogging again.  I still follow some bloggers on social media (mostly bluesky) that I used to read daily like Night Owl Cards, Baseball Cards Fan and Not Another Baseball Card Blog.  At times, I believe I've seen The Chronicles of Fuji and some others on Twitter, not that I'm there much these days.  

It's sad to see so many bloggers have stopped posting.  I hope they've just stopped the posting and not collecting.  I hope they are still with us.  I know Shoebox Legends is still collecting, evolving his collection and adding some great cards because I watch his YouTube videos.  

I can't blame anyone for leaving.  I did it.  I did a different blog/website that I am no longer paying for but for some reason is still there.  I didn't enjoy it anymore.  I thought it would be easy to put together a website and post that could bring in some money for revenue.  I was wrong.  I discovered that when money becomes a part of what you're doing and you feel obligated to post regularly, it takes the fun out of it.  Sounds kinda like worrying about selling cards, no?  

Then I did YouTube for awhile.  I ran into the same feeling after awhile that I had felt with the website.  I felt obligated to post videos regularly.  It felt like a job that I was doing for free.  One of the things I was looking for was interaction and I just didn't feel I was getting the interaction I was hoping for.  Collecting is fun, but it's more fun when you're sharing with others and talking about the cards and hobby.  

I've been on Instagram for years and ran into the same thing.  I felt somewhat obligated to post and didn't receive the interaction I was hoping for.  

Which brings me back to this blog.  Should I make a return?  Would it be the same?  Are there people still in the blogosphere that want to interact with me?  Are there new blogs?  So many questions.  

What I do know is that I've spent the last couple hours looking through this blog.  There are so many stories I told that I've forgotten about.  I've seen a couple posts from the weeks before I got married (we're at seven years and still going strong) and it was fun to remember those days, some of the details and how I was feeling.  

Tonight, I learned what I'm sure many others have known for years...our blogs are part of our collecting history and journey.  They are a time capsule.  They likely don't chronicle the whole journey, but they certainly chronicle large chunks.  

As I get closer to 50, I need these trips down memory lane and these happy memories.  It's good for me.  I haven't made a decision on whether I should start writing again but at the same time, maybe I have.  

Back, With Buybacks

It's been awhile, so who knows if anyone will even see this.  I'd been posting everything on my other site, Bean's Ballcard Blog, for awhile.  Then there was no posting anywhere.  My plan is to post my PC stuff here and more high level things there.  I'd be extremely grateful if you'd just sub to the BBB blog by just entering your email.  It's on the right side of the page up top.  You'll get notified any time I post.  

Anyway, on to yesterday's mail.  I received a PWE from Jon of A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts.  I knew it was coming and knew what was inside, kind of.  He messaged me that he had some buybacks for me, if I was still collecting them.  I haven't done much with them in awhile, but hope to again soon.  Hopefully I'll be getting back to being a collector again soon.  

Thanks for the well wishes, Jon.  I'm doing much better after my minor health scare a couple months ago.  Guys, make sure that you're consistently seeing your doctor(s) and taking care of yourself.  Not doing so hits you suddenly and it sucks!  

If you know me, you know that 1987 Topps will always be one of my favorite sets.  That was the first year I collected and I built multiple Topps and Donruss sets.  I was new to baseball but was a Braves fan because my southern family (who gifted my my first cards) were all Braves fans.  I thought his last name was weird so this card is memorable.  To this day, I've never met another "Olwine."

Ron Hassey will always be an Oakland Athletic to me.  Sorry, not sorry.  I love all of the 1980s White Sox uniforms, though.  

The 1980s was the best decade of Topps designs and 1984 is one of my favorites.  I can't explain why, but I've been drawn to it since I was a kid collector.  Not sure what year these 65th Anniversary cards were inserted into packs, so I'll have to do some sleuthing.  

This Doyle Alexander was the final card in the envelope, and my favorite.  Living in Arlington now (I can be the to stadium in ten minutes) has made me fall in love with some of the Rangers old logos. I may not be into baseball anymore, but I do have a healthy respect for the past.  

I hope you enjoyed the quick look inside the PWE.  I'm hoping to post more soon, though some (or most) may be videos.  Hopefully you'll watch.  

Happy collecting, y'all! 

-kin

HOBBY FAMILY – HELP OUT MILITARY MISSIONS IN ACTION

Yes, I'm still alive and kicking.  It's been a busy start to 2019 and I don't see the rest of the year being any different. 

I've written three posts on Bean's Ballcard Blog in the last few days and that's where most of my writing will happen.  Please subscribe, add to your blogroll or whatever it is you do if you'd like to read my ramblings. 

If you're on Twitter and don't already follow me, please do!  That's where I spend the bulk of my hobby time.  My handle is @beansbcardblog.

The point of this post, though, was to direct you to a post I just wrote.  Some in the community are running eBay auctions to benefit Military Missions in Action.  Please take a look at the post and if you can, help out! 

Oh, if you're interested, I now have a monthly segment on the Fat Packs Podcast.  I say segment but for the first two, I've been the color commentator (co-host) for the entire show.  If you're interested in listening to the first episode of INSERTED, you can click here! 

I hope that everyone is well!

-kin

Better Than a Blaster at the LCS

I know that I'm stealing the "Better Than a Blaster" from another blogger.  In this case, imitation should be considered flattery.  It's a great title and I couldn't say it better myself.

I went to a "card shop" near my office on lunch today.  I put card shop in quotations because it's actually a business in an industrial park and the owner had put three display cases and a table into the front of his "real" business.

I walked out spending exactly $20 and I'm confident it was better than any blaster I'll ever buy.  Take a look and leave some comments with what you think!




Alright, have at it!  Happy collecting y'all!

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