Autographed "Doggie" Hat

I picked up this autographed Cooperstown Collection hat of Tony Perez for, what I think, is a decent price. While I have a lot of autograph baseballs, bats, mini batting helmets, baseball cards, mini home plate and even an autographed glove, I did not have an autographed ball cap in my collection. I love the look of this 1960s style cap and I think it'll look nice next to my other autographed memorabilia on my bookshelf. 

A Perfect Addition To My Collection!

It's been a while since I've posted to the blog. Things here have been crazy with moving back to the Cincinnati area after being in Northern Ohio for more than 20 years. It's nice to be close to family again. I'm also hoping that I can make it to a game or two at Great American Ballpark this year. Anyway, I've been looking for some time to add a ticket stub from the only perfect game thrown by a Reds player. Tom Browning accomplished the feat on September 16, 1988 against the Dodgers in a 1-0 victory for the Reds. Most of the tickets I've seen come up on eBay have been for unused tickets selling in the range of $150 or more. While it would have been nice to have one, I couldn't justify the cost. This ticket was listed last week and I was happy that I was the only bidder for this ticket AND I picked it up for a fraction of the cost of others I had seen. I'm looking forward to having this arrive shortly in the mail. Now if I can only complete one of my vintage Reds team sets before the end of the year. 

Closer to the End of the Rainbow

Last week I received a notice on one of my eBay saved searches that I card I had never seen available for purchase in almost 10 years was finally listed. Unfortunately, it was listed as an auction and the card was graded a PSA 10. While I normally don't chase after graded cards, I knew I had to try and snag this copy since I had no idea if I would ever see one again. These 2013 Topps Orange cards are numbered out of 230 and are exclusives that were included as a pack of five cards in sealed factory sets. I'm not sure how many collectors have opened their sets but I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that choose to keep them sealed. I was fortunate enough to be the high bidder on the card and the card arrived safely this past Saturday. With this addition I now have 37 different 2013 Topps Joey Votto cards in my rainbow. Of the three cards I'm still chasing for this project, two I've never seen for sale (the 2013 Topps Opening Day Purple Toys R Us and the 2013 Topps Silver Slate Framed that's numbered out of 10) and the 2013 Topps Chrome Pink Refractor that's numbered out of 5 has only appeared once. As it stands, I've probably reached the end of this project since the remaining cards I'm chasing will more than likely never surface. But I'll still keep an eye out just in case one of those white whales were to ever surface.

Coming Soon To A Mailbox Near Me!

With the release of 2024 Topps right around the corner I went ahead and did the same thing I've done year-after-year for the past ten years or so. I headed over to eBay to find sellers that had this coming year's team set available for purchase. Normally Reds team sets don't go for that much but I had a feeling that this year would be different with Elly De La Cruz and Christian Encarnacion-Strand having their rookie cards in this release. $16 shipped is what I paid for the 12 cards in series 1. Now I just have to wait until around the end of the month before they arrive. I'm still on the fence about the design of this year's flagship set. Not sure if I like it or loathe it. I'll make up my mind when I actually have the cards in hand. Regardless, I'm glad that baseball season is right around the corner.

1941 Play Ball

Anytime I can purchase a pre-war card for less than $20 is a win in my book. It's been over a year since I've acquired a vintage card for my collection but I think it was worth the wait. Out of all the Play Ball sets, this is my favorite. I think the colors on these cards are fantastic. I'm not a fan of the 1939 or 1940 sets since they're just black and white photos so I won't be chasing those cards. This is the first 1941 Play Ball card to enter my collection. Luckily there are only four cards that make up the Reds team set for this release. With this Bucky Walters now in hand I already have 25% of the set complete. Maybe sometime next year I'll be able to track down the other three cards at a reasonable price and mark this set as complete.

What I'm Thankful For

It's crazy how this year has almost come to an end. Only a little over one month until 2023 is history and the start of 2024. The holidays always seem like a blur to me now that I'm older but I have come to realize over the years that next to Christmas, Thanksgiving is my second favorite holiday. Part of it is the food, but the majority of it revolves around the many blessings I have and seem to take for granted. The day helps me to get grounded and remember just how blessed I am. Family, friends, my health, a home, a great job are the top five on my list but I'm also thankful that I was able to watch a guy grow into a great player on my favorite team. Not only did I appreciate all the things he did on the diamond but also his involvement with the community off the field. To me, he just seemed like a very classy guy and I'm going to miss seeing him in a Reds uniform. With that being said, I'm thankful that I was able to complete my Joey Votto Rookie Album project this year. I've also decided to start one more small Joey Votto project, a 2011 Topps Chrome Votto Rainbow. There's 13 different parallel variations in 2011 Topps Chrome but I'm not chasing three of those (Red, Gold Canary Diamond, and Superfractor) since I think it'll be next to impossible to track those cards down and I don't want to pay an arm and a leg for those. If the Red ever comes up for a reasonable price then I'll consider it. For now, the ten variations I'm chasing are: Base, Refractor, X-Fractor, Orange Refractor, Purple Refractor, Atomic Refractor, Blue Refractor, Black Refractor, Sepia Refractor, and the Gold Refractor. So far I've acquired six of the ten and two (Purple and Orange) will be easy pickups for me. That just leaves the Black and Gold to track down. I think it'll look nice to display in one of these 10 card frame displays from Amazon once I complete it. If you're curious about seeing what cards I have so far, you can view the page here or over in the navigation menu titled: 2011 Topps Chrome Votto Rainbow. I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

I Never Thought I Would See Another One Again!

Have you ever gotten rid of a card only to regret, almost immediately, doing so? That was the case for me with this 2008 Topps Chrome The National Joey Votto. I had a nice collection of 2008 Votto rookies that I had amassed a few years ago but decided to get rid of them. There were a few Upper Deck rookie autograph and low number Topps Triple Threads that I parted ways with, but this Topps Chrome National was a heartbreaker. According to baseballcardpedia.com "it's believed that only 300 copies of each base card were produced for this promotion". Earlier in the week I happened to stumble across a listing for this card on Beckett Marketplace. I felt the asking price was ok and I went ahead and purchased this card since I don't know if I'll ever be able to stumble across another one again. With this purchase I now have 90 different Votto rookie cards in my collection (five 2002 Votto cards and eighty-five 2008 Votto cards). I can now mark this project as complete. If you're interested, you can view all the cards I have for this project here.