Nachos Grande: A Baseball Card Blog

REVIEW: 2026 Topps Finest (mega box)

2026-08-12T10:08:00.000-04:00

My Patreon group break is still going strong. This week, we ripped three mega boxes of 2026 Topps Finest. Since I haven't been opening new cards for myself lately, I'll "double dip" on the group break and use one of the three boxes for a review here on the blog!

Every 2026 Topps Finest mega box includes 8 packs with 6 cards per pack.

Base cards:

The 2026 Finest base set contains 350 cards divided into four different rarity tiers: common, uncommon, rare, and super rare. The super rare tier can only be found in hobby boxes, and since we opened only mega boxes, we didn't see any of those. Cards #1-100 are commons, and they have a nice 90s-esque design to them.

Common tier:

The checklist does repeat some players between the various tiers, while others only have a card at a specific rarity level (in other words, the rarities are not true parallels). Our mega box produced a total of 31 common base cards, so not quite a full third of the common base set. The common cards all get green paint overtop a blue design.

Uncommon tier:

Each tier gets its own design of "paint splashes." For the uncommons, there is a blue paint splash in the background overtop an orange motif. True to their name, the uncommon tier was, in fact, quite uncommon to find. Our mega box only produced three such cards:

I do like the fact that the different rarity tiers look different and are easily distinguishable. If you are going to break a set up into different tiers, they should look and feel different. I also appreciate the fact that Topps used different photos for the different tiers. The commons all seem to feature players in their white uniforms, while the uncommons show players in colored jerseys.

Rare tier:

We only pulled one rare card in our mega box:

Based on this one card, it appears that the rare tier features more "action shots" as compared to the standard batter swinging or pitcher throwing poses from the first two tiers. With only one rare card per six mega box packs, good luck completing the 100-card rare tier!

Inserts and parallels

Mini Diamond

The Mini Diamond parallels are exclusive to mega boxes. We pulled four "base" Mini Diamond parallels, including two commons and two uncommons.

The stated odds for uncommon Mini Diamond parallels are 1:9 mega box packs, so we definitely beat the odds with our box producing not one, but two such cards!

We also pulled one colored mini diamond parallel - and it's a great one for Yankee collectors!

That's an Aaron Judge Aqua Mini Diamond parallel numbered out of 199. The Aqua Mini Diamonds are seeded 1:104 mega box packs!

The only other base parallel that we pulled was this Refractor (seeded 1:9 mega box packs) of Jac Caglianone.

The Refractors are exactly like what you get in a Topps Chrome set. They are nice, but I do find them easy to miss when opening cards. Luckily, Topps did print "Refractor" on the card back to help folks like me notice the difference!

Moving on to the inserts, we pulled a pair of Team Finest cards including Elly De La Cruz:

The Team Finest cards are seeded 1:8 mega packs, so again, we beat the odds by pulling two. I like the fact that the design incorporates team colors in the background, though the team city abbreviation is nearly impossible to read with the player directly on top of it. I don't think anyone is buying Finest for the inserts, but these are nice enough!

We also pulled one World's Finest (1:6 mega packs):

The Aaron Judge card is nice, but it wasn't the best World's Finest card in the box because we also pulled a Gold parallel (1:3,093 mega packs) of Bryce Harper.

The Harper is numbered out of only 50 copies and is a truly rare pull from mega boxes! I like the World's Finest set quite a bit (long-time readers will know I'm a sucker for cards that feature country flags). The World's Finest set includes several players from countries other than the United States, so yes, there are many different flags represented in the set!

Finally, we also pulled a pair of Arrivals inserts:

The Teel is a base Arrivals card while the Eldridge is a Refractor parallel. Base Arrivals are seeded 1:7 mega packs while the Refractor versions are 1:20 mega packs. Personally, I don't find much to get excited about with this set design; it's too busy for my liking.

Mega boxes do not guarantee the existence of an autograph (base Finest Mega Autographs are seeded 1:67 mega packs), but we lucked out and did pull a beauty:

That's an Aqua Mini-Diamond autograph of David Eckstein, numbered out of 199. Yes, it is a sticker auto (boo!), but even so, it is a gorgeous card! The Aqua Mini-Diamonds are seeded 1:214 mega packs, making them difficult to find!

Overall, I give the 2026 Topps Finest mega box the following rating:

Set Design: A-
Collation: A
Opening Thrill: A
Overall: A

This was a great box, and a lot of fun to open as part of a group break. We beat the odds in several different places, including the Gold World's Finest (1:3,093 packs) and the autograph parallel (1:214 packs). Box prices are too high for my blood, but I do like the set a lot (so if someone wants to send me a box, I'll happily accept)! Until that happens, I'll simply enjoy ripping boxes via the group break process.

My Group Break Breaker's Club Begins Tonight!

2026-08-11T13:27:05.520-04:00

I haven't plugged my group breaks on the blog for quite some time, but for those who may not know, I do host group breaks over on my Discord. One of my favorite things to do is to host a "Breaker's Club." In Breaker's Club, people pay one price for their choice of team. Then, over the span of several Tuesday evenings, we rip many different boxes, with the cards from all of the boxes going to the person who claimed that particular team.

Tonight, we will start our second Breaker's Club of 2026. Over the next five weeks, we will be ripping NINETEEN different boxes across many years and sets! Here's a quick visual of what's on tap:

Lots of neat stuff in there, including a number of products that I've never personally ripped. I always try to find some "oddball" stuff to go along with more classic brands.

This particular group break is sold out, but if you join my Discord you'll be in the know for any future group breaks!

It's eBay Monday!

2026-08-10T16:51:00.000-04:00

Last week, I was on a family vacation, so I didn't do any card trading on TCDB. I did, however, receive a pair of envelopes in the mail from eBay orders that I made prior to heading out on vacation!

First up, a pair of 1998 Topps Tek cards:

My bookkeeping (or maybe memory) was poor on this purchase because I actually had one of the two cards I bought already. Whoops! Luckily, Topps Tek cards are quite easy to trade; it seems a lot of Barry Larkin collectors are out there trying to build the full set (including me)!

My other purchase was for this shiny pink monstrosity:

That's a 2024 Panini Prizm Pink Ice Prizm parallel, one of the many parallels that I still need from the 2024 Prizm set. In fact, the Prizm set isn't all that different than Topps Tek...so many parallels to track down!

New Year's Resolutions 2026: How am I Doing Thus Far?!

2026-08-09T10:51:16.631-04:00

*Editor's Note* My blog was flagged (incorrectly) and removed from the internet for about 36 hours. It seems that blog rolls aren't capturing my posts anymore. This is a reposting of an entry I wrote that didn't seem to show up on anyone's blog roll; hopefully it will show up this time!

Most years, I like to post New Year's Resolutions that have to do with the blog and/or blogging-related things. In January of 2026, I decided to work on four resolutions. Now that it's nearly August (ugh), I figured it was time to do a quick check-in and see how I'm progressing on the things I promised myself I would do!

1. The Want List

The goal was to whittle my want list down to 25 (or fewer) sets by the end of 2026. Right now, my want list has a total of only 20 sets on it. That might sound like a resounding success (and it is, for now); however, whenever Allen & Ginter is released, I'm likely to add back on a bunch of sets (I count each insert set as a separate set). Even so, for now I'm pleased with the fact that I've only added a single set to my want list in 2026 and that I've completed 11 sets thus far this year!

2. The Great Reorganization

I really need to design proper labels for the Barry Larkin binders!

This resolution contained four subgoals:

Update my Barry Larkin Collection binder (and TCDB) through 2024.
Clean off the cards on my TV stand.
Get all of my trade bait to fit back into four of my "cubes" on my shelf.
Clean off all the cards on the table that is behind my desk.

How have I done on the four subgoals, you ask? As of last week, I've completely finished updating my Barry Larkin Collection binder through 2024. Topps (in particular) seems to love putting out more 2025 sets in the calendar year 2026, so I have to wait a full year (thus, my collection is as up-to-date as possible at the moment)! I've also nearly completed subgoal #4. I do still have a couple of stacks of 2025 Allen & Ginter on my table, but otherwise, the cards are off the table. Unfortunately, the other two subgoals are still dreams in the sky. I've made virtually no progress on either of them.

3. Reading

I wanted to get back into reading on a more regular basis. My goal for 2026 is a modest 5 books read. To date, I've read four books. Thus, I'm 80% of the way to my goal, and I feel fairly good about my chances of being successful by the end of the year!

4. My LEGO Blog

My goal for my LEGO blog was to write at least 36 posts for the year. Thus far, I've completed 13 posts, which isn't too shabby. I've also switched that blog to being about building bricks, not just the LEGO brand, as I've become enamored with the much more affordable (and higher-quality Lumibricks)! I've posted a lot more content that I consider of higher quality on the blog this year (lots of set reviews, for instance). I'm happy with where I'm at on that one!

And that's it. Four resolutions made, and thus far I'm at least 50% complete on all four of them. No complaints from me as of now...but we'll see how I feel come the end of December!

Board Game Friday: Another Board Game Trade!

2026-08-07T08:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Friday, everyone. This week, I have another board game trade to show off, so let's get right to it!

This was a simple one-for-one swap, something that seems to be the preferred way of trading games for most folks over on Boardgamegeek. I'd love to be able to clear out several of my games at once, but I won't complain about a single game swap!

Outgoing: Naga Raja

Naga Raja is a game I traded for back in 2024, though it wasn't the game I was trying to get then (it was paired with Dungeons, Dice, and Danger, which is a game that my son still loves playing. Even so, we did eventually try Naga Raja, and while it's a fine game with some fun choices, it simply wasn't a game that excited us enough to keep returning to our table.

Incoming: Twisty Tracks

The bad news about Twisty Tracks is that it doesn't have a great rating over on BoardGameGeek. However, the concept seems like something my son will enjoy, so I was willing to give it a shot. I do like the colorful box cover, so if I'm judging a game by its cover, this one would get high marks! I'll have to report back once my son and I give this one a spin (or twist?).

Topps Now Monday!

2026-08-03T08:00:00.000-04:00

Normally, I use Monday to show off my previous week's worth of TCDB trades. Unfortunately, the only trade that should have arrived by now appears to be lost in the ether that is the USPS. Thus, I have no trades to show, but fret not; I do have a nice card that did arrive recently that I can highlight!

I don't usually pay much attention to the Topps Now offerings. However, for some reason, a recent card not only caught my eye, but I convinced myself to buy it! The card in question?

That's a Sal Stewart rookie celebrating the time he turned on a 102.3 mph pitch for a home run. The Reds haven't had a lot to cheer about this year, but Stewart has been one of the few reasons to watch the team! According to TCDB, this card has a print run of only 1,035 copies.

I like the concept of Topps Now, but I must confess that having to check the website all the time to see what's on offer is something I typically don't think to do. No matter, I'm glad I happened to look when I did, and I think the Stewart card is a great addition to my mini player collection of Sal!

Barry Larkin Collection 1,099: 1998 Leaf - #168 - Fractal Matrix

2026-07-29T23:23:00.000-04:00

Barry Larkin

Year: 1998

Brand: Leaf

Parallel: Fractal Matrix

Card number: 168

There were a lot of confusing baseball sets released in the late 90s. For me, one of the most confusing sets of the era has to be the 1998 Leaf set. I didn't collect Leaf as a kid, so everything I know about this set I had to learn 20+ years after the set's release (which is never ideal)! As a perfect example of the confusion, take today's entry in my ongoing Barry Larkin Collection.

The card might look perfectly normal, but a more careful look will yield the stamp that says "fractal matrix" above the gaudy Leaf logo. The Fractal Matrix cards are parallels, but they aren't to be confused with Fractal Diamond Axis, Fractal Foundation, Fractal Materials, Fractal Materials Die-Cut, or Fractal Matrix Die-Cut (all of which are parallels of Larkin's regular Gold Leaf Star subset card)!

From what I could find online, the non-die-cut Fractal Matrix Larkin card had a print run of 1600 (while the die-cut version had a print run of only 200 copies). Amazingly, I've owned the die-cut version for a long time, but I only acquired the "regular" version this week via a TCDB trade!

With the above card now safely tucked away in my binder, I'm only missing four more cards from the 1998 Leaf set*:

Fractal Diamond Axis (#/50 copies)

Fractal Materials (not numbered, stated print run of 3,250)

Fractal Materials Die-Cut (not numbered, stated print run of 100)

Heading for the Hall Sample*

*This card was found with dealer wholesale order forms, not in the set itself.

TCDB Monday: Another New-to-Me Larkin Card (from a Confusing Set)!

2026-07-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

Last week was a slow week on the trading front. I completed one sale and one trade. For the trade, I sent away a Barry Larkin short print, plus a few more cards to acquire this:

That's one of many parallels in the 1998 Leaf set, and it comes courtesy of TCDB user MMehler30. The 1998 Leaf set is confusing with all of its parallels, but luckily I plan to do a full breakdown of all of Barry's various cards in the 1998 Leaf set coming up later this week (when I feature the above card in my ongoing Barry Larkin Collection series of posts).

And that's it for the past week via trading. Only one card, but at least it was a Barry Larkin card that I needed. If you were wondering, according to my records, I now own 161 of the 326 different Barry Larkin cards from 1998 (~49%). As a reminder, I'm only chasing after cards with a stated print run of at least 25 copies...and even with that, I'm still not even at the halfway point in terms of Barry's cards from the year 1998!

Board Game Friday: Doing Some Board Game Trading!

2026-07-24T08:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Friday, everyone. For today's post, I have a recent board game trade to show off. I already highlighted this over on my Instagram account, but blogging allows a lot more text, so let's get into it!

I was able to swap Cat in the Box: Deluxe Edition for Akrotiri. Both games exist in relatively small boxes, so this wasn't a trade meant to free up shelf space. Instead, I swapped out a good game (but one that I don't have the right people to play it with) for a game that I'm hoping will be a hit with my son and me!

Outgoing: Cat in the Box: Deluxe Edition

Personally, I loved Cat in the Box, so I was kind of sad to see it leave my collection. However, realistically, it was a game that was difficult to explain to non-gamers, which always meant the first play was kind of janky. For gamers, I have so many other hobby games that I'd rather play, and Cat in the Box, while interesting, never had enough depth to keep me going back to it with a dedicated group of players. Thus, Cat in the Box leaves my collection as a game that simply never seemed to fit in, rather than being a game I'd consider "bad."

Incoming: Akrotiri

I will have to report back on my thoughts on Akrotiri once I get it played! I do love Greek-themed games, so I have high hopes for this one (it appears to be a quick, yet quite thinky, puzzle/pick-up-and-deliver style game). I don't have a lot of games that fit into that mold, so hopefully this one ends up being a keeper for my collection!

TCDB Monday!

2026-07-20T08:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Monday, everyone. For me, this is a particularly happy day since I landed a great Barry Larkin in one of last week's TCDB swaps! Let's jump right in and take a look:

I promise this is orange, not red!

That's a 2026 Topps Orange Crackle Foil parallel courtesy of user Castle Anthrax. The orange parallels are numbered out of 25 copies, and you may recall that 25 is the exact production number cut-off that I use for my personal Barry Larkin collection. That is, I don't make any effort to chase Larkin cards with a stated print run of under 25. Thus, this card represents the "rarest" card in the set that I needed to track down. I'm certainly happy to have been able to trade for it!

My second trade from last week couldn't have been much more different than the first! In this swap with user michael1206, I was able to land a pair of cards from the 1953-55 Topps World on Wheels set.

This is a low-priority set for me to collect (due to its age), but it's one that I'll never turn down a trade for whenever possible! Of the two featured cars, I like the Hudson four-door sedan best. What a cool-looking car.

That does it for the past week on TCDB. Sometimes it's quality over quantity, and that's definitely been my card-collecting motto for the last couple of years! Have a great week, everyone.

Barry Larkin Collection 1,098: 1998 Topps Tek - #57 - Pattern 33

2026-07-16T08:00:00.000-04:00

Barry Larkin

Year: 1998

Brand: Topps Tek

Card number: 57

Pattern number: 33

Today's card is a recent eBay purchase that finally showed up at my house after getting lost in the USPS system for a couple of days. I'm happy to have my 26th pattern from the 1998 Topps Tek set now in my Barry Larkin binder. We won't bother mentioning the fact that there are a whopping 90 different patterns to track down and that 26 is only 28.89% of all the Larkins in the set!

TCDB Monday: Is it Pink or Red?!

2026-07-13T08:00:00.000-04:00

Only one TCDB trade graced my mailbox in the past week, so there's not much preamble to today's post!

Courtesy of user wags6817, I'm now the owner of this 2025 Stadium Club Red Foil parallel of Barry Larkin:

I must admit, the Stadium Club foil parallels don't interest me all that much. However, as an obsessive collector of every Larkin card I can get my grubby mitts on, I'll take it!

I'll also say that the scan looks more pink than red, but I think this is, in fact, the red parallel. And that, in a nutshell, is my problem with Stadium Club parallels. It can be tricky to tell them apart, and if it's that difficult, then what's the point of the various versions?! No point at all.

Our Hobby Box of 2026 Topps Series 2 (Featuring a 1:14,441 Pack Card!)

2026-07-09T08:00:00.000-04:00

Each month, I run a group break via my Patreon. For the month of June, we ripped a hobby box of 2026 Topps Series 2 and a Fanatics blaster of 2026 Topps Series 1. I imagine most people are tired of seeing Series 1 cards, so I won't bother with the blaster (sadly, we did not pull any of the cool memorabilia redemptions). However, we more than made up for that with the results of our Series 2 hobby box!

I won't bother showing off the base from Series 2 (again, those that care have probably already seen the full set). That said, I have to show off the Verlander card since he announced his retirement earlier this week. Verlander is a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame in a few years, and I'm guessing Topps will give him one more flagship card (either in 2027 or else in 2026 Update).

Moving on to the inserts and parallels, I scanned a full scanner bed's worth of some of my favorites.

Lots of good names in there, including several legends (both modern and vintage). I do like the 1991 Topps design cards, though the thin, glossy card stock takes away a lot of the realism of the original set!

Next, the Silver Pack Chrome Mojo cards:

You may notice that there are only three Chrome cards shown above despite the Silver Packs promising four cards. That's because our fourth card in the pack was this Green parallel #/99 that went to the Yankees slot!

Yeah, that's a nice card, and it's a great pull for the Yankees!

Finally, each hobby box promises one hit. Ours was a relic, but at least it's a good relic to pull!

The 1991 Topps All-Star design works quite well with the bit of cloth embedded in it. I was quite excited for this hit (I don't expect such nice hits out of a single hobby box typically). However, you can imagine my surprise when a few packs later this showed up:

Yeah, that's a Ben Rice on-card autograph from the 2025 Postseason Performance Autograph set, but even better, it's one of the orange parallels numbered out of only 25 copies. According to the odds listed on Baseballcardpedia, the Orange parallels from the 2025 Postseason Performance Autograph set are seeded 1:14,441 hobby packs!

With a second (very rare) hit and a green Chrome card of Jeter, this was a great box for both the Yankees and Pirates slots in the group break. In fact, I'd say this is one of the best boxes of modern Topps flagship that I've opened in quite some time!

Another White Whale from 2010 Acquired!

2026-07-07T08:00:00.000-04:00

A few days ago, one of my saved eBay search alerts went off with information about a needed 2010 Topps Allen & Ginter Framed Relic card. A couple of clicks later, and I am now the proud owner of this Avery Jenkins relic:

Avery is a disc golfer, and this card has a bit of one of his discs embedded in it. It's funny, back in 2010 when I started collecting the relic set, I didn't even really know what disc golf was. Now, I keep my disc golf bag in my car at all times throughout the spring, summer, and fall!

With Jenkins now in hand, I'm down to needing only two more framed relics from this set:

LB. Lance Berkman
RH. Ryan Howard (bat relic only)

Over the past three years, I've added exactly one needed framed relic to my collection each summer (in 2024 it was Neftali Feliz, last year it was Dan Haren, and now this year it was Avery Jenkins). I can only hope that by this time in 2028, I'll be celebrating the end of my framed relic search!

I don't have any real information about whether or not the Berkman and/or Howard relics are short-printed OR if they are simply too boring for most people to bother listing on sites like eBay anymore. Either way, I have my work cut out for me if I'm ever going to finish the set off, but I've seen just enough success each year lately to keep me on the hunt!

Monday's are for TCDB!

2026-06-29T08:00:00.000-04:00

Somehow, we've made it to the final Monday of June. I don't know about you, but as a college professor who is off in the summer, that fact makes me a bit sad!

I had some high hopes of doing a lot of baseball card trading this summer, but it turns out that I guess I need to buy more current stuff in order to keep finding willing trade partners. Unfortunately, I've enacted a self-imposed law that I won't be buying myself much in the way of modern cards this year (other than Allen & Ginter). While this is good for both my budget and my storage space, it's proven to be quite detrimental in trying to make lots of trades!

Luckily, there are still some people who are like me: people looking for older stuff and people who have older stuff to unload. For my one lone trade this past week, I was lucky enough to pair up with user LiAps, who fit the bill perfectly. I was able to nab a needed card from 2009 while sending off several cards from 2000 (plus a 2024 card). Here's what I was able to add to my collection:

You'd be forgiven if you couldn't place what that set was, even with the hint of the year being 2009. That's one of the American President inserts from the 2009 Topps American Heritage set. The American Presidents set has proven to be quite difficult to complete - here's what I'm still looking for:

2009 Topps American Heritage:

Presidents: AP1, AP5, AP7, AP8, AP10, AP12, AP13, AP14, AP17, AP18, AP19, AP20, AP22, AP23, AP25, AP28, AP30, AP31, AP32, AP34, AP35, AP41, AP43

My best guess is that the American Heritage set wasn't all that popular, and thus, trading for said cards is always going to be challenging. The American Presidents were seeded in 1:6 packs, so it's not like they were super rare. No matter, I'm happy with even the smallest bit of progress toward a set build (and I'm also happy to have a net loss of total cards in my storage; five cards went out in this swap, and I got only one needed one in return, a perfect swap for my collection limitations)!

My Baseball Card Patreon!

2026-06-26T08:00:00.000-04:00

Today, I wanted to take the opportunity to once again plug my baseball card Patreon.

Over on Patreon, I run a monthly group break. Each month, all backers get the cards of their chosen team added to their stack that I keep for them. Then, at a time of their choosing, backers can request shipping and pay the actual shipping charge. In that way, people can participate in several breaks and then have all cards shipped at once (this saves them money and it saves me time in packing up cards)! A true win-win.

Each month, I break a box (or more). For example, anyone who joins my Patreon between June 1 and June 30 of this year will be part of the June 2026 group break. I typically hold the monthly break about a week after the month ends (I need to give Patreon time to process all payments). Thus, for the upcoming June break, it should happen in early July.

Speaking of the June break, we will be busting a hobby box of 2026 Topps Series 2 plus a Fanatics blaster of 2026 Topps Series 1. Right now, the following team slots are still available:

Marlins
Rangers
White Sox
Diamondbacks
Rays
Blue Jays
Nationals
Mets

Patreon acts as a monthly subscription service, so once you claim your team, you are the only one who can have that team until you decide to cancel your Patreon subscription (thus, this is an ideal way to do group breaks for team collectors, not those looking for only the latest hot rookies)!

I've also already announced the July break for those looking ahead. We will be breaking THREE Mega boxes of 2026 Topps Finest!

For all the details (and to sign up), check out my Patreon here!

TCDB Monday: I'm Back!

2026-06-22T08:00:00.000-04:00

I spent a week on a family vacation (a cruise on Royal Caribbean's Star of the Seas). As such, I have quite the backlog of mail packages to go through from two weeks' worth of TCDB mailings! Let's get right to it.

We'll begin with a swap with user jc645, a friend of the blog and a great member of my baseball card Discord channel!

It's always fun to trade with people that I know (virtually)...and it's even more fun when that trade nets me some sweet Barry Larkin goodies! The card on the left is from the 2025 Topps Archives set (it's a Black Foilboard parallel) while the card on the right is from the 2023 Topps set (it's another black parallel, this time numbered out of 299).

Next up, we'll stick with black-bordered Barry Larkin cards (this time thanks to user Eggbert60):

That's a 2023 Topps Allen & Ginter X base card of Barry. I don't typically purchase the A&G X set, so I'm always happy to land a Larkin card from that particular set via trade (that beats buying a pointless card from a pointless set)!

Sticking with both sets from 2023 and pointless sets, how about this 2023 Panini Chronicles Contenders Optic card, thanks to user mntcry:

So much of what Panini produces seems pointless to me, and the Panini Chronicles set has always struck me as both pointless and super confusing. Barry isn't in the regular Panini Chronicles base set, but he is featured in five of the insert sets (most of which have many parallels). Maybe I'm just getting too old to keep up?

Next, I have another trade with a user from my Discord: Tastybrisket10!

We are going more "old school" here, a 1998 Pinnacle Plus card of Barry Larkin (and some guy named A-rod on the other side of the card). This is the base Team Pinnacle insert. Unfortunately for me, this is only my first of the 1998 Pinnacle Plus cards that I need!

As you can see, there are four parallels of this card that I still need to track down - and given how long it took me to get the base insert, I'm guessing I'll probably never find all four parallels! That said, I'll keep them on my want list, and, who knows, maybe I'll find a willing trade partner in the future!

It was a busy couple of weeks trading for Barry Larkin cards, and I'm not done yet! Next up, from user Genokz comes three new-to-me Barry Larkin cards:

The Revolution card is now my second card from the 2023 Panini Chronicles set (the first card that I acquired from that set was shown a couple of trades ago)! The other two cards are both from 2025 (the Prizm is a Green Prizm parallel, while the Stadium Club is a Sepia parallel). So. Many. Parallels.

Finally, we end with not a trade but rather a purchase that I made from user RockyCola:

I was able to grab a few older Barry Larkin cards, including a 1996 Select Certified red parallel and a 1997 Donruss Elite Gold Stars parallel. The more modern Panini Select Holo parallel card is from 2022, and finally, the Green Chrome Mojo parallel is from the 2023 Topps set.

Phew, that was a lot of scanning and sorting! It was a good vacation, and a great couple of weeks' worth of mail packages. Here's to many more mailings as the summer goes on (unfortunately, I think I'm done with family vacations for the year)!

Board Game Friday: Buying a (Another) Bunch of Button Shy Games!

2026-06-19T08:00:00.000-04:00

Before my family cruise vacation, I made an order for several new Button Shy wallet games. I looked for a combination of games I could play with my son on the ship, plus some solo games that I could play in moments of downtime. Wallet games are great for travel (they take up very little space)!

Let's take a look at what I picked out to buy:

Glass Garden (with Centerpieces expansion)

This is a solo game about assembling a terrarium while an annoying pest tries to destroy your work. I haven't tried adding in the expansion content yet, but I can say that the base game is a fun puzzle that definitely takes some practice to master!

A Nice Cuppa (with Expansion Collection)

In another solo game, in this cozy game, you are trying to make a perfect cup of tea while forgetting about your worries. I'm not a hot tea drinker, but I appreciate the vibe that this game is going for, though the actual gameplay loop is fairly thinky! So far, I've found the "Casual or Standard" mode to be easy, but the "Ceremonial or Hard" mode has been much more difficult. Much like with Glass Garden, I think this game will get much easier the more I play it.

Making Manhattan

This is a two-player game about building (you guessed it), Manhattan...or at least, building your little individual portion of the city. Every card has three possible placement locations, and depending on where you place the card in your 3x2 grid, it will trigger a different scoring criterion. My son and I played this several times on the cruise ship, and I'll say his young brain seemed to do much better remembering all of his scoring goals! I enjoyed this one quite a bit!

Lands of Amazement Expansion Collection

I already owned (and enjoyed) the Lands of Amazement game, so I decided to order the additional content that I didn't already own. That said, I didn't end up playing Lands of Amazement while on vacation, so I can't speak to whether or not the Expansion Collection was a worthwhile purchase yet!

Overall, I think I chose quite well. I enjoyed the three new games that I bought, and I'm fairly confident that the expansion content will add more life into each game once the puzzle starts to feel a bit "solved." That said, of the three new games, I think the two-player Making Manhattan game is my current favorite!

Barry Larkin Collection 1,097: 1996 Pro Stamps - #101 - Uncut Sheet

2026-06-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

Barry Larkin

Year: 1996

Brand: Pro Stamps

Card number: 101

Variation: Uncut sheet

The 1996 Pro Stamps set contained 140 cards (stamps), six for each of the MLB teams of the time. Each uncut sheet contains five players from a specific team plus a team logo stamp (that is not considered part of the set). The Reds team set featured Barry Larkin, plus Reggie Sanders, Benito Santiago, Jose Rijo, and Bret Boone. The individual stamps can be peeled off like stickers, but I'll be keeping this full sheet unpeeled (and I don't have any particular desire to track down a second, peeled copy of Barry's sticker so this one sheet will do for my collection)!

Board Game Friday: My Board Game Arena Plays for May 2026!

2026-06-12T08:00:00.000-04:00

May is officially in the books, and now, so is Little League for another year. This year, my son played in the coach pitch division - and yes, I was his coach. Unfortunately for me, last year I was diagnosed with "frozen shoulder," and despite going to rehab twice a week from August through December, I still have trouble pitching! Luckily, I had a great assistant coach who helped with pitching duties, and together, we made it through a fun season with the boys.

That all said, baseball did take up a lot of my time in May, and thus I didn't have quite as much time for online board game playing! I did, however, manage to complete 58 games in May, winning 30 of them (good for a 51.7% win rate).

Here's what I played in May:

Forest Shuffle continues to be an online favorite of mine, both real-time and turn-based versions. You'll also notice I managed to complete 4 more games of Tapestry, a game that I'm loving more and more as I keep playing it.

Overall, I had a fun month of May with both baseball coaching and board game playing! Now that summer is here in full force, I'm guessing you'll see my online numbers increase for June and July.

From Mail Envelope to Binder: How I Organize Incoming Baseball Cards

2026-06-10T08:00:00.000-04:00

About a week or so ago, I ordered three different Barry Larkin cards from the same eBay seller. Now that the cards have arrived, I thought I'd show you how I do things whenever a new Barry Larkin card enters my collection. Be warned, I'm a little OCD about things!

Step 1:

Open the envelope, go to TCDB, and update my "haves" list on there.

For this purchase, I landed a 1998 Bowman Chrome International parallel, a 2024 Panini Prizm Silver Prizm parallel, and a 2003 Fleer Tradition Black/White Goudey Red parallel.

Step 2:

Open up my master Excel spreadsheet and update that with the new cards.

This is also where I keep track of the specific serial number on any cards (such as the Fleer Tradition card from today's mailing).

Step 3:

Scan each card (front and back). Next, I join the two images together, and then I save them as a single file for use in a future Barry Larkin Collection post.

I currently have over 800 Barry Larkin cards that I've scanned but not yet written about or posted to my ongoing Barry Larkin Collection series on the blog!

Step 4:

Place the cards in their appropriate spot in my Barry Larkin Collection binders.

Each page of my binder has a saved spot for every Barry Larkin card that I'm missing (according to TCDB). Over the years, I've painstakingly filled out hundreds of little slips of paper to denote missing cards. There isn't a better feeling for a collector than to be able to take out some of those scraps of paper and trash them!

To date, I've updated TCDB with every have and need of mine from 1986 through 2022 using those scraps of paper. It was only a few days ago when I sat down to update 2023 that I realized you could print a full checklist by player off of TCDB.

Now, I use the printed checklist to speed up the process, though it should be noted that for a lot of sets the printed checklist omits key parts of the set name, so I still have to do a fair bit of writing on the slips. Even so, being able to cut out slips and then update only when necessary proved to be a huge time saver when doing the 2023 Barry Larkin cards (and it's the only way I'll do this process moving forward)!

And with that, you now know my process! It's a fair bit of work, but once I have things organized, I tend to be much more efficient with my trading and purchasing. Unfortunately for me, I haven't yet updated my 2024 Barry Larkin collection (and the one card that I bought as part of today's purchase ended up being a duplicate, whoops)! I guess I better start going through my 2024 cards ASAP!

TCDB Monday: Another Week of TCDB Trades

2026-06-08T08:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Monday, everyone. As usual, I'm back to look at another week's worth of trading over on TCDB. Unfortunately for me, the past week or so has been light on accepted trades. In fact, I have only one incoming trade to show off today (and it's only a single card):

That's a 2025 Topps Stadium Club Light Blue Foil parallel from user Ksu_lee. The '25 Stadium Club set has a ton of parallels, but at least I'm now one such parallel closer to having Larkin's full run of cards! As for the card itself, the light blue effect kind of makes it look like Barry is inspecting his bat while underwater. I do like the light blue foil (it reminds me of the 2000s-era Pacific cards)!

Below, you can see all of the Barry Larkin cards from the 2025 Stadium Club set. For my collection, I ignore any cards with a stated print run of less than 25 copies, but even so, according to this list, there are 22 different Barry Larkin cards to acquire. I doubt I'll ever get any of the dual autos with Elly, but most of the rest should be obtainable if I work at it!

If you are wondering, right now I only own the Light Blue Foil you see above, plus Larkin's regular base card from the set. So yes, I have a long, long way to go on this one!

Board Game Friday: May 2026 Plays

2026-06-05T08:00:00.000-04:00

Another month is in the books, and this time I'm on top of things and ready to recap my board game plays promptly!

For May, I ended up with 87 plays spread across 19 different game titles. Here's the graphic (taken from my Instagram account):

I played four new-to-me games in the month of May:

Finspan
Unmatched: Slings & Arrows
Unmatched: Battle of Legends - Volume Three
Lands of Amazement

Finspan is a tableau builder all about fish. My son and I have enjoyed our first three plays of the game quite a bit. Finspan is similar to Wingspan, but I must say the fish theme spoke to me more. I've played Wingspan exactly once, but it was so long ago now I can't really compare the two games. That said, I do now own Wingspan, so hopefully I'll get that to the table soon, and then I'll be able to wax poetically on the similarities and differences between the two games.

The two Unmatched games were both exactly what you'd expect from the series (quality components, interesting and asymmetrical characters, etc.).

Finally, Lands of Amazement is a solo game from Button Shy Games. This little 18-card game took me a moment to wrap my head around the rules, but once I did, I realized that the game is actually a very thinky puzzle game.

That does it for May! My son was hit and miss in terms of wanting to play board games this month, so that's why there are so many solo games! Thank goodness for solo options, I still have my "Play a Game Every Day" goal alive and kicking!

Barry Larkin Collection 1,096: 1996 Pinnacle FanFest - #18

2026-06-03T08:00:00.000-04:00

Barry Larkin

Year: 1996

Brand: Pinnacle FanFest

Card number: 18

In 1996, Pinnacle issued a 30-card* set called FanFest to coincide with that year's All-Star game in Philadelphia. You probably could have guessed where the All-Star game was held based on the card's design (plus the Phillies logo is a bit of a giveaway)! It's certainly a busy set design, but it's on par for the era (for better or worse)!

*Note: There was a 31st card (of Steve Carlton) that was intended to be used for VIP badges, but a few copies of the card have made their way into the wild.

Here's the full set checklist. As you'd expect, it's full of the top stars of the era!

Cal Ripken, Jr.
Greg Maddux
Ken Griffey, Jr.
Frank Thomas
Jeff Bagwell
Hideo Nomo
Tony Gwynn
Albert Belle
Mo Vaughn
Mike Piazza
Dante Bichette
Ryne Sandberg
Wade Boggs
Kirby Puckett
Ozzie Smith
Barry Bonds
Gary Sheffield
Barry Larkin
Kevin Seitzer
Jay Bell
Chipper Jones
Ivan Rodriguez
Cecil Fielder
Manny Ramirez
Randy Johnson
Moises Alou
Mark McGwire
Jason Isringhausen
Joe Carter
Darren Daulton SP
Steve Carlton SP

In addition to the base set, there is also a "Playing Card" parallel - basically the same set but with only a giant Pinnacle logo on the backside. Unfortunately, as of the time of this post, I don't own Barry's parallel from the set. Maybe someday I'll have that card to show off as well!

TCDB Monday: A Week in Which I Complete Another Set!

2026-06-01T08:00:00.000-04:00

Another Monday, another TCDB trade recap post.

We'll jump right in with a trade that took a long time to complete. User gradnin and I agreed to a trade back in early April, and we both sent our respective cards along. My cards arrived at his place in a standard amount of time, but for some reason, his envelope must have gotten lost at some point in its travels. It took nearly two months, but the envelope did finally arrive last week!

I'm super glad this trade ended up showing up, because it means that I've now finished the 2025 Topps Allen & Ginter 50 State Birds set! That's the 11th different set that I've completed off of my want list thus far this year, an accomplishment that I'm certainly pleased about!

Next up, from user coachnfisher comes a 2026 Barry Larkin card that I needed:

That's a 1991 Topps 35th Anniversary Crackle Foil parallel. I'll admit, it's a pretty cool-looking card, even if the idea of parallels of inserts is still stupid to me.

Finally, we end with a trade with user paulie3jobs:

That's the regular 1991 Topps 35th Anniversary insert, which goes along nicely with the parallel from the previous trade! It's hard to believe how many Barry Larkin cards are still being produced, despite Larkin having been retired since the 2004 MLB season!

That does it for the past week on TCDB. Two new-to-me Barry Larkin cards and a completed set, not bad for a week's work.