Nachos Grande: A Baseball Card Blog

Board Game Friday: February, March, and April 2026 Plays

2026-05-15T08:00:00.004-04:00

For a while, I was doing a good job at recapping my monthly board game plays. Unfortunately, I dropped the proverbial ball in February, then again in March, and again in April. So, here we are in May, and I'm finally able to recap some board gaming fun.

February 2026:

Highlights for February include a new family favorite: Railroad Tiles. Railroad Tiles is published by the same folks who did Railroad Ink (another favorite game of mine). My wife got addicted to Railroad Tiles, so she, my son, and I played the game after dinner a bunch in January, February, and March.

Another game worth mentioning is Jurassic World: The Legacy of Isla Nublar. This is a legacy adventure game about building your own Jurassic Park, complete with scenes and characters from the various movies in the franchise. My son and I enjoyed this one, though we still haven't actually finished the entire adventure (the setup time is onerous, which is the worst part of the game).

March 2026:

March saw the arrival of Lairs, and with it, my son's newest gaming obsession. Lairs is a battleship-esque game where each player first builds their own dungeon, and then each player has to work their way through their opponent's dungeon. The Kickstarter version of the game features a ton of fun unlockables. I highly recommend the game (but you'll definitely want the Kickstarter version)!

April 2026:

The Lairs obsession continued throughout April; my son and I averaged a game of it every other day for the month! I'm also still working my way through my personal solo challenge of Naturopolis. I'm trying to beat all 816 different scoring combinations. Currently, I'm about 10% of the way through the challenge, so you can probably expect to see Naturopolis on my monthly played games list for the next several years (assuming I keep up working on the challenge)!

Although the past semester was hectic, I find some solace and quality downtime playing some board games. I'm certainly excited to be done with teaching for a few months, and yes, hopefully that means a lot more time for boardgaming!

Hitting the Road with more Vintage 1953-1955 Topps World on Wheels Cards!

2026-05-13T08:00:00.003-04:00

Today, I'm ready to show off more cards from the lot of 1953-1955 Topps World on Wheels cards that I bought on eBay. I've decided to try and collect the full set, so buying a "starter lot" seemed like a decent idea. Let's see what else I was able to acquire!

As with the previous two posts (here and here), I'll go through the cards in numerical order.

#52: Locomobile Stanhope 1899

This sort of looks like a microwave on wheels with a dining room chair strapped to the top. According to the card back, it's actually the first "quantity produced" car in the world. Interestingly enough, despite being the car of choice for over half of New Yorkers in 1902, the automobile was "troublesome to maintain and frequently caught on fire." I guess that's what you get when you try to drive kitchen appliances!

#61: White Steamer Touring 1906

Now that's a fancy-looking car! This was the first car used at the White House by Teddy Roosevelt.

#74: Cadillac Eldorado 1953

If this car doesn't scream "50s" to you, I'm not sure what will! According to the car back, one of the best features of this car was its air conditioning, though I question the need for that when you can just leave the top down!

#76: Peerless Roadster 1913

According to the card back, the Model 48-six was never offered as a Roadster, but this particular vehicle was used as a truck in Brooklyn when it was "rescued by Charles Stich, the famous French antique car mechanician" who rebuilt the body as a roadster. The most interesting thing about that to me is the use of the word "mechnician" which I didn't know was a word (and, for the record, neither does Blogger's automatic spellcheck)!

#81: Dodge Coronet 1953

One thing worth noting about this set is that at the time of the set's release, this would be a card celebrating a new release on the automotive market.

#82: Henry J Corsair Deluxe 1953

Another new-at-the-time car model, the Corsair Deluxe was the first in the low-price range to feature an instrument panel crash pad. This car could go thirty miles per gallon of gas, a number that is still impressive for today's vehicles!

#90: Ford Fire Chief's Runabout 1915

I love this old Fire Chief vehicle. Give me more oddball stuff like this as opposed to tons of cards showing old, simple cars. The Fire Chief Runabout had a top speed of over 50 mph, so the chief could get to the scene of the fire quickly!

#91: Chrysler New Yorker 1953

We'll end today's post with this "modern" Club Coupe from Chrysler. This car featured both power steering and power braking, making it one of the most modern cars on the market at the time. You could even get electrical window lifts (buttons that automatically raise or lower the windows). I'm old enough to remember the old hand crank to raise/lower windows, so don't scoff at the fact that automatic windows were a big deal at the time!

That does it for this batch of wonderful car cards! I'm enjoying taking my time going through the cards and writing these posts. I hope some of you are enjoying a trip down memory lane (or at least a look at a bunch of old vehicles). I still have more cards to show off from this set in the near future!

Going Down Many Rabbit Holes with the 1953-55 Topps World on Wheels Set!

2026-05-11T08:00:00.011-04:00

I fully admit to milking my recent eBay purchase of a big lot of 1953-55 Topps World on Wheels cards. I don't have the chance to buy vintage cards often, and I find the set to be worthy of a lot of scans! I do hope you enjoy seeing the cards - and hopefully someday I'll have the entire set to show off all at once. For now, let's return to the eBay lot and see what the next several cards are all about.

#94: Ford Country Squire 1953

Another state-of-the-art car for the time of the set's publication, the Ford Country Squire is a pretty sweet-looking station wagon. According to the card back, one of the big changes to the 1953 vehicle is that the clutch and brake pedals are now being suspended from above, "doing away with dusty, drafty floor holes."

#97: Packard Patrician 1953

This four-door sedan included power steering, power brakes, an automatic transmission, and air conditioning. What more could you ask for from a 1950s-era vehicle? Well, I guess you could hope for a car that wasn't the size of a mid-sized boat, but beggars can't be choosers.

#99: Buick Roadmaster 1953

This hardtop convertible looks like it is straight out of The Jetsons. Much like the Packard from above, this car also features air conditioning. I guess air conditioning must have started to be in cars en masse around 1953? There sure seem to be a lot of cards proudly proclaiming the inclusion of a way to cool down the air.

#100: Pontiac Parisienne

One of the uglier cars that I've seen in the set, the Parisienne sounds like it was even worse looking on the inside! According to the card back, the car featured black carpeting, pink cowhide, and nylon decoration. Yikes!

I had to do a Google search to see if I could find a photo of the interior. As luck would have it, Google did provide a couple of decent photos:

That car is almost so ugly that it is circling back around to "cool looking."

#105: Adams-Farwell Stanhope 1906

After a run of "modern" cars, the next card goes back to "old" cars. I like the dark blue paint job, but that seat looks mighty uncomfortable. This car featured an air-cooled engine that revolved around a stationary crankshaft. It was geared to the wheels through a transmission and a single chain drive. I don't know much about cars, but that seems like a dumb design decision.

#108: Moon Raceabout 1912

This car was all the rage at the 1912 New York Show in Madison Square Garden. According to the card back, the car was purchased by an engineer on the Long Island Rail Road. The car was driven through 1929 when it was retired, and eventually the car made its way to the (now defunct) Automotive Museum in Southampton, New York.

#109: Leon Bollee Tricycle 1898

This was one of the earliest mass-produced cars in the world. It had a three-speed transmission, brakes, a steering wheel, and pneumatic tires. According to the card back, the ignition was by a platinum tube heated by a flame. Again, I don't know a lot about cars, but that seems like another poor design decision. I'd love to know the reasoning behind three wheels as opposed to four as well.

#110: Apache

This hand-built roadster was a Frankenstein-esque combination of parts from a 1939 Ford, a 1937 Dodger, and a 1949 Ford motor. The car was built by Mr. and Mrs. Eddie Pardue. This set certainly inspires me to do a lot of Google searching for follow-up information. For the Apache, I found this article:

That will do for the next batch of cards from the Topps World on Wheels set. I've definitely enjoyed going through the cards at a slow pace - doing lots of extra research and reading really slows down the post writing, but the various rabbit holes are fun to go down! I still have more cards from the eBay lot to show off, so expect more car cards before too long.

Board Game Friday; Trading Board Games!

2026-05-08T08:00:00.000-04:00

I am finally to the point where I am able to write about the last of the packages that I received in calendar year 2025! That's right, once I show off today's board game trade, I'm all done with 2025 mailings. That feels good, if for no other reason than it's proof that I'm slowly but surely getting caught back up on everything.

This particular trade was with Board Game Geek user RentalCabin. I sent him a brand new (still in shrink) copy of the game Horseless Carriage, and in return, I got Aquatica.

Giving:

Stock image, I didn't think to take a photo of my copy before mailing it out!

Horseless Carriage is one of the newest games from the publisher Splotter. Splotter games are known for being long, convoluted, and extremely brutal. I was able to grab the game originally from an online sale where I got it for cheap, but unfortunately, I didn't see a world in which I'd have a chance to play the game anytime soon, and so I added it to my trade bait. According to BGG, Horseless Carriage has a weight of 4.31 and is best played with four players. I don't think I know three other people who would enjoy a game that heavy (with a 3-4 hour playtime, no less)!

Recieving:

Aquatica is an engine builder that's much, much lighter (and quicker) than Horseless Carriage. BGG gives this a 2.32 weight and says it plays in 30-60 minutes. With an ideal player count of 2 or 3 people, I think this one is going to prove possible to get the table much more easily!

One of my goals this summer is to pare down my board game collection a bit. I am totally out of shelf space (and I have a few crowdfunded games that are due to arrive in the next few months). Of course, a trade like this helps me get rid of games that I'm not playing, but it didn't really save me any shelf space! I've been offering up more two-for-one type trades on BGG, which is what I really need to do if I'm serious about making more shelf space available! Hopefully, I'll have more board game trades to show off in the near future!

Back with Some More Vintage 1953-1955 Topps World on Wheels Cards!

2026-05-06T08:00:00.075-04:00

Last week, I showed off the first eight cards (sequentially speaking) from a recent eBay purchase of a lot of 1954-1955 Topps World on Wheels cards. Today, I thought I'd show off the next batch of nine cards from the same lot.

#25: Airport Fire Truck

I think I like the cards showing old work vehicles, such as this Airport Fire Truck, more than the cards of old cars. There's something that's both super interesting and super quaint about seeing old trucks!

#26. Cooper-Bristol

Based on my above comments, you might wonder where an old racecar would fit into my hierarchy of desirable cards from the set. I'd slot this in the middle, not as cool as the old-timey trucks, but definitely better than your regular cars. Plus, you get an image of a guy who looks like he has no hands (which you think would make driving this racecar challenging)!

#28. Ford Runabout 1903

And here we go, a standard old, old car. According to the card back, this was only an eight-horsepower car. However, it does have the distinction of being the first car in the "Parade of Fords" at the Long Island Automotive Museum (which, unfortunately, closed in 1980, from what I found online).

#30. Alfa Romeo

Now this is a sweet-looking racing car! According to the card back, the Alfa-Romeoo company is considered the greatest builder of Grand Prix cars in the world (for the time).

#33. Willys Jeep

This vehicle makes me think of my grandfather, who fought in World War II. He didn't talk about the war much in his lifetime, but he did tell me about the jeep he had while overseas (which he had to sell before he returned stateside). I don't know that it was a Jeep that looked like the one in the card, but that's what I always imagined it looked like when he shared that story!

#35. Effyh

A one-cylinder racing car with 40 horsepower and a top speed of 130 mph. Pretty impressive numbers for such a small car!

#37. Ford Roadster 1910

The image on the card front is credited to the "Long Island Automotive Museum," which caught my eye only because I looked into the museum a few minutes ago while writing the earlier blurb about the Ford Runabout 1903.

#45. Franklin Rear Entrance Touring 1904

This car is unique in that it was known as a cross-engine Franklin since the crankshaft ran from side-to-side. This car was one of the first models of the most successful air-cooled car. The card back states that you could see this particular model in the Automotive Museum at Southampton, NY (which is apparently the same thing as the Long Island Automotive Museum if my Google search is to be believed).

#48. Packard Landaulet 1912

This car was apparently built to order for a lady in Newport (and was also once in the Long Island Automotive Museum). Heck, I'm not even a car guy, but I'm starting to miss that car museum!!

That does it for this batch. As you can see, the lot was a nice starter lot to get me going on the set (but I have a long way to go before the set is complete). This is a rather minor collecting goal of mine, but I do enjoy having a vintage set to work on (especially one that isn't crazy expensive)!

TCDB Monday: Lets Get Serial(ous)

2026-05-04T08:00:00.001-04:00

Happy Monday, everyone. Today's TCDB mailbag is light (only a single card), but it's a good one! Sometimes less is more.

Last week's lone swap* came courtesy of user Bob Obert.

That's a Season Stat Line parallel of Barry Larkin's 2003 Donruss card. As was Donruss's shtick, the card is serially numbered up to a specific number for a statistic from the player's previous year. In Barry's case, his Season Stat Line card is numbered out of 47 copies, exactly equal to the number of RBI he had in the previous year. Are parallels like this stupid? Of course, but as a player collector, I collect everything I can, stupid or not!

*I should have another trade to show off that was supposedly sent a month ago, but the trader has "ghosted" me and not replied, and, of course, no package has shown up in my mailbox. I am still hopeful this trade ends up okay, but I don't feel great about the chances of that at the moment.

Getting back to the Donruss Barry Larkin card, I am now within two Larkin cards of finishing off the 2003 Donruss set. Unfortunately, both of the cards I still need are "sample" cards:

#259 Sample Silver
#259 Sample Gold

I am guessing I'll never get either of those, except by some stroke of dumb luck, but hey, maybe I'll be surprised. The other Larkin cards in the set are his base card (which I have) and his Career Stat Line card (#/188), which I also own.

The above is the binder page that now holds the Season Stat Line card, as you can see, I need to star working on the various 2003 Donruss Champions needs next!

Barry Larkin Collection 1,095: 1996 Pinnacle - #51 - Starburst Artist's Proof

2026-05-03T08:00:00.000-04:00

Barry Larkin

Year: 1996

Brand: Pinnacle

Parallel set: Starburst Artist's Proof

Card number: 51

Seeded 1:47 hobby packs, the Starburst Artist's Proof cards are a tough-to-find partial parallel set for Series 1 of 1996 Pinnacle. Of the 200 cards in Series 1, exactly 100 got the Starburst Artist's Proof treatment. I love the Dufex treatment that Pinnacle used in the mid-90s, and this card is no exception to my fandom! I'm certainly happy to have this one in my collection!

Board Game Friday: Getting a Free Game in the Mail!

2026-05-01T08:00:00.013-04:00

A few weeks ago, I saw a post on Board Game Geek saying that the publisher OP Games was giving away copies of one of their newest card games: Tacta. I'm certainly not opposed to adding new games to my collection, so I signed up for the giveaway and promptly forgot about the whole thing. Flash forward a week or two later, and an envelope showed up in my mailbox with a brand new copy of Tacta!

This is a card game for 2-6 players in which players attempt to flip, twist, and turn their cards in order to cover as many of their opponents' colors as possible. To do so, players must match up shapes (squares, triangles, and rectangles) while creating an ever-growing board with up to six colors. According to the box back, games should only last about 20 minutes (which is perfect for a light card game)!

I'm excited to get Tacta to the table. It looks like an entertaining abstract game that I think my son will probably love (and quite possibly beat me at)! I'll have to report back once I've had a chance to actually play the game.

In the meantime, since OP Games was so kind to send me the game for free, the least I can do today is scan the ad that came with my game; maybe one of those games will catch your eye!

Personally, I like the look of Oasis: New Life on a Distant World. That game doesn't appear to be out yet, but I've already added it to my watch list on Board Game Geek.

Many thanks to the OP Games company for the free game! Happy Friday, everyone!

A Surprise Mailing from Rod (Padrographs)

2026-04-29T08:00:00.006-04:00

Recently (as in, this month), I received a surprise mailing from Rod over at Padrographs. Rod is one of my longtime trade partners, and he always sends me interesting stuff! For this mailing, he hit a couple of my collecting interests, beginning with Allen & Ginter minis:

I'm nearly done with the 2025 A&G mini insert sets. In fact, my State Birds set is now down to needing only two more cards!

In addition to the Ginter goodies, Rod also sent me a pair of Barry Larkin cards:

I'm always happy to add more Larkin cards to my collection!

And finally, this Eric Davis:

This card celebrates the 1989 Home Run Derby. Eric Davis won this particular event (in a tie with the Rangers' Ruben Sierra). Interestingly enough, he only hit three home runs in the runs, but that was enough to be the best among the National League hitters. After Davis' victory in 1989, a Cincinnati Red wouldn't win the Home Run Derby again until 2015 when Todd Frazier won the event in the Reds' home ballpark!

Many thanks to Rod for the surprise mailer (and you should be getting a return mailer within a couple of days). It's always fun to get packages in the mail!

It's a Good Monday for Some Vintage Cards!

2026-04-27T08:00:00.009-04:00

I don't have any TCDB trades to show off this week (mostly because my job kept me much too busy over the past month). However, despite no trades arriving in the past week, I do have a bunch of new-to-me cards to show off from an eBay purchase!

About a month ago, I placed an order on COMC, which included me purchasing a pair of cards from the 1953-55 Topps World on Wheels set. I found the set to be even better in hand, so in my seemingly never-ending quest to try and collect impossible sets, I decided why not try to build the full World on Wheels set (or, at least the non-super short printed portion of the set)? Anyhow, flash forward a few weeks, and now I'm the proud owner of an eBay lot of cards from the set.

Today, I thought I'd show off the first eight cards that I now own from the set (in sequential order). Of course, I don't own the first eight cards of the set, but you have to start somewhere when collecting a new set!

#1: Diamond T Concrete Mixer

According to the card back, this concrete mixer "is an outstanding performer on the highway." You don't hear that very often when referencing a cement mixer!

#2: Cummins Diesel

This car entered the Indianapolis Speedway Race in 1952. From what I could find online, it appears the car started slowly, but eventually took the pole position only to have to retire 71 laps in (out of 200 laps) due to a clogged engine intake.

#4: Buick Toy Tonneau 1910

This car cost $1150 back when it was brand new. According to the online CPI Inflation calculator, $1150 in 1910 would be $39,973.15 in today's dollars. Honestly, that seems like a fair price back then when you compare it to today's dollars.

#9: Buick "Bug" Runabout 1911

I wish cars today had names like "runabout." It's quaint and I kind of love it. This car was a much cheaper car for the time, with a price of only $550.

#13: Maxwell Roadster 1911

With a price tag of $1600, this wasn't a cheap car. This was the largest and most expensive of the Maxwell models of the era. According to the card back, this car was designed for "the man-about-town, with plenty of class." I guess in some ways car advertising hasn't changed much.

#18: Cemo Turbo

This car could reach a top speed of about 125 mph. Thanks to its oil turbine motor, it had a reduced risk of freezing and less danger of fires. That all said, it's a strange-looking car!

#21: Brush Panel Delivery 1911

This single-cylinder vehicle was slow, but it was used for tasks like collecting mail and delivering packages. I've never been a big "car guy," but if you had me picture an "old-timey" car, this is the sort of thing that I picture in my head.

#23. Class C Lakester

We'll round out the first nine cards from the set (that I now own) with this open-wheel hot rod. This car had a top speed of about 186 mph! I must say, it looks like something out of a 1950's era dream about what the future would look like.

That does it for today's post. I hope you've enjoyed these historic cards as much as I have! I still have several more to show off, and obviously, I'm a long, long ways from completing the full set. Even so, this is a great start, so here's to another vintage set build!

Board Game Friday: Button Shy Board Game of the Month Club (February and March 2026)

2026-04-24T08:00:00.005-04:00

When I originally signed up for the Button Shy Game of the Month club, games were mailed out every single month. Unfortunately, the company has shifted how they are doing things, and now games go out every other month. Members still get a game each month, but now you have to wait twice as long for another fun package. Recently, I received my package containing both the February 2026 and March 2026 games.

February 2026:

Battlecrest: Deadrock base game
Battlecrest: Reference cards
Apropos of Board Games: 1 card
Apropos of Movies: 1 card

Battlecrest appears to be a tactical fighting game with way more rules than a usual Button Shy wallet game. In fact, I believe this is the only Button Shy game that I own that has official reference cards included with it! Unfortunately, I haven't yet had a chance to play the game, so my thoughts on whether it's worth the time and effort to get through the rules will have to wait for a future day.

March 2026:

Otter Chaos game
Adventurous: Cursed Seas expansion
Apropos of Board Games: 1 card
Apropos of Movies: 1 card

The Apropos games are party games that rely on an extensive memory of either board games or movies. I'm basically trash at any game that requires a good memory, so I can't say the extra cards excite me much. On the other hand, the expansion for Adventurous is appreciated. I've enjoyed my plays of Adventurous thus far! Finally, the main star of the March package is Otter Chaos, a game for two players. Unfortunately, my quick perusal of the rules seems to suggest that the game is a glorified rock-paper-scissors type game. Of course, I need to actually play it (or at least read the rules closely), but I can't say this particular game is getting me all that excited to learn it.

And that's two more months of the Button Shy Board Game of the Month Club. I'll admit, if this was my first package from the company, I'd probably quit BGotMC. Other than the one expansion (and maybe Battlecrest), there wasn't a lot here that interested me. I guess that's the risk of a monthly subscription!

Looking forward, earlier this week Button Shy announced that they were going to be moving away from the wallet storage solution. Apparently, all future games in the Board Game of the Month Club will be packed in either small boxes or paper envelopes. That's a bit of a bummer for me, since I have an entire basket full of Button Shy wallets, but I understand why the company is making the change (the wallets had to be hand-packed, not to mention they are very difficult for stores to stock on the shelves without suffering product theft)!

Barry Larkin Collection 1,094: 1996 Pinnacle - #15 - First Rate

2026-04-22T08:00:00.001-04:00

Barry Larkin

Year: 1996

Brand: Pinnacle

Insert: First Rate

Card number: 15

The First Rate insert set was a retail-only offering that celebrated former 1st round picks. This 18-card set has a stacked checklist (see below). I like the color scheme used in the design; the set is certainly eye-catching (as any good insert set ought to be)!

First Rate Checklist:

Ken Griffey, Jr.
Frank Thomas
Mo Vaughn
Chipper Jones
Alex Rodriguez
Kirby Puckett
Gary Sheffield
Matt Williams
Barry Bonds
Craig Biggio
Robin Ventura
Michael Tucker
Derek Jeter
Manny Ramirez
Barry Larkin
Shawn Green
Will Clark
Mark McGwire

Other than maybe Michael Tucker, this is an awesome "who's who" of mid-90s stars (all of which were first-round picks)! I like when an insert set has a decent theme, something that I've learned over the years that Pinnacle was actually quite good at designing. For a retail-only set, I'd say this is a pure winner, and I'm glad to have this Larkin card in my player collection.

TCDB Monday (I'm baaaaaaccckkkkk!)

2026-04-20T08:00:00.006-04:00

The past few weeks have been a wild ride, both in terms of work (the end of the spring semester is always nuts) and the weather (we were near 90 degrees a couple of days ago, and yet it snowed last night)! No matter, the good news for me is that I'm down to my final week of teaching for the spring semester. That means I should have more time for blogging (and trading) coming up, and I have enough time right now to show off some recent TCDB trade pickups.

We'll begin with a trade with user N00bL1f3:

That's two of the final five cards that I need for my 2025 Topps Allen & Ginter "50 Fish from Global Waters" set build. There's hope yet that I might complete this set before the 2026 edition of Allen & Ginter is released!

Next up, from user kcjays comes another needed mini, this time from last year's Allen & Ginter "State Birds" set:

I am now down to needing only three more birds before this set is also complete. I'll say, it's kind of evil of Topps to make a 50-card mini set, given that you only get four or five minis per hobby box. The regular mini inserts don't tend to hold much value, but they are a pain to acquire!

Next, I received two cards from user DrJuul:

Technically, this was two different trades on TCDB. We had agreed to one swap where I was getting one of the minis, and then, before either of us mailed, DrJuul found another mini I needed, so we put together a second swap. It's certainly nice to get a pair of needed cards without spending two stamps, so I'll consider this a win. With the Chickadee in hand, I'm now down to needing only two more birds. The Cockspur Island Lighthouse is the penultimate card I need for that set...I'm so close to completing all of the 2025 A&G mini sets!

Finally, last but certainly not least: From user ryegram comes two more minis from last year's A&G set, but this time one of them finished off a set!

Yep, that Fernando Tatis, Jr. card was the final card I needed for my 1889 N222 mini set build. I am a big fan of that particular mini set, so having the full thing safely tucked away in my binder makes me happy (not to mention that set is now the ninth set that I've completed in 2026)!

All told, I've been super busy over the past few weeks, but not so busy that I couldn't find a few minutes here and there to make some trades. My various mini set builds from 2025 Ginter are moving along nicely. I'm so close to being done with most sets that I can taste it! For those who are curious, here's what I'm still missing:

2025 Topps Allen & Ginter Wants:

Minis:50 Fish from Global Waters:

FGW- 1, 32

Light the Night:

LTN- 6

State Birds:

SB- 22, 31

Crunch Time!

2026-04-06T08:00:00.004-04:00

Now that we've flipped the calendar to April, I'm in the middle of what I call "crunch time" at work. Basically, it's the end of the semester, which means lots of extra meetings, weekend activities, and, of course, I'm also coaching baseball again, so there are weekly practices, parents to respond to, etc. In short, there's way too much stuff vying for way too little available time. As such, I'm going to probably have blogging take a back seat for a few weeks, but don't worry, I'll still be around (and posting when I can).

I'll mention to those of you hoping to see some TCDB trades (as I usually post on Mondays), I've been too busy and, as such, had zero trades arrive last week (one trade has apparently gotten lost in the mail for two months, and I don't expect I'll ever see that one). I did get a surprise package in the mail from a fellow blogger, but that deserves its own special blog post when I get a proper chance to do so!

COMC: My Final (Ever?) Order - Part 3 (No April Fools Here!)

2026-04-01T08:00:00.003-04:00

I'm back with the final batch of cards from my recent (and perhaps final?) order from Check Out My Cards. My disgust with that site is well-documented at this point, both from a buyer's perspective (slow shipping, shipping costs, etc.) as well as from a seller's viewpoint (high costs, double fees, etc.). That all said, the site does offer a lot of cards for sale - including one that I have been searching for for over about two decades at this point!

Let's start with the crown jewel of the purchase, at least in terms of how long I've looked for this particular card:

That's a 2006 Fleer Greats of the Game Nickname Greats card of Ron Guidry. For whatever reason, the "Louisiana Lightning" card had eluded me for nearly 20 years. I'm pleased to say that I've now completed this 60-card set!

Before hitting "buy" on the site, I did a quick search to see if there were any interesting Barry Larkin cards that I still needed (for cheap, of course). I was able to find one serially numbered out of 199 for a low price, so of course I had to add that to my cart:

That's a 2025 Panini Prizm parallel, something that TCDB calls Pandora Prizm from the Premium Box Set. COMC called it simply the Premium Box Set Prizm. No matter what you want to call it, there are two things that are true:

1. It's a cool-looking parallel.

2. Panini Prizm has too many parallels with no easy way to discern what you are looking at.

Finally, I ended up grabbing three other cards on my way out of the site. These three are definitely of the "why not?" variety - and all three are thanks to a fellow blogger inspiring me (unfortunately, I've long since forgotten who originally posted about the 1953-55 Topps World on Wheels set)!

#31: Hose Truck

As you can see, card condition wasn't important to me on these old 1950s cards; I was more interested in the low price! The two-tone design of the cards works well. I love the vintage aesthetic!

#8. Lumber Tuck

I decided to try to pick up a few subjects that I thought looked neat. The fire truck from above is a classic vehicle, but this lumber truck truly intrigued me. According to the card back (it should be noted that this set has great card backs), the Lumber Truck stands over a pile of lumber and then loads from underneath.

#95: Buick XP-300

Finally, I grabbed this "experimental car" that looks like it is right out of a James Bond movie! According to the card back, this car was designed and constructed after the end of World War II and was insured for one million dollars!

That does it for my most recent COMC order. I have to say, I love those World on Wheels cards a lot - so much so that I've added the rest of the set to my TCDB want list!

TCDB Monday: Ohtani is the New Jeter.

2026-03-30T08:00:00.004-04:00

Happy Monday, everyone. As usual, I've got some TCDB trades to show off to start the week, so let's get right to it!

First up, from user TnTitan1 comes this Derek Jeter from the 2025 Topps Chrome Mojo set:

It's no surprise that it was Derek Jeter who was my penultimate need for this set. It's even less surprising that the one card that I still need from the set is the Shohei Ohtani. Ohtani is basically the new "Jeter" when it comes to cards that are nearly impossible to trade for. Ugh.

My other trade that arrived last week was from user mookdaruch:

Five more 2025 A&G minis down! I've still not completed any of the above sets, but I'm darn close. At this point, I need only one more N222, two more Light the Nights, and three more State Bird cards. So, so close (and yet, so far away)!

And that's it on the trade front from last week. Work has been keeping me swamped, so honestly, the fact that I was even able to complete two trades is a victory for me. I've got to keep my head above water for about four more weeks and then I should be able to return to blogging (and trading) as normal!

TCDB Monday: Minis, Minis, and Minis

2026-03-23T08:00:00.029-04:00

After today, there is only one more Monday in March. That's exciting. I'm sick of winter, and I'm ready for my academic semester to be completed! In the meantime, how about some baseball card trades to keep our minds off the rain (and snow) that often accompany the end of March?

We'll start with a simple swap with TCDB user realbigexplosion:

That's one of the final three cards that I needed for the 2025 Allen & Ginter N222 mini set. With the Brooks Lee card in hand, I'm now only missing #16 (Fernando Tatis, Jr.) and #25 (Kevin Alcantara). I'm certainly pleased to have the "big names" already acquired (Ohtani, Judge, etc.). I have high hopes that I'll be able to finish this set soon.

Next up, from user La Loosh comes the final mini that I needed from the 2025 Allen & Ginter "Beachin' It" set!

The Seven Mile Beach is located on the western side of Grand Cayman. According to the card back, the entire waterfront is open to the public, not just guests of the luxury hotels (which is nice for us "common folk"). Of course, I've never been to Grand Cayman, but the thought is lovely.

Finally, from user Imcgown comes three more minis:

That Olson was a mistake on my end (I had already purchased it on COMC but forgot to mark it "in transit" over on TCDB). I also ended up trading for that Acuna twice in the span of about a week (whoops), so overall, only the Eastern Bluebird card ended up slotting into my binder pages. Oh well, hopefully I can trade that Acuna for one of the two missing N222 cards that I still actually need!

That does it for the past week on TCDB. Overall, things are getting better for me (I'm finally not sick, the weather is slowly coming around, and the semester is starting to wind down). Once work is done, I'll hopefully have a lot more time to devote to cards - until then, I'll sneak in trades when I can!

COMC: My Final (Ever?) Order - Part 2

2026-03-21T08:00:00.002-04:00

Today, I'm back to show off more cards from my recent COMC order. As I detailed in my first post about the purchase, there's a decent chance that this will be my last order from COMC unless they change back to being a bit more friendly to the consumer. That said, I was able to nab several needed cards in my latest order, so let's dive in!

First up, the final two cards that I needed for my 2025 Topps: 1990 Topps 35th Anniversary Chrome Series 1 set:

No real surprise that the final two cards were both of the rookie card variety. For as much as we bloggers complain about Topps loading every set with tons of rookies, it sure seems like the average collector loves all of the rookie logos on their cards. I can tell you that I wasn't able to trade for these cards over on TCDB for a full year, so obviously, someone is loving the abundance of rookie cards.

Sticking with the 2025 Topps, I also finished off the Series 2 version of the same set!

If you are counting rookies, three of the final four cards that I needed for this set were of the rookie variety (only Junior Caminero didn't have the little rookie logo).

Finally, we stick with the 2025 Topps set for another Chrome set, this time the 1990 35th Anniversary Topps All-Star Chrome set:

I was happy to be able to acquire four more needed cards, but unfortunately, I'm still not quite done with this set. For those wondering, here's what I'm still looking for:

#ASC-2. Shohei Ohtani
#ASC-22. Derek Jeter

Yep, that looks about right, doesn't it? Of course, Jeter and Ohtani would have to be the final two cards that I need for my set build.

That'll do for today's post. I still have a few more cards from my COMC order to show off, including a few cards from the 1950s that were directly inspired by at least one fellow blogger! Stay tuned.

Board Game Friday: My Top 100 Board Games of 2025 (#19 - 11)

2026-03-20T08:00:00.001-04:00

My countdown of the Top 100 Board Games of 2025 has been going strong over on my Instagram account. Today, I'm here to recap the next batch of games from my Top 100 list!

If you missed previous entries:
Games #100 - 93 (here)

Games #92 - 85 (here)

Games #84 - 78 (here)

Games #77 - 65 (here)

Games #64 - 51 (here)

Games #50 - 30 (here)

Games #29 - 20 (here)

We have now made it through 90 of the Top 100 games according to my list that I started back late last year. Next time, I'll hopefully have the full top 10 portion of the list to show off!

COMC: My Final (Ever?) Order - Part 1

2026-03-18T08:00:00.002-04:00

If you've read baseball card blogs over the past few months, then you've probably encountered at least one person expressing disdain for the once-popular Check Out My Cards (COMC) website. COMC used to be a place where collectors could simultaneously offload unwanted cards for a bit of cash and use that cash to purchase wanted cards from other collectors. The nice thing about COMC was that the company stored all of the cards and provided scans of the cards. In this way, collectors felt like their purchases were more secure, and, as such, it was worth paying the bit of a markup that COMC charged on each sale. In addition, COMC would hold cards for collectors, which allowed people to make several small purchases before deciding to have their entire batch of cards shipped (thus saving in shipping costs for the customer). All of this was reasonable, and it was good while it lasted.

Unfortunately, COMC has been going downhill for quite some time in terms of the user experience. Selling cards seems to have gotten more expensive (you pay a hefty fee to get cards listed, and then COMC takes another chunk out once a card sells). During covid times, COMC suffered from extremely long shipping delays (understandable at the time, but it took them years to get things to a more reasonable time frame). And now, what I think is the final nail in the coffin, COMC has drastically raised their shipping rates while still maintaining a super slow turnaround.

In an effort to prove that the above isn't simply me whining, here are the "stats" for two purchases that I made from COMC.

In 2025:

I made an order for 30 cards to be shipped to me. The order was made on March 14, and the cards were shipped a bit over a month later on April 18. Shipping cost me $5.99.

In 2026 (less than a year later):

I made an order for 28 cards to be shipped to me. The order was made on January 5, and the cards were shipped over five weeks later on February 13. Shipping cost me over double the previous order: $12.74.

So to recap: Two orders placed less than a year apart. The second order had two fewer cards (neither order had any super large cabinet cards or anything like that), and yet COMC charged me more than double for shipping AND took another week+ to actually ship my cards out.

When I saw the shipping fees for my most recent order, I actually got so annoyed that I then went and tried to have all of my cards that I am currently attempting to sell on COMC sent back to me as well (roughly 250 cards). That was a mistake; shipping went up to something like $40 or $50 at that point for what would basically be a bunch of low-end inserts and base cards that I don't even need. Ugh.

On the bright side, the cards DID finally arrive at my house - and since you've made it this far, I might as well show off some of what I purchased! In fact, we'll start with the biggest batch of cards from a single set: Chrome Refractors from the 2024 Topps Allen & Ginter set.

From the above batch, you'll notice that seven of the nine cards that I still needed are rookie cards. Topps loves their rookies...and apparently a lot of collectors do too, because the above purchase was all cards that I could never swing a deal for over on TCDB.

And speaking of cards that no one wants to trade me, I was able to nab the final two Chrome Refractors for my set build:

Yeah, no surprise to me that Aaron Judge was one of the final cards I needed. I think Judge is the new Derek Jeter - a Yankee that I'll always seem to need for just about any set build, because of course Topps is going to jam as many Aaron Judge cards in a set as possible (the same as what they used to do with Derek Jeter)! At least I don't have to worry about that for this set, because my 2024 Topps Allen & Ginter Chrome Refractor set is now complete! This marks the fourth set that I've completed in 2026!

Sticking with 2024 A&G, I also grabbed a pair of the Chrome Mini cards for my set build.

This build is still in progress, though I'm now only missing two more cards before I can call that set complete as well. My last two needed cards are #66: Manny Machado and #170: Jackie Robinson.

That will conclude the first part of my COMC order. I still have quite a few more cards to show off, so look for a follow-up post before too long!

The Monday After Spring Break (TCDB Time)

2026-03-16T08:00:00.005-04:00

So much for my spring break! The good news is that we did have a couple of days of actual spring-like weather here in northcentral Pennsylvania. The bad news? I was terribly sick for the two warm days, and basically sick all week. By the end of the week, we had snow flurries mixed in with a lot of wind and rain.

So yeah, most of my big plans for spring break didn't get off the ground. I did, however, manage to complete two trades via Trading Card Database. In regular Monday fashion, let's check them out!

First up, thanks to user mnorton082, I was able to swing a three-for-three deal of the mini insert variety!

I am now down to needing only one more Beach card, three more N222 cards (with one of those on the way), and seven more Bird cards (with two of those on the way). It's been a long, long slog trying to build all of the 2025 Allen & Ginter mini sets...and that's something that's been a problem for the past several years. I am seriously considering NOT going after all of the mini sets next year. I think a smarter person would only chase sets that actually interest them (to be fair, the 2025 set does have a lot of inserts that interest me, but you know what I'm trying to say).

My other trade was with user SMSiegell:

That's a 1990 Topps All-Star Chrome Mojo card from last year's Topps flagship (Series 2). This is another set that I'm nearly done working on (currently missing six more cards, with four of those on the way to me now)!

Even though I spent most of my spring break sick (which does mean that I didn't get to get much ahead in terms of my lessons either), I am happy to have had the chance to land a couple of trades!

Here's to feeling better (and hopefully warmer weather before too long)! Have a great week, everyone.

A Surprise Package from S.R. '75 Cards

2026-03-11T08:00:00.021-04:00

A few days ago, Stuart of S.R. '75 Cards fame reached out to me, stating that he had a surprise package to mail me. It didn't take long for a large padded envelope to show up at my doorstep - and inside it?

A Starting Lineup figure of Barry Larkin, still in the package!

Loyal readers may be surprised to learn that this is my first Starting Lineup figurine of Barry Larkin! I do try to collect the Starting Lineup baseball cards of Larkins, but I haven't ever chased the figurines. In part, due to cost and storage space, but also because, as a kid, I never owned any Starting Lineup figures. Thus, this was an extra fun surprise to find in the mail! Even better, I do own the baseball card that comes with this figurine, so I don't have to feel conflicted about whether to open the packaging or not. Okay, I'm still somewhat conflicted because part of me wants to open it up, but I guess for now I'll leave it in the packaging and add to my shelf of Barry Larkin bobbleheads!

The figure itself is pretty cool looking, I love the fully detailed uniform (including those lovely stirrup socks). Barry's making a play over second base, perhaps fielding a throw from the catcher on an attempted stolen base?

Many, many thanks to Stuart for the gift!

TCDB Monday: A Lone Trade from Last Week

2026-03-09T08:00:00.006-04:00

Today marks the first day of Spring Break at the college where I work, and it couldn't have come at a much better time! I'm teaching a new course and I was fresh out of completed lessons! Now, I've got a week to get back ahead of schedule, and hopefully I'll be able to ride that momentum through to the end of the school year.

Because I've been swamped with work lately, I haven't had much time for baseball card trading. In fact, in the past week only one TCDB trade went through - so let's take a quick look at that one now!

Thanks to user mookdaruch, I was able to add three more needed 2025 Allen & Ginter cards to my collection. First up, this shiny Barry Larkin:

That's the Silver Portrait parallel, basically a regular card printed on foilboard. I don't get the need for this particular set, but as a player collector, I try to acquire them no matter how hypocritical that makes me feel.

The other two cards in the trade were a pair of needed mini inserts:

I'm down to needing only a small handful of mini inserts, but as any set collector will tell you, those last few cards are the toughest to track down!

Despite my limited hobby time lately, I'm still pleased to have gained a bit for my various collections. I do hope to carve out some baseball card time this week, so hopefully I'll have more TCDB swaps to show off by this time next week (when, sadly, I'll have to be back at work)!

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

2026-03-06T08:00:00.001-05:00

I've mentioned many times on the blog that I enjoy Button Shy games, a company best known for its wide variety of 18-card wallet games. Today, I'm excited to show off a recent purchase I made from Button Shy's webpage. I ended up buying four wallet games thanks to a discount for being a member of the company's Board Game of the Month club. Here's what I picked up:

Pizza Pizza Yum Yum by Lance Schricke

This is a cooperative game where two players attempt work together to build two high-scoring pizzas, with the catch that you don't know all of the ingredients that the other person is putting on each pizza, nor do you know what ingredients they are going to make scoring ingredients for each pie. This is a super quick game, but it's also one that you'll probably immediately say, "Let's run it back again and see if we can do better!" My son and I have enjoyed this one quite a bit!

The Last Lighthouse by Scott Almes

This is a solo game about trying to keep the light on in the lighthouse while surviving a series of nightmares. It's a fairly dark plot, but the game looked intriguing, so I picked it up. Unfortunately, I've yet to sit down to try this one, so you'll have to wait for my judgment on another day. I will say that the creepy art is pretty neat, for whatever that's worth to you!

ROVE Jr. by Manon Mergnat

ROVE is a popular ButtonShy game, and ROVE Jr takes the basic idea of its "parent" but makes the game much more approachable. If you are looking for a "cozy" puzzle game, one that will make you think a bit, not necessarily burn your brain, then ROVE Jr might be just the ticket. As the name suggests, this is also a perfect game for kids. My son can play this one all on his own, and he's already declared the easiest version of the game as too easy! I should also mention that the game has super cute artwork, which certainly helps with the approachability, especially for children.

The Royal Limited by Scott Almes

Scott Almes is a master at creating enjoyable solo games, so whenever I see his name attached to something, I'm likely to at least want to give it a try. The Royal Limited is another game that I haven't yet had a chance to play, but based on reviews on BoardGameGeek, I'm expecting good things (it has a 7.0 on there, which is solid for a little game like this)!

Overall, I've been quite pleased with my purchase decisions. Two of the games I bought specifically to play with my son (Pizza Pizza Yum Yum and Rove Jr.), and both of those were successes! I haven't yet tried the other two solo games, but a quick glance at the cards has me excited to try both. There's something almost magical about the restrictions of an 18-card deck (and all of the variety that comes out of that particular design limitation). Not every Button Shy game I've tried is great, but the successes have certainly outweighed the failures by a large margin. I'll have to report back once I get the chance to play the two solo games from this purchase and see if the company's string of successes continues for me.

Adding to my Mini Collection, One Auction at a Time!

2026-03-04T08:00:00.003-05:00

I'm trying to wrap up my 2025 Topps Allen & Ginter set, but to do so, I need to finish off a number of mini sets yet. One of those sets is the N222 mini set, the only baseball-themed mini set from last year's Ginter. I recently won an eBay auction for a nice-sized stack of minis - a lot of which I still needed, and I figured the rest would be good trade bait to hopefully finish off my set!

Here's what I was able to add to my collection thanks to eBay:

At this point, I'm now only missing four cards from the set:

#3: Ronald Acuna, Jr.

#16: Fernando Tatis, Jr.

#25: Kevin Alcantara

#29: Brooks Lee

Happily, I now have the "big name" cards from the set, so hopefully it's only a short matter of time before I'm able to acquire the final four needed cards!