Stop Doomscrolling and Write a Post Already

There’s been a lot going on. Duh. So it’s pretty easy to get sucked into Twitter (if that’s your thing – it’s mine, for better or worse) and the endless scroll. Sometimes that endless scroll is a swirling vortex of dread. Sometimes, given how the population of people I follow splits, that endless scroll leads me across some cool cards and baseball conversations. Sometimes, those conversations even lead to me getting some cards – like this autograph that arrived last week.

If you know, you know. Yes, by some magical mistake I just so happened upon our pal Wes Moore, the Pancake King, in the middle of his Tradeathon thread of claimable hits, at just the right time. It’d been live for something like 15 minutes, so there were still things to claim. And hey, I even found some things for myself!

What was tucked in those Tweets? Well, for starters, a Roy Oswalt autograph! This puppy is from 2019 Topps’ Legacy of Baseball autographs, and is a gold parallel. That means it’s numbered to 50 – number 45/50, to be exact! Holy wow, this was an unexpected find! The fantastic little Chris Johnson mini relic from 2011 Allen & Ginter was the next thing that caught my eye. I do love those little mini relics with their tiny swatches.

I went back to check the rules before I started to claim things, of course, and the the main parameter that Wes set was the limit: claim no more than 5 things. That came with a decree that you couldn’t claim and then reneg on your claim in order to claim a new item. So, you had to wait for the later stuff to trickle out. That may have helped me pick up this rad Hakeem Olajuwon relic, but who’s to say? Having only 3 claims (you’ll see the other in a moment), I jumped at the chance to add a neat swatch of The Dream’s uniform to my collection.

I don’t have much in the way of non-baseball in my collection, and don’t really collect non-baseball, with a few exceptions. Hakeem is the big one, along with a few other Rockets and Warren Moon. That said, I don’t chase their cards at all, I just scoop them in trades now and again – it’s all a nostalgia tie to my childhood. This is my first and only basketball relic, and probably will be for a while. Wes threw in an extra Olajuwon card to boot.

So, what was that other card I jumped at?

Well, like I said: I hit the jackpot on timing. This triple swatch Bagwell relic from 2016 Panini Pantheon was a tremendous score. It’s easily one of the coolest Bagwell cards I’ve picked up in a while! It’s numbered, too: 78/99 for this copy. Now I just need to hunt some cool cards to send back to Wes! Thanks so much, Pancake King!

Since we’re on the subject of HITSSSSSS, let’s talk about some more, shall we? That Chris Johnson framed mini relic up there led me to check the ol’ checklist for this year’s Allen & Ginter mini relics. Well, well, much to my surprise – there was a Bagwell on the list! I decided to do a quick hunt to scope out where they were going on eBay.

And to my added surprise, I found several of them for cheap! I dug through a couple sellers other listings and found one with a trio of Astros, all with best offers posted. I docked each one a buck and wound up with not just the Bagwell but also a Verlander and Altuve, all for under ten bucks! These look great this year, and while Justin is a plain ol’ white swatch, the bat relics look really nice. I also dig the frame and how it’s gotten a bit tighter in the past couple years.

Speaking of Ginter and hits, I’ve pulled a couple in the small amount of Ginter that I actually found on the shelves. In 2019 I managed to pull several Astros hits – at one point, it felt like I pulled mostly Astros hits, which was really shocking. Who pulls hits from their team? That’s unheard of. Well, that regressed rather quickly, and this year the hits have all been traders once again. I landed a full size Stanton relic that’ll head off to AJ in our next swap. But the best hit I’ve pulled in a long while came when I found an actual blaster of Ginter on the shelf during a Target run a couple weeks ago. I was unboxing the packs when one felt especially thick. I set that aside for last, and well, this popped out:

What??? A booklet out of a blaster? That’s just wild. You probably don’t care too much about the outside, though, so let’s take a peek inside.

Alright, it’s nigh impossible to make out in this photo, but this sweet puppy is numbered to just 2/10. Ok, it’s a sticker auto and a giant white swatch, but we’re talking about a HOFer who smacked 612 homers – it’s pretty damn cool. Heck, the booklet itself was just a cool thing to hold. That’s easily my best pull in ages. There’s just one problem: I don’t collect the Indians, or Thome. Sure, I have a couple of neat Thome cards, but something this cool belongs with a fan who would actually appreciate it properly. So, I put word out on Twitter and my pal Ross Lundy suggested I get in touch with Robert, an Indians collector.

Lo and behold, not only were we able to work out a deal but also Robert had a couple of Astros that definitely did fit in my collection. I was excited to welcome Abraham Toro to the Astro-graphs binder, even if his signature on this 2020 Stadium Club insert is TINY. Like, really tiny. Still, it’s safe to say that when this arrived in today’s mail, I was just as thrilled as Altuve and Toro are on this card. That’s because Toro wasn’t alone in the package.

His pal Altuve made the journey with him! Holy smokes, this was a nice and quite unexpected find! This is sharp looking, and a very cool pickup. Hm, I suppose I need to start putting together a best pickups of the year shortlist. Thanks for the deal, Robert! It was a pleasure finally finding an Indians collector with which to swap.

Alright, I’d be remiss if I didn’t send Night Owl a hearty congratulations on his Dodgers winning the 78th game of the season, World Series. I certainly hope Justin Turner didn’t infect your whole squad. Who knows if we’ll look back in 20 years at this title and find it weird at all, but it’s a title nonetheless. It’s good to see Kershaw finally finish the year happy.

Y’all take care out there. Vote if you haven’t already.

3 Replies to “Stop Doomscrolling and Write a Post Already”

  1. 78th game of the season, lol! Hard to see how less than half a season counts but I’m happy for the Dodgers and their fans. I was grateful for good baseball in October since it’s all I’ve seen. So many great cards here but that booklet! What a fantastic pull! To even find retail on the shelves is a miracle these days. I enjoyed Twitter but found it a HUGE time suck. I couldn’t manage it and the blogs.

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