Catching Up On Old TTM Returns

While taking an unintentional break from the hobby, I did have a few TTM returns come back to me in that time period. Now, I used to be really diligent and organized when it came to updating my returns on SportsCollectors.net, and putting them away in their respective binders, but in this case, they just sat in a box for a few years. The bright side, though, is that it became easy to know which ones I did and did not enter in to my SCNet database. I'm getting a few together over the weekend to send out on Monday, so hopefully, I'll soon see a regular influx of returns with signed cardboard.

I had to use my best guess on when these came back, based on when others were returned that were sent at around the same time. 

Also, keep in mind, many of these are from around 2021, so some information may no longer be up-to-date

Tony Oliva, 8 days, c/o Minnesota Twins

Casey Candaele, 1368 days, home address

Marty Turco, 42 days, c/o Dallas Stars

Ryan Smyth, 123 days, home address

Chad LaRose, 41 days, c/o Fraser Hockeyland

Scott Arneil, 124 days, c/o Washington Capitals

Trevor May, 225 days, c/o New York Mets

(There was a second card, but I can't seem to find it.)

Henry Cotto, 119 days, home address

John Costello, 277 days, home address

Doug Corbett, 174 days, home address

Scott Bryant, 500 days, home address

All addresses were obtained through SportsCollectors.net

A Trip to the Dollar Box at my LCS

I had the day off, so I decided to take a short trip to my LCS, JWW Sports Cards & Gaming in Fargo, ND. Now being on a self-imposed tight collecting budget, due to an upcoming autograph even in Minneapolis mid-November, I went in with the idea of perusing their dollar boxes that I always seem to overlook whenever I stop in to browse.

I have been watching a good amount of collecting videos on YouTube recently, and a common theme I see when content creators talk about the hobby on a budget is to sit down and spend some time in the discount bins. Of course, finding anything of major value for a dollar may be a fantasy, but there is a great chance for you to find some things you will really like at an affordable price.

I set myself a $10 limit and came away with these 10 cards to add to my Cubs Collection

First is a 1993 Upper Deck Diamond Gallery hologram card of Ryne Sandberg. This one is a no-brainer, as Ryno was my favorite player growing up, and still is one of my main player collecting focuses. I took a gamble with selecting this one, because I wasn't sure if I had it yet, so I'm happy to add this one to it. Hologram cards don't scan very well, but they look great in person.

Next, are six cards of current Cubs. I haven't bought a whole lot in the past 7 or 8 years, so I have a lot of catching up to do. I did pretty well here, grabbing three Nico Hoerner cards (2024 Topps Big League and 2022 Topps Chrome base and X-Fractor parallel), plus a 2023 Topps Stars of MLB insert of Dansby Swanson, a 2025 Topps Summer Superstars insert of Shota Imanaga, and a 2024 Topps Greatest Hits Insert of Christopher Morel. I suppose Morel is no longer a "current"  Cub, but he fits best with this group. 

Side note: being away from the blogging part of collecting for a few years, I Forgot how frustrating it can be to scan Topps Chrome cards. They still haven't figured out the curl.

Lastly, I grabbed three cards of players on the 2016 World Series winning team. As with any Cubs fan, these guys in particular hold a special place in our hearts, and with many of them, their time with the Cubs would prove to be the high point of their career. Here we have a 2015 Bowman Chrome rookie of Addison Russell, a 2022 Donruss Diamond Kings insert of Willson Contreras, and a 2018 Topps Chrome International Affair insert of Javier Baez. 

There were a total of four baseball boxes at JWW to go through, and I just went through one. Even after pulling all the Cubs out of that one box, I still had to cut that stack in half to meet my $10 budget. It was a great way to kill some time on a day off, and I look forward to the next one!

The Last Hobby Box I Purchased (2024 Allen and Ginter)

It has been quite a while since I purchased a hobby box of cards. The last one, in fact, was a box of 2017-18 Artifacts hockey, but since then, my collecting focus had taken a strong shift away from new products and more in to through-the-mail and in-person autograph collecting. More than that, my three daughters have gotten older (11, 14, & 17), and more involved in their activities, which is where most of my previously-allocated collecting budget has gone. 

However, last fall, I had a few extra dollars leading in to the Christmas season, and decided to treat myself to one of my old collecting interests with a hobby box of 2024 Allen and Ginter. I always loved these releases year after year, for a variety of reasons. Whether it was the matte card stock, throwback look, or the plethora of oddball base cards and inserts, it was always a unique and cool product, plus a bit of a nostalgia kick for me.

I haven't done much more than observe new cards from a distance the last few years, and completely missed the Covid card insanity that apparently took place, so I went into this one completely blind, apart from what I knew about previous releases of Allen and Ginter. The last hobby box I dove into of A&G was almost a full decade ago (2015), but I can't imagine there would be too much different, thematically, at least. 

The hits were pretty good to me. The big one, of course, was the rip card. In this case, it featured St. Louis Cardinals rookie Masyn Winn, numbered 184/199. The dilemma here is "To rip, or not to rip." I went with "rip" for two reasons. It is a pretty rare opportunity, so why not, but also, as a Cubs fan, it gave me a valid excuse to tear up a Cardinals card. I didn't get anything signed or low-numbered inside, but did get the SSP of Juan Soto, which is not bad at all, especially right when he signs that fat contract with the Mets. I probably should have thrown it right on Ebay then, but my laziness took over, and it is still in my possession. 

The other two hits were an Austin Wells jersey card, with a vertical Yankee pinstripe, and and autograph of comedian Daniel Van Kirk. Overall, this does a great job of representing the variety of what you can find in Allen and Ginter: something weird, something baseball, and something completely unrelated to the sport. 

Then, of course, the inserts, many of which pay tribute to the tobacco cards of the late 1800s by displaying a variety of subject matter, in mini form, similar to cards of that time period. I did get a Chrome parallel of Pirates rookie Quinn Priester, and a couple Cubs. They've also started doing more of those oddball inserts in modern card size, which I don't love, as it moves them further away from what they are trying to pay tribute to. 

The base cards have a clean design, as usual, and do run the occasional parallel. As far as players go, I did pretty well with mine. The Ronald Acuna Jr. is a Foil Filagree parallel, which is 1-per-box, plus three Chrome and one refractor (Mookie Betts). 

The Clemente is an example of what I got as my base cards for the entire box. Going into this product blind, I became quite confused when a few packs in, everything was shiny. Apparently, these are "Hot Box Exclusive" variations, and the entire box would be full of Silver Portrait Parallels. Yes, it was nice hitting something so rare, however, there are two reasons that I buy Allen and Ginter: building the set, or sending the base cards TTM because the card stock work so well to get signed. This particular box serves neither of those purposes. 

Not a horrible break, overall, and I know you could do MUCH worse in this realm. Most of these cards have been tucked away in a box since I opened them almost a year ago, though, so if anybody wants anything, just let me know!

My Wife Met Big E

Living in the Fargo/Moorhead area (ND/MN), local autograph appearances of any celebrity outside of a convention are few and far between. As you can imagine, being a massive WWE fan, I was thrilled to discover that former WWE Champion Big E would be making an appearance at the grand opening of a Panchero's Mexican Restaurant just three minutes away from our house in Moorhead, MN!

My excitement was dimmed, however, when I checked my work schedule and discovered that I was scheduled that same day. I mentioned this to my wife, and before I could even ask her to go for me, she said, "Well I could go and get something signed for you." 

The next part of my mission was to find something to get signed. During the height of my card collecting (2010-2017), I indulged in a heavy amount of baseball and hockey, but not a whole lot into WWE, even though I have always been a regular viewer and fan. I did, however, get a box of 2017 Heritage back then, which gave me a Big E card, as well as a duplicate. 

I also wanted a wall piece. This wouldn't be just some enhancement talent, or a guy who had a small amount of success 15 years ago. This is a guy who held the top prize in the business, and was part of one of the greatest tag teams of all time! I had to go big (pun intended). After spending quite a lot of time searching online for the right photo that had a strong enough resolution to print clearly at 16x20 size, I was ready to go.

Of course, since my wife was willing to do this for me, something she otherwise would have ZERO interest in, I was sure to do as much prep work as I could. I found the right Decocolor gold paint pen and prepped it, and mounted the photo on a piece of foam board with sticky noted indicating where I would like it signed me with what inscription.

I must say, it came out PERFECT!!!

The gold really stands out where it was signed, and really pops off of the image. You can tell from far away that it is a signed piece, and looks amazing on the wall. He also signed the two cards in the same pen, and added an inscription to those, as well.

One of the handlers there was there to take pictures, which was nice, and my wife was sure to get a picture with him. She still remarks how he seemed like a normal guy and was very conversational, but turned into a total goofball when taking pictures with kids, which fits right along with his New Day persona. 

She even had them take a picture of him signing the photo, which to me, is a cool addition to the whole piece.

Of course, I would have loved to be there to get it myself, but it is nice to be with someone who has my back when these rare opportunities happen.

New Blog, A Little More Focused This Time

 Hey all! I'm back at it again, and looking forward to sharing my eve-evolving collection with all of you. 

I blogged in the past at Cardboard Conundrum, which focused on my card collection, and Not Pulled From Packs, which focused on my autograph and memorabilia collection. With this, I am hoping to streamline it all in to one place, write more regularly, and not feel constrained in which direction this takes me. 

A Most Adequate Collection will allow me to pretty much open the doors to wherever my curiosity takes me, as I have found myself going back and forth between cards, and autographs, and live events, from baseball, to WWE, to hockey, and to music. 

I have picked up quite a few cool items in the past couple of years since I last blogged at the other two spots, and I have a couple exciting things on the horizon, so let's have some fun!