Showing posts with label Places ya gotta see. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Places ya gotta see. Show all posts

Monday, June 29, 2026

Like Miggy, 'Melo, and Gronk...

I'm on leave from work on the 29th and 30th of June.  (It's the 29th as I write this.)  Two ten-hour days uses up my Personal leave exactly.  I've still got vacation and sick leave left.  This is intentional...

Because on Wednesday, July 1, I become officially retired from the FCPS school system after 22 years, 7 months.

I would have stayed a couple more years to reach 25.  I enjoyed the people I worked with, and liked fixing chromebooks, laptops, desktops and the occasional 3D printer, moving freight around in the basement, managing the repair parts inventory, installing new equipment in the school lab rooms, and to a lesser degree, taking Help Desk phone calls.  Unfortunately, the big boss decided to move half of our staff to another group, and restrict the five of us who would be left to Help Desk phones ONLY.  I said, "no thank you."  And here we are.

No more early mornings unless it's something special.  No more long days without snacks or naps.  No more commute.  No more fast food lunches.  (Well, OK, less of them at least.) 

More time for whatever I want, including projects and maintenance around the house, organizing the card room (better), putting away all the stuff I've brought in for the last two years, consolidating my lists from this site and the TCDB, working on my classic cars, arranging everything in the garage and basement, and finding more card shops!

Angela has July off too, so we will be filling the days with fun stuff.  After that, my blogging, sorting, trading and maybe even selling will leap to new heights!  Not sure I'll be a Hall Of Famer like the guys in the title, but if there's one for the card world, I might be closer soon. Stay Tuned!

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Suite Experience At Camden Yards

While I was on vacation, one of my co-workers (who is always after a deal) arranged for a few of us to see an Orioles game with one of our vendor companies.  But this wasn't going to be just another evening in the stands making runs to the food counter and souvenir shop.  

It was the August 8th matchup with the Houston Astros.  We left work around 4:30 and arrived about an hour before first pitch.  The first bonus was a parking pass that put us really close to the home plate entrance.

It was the first time I had used an app for tickets to an event.  The MLB Ballpark app is pretty much about tickets, even though it talks about following any player, and other things.  It's about the tickets.  Anyway, we went in the door and then in the elevator to the fourth floor.

We stepped off into what felt like a hotel lobby.  It's the Club Level.  There's a reception desk and tons of historical information, artifacts, trophies, and artwork about the history of the Orioles on every wall and in the hallways and lounges all the way around this floor of the building.

This is a stock shot I took off the internet to show some of the other areas.  I snapped the rest of the pics, but stuck to the stuff that interested me.  I haven't asked my friends to send me theirs yet.  I'm sure they shared them on social media.

These jerseys were right behind the main lobby.

This Frank Robinson panel was down one of the walkways to the upper seating sections. 

This side room was all about Cal Ripken.  I don't think these were the original numbers that hung on the side of the warehouse when he was breaking the streak, but I could be wrong.  Seems like they'd be a lot bigger.

This painting was in our actual suite.  There were cafe tables, couch seating, the buffet (quesadillas, hot dogs, salads, sodas, adult beverages, the whole works!), a private rest room, and a glass wall with two sliding doors that lead to the outside seating.  You sat in rolling office-style chairs outside.  Here was our view:


We were up the third base line.  It was a great evening to watch a game.  Not too hot or cold.

 

I snapped pics of the starting lineups.

The O's got off to a rousing start with two home runs from Adley and Mountcastle.  They built a 6 - 3 lead into the 9th inning.  Unfortunately, the closer Bautista, who came into the game with great fanfare ~ flashing lights and dramatic music ~ couldn't get anyone out and they lost in the top of the 9th.  Stupid Astros...

Other than that it was a stellar experience.  One of the hosts knew the Orioles Alumni Director, who came by and brought Larry Bigbie in to meet our group and sign autographs.  (I passed.)  The other company that sponsored the event bought several different hats for everyone.  They were nice.  I got a regular O's hat with the Jackie Robinson 42 patch on it.

Hopefully, we can do that again before the season is over.  

I still haven't watched more than a few games this year.  I should pay more attention since they're going to be in the playoffs.  I'll watch more of them then.

Friday, August 19, 2022

My Extended Vacation

My silence the last couple weeks was planned.  I left on vacation overnight on Monday the 25th of July for the west coast.  Second year in a row, but this time it wasn't to buy a car.

I've got family that live in the Sierra Foothills.  It was nice reconnecting with them and some other cousins from the Northwest area.


They're up in the Gold Rush country in Calaveras County.  It was over 100° several days.  But I liked that better than 90° and high humidity over here in the East.

They're just down the road from the Big Trees State Park.  Pretty impressive.

Managed to find a few cards in an antique store in one of the little towns we visited.  Ruth and the Cubs were the same price.  There was a whole 16" long box os HOFers and stars.  There are a lot of card shops back near Stockton, but I was too far away.

Saw a lot of stuff about the Gold Rush era and how they lived and got around in the late 1800's.

Including the steam trains that are still running.  They use these in a lot of movies and television shows.  This particular one was in Back to The Future III.  We were also in Columbia Park, which is a period town that is preserved largely as it was and was also used in the movie.

We had a layover in Vegas on the return flight.  I stopped in the Raider Nation store while my uncle played a few machines.

I suspect that stop is what led to the rest of my time off...

About three days after I came back, I was home from work and had gone to the grocery store (masked).  I put everything away and went to lay down.  About 6 pm, I tried to get up, but the room was spinning so hard I couldn't walk.  I struggled to move downstairs to try to eat something, but it just wasn't getting any better.  Sparing you the gory details, I got sick a few times and finally called for an ambulance about 10 o'clock.  

They gave me something for the dizziness and sent me for a CT scan. I had told them I hadn't been tested for COVID in a while and had just traveled.  It turned out positive.  I stayed overnight for observation and felt a lot better after a couple days.  I've been home on ten day quarantine ever since.  Today is the last day.  I just did a home test and it came out negative.👍

The upside of my quarantine is that I finally had a chance to binge watch Star Trek: Discovery so I can then get on board with ST: Strange New Worlds.  I'm on Season 2.  I have the first two seasons on Blu-Ray disc.  For the seasons after that, I'll use Paramount streaming.

Have just now started reading blogs again.  I had a trade or two in the works, but I won't start handling too many cards until next week when I'm free & clear of the virus.

I'm pretty sure all of my submitted cards are now on sale on COMC.  I've sold 18 cards so far for a total of about $66, and I spent last night picking out cards I need that they can ship me.  It went up to the wire (August 11 deadline) for them to get everything up, even though the last bunch was from the same sets that went up earlier.  I really don't understand their process. But for now, I'll just see how much I can move before they start charging me for storage.

I am not looking forward to getting up early Monday morning....

Saturday, July 16, 2022

Pasteboard Power Tour 2022: Bel Air, MD

Tuesday brought what turned out to be the highlight of the week.  Stuart sent me a link to the Bel Air Sports Cards shop a while back and I put it on the list immediately while planning our tour.

It's about an hour and a half drive from my house, straight through Westminster and around the top of the Baltimore beltway.  It was well worth the trip.  I will be going back often.

Just inside the door, there is a big area of monster boxes of recent singles by sport, and a wall full of older sets.  Further in is the Card Bar, a long counter where you take your boxes and sift through them or break your wax.  They even offer free sodas and Gatorades, which helped me because Stuart never takes meal breaks in the middle of the day when we're in a shop.

Behind the counter (to the right in the photo above) there are several more rows of inserts and other singles, and at the far end are even more.  Vintage, 80's, 90's, 2000's +, they have it all.  They're open from 11 AM to 6:30 PM Tuesday thru Friday and 10-4 / 12-4 on the weekends.  The late close on the weekdays works well for me coming from such a distance - I don't have to get up before the sun.

Anyway, on to the loot!  I dug through mostly the insert boxes, but found a bit of everything.  And I'm sure I didn't get through all they had out.  And there is a whole back room that they can pull stuff from as well!

I attacked the big box of 1957 Topps they had early.  Most were $3 each and really nice.  

Stuart pitched in and dug me out all these baseball from 2003 Topps, 2004 Topps Fan Favorites, and 2006 Greats Of The Game.

I'm pretty sure I found these in their vintage football too.  I can't confirm that 100%, but I'm pretty confident.  I had stacked these up after the week was over and couldn't match them to the other stuff.  The price tags are similar enough to the '57s that I think I'm right.  Volney was an upgrade.  (He could be from somewhere else too).

Then I got into the football insert boxes.  I think I went through six or eight three row units.  Found a ton of this Prestige set including that Zeke insert I got before.  When I settled up, he just gave the totals to the big stacks I had, so I didn't have an itemized list, but these were most likely a quarter each.

More Prestige and then 2015 Score.  And a few of those crazy 2009 Philadelphia inserts. Knocking out listings left and right.

Some of the earlier 2000's inserts I've been after, and all the way back to the late 90's.  Plus an early 90's Joe Montana header card. Some of those E/X Centurys I put on my favorite sets list.

Among all those inserts I kept finding Washington football cards that I didn't have as well.  I actually brought my whole list binder and looked them up as I went.  Probably saved me several dollars and a few dozen dupes.

And finally, some non-sports that I got from them - but actually at the Chantilly show over the following weekend.  I've got about a dozen scans from that show, so I'll put these here.  They had every one of the remaining Charlie's Angels I had on my list.  But I messed up - #109 should have been #108, which was an upgrade anyway.  Will confirm that later.

Like I said, this is a great place to go digging for singles, which is what I like best about card shopping.  It's too bad I've shunned so much of the current year's offerings, I'd have spent a lot more time in the front area with the base cards.  But I still know that I'll have to go back a couple times before I'll have any idea that I've seen most of what they have to offer.  If you're in the area, stop in and sit at the Card Bar with Mel & the boys....

Wednesday, August 11, 2021

2021 National Walkthrough

 Chris Sewall posted this video on his YouTube channel - BASEBALL CARD COLLECTOR INVESTOR DEALER (in that order).  It's a pretty decent walkthrough of the 2021 National.  Really gives a good impression of the scale of the show.  


Check out Chris' other content.  His delivery isn't flashy, but his stories and information are good.

Saturday, May 09, 2020

BBA: My Other Collections - Part 2A: Foreign Currency

Been a slow week here at the Collective.  Missed a couple post days, mostly from still scanning all the items you're about to see.

Bo started this topic, and Trevor promoted it to a full Bat Around.  They both showed their Collections of Other Things.  This time, another inactive collection from a very popular field.  When I think of the concept of collecting in general (to the world outside sports cards), I think of coins and stamps.  I have a few stamps somewhere, but not enough to call a collection.  But I've amassed a diverse gathering of coins and a few paper bills, mostly from my father's travels abroad in the late 70's and early 80's.   This post is scan heavy, even though I'm already splitting the foreign and domestic currency into separate offerings.  I scanned both sides of every item.  The part that discerning connisseurs won't see is how the backs of some coins are oriented in respect to the front.  A lot of US coins have backs that are "upside down" relative to the front image.  But I digress.  Let me show you the money!


For each group, I scanned them with a common American item to show the scale.  These are the back sides of the paper bills shown with a modified dollar.  I've always had at least the impression that it's illegal to scan actual dollars, so I made ol' George a bit cooler.  None of the rest of this stuff is worth big money, so I don't think putting a mark or text across these is necessary.


Foreign bills usually have so much more color to them.  Ours have only recently turned up the hues, and sometimes they look funny.  If it wasn't damaged, this would be quite the artistic piece.  And, it's bilingual like hockey cards!


The rest of these are military currency issued in Okinawa for many years after World War II.  These are called "B Yen" and were used until 1958.  I've got samples of the three lowest denominations - 1, 5, and 10.  There are also 50, 100, and 500 bills, and banknotes in 1-, 2-, 5-, and 10 thousand denominations.  I imagine those are a lot harder to come by.


Again, very artistic, though the purpose doesn't seem to be that joyful.


These "Sen" are listed as coinage, so I assume they are fractions of a Yen.


This one is really a crossover.  When the Japanese occupied the Phillipines, they issued this currency in 1942.  Then a second series was issued the following year.  These flat pesos were called "Mickey Mouse money" because of the rampant inflation that made them worthless to the point that people would carry big baskets of the currency to buy simple things.  It's also referred to as Japanese Invasion money.

Now on to the world tour in coinage.  Again, these were probably 95% obtained from my Dad when he'd travel to Europe and beyond on business.  Luckily, he avoided any hijacking or terrorist activity, and generally had a nice time wherever he visited.

Here's the whole batch at once to show scale.  Note the US quarter for comparison.  I originally found the bottom batch in the box where these are kept, and then found more stashed elsewhere and united them with the rest.


That first big dude is a silver medallion and isn't actually currency.  It's by far the heaviest item among all these.  I flipped it a couple times at my 8-ball matches and was afraid it would crack the slate surface of the pool table. You'll see that one closer in the US post.


Starting with our neighbors from the North.  These will probably be largely familiar, though some have decent age on them.


These aren't to scale, but the detail is the important part.  That first penny surprised me as being basically the same as the others, just older and with the dude on the front.


Here's some Canadian coins you may not have seen quite as often. 


This one I had in with my American coins since the first thing I saw was the Eagle.  But it's actually Mexican.  Someone made a necklace out of it at one point apparently.  Looked it up and it's from 1838.


This Mexican one's a lot younger than that and almost snuck by hiding among the Spanish coins.


Jumping "across the pond", some coinage from the UK.  I've never learned what values a pence or shilling actually are...


A quick stop at the Netherlands...


Some French ones.  I actually have six or seven ½ franc pieces, but they're all basically the same.


A big group of German issues.  The leaf design is consistent among a lot of them.  I like the couple bird ones.


Dinero español.  Not sure if Ptas is an abbreviation.  I took French in high school.


One of my Dad's favorite destination was Rome (Madrid may have edged it out for #1), so I'm a little surprised I don't have more Italian coins.  The last one here is actual gold and is kept in a little vinyl holder.  It's the other one in the last scale scan.  Tried not to touch that one too much. 


These are obviously Greek pennies and nickels (or whatever equivalent), but I have no idea what else they say.  I'm sure all of this is easily Googlable.  (Is that a word?)

Almost done now...we go farther around the other side of the world...


...To India!  These are so exotic and sort of look a lot older than they are.


And our last stop is in the old Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.  The Red Army guys are my favorite hockey collections, and I have a few Russian cards.  I could collect their coins or space program memorabilia if I didn't have all this other stuff already.

If you see something you absolutely must have, I'd be willing to work out a trade for cards.  Nothing big money here, though the gold coin isn't on the trade list.  Again, I'm not really looking to add to these.

Next time - Part 2B: The US.