Best of 2021 Part One

 I will admit freely the last few years I haven't posted a lot in the year.  It doesn't mean I don't scan or take photos of stuff I've gotten however.  I do it mostly so I can be ready in case I want to make a post, and other times I just do it out of habit.  So instead of trying to think of my thoughts when getting certain items in the last year or why I scanned or photographed them, I figured I'd do a post of basically the best of.  I then realized I had about 40-50 ideas, so I decided to break it down into two posts.  Since I also admit I haven't been the best at working on cards as much, I decided to show off some in both posts.  For those that don't care about the other stuff, I'll show the cards first, then the other stuff.  Its been a slow but somewhat busy year once I looked at all the pictures and scans, so I may have already shown some off or talked about them, or conversely forgotten anything about them, so it will be a trip down memory lane for me as well.  At any rate, since I have 20 pictures to show, let's dig in.

Before my local second hand store decided to focus less on knick-knacks and more on clothes and pallet loads, I was able to find these cards for a buck.  As I've mentioned on here often, I'm not the biggest history buff or even one pertaining to wars.  However this is a set that I've kind of wanted for a bit, and it was nice to find (aside from the taping job that peeled off one of the cards).  What made it even better was around this same time, my mom found some old papers her father had written documenting his time in the war.  It was a timeline of when and where he went.  All the way leaving the harbor in the United States, to his return home.  For once it actually made me interested in history, and I am hoping to scan those soon so I can dive a little deeper into that timeline.  This was probably my greatest find in terms of sets this year, though it wasn't the only set I would get.

On the Trading Card Database a member held a contest in which the grand prize winner would get a complete set of hockey cards.  However just by entering you were allowed to pick one team, and each team would have a winner.  I haven't entered too many contests as of late because I'd rather have people really into cards to enter and have a chance to win.  However, I realized this was an older set, and I'm a sucker for Hartford Whalers.  I believe I was the only person who picked the Whalers, so I won by default.  I didn't get the grand prize, but honestly, I really just wanted the Whaler cards, and I was able to get a Chris Pronger card in the process, not too bad.

Overall I actually got more trading cards than I thought in 2021, and here is a few more (with more being mentioned on the next post):

Some of the cards I won on Listia (making up at least half of my cards this year), some my sister graciously gave me, some I bought at Savvy Seconds (my local second hand store), and a couple I even bought in store (which I think I'll show tomorrow).  Pretty much all my collections were updated to some extent in the past year, but catalogging them and making sure my card counts are up to date are a different story.  I do remember the Mizzou cards up top were won off Listia.  Most of the rest I think I got from Savvy Seconds.  The Marlins cards I remember winning on Listia because the seller forgot to send me the Conine card but was very nice about it and sent me all those other Marlins cards.  

Overall, I was very happy with the cards I added to my collection, and in the next year or two I might get back into the swing of things, but at this point, if I only get around the same amount as I did this year, I'll be happy.  At this point, that's all the cards I have to show, but I do have plenty more to show off if you want to keep looking.

For most of 2021, I tried to display a large variety of my random collection of stuff.  In 2021 I was able to add the cracker tin (which I remember blogging about), and I have finally found a place to display it.  Flanking it is a couple of Pringles cans of the Wendy's Spicy Chicken chips they sold.  It took me a long time to finally find them, and to be honest after I did I was a bit disappointed (I think it was more because it was a bad case of chips, not the chips themselves).  I bought maybe 4 cans, and 2 remain on display, and the other two is being used to store other items I can't currently display (these two cans are also).  After Christmas, I moved my display shelf, so right now I haven't replaced it, but when I do, maybe I'll show it off and give a detailed description.

On the bottom is something else I think I showed but maybe not as detailed.  I was happy to find a puzzle early in the year that had this price tag on it.  Place's was a local retail store around the 80s and 90s that I miss.  It was then sold to Pamida then eventually to Shopko, so its been a good 20 years since I have been able to see the store and probably as long to see a price tag for it.  Unfortunately the puzzle was missing a lot of pieces (like 30 or more), and before I could say anything, my mom threw out the puzzle and box.  At least I have the picture still (which is currently my Facebook profile).  In the next year I don't plan on getting too much more to display or tins, but I have plenty to show off.  I wouldn't even mind paring down what I have a bit, if I ever have a garage sale.

Speaking of puzzles, 2021 was a year of puzzles.  I think every week of they year I worked in part on a puzzle, most of them I was able to get from Savvy Seconds.  That avenue may be drying up, but I probably have enough for the next few months.  By then I can start doing some over again.  The top puzzle might have been my favorite puzzle to get and work on.  It was called "I Am Buck" and it was a buck's head and it was a bit challenging but fun.  They have others in the serious which I would love to find, but I think this one might be one I revisit at some point this year.  I decided not to show every puzzle because there were so many, including a few 1500 piece ones.  Some I forgot to take pictures of, and some puzzles I took pictures of after completed.  Maybe I should do a feature on each puzzle I finish.  It's just a thought.

The bottom puzzle is the one I'm currently working on, and I really don't like it.  My mom says she likes the challenge, but to me if its so hard you can't place more than 5 pieces a day, it takes the fun out of it.  We've been working on this for about a week or more (probably like 2 weeks), and we are finally seeing daylight.  We joke that we'll have it finished by her birthday (in a couple weeks), but I think that is the goal.  I think this is the second photo mosaic puzzle, and I might not want to work on more for a while.

One of my goals for the year was to organize my media collection.  Also my books but I'll talk about that next time.  I had music and movies scattered around the apartment and even in storage, but this year I was able to get most of them back at the apartment and most of them organized.  Another great thing was signing up for a free account on the site discogs to see what I actually have.  Here you see some of my 8 track and cassette collection.  Most were my parents (everything past the Bob Seger is mine).  Well, except the Milli Vanilli, my dad was a sucker for them.  I'm not actively seeking out more 8 track, but I do lookout for random cassettes at Savvy.  I don't think I took a picture of my CD collection, but it expanded a bit this year too, and maybe in a future post I'll showcase it.  Musically I will listen to almost anything, and I'm really hoping to find a good cassette player this year so I can rip that Here's To The Irish cassette (I've had it since buying it on a lark in high school).  I also think its funny my dad put that sticker for automotive parts on the case.  Now I can say I have some PCP.

I will show a bit of my record collection next time, because its a bit tied into something else.

In the past year I have become more into VHS than almost anything else.  It started as trying to siphon some old commercials off of VHS tapes from the 90s, but then it spawned into much more.  I decided I wanted to rebuild my collection of VHS tapes I had growing up, then wanted to expand it a bit more.  For a while, Savvy was selling tapes for 10 cents each, but now they are 50 cents or 4 for a buck.  I might hold off on adding more for a while, but I still have plenty.  This Charles Bronson tape wasn't one I owned before, but will look nice on display.  This past year has saw me love Charles Bronson films, something I thought I'd never say.  I don't think a month goes by without watching something with him (I'll show another movie in a bit I plan to watch soon).

The second picture is one that might be the deal of the year.  My friend has been collecting records for a while, and locally there was an auction for a ton of records.  He was able to get them for a pretty good price and he's still going through them.  However in the same auction there was a lot of VHS tapes.  This was an online auction so pictures didn't do the lots justice.  Anyway the box looked like 10-15 tapes.  I told him if he bid a buck or two and won, I'd pay him.  Nobody else bid, so for a buck I got some tapes.  In the end it was 48 VHS tapes, and most were taped off TV so a ton of commercials.  However some were local theater or stage plays, and a couple from the local college.  When I get some time I'll start going through them more, but I'm still in shock at how many tapes I got for a couple bucks.

The bottom picture is a now outdated look at my VHS tape collection (those are just the blanks and ones I have to go through).  Since then I've fixed the shelf to it doesn't bow, and made it look much nicer.  Also on top is a cameo from Mr. Bucket who I also bought this year.

One of the bright spots of the year has been finding many movies at the Dollar Tree.  Here is some of the purchases I've made.  It's always nice to find some wrestling for a buck.  Canadian Bacon and Men At Work were both movies that have long eluded me and I was finally able to get this year.  Though I will say both are easy to find on free streaming sites like Tubi and Pluto.  Adding Charles Bronson has also been a highlight, especially finding the original Death Wish movie.  I haven't watched Murphy;s Law yet, but plan to sometime this month (I am working on a movie challenge).  In 2020 I said I hoped to cut down on DVDs this year to focus more on blu-ray movies, but they haven't been as abundant so DVDs will work fine.  I have a feeling once Dollar Tree raises their prices to 1.25 or more, I won't buy as many movies, especially blind buys.  So finding some until then is always good.  I might make a trip tomorrow to see if there are more.  Savvy has used DVD's which are a buck but I have bought only one in the last year.  I'm not sure the last time I paid more then 3-4 bucks for a movie.

To say I haven't had much luck with blu-ray movies isn't all that accurate, I have found quite a few.  Here is some that I've got from Dollar Tree.  Pretty much any Danny Trejo movie I will watch at least once.  For a buck its hard to pass up (though I should have passed on Cartel 2045).  I've still never watched Anchorman, but this might be the year to do it.  Will Ferrell movies I have to be in the mood to watch especially the first time.  It took many years for me to watch Talladega Nights, and a few to see Semi-Pro.  He's the type of actor that you have to put yourself in the mood to watch.  I'm the same way with Bill Murray, I'm not the biggest fan of his, but if I want to watch something I have to prepare.

The Color City movies I bought two of because they were yellow cases.  Someone pointed out on the blu-ray site (where I catalog my DVD and blu-ray movies) that it is the only film released in the United States with a yellow case.  I ended up switching the cases for a couple other movies (Central Intelligence and Empire Records) since their cover art looks nice with it.  The last picture shows my mostly current blu ray collection, as well as my PS4 collection.  I'll talk about the PS4 next time, but I have a feeling by the end of 2022 I might need another shelf for the blu ray movies.

At this point I think I'll wrap it up because if I don't split up this post it will be twice as long.  Next time I have more cards to show as well as books and a few other things.  Thanks everyone for reading and I hope everyone has had a great start to a new year.  If all goes well tomorrow, I might have a few new items to show off, and I might even have some pictures as well.  If not I still have another post of 2021 highlights and from there I might get back to showing more cards. Have a great night.