Best Of 2021 Part Two

 In the last installment, I showed off some highlights of 2021 for me.  Today we'll look at some more including more cards.  Just like last time, I'll show them first, but today has more sports related stuff, so besides already reading, you might as well stick around.  With not much more to set this up with, let's dig in.

For most of 2021, not a card could be found on store shelves where I went.  It wasn't until late in the year that cards finally returned to the shelves at my local Walmart.  Even then the price of cards has made me resist rather easily buying any.  I saw a pack of basketball I think for 7 bucks the other day.  Besides not collecting basketball cards, even if I did, no way I would pay that much for a pack.  I should have known though, because earlier in the year I made a trip to Big Lots and found a pack of baseball cards and a pack of football cards.  I didn't pay attention to the price, and I regret buying them.  I think it was 15 bucks for the 2 packs, though at least there were a lot of cards.  This is one of the packs I bought, and while I was still upset with myself for paying that much, I was happy with some of the cards I pulled.  Besides an SI Kids card, the Mahomes was the first of his I held in hand (a few months prior I did buy a card of his on COMC, but it didn't arrive until Christmas).  However even though I'm a big Mahomes fan (I mean I have bought multiple boxes of his cereal), I was even happier with the Justin Herbert rookie.  I think he will be a big star.  I'm very excited about him being on a rival team because for the next decade I can (hopefully) enjoy this rivalry between these two QBs.  While I hope Kansas City wins every time, I like the idea of seeing a QB on another team I actually like (I was never a fan of Philip Rivers).  Also I was happy to add the Drew Lock card to my Mizzou collection, and also happy with the other QB cards I pulled (even Aaron Rodgers who I'm not a fan of).  Even pulling the Gronk card was nice since it took a bit of the sting out of the price.

If I'm not mistaken, the top row is some of the cards I pulled from the baseball pack on that same trip.  Not quite as good, but the price was at least cheaper for those cards.  I think I also got a Mike Moustakas card in the pack too, so that was nice.  On the bottom row I'm pretty sure I got off Listia.  I honestly can't remember anymore.  I guess if I start blogging more I can write about them sooner and keep track.  Oh well.  The Winslow will be a nice addition to my Mizzou collection (and as I write this, I'm bidding on another Winslow card on Listia to possibly join it).  The stickers will be added to my Royals collection.  I had some doubles of the full size stickers and I used a Royals one to tag my 5000 count box of Royals cards.  It's not full yet, but I am going to have to possibly move a few of the cards out of there soon.  I'm thinking I might use a binder or two to showcase some of my cards again.  I don't know how or when I'll do it though, so its not quite a goal yet.  The Tom Henke card will going into a Missouri collection.  Its a separate collection not tied into the Mizzou collection.  The Missouri collection is the same one where I try to get a card of every team who ever called Missouri home.  I include athletes in that too, and Henke is a long time resident of Missouri's capital city- Jefferson City. Technically I think he lives in one of the smaller cities near the Jeff (as some locals call it), maybe Westphalia or Holts Summit.  Joe Crede is also in the Missouri collection since he's from roughly the same area.

When Savvy Seconds had a variety of items, I was able to buy a couple of packs of these Looney Tunes cards for 50 cents each.  There were about 20 packs there, but I didn't want to buy 10 bucks of these cards.  In fact I couldn't remember at the time of buying these if they were from this set, or another Looney Tunes set.  I was hoping for the other set since I had many cards of those as a kid.  Alas, I got these, and for a buck I enjoyed opening these.  The question is though, do I group these as a set build or on the card with players do I PC them?  I do PC Nolan Ryan, so its a tough one, but I think I got a double of one of his, so I'll probably do both.  I have no desire to build this set, but it was fun to open these like I was a kid again.

I don't remember where I got these, but most likely Listia.  Willie is new to my Royals collection, and Gibson is a PC, so both were welcome.  I was never a fan of the bigger sized cards, so I will be somewhat happy when I finish getting all the cards I want from those sets.

Next is a card I've had on my wantlist for a few years, and was finally able to hold it in 2021.

I loved The Lion King and its a surprise that I never owned this card or collected any cards from this set.  However I have no desire to collect any other cards from this set.  The only reason I wanted this card was because of a connection to Missouri.

For many years I was a fan of the work of Robert Guillaume and in like 2005 or so I said "it will be a sad day when he passes away".  It was, and the same thing I said about Harley Race, and that was too.  The difference between the two besides the obvious is that Harley Race had many trading cards, and I had many of them.  Robert Guillaume on the other hand didn't.  In fact I've never found a card that shows him on it.  Not for Soap, Benson, Sports Night, or any other show he did, unless I look up every character he played including guest appearances, I couldn't find any.  The closest I could find would be Rafiki which he did the voice for in The Lion King.  I've watched the card for a few years on COMC but the price was higher than I wanted for a card of a guy who isn't shown on the card.  A couple years ago I finally found it cheap on Listia.  I bid and I won the card.  The seller was one I've dealt with many times on there and I was excited.  About 4 days later she sent me a message that she misplaced the card and would refund me what I paid.  While I was the only bidder for the card, I don't think it was nefarious on her part, I really think she did misplace it.  Though about 6 months later she did have another one for sale.  Being a cheapskate, the price was a little higher then I won it for, so I only watched it, figuring I would bid towards the end of the auction.  Turns out, someone used Buy It Now, and I never got the chance.  It took about 2 years later for me to find it again, and I actually got it cheaper.  Though at this point since I had points to spare, I would have overbid for it I'm sure.  Either way, I'm glad I own it now.  When and if I ever decide to do custom cards again, I have thought of Sports Night cards, and I think if I ever did, I'd have to actually print one out of him.  Maybe a better idea is making custom cards "Hall of Missourians" featuring people from or stayed in Missouri for an extended period.  Hmm.... now I might be on to something.  Too bad I never print out my cards.

Late in the year my sister surprised me with a few cards, a couple were wrestling ones.  I don't have the scan of John Morrison (who for a while in 2021) went by the monikers Johnny Drip Drip, and America's Moist Wanted (things you never thought you'd type out).  The scan I will show is of his longtime friend and tag team partner, MC M.I.Z.

 

I've been a fan of The Miz longer than he has been in the wrestling business.  The first year I got MTV was the year he was on The Real World.  I always liked the concept of the show, and a guy like The Miz made me like it more.  A few years later he got a tryout with WWE and the rest is history.  I'm not sure where my sister found this card or what she paid for it, but I'm being excited that I have and autographed Miz card.  It's not just a good card, its downright AWESOME!

This wraps up the card portion, but I do have more sports related stuff to show off, so if you've read this far, might as well read the rest.  Also if you've enjoyed these last couple posts, let me know what you liked the most.  I'm not begging for comments, but more of a gauge of where my readers are coming from.  I figure most are through blogger, but I do tweet new posts, and new ones also appear on the blogroll on TCDB, as well as other blogger's blogrolls.  Thanks to all of you who regularly leave a comment, I appreciate it more than you can imagine.

2021 saw me buy more books, and on the surface I have to wonder why.  I guess because they are so cheap, but I never read them.  Or at least not many of them.  It was around October or so that I remembered I had a couple bookcases in storage that weren't doing anything.  They were in bad shape, but I wanted to bring one home for my VHS tapes, and then realized I could use the other for... books!

The College Football book my mom found, and its the type of book I would read sooner then others, its a collection of stories and articles (if I remember it right), but I didn't have much interest in it.  She still bought it, and I've thumbed through it a few times, and I'm glad she got it.

The bottom three books I actually found at Dollar Tree.  I think I bought all three after I brought the bookshelves home, so that is the likely reason.  The chances I read them are slightly better than when they were all stacked in my closet.

The thought process was that once I have all my books on display, I will actually want to read them.  I can't say yet whether it was a success or not because I haven't really been browsing for stuff to read.  I will say though since I've displayed them, I have looked at them a few times and actually picked a few up and looked at them some.  If I were to make any goals this year, it might be to read a few of them.  What is surprising is that I completely filled up the bookshelf and as of now even have a few stacked in front of the shelf shown, so I have to reorganize it already.  My VHS bookshelf should get thinned out later this year, and I think I might be able to put a few on that one at some point.  If not, maybe if I find enough 2x4s, and other wood in storage I can build a bookcase.  I mean I did a long time ago, much smaller, but its an idea.  I will also show the full bookcase again in a few weeks or months.  I think I'm already planning on moving it, so I'll wait until I do.

I was quite surprised to find this magazine at Savvy Seconds early in the year.  Even though the cover was torn, it is somewhat important.  The issue had a story about JFK and his son, but the cover date is after he was killed.  With the cover that damaged, it has no real value, but I figured at some point I would scan as much of the magazine as I could and do some posts on it.  On my Pinterest page I sometimes use scans and pictures from this blog, and a few actually get re..pinned? I'm not hip to the lingo.  One of my most repinned scans was a John Madden beer advertisement I posted on here many years ago.

Anyways, this magazine was oversized and it was kind of a pain to scan the ads and pictures, so I only did a few so far.  Maybe this year I'll try a few more.  However here are a few I've done so far.

Beer ads always do well.  I wish I had a bigger scanner, it would look even better.  A new scanner has long been on my wishlist, but never a priority.  I don't think it will until mine conks out.  I think mine is 15 or so years old, so I might as well ride it out.

I thought it would be cool to show an intact coupon from the issue.  Half the fun of thumbing through old magazines are the ads and what the product packaging use to look like.  I've never been one to buy framed advertising art, but I can actually see the appeal of it.  Though none from this issue would really be worth framing.

The magazine had a story on the NFL, and I liked these photos.  I wish I would have got them straighter, because these would be cool to make custom cards.  Maybe at some point I will rescan them.

I liked the fracas of the last picture, too bad it was oversized for my scanner and the page a bit folded.  It was still nice to show off.  Like I said, maybe this year I'll get some more out of the magazine.  I guess when it comes to history, its not that I don't like it, I just like different aspects of it.  I like advertising history.  I love watching old commercials and looking through old magazines to get a feel of what it was like at the time.  I can look online for historical events like World War II or JFK's assassination, but diving into a commercial pack from 1986 or what butter packaging looked like in 1957 is a little harder to find but when found, to me is a bit more enjoyable.

It's one of the few things I like about everyone having a phone with video and cameras now.  Its not just the major events that can be documented.  It's everything, no matter how big or small can be documented.  Someone is likely always recording.  While I'm not up on current technology and don't care about traveling with a smartphone in hand, I'm glad so many do and can preserve even the little things that can be documented for the future.

So let's move on.  Later in the year, the holidays didn't seem like it would be much better than the previous year, but for the second straight year I went all out to decorate indoors.  While I didn't take pictures of everything, I did take a couple.

I didn't really add too much in that top photo, it was all stuff I had last year.  The exception might be the Christmas book.  On the bottom photo, a couple things were added.  The major item was the A Christmas Story Advent Calendar which my sister bought me.  What I should have done was take a picture after all the items were on display, but maybe I'll remember next year when I display it again.  Overall it was kind of fun to see what would be behind each door, but the price was more than it should have been, and I was really surprised one of the items was not a Red Ryder BB gun, which is what he pined over.

Other new additions are the VHS tapes in the background, which not all were actually new additions, I just never put them on display before.  Next Christmas, they will be on display on the movie bookcase.  I don't think the vinyl record was new either, but it was nice to display this year.  I'm not sure if I'll display it next year and if I do, it won't take up as much space.  Though I think I can place it where the VHS tapes are on the picture and not stick out.  I don't think I'll ever display my DVD or Blu-Ray Christmas movies, I just wanted the old media on display as some sort of nostalgia, which DVD's don't really elicit the same memories.  Though the Die Hard Blu-Ray did come with a Christmas themed cardboard cover, so maybe it will display well.

This photo is a mix of early 2021 and late 2021.  The Playstation 4 was something I got early in the year.  My brother in law upgraded to a PS5, and he didn't need his PS4.  He offered it to me and after thinking it over a bit (I wanted it, but thought if he could make some money on it, he should do that), I accepted it.  I got it around my birthday, and my best friend when hearing about this, bought me a few games so I'd have something to play.  It was a nice upgrade from the Xbox 360 which I had for around 10 years and feared was on its last legs.  The stand its sitting on now was a late addition and one that looks really nice despite its flaws.  It was found in the dumpster at the apartments I live in and on the outside it looks fine with the exception of the drawer, but that's not a big deal.  However while cleaning it up,one side was real loose.  Luckily I had some old pieces of boards and was able to make it sturdy.  Initially I didn't know what to do with it, but one day I had an idea of setting the PS4 on top, and then inside the bottom I could put more media.

I have a decent size record collection, and I wanted a place to store them.  None have a lot of value, most are my parents that are well used.  However I thought if I could put most inside this it would clear some space and actually look nice just opening the door and seeing what I have.  I was surprised that they all fit inside almost perfectly, and I have a little bit of room in case I add a few more to my collection.  I don't have a record player currently, but a couple days ago I found one exactly like my parents had in the 70's, and one I've wanted for a while.  The price was reasonable, and I hope to get some money to buy it in the next couple months (its at an antique mall, I hope its still there when I go back).  I won't have the same speakers, but I do have a pair that I can use.  Overall this stand/cabinet was a nice pickup for free.

With that, I think that will wrap it up.  2021 had its ups and downs, but overall I added quite a few new additions and I'm pretty happy about that.  I don't know or expect 2022 will be as nice to me, but if it doesn't I have a feeling I have plenty of stuff I never shown off on here that will be nice future posts.  Plus I do have hopes of bringing some features back I've long since shelved.  I don't think I will be able to do Savvy Loot Box posts in 2022, but maybe I will.  I do think at worst, I should be able to string a few Lisita posts that will be worthwhile.

Before I wrap it up I have one more addition, this one a gif.  Sometimes I save gifs so I can randomly send to people, and this one I found a couple weeks ago and it was too good to pass up.

I had to look up Donald "Duck" Dunn the other day and stumbled upon this gem.  What a great way to wrap up a post as we look forward to what 2022 brings.  Thanks for reading and have a great day. I hope mine will include a Kansas Chiefs playoff win, and if not, then I'll find something to take my mind off of it.