I have the willpower of a turnip.

 I thought I was strong willed. I persevere through health problems and stuff in large part through willpower. I have to use a lot of willpower every single day to not eat my favorite foods, either because they are too carb heavy or make me literally sick. I have packs of cards I've had stashed since 2012 or so, unopened, waiting for me to me to be ready (when I finish scanning my entire collection) . So I thought I had it. 

In June of this year I went to a local Wal-Mart and bought a box of Prizm WNBA, which I genuinely did not enjoy. I have not enjoyed Chrome/Prizm/Finest style cards for years, and it felt like the final straw. I've been working over a blog post in my head about how I'm done buying that style of card. I just always regret it when I do and wished I hadn't wasted the money. I never like the cards. I'm only going to collect what I actually love, not just buy it because I feel like I have to. 

This past Sunday, I went to a different local Wal-Mart, and saw a blaster of 2026 Select NASCAR. This is the only set on the year that has photos from this year, but they are all messed with and crappy as all Chrome sets are. I wasn't going to get it. I wasn't going to waste my money again. 

I couldn't do it. I couldn't leave a NASCAR set I've never held in my hands before behind. 

Did I regret it? Yes. Will I do it again? Probably. I love NASCAR too much to leave without it. Even though the money I spent on one blaster of this could have bought be 3 1/64 diecasts, which is my main hobby and I am badly backlogged on collecting. 

Listen, I never said I was sane. I just said I was a collector. 

First card out of the box. Look how unreadable the writing is on his uniform. That's what I mean about messed with photos. If I didn't know what they were supposed to say, I doubt I would be able to figure it out based on the card. 

It's not a glitch of the scanning process. They are this blurry and unreadable in hand. 

The best thing about Select, if there is any bright side, is that this is the only set that has a full slate of car cards. Panini generally doesn't include car cards in NASCAR sets, which is very stupid. 

This car is from 2015. I would say it's an odd choice to have an 11 year old car that had a best finish of 12th shown in the set, but it's Panini [shrug]

I did get my first card from the return...or debut, since they pretend the Rams are not Dodges anymore...of Ram to NASCAR.

and it's a driver I've met in person which is cool.

One cool thing about this year's Select is that they have included some IMSA drivers in the set. IMSA is my second favorite form of Motorsports and is very, very rare to see on cards. Off the top of my head, the last time they got any cards was in 2013. Both of these people are making their debut in my collection here. 

I got my first card of Keelan Harvick.

The third-generation driver is only 13 years old so it will be 5 more years before he's allowed to run in Cup, but it will happen. (only three more years until he can do Trucks) He's one of the top prospects in the sport and that's only partially because he's Kevin Harvick's son. He and Brexton Busch are both sons of drivers who are on pace to be superstars. 

I was happy to pull Dale Jr's base card. I am actively trying to get him to 1000 cards. My all time favorite sports person he's now less than 50 cards away. I have several in my COMC account waiting to be shipped, too. 

I was very surprised to pull this card. It's a Gold Flash version and SN 03/10.

His best finish in this truck last year was 7th at Rockingham, which they announced this week will not have any races in 2027, that's even more disappointing than this blaster was. 

The big draw for the Chrome/Prizm sets is usually the parallels, and while, yes, they do have the same blurry messed with photos, they are pretty darn cool and it's easier to overlook that fact. 

The regular Prizm is the most common. I got three in my blaster.

The Orange Flash Prizms are I believe exclusive to the blasters. I also have to give Panini credit for including this car/team. This was a 4th Roush-Fenway-Keselowski car that attempted the Daytona 500, but crashed during the qualifying race and didn't qualify. All 4 of the Roush cars ran tributes to Greg Biffle, who drove for the team from 1998-16. He was killed in a plane crash in December and there have been a lot of tributes to him throughout the season. You can see the round memorial decal right over the B post on the namerail. They also used his number font on all 4 cars. 

There was one standard insert in the blaster, which I actually like. This is a Flash Prizm parallel, but the Select Skills design and logo are a flashback to the 1995 Select set's main insert, which were holofoil.

Here's one from the original 1995 set, which is one of my favorite NASCAR sets ever. This is the first time Panini has ever acknowledged the only true Select set that I know of. 

My favorite card in the blaster is this one, despite the fact that you can't read the sponsor at all due to the Chrome/Prizm technology.

The Modifieds are NASCAR's oldest division, but VERY rare to see on cards. Select usually includes one or two a year, Beers won the 2025 championship. Before they started including them in Select, the last Modifieds on cards were 1991, and the last before that would be 1950. Yeah, like I said, rare.

So, that's that. Do I regret it? Yeah, a bit. On the other hand, no. It's NASCAR. And that outweighs my dislike of this technological gimmick that has taken over the hobby. Will I buy more Chrome/Prizm cards in the future? Sigh, yes, I know I will. But only NASCAR. There are enough other real NBA, WNBA and NHL cards made that I don't need to buy Topps Chrome, Panini Prizm or O-Pee-Chee Platinum to be able to take part in my sports. But NASCAR gets the exception.

New People July 2026

 July was a very light month for scanning. The only cards I scanned, edited and labeled were the 16 card Knicks championship set, the 4 card Knicks Championship Parade set and two of the regular Topps Now card from the Finals. It was, I think, the first time I did more than one page and they were all from the same team, which is pretty cool in a way...and also makes my monthly upload a whole lot easier. 

Even though it was a small month, there were two new people, both Rookies on the Knicks team were making their first appearance in my collection.

I like to crop it to include the time, date and temperature that my computer shows. No real purpose other than I find it interesting. 

New people added to my collection was much more than the new people scanned with 24 people appearing in my collection for the first time.

Both Knicks rookies make an appearance on this list also, along with the 2026-27 rookies which have started arriving from Topps Now. Due to money reasons I didn't get all of them, but I did get the Knicks, Nets and a couple of other players. My mom surprised me with a hobby box of 2025-26 Parkhurst which gave me most of the NHL players, and a box of Historic Autographs 1700s Edition, which gave me all the Non-Sports people. I added 311 new cards in July which is also a somewhat lower number than I've been averaging this year, although would have been a large month last year. 

I could swear I had a card previously of Blackbeard but I couldn't find it under either name, and I even tried alternate spellings of his real name but none listed. It's possible I either made a mistake and this truly is my first card of him, or it's possible I made a mistake and missed listing him. Either way, a mistake was made but he's listed now. I was actually able to add a new NBA player via trade on the Database also, which, 30 years into the sport and actively seeking out cards of people I don't have, doesn't happen all that often. Brooks Barnhizer from the Thunder was a rookie in 2025-26 for the Thunder (Or at least was long enough to get a card in Topps' flagship, I didn't look to see if he actually played) and his card came to me in part of a trade that brought me to 299 of the 300 card set. Before I hit publish I decided to look him up and yes, he played 40 games this year, nearly half of them, (82 game season) for the Thunder. Perhaps I will get him scanned for next month, although I am doing much more model stuff than card stuff at this time...I barely got myself at my computer long enough to write this post, and at that it took me 8 days between doing the upload and writing about it. 

Return to 'Tender

 Ever since going to the Rhinebeck car show early in May, I've been on a 60s music kick again. (as an aside, car shows play the best music) And of course, you can't listen to a 50s/60s channel without hearing Elvis. When they play his "Return to Sender" when you are looking at the following card:

it's very easy for the song to start playing in your head but instead of "Return to Sender" it becomes "Return to 'Tender" and then the idea popped into my head to write a post about goaltenders. Other than the post title, it didn't give me much to build off of. Hmm, perhaps a countdown of the top 10 Goaltenders in my collection, based on number of cards? 

10. Technically 9th and 10th are tied, both with 48 cards. But since I don't particularly like John Vanbiesbrouck, he gets last. His numbers are bumped up because he played for my team. Sergei Bobrovsky is 3 cards away from bumping him out of the top 10, and frankly I hope it happens. He actually had been ahead of him until I got the Rangers Centennial set for Glad I'm Not Dead Day.

9. Ed Belfour is in 9th, and of the Top 10 I know the least about him. He retired before I started watching the sport. One of his cards does mention he has a classic car so he can't be too bad! 48 cards of him reside in my collection.

8. I thought the 8th place goalie would be higher, but nope...he's only in 8th with 51 cards, Martin Brodeur.

7. There's a big drop between 6th and 7th, with Connor Hellebuyck holding down 7th most goalie cards, but he only has 52 in my collection, 14 less than the 6th place goalie. He is still active and that does give him a chance to add more cards than a retired player would though. 

6. Just barely out of the top 5 is one of the all-time greats, Patrick Roy. I didn't get to see him play live but I did get to see him coach. The Islanders shouldn't have fired him. I currently have 66 cards of him.

5. Holding the final spot in the top 5 is current superstar and guaranteed Hall of Famer Andrei Vasilevskiy, with 69 cards.

4. The highest ranked goalie who I didn't get to see play live isn't a surprise, as he's one of the all-time greats of my favorite team, and our last Stanley Cup winning goalie, Mike Richter. I currently have 73 cards of him, tied with Mario Lemieux.

3. Once we got below the top 2 I wasn't exactly sure how it play out so looking at my collection totals to make this post let me be surprised as well. Carey Price is in third, with 76 cards. 

2. Coming in second isn't really a surprise either, and that's Marc-Andre Fleury, with 94 cards. Marc-Andre is my mom's all-time favorite player and I'm also a fan. 

1. Of course, at number one, and the only number I knew who it would be before I started writing this post, is Henrik Lundqvist, my all-time favorite NHL player and one of the few who I actively buy single cards of. Not only does he have the most goalie cards in my collection, he has the most hockey cards overall of all players combined, with 165 at the time of this writing. 

Since I'll be curious if I remember to revisit this post/concept into the future, here are the contenders looking to move into the top 10:

1. 11. Sergei Bobrovsky 45
2. 12. Jonathan Quick 44
3. 13. Igor Shesterkin 42
4. 14. Roberto Luongo 41
5. 15. Dominik Hasek 40
6. 16. Curtis Joseph 40
7. 17. Tuukka Rask 40
8. 18. Sean Burke 38
9. 19. Semyon Varlamov 38
10. 20. John Gibson 36
11. 21. Daren Puppa 36
12. 22. Pekka Rinne 34
13. 23. Braden Holtby 33
14. 24. Kari Lehtonen 31
15. 25. Nikolai Khabibulin 30
16. 26. Matt Murry (1) 30
17. 27. Bill Ranford 30
18. 28. Carter Hart 29
19. 29. Cory Schneider 29
20. 30. Mike Vernon 29

Since I started the post with a card of Ukko-Pekka Luukonen, he has a long way to go. I currently have 11 cards of him. 

We are the Champions!

 30 years. That's how long I've been a Knicks fan. Since I was in 5th grade. Through the ups and downs, the many, many downs, the mismanagement, even the horrors of the Phil Jackson era...I've been a Knicks fan. I never thought I would see the day the Knicks were NBA Champions. Not only for the 30 years have I been watching the sport...not for the 41 years I've been alive...but for 53 long years the Knicks were held out of the Champions list. I've seen them play in the Finals before. Most of the time I've seen them fall short. This year, though...this year was different. Not only did the Knicks win the NBA Championship, they dominated the playoffs. Largest margins of victory. Longest winning streak. Biggest comeback. All these things were accomplished this season, and finally...finally, the Knicks won it all, for the third time in their 79 attempts. One of only three original NBA teams- and one of only two to be in the same city the entire time, the Knicks became only the 9th franchise with 3 or more NBA Championships. I don't know what the future holds, back to back winners are very rare by design in this era. The salary cap already cost the Knicks three of the Championship players including key important player Mitchell Robinson, so even though I think a repeat is possible with this core, I'm not going to assume it's a given. I am going to relish every moment of this playoff series and I will rewatch it every time MSG repeats it. 

Now, documenting this on cards. That fell on Topps Now, which did an OK job. They definitely favored the Spurs, but they did make some very nice cards for my team. 

The Championship team photo is always incredible and this year does not disappoint. Although considering my team won I don't think I would be disappointed in any way, lol. 

OG's amazing shot will forever go down as one of the biggest moments in Knicks history. 

Jalen absolutely deserved the MVP. He went above and beyond what most people expected of him. 

Trading for KAT is what made this Finals run possible. That is when the team started to take shape. 

I even got to see a parade for my team! A parade in NY is always great, and in the last three years I've gotten to see one for the Liberty and the Knicks. For a basketball fan it doesn't get much better than that. 

Unfortunately Topps only made 4 cards for the parade, but I got them all, of course. 

Finally, on July 23rd my Champions team set arrived.

A 15 card insert with one parallel or autograph.  Here are all 15 cards.

My only complaint is that Mike Brown didn't get a card. This was one of the few times in the league where a coach made a positive difference in the team. 

My parallel was the SP version of Mikal Bridges.

I have to be honest, I would rather the Champions team set had been the players with the trophy rather than the action shots. They are good too, and all photos from the finals, but posing with the trophy is special. 

It's now a month later, the cards are all in hand proving this actually happened...but I still can't quite fully believe it. A small part of me still expects to wake up and have it all have been a dream. 

I had to get the shirt too. Fanatics didn't make anything good in my size, so I ended up ordering a bootleg off a Facebook ad. Gotta do what you gotta do.

New York Knicks, 2026 NBA Champions. I will never, ever get tired of hearing that, or writing it. A dream come true.