Train-ing

 I'm well known as a car guy, and cars get most of attention. But don't get me wrong, I love everything that can move itself under it's own power. Ships, airplanes...and trains. So, when I saw a facebook ad for a card set of historic trains for America's 250th anniversary, you better believe I clicked on it and brought it home. 

It's made by Walthers, which is a model train company, which may explain why I saw the ad. Modeling is only a part of my life, but most of my online interaction on Facebook is modelers. It's a 25 card set that came in a standard looking pack, which is kind of unusual for a promo-type set. Since it's such a small set, why not, I'll post all 25 fronts. 

This is the train that was met at the Golden Spike. 

Most of the set is horizontal but some are vertical. 

Three people got cards in the set.

George Pullman of Pullman train car fame is making his debut in my collection, you'll see this card again in my monthly New People update.

This is pretty cool. This is where I live...the local Amtrak station would be in walking distance if my body worked. I can hear the trains out my window if it's quiet enough. 

Here's a back sample...

The backs have a lot of info crammed onto each of them. The stars in the border are subtle but nice. 

The cards came out of the pack flat but they have since curved like 1980s Topps cards, although in this case they curve in the opposite direction, with the backs bowing outward. Not a problem, just a little bit of trivia for the set. You can see a little bit of the curving in the black outline border on the back scan.

If you want to read the rest of the backs I have them all posted here: 2026 Walthers Titans of Steel America 250

They are really nice cards and I'm glad I saw the Facebook ad for them. I would never have known they existed if not for that and I would have missed them. 

This is the first train-exclusive set in my collection since...1938 Wills Railway Equipment! I know there have been some others after them but they have not made their way into my collection, at least not yet. Airplanes are much more common to see on cards than trains are. 

Although I do love trains I believe the last time I took a train ride was 1994 or 1996, when it was a school field trip. I don't remember for sure anymore, it was that long ago. 

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.