400th Post

I've reached another milestone here at Nine Pockets:  

400 blog posts!  

Because I add content here each Sunday, 400 posts means this blog has been rolling along for almost eight years now. And that's a lot of content. 

 

I guess if you break it down, some of it has been nostalgia, some of it has been custom cards, some of it has been completed sets, and so on. Ultimately, it shows that trading cards have been a bigger part of my life than I thought. Back when I started this blog in 2018, I couldn't have imagined that I'd find so much to write about. 

In any case, and as usual with these milestone posts, I wanted to tie in some cards using a sports-related milestone of some kind. 

The first thing I thought about was baseball players who batted .400. However, there haven't been many of those—none from our modern time, in fact. So I next thought about a few players who nearly batted .400: Tony Gwynn (.394 in 1994), George Brett (.390 in 1980), and Rod Carew (.388 in 1977). 

 

However, we're celebrating 400 blog posts here, and 394, 390, and 388 just don't do enough of a job to mark the milestone. Thankfully, I found something soon after:

 

Players who've batted .400 across an 80-game stretch.

 

That's essentially half a season. After a little bit of research, here's what I found:

 

 

Name	At-Bats	Hits	Average	Date Range
George Brett	315	137	.435	5/30/1980–10/1/1980
Ichiro Suzuki	349	149	.427	6/30/2004–9/27/2004
Wade Boggs	332	138	.416	6/26/1985–9/22/1985
Tony Gwynn	327	133	.407	4/9/1997–7/15/1997
Larry Walker	302	123	.407	4/9/1997–7/14/1997
Rod Carew	310	126	.406	4/16/1977–7/17/1977

Man, that 1997 season was something else. Larry Walker and Tony Gwynn both took their .400 batting averages well into July. Walker finished the season at .366, while Gwynn ended up at .372.

 

It goes to show you how much harder it is to keep up that .400 pace for another 80 games.

 

Regardless, it's an impressive feat. And because this is a trading card blog, here are examples of what collectors would have been pulling from packs while the guys listed above were swinging such hot bats:

 

 

1980 Topps #450 George Brett, 2004 Bazooka Stand-Ups #18 Ichiro Suzuki, 1985 Topps #350 Wade Boggs

 

1997 Topps #410 Tony Gwynn, 1997 Topps Stars #1 Larry Walker, 1977 Topps #120 Rod Carew

I should note that the table shown above only represents a partial list. Nomar Garciaparra, Todd Helton, and John Olerud also accomplished the feat, as well as other legends like Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente. (The most recent player to do it appears to be Joey Votto, from June to October of 2016.)

 

And I'll leave it there. Milestone achieved.

 

Whether you've been visiting this blog from the start, reading it today for the first time, or anything in between, I'm sending my thanks. I hope you've enjoyed doing the reading as much as I've enjoyed doing the writing.

 

Here's to more great trading card and blogging milestones all around!

Touchdown!

 

There's good ol' Terry Bradshaw, arms in the air, celebrating another score. He's likely done it by completing a pass to John Stallworth, or maybe Lynn Swann. Tack on a quick and simple field goal, and the Steelers have put 7 points on the board.

 

Do you know what else has put 7 points on the board, in an anniversary sense?

 

This blog! 

 

That's right. Today marks exactly 7 years since I started blogging about trading cards. I don't know where the time goes, but I wouldn't mind if it slowed down a little bit.

Regardless, it was a good year of blogging. For example, set completions were plentiful:

Hockey

1981-82 Topps

1991-92 Score Canadian Bilingual

1991-92 Upper Deck

 

Baseball 

1980 Topps

1987 Topps

 

Nonsport 

2023 Allen & Ginter TALONted

The Smorgasbord series also had a strong showing, with 9 entries appearing throughout the year that were filled with nostalgic food-issue cards and stories.

As for custom card designs, they came a bit slower than usual in 2025. However, on top of what customs I did create for myself, I also designed a few commissioned pieces for clients. That was fun, and I have a couple more of those lined up for 2026. 

 

In addition, I think I achieved my goal of regaining some zeal for the hobby—in large part as a result of some great vintage acquisitions like these.

 

But perhaps the most noteworthy accomplishment is that I managed to post new content here on the blog every Sunday again for the entire year. That's a 7-year streak! I'm particularly happy about it this time, because work was extremely busy for the majority of 2025. There were plenty of days (and weeks) when I was exhausted. And frustrated. And it can be tough to create much of anything when you're in that state. But I managed to do it, and I hope you guys found the content entertaining, engaging, and informative across the year.

 

So, how about some goals for 2026?

• Keep the good collecting energy going
• Keep the every-Sunday blog post streak going
• Find more time to read all the other great card blogs out there
• Hold a couple of giveaways
• Enjoy/look through my current collection a little more (I don't flip through my binders enough)

 

I think all five of those are doable.

Thank you all for reading along throughout the year, and for your insightful, informative, and entertaining comments.

 

Here's to lots of good collecting experiences in 2026 for everyone!

 

A Most Minuscule Blogging Milestone Achieved

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed a new number on the right-hand widget bar here on the Nine Pockets blog.

I've got 50 followers!

Huge news, right? Time to update my status to "influencer".

 

 

Jokes aside, noticing the number on that widget did give me pause for thought. A milestone like this would have been a much more meaningful occasion back in the heyday of blogging. I can imagine well-known bloggers from various corners of the internet celebrating every 100 followers they gained, for example. 

 

But in today's online world, there are quite a few additional forms of social content that grapple for our attention:

 

2-sentence posts

10-second video clips

Single-panel memes

News clips 

How-to videos 

City walks

Virtual tours

ASMR videos

Endless sports highlights

Live streams of all sorts of events

Stories that disappear after 24 hours 

Reaction videos

Unboxings

The list goes on and on.

 

And that's not to mention the emergence of the aforementioned influencers, and their millions of followers across various platforms. Put that all together, and it means bloggers aren't exactly pulling in the numbers these days.

But do you know who still reads blogs?

 

You do.

 

You're undeniable proof that blogging is still here. You, and other folks like you, still enjoy reading the unique content that blogs can provide. I'd even like to think that one day, folks might grow tired of the barrage of content and alerts coming in from all those other platforms, reduce the amount of time they spend tapping, swiping, and aimlessly scrolling, and replace it with some quality time reading blogs again. 

 

Sure, it might be naive to think that way. But I'm sticking with it. 

And that's why I'm setting aside a few minutes to celebrate 50 followers.

 

  

As small as our little corner of the internet is, there's a lot of value here—and a lot of great people, to boot.

If you're one of the 50 followers, or even if you just stop by Nine Pockets every once in a while to read through my thoughts about trading cards and the nostalgia they bring about, I'd like to issue a sincere thank you.

Your time spent here means a lot.

 

Keep enjoying the hobby. And if you're a blogger, keep on doing what you're doing.

 

More good content to come.

Six!

 

1975-76 Topps #150, Darryl Sittler

If you were a hockey-loving kid opening packs of cards on February 8th, 1976, and pulled the card above, you would have let out a big cheer.

 

Why?

The night before, Darryl Sittler scored 6 goals against the Boston Bruins in an 11–4 win for the Maple Leafs. Add 4 assists to his scoresheet, and you'll find that Sittler contributed to 10 of his team's 11 goals.

There was no way you were trading that card at school the next day. (Or maybe you do try and trade it—you'd be sure to get a haul in return.)

Regardless, six goals in a game is pretty special. And do you know what else has "lit the lamp" 6 times now, in an anniversary sense?

This blog!

That's right. Tomorrow marks the 6-year anniversary of my very first post here at Nine Pockets. I don't know where the time goes. It's baffling.

But it's been another fun year. I designed more custom cards, found some pieces of trading card nostalgia from my childhood, learned some French-language baseball terminology, and started a series on food-issue cards.

 

I'm also happy to report that I've officially kept the streak of Sunday posts going for another year. Every Sunday since 2019. I'm pretty happy about that.

One more thing I'm happy about? Last year at this time, one of my goals was to get some zeal back for the hobby. And I'll give myself a passing grade there. The Smorgasbord series has helped, as I've enjoyed picking up some cool, retro, funky food-issue cards over the past few months. Much more to come there, so stay tuned. I also completed three more sets from my youth this past year: 1983 Topps Baseball, 1982 Topps Football, and 1990-91 Pro Set Hockey.

As for this coming year, I've got some posts lined up already that I'm hoping you'll enjoy. It's been a while since I've done a giveaway, so I think I'll try to include a couple of those throughout the year, too. Other than that, I just want to keep the good mojo going, and I've got to make an effort to find more time to read and comment on all the great trading card blogs out there.

The hobby is still in a weird place, isn't it? It seems like there's lots of big energy, but lots of malaise at the same time. Quite a few things are behind that phenomenon, but instead of taking time to analyze and write about them, I think I'm just going to stick to what makes me feel good in the hobby, share some of those good feelings here on the blog, and treat all the rest of it as noise.

Thanks to all of you for following along these past 6 years, for your friendships (real-world or virtual), for your trades, and for your comments. We've got a great community, and I look forward to year number 7.

Here's to lots of good collecting all around in 2025!

300th Post

I've reached another milestone here at Nine Pockets:  

300 blog posts!  

Because I add content here each Sunday throughout the year, 300 posts means this blog has been rolling along for almost six years now. And once again, I'm very happy that I've been able to come up with enough content to fill that many Sundays. I hope you've enjoyed doing the reading as much as I've enjoyed doing the writing.

And because this is a trading card blog, I wanted to tie in some cards with the number 300, using a sports-related milestone of some kind. 

For whatever reason, the first one that came to mind was 300 MLB wins for a pitcher. It turns out 24 guys have reached that milestone, which is too many to feature here.

Next, I thought about the same milestone for NHL goaltenders. Well, a whopping 39 of them have reached the 300-win mark. So I didn't really want to go there. However, after a little more digging, I discovered that only 6 of those 39 have accumulated all 300 of their wins with the same team. That's kind of cool.

Here's the short list:

Name	Team	Wins
Henrik Lundqvist	New York Rangers	459
Pekka Rinne	Nashville Predators	369
Carey Price	Montreal Canadiens	361
Tukka Rask	Boston Bruins	308
Turk Broda	Toronto Maple Leafs	304
Mike Richter	New York Rangers	301

 

Still, I wanted to keep thinking about that number 300. I figured there was another milestone out there that would better suit this blog post. My thoughts went back to baseball: How about relief pitchers with 300 saves?

Welp, there are 31 relievers on that list. Some are names you'd think of right away (Rivera, Hoffman, Franco, Eckersley), while others... 

Todd Jones?

Jeff Montgomery?

Jason Isringhausen??

Yeah, those were just some of the names that surprised me.

It was all interesting research and information to this point. But I still needed to find something else related to the number 300.

How about pitchers with 300 strikeouts in a season?

Okay, now we were getting somewhere. Only 19 pitchers have hit that number. And even fewer have done it multiple times. Let's represent the top few guys on the list with some cardboard.

1999 Upper Deck Victory #16 Randy Johnson, 1977 Topps #650 Nolan Ryan,
1963 Topps #210 Sandy Koufax, 1998 Topps #332 Curt Schilling

Nolan Ryan struck out 300 batters a total of 6 times across his career, as did Randy Johnson. As for Koufax and Schilling, they achieved the feat 3 times each. The rest of the list is full of two-timers and one-timers.

Now here's a question for you: Tell me which bit of additional information about these guys is the most impressive: 

• Five of Randy Johnson's six career 300-strikeout seasons came in a row, from 1998 through 2002.
• Johnson also had seasons of 290, 291, and 294 strikeouts. That means he almost hit the 300-K mark nine times. (That's terrifying.)
• Johnson and Schilling both struck out 300 batters while they were teammates with the Diamondbacks in 2002.
• Nolan Ryan went 12 years between his 5th 300-strikeout season (1977, age 30) and his 6th (1989, age 42).

It all leaves me speechless. So I'm going to just end this post right there.

Whether you've been visiting this blog from the start, reading it today for the first time, or anything in between, I'm sending a big thank-you. And an even bigger thank-you for the comments, emails, and trading card exchanges over the years. We've got a great community of bloggers and collectors, and if you're amongst that company, here's to more great milestones and trading card content all around!

Gimme Five!

 

 

What a fun baseball card. There's Tom Paciorek, scoring a run at Shea Stadium, wearing those classic Mets uniforms, and giving a high-five to his waiting teammate. (Wally Backman, perhaps.)

 

And whether it's on the baseball diamond or anywhere else, exuberant high-fives like this one never really go out of style, do they?

 

That being said, get ready to give this blog a high-five. . . 

 

. . .because it's turning five years old!

 

I started this blog in late December of 2018. Time sure does fly.

But it's been another good year here at Nine Pockets. I was able to complete a few more card sets from my childhood era (1980-81 Topps hockey, 1981 Topps baseball, and 1988 Score baseball), and I created a bunch more custom cards, including a set of 1980s movie cards and even some Nine Pockets wax packs!

 

I also managed to post something here on the blog every Sunday yet again, keeping the streak going for the fifth straight year. It was a busy time personally (new job, new home, among other things), but I'm happy I pushed myself from January through December to come up with content that I hope you readers have considered engaging and entertaining. 

Interestingly, the sidebar on the blog shows 53 total posts for the year instead of the standard 52. After some investigating, I found that the first Sunday of 2023 happened to be January 1st, and today, the final Sunday of 2023, is December 31st. So the calendar managed to squeeze in just enough room for the bonus post.

 

As for year six? Well, I think it's similar to how I felt last year at this time. A big part of collecting is still about nostalgia for me: The memories and good feelings that trading cards bring about. The energy and excitement that comes with hunting for the next cards you want for your collection. I haven't felt that as much lately. I didn't really add a whole lot of cards to my collection aside from completing a few sets. I didn't trade very much at all on TCDB, or with fellow bloggers and collectors. I didn't comment as much on other trading card blogs. And so I want to try to get a little zeal back for the hobby. 

 

I'm not sure how much of that will happen this coming year, but if nothing else, I'd like to sit down and take a look at my collection, and which types of cards make me the most happy and nostalgic. I'm pretty sure the answer to that is vintage cards, plus oddball and food-issue stuff from the 1980s. And maybe some vintage non-sport stuff, too. So let's see what happens.

Regardless, I've got a lot of good ideas for upcoming blog posts, and a pretty big list of custom cards to work on. So I'm not going anywhere. Stay tuned for some fun content and potential giveaways. 

 

Thanks to all of you for reading, commenting, and most importantly for inspiring me through your blogs and your collections.

Here's to another great year of collecting!

Hat Trick!

1991-92 Bowman #347, Ken Hodge

 

 

I was a young collector when these 1991-92 Bowman hockey cards were released. Any amount of foil on a card was a pretty big deal back then, and those three pucks stamped in gold foil on the top corner of these special "hat trick" cards earned some coolness points with collectors, for sure. What can I say? We were easy to please back then.

 

But this post isn't really about the 1991-92 Bowman hockey set. Another type of hat trick was scored recently, in an anniversary sense of the expression.

 

This blog has turned three years old!

 

And just like last year's anniversary, I'm very happy to say that I've again maintained the goal of posting new content once a week, every Sunday.

 

It was a big year. Along with extending the streak, I added a bunch of fun custom cards to the list, and debuted the print versions to boot.

 

All you readers, commenters, and fellow bloggers have continued to inspire me and make the effort worthwhile, so I'm sending a big thank-you all around. I look forward to year number four, and I've got more custom cards and other ideas lined up. I'm also going to push hard to keep the every-Sunday streak going throughout the entire year. 

 

But let's get back to hat tricks for a moment. Because this is a trading card blog, let's link a few more cards to the feat of scoring three goals in a game.

 

Here are the three players who've scored the most hat tricks across their NHL careers: 

 

 

Gretzky had 50, Lemieux had 40, and Bossy had 39. 

 

Fifty hat tricks. Think about it for a minute. 

 

That means 150 of Wayne Gretzky's 894 career goals came on nights when he scored a hat trick. I mean c'mon, 150 goals total for an NHL career is nothing to shake a stick at. And Gretzky put up that many on hat tricks alone.

 

As for Mike Bossy's 39 hat tricks? Here's something that will help you understand just how incredible that number really is: 

 

Wayne Gretzky's 50 hat tricks came across 20 seasons. 

Mario Lemieux's 40 hat tricks came across 17 seasons. 

Mike Bossy's 39 hat tricks came across only 10 seasons.

 

Additional factoids:

 

Most career postseason hat tricks

Wayne Gretzky: 10

Jari Kurri: 7

Maurice Richard: 7

Dino Ciccarelli: 6

 

Most hat tricks in a single season

Wayne Gretzky: 10 (twice)

Mike Bossy: 9

Mario Lemieux: 9

Brett Hull: 8

 

Quickest hat trick

Bill Mosienko of the Chicago Black Hawks turned the trick in a total time of 21 seconds against the New York Rangers on March 23, 1952. Wow!

Back to the anniversary now. I'd like to do a giveaway like I did for last year's anniversary, but over the past few months I've done a few giveways, and I think I'm spent for ideas and material. However, there will be at least a couple of opportunities for you to claim some cards over the first few months of the new year, so please do stay tuned.

Thanks again for spending some time here on the blog. Let's look forward to a new year of blogging and collecting!

A Milestone

Hey Mr. Hershiser, how many years old is this blog? 

1991 Topps #690, Orel Hershiser

He's right. My first entry is dated December 30th, 2018, which means tomorrow makes it a year already. 

Huzzah!

My intention from the start was to post once a week—every Sunday—and I'm happy to say that I've held to that schedule the entire year. I think the format works well (hope you do, too), and I'm certainly going to try to stick to it for year number two.

All in all, it was a fun first year of blogging. 

If you're a reader, thanks so much for spending some time here throughout the year. If you're also a fellow blogger and collector, thank you for providing inspiration through your blogs and collections. I'm grateful.

Goals for the second year include completing a few more sets, creating more custom cards, and running a contest of some kind. But I think I need a larger readership before I try the contest. 

If you know someone who might enjoy this blog, would you do me a favor and share it with them?

Here's to another great year of blogging and collecting for everyone.