P-town Tom - Where Are They Now?

Here's an idea I've been kicking around for a while: A blog series checking in with some of my favorite former/dormant cardbloggers. To me, the glory days of cardblogging were the mid 2010s (I hear the aughts were a lot of fun too, but I hadn't returned to collecting yet then). Lots of trading, learning about cool cards, and making new online pals through the hobby.

Keeping a blog active is a commitment, of course, and it's sad but usually not too shocking when somebody decides to give it up. Sometimes they say goodbye, other times the "next post" just never comes. Used to be you could probably keep in touch with them via other social media, but with Twitter getting all musky and Bluesky failing to recreate the better times, those lingering connections are harder to maintain.

So yeah, figured I'd reach out to some friendly names of the past to see if they'd like to be featured in a "Where Are They Now?" post. It's daunting for me because there are probably a hundred such people I'd love to hear from, and I didn't want to just send out a mass email to everyone at once. So for a first batch, I started by narrowing down to the Chicago-centric folks (e.g., Cubs fans, plus Jedi Jeff representing the south side). Looks like I may need to take another pass at drafting the message, as I only got a single response. But the good news is it was a terrific a response.

P-town Tom launched his blog Waiting 'til Next Year in 2011 and kept up posting consistency for a decade or so. Just a solid dude who always seemed to have something interesting to say. Often left thoughtful, encouraging comments on other blogs, too. I think I speak for all of us around back then when I say he's sorely missed on the scene today. The current most recent post on his blog is recapping a Zapping from April 2025, so not ancient history. In fact, after receiving Tom's substantial response, I had to encourage him to turn it into a new post on his own blog, though he generously chose to stick to the plan of guesting here.

Without further ado, let's check in with P-town Tom!

I loved my time blogging and all the friendships I made along the way. When the Cubs won the World Series in 2016 I kind of lost my way for a bit. I had spent so many years cheering on my team to a championship... I didn't really know how to respond when they won it all. My consumption of all things MLB related took a serious step backwards, including card collecting and blogging. Not helping matters, I felt the Hobby was at a crossroads: Collectors vs. Investors. I'm a collector in the truest sense of the word and I felt I was being squeezed out. I miss ripping cheap product, without chase cards, to complete a set. Are there even set builders out there anymore? I digress. I still have all my cards... my Folder of Fun, my HOF collection (which I keep up to date), my Vogelbach collection & ect. I feel the urge to open packs I typically will watch single pack rips on Youtube. 

What have I been up to? I'm still teaching high school math, primarily Calculus and Geometry. I was the math department chair the last seven years, but have taken a step back this upcoming school year. In the fall I coach the 6th grade baseball team at one of the middle schools in the school district. Coaching that age of athlete is so much fun and so rewarding. In the spring I'm the high school assistant varsity baseball coach. We've had a combined record of 86-23 the last three seasons, which I'm pretty proud of. Coaching baseball takes up much of my time in the fall and spring, but I truly love the game and it's the best way for me to personally stay connected to the game. 

 

Team picture from the past spring when we clinched the conference championship (I'm on the far left)

 

I'll be celebrating 22 years of marriage to my amazing wife this summer and we still call P-town Home. We still have the same two cats, Hugo & Holiday, who have been around since I was last blogging fulltime. I became a Bradley University basketball season ticket holder with my sister. NIL and the transfer portal means we're learning a whole new roster next year. I also joined a bowling league and my team, a coed foursome, has won the league championship two of the last three years. I lead the league in average each of the last two years!

 

I still add cards here and there, but it's really slowed since Dan Vogelbach cards stopped being printed. Here's a few I've picked up this year: 

 

 
A) I've been following the Cubs' 6th round pick from the 2025 draft, who was given a record two million dollar signing bonus to pull him away from his college commitment. Josiah Hartshorn didn't make his professional debut until 2026, but the switch hitting outfielder has already been promoted to High-A. Great strike zone discipline, good power, okay defensively. He's currently being comped to Joey Votto. We'll see! 

 

 

B) I've been chasing Vogelmonster whales. Dan Vogelbach retired and is now an assistant hitting coach for the Brewers. Since there aren't dozens of parallels to chase anymore I have spent my limited resources filling in holes in my PC. I've only been able to find three new-to-me Vogelbach cards this year, but one of them is a 2013 Bowman Sterling Canary Diamond Refractor dual auto with Anthony Rizzo. I've been chasing that card for 13 years! It's numbered  3/3, so it's a big get. I bet the other two are with Rizzo collectors. 

 

 

 
C) Ohn Scoggins. I probably should have started with this from the top, but I've played over 180 rounds of disc golf each of the last two years. I love being out in nature, playing with friends, and trying best my previous rounds. I also volunteer each year as a spotter when the Pro Tour makes its way through through the Peoria area. I'm not a big thrower off the tee, but I'm a pretty accomplished putter... much like my favorite player. Ohn is one of the biggest stars on the female side of the tour, definitely the one with the most positive energy, and the one I model my game after. I've bought three cards of hers over the last six years, but only when they strike my eye. 

 

 

Hugo (tan) and Holiday (gray) reminding me that it's dinner time.

 

Big thanks to P-town Tom for taking the time to let us know what he's been up to. With all that going on, it's no surprise he doesn't have much time to carve out for drafting up blog posts these days. But if/when he finds himself with more downtime and drive to blog, us guys still here will be thrilled to read whatever he has to write.

That'll wrap up this inaugural Where Are They Now post. Who do you think we should try checking in with next?

COM-See ya

I've resisted shopping on the COMC site since my latest shipment, but I wouldn't feel confident stating definitively that it was my final COMC order because once in a blue moon they end up with a card significantly cheaper than you can find elsewhere, even with the jacked up shipping considered, and I have in fact bought a couple cards via the COMC eBay account since. But I try to avoid them. (If they're reading and want to offer me a "free shipping" voucher or something to win me back... lol)

That last (for now?) order of mine included some cards to help complete the We Didn't Start The Fire binder, as well as some needs for refractor sets I'm working on which I'll likely show off in separate posts, but for today, here are some other various cool cards I got in that big shipment.

These are probably the result of searching Tony Gwynn refractors and grabbing low-cost options that caught my eye. The 3000 hits card reminds me I wanted to make a display with the ticket from the game I got from Rod with a few cards documenting the moment, such as that one.

Seems like I'm pandering to Fuji by kicking off the post with Gwynn and Rickey, but hey, I like those guys too! That 2022 Topps Chrome Update Series - Diamond Greats Chrome in the middle there sure is attractive, in particular.

Heritage parallels that caught my eye at a good price. The Vogelmoster appearance serendipitously gives me the opportunity to tease an upcoming post of mine in the works wherein we catch up with an old friend from the cardsphere.

A pair of "Retrofractors" up top. Topps has used the term various time for different cardstock combinations. The retrofractors in 2001 Topps Traded (one of the aforementioned refractor projects I'm working on) have Chrome fronts and heritage stock backs. The retrofractors in 2002 Topps Super Teams, however, feature bumpy foilboard fronts with the heritage type backs.. not quite as cool-- I'm not chasing the set-- but I still grabbed a Kevin Mitchell and Don Hoak. (Figured I might put together a mini Hoak PC since I've got a partial autograph on a Clemente cut-auto, arguably my best card.)

The Hank Aaron kinda works as a card-that-never-was that I can sneak into my Refracting the Past collecting project of refractor reprints (and reimaginings that make chronological sense) sorted by year of original Topps design (so this "pre-rookie" gets sorted under 1953).

Akili Smith was the 3rd overall pick in '99 and made some starts for the Bengals but never had much of an impact in the NFL. But he was a local legend when I was growing up, probably the top high school quarterback in San Diego back when I was a high school athlete, so he was like a known dude. I'd love to say I competed at the same invitational track meet as him once or twice, but I wouldn't trust my foggy memory now. Turns out he played some minor league ball in the Pirates organization too (but doesn't seem to have gotten cards documenting it). And he had a nice senior year with the Oregon Ducks in 1998, so I bet Kerry has a decent Akili Smith PC. But yeah, he was a familiar name to snag while browsing cheap old-style xfractors like that.. love the pixelated movement on 'em.

I grabbed some refractors of active guys too. Solid names all around.

A little ink. Stickergraphs of MLB's current top Gavins.

As for older cards, the Roger Craig '64 need was the last card of the order, taking my store credit to just-above the required shipping cost. Still hoping to get around to completing 1964 Topps eventually, now just inching over 4/5's of the way there.

I've already got the complete set of 1988 San Diego State Aztecs 50th Anniversary All-Time Great Aztecs, but the cards damn near never surface (still have my old saved search saved out of curiosity [and because I know the Gwynn and Grace are highly sought after by supercollectors.. because they politely bug me to sell them mine!]), so I ended up grabbing "back up" copies of a couple PC guys when somebody was breaking up a partial set via COMC.

Closing out the post with a few pics of the biggest card of the order (in both size and money):

 1996 Topps Stadium Club - Extreme Players Winners - Gold #EW5 - Ken Caminiti 

I forget where I saw another collector talking about how incredibly cool these things are, but their words must have moved me, and so I took a chance on kicking up my Ken Caminiti PC with this chonker at an "over a blaster" price point. As a refractor enthusiast looking to get his socks knocked off, this does not disappoint. Topps was using their whole asses back then, delivering an impressive (and slightly oversized) special redemption prize exchanged for lucky winning pulls.

The "glass-coated" refractor is a thing of beauty and you're going to want to take it out of any packaging to enjoy the feel of it in your bare hands as often as reasonable without getting it all smudged up.

You don't need to try to make sense of the back's text, but it's cool how the card is like glass on the front and then metallic when you flip it over.

And there you have some highlights from that shipment. I might eventually have a follow-up with stuff I didn't get around to covering here, and I think I've still got a stack of cards from my previous COMC order that I haven't posted about because I was going to do it via handwritten post, but then I ended up doing the handwritten post idea on peeling protective films on other cards. But enough time has probably passed where I could get away with doing another one soon. Anyways, yeah, thanks for reading!

cardboard concentration

I don't get bored very often. Despite being home most of the time for the past couple weeks, still feels like I have dozens of little projects I want to get to one of these days. If I ever get to the point where I run out of things to do, then I might start getting worried-- but I doubt I'll ever get to that point. Always more cards to sort.. customs to make.. trade packages to put together.. and that's just talking about card stuff! Other around-the-house stuff to do too.

And I'd love to post more, both here and at my MusiCards blog. How is it I seem to have more free time to post while at work than when I'm working from home?! LOL, don't make no sense.

I'm also behind in reading the card blogs. I still haven't gotten to the wave of '88 Score Phil Niekro posts.. but almost there. Should be fun reading through all those.

But anyways, I received cards from a couple folks this week, so that's good motivation to squeeze out a quick post.

Johnny Miller has been doing some fun giveaway games lately. I got in on one of them and ended up with this well-loved vintage Mickey Mantle checklist from 1967. This'll be a sweet addition to my Mantle PC.

John also included this 1980 Kellogg's Bruce Bochte. Another project on my long to-do list is to sort all my Kellogg's cards and finally put up wantlists for them. The long-term goal is to complete every Kellogg's set from 1970-1983, but I'm sure that'll be tough and take several years. Hey, no rush. Not sure where I'm at now, but doubt I'm anywhere near even halfway with any of these sets.

Thanks a lot, John! Your generosity is appreciated! I've got some cards set aside for you I'll try to drop in the mail one of these days.

-  - ----o

The other cardsphere mailing I received this week is from Nate at The Bucs Stop Here. He put together a great package of cards for me with guys I collect.

Impressive Kris Bryant lot right here. The holiday card is one of the metallic snowflake parallels.

Kris' teammate Javier Baez was along for the ride as well.

Young Dodger studs represented here with Cody Bellinger and Gavin Lux.

Woo! A pair of Vlad Jr RCs. You know I'm a sucker for hyped-up rookies. I was really looking forward to seeing how his 2020 season shaped up.. but it'll have to wait.

More good stuff. Vogelmonster gold #'d 0057/2020. Early Didi. Tim Duncan refractor. Bol Bol RC.
Not sure if you saw my tweet from a few days ago, but I recently sorted my little basketball card collection. Tim Duncan was the largest PC by a comfortable margin, which I guess isn't a big surprise. I've gotten a lot of help from friendly traders.

Let's end on a hit. Nate hooked me up with this Joe Musgrove RC auto. I already had the base auto, but this badboy is the refractor parallel, #'d /499. Musgrove is from my hometown, so there's a little personal connection for me there.

Thank you for the excellent trade, Nate! I'm sorry my Pirates selection is a little thin at the moment. I'll keep an eye out for more Buccos and hope to balance the scales next time we swap cards.

My wife and I made up a "seclusion safari" game where we earn points by spotting cute animals from our windows. She's been kicking my ass so far. But it's just something fun to do while stuck at home. Always brightens our day when the backyard is visited by a local bunny. Funny how much entertainment value we get from watching the adorable little guy nibble on the lawn.

Guess that's all for now. Thanks for reading and stay safe!

Scenes from P-town

Plenty of solid dudes on the ol' cardsphere, but none more solid than P-town Tom. He's the type of guy where if he found a 1/1 card in a dimebox, he'd bring it to the dealer's attention. Me? Ain't gonna lie, I'd swiftly and without fanfare add it to my stack.

Anyways, it had been a year or so since we last swapped cards, but we recently made up for that and struck a big trade.

Love this custom Tom whipped up on the Rookies App.

Great to see the Vogelmoster having a breakout season.

To drive the point home that it's been a long time since I traded with Tom, he had a bunch of '90 UD Marquis Grissoms set aside for me... and he apologized for being a bit late, as I announced the conclusion of this project back in January. Oh well, I can probably squeeze in a couple more pages to the binder!

A few needs from my '88 Fleer wantlist, plus a nice little lot of '87 Fleer, which I haven't made a wantlist for yet-- still rounding up whatever I can, but I almost have enough now to sort out what I've got and put up a list. If anyone has any surplus '87 Fleer to dump, maybe we can swing a trade.

And a big lot of 50 Ron Gant cards! Looks like Tom had a PC of him going but decided to cut bait. I'll happily take them. I'm likely past the magic 100-card milestone for my Gant PC now thanks to this lot.

But the bulk of Tom's big box was FIVE complete (or near-complete) sets from the overproduction era that I had been wanting to add to my collection. I'm thinking I'll do a post on each of these to give them proper love-- highlighting favorite cards and whatnot. So look for those in the not too distant future.

Great stuff, Tom!! I'll get cracking on your return very soon.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend, everybody!

Vogelmoster PC

Everybody knows that I'm the top Dan Vogelbach collector on the cardsphere.

Ok, no, I'm just messing around. That's P-Town Tom, of course. But hey, I've got a respectable Vogelmoster player collection too.

Looks like the big fella is finally putting it together in the Bigs, putting up some huge numbers here in the first few weeks of the young season-- .836 SLG, 1.309 OPS, 251 OPS+ --making him the early favorite for AL ROY. So I figured I'd celebrate his success by revisiting the cards I've got of him.

This 2011 Bowman Chrome blue refractor auto #/150 is my best Vogelbach card. I bought it for $26 three years ago, and these days it usually goes for around $80.

Nice variety of 2013 Bowman cards.

I love 2015 Bowman Chrome-- pretty much the only modern Bowman set that moves the needle for me. Got a partial rainbow going here.

More Bowman stuff, including a Christmas Card in the middle.

Early unlicensed cards. Love the silver ink auto.

The "Changing Places" card is a custom I whipped up for Tom shortly after Dan got shipped to Seattle. It's based on a design of 2002 Fleer cards for traded players.

Another custom, going for a Griffey rookie look. I know I made a 3rd custom too, but I don't seem to have kept a copy for myself. Tried a couple TTM attempts that didn't return (yet?).

A couple more autographs to close out the post, with the Stadium Club card being the clear highlight thanks in large part to the on-card signature.

There you go. Wishing continued success to the Vogelmoster!

Card Show High Rolling

Good monthly card show haul today. When I first showed up, my regular dealer Bill's cheap bins were completely packed with dudes flipping through cards, so I bided my time in his mid-priced bins, picking up cards a bit more than my card show norm.

Topps went nuts flooding the market with Dan Vogelbach autos in 2017, just ask P-town Tom. While I've cooled on collecting the Vogelmonster in the past year, still threw these /99 autos on my stack for the heck of it. Can you believe some collectors have no preference between on-card signatures and stickergraphs?

A couple more autos. I don't even collect Kyle Seager, but thought that was a nice looking card for a solid price. And those "glass" cards are always neat, and Chris Betts /21 here was cheap.

A couple sweet Legends variations for my 2011 Topps parallel frankenset.

I just recently gave up on collecting the 2015 Topps Gallery of Greats insert set and had deleted it off my wantlist. Still though, I'll pick up needs of guys I collect. Love these.

A couple autos of young Padres. I nearly passed on the Margot, but its #/35 serial number on the back suckered me in.

Fernando Tatis Jr. is one of the Padres' top prospects, so I shelled out a few bucks for this #/100 diecut. Really hope he pans out in a couple years when all the "rebuilding" should start shaping up, in theory.

A couple sets here. 1984 Mother's Cookies Padres team set, and a 1995 Collector's Choice You Crash the Game Exchange Gold set which is still sealed but I'll probably open it and raid it for my PCs soon.

I mainly bought the Mothers set (at $1.50 was among my best deals of the day) for the Gwynn, but there are a few other guys I collect in there too. As I've said many times, those are my all-time fav uniforms.. and they look great on this glossy set.

Some backs, if you were interested. Always think it's funny to see the "autograph" area. I wonder if some dumb kid was like, "Excuse me, Mr, Gwynn, could you please sign my card for me? –No, Tony, you're supposed to autograph on the back!"

Actually, now I'm kind of wanting to get a Mother's card signed on the back. Need to find one of a dependable TTM guy, send it with a sticky note on the front asking him to sign the back. That'd be hilarious.

Here's a cool vintage piece, a Willie Stargell temporary tattoo from 1971. Bonus points for the Padres mention. But wait, there's more!...

It's a complete sheet! Pretty cool, even though Stargell is the only HOFer in the bunch.

This was a freebie. I bumped into my bud Padrographs Rod at the show, and later he came back around and gifted me this Gavin Cecchini auto he had just scored for me. Awesome.. thanks again, Rod!

Speaking of free stuff, this isn't card related but I wanted to squeeze this onto the blog...

I got 5 new pairs of shoes this week! Isn't that insane? What am I, some spoiled trophy wife from Beverly Hills? The thing is I got a generous shoe store gift certificate for Christmas and I ended up using it on 4 pairs of shoes from the clearance section (budgeted nicely with just 4¢ to spare on the gift certificate!). Then at work, somebody had offered up another pair of shoes that I assume was a gift that didn't fit or something. But I tried them on and they fit great. And so that's how I got 5 new pairs of shoes in a week with no money out of my pocket. And my old shoes were falling apart, so it's appreciated. These should last me a while.

Ok, that's it for today. More from my card show haul soon.