2 MLB Prospects we want to 'Seymour' of, plus chasing Louis Vuitton x Murakami Cards and McDonaldland Tins
A week ago I never knew they existed. A few days ago I didn't know where they came from. Today, I am obsessed with winning them.
These are cool cards. And they're beautiful. And hey — PSA 10s!
But what really drew me to them was the price — with two days left in the auction, they were still at $25-50, while being sold on eBay for hundreds. Maybe they will skyrocket as bidding ends, but for right now, I'm holding out hope that perhaps the fun little corner they exist in on Fanatics Collect (formerly PWCC) is kind of an undiscovered gem. Who would've thought?
Anyway, stay tuned throughout Mail Day for what I assume will be a series of disappointing, anguished, resigned updates (yes, contrary to popular belief, I write Mail Day more than a few hours in advance of posting).
The Rays called up slugger Bob Seymour on Friday and this is once again a case of me having a fantasy baseball crush on a future stud (remember Cam Schlittler?) without a Bowman. At least Seymour has a Leaf card, I guess? — in the 2016 'Perfect Game' set. Which seems a little creepy still.
You could always pass on that and go after an Ian Seymour Bowman Chrome 1st auto. The Rays pitcher (coincidentally not related to Bob) is currently working as a reliever but should be in the rotation next year (and beyond).
And then if we want to go a step beyond THAT, Seymour's future rotation-mate, Forrest Whitley, has been absolutely thrashing bats in AAA. He was once a top prospect in the Astros system; if he comes up and is awesome, those $12 autos should get up to $22-24 pretty easily.
'One day left' update on the Murakami cards — it got out of hand pretty quickly for at least three of the cards. I will say this about Fanatics Collect — their 'daily outbid' emails are fantastic. Also, I'm not fooling myself into thinking I'll be getting these for $50 (or at all) anymore, but I am super curious now as to how a bunch of these are $300+.
Here comes the fast food portion of Mail Day. Feel free to skip… if you have no soul.
McDonald's is doing that retro McDonaldland promotion and I have to say… it's cool, but it's not worth the money. You get a tin (which is smaller than it looks in ads — it's very flat and small to the point where I thought they forgot to give it to me when I ripped into my bag — you get some stickers, really well-designed postcards, and maybe a couple other things I forget about. Anyway, if it was $9.99 I would do it again for the fun of it. At $14-15 it's a hard pass. Bring back Lil' McDonald's!!
Folks, it is now almost the end of the Murakami auctions and…things got out of control:
The other cards are still relatively cheap — $220 at the moment. But before I blindly bid on them just because they might be some kind of bargain, I need to do some more research. Why are some more popular than the others? The research I did revealed they were a set, so there isn't a scarcity play here. I understand some characters are more 'collectible' than others, so maybe that's it. I need more time! And the bummer is I'm not sure how often these pop up.
I kick myself for not buying every Sophie Cunningham card the moment she stood up for Caitlin Clark. I thought it was the peak; I was sorely mistaken. Am I also wrongly assuming we are at the LV/Mrakami peak? Give me a couple weeks and I'll have some answers. Maybe. Unless Wendy's puts something cool in their kids meals and it distracts me…
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a minute ago
- Yahoo
UD Men's Basketball to play ACC school at neutral site
The University of Dayton men's basketball team will play an ACC school at a neutral site this upcoming season. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Dayton will play the University of Virginia on Dec. 6 at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, NC, according to a UD spokesperson. TRENDING STORIES: Ohio man killed, several injured in rollover crash on I-70 Police searching for missing 59-year-old man; have you seen him? Check your tickets! 2 winning Powerball tickets sold in Ohio The Flyers are set to play at two ACC opponents in non-conference play. They will host Florida State on Dec. 16 at UD Arena and could face Miami (FL) at the ESPN Events Invitational in November. Dayton and UVA have met three times in program history. The Cavaliers won their last matchup, 66-59, at the 2018 Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis. All Dayton Flyer men's basketball games will be broadcast on WHIO Radio. [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Yahoo
a minute ago
- Yahoo
We've squeezed the fun out of youth sports. There's a better way.
At the rinks where our 10-year-old son plays hockey, we're greeted with signs warning us not to threaten, taunt or shout obscenities at players, coaches, refs or other parents. Why do such signs exist? For the same reason Americans are fixated on the genitals and hormone levels of a handful of top teen athletes: We've lost sight of what – and who – youth sports are for. Sports get kids and adolescents moving, boosting physical fitness and cardiovascular health, which in turn sets them up for more physical activity and better health in adulthood. But the benefits go beyond fitness. Team sports can also promote social time with peers, self-esteem, grit, life-skill development, mentorship, academic engagement and improved mental health. And most important from a kid's perspective? Sports are meant to be fun! So why have we taken something social, healthy and enjoyable and turned it into an expensive, exclusive, high-pressure experience? A 2024 national survey of sports parents offers some clues: 1 in 5 respondents said their child could play "higher-level intercollegiate sports"; 1 in 10 thought their child could go pro. These numbers are ... not realistic. Using National Collegiate Athletics Association estimates, we found that only about 1 in 45 athletes on high school teams will play Division 1 sports. One in 50 high school athletes get full or partial athletics scholarships. And fewer than 1 in 50 NCAA athletes then go on to play professionally. Opinion: Youth sports business model hurts kids. New poll shows parents are fed up. OK, but what's the harm in letting parents dream? After all, we're the ones schlepping kids across the state, washing endless sweat-stained jockstraps and shelling out for equipment, travel and camps. Let's start with the money. Youth sports is a $40 billion industry. For all the hand-wringing about the advantages of testosterone, this is where the real inequities of youth sports lie. Kid-to-pro aspirational treadmill Households making more than $100,000 annually spend nearly three times as much on their child's primary sport than those making less than $50,000, according to an Aspen Institute study. Many families are priced out altogether. Households earning over $100,000 are 73% more likely to have a child in sports than those earning less than $25,000. Meanwhile, schools in low-income districts often lack the facilities, equipment, personnel and transportation to support team sports. 85519131007 Money changes the game for the haves, too. With so much invested, athletes and coaches feel the pressure to tally wins and push young bodies to the max. Kids whose parents pour cash into sports in hopes that they'll be the next Simone Biles or Travis Kelce are more likely to specialize in a single sport, overtrain, get hurt and ultimately burn out. The kid-to-pro aspirational treadmill also makes it harder for youth not traditionally seen as athletes to join in. When our autistic son discovered hockey, we heard horror stories of parents spending tens of thousands of dollars on equipment, travel and ice time. His teachers were supportive but concerned that the loud, competitive environment would be too much for him. Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store. We were lucky to find a (relatively) affordable league run by parent volunteers who include, support and celebrate our young hockey goalie. The parents leave their cowbells at home, the coaches keep the locker room calm, his teammates refrain from puppy-piling on him at the end of the game and the refs know that curling up in a ball means he's overwhelmed, not hurt. Low-cost, low-stakes inclusive sports Being part of a team has been transformational for our son, boosting his resilience and confidence, building relationships and providing physical activity. And, especially important for a kid who struggles with social situations, he's having so much fun. Opinion: Millions of kids say they feel lonely. Coaches are an untapped resource to help. Efforts to make inclusion central to youth sports are already underway. A 2013 policy guidance memo made clear that public schools must provide disabled youth with opportunities for sports participation. Special Olympics-sponsored unified sports teams, which bring together students with and without intellectual disabilities, are now offered in more than 10,000 schools. And nonprofits like Soccer Without Borders and 906 Adventure Team offer programs that promote effort, belonging and joy rather than privileging those with the 'right' physical traits and parental resources. These efforts suggest a way forward for inclusion more generally – finding ways to ensure that poor kids, queer kids, anxious kids, fat kids and, yes, trans kids all have a place. When just 28% of youth meet the recommended activity guidelines of 60 minutes daily, sports teams can be more compelling than telling kids to put down the Switch and go outside (we've tried). Promoting broad low-cost, low-stakes, inclusive sports participation can help all kids enjoy the physical, psychological and social benefits of what, ultimately, is just a game. Holly Painter is the director of the Center for Research on Vermont. Emily Beam is an associate professor of economics at the University of Vermont. They are the parents of two youth athletes. You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How much does it cost for kids to play sports? It's too much | Opinion
Yahoo
a minute ago
- Yahoo
No audition needed: Galesburg chorus invites singers this fall
The Galesburg Community Chorus will begin rehearsals for its 2025-26 season on Aug. 25. Rehearsals will take place from 7-9 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 101 N. Prairie St., in Galesburg, according to a community announcement. All are welcome to join, and no auditions are necessary. Dues are $10 a semester, and music fees are $5 a semester. Students are not required to pay dues. The chorus' fall concert, An American Tapestry, is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Nov. 15 at First Presbyterian Church. It will feature works by American composers and poets, including Randall Thompson's Frostiana, a setting of seven Robert Frost poems, and Alex Berko's Sacred Place, with texts by various American poets and writers that focus on the preservation and beauty of the earth. This season marks a milestone year for the chorus, celebrating 80 years as an organization and 25 years under Tim Pahel's direction. The chorus also will present A Festival of Voices at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 25 at First Presbyterian Church. The concert will include performances by the Galesburg Community Chorus, the Knox College Choir, the Monmouth College Chorale, the Galesburg High School Treble Singers, the Galesburg Junior High School Choir and the Lombard Middle School Choir. The concert will be free, with a freewill offering taken to benefit Blessings in a Backpack. Sponsors of this season's concerts include Blick Art Materials, the Galesburg Community Foundation and the Illinois Arts Council. This story was created by reporter Abreanna Blose, ablose@ with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: Galesburg Community Chorus begins rehearsals Aug. 25 Solve the daily Crossword
