I thought the Mantel community would enjoy this since this site is for all sorts of collectors.

I recently attended the big Alameda County Fair here in Northern California, and they had an amateur hobby collection contest on display. It was so fascinating to see dozens of random collections in hobby cases — I took photos of some of my favorites. 

Featured hobby collections here: Grateful Dead memorabilia, old Barbies, antique military coins, 1950s compacts/vanities, 1970s sports video games (might favorite), old robot toys, Matchbox cars of yesteryear, The Weekend collection, shot glasses from around the world, and Felix the Cat (1st prize). Let me know if you want any closeups!

In honor of today’s home run derby, here’s my Juan Soto home run ball (13th homer in round 2) from 2022, the year he won the derby. Congrats to today’s winner, Teoscar Hernandez!

I just got back from a trip in Italy and while visiting the Vatican I saw these gifts given to Pope Francis: A jersey and ball from Pelé (who he considers the best of all time) and a Pope jersey signed by his native Argentinian star Maradona. Pretty cool to see!

The fan who got hit in the head at a Blue Jays game and ended up getting 110 Topps Now cards has put four of them up for auction. They’re already fetching upwards of $500 with a week-plus to go. I’d expect them to go over $1,000 — if she was to sell 100 at that price, she’d make $100,000 and still own 10 of them.

I saw this letter in one of my social media groups posted by collector Alex Ferguson and thought it was a fun (and painful) story from the former president of Topps in response to a question through the mail. Of course, #311 is the iconic Mantle card.