In the Post 6000 (or 7000)

Mint Condition has seen 6000 posts in 16 years. I'm not gonna do the math and tell you how many of those posts were well-written, or good, or viewed by more people than bots, but they were certainly posted here. I've kept this blog going as an unbreakable habit, out of a sense of duty that apparently can't be shaken. There have been years where I've finished a year of making customs and gone 'I don't know if I can do this another year', and then in March I'm right back at it like nothing's different.

It's very difficult still having the same passion for cardblogging in 2025 as I did in 2010 or whatnot, because in 2010 there was a whole blogosphere of people who cared similarly about this and now there's like a couple dozen. Most of the collecting community is just on TCDB now. I mostly communicate with bloggers on Bluesky, and it's barely about blogging, most of the time it's about music or something. This is how the community has evolved, and while we're not quite at the point where it's evolved beyond blogging, I think the many of us that still do this just do so out of a sense of loyalty. Like we don't know what we'd be doing if we didn't write about this stuff.

Speaking of a sense of duty, every time I reach a post milestone, I do a version of the old Conan O'Brien bit where he and Andy channel predictions of years to come as futuristic music plays. I do see the irony of presenting a bit about the future done by a guy whose show is off air, and currently does a podcast, hosts the Oscars and occasionally appears in A24 films. Even Conan O'Brien has moved on, and I haven't. But nobody's said I need to.

So, to mark this 6000th post, and to assume that this blog will still be here around the 7000th, we must once again look to the future.

"The future, Jordan?"

Yes, we must look at what the world, of baseball or collecting or anything, might look like...In the Post 7000..

In the Post 7000... Rob Manfred is still commissioner of baseball. However, at spring training, they instituted an automated commissioner, and the players seemed to like that a lot better. So he may not be needed for much longer.

In the Post 7000... The latest iteration of Topps Finest is universally panned, with some pundits calling it 'not even close to 'fine''.

In the Post 7000... Pete Rose will be posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. It is a moment of worldwide importance, as even a prominent world leader manages to attend the ceremony. However, said world leader is enraged when it's revealed that Rose's Hall of Fame plaque depicts the legend wearing a Montreal Expos cap. It is a decision that is said to have immediate economical ramifications in Canada.

In the Post 7000... The National Sports Card Collectors' Convention will be held somewhere other than Chicago after the Chicago bean becomes sentient and launches itself at the Rosemont convention center. Passersby describe the bean's attack on the convention center as 'of a surprisingly sexual nature'. No word on whether or not there will be refrieds.

In the Post 7000... Plans to build a pool in the Guardians' clubhouse are halted when Emmanuel Clase, confused as to what kind of pool they're talking about, gets his bookie involved.

In the Post 7000... Upper Deck finally begins making baseball cards again. Collectors are puzzled upon the product's release, as many wonder to themselves when Connor McDavid ever played baseball. 

In the Post 7000... The Las Vegas Athletics will open their new stadium on the strip. Visitors will balk, not only at the high prices of concessions and the low quality of gameplay, but the inability to find a cover charge on a table that's under $20. At which point, Nashville opens a plea for a stadium, one that is immediately halted due to the realization that in order to make room for a ballpark, seven officially branded restaurants owned by country singers would need to be torn down. 

In the Post 7000... Fanatics will release a Topps set called 'Oops! All Parallels', which has no set base design, isn't collectable and isn't released til the following year. In response, former card blogger Chris Harris spontaneously combusts. 

In the Post 7000... The ABS system is fully implemented into major league play. Concerns arise, however, when one of the programmers is discovered to look suspiciously like Angel Hernandez in an oversized mustache. 

In the Post 7000... The New York Yankees have an outfield consisting of Spencer Jones, Aaron Judge and Corbin Carroll. Jasson Dominguez is still limited to a swing-role. 

In the Post 7000... Topps Update Series is released in December, with a cutoff date in early April and featuring 20 cards of Shohei Ohtani in the wrong uniform. Nobody loses their job. 

In the Post 7000... I'm still finding time to write this blog, it's still rewarding to me, and I can hopefully afford to buy cards a little more often. I can dream, can't I?