Card Show Pickups: Graded Junk and A Pair Of Relics

It's been a while since I've been to a local card show.  They usually aren't that good.  But I took shot on the wild side and ventured out this morning to see if I could find anything I had to have.

Turns out, it was a really decent show today.  There were a few vendors I'd never seen before, and a couple were blowing out there stuff because they were exiting the hobby.  Unfortunately, my little boy got sick early into the show and I didn't get too far around the tables.  Fortunately, I hit a few good things while I was there. 

First, I came across a table that had a big pile of graded cards, priced a $1 each, or 6 for $5.  I found 6 that I thought were worth it:

I like the looks of Beckett Graded cards, and I'm always happy to add a nice Gwynn to my collection.  Yes, it's graded 8 and it's 1987 Donruss (which I happen to love), but it was under a buck.

I love this Mike Piazza card.  I have a pretty good sized Piazza collection and had never seen this card. 

 This Bagwell card is really cool in hand.  the foil moves in the light and hypnotizes me.

So this is not only a Graded 1989 Donruss Craig Biggio, it's the SECOND graded 1989 Donruss Craig Biggio I've purchased at a local card show.   Actually, once I took a second to look over the card, I realized it's a REPRINT of a 1989 Donruss Craig Biggio.  And it's graded.  7.5.  Don't judge me, I paid $.83 for it.  And Craig Biggio is a bad ass.

This was the last one I got.  I got it for reasons I can't explain.

I was pretty satisfied with this purchase.  I was also very satisfied with the $2 worth of cards I picked up from a dime box.  I've already sorted them and forgot to take a picture.  But I got several good cards for my sampler album.  You'll just have to trust me on that one.

Finally, I found a couple of cool relics for $2 each:

 It looks like someone mixed in some red with the whites on laundry day.

Baxendale is a former Razorback, so this was a great find for me.

Sampler Album Week: 1975 Topps

Who doesn't like 1975 Topps?  Without a doubt, this is one of the best pages in my Sampler Album.  Of course, the key card is the George Brett rookie.  I've had that card for a long time.  I think I got it in a trade when I was in high school.  I'm also proud of the Keith Hernandez rookie below it.  I'd like to trade out the Johnny Bench AS card for the base Bench card, but I'm in no rush to do so. 

There's lot to like about this page.  None of the teams are repeated, all the cards are solid to great names, several HOFers and all the cards are in fantastic condition.

Starting Lineup Sundays

Before I started this silly little blog a year ago I spent a fair amount of time deciding if I had enough topics to write about to keep my blog churning.  I didn’t want to write a handful of posts and then run out of things to talk about and fade away.   I knew I had a couple of safety nets to fall back on if I got desperate for material.  One was eTopps, and the other was my Starting Lineup Collection.  eTopps was a great material source because they had new card offerings almost every week.  I’ve also managed to find enough other things to talk about that I was able to keep my Starting Lineups on the bench.

    

However, with eTopps basically shutting down and becoming a non-source of material for me it might be time to call on my SLUs.  And why not?  These things are so cool.  I don’t understand why there isn’t a greater demand for them anymore.  That used to not be the case.  In fact, there used to be conventions centered on Starting Lineup figures.   

They’ve been out of production for years now, and replaced by the larger, more detailed McFarlane figures.  I find the SLUs a far superior collectible.  Maybe it’s because they are similar in size and function to the Star Wars figures that shaped my childhood.   Anyway, my SLUs are all in boxes at the moment.  I tried to get the lovely wife to let me “wallpaper” one of our bedroom walls with the ones I kept in the blister packs, but shockingly she didn’t go for it.  I guess pictures of our children and paintings are OK, but beautiful blister packs of toy baseball players don’t meet some arbitrary standard of taste.   Oh well, she can’t stop me from showing them off on my blog:

 Daarryyyllll...... Daaarrryyyllll..... Daaaaarryyyylllll...

This was the first figure I bought.  The first issue of Starting Lineups came out in 1988 and was mostly regionally distributed.  Some players had a national distribution, and luckily for me I was able to find all of the Mets that were made in 1988 (I can't find my the Howard Johnson, but I have it somewhere).  That was my team back then.    

I had no interest in keeping these in the blister pack, and wanted to display them out of the package in my room.  I had about 20 of these things lined up along my dresser.    I also had a huge cardboard stand up movie poster of “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3” in my room as well.  Man, I was a loser. 

A Cool Deal From Coot Veal- Part 2

One of the great things about getting a large trade package in the mail is that it can be stretched into two blog posts, and requires very little thinking on my part.  I am always in favor of very little thinking.  Today I’ll show the cards of my favorite non Rangers/Razorbacks, courtesy Coot Veal and the Veal Tones:

Darryyyylllllll….. Daryyyllllll……. Darryyllllll…..  Darryl Strawberry was the man.  Period.  Oh, what could have been with that guy. 

A group of cards from two of the smarter players I collect.  At least I know Keith Hernandez is smart.  It seems like Al Leiter is too.    The Hernandez Fan Favorites card is numbered to 199 and is really sharp.

I probably shouldn’t root for Torii Hunter, him being an Angel and all.  But he is an Arkansan, and he’s just hard not to like. 

And finally, some Tony Gwynn.    He was good.

Dustin, thank you for a great trade, and I hope you enjoy what I sent!

Trade Posts: BA Benny and Steve D

Last week I received my end of a couple of trades:

1st:  A big trade with BA Benny.  He sent a whole mess of cards of my favorite players:  Tony Gwynn, Darryl Strawberry, Ian Kinsler, Keith Hernandez, Michael Young, Josh Hamilton, and the list goes on.  He also sent two really cool Michael Young Ticket to Stardom cards that include a game used jersey and a ticket from a Rangers game.  That seems like a cool hit gimmick that should be continued in other sets.  Here are just a few of the highlights from the trade:

Thanks for the trade Mike! 

I also had a small trade with Steve D, who does not have a blog as far as I know.  We did a swap of jersey cards of NY catchers.  I sent him a Jorge Posada 2005 Zenith, and he sent a Piazza T206 jersey, along with an extra Piazza Ionix card (which is very cool in hand BTW):

Thank you Steve, I appreciate it!