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.

Checklist Chipaway: 2003 SPX Winning Materials

I added another piece to the little 2003 SPX Winning Materials set I've been building for forever now.  This was one of the tougher ones to get at a good price:

It's a stunning card, except for the small crease beneath the Reds logo.  I can live with it though, and that flaw is probably the only reason I was able to get this at a relatively cheap price.   

Sampler Album Week: 1993 Topps

Whoever is ready for Sampler Album week to be over, raise your hand!  Whatever, I've been at the beach all week and was oblivious to any yawns and/or complaints.

The 1990's section of my Sampler Album is pretty week.  Meaning, I don't have several of the years complete.  1993 was done pretty easily though, and it's a pretty nice page.

The Jr. Griffey card is really sharp, and I've got a good handful of HOFers here.  The 1993 design is pretty basic and understated, but I like that.

Checklist Chipaway: 1996 SPX Hologram

I’m travelling all week, and I guess I’ll need to bury myself in work for a few days.  What a great opportunity to cue up a bunch of COMC.com posts to keep the blog churning!

I took advantage of the free shipping promotion last month and picked up all sorts of good stuff.  I was able to hit on several sets I’m chasing.  Granted they were small bits of progress, but progress all the same.

Today I’m showing the cards I got for a set that’s not even on my main checklist page, but one that I’m sort of building in the shadows- 1996 SPX Holograms. 

 

These are very cool cards, and the checklist is short but solid.  I was able to get good deals on some of the superstar cards I was lacking, and now mostly what I need will be affordable off of sportlots.com.   

I’ve collected a little over half the set, and need these remaining 25 cards:

#           Player
3              McGriff, Fred
8              Canseco, Jose
11           Edmonds, Jim
12           Salmon, Tim
14           Sandberg, Ryne
15           Grace, Mark
22           Bichette, Dante
23           Walker, Larry
26           Fielder, Cecil
29           Bagwell, Jeff
33           Piazza, Mike
34           Mondesi, Raul
35           Nomo, Hideo
37           Molitor, Paul
38           Cordova, Marty
39           White, Rondell
40           Isringhausen, Jason
41           Wilson, Paul
43           Jeter, Derek
44           Boggs, Wade
48           Smith, Ozzie
50           Caminiti, Ken
53           Fernandez, Osvaldo
54           Buhner, Jay
59           Carter, Joe

 Jeter won't be cheap, so I may save him for last unless someone has it to trade? 

An Awesome 1-2 Punch In The Mail

How would you like to open a padded mailer and see this inside:

And then this:

Ok, so you sad non-Razorback fans might not appreciate this card as much as me, but I assure you it is ridiculously awesome!  The above cards come from Adam at the wonderful blog ARPSmith’s Sportscard Obsession. 

This is one of many trades I've done with Adam, and he always sends great stuff.  All I have to do is get rid of my stinky cards of that stinky team from San Francisco that ruined the World Series for me and the Rangers in stinky 2010.  Sorry, my son has been using "stinky" as his adjective du jour lately and it's rubbing off on me.

I was a bit surprised to see this is actually my first D-Mac relic card.  I could have sworn I had one.  Oh well, I have one now and it’s a hum-dinger!

The Griffey manupatch further convinces me to chase the Rookie Manupatch set from Topps this year.  I only have 3 right now, but it looks like the prices are getting more reasonable so I’m going to chase it.

Thanks for the great trade Adam!  

Card Show Recap Part 1: The Cheapies

We actually had a really nice card show here this weekend, much larger in scope than the typical 3 dealer monthly shows in this area.  I only went because the show was in a location that was different than the usual haunts, and didn't go in with much in the way of expectations.

Turned out to be a good show for me, and I walked away with a nice variety of high-end-ish cards, and a budget friendly purchases.

Today I'll show the cheap cards.  I found a dealer from Tulsa that I'd never bought from before, and had a blast going through his 5,000 count boxes.  At 8 for $1 they weren't technically dime box cards, but close enough:

These were all purchased for my ever growing sampler album.  I started the sampler album this year when I realized I'd never complete every set Topps made.  However, I thought it would be cool to have an album with one page dedicated to each year.  Once a page is full, I'll swap out blah cards for mediocre cards, then mediocre cards for good cards, then good cards for great cards until I have a page of 9 awesome cards from each flagship set from 1952 to the present. 

I'm not collecting Topps Tribute, but these cards are really pretty and I had to have them for $.125 cents each.

These cards are pretty too, in an over the top holographic way.

Finally, some assorted cards of other players I like, or cards that I couldn't pass up at 8 for $1.

These cards, plus some others that I didn't bother to scan only set me back $5.  Tomorrow I'll show the more expensive cards, at least, compared to these.

Checklist Chipaway: Topps HD Image

This set has not been easy to finish off, but I am now one measly card from doing so.  I finally sniped this Ken Griffey Jr card from the Topps HD Image insert set last week, and now only need the A-Rod card.  

Value Boxes Called Me Back

I mentioned last week that Value Boxes were back in stores, and while I liked them ok, I was likely not going to buy anymore.  That vow didn't last long.  Here is what I got in the second value box I bought.

This Griffey chrome card was by far the coolest thing in the box.  I only got one code card, and once again, I just came away with a stupid virtual coin.

The two Heritage hobby packs gave me a couple of cards I liked, but nothing huge.

Same for the 5 Topps flagship packs.

Everything is for trade, but that Griffey will be hard to part with even though I'm sure I could pick it up cheap off eBay.

Book Notes: Mint Condition

My Mommy got me a basic Nook e-reader for Christmas.  I’ve not done much e-reading before, but this little Nook is awesome.  It is very light and the words are very easy to read.  The first book I purchased for it was “Mint Condition” by Dave Jamieson, which I assume many of you have read, or at least are familiar with.  It’s a pretty comprehensive history of baseball cards, from their inception to today. 

Every chapter has been fascinating.  The chapter on the beginnings of Upper Deck was especially interesting.  I’m not much of a fan of Upper Deck, but after reading the chapter, I had a better appreciation for how nice and ground breaking the 1989 set was.   

Upper Deck started almost as a protest to what Topps, Donruss and Fleer were putting out in the 90s, and as a solution to the ever growing problem of counterfeiting cards.  The founders of Upper Deck believed that a counterfeit-proof hologram, foil wrappers, nice card stock and color photos of players on the front and back of cards would be a welcome addition to the at the time booming card industry, even if it meant collectors would have to pay almost twice the amount they were paying for packs of Topps, Fleer and Donruss.  I was in High School at the time, and I still remember how excited I was to get my hands on my first box of UD.  I remember thinking they were expensive, but buying some anyway.  And I distinctly remember pulling this:

UD #1 Ken Griffey Jr. card has got to be one of the top 10 most iconic cards in the hobby.  Not only was it his first and best rookie card, it was a symbol of the changes that were taking place at an incredible pace in the baseball card industry.   Like everything else in the late 80’s/ early 90’s, the Griffey card peaked and came crashing down in price.  Probably because there are millions of these cards available.   However, a quick scan through eBay shows that it still maintains some value.    This chapter also makes me want to read the book “ Card Sharks “ about Upper Deck.   It was written in 1995, so the take on where the hobby was at the time should be interesting.   Apparently, there were a lot of shenanigans going on in that company.  Has anyone read this yet?  Is it worth checking out?

Mail Time- Paper or Plastic?

This week it’s plastic, as I received a good chunk of needed cards to complete one of my top 5 important sets to build, 1999 E-X Century.  Last summer when I was starting to get back into the hobby and see what all I had that I had forgotten about, I came across a Vlad Guerrero 1999 EX Century card that I do not ever remember buying.  It was a clear plastic card with some designs tinted inside the card, and some opaque designs and the photo layered on top.  I loved the look and the craft of the card, so I bought a few commons on sportsbuy.com and sportlots.com, and really became hooked on the set.  I recently found some of the bigger stars cheap on COMC and grabbed a bunch, which arrive last week. 

The Griffey card is beyond cool.  I wish the Piazza had been a better pose, but it's cool as well.  This pushes the completion % for this awesome set to 75% with 30 cards to go.  Most of the ones I still need are commons, so I think I’ll be able to finish the set this summer.  Buckle up for that adventure readers!  I have listed the cards that I still need at the top of my blog, I have several extras that I will post as trade bait.