What is This?

What is this? I know, it's in disguise. Okay, maybe semi-disguise. This is really an homage to Dinged Corners, one of the most worthwhile baseball card-related reads out there. I'm sure you know all that already. Is this anything? I don't have the patience to hold out on you much longer, so let's see what this really is...

Well, let's see here. This is 3 MLB packs and a "memorabilia card". The disclaimer on the back let's you know that you may not receive the cards pictured on the front. And here I was about ready to take this right back to the squeaky-voiced teenage checker at Fred Meyer's and demand my $9.99 back and an apology because I didn't get some sort of autographed Dice-K jersey card and Jeter blah blah blah pinestripe thing. I'm not sure what compelled me to buy this as I'm not usually much of a baseball card risk-taker. But with low expectations, you never know what might happen.

Here are the promised 3 MLB Packs. The '07 Upper Deck was nothing to write home about, and the '07 Topps Updates & Highlights with Creepy Clemens peeking out at us had one of those ubiquitous Mickey Mantle insert thingies. The '06 Upper Deck Update came complete with several rookies, including Stephen Drew and a short-printed Pat Neshek. I think I've only bought one or two other packs of this stuff ever and this is my second Neshek card. Beckett believes the card is worth up to $8.00, which seems rather high for a non-closer reliever, but the guy is a big card collector, so maybe that's why.

There's also the promised "memorabilia card" in a plain white envelope. I'm mostly expecting Coco Crisp here, or perhaps a relief pitcher from the 90's that I've never heard of. The envelope, please...


It's... it's... David Wright and his pants! You could do a lot worse than a David Wright relic card. I don't think I've owned a piece of anyone's pants before (other than my own), and there's also a Met-tastic stripe on it. Of course, I don't particularly care for the Mets or Gold Glove Thief David Wright (well, of course, it's not his fault that people voted for him) but it's certainly something tradeable nonetheless. So, is anyone interested in Mr. Wright here? Or have I trashed him and the Mets enough already that you've sworn yourself off my blatherings forever?

Truly Dinged Corners

I've had this box sitting on my shelf for quite some time now, as I've been pondering what to do with it. It started off as an impulse buy - just a few bucks for a factory sealed set of 1993 Fleer Final Edition. It would be pretty nice, too, as it comes with an exclusive 10 card bonus insert set of "Diamond Tribute" cards, which includes some Hall of Famers and near-Famers. The main grab for me was the Ozzie Smith card, which mysteriously was missing from the main Fleer set that year and a Jim Edmonds rookie. Those are the only two players I collect. Edmonds has been more of a recent thing while the Ozzie collection started back in high school. (Those collections are fairly redundant, of course, because I collect all Cardinals cards in general.)

So the box arrived, still sealed but dropped in a plain manilla envelope with no protection or padding or anything. I did feel bad for the seller (what is wrong with me?) because they had clearly lost money on the transaction after looking at the postage, yet they totally failed to ship the box in anything reasonable. Suffice it to say, I got an entire box full of dinged corners. It's too bad, too, because where else are you going to get a Cardinals Erik Pappas card? (Probably a few other places, but I digress.)

Here's "Hard-Hittin'" Mark Whiten. He hit 4 HRs and drove in 12 in the second game of a doubleheader that September. The corners actually aren't badly mangled at all, but just enough so that you know that it's not flawless. That's where my dilemma stands. What do I do with these cards? Sure, this set isn't worth much of anything, which is exactly why I wanted to break it up and extract the Cardinals (and Edmonds card) and toss/trade/distribute the rest accordingly.

Here are two of the Diamond Tribute cards. I didn't even know there was another Ozzie card in here that I didn't have.

My Edmonds collection is so new that the only rookie cards of his that I had is the Topps, from back in the day, and the more recently added Ultra card. Nice face, Jimmy.

Okay, maybe Blowers isn't and never was a Cardinal, but this photo is great. What is going on here? Was Blowers recently concussed? Do baseball players not even leave the dugout for their routine checkups?

Woody! He looks so... different. I had no idea that he had a card this old.

Is anyone out there interested in any cards with slightly dinged corners? (And not the good kind, either.)