Card Show Foundlings

A dead indoor mall is the place to be one Saturday a month. 

I go through the motions about once a month, tempted to peruse the wares at the monthly card show but also wanting to sleep in as long as I want and generally be lazy after a long work week. Sometimes the card show wins the battle, as was the case this past weekend.

I'll start things off by showing the last cards I snagged. I was on my way out the door when I decided to look at one last table, and was about to pay for a stack of things I found in a 5-for-$1 bin when I decided to take a quick glance at a different, dollar box. Standing out from the rest of the bunch was a stash of Cardinals jersey cards -- these Cardinals jersey cards! -- and no others to speak of. I believe there was only one non-Cardinal card that got left behind. I am pretty sure I own at least one or two of these, but I decided (at the time) that these were meant for me.

Most of my pick-ups were for pocket change, though, like a pair of Allen Iverson Topps rookie cards. I don't collect him, but I couldn't pass these up. I'm not sure what I am doing with them yet, but I decided they might be useful to someone someday. Iverson always seemed like he was mad... even in his rookie year, apparently?

This is a special swirly parallel of a rookie card of a Ducks guy I collect. Bell wreaked havoc on the Blazers in the playoffs with the Warriors lineup a bit depleted, so it was kind of surprising to me that they moved on from him. I'll be seeing even more of Bell next season as he signed on with the Timberwolves, who are in the Blazers division.

Some of you may have seen me post a picture of this ridiculous card on Twitter over the weekend. Apple had already fazed out their old-school Macintosh font (Chicago!) by the time of this card's release (1999), but Fleer still believed they were living in the future here. A future of infinite J.D. Drews. This actually came along with its own screw down case, which was certainly worth more than the card itself.

I snagged a few interesting 1980-81 Topps cards in pristine shape for just a couple of dimes a piece. You might think the opportunity to get a dirt cheap card with Dr. J on it was my main incentive, but I actually wanted the card for the airbrushed ex-Trail Blazer Abdul Jeelani. You can see a portion of the Blazers team name showing on Jeelani's teammate behind him.

I actually bought quite a few newer Blazers cards, as this show started to buck the trend of me avoiding the (usually overpriced) cards of the local heroes in favor of baseball guys that are less of a local interest. I'm not really that interesting in dropping a dollar on a new Blazers base card, but inserts and parallels at five-for-a-buck? I'll take it!

I wasn't aware of this, but Fleer made an entire Albert Pujols insert set to go with their 2004 Showcase product, with each card numbered to 1000. I now own two of them. These also cost me $1, which is usually more than I prefer to pay for Pujols cards these days. The numbering didn't hurt, though. I'm sure there are thousands more Pujols cards that I don't even know about, though.

Back to basketball with another Ducks guy. Dorsey was traded to the Grizzles in the middle of last season and saw his playing time increase quite a bit.

I had to buy this card. No explanation necessary.

I'll leave you with this one from 51 years ago. I really need to spend more time acquiring older cards, as my collection has way more needs than haves in this area.

Weird Cards

Card show finds that I had trouble categorizing. 

I was in a buying mood at the last card show, which isn't always the case. I picked up a bunch of fairly odd stuff, much of it not even baseball, at a table that had dime boxes where I spent most of my time. Some of these cards are not even for me, and I bet you can guess which ones they are.

Before I really dig into the dime box stuff, I have to mention that this was a fantastic show for loose packs. I used to go to these shows occasionally back when this blog was in its early years, and would often lament the lack of anything I could afford to actually open. Usually, you would see a couple people with hobby boxes (out of my price range) and that's it. This time, one guy had a variety of packs for 75 cents while another (apparently new) guy had multiple tables of open boxes from the '80s through present. Basically, his selection was what I wish you could find in a local card shop, if we actually had any.

The Andre Drummond blue jersey card was pulled from one of these loose packs, which only ended up costing me $1.50 if I recall.

This, of course, was a dime box pull. I saw a lot of 1982 Donruss at this show for some reason. I don't remember ever owning this card, but as a fan of the multi-player cards of the '80s overall (another thing that Fleer did best), I decided to buy it for the sheer purpose of scanning it for the blog.

I have no earthly idea why I bought this card. I think my still sleepy brain was amused at a time where Kobe Bryant and Shareef Abdur-Rahim were peers on the court, even though Abdur-Rahim was a very good player in his own right. This card even has the start of a fold on it -- not quite a crease -- that could probably be flattened out over time if I felt like it. I don't.

Random Duck Alert! Random Duck Alert!

I must have been riding pretty high after the Eagles Super Bowl win, because I actually bought some football cards, something I never do at card shows. I don't even like looking at Ducks cards because they're always way overpriced, especially when it comes to Marcus Mariota.

This certainly falls into the category of "weird cards", which is where I got the name of this post. No one expects to see a red Sonics jersey, let alone Patrick Ewing in a Sonics jersey of any color. It's just strange. Any random hipster can rock a Kevin Durant Seattle jersey, but you'd achieve some sort of hipster gold status if you wore Patrick Ewing in red.

I bought a handful of '80s football packs in my youth days, before I had any idea what I was into. I remember the stickers looking really cool, but I don't think I had any idea who any of the players were in a 1983 set unless they happened to be in some sort of TV commercial.

Back to the present. I guess I lied about Mariota, because this definitely only cost me ten cents.

Mack Hollins was an unheralded backup rookie wide receiver who wasn't much of a factor in the playoffs. He did come up with some big catches during the season, and the price, again, was right.

Panini releases NBA sets every few days it seems. Totally Certified was something I totally missed, which also probably means it's a hobby only one. I scooped up three quarters of the Blazers team set for some coins.

These Rediscover Topps buybacks are destined to be dime and quarter box staples for years to come. Has anyone ever seen one of these sell for a decent amount? Some of these have different colored stamps, which doesn't add anything to their appeal whatsoever.

Another Ducks card for me, as well as another Sonic.

I really like the cardboard/card stock that Panini uses for these Donruss [fill-in-the-blank] Kings inserts, as well as the Diamond Kings sets of recent years. Topps doesn't do anything like this, unless it's high end and super thick.

Finally, I also grabbed my first 2018 non-base baseball card in the form of this Yadier Molina "not from any specific game, event, or season" card. It was not ten cents, unfortunately, and it's going to Erin. If anyone out there has another one of these, let's talk.

Dollar Days

Trophies from the card show dollar bin. 

Even though Google Maps tells me I am more than two thousand miles (31 hours of travel time!) away from Busch Stadium, Cardinals cards seem to be in somewhat short supply around these parts. Recently, I took advantage of a $1 bin at the monthly card show that actually had some things of interest for me. I came away with 12 things (for $10 if you bought 12), some of which will end up in future trade packages. Here's what I kept for myself.

This Sweet Spot Update Chris Duncan card, circa 2006, boasts of "game-used swatches". There's absolutely no reason that's not just one big piece of cloth behind the scenes now, is there? This seems silly. All of the pieces are the same color and the threads are running in the same direction.

Josh Pearce is a local guy who got into a few games for a few seasons, but I don't really have any recollection of him. It's always fun to get bat relics of pitchers, though. (ABOLISH THE DH!) This one is numbered to 150.

I was about 80 to 90 percent sure I had one of these, and now that I've scanned it I am 100% sure.

I also have one of these Mulders, something I wasn't really prepared for. Both cards were acquired in 2010 according to my image date stamps, so I guess my excuse is going to be that it was eight years ago?

Here's a fun card of two guys who would be traded straight up for each other about five years later. This is an odd one, of course, in that only Troy Glaus (and not Scott Rolen) gets a jersey piece here.

There often aren't a lot of autograph cards of players who actually played Major League Baseball in these bins, so I was happy to get this 1996 Tom Urbani signature, even though it notes that he had moved on to the Angels at this point. Urbani is a guy who I first heard of when I started playing Triple Play 97 on my PC. I doubt I had any idea he had already been traded when I dragged him out of my bullpen when Mike Timlin inevitably ran out of ammo.

Like the weird Rolen/Glaus mash-up, Upper Deck's Ballpark Collection was notable for pitting a lot of different players together, sometimes with strange results. This is a strange pair indeed. Wood's 2008 would be the year he was reinvented as a reliever and made his second All-Star appearance, while Mulder was more than two years deep into his nightmare of not being able to figure out where he should put his arm to release a baseball. This isn't the first card to incidentally feature a Cubs player relic in my collection, and it almost certainly won't be my last. Thanks, baseball cards!

The Ripper's Dilemma

What do I do with this? 

Over the weekend, I hit up the monthly card show for the first time since the end of April. As usual, most of my time was spent poring over the nickel/dime/quarter boxes, and since the summer is over, the retail guy was there in full effect with his discounted blasters. I picked up just my second Allen & Ginter blaster of the year, along with a brand new 2016 Heritage High Number box (more on that later this week) and a 2015 Stadium Club package marked all the way down to $12. Not bad. I also made some other pack and blaster purchases that were less notable, and I even took a shot at a $5 hobby pack of of Allen & Ginter from a box that seemed to still have all of its contents in tact. This netted me my first ever "rip card".

I don't know what to do with this card. From my recollection, there's absolutely no correlation between what is contained inside the card and the player on the outside, hence there's likely no Jose Altuve lurking inside Keuchel's protective shell. There could be metal or wood (or fiberglass or dirty needles), although I'm guessing it's not going to be anything heavy based on its weight. I could just crack this thing open, as I'm not a Keuchel fan or an Astros fan really, but it might have something even more dire waiting on the inside. I watched a couple of YouTube clips with people opening these things up and it pretty much made me cringe. I don't have a single mini A&G card from the "extended" set and I just assumed a long time ago that the whole rip card thing was not for me, so now I'm just stuck with this weird card that I'm not sure what to do with.

The blaster, on the other hand, continued my dumb run of cards that Cubs fans like. I didn't do so well at the bargain boxes looking for Cubs trade bait (because 8 out of every 9 that email me about trade offers seem to love this team), so I guess this is fitting. Lester isn't one of the promising young dudes on the team, but he pretty much destroys the Cardinals every time they face him, so I'm sure these guys love him just the same.

I have been half-heartedly stealth collecting last year's Stadium Club set for awhile now. It would probably be more accurate to say that I've just been waiting for prices to come down, because there's only 5 cards in each pack. I pulled this Mets auto (which is up for grabs), plus some base cards and a few parallels. There was also an insert that I will add to my trade bait box that I forgot to scan. I think I'm just going to go with base cards and parallels for this project.

Here's one last card that I bought on purpose at the show. I paid five bucks for this, which is a Huge Deal for me, because for some reason I just can't talk myself into spending anything more than pocket change on single cards. I passed up a Wesley Matthews Blazers auto in favor of this. Strickland's time with the Blazers was a bit underrepresented and a bit underappreciated. Plus, this is a snazzy die cut (around the right edge of the ball) and has a serial numbered print run. I'm glad Panini continues to make cards of past NBA players, especially for those who aren't the Shaqs and Jordans of the world.

Some New Want Lists and Some New Cardinals

I have some new want lists. Feel free to peruse them at your leisure. I finally came to a decision on the 2013 Topps Heritage set, and despite how pretty the colorful Chrome refractors look, I just don't feel like they fit into my collection unless they're a player or team that I collect. This is good news for anyone who had their eye on the purple refractors that I pulled in my so-called "hot box". I am at least going to attempt to collect the black retail cards that come in the 3-pack blister packs, though I have to admit to being a little worried when I looked at the back of the ones I got today and noticed they have regular card numbers on them. Does that mean that there are 500 of these to collect? I surely hope not.

I also posted my first basketball set want list over the weekend. Don't expect to ever see any other NBA set on the list again. I just like that particular one.

Apropos of nothing, I figured I'd show off a few baseball cards that I snagged for my own collection at this month's card show. I spent the vast majority of my time at the show in front of a couple of different tables that had nickel and dime boxes, and ended up with more cards for others that I grabbed for myself. I did get some nice cards for my collection for peanuts, and I'm pretty positive that nothing I am showing off here cost me more than $1.

This is from the 2005 Heritage set. Topps seems to abandon traditions on a whim, so it's interesting to me that they've pretty much stuck with all but one of the insert sets that they brought with the very first incarnation of Topps Heritage they released 12 years ago.

I don't know anything about these inserts, but this Musial card looks amazing and I had to own it. I am not always that into cards of legendary players in modern sets, but I am still glad that they exist for those few times that they really "nail it". I am not going to own a late '40s Musial card no matter what I do, and I've come to accept that.

At the height of both of these player's careers, I fully expected them to retire as Cardinals, but so much has changed since then.

I had to actually shrink this image in Blogger to make it look like a mini. I am still working on the 2008 Goudey set proper, but it's nice to pick up one of the extra-curricular Cardinals cards on the side in the meantime.

Why Do They Do This?

Do I really need a Derrek Lee jersey swatch on my Albert Pujols jersey card, even though the Lee piece does have a pinstripe on it? This isn't exactly a "your chocolate is in my peanut butter" moment. Nevertheless, it was hard to turn down a half price ($5) Pujols jersey card at last month's card show. There's no chance I will make it to this month's card show unless I win the lottery sometime this week, which would be hard considering how often (never) I gamble. Speaking of which, I unfortunately will not be able to mail out every package I owe to various traders and the free group break recipients until closer to the middle of the month. I apologize for this. It's been extremely chaotic here at Cards on Cards Central.

I picked up a couple more Pujols cards along with the Ballpark Collection dual relic. This one just looks cool. I hate to buy cards because they just "look cool" for no other reason, but I got caught up in this one from 2005 Donruss Elite.

As you can see, it's serial numbered to boot.

Finally, here's an Elements card. I'm actually not completely sure that I don't already own this card, but if I do this should make some fun little trade bait. I am a sucker for these plastic cards or really anything gimmicky that I can afford. For $2, I couldn't resist.

Clearing Off My Coffee Table

I have to admit that there's no real theme to this post other than the fact that I'm back into spring cleaning mode here at home and am trying to reduce the amount of clutter that I seem to be building up everywhere. As with many things, this includes my current baseball card situation. Last month's card show came and went, leaving me with a pile of random things I picked up for myself in 5 cent, 10 cent and 3 for $1 bins. More than half the stack ended up being Blazers cards, but I think I'll probably save those for the next NBA season.

Clear plastic cards in a 5 cent bin? Those can't be passed up. I picked up a few additional non-Cardinals for some unsuspecting bloggers. I hate to think of all of the damage caused to the environment by all of the absurd and completely unnecessary technologies employed to create baseball cards in the late '90s.

Topps Pristine is a great looking set. I'm not usually a fan of cropping the background out of photos, but these look good with the huge logos behind the players.

Yes, there are even junk wax cards that I need. Someday when I have some time (after winning the lottery, presumably) I will add the junk wax era sets to my want list. In the meantime, I will continue to receive crates full of 1990 Donruss Jose DeLeon cards from trading partners.

Anytime I have a chance to get Walmart or Target parallel cards, I jump at them. Literally. You should have seen the look on the dealer guy's face when I showed off my vertical leap upon finding this card.

I probably already own this card. I just had to scan it. Royal Rookies have to be the worst looking cards ever produced. They make 1990 Topps look like 1971 Topps in comparison. Pacific wouldn't even be caught dead at a party with these guys.

I'm a sucker for serial numbered cards, which means I even came home with an unsuspecting Miguel Flores card. Flores was last seen here on Future Redbirds some time in Spring Training 2009.

I'm not really sure what a Finest Sterling is, but apparently it's just a Finest card with a goofy numbering system. I'm surprised the protective peel-off coating thing never really caught on. (No, I'm not.)

Get wild!

Two Matt Holliday rookie cards for a nickel a piece? Couldn't resist. Even Jeff Winchester thinks this is ridiculous.