Thursday, April 30, 2015

more LaValley cards (a rainbow through the clouds)

Nobody reads these Gavin LaValley rainbow updates of mine, so I'm just going to make fart noises rather than bother to type sentences.


*furp*



*raarght****


NNOF silver ice
*pu pu puuuut pu???*

mini red refractor


*FFFFFFFFFFFeeeeeerrrrrrrTTTweeeeee*

regular-size red refractor


**gurmph-squeak**


Pardon me. Thanks for the click, both of you.


[Sorry. Trade bait tomorrow to make it up to you.]

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Heroes get remembered, but legends never die. Follow your heart, and you'll never go wrong.

Sorry for the long title, but it was either that or "more cards from the card show."

That's a quote from The Sandlot, which I just watched for the first time this past weekend. I know it's some of your guys's favorite movie, and as a baseball fan, it's a must-see. It came out just as I was leaving "childhood" so I missed the target demographic by a matter of months, and then it eluded me for many years somehow. But yes, now I've seen it and enjoyed it. (Should I bother with the sequel? I've read it's "more than just a bad film, it's an insult to the original." So maybe I'm better off skipping it.)

Anyways, here are some more cards I picked up at the recent card show for 50 cents each.



New HOF inductees, Pedro and Big Unit, both serial numbered on the back. I had another Randy Johnson card tentatively in my stack. It was #'d /500, whereas this one I chose to purchase was #'d /599. Normally I'd go for the "scarcer" of the two, all things being equal, but this was just a better looking card, with a nice refractor shine to it.



Here are a couple more numbered cards. Big Papi and Miggy (each with a Ramirez hiding out in the background). Both from the same insert set (one gold, one silver), though one has standard-sized text numbering and one is bolded (nice phat foil numbering). Funny.  Personally, I prefer a fat serial on the back, or slim on the front. But whatever.


Autos! One of the best sports names ever, Butch Huskey! And my 3rd different Brooks Kieschnick auto (all from card shows out of the same discount bins).


Someday I'll get a real Brett RC. For now, this Archives reprint will do. And while Ryno's (possibly short-lived) managerial stint with Philadelphia sort of takes the novelty out of cards picturing him on the Phillies, it's still a neat card.


And here's a Smoltz and a Mantle, dancing a bit.

And lastly...


I don't spend much cardshow time looking at football cards nor graded cards, but slabbed cards for 50¢ is a rare sight (figuring it costs a few bucks just to get a card graded). So I checked out the few the dealer had available and plucked out a couple Chargers. R.I.P. Seau. As for Ryan Mathews, I heard he's no longer with San Diego, though I haven't paid all that much attention to the team since Tomlinson left, to be honest. But good luck to you, Ryan!


Thanks for the click. Still got some trade bait from the show to put up for grabs soon.
-Gav

Monday, April 27, 2015

a hundred Trevor Hoffman cards

Happy to announce Trevor Hoffman is off my wantlist thanks to breaking the 100 different cards threshold! Bo and Mets Cardboard get the credit for teaming up to finish it off with nice stacks in recent trades.

Here's the lot Mets Cardboard sent me the other day:


"Some kinda nice!" I was especially happy to get that '93 Topps RC. Crazy as it seems, I don't recall even ever seeing that card before. Another highlight is the squared-around-to-bunt shot.. as a closer, Trevor didn't get many plate appearances (36).



Now let's sort out my entire PC by year...




















That's 101 cards by my count.

Again, thanks to Justin, Bo, TJ, Matt, and everybody else who ever traded me Trevor cards over the past couple years (The vast majority of these cards came by way of trades). "Big cards" I picked up myself include the 2 autos and 2 minor league cards from back when he was still an infielder.

It'll be interesting to see if HOF voters induct him right away or make him sweat an extra year or two. If it weren't for Mariano one-upping him for the title of baseball's all-time greatest closer, it wouldn't even be a question.

I look forward to him to start popping up in sets again and give Tony Gwynn some company as the token Padre legend in a checklist that includes retired players. I don't believe he's shown up on any cards since his playing days yet, somewhat surprising to me.

Welp, thanks for looking at these pictures of my Trevor Hoffman baseball cards!

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Card show Padrey cards

Ready to take a look at some more cards I picked up at the recent card show?










This Rickey is kinda weird. Love that "The More You Know" style Future Stars logo from 1987, but of course Rickey was long past his rookie days by 1987. But whatever, cool card.






I've had the Donruss version of McGriff's one true rookie, but it's nice to add the Leaf version now, too.






While Gary Sheffield is a guy I collect, I suppose, he's a pretty low priority and I rarely bring in new cards to my collection besides occasionally in trade packages. But when I came across this one #'d 30/75, I had to throw it on the stack. These cards in this post were all 50 cents each, btw.










While I ceremoniously "retired" my Greg Maddux collection a couple weeks ago after compiling 100 different cards, I couldn't help but add one more. The brown (bronze? gold? whatever they were calling it) border and the Padres uniform just help make this the Padres-est Maddux card ever.











I believe this is an original back parallel of those Cards Your Mom Threw Out inserts. Kinda neat.

And for the final Padres card for today:








Yes, that's right, Ken Griffey, Jr! Here I thought his days playing for the San Diego Padres only existed in the fertile pastures of my imagination. Ok, maybe this isn't exactly a Padres card, but it's close enough.

Let's take it further with some crude photoshopping:


I bet the warm San Diego climate would've been therapeutic for Junior and he never would have gone on the DL even once. He would have won a bunch of World Series championships, too, I bet. Probably become the all-time home run king while he was at it.

Oh, what could have been!

LOL, thanks for indulging me. See you next time.