Put another juke in the Dimebox

So, last post I was whining about a cardboard deficiency after a slow week, but then Saturday's card show and a few packages waiting for me when I came home solved that problem. One of the packages was a surprise from Nick at Dime Boxes -- The Low-End Baseball Card Collector's Journey that I'm gonna show off today.

Also this past weekend was my wife's birthday. She's less of a sentimental fool than I, and the other day she was cleaning out her home office and threw out her old concert ticket stubs. Upon her relaying this info to me, I was aghast and convinced her to at least let me scan them for posterity before parting with them forever.

And so, here they are, matched up with cards from Nick, as is a fun way to come up with a post.

I must brag confess that my wife is 10 years younger than me. While our musical tastes intersect a fair amount, there are some bands/genres we don't agree on, as I assume is true with most couples. I think I was too old to really get on board with the emo music scene of the '00s, and so the bands on this trio of stubs don't do much for me, though there's a song or two here and there I can appreciate. I don't think my wife even really listens to these bands anymore, though she still has a soft spot for Say Anything (not to be confused with the film of the same name).

The only song in my iTunes by any of these above bands is "Belt" by San Anything. A guy named Brandon Belt plays on the Giants, so here's a photo of cards from Nick including some Giants I collect...

Also my first look at those plain 2017 Topps inserts with the Frank Robinson, plus an older Reggie Jackson insert I hadn't seen before.

Ok, I've heard these guys a bit more. I've got one song by The Get Up Kids in my iTunes and it's a cover of the Cure's "Close to Me". Know who grew up close to me in El Cajon? The Giles Brothers.. so now here's a group of cards including Marcus and Brian.

Some great oddballs here. Dick Allen SSPC, Al Oliver & Rickey Henderson Kellogg's. Nick must've seen the infamous Billy Ripken "fuckface" card on my wantlist and thought maybe this Fun Stuff parody would suffice.. haha, not quite, but neat to check out regardless. Also a couple minor league cards, with Marcus Giles in his days in Atlanta's farm system, and a reprint of an old Bowman PCL card.

And a trio of Padres with a Rollie Fingers reprint, a #'d Trevor Hoffman, and as promised, Brian Giles, featured on a slick acetate card.

Quick aside on Rollie Fingers. I had always pronounced his name like "RAW-ly" rhyming with the dog breed collie, but then I was watching something the other day and they pronounced it "ROLLy" like a "roly poly" bug, and my world was turned upside-down for a moment. A quick Twitter poll helps confirm that I was right, and it is in fact pronounced RAW-ly.

I'm only vaguely familiar with these 4 bands, but I know if you go to see any of them, you'd better wear your dancing shoes because they will get you moving with the upbeat party tunes.

One guy who seems to always have a fun time playing baseball is Manny Machado, and Nick gave a nice boost to my PC.

Some good stuff here, highlighted by the Jackie Robinson manurelic.

A bit jealous of my wife's concert-going adventures here, as I like these 3 bands, though I haven't seen any of them live. I'm especially a fan of TMBG.

Man, trying to link cards to ticket stubs is harder than I was anticipating, even with my half-assing. They Might Be Giants have thousands of songs, so I could probably find a clever one if I really dug in. Plus there's the hole "Giants" angle, but I already showed the Giants cards Nick gave me. I'm gonna take a pass and just show some various cards now.

2017 Topps, Trout and some Padres. "Don't Let's Start" could be the slogan for San Diego's rotation this year.

"They'll Need a Crane" is another TMBG song.. Josh Donaldson is doing a pretty good crane impression on that GQ insert.

You'd figure TMBG would have a song about ambidexterity, but I don't think they do.

Now here are a couple acts I've seen live. I've caught Weezer a handful of times, and I've seen Jenny Lewis solo once as well as several times with her old band Rilo Kiley back when I lived in San Diego. Another guy who lived in San Diego is Adam Jones.

Nice bunch of cards for the PC.

Sleater-Kinney is a band my wife really likes. I like them too, and we caught them on their reunion tour a while back (stub not pictured). I think I'm out of gas as far as linking to cards. Hmm.. these shows were at the Crystal Ballroom. Crystals are shiny. Ok, here are a few parallels, some of which are shiny.

And a couple 2011 Topps parallels. Looks like I already had the Latos refractor, but the diamond Kyle Davies checks another one off my list.

Closing out this post with a couple stubs from comedy shows. I didn't go to the Nick Kroll show, though I did tag along for the T.J. Miller show. Speaking of ridiculous things, a knuckleball is pretty ridiculous.

Very cool Hoyt Wilhelm relic!

Big thanks for the awesome cards, Nick! I'll hit you back with a return package soon.

Aw, here's a note on the back of the Nick Kroll ticket my wife wrote me years ago. "Little M'LuLu" was a nickname for our first dog Lucy, and Lucky Lab is a pub near our old place with a dog-friendly covered patio. Good times.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed this look at ticket stubs from my wife and baseball cards from Nick.
See you next time.

card show desperation

February's card show couldn't have come at a better time for me. Maybe I've become spoiled since diving back into collecting and becoming an active cardblogger, but I've gotten used to 2 or 3 card packages/envelopes showing up in a given week, whether from trades or purchases. But get this: I didn't get any cards in the mail this past week! Brutal, right?!

Oh wait, I guess I got that Fracisco Lindo Tek auto in on Wednesday.. So, ok, I did get one measly card, but that's it. So needless to say I was jonesing pretty bad. Card show to the rescue!

It was actually a light haul for me today, sticking to the familiar 7/$5 bins of my "regular dealer" Bill. Much of my time at the mall where the show is held was spent in the Target trying to whip up something for my wife's birthday tomorrow. (While I pride myself at being a solid card trader, I admittedly suck at giving presents to my loved ones. If only everyone collected cards, gift-giving would be so much easier! lol) [I ended up getting a piñata for her with a bunch of candy and stuff inside it. It might be childish, but I think she's really gonna have a fun time whacking that piñata. Also some Silly String for us to battle with.]

I was able to dig up some vintage set needs. The Dennis Bennett card looks to be signed.. I suppose that's cool for my set, but perhaps I should "upgrade" to an unsigned copy someday. I was too lazy to check my wantlists, but turns out I did need the 57 and both 64s, happily. While I had the 65s already, at least the Angels Rookies was an upgrade.

A couple big names for my 2011 Topps parallel frankenset. I already had a "diamond" Kershaw, but now that can move to the PC while this liquorfractor takes its place in the frankenset.

I'm not going all in on Dansby quite yet, but might as well pick up a couple of his cards.

Schwarbs.

A couple solid Julio Urias cards including a hometown flag parallel and one of those new 1987 inserts many collectors are crazy about, this one of the Transformers refractor parallel, or whatever it's officially called.

Always seem to find some decent additions to the Wil Myers PC. Chrome Heritage, die-cut refractor (there were also non-refractor versions that I passed on. From reading card blogs, it seems some collectors aren't good at identifying refractors. This makes me feel like I have a superpower because it's clear to me when a card is a refractor or not.), and a Firebrand wood-like Stadium Club insert.

Here are more cards I bought. Bogaerts die-cut is kinda cool. I'm not big on fake sketchcards, but those Museum Collection cards aren't super easy to come by.. there's only one such Bryce on COMC right now, for $4.25, so it was a good buy for me, sub-buck. The Snell negative parallel is dumb, but hey why not. And Despaigne endeared himself to me when he was a Padre and I still kinda like him, so this shiny WBC card seemed like a solid pickup.

Snagged a couple certified autos. I'm not much for tennis, but at least Nadia Petrova is a name that rings a bell. She had a pretty successful career, and just officially retired last month. And a "1st Bowman Chrome Card" refractor auto is always hard to pass up for under a buck. David Lough isn't a great player or anything, but seems to have carved out a decent career as a 4th outfielder, recently signing with Detroit.

A couple football cards including a Marshall Faulk #'d 15/99 and a vintage Alex Karras (the dad on Webster!).

A couple old oddballs that originally came with food. Jim Kaat is a bit of a sleeper PC for me. Nice to add a card here and there. This 1963 Post card was a nice pickup, and a good deal seeing as the cheapest on COMC is $8 and I got it among my 7/$5 haul.

A pair of pale hose, including a #'d /250 Abreu and a NNOF Card Yo Mama Thru Out (which I already have, but figure I could use it as trade bait or sell it for little profit).

Here's a silly card I've always kinda wanted and just finally got around to it: the 1990 Score Update Eric Lindros baseball card.

And finally, here's a couple bucks worth of cards from the cheaper bins. Highlights include three more needs for my 2011 frankenset, Piazza in a Padres uniform, and a Corey Seager RC.

So that was a decent haul for like $33, including a dozen or so more cards for trader buddies, not pictured.

UPDATE: Last month's card show recap mentioned some drama with a guy getting caught trying to pull off a heist of a bunch of cards he didn't pay for. Turns out he showed up to this show, I guess trying to act like nothing happened last month. But no, seems he got chewed out pretty good and told by the organizer that he was banned for at least 6 months. And the whole "only 6 months" thing was mostly to placate him because "gotta be careful these days. You never know how many guns he has in his car." So like a lifetime ban might cause him to go nuts and come back guns a'blazin'?

Anyways..

Thanks for reading and hope your weekend is going well!

Francisco Lindor PC

I love these fancy Lindor chocolates. My mother-in-law usually has them abundantly scattered around the house on most holidays. So maybe I was already preconditioned to feel positively about a player with the name Lindor. I had previously pulled a couple decent cards of Francisco's from packs, and not having a regular trading partner for Cleveland, I hung onto them. Then watching last year's World Series, I got to take a better look at him as his Indians were narrowly defeated. Exciting young player who has fun out there and looks to have a great career ahead of him. And so a new player collection was officially born. Let's take a look at how this new PC stands entering Spring Training 2017.

2011 through 2013

2014

2015 - The die-cut is #'d /99.

2016 part 1. Funny I don't seem to have the base flagship card, but the snowflake and the metallic snowflake.

2016 part 2 - The Throwback Thursdays 1993 design is a favorite here for sure.

2016 part 3 - Sprung for an auto recently. Not too shabby.

2017

So there you have it. Looks to be 22 cards by my count. Off to a good start. Feel free to trade me any Lindor cards I'm missing.

Thanks for swinging by!

Officially kicking off my 1957 Topps setbuild

While my main vintage setbuilding focus right now is 1965 Topps (thanks again to gcrl for helping me make big strides there recently), and then 1964 Topps a ways behind that, I went ahead and finally put together a list for the final vintage set on my cardboard bucketlist: 1957 Topps.

I've always been a fan of 1957 Topps. It's the first Topps set that features real color photography, and its unobtrusive design gives the feel of Polaroid snapshots from the game as it was at the time. Plus it's the first Topps set to use now-standard dimensions, so you don't have the size issues that are sometimes a hassle when putting together older sets. I believe it's also the first set to feature full career stats on the back, something I appreciate.

I've picked up a few cards here and there over the past few years, mostly from vintage common bins at the card show or the cheapest I could find on COMC. And back around the time I first started blogging, I bought a beat-up Mickey Mantle on eBay, so at least I have one of the big names out of the way. A couple notable cards checked off courtesy of traders are Whitey Ford and Hoyt Wilhelm.

As the poor condition of the Mick will tell you (still wasn't cheap!), I'm not being at all picky about condition with my set. Any condition accepted! I won't rule out upgrading someday down the road, but it definitely won't be a priority any time soon.

The set is just 407 cards deep, so after the 752-card monster I battled not long ago that is 1971 Topps, this one seems like a cake walk, at least as far as quantity. As far as quality, there are some pricey cards in there such as Ted Williams, Sandy Koufax, Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, etc. Plus rookie cards of Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson, and Don Drysdale to name a few.

My list shakes out to 417 cards after including the unnumbered checklists and Bazooka contest cards (not sure if I'll bother with these ultimately, but I've included them for now), and one error/corrected variation.

Plucked from PCs.

Sorting out the cards I already have, I'm just over 5% complete, with 22 cards in-hand.. plus 5 more sitting in my COMC inventory (one of which is a dupe I inadvertently picked up, which emphasizes the fact I was overdue for putting together a wantlist). This will be a slow-moving project, but hopefully it won't take me more than a few years to finish. (Let's set the tentative goal as the end of the decade.)

Anyways: my 1957 Topps spreadsheet.. feel free to take a look and please let me know if you've got any cards I need and want to see about maybe working out a trade. Thanks!

Mr. Cub, Pops, and the gang

Time to wrap up the excellent package from gcrl focusing on help with my 65 Topps setbuild. We've already seen appearances from Koufax and Mays, but the heavy-hitters aren't done yet! Here's a great Ernie Banks card, up around high-numbers territory at card number 510 of 598. Don't see many closeup profile-view photos like this on baseball cards. Sort of reminiscent of those awful embossed inserts from 1965 (which I'm definitely not chasing as part of my set, not to be snarky about it to any of you guys who dig those spooky things).

Man, oh, man, I loves me some Willie Stargell! This was a great one to get. Speaking of strange photos, what's up with that uniform? Some vest action going on?

And a third HOFer to round out the post. While Joe Torre had an excellent playing career, the Hall wants to stress that he's in only for his managing career. If you'll allow me for vent for a second, I think that whole compartmentalizing is bullshit. The questions is should this man be in the Hall of Fame? Yes or no? But the gerrymandering over only considering either MLB career.. or coaching career.. or executive career.. or negro league career. So lame. It disgracefully kept Buck O'Neil out of the Hall until after he died. Similar injustice with keeping out Minnie Minoso and Gil Hodges when you consider their lifetime baseball presence as a whole. Fucking bullshit. The Hall needs to reform that shit.

Of course, ya gotta check out the sweet cartoons on the back.

Thanks to gcrl's help, my 1965 set percentage currently stands at 73⅓. Not bad!

And we'll put a bow on this trade package recap with a very cool Christmas Card RC of one-time Padre standout Seth Smith.

Thanks again, Jim! Pleasure working this out with you as always, and looking forward to our next deal.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

1965 Willie Mays + finally getting some 2017 Topps

The esteemed Mr. gcrl knocked another huge name off my 1965 Topps needs with this glorious Willie Mays.

The Say Hey Kid also bookends the big boppers on this pair of league leaders.

And gcrl supplied me with my very first in-hand examples of 2017 Topps. Some great players here. As I mention at every opportunity (sorry), I'm not really feeling flagship this year (not that I ever rip much of it or try to build the set), so I'll just rely on the kindness of traders to hook me up with guys I collect. So these are very appreciated.

Thanks a lot, Jim!
Still a few more cards from him left to show off tomorrow.