ORANGE you VLAD I didn't forget this quest?

Years ago, I decided I might like to give a shot at rainbowing Vladimir Guerrero, Sr.'s last playing-days flagship Topps card, a "highlights" checklist featuring a sweet photo thanking the crowd during his swan song in Baltimore. I picked up the parallels that were readily available at the time and saved a search for the rest. And then I waited. I specifically remember doing that at my old house, so that means I've been waiting upwards of 6 years for this orange parallel to pop up:

Great looking color match. It's serial numbered to /190, which isn't all that low-numbered for modern cards, but these were a 5-per hobby factory set exclusive, so a good percentage of them are still stored away in sealed sets.

The seller neglected to mention it (and it wasn't really visible in the listing), but it's the "jersey number" "ebay 1/1", number 27 in the print run, so that was a happy surprise.

After securing the orange parallel, I went to update my saved search and noticed I didn't do a great job with it originally. I wasn't as well-versed using TCDb at the time, I guess, and didn't have everything I needed included in the search. Plus I was apparently under the impression there was a Toys R Us purple parallel to hunt down, but upon further research, those seem to be Series 1 only that year (Vlad is in Series 2).

But I was able to clean up my search and soon land a couple more needs taking this rainbow to a probably-good-as-it'll-get place that's serendipitously 9-cards deep, making for a kickass binder page or 9-card display.

 Haves:
base
gold [/2012]
gold sparkle
red [Target]
orange [/190]
black [/61]
blue [Walmart]
mini base
mini gold [/61]

 Needs: 
wood [1/1]
gold embedded [1/1]
platinum [1/1]
printing plates [1/1 x 4]
mini platinum [/5]
mini printing plates [1/1 x 4]

With only 1/1s (and a /5 mini) remaining for this 14-year old card, I probably won't be able to add any more to this rainbow ...unless of course we're talking homebrews of the CardArt variety.. and the thought has crossed my mind. I checked, and the "platinum" parallels that year are just a fancy name for "silver border" (which is itself just a fancy name for "grey border"), so other than the low serial number, they're not all that cool and I doubt I'll ever pony up for any of the 5 such minis or 1 such full-size, should any even pop up for sale. Also not much chance I'll ever wind up with the 1/1 wood, gold embedded, or any of the eight printing plates, either. But never say never, I suppose.

Even if my rainbow here isn't very likely to grow larger, I'm happy with it standing at an "even" page-worth of 9 cards and plan to display this up on the wall for a while. Let's hope basking in Vladimir's triumphant moment influences me to live my best life and take time for feeling gratitude. Thanks for stopping by.

more cool cards

Here are a few more pickups from my last COMC order.

I love these "What If?" cards from Donruss Archives Originals that came out in 2002. Were it not for the Toppsopoly, collectors might've gotten an Ozzie Smith Rated Rookie in 1978 that hypothetically could have looked something like this. Then there's Jim Palmer in what may have been a 1980 Donruss design. I already had the 1984 Rated Rookie of Kirby Puckett, but it's a card I love so much that went ahead and got another one since the price was right. These "official customs" (75 total) were seeded just 1 or 2 per box, so the price isn't right too often, otherwise I'd probably go after the full set.

They did a decent job on the backs too.

Spent $1.64 on this lot of 2013 Topps Wrapper Redemption Blue Slate parallels. Ah, that's a pleasing blue sparkle they've got going on! Love it! No plans to work on a full parallel set, just wanted to grab a few that were priced to move that I could possibly fit into my collection. These guys are Kevin Millwood (birthday buddy), Juan Francisco (no reason to grab him.. maybe Braves trade fodder if Johnny needs it), Carter Capps RC (former Padre I remember hoping would pan out for the team [but didn't]), Barry Zito (who seemed like a decent name to grab for essentially the site minimum).

Here are a couple refractor autos that I bought for the backgrounds rather than the unremarkable college football player featured in the foreground. Those shiny flags look pretty cool and convinced me to throw them in my cart for about a buck each.

One day I decided I really liked the 2012 Topps farewell card for Vladimir Guerrero (though it features a checklist on the back instead of stats) and thought I'd make a half-hearted run at a rainbow. Already had the base card, and my quest pretty much ends here as far as readily available cards go, but maybe I'll save an ebay search for the tougher parallels and try to add to this group. No equivalent of this card was included in Chrome that year, meaning no refractors to chase.

Speaking of Vladdy, I already showed off the big 1998 Topps Super Chrome Jumbo Refractor from this same shipment, but just as an update..

He's up on the wall. I added a blue backing that I think helps it pop. Maybe someday I'll slip it into a better frame, but for now it's what I had available. Works for me!

Shiny cards in various sizes

More highlights from my big COMCOVID shipment.

After getting shut out for comments in my previous post, I'd better bring out the big guns.

Well, a big card and a tiny card. One shiny, one shiny and also sparkly. Two greats of the game.

At $14.99, the SuperVlad refractor was my priciest pickup of the order. I don't consider it an addition to my card collection as much as an addition to my fine art collection.

It's going up on the wall where it will serve as a motivational poster. "Fully extend for your dreams."

Here's a closer look at the sparkly micro Kirby along with his proud papa. 

The oversized bat further confounds the image and is really messing with my sense of scale! Somehow tiny Kirby is even tinier and regular Kirby is ginormous.

A few different micro cards of stars were created as prism parallels and included as a bonus with the 1993 micro factory set. At least that's my understanding of the proto-Atomic Refractor/Cracked Ice little fella's origins. Does that make it the very first sparkly parallel? I know there were sparkly baseball stickers in the late 80s; not sure if they count. But anyways, yeah, I found out about these cool things and had to pick up one for myself. Cost me a buck.

I picked up a few needs from my foolish quest of a black refractor parallel set of 2004 Topps Chrome. Three commons for around a buck each, and then splurged on Mad Dog for $10.25. Nice to cross another big'un off my wants-- 223 cards left to go-- plus he's a PC guy for me, so I can appreciate it on that level too.

Mr. Elroy Face was the lone pickup in this shipment for my ARMS (Archives Reserve Master Set). A gracious man when it comes to his signature, this card cost me what shipping alone would have cost me on eBay. Man, I sure hope COMC eventually returns to being a convenient place to purchase-and-then-soon-receive cards for decent prices. Anyways, just 136 cards left to go until I have a full master set of Topps Archives Reserve cards.

See ya next time

Infusion of 2004 Chrome black refractors

I keep an eye out for bulk lots of 2004 Topps Chrome black refractors, and one such lot popped up recently. It was 79 cards at a buck per card plus shipping. Not quite a steal, but still good enough to get me to bite.

The guy pranked me by shipping them in a box for '91 Fleer Update. I opened up the package and saw that and immediately thought there was a mixup. But nope, '04 black refractors hidden inside.

Some highlights...

There were a few dupes for me in the lot, including Marcus Giles and Fred McGriff here, but since I collect both these guys, I don't mind having an extra copy for the respective PCs. The dupes of dudes I don't collect should make for decent trade fodder.

Big sluggers of the era.

A pair of near Hall of Famers here. (I say put 'em in.)

These 2 guys have been in the news lately... for very different reasons: Ross for being named the Cubs' new manager, and Edmonds for an ugly divorce.

There are some nice photos in this set that if Topps used them today, would likely be zoomed in 2x. It's refreshing when the image can "breathe" a bit.

HOFers! The Vlad is the card I saw in the listing that made me click the "buy it now" button. That guy was a beast!

A couple guys winding down their solid careers on unfamiliar teams.

Closing us out is a nice Dontrelle Willis rookie cup, and (as far as I can tell) the last active player in 2004 Topps Chrome who was still playing in 2019, Oliver Perez. (Fernando Rodney is not in the set.)

This lot took me from 37.17% complete up to 48.25%. Honestly a little disheartening that I'm still not even halfway done. Maybe I'll do a Sportlots order one of these days to get me over the hump.

Also disheartening about his quest of mine?...

The Yadier Molina "first year" card (that I still need) selling for $160+ recently. Ouch. It's not even an auto, for frick's sake!

So yeah, it's a long-term project, for sure.. but I love these cards and I'll keep grinding, and maybe someday I'll finish this one off.

Dimebox Taoism

Oh hey I still have more dimebox cards to show you from that card show two weekends ago.

Griffey holograms! I grabbed 'em all (dupes included), so if anyone needs one, just let me know.

Here are some baseball players.

Here are some more baseball players.

Without the context of this photo, I could tell you that I paid 10¢ per card for a pair of serial-numbered (/150) cards of a player who's high up on the all-time home run list.. and that might be impressive if you didn't know the set or the player.

I should stop buying A-rod cards since I have all I need (some might say more than I need. In fact everyone besides maybe Zippy Zappy would say that), but somehow they still manage to sneak onto my stack, similar to A-rod sneaking his tainted urine passed MLB's drug testers.

Nothing to do with these cards, but we're watching the Game 3 right now and my wife says she honestly isn't familiar with the "Baby Shark" song. Never even heard of it. This from a woman who's a moderator on Reddit, so she typically knows what's going on.

Vlad! A beast in his prime!

Rickey? RICKEY!!

Legends.

I was so happy to snag this Ron Gant. Anytime I can find a card of him after leaving Atlanta seems like a big deal.

More protective coating, you say? Sure thing!

That's So Raven.

2002 Studio. Didn't have much (any?) from this set. Now I've got a few. Six HOFers. (Sheffield was secretly inducted but it wasn't announced in the press.)

2002 Fleer Hot Prospects is the name of the above set. Who knew that Barry Larkin was still considered a "hot prospect" in 2002? Wow! That just goes to show you how prodigious his career was.

The 2 Tinos in the post were picked up just in case the Lost Collector needed them, though I knew it was a long shot.

Here are baseball cards produced with large holes in them. The top row include metal coins in said holes (not the foil-made-to-look-like-a-coin ones, but the actual-metal-coin ones), while the bottom row have translucent pictures in the holes. I think this day must have set my personal record for most cards with holes in them obtained in one day. At least in the past few years.

I'll leave you for today with this pair of Gold Label cards from back when that meant something. Beauties!

A pocketful of dimes well spent, I'd say! I still have more from this haul that I'll likely post about soon (I think I've sorted them into modern baseball cards [big stack], and non-baseball [smaller stack].)

By the way, when I said "That's So Raven" earlier, it didn't have anything to do with cards. Hopefully nobody was like examining the photo trying to figure out what "That's So Raven" had to do with the cards pictured. I was just being silly; Sorry.

Hope you have a great weekend!

more card show keepers

My haul from this past weekend's card show was pretty much evenly split between cards for my collection (pictured left) and cards picked up with others in mind / trade bait (right).

This post will feature some more of my keepers. Again, they're all numbered parallels I picked out of a 50¢ box.

Lots of shiny here. The non-shiny card is /99.. the only copy of which on COMC right now is $10+, so I'll count that as a nice deal for me.

Red Sox legends Yaz and Dewy.

More HOFers. The Smoltz is the lowest numbered of this bunch at /100.

Slugging 3rd basemen. I'm thrilled my Padres signed Machado, but with such a big, long deal, you can't help but be nervous. But give me just one championship over those 10 years and I'll be over the moon.

More San Diego-centric cards.

New cards for my PCs of Mike Jacobs (though it's technically a Hanley Ramirez card) and Mark Buehrle (though it's technically a Paul Konerko card).

A pair of /99 Tigers.

Here are more cards. Vlad, D-Lee, and Chili.

Some hip young dudes with blue hues. Lewis Brinson has been having an incredible spring training with Miami (5 HR in 26 AB as of this writing).. maybe this'll be his breakout year.

Let's end on some thicc cards. Tribute, Triple Threads, Inception, etc.

Solid card show haul. I think I've got one more post to get out of it: the trade baits. Coming soon.