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!

2017 Allen & Ginter Constellations minis - Glow-in-the-Dark spotlight

Time for another Glow-in-the-Dark spotlight, posting this month about some glowing trading cards out there.

2017 Topps Allen & Ginter Constellations mini inserts

Ginter is known for off-kilter insert sets, occasionally going outside the box with something wonderfully weird, and in 2017 they included a 10-card set of constellation minis. These cards appear to be blank on the front at first glance, though if you take a closer look, you can see the faint constellation. When you get them in the dark, a constellation is illuminated. Kinda neat.

Here's a "night sky" of all 10 cards together. The glowing is fine, but could be brighter. I had to edit the levels on photo(s) a bit to make the glowing stand out more.

Not too interesting in the light. The "blank fronts" confused some collectors/breakers who didn't know about the glow-in-the-dark nature of the cards.

Here's a closer look at the 10 cards.

#1 Orion & #2 Ursa Major:

#3 Ursa Minor & #4 Scorpius:

#5 Cygnus & #6 Leo:

#7 Perseus & #8 Hercules:

And finally, #9 Aquarius & #10 Libra:

I've always enjoyed stargazing, though I never really studied up much on different stars and constellations. I took a beginner astronomy class as an elective back in junior college, and seem to recall earning an A, but haven't retained any of that knowledge, unfortunately. But hey, these cards make for a nice primer for anyone interested in that stuff, so kudos to Topps for working constellations into Allen & Ginter in a unique way.

Ready for the World Series

I had to splurge on a Juan Soto autograph. I'm pretty happy with this one. Big, on-card signature. Still had a few eBay Bucks left to help take the sting out of the price. He's a terrific young player who's a lot of fun to watch.

It's from 2019 Bowman Sterling. Numbered out of 25.

While I'm at it, I figured I'd show off a few of my best cards of other players I collect who are competing in the Fall Classic this year.

Stephen Strasburg is a guy I collect thanks to his status as a fellow SDSU alum. This is a custom overlay I made a couple years back.

Some of my other decent Stras cards. I hope he does well in the series.

I collect some dudes in the other dugout, too. This Carlos Correa atomic auto is a favorite of mine.

Other highlights in that PC include a prospect auto, a slabbed Pro Debut, and a Members Only parallel from Stadium Club.

A year or two back I kinda-sorta started collecting Max Scherzer. No auto yet, but I've accumulated a few solid cards of his.

I started collecting George Springer after his impressive performance in the 2017 postseason.

Dig these thicc Crystal Ball inserts from 2015 Stadium Club.

Some other Springer highlights.

Trea Turner is another Nat I collect. His success is bittersweet for me, since the Padres gave him up in an ill-advised trade.

Gotta love Jose Altuve (..unless you're a Yankees fan, I suppose). My PC of him is highlighted by an Archives auto, a Heritage action variation, and 3 rookies. Still need a parallel of his Topps rookie for my 2011 frankenset. If anybody has one, I'd love a chance to tempt you into a trade.

Shortly after his ALCS-winning jack, I whipped up this Altuve gif (at the brilliant suggestion of Dennis). The "hand cut" effect is kinda neat. I already had much of this card whipped up thanks to a custom I made a couple years ago...

Nice looking custom.

I think that's it as far as guys I collect who are in the WS. All the early Gerrit Cole cards that came my way ended up going to Matthew Scott. Pretty much any Verlander cards I've had over the years have gone to Dennis. I also collect Alex Bregman, but don't have anything really notable yet. I have an auto each from Adam Eaton and Ryan Zimmerman, though I don't really collect either player.

I think it's gonna be a fun series. Too bad the Astros had to poop in the pool with their continued poor handling of domestic violence issues. I was already lightly rooting for Washington, and now after recent stuff in the news, I'm really hoping they can pull off the upset. Though if I was a betting man, my money would be on Houston. But yeah, regardless, hope we get some exciting biggest-stage baseball.

Comic Book Breakdown: The Maxx #1 - Glow-in-the-Dark variant

I've done a few comic book posts here in the past couple years, and up to this point they've all been '70s "cartoon" comics (Richie Rich, Huckleberry Hound, Scrooge McDuck)...books that I like but were before my time. But now I'm jumping to the early 90s with a comic I was into as a preteen: The Maxx.

It's almost hard for me to admit, but for a short time around late 1992 / early 1993, I was actually more into comics than baseball cards. I would soon give up collecting both, as music and girls became far more interesting to me around mid-93, and my collections got boxed away. When I moved out of state in 2009, the bulk of my collections were sold off, but I held onto some of my favorite cards and comics.

I've jumped back into baseball cards full-force as an adult, but only dipped my toe back into comic books so far. If money and storage space were no object, I'd likely go nuts on a bunch of vintage comics, but as it stands, I probably buy a comic book maybe once or twice per year.

The most recent addition to my comic collection is one that caught my eye because it was a comic I was into as a kid, plus it's a glow-in-the-dark variant cover, which is right up my alley. I got it a few months ago, but figured I'd finally feature it on the blog now since I'm kinda doing a "theme month" with a bunch of glowing cards/collectibles. This looks pretty good in the dark! The regular edition (that doesn't glow) features yellow gloves and the other parts that are white here (besides his teeth) are red.

I'm pretty sure I still have the standard cover of this one among the few favorite comics I held onto from my time collecting in the early 90s, though I must admit these have been "misplaced" for at least a couple years now. I used to keep them in one certain box, but at some point I moved them and started storing baseball cards in that box, but now I unfortunately seem to have forgotten where I moved the old comics to! Hopefully they're still in my house somewhere and will turn up one of these days.

Here's the small print. Dig the "why are you reading this?" easter egg. Cool that creator/artist Sam Kieth shared a mailing address for readers to get in touch with him.

I'm not gonna attempt to recap the story of this issue, but I'll show off a few random pages to give you a feel of it.

Always been a fan of Sam Kieth's art. I think he made his name doing a popular issue of the Incredible Hulk and some covers for Marvel Comics Presents (including my introduction to him: a very cool cover of Wolverine, which I had/ hopefully-still-have-somewhere), before branching out with his own title. The Maxx probably isn't for younger readers, as it can get a little dark with themes of murder and rape, though I wouldn't go as far as to say it's strictly "adult-oriented".

I don't always follow exactly what's going on in the story (it kinda jumps in and out of reality), but still a fun read. Maybe check the Wikipedia entry if you wanna know more about the storyline.

I hadn't realized Topps put out a set of The Maxx cards before seeing this ad. I wouldn't mind building that set someday, but not a priority.

I think I've also got a big PDF off all the issues of the comic, plus video files of the animated series (part of the MTV program Oddities), but haven't tucked into them yet. As a kid, I think I got up to issue 7 or 8 before I strayed from comics (looks like it ultimately ran for 35 issues), and I don't recall ever catching the show.

Here's a cool page.

Cute girl.

Bad guy.

Confrontation.

Fan letters.

The back cover teases issue #2.

Anybody else into The Maxx?

That wraps up this hybrid post of the recurring blog serieses "Comic Book Breakdown" and "Glow-in-the-Dark spotlight". I usually take a look at some of the more amusing ads, but there were slim pickings in this issue. And I also typically post music videos from the time of the comic to punch up the post, but now that I'm doing a separate card blog for music, I've got an outlet for musical stuff and don't have to shoehorn songs in here so much.

Matthew Sweet - The Ugly Truth

But here's one of my favorite tracks of 1993-- plus the lyrics fit with The Maxx to the point where it probably would have made a good theme song (thinking of how the comic bounces between the outback dreamland and the gritty reality).

Thanks for reading.