Turning cards into songs + CONTEST!

Two of my favorite free-time activities are card collecting and music making. In recent years, I've been gravitating more towards cards, and neglecting my instruments. So I got this idea to combine my two main hobbies and rekindle some creativity for me on the musical side.

Basically the idea is taking a baseball card and putting it to music.

I'm a very amateur musician, so don't be expecting any awesome, epic rock operas or anything along those lines. In fact, most of these will be simple 1- or 2-minute ditties with me reading the little write-up on the back of the card. I'll do my best to make them sound different from song to song, so even if one isn't to your musical taste, you might still like a different one.

Let's kick out the jams starting with one of my favorite cards ever, one that I'm attempting to collect an entire binderful of: Marquis Grissom 1990 Upper Deck.

Here it is, "Marquis Grissom 1990 Upper Deck (The Song)"

Sure, it's rough and sloppy, but in my defense I'm playing every instrument and doing all the vocals.

So there you go, baseball cards turned into songs. A fun songwriting/recording exercise, melding two of my hobbies into one. Every once in a while I'll post up a song on the blog for you guys to listen to if you want. It would also be greatly appreciated if you could show some social media support (Fiberoctopus is the name I record under) by following on Twitter, liking on Facebook, and/or subscribing on YouTube. I know it's not great, but be a pal and throw me a bone!

[UPDATE: the contest is now closed.]

In fact, screw it, I'm not above resorting to contest! bribery to give a helping hand in expanding my "fanbase" a little. Hey, I understand your time is valuable so I'm giving you some extra motivation to take the few seconds to click a link then click on "Follow", "Like", and/or "Subscribe".

So yeah, let's have ourselves a contest. I've restocked my prize pool with a few available autos.

Mike Cuellar, Bobby Richardson, Maury Wills, Rob Dibble, Tony Armas, Luis Tiant, Jesse Orosco, Al Hrabosky, Bruce Sutter, Bobby Grich, Greg Luzinski, Tony Fernandez.

HOW TO ENTER

For a shot at winning your choice of any two (2) of the above lots of your choice, just help out Fiberoctopus by following on Twitter, liking on Facebook, and/or subscribing on YouTube, then leave a comment on this post. You don't have to follow on all three places, but at least one, please. If you are not registered on any of those sites, I will also accept if you carve "Fiberoctopus Rocks!" on your cave wall using primitive tools you've crafted from stone and mammoth bone.

And don't worry, I only post as Fiberoctopus like once a week (I usually share a new song every Friday, and that's it), so I won't be clogging up your feed.

Bonus magnet cards! The other day I showed off some cool custom magnet cards. I'll be offering a few of these as bonus prizes.

First of all, the Grand Prize winner can pick two (2) bonus magnets to be included along with his or her two selected auto cards.

The winner can also earn additional magnets thrown in by accomplishing any of these goals prior to winning:
1 bonus magnet card = "The Trifecta" of following on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
1 bonus magnet card = Pimp the contest on your blog (It doesn't have to be it's own post; just a little "P.S. check out this contest" link is fine.)
1 bonus magnet card = Tweet or retweet to pimp the contest

If you go "all in" and complete the 3 goals above, let me know in the comments and after the Grand Prize winner is crowned, I'll do a separate side drawing for these determined individuals wherein the winner will be able to chose two (2) magnet cards.

If the person who happens to win the Grand Prize went "all in" and did all the above, they will win a complete set of magnet cards along with the 2 autos they select.

Possible "stretch goals" bonus contest. If Fiberoctopus hits the magic number 100 at either of the three sites (so, 100 followers, 100 likes, or 100 subscribers) by the end of this contest, that'll trigger a "second chance" drawing wherein the winner will get to select a remaining auto from the pool and win a complete set of magnet cards.

Some small print: 
- Due to the heavy weight, the encased autographs and magnet card offers are only good for US residents. Sorry, non-US folks!
- Limit one (1) of each magnet card per winner. I don't want any one person cleaning out all the Canseco magnets, for example.
- Yes, if you don't have a blog or an account on some of these social media sites, you're at a disadvantage for bonus magnets. Well, let it be your motivation to start a blog and sign up for those sites!

Hopefully this isn't too convoluted!
Simply put, you can win some stuff from me if you comment on this post and show some love to my crappy musical alter ego Fiberoctopus. 
Sorry for the blatantly self-serving contest that has very little to do with baseball cards.

Wait, I suppose I should probably plug Fiberoctopus a little more here, so here're a few more songs to check out:
"Into the Moonlit Waves" is a decent instrumental. "all my dreams are dead and gone" is an old favorite (Oh, I should warn you my songs sometimes have bad words). Here's a recent acoustic Ramones medley.

And now some videos. Here's a fun song from a rehearsal when Fiberoctopus was a real band for a while a few years ago (w/Karie on vocals, John on drums):

Here's a recent Smiths cover:

This one is a dumb little animated short I made a few years back:

And if you like any of that, I've got a bunch more mp3s available for free at fiberoctopus.com

Anyways, back to the contest(s)..

I'll give it a week or so for people to enter, then I'll randomize to assign numbers and randomize again via an upcoming sporting event to pick a winner, like I like to do. And for retention purposes, I'll probably do a second-chance (third chance?) contest a little ways down the line where entries from this contest might be carried over.

So there you have it! Follow on Twitter, Like on Facebook, and/or Subscribe on YouTube, then comment to enter.

If you win, which autos and magnet cards do you think you'd probably pick?

Exclusive Magnet Cards!

With the help of a cool guy I know, I was able to get small run of custom magnets produced using some fake cards that've appeared here on Baseball Card Breakdown in the past.

The entire print run, 5 of each.

We've got a card from each of the Springfield Nine (ballplayers who guested on the "Homer at the Bat" episode of The Simpsons) originally featured in the Springfield Fortnight blog series, with a bonus Simpson Griffey (because I couldn't choose between the two), then there's a third Junior (89 UD/Fleer mashup), a sexy Christina Hendricks (sorry, this one just cracks me up every time), and a Cal Ripken card from the bizarro world where Cal, not Billy, was photographed with that infamous bat knob.

As mentioned, these are all magnets ("black backed" as it were). They are high quality. My buddy has lots of experience making magnets like these, though he usually uses album covers. The Simpson ones are just a smidge smaller than the size of a standard baseball card. The other 3 are a tiny bit larger than an '89 Bowman card. These aren't the flimsy kind of magnets you sometimes see with ads on them or whatnot; these are thick and heavy!-- about the thickness of a typical relic card. And they're super glossy, too, so you can stick them on your fridge and if they get water or some food splattered on them, it's no problem to wipe them off.

Though I've voiced my concerns over the ever-blurring grey area regarding customs and counterfeits, I sure do love making quirky customs, from the gifs and other amusing photoshops I post on the blog, to the glow-in-the-dark sketch cards and silly "blog-used" relic cards that I send off in trades. So making magnet cards from some of my favorite crazy photoshop customs is of course something I'd do!

I've hand-numbered each card (yes, I'm considering these "cards"). I'll hang onto #1 of each card for myself (I love these things!), but the rest are available for trade. A few have already been sent out as surprises recently. I'll also throw some into the mix for upcoming contests and stuff. In fact, I'm planning to kick off a contest this weekend with these in play (among other stuff)!

Want to get one of these silly Baseball Card Breakdown magnet cards to stick on your own fridge or file cabinet (or just sort away into your collection)? Get in touch about a trade. 
(and/or check back this weekend for the contest.) 

Thanks!

(A very special post!) My classmate the All-Star

This is a post I've been meaning to write since I first decided to start my own blog, but here we are nearly two years later and I'm just finally doing it. (Much of this was drafted [drunk late one night, alone in a darkened room] a few months ago, btw.)

But yep, I went to school with a kid who turned out to be a MLB all-star. And it wasn't just a passing moment, but we were actually in school together from 1st grade all the way through community college!

There have been 7 graduates from my high school to play in the major leagues (Granite Hills High School in El Cajon, California representing!) I've managed to obtain at least a couple cards from them all. I'm tipping my cap to each of them in this recurring Guys From Granite series. We're counting them down in ascending order by career games played, working our way to the most successful GHHS Eagle. This is part 6 of 7.

Marcus Giles

I'm the kid whose pumpkin is wearing a cowboy hat and big, bushy mustache. Marcus is the kid in vertical stripes. See that ribbon on my pumpkin's hat? I won something! You probably can't tell, but I'm wearing a Padres shirt. But Marcus would be the one to actually become a Padre. Meanwhile, I went on to work at the vertical stripe factory. How ironic!

My earliest memories of Marcus Giles are of a popular, athletic kid. We went to elementary school together (Meridian Elementary in El Cajon, CA), though I don't remember spending much time with him until 4th grade, when we were both in in Ms. Bassett's class, then 5th grade in Mr. Pedrazzi's class. Mr. Pedrazzi was probably the best teacher I ever had in my life, and I'd wager that Marcus would tell you the same. He was just a genuinely great guy who always saw the best in everyone. Everyday in his class made you feel like you won a contest. And, in fact, he did run several contests. I remember one contest where I won a golden (gold plated) bottle opener from Peru. I also remember when Marcus won a slingshot. It was a pretty bad-ass slingshot. Mr. Pedrazzi was sure to stress to Marcus to be careful and not hurt anybody/thing with it. Man, I was jealous of that slingshot! I'm sure that wouldn't fly in today's cultural climate: giving a kid a legit slingshot. But Mr. Pedrazzi respected his students and they rose to the occasion. I remember a "storytime" book he read us which was way above a 4th grader's typical fare.. about a guy who gets lost on a hike or something, and gets hunted by some other guy. I still remember the graphic details of the protagonist's tongue splitting from dehydration, as he barely drug himself from the desert back to civilization. Gross! But so cool that our teacher would read us that story! He knew it was a bit above us, but he challenged us to rise to the occasion. And I for one will always thank him for that.

I can't remember if Mr. Pedrazzi's class was included, but there was a program at my elementary school called "It's Funner To Be A Runner", which was just a little added physical fitness aspect to the curriculum that had the kids in those classes run a few laps every week. This was back before the "America's kids are too fat" epidemic really hit, and I think it helped all of us in the school be in decent shape for the rest of our lives. Did it help Marcus become a major league ballplayer? Maybe!

8th Grade (1992). Funny enough, I'm still Facebook friends with the two guys on the bottom.

In junior high (Montgomery Middle School), I don't really have a lot of memories of Marcus. Can't remember having any classes with him or hearing much about him. He kinda flew under the radar for those three years, I guess.

In high school, however, he definitely couldn't be missed. He was hot shit, no denying. Not only did he tear it up on the baseball team, but he was the star running back on the football team. Definitely one of the coolest kids at school. My high school yearbooks are just littered with photos of Marcus.

Typewriters?! What is this, the 60s?! Something cool I just now noticed about this picture is his shirt. His older brother Brian played for the Kinston Indians (Class Adv A) in 1991; obviously he gave the shirt to Marcus. Awwwww.

I don't remember having much H.S. classes with Marcus. In fact, I think the only one was a P.E. class, probably sophomore or junior year. Of course he was a super athlete back then, usually found in the weight room after school. He was never a towering guy, but always packed a lot of power into his modest stature. For a few weeks in P.E. I was on a 3-man basketball team with Marcus and a pudgy, nerdy kid. We were actually a pretty formidable team. The nerdy kid could actually handle himself ok on the court. Basically the nerdy guy would inbound to me, I would pass to Marcus, and Marcus would score. It was a winning combination! We really tore it up in P.E. class that year. A year later, the nerdy kid would die when he fell asleep driving home from a school band trip to Disneyland. It was really sad. He was a good guy.

Anyways, I was pretty much a dork in school. Not cool enough to be a popular kid, but not smart enough to hang out with the nerds. Not a headbanger, not a pothead.. just a normal, average dork. My one saving grace with popularity was I was a standout on the track team. It was enough to get me a few extra headnods in the halls, though not enough to get me laid or anything. But yeah, I was able to make friends with a lot of jocks who also ran track. Some of the big defensive guys on the football team also threw shotput in the offseason, for example. Marcus didn't run track (I think track season was during the same time as baseball), but the school's second-string running (Wade) back did. Wade was a decent guy, but every once in a while would prove to be kind of a dick.

Not to brag, but for a couple years there, I was the track team's star sprinter. Since I was the fastest kid in school, eventually the football coach called me into his office and persuaded me to try out for the football team. I lasted maybe 2 practices. It was too much work for me. And while I could run, I couldn't catch a football for shit. Plus I topped out at 5'8", 145 lbs, so I would be crushed if I actually tried to run the ball in a real high school football game. But whatever, it was a good experience at least giving it a shot. I remember once in sprints, when I was out of shape and not used to running in cleats, Wade beat me and was so goddamn proud of himself, bragging to anyone who would listen that he beat Gavin in a race. Even in defeat, it was humbling that the backup RB was to ecstatic to have bested me. In all our time together on the track team, I don't think he ever even came close. So I was ok with giving him that.

But enough of me being cocky about my past glory days on the high school track team.. back to Marcus Giles! His brother Brian Giles was a few years older than us, but he was actually around Granite Hills are that time too, but I'll save taking about Brian till the next Guys From Granite post (Spoiler alert: He's #1 on the countdown!)

These past couple pics are both from my freshman yearbook (1993). I didn't even bother venturing into my other 3 HS yearbooks. Tons of pics of him throughout them.

But yeah, Marcus was very popular in high school. He was definitely a typical jock, though. Granite's previous running back, Jay Johnson (whom I had known from the track team my freshman year) was a really bright, friendly guy. Marcus on the other hand, was more of your typical party-guy, skate-by-academically type jock. Not to say he was a dick, but just a typical jock. Nothing wrong with that. While he was always cool with me, I have an acquaintance who claims Marcus bullied him back in elementary school. I guess he was the type to sometimes tease less-cool kids a little, but he was never too over the top about it.

After graduation, we both ended up at local Grossmont Community College. In my case, I was too lazy and afraid of "real college", so I took the easy way out after high school. In Marcus' case, I guess his grades weren't good enough to get into a 4-year college, even with his baseball and football success (I would have assumed he'd get some good scholarship offers).

But he was just in junior college for maybe a year before he signed with the Braves. He was way down in the 53rd round of the 1996 amateur draft. That seems crazy to me, but I guess his size detracted some scouts.

The local East County San Diego newspaper, The Californian, would publish stats of local minor leaguers on Sundays. Jim Tatum was one guy in particular I would remember following, from nearby Santee, CA, He always seemed to be tearing it up in the minors, but was sub-Mendoza in his limited time in The Show.

And I'd remember following Marcus' success in the minors thanks to that section in the paper. He'd be cranking .350 consistently with good power and speed but for whatever reason not advance up the ladder very quickly and it was just crazy to me. I guess maybe he needed work on his fielding or something?

Finally he got called up in April 2001, and had a couple decent years splitting his time between Atlanta and AAA. In 2003 he had his break-out season and made the All-Star team. It was so surreal for me watching the national telecast of the lineup introductions and see my old classmate tipping his cap to a roaring stadium. "I know that guy! I went to school with him! My locker in the locker room was just a few lockers down from him!" Crazy.

He had a couple more quality years for the Braves, then leveled off a bit in 2006. Before the 2007 season, the Padres signed him as a free agent. What a glorious moment that was! Local hero come home. Teaming up with his big brother Brian, San Diego would be unstoppable with the hometown Giles Brothers powering their lineup! It was like something out of a storybook. It was his time to shine!

But his homecoming would not go as well as he or us other San Diegans had dreamt. Marcus sputtered to a .229 average with just 4 home runs on the year and was released promptly after the season. In the following years he would sign minor league deals with the Rockies, Dodgers, and Phillies.. but not make it through spring training with any of them, eventually retiring.

I'm not sure what Marcus has been up to since, but I wish him the best. Married with kids and still living in El Cajon, last I heard. It's super cool that a kid I went to school with played baseball in the major leagues just like Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, or whoever else you want to name. So cool! While his career only lasted 7 years, at least he had a pretty impressive peak, making the All-Star team and twice getting MVP votes. His 2 career post-season home runs must've been exhilarating experiences, I'm sure. When I got back into card collecting in 2012 after a hiatus of nearly two decades, one of my first buys was a 50-card eBay lot of Marcus Giles cards. I'm probably nearing 100 different cards at the point. Since this post is already very long, I'll save showing off that PC for another day.

I've heard some baseball fans suggest that he was likely a juicer, and his drop-off might be correlated to getting clean once baseball started cracking down, but I couldn't say. I can just tell you that he was always a torque-pact little weight room rat since he was a kid. But of course, back in the late 90s/early 00s, it seems like everybody was doing it, so it wouldn't shock me if I learned Marcus took a trip on the PED train. Some suggest he was just really lucky in his peak years.

Makes me wish I would have done more with my life, honestly. Maybe had I spent more time in the weight room, or on the field taking grounders, or in the batting cage working on my swing.. maybe I'd have been right there with him. But instead I'd just some nobody to collects cards of a guy I went to school with. Kind of a bummer when you look at it that way. But no, I've got a pretty good life, all things considered. And collecting his baseball cards is a neat way of paying tribute to our collective past.

So that's my story of going to school with a guy who ended up playing big league baseball.

Cheers, Marcus! You're a heck of an athlete and it was very cool watching your career.
[HT]
As a post-script (nothing to do with baseball/cards, but this is a pretty long post, so really, who's even still reading at this point?), I'd now like to list off some of the girls I had a crush on in school. I'd like to point out, should they ever stumble on this post, perhaps over-weight and through a messy divorce or two, that all these years later, I'm happily married (to my first and only wife), living in a nice house, with a dog, job, car, and no debt, and a healthy BMI. While I may have been somewhat of a loser in school, and definitely not the most successful guy in the world today, I ended up pretty ok.
Steph@nie Eulette (sp?) - 4th grade.. my first real crush. She teased me a bit, but I think she liked me, kinda.
Tiff@ny Stores - 5th grade.. man, she was so pretty! Smart, too. She ended up going to a different middle school, though just before elementary school ended, she told my best friend that she liked me, but by then it was too late. I kicked myself for a long time over that one. Had MySpace or Facebook been invented back then, who knows. But as the case was, she was gone forever.
C@rina Rider - 6th grade.. yowza.. you know what I mean? Developed early.
Becky J0slin - freshman year.. man, she was great. Always dated older (motorcycle-riding) guys, though, and frequently came to school in casts that caused people to raise an eyebrow. Where the dudes beating her? Hope not. She was into sports and played hard, so probably just sports injuries.
Jennifer C@meron - sophomore year.. Check that last name? She was actually the cousin of Kirk Cameron (Growing Pains) and Candace Cameron (Full House), but I just liked her because she was pretty and seemed nice. I came close to asking her to prom, but pussied out. Out of my league for sure.
J@cquita Street- junior year.. this was a really cute "bad girl" I had a crush on.. Then a decade later, I found her on MySpace and hit on her a little and we actually went on a date! It was perhaps the most surreal experience of my life. We weren't at all compatible and the date was pretty much a disaster, but still! Crazy!
J@ckie Thompson - senior year.. she was really cool and creative. She had a Porno For Pyros logo on her backpack and I thought that was just the most bad-ass thing ever.
Sara (forgot her last name) Green? - community college.. oh man. Should have at least tried asking her out. Seemed really cool.
J0y Stuber - SDSU.. geez, she was just the cutest! So tiny and sweet! I don't think we would have much in common or anything, but I kicked myself for a while for not at least asking her to a movie or something.

Man, I was too shy. Oh well. My high school girl friend was pretty cool. But man, has she gotten fat! I just had to laugh when she found me on MySpace years later, seemingly trying to rekindle something between us. Yeah, maybe if you hadn't broken up with me back then you wouldn't have wound up as an abused morbidly-obese single mom of 2 kids scraping to make ends meet by cutting hair. And then there was the pseudo-girlfriend I was obsessed with for a year after college (another over-weight single mom alcoholic). It wasn't until I started things up with my now-wife till that girl was like "yeah, maybe this could work." Suck it! You had yo' chance. And what was that other girl's name? Heidi, I think. That was short but intense. Came close to "running off together" but cooler heads prevailed.
Whatever. There have been other girls I've liked, but those are the ones I was really hung up on for a time. Everything happens for a reason and I ended up with the right woman for me. Happily ever after, the end.

So that's gonna wrap up this Wonder Years trip down memory lane (slash getting some pent up "I'm married now, bitches!" angst out of my system that's been brewing for 20-something years). I'm sorry for coming off as a bitter jerk here. (I've had a few drinks.) I truly wish all these women well wherever they are today.

Um, so.. did you go to school with anybody famous? Any notable baseball players? What girls did you have a crush on? LOL

Guys From Granite countdown
8. Preface (minor leaguers)
7. Mike Reinbach
6. John Barnes
5. Chris Jones
4. Tom Fordham
3. Shane Spencer
2. Marcus Giles
1. (coming soon)

a nickelbox haul not for the faint of heart

Ready for more card show pickups? Here are a couple bucks' worth of nickelbox cards.

Dwight Evans 2nd-year? J.R. F'ing Richard? Both in pretty good shape for a nickel!

I already had that classic "bat-barrel" Wallach rookie, to be honest (pack-pulled by me back in the early 90s), but I had the crazy notion to start collecting every copy of every Tim Wallach card ever. Two down! As for that Goose, how the fudge do I not remember heretofore ever seeing this epically ugly card?! Let's take a closer look at his dying-fish face, checking out the reflection in his glasses.

Sorry for doing this to you:

...

...

Our left (Goose's right) seems to have another player standing near, and on the right is the photographer snapping the infamous shot. Meanwhile, Goose is pondering how long he can survive out of water. My god! Somebody at Donruss in late 1982 was looking through photos of Rich Gossage and said, "Let's use this one." I hope he refuses to sign this card.

1985 is represented nicely with a Sabes RC and Gary Carter OPC with the ever-desirable bonus updated text.

Here's a mishmash of 90s and early 00s. Let's see.. some Bowman.. an Ortiz.. amateur Konerko.. Vlad tek (That guy was a beast in his prime).. Robbie-- I didn't even know Stadium Club had a Chrome offshoot one year (2000).. Full-bleed Chrome! I like it.

Four Trevors and four Rickeys. All Padres cards except one Brewer (which I see as a plus, since I had few, if any, Trevor cards from his late-career stint in Milwaukee). It took much restraint not to make that Holographix card into a gif. Sorry, guys: I've done a lot of "refraction action" gifs over the past couple posts. Gotta leave you wanting more!

Here are some more Padres and a couple pre-Padres Templetons.

A couple more Alex Gordon cards. Hunter Pence. Ever since pulling that /20 framed 2015 Topps Cole Hamels in a group break last month, I've sorta started collecting him. Kinda sorta.

We close out today with a scanner-full of old-timers. A trio of Josh Gibson cards. Clemente. A couple Hoyts. A Sparky. And an Archives reprint of Reggie and Stargell.

Good stuff for 5 cents a pop, eh?

Sorry again about that Goose closeup. I hope it doesn't haunt your dreams for too long.

That pretty much wraps up my haul from last Saturday's card show, though I still have a bunch of cards I got specifically as trade bait (or failing that, Listia fodder), so stay tuned for that soon.

Cards from the dimebox-- er, 8.3¢ box

Let's check out the fruits of my dimebox digging from last weekend's card show. Actually, there was a deal on the boxes of 12-for-$1, so I got these 24 cards for just $2.

Here's a mix of oddballs cut from boxes and/or included with grocery items. I'd be ok with never seeing another '88 or '89 Topps card for as long as I live, but throw a light blue border on it with an alternate picture, and it's much more appealing to me. That Billy Klaus Post card has some issues with the bottom corners, but anytime I can pick up a card from 1961 for less than a dime, I gotta. As for the Biggio dog card? I picked it up solely because it was the subject of my favorite Baseball Card Bust post (RIP).

Here's Rickey in his holographic glory.

More beat-up vintage. It's tempting to cut that Hank Aaron into 4 separate micro cards. A Nolan Ryan card (with some other guys too) from 1970 for 8.3 cents? You got it!

A couple mid 80s RCs of guys who eventually became stars in the early 90s.

Mike Trout mini for under a dime! Even with a dinged corner, I'm not passing that up. Jose Altuve is hard not to like, so I was excited to slap his RC on my stack. That's a funny optical illusion on his card.. like the guy in front of him is giving him an awkward piggyback ride, but really he's in the background. I don't care for that Morneau card, but somehow he weaseled his way into my pile. No, really, I'll tell you why: It was in a toploader with a "$5" price sticker on it. I admit I'm suggestable to old price stickers on discount cards. "Wow, this used to be $10 and now it's just a quarter?! What a huge discount! I don't really care about this player at all, but I'll take it!" Yeah, I'm gullible sometimes.

Here's the trade bait section of my dimebox haul. I always keep an eye out for interesting Pirates in case Matt/Bob Walk needs them. Do you need this Wagner mini, Matt? As for the Alex Gordon, as I mentioned yesterday, I picked up a spite-extra. It's available for trade if anyone wants it.. otherwise it'll be Listia bound.

Slipping in a basketball card, I actually have an auto version of that Shaq card (in a pretty plaque that I should show off on the blog sometime-- great Listia buy from a year or two ago), so thought I'd pick up a Silver Signature version to complement it. And I always kinda liked Brent Mayne, so why not grab his auto for less than a dime?

Bret Boone had some solid years for the Padres and I love those early Leaf Gold Rookies. The Peavy minor league card is a nice addition to my PC.. I've gotta be creeping up on entering him into the Hundred Card Club by this point.

Closing out with a trio of greats. Nolan makes his third appearance of the post. I should try to complete that 1992 Upper Deck All-Star Fanfest set someday since I actually went to it (the Fanfest, not the All-Star Game), so it'd be a nice memento.

That's all for today. We'll probably check out the nickelbox haul tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

Dazzling card show haul continues

Continuing with my pickups from the card show this past weekend, here are some baseball cards from the main bins where I spend most of my time every show. The dealer seems to adjust his price on these bins from show to show. I think they used to be dollar bins, but he usually has a deal running. Last show they were 3-for-$1, which is the cheapest I remember seeing them. This show they were back up to 50 cents, which while not as great as last month, is still pretty good.

First up, I'll dazzle you with the shiny.

- Gwynn with some neat holographics going on.
- Todd Green. I was on the fence about getting this card since I don't care about Todd Green at all, but it's a damn pretty card, plus I'm a sucker for a screwdown case.
- Jose Canseco. I'm by no means a Canseco collector, but that card was just too pretty to say no to.
- Hitting Machines diecuts of Ken Caminiti and Roberto Alomar. Cool cards.
- And Mariano Rivera on the rainbow road.

The gif of this Roberto Alomar hologram actually does a decent job of demonstrating the effect. Again, neat-looking, cheap cards in screwdown cases are hard for me to pass up. I probably should, though, as it essentially just adds up to more mass for my collection.

Some more Padres, including a young Jake Peavy, a Mark Loretta proof (numbered 17/25 on the back), a red Greene and a green Greene, and a flagship Gwynn that has alluded me. Technically Tony Gwynn is supposed to be off my wantlist since I've adopted the "100 and done" player-collecting method. But even though I've already got over a hundred Gwynns, I still cave and get another here and there. As a card-collecting Padres fan, it would be impossible and wrong not to.

Brooks Kieschnick auto! My second of him. P-town Tom recently announced he was going to start PCing him, so I'll have some competition if I decide to be the cardosphere's premiere Brooks Kieschnick collector.

Besides the 2013 Bowman autos I showed off a couple days ago, this is the only certified auto I bought for myself. However I did pick up about a dozen other cheap autos, but we'll get to those when I put up my next trade bait post.

Cool looking Clemente.

Piazza as a Marlin! A rare sight.

Isn't this the insert set that Dennis at TMV just completed? Call it peer pressure, but I had to grab one for myself. It's #'d 1185/1989 on the back.

Did I mention I'm a sucker for a screwdown case? This one means business, with not one but two screws. I also like picking up a Griffey card or two at each show.

A couple vintage food issue oddballs. That Bobby Shantz is, I think, my first of those old school Post (?) cards. (I would later pick up my second out of a dimebox, but that's for another post.)

Finally, a couple early cards of big names on old designs. Love those Donruss Originals. I actually picked up a 2nd copy of that Alex Gordon card later in the show from a dimebox.. another instance of me purposely buying a dupe out of spite.

That's it for today. More stuff coming up.

Look, I know you don't care about basketball cards, but for reals, check this out!

I picked up some big-name vintage basketball goodness for cheap at the card show yesterday.

To set the scene: when I arrived at the show, the baseball bins from the main dealer I gravitate to were pretty full with people. To bide my time, I half-heartedly got a stack going from his football dimebox, but ended up abandoning it when the two guys beside me were getting a little annoying.

So I inched closer to the baseball area, waiting for a spot to open up, and my attention was grabbed by some sweet vintage front and center in the basketball 50¢ section.

So many Larry Bird rookies for 50 cents each! (1980-81 Topps Basketball is a weird set with each card being 3 attached minis with various player combinations.) Sure, none are the most desirable version shared with Magic Johnson, but still! 50 cents! Not reprints! Vintage! I don't need all of these. I'll probably Listia off the extras, but if any of you out there want one, let me know about a trade.

A couple early "Pistol Pete" Maravich cards. That fantastic Dr. J is an All-Star card from his rookie year. The Wilt is great too, though I believe I already have it, so it's also available for trade. The 1987-88 Fleer Magic and Bird ain't too shabby either.

A bunch of Bill Bradley cards (with a dupe available for trade). Keith Wilkes rookie card (a.k.a. Jamaal Abdul-Lateef). Bob McAdoo rookie card. LL card with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Nate Archibald, and John Havlicek. Some damn fine cards there.

I'd be remiss if I didn't show a few backs of these cards so you can enjoy the cartoons:

Gotta love vintage cardboard.

So yeah, quite an impressive haul for 50¢ a pop. Turns out the baseball section being full was a blessing in disguise, since otherwise I would never have stumbled upon these screaming deals. I'm not a huge basketball collector by any means, but I do like to have a well-rounded card collection with a bit of everything, and these cards definitely bolster the basketball portion of my collection nicely. (That said, I'd be willing to listen to trade offers for most of these; really only the Dr. J card is untouchable.)

Back to baseball tomorrow.