Card Show Castration

Man, I really got bent over a barrel at the monthly card show today. I really need to be better at basic math, or at least remember to utilize the calculator on my phone. Anyways, overpaying aside, I picked up a bunch of ok cards. I mean, it wasn't that bad. Each card I bought today cost me 70-something cents. Let's check out some highlights.

Shiny and motion. Blue Wave Renfroe, Atomic Thome, 3D Barry Sanders.

A few nice rookie cards of guys I collect. The cheapest of that tongue-out Springer on COMC is $7, so that might be my deal of the day.

More shiny. The Jordan Hicks diecut /150 was another nice pickup ($6.75 on COMC). Hell, the only base 2010 Tribute Stargell on COMC right now is $8.25.

A coupe kings of New York, including my first Tim Tebow card. Hey, laugh at me if you want, but the cheapest one of those on COMC is $5.24. (That's my last COMC mention of the post, I promise.)

I got this complete set of 1992 Mother's Giants just for the Rod Beck card I needed. The rest are available for trade. (I actually got a fair amount of trade bait at the show, but the rest will wait for a separate post.)

Low-numbered early-00s cards of first-ballot HOFers for less than a buck? Yes, always. Love those Sportscasters.

Some vintage.

And a baker's dozen of 1957 Topps needs, including familiar names Billy Pierce and Al Dark. These 13 were from the 50¢ box, and the old-timer said, "How about $10?" And not thinking and in kind of a rush (my wife had dropped me off at the show, taken our dog to play at the river, and then was back to pick me up right then) and just said, "Sounds good to me." Pulled out a couple fives and in doing so basically gave the guy a $3.50 tip. Didn't realize it till later. Whatever, he's given me deals before. And if I give him shit about it next time I buy from him, he'll probably cut me a deal to balance it out. (Still not a bad deal, even with the overcharging.)

Driving home from the show with a happy, soaked dog.

So yeah, maybe "castration" was overdoing it, but it fits in with my thing of titling card show posts "Card Show (C-word)" ..but no, not the C-word, lol. But you know what I mean. (Card Show Crapulence, Card Show Chiropractic, Card Show Khlav Kalash, etc.)

Thanks for reading. I'll try to get a trade bait post up tomorrow.

Forgotten Sons of El Cajon (a big Guys From Granite update)

Lots of updates to my collection of pro ballplayers who went to my high school to get to in this post. But first off, a new name to add to the list. Congrats to Jordan Verdon on being selected in the recent MLB draft by the Detroit Tigers out of San Diego State. A third baseman, he was taken in the 23rd round as the 675th overall player selected. The Granite Hills alum was previously drafted out of high school in 2015 in the 25th round by the Mets (719th overall), but chose to attend SDSU instead. While his collegiate career started kinda slowly, things really came together in 2018, finishing his Junior season with 27 doubles and 40 extra-base hits, both the most by an Aztec since 1984. Hopefully his success continues into the minors and he makes his way up to Detroit before long. Looking forward to Jordan getting some cards on the market that I can go after.


Long ago I made a post of what I thought was a comprehensive list of all the guys from my high school that played minor league baseball. My source for the list was baseball-reference, which I thought was infallible. And while I still love good ol' B-R, turns out the site kinda sucks in some regards. Especially since the "upgrade" they did a year or two ago so now you have to click in the search box before you start typing a player's name.. so annoying. And how you now have to click boxes to reveal a lot of the info instead of it just being there in the player profile pages.. hate that! And how they took out the nice little "bullpen" (or whatever they were called) bio section they used to have and instead now link to (if available) the SABR bios, which are like frucking novels about each player and I'm sorry but I don't have all day to read that when all I want is some quick basic background info on the guy and some notable moments from his career. And why can't the search be smart enough to figure out simple typos and offer suggestions? You better be sure you can spell "Saltalamacchia" right, because even one letter off will give you a "zero results" dead end. Really annoying. [/ranting about baseball-reference]

But a lesser known stat site that actually might be a better resource sometimes is The Baseball Cube. Where B-R betrayed me when it came to searching for players from my high school, TBC pointed me to a few players I wasn't aware of. I was eventually able to track down some cards of these guys.

Man, I love old minor league cards! Tim Doerr was an infielder originally drafted out of Granite Hills by the Cubs in the 4th round of the 1970 draft, but chose to attend UCLA instead. The Reds picked him up in the 18th round in 1974, and he spent his pro career in their system putting up decent numbers before hanging it up after 1978 with AA Nashville. This card is from 1976 TCMA. Tim's also got a 1974 Seattle Rainiers card out there I'd like to track down someday, but I think it's pretty scarce. Not sure if Tim is any relation to HOFer Bobby Doerr.. anybody know?

As for Charles Renneau, he was drafted by the Reds in the 12th round of the 1974 draft. A righty who spent a couple years in Cincinnati's system, he called it quits after a year in the Twins organization. Though always a pitcher, seems Charles wasn't a bad hitter, putting up a .333 average in 31 professional plate appearances. This 1977 TCMA card from his final year as a pro seems to be his only card on the market. (Wooo... completed player collection!)

Since these cards don't pop up on the blogs very often, thought I'd show the backs too. That's an incredible Clinton Pilots logo! And lol at the "Olcajon" typo on the Visalia Oaks card.

Here's another 1977 TCMA card and the more-familiar 1981 TCMA design. Kenny Barton is a guy who wasn't on my radar until just recently. He signed as an undrafted free agent with the Giants in 1976 out of Grossmont College, the local J.C. He played all over the field, but mainly second base. After spending the late 70s in the Giants chain, he then played with the Indians organization for a couple years, topping out at AAA for his last year in 1981. He's also got a 1976 card out there I need to complete his trio of cards.

Now here are a couple guys I actually went to school with, though not in the same class. Brian Smith was ahead of me and Mike Wilson was behind.

Brian J. Smith was a late draft pick by the Mariners in '95, but only lasted a couple years splitting time between second base and the outfield in their system before winding up on an independent team, and was done playing by 2002. I think my PC of him is now 50% complete, as he seems to only have a couple baseball cards out there. In addition to this 1997 Everett AquaSox card, he's also got one from 1999 Newark Bears I need to track down someday.

Mike J. Wilson signed with the Phillies in the 1998 draft. He was a RHP who put up solid numbers for a few years, but couldn't get past AA, wrapping up his career in 2003 with a couple games in the Giants' chain. Similar to Brian Smith, his very common name makes it hard to search for his cards. (He is not the same Mike Wilson who appears in some 2002 Bowman and Topps products and 2011 Bowman, an outfielder with Seattle.) I think I've now completed this PC. I already had his 1999 Batavia Muckdogs card, and now this 2001 Batavia Muckdogs card checks off both cards of his I know about.

Brian Graham was drafted by Oakland in the 4th round of the 1982 draft out of UCLA. He had some decent stints, but couldn't get out of AA, eventually finishing his career in 1986 split between the AA teams of Detroit and Milwaukee. I think he has a few cards out there, but yet again, he has a somewhat common name and there are other baseball players from the era with the same name, making it confusing to search (not only players, but also trainers and managers named Brain Graham with cards.. not sure if this Brian went into coaching or if that's a different guy). This Madison Muskies card is from 1983.

Johnny Coit, on the other hand has a distinctive name and seems to be a one-card-wonder, meaning the PC is complete now with just this 2004 Alaska Goldpanner card. Nice. He was actually attending Cal State Northridge at the time. The Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks are a collegiate summer team. Coit went undrafted and played independent ball in 2007 and 2008.

Mark McRoberts was a few years behind me. Looks like he had 3 cards produced and I've knocked them off. Sweet! Another completed PC! Mark signed with the Phillies in the 14th round of the 2000 draft. A catcher-turned-outfielder, he had trouble keeping his offense consistent. The Padres picked him up in the minor league 2003 Rule V draft, but he was done by the end of the 2004 season.

Chris Dunwell is another guy I wasn't aware of until just recently (no thanks to b-r). Drafted by Oakland in the 15th round of the 2002 draft out of SDSU, he scuffed in the minors for 4 years and that was it. 325 strikeouts vs 108 walks doesn't seem too bad, but wasn't good enough to stick around very long. Looks like he's got six cards out there and I'm just missing one to complete the PC (2001 Alaska Goldpanners).

Johnny Omahen is no stranger to my blog. I got a TTM return from him a while back (among my first times attempting through-the-mail autograph collecting), and nearly completed a Bowman auto rainbow, only missing the 1/1. Nice to add another minor league card of his. He made it up to AAA a couple years ago, but couldn't quite break thru to the bigs. Looks like he's now doing private instructional work on pitching back home in Alpine, a neighboring city of El Cajon in East County San Diego.

Sean Bischofberger is a cool one to add to my collection. This corner infielder was a 22nd round pick by the Braves in 1998, but didn't sign with them, instead attending Cal State Fullerton. He later played independent ball, with his career lasting from 2002 until 2005. His best year was probably 2002, hitting .290 with 12 homers in 65 games. This is his only baseball card that I know of (2004 San Angelo Colts). Another completed PC! I went to school with him, though he was a couple years behind me.

Scott Shoemaker, another pitcher who topped out at AAA, got a Bowman card, so I've already got some representation of him in my collection, but this quartet of minor league cards is pretty nice. I think the only minor league card of his I'm missing now is 2005 Greenville Bombers.

Casey Craig also got a Bowman card in the early 00s. I think these 6 might be all his minor league cards, leaving only some low-numbered Bowman parallels left for me to chase.

Apparently there were a couple different guys named Brandon Decker in the early 2000s. The first card (Crushers) is my guy, attending Granite Hills then SDSU before a couple years of independent ball. The other guy with the same name (Kernals and Owlz) is from Florida and got drafted by the Angels but didn't last long. I probably should had researched better before buying these cards. LOL. Oh well.

Frank Carey was active in that overproduction sweet spot of 1989-1991, so he's got lots of minor league cards. Here are six of them. After Granite, he attended Stanford and was later drafted by the SF Giants. He was a decent contact hitter but didn't stick around as a pro for long, finishing his career with just 5 games in AA (though that was good enough to get him a couple cards with the Shreveport Captains).

Now here's an active guy. Travis Taijeron made the majors with the Mets in 2017. He signed with the Dodgers in the offseason and has been playing ok in OKC (AAA) so far this season. I'm a little bummed he hasn't gotten any MLB cards other than one Topps Now card last year (at least there was that, though). He has plenty of minor league cards, however, and I've added four more of them here.

Sean Ross is a bit of a mystery to me. He was drafted by the Blue Jays in the 40th round of the 2017 draft out of high school but didn't sign and apparently didn't play at all for the rest of the year (injured? took a "gap year"?). Looks like he eventually started playing at SDSU in 2018 and did well in limited action (.333, 6 hits in 18 at-bats), so I'm hoping he keeps it up and eventually goes pro. Scored this Leaf Perfect Game #'d 1/5 auto a little while back for a few bucks.

Brian Giles has had the best MLB career out of any guy from Granite Hills. While he has way too many cards out there to try supercollecting, I can at least attempt to round up all his minor league issues, and this is a nice lot I've recently picked up. The two Skybox cards looks like dupes from the front, but have different numbers on the back. And speaking of backs..

I really like this red 1990 Star Watertown Indians card. Not only is Watertown, NY sacred ground in the cardsphere (Night Owl's home), but I think this is Brian's earliest card. Plus it gives a shout-out to Granite Hills, albeit with a slight typo.

Dang it, when blindly rounding up Brian (Stephen) Giles cards, you're liable to accidentally buy cards of Brian (Jeffrey) Giles, as I did with this pair. Doh! Maybe I should just start collecting him too.

At least there's only one Marcus Giles in baseball. Snagged a few more cards of my former classmate here. I wonder what he's up to these days. Hope he's doing well. I have little interest in any high school reunions, though if you told me Marcus was gonna be there, I might think about it.

Let's close out this long post with the original Guy From Granite, the late Mike Reinbach. Scored this Japanese card on eBay recently. Really like it because it seems nearly all of his cards show him batting, so it's nice to finally get a card of him in the field.

Go Granite Hills Eagles! See you next time.

A nice box of Mystery Science Theater 3000 cards

My all-time favorite TV show is a tie between MST3K and The Simpsons. So I perked up a few months back when I heard on Twitter that a set of cards for the show was in the works. Then I didn't hear anything for a while until a couple weeks ago when Doug did a box break on Sportcards From The Dollar Store. I hemmed and hawed for a few days, trying to justify paying the price for a box despite there being no autographs in the product to chase (a big disappointment to me). But I ultimately gave in and ordered a box (link).

It comes in a cool box that you can cut up into additional cards, though I'll likely leave it intact.

While the box is full of packs, it promises you a complete base set (104 Invention Exchange cards + 50 Experiment cards), some complete insert sets, and some other goodies to chase. While opening packs is fun, it was a bit of a pain to go through and collate everything later, and I may have preferred a product that just gave you a pouch of the set in order.

The only cards that showed up in dupes were the Invention Exchange cards. In fact, my stack of extras was a little taller than my collated Invention Exchange set. But due to several triplicates, I did not end up with a second complete set.

Some of the Invention Exchange cards had tiny nicks/indentations on the front, which sucks. While collating my set, I often had to compare dupes to make sure my set was in "NM/EX", swapping out any cards with surface marks. To the company's credit, there's an offer to exchange damaged cards (while supplies last).

As for the content, this Series One product covers seasons 1 through 3. These base cards feature a screen shot on the front, with the backs having either quotes (Invention Exchange cards) or misc. info on the episode (Experiment cards).

The Riff It insert set has more of a matte feel, which is refreshing to spice up a pack with since the other cards are very glossy. There were also some bonus promo cards for other RRParks stuff thrown in "box topper" style. They've put out a massive Three Stooges set (over 1k different cards) which caught my eye because of glow-in-the-dark inserts, and you guys know I'm a sucker for all glowing cards. I'm kinda bummed the MST3K product didn't get any glow-in-the-dark cards. I definitely would have chased all those down.

One cool insert set that you get full set of in each box are the 3-D cards. You also get a free pair of 3D glasses in the box to use with these 18 cards. The effect is a little hit or miss. The best is probably the one with the pointing finger.. damn near pokes you with the glasses on!

But my favorite inserts are easily these retro b-movie poster art cards, originally created as DVD mini-poster inserts, and shrunk down here to standard cards. These are fun and look great. I believe the artist on all these is Steve Vance, veteran comic book artist; found a neat featurette on his MST work on YouTube.

Now we're entering the "chase/hit" cards (i.e., the cards you aren't promised a complete set of in each box). These are Byron Winton art card prints, hand-numbered on the back to 500. You get 3 of the 9 cards in a box. I think I got a nice selection here.

As a big Tony Gwynn fan, I was pleased to see my 3 art cards were all number 394 in the print run. Always fun when you can find some "eBay 1/1" significance to a seemingly random serial number.

You also get one (of 9) metal cards (standard size box topper). These look nice and vibrant in the light, and are hand-numbered /311 on the back.

I hit another metal card in the form of a 1/1 printing plate.. sweet!

Here's the card the plate was used for, plus a look at the back of the plate. I lucked out pulling a front, since it looks there are also back plates, which aren't as interesting to me. Comes with a signature by the publisher of the cards, so that's pretty cool.

YES! I was hoping to hit a sketch card. Very happy with this one.. cool external look at the Satellite of Love in space.

The artist is Marsha Parkins. Looks like she has a good presence online (link, link), and has made many Star Wars sketch cards for Topps over the past few years. Pretty cool.

Then a few packs later I pulled what seemed like another (non)sketch card and I was confused for a moment before flipping the card over...

Ha, a blank sketch card for you to use yourself! Great idea. Turns out this is also a solid hit and these seem to fetch decent money on the secondary market. So I won't be scribbling on this particular card, but it did inspire me to grab a couple blanks from my stack of "dummy" cards that I use for sketch cards and try my hand at MST3K artwork...

Not perfect, but I'm still proud of how these turned out, especially seeing as they were my first attempt ever drawing the bots (that I can recall, at least.. I've been into the show since the early 90s, so I've probably doodled them at some point years ago). You've got Crow concerned about slime dripping down from the ceiling, and a nice closeup of Tom Servo. I'd say robots are easier to draw than humans, and will likely do more sketches of the bots in the future, as these were a lot of fun. Oh, and remember earlier when I was complaining there weren't any glow-in-the-dark MST3K cards? I tried to do my part to correct that...

The pair looks pretty good in the dark! It appears Crow got completely slimed! Guess he was right to be concerned.

Here's a promotional fold-out that also came in the box.

Each wrapper includes a checklist printed on the inside. Pretty cool. I kept a couple with my box, and used one to check off what I got. You can see I got shutout in the "Faux Film Cell" department, but I didn't have much interest in those anyways (Now, if they were real film cells, then you'd have my interest). The big hit I was hoping to score but struck out on were the prop relic cards. But after seeing what they look like (check the right side of the foldout a couple pictures above), honestly they don't do much for me (just swatches of jumpsuit or labcoat), so I'm fine missing out there.

While I initially had some buyer's remorse after ordering the box, in the end I turned out very happy with it. Love the sketch card. The printing plate and blank sketch template were nice hits, too. And can't forget about the "394" art cards to make this Gwynn fan happy. And I dig the movie poster inserts and 3D cards.

Will I spring for a box of MST3K: Series Two if/when that's eventually released? Maybe. I would love to see autograph cards in there to chase. Glow-in-the-dark cards could also tempt me to pony up for a box.

I used to have a ritual of watching an MST episode on VHS every Sunday night before bed. It was a great way to wrap up the week. That lasted from the mid 90s through the 00s. The tradition faded once I moved to Portland, and now I just randomly watch an episode every once in a while. Since autumn 2011, I've kept a spreadsheet of episodes, keeping track of the dates I watch one, with the goal to eventually get through the series (without repeating any). Anyone curious in my progress can take a look here.

I've already showed off this DVD signed by Joel Hodgeson on the blog a couple times, but hey, since I'm doing another big Mystery Science Theater 3000 post, might as well throw it up here again. It's an all-time favorite item in my collection.

Wrapping things up... If anyone would like to trade for some of my stack of Invention Exchange dupes, please get in touch. I've also still got my old MST3K DVDs/burnt dvds that I'm trying to find a good home for since I've digitized them to hard drives.

Thanks for reading. Keep circulating the cards!

Busting a pair of 2016 blasters

Last weekend at the grocery store, there were a few discounted 2017 Ginter blasters for $14.99. I was really tempted to grab one, but was strong and resisted. It's because I know I can get cheaper blasters at the monthly card show if I want to succumb to the retail ripping route (which I know isn't the best use of my money, but nice to scratch the itch to rip a few packs). At the last show, I snagged 2016 Heritage High Numbers and 2016 Stadium Club blasters for $10 each. Half price.. hard to beat that. I'm not collecting these sets, but for the price, seemed like cheap breaks, and would likely provide a few cards for my various player collections, a chance at a hit, and plenty of trade bait for sets that typically have a fair amount of set collectors after them (even if most of them have completed the sets by this point).

Seeing as I had an opening in my Black Friday Stockpile schedule, I held off opening the blasters until 6/1. So let's check out how I did.

First up is the Heritage.

Welp, I picked out 3 cards that I thought could be added to PCs, but nope, turns out I've already got all these.

As far as other notable cards, I pulled 3 SPs and a couple inserts.

So that blaster was a bit of an "ouch" with zero cards added to my collection, and no hits or even one lousy parallel. Oh well. Some trade bait, at least. Anybody still working on 2016 Heritage High Number? Let me know and let's trade!

Now to see if I have better luck with the 2016 Stadium Club blaster.

Possible PC hits? Looks like I needed the Miggy insert. I'm familiar with that neat Koufax card thanks to it being featured on many blogs, but turns out I didn't have it in my modest Koufax PC, so there's a keeper. Eddie Murray turned out to be a dupe for me, though.

Got 3 gold parallels, highlighted by a Schwarber RC. He's a guy I kinda collect thanks to his WS heroics, so there's another keeper, and probably the best card of this dual break.

Anybody still working on 2016 Stadium Club? I've got a stack available for trade.

So anyways, even at half-price, turns out this was not a good purchase for me. Oh well.

"You got the dud"