a couple blasters that have since been busted

Picked up a discounted 2013 Archives blaster at the card show a couple months ago. I had patience opening it, using it for my "Cardless Days" (where I rip just one pack on a day when I otherwise didn't get any new cards).

I got around to finishing it off recently, so allow me to show some highlights.

Got a couple tall-boys. These would more accurately be described as "narrow boys" since they're the same height as a regular card. Jeter and Miguel Cabrera are a couple decent names to pull.

Here's one of those 4-way stickers. Pretty sweet as I collect all four of these guys. Now the dilemma is which PC to put it in.

Pulled a couple SPs. John Mayberry hot box! They couldn't dig up second photo of him? It's not like he's in a ton of sets these days. Should be easy to find an unused picture.

A couple All-Star inserts. Dave Winfield hot box! I had to show the back of his base card to reminisce about the days when Archives squeezed in tiny complete career stats on the back.. glorious! For the past couple years, they just list the first dozen or so years of the player's career and ignore the rest.. blasphemy!

And here are a few more keepers. No hits, but still a fun break for how cheap it was.


The other blaster I'm featuring in this post was a thrown-in freebie with my Dave & Buster's Card World (or whatever their real name is, lol) order a few months ago when I bought a couple 2015 Archives hobby boxes and a 2014 Prizm Draft box. The most intriguing to me of the limited pool of freebies to choose from was a 2012 Panini Cooperstown blaster.

I had planned on this blaster also being for cardless days and sat on it for a good while, but one weekend I went on a bit of a late-night card ripping bender and tore through the entire thing in one sitting. Not proud of it.

Not that I was expecting much from a free box of cards, but I was disappointed in pulling no hits or even any parallels for the second straight blaster. Only base cards and a few ho-hum inserts-- What is this, 1990?!

But at least I ended up with PC needs for a few old-timers I collect.

A handful of PC additions. Nothing too exciting, but not too bad for a freebie.

Here are the inserts. Al Kaline hot box! The Fisk was probably the coolest card of the 8 packs, with a faux wooden feel to the front of the card. It kind of makes for a boring card when there's no picture of the guy anywhere. That Phil Niekro card especially.. yuck. That should be the back of a card, not the front.

That's it for today. Have a great weekend.

Show recap conclusion: rounding out the 50s and 60s

Here's the final post featuring my haul from the August card show. Scored a bunch of sweet vintage that I couldn't pass up even if it wasn't a set I was working on or a main PC guy of mine.

I only owned one or maybe two cards from 1952 Topps, so for a buck each, I was happy to add a couple more. They're in decent shape for their age.
Harry "Peanuts" Lowrey was an all-star with the Cubs in the 40s and hit .310 for them in the 1945 World Series.
Willie "Puddin' Head" Jones (both these guys had great nicknames and are even included in their facsimile signatures) was the Phillies' starting third baseman during the 50s and was a 2-time all-star.

The dealer had a few cards each from 1954 Topps and 1955 Bowman, and while it was tempting to grab them all, I had restraint and just grabbed a couple guys I had heard of.
Bobby Shantz was an excellent fielding pitcher, picking up several Golden Glove awards. He was AL MVP in 1952, going 24-7 for the A's. He's still kicking at age 89 and known as a very generous TTM signer. (I don't think I'll trouble him with this card, however.)
Whitey Lockman had some good years with the Giants in the 50s, an all-star in '52, and was part of their Championship team of 1954. They traded him to St. Louis for Hoyt Wilhelm before the 1957 season.

1955 Topps is a nice looking set that I didn't have much if anything from previously. The name Jim Davis makes me think of the creator of Garfield, but turns out he was also a NL pitcher in the 50s. This is his rookie card, which is kinda neat, though he only pitched 4 years.
Rube Walker wasn't exactly a star either, but had a decent 11-year career as a backup backstop on the Cubs and Dodgers.

I picked up this 1959 Harvey Kuenn with Tony L. in mind, but he already has it. I should mention all these 50s cards are possibly up for trade, so feel free to ask about a swap if you need any.

Now we get into the 60s with a couple of big names. 1966 Harmon Killebrew and 1967 Frank Robinson. Not in mint condition, but definitely worth the price. I've been fighting adding Killebrew to the list of guys I collect, but I think I may need to give in. I don't want to feel like I have to collect every great player from the modern era, you know? But Killer is just too cool. I do have a modest PC going for Frank Robinson, with a few decent vintage cards picked up cheap. Seems he's always getting overshadowed by Mantle and Mays, but was among the elite players in the game for a long time.

A recent post by Dimebox Nick convinced me that Luis Tiant is a guy that everyone should collect, and his 1968 Topps card is a nice addition to that budding PC. The Manny Sanguillen RC was also a no-brainer to add to my stack.

Let's close it out with this 1969 Topps Brooks Robinson. It's in excellent shape apart from being incredibly miscut. Even came in a screwdown case. Great looking card despite Topps' quality control inadequacies.

So other than cards specifically picked out for trading buddies of mine-- many of which are already in the mail-- that wraps up this card show haul. Thanks for checking it out with me.

Starting another dumb project + a great idea to save baseball

I mostly bought vintage cards at last weekend's card show, but a few modern cards snuck into my stack as well. Let's look at a few such cards now.

This is the only "under the glass" card I bought, everything else was out of the $1 bins. The guy ended up letting me have it for just $5. It's an Adrian Gonzalez auto, from his Padre days, and what really got my interest is it's a patch of the letter D. One of my dumb collecting goals is to spell out BASEBALL CARD BREAKDOWN in letter patch cards like this one, and then that'd eventually be used as my blog's header. That's the idea, anyway. It takes two Ds, so that knocks off one. Overall, that's 1 letter down and 20 to go.

Adrian's having a good season. I'm not really actively collecting him anymore since I hit the 100-card mark for that PC. But it was a great price and fit in well with a project of mine, so I went for it.

An old school Hall of Famer autograph for a buck is tough to pass up. It's not certified, but seems legit to me. The card is Lou Boudreau 1976 Shakey's Pizza #115.. Hmm, I didn't think it was that old. I would have guessed around 1982-1985. There was also a similar autographed card of an umpire which was one of the last cards I trimmed from my stack getting it down to 50 cards. Can't buy every cool card.

Back to Lou Boudreau for a moment, I hadn't realized that in 1948 he not only was AL MVP, but he also led the Indians to a World Series Championship.. as manager! I really miss the days of player/managers. I hope that comes back into vogue again someday. I've said it before, but I really think it'd improve the game if the entire uniformed coaching staff was legally able to enter the game at any time as extra guys off the bench. How fun would that be?! They're already suited up, why not?! PLEASE, Rob Manfred, make it happen! The minimum age limit for this player-coach clause should be set at like 35 or 40 to prevent ringers. I firmly believe this would save baseball. How great would it be to see an old grey-haired guy enter the game in left field as part of an extra-innings double switch? Paul Molitor could get a couple pinch-hits to up his career total. Pitching coaches could be an emergency arm out of the pen. Let's start a grassroots movement for this! Who's with me? LET THEM PLAY! LET THEM PLAY! #letthemplay

Anyways, here are a couple more cards...

Goldschmidt die cut. Probably overpaid for it, but it's nice enough.

I feel I'm close to adding Jim Thome as a PC guy, but haven't officially pulled the trigger. (Or have I? Sometimes I lose track of who-all is on my "guys I collect" lists.) I thought this bat relic was a fine looking card for the price.

That's all for today. More cards tomorrow.

Show recap: vintage PC additions

Here are some more of my $1 vintage pickups from the card show this past weekend.

A playing-days Roberto Clemente card for a buck? Heck yes! Even if it's a bit beat up, this 1969 deckle edge is a nice addition to my Clemente PC. He would have turned 81 today were he still alive.

A couple Hoyts! The '66 is a new card for my PC, while the '67 is an upgrade over the card Nick traded me a few months ago.. So while I didn't really need that one, the price was right, so why not upgrade?

BTW, I was planning on using this post for Wednesday (and therefore celebrate "Wilhelm Wednesday"), but when I found out it was the great Roberto Clemente's birthday, I bumped it up a day. So I guess instead, we're celebrating Hoyt Toytesday. Or something. Since I usually publish new posts around 4pm Pacific / 7pm Eastern, the bulk of my pageviews are evenly split between the evening I post and the morning after. So I guess you can celebrate whichever Hoyt Wilhelm holiday is applicable for you depending on which day you're reading this post.

The 1976 Reggie Jackson was a notable void in my Reggie PC, so I'm glad to finally snag one. I believe all I need now is 1974 to have his complete run of flagship Topps base cards. Man, was that photo taken by the catcher?! You don't see many action closeups from that angle. On-deck circle, maybe? Actually, I bet Reggie borrowed the photographer's camera and took this as a selfie in the middle of an at-bat. That seems like something he'd do.

As for the McCovey, I've always loved his 1975 Topps card since it's by far the best of his vintage cards as a member of the Padres. Nice to add the mini to my collection. That's also the best color combo of 1975 Topps: green grass and blue sky.. gotta love it!

Thanks for stopping by. More cards tomorrow.

Show recap: a few vintage set needs

After getting caught with my pants down without a wantlist for my vintage setbuilding needs at last month's show, I came prepared this time, with a freshly printed-out list for 1965, 1971, and 1973. The good "vintage guy" from the last show wasn't there this time, unfortunately, but my regular go-to dealer had a bunch of vintage mixed in his bins (as I've already featured some vintage Red Sox pickups the other day), so I was able to grab a few needs.

This pair of 65s brings me to 39.83% complete (just 1 card away from an even 40%).
Nelson Briles had a nice career, highlighted by a couple World Series complete games that helped net him a ring with both the '67 Cardinals and '71 Pirates.
Ed (Wayne) Spiezio stuck around for parts of 9 years in the big leagues and was an original Padre.
Jim Maloney is kind of a forgotten name now, but was one of the best pitchers in the game in the mid/late 60s before an achilles injury derailed his career. He had a couple 20-win season and two no-hitters to his credit.

Four 71s. The Dave Concepcion rookie was the lowest-numbered need for me (#14). Now I'm good up through 145, which means I've knocked off the first series, right? Hey, that's something!

Jim Palmer and Lou Brock are a couple nice HOFers to check off the list. Dave Leonhard is a high number (#716), and wow, very similar to the Jim Palmer photo. I'm now at 76.2% complete with this set, breaking past the 3/4 mark with help from last month's card show haul.

These 2 cards from 1973 get me to the 90% complete mark with that set! The Marichal is a heck of a card. And the Bob Boone RC is pretty sweet as well.

I'm tempted to go on an online shopping spree one of these days to knock out the remaining 10%, but I'll try to have patience and not overpay for cards just because I want to put this set to bed. Maybe I'll finally find that LCS I've heard about yet never stopped in, and see if they can help fill my list. My go-to dealer did have a Schmidt RC under glass that looked pretty sharp. I might need to bring some extra cash to the next show in case it's still there and he can cut me a good deal.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sentimental Sundays: a bizarre small-world moment

Sentimental Sundays is back with a little more random nostalgia.

Hey look, I've got a Padres pocket schedule from 1992.

I'm not sure if I ever attended a Padres game in 1992, but I've got a pocket schedule, at least.
I did attend the All-Star Fanfest at the convention center that year, though. That was fun.
I miss 7/24 Bank, the sponsor of this schedule.. I remember they had a catching jingle. 7-24, 7-24 city, showing the country how good.. a city can be!
I guess San Diego Trust & Savings Bank is still around, but they've dropped the "7/24" part.

Oh, and speaking of the Padres, congrats to Matt Kemp for becoming the first Padre to hit for the cycle! It's not really a big deal.. but no, it is a big deal! Glad at least something came out of this season for San Diego to be proud of.

What else have I dug up for today?

Oh these were some personalized stickers to label a book as one's own. I did use many of them back in the day, but still ended up with a dozen or so left over. I think they're pretty dried up at this point, and don't stick very well anymore. Otherwise I might be still tempted to use them. I'd put one on my laptop and write in the word "mac" before book.

Next is a trio of postcards..

Per the un-addressed backs, none of these were ever actually mailed, rather just bought as souvenirs..

I believe I got all these "in person" as I've been to all these places in my youth.. the Grand Canyon, the San Xavier mission near Tucson, and Disneyland.

Ok, the last thing for today has a story that goes with it. My wife and I went to the Organic Beer Festival on Friday after work (as Matt Kemp was hitting for the cycle). It's always a good time, with lots of interesting craft beers, plus live music and various merchant tents and whatnot. Not very long after we were through the door, we got suckered in to play a "game" which was just rolling a pair of oversized dice hoping to roll a 6 or 11. Neither of us got it, but the guy offered us a "consolation prize" of a free trip. It's one of those things where you have to sit through a 90 minute presentation where they give you a hard sell on a time share. And in return you get a vacation of your choice from a few options. Somehow, we agreed to it, even paid a $40 refundable payment to make sure we don't back out of our presentation scheduled for next weekend.

We have zero interest in going in on a time share. My wife is finishing grad school and my job is ending by the end of the year and I have nothing else lined up at the moment. So we're in no position to get a time share right now. So we just have to suffer through 90+ minutes of some asshole aggressively trying to get our money, and if we escape it, we'll be rewarded with a vacation to Maui at some point within a year. Airfare is not included with that one, just 4 days and 3 nights at a decent hotel or whatever. The in-laws have offered to pony up for first-class tickets for us, as the trip is tentatively planned as a graduation celebration vacation for my wife next year, and the flight would be her folks' graduation present.

Oh, and here's the crazy "small world" moment!.. As my wife was jotting down our info for the guy scheduling our presentation, he sees my name and said, "You went to Granite Hills High School and Montgomery Middle School, right?" I was like daaaamn, this salesman comes prepared!

He told me he thought I looked familiar and explained we went to middle school together and I beat him in a race once. I won and he got second-place. I was blown away, not just that we went to school together 25 years ago, but that he would remember me after all that time. (We went to different high schools.) I felt bad that I had no recollection of him at all. I've bragged on the blog before that I was a hotshit sprinter in my younger days and won a lot of races. Most of them are just a blur to me now.

I really hope it wasn't one of those Billy Madison List things where he's held a grudge all these years for beating him.

I guess he got his revenge by getting me suckered into a time share presentation.

Keep in mind I grew up in the San Diego area, and now live in Portland, OR. I don't think I've ever randomly ran into anyone up here that I knew from San Diego before. So yeah, that was crazy.

I looked him up in my old Middle School yearbook, and sure enough, there he is.

(He's Jeff in the middle there.)

I vaguely remember him now after seeing his old picture.

So a two-pronged reader interaction question today:

Have you ever attended a time share presentation? If so, any advice for me?

and/or

Any crazy "small world" moments you've had that come to mind?

Show recap: vintage Red Sox edition

Apparently I ran over a nail or something during my adventure in Hillsboro last weekend, and ended up with a flat tire the next day. Since I ride my bike to work, I can take my time dealing with an out of commission vehicle, but it did put the card show this weekend in jeopardy. Luckily for me, my wife didn't have plans this morning, so I was able to borrow her car to head on out to the mall.

(A classic misheard lyric for me: "I let it fill my head with dreams and I head on out t' the mall.")

And yes, I did fill my head with dreams and head on out t' the mall. Mall 205, to be specific. Where the monthly card show is held.

I was a high roller this weekend and spent my time in the $1 bins rather than dimeboxes. Landed my first-ever playing days card of Ted Williams. Pretty sweet.

And on to another Boston legend, my Yaz PC got a nice vintage boost today! If that LL card photo looks familiar, it's because it's the mascot of this blog! It's the tiny picture up in the browser tab when you're on this page, plus my "email me" pic on the right.

Some 50s cards and a Fisk 2nd-year. I already had the Fisk, but since I'm working on the 73 set, now I've got a dupe for the PC. Or if I already had a dupe, I'll throw it on Listia. Karl Olson and Sid Hudson are trade bait/Listia fodder. Anybody need them?

Meck! Why would I pay a buck for a Papelbon mini?

Well, it's a Bazooka back #'d 3/25, that's why!

That's all for today. More of my card show haul will be featured this coming week. My camera has gone missing, which is bad news for the blog because I prefer taking pictures of cards over scanning because scanning takes longer. Hopefully it turns up! I can't imagine somebody broke into our house and only stole a big ol' camera! But damned if I haven't searched everywhere. Hmm.

UPDATE: Found it! Lol, I was totally convinced someone stole it. Was down in the basement. Whew.

Keep on rocking.