Vintage and Dime Boxes - What A Day at the Card Show! (Part Two)

When you blow the majority of your budget on two vintage beauties, the only place to go is to the dime boxes:

I've visited this particular vendor several times and was starting to see all the same stuff, but it looks like he re-stocked for this particular show.

there was a nice variety of brands and years

See? Not all 1992 Fleer cards are bad...

These were a little more than a dime,  but didn't break the bank. Turns out I already had the Rickey Henderson Hologram, if anyone is interested...

Let's turn back the clock, shall we? I had to go after a little more vintage, though (I still had cash in my wallet):

The vintage guy bought a huge lot of 51 Topps red backs (enough for one full set and lots of doubles) at the card show in Raleigh, so I was able to pick out a few lower grade ones to check off my list. Really happy to find a Monte Irvin rookie that was so affordable!

 ...and how about one more '56 for the road?

It's great how often the pitchers get to run the bases in that set! I also made a trade with another collector at the show, that's a post for another day.

PWE from Wish They Still Came With Bubble Gum

Well, what do we have here? Jeff from Wish They Still Came With Bubble Gum dropped a PWE on me that contained this awesome Twins Hot Pack!

 The 1957s - you can tell Kennys and Arcia were in the same place, you can see the same ads in both pictures.. The colors on the lettering are a bit off to me... the blue would be easier to read if it was a bit darker, but that's nothing new for 1957 topps...

 I mentioned on Jeff's Archives post that I really liked the Koufax - I get a kick out of the kid photobombing Sandy - I bet that kid has no idea he's on a baseball card! That's a rainbow foil Dozier, btw.

the 1983 Twins - It's kind of perfect that Danny Santana is wearing the powder blue throwback uni. The inset photos for Suzuki and Hughes are the same as the main photo on their 2015 Topps Heritage cards, but it's all good. It works!

Thanks very much Jeff, these were pretty cool!

Just One (Rack) Pack: 1995 Topps Stadium Club Series 2

One of the boxes I picked up awhile pack had 6 rack packs of 1995 TSC series 2. Here's what I found in one of those Rack Packs.

 Canseco sighting, this time in Boston - he was quite the mercenary after his first stint in Oakland.
The last card is part of a subset called "Best Seat in the House" featuring info on the various MLB stadiums.

Mo Vaughn looks like a bad dude - check out the double omega branding on his bicep. whoa.

Here was the big insert - V R Extremist:

There's something very depressing to me about the 1995 Topps sets' Virtual Reality subsets. I get the idea of wondering what might have happened if the 1994 season finished,  but these cards just remind me of the strike.

Say Hey - What a Day at the Card Show! (Part One)

What more do you need? The vintage seller I frequently buy from had this card held for me since the last show. He sold me a Ted Williams last time and showed the Mays to me as well - too rich for my blood, at least it was a couple weeks ago.

Of course it is part of my set build for 1956 Topps, but if this isn't somewhere on your wish list, all I can say is we got different lists.

The other card the vintage guy had for me had been held for... geez, months now:

Rookie Spahnie!

This card broke my previous record for most $$ spent on a single card, and it took putting aside some cash for a couple paychecks before I felt comfortable dropping the big bucks on this one.

Again, it's a card I "needed" to build the 1948 Bowman set, but it would have been on my wish list any way.

Based on my usual card show budget, that would have been it for me this weekend. Since I set that Spahn / Mays $$ aside early, however, there will be more to show later! I also made a trade with another collector, I'll get to that later in the week.

stadium club wins.

The last thing I picked up at the card show was half a box of TSC Hobby packs. Some other dude already pulled the two guaranteed autos from the box, so I got a very nice discount on the 8 remaining hobby packs.

Just. Awesome. Great tribute to Banks, this is a wonderful card.

An Absolutely Killer Trade Package

 Oh man. Matthew Scott from Bob Walk the Plank has outdone himself. His style is to send a small package with all hits. This package packed quite the punch!

Sorry for the blurriness of this photo, but it showed off the shiny foil best. Johan is in theory still active, rehabbing with the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Rat! Fan Favorites is such a good series, Topps should do that some more. Kennys Vargas! He mashed a walk-off homer the other day, but he's still having a tough sophomore season... hoping for him to snap out of his slump soon.

". . . and we'll see you tomorrow night!"

The hits just keep on coming! It's doesn't specify which game the bat was from, so I am just going to pretend this relic is from the bat that actually hit the game 6 homer (shh, don't spoil it for me!).

Now, the last card in the package was the biggest hit of all.

KILLER!!!!

Harmon had a great signature, I'm very pleased to have my very first on card auto from Mr. Killebrew.

I'll be hunting for a great deal on a Clemente Auto to return the favor for you, Matthew, but in the mean time there is a package on the way with a card I pulled from last year's Archives you might enjoy.

Thanks!!

A 1964 Topps Venezuelan Update: Cubbies!

Still working on some of the lower hanging fruit for 1964 Venezuelan Topps cards, here's a lot of Chicago Cubs.

Some pretty gnarly creases in there, but you can't be too picky on these.

Mr. Cub himself makes an appearance, nice to find a copy of this card.

OUCH - yeah, that's quite the paper loss on the back. I will want to replace that one at some point, but for now it is beautiful.

O what a surprise!

Dan from Daily Autograph and Keys to the Batters Box sent a bubble mailer my way with some great cards, and one big surprise!

 Scotty doesn't need a helmet, he moussed his own...

 Some prospects from my youth . . .

 And a trio of today's prospects.

 This is a pretty cool card from Topps Pro Debut

A couple new Pucketts for the PC.

And, the biggest (literally, a 5x7) and most exciting piece:

TONY O! Dan had the good fortune to meet Mr. Oliva at a signing  and was kind enough to have him sign this promo flyer for me. Mr. Oliva makes appearances often in the Twin Cities, I've seen him around at a few card shows, but never gotten his autograph.

This is awesome. Thanks very much, Dan!

Juan Gonzalez: Kind of a Big Deal (Just One Pack edition)

Of all the boxes I purchased a couple weeks ago, this one was the most intriguing. It was the only one that still had the factory seal on it, which means it still has that super cool bonus inside . . .

Boom! That's pretty cool. Juan Gone was probably my favorite non-Twin in the 90s, finding this inside was probably the best case scenario.

Here's what I found in a single pack of 1998 Upper Deck Collector's Choice:

 Throwback uniforms, major league debut dates, this set has a really clean look and is full of fun surprises

Two inserts -- "Masked Marauders" features catchers, "Cover Glory" is a season highlights subset that leads off the set.

 League Leaders - great design!

 Some more base cards . . .

 Everybody's having a great time playing baseball.

 Hey - Canseco played with the A's again? Cool.

Several packs should have these stickers in them.... looking forward to busting the rest of the box!

A Fantastic Trade

In addition to joining the group break that Weston hosted, I also sent some cards his way since he was the very first person to officially follow my blog. Weston returned the favor and included a stack of Twins with the Group Break winnings:

He found some great stuff for me:

The tiny Jacque Jones is at the old Metrodome, and I really like that Brad Radke card.

Paul Molitor has his work cut out for him as a rookie manager, and then there are a couple rookie cards of Twins veterans Trevor Plouffe and Glen Perkins.

This is one of my favorite Joe Mauer cards - this gold parallel is new to me!

Luke Hughes had a pretty promising rookie stint with the Twins, though he found himself bouncing between AAA and the majors for a few years. In a weird coincidence, Hughes is now teammates with Dan Osterbrock - the minor leaguer who was featured on the low numbered green ink auto pulled from the group break.

Thanks very much Weston, these are Fantastic cards!