baseball's back (on the other side of the world) - pack a lunch!

Baseball is back in South Korea, as the KBO is playing games in empty stadiums. I recently received an awesome mailer from Jim of cards as i see them and gcrl fame. It arrived right as I would have been going to a monthly card show, so it was a very welcome sight indeed. Park Byung-ho has been one of the biggest stars of the KBO, and he briefly played for the Twins, but adjusting MLB pitching combined with a nagging wrist issue resulted in a short tenure for the prodigious slugger.

Jim also tossed in a Tiny Joe Mauer!

This Upper Deck Flyball set was a new one to me, it combines some of the game elements of the sets like Victory on the back and a more traditional card design on the front.

A Rat!

It's a Smalley World after all.

I didn't have this Shane Rawley O-Pee-Chee, but do I call it a Twins card, or a Red Sox card?

Fan Favorite Mickey Hatcher was well represented as well.

As I continue to work on the Topps Heritage set, these two were needs - and these two bat rack (or bat rack adjacent) cards will find a nice home in my collection.

Vintage Harmon Killebrew is always a welcome addition!

In Rod We Trust - This 1978 Gino's Disc was a new one to me!

All of these cards came packaged in a unique way - this lunchbox is branded with Target's name, but it predates Target Field. The players are all Metrodome-Era Twins stars.

Thanks very much Jim, hopefully we'll get to run into each other at a card show again sometime soon. 

Thanks for reading!

Julie's Extra Bases Hit!

Julie of A Cracked Bat was greatly missed during her blogging hiatus and it was a very welcome sight to see her posting again. One of the great things about Julie is her boundless generosity as a trading partner, and this most recent trade was no exception!

The 90's were something else, folks. Fleer made these bookmark sized TALL cards called Extra Bases for just one season, releasing them in 1994. Several Twins remained on the roster from their 1991 World Series victory.

Here's a couple more, and the back of that Puckett insert. Both Pucketts are new to me, as I missed out on Extra Bases the first time around, and haven't had the opportunity to pick any up in the wild.

As if that was not enough on its own, Julie included stacks and stacks of Twins from all over the years. I was pretty excited about the Topps Fire cards as I had finally exhibited a little willpower and resisted buying packs of the stuff at Target.

Joe! I think Twins fans are not going to fully appreciate Mauer until he's gone, which is a shame. He gets so much criticism for his contract, though I can't think of what Twins Fans would have done had he left Minnesota to play for someone else.

Rookies more your style? Julie has you covered there as well!

Parallels? You betcha! (That's Minnesotan for "Yes")

A Pair of Plouffe/Pinto Pint-sized Parallels! Perfect!

Framed Mini Relics? Oh Yeah.

Stadium Club signature? Sure.

Why not make it two? Park has decided to return his former team in Korea, rather than take another shot at the MLB roster in Minnesota in 2018. He was a two time league MVP and averaged 40 plus homers in Korea, but a combination of injury and adjusting to big league velocity and movement were tough to overcome. Park gave the Twins some mammoth homers, I wish him the best in 2018.

Julie, thanks so much for the trade, I was taken aback by all that you included, I look forward to returning the favor again!

Saturday is Card Show Day .... For Now

I got some bad news last weekend - the card shop that hosts the small card show in the Twin Cities is closing its doors at the end of September. I've been really spoiled in recent years by having access to this show and shop, and both will be gone by October. I decided to really take my time this trip, visited every vendor, and picked up some fun stuff. I'll be back in two weeks for their final show.

 Kirby has had several new cards again, thanks to an agreement with Panini and his estate - this is one of the better looking releases.

 "Hello Rickey? It's me, Rickey. I'm just leaving Rickey a message to let Rickey know that Rickey is still the Greatest. Also, pick up the dry cleaning."

 These are all from 2002 Topps Traded - San Fran was Kenny Lofton's first post-Cleveland stop. Todd Zeile is a Gold Variation, numbered to 2002.

 Digging through all of the dime/quarter/half dollar boxes yielded a wide range of cards from all over the map.

 Inserts and oddballs were in full force.

 BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOF Rookie Auto?!? Sweet.

The single biggest expense was this Byung-ho Park card - I hope I am buying low! He had a wrist issue in his first year that ultimately required season-ending surgery, but the power is real. If he can put it all together, I think he can battle with Sano and Dozier for the team lead in homers in 2017.

Back For More

Once I get on a roll on COMC, it can be hard to stop - the 50 under .50 was such a big win! I went back again once those cards arrived and made a much smaller order of a small handful of cards I had been looking to add for various reasons.

 So 90s! This one was on my Arbitrary List. I originally put random cards on that list, but generous and well meaning collectors would send me those random cards in the mail, so I had to switch it up - now it's always a random sampling of cards that I don't own but would like to.

 This card is so cool. The Crystal Ball had no idea what was in store for LaTroy, who retired following the  2015 season.

 Kennys! This insert has a Superfractor look and feel to it, but it was much much cheaper than a 1/1. Vargas ended being included in Series 2 for the Topps flagship set this year, I was not expecting him to be included but I am hopeful that he will get another shot at the big leagues soon.

 My first Byung-ho Park card! He's been able to provide plenty of big homers, but the league seems to have found some weaknesses in the strike zone, and he struggles a little with big league heat. It's his turn to adjust, or Kennys will be taking his place until he figures things out!

TONY O! This is a hand cut card from a 1971 Milk Duds carton. It's seen better days, but a little love just made it cheaper for me!

ok,  I got a little lazy with the scanning on this one - Museum Collection is printed on a fairly thick cardstock, I think that may have confused my scanner a bit.

So there you go, 50 under .50 and here's 5 under $5. A little something for everyone!