Why?

ok - so . . . I don't like the new Donruss base cards. We know this, we speak of them often...

However, I love a great deal on new cards, and I love to bust open packs!

When I saw these on eBay and did the math ( 120 cards, $17, free shipping ) , I couldn't pass up the chance to find some cool cards.

I would love it if Panini would release Studio as a separate set again... but I guess they wouldn't be able to sell all those base cards any other way.

Kennys Vargas Rated Rookie, so that means I'm a happy guy.

I plan on keeping the Diamond Kings and the Studio cards (Probably would have cost me more than $17 just to buy those as singles, the way those are priced at the shows I've been to), but if you want to add some more Donruss to your life, let me know! I've got a decent stack of base cards, too.

2015 Donruzzzzzzz

OK, so maybe we're being unfair to Donruss?

I bought two packs at the last card show I went to.

They sure are trying to keep people interested! In the two packs there were three different Hall of Famers, a total of five insert cards, one serial numbered, and one autographed.

Here are the base cards from Pack 1:

Nice little synergy with the Big Hurt and Abreu - same dugout in the background, two great Chicago Sluggers.

Base cards from Pack 2:

Again, no shortage of star power, and Rickey will find a place in my collection... but the design is just... oh well. Not interested in beating a dead horse.

Now, for the Inserts/Hits:

Very nice, but once again I feel just a bit underwhelmed by the design. Pretty much everything here is up for trade - I will be keeping the Rickey Henderson Card... the rest I am not all that enthusiastic about.

Card Show Roundup

Whew! Another great day at the card show.

The Vintage guy hasn't moved yet, so I was able to add some more 1948 Bowman and some 1956 Topps to my collection:

The Carew game card and the Bert Blyleven are both part of a Twins Frankenset project I'm planning to start up soon, how exciting! There was no way I was going to turn down a '60s card with Banks and Aaron for under $10, either!

There was a guy selling some older packs of Flair and E-Motion cards, and I also snagged some super amazing non-sport packs (I don't know why - I don't collect non-sport stuff, but for some reason it just happened!) along with two packs of the new 2015 Donruss (which I will open at some later date and tell you all about...)

Finally, the LCShop that hosts the LCShow, was having a "moving" sale (that has been ongoing since they moved into the current location at the beginning of the year) of singles from all the major sports - I snagged a big stack of cards like so:

And these are just cards I plan on keeping for myself - I totally restocked the trade box with shiny, sign-y, and insert-y things.

Oh, and this didn't come from the show, but I ordered some 12-pocket pages (they were being marketed as Archival Sheets for matchbook collectors!) and now my 1948 Bowmans (Bowmen?) have a cozy new home!

The whole set fits exactly on four of these pages.

Right now my budget and the wantlist is big enough that I can sustain this pace of adding a ton of stuff at each show, but tax return money will soon be all gone, and I'll be saving up for a new adventure coming up this summer (which I will of course be blogging about), so enjoy this vicariously while you can!