Monday, August 30, 2021

Five from Pedro

 Next up in the ongoing 'not very popular' blog series Five From, we have Pedro Martinez!  And I just have one thing to say about Pedro the baseball player.  


Underrated!


Chew on that if you like, but the guy was an amazing, amazing pitcher.  Sure, he was only world-beating-top-notch for a 7 year stretch from 1997-2003, but that stretch was as good as we have ever seen from a pitcher.  2000 especially.

In those 7 years he went 118-36 and won three Cy Youngs.  Finished 2nd twice too.  And another 3rd place finish.  The only year he didn't place top 3 was 2001 and he was injured for half the year.

But that level of 'great' hasn't translated into big money baseball cards for Pedro.  Which is good for me, I guess, being a dime box aficionado.  His RCs are firmly in the junk wax era.  And not many pitchers see values in the Trout/Tatis stratosphere anyway.

So after all that buildup, I decided, while trying to pick my top 5 Pedros, to add a few extra cards to this post.  So you are going to get the 5 cards that missed the cut first as 'Honorable Mentions'.  Here we go!

Honorable Mention 1 - 2001 Topps Stadium Club - Diamond Pearls

This one has a nice iridescent shimmer to it, and that is probably the main attraction for me.  The scan doesn't really capture it well.


Honorable Mention 2 - 1995 Fleer Ultra - Strikeout King
That this one made it was a surprise to me, but I like the old Ultra cheesy inserts.  And seeing all of the grips for various pitches was cool too.


Honorable Mention 3 - 1992 SkyBox Pre-Rookie - AAA
Baby Pedro!  Minor league cards aren't always good, but I like this one.


Honorable Mention 4 - 2005 Donruss - Craftsmen - Master Craftsmen
The 2005 Donruss cards are the gaudiest and shiniest bunch of cards in a single year from a single manufacturer.  They threw it all out there and consumed 85% of the worlds glitter production for the year.  Or something like that.  Made for some kind of strange cards, but they definitely popped!


Honorable Mention - 5 - 1992 Bowman RC
This is one of the most desired of the Pedro RCs.  I kind of like the Donruss "The Rookies" one better, but this one made the countdown.



Enough of the runners up!  On to the countdown of my 5 favorite Pedro Martinez cards in my collection:


#5 - 2000 Topps Gold Label - The Treasury
Looks good in the scan, but even better in hand!  "The Treasury" is a good insert name for Topps Gold Label.


#4 - 1998 Flair Showcase - Row 1
I always liked Flair Showcase, even if they have fallen a little out of favor over the years.  The Row 1 cards were pretty tough pulls!


#3 - 2004 Topps Chrome - Black Refractor
Looking back, I am thinking this should have been #1 on the list.  I just love the Black Refractors from this era.  They look soooo good.


#2 - 1994 Topps Finest - Refractor
I want all the refractors from these early Finest sets.  They are pretty great, and hard to find.  The green of this card kind of clashes with the Expos colors for me though.


#1 - 1999 Topps Stadium Club - Triumvirate - Luminous
Another insert set I have always loved, these Triumvirates are weird and awesome.  I would dearly love to complete a 3 card Triumvirate set, but have never gotten close.

And that's it!  I have a couple more suggestions still in line for future Five From posts, but if you have others, leave them in the comments.


Friday, August 27, 2021

Flash freebie 3

   Got this idea from Jon at A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts. Flash freebie!

Rules:

1. First to comment that they want it gets it.

2. If you have ever picked a Flash freebie from me, you are no longer eligible.  One per person!

3. When you claim it, send me your mailing address in an email.  My email address can be found in my profile on the sidebar.

These will go out 'as is', and in a simple PWE.  If condition is a concern, look closely before claiming.


The third flash freebie....I am interested to see if anyone bothers to claim this, given it's less than pristine condition!

1964 Topps Tommy John RC (and Bob Chance, I guess)

I don't know how many of these I will end up doing, this is an experiment for me to see if I can keep myself doing giveaways as long as I can.  But I have to feel good about it, so I will try this method out!

The card is already in an envelope, ready to be mailed.  Just need someone to claim it!

Tuesday, August 24, 2021

Early morning card show report

 Card show!!  I got there very early, because I had kid activities early in the day.  In fact, I had to wait outside the mall for a bit until the security guard opened the doors to let the dealers start setting up.  But that just meant that I got first crack at the boxes!

I made purchases from dime boxes, 20 cent boxes, 50 cent boxes and dollar boxes.  And I even bought a few cards that I had to pay more than a dollar for!!  Does that mean I'm finally growing up? Maybe...  Probably not, the cheap stuff is where I live and that won't likely change.

Anyway, here are some of the cards I grabbed from the 10 and 20 cent boxes:

Four from the Home of the Whopper...

Six from the Great White North...
The cards in both of those first two scans were no brainers for me.  Very cool cards.  I got a few dupes of some of the O-Pee-Chees if anyone is interested. The Schmidt, Franco and Yount, I think.  Not all are mint though.

Still in the cheapest boxes, I grabbed some beat up 70s cards and a bunch of shine and color.

I was super, super happy to find early refractors of Buhner and Larkin for so cheap! Especially the Larkin, that thing was in a 20 cent box??   And a Gossage RC, even as beat up as it is, was a steal!



Before we move on to the higher priced boxes, let's take a moment to talk about Juan Gonzalez.  I don't know if you like him, but for a while, he was a pretty big guy in the hobby.  Now that some time has passed, not so much.  But there were a ton of interesting cards made of him back then.  And I seem to run across them pretty often.  Juan Gone makes a lot of appearances in my Cuts & Colors collection because 1.) He was in all the cool insert sets and 2.) He isn't such a hobby darling that people hide his cards away in their collections, never to see the light of day again.

So I have slowly created a burgeoning collection of Gonzalez, and this show had a ton.  I kind of got carried away, but oh well.  The Gonzalez's below were all from 20 and 50 cent boxes, and the non-Juan cards are all from 50 cent bins.

Some highlights here.  The awesome Pacific die cut in the middle.  The minor league card.  And my favorite, that monstrosity in the lower right.  If you have never seen one of those (I hadn't), each of those black dots is heat sensitive.  So when you touch them for a moment with your finger, they turn transparent to show a number underneath.  I guess you are supposed to find the number of home runs Juan hit that year or something.  So strange.  Leave it to Pacific to come up with that!


Super shiny!!!  Too many good ones here to call out, but my favorite is the Chrome refractor in the center!

Non-Juan 50 centers...
All wonderful cards.  I needed the Grieve for my set build.  It is the first Diamond King I have added for a set build in well over a year.  Those things just don't show up often for me.

Those Ozzie Smith's there are 1996 Pinnacle Starburst and Starburst Artist's Proofs.  Amazing finds for half a buck!



Dollar boxes
Sweet 90s refractor of a HOFer, cool minor league card and an old Fregosi RC!



More!  This stuff, I paid a little more for.  But still great deals in my opinion!  Aren't these sweet?
What I paid (according to my horrible memory):
Fidrych RC - $2 (always wanted one, surprised it took so long)
John RC - $3 (a huge upgrade to my scribbled on copy!)
Mays/Rigney - $3 (Vintage Mays for $3?)
Griffey - $2 (!!! #d /10000)
Griffey gold signature - $2 (Not the prettiest card, but seems like a really good deal)
Masa RC - $3 (an iconic card, if only in certain circles)
Mays catch $4 (Total steal!.  It has a good crease, but how else could I have gotten it for $4?)



And the last card(s) for today, this panel of Hostess was a throw in on another purchase which I might get around to scanning in later.  I paid $15 for a couple of items, but I was not sure, so I asked if the dealer would throw this in.  He said yes!  Pretty sure this alone could go for $15 some places.
It's kind of blurry, but I like it.

Thanks for reading!


Monday, August 23, 2021

Flash freebie 2

  Got this idea from Jon at A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts. Flash freebie!

Rules:

1. First to comment that they want it gets it.

2. If you have ever picked a Flash freebie from me, you are no longer eligible.  One per person!

3. When you claim it, send me your mailing address in an email.  My email address can be found in my profile on the sidebar.

These will go out 'as is', and in a simple PWE.  If condition is a concern, look closely before claiming.


The second flash freebie....

2021 Finest Shohei Ohtani

I don't know how many of these I will end up doing, this is an experiment for me to see if I can keep myself doing giveaways as long as I can.  But I have to feel good about it, so I will try this method out!

The card is already in an envelope, ready to be mailed.  Just need someone to claim it!

Friday, August 20, 2021

Flash freebie

 Got this idea from Jon at A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts. Flash freebie!

Rules:

1. First to comment that they want it gets it.

2. If you have ever picked a Flash freebie from me, you are no longer eligible.  One per person!

3. When you claim it, send me your mailing address in an email.  My email address can be found in my profile on the sidebar.

These will go out 'as is', and in a simple PWE.  If condition is a concern, look closely before claiming.


The first flash freebie....

1973 Topps #66 - NL Victory Leaders

I don't know how many of these I will end up doing, this is an experiment for me to see if I can keep myself doing giveaways as long as I can.  But I have to feel good about it, so I will try this method out!

The card is already in an envelope, ready to be mailed.  Just need someone to claim it!

Monday, August 16, 2021

Five from Maddux

 In my last "5 From" post I asked if anyone had a player they would like to see featured on a "5 From" post.  I got a few suggestions and will be going through them in the order they were suggested.  So first up is Greg Maddux!

Now if you are expecting amazing auto's, patches or 1/1s in my Maddux collection, you will probably be disappointed with these five cards.  They aren't big money cards or anything like that.  Instead, they emphasize my enjoyment of bright, sparkly colors and die cuts.  Oh, and I always think of Maddux as a Brave, so there isn't going to be much for you Cubs, Padres and Dodgers fans here. 


First up!

5. 1998 Pinnacle - Epix Play - a sweet, crazy card!!  As you may be able to tell from the scan, this thing shines!  The purple is an interesting choice, but its hard to argue with how much pop this card has.


4. 1999 Topps - Lords of the Diamond - another card with pop!  This one scanned strangely.  Not that there isn't some purple to be seen when you move the card around, bit it isn't as predominant as what the scan shows.  I love this set, and am actively collecting it.


3. 1987 Leaf RC - OK, one Cubs card!!  I picked this one out of all his RCs because it is a Leaf card.  And back in the 80s, I saw very few Leaf cards!!  So I always figured that they would be more valuable.  Nowadays, not so much, but maybe a small premium.  I can remember a Leaf Kirby Puckett RC being a prized possession at one point.


2. 1996 Fleer Ultra - Season Crowns - I like this insert set a lot, but I don't really know why.  It is an acetate card, which I always love, and is see through on the outer edges:

Here is the card with an 87 Fleer Maddux RC behind it so you can see that better.

And the #1 favorite Maddux card in my collection???

1. 1996 Leaf Studio - Stained-Glass Stars - I love all the stained glass cards out there, and while this one isn't quite as awesome as the Gallery of Heroes sets from 1997-2000 and 2013, it is still quite nice.  And I definitely love how 'professor-y' Greg looks here.  Doing some calculus in his head on how to get the batter out!


Thanks to gcrl for suggesting Maddux for this!


Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Garage sale debacle

** no need to read this post, its a bit of a grouse session, and I probably shouldn't have even written it.  That said, I posted it, so if you feel the need, read on...


Things have been going really well on the card front lately.  I have had some wonderful trades and have found some nice deals on cards I like.  Things are getting back to normal, and card shows are popping up.  In fact I had a really good time a couple of days ago at the local show, post to come soon, hopefully.

But... 

Speaking of getting back to normal, my wife and a couple of her friends decided to do the cliché summer cleaning thing and combined some of their old junk in a three family garage sale the weekend before last. They held it over at one of the friends houses (thankfully, I hate people wandering around my place) a couple of doors down from us.

Inspired by some stories I have heard recently about people getting good money for what used to be considered 'low end' or 'junk wax' cards, I send a 3000 count box of those kinds of cards down to see if I would get any bites. 

Well, 10 minutes after the sale opened, I did get a bite, but not exactly what I was looking for.  My wife came back saying that a guy was asking if I had anything a little better that he could look at.  Well, I did! I have a box of stuff that is a step above junk wax.  Not top notch stuff, or I would be keeping it, but decent trade fodder.  Think Trout and Tatis base cards, common refractors, early 80s stars like Ozzie Smith and Mike Schmidt. Serial #d stuff.  Fun inserts. RCs of recent players that have not yet become superstars. There were probably a few cards that were a little bigger, but not many.  All in all, a wide variety of fun and decent cards. 

Not my actual box of cards, image stolen from the googlebox

So I took the 3000 count box of that stuff down and sat with the guy while he looked through them.  Turns out, he was looking for a little more of a bargain than I was willing to offer, so other than about 20 cards that he bought, the rest of the box was left.

Now is where the story takes a turn.  I am lazy.  No, me being lazy isn't the turn, that's just a fact of my life.  The turn is that I decided, due to my laziness, to leave the better box of cards at the sale, I just put them back into the garage itself where the money was being kept.  I guess I figured that if someone else wanted to ask about better cards like the first guy, that I wouldn't have to carry them back and forth. And leaving them right next to the money seemed like a safe place.

With that buildup, I imagine you can guess what happened.  My wife ended up selling the junk wax box for exactly what I was asking, but nobody ever asked to see the 'good' stuff again.  After everything was over, I helped my wife drag the many items that didn't sell back to our house.  And at some point, I remembered the box of cards.  But it was nowhere to be found.  Nobody could find it, and nobody who was involved in the sale remembered anyone taking it, or even looking at it.  But gone is gone.

I was pretty mad.  Not as much because I lost those cards, though that sure does sting!  They were great for when I needed to add a few cards to a trade, or for free card giveaways.  My main source of anger was that someone was so low that they would steal from a garage sale.  And if I am being honest, I was kind of mad at myself for being so lazy that I created the situation that made it possible.

So I am ticked.  And I hoped that writing about it would be therapeutic, but so far, it hasn't helped.  Hopefully in a day or two, I'll feel better.  And it doesn't help that this is bringing back strong memories of a huge card theft that happened to me back in high school.  But that is a story for another day, or maybe never.

On similar notes, I know that one of the 2 card shops in my town was broken into recently.  And at the card show I try to attend, one of my favorite dealers lost some really big cards to a thief recently.  Think graded Jordans.

Not a fun time.  Hopefully I am the only one seeing these kinds of things.  I want the hobby to get back to normal.