Vintage, modern, non-sport, monstrosities and more!

 The most recent card show I attended resulted in me acquiring, shall we say, an eclectic bunch of cards.  Let's jump right in:  

The "Pressed Into Service" cards in the top row are commemorating non-pitchers putting in time on the mound.  Very cool!  Some of the position players I collect pitching!  These aren't worth much at all, but certainly have a place in my collection.  Out of the 10 card set, these three are the ones I would want the most.  The Stan Musial from this set isn't bad, but he isn't pitching in the photo, so not as good.  20 cents apiece.

The weird, rounded corner broder type cards in the middle row are fun.  I am sure I have seen them before, but who knows where.  Fun enough.

And three shiny Kershaws round out the scan.  Seems like I have been finding lots of funky Kershaws lately.

Byron Buxton rookie year insert.  Ripken reading a comic book.  Rogers Hornsby serial numbered Diamond King.  Yogi Berra insert.  And a Juan Soto RC??  Talk about an eclectic bunch of cards!

The Soto was in a dollar box.  When I got it home, I realized it is the Black version which seems to carry a little bit of a premium.  Cool.  I wonder when I will get my first Soto as a Padre card?

I grabbed all of these vintagey cards.  Turned out I already had all but the Cepeda and Bunning.  The Bunning is a sort of high number, so that's cool.

Remember all the Kemp RCs I have been getting at shows lately?  Well I did get a few more (not pictured), but the "Kemp highlight" of the day was when a dealer saw me coming and pulled me aside.  He said "I got something for you" and proceeded to rummage through his stuff for about 5 minutes.  Then he pulled out this:

Sweet, a Kemp auto!  Not certified, and possibly a fake, but who would fake a Kemp auto?  Comparing online, it looks to me like its probably legit.  Most likely a hurried in person signing.  But hey, for free, I was very happy to take it!

What the heck are these???  Well, they are obviously some strangely conceived set of Ken Griffey Jr. from 1989.  They kind of look and feel like photographs.  No borders and a little smoother than most cards would feel.  Here is how the backs look.

I got 14 of the 16 cards in this strange set.

Now for something totally off the wall!!

What in the world is that???  Well first, how I got it...

The same dealer that gave me the Kemp RC has had this monstrosity in his 'higher end' cards for several months.  I always take a look at it, but since it is an obvious fake mess, that's as far as it has gone.  Well this time, I had a stack I wanted him to price for me, and I grabbed this Trout as well.  His eyes lit up and said, "Oh, you want that thing?"  I quickly assured him that I didn't really want it (assuming he was wanting actual money for it), but that I was interested in how much he would charge if someone was.  He replied that if I paid $10 for the stack, he would throw it in.  Since I would have been willing to pay that for the stack anyway, I took it!

Anyway, let's look closer at this beast.  On the front, I think we have parts of a 2021 Topps Chrome card, some refractory border and probably an old holo sticker from 80s Fleer?  Not sure where the pic of Trout himself comes from, maybe one of you do.  The shiny plastic thingies by Trout definitely add to the effect!

For the back, they used the back of a 2018 Optic card.  Then marked it 1 of 1 and signed it, I assume the creator's signature?  And of course, slammed it in a HUGE one touch holder.

And even more, the one touch holder has been sealed with some sort of sticky, sparkly stuff.  Take a look:

I'm sure I could break it open, but I decided not to.  Now this thing takes up way too much space with all my other Trout Keepers!

OK, this post has gone on long enough, but it was that kind of show!  Last up are some non-sports.  These are from the 1966 Topps Batman series.

I got around 25 of these cards.  So so condition, but kind of fun.  Anyone interested in trading for these?

Here are a couple of the backs:

I wish all card shows were as entertaining as this one.  Thanks for reading!

Another show report

 Here are a bunch of scans from a recent card show!  Very random, but I will try to give some color...

This first scan was from several different dealers and different price points.  The Niekro was a dollar and the bottom row was 'probably?' 50 cents.  The rest were dimes.  Don Mossi for a dime!  Numbered LaSorda for a dime (even if it's an ugly card)!  Fun stuff.  The Fred Lynn reminds me of the first All Star game I really paid attention to.  I was rooting for the NL, but Lynn hit a grand slam, and the AL rolled.  Good times.  The old timers Rice is cool, and the Miggy is numbered /45.

Now some randomness:

Yep.  I'm not really a Pirates fan, but I still paid dimes for these.  Guess that's what happens when old oddballs fall into my lap!

Speaking of dimes, I found a small dime box with a bunch of brand new youngsters.  Check these out.

Yep, Julio Rodriguez and Wander Franco for a dime.  But I am probably more excited about the others.  I don't often get to add semi-hot rookies to my collection until after the hotness has worn off.

The next three cards, I grabbed for dimes just on a whim as I sped through the boxes.  Didn't realize it, but they appear to be box bottoms.  Blank backs.

I'm going to transition to my basketball purchases, and this awesome dime box find is a perfect way to do it!  When I saw this card for sale, it made me laugh, and the dealer got my dime.  Pretty funny, but I do feel bad for poor Amed Rosario who has 'transitioned' into LeBron.

I only grabbed about 20 basketball cards, all from 20 cent boxes, but many of them turned out to be great deals!  Quite a few of the cards in this scan seem to sell in the "few dollars" range, not the 20 cent range.  I really had to work for these though, the vast majority of the cards in these 20 cent boxes were pretty junky.

At most card shows, I get into a bit of a feeding frenzy in the cheap cards, and buy some dupes by mistake.  Here are the dupes I grabbed this show.  And yes, the Niekro from the first scan was one of them.  

Why don't we reward any of you who have slogged through this mess of a post by offering these 6 dupes up to you readers**.  Claim in the comments!  Also, please take more than one, I'd rather not use 6 stamps to get these out to you!  I'm a cheapskate!

Let the people know!

 One great thing about all the card blogs out there is that if you let people know what you collect, they will often find it for you. Really, that's what wantlists and '10 most wanted' widgets are all about.  

Well, the same thing happens in other card collecting areas, be it Twitter, Facebook, Forums, TCDB.com or whatever.  Getting the knowledge of what you want out there is rewarding.  And it happened to me, most recently at a card show.

I have been trying to get to the local card show as often as I can the last few months.  Digging through dime boxes!!  And over the last 4 shows, I have told at least 4-5 fellow collectors and dealers that I will take any Shawn Kemp RCs that I can find.  As long as they are cheap!  And I usually find at least one or two a show.

Well, all that talking really paid off this last show.  On my way in, one friend grabbed me and handed me 4 Kemp RCs, 2 Fleer and 2 Hoops.  Free!  Jackpot!  Then, at the first table (I always go to the same 2 tables as soon as I can), I found 2 more Fleer.  At the second table, the dealer mentioned that he had seen at least a few Kemps in his dime boxes and I should see if I could find them.  OK, I'd rather he had pulled them out for me, but for dimes, hey, that's what I come for.  I ended up finding 12!  Took me quite a while, but worth it.

Another show acquaintance came by and said he saw a few at a table down the way, so I headed that way.  These ended up being quarters, really the most I will usually spend, but I went for it and got 11 more.  While I was there, another guy mentioned that he saw a graded Kemp RC for cheap at another table, so I made my way that direction.  Didn't end up buying that, but I appreciated the help from a fellow collector.

And finally, on my way out, I stopped to talk to a guy I see most shows who was going through a stack.  And of course, there were Kemps in there!  Another 11, wow.  Unfortunately, the guy didn't want to let them go for anything less than 50 cents each, but at this point, I was in a Kemp feeding frenzy, so I bought them.

By now, I assume you either think I am crazy, or just stopped reading a while ago.  But here was my Kemp RC haul for a single day:

27 Fleer, 10 Hoops, 3 Skybox

My current collection totals for each brand:

71 fleer

111 hoops

51 skybox

Total: 233 Shawn Kemp RCs

Too Many Elliptical Breakdowns

 I need to do a catch up on incoming cards from awesome bloggers!  I received cards from three different bloggers, for three different reasons. One was contest winnings, one was a trade and one was just a RAK!

Elliptical Man - RAK

I posted about how I liked Spud Webb, and BOOM, 4 days later, these three Spuds showed up in the Mail.  Now that's nice!

Thanks Brendan!

Gavin - Contest winnings

Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown has been holding contests most of the summer where you have to guess the serial number of a card.  Since that is basically a game of luck, and not skill, I figured I had a chance, and yep, I won!!  Here are the cards I won:

I enjoy (and want) all older refractors, and the 2004 Topps Chrome refractors are especially nice, especially the Black.  The cool Griffey Mega Metal is a Gavin custom, and I knew I had to have it!  The Munson is a Burger King version, always appreciated, and the Dawson is from the 2003 Topps Retired set.  Thanks a bunch Gavin!

But that's not all.  In true Gavin fashion, he added another custom!!!  An awesome Griffey, front and back scanned to show the attention to detail (the back scan has the back of the other Griffey custom for comparison).

Dennis - Trade

And last but not least, Dennis from Too Many Verlanders put up a 1991 Topps Desert Shield card for trade, and I pounced on it!  I sent him some more Verlanders to make sure his blog name stays accurate, and he sent both the Desert Shield card as well as a sweet numbered Randy Johnson Diamond Kings card (in keeping with MY blog name).  Thanks a ton for the trade Dennis!

Luzinski steals the show

 A recent card show produced with better than usual dime boxes!  Every card in the first three scans was in a dime box.  Don't believe me?  I'm not lying!

Ooooooh, shiny!  In fact, that Kershaw on the left scanned so shiny that I had to double check the actual card.  It's not quite that bright in hand, but still awesome.  These were such great finds, I had to double check that I was really looking through dime boxes. 

More

2007 and 2008 Moments and Milestones.   What a couple of weirdly conceived sets.  But for dimes, I will not be leaving these in the box!

More!

Oddballs galore.  Just a lot of fun here.  I usually strongly prefer Eddie Murray in an Orioles uniform, but this Indians copy might be my favorite of this bunch.

Ok, end of the dime box bonanza.  Obviously, I grabbed far more dime cards than those shown, many of which were just as good as the ones I decided to scan.

Here are some I grabbed from various other places.  Some were in quarter boxes, some in 50 cent boxes and some from a stack I built at one table that I paid for in bulk.  More on that further down!

OK, back to that stack from one of my favorite dealers.  It took me about a half hour, but I built a stack of around 25-30 cards from his stock.  I'm pretty sure that the Brett, Sabathia and O'Neill refractor in the last scan were in the stack.  And the main card I was interested in was this one:

Sweet card!!  It had a price tag of $15 on it, which might be fair, but I am a notorious cheapskate, and wouldn't pay that much for it.  I carted the stack of cards over to the dealer and asked how much for all of them, hoping for one of his bulk discounts.  I told him I really wanted the Luzinski, which at the time, I thought was a mistake.  But he hemmed and hawed for a minute before saying, "buy the Luzinski at full price and I'll throw in the rest".  Yahtzee!

Gotta love those good quality dealers.  I guess that's why I keep going back to him!