how i spent my summer vacation

well, summer is almost over based on the traditional measurement of labor day's approach. it's state fair time here in minnesota which may be an even better indication of the season's waning. i didn't do a whole lot this summer, although i did spend a few days in florida in early june.

we stayed in st. pete's beach and enjoyed the gulf coast from st. pete to anna maria island to siesta key. it was hot, but we survived. of course, i made sure to get in to tampa one day to catch a baseball game. in doing so, i was able to cross off another stadium that i've seen a game in - this one being tropicana field. i now have this card in my "stadiums i've seen games in" mini collection:

it's from 2019 topps, and it's a gold parallel. this is the 24th mlb stadium i've seen a regular season game in, and the 23rd different city (i've seen games in both the hhh metrodome and target field here in minneapolis) here's one of our tickets from the game:

a day game between the rays and white sox wasn't the most appealing matchup, but it was nice to take advantage of the air conditioning. we entered the stadium via a rotunda that put us in right-center field. when we emerged from the concourse, we were able to see the tank holding the stingrays

i liked that there was a concourse on the inside of the stadium, so we could walk to our seats from the outfield while still being able to see the field. we sat down behind home plate, and i took a photo of the dome's interior:

it's a different structural setup than the metrodome. it also has those catwalks that wreak havoc on a batted ball every once in a while.  here's a zoomed in photo taken during the game:

here you get a better look at the team's pennants - i would think with two american league pennants at this point that they would get rid of the wild card pennants, but that's not my call. as always, i sought out jackie robinson's retired number, and you can see that towards the right side of the photo and to the left of the big "gmf" ad.  along with jackie's 42 are wade boggs' 12 and don zimmer's 66. two brooklyn dodgers with a retired number in tampa.

the game we attended happened to be on pride night. we received pride flags upon entering, and there were quite a few fans who purchased ticket packages that included pride themed rays hats.  the team was also wearing pride themed patches on their jerseys - here's a rays batter wearing it on his right sleeve.

that's not a good photo of it, so here's one from getty images

i didn't try to take a picture of the patch, and really only mention it here because it became a big deal after the fact. a few players declined wearing the patch and exposed themselves as, in my opinion, ignoramuses about what the patch represents and the purpose behind the organization having a pride night in the first place. i was happy to accept a pride flag and show support as a member of society.

the rays lost the game - here's the final tally on the right field scoreboard

they had been leading 2-0 until the 8th inning when jake burger hit a 3-run, pinch-hit home run.  it was a big enough deal that topps issued this card the next day:

read all about the accomplishment on the back:

i did, of course, buy one of these cards to go in my "cards featuring games i attended in person" collection. it is especially nice to have a souvenir like this since tickets are no longer printed.

so far in 2022 i've attended three major league games, and there have been cards made for two of them. the other game that was commemorated by topps was back in april. i received the cards i ordered from topps about a month after the game. here's a refresher:

the dodgers went back-to-back-to-back

and clayton kershaw threw 7 perfect innings

i purchased these cards directly from topps since i knew i wanted multiple copies. and, just as had been the case with the steve garvey turn back the clock card last year, i received numbered parallels with my order!  

here's the blue parallel of kershaw's card, numbered to 49

and here's a purple parallel of the home run card, numbered to 25

i am going to try to get out to target field at least once more this season, especially if mike trout is back when the angels visit in late september. hopefully something interesting happens!

orange you wondering why i didn't post anything about gil hodges and the hall of fame?

gil hodges was officially enshrined in cooperstown last month, and the dodgers retired his number 14 as well.  these events made me a happy fan, even if i didn't have anything to say about it when it was happening.  i was disappointed that vin scully wasn't able to attend the number retirement which gave me an inkling that he wasn't doing well.

anyway, i had celebrated hodges' pending enshrinement earlier in the year with a hall of famer collection post. you will see in that post that the card representing hodges in my hof collection is a 2006 upper deck epic relic card - the green parallel to be exact.

i believe there are 11 parallels for those materials cards, and in addition to the green, i have the hodges in teal and now dark orange:

the other parallels are blue, gold, grey, purple, orange, red, dark green, and dark purple. strange that upper deck doubled up on some colors, but i guess that's one way to manipulate the print runs of variations. even stranger that the orange and dark orange hodges cards are both numbered to 39.

anyway, congratulations again to the hodges family and dodger and met (and maybe some senator) fans everywhere!

a stamp is forever

it's been a long time since i sent out a ttm autograph request. i did send one in 2021 (thanks kyle garlick!) but before that it was a bevy of 1978 topps cards sent out in late 2019 and early 2020.  most of those came back, but a few are still mia.

i sent requests to yankee teammates george zeber and fran healy on november 27, 2019. zeber's card came back signed about a week later according to my spreadsheet, but healy's didn't return until a couple of weeks ago.

that's 976 days of purgatory for my request! still not as long a wait as the 1,224 days thad bosley's return took, but a long time regardless. i am very thankful to mr. healy for signing the card and sending it back.

of course, the introduction of the forever stamp helps out tremendously in times like this. when i sent the request to healy, the return stamp was valued at $0.55 and today it's value is $0.60. no postage due! and, even better, the return stamp was not canceled so i will be using it to send a few cards to a fellow blogger. fran healy made it possible!

as for the card itself, it plays with my mild ocd as i needed a new page for it. i am trying to decide if i add another 8 signed cards from the set or stay where i am at with 434 signed cards (one card - rod carew - is sealed in a semi-rigid holder with a authentication certification). maybe a few more of those outstanding requests will trickle in and the issue will take care of itself. only time and forever stamps will tell.

i wasn't going to make the same mistake twice

[i originally had this post ready to go last wednesday, but it was pre-empted]

i suppose this post could count as an entry in the "blogger national" bat-around - and speaking of the national, have you seen brad's blog's posts! incredible stuff. unfortunately, blogger won't let me comment on his posts, but it was fun to follow his exploits for sure.  as for me, it's been a long time since i attended the national and i doubt i will ever get there again.  thankfully, there is a monthly card show here in the twin cities that i attended in july.  on with the cards!

at the show earlier this year, i passed on a 1995 score hall of gold brett butler card, assuming i had it. once i got home, i found that i did not, in fact, own that card. when i returned to the show the following month, the butler was no longer in the bargain box. i wound up picking the card up in a sportlots order.

well, this time, i came across a 1992 donruss butler diamond kings insert

i set it aside and later checked my wantlists. all my online list said was "dodgers complete" under 1992 donruss, but knowing that this was an insert, i wasn't too sure. i took it home with me and sure enough, i had not added the dk inserts to my want lists. now i can say "dodgers complete!"

as usual, i had made a beeline for a particular dealer and his bargain boxes. the butler was in the 5 for $1 box, along with these cards:

turns out i had both of the dodger cards in this lot, but i put the 2019 topps chrome update michael chavis card in my "names/numbers on the back" mini-collection, and the two shiny a&g braves will go to my brave collector source for dodger cards. the kikuchi (i bought two) is a factory set variation, and the goldschmidt is a high number short print.

the 5 for $1 box was pretty lackluster, as i think this dealer is seeing that he can price things for more and get away with it. i saw a few cards in his dollar boxes (which were actually seven for $5 boxes) that had previously been in the 5 for $1 boxed. such is capitalism and i totally accept that.

i am a sucker for parallels - even when they aren't dodgers - but was excited to find a 2022 topps julio urias

black parallel

for less than a buck. i see these things so rarely that i didn't notice topps was changing the print run of these annually like they do with gold parallels.

here are some more cards from the 7 for $5 boxes

a couple of comments on these cards - i have a hard time passing up bryce harper cards, but i don't collect him. the heritage is a high number short print, and the card directly above this is a montgomery card. i like the design of it. the josh hamilton and alex gordon are rack pack exclusives, and i had great success with an albert pujols rack pack card at a previous show, so i bought these two. i doubt anyone still collects hamilton but maybe.

here are some more:

i was surprised to see those two tim salmon cards as i didn't know there were variations in the 70 years of topps inserts from 2021. turns out those are from a different insert set.  yay topps.

even more 7 for $5 cards:

more braves for trading, and i don't pass on the 2021 topps 3d cards when they pop up in this guys boxes.

don't fret - i also found some dodgers in these boxes:

there's a 2013 bowman chrome clayton kershaw, a 2018 panini chronicles phoenix alex verdugo, a 2019 bowman christian santana chrome prospects purple refractor, a 2017 bowman draft chrome gavin lux, and two cards from 2020 topps update - a mookie betts 1985 35th anniversary card and a duke snider platinum players die-cut card. even though i didn't check my want lists, the only dupe turned out to be the kershaw card.

i also added this 70 years of topps insert

from 2021 topps update, along with another betts insert from update

i already had the walker buehler card, which was from topps series 1. or maybe series 2.

i was happy to find a couple of silver pack cards - one from 2021 update

and one from 2022 topps

i would like more albert pujols and max scherzer dodger cards, please.

there were a couple of weird cards that i picked up from these boxes, like this thing

which is a sage hit make ready card of anthony allen who plays the football. not sure why i put this one in my stack, but i did and now would like to find it a new home.

i also bought these two cards from 2015 panini americana

and i can hear christopher cross in my head, telling me to "think of laura". ah, genie francis.

back to parallels, i rescued these guys from the boxes

they come from 2021 topps update and 2022 topps. the andrew vaughn card there is not a parallel, just an insert from last year's update. even though i like the foilboard parallels, the real gem here is the ryan zimmerman card.  it's a camo parallel, numbered to 25

yes, a low-numbered parallel of a semi-star and team icon for less than a buck. nice. if only it weren't so late to market it would have covered all of my purchases for the day.

finally, i dug through the dealer's "half off sticker" box. here's what i purchased:

2017 bowman's best cody bellinger

2018 topps cody bellinger 1983 all-star black parallel /299

still don't have the "base" version of this card, though.

this is a neat mini relic card from 2001 bowman heritage

and here are some cognac parallels from 2011 topps:

including legends:

i took advantage of the 2 for 1 aspect and added two 2021 topps silver pack cards of former dodger farmhand yordan alvarez

and two cards from 2013 topps update of former pirate gerrit cole

the last card i took from this box was a 2015 topps chrome update mega box kris bryant rookie card

the shine is off of bryant at this point, but not the card.

those were collectively marked for a total of $56, so $28 was the actual price.

now we get to the math...

it was time to settle up with the dealer. i had 10 cards from the 5 for $1 box, 77 cards from the 7 for $5 box, and $28 worth of half off cards. he totaled it up as $41 and asked for $30. um, ok. that didn't sound right but he was so confident that i handed the money over even though i was confused. i walked away and did some quick math and reversed course. basically, he forgot to multiply the 11 sets of 7 cards i took by $5 to get the real total - instead he counted all of those cards as being worth $11. the total should have been $85 - not $41. he asked for another $40, so i still got a bit of a discount from his posted prices ($15) although certainly not the deal he mistakenly let me have at first. i definitely felt better about things after we corrected the sale. 

by this time the show was pretty crowded. the dealer whose boxes i was looking through is set up at the back (used to be the front) of the show (long story) so i hadn't seen just how many people had arrived.  i walked over to a guy who always has true dime boxes and found 106 cards that he let me have for $10. here are most of them:

i am a sucker for topps heritage inserts and other random colored parallels and inserts.

same goes for parallels. even of marlins.

i picked out four 2018 topps update hall of fame highlights vladimir guerrero cards

one of which is the silly "parallel of an insert". it turns out that blue parallel was the only one of these cards i needed.

i even bought some metallic snowflake cards from 2017 topps holiday

some of the keeper cards from this box are this 2022 topps opening day insert

for the tattooine collection, and a bunch of dodgers

these cards are:

2017 bowman andrew sopko mega box chrome prospects

2010 bowman carlos monasterios blue /520

2014 panini prizm eddie murray 

2016 topps adrian gonzalez record setters 

2018 topps opening day yasiel puig blue foil 

2020 topps cody bellinger choice blue parallel

2019 bowman platinum corey seager 

2020 bowman heritage cody bellinger

2018 topps gypsy queen cody bellinger blackless

it turns out i already had the murray, gonzalez, and seager cards, but i wasn't going to bother with the want lists at this point.

i took all the 2018 topps cody bellinger highlights cards the guy had to offer

and was actually bothered by the fact that there were a few black and blue parallels in there because i could have used the base version of those cards.

there's one more of the blue parallels along with some panini chronicles cards from 2018. i don't know how to buy chronicles cards, so this is pretty much the only way i will add them to my collection.  the other stuff here are a 2020 topps max muncy hr challenge and a 2021 topps update trevor bauer 70 years of topps cards and some 2022 opening day cards i already had.

after the dime box purchase, i made a quick loop looking for some bargain vintage. i knew going in that i wanted to find some cards for my 1957 topps set build, and i did

here's the back of the senators card:

the top of the card (the left in the rotated image) feels like it is barely held together, but it's the only appearance of harmon killebrew in the set and the price was somewhat decent.  i learned from this cards that goose goslin's real name was leon.

in all, these '57s cost a total of $16. it's a but much given the condition but because of the opportunity cost angle, i made the deal. i also bought another card for $4 from this seller, bringing my card show expenditure total to an even $100.

as usual, i've sold a few of the cards i picked up and now the ones i am keeping have turned out to have cost me just my time and gas. heading to the national would cost me a whole lot more!