i'm not fooling about comics this time

back on april 1, i posted an april fool's joke regarding a new blog of mine focused on comic books. while i do still have a fair number of comics, i never intended to write about them on that blog. in the months since, i have instead picked up a few cards that are reminiscent of comic books, and i have no qualms about writing about them!

this is a 2022 donruss mookie betts "diamond marvels" insert

it may be the vector parallel, but i am not sure.

it certainly looks like a comic book cover, and an interesting touch by panini - the oct 92 date refers to mookie's birth (october 7, 1992). or maybe it's just a coincidence. 

another betts comic card from 2022 is this one

from topps heritage which features some nice mookie trivia and an appearance from babe ruth. the design is attributed to 1973 topps comics which i don't know were really a thing.

bazooka comics, however, have definitely been a thing. i recently picked up another copy of this comic

for my "games i attended in person" mini-collection. it comes from 2003 topps bazooka and recognizes shawn green's 4 home run game in milwaukee. the announcer could be one of the brewers' or the dodgers' broadcasters, but i am pretty sure vin scully wasn't traveling to milwaukee anymore back in 2002.

speaking of scully, he was the topic of a recent release from the pop fly pop shop, and i was sure to buy a copy

for those of you who don't know, the pop fly pop shop is run by an artist named daniel horine who creates sports-themed replicas of comic book covers. they are a thick card stock product suitable for framing. unfortunately for me, steve garvey was a relatively early subject and i missed out on his release. i first learned about these from collecting cutch, who showed off the awesome dave parker issue.

it's unfortunate that the scully comes with an error - his quote "it's a mere moment in a man's life between the all-star game and an old-timer's game" is left incomplete in the middle left. still, it's a great collection of quotes and i would encourage you to check out the site.

finally, i did pick up a more literal comic book card that crosses over from comics to cards in a different way than the items shown previously in this post

this is a 1992 impel dc card of nightwing, dick grayson's alter ego and leader of the teen titans.  grayson, of course, was the original robin to bruce wayne's batman who forged his own identity and allowed jason todd to take over as robin.  i was a collector of all publications related to the teen titans reboot led by marv wolfman and george perez, and i still have my titans comics including their premier in dc presents and all of the crossovers up until around 1988 or so. i am happy to have a card in my "meaningful and just because" mini-collection to represent comic books that features a character from that title.

'nuff said!

no black friday shopping but some recent card show shopping

there was a "bonus" card show a couple of weeks ago here in the twin cities. hosted by one of the local card shop owners, this is a semi-annual show at a church in a minneapolis suburb. i've attended it a few times, however it had been likely three years since i last made it to check out the wares.

i made a loop to see if there were any bargain boxes about. having completed my 1957 set and only missing high number dodgers from 1953 topps means i don't spend much time looking for vintage anymore. after the first lap i was kind of wondering why i had driven out to the show. there were a lot of slabbed cards and memorabilia and vintage but i didn't see any 2022 archives (was hoping to finish the 1978 subset) at all.

i finally stopped at a table that had a monster box out with what looked like base cards in it. i thumbed through a bit, saw enough to intrigue me, and asked the seller what his pricing was. by this time, the guy was fairly engrossed with four teenagers who stopped by to show off some panini prizm/mosaic/shiny basketball singles. he told me that sleeved cards were a quarter and unsleeved were a dime. fair enough. i found 50 unsleeved cards and gave him five bucks.

i found stuff like this:

there were a couple of those spencer strider rookies that were sleeved but these three were not. same with the bobby witt jr. cards. 

i also found these 2021 topps chrome update purple refractors

it seemed like this guy was interested in rookies but didn't care to price them up.

there were a few loose dodgers, too.

i probably should have just ordered a dodger team set of 2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary. these cards are less plentiful in the wild than i expected, and the ones i do find are sometimes disfigured like scratched up joe kelly there. i added one card (and a parallel at that) for the tatooine collection

and there was also a green parallel of miguel sano from 2021 topps big league 

there for a dime which shows how out of favor sano fell with the home crowd.

with that initial purchase, i was in the mood to dig and found a guy with a fifty cent box. there was some stuff in there that appealed to me, and i picked out 80 cards. he gave me a bit of a break and only charged me $35. here are some highlights:

i was happy to find that short printed koufax gypsy queen card, and the black and white buehler was a nice surprise at 50 cents.

another black and white parallel, plus a 2001 topps heritage chipper for my set and a rare 2000 topps chrome refractor parallel. don't see those too often. the trout is a miscut, and those always pique my interest.

more inserts and parallels

i suppose the acuna is a short print, and the heritage trout is not an insert, but he other seven qualify as inserts.  also, kudos to this guy's wife who was hanging out with him and held her own with a couple of buyers who i think were looking to take advantage when he stepped away and left her in charge. i've seen a few older couples at the local shows, but this was a younger couple - younger to me, anyway (think early 30's).

next up was a guy with a bunch of football and basketball on display but a smaller baseball bargain box in the back of his setup. i had to work my way almost behind his table to check it out, but it was worth it as i found 25 cards for six bucks, including these nine

turns out i had the vladdy manurelic already. oh well, it was only a buck. the chris taylor card is a metallic snowflake parallel, and the ross stripling card is a rainbow foil.

the final stop i made was at a table in the middle of the gymnasium. up to this point i had wandered around the perimeter, but there was a gap across the center of the floor with tables on either side as well. i found a couple of well stocked six for a dollar cards, and wound up pulling 90 cards for a total of $15 although it took the seller a bit to figure out the math. that's always fun. anyway, it was more of the same - some dodgers

including a 2017 topps update cody bellinger rookie insert that i needed

it's always nice to find some bowman's best dodger rookies. i don't see those too often. the bottom three cards are for my name/number on the back mini-collection (i will take any and all cards showing "the catch"), my tatooine mini-collection, and my 2001 topps heritage set chase. a big name short print for 17 cents is a great deal!

i will rarely pass up jeter cards in these boxes, even if they are base.

same goes for rickey cards. at some point i think someone was collecting parallels of that 2022 topps jonah heim card, but i don't recall who it was. i have a gold parallel of it if they are interested.

more cheap parallels and inserts

i know it doesn't have the "rc" logo, but finding a 2014 mookie betts card in a bargain box is not a bad thing. as always, i enjoyed browsing and digging through a few boxes. i did miss looking for vintage deals, so maybe i need to find another set to chase. we will see.

and i lied. i did do some black friday sale shopping on comc. i threw down 80 bucks primarily to land a card i had been watching for a while, but i wound up with enough cards to get the shipping for free deal. i should see my cards just before christmas so you'll have to wait until then to see what i picked up.

three cards from three stars and more from the card shows

back in august, i visited some of the local card shops with great success. a few weeks ago, i made it to another lcs. this one, three stars sportscards, was one that i hadn't visited for years - and i had never been to their current location in bloomington. they have two locations - the other was closed for a bit but reopened in the same space in a northern twin cities suburb. this location, however, is their flagship.

the reason i have avoided this shop for so long is that you can't dig through boxes of cards. their loose inventory is on beckett marketplace and you have to find the card you want online. it doesn't enhance the lcs experience, that's for sure. however, i was in the immediate vicinity and i actually needed a few ultra pro sheets, so i popped in.  

i found one box of cards on a table with prices marked and dug through. i found a couple of cards that i figured were worth the price they were asking.  then i found bargain table with a bunch of random collectibles on it. included were oversized cards such as this one, which incidentally includes three stars as part of its design:

that's a 2022 topps series 2 box topper card of clayton kershaw. these oversized cards were $5 each or 3 for $10. i grabbed a couple of the other different box toppers and that was it for me.  a couple of the cards i pulled from the loose card box were a 2017 topps high tek cody bellinger rookie card

and a 2018 topps bellinger/yasiel puig black parallel

it's a checklist, of course

but numbered to 67. 

october was a busy month for card shows here in the twin cities and greater minnesota. there was the regular monthly show on the 8th, a mall show from the 14th to the 16th, and another semi-regular show on the 15th in the metro suburbs. plus, there was another show on the 15th not too far from the cities, another mall show from the 21st to the 23rd up in duluth, and one a week later if you dared cross in to wisconsin and get to eau claire. an embarrassment of riches, really.

i made it to the mall show on the 14th and found 169 cards from a combination of quarter, fifty cent, and dollar boxes. in all, i spent $55 on cards and $1 on another collectible. it was a good time digging through these boxes, and i found some decent stuff.

the first table i stopped at had a quarter box organized by teams, which is helpful to a team collector such as myself. lo and behold, i found some needs pretty quickly, like this blast from the past billy ashley insert from 1995 sportflics uc3

more modern cards included this 2017 topps fire kenta maeda flame parallel

and this 2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary clayton kershaw card

i knew that i did not need this card as i already owned it, but it was hard for me to leave it behind.

i got one step closer to finishing my 2021 topps fire team set with this keibert ruiz card

and this ruiz card from 2021 topps gypsy queen

actually did complete the team set.

i found a card for my vladdy pc - a 2021 panini donruss retro 87 card, to be exact

plus one for the names/numbers on the back collection from 2018 topps

it's a dumb card as far as the "who's on first?" question goes. where was this card back in 2008 when chin-lung hu was around? this effort reminds me of topps putting out a card in 2019 of max muncy and cody bellinger and calling it "sweet life". if only they knew that zach mckinstry was in the wings, they could have waited and at least got the names right.

just like with the kershaw above, i couldn't leave 2022 topps pristine cards behind. i picked up some brew crew legends and a couple of all-stars

i think the all-star uni cards are short printed, but am not 100% certain.

this guy also had some good stuff in his dollar boxes that wound up being slightly less than a dollar when all was said and done. here are some inserts and parallels, starting with one insert and one insert parallel from 2022 topps of jackie robinson

and moving on to 2022 topps fire parallels of inserts

i was excited to find an eddie murray dodger card that i needed, too!

more parallels from 2022 topps

and more inserts, too

i found a legends variation from 2022 topps as well

plus a decent looking 1975 topps card with the wrong city represented on roy campanella's cap

a nice find for sure. however, the card that made me do a cartoon double take was this next one:

um ok. for a buck! 1975 topps george brett rookie?! it has some issues but i could not leave it behind. just wow.

next up was a guy with a bunch of monster boxes, but only one that had baseball priced lower than a dollar each. i dug through and found some various inserts and parallels that piqued my interest, including this 1995 score summit tim salmon nth degree parallel

the back is interesting to me

with salmon making a catch under the halos' tribute to rod carew and his retired number while sporting the black armband worn in memory of jimmie reese.

did lightning strike twice?

no, it's just a 2010 topps cards your mom threw out insert

of yount's 1975 topps rookie card

the last guy said his lowest priced boxes were 2 for a dollar, but let me know that he was flexible. i wound up with a 3 for a dollar deal. here are some of my favorites i found from this seller.

2021 topps archives mini poster card of the boys of summer

in the words of mookie in a spike lee joint, "i got it, i'm gone".

here's a 2020 topps factory set photo variation of gavin lux's rookie card

and a blue parallel of that 2022 topps max scherzer insert of which i found the base earlier

finally, i like this instant walker buehler rainbow from 2019 panini prizm

this was the first time i had been inside a shopping mall for a couple of years, but it was well worth it. i may be back for the next one in december!

finally, towards the end of october, i made another stop at twin cities sports cards to peruse their nickel boxes. i was in the area killing some time and so took advantage. i put together a pretty good stack, but will only show a couple of cards from the haul.

i added a 2022 topps chrome buster posey card

to my final tribute mini-collection, and a 2018 panini donruss andrew benintendi photo variation card

to my name/number on the back mini-collection.

as for a couple of notable dodger additions, here's the aforementioned zach mckinstry!

i had not seen the target red parallels from this year's heritage before. it doesn't make me want to find more of them.

lastly, here's a gold parallel of  my favorite dodger card from 2006:

i was very happy to find a new nomar parallel for my collection.  i suppose i need to start thinking about my favorite cards from 2022...

there really are a lot of card buying opportunities around these parts at the moment. just another thing for a collector to be thankful for. speaking of being thankful tomorrow is thanksgiving, so here's a 2014 topps turkey red zack greinke card 

it's my first from that set which was only available online as i recall.

happy thanksgiving everyone!