card show date to church

back in may i went to the semi-annual card show at a suburban church. it's held in a gymnasium that seems too small to me to function as a gymasium, but i am not an elementary school child so that might be the issue. anyway, i bought cards from four dealers and found some fun stuff.

the first guy i bought from is a regular at the local shows. i picked up a couple of 1955 bowman cards for the set build, along with this dandy

it turns out that these world series pennants were inserts in the 1961 fleer baseball greats packs. there are then only two dodger world champions pennants (1955 and this one) and i bet that the 1955 version is pretty spendy. cool vintage oddball pickup for the collection for sure.

the next seller i picked up cards from was another regular - the guy who always has bargain boxes with a seemingly neverending variety of cards. i found these three legends variations from 2009 topps update

a yasiel puig variation from 2018 topps

and some numbered dodger parallels from 2022 topps uk edition

turner & turner at your service.

he also had a box of autos and relics that were marked at 50% off sticker which meant most were a buck or two. i took a black parallel of victor gonzalez' 2021 topps update 1986 autograph

and a couple of dodger relics

from his inventory.

this 2009 bowman draft derek jeter card

goes in my name/number on the back collection, and this 2010 topps cards your mom threw out 1969 reggie jackson card

is an original back version

and probably the closest i will come to owning the real thing.

i am not familiar with paw patrol (i can tell you all about the wiggles, however) but i still picked up this 2024 topps update aaron judge thing

did he make a guest appearance on the show? not sure what the crossover is supposed to be.

finally, i chose to buy this 2023 topps mike trout city connect manupatch

i actually like the angels' city connect uniforms, although you don't get too much of it on this card.

there was another seller with a 50 cent box that i stopped to check out. i wound up with a few cards, including a desecrated 1975 topps pete rose card

and a beat up phil garner/keith hernandez rookie card from the same set

i mean no disrespect to bob sheldon and tom veryzer, but those top two guys made this card a hot commodity back when i was trying to complete the oakland a's team sets during the early billy ball days.

i also grabbed this 1979 topps lou brock card

even though i don't have a need for it. it's just such an iconic card from my childhood - seeing the same person as the all-time and season record holder was pretty cool to young gcrl. and it's still cool, even though the player on this card would be different today. looking forward to 2028 topps heritage!

finally, i was on my way out when i saw some monster boxes set up near the doorway. there was a kid - probably late teens - who was set up with a table of toploaded and slabbed stuff. the monster boxes were on the side and clearly not the main thrust of his set up. i didn't want to spend too much more time at the show, but i started looking through one of the boxes.

i wish all sellers were like this one. he came over and told me that he would give me a deal on the singles from the box. i pulled this card out - a 2024 topps holiday shohei ohtani variation 

and asked him how he would price it. he said that it was a variation, and so i was ready for the $5 to $10 price tag. instead, he said a buck or so. um ok. i'll keep digging.

i wound up with quite a stack of cards - parallels and inserts - from various 2023, 2024, and 2025 topps releases. finding a 2024 topps chrome cosmic mookie betts extraterrestrial talent insert

was fun, but most of the cards in the one box i looked through came from topps flagship releases. clearly this person was buying a variety of release formats and looking for the big hits. here's a 2025 topps ohtani 8-bit ballers insert

and a 2025 topps rosie red insert

that both came from the celebration boxes. 

i was able to add the one dodger themed first pitch card to my collection

(that's usc trojan juju watkins) plus some other dodger parallels like a 2023 topps freddie freeman silver pattern foil card

from a collector's box, and some 2024 topps aqua parallels from fanatics packaging - freeman on a league leader card

and walker buehler

as well.

i didn't limit myself to dodgers, as i will always go for a miguel cabrera final tribute parallel

and i also couldn't pass up the color match on the padres team card

the last card i added to my stack was this 2024 topps chrome update jackson holliday stratospheric stars insert

i asked the seller to price the stack and figured i was looking at about 20 bucks. he came back with 10 and it was such a pleasant surprise. i hope to see him at future shows, although he hasn't been at the couple i've attended since then, and i won't be able to get to the next church show.

it's not all (hand me) down hills from here

i started blogging two weeks after night owl began his blog, and from the start we've been swapping cards. i often refer to the cards he sends me as hand-me-downs, as they are dodger cards that come from another dodger collector. of course, all cards sent out to others can be considered hand-me-downs in that sense.  anyway, we recently swapped some cards.

i'll start with a couple of hill cards as teased in the title of this post - a 2017 honus bonus rich hill card

and a 2002 topps chrome traded koyie hill card

while the rich hill card is not the first honus bonus card in my collection, i finally decided to figure out their backstory while writing this post. i guess the manufacturer of those cards also made wnba cards, but now looks to be firmly committed to science fiction entertainment sets like doctor who and star trek.  as for koyie, i remember him doubling in his first big league at bat in 2003 in what was one of his only appearances as a dodger. still, he wound up playing in the majors through the 2014 season.

here's a 2002 topps traded gold parallel card of clinton hosford

he did not make it to the big leagues, and was a 40th round pick. makes me wonder why topps tagged him as a prospect, but good for him getting a card in this set!

here are a couple of cards of a more realistic dodger prospect from that same timeframe - joe thurston on a 2003 playoff absolute memorabilia card

and a 2003 playoff portraits card

thurston had a couple cups of coffee with the dodgers from 2002-2004 and was playing minor league ball as recently as 2015, although he made his final big league appearance in 2011 as a marlin.

next up is a 2007 upper deck first pitch leading off insert of rafael furcal

furcal joined the dodgers for the 2006 season and promptly led them to the playoffs. a few years later, the dodgers traded him to the cardinals where he promptly won a world series championship.

furcal's double play partner for the first couple of years of his dodger tenure was jeff kent, who was represented in the cards i received by this 2007 upper deck holiday inn card

and this 2008 topps heritage chrome card

those cards provide a lot of green, which is what kent received from the dodgers when he signed as a free agent. kent's dad was a cop in the city i worked at, and i was working there when jeff was called up to the majors by the blue jays in 1992. i recall a level of excitement around the office when that happened, and when kent signed with the dodgers it was a big deal for his parents.

here are a couple of clayton kershaw cards - a 2010 topps national chicle

national chicle back parallel!

and a 2016 panini donruss optic illusion card

it's not a trick, michael - it's an illusion!

more needed inserts coming up, like this 2016 topp duke snider mlb debut card

and this 2017 topps jackie robinson memorable moments card

i didn't realize that duke made his first big league appearance just a couple of days after jackie broke the color barrier.

a few more cards of note - a 2018 topps big league matt kemp gold parallel

a 2019 topps silver pack 1984 35th anniversary manny machado

and a 2021 bowman cody bellinger 

to finish out the trades. i don['t know if you've seen the 2022 topps design yet, but it looks very bowman-y to me. it will be interesting to see what 2022 bowman looks like with flagship looking like it does.

thanks for the hand-me-downs night owl!