card shop chain stop

a couple of weeks ago i made a stop at one of the local card shops. it had been a while since i had made it to a card show, and the big show that i was looking forward to in april was going to be a miss for me as well due to some last minute travel. this particular shop i've written about before, but this was the first time i visited this particular location. 

they had two brick and mortar shops in the twin cities pre-pandemic, but were down to one at one point soon thereafter. they've since opened up a new second location in the north metro near where their closed location was, and while i was there i heard them say that they were going to open a third location in the west suburbs. not since shinders have the cities seen a multi-location hobby shop, and this one focuses solely on cards where shinders was really an overgrown newstand that had branched out into comics and cards. and adult magazines.

anyway, this shop had a few bargain boxes sitting out which was nice to see given their penchant for online card inventory in the past. i took a look at the quarter box and found just a few cards to take. i moved on to the pricier boxes and began building a stack.

i wasn't going to pass on a blue parallel of tommy lasorda

that one comes from 2022 topps chrome platinum anniversary, and is the blue mini diamond parallel numbered to 199.

my favorite card of the day was this 2024 topps stadium club gold foil jackie robinson parallel

that i thought was underpriced but i went with it

there were quite a few autographs in the boxes, and i took this 2017 topps 1987 30th anniversary rob segedin one

home with me. as you will recall, topps reset the anniversary inserts the following year, so in 2022 we got 1987 all over again. this is evidenced by the shawn green 1987 35th anniversary autograph black parallel card

that i purchased. being the black parallel, it is numbered to 199 on the back

although i believe that non-auto black parallels are numbered to 299. at least currently.

that wasn't the only shawn green auto i snagged - here's a 2023 topps finest blue parallel auto 

it's numbered to 150 up in the left hand corner.

there were two other autograph cards that i set aside, but i only wound up buying one of them. the one i put back was a 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams chet lemon card. you just don't see those out in the wild, but i already owned one of them and didn't see a reason to pick up a second. i did wind up buying this 2022 topps gypsy queen steve garvey autograph

even though i already have one in the pc. it's the missing nameplate version, so it's not as common as the regular version. here's the back

this one will go in my dodger collection.

another 2022 topps gypsy queen card for the team collection is this albert pujols sepia parallel

numbered to 99.

i hemmed and hawed about this next one - a 2022 sportkings volume 3 dusty baker relic card

because i've avoided it a few times in the past. the price was right on this occasion, and i have another johnnie b. baker card in my collection.

one more dodger to show - it's a 2021 topps chrome will smith negative refractor

and it's probably the least favorite card i picked up on this visit.

after finishing with the boxes, i asked for a couple of packs of the newly released 2024 topps heritage high numbers. they were nice enough to break open a box (juan soto oversized box topper) and hand me a couple. i found a nick lodolo short print

a rangers combo insert

and two base dodgers - landon knack

and teoscar hernandez

the cards looked a lot better to me than the first heritage release, and so i decided to buy a blaster as well. i picked wisely, as the dodgers were frequent in the blaster packs. in all, i found six more

including a cavan biggio dodger card which i was not expecting at all.

i also found two of the key rookies

with their complementary lemon-lime borders.

a couple more short prints - eloy jimenez

and ben brown

plus a bob gibson insert

interesting to note that he made his big league debut exactly 12 years after jackie robinson first played for the dodgers. that wasn't long ago at all. i will say that i appreciate topps recognizing gibson, harmon killebrew, and juan marichal as all-time greats who retired during or following the 1975 season, but i would rather see them get cards with the 1976 design.

i found one chrome parallel, and it's a refractor to boot. 

but it's brayan bello.

the blaster advertised three exclusive green parallels which confused me since many of the regular borders are green  i think what they meant was white letter name parallels. here are the three that i found

another dodger success with james paxton, plus tanner scott who is now a dodger.

i found one more parallel, and it was forrest whitley's aqua border parallel. it's shown here with his base card

that was also in the blaster. i have to say, i've seen forrest whitley cards for so long i can't believe that 2024 was his rookie year designation.

one more card from the blaster, and it's the padres quad insert

i was really happy to see this because i knew someone who was looking for it. i shipped it off to rod at padrographs, and it should be in his collection by the time this posts. 

the last card i took from the store was a 2023 topps international trading day adley rutschman card

they had a stack at the register so these aren't rare, but it serves as a reminder to get to the card shop once in a while. it's easier to do when they have multiple locations!

a card show in h-town, part 1

i have never travelled out of state for a card show, although i've toyed with the idea of heading into wisconsin once or twice for that purpose. both nationals that i attended were in california where i was living at the time, but maybe i'll get to ohio one of these days. anyway, i didn't travel to texas for a card show, but i did see that one was scheduled during my visit in may, so i took advantage.

it was a good ol' fashioned hotel show at a marriott out near hobby airport, appropriately enough. the tables were full and the people were friendly, even as i was wearing my dodger hat from the 2017 world series. here's what i walked away with:

the first table i stopped at had a dollar box with a bunch of relics and autos and a few other items. i spent $21 for 21 cards. here are a few highlights:

2007 upper deck premier christy mathewson (silver) and jimmie foxx premier stitchings

2022 panini select rookie jumbo swatch holo prizm cards of andre jackson

and lars nootbaar

2021 panini spectra jahmai jones rising rookie gold prizm dual patch relic /10

one of the reasons that i added this card to my stack is that it was in a one-touch case. i posted about another jahmai jones card that i bought for the same reason a while back.

also in a one-touch was this card from a different sport altogether

that's a 2021-22 panini chronicles draft picks donruss optic rated rookie bronze prizm parallel of jalen suggs. it's also a ridiculously long name for a card. i figure i can flip these cards so that i am basically being paid to take the one touch cases.

here's a 1996 pinnacle johnny damon artist's proof

that caught my eye. even though i was still collecting in the 1990's, i didn't go for pinnacle and missed out on all the duflex glory.

there was also a binder of autos and parallels on the table - without prices. i usually don't bother but took a look and asked how much this 2021 topps chrome rookie blue wave refractor autograph of mitch white

would cost. it was just another buck. the seller asked if he was any good and i mentioned that he had just been dfa'd so there was a team out there that didn't think so. i was happy to see later that day that white had been picked up by the brewers.

the next table i stopped at had a bargain box with a twist. they priced the cards such that you get get as many as you could fit into a box (similar to a 1980's box set box) for $10. i wound up getting 61 cards to fit.

these cards included a bunch of 2021 topps finest flashbacks dodger cards

and some other random stuff like a 2001 bowman heritage chase utley rookie card

a non-retail 2022 panini absolute gil hodges card

and a 1998 pacific crown collection chipper jones card featuring dodger catcher tom prince

and i maintained my artist's proof streak by picking up this 1998 score showcase series david segui card

i then added four cards from the higher priced box to my stack, and got those for another $10. these included a couple of panini braves relics

a 2014 panini hall of fame roy campanella elite dominator

and a 1998 donruss signature series ismael valdes millennium marks auto

by this time, this seller's friend had started setting out his wares on the table next to these boxes. i took a quick look at one of the boxes and asked about pricing on this 2022 topps freddie freeman batting helmet commemorative relic

he said five bucks. i told him i would give him a couple bucks for it, but would give him five if he added these two cards - a 2014 topps chrome onelki garcia blue refractor rookie autograph

and a 2022 topps stadium club chrome walker buehler orange refractor

he agreed. the buehler is numbered to 25

it's great to be in non-dodger country!

this wasn't the end of my day, but i'll save the rest for another post. stay tuned!

what can i get for 58 cents?

back in the late 80's, a friend of mine played boogie down productions' single "illegal business" in his car while we were driving around. that song sampled a line from a "fat albert" episode in which the titular character asks "what can we get for 63 cents?" now, i watched a fair amount of "fat albert" on saturday mornings and i assume my friend did, too, but he found the sample incredibly amusing. after that, pretty much whenever we were in a retail setting, you could bet that he was going to ask, "what can we get for 63 cents?" it was so prevalent that i also began to think about it, and i still do from time to time.

at the semi-annual card show in april, i found a seller who had at least a dozen monster boxes with a price list posted above them. the prices were a sliding scale - the more you buy the cheaper the price per card. pretty standard stuff. after a while, i knew i was going to be taking home a large number of cards and decided to cap myself at 200. the price for 200 cards was $120, which i recognized as 60 cents per card. so, guess what line popped into my head? well, it turned out that i picked out 205 cards but he kept the price at $120, and so here is (some of) what i got for 58.5 cents.

i'll kick things off with a 2021 topps chrome mookie betts image variation refractor short print

always pleased to add a card of mookie celebrating during the 2020 world series! in fact. there's another one among the parallels below

freddie freeman also showed up in parallel fashion

but most of the cards i chose were not dodgers.

there was some "fake" vintage from 2021 topps heritage by way of mini die-cuts

some real vintage by way of 1970 and 1971 fleer laughlin world series cards

and some "not quite" vintage from the early 1980's

the 1985 donruss dave winfield/don mattingly card was a hot commodity in my neighborhood back then. this is the first time i've seen the card at a show in probably at least 30 years.

the junk wax era was represented, too, with a 1987 donruss greg maddux rookie

there were parallels numbered on the fronts

and parallels numbered on the backs

and i had a lot of fun just digging through the variety. i found a vein of thicker cards that included some dodgers as well as a 2019 topps museum collection manny machado copper parallel

for my double play collection.

same goes for this 2022 panini donruss brandon crawford dominators card

and i think i will keep this 2021 topps allen & ginter chrome world's largest - pacific ocean mini card

because it shows the northern california coastline - i believe somewhere around santa rosa. it's not near where i grew up, nor is it big sur where i've spent a lot of time, but it's still the ragged edge of the western world.

i'm not going to show the other 163 cards i took, but i will show seven more that i found interesting for one reason or another.

1999 topps stadium club kerry wood video replay

taking the lenticular card to the next level

2002 fleer box score albert pujols

second year pujols cards are still fun to find

2011 topps heritage minors garin cecchini red tint

topps went overboard with the tinting while trying to create a homage to an original element of the 1962 set. not sure why they didn't stick with green.

1998 stadium sports publishing mickey mantle hologram promo

oddball mickey!

2022 panini prizm bryce harper stained glass

it doesn't scan the best, but it lights up in the sun.

2009 topps kazuo matsui missing foil

i had never seen one of these in person before

2021 topps now brennan davis

a ken griffey jr cameo?! a no-brainer for 58 cents!