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!

42 card pick-up

happy jackie robinson day, everybody!

i've been stockpiling cards for this post for quite a while, so buckle up!  i have a "42" mini-collection which includes players wearing number 42 in the post-jersey retirement era, not including players like mo vaughn or mike jackson who were grandfathered in and allowed to wear the number after april 15, 1997. yes, it's been 25 years since the number 42 was retired around baseball, but players haven't been celebrating by wearing the number for quite that long.

it bothers me a bit that the majority of the cards in my 42 collection, by far, are variations or inserts but it is what it is. here we go...

the first card up is one of those variations, but it's too great to pass up. it's a super short print 2013 topps chrome matt kemp photo variation

i don't think these come in refractor mode, so i lightened the scan. here's what the scan actually looks like

i have wanted this card for a long time, as it shows both my former favorite player and the outfield wall at dodger stadium celebrating jackie robinson day. the only thing that would be better about this is if it were just a regular base card.

here's a card that was easier to obtain - it's a 2010 upper deck biography insert of tim wakefield

who took a no-hitter in to the 8th inning on jackie robinson day, 2009.

gypsy queen is probably the most consistent brand these days for finding the jackie robinson variations. here are some from 2018 that i've acquired

ichiro

francisco lindor

yasiel puig

yoenis cespedes

khris davis

chris sale

ervin santana

the puig goes in the dodger collection. someday i'll see about picking up a second one for the 42 collection.

every once in awhile, topps will let a 42 card slide in to the base set. such was the case with the 2015 update yasmany tomas card and the 2016 update chad qualls cards, and it is the case with this 2018 gypsy queen mike moustakas card

2016 is the first year i recall seeing these variations, and there were some pretty random players selected for the honors. here are some of the ones i have in my collection - brett anderson

collin mchugh

wily peralta

adeiny hechavarria

mike moustakas

travis wood

and scott van slyke

in 2017, topps moved the 42 jerseys to their "salute" insert set. these were easier to find than the variations from the previous year which was nice. they continued that trend in 2018. here are some of the 2018 cards in my collection.

adam jones

bryce harper

dexter fowler

alex wood

corey seager

and here are some of the 2017 cards i have.

clayton kershaw

mike trout

nolan arenado

bryce harper

miguel cabrera

joey votto

eric hosmer

evan longoria

ryan braun

and andrew mccutchen

i enjoy seeing mccutchen wearing number 42. i wish topps would do a better job of including players of color in these variations. i don't really need to see a guy like ryan braun wearing the jersey. it's kind of like seeing jerry jones take a knee with his players. anyway, topps also created manufactured relic cards celebrating jackie robinson day in 2017, and i have the cutch card

from the set.

topps did it again in 2018, and i again added cutch

to my collection, in addition to adrian beltre

and matt kemp

too. i like this design quite a bit, and i have a few more on their way from comc at the moment.

here are a couple of 2019 gypsy queen variations - khris davis

and zack godley

the godley is my most recent jrd acquisition, but i have a few more on their way from comc, including the manufactured relics i alluded to above.

one card that isn't on its way is a second 2020 topps gypsy queen max muncy photo variation card

that one is in my dodger collection so i need another. i am also pretty sure that the blurry guy behind muncy is tommy lasorda.

aside from gypsy queen, topps now is the most reliable source of cards for this collection. i have this 2018 clayton kershaw card

and this 2021 ronald acuna/hank aaron card

in my collection. they celebrate performances that just happened to occur on april 15, but then i also have the cards developed to specifically note the special day across baseball. here are the 2017

2018

2019

2020

and 2021

versions of the jackie robinson day card. i am sure i will keep this going and pick up the 2022 version of these cards when they are offered tomorrow, but for tonight i am going to watch the dodgers and thank jackie robinson.

thank you, jackie robinson.