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.

i missed the memorial patch for bobby bragan

nick from dimeboxedonia sent me some cards early in the summer. being a fellow vladimir guerrero collector, that usually means i am in store for some new vladdys for my collection. nick didn't disappoint, sending these nine new to me cards:

these cards cover just about guerrero's full career from montreal to texas - no oriole cards, unfortunately. what i added to my collection includes 1997 fleer circa, 1998 leaf rookies & stars, 1999 fleer tradition, 2000 topps gallery, 2001 upper deck pros & prospects, 2002 topps 206, 2003 upper deck game face, 2004 fleer legacy, and a 2010 bowman gold parallel.

all great cards, but it was the bowman that really caught my eye

i didn't recognize the patch on guerrero's right sleeve, so i went digging. i found a better view of it at getty images:

it's a bobby bragan memorial patch! the text reads "bobby bragan 1917-2010" as bragan passed away on january 21, 2010 - just a few weeks before the start of spring training. i had no idea that the rangers wore patches to honor the former dodger player, minor league and major league manager, texas league president, and longtime ranger front office employee, and so i am happy to add a card to my memorials collection.

of course, i went looking for a card that showed the patch a bit better, and settled on a 2010 bowman chrome refractor of vladdy

not the cleanest scan, but it will do.

bragan may be best known by many to have been one of the players who requested a trade from the dodgers when jackie robinson was added to the roster. he later rescinded that request and was a teammate of robinson's in both 1947 and 1948. he later managed in the majors and minors, including a couple of stints in the dodger organization where he encouraged maury wills to become a switch hitter. 

he left the dodgers after serving as walt alston's third base coach in 1960 to join the expansion team in houston as their farm director, but after a couple of years he found himself managing the braves in their last few seasons in milwaukee and their first in atlanta. after that, he went to lead the texas league and eventually joined the rangers in a public relations role in 1979, beginning what would become a 30-year stint in their front office.

i think it's great that the rangers celebrated the life of a baseball lifer with the patch, even though it was only worn during spring training.

nick included other cards for my dodger collection, including a couple of 1980-87 sspc baseball immortals of two other jackie robinson teammates - pee wee reese and don drysdale

plus a 1997 pinnacle certified hideo nomo card

a shiny 2022 bowman virtuosic vibrations wilman diaz insert

and a 2022 topps opening day albert pujols card

i want more pujols dodger cards! speaking of which...

that 2022 bowman pujols arrived in my mailbox last friday - the same day pujols hit home runs number 699 and 700. i figured i would add it to this post and congratulate pujols on the milestone. it was cool to see adrian beltre and dave winfield in attendance, with beltre being included in the celebration.  now back to more cards from nick.

nick and i share another mini-collection (along with jeff from 2x3 heroes wherever he may be), and that is cards showing the double play turn at second base. i received a few new ones for my collection, including this 1993 topps stadium club toys 'r' us box set carlos baerga card

and these six beauties

four of which are parallels.

great stuff as always nick - thank you!