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!

last gasps

here we are in the middle of june, heading officially in to summer as of today, and the baseball season is in full swing. this year feels a bit different to me thanks to the vast reduction in the number of card releases that have occurred so far - even when you count the 2022 products that were pushed in to this calendar year.

with panini losing their mlbpa license and fanatics streamlining the topps umbrella of products, i figured now would be a good time to share some of the "last gasps" we've seen from panini and 2022 products in general.

i purchased a big lot of panini stuff sometime last year due to the fact that there were some dodgers shown in the listing images, and i wasn't disappointed. these cards are from 2022 panini absolute hobby:

mookie betts icons insert

sandy koufax icons red spectrum parallel insert

andre jackson rookie force relic

dennis santan tools of the trade relic/patch auto

kudos, i guess, to panini for showing santana as a dodger even though he was a texas ranger for the last part of the 2021 season and all of 2022. he's currently a met.

of those players, only sandy koufax stands a chance to be in panini product at this point, but he hasn't shown up yet (2023 panini donruss is, i think, the only 2023 product to be released so far).

here are some from the retail version of 2022 absolute:

roy campanella

cody bellinger

and betts

betts shows up again in my collection with this 2022 panini chronicles xr card

this 2022 panini diamond kings aficionado card

and this 2022 panini donruss unleashed pink fireworks insert parallel card

i think panini is running out of animals to use on the unleashed cards.

moving on to 2022 panini donruss optic, here's a walker buehler lights out insert

and now back to 2022 panini chronicles for this freddie freeman spectra holo parallel

more holo parallel craziness with a 2022 panini donruss holo pink kenley jansen card

and a 2022 panini select holo parallel of julio urias

here's a trea turner 'extreme team' insert from 2022 panini absolute

and a regular old base card of sandy koufax from 2022 panini diamond kings

one of my favorite things about 2022 cards was seeing albert pujols in more releases as a dodger, including 2022 panini absolute - in base

and insert form

along with 2022 panini prizm

koufax and pujols may continue to show up in panini product, as their only options are retired players and prospects beginning in 2023. 

these new releases will look a lot like 2022 panini prizm draft picks, from which this peter heubeck card comes

this is a burgundy cracked ice prizm card, numbered to 23

can't wait to see more peter heubeck cards in future panini releases!

2023 has also seen the release of some 2022 products, so here is a look at some other sorts of "last gasps". i picked up a few dodgers from 2022 bowman platinum

just in case this was my only opportunity to see joey gallo as a dodger. bowman platinum may have come out in december of 2022 now that i think about it, but i didn't pick up these cards until 2023

i also picked up some 2022 topps finest dodgers

and i know these were released in 2023.

in fact, it wasn't until april of this year that we saw 2022 topps stadium club chrome hit the market, and so far i've added a few of the dodgers to my collection:

mookie betts

walker buehler

roy campanella

will smith

and a joey gallo xfractor

i am usually more interested in the new photos used in the chrome set, but i did pick up vladimir guerrero's card

which uses the same photo as the regular old stadium club set.

so by now we've seen the last gasps from panini in terms of current player sets, but we are still waiting on at least one 2022 release - that would be topps chrome platinum anniversary. and i think that 2019 upper deck chasing amy is still "tbd" as far as its release date. someday, maybe.