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!

there's sutton happening here

for what it's worth, every few months i search for don sutton cards. i'm mainly looking for his post-dodger oddballs that aren't in my collection yet, but will still bite on dodger sutton cards too! one of my recent searches turned up a 2019 panini diamond kings 1983 retro signature materials holo blue parallel

for a ridiculously low price, especially as it is numbered to only 10. 

that prompted me to keep looking, and i found some more decent deals.

that's a 2015 panini cooperstown red parallel numbered to 35

and that is a 2004 playoff absolute memorabilia spectrum parallel

this 2016 topps gypsy queen card

is a short print

this 2018 topps tribute card

is just the base

and a couple from 2021 - topps allen & ginter x

and a refractor parallel

from 2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary 

you may have noticed that all of the cards above are pre-perm sutton. that's not how i remember him, so let's see some curly hair!

here is a parallel from 2022 topps chrome platinum anniversary

it's a yellow ray wave refractor, and it makes me think of corn.

panini has been including sutton in recent sets...

that's a 2024 panini crusade red parallel, and this

is his 2024 panini donruss diamond king insert. sutton was a diamond king as a brewer in 1985, but never as a dodger, so this was the only card featured in this post that i went looking for specifically.

my searching found me looking at 2024 panini prizm cards, however, and i bit on sutton's ruby wave prizm parallel

i stopped short of rainbow hunting, though. at least for sutton.

i couldn't help myself when i saw tommy lasorda's card

from base to ruby wave and various colors and patterns in between.

i wish topps had featured sutton in last year's 1989 35th anniversary inserts, but seeing him in other releases is a pleasure, too.

something in the air

generosity has been prevalent in the blogosphere for a long time, and recently there were some giveaways and surprise envelopes from multiple sources. i figured it was time to highlight some of these instances that have furthered my collection.

first, the diamond king had a giveaway featuring shohei ohtani cards. i requested a 2018 panini diamond kings card

and true to form, kevin included a couple of extras. this is a 2017 panini black friday cody bellinger card

comc calls it rainbow spokes, tcdb calls it wedges. whatever it is, it's great!  and this is a 2022 topps chrome platinum anniversary max muncy card

platinum cream toile & rose gold refractor, and it's numbered on the back to 75.

kevin wasn't done there, as a while later, he offered up some paul skenes cards. i requested a 2024 bowman insert chrome prospect card

and once again, kevin included some bonus dodgers.

that's a 2020 panini chronicles phoenix ruby wave cody bellinger card numbered to 199, and this is a 2018 topps fire duke snider orange parallel card

numbered to 299.

thanks kevin - i hope the cards i sent your way made it there ok!

next up, rod from padrographs had posted that there were some mailings sent out from padrographs hq, and that one of them was a poster in a tube mailer. well, guess who got the poster?!

rod sent me the steve garvey "out of the blue" poster that looks like this:

mine isn't signed, but it was easier to find a photo online than to try to roll it out and take one myself. i have a couple other garvey posters that i need to get set up somewhere.

rod also sent some cards, including one of the garv

along with a 1982 fleer roger erickson signed card

there were also some unopened packs, including 2002 upper deck world series heroes. nice to see don drysdale on the wrapper!

i don't really believe in unopened product, so here we go. my pack included a duke snider card

plus some other folks who played in the world series at some point

other packs included two 1992 upper deck minors which yielded some fun content, including chad ogea in tailored shorts

these days a few players are wearing these "above the knees" pants for real. here's the immortal skeets thomas

with one of the better broken bat cards out there.

there was one dodger card in the packs - greg hansell

i already had this card in my collection, but i found someone who needed one for theirs...

that would be tom, from angels in order. the hansell came in handy because i was preparing a return envelope for tom thanks to him sending me some cards a couple of weeks earlier. he sent these three cards from 1992 classic update white travel edition

along with a 1993-94 fleer excel roger cedeno minor league card

and a 1995 upper deck minor league top prospects karim garcia future stock card

i don't typically seek out minor league cards so it's great to have someone sending them my way!

not to be outdone, tom later had a giveaway in which i was able to procure this card:

2013 bowman platinum yasiel puig prospects chrome green refractor /399. it's really shiny and a great lead-in to st. patrick's day.

thanks kevin, rod, tom, and everyone else out there for bringing the generosity to the blogs. i am feeling inspired to do another "almost free stuff friday" in the near future. stay tuned!