why yes, i do know the way to san jose

this is old news to most, but i recently met up with fuji in san jose. we went to a card shop together and while there, snapped photos of our wallet cards together:

i've often thought about switching my wallet card from a 1974 topps steve garvey card to a 1978 topps steve garvey card, but this is the only wallet card i've ever had and when i first wanted to put one in my wallet (back after mickey mantle passed away) i didn't have a double of the '78 card. so, i think it will be this '74 masterpiece until it (or i) disintegrates.

this was not the first time i've taken a wallet card photo at a meet-up, but i sure wish that the idea had come to me sooner so that the portland cardcon nw i was a part of in 2018 were documented in a similar fashion.

i browsed for a bit in the shop and asked if they had any bargain boxes to dig through. unfortunately, they did not. they had a bunch of supplies and wax and singles under glass, however. i mentioned to mark that i hadn't busted a box of anything in a while, and that the last time i bought a box at a shop was january of 2019 when i bought a box of tier one and clearly authentic. i decided to roll the dice again and bought a box of the 2022 version of the latter. 

one card and done:

here's a better photo:

it's a tek auto of one-time dodger farmhand yordan alvarez, numbered to 50. not a bad card to have - i told mark better than a phil hughes pull - and so i am going to hang on to this one for a while.

after leaving the shop we headed to in-n-out and talked about the hobby. it was a great visit.  of course, mark and i traded packages, and i opened mine when i returned home. i'll share a few of the items, all of which are somewhat oddball in nature.

how about some hockey?!

i don't really publicize it, but i have kept my luc robitaille and wayne gretzky player collections that i began in the late 1980's. i bought a bunch of hockey cards from 1989 through 1994 or so. i still have most of the cards that once populated my player collections but am planning to get rid of them one way or another this year.

those cards are from 1997-98 pinnacle zenith, and this one is from 1998 pinnacle zenith

they are all 5x7 cards, and all are "ripped" meaning that there used to be cards inside of these things. thankfully, whomever owned these cards didn't actually rip them, but rather discreetly sliced the cards open on the back.

slightly smaller in size is this 1985 coke dodgers postcard of manager tommy lasorda

the only one of these i had seen before was bob bailor's, and he sent that one to me when i asked him to sign some cards through the mail. actually, his was from 1984, so this is the first 1985 postcard i've seen.

another postcard in the package was this john roseboro beauty

the roseboro is from 1962 based on the numbering on the back (50322), even though the person who originally bought the postcard wrote 1965 on it. 

that mystery is solved by the other postcard fuji gave me

i wish there were one of these for the 1981 world championship team (if there is i haven't seen it). the 1963 dodgers swept the yankees in the fall classic and won their second title in los angeles. the purchaser of this postcard, and i assume it's the same person who purchased the roseboro, wrote some notes on the back

and for that i am extremely grateful. they bought this postcard at the stadium in 1965 - either on friday july 23 or saturday july 24 as the dodgers dropped both of those games to the cardinals. that also means that they either saw don drysdale or sandy koufax pitch, as big d started (and homered) on friday night and sandy started (and pitched 9 innings) on saturday. both games went in to extras with neither drysdale nor koufax figuring in the decisions, by the way.

last item was this oddball - a 1968 pinco pennant and emblems pack

still sealed after 55 years! looks like this at one time belonged to tyler, and kudos to him for not opening it! here's the fifth emblem:

i couldn't find any information about these but having a sealed, complete pack is pretty much all i need to know!

mark is the 8th blogger and 9th blogosphere personality that i have met in person, and i am happy to add him to this list:

paul from carl crawford cards

brian from highly subjective and completely arbitrary (several times)

gavin from baseball card breakdown (twice)

madding from cards on cards

rod from padrographs

ken from cardboard hogs

daniel from it's like having my own card shop

mr. haverkamp

fuji from the chronicles of fuji

it would be great to add to this list, so please let me know if you are ever in the twin cities.

thanks for a great afternoon fuji!