making good use of show time

i was fortunate to have the monthly twin cities collector club show come to my neck of the woods in july, otherwise i would not have been able to attend. as it was, i had just a small window of time to spend at the show, which is a smaller version of the regular show about 30 minutes away from me.

one good thing about it being a smaller show and further away from the larger metropolitan area is that it is less crowded. i was able to dig through my favorite seller's monster boxes largely unimpeded. this is the guy with the 7/$1 and 7/$5 boxes, plus a $2 box that evens things out. what i mean by that is that the dollar box or 7/$5 box is filled typically with cards that are more likely quarter or fifty cent cards. the $2 box has some bargains. and, he always discounts when you buy a decent stack.

most of what i picked up was from 2026 topps, as inserts and parallels have been slow to hit these boxes this year. you may be surprised that i am leading off with this bryce eldridge giants team color border parallel

but i like these cards. this one, however, i purchased with the sole intent of selling myself, and it wound up covering my entire expenditure at the show.

here's a blue holofoil jp crawford parallel

it's a great dp turn card, but the holofoil blots out the runner sliding in, so i decided not to add it to my double play collection.

from 2026 topps heritage, here's a jeff mcneil chrome blue refractor parallel

at one time, i considered starting a mcneil pc since he, like brooks lee of the twins, is from my neck of the woods. i decided against it, but i do now have a "hometown heroes" mini-collection. mcneil and lee aren't in it though, as i've limited that collection to people from my actual hometown(s) or who had an impact in those places. stay tuned for a post or two around that collection.

more 2026 topps parallels - more mets numbered stuff.

diamantes, to be clear.

here's a card i found interesting. it's a green rainbow foil parallel of a first pitch insert

that features a rays' subject at a yankee affiliated field. this card provides a nice record of the 2025 season wherein the rays played their home games at george steinbrenner field since the trop was damaged.

series two is out, so sun's out as well with the holiday parallels

and here's where the dodger content begins!

tyler glasnow

shows off the 2026 series 2 holiday base parallel, while edgardo henriquez and bobby miller

model the 2025 version.

still in 2025, here's a pink holofoil dustin may parallel (from 2025 topps update)

along with a 2026 version featuring justin wrobleski

one pink seems more purple-y than the other.

there were plenty of other parallels to be found - a diamante max muncy

a gold miguel rojas

and some silver crackle foil 1991 all-stars

plus a non-all star jackie robinson 1991 insert with the same parallel treatment

sometimes it seems like it's easier to find parallels than the regular base versions of these inserts.

here are a couple more cards i picked up - a 2018 topps topps now top 10 insert of derek jeter

and a carolina blue holo parallel of pete rose's 2023 donruss retro card

the jeter goes into my retired number collection as a "header" card as it documents his number retirement ceremony, and the rose is just one of those cards i couldn't put back. if i were a younger collector, i would want to complete a carolina blue holo parallel set, although the treatment isn't quite as nice on this retro design as it is on the regular set's design.

that was pretty much it for me at the show in terms of keepers. i was able to talk with brian from highly subjective, completely arbitrary for a bit, and i bought a "by the bat rack" card for him as part of my haul from this seller. he did me better, however, by handing over a nice stack of dodgers. i'll show those off in a post of their own - stay tuned!