smaller fish from the rivercentre card show

growing up in the 1970's and 80's, video games were a huge part of my youth. we didn't have pong, which got its own card from 2021 topps heritage

but we did have a single console game centered around tanks that worked through a sort of maze firing at each other. we later skipped the atari 2600 and went for the atari 800 computer and then spent an ungodly amount of time playing centipede and frogger in our family room. when i wasn't sorting my baseball cards, of course.

the heritage card was one of many i picked up at the semi-annual card show in st. paul last month, in addition to the dollar box cards i shared previously in this post.

i began that show by picking out sixty cards from a dime box plus eight from a quarter box for 8 bucks. these boxes were sorted by team which was great. i found a number of dodgers for my collection, including 2022 panini capstone summit inserts of mookie betts and freddie freeman

and a pair of 2023 topps chrome sapphire edition cards of walker buehler and tony gonsolin

along with a 2023 bowman insert of andy pages

i learned recently that his last name is not pronounced as "pages" like a book.

there were a number of numbered cards that i grabbed, including a couple of dodgers

and some others that i can use in trades.

i grabbed a couple of insert cards that would fit in rex ryan's collection from 2022 topps

including a rare dime box appearance by mike trout.

the higher priced cards included parallels such as these

all former dodgers at this point, but still dodgers in my collection.

this seller and i bonded over the simple joy of sorting cards. he got a wistful look on his face while talking about it, in fact.

i also took 20 cards from a 50 cent box that i got for seven bucks. these included run of the mill parallels like a 2021 topps gypsy queen mookie betts green

and the chrome version of the 2021 topps update 1992 redux clayton kershaw card

i also found a fair amount of heritage in this box, including a 2024 emmet sheehan card

for the team set. in all, i didn't see a whole lot of 2024 heritage at the show which was somewhat surprising as it was the newest release at the time.

other heritage sets were represented, including the atari card above and 2021 high numbers with roberto clemente

and 1972 world series

inserts. i am sort of annoyed that these sorts of cards didn't happen with last year's heritage, because joe ferguson deserved a card for his throw from the outfield in game 1 of the 1974 world series to nail sal bando at the plate.

i also grabbed a couple of (very) base relic cards from 2021 panini donruss

the pache goes into my trade pile with sluggo, and i have a soft spot for keston hiura and hope he turns his career around. zot!

this seller told me that he spent thursday (i was there on friday) going through the bargain boxes of other dealers to populate his box, so i am guessing that these were all dime or quarter cards at the time he bought them.

speaking of dimes, i had two quarters in my pocket and so picked five cards from a true dime box that another seller had off to the side of their setup. this was a classic dime box with stuff that had probably been in there for 20 years or more. here's what i took:

1995 topps stadium club clearcut greg vaughn

1995 topps stadium club ring leaders will clark

1999 upper deck century legends memorable shots carlton fisk

and kirk gibson

and 2017 topps gallery canvas sean newcomb

the two century legends cards go in the name/number on the back mini-collection. the others include an acetate card and the most pacific looking insert topps has ever produced, and a card for sluggo. after i put down my fifty cents, the seller somewhat jokingly told me to "take some more" cards. i wasn't sure if they were serious, so i didn't follow through.

i found a fifty cent box from another seller that netted a couple of dodger needs, including a 2020 topps gallery jackie robinson short print

and a 2020 topps update mike piazza turkey red chrome parallel

along with a couple of other hall of famer cards:

 2020 topps gallery rickey henderson hall of fame gallery

and 2022 topps heritage hank aaron 1973 comics

which includes an eddie mathews appearance. i paid the full price of $2 for these! 

last, but not least, i took 3 cards from the 3 for $10 box that another seller had laid out. with this box, i limited myself to three cards and didn't pick any dodger cards. or any cards that i think will ultimately stay in my collection to be honest. they were more cards that intrigued me. like....

2012 leaf history of baseball jim colborn cut autograph

here's the back

this card amused me because colborn added the notation of "major league pitcher". i would love to know the background behind the source for this autograph. was he at a mixer? a celebrity golf tournament after party? did this come from a nametag? so many questions. as for colborn himself, he is a former dodger pitching coach with whom i've had a short interaction so the card spoke to me beyond just the interesting inscription.

2018 topps gold label lucas sims gold framed autograph red #/25

another one that will likely be added to the sluggo pile. wish i could find a similar card of a dodger in these boxes!

last but not least, here's a 2016 leaf perfect game yellow printing plate auto 1/1 of jo adell

and the back

adell is still only 25 years old, and is set as the angels' primary right fielder this year. he's on pace for just about 30 home runs, and i am rooting for him and prospectors everywhere that he breaks out! at any rate, a signed printing plate for $3.33 is not a bad deal as far as i am concerned.

i have some cards from one more seller at this show to share and then i'll move on to my visit to a houston card show and what came out of that. stay tuned!

filling the lux-ury gap

anyone else remember heaven 17? glenn gregory's band from the early 1980's? they had some modest success and gregory was even featured in band-aid's "do they know it's christmas?" charity release. anyway, i was a pretty decent fan, and their album "the luxury gap" was one of my favorites of the day. these days, the luxury gap i've been noticing has to do with the haves and have-nots when it comes to owning gavin lux cards.

i bought way more 2020 topps flagship than i had originally intended due in large part to lux's card evading me in my first several purchases. i'd been similarly shut out with heritage (his solo variant) and gypsy queen and other releases (other than opening day base for which i purchased a complete team set).

thanks to nick, however, who previously sent me a flagship lux, i now have three more cards of the dodger rookie.  there's 2020 topps gypsy queen:

2020 topps opening day spring has sprung insert:

and 2020 topps mlb sticker collection:

lux-urious!

nick also sent me some double play turn needs, including a 1995 topps stadium club alex gonzalez

and a couple of 125th anniversary parallels from the 2004 upper deck all-time heroes set - ray boone:

and rennie stennett:

i don't recall topps celebrating the 125th anniversary of major league baseball in 1994, but they sure came out with guns blazing last year for the 150th, including gold foil parallels.

last card to show is one that had been sitting as the non-dodger "bonus" want on my nefarious nine list for quite a while. i think i first saw this card on nick's blog, actually, and he said that someone sent him an extra, so now i no longer need a 1995 score pat kelly card

now that i have the card in hand, i'm not 100% sure that it's a double play turn given what looks to have been a head first slide by the base runner. it's still a great shot of keystone action, so i'll allow it in to the dp binder.

kelly has been replaced on the nefarious nine list by a 1986 leaf dusty baker want. hopefully i won't be waiting on johnnie b. for quite as long. remember, you will be rewarded! as for nick's reward, i've already sent a return pwe and have another stack building as we speak!

thanks nick! glad to be continuing with our trading!

top 5: vladimir guerrero

so, here i am stealing a premise from nick at dime boxes.  it's been a long time since one of my favorite players has made the hall of fame.  in fact, outside of paul molitor's induction in 2004, none of the players - dodgers or non-dodgers - that i considered to by my favorites have made it in to cooperstown.  sunday, vladimir guerrero, who at one time was my favorite non-dodger player, joins the hall of fame.

i've kept my big daddy vladdy pc even after dismantling almost all others that i had built since the late 70s and figured i would share what i consider to be the five favorite cards in my collection.  this list does not include autos or relices - just good ol' base cards plus one insert.

had i stuck to just base cards, that 1999 topps gallery card up top would be number 5, but it got edged out by...

5. 2010 upper deck biography

this is just such an unusual card that it forces its way on to this list.  it is indeed a vladdy card (celebrating the game in which he hit his 399th and 400th career dongs), but features him blurred in the background as he circles the bases, leaving matt garza in focus instead.  this is actually guerrero's 399th career home run, as russ springer relieved garza and coughed up vladdy's 400th career dinger five innings later.  still, it's not often that the pitcher's shame is featured on cardboard.  imagine a dennis eckersley card showing him in full whiplash mode as he watches kirk gibson's home run fly into deep right field.  that would be awesome stuff.  just like this card.

4. 1998 topps

it's staged and not so original (hello, 1995 topps stadium club tim wallach), 

but still a great image and captures guerrero's signature smile as opposed to wallach's grimace.

3. 2008 upper deck 

it was a bright, sunny day in anaheim when this photo was taken, and it shows vladdy giving angels' third base coach dino ebel a high five.  i like this card because of the colors - specifically the white and red of the uniforms contrasting with the green and brown of the field - but also because there is joy there.  and it doesn't hurt that i can see guerrero's loping gait come alive in this photo (one of his legs is longer than the other, don't you know)

2. 1995 bowman

rookie card alert!  despite the 'phantom zone' design that bowman stole from 1994 upper deck, this is a great card - rookie or not.  i really like that it was the first look at guerrero with a bat and it featured his throwback gloveless approach to hitting.

so, it turns out that nick and i have similar thoughts.  my 2-4 also appeared on his list.  however, with 1998 topps being number one on nick's list, we differ on the top spot.  here's my choice:

1. 1998 upper deck

this is one of my favorite cards, period.  vladdy is happy, he's signing autographs, and it's a sunny day in dodger stadium. when i first saw the card, i thought it was great and that the only way it could be better was if guerrero were wearing dodger blue.

this card

that also shows vladdy in dodger stadium didn't qualify for the list as it is actually his brother's card, but it is worth an honorable mention.  and, had vladdy received a true final tribute from topps flagship, it probably would have been on the list, but i am still happy with the five cards i chose as my favorites.

by the way, here's the list of vladdy cards with the ones i own in strikethrough text. feel free to send me any ones that i still 'need' in trades!

what do you think? any other cards of the new hall of famer that should be on this list?