urbani sprawl

i believe most folks know of my love for o-pee-chee and the different variations that their sets included each year for players changing teams or retiring or what have you. i dedicated an entire blog to the full run of these variants from 1971 through 1988, for goodness sake!

within those variations, there were a couple of instances where a card referenced three different teams. joe morgan's 1983 super veteran card showed him with the colt .45s and the giants, and then announced his deliverance to the phillies. that was three teams somewhat by design, while frank tanana's 1981 card showed him as an angel, with his new team designation on the hat being the red sox. the "now with" text, however, referenced the white sox.

i thought of that tanana card when i found this 1996 leaf signature series tom urbani card at the monthly card show last month.

first, i noticed that urbani eschewed the space that leaf allotted for the autograph, preferring to sign elsewhere - just as wilton guerrero did on cards i shared in a previous post. once i got past that, i noticed the "trade from cardinals" text and the fact that this was actually a detroit tigers card. i decided to bring it home - the out of place autograph is a novelty worth a dollar i suppose, but i really wanted to get it scanned so i could share that it is a rare three team card.  

here's the back:

now all of a sudden, urbani is a member of the california angels!

according to baseball reference, urbani at no point was a part of the angel organization. he pitched for the tigers into august of 1996 before being sent down for the remainder of the season. after the season ended, he signed with the rangers. so, like tanana's, this three team card is due to an error by the manufacturer, but it's still an interesting anomaly. at least to me.

the birds and the betts

there was no monthly collector's club show in july here in the twin cities and after attending the august show a couple of weeks ago, i think i know why. the building that the show is held in is an old armory in a first tier suburb and has no air conditioning. it was stuffy in august and would have been unbearable in july.

at any rate, i found some cards as usual. i am sure that from the title you expect to see some blue jay or cardinal cards, but actually i was thinking about this 1977 hostess mark fidrych card that i found in a 5/$1 box

it is poorly cut but that's ok.

there were a bunch of hostess cards in the box, and i grabbed a couple others including this horrendously cut 1976 hank aaron

worth twenty cents for sure. still, i wonder if someone was using their toes to work the scissors with this one.

the other part of the title is more obvious - i added a few mookie betts cards to my collection at the show. here's a 2015 topps "robbed" insert

and a 2019 factory set exclusive all-star game variation

i was also happy to find a cache of 2022 topps uk edition cards, including the "career year" inserts that were only found in that release. here's betts' card from that set

and here is the lone dodger in the set, clayton kershaw

2014 was not a triple crown year for kershaw, but it was the year that he won both the cy young and mvp award.

this same seller also had dollar boxes that were really 71 cent boxes and then even less when all is said and done as this guy gives pretty good discounts.

i found a few parallels from these boxes such as a green foil miguel rojas 2024 topps card

and a 2001 fleer ultra tom goodwin gold medallion edition card

one of my favorite card finds was a 2017 topps rediscover topps buyback card of joel skinner from 1992 topps

i appreciate this card because back in 2001, i pulled a 1992 joel skinner card from a pack of topps. they were inserting buyback cards in packs back then, but not marking them in any way. so, while i beat the odds, what i really had was just another 1992 common. so, i appreciate the stamping of buybacks these days.

other cards of interest that came from this seller include a 2016 topps heritage clay buchholz card

it's not a variation as far as i can tell, but buccholz is wearing the 4th of july hat and uni from 2015

here's the original 1967 design but it's a diamond cut vada pinson card

i also randomly picked up a 1997 upper deck collector's choice ken griffey jr checklist

that explains the difference between a subset and an insert

i was an annual collector of collector's choice but i don't remember these checklists.

there's another regular seller with dime boxes that i typically spend some time with, and i found some keepers there this month. this 1993 pacific nolan ryan texas express 27 seasons card

goes into my retired number collection as a sort of header card. i suppose it could also be a lurker card as rod carew is featured along with ryan.

a couple of new to me double play cards include a 2023 topps heritage brandon drury card

and a 2013 topps asdrubal cabrera purple parallel

here's another 2013 topps purple parallel that i picked up - it's carlos pena

i have cooled my pursuit of tatooine cards, but the color combo on this card appealed to me.

i also found some vladimir guerrero cards for my collection including this 1998 fleer ultra kid gloves insert

and then there is one for my name/number on the back collection from 2023 topps black & white

my first thought when i saw this card was when did cody bellinger play for the rockies?

another seller had some cheap autos and relics, and i bought the 1996 leaf signature series steve sparks card

just because of the knuckleball grip he is sporting

there were some in person autos in the box, and while i tend to shy away from these, i did pick up two bob welch signed cards

and one davey lopes card

for the collection. those were just under two bucks apiece.

the last dealer i stopped at had vintage bargain bins filled with oddballs. i chose a 1963 topps tommy davis peel off

and a 1975 hostess twinkies don sutton panel

with plenty of black bar showing on the back

that was the most expensive card of the day for me with a tag of $5

the last card i bought was another "bird" - a 1975 fleer cloth patch old hoss radbourn card

featuring his famously extended middle digit. here is the back:

as i was asking the seller about reducing the price of the sutton panel, i heard the person to my left say my name. it was none other than brian from highly subjective completely arbitrary! i've met up with him at this show many times, but didn't think to check with him before heading out to this one.

as always, brian had some cards for me, which brings me to even more mookie betts cards!

2024 topps heritage white border parallel

2023 topps stadium club mookie betts chief fantasy professional insert

and a 2024 topps royal blue parallel

that also features freddie freeman

a non-mookie card from brian that was great to see was this 2016 topps bunt joc pederson moon shots insert

it's numbered to 50 which belies the low end product that bunt was thought to be back then.

right back where i started from

i took a detour while returning from texas in may and headed west to my hometown. while i was there, i stopped into the local card shop which is located on the same street but a couple miles south of the card and comic shop i frequented as a kid.

i'd been to this shop once before, and i went straight to their dollar boxes. one of the first things i found was a complete 1992 front row roy campanella all-time greats set

this was contained in a single sleeve, so it was a buck. same for this 1993 spectrum diamond club boston red sox set

yaz, doerr, dewey, freddie lynn, and luis tiant for a buck. this 1992 front row all-time greats set featuring buck leonard

was also a buck, and was still factory sealed.

as for singles, this purple parallel of vladimir guerrero's 2023 topps stadium club card

numbered to 75

was the card that convinced me to go through each of the boxes they had on the counter. i went on to find a few more decent cards, including a red parallel of aaron judge's virtuosos of velocity insert

from the same set, and this 2019 topps heritage high numbers juan soto candy lid insert

it's always nice to find a photo variation short print in the dollar box, even if it is from the 2021 topps set

and black border topps heritage parallels are great, too

even when they are a's.

i certainly didn't expect to find an elly de la cruz card in the dollar box, but there it was

it's a 2023 panini prizm insert, so not considered a true rookie card but still a good deal for a buck. and i will always pick up a numbered willie mays parallel for that price

especially when it's a (dodger) blue prizm parallel.

being in dodger country, i didn't expect to find many dodger cards in these boxes, but i did find a few. i was happy to find this 2023 panini prizm jim gilliam purple prizm parallel

which is also serial numbered, and a red foil parallel of will smith's 2023 topps stadium club card

i thought that maybe this 2022 topps gold label clayton kershaw card

was a parallel, but it's just the base class 2 design.

this 2010 donruss elite extra edition shawn tolleson status red die-cut signatures auto /50

is considered a dodger card because it says "los angeles" on the back. it's one of five autos i took from the boxes, and here's one of the others - a 1996 leaf signature series auto of two time dodger mike maddux

after i was through those boxes - i had pulled 45 cards - the owner of the shop brought out a consignment dollar box from which i took another five cards. one was this 2023 panini donruss pink fireworks jackson holliday insert parallel

holliday was back in the minors by this time, but i was still pretty surprised to see this for a dollar.

as i walked to the checkout, i felt the need to open a pack of something and 2024 bowman was really the only new release available at the time. i should have passed on the pack. the only card that was of any interest (and mild at that) was this justin crawford chrome prospects mini diamonds parallel

i was hoping for a paul skenes or even better, the pete rose short print, but came up empty. the shop owner gave me a bit of a discount, so i wound up getting the pack for almost free.

on my way out of town the next day, i stopped for gas and picked up a 2024 dodgers pocket schedule

i find it interesting that they went with neon this year. i guess it is the trendiest noble gas in 2024. it's always good to be on the west coast and i can't wait to get back there again!