the one where saturday morning errands included a stop at the card show

while there is no official twin cities sports card collectors club show in july, they promoted a show set for a july saturday on their website that was held in the town in which i live. while the regular shows aren't too far away, this one saved me some travel time for sure. with it being so close, i was able to wrap a visit into some saturday morning errands pretty easily.

i wound up with 25 new to me dodger cards from just two sellers. the space in the "mall" was fairly narrow, and the one regular seller with the good bargain boxes was set up across from the busiest part of the mall - a restaurant bustling with weekend brunchers. anyway, here are my top 5 pickups from the "hometown" show:

5. 2006 upper deck epic brad penny

i have never seen too many cards from this set out and about. the few cards i have from the set have been targeted relics or inserts, so it was nice to find a "base" card that was listed for a buck. i consider this card to have been a freebie, however, as i will explain later.

4. 2015 topps joc pederson career high autograph

this was in the $2 box that the regular seller had out on his table. it's a rookie card that, for some reason, lacks the rc shield. even though it is a sticker auto it was a good find for the collection. and, for what it's worth, the career high ops value there is a minor league stat for joc.

3. 2024 topps heritage clayton kershaw highlight black border parallel

i doubt that this card would have been in the dollar box if it were actually numbered to 50 (the print run), but i am not complaining. there were a couple other black borders in the box that i took home with me, too.

2. 2017 topps archives jackie robinson photo/no signature variation

a jackie robinson variation in the $2 box was another nice find. i don't know how this seller continually updates his inventory but i sure do appreciate it.

1. 1997 bowman chrome hideo nomo refractor parallel

it's not adrian beltre's refractor, but the nomo card is still a very nice pick up. it was marked at $40 but placed in a 75% off box by the same seller who had the brad penny card up top. i offered $10 for both and the deal was done.

the pederson, kershaw, and jackie cards all came from the regular seller, and when all was said and done, i had spent an average of $0.75 on each card i took from his boxes.

in other news, i am pleased to report that i will be attending the national this coming sunday. it will be the first national i have attended since the late 1990s when i went to one held in anaheim. it would be cool to connect with some folks so shoot me an email if you will be there and we can introduce our wallet cards to each other.

the ballad of the ballot

the hall of fame ballot is out and we can officially begin looking forward to the induction of adrian beltre. i am guessing he will go in as a ranger, but i, of course, think of him as a dodger. i think it was about this time last year that i finally picked up his most coveted (non-parallel) rookie card - 1997 bowman chrome #182

i've left it slabbed since it arrived. i have a tinge of remorse unslabbing a couple of cards so i've been leaving them be for a while. not that i've picked up many - maybe three in the last year.

in addition to beltre, joe mauer is on the ballot

and i would sure vote for him if i could.

there are a couple of interesting cases that have dodger ties - chase utley being one of them

utley is a borderline case for me. he compares well against some of the earlier era hall of fame second basemen like joe gordon, bobby doerr, or tony lazzerri and is actually not that far off from ryne sandberg. still, one could say the same thing about guys like lou whitaker and bobby grich who aren't in the hall of fame so i am not sure about utley.

the other former dodger of note on the ballot is adrian gonzalez

despite the best intentions of the 2016 topps update insert, gonzalez finished well shy of 500 home runs for his career - he hit 317 - and i don't think he has much of a chance to be inducted. he's in mark grace/don mattingly territory for first basemen which is still pretty good, just not hall of fame caliber.

of course, returning players like todd helton, billy wagner, andruw jones, and gary sheffield will get well deserved consideration too. i am looking forward to the announcement in january to see who will join jim leyland (elected by the contemporary eras committee earlier tonight) in the 2024 hall of fame class.