time to harvest the wheat

according to google, now is the time that wheat can typically begin to be harvested - in california at least. here in minnesota, it's july before the grain is dry enough to harvest. i didn't want to wait another month to show off these cards, however, since i received them from jon at pennysleeves back in january.

jon sent a "bushel" of zack wheat cards from panini cooperstown - both 2012

and 2013

i have those listed as "crystal" and "gold crystal" respectively. jon also included the green crystal

and red crystal 

cards from 2013.

zack wheat is the greatest player of the dodgers' pre-war era. he is still the franchise's all-time leader in hits, singles, doubles, triples, total bases, and games played. i have felt, for the last 40 years since i first saw the "ny" placards the giant had in their outfield for players like christy mathewson, that the dodgers should have a big "b" among their retired numbers for wheat.

wheat didn't travel alone - jon also sent the 2013 green and red crystal cards of roy campanella and pee wee reese

although campy's card is technically not a dodger card, i keep them in my dodger collection. note that i am still waiting for topps to put the image from roy campanella night at the l.a. coliseum featuring campy and reese and 100,000 candles on a card.

a couple more cooperstown cards from 2013 were included, such as don sutton's red crystal parallel

and jackie robinson's gold crystal card

this was all just amazing to receive. but wait, jon included some more cards!

1998 ud spx eric young (radiance)

and hideo nomo (spectrum)

plus a couple of 2017 topps high tek blackout cards of sandy koufax

and clayton kershaw

as roy hobbs said, "there's nothing like being in the field with the corn and the winter wheat", and there's not much better than receiving some great cards from a fellow collector. many thanks jon!

location matters

one is probably not likely to stumble upon cards from the 1985 minnesota twins 7-11 fire prevention set in a bargain box anywhere but the twin cities or greater minnesota, and so i wasn't completely surprised to find a few cards from this set recently at a suburban twin cities card shop. i picked up the checklist card

since it shows a double play turn on it. there is a kirby puckett card in this set that is in high demand, so forget about finding that one in a bargain box. 7-11 is making a comeback in the state after being gone for at least the last 25 years. maybe another regional set is in the future?

that checklist card was loose and unsleeved, which as far as i can tell means it was a nickel. same goes for this 1978 topps dodger team checklist card

it was a really nice example, and i always have a hard time not picking up 1978 cards when i see them for cheap even though i certainly don't need anymore of them. i wound up taking this dodger card and leaving the rest behind.

there is no rhyme or reason to these boxes, and i would imagine some of the cards have been in there for many years. i found a couple of sleeved dodger fleer ultra gold medallion parallels that i needed - mike blowers from 1996

and carlos perez from 1999

for a dime and a quarter, respectively.  i paid a bit more for this 1997 donruss mike piazza diamond kings insert

i had never seen it before as it is an insert and not part of the base set, and i was only buying topps back in '97.

i was aware of 1998 upper deck spx when it came out in 1998, however, but it seemed so high end that i didn't buy any. this raul mondesi spectrum parallel

sure is shiny.

the most expensive card i pulled from these boxes was this 2006 tristar prospects plus clayton kershaw insert

safe to say he lived up to his "protential" all right. i paid $5 for the card.

the most current dodger card i found of interest to me was this 2022 topps chrome platinum anniversary walker buehler blue prism refractor

there were a few parallels from this set in one of the boxes, but this was the only dodger. it looks pretty good with the color coordinated border matching buehler's hat and glove.

i found a partial braves team set of the 1995 score platinum cards. here's david justice's card

these are super sparkly and were a mail-in redemption thing. there was a partial white sox set in the box, too. i got a handful of braves for a buck.

the most current cards were from 2023 and included a red foil parallel of a phillies combo card from flagship

and a purple speckle refractor of nick castellanos from topps chrome

i was able to sell the combo card to cover about half of my purchase, which was nice.

one more shiny dodger card i found was this 1995 bowman's best mirror image refractor

featuring karim garcia and matt williams. sort of an odd pair for the mirror image theme, given these guys played different positions and hit from the opposite sides of the plate. still, it was a cheap refractor that i was missing from my dodger collection.

aside from the kershaw card, the other dodger card that cost me more than a buck was this karim garcia card

from 1996 leaf signature series. adding this card reduces my needs from this set to raul mondesi and wayne kirby. however, even if i had already owned this card, i would have still bought this particular one because i am thinking it may be one of the very first ones garcia signed. he signed it above the blank space which (as even taylor swift will tell you) is where you are supposed to put your name. the other examples of this card that i have seen show garcia signing correctly. i would like to imagine that this is a unique item but who knows.

i figure it won't be too long before i venture back to the lcs to see what else i might be able to find there and nowhere else.