New Nolan Ryans & Other Miscellaneous Cards

This past week I netted a card that I've wanted more than perhaps any other released in 2012.  Here it is:

I know it may not look like much, but I think it's kind of refreshing that one of my favorite cards of the year is just a plain old base card (albeit a short print).  It's exciting to me as someone who casually collects Nolan Ryan, especially given that it's the first time he's been included in an Allen & Ginter release since the inaugural set back in 2006.

Early on in my search for the card I ran into a dilemma though that is likely familiar to those of you without easy access to card shows.  I could find plenty on eBay for just a couple bucks, but did I really want to pay $3 or more to ship a card that cost me less than that?  In the end I took a different approach and placed low-ball bids on some short print lots that included the card.  I'd say the strategy paid off, as I ended up with a complete 50-card short print set for $9.99 with free shipping.  For just a few bucks more than the Ryan alone would have cost me I've now added some other vintage legend short prints to my collection...

...like Bob Gibson...

...the Iron Man...

...and Frank here.  I'm not sure if I'll ever try building this set, but if I do it will be nice knowing I can ignore short prints, and if I don't I'll certainly have plenty of good trading material.  I'd call that a win/win.

In the past few weeks I've added a couple of other Nolan Ryan cards, which were part of my childhood collection and were unearthed by my Dad: 

I've always wondered why Fleer chose this particular photo for Ryan's 1984 card.  This is not one of my favorite Nolan Ryan cards, but I'm grateful to have it regardless.

Here's Nolan's first Fleer card.  I like this 1981 card much better than the '84 above.  I remember this one fondly from back in the day, and I'm happy to have it back again after all these years.

Finally, his very first Donruss card from the 1981 set.  A decent action shot but I still think Fleer's effort was better.

While I'm at it here let's keep the ball rolling with some other random cards that have recently been scanned in and inventoried.  This '92 Stadium Club Doc Gooden is fantastic, what a shot.

Three 1992 Stadium Club cards, followed by three new Sergei Fedorovs for my player collection:

These three Fedorovs bring me past the century mark, now at 102 and counting.  Not bad for a collection that I ignore for the most part.

Here's one that I've wanted since I first saw it.  I love the Opening Day Mascot inserts, and Wally the Green Monster in front of the Green Monster was too much to pass up.  There are at least one or two other Wally cards out there I'd like to snag at some point.  I like that this card is something a little different that stands out among a sea of Red Sox cards in my collection.

Finally, I've landed two more cards towards my 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Retro set, both courtesy of Check Out My Cards.  Jason LaBarbera...

...and Mark Stuart.  These are getting harder and harder to track down the closer I get, and I'm now just 7 cards away from the 600-card series 1 parallel set.  If you run across any of these please let me know!

259 Ryan Kesler
339 Maxime Talbot
359 Jack Johnson
368 Gilbert Brule
393 Milan Jurcina
403 Tomas Vokoun
413 Trevor Linden