Dollar Box Haul!

A few weeks back I stopped by the local hobby shop to find a few cards to fill out trade packages. While I was there I raided the dollar boxes and left with 14 cards for myself.  Here's my haul, in no particular order...

I think every sports fan has memories of players who, although they weren't on your team, were so amazing to watch that you couldn't help but be amazed.  For me, Hasek was one of those players.  One of the absolute premier goaltenders during some of my formative hockey years in the mid to late '90s.  I picked this one up because I've nearly completed this SP base set, but had none of these inserts.

This 2001 Topps Archives card is my 225th unique Nolan Ryan card.  Not too bad given that I don't particularly search out his cards all that often, especially lately.  The 1978 Topps card depicted on this one is a card that I had in my childhood collection, and was always a favorite of mine, so I couldn't leave this behind for a buck.

Remember the glory days when inserts were serial numbered to 10,000 copies?  Cheap gimmick, but I'm still glad to own one of the 10,000 out there.

Here's one that will be appearing on my other blog at some point, and on-card autograph of Nelson Emerson from the '95-96 Be a Player set.  This was actually from a 3 for $10 bin but the shop owner was kind enough to let me  have it for a dollar.  Maybe a boring card to some, but I was perhaps more excited about this one than any other in the lot, as Emerson is a player I've been missing from my Whalers autograph collection.

I couldn't leave this Topps/O-Pee-Chee Premier Gold parallel of The Great One behind for the price.  I figured this one was a decent deal, and I think when I checked COMC afterwards they were going for $2-$4 anyway.

I'm not a Fleischmann guy, or a Capitals collector, nor am I chasing this set.  I just couldn't put this one back for some reason.  I think it was the allure of the rookie card, and the fact that Tomas is a decent, 20-goal guy if he plays a full season.  I'll probably end up trading this one at some point.

I'm sure I overpaid for this 2001-02 Topps card, but I was drawn in by the Mario Returns subset.  I wasn't collecting cards at that time, so had no idea these existed.  This wasn't the only Lemieux card I added to my collection that day...

I also grabbed this one from the In The Game Decades 1980s set.  I'm interested in trading for the Ron Francis from this same subset if anyone's got one.

Most of the cards I grabbed were hockey, but I did manage to grab two for my Red Sox collection, including this 2008 Topps Trading Card History insert of Jacoby Ellsbury (who raked in two game-winning RBI in the bottom of the 9th against Cleveland yesterday).

Here's another one that will be appearing on my other blog at some point in time.  Yes, I know the layout of the card is awkward and clearly meant to highlight a swatch or autograph, neither of which you'll find here.  Yes, I know the serial numbering is ridiculously high.  But, it's a Gordie Howe Whalers card I don't have for $1.

I was really happy to stumble across this one.  As I've said before any yellow parallel I find from this set for a couple bucks or less is automatic.  I think I'm into the double digits now.

I'm a total sucker for the Dufex technology, particularly the Pinnacle Rink Collection hockey parallels from the '90s.  Of course I was going to grab this one of probably the best pure sniper I've ever seen play in person.

Here's a Jagr rookie I didn't have, from the 1990-91 Score Rookie/Traded release.  I picked this one up before the Bruins acquired Jagr, so I guess this trip was more than a few weeks ago.  Time certainly flies.

In closing, my absolute best score of the day.  This Boggs Donruss rookie has been high on my Red Sox want list for quite a while.  When I found a mint copy for $5 in the display case I was psyched, but to my amazement the owner charged me just a buck for this one as well!  I really need to get to the hobby shop more often...