Hobby Shop Highlights

I worked from 8am yesterday morning until past 3am this morning, so I'm short on sleep and on words at this point.  I guess the perfect way to get a post in on a day like today is just to lazily throw up some scans with minimal commentary.  So, here are a bunch of totally random, unrelated cards that have all come from my local hobby shop over the last 6 months or so...

Always happy to add a couple of beat up new '56s to the collection.

Jim Brady's got a random stain on his neck, but I still think this Dee Fondy card is a little worse for the wear.

There was a nice stack of Bowman Chrome cards from a few different years there on a recent trip.

Grabbed quite a few Red Sox that I knew I needed.

I don't really player collect at all, but I have decided that I want to at least get a small little collection of Bartolo Colon cards going.  I particularly like late-career cards like this one, that show his "impressive physique".  I just get such a kick out of the fact that there's a millionaire pro athlete that's in this kind of shape.  Not only that, but he's been around forever and is still a very solid pitcher even now at age 42!

I'm somewhat fascinated by this guy, you can definitely expect to see more of his cards in future posts...

Sometimes I wonder if I need to change my collecting approach.  My desire to get as many Red Sox cards as I possibly can resulted in this card, which I don't even like, ending up in my stack.  Let's move on to something more positive...

My favorite baseball players to collect when I was a kid were Will Clark and Nolan Ryan.  Because of that, I still get kind of excited when I can find a cheap new card of either of them to this day.  I think I have over 200 unique Clark cards now, and over 250 Nolan Ryans.  Not exactly impressive numbers, but I'm not very active in seeking them out either.

Museum Collection!

More Museum Collection!

Even more Museum Collection!  I wonder what Juan-Gone could be talking about to Jose here.  Would have seemed like an innocent enough card in 1995, but now you have to wonder...

I had no idea what this card was when I plucked it from the quarter box, just knew it was very shiny and loud.  Let's see some more quarter cards...

My Red Sox card count increases by four there, a dollar well spent.  The Okajima is my favorite of that bunch.

Also from the quarter box, I grabbed this one to send to Mark Kaz at This Way to the Clubhouse, or one of the other Piazza collectors I know.  Then I realized I really liked it a lot, and decided to keep it.  Mark's got a copy anyway, so it all works out.

How about a little hockey?  This Topps Traded Selanna was an easy pick.  Really wish Topps still had a hockey license.

Here's another Selanne, an insert from one of the mid-'90s Metal sets.

Another mid-'90s insert, this time for my Sox collection.

One more Museum Collection.  Beating a dead horse.

Well, that was disjointed.  I'm going back to sleep...