All Over the Map

Man, last week was something else. Work has been insane, and it's the primary reason that there's been less activity than normal here on the blog.  I'm very grateful for the long weekend, let's see if I can get back on track here with a random smattering of cards from all over the map...

Museum Collection is quite possibly my favorite parallel set of the '90s, so I was psyched to find this Chan Ho Park rookie in a dime box at a card show.  I know it's not "worth" anything, but it might be one of my favorite dime box pick-ups ever.  Just awesome.

This Larry Haney came from a quarter bin that the same dealer had.  I'm grabbing any Pilots card I don't have at that price, and the fact that it's a catcher was an added bonus.  The weird thing about this card is that Haney is actually a right-handed throw, this is just a reverse image of the exact same photo that Topps used on his '68 release.

This one came out of a repack box, and I liked it enough that I decided to keep it instead of throwing it in my trade box.  I think there should be at least one insert set dedicated to the best retiring players each year.

Pretty sure this one came from that same repack.  While I'm not a Yankees collector by any means, Tanaka is an interesting player and it's nice to have a decent rookie card.

Here's a quick trio of buybacks I picked up on eBay a couple of months ago.  Despite being the oldest of the three, this Al Smith was actually the card I was least interested in (though I still like it).

What really drove me to the lot was this fantastic Kent Tekulve.  I've had a copy of this one for a long time, so figured why not add the buyback version since the price was right.

The fact that the lot came with a new Red Sox card sealed the deal.  Not a bad trio of buybacks right there.

Here's one from the quarter box at the local hobby shop I hit up once a month or two.  I couldn't resist the photograph of Subban and Thomas shaking hands.

I feel I got a real steal on this Xander Bogaerts rookie.  It was distributed by Panini at the 2014 National Convention, and this one's the cracked ice parallel numbered to just /25.  My cost was less than $4.  Given the season Xander just had I doubt I will ever see this card so cheap again.

I watched a couple of copies of this Ron Francis Shadow Box card from Upper Deck SPx on eBay a long time ago, but they typically demand a pretty penny.  It took a few years, but I was able to land one for around $10 at long last.  These look really impressive in person, a great new card of the best Whaler of all-time.

If I had unlimited funds I'd love to chase a '49 Bowman baseball set.  As it stands, I pick up cheap singles when they fall through the eBay cracks for just a few bucks.  When one does just that and it's a Boston card (even when it's the Braves rather than the Sox), it's that much sweeter.

I've always loved this particular year's Starting Lineup baseball cards.  This is actually my original copy from the Starting Lineup I had as a kid.  I kept it unopened thinking it would be super valuable someday (ha!).  My dad recently gave me a big bag of many of my old figures that he rounded up while cleaning up the basement, and I decided to bust them open. 

While I'm keeping the card, I initially gave the figure itself to my wife to give to one of her 6th grade students as a prize or something, but quickly realized that Darryl's not exactly the world's best role model...

Ever make the mistake of browsing around eBay at night, and the next thing you know you've bought something that doesn't really fit your collection, and almost without even knowing why?  Well that's what happened with this one, I impulsively hit bid due to the interesting photo and low price (around $3 if memory serves).  I'll probably end up trading Carlos here someday...

A nice mini refractor of my second favorite player on the current Red Sox roster, outfielder Mookie Betts.  I've picked up a couple of really nice Betts cards recently that I plan to show off soon.

Here's another one from the quarter box at my local hobby shop.  Fleer Pro Visions inserts, from any year, are just great.  I have no idea why Greg Maddux is sitting on a rock in the ocean with giant Cy Young trophies floating behind him, but I like the card regardless.

This was an add-on to a Sportlots order I put in a few weeks ago, because who wouldn't want a card of a sliding Bernie Brewer for just 18 cents?

From that same order, an X-Fractor of my favorite overweight pitcher, Bartolo Colon.

A few weeks ago when I was on vacation I experienced one of my best ever vintage finds in an antique store a few towns over from where I live.  I posted the first card from that lot that day, and here's the next, another '52 Topps.  Like the first one, this one was marked at $20 but subject to the ridiculous 70% off sale, so set me back all of $6.

I confess to having known absolutely nothing about Fox when I picked this one up.  It appears he was a mediocre pitcher who struggled to stay on MLB rosters, but managed to for a few seasons.  Sadly, he was stabbed to death at age 34 in 1955, by a 20-year-old college student at a tavern that he owned in San Antonio, Texas.

When I ran across this Randy Johnson card in a quarter box I grabbed it immediately.  It represents my first card of The Big Unit depicting his time with the Giants, and also commemorates his 300th career win.

We'll close it out for today with another pair of Starting Lineup cards, this time hockey.  Both are of Jaromir Jagr, from the '93-94 figure, as each one came with two cards that year.

Like the Strawberry, these are my originals from when I was a kid, which makes them much more significant to me.

That's all I've got for today, feels good to get back in the swing of things though...