Cardbarrel Round-up

Let's take a look at the remainder of my first ever Cardbarrel purchase on this snowy/rainy Tuesday, shall we? 

So far I've shown off a big batch of Xander Bogaerts cards, and a nice run of '80s Red Sox.  I needed a few more cards after that though in order to hit the $25 mark that is required for free shipping...

I really like the Bowman Heritage release that Topps put out last year.  I believe it was an online-distribution thing, though I don't do a good job keeping tabs on that sort of stuff.  In any event, the simplistic design echoes some of the earlier Bowman releases from the '50s.

I was happy to find that some of these were available cheaply, and ended up grabbing a Michael Chavis RC...

...the now-departed Mookie Betts...

...and JD Martinez.  Only when I got these in hand and added them to my collection on TCDB did I learn that these three in fact comprise a complete Red Sox team set.  Score!  These might be some of my favorite basic Red Sox commons that I've picked up in some time.

Lastly, on the Red Sox front, I looked at Rafael Devers cards.  He's my second favorite player on the current club after Bogaerts, and the youngster appears to have a very bright future ahead of him after last season's showing.  Because of that though I think collectors have woken up a bit to him, and his cards tend to demand more money on the secondary market.

I was able to grab this 2017 Topps Heritage Minor League issue though for less than a buck, which is cool as I've had this one on my radar for a while now.

While I was at it, I snagged his 2020 Topps Heritage card also.  This is not only my first look at 2020 Heritage in hand, but my first baseball card from the 2020 season, period.  I'm not into modern cards enough to try building any sets by hand, but I do like these enough that I'll probably seek out the other Red Sox players (maybe even in future Cardbarrel orders!).

After all those Sox cards I was still a couple of dollars short of the $25 mark, so I decided to add a few singles from a set I'm appreciating more and more with each passing year; 1973 Topps.

I just looked at all the available singles that were in EX-MT condition, compared what was available against what I had in my collection on TCDB, then starting adding any of the cheapest commons (40 cents) to my cart.

This is a set I'd love to someday complete, so I wasn't really considering anything when adding these other than cheap cost and the fact that I didn't yet have a copy of any of them.

I think my favorite thing about this set might be the backgrounds.  I mean in these first few cards alone we've got a police officer, fans, palm (and evergreen) trees, outfield wall signage, and more.

This Ken Boswell is in particularly mint and vibrant shape!

Love the hat and shoulder patch combo on Jesus Alou's card.

Also a big fan of the Angels' jersey with the halo over the lower case 'a'.  Cool stuff.

Another great background on Reggie Cleveland's card.  Looks like either an apartment building or hotel?

Closing it out is this fantastic Sandy Alomar card.  I was inspired to pick this one up by a fantastic post on the great blog Nine Pockets.  If that one's not on your daily reading list yet definitely add it!

So there you have it, that at last completes my first purchase from Cardbarrel.  A satisfying experience for sure, and I could definitely foresee myself putting another order in at some point in the future.

Thanks as always for stopping by!