Black Friday Card Show!

This morning, while the general public was stampeding and playing "discount TV tug of war" at Wal-Marts across the country, I killed a few hours at the local card show.  This particular show seems to get larger, and more popular, each time I make it up.  Today there were between 80 and 90 tables, the place was jammed, and money was exchanging hands everywhere you looked.  Anyone who says this hobby is dying is just plain wrong.

Anyway, for me today's show ended up being all about "the smalls".  I didn't find any big additions to the collection, and the most expensive card I picked up was $4.  The Bowman Chrome Henry Owens mini at that top of the post set me back a quarter.

Seemed like a decent price for these cards, which I'd yet to see in hand prior to today.  Enough so that I picked up a pair of Twins from the same box to send off to Brian at HSCA at some point.

These are an odd size, just as tall as a standard card but significantly slimmer.  This trio actually came from the "dollar box grandma" I've referenced in prior posts.  Of course I raided her legendary dollar boxes as well today, but that's for another post.

In the rear corner of the room I found a dealer who ended up being my favorite table of the day.  He had all kinds of heavily discounted cards from all the major sports, with most of his stuff being in the $.50 to $5.00 range.

On a side table behind his $.50 baseball boxes was a binder loaded with 1972 Topps baseball for 25 cents per card.  Sure, they were all lower series cards, and the majority of the HOFers were picked clean, but there were some gems to be found nonetheless, like this Billy Cowan halo card, which is one I've wanted to pick up for what seems like forever now.

I'd imagine there wouldn't have been much here for folks who are well on their way to completing the '72 set, but since I had probably less than 50 cards from this one before today I fared pretty well.

Condition is pretty solid on most of these.  Sure, there's a dinged corner here or there, but they are certainly good enough that I'll never feel the need to upgrade them.

I was really able to load up on that second tier of stars.  Names that may not necessarily ring a bell with a young fan nowadays, but guys that enjoyed really solid careers.

That doesn't mean I didn't end up with any HOFers from the discount binder.  Gotta love a card featuring Hammerin' Hank from his playing days for a quarter.

Look at those chops!

I was really happy to find that the Bill Buckner All-Star Rookie card was still in the binder.  I've long admired this one on other blogs, felt great finally landing my own copy.

One of my favorites has to be this Dick Williams sporting some sweet early '70s Oakland A's gear.

I've always liked the playoff/World Series subsets, and Game 6...

...Game 7...

...and the post-World Series celebration card were all available.  This one in particular is just great.  The further I got into this binder, the more I was starting to feel the way Manny Sanguillen looks in this photo.

Airbrushed Alomar.

Turns out I already had a copy of this Boots Day.  Whoops.

Same with this one.  Both are available for trade.

New Red Sox card from '72 Topps with a sweet little league field backdrop and a mystery stain in the top corner?  Sure!

The last of the '72 Topps I grabbed was this Luis Aparicio In Action card.  Filled a significant gap in my '70s Red Sox collection with this one.  If you're keeping score at home, that's 22 cards from this legendary set for a whopping $5.50

1972 Topps cards weren't the only thing going for a quarter at today's show.  A few tables down there was a guy with an entire Rubbermaid bin full of loose packs at 25 cents each.  Most of it was junk in its purest form (1990 Donruss, 1988 Topps), but with enough digging I unearthed some packs that seemed worth the gamble.

When I cracked open this 1993-94 Topps Premier pack, Hartford Whaler Yvon Corriveau was staring at me from the top, confirmation that I'd made the right move in grabbing this one.

Of course I got some scrubs in the pack, but can I really complain for a quarter?

The Whalers and the Nordiques in the same pack, I felt like I was 8 years old all over again opening this one.  Worth the price of admission just for the stroll down memory lane.

My one-per-pack Gold parallel was nothing special, center Brian Bradley of the Lightning.

HOFer Brian Leetch was easily the best player in the pack.

The lone net-minder in the pack was this Felix Potvin Super Rookie, a card I would have been beyond excited to pull back in the day.

The trio of Leetch/Potvin/Linden really saved this pack from total obscurity at the end here.

Unfortunately, this 1995-96 Score pack was a loss, as every single card had a giant ding in multiple corners.  I guess those are the risks you assume when you play the high stakes game of buying quarter packs that have been tossed around a discount bin.  Too bad too, as it had a couple of decent cards in Marty Brodeur and Dominik Hasek.

Here's another diamond in the rough from that discount bin.  I have hardly any 2000 Topps baseball in my collection, so I leaped at the chance to take home a pack of this for pocket change.

A strong start to the pack with speedster Kenny Lofton.

I'm not sure if there were a lot of them in this set, or if it's just the way the cards fell, but I seemed to pull a high percentage of multi-player cards in this pack.

I really wasn't following sports much around the turn of the century.  In the year 2000 I was too busy graduating high school and getting in all the trouble that goes along with that to pay attention to cards, so I have to say I don't recognize many of these guys by name.

Yeah, like I said, I really don't know most of these guys from a hole in the wall.

Alright, here's someone I recognize!  I liked Mike Mussina much more in his Orioles days.

This isn't an insert, Topps just used a ton of foil on the "20th Century's Best" subset.

I also got one of the two Series 1 checklists, which thankfully did not count as one of my promised cards in the pack.  I'll admit that wasn't the most exciting pack ever, but it was a fun way to see a set I know little about on the cheap.

This might be my lone head-scratching purchase of the day, as I shelled out 75 cents for this Gold parallel of Wade Miley that I'm sure I could have eventually gotten cheaper.  Oh well, my Red Sox collection count goes up by one regardless.

I was happy to find that a few different vendors had some singles from the recent Topps High Tek release available at reasonable prices.  I'm a sucker for acetate cards like these, and ended up with a handful.  This Bo Jackson is a Grass Pattern...

...as is this Jose Canseco.  A nice pair of sluggers from my youth.

A trio of Red Sox from this set came home in my stack also, Pablo Sandoval on the Dots design...

...a Matt Barnes rookie on the Grid design...

...and a Rusney Castillo rookie on the Circuit Board design.  I seem to be saying this a lot this year, but I think Topps did a great job with these.  I'll certainly be on the lookout for more singles on the secondary market.

Let's wrap up today's post with three cards from a 50 cent bin.  I was certain I didn't have this '82 Donruss Ozzie Smith, and I always enjoy picking up new cards of The Wizard, particularly from his pre-Cardinals days.

This guy really had some amazing deals in his 50 cent and dollar bins, and I spent more money with him than anywhere else as a result.  This Emotion Xcited insert of Super Mario had been on my want list for many months, and I never thought I'd find a copy for less than a buck.  I think it books at $8, so 50 cents seemed more than fair.

From Super Mario, we move to the son of one of his biggest competitors...

This one really made me smile.  I'd been looking forward to adding a baseball card of Wayne Gretzky's son to my collection, and in fact had picked one up on COMC a couple of months back.  It was nowhere near as cool as this Orange Wave Refractor though, which I couldn't toss in my pile fast enough.

I may not have landed any White Whales, or scored that long lost card that made my jaw drop, but considering everything in this entire post set me back less than $15 combined I'd say this was a successful show.  A nice enough way to spend Black Friday morning anyway.  This is also just the tip of the iceberg, I picked up a ton of cards to send out to trading partners and should also have a couple more posts of my own when I can find some more time for scanning...

One Card Post - A '54 Slaughter!

What:  1954 Bowman #62 - Enos Slaughter
Where:  COMC
How Much?:  $5.20

Why?:  One of those where the image just sold me on the card.  $5 is more than I'd typically spend for a non-Red Sox card, but in this case it just felt right.  There's a little wrinkling along the bottom, which you can see better along the bottom right edge of the scan of the card back below.  Still looks fantastic to me, and seemed like a steal for a gorgeous '50s card of a 10x All-Star and HOFer.

Hope all of you in the US had a great Thanksgiving!

New Sets & Shiny Things

The most recent PWE from Joe Shlabotnik to arrive here at Shoebox Legends World Headquarters was chock full of gems as usual.  Joe usually manages to surprise me with a couple of cards I've never seen before, but in this case he delivered on a couple of sets I'd never seen before.

The Al Leiter above is one example.  Most definitely my first 1992 Skybox AAA card, and I love it.  I mean, what baseball collector wouldn't love a card of Leiter with the Syracuse Chiefs that was printed years after Al made his MLB debut?  Looking at his stats, my guess is that his 27.00 ERA in 1991 is responsible for the time he saw at AAA Syracuse in '92.

Here's another set that had somehow escaped me until now; 1989 Star.  The four cards Joe sent me from this release are the first of their kind in my collection.  Anyone that collected in the '90s probably remembers Scott Cooper, but how about these other three guys?

Jim Orsag?!?!  Never heard of the guy, but I sure am glad I received this card as it led me to this great blog post about an epic dugout meltdown.

Can't say I've heard of Scott Sommers either, but it looks like '89 was actually the end of the road for him in professional baseball.

Rounding out the '89 Star cards is outfielder Ed Zambrano.  Ed actually did make it to the Majors, but not with the Red Sox.  The Cubs snatched him from the Sox in '89, and he'd end up playing in 75 games with them between the 1993 and 1994 seasons.

Let's move along to some sets I have seen before.  This Stu Tate is just my second card from the 1990 Topps Debut set, with the other being a Juan Gonzalez that I'm pretty sure I plucked from a quarter box at some point.  In a perfect world, every player who's ever taken the field or had an at-bat would have a trading card out there, but that's just not realistic.  Thankfully, Topps Debut helps us collectors get a little closer to that ideal with cards like this one.  Were it not for this set, Stu (who has two career games to his credit) would probably have been overlooked by the major card companies.

Finally, Joe hooked me up with a nice assortment of cards from the recently released Topps Update set.  The Whatever Works insert set contains just 15 cards, yet 4 of them are Red Sox players.  Go figure.  Thankfully Wade Boggs here is the last of that quartet that I had yet to track down, and this team collector can consider that set complete.

Joe was also kind enough to offer up any of the Chrome Update cards I needed from his box.

I shamelessly claimed five of them, putting me just shy of the 80% mark on the set at this point.

Joe, thanks as always for taking the time to craft a great envelope of cards that are right up my alley!  I dropped a return PWE in the mail for you yesterday which you'll hopefully get to enjoy over the long weekend...

Collection Cornerstones - My Oldest Hockey Card

It's been a while since I did one of these "Collection Cornerstone" posts.  The general premise is as follows...for the past year I've had my car paid off, which means a little extra cash in pocket each month.  I take 2/3 of that and stash it away for the next car, and the other 1/3 goes to a significant new pick-up for my collection.  The idea here is not to blow the card portion on a hobby box or something (not that I'm knocking that in any way), but to use it to land just one or two cards that are significant and stand out from the tens of thousands of other cards I have; cornerstones.

For this round I've got what is now, by a long shot, the oldest hockey card in my collection:

This one will always be one of the oldest hockey cards I own no matter what, as the "C55" tobacco set is among the first few hockey card sets ever released.  I've drooled over these miniature-sized beauties since I first received a reprint set as a kid well over two decades ago now, but never thought I'd be lucky enough to land a real one.

There's not a whole lot to the design, a basic color drawing of the subject framed by a couple of hockey sticks, with a nameplate along the bottom.  Simple, yet effective.  The hockey sticks give the cards a little more character than their T206 baseball contemporaries in my opinion.

In terms of subject, I certainly could have done a lot worse.  I was honestly just looking for the cheapest, certified authentic copy I could get my hands on at the time.  In fact, I didn't even bother to research Marty Walsh before I pulled the trigger on the transaction, but as it turns out he was a really solid player.

After his college hockey career came to an end, Marty signed with the Ottawa Senators, the team he's depicted with here.  During his five seasons with Ottawa, the club won three Stanley Cups, including one the year this card was printed up (1911), which is kinda cool. 

Walsh was a prolific goal scorer, even pacing the ECHA in scoring during his first season.  What is the ECHA?  Well, this card is so old that the NHL didn't even exist yet when it was printed up!  ECHA, the Eastern Canada Hockey Association, is one of the many predecessors to the modern day NHL that emerged just as ice hockey was really starting to take form as a profitable spectator sport.

In a nutshell, Marty Walsh was one of the best goal-scorers in the game just before the formation of the NHL.  He's enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame, having been inducted back in 1962.  If Wikipedia can be believed, which in this case I think it can, he left the game of hockey to start a cattle ranch, and sadly passed away from Tuberculosis at just 30 years of age.

Here's a look at the back, got a little glare going on in the scan from the PSA slab.  This one is in pretty great shape if you ask me.  Here's a better look at it:

Again, I'm digging the simple design here.  You're getting the player's name, a list of the teams he's played for, and some ornate border design.  All in all, a nice looking back for something that was printed up before World War I started.

This instantly becomes one of the more interesting cards in my hockey collection, and one I'll certainly cherish for a long time to come!

Saturday Night Smorgasbord

After a long week, I'm finally getting some time to relax on this Saturday evening.  While I watch the Bruins game on "DVR delay", why not clear out the backlog of scans sitting on my laptop.  No better place to start than this awesome Marty Brodeur Traxx parallel from last year's O-Pee-Chee Platinum set.

This card was one of the many I picked up last time I made it to the semi-frequent card show hosted at the Holiday Inn in Mansfield, MA.  That was many months ago unfortunately, but I still remember this being one of my best finds of the day.  I'd been after a parallel of Brodeur from this set since its release, I guess I just really wanted his short tenure with the Blues represented in my collection.  Plucked from a dollar box, this one was a real bargain!

That same seller had this 2015 Bowman Edwin Escobar Gold parallel in a box for just fifty cents!  Escobar didn't see any MLB action this past season, after logging his first two career appearances with Boston in 2014.  Nonetheless, this felt like a steal given that it's serial numbered to /50 copies.

Here's one I grabbed out of the dollar box at my local hobby shop a long, long, time ago.  George Crowe and his glasses are scanned at long last.  Can't beat '57 Topps.

Sticking with the hobby shop theme, here's one from the quarter box.  I'm not an Indians fan, anyone care to explain what the hell is going on with this mascot?

A nice early-career photo of HOFer Mike Schmidt on this SSPC release from the mid-'70s.

I bought this card on COMC simply because I couldn't believe how insanely cheap it was listed for.  $.78 was my grand total for a new 1954 Bowman card, if you can believe that!  Welcome to the collection, Solly Hemus.

This one was the highlight of a 6-card pack of 2009 O-Pee-Chee baseball that I recently selected from my rainy day pack stash for ripping.  Great horizontal card of a player who just wrapped up an impressive career.

How about some football cards?  While I don't actively collect the sport, the three cards I'm showing here were just too cool for this Pats fan to leave behind in a quarter bin at a show.

A couple of nice Stadium Club cards featuring Ty Law, and Drew Bledsoe getting crushed by a pair of Falcons.  Not surprising in the least to see Stadium Club's killer photograph translate to football.

Maybe not as nice looking as the other two, but I couldn't leave this Finest Ty Law behind either.

Here's a shiny card from COMC featuring ear-biter Luis Suarez.  Despite those on-field antics, I loved watching this guy score over and over again for Liverpool in his short tenure with the club.  One of the cards I wanted most from the Panini Prizm World Cup set.

I paid a little over a buck for this Justin Masterson mini, which Topps stamped and then re-issued just a few short years after it came out to begin with.  I know, I'm a sucker.

Here's a trio of Heritage Minor Leagues that were part of a small Sportlots order.

I'm always looking for ways to add new Carlos Correa cardboard on the cheap, and was more than happy to shell out the twenty five cents asking price for this one.

I'd forgotten about this Manny Ramirez card, was a no-brainer to throw it in from the same seller for just a few pennies more.

I went back for a third Holiday Mega Box, and wouldn't you know it, I pulled the Correa Chrome Update.  After picking up just three boxes and landing both the Bryant and the Correa Chromes, I'm done buying these at this point.  Already accumulated a few more Chrome Updates via trade (post coming this week) as well.  I'm down to just eleven of these needed at this point, which are all on my set building want list.  If you've got any of them I'm definitely interested!
 

At roughly a quarter of the 2015-16 season played, I can honestly say that as a fan I haven't missed Milan Lucic too much.

My scanner loves these Bubble Refractors from 2014 Bowman Chrome, and so do I!  Some of the best looking parallels to come out of any set in recent years if you ask me.  With just 99 copies of each card out there, it's unlikely I'll ever complete a team set.  Victorino here is my fourth to date.

This card certainly has a strange vibe to it after Tony's passing last year.  I can't believe I'm still finding Fleer Pro Visions inserts like this one that I don't have yet.

Here's a new addition to my Sox collection courtesy of the 2002 Upper Deck Vintage '71 Topps rip-off set.

I grabbed this one out of the quarter box at the LCS just because Flair was such a high-end set when I was growing up.  In fact, any Flair insert is pretty much coming home with me when priced at a quarter.

My newest Wally the Green Monster card.  Wally's pictured against the backdrop of the giant flag draped across the real Green Monster in the background.  I really get a kick out of the Mascots inserts in Opening Day, I hope it's one that Topps keeps around for a while.

It may not have scanned so well, but these Select Fire on Ice inserts look amazing in hand.  Conacher hasn't done much at the NHL level, and seems to be playing in Switzerland, but it's a cool card nonetheless given that it came from a quarter bin.

Here's another quarter bin score.  I have fond memories of these Studio cards that were made to resemble credit cards, and when you combine that with a chance to get another new Canseco Red Sox card you've got a winner.

Living in New England, and being somewhat of an amateur history buff, I wasn't going to leave this Samuel Adams chrome parallel on the counter at the hobby shop.  Adding to the appeal is the fact that it's numbered to /1776 copies.

Here's a super shiny X-Fractor of the Red Sox slugger who just announced he'll be retiring after the coming season.  On a side note, 2014 might be my favorite Topps Finest release in recent memory.  These things are just an explosion of color.

Alright, final card for tonight.  This Rainbow Foil Black Jagr was on the shelf at the LCS right near the Sam Adams chrome card from above.  I can't get enough of watching Jagr continue to deposit pucks in the net even at his advanced age.  In fact, I'm thinking of starting up an "over the hill" collection dedicated to guys like Jagr, Chris Chelios, Jamie Moyer, etc.  Basically anyone who seems or seemed to defy the aging process, and enjoy success at their chosen sport for far longer than any man should.

This one seemed like a great card to start with, since it's serial numbered to a scant /100 copies, and includes career stats (to date)!

That's all I've got for tonight, thanks for listening to my ramblings...