Put Your Sunglasses On

As collectors, we often go through different phases in what we're attracted to or in search of.  Lately, I've been on a shiny card kick.  Here are a bunch that I've picked up in recent weeks, courtesy of Sportlots and eBay...

I've shown a few different cards from this Donruss Optic set recently, just love the design.  Can't go wrong with future HOFer Yadier Molina either.

I find the catcher cards work best in this set, as it's much harder to tell that this is an unlicensed release when the tools of ignorance hide the fact that the jerseys and helmets are bereft of logos.

Another future HOFer here.  These first few are all standard "Holo" parallels, akin to Topps' Refractors, but shiny in a different sort of way if you ask me.

I feel like maybe collectors in general are not as hot on Charlie Blackmon because of the fact that he plays in Colorado, and got a somewhat late start to his MLB career age-wise.  I enjoy picking up his cards when I can find them on the cheap though, and that was certainly the case with every one of these Optic cards in today's post.

Moving into some Aqua parallels now, I believe these are serial-numbered to /299.  A nice enough looking Pedroia for my ever-expanding Red Sox collection.

In some cases I picked out the cards because I enjoy the player, team, or the look of the photo.  In other cases, like with Anthony Rizzo here, none of those things are particularly true but the price was just too cheap to pass on.

If I was going to pick up a Rizzo, might as well grab a Kris Bryant to accompany it.

Corey Kluber might be the least aesthetically pleasing card in this set.  Certainly high up there.  The lack of logos is absolutely glaring and painful here.  Not even sure I'll hang onto this card long term, but we'll see.

By contrast, Eric Hosmer doesn't look half bad!

Here's another photograph where, if you don't look too hard, you could almost convince yourself it's a licensed set.

Moving on now to some Blue parallels, starting with a guy who appears to have played his last game for the Cubbies.

Yikes, Kluber again?!  Of all the cards to have picked up multiple parallels of...

Whoops, here are a couple more Aquas that I missed in the first batch.  Manny Machado is not exactly a fan favorite, but I grabbed this one nonetheless.

Another guy who'll be in Cooperstown someday, the great Justin Verlander.

Another figure who's polarizing among fans.  I actually really like the way this Bryce Harper card looks.

Closing things out on the Optic front, here are no less than a dozen Orange parallels, all landed in a lot from the same seller...

Orange seemed like an obvious match for an Orioles card.

Chris Sale's card is right up there with Corey Kluber's in terms of the lack of logos being super noticeable.  I'll never really turn down a new Red Sox card though.

Pedroia makes his second appearance of the post, though I have to say I prefer the Aqua version.

JBJ!  I must be getting close to a completed Red Sox team set of these Orange cards at this stage.

Yeah, I love the image on this Perez.  I might have to try to complete a 9-pocket sheet of these in my shiny binder, each pocket with a different colored parallel.

Unlicensed or not, a serial-numbered Kershaw is a decent pick-up in my book.

Seems like the pitcher cards in general are rougher when it comes to the lack of licensing.  If I ever purge the Kluber cards in the future I'll probably toss Yu Darvish here in with them.

Last but not least on the Optic front, another Bryce.

I know unlicensed cards, and Panini product in general, aren't for everyone.  If that's the case for you personally, let's cleanse your palate with some good ol' officially licensed Topps Chrome, shall we?

These last four I picked up in a Sportlots order from a seller who had a few cheap 2013 Topps Chrome parallels.  I really love the colored refractors from the "white border years" of 2009 through 2014 or so.  Paul Goldschmidt is a guy who doesn't seem to get a whole lot of hobby love, but that's okay because it made this beauty dirt cheap to acquire.

I'm not really an Ian Desmond guy, simply grabbed this because it was 18 cents and did not increase shipping costs for my order at all.

A nice Orange Refractor here of another future HOFer.  Cy Young Award winner, 250+ wins, 3,000+ K's.  Was happy to be able to pick this one up for less than a buck.

Finally, the third Bryce Harper card in today's post.  I'm not exactly a Harper collector, but he's a legit star and I'm a sucker for the Topps All-Star Rookie Cup.  I paid a whole $5 for this card, which seems like a lot, but I have a feeling it'll hold its value and won't be easy to find at that price point years from now.

Thanks for joining me on this quick tour through some of my new shiny acquisitions.  Stay safe out there, and happy collecting!

Grabbing Gretzkys - A Look Back at Upper Deck's Legacy

In this installment of "Grabbing Gretzkys", we look at a grouping of ten new Wayne Gretzky cards that were included as inserts in last season's Upper Deck hockey release.  These were part of a "30 Years of Upper Deck" insert set, containing one re-imagined card from each of the brand's first 30 flagship hockey sets.

I like this idea for an insert set in theory.  Had I been in charge of assembling the checklist for this one, I'd have enjoyed doing some research to find one cool player who was significant in the year of each set's release, with a goal of diversity and getting some unique or lesser-known guys included.  In classic Upper Deck fashion though, they instead gave us ten Wayne Gretzky cards, ten Patrick Roys, and ten Connor McDavids (facepalm).  In all three cases, this approach (aside from being repetitive) results in at least one insert (many in the cases of Roy and McDavid) from a year in which the subject wasn't even active in the NHL.  Oh well.

For this reason, I wasn't too keen on collecting the entire 30-card insert set, but decided instead to just snag the ten Gretzky cards for my player collection.  Thanks to Upper Deck's e-Pack promotion, they were had for mere pocket change on COMC.  They're slightly more expensive these days, but you should still be able to find all ten for no more than 50 cents to a dollar each if you're interested.

The cards proceed in chronological order, beginning with the company's inaugural hockey release in '90-91.  Wayne's 1990-91 Upper Deck card is somewhat iconic in the hockey card hobby, and it's interesting to me to see him with the Oilers on this design instead.  This is a somewhat faithful representation of the original, only the colors look darker/more saturated.  Also, the Upper Deck logo in the lower left is not accurate whatsoever.  Still, a recognizable tribute to the original.

What I will give Upper Deck credit for is taking the time to replicate the card backs as well.  You know for a fact Panini would not have done this.  Not a chance.  Smart move by Upper Deck too, as especially in these first couple of releases, they were as infamous for their amazing card backs as for the fronts.

Next up, the '91-92 set, which I collected the holy hell out of along with my two brothers in the winter of 1991.  Easily recognizable thanks to the 75th Anniversary logo the NHL used that year (in the lower right).  I'm heavily biased here due to childhood nostalgia, but this is a fantastic "junk wax" era hockey set in my humble opinion.

Again, it's interesting to see Gretzky with the Oilers on this design rather than the Kings.  That pattern will continue for the next few cards, so I won't bother to mention it again.

A nice celebration shot on the '92-93 design, though it seems to me that the photo is a little blurry or slightly out of focus.  The first four Upper Deck hockey sets all featured similar white borders, sort of akin to how they got off the ground in the world of baseball actually (the '93 baseball set had white borders too I suppose, but just felt different).  Because of that, I feel like the '92-93 release kind of gets lost or overlooked a bit.

Front and back, this one has the most creative photographs out of the first three cards in this insert set anyway.

'93-94, the final set in the white border run.  This was always my least favorite of those first four sets.  In fact, I recently made the decision to part with 95% of my cards from this release and they're in my next box destined for Billy of Cardboard History.

Upper Deck broke from the elongated vertical (most of the time) photograph trend on the reverse in '93-94, and dedicated an even larger portion of the card back to a unique photo that spanned the entire width of the card.

I really dig this tribute to '94-95 Upper Deck hockey.  I'm a sucker for cards that show the greatest trophy in sports, so I obviously love this image even though I've certainly seen it before.  This was a huge departure design-wise from Upper Deck's previous hockey efforts, with only a minimal (and transparent) border on one side.

It was this set that introduced the shortly-lived but highly sought after (at least among me and my collecting buddies) Electric Ice parallels.  It would have been cool and sort of creative if Upper Deck had made a super-rare Electric Ice parallel of this particular insert, but nope.

Lord Stanley's Cup again (barely) makes an appearance on the card back here.

The 1995-96 Upper Deck set is an all-time favorite of mine.  The company went with this simplistic, full bleed design, or a slight alteration of it, across it's entire product portfolio in 1995.  I'm working on both the baseball and hockey sets, and in fact have wax boxes of each in my unopened pack stash.  Upper Deck Electric Ice parallels were back for the second and final year, and this set also had a one-per-box Electric Ice Gold parallel available as well.

Great photograph choice for the design too, almost looks like Wayne is hoisting up his own name, on a metallic silver platter.

On the reverse, a close-up look at Wayne's legendary flowing locks. 

By 1996 I was moving into high school and card collecting started to take a back seat to school work, girls, learning to drive, parties and music.  Because of that I don't have any particular attachment to the remaining four designs here personally.

This 1996-97 set is best remembered as the one that contained a caption for the specific photograph used on the front.  This concept was used in other sports as well by Upper Deck that year, though the specific card designs varied.

They sure managed to fit a lot of data on the back of a card in 1996-97.  It's actually a decently laid out card back, provided you have 20/20 or better vision!

The 1997-98 release was largely forgettable in my opinion, though I'm sure the set has its supporters.  Just really dark, and not very easy on the eyes due to all the foil.  In just a few short years, Upper Deck sure had moved a long way away from those mostly-white sets they began with.

Actually, I just checked, and I do not own a single card from the 1997-98 Upper Deck hockey release.  Not that surprising given my opinion of it, I suppose.

This next card is actually a very close representation of Wayne's 1998-99 Upper Deck card, right down to the photograph in fact.  Here's the original, since I do have a copy:

For the sake of completeness, here's the back as well.

Finally, the tenth card in the insert set, which pays homage to 1999-2000 Upper Deck.  To me, the coolest thing about this one is actually not found on the front, but on the back:

Wayne Gretzky never suited up for another NHL game after the 1998-99 season, which means these are full-career statistics.  A "sunset card" of sorts for The Great One.

These ten new additions to my Gretzky collection were a fun way to look back at the beginnings of Upper Deck's hockey legacy.  While I wish Upper Deck would have varied the subjects for the insert set, I'm nonetheless grateful to have grown my collection of Gretzky through these cards, and at a very cheap price point.

If you're a hockey card collector, what do you think of this insert effort by Upper Deck?  If you're not, do you have a favorite set or insert set that recycles a prior year's design?  Topps Heritage maybe?  Archives?

Thanks as always for stopping by, and stay safe out there!

Some Recent Additions

I've been somewhat absent here over the past couple of weeks, but it's not because I haven't had any time for my hobby.  I've actually had a decent amount of hobby time, but have been spending it organizing and condensing my collection and my home office/card room.  Here are some cool cards that I ran across, scanned and added to my organized collection proper during that process...

Still chugging away on these '72-73 O-Pee-Chee hockey high number WHA cards.  Tough little buggers, but I've got another trio to share today, starting with Reg Fleming of the Chicago Cougars!  You really have to question what the folks at O-Pee-Chee were doing with photograph selection and cropping here, but since I'm trying to complete the entire WHA portion of this set, I needed a copy of this card regardless.

Before the Edmonton Oilers, there was the Alberta Oilers.  They were the final stop in a lengthy professional hockey career for Val Fonteyne, who began playing in the NHL all the way back in the 1950s!  If you look closely, there's a giant crease running across this card, just below Val's shoulders.  Do I care?  Not in the least.  This is a perfectly fine, visually appealing example for my little set.

Last but not least, Murray Hall of the Houston Aeros.  The bright blue of the Aeros gear, combined with the jarring hot pink background, really makes this card tough on the eyes.  Murray broke into the NHL in the early '60s with Chicago, and played in just about every game of the first four seasons of Houston Aeros hockey in the WHA.

There are a total of 51 of these WHA cards at the tail end of the '72-73 O-Pee-Chee checklist.  With this trio in hand I'm now up to 21 of them in my collection, with an even 30 left to go.  I think I still have a small handful in my "to be processed" box, but probably only enough to get me to the halfway point or so.  Next year I'm going to have to make a concerted effort to track down the final couple dozen.  It won't be easy, but this is one set I absolutely plan to finish someday.

Next up, a trio of 1957 Topps baseball singles that I picked up in a local antiques shop at least a couple of years ago now.  While I'm not really pursuing the '57 set with that much vigor, I couldn't pass up Gus Zernial's pythons holding not one, but three bats.  Great image on this one, a fantastic look at the Athletics' elephant shoulder patch as well.

Don't really know much about Dave Pope, but I like this simple portrait shot.  I feel like this particular Cleveland Indians cap, with Chief Wahoo behind the large C, isn't one you see all that often.  Maybe that's just me, though.

Rounding out the trio of '57 Topps cards is this Bob Grim.  Picked this one up because you just don't miss a chance to grab '50s Yankees cards when the price is reasonable.  If I someday get serious about a '57 Topps set pursuit, I'll be glad to have this card already crossed off of my list.

I picked this one up at the same shop as the '57s, because like many collectors I'm a sucker for rookie cards of HOFers.  It was only 75 cents, so I just couldn't leave it behind.  Sadly, I returned to this antiques store a month or two ago to quickly grab a birthday present for my wife, and noticed their card selection was all but gone.  Glad I grabbed what I did when I did, I suppose.

Switching topics, one of my favorite things to do on cold, winter evenings when my wife has fallen asleep or is watching a Netflix show, is to browse Sportlots and put together a cheap order.  Many sellers offer bargain shipping via PWE if you pick up four cards or less, so I enjoy putting these together.  It's nice to find surprise cards in the mailbox alongside bills and junk mail, especially when I can often assemble a PWE for just a couple of dollars shipped.

Here are the contents one such package that arrived just a couple of weeks ago...

Started off with this 2019 Topps Heritage Purple Refractor of my man Xander Bogaerts.  Aside from the fact that I'm always in search of new Xander cards for my collection, I generally enjoy the Purple Refractors from Topps Heritage each year.  Scooping this one up for less than a dollar was very satisfying.

After Xander, and now that Mookie Betts has moved on, Rafael Devers is my favorite player to collect on the Red Sox.  With this 2017 Bowman Prospects yellow parallel counted for, I'm up to 48 unique cards of Devers in my collection now.  I have quite a few others in my COMC to post chest as well.  I'd like to get up to around 100 or so cards of the young star at some point, but I'm not in a serious rush.  He's at times inconsistent in the field, but his bat is so good that I think he has a shot to become a legitimate MLB star.  Don't forget, he led the American League in doubles and total bases during the last "normal" season in 2019.

For now, this one checked the box as far as my love of colorful cardboard and, like the Xander Heritage Purple Refractor, was less than a dollar.  Not too bad for a pre-rookie card parallel of one of the game's best young hitters.  Speaking of which...

...I wanted to find two other cards from the seller's inventory to go with the Bogaerts and Devers, since as I mentioned the shipping was the same for four cards as it was for a pair.

I found a couple of cards of one of my favorite young non-Red Sox players, Kyle Tucker of the Astros, available for pocket change.  Kyle doesn't seem to be as appreciated yet among the national collecting base as some other young stars like Ronald Acuna Jr and Fernando Tatis, Jr, which is great for me as his cards are still very attainable.  I paid 38 cents for this 2017 Bowman Prospects yellow parallel.

I'm hoping Kyle, who is still just 23 years old, can get a couple of 25/30-HR, 100-RBI seasons under his belt soon.  If so this will be a great pick-up in retrospect, if not I certainly didn't break the bank on it.  Pocket-change prospecting.  Might have to turn that into a recurring series of blog posts actually, has a nice ring to it!

Here's the final card from that Sportlots order, another yellow Kyle Tucker.  Paid the site-minimum 18 cents for this Collector's Card insert from 2018 Topps Heritage Minor League.  I like it because I'm fairly certain it's my very first card of the Fresno Grizzlies!  Not only that, but you get a good (if fuzzy) look at the Grizzlies' ballpark, Chukchansi Park, in the background there.

This post's getting a little long, so we'll call it here for today.  Thanks for stopping by to check out some of the most recent cards to enter into my collection.

There are stacks of amazing cards that have yet to see the blog laying all over the place here at Shoebox Legends World Headquarters, so check back frequently over the winter if you're bored.  Until then, thanks as always for stopping by!

Cheap Slabs - Tavares Patch!

Time for another installment of Cheap Slabs, where I dispel the myth that graded cards are always expensive to acquire.  In case this is your first Cheap Slabs post, the rules are simple; the graded card cannot have set me back more than $25 before shipping in order to qualify for this ongoing series.

Today's card came in well below that, as you'll see.  It was one of those cases where I was not searching for the card specifically, in fact I didn't even know that it existed, but once I stumbled upon it I simply could not turn down the bargain.

Check it out!

Now, I've gone on record many times stating that I'm not really big on game-used relic or patch cards.  It's just not an area of our hobby that I've ever really focused on much.  Still, when I came across this really nice looking tri-color patch of a legit star player, I was instantly intrigued.  With just minutes to go, nobody had even placed a very reasonable $8.25 opening bid on this card, if you can believe that.  I threw down a bid of less than $10 and lo and behold, a few minutes later the card was mine for $8.25 plus a couple bucks shipping.

John Tavares is certainly a recognizable name in the NHL, on the precipice of 350 career goals and 800 career points already, and only entering into his age-30 season whenever the NHL gets back underway here.  He doesn't have any individual hardware to his name, and has never won the Stanley Cup, but if he can change either of those two things his case for the HOF starts to look pretty good.  Heck, even if he can't achieve either of those objectives, he may still get in based on career stats alone.  With quite a few good years left in front of him, it's not inconceivable that he could surpass the 550-goal or 1,200-point plateaus.

Either way, this is a striking card of a man who's pretty well under-represented in my hockey card collection to date.  I never acquired his Young Guns rookie, and in fact didn't really have a single Tavares card of note prior to hauling this one in.  Tri-color patch, some nice foil shine, and serial-numbered to just /25.  Easily my best card of the star center who's now with the Maple Leafs.

The back of the card is actually somewhat important in this case, as the material on the front is certified by Upper Deck not as "event-worn", or as "having been worn by the player", but as "certified to us as having been used in an official NHL game".  Very important distinction there, at last to this collector.

If the NHL would put some type of clause into their agreement with Upper Deck that would only allow for game-used relics like this, and eliminate the event-worn crap, I might actually be more into relic and patch cards than I am.  Wishful thinking, I know!

So there you have it, a real beauty, especially when you factor in the price point.  It'll be fun to hang onto this card and watch how John's career progresses over the next few years with the Leafs and beyond.  Maybe someday I'll be able to say that I got a graded, game-used patch card of a HOFer, serial-numbered to /25, for less than $10.  And if not, I've certainly blown $8 and change on much dumber things than this in my life.

How about you?  When is the last time that you purchased a card that you really weren't even looking for, based solely on last-minute impulse?  If you have a recent example, I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

Thanks as always for stopping by!