Quick Hobby Shop Stop - Part 2

And now, the thrilling conclusion to yesterday's after-work stop at my local hobby shop, Central Sports Cards in Pawtucket, RI...

First up, some more quarter box loot.  Nolan Ryan, Will Clark and Cal Ripken were the three players I collected most as a kid, so I'm still drawn to their cardboard to this day.  I simply couldn't resist the temptation to add this great cartoon from 1993 Upper Deck Fun Pack to my budding Ryan collection.

Frank Thomas was the only other Fun Pack cartoon to be found, so I grabbed him as well.

I have really fond memories of these Home Run All-Stars holograms from '94 Collector's Choice from when I was a kid.  I really should put this insert set together since they're so cheap nowadays.

For now though I acquired Albert Belle and David Justice for a grand total of 50 cents.  As a child of the late '80s/early '90s I think it's an unwritten rule that I have to like holograms.

I was pumped to pick up just my second Buck Leonard card for a quarter.  This is a promo (the promo card is almost as '90s as the hologram, isn't it?) from Front Row's 1992 All-Time Great Series.  It's a good hobby shop haul when I add a new Homestead Grays card to my collection.  There were one or two other copies of this one in the box, and I'm kicking myself for not picking them up for trade partners.  Next time.

I'm powerless in the presence of a good minor league card, and this trip resulted in a pair of them.  From the 1989 CMC AAA All-Stars release, catcher Sandy Alomar...

...and from 1991 Classic Best, slugger Jim Thome!

I picked out this Topps HD Boggs card because it's super thick and heavy, and because I enjoy cards from Wade's brief tenure in Tampa Bay.  It's not my favorite Boggs Devil Rays card, but for a quarter I'll take it.

I have no plans to hold onto this one long term, it's a little too beat up for even my tastes.  I was intrigued by the writing on it though.  Besides, I've seen this one in the quarter boxes at the shop for what feels like years now and maybe someone I trade with would like to give it a good home?  Leave a comment if so!

I grabbed a few more vintage beaters that aren't in quite as bad a shape as that Ed McGhee, including a pair of LA Angels from '63 Topps...

...nice shades Eli!

One more '65 to go with the pair I showed in yesterday's post.  Again, if it's a mid-'60s or older Topps card that I don't have a copy of at all then I don't mind paying 25 cents for a placeholder.

In one of the quarter boxes I found a nice little chunk of really mint 1981 Topps cards.

I know these are pretty much "worthless" in the eyes of some.  The thing is, 1981 is probably the Topps flagship set that I had the least number of cards from prior to grabbing these.

I ended up plucking seven of them to take home with me.

My favorite is this Ozzie Smith Record Breaker, I can never get enough cards of him from his time in San Diego.

All seven of the cards I chose feature HOFers.

Best photo of the bunch easily belongs to this Eddie Murray, what an awesome card.

For less than $2 total it feels great to finally get some better '81 Topps representation in my collection.  The more I see of this set, the more I appreciate it.

Last quarter card, I'm a total sucker for stars in uniforms that seem strange.  This is also the final Topps card issued of the greatest Red Sox pitcher I've seen in my lifetime.

Three more dollar box cards to show here quick, starting with a pair of blue parallels from 2010 Topps Pro Debut.  Hector Noesi came up with the Yankees (the Trenton Thunder are their AA affiliate), and is now playing over in Korea I think.

Tom Stuifbergen is a Dutch pitcher who I know nothing about at all.  I picked this one up just because I love the Beloit Snappers logo.  I had a Snappers fitted hat that was my go-to for a couple of years there in high school.  Both of these blue parallels are serial numbered to /369.  I'll probably get rid of the Noesi at some point, but hang onto the Snappers card.

The final dollar box card is perhaps my favorite of the bunch.  Jordan's '95 Upper Deck baseball card is about as iconic as a card from 1995 could be, and I jumped at the chance to add its Electric Diamond parallel to my collection.  Just an awesome piece of cardboard.

While I was checking out I was feeling the urge to rip a couple of packs, so I did something I rarely do and caved on some wax.  I didn't go crazy though, just three packs of 2016 Topps Series 2 for $10 total (no Update in stock yet).

I hadn't opened a single pack of 2016 Topps in any form, and though I don't care for the design I figured it would be interesting to at least hold a few in hand to see if I felt any differently about that.  Besides, maybe I'd get lucky and land a buyback for my franken-set?

Well, in short I didn't care for the cards any more with them in my hands than I did from seeing scans on other blogs.  If anything these three packs were a reminder of why busting wax just isn't my style.  The most interesting card to fall out of the first pack was this David Ortiz/David Price golf cart combo.

The second pack wasn't really any better, though I did land a Red Sox insert in this Berger's Best Yastrzemski card.

The third pack yielded what was probably my favorite card from the trio of packs.  I love the concept of this Wrigley Field Celebrates 100 Years insert set, and I actually learned an interesting fact from this one too:

I had no idea before receiving this card that Gehrig hit a home run in Wrigley as a teenager in high school, pretty cool!

I might have struck out on buybacks in my 2016 packs, but the good news is I found one lone straggler in the dollar boxes anyway.  Best of all, Denis Menke is the first #184 buyback I've landed so far so he's already tucked inside the binder!

Franken-set Progress:  146/792 (18%)

That was a fun hobby shop haul if I do say so myself.  If you ever find yourself in the little state of Rhode Island be sure to check out Central Sports Cards!