Support Your LCS - Baseball and Hockey Grab Bag Edition!

I've been out of some hobby essentials (like toploaders) for a week or two, and yesterday afternoon I finally found some time to swing by the only remaining reputable (in my opinion) hobby shop in my area.  Since I was picking up supplies I took a look around of course, like any good collector would.  There were packs of all the latest product, some cool vintage, but none of that came home with me.  Here's what did:

Yup, I could not resist the allure of the grab bag.  I always used to go for these when I collected as a kid just because it's a cheap way to add a good chunk of cards to your collection.  The shop owner hand packs about 70-80 cards of a given sport into a paper lunch bag, folds and tapes it shut, and voila.  Sort of  like a poor man's repack, except I think these are infinitely better than the 100-cards-for-$5 repacks I've bought a few times at retail outlets.

I'm not one of those collectors who has every junk wax card ten times over, really all that I have has come from trades and busting repacks and grab bags like these.  I think that allows me to enjoy these more since I don't end up with 50 dupes or anything crazy like that.  Any doubles I do end up with only bolster my trade profile on Zistle, so it's really a win/win.  Here's a look at some of the cards I got from this one...

Love him or hate him, Guillen was certainly an interesting personality and this isn't a bad looking card as '88 Donruss goes.

Here's a 2007 Bowman Chrome Carl Crawford.  These two cards were right next to each other in the pack, which is a good example of just how broad a range these cover.

Here's my very first 1999 Bowman card, of a really good player too, Mr. Tim Salmon.

I love the Conlon set, I've completed the entire first series and really should go after the rest of the run.  If you're a fan of pre-war baseball history or cards you really can't go wrong with these.  Of all the baseball cards in this post, this was the lone double, and I don't think I'll have too difficult time finding a home for Charlie Root.

Never heard of this set, will probably end up trading this one away at some point.

Now this card I really like.  The simplistic design and full-bleed photography of 2003 Donruss is right up my alley.  Colon has had a really long, decent career, and the fact that this card depicts him in one of just 17 career games with the Montreal Expos makes it a keeper for me.

Here's a second '03 Donruss, what a great photo.  If I ever get caught up and bored (ha!) and need another set to collect, this one might be it.

I don't know too many baseball fans who don't like Vizquel, and after such a long career he's already back in a coaching capacity.  That's a man who just loves the game right there.

Hideki Matsui and Eric Hinske were the other two 2004 Leaf cards in the package.  This was another set I hadn't seen before as 2004 fell during a stretch when I didn't collect for many years.

I got a kick out of this terrific '80s Diamond King, where Harold Baines shows off the bizarre uniforms the Sox sported at the time.

Here's another set I'd never heard of, 2004 Upper Deck Diamond Collection Pro Sigs.  A little too busy for my liking, but still an interesting early-career card of a guy with some big wins for my favorite team.

A 1998 Topps Chrome Manny wasn't a bad card to pull, I'd have plucked this from a quarter box any day.

I even got a new Red Sox card in the form of this 1985 Topps Al Nipper.

This was another nice card given where it came from, Johan Santana's 2006 Bowman Heritage.  These are based loosely on the 1949 Bowman design, a set which I'm a big fan of.  This card is also a short print!

Here's a 2007 Topps insert of Johan based on the DeLong cards from the 1930s.  There were two or three of these inserts included.

Never had any 1997 Bowman Chrome cards before opening this...

...now I have two.

SP Authentic is too rich for my blood in pack form, and I'm not a hit chaser, so getting a couple of singles this way works.

I chose to scan this Phil Hughes from 2009 Topps Updates & Highlights just because I like the photo.

Here's an interesting card of a two-sport star from an obscure set, 1991 Score 100 Rising Stars.

This Bowman Chrome Matt Holliday will go into my trade box, but it's nice to see cards as recent as 2012 in here.

Look how skinny Braun's arms look in this one...

Not a huge fan of these Fleer Tradition cards.  I see what they were trying to go for, I just don't think it worked.

Same goes for the League Leader subset.

Cool painting on this Erstad Diamond Kings card.

In closing a couple of minor stars in 1989 Fleer format...

Not bad at all, and the best part?  These cost $1.  And there were about 30-35 more cards that I didn't even scan (although these were my favorites).  I'm not sure I'll ever be able to buy retail wax again.  I'm glad I had the sense to grab a hockey one as well:

First card in the stack was this great celebration shot of Dave Bolland.  I'd seen this one before a couple years back on other blogs but forgotten about it.  Certainly a keeper.

I had no idea that in the late '90s Bowman released a CHL set.  I got three cards from it...

...the best of which by far was this Brenden Morrow.

Never made the NHL, even for a game.

Included in this grab bag were 10 cards from the 2013-14 Score set.  Current year hockey cards for less than two cents each?  Yes please!  I got my very first look at this set when Douglas from Sports Cards from the Dollar Store sent me the Shawn Thornton in a PWE, and I have to say I'm a huge fan.  I don't need another 600+ card set to chase right now, given that I just finished one, but I'll certainly accumulate these on the cheap.

Here's another one.  There seem to be a lot of celebration shots in this set, but I'm not complaining.  Seeing this card makes me really angry that Upper Deck just got an exclusive deal with the NHL to produce trading cards.  Ugh.

I got three goaltenders from 1993-94 Ultra, none of which are spectacular...

...but all of which are new to me.

One of my favorites has to be this SP Authentic card of Bruins pest (and goal scorer) Brad Marchand.  Again, I don't buy any mid-level cards like this (or any wax at all most of the time) so it's nice to get a sampling of cards from this set.

This one's even better than the Marchand.  Definitely would have picked this up from a quarter or even fifty cent box.

Unfortunately they came with a Canadien, but I guess that's a small price to pay.

Believe it or not, this Palffy was actually on my Zistle want list.  I probably had 10 copies of this card as a kid, but I really beat on my cards and precious few have survived in my collection to this day.  I always loved the Canada Cup subset from '91-92 Upper Deck.  I also got a Brett Hull Team USA card from this same subset which went into my trade box.

My first three cards from 2012-13 ITG Heroes & Prospects.  I don't really follow minor league hockey at all, so I've never heard of any of these guys.

I'm sort of out of the loop on recent sets, so I assumed this card, #251, was the first card of 2012-13 Upper Deck Series II.  Apparently there was only one series of UD flagship last year though, and this card was an "Upper Deck Update" insert from SP Authentic.  Nice to see the Winnipeg Jets again either way.

This card screams mid-'90s for sure.

One of my favorite players back in the day, I would have been psyched to land this card when it was released.

I got six cards from the 2012-13 O-Pee-Chee set, including long time Devil Patrik Elias...

...and former Bruin Mark Stuart.

Also got a Marquee Legends short print of Bryan Trottier.  A short print in each grab bag, not too shabby.

Here's one of the retro parallels as well, a decent little representation of 2012-13 O-Pee-Chee right there.

Here's another new-to-me from 1992-93 Score.

Love the Hollywood mask on this 1995-96 Summit Kelly Hrudey.

In closing, a rookie card of a guy who I think does a great job on NHL Tonight, Jamie McLennan.  Like the baseball grab bag, there were a good 30-40 hockey cards I didn't show here (including your obligatory '90-91 Pro Set).

It was a ton of fun to go through these, and to score around 150 unique cards from all different years for just $2 is an unbeatable value.  I will be ripping and posting more of these for sure!

Cardboard Classics - 1992 Whitehall Babe Ruth Hologram

Just a quick one today as Thursdays are my long, 14-16 hour workdays.

I pulled this from a 100-cards-for-$5 repack a week or two ago, and I thought it was kind of cool.  I'd never seen these 1992 Whitehall "Legends to Life" holograms before (although I'm sure those of you who buy repacks more frequently than I do might have).  There's something kind of odd about seeing a player from nearly 100 years ago in holographic form, but it's a cool old-time photo and I actually kind of like the simple design of the card.

The back lets me know that this card was limited to just 150,000 copies.  I will definitely store it in a magnetic one-touch holder in the small, fireproof safe I have at home, so that if we ever have kids I can sell it to pay for my son's/daughter's college tuition!

Why I Paid $4 to Ship a Single Common (& Your Olympic Champions!)

A recent comment left by a reader of this blog led me to tracking down, at long last, the final card I needed to complete my 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Retro parallel set!  After five plus long years, card #368, Gilbert Brule, arrived in my mailbox this past week:

I know, not the world's most exciting card, but to me it's priceless.  I would have literally paid $10 for a copy of this, so I was more than happy to shell out $4 in shipping charges for a card that cost me $.77 in the Beckett Marketplace.  Gilbert is now happily at home with 599 other companions in the binder that houses this set.  I'll be doing one or two more posts on this great set in the near future, but for now here's a look at some 2014 Olympic gold medalists who were included on the checklist...

What a great feeling to remove this set off my want list after nearly 6 long years.  I would like to thank the many bloggers that contributed to my quest over the years, whether you sent me one card or dozens I really appreciate the generosity, without the online collecting community it's doubtful I would have ever knocked this one out!

Wade Boggs Rookie Trifecta Complete!

Last month I decided to dedicate a very small chunk of my hobby budget to an '80s single that had been on my want list for entirely too long:

Wade Boggs was one of the greatest hitters to ever wear a Red Sox uniform, and for $6 with free shipping I can finally say that his 1983 Fleer rookie card is all mine.  I'm sure I could have tracked this down for less had I really spent a lot of time on it, but this copy's in great shape with good centering and from an eBay seller that I trust and have purchased from many times in the past.

I realize that it's not the world's most exciting card, but as a Red Sox collector it does fill a huge gap in the decade of the '80s.  Even better, it was the final Boggs rookie I needed of the big three.

The '83 Fleer can now join my personal favorite, the '83 Topps, in my monster box of Sox cards that are nice enough for toploaders or magnetic one-touch cases.  To me, this is the quintessential Boggs RC, as the '83 Topps design is light years better than its Fleer and Donruss counterparts.  Plus, it features both a portrait shot and a base-running photo on the same piece of cardboard.

Right next to those two sits the Donruss RC, to which I'd award the silver medal out of these three.

On second thought, I might rank the Fleer above this one since the Donruss back is an atrocious color and is devoid of minor league stats, something both Fleer and Topps included.  Knocking off this trio felt pretty good, I may have to do this with Roger Clemens next (shudder).

Signature Sundays - Willie O'Ree!

A couple of weeks back I was fortunate enough to land another auto from one of my all-time favorite hockey autograph sets, the Brushstrokes cards from 2008-09 Upper Deck Legends Masterpieces.  Dave H posted a nice one earlier this week, which reminded me that I still had one sitting around to show.  Here's the latest addition to my hockey autograph collection:

Just a beautiful card, from the frame to the painting to the giant, bright blue, clearly legible auto, love it!  There's really no excuse for me taking this long to add this fantastic card to my collection.  For those of you who don't know or are mainly baseball collectors, O'Ree is the player who broke the color barrier in the NHL.  The fact that he played for my local team (and a city that does not always have the best reputation for tolerance in the history of professional sports) is just the icing on the cake.

This is actually my second O'Ree autograph, both of them on card, but I think I like this one a bit more than the first.  If you're an autograph collector Willie would be a great one to pick up, especially since you can always find his autos for less than $15 if you're patient!

Haven't I Seen These Before?

I'm not quite sure what possessed me to do it, but I couldn't seem to help myself from dabbling with the buyback cards inserted into the 2014 Topps baseball set.  I guess it was a perfect storm as a team collector who loves vintage and is also a sucker for parallels.  I picked up a handful of Red Sox cards to satisfy the urge.

No, this is not the Jerry Casale from Devo.  This is the Jerry Casale who pitched just a few seasons in the majors in the late '50s and early '60s.  I absolutely love 1960 Topps, if I'm ever delusional enough to try to complete a set from the 1960s this would be the one.  Here you can see the 'Topps 75' silver foil logo in the upper right of this buyback version.

Here's a '65 Topps Dennis Bennett.  Mr. Bennett was a sub-.500 pitcher over 7 seasons with a few different franchises.  Sadly, he passed away in 2012 at age 72.

This 1968 Topps Jerry Adair is kind of a cool card, as he had been acquired the season prior and was key to the amazing 1967 season enjoyed by Boston.  He was apparently known for being clutch at the plate.

John Curtis was dealt off following the 1973 season, so he wasn't in Boston for very long after this card was created.

1973 Topps have some of the best backs of all-time.  This one highlights Curtis' off-season hobby as a sportswriter, a practice he'd continue well into retirement.

Finally, the best of the bunch by a long shot, a 1973 Topps Bill Lee in amazing condition!

These are somewhat interesting I guess, and at least they didn't set me back much, I think around $10 for the lot.  I think I'll stick to buying the originals from now on though...

1953 Topps Project - Cal Abrams

The latest addition to my 1953 Topps baseball set is Mr. Cal Abrams of the Pittsburgh Pirates:

Cal sure seems happy to be featured on a '53 Topps card, doesn't he?  Well, between military service during World War II and a long climb through the minor leagues he didn't make his big league debut (with the Brooklyn Dodgers) until age 25.  Cracking the Dodgers' roster in the '50s was no easy trick, yet he was bound to the team with the reserve clause still in effect.  Eventually, the Dodgers dealt him to Cincinnati in 1952, and after finishing out that season with the Reds he joined the Pirates for '53.

1953 was Cal's best year by a long shot, his .286 batting average was a career high (if you don't count 1 hit in 3 at-bats for the White Sox to close out his career in 1956).  He also set career highs that season with 15 home runs (never hit more than 6 any other year) and 43 RBI (never had more than 32 any other year).  He'd play with Baltimore and then briefly with Chicago before retiring.

Cal's only other Topps card comes in the 1952 set, however he was featured in every Bowman release from 1951 through 1955.

Set Progress:  65 of 274 (24%)