Dime Box Dozen - Die-Cut, Shiny & Oddball

I'm watching the Red Sox/Astros game to wind down my weekend, seems like the perfect time to tackle another dozen from the last package I received from Nick at Dime Boxes...

This Limited Access card, from Circa Thunder, is oddly die-cut with the left and right edge essentially rounded.  Trading card companies sure did some strange things in the late '90s...

Another PawSox schedule, which will go nicely with the 1990 schedule Nick sent along in this same package.  I said it when I featured that one as well, but it's a bummer that the team is moving to Massachusetts in a couple of years here.

These 1997-98 Fleer "Million Dollar Moments" cards are strange.  At first glance they look like a giveaway or contest entry type card, but they actually feature a decent write-up on the bottom and are linked to a specific moment as the name implies.  I don't know the story behind this set, nor do I have time to research it, but if anyone knows any information on how these were distributed I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

File this one under "I can't believe I don't have it already".  I've really been working away at migrating my collection inventory from Zistle to The Trading Card Database, and of the 2,200+ Red Sox cards I've entered so far this one is missing.

Here's my first Prospects insert from the 2018 Bowman set.  Travis has bounced between AA and AAA so far this season, and appears to have fared well at both levels.  Maybe we'll see him make his debut soon.

I'm not familiar with Henry Ramos, but this 2010 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects Refractor sure is shiny.  Looks like Henry made it as far up the ladder as AAA with the Red Sox, but is now in the Dodgers minor league system.  Not only did I receive the refractor of this card...

...but I got the Purple Refractor as well.  I'm on my way to becoming a Henry Ramos super-collector.

Since we're on the topic of purple refractors, here's a 2017 Rick Porcello.  Rick went from a surprise Cy Young in 2016 to giving up more hits than any pitcher in the league in 2017, but it's a nice looking parallel nonetheless!

Here's one from a set you don't see very often, at least I don't, 2002 Fleer Triple Crown.  Mike Lansing's final MLB season was actually in 2001, so I guess this is a sunset card (fittingly, from Nick, as his blog is where I first heard that term I believe).

You can't go wrong with a new Pedro Martinez card of any sort.  Certainly not a shiny insert from the '90s.

Here's another first for me, a Canvas parallel from 2017 Topps Gallery.  The more I see from this set, the more I like it.  That's a couple of new Porcello cards in this post alone.

Finally, for tonight anyway, an oddball.  This is from a multi-sport set that Upper Deck put out in conjunction with everyone's favorite licorice candy, Twizzlers, back in 2002.  An unlicensed release obviously, but a nice oddity for my Red Sox collection regardless.

Another great dozen there.  I've got just enough cards remaining to do one last post of a dozen, which I'll have up sometime later this week.  Thanks for stopping by, and thank you Nick for the great cardboard!

Buyback Franken-set: On the Precipice of 1,200

I've got a half dozen buybacks queued up for review tonight, which brings the total number of buybacks in my project up to 1,199.  I'll have to find something special for buyback #1,200, but in the meantime let's see how these contestants make out...

1962 Topps #115 - Bob Skinner

Coming out strong with a Topps Heritage 1962 buyback.  In my experience I just don't come across these all that often, in fact this is just the third one I've encountered so far despite being well past the thousand buyback mark now.  On top of that, Bob Skinner's 1962 season (his last in Pittsburgh) was a really good one, as he swatted over .300 while hitting a career high 20 home runs and driving in 75.

Tony Pena's 1990 issue has resided in slot 115 of the franken-set binder for a while now.

It has now been relocated to the 1990 Topps buyback binder.  Easy choice to begin tonight's proceedings.

This card was a member of a completed page as well.  Here's what it looked like with Tony Pena...

...and here's the new look after he was supplanted by Skinner.  A lot of brown borders here with two '62s, a '68 and an '87.

1989 Topps #191 - Sil Campusano

I have to be honest, I have no recollection of Sil Campusano, who played less than one total season's worth of games over the course of three years with Toronto and the Phillies.  When you accumulate this many buybacks, they can't all be winners...

Already had this '74 Al Fitzmorris in slot 191...

...and I see no need to move him on Campusano's behalf.

1988 Topps #390 - George Bell All-Star

Consecutive Blue Jays buybacks here, as we have George Bell's 1988 All-Star subset card.  I love me some '80s All-Star cards, so this would seem like a good candidate for inclusion in the franken-set.  Just one problem.

It's being blocked by an '80s All-Star card that I enjoy far more.

Strawberry, who only entered the binder just last post, retains his spot for now.

1999 Topps #408 - Mike Jackson

I didn't specifically pick out this buyback of longtime reliever Mike Jackson, it just came my way in a random lot that worked out to about a quarter per card.  It's not all that significant to me, I don't expect it to make the binder save for an open slot.

Certainly not going to put it in place of one of the most fun names from baseball's past, Joey Terdoslavich.

No offense to Mike Jackson, but it's Terdoslavich all the way.  Terdoslavich.

1967 Topps #29 - Tom McCraw

Today's penultimate card is a grinning Tom McCraw, courtesy of 1967 Topps.  This one's from the 2014 buyback program, hence the retro Topps foil logo, and I have to say it's pretty well beat to hell.  Doesn't bother me though, happy to add Mr. McCraw to my collection.  Does he make the franken-set, however?

Ouch, rough draw for Tom.  I certainly have not seen many of these 1963 Rookie Stars multi-player floating head cards in buyback format.

No way I'm booting the one I have from the binder in favor of this card.

1968 Topps #285 - Dick McAuliffe

We'll close it out with my personal favorite from tonight's group, a '68 Dick McAuliffe.  Dick was a 3x All-Star when this card was printed up, and won a World Series with the Tigers just a few short months later.  I place a little extra significance on buybacks where the player won a championship or a major award in the year that the card is from, which is why I had no problem shelling out an even dollar for this one on COMC a while back.  Well, that and the fact that I hadn't yet acquired a #285 buyback, so this one plugs a hole in the franken-set as well.

That's a wrap for tonight, thanks as always for stopping by!

Franken-set Progress: 621/792 (78%)
1990 Topps Buyback Set: 85/792 (10%)
"Rejected" Buybacks: 493
Total Buybacks in Collection: 1,199

Pearl Jam Rocks Fenway (with Cards)!

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing my all-time favorite band, Pearl Jam, play live at one of my favorite places on the planet, Fenway Park!  I can't think of a better way to spend a warm summer evening than that.

Pearl Jam's been my #1 favorite band for over 25 years now, and I've been seeing them live just about every chance I get for the past couple of decades.  I've lost track but I've probably seen them at least 20 times at this point, and I haven't had anything but a thoroughly enjoyable time at any of those shows.

The guys have played Fenway Park four times now, twice in 2016 and twice this past week, and I have been fortunate enough to see all four shows.  Why am I bothering to mention this on a card collecting blog, though?

Well, just as they did last time through in 2016, the band printed up a set of trading cards to commemorate their shows this summer!  For $5 at the merch stand you receive a pack of ten cards plus a sticker.  I'd never stand in the ridiculous lines before or after the show for these, but since our seats were directly above a stand I grabbed a couple of packs with no line while on a quick beer/bathroom run during the show.

On the back we find that there are 60 total cards in the set, ten cards of each of the six band members.  There's also a 61st card featuring producer Brendan O'Brien, as well as three versions of the one-per-pack sticker.  A genius idea for a band touring in professional ballparks if you ask me.  Based on the prices these things have fetched historically on the secondary market, many seem to agree.

Pearl Jam and trading cards, two of my greatest loves, combined into one product.  Let's see the cards...

The last set back in 2016 took its inspiration from 1991 Topps baseball, this time it's 1990-91 Hoops basketball!  A simple design to replicate, one that's instantly recognizable to most collectors, and a set that harkens back to the band's early days.  Seems like a perfect choice to me.

Despite having less than 100 total basketball cards, I actually do have a handful from 1990-91 Hoops, so here's one for comparison.  I'm sure those of you that spend significant time making custom cards may have some gripes, but to my untrained eye I think they did a good job with these.

I didn't bother scanning in the backs since they don't have true card backs, but rather all 60 cards together make a giant puzzle.

One thing I am impressed by is that the band actually produced three entirely separate sets of cards for their shows this summer at Safeco Field, Wrigley Field, and Fenway Park.  I assumed they went the easy route and just printed up the same set three times, changing out the logo in the lower right for each city, but I found they actually produced three unique sets with different photos as well.

I know these aren't for everyone, if you don't like the band you've probably skipped right through this post (if you even clicked it to begin with).  If you enjoy their music though then these are a cool collectible item.  Even if you're not a Pearl Jam fan, just think of your favorite band, and now imagine that they released a set of cards to commemorate an event you attended.  You'd buy a pack, right?

On a personal note, I was psyched to see Jeff Ament break out the stand-up bass as the band treated the crowd to one of my personal favorites last night, Nothingman from their Vitalogy album.  Something about hearing tens of thousands of people sing at the top of their lungs in unison gets me every time.

Eight cards into the pack here, and it's a very Eddie Vedder/Stone Gossard/Jeff Ament-heavy pack.  Three band members haven't even shown up yet, which means I'll be missing representation from someone with just two cards left here.

Ah, there we go, drummer Matt Cameron.  Formerly of Soundgarden, though he's been playing with Pearl Jam for 20 years now.  Truly one of the best.

Last card of the pack, and I'm glad I didn't get skunked on pulling a Mike McCready.  Well, I missed out on a card of keyboardist/organist Boom Gaspar.  No offense to the guy, and I enjoy his contributions to the group, but if I was going to whiff on someone he'd have been my pick.

Here's the sticker insert.  I believe these are the same across all three 2018 sets, one sticker for each city.

Well, that's all I've got for today.  I've got the day off from work, but I hear it's supposed to be about 175 degrees (we like to exaggerate here in New England), so I'm probably going to nurse off this hangover sorting cards in the air conditioning and listening to records.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed this mix of trading cards and America's greatest rock & roll band!

Dime Box Dozen - Labor Day Edition

I hope everyone here in the States is enjoying a nice Labor Day holiday today.  A day off from work seems like a great opportunity to get through another dozen Red Sox cards from my buddy Nick of Dime Boxes...

This is my first look at 2017 Topps Inception.  Actually not a bad looking design at all in my humble opinion.  These are a bit on the thicker side as well, giving them a weighty feel.  Looks like a box of this goes for about $120, I'm guessing this is high middle tier as far as Topps releases go?

Here's one I was surprised I didn't yet have a copy of.  Turns out I had a couple of parallels of this early Bogaerts Bowman card, but not the base version until Nick sent his latest delivery my way.  Adding this to The Trading Card Database I see that I've been surpassed as the #1 Bogaerts collector on the site recently.  Only by a card or two, looks like I need to get off my butt and scan a few in to get back on top.

This Metal Universe insert scanned terribly, as most all cards with this volume of foil seem to.  You'll have to take my word that in hand this is a nice-looking Mo Vaughn.

Here's a shiny insert from when Topps went crazy there with their 1987 design.  I think these shiny refractor versions may have been offered in some sort of promotional pack.  First one I've seen in hand for sure.

Sweet, always love a new Mookie Betts card.  This one tripped me up a bit as I assumed it was an insert or variation, however it looks like for certain players Panini just used the '84 Donruss design for their standard base card in the 2018 set.  There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it from what I could tell.  Awesome card regardless!

I featured a Hostess card in my last Dime Box Dozen post, and here we have another.  I honestly never seem to run across these box-cut cards in the wild, whereas Nick seems to all the time, so I'm grateful that he thought of me as a home for Mike Torrez here.

I've received quite a few of these Donruss Team Heroes cards from Joe Shlabotnik over the years; this may be the first one I've gotten from Nick, not sure.

This one's...interesting.  From the 2008 Upper Deck A Piece of History set, these Cut from the Same Cloth inserts are serial numbered and feature some small foil team logos in the middle that almost look like little coins.  I had already returned to collecting before this set was issued, however I have zero recollection of these whatsoever.

I always enjoy a nice colored border parallel from the 2009-2014 "white border" run of Topps flagship sets.  Especially cool to get a rookie card of Jose Iglesias, who I was particularly fond of during his time with Boston.

Since I showed the 2018 Donruss Mookie Betts that borrowed the '84 design, it only seemed appropriate to do the same with this Manny Ramirez.  I'd give the nod to Manny between the two of them, however it's not a fair contest given that Donruss actually produced the Ramirez and could show team logos and use team names.

A mid-'90s Topps Gallery John Valentin is the penultimate card in today's post.  Don't have too much to say about this one, but the colors are bright and vibrant at least.  Speaking of bright and vibrant...

...we'll close it out with this Topps Chrome Prism Refractor of center fielder Jackie Bradley, Jr.  I'll never tire of acquiring Topps Chrome parallels in all their varying degrees of colorful and shiny.

Today's grouping of cards is also significant in that it takes me over 2,000 Red Sox cards in my inventory on The Trading Card Database.  It's been a long slow process moving things digitally speaking between Zistle and TCDB, but I finally feel as though I'm picking up some real steam.  In reality, this is probably about 1/4 of the total Red Sox cards that I own, but it's still a significant number to me.

I've got enough cards left over from Nick's last package for two more of these posts I believe.  I should have the next batch up sometime before the weekend.  Thanks for stopping by!