Featured Card Show Buys

I picked up 45 commons for $3 - I figure for the price of one pack of cards, I'll go the 'Billy Beane' route and pick up quantity. Now, the hard part is spinning my enthusiasm and penning a card tale without going overboard, realizing these cards serve a function in my collection, but aren't exactly ones you'd need to spend hours talking about.

Randomness [six cards] - 2005 Topps Update Dana Eveland, 2006 Topps 1952 Debut Flashbacks inserts Carlos Beltran, 2006 Topps 1952 Debut Flashbacks Scott Rolen, 2006 Upper Deck Brad Aumus, 2006 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Grady Sizemore, 2007 Artifacts Grady Sizemore, 2007 Upper Deck Artifacts Miguel Cabrera and 2007 Topps Chrome Garret Anderson.

2007 Topps Update [nine cards] - Adam Jones [x2], Kameron Loe, Carlos Marmol, Jamie Burke, Boone Logan, Rick Ankiel, David Newhan and Edinson Volquez. These cards featuring 'rank and file' guys will probably used in random autograph in-person endeavors and a key was finally getting cards of Jones. These guys probably turn a long 'no-autograph' day into a one, two or three autograph day if you are chasing them at the stadium.

2007 Upper Deck [nine cards] - aesthetics means a lot to me as far as card collecting is concerned and somehow the silver borders depress me for whatever reason, but the images on the cards are always 'Upper Deck nice.' Miguel Tejada [cutting down Kendry Morales at second base as good buddy and former teammate Brian Roberts looks on during an Angels' game], Jay Payton managing to get his hand across home plate as he slides in, Scott Hatteberg [looks like he is the first to congratulate someone hitting a walk-off home run, with Edwin Encarnacion and some 'Kid' in the background], Jeremy Hermida [tracking down a fly ball into his glove on the run], Brian Schneider [looking like he's chasing after a wild pitch or pass ball], Tony Pena, Gabe Gross [signing autographs], Adam Melhuse [catcher waiting throw, ready to block home plate] and Nook Logan [we were reminded in some book report that came out last Thursday, his first name is actually Exavier]. Logan is a marginal player, a poor man's Juan Pierre - which would make him just about worthless [-1] in most sabermetric circles.

2007 Upper Deck SP Rookie Edition cards [19 cards] - Miguel Cabrera base, Joaquin Arias base, Kory Casto base, Matt Chico base, Gustavo Molina base, Miguel Montero base, Arias 1993 SP base parallel subset [?], Ryan Sweeney 1993 SP base parallel subset [?], Mike Rabelo 1993 SP base parallel subset [?], Micah Owings 1993 SP base parallel subset [?], Arias 1996 SP base parallel subset [?], Joseph Bisenius 1996 SP base parallel subset [?], Rocky Cherry 1996 SP base parallel subset [?], Chico 1996 SP base parallel subset [?], John Danks 1996 SP base parallel subset [?], Andy Gonzalez 1996 SP base parallel subset [?], Sweeney 1996 SP base parallel subset [?] and Chris Stewart 1996 SP base parallel subset.

The shelf life of this product wasn't very long [or at least the relative interest] but this is the first time I've had these cards in-hand and the cards featuring the retro mid 1990s SP graphics are sharp - imagine what Topps and Upper Deck can do if they actually printed cards that matter in a way that reflected their best releases in their history. While Topps has been churning out retro themed products like Heritage, those can be boring as much as they are 'old school cool.'

While UD only has a run from 1989 to present to go on, they can go back to showcase the crap out of this [past] year's Major League Baseball rookies through 1993 SP, 1995 SP and 1996 SP [no 1994?] designs - it is kind of retro for the guy who grew up through the mid 1990s instead of the 1950s.

My last card related purchase was picking up a 'bundle' of 2007 Allen and Ginter for $1 - about 29 cards with duplicates. I counted it out and I got 16 cards towards my 'makeshift' set and 13 doubles. I suppose the doubles can be used if something happens to the original cards.