Through a pandemic, maybe rummaging through random boxes at a card shop or card show was just not a thing with people advised not to gather in public events - maybe things have opened up little by little but who knows if I'll find myself at a card show anytime soon.
Back at the end of April, I stumbled upon this blog post featuring a Web site selling cards - for a dime each with the promo they were running.
Factoring any s/h fees, I didn't think I was going to be able to put together a number of cards to make a worthwhile purchase - maybe I found 30 cards at first, but there was no way I’d get around to a 100 cards.
It’s easier for me to grab things on impulse if there were images with the listings - the site does have listings with pictures but it’s never enough.
Without the ability to ‘freelance,’ my cheat sheet / wantlist is my guide, but where do I start - when it’s cumbersome looking up random cards from my lists, only to find it’s not available.
There are lots of sold out listings, though I wonder if those were from actual purchases or were just place markers of some sort - it may be easier for buyers if the listings were removed, but I don’t know how the Web site works.
I napped for a little bit through the afternoon and decided to browse some more with my cart items still intact - the number of cards I added to my cart started to pick up, though I wonder if I can ever get a grasp of what is featured on the site.
I kept thinking others are probably mining this site for cards, but at the very least I’d just look up the most obscure subjects - as I toggle back and forth between the browser and the Google Docs cheat sheet.
I ended up with 129 cards for about $17 and while it took about 3 weeks to get my cards to me - I had to wait several months later before I could go through all the mail that added up while I was overseas.
Bloodlines - Virgil Hill, Sam Vincent, Elvis, George W. Bush, Tim Raines Jr., Mel Stottlemyre Jr., Cheryl Miller, Rico Carty, Keith Kessinger, Mickey Mahler and Mike Bacsik. Multi sport athletes - Ron Brown, Ed Reed, Bob Hayes, Jim Brown, Walter Ray Williams, John Stearns, Julius Peppers, Ed Too Tall Jones, John Ward, Christy Mathewson, Ricky Williams, Danny Ainge and Herschel Walker. PEDS - Ryan Jorgenson, Stephen Randolph, Adam Riggs [former Angee], Willie Collazo, Troy Cate, Julius Peppers, Matt Franco, Robert Machado, Eric Gagne / Jeff Williams dual PED card.
1996 Classic Dick Trickle #4 - nice add to my unofficial double entendres collection. 1988 Fleer Dan Plesac #171 - I like the image of this relief pitcher mugging it up as a batter for this card; since he’s a MLB Network personality, they had to show a clip of Plesac years later where he is actually batting and got his only MLB hit as a Pittsburgh Pirate; the little segment may have been posted on Facebook.
2020 Topps Bryce Harper #250 - I would still like to bust my first 2020 Topps cards packs / blaster to add to my year-to-year sampler, but I picked this one outright.
1992 Baseball Aces Mike Morgan 6S - an oddball card on my wantlist I wouldn’t have sought out otherwise unless I stumbled upon it.
1995-96 Pinnacle Olaf Kolzig #134 - I saw this ‘hot dog’ card in old Sports Cards Magazine magazine in the 1990s and decades later, a LOL card I had to have. 1981 TCMA Richmond Braves Craig Landis #5 - this one-time minor league player might have become a pro fisherman in his later years.
1996 Upper Deck Collector’s Choice Silver Signature Dante Bichette #135 - I ‘settled’ for a parallel when I saw it listed and once I got the card in-hand, look to pair it up with his son's rookie year parallel that came from an eBay purchase.
1991 Topps Stadium Club Glenallen Hill #425 - he maybe someone at this point whose cards I’ve had enough of for the last 30 years, but this is a sweet card of Hill sliding hard into home.
2014 Topps MLS Marvell Wynne #126 - for my bloodlines collection, I needed a card of the one-time pro soccer player.
2000-01 Topps Gold Label Class 1 Larry Hughes WARRIORS KOBE BRYANT CAMEO #45 - I love how the occasional ‘cameos’ were listed and I figure I pay the price of the guy pictured to have a card of the bonus baby.
1991 Topps Stadium Club Travis Fryman #355 - I remember coveting this card when it was worth $6 as his best card out of early MLB issues in the early 1990s.
I probably thought Fryman was the next great power hitting infielder like Cal Ripken Jr. - had a fine career though didn’t play long enough to put up true all-time great numbers.
Got his autograph once on a piece of paper after a night game 25 years ago - I don’t remember exact interaction that happened for a moment but he was nice about it and I might have been a fan for the rest of the year.
2013 Panini Prestige Colin Kaepernick #170 - it was a toss up whether this card featuring the one time NFL quarterback goes into my infamous collection for basically walking away from his playing career or my beyond the glory collection for taking a radical stand and kneeling for what he believed in.
Maybe the answer is painfully obvious now.
2001 Topps Archives Curt Flood #322 - retro card featuring the player who was a catalyst in starting the free agent movement in Major League Baseball goes into my beyond the glory collection.
2012 Panini Americana Heroes and Legends Megan Rapinoe #80 - she’s had a run as the conscience of women’s soccer as a woman who has kneeled for her personal beliefs.
I have found the site a bit cumbersome, but was able to find some good stuff there. Love the hot dog card and Bichette Happens.
ReplyDeleteNice pickups. I've gone back a few times, but haven't ordered anything again. Maybe I'll browse it this week sometime.
ReplyDeleteThere are definitely some issues with the website but they are worth getting through. It makes sense that if the cards are cheaper than other sites, the costs are being cut somewhere else like in the maintenance of the website and the efficiency in getting your oder out.
ReplyDelete