Dime Boxes 11th anniversary giveaway results

Through the end of December, I was on a posting hiatus due to traveling outside the country through Christmas - I'm acutely aware there may not be anyone hanging on when there is a new post here and honestly, I might be having some self-existential doubts about card blogging going forward.

If nothing else however, I look to end 2022 with a post featuring what I claimed from the Dime Boxes blog - where I want to go through some cards one-by-one as a way of appreciating what I received.

This Sparky Anderson Detroit Tigers oddball is a larger than a regular sized card, but was too fun to ignore - where the Hall of Fame manager is chatting up a young fan.

I was going to mention how I didn't really like odd-sized cards that are either too big or too small - but go figure I claimed one card that is a little larger and one card that is a little smaller than a regular sized card.

I'm not sure what drew me into this card, except it's vintage and it's fun to see where the batter is not wearing batting gloves - while imagining him ready to take a big whack at the ball during some early 1970s game action.

I claimed this retro card because it looks like a fun looking insert inspired by a vintage oddball issue - sometimes I want cards that are just a little different.

I couldn't imagine claiming every single card I saw, but this shiny Mike Trout was certainly a keeper - this card ends up really popping in-hand.

For all the cards posted, this oddball was kind of a no brainer as well - I don't know how many Mark McGwire cards show him trying to barrel his way past a catcher in some play at the plate collision action.

I get my Matt Duffy Angels card for my Angels all-time team register collection - this Vintage Stock parallel ends up being a little more fancy than a regular base card.

I really liked this boxed set oddball card of a Hall of Famer who'd spend the twilight of his big league career with the Angels - it's the most random, irrelevant card, but just something a little different than the usual Topps, Donruss, Fleer or Score flagship issues from the junk wax era.

Like the Anderson at the top of the post, this oddball was too fun to ignore where the vintage slugger appears with a child - this could be a centerpiece page card, where Killebrew appears on a card for a cause, rather than the countless issues where it's basically the typical baseball card.

I ended up claiming a Hunter Greene rookie parallel card for fun, just because despite an up-and-down season for the first year big leaguer - he really showed promise, striking out 164 batters in just 125 2/3 innings pitched.

I claimed this card to add some old-school flavor to my stack - maybe I like the 'lil color match action going on with the red borders and the red showing from Simmons' uniform to his cap.

I guess like this card for a number of reasons, where there is some dirt fetish going on as Rickey looks to have a moment to gather himself - it's also a hats-off card and really looking closely, Rickey has a chain of some sort hanging from his neck.

Besides the cards I claimed, there was also a small stack of Angels added - maybe featuring a couple of guys I'd rather forget [Josh Hamilton and Zack Cozart], a couple guys I haven't thought in about 10 years [Torii Hunter and Jered Weaver] and a young guy like like Reid Detmers who still looks to get better with more big league experience.

These three were added as well, which ends up a little 'no context' in my book - but there is always room to add cards of legends in my collection.

A little change of pace at the card show

I stumbled upon a little different table where it was a woman selling ephemera rather than cards - set up next to the seller I'd just bought some cards from, it looks like they were friends and/or good acquaintances.

I was looking through the cheaper dollar baseball themed postcards, team issued photo cards, et al - even at the lowest end, maybe I wasn't finding much, where I don’t collect any of this I’m looking through, but I’ll humor myself with this cutesy stuff.

Maybe some of this stuff is old-school or vintage - but still feel like they are mass produced and already used where it's not worth much.

I'm not sure if it's how postcard sellers do things, but seeing prices marked in pencil on the back are kind of peculiar - it would not prevent me from picking something up I liked, but kind of a turn off.

I was going through another misc baseball themed box - there were scattered First Day Covers, but they are literally envelopes and I'm not familiar with them as perhaps a dated sports collectible.

I didn't want anything newer skewing towards the 1990s onwared, but than found a Reggie Jackson FDC from 1984 for $4 - I don't think I was looking for this, but it wasn't unreasonable to consider.

While I wonder about dealing with odd-sized baseball card items, I found some loose I found some old MSA oddball discs - featuring Thurman Munson, Johnny Bench, Tom Seaver and a Willie Stargell for $2 each.

The seller was showing me a full box panel where the cards came from - though it seemed the cards on the box seemed smaller than the ones I was considering as keepers.

I ended up spending $12 for what I picked out - after the fact two of the discs were marked lightly on the back, but they were still OK purchases, even if they don't end up unlocking something that takes me to a different place with the odds and ends I find.

More, The Angels, In Order goodies

I really didn't pay attention but wanted this 1990s UV-era insert - at first glance, I thought this Jose Canseco was an Ivan Rodriguez card.

This was a card from the same insert set as the Canseco - in my book, Belle and Canseco fall into the 'iffy' guys pile, but they were 'fun' players I was aware of and squirrel their loose cards like I would prominent stars from the eras they played in.

Maybe Randle was strictly rank-and-file as a big leaguer, but was considered a personality - who marched to the beat of his own drummer.

Ramirez was a superstar big league talent - who like Randle, marched to the beat of his own drummer.

This Fred McGriff insert card came from when Upper Deck was high brow and modern - after 30 years later, maybe inserts like this still feel kind of classy.

I like the dirt showing on this common parallel of a player who I thought was going to be a star for years - but through the 1990s, never really ended up being more than a rank-and-file guy.

This maybe my favorite out of the cards I received just because it's not something I'm looking for, but had to make a keeper - where it's a broken bat shot of a longtime star, who might originally known for as a Seattle Mariner or in his slugging prime, a New York Yankee.

I don't want to say I want to collect Angels card-per-card, but it's kind of a reward to find them out in the wild - especially if look odder than your normal base cards.

I like the dirt showing on this common from a set I never, ever had exposure to in the first place - for the decades I've collected, I don't think I've ever busted a single pack of Topps Finest.

Knoblauch had won a World Series ring a couple of years before this card was printed and starred for the Minnesota Twins through the mid 1990s - maybe he would have been a one-team legend if he'd stayed with the Twins, but chose to move on to the New York Yankees and was never quite the same player.

Better than a blaster [?] - some vintage and old school cards

At a card show I went to, I started rummaging through some old-school and vintage cards at a table - I don't think I've seen this seller before and he might have been real happy to be there, where people might be interested in what he was selling.

From the bits and pieces I was overhearing, the seller was a longtime collector - but maybe starting to sell off some odds and ends to his collection.

The seller had scattered $2, $3, $5, $7, $10, $15 and up cards in his boxes - maybe I wanted to get started somewhere else at the show where I didn't want to get stuck in one table at the beginning of my journey, but I started finding some oddball Hostess cards for $2 each and was resigned to see if I can find some other cards to build a stack with.

Maybe the $2 portions had some of the 'newer' cards from the junk wax / UV era - I wanted to focus on finding the occasional off-condition vintage / old school star cards in the $5 rows, though maybe I don't want to blow my wad of cash outright.

Then seller told me the cards priced $5 and up where buy 2, get 1 free - I think what caught my eye was a 1970 Topps Bud Harrelson #634, which in a vintage card of a player inking it up.

Even though it's either miscut or even trimmed up, anything I pick up would have to start and end with that card - it was going home with me

I picked up some other cards, just to have some vintage card 'relics' in-hand - including some fairly loved, off-condition at best star cards.

The seller said if he knew someone was going to look for the Hostess cards, he would have brought more - he said they were mostly common, but unique [because they were not packed out like normal baseball cards].

Along with the old-school, oddball Hostess cards, I was charged $22 for my stack, which seemed reasonable - rather than settling for a shiny, new blaster box for at least several dollars more.

TTM autographs received: Sonny Jurgensen and Billy Kilmer

I was rummaging through my lone plastic box with my other sports cards - I found some loose football cards to send out TTM and maybe it was a challenge to send to at least a couple of non-baseball subjects.

I'd probably picked up this pair of unsigned 2000 Fleer Greats of the Game at least 20 years ago but just forgot about them - however, after all this time, there was still an opportunity to get the cards inked up as intended.

The 88-year old Jurgensen signed my card in about three weeks - I enclosed $10 with my request to the Pro Football Hall of Famer.

The 83-year old Kilmer signed my card in about three weeks - maybe I wanted something a little different and these cards didn't turn out so bad.

TTM autographs received: Dennis Rasmussen

Sometimes a straggler success like this gets me through stretches when there isn't any action in the mail box - the former big league signed my cards that were mailed out in April 2021.

Maybe I found it silly that I attempted to mail to Rasmussen c/o a burger joint he worked at and/or his family had owned for the longest time - but despite a long wait, was pleasantly surprised a response actually came back.