Card show pick ups - more randomness?

On a card show trip, maybe I was not really enthused about the vibe in the room where there were not as many sellers and things seemed slower - I stumbled upon a random seller with at least several monster boxes of assorted singles individually priced [at least $5 or more].

I tried to dig around and see what may catch my attention, maybe I wonder whether the material is passable or not - the seller said something about making offers to consider, so there was an opportunity to pick something up where this table might be it as far where I was going to spend most of what I had in-hand.

I found these three cards first and offered $10 for them - an old school rookie card of Keith Hernandez, a short print variation of Babe Ruth and a bat card of Tony Oliva.

After trying to go around the room, I came back to the seller's tables where maybe I'd find more cards - I found a little mix of cards I tried offering $20 for, though the seller expected more and I ended up paying $30.

Among the odds and ends included a second-year Gary Carter - I want to follow the mature collectors who have tried to make something about collecting old-school and/or vintage cards, even in bits and pieces.

A rookie year certified autograph of Michael Young - he was a second baseman who last played 10-15 years ago and was underrated as a longtime hitting star.

A certified autograph of Andrew Velasquez - even though the autograph on the sticker hologram looks sloppy, I picked it up for my all-time Angels collection.

While completion isn't realistic - it's cool knowing I have the most random players' autographs that played for my home team.

A Roberto Clemente insert that was too shiny to ignored - I'm not sure if this was numbered, but I like how it pops.

A Mike Trout / Shohei Ohtani insert I thought might have been worth something - but looked too neat to leave behind regardless.

A 1993 Donruss Dominator Greg Maddux - I guess it's not a pack pulled insert set, more like a 'box topper' bonus, but still a cool card.

Though it's a piece of plastic that I would have tossed a long time ago, I really like the branded top loader - which I assume was how the cards were originally shipped in.

Maybe the highlights were the 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson #482 rookie card and the 1982 Topps Cal Ripken Jr. #21 rookie card - on first glance, I had second thoughts about picking the cards up [maybe the sticker price $15 each] because they were more 'well loved' and 'off-condition,' rather than cleaner copies with better eye appeal.

On the other hand, I've never really had these cards in my collection and at the very least, end up as binder material centerpieces to the collection of cards I have for each player - with these rookies in my possession, I'd have some bragging rights if I took a time machine to the junk wax era of the early 1990s.

Favorite card of 2018 - Topps Heritage Shohei Ohtani Action Image variation #17

This is in response to Tom's contest over at Waiting 'til Next Year.

Go figure that it would be another Ohtani as my favorite card of the year but the relatively healthy half of him lived up to the hype and I wanted to showcase my best rookie year card of his - the traditionalists who have collected Topps Heritage for years may not like these short print gimmicks because it gets in the way of completing their sets.

However, the Action Image variation cards picturing prominent rookie or second year stars have gotten popular to collect - even if it wasn't autographed, in my mind an Ohtani was a definitive card to have.

Favorite card of 2017 - Mega Box Ohtani

This is in response to Tom's contest over at Waiting 'til Next Year.

I'll throw this up as my favorite card of the year because I actually pulled one [#BCP31] after not even sure if I was going to bust any of the 2017 Bowman Mega Boxes - as a baseball fan, I was excited to see which MLB team Ohtani sign with this off-season, whether it was the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners or San Diego Padres.

It's only much sweeter when the 23-year old wunderkind signed with the Angels as opposed to other teams in pursuit of the pitcher / slugger - I figure this will probably be my best Ohtani card and I'm hoping he lives up to the hype and this card stills holds some relative value at the end of next year, even after the market is flooded with his MLB cards.

2017 Bowman Mega Box Shohei Ohtani

It wasn't recently, but when I finally saw them for the first time, I bought the six Bowman Mega Boxes I found at Target - I went through four boxes and pulled Ohtani's first English card, even though it's sort of a 'phantom' issue since the 23-year old never played for Japan in the World Baseball Classic.

The biggest story this off-season is which MLB team Ohtani sign with once he gets officially posted by his Japanese team, the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters - I've heard about him for at least a couple of years and with his ability to pitch and swing the bat, he has the potential to make the most impact out of all the baseball imports from Japan in the last 25 years.

I took a picture of Ohtani signing autographs and taking pictures early in the morning a couple of years ago - when he was in Peoria Arizona for his team's spring training workouts.

Vintage baseball card display #2

During a pit stop at the McDonald's by the Salt River Fields in Arizona, I was wandering around and found a couple of baseball card related displays - this was the second featuring assorted baseball cards.

It's easier to do quick research with the Internet, so I looked up the cards and except for the 1965 Topps Embossed inserts of Willie Mays and Ernie Banks - the other cards were from the 1961 Golden Press set, when can sort of be defined as a vintage 'retro set' of cards.

Why we care about performance enhancing drugs

I got around to seeing A-Rod's press conference later in the day - apparently there is a 'phantom' cousin who introduced him to some stuff. Only they knew about it and conspired to experiment on their own, for a prolonged period of time [2001-2003].

I don't think anybody missed much if they didn't see A-Rod's press conference on Tuesday - I honestly think he is telling us to read between the lines and make up our own minds. That maybe even more dangerous to the perception of his damaged legacy, but the fact it has come to this point should be something of a revelation. People want him to be implicate others, name substances he took and say he shot himself with all sorts of cringe-worthy stuff.

He has told us what he taken, but we are resigned to the fact he is not going to get himself into more hot water and he can only go so far - he shouldn't be so naive to think, 'I'm young and I was stupid' is going to cut it with those who have an interest as fans of the game or someone who looked at him to endorse a product.

With all this fuss about A-Rod, I've come to the realization baseball may get tedious and boring as far as the day-to-day things going on in a game played in 30 cities, 162 games a year - but it is still the pasttime of guys who can identify with strong, valiant icons of the past.

Baseball fans can rattle off the legends/icons associated with history of the game - whether they saw them play or not.

The game has its faults, but its foundation isn't strife with 'thugs' and 'black eyes' but stoic pioneers [like Jackie Robinson] who played the game right and with integrity - baseball is built upon its history and people are always looking to size up any modern marvel and judge whether an iconic modern player of today passes muster with the likes Babe Ruth or Ted Williams.

If someone like Barry Bonds or A-Rod comes along - there is a self-fulfilling prophecy to tear down and dissect their numbers because it just doesn't add up, when there can be no player as great as Ruth or Williams.

There probably is a sentiment of 'I told ya' running around - in a way the icons of the past are validated for their accomplishments once again as the true torch bearers of the game.

Dinged Corners new year's baseball card questions

I haven't gotten involved in one of these blog question and answer posts - but I'm trying to do something in involve myself in the hobby. One of those ways is answering questions to give you a chance to reflect and share a little about what makes you a collector.

ROUND ONE:

1-If I didn't collect baseball cards, I'd collect - books about baseball, its players and its history.

2-My baseball heroes include one you probably wouldn't know from my blog or comments, and that person is - Ichiro

I don't know if I consider baseball players heroes, but then I guess I like the idea of this Ichiro fellow - I kind of got swept up in the bandwagon in 2001, wondering if this 'cat' was going to stick and through 2008, it doesn't look like he is slowing down.

I still put this guy up on a pedestal because of a number of reasons - he is one 200-hit season from cracking the 2,000 hit mark [he already has over 3,000 hits if you combine his Japan totals and his Major League Baseball totals] and has an outside chance of getting 3,000 hits. He plays for an organization that has crumbled over the last four or five years but for better or for worse, he continues to put up some decent numbers.

3-Every New Years I resolve to - organize my collection since it is my Achilles' heel.

Over a given year, cards get piled on top of each other and while there is some organization in place - cards are sorted out for a number of reasons and I get lazy to put them back where they came from.

4-If I could spend a day with one person from baseball history, it would be - Babe Ruth; you want to know everything about living large, then you have to spend a day with the Babe.

ROUND TWO: Here are Lucy's questions for you:

1-What is your favorite kind of dog? Any kind of dog.

2-Who is your favorite baseball player? Tim Salmon, because he was the first Halos' top prospect who came up through the early 1990s and established himself as a franchise star.

One of my baseball card collecting 'games' back in the day was trying to pick out players' cards who were going to be future stars - I wasn't Billy Beane or nothing with Moneyball, but I'd pick out some cards out of the commons box of a friend perhaps [I thought most cards I found were rookies, but they could have been second year cards of young players with minimal stats lines on the back] and see if there was a player who was going to star when given a chance [I remember Paul Sorrento and Ed Sprague].

As Salmon started to put it together as an elite prospect back in the early 1990s, I traded for his 1991 Bowman rookie card - it was only worth a quarter [and probably is still only worth a quarter today], but I figured he was in an Angels' uniform.

Salmon made his Major League debut in 1992 for a cup of coffee and won the American League Rookie of the Year the next season - he was the face of the team through the late 1990s and despite battling injuries and down seasons, had a prominent role in helping the Angels win a championship in 2002. He is held in highest regards by Angels' fans.

3-What is your favorite team? Los Angeles, California, Anaheim, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Angels; my two Little League teams were the Angels and the A's. The Angels are the 'hometown' team to this day, though back in the early 1990s, there was some 'team envy' when you had Dave Stewart, Jose Canseco, Dennis Eckersley, Mark McGwire, Dave Henderson, Rickey Henderson among others flexing their muscles for the A's in the American League West. The Angels of the early 1990s seemed like 'pretenders' compared to the A's.

4-What is your favorite baseball movie? Bad News Bears or Mr. Baseball; there was something authentic about Bad News Bears and it wasn't really just a sappy,feel good baseball movie for kids. Mr. Baseball dwells on the fictionalized experiences of the 'Gaijin' [or foreigner] ballplayer thrown into a different culture and it is kind of a poor man's Bull Durham as far as the nuts-and-bolts baseball action is concerned.

5-What is your favorite baseball book? Ball Four by Jim Bouton; it was a radical book and something frowned upon by the baseball establishment. Despite being blackballed for putting out the book, Bouton gave readers an opportunity to see what ballplayers were really like as opposed to sugarcoated accounts written up by ghostwriters or reporters who still believed they could enjoy relationships with the superstars they lavished glowing praise on.

6-What is your favorite card? 1985 Topps Mark McGwire #401; I don't know if I have a definitive card to talk about but I picked up a card like the one pictured for $5 at the 1996 National in Anaheim. Fast forward to 1998 and a professionally graded version [maybe a PSA 10 or BGS 9.5] of this card was going to pay for part of someone's college education at a community or state college perhaps. The Tiffany version may have paid for someone's college education at decidedly better schools.

Having this card back in 1998 sort of made me feel like I had a little piece of the home run chase between McGwire and Sammy Sosa - this card is only a $5 card once again, but for a while it was the key rookie card of MLB's premier steroid taking Paul Bunyan-esque home run hitter and I was riding the wave like everyone else. People were either talking about McGwire or Sosa's daily performance and/or saying they had their rookie cards.

For the questionnaire, go to Dinged Corners