More small things at the card show

I was digging through some '6 for $5' boxes from a random seller table and these were my keepers - added another 18 cards from the seller's '5 for $1' box and maybe it was kind of odd thing I couldn't push the total to 20 outright.

Maybe my favorite card is the 1986 Donruss Rookies Jose Canseco #22 - it was a card I remember a childhood friend possessing and seeing regularly [along with an autographed 1989 Upper Deck Dante Bichette rookie] whenever I would visit his house.

I really wanted to take a better picture of this 2000 Topps Finest Moments 3000 Hits Tony Gwynn #FM3, where it's hard to see on the first image - but it's usually hard to take photo ops of shinier, chromium cards, so what you see is what you get.

Card show pickups - The rest of the mess

I've ended up intermittently posting about what I got [like the Miguel Tejada card] - these aren't the better cards or anything, just kind of odds and ends I ended up making keepers from the particular purchase.

Off a seller that has become my outlet for whatever miscellaneous cards things I dig for - maybe I really didn't find a card or two that grabbed my attention from the stacked singles piles, maybe to bundle along the cheaper stuff I may find.

Another collector was plugging away through the seller's two-row dollar shoebox and at the tail end of this other guy's dig, I started going through the dollar bin myself - though maybe the box wasn’t refreshed from the last time I saw the seller.

It didn't seem that long ago when I went through the seller's dollar boxes, but that was already back several months ago - after some time has passed, could I expect the seller to fresher dollar material?

Maybe the seller has a cache of material he just sitting on or not knowing his M.O. - does make it where he has ways to regularly buy up new hauls of assorted cards, he can put out for a dollar each.

Pick ups off a dollar box smorgasbord

1979 TCMA Baseball History Series Jackie Robinson #291 - I like the old school look of this card, though the it's valued as much as any basic, retro themed Robinson card released over the past 40 years.

2006 Upper Deck All-Time Legends Satchel Paige #ATL-39 - the first time I became aware of Paige was seeing a 'poster' featuring his Six Rules For A Happy Life in my junior high language arts teacher's classroom.

1995 Flair Cal Ripken Jr. Enduring #15 - mail in - acknowledging the crowd in his historic 2,131 game.

1996 Topps Finest Landmark Series Promos Cal Ripken Jr. NNO - the greening gave me pause, but this oddball, smaller sized card may have been too weird not to make a keeper.

1985 Star Ryan Nolan Ryan promo "Baseball's K-King - labeled as an NBA card, so I assume this sample was printed as a mock up rather than part of the actual set [if it was made] that was supposed to be released.

Featured autograph - Cal Ripken Jr. and Tim Salmon

Both of these guys are baseball 'heroes' and coincidentally they share the same birthday, 8 years apart - while it may sound a little corny, over the past 30 years, they were among the pros I considered larger than life.

Though Salmon was never the national baseball icon Ripken Jr. was as the latter chased The Streak - Salmon may have reason I was paying closer attention to Angels games during his first full season as a rookie in 1993.

Something familiar - a card show trip?

I feel like I've been mostly out of collecting, but the idea of going through the most random of cards still hits the spot - I like cards and I'll continue to engage in picking up 'new' ones here and there.

I watch videos on YouTube occasionally and influenced by a YouTube card collector, I might as well see if his LCS [which is actually a card show] is viable as my LCS as well - as far as I'm concerned, my shop has been closed when the original owner retired and I've got to get my fix somewhere else.

1994 Leaf Limited Gold Ken Griffey Jr. #11 of 18, serial #’d 09132 out of 10,000 - this might have caught my eye, where I was going to see if I could pick up a few more cards from a seller who showcases mainly vintage cards

I would never mistake this person's booth as having anything 'here and now,' though there maybe some surprises in this person's 'poverty' boxes - the newest of these dollar cards is just about 25 years old, but my current interests be damned, I find myself going back through the years for certain players and cards that catch my attention.

1988 Upper Deck Wally Joyner promo #700

1994 Score Select Crown Contenders Greg Maddux #CC2 - regardless of the idea this card is worth a dollar and not any more, this card should add a certain shine to my random binder collection of his cards.

1997 Fleer Tiffany Cal Ripken Jr. #13

1996 Upper Deck Cal Ripken Jr. Ripken Collection #7 - inking it up find for my mini-collections.

1992 Upper Deck Ted Williams hologram #HH2 - not pictured

My miscellaneous finds off a 8 for $5 box

Once I start rummaging through loose cards at a card shop - I don’t know if I’ll be able to restrain myself.

There maybe a certain thrill, going through a box at some random card shop that has piqued my interest enough - that I'd bother seeing if I can pick up enough cards, so I sort of get a deal, even if most are picked over.

At times I get a sense that I’m influenced by others and want to entertain taking in all sorts of cards - though after the fact, I don't like idea of doing some mental gymnastics, in order to justify assorted loose card purchases that ends up being fool's gold.

These were finds I'd 'saved' from an out of town card shop trip and wanted to see if I could make a post.

1987 Topps Barry Bonds #320 - in sentiment, it seems 1987 Topps has become the 'classic' set of the junk wax era.

I pulled a copy of his 1987 OPC and maybe a copy of the Topps version years ago and I don't know where either card ended up - but I’ve liked the photo chosen compared to Bonds' other 1986 XRC and 1987 RC issues.

2018 Topps Gold Label Alex Bregman #49 - Class 2 serial #’d 37/99 - I wouldn’t know what this parallel is about and I doubt it is important but it's shiny and pictures a young superstar.

1996-97 Topps Stadium Club Chicago Bulls #GM3 - Golden Moments insert - I thought the card might be of note because it features Michael Jordan, but it was only worth what I paid for the card, maybe less with the slight nick on right hand corner.

2000 Fleer Tradition Glossy factory set Mike Lamb #472 - serial #’d 0916/1000 - I may have a loose definition of oddball, it’s kind of a different, off-beat card picturing a Cal State Fullerton baseball alumni.

Maybe a card I hope to get inked up in-person - even though Lamb hasn’t been at the annual alumni game in recent years.

2015 Topps Update Max Muncy dual RC #US54 - after his breakout 'out of nowhere' season in 2018, he stills profiles as a late blooming minor star at best, but he has become a fan favorite and his rookie is a 'penny stock keeper.'

2013 Bowman Chrome Albert Pujols #264 - Blue Sapphire refractor insert - this is a pretty, sharp card picturing Pujols’ 2001 Bowman rookie or at least what a parallel of an unsigned 2001 Bowman Chrome rookie might look like [the original Bowman Chrome issue is his most coveted card, especially since they were autographed].

1981 Topps Rickey Henderson #261 - to add to my 1978-present Topps sampler run, I'm looking for loose star cards like Henderson's second year card.

2005 Topps Retired Signature Cal Ripken Jr. #10 - this was a common base card, but it came from a product that might have relatively 'too rich' for tastes, so I don't even think the non-hit base trickled down to where I found them loosely.

I grabbed the card because it reminds me of the retired player short prints / variations Topps has made over the past 10 years - this particular rejiggering of the 2005 Topps design uses the old-school Topps logo on the front and had full career stats on the back.

1982 Topps Traded Cal Ripken Jr. 98T

I picked up a copy of this card because Ripken Jr. was a star who was on the verge of an iconic milestone when I was really getting into baseball fandom through the mid 1990s - this is probably his best mainstream rookie-year card and maybe the adolescent in me would be really impressed to have this in my personal collection.

When I started really collecting as a kid, I remember 'finding' Ripken Jr.'s 1982 Donruss RC during a visit at an acquaintance's house - afterwards, I had to tag along with my parents to look for carpeting in what would be the family home.

I was bored and I took some tape off a dispenser I was playing and stuck it on a part of the card - I peeled the tape off and just like that I'd damaged a card worth a whopping [at least to me] $8 at the time; maybe it was simply karma for a little youthful indiscretion on my end.

In the early 1990s, I was just starting to get into baseball fandom as Nolan Ryan was knocking down achievements [5,000th strikeout, 300th win, 6th no-hitter] as an elder statesman of MLB - I never got Ryan's autograph when I first started to get autographs in-person, but I was able to meet Ripken Jr. a few times when the year after he broke Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played.

The 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge - Day 27

"A favorite oddball card from the 1990 or later."

1996 Denny's Holograms Cal Ripken Jr. #2 - I don't remember if the verbiage was actually used in promotional materials, but I remember something about these cards having '3.5 seconds of game action.'

What I liked about these cards was the fact you can shine them up to a light source and sort of see the player featured doing something - I think most of the previous hologram cards featuring actual players only showed a static image, where you had a 3D effect going, but you couldn't play around with the card like you could with these cards.

I was aware of the Sportflics 3D cards from the 1980s and also when Pinnacle Brands revived the technology for some products in the mid 1990s - these cards are sort of similar to those, but more of a variation of the Sportflics cards 'on steroids.'

Hunting for some star on star cameos

1987 Classic Bret Saberhagen #116 - a quick glance at this card shows Cal Ripken Jr. playing behind the one-time Kansas City Royals' ace of the 1980s and I figure the image used was from the 1987 All-Star game in Oakland.

I was going to put this card in my 'bonus babies,' though Saberhagen was a star in his own right - so this is an add to my star on star cameos collection.

1994 Donruss Will Clark #33 - looks like 'Will the Thrill' scurries past second base with Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg right by the bag.

1994 Donruss Ozzie Smith #35 - I like this card because it features two eventual Hall of Famers, though in the early 1990s, I probably thought of Biggio as just another player who was moved from catcher to second base to prolong his athleticism and longevity.

Collecting topics - awesome action

Even more cards from an 87-card mix I put together at a card show for $20 - I don't think I'll end up stretching out this one-time purchase, though maybe I'll be able to get at least several posts out of it.

While I'm not hunting for specific brands or sets digging through the dollar and under boxes - I'd like to believe that I'm building up a stash that makes some sort of sense, so I'd separated the cards I bought into some of the themes in my collections.  

Though not all cards are pictured, here are the cards I bought for my 'awesome action' mini-collection showing something unique - maybe a 'nice action shot' or maybe a 'personality shot' that captures the immortal qualities of mortal ballplayers.

1993 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. #WI 13 - Iooss Collection insert
1994 Donruss Nolan Ryan #1 - Special Edition parallel
1994 Upper Deck Cal Ripken Jr. #425 - Electric Diamond parallel
1996 Upper Deck Randy Johnson #VJ12 - V.J. Lovero Showcase insert
1996 Upper Deck Collector’s Choice Cal Ripken #12 of 22 - Ripken Collection
2005 Bazooka Albert Pujols #124 - mini
2006 Upper Deck Special F/X Prince Fielder #PH29 - Player Highlights insert

2009 Upper Deck Ted Williams #1344 - 20th Anniversary Retrospective
2010 Topps Derek Jeter #TOG-20 - Tales of the Game insert
2012 Topps Chrome Dustin Pedroia #21 - refractor

2014 Topps Chrome Jonathan Lucroy #184 - refractor
2014 Topps Gypsy Queen Xander Bogaerts #13

2015 Panini Prizm Miguel Cabrera #8 - Field Pass insert

2015 Panini Prizm Jose Abreu #10 - Field Pass insert

2012 Panini Prizm - three pack break recap #2 of 3

Pack two
#44 David Freese
#2 Cameron Maybin

#67 Alex Rodriguez

#148 Cal Ripken Jr.
#170 Drew Pomeranz
#151 Yu Darvish

Cal Ripken Jr. memorabilia display scam?

I found this scan of a Cal Ripken Jr. framed memorabilia display and while I assumed the scraps of jersey / ball / base material were otherwise 'game used' in a Major League game - the 'Authentic Ball' material features the logo of an official league baseball instead of an official Major League Baseball.

I think these displays [more like cheap cardboard mattes with a random trading card affixed along with the 'memorabilia' pieces] are sold with repacks at various retail stores for about $10 - maybe in a couple of various baseball card / sports card forum threads, I've read various discussions about the authenticity of the scraps of jersey / ball / base material.

Seeing the Cal Ripken Jr. display makes me chuckle a little bit - something is clearly fishy with these things.

Cal Ripken Jr. / Billy Bean book find

I ended up at an outlet book store and found an autographed copy of one Cal Ripken's books - I wasn't going to buy anything at the book store, because I was sort of saving the $20 I had in my pocket for a 2009 Upper Deck Series I/Series II/Update blaster box, but broke down because the copy I had was a-u-t-o-g-r-a-p-h-e-d.

Ripken maybe signing his way onto Bob Feller territory, but still commands a hefty fee [maybe around $100 for a flat] to sign anything - through Ironclad Authentics for example.

On a related, but other end of the spectrum - I picked up a paperback copy of that Billy Bean's memoir as well, which is a poor man's Ball Four from a closeted ex-player's perspective.

What resonated, the first time I read bits and pieces of it is hunger of a ballplayer to stick in the pros and really the desperation he realizes - to play for himself instead of others.

The struggle to be a professional may not be the most important part for people to identify with and the obvious topic in the memoir besides a former baseball player talking about his professional career - is as compelling, maybe even more so, considering the facts in-hand.

Besides Bean dealing with his double life - his memoir gives the average person a real, unadulterated look [no matter how unflattering] at baseball players [particularly as they climb up the ladder].