Some odds and ends from the card show

This was from the same show, I ended up buying these cards from - after going around the room at least once, I stopped at this one table again to rummage through the person's bins.

I grabbed this 2023 Topps All Aces Shohei Ohtani #AA-11 because it seemed like a harder to find single or a random card that I might be paying a little more than I would like [at least for the time being] - I bit on this copy of the card just to be able to put it away in-hand without worrying about needing it.

I might be prepared for the idea Ohtani will be making the free-agent circuit this upcoming off-season - maybe the fact that he won't be doing his two way thing in 2024 softens the blow of him going somewhere else, but damn if he actually leaves the Angels.

I found a pair of unique Ken Griffey Jr. cards - maybe the Panini card on the left ends up being a no brainer, because it's just so shiny.

As much as I'd gush over finding the Panini Griffey Jr. card that jumps out at you above - I'm not sure whether the two Mark McGwire cards and the Vladimir Guerrero Jr. card pictured are just as cool or just end up being weird looking misfit cardboard that challenges my good taste in aesthetics.

I ended up grabbing these Mickey Mantle cards - I don't know if I really paid attention if there were any left in the box, but I wasn't looking to take them all.

I have to look the cards up, but I think they were from a Mickey Mantle X set Topps put out a couple of years ago - Mantle has been in countless card sets long after he played and long after he passed in 1995, where they are fairly common and not as sought after like a living 'here and now player.'

I like to tell myself to make some of The Mick's miscellaneous retro cards keepers - where it is fascinating he was this larger than life baseball player to a generation [before my time and place].

Maybe I'm a little more tuned in to making cards from oddball issues keepers - though I'm not sure whether this 2021 Topps x Derek Jeter Captain's Crew #41 has the charm of an oddball or is just another card from another mainstream set.

I thought the sleeved but unmarked cards from my stack were dollar each, so my total came out to $23, but when I presented the cards to the seller, I was charged $15 - maybe the sleeved cards were actually $0.50 and after my total came out to $19, the seller took a little something off my stack.

Card show singles rummage

The previous post maybe the last of my dime box rummage stuff - unless I can muster up the enthusiasm to dig up some other cards from that stash.

The following cards are from a seller's individually priced bins - I guess I'm comfortable for making keepers out of these cards, where they are still kind of random, but not quite 'dollar and under' value fodder [in my card show experience].

Early Miguel Cabrera cards - I have never liked cards part of a 'rookies' subset like this 2004 Upper Deck if they are not considered actual rookie cards or a 'prospect era' card like this 2002 Bowman Draft Chrome.

The Bowman Drat Chrome is neither a rookie card [released a couple of years after his 2000 Topps Traded] - nor a big league era card [Cabrera had not gotten to the big leagues at this point, even if he was certaintly on his way].

After all these years, it might be a novelty to have some cards of a future Hall of Famer in his formative years in pro baseball - even if not talking about rookie cards here, each card may be worth keeping.

Miscellaneous Angels cards - I just had to pay $10 for a Elpidio Guzman rookie card even though he was a couple of years older than listed on this card and he never reached the big leagues.

Guzman shares the dual rookie card with 2001 Seattle Mariners rookie Ichiro Suzuki.

The 1994 Donruss Editors Choice Tim Salmon #6 ends up being my favorite because it's a little different looking - designed to look like the image was from a roll of film.

The Troy Percival, Darin Erstad and Rod Carew are sort of nondescript inserts from the era they printed in - but they are serial #'d numbered parallels, so either I was a fool to be lured to add them to my stack or they are cards that should be instant keepers if they show guys from my home team.

I've made it a mission to make keepers out of scattered Topps Silver pack cards out in the wild like this Ken Griffey Jr. - I do not want to pay too much for one particular card, but they irresistibly pop so much, I'll make keepers out the stars and HOFers featured in the sets over the years.

I picked up the Ozzie Smith parallel because it's kind of subdued and classy looking - I like it's also serial #'d on the back, so that makes it a couple of dollars special rather than $0.50 special.

I ended up grabbing a 1996 Pinnacle Team Tomorrow Derek Jeter #9 - since Jeter was a national superstar of 'recent vintage,' he is probably a guy I'll blindly collect where I'm more apt to make keepers out of a card like this rookie era Dufex style insert that pops in-hand.

A better than a blaster online mix of cards?

I don't really look to stray from my usual places to get cards whether it's in-person or eBay, but I stumbled upon a f/s thread in one of the trading card forums I read through - I did some virtual browsing and when a seller has pictures with his listings as opposed to blocks of text, it's probably easier to attract some impulse purchases.

I'm not as familiar buying off forums, so I didn't want to go too crazy with what I committed to pick up - including $4 s/h, my grand total was was $19.50, which wasn't too bad, though it wasn't like a bulk purchase in-person, where I end up with a lot of cards for what I've spent.

I jumped at a shiny $1 parallel of Ken Griffey Jr. - Junior Griffey may still be at the top of the list as 'the superstar' from the past 30 years, though the emotional attachment that goes with collecting his miscellaneous cards makes me old.

I jumped at a shiny $1 parallel of Derek Jeter - it may sound redundant, but I feel the same with Jeter as I do with Junior Griffey, where maybe I should focus on more of the 'here and now' guys in the MLB, rather than the all-time greats of my formative years who are sort of dated.

I snagged binder cards of Justin Verlander, Walker Buehler for $0.50 each and spent $1 on a Ichiro Sepia parallel - no biggies, but material I can use to make more pages with for the individual players.

I spent $3 for a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. relic and $2 each for an insert and a Sepia parallel - where I still prefer Vladimir Guerrero Sr. as seemingly an all-time card blogger favorite, it may just be time to collect the younger Guerrero with the same enthusiasm as his pops.

I paid $2 for the pair of Sotos and $1 for the buyback card - like Guerrero Jr., Soto is a young, relevant 'here and now' superstar, so I don't know about being able to collect him seriously, but being on the hunt for his loose cards might be a 'directive' on the down low.

The 'buyback card' is a 1973 Topps Pat Corrales #542 - while there was no care at all where the buyback stamp was placed, so the card itself clashes with the modern touch, it was hard to pass up the rather anachronistic 'parallel' of a vintage classic.

Hunting for various binder material Pt. 1

More from a card show, where I ended up grabbing a bunch of cards and maybe there was some buyer's remorse just as far as quantity goes - while no one card is worth much, these cards were probably what I built my finds upon and I may have had a time figuring out how to make it where I took what I wanted.

Whether or not Derek Jeter was someone I seriously could collect over the past 25 years, he was a national superstar to gravitate to - it's fun to go back and grab assorted cards dating back to 20 years and older, notably when the newly minted Hall of Famer was still a top prospect through his early big league years.

I think about this 'Torren Up Cards post every time I find a Ken Griffey Jr. card - but despite how self-conscious I may get about aging where my heroes creep closer to 60 than to 20, it's still about trying to objectify these larger than life players, trying to squirrel away a run of Griffey Jr. cards for ownership sake.

It's awkward coveting Barry Bonds cards in 2021, but despite the media making him the face of The Steroids Era where he is more of a pariah than celebrated legend - during his late career peak, he lived rent free inside my head where all the controversy was must see TV somewhere.

The bulk of George Brett's career was played before I was even aware of what baseball was but he played through the junk wax era and his last active playing cards were made through the early UV era - there might be this random thing in my book, where there is a little faux nostalgia in elevating him above some of his peers.

After the fact, it's probably due to the Pine Tar incident and the story about having the runs in Las Vegas due to bad crab legs - but Brett still comes off smelling like a rose because he was a hard nosed, prime time player who helped elevate his Kansas City Royals teams to contention from the mid 1970s through the mid 1980s.

2020 Hall of Famers - Larry Walker and Derek Jeter

While never linked to any chicanery, I tend to think of Walker as a product of the era he played in through the mid 1990s and a Coors Field star - Walker also never struck me as a relatively healthy player, appearing in 145 or more games only once in his big league career [though after the fact, him playing in so many games a year maybe a little arbitrary, when he had legendary seasons regardless].

I thought those warts would prevent him from getting inducted in his last year on the ballot, but the most important thing to remember is when the modern analytics groupthink gets churning, it usually goes one way - there maybe something about a guy's numbers not getting any better once he retires, but I was resigned to seeing Walker get that one final push with the new age focus on viewing a player's career achievements.

Having a more nuanced, refined way to look at the advanced stats available is the norm vs. merely looking at the counting numbers, milestones and narratives - I tend to feel like the 'experts' can slice and dice a player's career to sell the public a bill of goods, but it's always for the guys they want inducted, the guys that fit their personal narratives.

Regardless of my personal opinions about certain 'borderline' guys, once a player like Walker is announced as a Hall of Fame inductee - it is a moment where his career is validated and maybe it's time to get clued-in on the things he was able to accomplish.

There might be a manhunt for the lone voter who prevented Jeter from being unanimous - it says more that only one person didn't find it in their mind to vote for Jeter than the idea it is some kind of injustice that 'Jeets' didn't end up following in former Core Four teammate Mariano Rivera's footsteps.

Maybe the fascinating thing about Jeter was how he was a No. 1 pick and a future star as soon as he turned pro - but while there were growing pains in the minors [with his defense in particular], the narrative was about how he always kept himself in check and mapped out his own blueprint to be the player he would become.

I found grumblings about his defense a little weird, but maybe it was a thing that emerged from early career scouting reports - but mushroomed to ridiculousness as people who didn't particularly like the attention showered on Jeter took him to task for his shortcomings.

2017 Topps retail factory set pick-up

During a stop at Target, I was looking through the usual Topps factory sets on the shelves and got one with the 1997 Topps Derek Jeter reprint relic card with a pinstripe swatch - I bought a factory set last year at Walmart because it had a Mike Trout stamp card and now Topps got me again with this impulsive purchase.

I was hoping to find a reprint of Jeter's 1993 Topps card, but the 1997 Topps card has a nice image - though these factory set may be mass produced to a point where they aren't going to be hard to find, these could be something to put away because of the Jeter factor.

FWIW, I might have seen something on Twitter about the factory set cards being marked ‘complete set' on the backs to differentiate itself from the regular cards - if I wanted to pick up a complete factory set, I wouldn't want a completely different set over the cards I'd pull out out of packs.

I didn’t know if the marking was indeed something Topps had started doing, but after finding this thread on the Trading Card Database - I see, it’s just the 5-card rookie image variations that are designated and not the 700 cards from the base set.

2017 Topps Archives blaster recap 2 of 2

Box two
Bonus pack of Baseball Coins 
#C-22 Clayton Kershaw
#C-24 Max Scherzer

Pack one

#65 Stephen Strasburg
#28 Evan Longoria
#14 Marcell Ozuna
#280 Robin Roberts

#219 Jim Bunning

#183 Anthony Rendon
#130 Robinson Cano
#200 Kris Bryant

Pack two
#87 Dellin Betances
#77 Nomar Mazara

#21 Jose Ramirez

#272 Jose Canseco - I took a look at this card and thought the card pictured Ozzie instead of Jose and go figure, this confirmed my suspicion
#249 Tom Glavine

#RS-7 Yulieski Gurriel - Rookie Stars insert

#116 Curt Schilling
#192 Ryne Sandberg

Pack three
#53 Freddie Freeman

#78 Nolan Arenado
#81 Tyler Glasnow
#277 Yoan Moncada
#210 Mookie Betts

#266 Daniel Murphy
#159 Pedro Martinez
#139 Phil Rizzuto

Pack four
#82 Mike Piazza
#32 Juan Gonzalez
#244 Trevor Story
#253 Jean Segura

#283 Adam Eaton

#DJ-11 Derek Jeter - DJ Retrospective insert / 2003 Topps
#191 Sparky Anderson
#147 Jose Bautista

Pack five
#35 Brooks Robinson

#24 Willie McCovey
#56 Eric Hosmer

#217 Kole Calhoun
#235 Chris Sale
#144 Ken Giles
#145 Hisashi Iwakuma
#120 Dexter Fowler

Pack six
#9 Mark Trumbo

#57 Albert Pujols

#250 Bryce Harper

#221 JaCoby Jones
#218 Aaron Boone
#111 Danny Salazar
#121 Marcus Stroman
#150 Jose Quintana

Pack seven
#3 Earl Weaver 
#84 Carson Fulmer
#227 Manny Machado
#237 Joe Musgrove
#255 Reggie Jackson

59B-17 Sandy Koufax - 1959 Bazooka insert
#169 Starlin Castro
#128 Yasiel Puig

2017 Topps Archives blaster recap 1 of 2

I jumped at a chance to pick up two of these when I saw these on the shelves at a Target - this isn't a product I anticipate coming out each year, but something I take a look at through a blaster box purchase or maybe through some loose packs at the LCS [if available].

Box one

Bonus pack of Baseball Coins - comes in a nice, cutesy, 'micro mini' plastic wrapper that is worthless the moment I tear into it.

#C-10 Justin Verlander
#C-3 Gary Sanchez

Pack one

#92 Masahiro Tanaka - with the horizontal design and how colors kind of pop, the 1960 style is probably my favorite.
#36 Yu Darvish
#245 Johnny Cueto
#270 Mark Melancon
#247 Matt Harvey

#DJ-18 Derek Jeter - DJ Retrospective insert / 2010 Topps

#200 Kris Bryant - I kind of liked the original year 1982 cards with the ‘hockey stick’ design and while the facsimile autograph sort of clutters up the front of the cards, it’s an attractive card design [I guess for 1982 in particular as opposed to 2017].
#116 Curt Schilling

Pack two
#64 Noah Syndergaard
#17 Melky Cabrera
#88 Salvador Perez

#205 Trea Turner - 1992 was the year of Topps cards I had most exposure to and I kind of felt the set was a little generic, especially with 792 cards.
#223 Jose Abreu

#192 Ryne Sandberg - it's probably been done before, but I like seeing a 'what if' Sandberg with a 1982 Topps design.
#159 Pedro Martinez
#139 Phil Rizzuto

Pack three
#73 Bobby Doerr

#75 Ty Cobb
#201 Roberto Clemente
#248 Andre Dawson

#49 Brian Dozier - Light Blue parallel serial #'d 37/75
#191 Sparky Anderson

#147 Jose Bautista
#144 Ken Giles

Pack four
#42 David Cone
#39 Rob Segedin
#275 Alex Bregman

#293 Jose Altuve - I feel like all the vertical images used in the original 1992 issue cards made that set feel a little redundant, but the occasional, original cards with horizontal player images stood out with seemingly a little more personality.
#246 Wil Myers

#59B-14 Corey Seager - Bazooka insert
#145 Hisashi Iwakuma
#120 Dexter Fowler

Pack five

#66 Adrian Beltre
#67 Edwin Diaz
#16 Jay Bruce
#256 Ian Desmond

#290 Kevin Gausman - I find myself playing the game of whether or not I’d find the similar type of image used in the original year cards.

I’d say at the ‘meh’ images [only counting active players] found on at least a handful of this year’s 1992 style Archives cards - would probably be faithful to their junk wax era counterparts.

#98 Jake Lamb - Peach parallel serial #'d 105/199
#111 Danny Salazar
#121 Marcus Stroman

Pack six
#19 Russell Martin
#26 Yoenis Cespedes
#100 Corey Seager
#252 Evan Gattis
#206 John Lackey

#Topps RO-3 Yoenis Cespedes - 2016 Retro Originals; I guess this was a retro inspired design thought up for last year; like how there is actually a card back built up as opposed to a ‘run of the mill’ insert.

#150 Jose Quintana
#103 Alex Reyes

Pack seven
#29 Josh Donaldson
#51 Robert Gsellman
#72 Edgar Martinez

#236 Braden Shipley
#269 Reynaldo Lopez
#153 Frank Thomas
#115 Andy Pettitte
#186 Monte Irvin