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 pickups - shiny Panini

Off a seller, these [dollar] cards are ones I might have left in his box back in January, but might have had another chance to flag down when I saw the person again - I'm not on that unlicensed baseball kick outright, but a serial #'d parallel and/or a shiny parallel might give my loose card pile [I'm building] a breath of fresh air as probable binder material [for a star like Vladimir Guerrero Jr. or a recently retired great like Yadier Molina].

I think the Bryan Reynolds is my favorite as it looked pretty special on first glance - even though I found a different version of the parallel [probably serial #'d to a lower amount] I had no interest in making a keeper for $5.

I don't actively collect Reynolds, but I can imagine him being a higher profile star once he moves on from the Pittsburgh [Pirates] - with his contract status kind of up in the air [where he wants to be paid], maybe a non-MLB licensed card is more of an ideal find [where some guys end up mercenaries].

2019 Topps Series 2 hanger box recap

Flagship Topps is fairly common, but with a chance to pull rookies and rookie-year parallels - there might be a chance to buy something unopened at a big box store on a whim and find a card that might be worth something.

I bought this along with the Topps Heritage High hanger box featured in an earlier post - maybe due to the 'better than a blaster' type posts on other card blogs, maybe I'm looking to spend a random $20 and tax on something than a lone blaster box of any baseball card product.

I prefer a little more variety and maybe a workable compromise I came with to get my fix - was picking up hanger boxes of two different Topps branded cards, rather than a single blaster.

#504 Stephen Tarpley
#506 Ben Gamel
#655 Tyler O’Neill
#656 Jacob Faria
#681 Jeff Mathis
#474 Carson Kelly
#413 Mike Fiers
#576 Jake Cave
#606 Johnny Field
#471 Kevin Newman
#356 Stephen Strasburg
#686 Brandon Drury
#562 Willy Adames
#478 Alen Hanson
#652 Rosell Herrera
#594 Austin Slater
#440 Dustin Pedroia
#497 New York Mets team card
#447 Up High, Down Low - feat. Springer and Altuve
#625 Milwaukee Menaces - feat. Yelich and Arcia
#491 Detroit Tigers team card
#584 Josh James
#517 Shawn Armstrong
#380 Chris Archer
#645 Steve Cishek
#542 Chris Davis
#509 Texas Rangers team card
#406 Jason Castro - gold serial #’d 0461/2019
#FF-9 Bob Feller - Franchise Feats insert
#FF-4 Cal Ripken Jr. - Franchise Feats insert
#519 Julio Urias - 150th Anniversary parallel
#ES-3 Houston Astros - Ballpark Evolution insert
#AJ-25 Aaron Judge
#AJ-13 Aaron Judge
#NNO Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
#84AS-DMA Don Mattingly - 1984 Topps Baseball
#590 Jose Peraza
#378 Brandon Workman
#505 Dellin Betances
#518 Steven Wright
#513 Brett Gardner
#467 A.J. Minter
#381 Juan Lagares
#375 Cody Reed
#358 Leonys Martin
#472 Scott Kingery
#586 Drew VerHagen
#423 Ji-Man Choi
#434 Roberto Osuna
#361 Taylor Davis
#515 Hyun-Jin Ryu
#570 Eduardo Escobar
#695 Eric Thames
#579 Andrew Benintendi
#364 Kenta Maeda
#550 Adam Cimber
#507 Cody Bellinger
#391 Jung-Ho Kang
#397 Lance McCullers
#635 Adam Frazier
#534 Aaron Altherr
#407 Eduardo Nunez
#670 Eloy Jimenez
#487 San Diego Sluggers - feat. Hosmer and Renfroe
#363 Max Stassi - I want to say something about not be able to tell what team he’s currently playing for, but he's was picked up by the Angels and looks to get hip surgery sooner than not.
#502 Mike Montgomery
#386 Ryan Pressly

2019 Topps Series 2 Vladimir Guerrero Jr. NNO

I got this card purchase fairly quickly, but the seller was probably doing cartwheels when the card was sent out - I thought this might be a hard to pull short print like the 2018 Topps Series 2 cards of Gleyber Torres and Ronald Acuna Jr.

However, pulling this supposed SP of the rookie slugger has fairly been easier than anticipated and values have dropped accordingly - with the card not being numbered as part of the flagship set [even if the number would be shared with another player's regular card], is this just another rookie-year card and not a definitive, must have?

There here was definitely some FOMO on my part and at times, I want to throw money into a card that might be a keeper - but when I don't use common sense, do some basic research, I'm prone to an impulsive purchase.

Maybe the bottom line here is Topps gave something for collectors to chase in 2019 Topps Series 2 - with the idea, they can still issue a regular Guerrero Jr. rookie card [with corresponding parallels] that is going to be chased in their late season Update Series.

2019 rookies / Topps Now / Topps Living

I bought the first Topps Now cards of rookies Yusei Kikuchi, Fernando Tatis Jr., Chris Paddack, Eloy Jimenez, Pete Alonso and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. - as is, I couldn't keep up with the flood of daily email blasts from Topps, so I've ignored cards made for the wave of other quality prospects called up including Michael Chavis [Boston Red Sox] Austin Riley [Atlanta Braves], Keston Hiura [Milwaukee Brewers], Nick Senzel [Cincinnati Reds], Brendan Rodgers [Colorado Rockies] and Cavan Biggio [Toronto Blue Jays].

Starting with Shohei Ohtani in 2018 there was a push see if I could add selected Topps Now / Topps Living cards as something different but rookie year relevant - after Ohtani, there was Ronald Acuña Jr., Gleyber Torres and Juan Soto whose cards I kind of looked for on the side.

The Topps Now / Topps Living cards are nice souvenirs in-hand and maybe a premium in my mind was buying a Topps Now issue gave me a game dated card that might have fulfilled the desire to have something 'here and now' as opposed to much later when I might not care as much - as is, the cards are not as valuable compared to rookies’ eventual pack pulled issues.

I'll probably get picky and wait on graded versions of any Topps Now / Topps Living cards - I just feel like I won't be such in a frenzy to look for any particular one like last year.

2019 Topps Now Vladimir Guerrero Jr. #137

I guess I felt like a sucker after reading the Night Owl post about Topps spamming this card up - still, I had been looking forward to picking up Vlad Jr.'s first Topps Now card.

Compared to the Vladimir Guerrero [Sr.] universally noted in professional baseball as a guy who can hit them wherever it was literally pitched - the already jumbo sized Vlad Jr. is supposed to be a better slugging talent at the same stage of their MLB careers, so the hype has been through the roof.

Admittedly, I hesitated on pulling the trigger to get my one lousy copy when eBay sellers had them up for pre-sale [usually for around $5, though in mass quantities, they may get them for roughly a couple of bucks each] - I waited until the next day's set of Topps Now cards came out until browsing around to see if the listed prices had spiked just a bit and whether I can order one.

The print run for the Vlad Jr. cards was 19,396 [which is the most for any Topps Now card] and the game dated, on-demand cards just doesn’t have the same appeal as pack pulled cards - maybe as an extension of the love for Vlad Sr. however, I'll see about trying to collect his son in here and there, even if prices for his key cards are just not within my budget.