Card shop trip - some odds and ends

I needed a good number of penny sleeves for various loose card projects, so I finally decided to make a card shop trip - I could literally be making weekly visits to my closest card shop, but I've been weird about it, where I don't want to make it a habit.

Of course if I'm at a card shop, I can't just be worried about card supplies - when I have the opportunity, I want to dig around and rummage a little, especially at the quarter bins.

Go figure the last time I was at the card shop, my priority was getting penny sleeves as well - but after I was completely done with my rummage, paid up and left the store entirely, did I realize that I'd forgotten my precious card sleeves.

As I hovered around the counter to go and pay for what I'd gone through this time around - I'd made sure to look for the penny sleeves and ended up grabbing one of the 1000-count bundles [rather than individual packs] that were being sold for $8.

This is just a tease of the cards I ended up with from the quarter bins - I've mostly bought bulk cards online, but there is nothing like building up a card shop or card show pile.

Building up 50 card stacks, I ended up with exactly 125 cards / items - where to make things easier, I always try and make sure I count out exactly the right tally.

In the quarter bins, I also found an oddball pack of 1993 Topps Stadium Club teams with only Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins cards - maybe this was handed out somewhere and/or sold regionally, rather than a national pack release?

Florida Marlins portion
#11 Cris Carpenter
#16 Ryan Bowen
#17 Ramon Martinez
#18 Bret Barberie
#22 Mike Myers
#24 Darrell Whitmore
#23 Geronimo Berroa

Colorado Rockies portion
#2 Quinton McCracken
#1 David Nied
#11 Andres Galarraga
#29 Roger Bailey
#28 Danny Sheaffer
#24 Butch Henry
#30 Brad Ausmus

1991 Classic Best Minor League pack

I was rummaging hard through the quarter bin at a card show and found this clear plastic pack of junk wax era minor league cards - I grabbed it because I saw it was still sealed and rather than one card, I get two [even if the back showed Todd Van Poppel] where I can count the pack as 'one' towards my bulk keepers.

I don't think the actual cards are part of a promo issue, but I guess the packs might have been designed for promotional uses as giveaways and whatnot - when I finally did a micro-mini pack break of what I thought was a two-card pack, I also found a card of Pedro Martinez sandwiched in the middle.

2019 Topps Chrome Update value pack recap

Exclusive pink refractor pack
#2 Josh Donaldson
#60 Corbin Martin

Pack one
#53 Eloy Jimenez
#84 Lucas Giolito
#150C-8 Steve Carlton - 150 Years of Professional Baseball refractor
#FBC-16 Tony Gwynn - The Family Business refractor

Pack two
#67 Willson Contreras
#61 Austin Riley
#CUA-GU Gio Urshula - autograph
#FBC-22 Pedro Martinez - The Family Business refractor

Pack three
#48 Mitch Keller
#91 Clayton Kershaw
#82 Francisco Lindor
#150C-3 Ichiro Suzuki - 150 Years of Professional Baseball refractor

2019 Donruss football value pack recap

I do not remember the last time I bought unopened football cards - it may have literally been 10 years ago.

While the big box store football cards are pretty much entry level product - it gives me cards to go through featuring a professional sport in season; maybe find some NFL cards with unique images, find some ‘hot’ NFL rookies [even at the most cheapest, low-end level] or find cards of NFL players for my mini-collections [even though I’ve always been a baseball first and only kind of guy].

Go figure, I tend to think football cards lends itself to more unique images - but I guess basic Donruss is the wrong place to look for such NFL cards.

The cards look fine but there were just about no ‘awesome action’ cards, which left me a little underwhelmed - I thought this was going to be a party in a pack, but every card I pulled showed players in seemingly stationary, frozen positions, whether it’s running with the football, guys set in their positions or quarterbacks about to throw the ball.

#330 Tyler Lockett
#100 Aaron Jones
#211 Le’Veon Bell 
#104 Jaire Alexander
#42 Christian McCaffrey

#161 Randy Moss

#8 Tony Gonzalez
#207 Michael Bennett

#48 Wesley Walls - pulling cards of Moss, Gonzalez and Moss, I wonder if I’m busting a pack from this year or from 1999?
#108 Jadeveon Clowney
#38 Jordan Poyer
#99 Clay Matthews
#26 Gus Edwards
#9 Josh Rosen
#60 Tyler Boyd

#114 Andrew Luck - another card picturing a retired star, though I suppose Luck didn't count as part of the old-timers part of the checklist.

#137 LaDainian Tomlinson - another card picturing a retired star, I wonder if Dick Butkus or Bob Griese is on the checklist.
#124 Myles Jack
#20 Tevin Coleman
#94 Kenny Golladay

#25 Lamar Jackson

#184 John Riggins - my NFL fanhood probably only goes back from the mid 1990s onward, but I may have heard of this legend, through some old-timey hobby magazine where his rookie card is mentioned. 
#147 Kenyan Drake - Blue parallel
#62 Shawn Williams - Blue parallel

#292 Gardner Minshew II - Blue parallel
#41V Cam Newton - Blue parallel / variation; apparently variations featuring the more unique images for the guys on the checklist.

#ES-18 Jared Goff - Elite Series parallel
#262 Jerry Tillery
#282 Chandler Cox
#257 Dexter Lawrence

2016 Donruss 30-card hanger pack break

#50 Sonny Gray

#140 Adam Jones

#131 Yordano Ventura

#123 Corey Kluber

#116 Curtis Granderson

#94 Collin McHugh

#89 Matt Carpenter

#83 Mike Trout

#132 Eric Hosmer

#124 Francisco Liriano

#117 Shin-Soo Choo

#111 Ryan Braun

#55 Jose Bautista

#145 Matt Duffy

#136 Alex Rodriguez

#128 Cole Hamels

#190 John Smoltz

#186 Don Mattingly

#181 Cal Ripken

#178 Kirby Puckett

#174 Justin Upton

#170 David Wright

#D82-29 Eric Hosmer - Base 1982 Pink

#TP-2 Julio Urias - The Prospects insert

#TR-8 Michael Conforto - The Rookies insert

#43 Jose Peraza

#15 Jose Fernandez - Diamond Kings insert

#S10 Michael Conforto - Studio insert

#SGS-KS Kyle Schwarber - Donruss Signature Series insert auto Green Foil parallel serial #’d 01/10

#D82-3 Lorenzo Cain - Base 1982

2015 Topps Museum pack break

If I was running a MLB team, I'd probably make it more like the Oakland A's than the Los Angeles Dodgers or the New York Yankees - however I have an interest in cards and while I may prefer dumpster diving at the place where I get my fix, at times I do something completely foreign and impulsive like picking up a pack of cards for $50.

I realize others bust boxes and cases of this stuff but I'm not one of those collectors - even if it's only one pack, I just wanted to experience what it was like to make it like a high roller until I actually busted the pack.

#56 Phil Niekro
#32 James Shields
#68 Lou Gehrig
#SSD-KV Kennys Vargas - Signature Swatches dual relic autograph serial #'d 130/299; blue ink on clear holograph sticker; though not visible in the scan, there is a loose sliver of tape / plastic on the swatch.
#41 Masahiro Tanaka - green parallel serial #'d 040/199

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen box topper pack

Gypsy Queen is out and I grabbed a box topper of minis even though I like the regular sized trading cards - without picking up a full hobby box, I thought I might pull something mildly interesting.

#29 Chris Sale

#161 Lorenzo Cain
#91 Javier Baez
#90 Carlos Santana

#152 Rod Carew

#163 Willie McCovey
#97 Anthony Rizzo

#157 Rusney Castillo

#122 Ken Griffey Jr.
#187 Xander Bogaerts

2015 Topps Spring Fever pack

#SF-29 Ryan Braun
#SF-42 Adrian Gonzalez
#SF-49 Chase Utley
#SF-39 Michael Brantley
#SF-30 Billy Hamilton

2014 Topps Supreme Pack 2 recap

#SS-CJO Chris Johnson - Supreme Styling autograph serial #'d 27/50

#SSU-KU Koji Uehara - Simply Supreme autograph serial #'d 24/50

2014 Topps Supreme Pack 1 recap

#SS-CO Chris Owings - Supreme Styling autograph serial #'d 27/45

#SSU-MC Melky Cabrera - Simply Supreme autograph serial #'d 24/25

2014 Donruss II value pack recap

Top section

#259 Patrick Corbin

#338 Matt Adams

#332 Madison Bumgarner

#325 Francisco Liriano

#317 Brian McCann

#308 Jose Fernandez

#330 Brandon Belt

#322 Cole Hamels

#313 Yovani Gallardo

#356 Doug Fister

#354 Anthony Rendon

#351 Yu Darvish

#6 Evan Longoria - Studio

#13 Yan Gomes - Elite Series

#251 Enny Romero

Bottom section

#287 Justin Masterson

#280 Erik Johnson

#274 Xander Bogaerts

#269 Nelson Cruz

#265 Julio Teheran

#262 Alex Wood

#261 Wade Miley

#357 Gio Gonzalez

#355 Bryce Harper

#353 Brett Lawrie

#348 Jurickson Profar

#343 Ben Zobrist

#337 Lance Lynn

#38 David Holmberg - The Rookies

#232 Carlos Gonzalez - Diamond Kings

2014 Topps Archives $5.99 jumbo pack recap

I got $1 off with my Topps coupon book, though I wonder why I bother when all but one card was anything other than lousy base cards - even though these cards are nice, Topps always does some sort retro card product each year, so the nostalgia for me isn't quite as strong.

Top section
#4 Andrew Lambo
#8 Zack Greinke
#66 Craig Biggio
#65 Starling Marte
#121 Kevin Siegrist
#74 Jon Lester
#84 Tony Perez
#19 Nolan Arenado
#42 Junior Lake

Bottom section
#104 Jordan Zimmermann
#122 Larry Doby
#168 Jonathan Schoop
#193 Matt Kemp
#87-OS Ozzie Smith - 1987 Topps All-Star insert
#152 Anthony Rizzo
#186 Gerrit Cole
#199 Sonny Gray
#120 Yadier Molina

2013 Topps 75th Anniversary hobby pack recap

Non-sports cards have little appeal to me, especially ones that were printed from the same junk wax era [1986-1992] as baseball cards - I saw random posts about this on Chris Olds' Twitter and tried a pack to see if I can hit anything on a one-pack impulse purchase for $4.

I had the same experience opening packs of the first year of Topps Archives baseball in 2001, where I didn't know what I had - but 75th Anniversary basically consist of reprints with write-ups about the original set on the back.

It's kind of fun seeing a mash up of different cards reprinted from Topps' non-sport trading card history - though the cards seems whimsical and odd, not focused on one theme or one product.

Pack one

#83 Michael Jackson

#49 Winston Churchill - Who am I?

#4 Tarzan and The She Devil

#2 X-Ray Round Up

#84 New Kids on the Block - Foil parallel

#15 James Dean 

#72 Grease 

#64 Comic Book Heroes Stickers