Player Collections from the 15/$1 Box

These player stacks are from the 15/$1 box at the card show this past weekend. These are all players I collect, but at this point I pretty much just add then to my collection when I find them for a dime, or less.

Most of the Goldschmidt cards I find at these prices are of him with St. Louis. I've got most of his Diamondbacks cards that I come across in the dime boxes. For Harper I will probably have at least a couple of the cards already, but at a dime or less, it's not a big deal. When it comes to Piazza and Griffey, I will grab them if it doesn't look familiar, but I typically end up having at least half of the cards of these two.

90's inserts!

Insert cards have been around for a long time, but really took off in the late 80's and then exploded in the 90's. Multiple manufacturers led to increased innovation when it came to cards in general and specifically insert sets.

The mid 90's are full of great insert sets. I admit that some of my infinity for them is probably due to nostalgia. I would buy packs as a kid and occasionally pull an insert card or two from any given set, but the idea of completing an insert set was foreign to me for many years. 

When I come across insert cards in dime boxes, especially from the 90's, that I like I will grab them. This past weekend I went to a card show and picked up a bunch of cards from a 15/$1 box. It was a dime box, but if you bought 10 then you got 5 free, so 15/$1.

Lots of great 90's inserts and some modern as well.

Take a look at some stacks of those 90's inserts.

I was trying to go through the 3200 count box quickly so I ended up with some dups. The dups are now part of the prize package for my contest. Click here and enter the contest.

I like all of these inserts, that's why I bought them, but here is a more detailed look at a couple of my favorites.

I like the 1994 (above) better than the 1995 (below). There weren't any Hitting Machines inserts beyond 1995. Those are die-cut and get pretty pricey.

These 1995 Donruss Bomb Squad card are awesome! Love the detail of having the exact number of little bombs as home runs they hit.

Two out of three ain't bad! - 1980-81 Topps Magic Johnson RC

My last post was on me putting together the 1980-81 Topps Basketball set. I wrote and posted it on Friday. On Saturday, July 2nd I went to a card show in Phoenix. I hit up my favorite vintage dealer that was at the show. The same dealer that I bought all the pages of 1980-81 Topps Basketball from a few weeks back.

I looked for the remaining Hank Aaron cards I need, but he didn't have any of them. I also took a look at his vintage basketball cardsharping to find some of the cards I needed for the 1980-81 Topps set. He only had a couple of cards from that set. This was one of them.

The price tag, as you can see, says $120. I asked him what he could do. I was hoping he would be in the $80-100 range. He took the card from me and looked at it and say, "$75". I told him I'd take it. My birthday is actually today, so this was my birthday present from my Dad.

The card is off-centered, but otherwise appears to be in good shape. This is the Magic Johnson rookie card. Obviously it's not the Bird, Erving Magic card from the set, but two out of three ain't bad.

Random Card Show Purchases

Getting really great participation for my ongoing contest. It runs through Sparky Lyle's birthday; 7/22, so plenty more time to get entries in. I've added a few more cards to the prize package, so be sure to click here to see the new cards and get an entry in.

I went to a card show a few ago and my goal going into the show was to purchase one of the 4 remaining Hank Aaron cards I need for my Topps playing career run. I was able to do that.

I also picked up a couple of random cards at the show. These are players that I don't actively collect and sets that I'm not going after. But I still bought them. I bought them because I liked the card and I felt the price was right. Let me know what you think.

First up is this 2000 Upper Deck Game Jersey card of Troy Glaus. It came in the screw down. I don't still just have these laying around.

This is from back when jersey and other relic cards were fairly new and they were tough to pull from packs. The Troy Glaus card was available in both Series 1 and Series 2. For Series 1 it was available in Hobby products at a rate of 1:288 packs. This card could also be pulled from Series 2 packs of either Hobby or Retail with odds at 1:287 packs. There are 19 different players that have a Game Jersey card in Series 2, so assuming they all have the same amount of cards, that puts the odds of any one player at 1:5,453 packs. 

I have no idea how to determine what Series this particular card came from. Looking at the October 2000 Beckett, it lists both versions of the card with the Series 1 card booking at a high of $60 and the Series 2 card booking at $50.

I paid $2 for this card. Again, I like the card for a couple of reasons. I had an Angles hat from around this time period that had the wing on the A. Not sure where I got it from, but I liked it. Glaus was a good player who was pretty much at his peak when this card was issued, He was an All-Star in 2000, 2001, 2003, and 2005), won the Silver Slugger award in 2000 and 2001 and led the AL in homers in 2000. In 2002 he would lead the Angels to a World Series victory and was name World Series MVP.

The other random card I grabbed at the card show was from the same dealer. It is a 2003 UD Play Ball Game Used Memorabilia Signature card of Lance Berkman. It's numbered 01/50. You can see the yellowed edges of the top loader. It's probably been in there a while. This card was in a half price bin, so instead of $20, I paid $10 for it. 

Berkman is not a player I actively collect, but he had a nice career. The bulk of his career was spent with the Astros and was a part of the Killer B's along with Hall of Famers Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio. Berkman, a 6 time all-star would appear on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first and only time in 2019 as he would garner just 1.2% of the vote and fall off the ballot. Do I think he belongs in the Hall of Fame? No, but it does seem like he should have gotten more consideration. Take a look at his career accolades.

The switch hitting Berkman hit 366 home runs had 1,234 RBI and batted .293 over his career that spanned from 1999 - 2013. He finished in the top 7 in NL MVP voting 6 times. That tells you how good of a player he was during his prime. He had injuries that hurt him as he got older and cut his career 95 hits short of 200 and 34 home runs shy of 400, which would have certainly helped his HOF cause. 

But let's take a look at how he ranked among hitters during the time in which he played; specifically the decade of the 2000's.

Those are pretty impressive numbers and rankings for that decade. Again, I don't think he is a Hall of Famer, but he had a great career.

So why did I buy the card. It's a relatively early game-used card with an autograph (a great looking autograph, if you ask me) and is numbered to just 50. It's numbered 01/50 at that. I realize that has no real significance, but I still think it's cool that it is number 01/50.

Alright, so do you ever buy random cards, just because? Did any of you ever pull cards like this back in 2000 - 2003 time period? Should Lance Berkman be in the Hall of Fame?

Card Show Pickup: 9 Pocket Pages of Vintage

Went to a card show this past weekend with my buddy Micah. Spent most of our time with one dealer that focuses on mainly vintage, but made a trip around the show and we picked up a couple of things from a few other dealers.

This post will focus on a purchase from the vintage dealer we spent most of our time with. He had posted on Facebook before the show that he was going to have some 9 pocket pages of vintage cards at the show for $4 each. He always has interesting stuff, so I made a point to get to the show as close to opening as possible and it's the main reason we headed to his table first.

He had a cardboard box with some 9 pocket pages on his table. The sign on the box said $4 each or 5 for $15. We started digging through the box and I found a few pages that caught my eye. 

I have some of these 1961 Fleer cards already, but for the price I couldn't say no.

I grabbed this one because of the Vern Law card, but it turned out I already have it. That's okay though. These will make a nice addition to my 1959 Topps collection.

This page has a few more 1959 cards, but there are a few other years represented here; including three 1957 Topps cards. I grabbed this page because of the 1957 Topps Whitey Herzog rookie card. It's in rough shape, but he's a Hall of Fame manager, and I didn't already have his rookie card, so for $3 for the page and only about $0.33 per card, I was excited to add this card to my collection!

So I was able to grab these five 9 pocket pages of vintage baseball cards for a total of $15.

But these weren't the only pages I bought from this dealer. 

I ended up buying another 28 pages of 1980-81 Topps basketball cards. More on these on my next post!

Card Show Purchases Part 4: Multiple Bats Collection

I came across this 1991 Line Drive Reggie Sanders Minor League card in the 5 for $1 box and picked it up to add to my Multiple Bats Collection. This card puts me at 48 cards on my way to my 2010 goal of 50 Multiple Bat cards. Only 2 more to go! That concludes my card show purchases. I got 25 cards and spent a total of $5.

Card Show Purchases Part 3: Brandon Webb Collection

I added 17 new Brandon Webb cards to my collection. I bought 2 others that turned out to be duplicates. Not too bad considering I didn't have a list or anything.

Card Show Purchases Part 2: Random Rookies

I picked up a few random rookie cards at the show as well. Again, these were all in the 5 for $1 boxes.

1992 Bowman Cliff Floyd - Just an awesome photo! I love everything about, from the purple shorts to the dunking of the baseball!

2005 Topps Chrome Carlos Gonzalez - Carlos is having such a great season that I saw this and just had to have it, especially for 20 cents!

1999 Bowman Chrome David Eckstein - I've always liked Eckstein so I decided to add this to my collection!

1990 Topps Frank Thomas - Not sure how I didn't already have this card, but I am happy to have it now. I have almost bought it a few times recently, but this time I pulled the trigger!

Card Show Purchases Part 1: Vintage

This past saturday I went to a card show. It's been a long time since I have been to an actual card show. About a year and a half ago I tried to go to one, but by the time I got there all the dealers were already packing up. About a year ago I was at a mall and there happened to be one going on, but I was with my wife and kids so I didn't really get the chance to look around like I would have liked to.

I didn't have much time at the show on Saturday, but I had enough time to find 25 cards from a dealer that had boxes and boxes of singles, all 5 for $1. I'll show those 25 cards over the next several posts. Now onto the cards, Alright, I know what you're thinking, vintage? 1982? Vintage? Well I had to have something to call this post, and this was the oldest card that I picked up, so I thought "vintage" sounded good.

1982 Topps Nolan Ryan

For 20 cents I couldn't pass on this 1982 Nolan Ryan card, which is fairly well centered and had sharp corners. Eventually I would like to have the Topps base card from all of Ryan's 27 years in the Majors.