12/6/15 card show report: yes we Ken, Junior!

About this time last month I was showing off my November card show haul, one that heavily featured one George Kenneth Griffey, Jr.  Today I'm back with the spoils of that same show I hit up on Sunday, and this post is once again long on Juniors:

I'll start out with a '92 Panini foil sticker.  Man did I ever love collecting these as kids, and you'd better believe the extra shiny this style delivered delighted my nine-year-old eyes!

Next up, going more or less chronologically, I have a bunch of cards that made me once again break out the "90s inserts rule" label!  My favorite is the '95 Pinnacle Museum Collection parallel as it combines one of the top photos of the 90s with what was easily Pinnacle's best product, plus their signature dufex treatment.  The '96 Ultra Call to the Hall is a very close second, a beautiful, artsy insert that stands up well today.  The lone base card is from Topps' debut Chrome sets, and it remains one of the best of that product's run.

This scan takes us from the late 90s to the early 2000s.  Here I give the nod to the '98 Score Showcase parallel, but the Topps Gallery base from the same year is a very close second.  Also of interest is the paper-then Vanguard Press insert, proving that Pacific took the set's theme seriously!

These are the last of the vertical cards, comprising Ken's '04 Diamond Kings base, a 2005 Leaf subset --here's the front and back:

Definitely a fun throwback to and older Leaf product I enjoyed.  The other two are both numbered, with Griffey's '05 Topps Update All-Star card out of 2005 and a 2006 Black Parallel of a subset that includes HR/K machine Adam Dunn limited to just 55.  Numbered Griffeys?  Yes, please!

And here's the five horizontals I snagged.  I've collected enough of those '94 Triple Play Medalists inserts for other PCs that I may just decide to complete the set.  The SP Baseball Heroes was another artsy-fartsy choice that was easy to make.  And finally, though I don't care for most Gypsy Queen offerings, the photo of Junior sliding at the plate makes a nice addition to his collection.

Although the Kid made up the bulk of my purchase, I did hit three other PCs:

Oddly enough, both of my Gwynn additions today are die-cuts.  The first is from the 2000 Metal Hit Machines insert set, and I have to say Fleer did some fun and interesting things with that theme back when the product existed.  The other probably looks familiar to quite a few of you since it's from this year's Stadium Club, and it features a great throwback image of Mr. Padre.

One good Junior deserves another, so why not Cal while I'm at it?  I landed a five-spot of the HOF SS, including '94 Topps Black Gold, '95 Fleer All-Stars, '95 Topps D3, '96 Pinnacle Starburst, and '96 Topps Gallery.  First, here's both sides of the All-Stars insert:

How good is this HOF SS combo?  These two were your starting All-Star shortstops every year from 1984-92 and 1994!

Like the Griffey equivalent above, my favorite is the dufexed-up Pinnacle parallel, this time from '96.  While I don't care for the 1996 Pinnacle design quite as much as its top-notch predecessor, I do very much like the "Naturals" subset, and this Starburst card really pops.  I also managed to track down a very nice Topps Gallery of Ripken, in this case from the set's debut.

Lastly, I did track down one card of this here blog's namesake--hey, it isn't easy to find cheap Verlanders that close to Detroit!  In this case it's a 2012 Finest Refractor, and as far as I know there's no such thing as a bad Refractor (don't prove me wrong, Topps--PLEASE).

I also managed to get out of there with a few nice trade bait additions that will go well with some Christmas cards I'll be sending soon.  And of course, as usual, there's a few other purchase to check out over on TMM, so please make sure to head over there too!