Wednesday, October 11, 2023

10/6/23 card show report: cheap boxtober

I'm encouraged by the fact that I was able to get that Facebook Marketplace purchase post up last night so I'm back this evening to see if I can zip my way through another one. Because I'd like to give folks at least a couple days to look over that one and pick out potential trade bait, tonight I'm going to do the same with my show pickups from last Friday.

I continued my standard practice of taking the first Friday of the show off from work despite Michigan not playing until Saturday evening, largely because I feel like I might miss out on some good stuff if I wait a day. So early Friday afternoon I headed out to Taylor and spent around two or two and a half hours digging through lots of boxes. It was certainly worth the effort with the deals available that day. Dime cards were 100/$7 (and even better deals were there if you bought larger quantities but I'd had enough by then) and the next level up was quarter-ish cards at five/$1.

Here's a quick spending breakdown before I get to the scans:

  • 100 @ $0.10 each = $10
  • 125 @ 5/$1 = $25
  • 10 @ 2/$1 = $5
  • 7 @ 2$ = $14
  • 5 @ 5/$20 = $20
That's $74 and he asked for $70.

Before I left I hit up the vintage guy I check out once in a while and grabbed eight of his $3 cards that go eight for $20. That means I left having spent $90 on some 255 cards--not bad!

Here we go with some trade bait. Please make your requests via comment/email/TCDb offer as always.
UD Finite rookies /1299; Moments & Milestones /150.
More M&Ms /150.
The rest of the /150 M&Ms, plus a Black parallel /25. The Studio Stars inserts aren't SNed but look awesome.
Bonds /10,000; Brown /2000; Ensberg /2006; Giles /150; King /3499; Reynolds /500. 
Ayanbadejo /1000; Denson, Huard, and King /2999; Graham /399; Hali /999; Mason /2009; McNown /2500; Moore /2010.
Moreau /2000; Redman /2500; Stith /1500; Westbrook is a Promo; Williams /500.
Pettis, Schaub, and Shiancoe /999; Stith /1500; Williams /999.

And now we get to my keepers:
These six items are among the eight I snagged from the vintage guy for $20. I'm very short on Bunning Tigers cards (and Yankee Killer Lary as well), Cash is always a winner, and the quartet of '74 Topps Stamps was too cool to pass up, especially since it added a new Freehan to my collection.
The dimes and $0.20 cards were as good to my collection as they were to the piles of trade bait I'm building. A numbered Bondo, a new Grandy, another Griffey for the set from which his card hails, Mr. Padre, the Professor, a sweet acetate Manning, and three of the four new Cals I added that day.
A numbered Pudge for under a buck? Yes, please! Not only did I hit all four of Griffey/Gwynn/Maddux/Ripken, but I also got both blog namesakes too in Grandy and JV. Cecil looks cool in UD holo form. Ripken and Ozzie were All-Star stalwarts. And my first relic of Skubal, who put on an ace-like performance to end the 2023 campaign, is a 2021 jersey from A&G for just $2!
I didn't skip the other sports either, coming up with a sweet acetate Iggy plus a $2 signature of former star Trey Burke. That was such a nice deal I added a second one to send Jeff's way (since that's exactly what he would have done for me). It's just my second autograph of his among seven hits so I thought it was a particularly good score.

As for football, I came up with a couple more of those Donruss Premium Press Proofs, and I'll have to see how close I am to a team set at this point, but it was cool that they were RC parallels of Haskins and Ojabo. Law is a 2000s Ultra Gold Medallion, Funchess represents yet another sweet acetate insert, and we finish up with a final parallel, an Elite Pink, to add to Ojabo's growing collection.

I don't know how often my favorite seller will have those dime and $0.20 boxes but I've really been enjoying the time I've spent digging through them for gems so I hope to see them at upcoming shows.

Anyway, as usual, I hope you enjoyed a recap of my show experience, and I'll remind y'all one more time to please feel free to stake claims to some of the trade bait above!

As for me, besides packing up some envelopes soon, I think I may go back to the blogger trades I need to cover, then sprinkle in some eBay pickups and more TCDb transactions.

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

2023 Facebook purchases: in the market for some lots!

I'm just gonna go ahead and warn you right now that this post will be image-heavy, but that's because I'll be showing off both some keepers and stuff available to all of you reading this here post. Just be aware!

So, I think you all know that I've had some pretty reasonable luck buying cards and card-related items via Facebook Marketplace. Well tonight I'm back with two more success stories, one small and one much larger.

First, back in mid-August, I headed maybe 30 minutes north of Ann Arbor to check out a garage sale that had been advertised on Marketplace, because the helpful pictures included a number of interesting card items. While the recent blasters on hand were naturally overpriced, I picked up a bunch of things that weren't. The total they gave me for the items below was $37:

A box of 2018 Heritage base and a misc. 2021/2022 box that was mostly Topps brands with a bit of Panini mixed in. $10 and $5.
A couple of these sets of Lions McDonald's/Fleer GameDay sheets. I got one each for John and Paul at $5 per.
A couple Griffey Starting Lineups (still unopened!) that I didn't already have, for another $5 each.
Two sets of '94 Post still sealed ($2 each), one of which went to Paul, and six packs of early 90s Conlon for $0.50 each.

I was quite happy with that haul, and if you want to see some highlights of the boxed/packed stuff, here you go:

Some of the best pulls from the Conlon packs. What a beautiful, if simple, product, filled with HOFers, stars, forgotten players, and more than a century of baseball history!
Some stacks from the misc. '21/'22 box. I pulled a lot out for trade packages (and a few for myself) but may list some on TCDb soon.
The 2018 Heritage box was definitely worth the price since I'm sure I'll be able to trade a bunch, plus I was able to flip some SPs that were left in there already.
My keepers, 1 of 2. All former Tigers (except one, for now...), mostly on other teams, but that's cool.
My keepers, 2 of 2. More ex-Tigers from recent-ish Topps brands.


Overall I was quite happy with that score, especially since it yielded a nice amount of trade bait for some of my favorite folks.

Less than a month later I found a guy selling a mixed lot in my hometown of Livonia for the very reasonable price of $50. I didn't see the point in haggling when the pictures made it look pretty interesting. By the time I got over there he'd continued to add stuff to the pile, and he let me know that he'd purchased a larger collection and was dumping some of it he didn't need/want/feel like dealing with. In that case I'd say we both got a great deal.

There was a LOT to go through, and these images will give you a small taste of what things looked like before I really started sorting through it all:

This big-ass tub was filled with boxes and albums. The set boxes fooled me as a couple were factory set boxes from early 90s UD, but they had more interesting stuff inside, as it turned out.
There was a ton of really oddball stuff mixed in, such as these vending machine capsule helmets, oversized stuff, and even a few packs, most of which I opened.
The monster box was a blast to dig through and I came up with some great stuff for myself, pending trade packages, and more. Oh, and back to oddball, there were a couple EA games as well.
My favorite album contained a bunch of these 1980 Topps Superstar photos, many of which have already been earmarked for packages, though there's still some that can be claimed below.
The unopened stuff was mostly mid-80s Donruss All-Star oversized cards, but there was also this bunch of Fun Food Pins, which were mostly Cal plus Willie McGee.

Now I'll give you a quick look at what I kept and then a very brief summary of what's up for grabs.
Regular-ish baseball, 1 of 3. Those Detroit News cards are pretty cool when I can find them.
Baseball 2 of 3. Lots of Scherzer adds between the lots today!
Baseball 3 of 3: the Cecil was a fun find, and I also decided to hang on to the Smith for my collection of star and HOF baseball RCs.
Simba and Chester are the two Topps photos I kept.
The Cal up top is actually a 5x7 box-topper and not from the slightly smaller boxed set made of the Ripken Collection insert. The pin and Topps Big items are new to me as well.
Hell yeah, new Studio portraits of Mr. Padre and the Professor!
Not much individual stuff from the other sports but these were all pretty cool. I believe the Webber Pog-like item was popped out of a card that included another one. The Collins and Hoard are oversized Pacific cards, and there are a LOT more available below.
Some near and complete sets from baseball and football, including:
  • 1990 Swell Baseball Greats (currently missing 10/135)
  • 1991 Swell Baseball Greats (missing 22/150)
  • 1991 Score Rookie/Traded complete set of 110
  • 1994 Pinnacle Series II (missing 12/270)
  • 1991 Topps Toys "R" Us Rookies unopened box set of 33
  • 1992 Pinnacle Rookies unopened box set of 30
  • 1993 Pinnacle Joe DiMaggio unopened box set of 30
  • 1991 Classic (football) unopened sealed (in two parts) set of 50
  • 1994 UD Miller Lite/Tombstone Super Bowl Showdown complete set of 5
  • 1990-91 Pro Set Super Bowl XXV Silver Anniversary Commemorative opened box set of 160 (note: I still have an unopened one of these available from the big Facebook collection I bought a few years ago)
Ok, now that I've got all that covered, here are things that are available to those of you who made it this far. As usual, please go ahead and claim things in the comments. Nothing's up on TCDb yet but will be soon. If I know you I'll probably just go ahead and send you what you pick out, otherwise I'll respond to try to work out a trade. And of course, I've already pulled a lot of stuff for soon-to-be sent trade packages, so if you don't see much of anything you want here, rest assured a lot of you already have nice stacks going!
Best of the baseball stuff by far. Witt (Sr., of course) looks to be IP/TTM.
More nice baseball singles.
Some numbered, parallels, and more.
Mostly numbered parallels.
Parallels that aren't numbered. Carmona's Refractor has some surface damage that's pretty clear.
Lots of stacks of commons, some fairly recent. The biggest is from '95 Collector's Choice SE and I already pulled a bunch for my team collector buddies, but if you've got wants please let me know!
'96 UD Ripken Collection oversized box set (minus the box, plus some rough edges/corners).
More oversized stuff. Can't say I'd seen the A-Rod flip book before.
This doesn't appear to be a team set of D-Backs Pinnacle Snapshots but there's a nice bunch.
Big and not quite as large.
Available Topps photos.
Big stack of Donruss puzzle cards (heavy on Willie Stargell), no complete sets, plus some various stickers (mostly Fleer) and UD holograms.
Donruss Action All-Stars.
This Cleveland Indians bear thing is next to some of those aforementioned football helmets, and that'll transition us into the football stuff:
Again, a mix of oversized and slightly less oversized. The Master Photos are quite cool in my opinion.
More oversized stuff of the Pacific and UD variety.
Hockey begins with this very cool binder. I'm giving Chris (the Collector) first right of refusal on it because that Hartford logo makes me think of him immediately, but he may turn it down.
A couple more oversized pieces
'91-'92 Seventh Inning Sketch OHL and WHL near sets. OHL's missing 64/382 (plus 7 of the 16 Teams insert), WHL's missing 11/359.
A couple hockey complete sets. On the left, 1991 Ultimate Draft, a 90-card set (with some dinged corners). On the right, 1991 Arena Draft Picks, a complete in box 33-card set, though the cards definitely got bricked and are a bit worse for wear after I pulled them apart.

And last up is the misc. category:
Pins, coins, the two EA games, and two unopened packs of Olympics cards.

Again, there was so much more, from the less exciting stuff from the monster box that will likely head to my TCDb trade list, and some very cool stuff I pulled for many of you already, much of which was of the oddball/oversized variety. Still, I'd be happy to see more of the above go to good homes, so please throw out some requests if you're so inclined.

As for me, I continue to try to organize things in boxes for "to list on TCDb" and "to dump back to Facebook Marketplace because this is junk and taking up space!" And you know I'm still keeping my eye on the site for good deals like these.