3/3/18 card show report: Griffey/Gwynn/Maddux/Ripken and...Henson?

March was another good month for shows as I attended two for the first time in a while.  First up was the one I hit pretty much every month in Taylor so I can see my favorite dime/quarter/$0.50/dollar guy.  Looking back at my spending log for this year I see that I managed to drop just $16 this time, so I must have had a harder time finding lots of trade bait or something.  I say that because my haul here (and to a lesser extent, on this evening's TMM post) is pretty good.  I dunno, it was more than a month ago!

Here's my spoils from that show:

As the title suggests you'll see all four of my big PC guys, starting with Junior Griffey.  It was an all base affair, but considering what I came home with, I ain't even mad.  #1 is a checklist from the excellent SP base set made in 1996, meaning I now have both of his cards from that product.  Second is 1999 Upper Deck Century Legends, easily near the top of my list of favorite UD products (and in general).  The other two go hand-in-hand as they form a pair of Panini products from 2014:  Donruss and Classics (out of order for some reason, not the only time I did that in scanning cards for this show).  These new additions give me a fun (and very temporary) total of 666 Griffeys!

Mr. Padre easily outpaced everyone else today as the only player whose haul required two scans.  Group #1 starts with UD's sophomore SP set produced in '94, then moves on to '95 (Bowman's Best and Ultra Gold Medallion) and '96 (Bowman's Best again plus a peeled Finest).  Next is the first of a number of Crown Royale inserts you'll see today, a 1998 insert called Diamond Knights.  Another insert, 2000 SPx's Heart of the Order, follows.  Then we have a nice base pair from 2001 Finest and 2005 Donruss Team Heroes.

The final vertical pair keeps the Donruss hype going with 2008 Threads and 2017 Optic, a particularly nice looking product.  As for the horizontals, a pair of Crown Royale inserts--1998 Pillars of the Game and 2000 Feature Attractions--sandwich a base card from one of the greatest one-per-pack autograph offerings of all time, 1999 SP Signature.  I'll always have a fond place in my heart for that product, of course, after pulling a Griffey auto from the first pack I purchased.

Michigan guy Drew Henson is the combo-breaker today, and I definitely didn't plan to dig out a card of his that I needed.  In fact I grabbed this 2003 Topps Gallery base while pretty sure I already had it, but luckily for me it was the Artist's Proof version that already had a place in my collection.  So hooray for taking a shot while risking very little!

Pitching genius Greg Maddux is up next with a nice five spot.  Up first is one of probably many cards that feature the hurler at the plate, and I mean he did hit five homers over his career!  That's a '99 Aurora Pennant Fever insert, produced during one of the three times Maddux's Braves reached the World Series.  Then I have a couple 2002 issues:  a Donruss Elite base and Fleer Golden Memories insert, both of which look great with their own styles.  Meanwhile, the 2003 Absolute Memorabilia photo and design remind me quite a bit of the card above it. 

Last up is another 1998 Crown Royale Pillars of the Game insert starring Maddux and his fellow Braves rotation HOFers, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz.  This amazing trio won the '95 World Series and combined for seven NL Cy Youngs (1991-1996, and '98), 873 wins, and 154 saves (all Smoltz, of course).  Wow!

The last stop on this PC tour, as it often is, is Cal Ripken Jr.  In his case I found an insert and five base cards to add to his collection-leading total.  First up is the insert, a Die Cut of one of his appearances in 1995's SP Championship set--a checklist that notes his record-breaking streak.  Then cards #2 and 4 put Cal in the company of today's other Junior with a '96 SP Checklist and 1999 UD Century Legends base in a nice pair of beautiful Upper Deck products.  Ripken also appears in a fielding photo on one of many Fleer one-offs, 1999 Fleer Brilliants.  Another all-time favorite, 2001 Studio, makes a cameo, and it's followed by a lone landscape card from 2000 Crown Royale.  It ended up being a good day to find cards from that particular Pacific brand!

That's it for this one, but head over to TMM for the rest of my haul from this show, then stay tuned for my other March show recap!