10-7-18 show report: digging the dime boxes

Because I was indisposed last Saturday I once again failed to make it to my usual monthly show in Taylor.  However, I took the opportunity to make the trip down to Toledo on Sunday to hit up the seller I always see in Taylor anyway.  He runs his own show down the on Sundays, usually the same weekend as the Taylor show, and it doesn't take me that much longer to get down there, with the only negative being that I have to drive in Ohio, which has what I like to call remedial speed limits.

Anyway, it ended up being worth the trip, and not just because I also made the most of it and also stopped by the smoke-free(!) casino.  I dropped a solid $30 on 40 dime box cards (the source of everything here), 18 singles at $1 apiece, and three other nicer hits.  You can check out some of the latter stuff on TMM this afternoon, and you'll probably eventually see the rest in future trade posts elsewhere.

Here's some surprisingly good dime box successes that I thought were usually reserved for the rest of you:

I was fortunate enough to hit all four of my major baseball PCs plus a couple others, all out of the dime boxes!  Once again I was in the zone, baby, in the zone with Kenny Griff.  I added what I believe is my second Bazooka Comics insert of Junior, this one from 2005, celebrating him hitting his 500th homer on Father's Day, 2004.  That's joined by a 2014 A&G base that Beckett's OPG says is an SP, so that was a fun find as well.

"The five-time Gold Glove outfielder never sold us short of an impressive season" says the back of this 2001 Donruss Class of 2001 Yearbook insert of Padres legend Tony Gwynn.  I'd have to agree with whomever was responsible for the blurbs in what was kind of a strange product, though I think this insert was kind of a fun idea.  It also notes, of course, that Gwynn would retire in 2001, the same year another guy in this post hung 'em up.

I may not be a big fan of A&G or Gypsy Queen, but you'll see some of both in this post because when it comes to dime box pickups of my favorite players I take what I can get instead of being a snob.  Hence this nicely done Hand Drawn Art Reproductions insert of Barry Larkin from 2017 GQ.  It's actually the first of his two appearances in that set (different artists, I'm assuming), not to mention card #1, so that's pretty cool.

Greg Maddux wasn't quite the big winner on the day, but it was still a productive one for the HOF pitcher thanks to this trio.  Card #1 is an oddball-ish offering of a base card from Fleer's 2003 Hardball.  I have a few others like this in my collection and while I'm glad it didn't become an annual thing, disc cards are kind of fun to nab once in a while. 

#2 comes from 2014 Topps Update World Series Heroes.  While Mad Dog's overall Fall Classic record isn't perfect, you can't really blame him.  His 1995 complete game in that year's opener against Cleveland was huge, and overall he went 2-3 with a 2.09 ERA in five World Series starts (he had the same record in '96 against the Yanks).  In fact, two of his three losses came by just one run each.

Finally A&G makes another appearance with a 2016 insert called The Numbers Game.  Atlanta retired his #31, and I give Topps credit for noting other good-to-great players that wore the number:  Fergie Jenkins, Dave Winfield, Mike Piazza, Chuck Finley, and Hoyt Wilhelm, plus one-time Brave Paul Waner.

As with Gwynn, Cal Ripken Jr. makes a one-card cameo in the form of a somewhat strange 2001 product.  In the case of the Iron Man it's a base card from Fleer's one-and-done Authority product.  I don't recall much about this one back when it came out, and the gold foil stamp is about the only thing I can remember.  But it's a new Ripken for a dime and that's enough for me!

And last up today is this post's only current player, a guy you might have heard have by the name of Justin Verlander.  In my TMM post I also scored a card of that blog's namesake and noted that I probably had some good luck nabbing Michigan guys with the show being in Toledo instead of Detroit.  That may have been the case with former Tiger JV as well--I mean, $0.40 is nothing for four cards of the best Tigers pitcher since Jack Morris (besides the short tenure of Max Scherzer, I suppose). 

As you can see, two of the cards are with his new team, the defending champion Astros, but that's just fine by me, I mean I eventually got over Curtis Granderson in a Yankees uniform so this one was easy.  The Detroit cards are from 2013 A&G and 2016 GQ.  I'm a bit surprised I hadn't ended up with either in a trade yet, but $0.20 was enough to rectify that.  Meanwhile he can be seen with Houston on a pair of 2018s:  Donruss' Optic and Topps Chrome.  I sure wouldn't mind nabbing a Refractor of the latter!

That's it for this time but we'll see what I turn up the next time I hit the show, either in Taylor or Toledo.  I've got options!