12/1/23 card show report: December dimes and more

I'll probably do the other half of my TCDb trade recap next time, but to break things up a bit I'm finally covering what I brought home from December's monthly show.

I headed to Taylor on the first of December last year and threw down $80 for some nice stuff, though it's been long enough that I can't remember the breakdown. So just assume it was the usual combination of dimes, $1/$2/$5, and everything in-between!

First up as always is the trade bait:

Belt /250; Grieve /1995; Loney /520; Manny /150; Blackmon /499; Burleson /600

Carricker /2249; Cole /2000; Cotchery /2007; Curtis /999; Cutler /999; Delhomme /250; Farmer /1999; Henderson /500; Holiday /599

Johnson/ 175; Leftwich /750; Okoye /999; Pumphrey /175; Salaam is a promo; Shenault /399; Williams /2010

Claim 'em in the comments or make me an offer on TCDb!

And now for my keepers:

I was surprised to find this complete and still shrink-wrapped 1989 Donruss the Rookies set in the $5 or 5/$20 box and I immediately grabbed it. Not only does the set contain quality players (though not true RCs) like Sheffield, Deion Sanders, Edgar Martinez, and Randy Johnson, plus guys in my PC like Jim Abbott and Gary Wayne, but there's also a reasonably big deal rookie year guy:

Junior! You're probably much more likely to be paying in the neighborhood of $10 for just this Griffey than getting the whole set (albeit minus the box and Spahn puzzle) for just $4. So I was pretty happy about this one.

The mix of dimes & more starts with a couple nice Tony Clarks. The ex-Tiger and current MLBPA prez stars on a couple mid/late 90s issues. The Stadium Club Onyx Extreme of Griffey may have been another $5 box card, but then, this isn't just the "regular" version of that insert--it's an even cooler die-cut parallel that I don't think I'd ever seen before. Looks like I paid around a half or even third of the going rate for this, and earned this post my coveted "90s inserts rule" tag.

That makes a couple nice Griffey cards, and Gwynn and Maddux are next with some dime box gems, mostly of the Pacific variety, though Mad Dog also gets a cool UD Fun Pack card as well, plus a '99 Bowman International parallel.

And a couple more of the HOF P while we're at it, from 2005 UD and 2012 Prizm. Just one Cal this time but he completes the big four PC quartet with a standard 2017 Ginter base. Scherzer's non-die-cut die-cut looked pretty cool as did the actually-die-cut Verlander, both of which offer a Refractor finish, and I met my recommended daily dose of two many Verlanders with a Gallery Printer Proof from 2022.

Meanwhile, the basketball group was relatively tiny with a couple shiny dimes of THJ and LeVert, but I did manage to snag myself hit #10 of college star Trey Burke: a 2013-14 Totally Certified jersey card (probably from the $2 box?).

And we'll finish with football. Nico is a shiny/laser-y Xtra Points parallel of his '22 Prestige base. 2022 rookies Haskins and Ojabo are seen on first-years from that season's Donruss Optic, and the Ravens defender gets a Select RC to boot. Lewan adds a Leaf card that's fun for the Michigan uniform aspect and not much else. Colts edge Paye adds another RC to his total as well out of '21 Mosaic. And lastly, I added yet another Braylon to his stack in the form of a 2011 Prestige Prestigious Pros Red horizontal card, one that looks more suited to Christmastime thanks to its colors.

I was pretty happy with how this show went, especially with the way it helped me bulk up some of the Christmas packages I sent out a couple weeks after.

And if any of you enjoy show recaps, you'll be quite happy when I start covering my 2024 stuff because I've already got three shows' worth of content, including a much-hyped blogger/TCDb meetup in Kalamazoo!

But before then I believe I'm left with one TCDb trade recap and my COMC loot for the big finish.