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.

8/6/21 card show report: more like card SLOW

After returning to card shows in a big way earlier this year I've had less luck the past few months coming home with lots of great new stuff, but that's fine. I've been going to them long enough to know that sometimes there just isn't much in the boxes to interest you, but you never know what the next one will bring.

I did still manage to drop $40 on some useful stuff a few weeks ago, which I believe was split up with 25 going to my usual favorite dealer and another $15 to the guy from Ohio who has great deals on vintage and who was back for the first time this year.

Here's a quick look at what I took home:

The lone trade bait card I scored that I didn't grab with anyone in mind in particular is this jersey/auto of Illinois/49ers/Chiefs WR bust A.J. Jenkins. It was one of a few $2 hits I snagged, and as usual it's up for grabs here and also available in my TCDB trade bait.

It's been long enough since I went that I can't remember how the prices for my vintage pickups broke down, but I think I got something between 10-15 cards for $10 and three more for $5 (two $2s and a $1). Better year, most of them were for me!

Up top we start with my second oldest Sparky (after his '59 Topps RC) out of 1972 Topps. I've still got a good number of his 1970s items to chase (plus a couple from 1960!) so it's fun to land something like this of a much younger George on the cheap. 1968 champ Jim Northrup is next on his '73 Topps base, putting me that much closer to a team set representing the '72 guys that were the last Detroit playoff team until '84. SS/OF (love that split!) Mickey Stanley, one of his teammates for both seasons, completes the row by appearing in the '70 Topps set.

Then we switch orientations and open with a card featuring former Tigers slugger (and '68 champ--see a theme here?) Norm Cash on a '72 Topps issue noting the previous year's home run leaders. Cash and future HOFer Reggie Jackson tied for second with 32 while "Beltin'" Bill Melton led the Junior Circuit with 33 long balls. To the right is pain-in-the-ass Billy Martin's '73 Topps manager card, the second of two sets in which he appears. I always thought it was kind of cool when they included the coaches up front as seen here.

The bottom row is quite impressive as well, starting with easily the oldest card in the bunch: a '54 Topps of Ray Boone, patriarch of one of the baseballest families you'll ever hear about. Ray was with Detroit for exactly five years: June 15, 1953 until the same date in 1958. '54 Topps is a classic of a set with the super cool old school logos so this was a beautiful find for me.

Next to him is a '72 Topps multiplayer RC that stars Darrell Porter (that's him on the left, not in the middle). I grabbed it for a buck in case any Brewers fans wanted it, but I may just keep it since he's one of those underappreciated guys from the era. His substance abuse problems are sad to think about but it's nice to remember him for 17 excellent years as a catcher.

And last up in this bunch is the most diminutive item today: Al Kaline's 1969 Globe Imports Playing Card. If the set it comes from looks a bit familiar to you that may be because I snagged Bill Freehan's version from Sportlots months ago. It's a super oddball vintage item of Mr. Tiger and was obviously coming home with me.

The last two cards today came from my go-to guy at the show, who unfortunately didn't have any room for his dime and quarter boxes this time, meaning most of the stuff he had available wasn't in my wheelhouse. I did gladly drop $2 on my first autograph of former Wolverine basketballer Ignas Brazdeikis and another $5 on a sweet looking UM jersey/auto of RB Karan Higdon, though. Iggy's card is from 2019-20 Hoops' Hot Signatures Rookies set and represents my third hit of his (two jerseys). Meanwhile, Higdon's 2019 National Treasures jersey/auto/RC is just my second hit (an autograph) of the hard-running back. Naturally I love that the relic is from a college jersey instead of a pro one.

Naturally I grabbed a small amount of trade bait too, but it was still on the low end of what I'm used to in terms of this monthly show. No problem, though, since I should be back at it next week, where I'm looking forward to digging through boxes until my back hurts while looking for buried treasure for my collection and others' as well!

2019 Sportlots purchases: Old Tigers' Day

It's a sunny, not-quite-so chilly Sunday afternoon here in Ann Arbor, plus my Wolverines had another nice game yesterday, so I'm feeling pretty good.  Why not keep up the good vibes with some cards?

The penultimate post in this series is kind of a grab bag of older Tigers that didn't warrant their own posts or necessarily fit in with previous themes:

We'll start with "Gator", a.k.a. William James "Gates" Brown, an absolute beast of a PH who spent all of his 13 MLB seasons with Detroit.  That indeed included '68 so he appears in the 1988 Domino's Tigers team set celebrating the champs from that year.  I grabbed this copy because the one I already had from what used to be a complete set was in rough shape.  I still need to track down a few more of these, including Mickey Lolich's card, which I believe I used for an IP auto.

Next is slugging 1B "Stormin'" Norman Cash, a Tigers mainstay after coming to Detroit from the White Sox via the Indians in an absolute steal of a deal.  His 15 years in Motown included five All-Star nods, a ridiculous '61 season in which he won the AL batting crown and socked a career-high 41 dingers (377 career) with 132 RBIs, and a very nice 52.0 bWAR.  Oh yeah, and he was another key player in the '68 squad.

My Cash collection is smaller than I'd like at just 18 cards, only four of which were made during his playing days, but that's what Sportlots is for!  I did add a vintage piece in the '73 Topps card you see above, then added modern issues from 2001 Topps American Pie (which, again, came up a lot in this series), 2005 Upper Deck Classics, and 2013 Panini Golden Age.  Don't be surprised if I add more vintage items to this bunch in the near future.

The next two guys are even more well known.  My collection of Cobb is fairly healthy thanks especially to generous traders, but I was excited to add a pair of beautiful Fleer Greats of the Game cards from 2001 and 2002.  As for Ernie, the voice of the Tigers, he doesn't have a lot of cardboard to chase, but I still came up with a younger Harwell on his 1989 Pacific Legends issue, plus the gorgeous 2003 Topps Gallery HOF.  The latter set really is a work of art, and kudos to Topps for including him here.

And here we have a couple more Tigers greats.  Heilmann starred for Detroit in the early part of the 20th century, spending 15 of his 17 MLB seasons with the Tigers.  He was an outstanding hitter for average, winning four batting titles and hitting .403 in 1923, and had a bit of power to spare, too.  Can anyone here guess when MLB implemented new baseballs?

Heilmann's .342 career average and 72.2 bWAR were eventually enough to get him in the Hall in 1952 after 13 years on the ballot, and almost 50 years later he appeared on the 2001 Greats of the Game base you see above.  It's one of only four of his cards I own, but as he can be found in many other products I like, that number may increase before much longer.

Last up today is 15-year vet Harvey Kuenn, an OF/IF who spent eight very good seasons in Detroit, where he accumulated eight of his 10 All-Star appearances, was the '53 AL Rookie of the Year, led the league in hits four times, and won the '59 AL batting crown.  He was flipped to the Indians before the 1960 season for Rocky Colavito, who gave the Tigers four nice seasons himself.

Up top he stars on a couple late '80s oddballs in '88 Pacific Legends and '89 Swell Greats.  The next two are reprint-style offerings from 1991 and 1994 Topps Archives.  The '91 set reprints 1953 Topps, though Kuenn's card falls in the "cards that never were" group mentioned by BaseballcardPedia--he didn't appear until '54, which is accurately represented by the 1994 card.

Finally, the last three comprise a trio of fun 2000s Upper Deck products focusing on past greats.  In order they are:  2002 SP Legendary Cuts, 2005 Upper Deck Classics, and 2007 SP Legendary Cuts.  Combined with what I already had, I now own 15 Kuenn cards, and hopefully I'll track down more of him as well.

With these done I'm down to one more post, a big one starring a single player, and I'm really looking forward to getting that one done since I know a bunch of you will enjoy it.  It'll take me a bit to put together so look for it in a few days as I work to try to get it done before my attention turns to COMC shopping this holiday weekend!

2014 trade package #15: Reader Mark makes it as easy as '71-2-3

If one of the goals of my giveaway was to get back some trade packages (it was), especially from bloggers I hadn't traded with it, then I can say I've been successful thanks to people like avid blog reader Mark H..

Mark grabbed a 1999-2000 Topps basketball set and an Oakland A's player lot, and though it wasn't required at all, he was nice enough to send a fat PWE back my way:

What's this?  A couple rows of nine-pocket pages stuffed with vintage Tigers?  SWEET!

To start things off we have this 1971 Topps multiplayer RC (love those!) of Lerrin LaGrow and Gene Lamont.  LaGrow went 16-40 in five seasons with Detroit, but still managed a ten-year career, which is respectable.  Lamont played all of his 87 career games over five seasons in Detroit before managing the White Sox and Pirates for four years each in the 90s.  Formerly the Tigers' third base coach, he's been the team's bench coach since 2013.

The 1972 set was the biggest representative of this package with a whopping 17 cards.  The highlights include a Billy Martin manager card, a Mickey Lolich pitching leaders, slugger Norm Cash, PH specialist Gates Brown (GATOR!), 22-season pitcher Joe Niekro, Mickey Stanley, another Lolich, and a team card.  I should put these together with the few others I have and see how close I am to a team set.  What a nice bunch of Tigers!

Finally, Mark included this six pack of 73's.  Fryman, who was with Detroit for three seasons, is the guy I know best in this group.  LaGrow makes a second appearance as well, and the team card is again a highlight.

Thanks again, Mark, for not only taking some unwanted cards off my hands, but also for sending back a trade package stuffed with Tigers!