12/7/19 card show report: Christmas shopping

As I sit here awaiting the results of the MLB Veterans Committee vote, which could right a few wrongs including Lou Whitaker still waiting to hear his name called, I figured it would be a good time to show off my latest show haul.

I headed out to Taylor as usual yesterday hoping to find a bit more content for some upcoming Christmas card packages (more on those soon!) and did pretty reasonably well for $50:

• 125 quarter cards @ 5/$1 = $25
• 18 dollar cards @ 6/$5 = $15
• 6 $2 cards @ 3/$5 = $10

All most everything I got for myself came from the quarter boxes, though a few dollar cards ended up in my pile too.  Here's what I landed this time:

Baseball part one starts with a 2003 Elite base of former Tiger Jeremy Bonderman (#0185/1750) which I grabbed for his collection because I love the design.

Then you can see four of five Gwynns I pulled, including a '95 Classic $10 phone card (not sure why I put that first here), a '92 UD insert with comments on players by Ted Williams, his '94 Finest base, and finally, a '96 Donruss Hit List insert (#08117/10000).  Oh hey, "90s inserts rule" tag, it's great to see you!  Naturally Mr. Padre is #1 in that set, and this would have been a fun pull back in the day.

Then we get to a quartet of Ripkens.  He also got in on the phone card action, plus he appears on base cards from 2000 Upper Deck Ovation (not sure how I didn't have that one) and 2003 Fleer Rookies & Greats.  But my favorite pickup of the day came from the $1 box:  a 1996 Sportflix ProMotion insert.  I remember busting lots of packs of the product around that year hoping for any of the cool inserts while enjoying the base set, and while I didn't have any luck back then, now I can pick them up at my convenience.

If that's not worth an animated .gif, I don't know what is!  I did laugh when I saw that Cal turns into a glove, though.

Gwynn and Ripken made one more appearance on a horizontal card each, but first I need to mention my lone Griffey score of the day, a '94 Upper Deck Electric Diamond parallel of one of his base cards in that excellent set.  While that parallel doesn't do much for me, I'm a fan of '94 UD and the leap in design it made over what in my opinion was a pretty meh look in '93, though I expect comments filled with opinions that state otherwise.  Anyway, UD did a great job with photography and holographic foil, and this was easily worth a quarter to me.

As for the other two guys, Gwynn stars on a '93 UD insert called "On Deck With" that includes a nice close-up photo and quick answers to some interview questions on the back.  Meanwhile, Cal's last cameo looks like a TV appearance thanks to the design of a '97 Collector's Choice Exchange card, the result of a winner being sent in.  That and the ones above get him up to 939 items and he maintains a commanding lead among my baseball PCs.

I was fortunate to track down six new Michigan Football cards while I was at it.  Former college QB/WR/QB again Devin Gardner is seen flying high on a Gold parallel of his 2015 Topps Field Access rookie (#42/99).  Topps knew CB Ty Law was one of the game's Finest way back in '97 when he was included in the set of the same name, and now 22 years later he's been rightfully elected to the football Hall.  And WR Amani Toomer is looking cool on a 2000 Black Diamond Gold parallel (#0522/1000) that makes me remember how much I liked the product back in the day.

And then I get to end on a fun trio of Charles Woodson cards.  First is a rookie-year insert from 1998 Upper Deck called Define the Game, one that was made not long after Woodson became the first primarily defensive player to win the Heisman.  Next is a 1999 Playoff Prestige SSD Spectrum Blue parallel (#002/500) that set me back a buck, well worth it for a variation of the best color, not to mention one that's numbered.  And last up is Chuck's base card from 2000 Collector's Edge Masters, one that's numbered as well (#1496/2000), albeit in digital fashion instead of foil.  These three give Woodson a total of 312 items, maintaining his lead among football players I collect, though Chad Henne is gaining ground.

That's it for this month but you'll probably get to see most of the rest of what I bought this time over the next few weeks when they arrive in mailboxes around the country.  Until then, LET'S GO LOU!

2017 Sportlots purchases: Hal-py new year!

It's New Year's Eve and I'm sneaking in one last post for 2017.  My next Sportlots subject is one of my supercollection guys, Hal Morris:

I knocked off a ton of needs for my Morris PC starting with this '89-'91 junk wax sampler that includes Fleer and Topps Glossy/Tiffany parallels, a couple Score boxed sets, and base cards from Donruss, OPC, and Topps.  I sure am glad the Yanks flipped him to the Reds in '89!

Here we finish up '91 before moving on to the following year.  The former includes another Score boxed set issue, Topps insert, Tiffany parallel, and the one oddball on the day from a Topps/Toys 'r' Us partnership.  For 1992 a couple more Score issues are joined by second-year Studio, Upper Deck base, and its pointless Gold Hologram version.  I did scan the back for the album but won't bother showing that here.

The first six cards here cover 1993 and hail from Donruss, OPC, Stadium Club (Members Only), Topps (and Gold), and Upper Deck (another Gold Hologram).  That UD card features a great shot!  Then 1994 opens with Gold and Silver Signature parallels from the debut of UD's Collector's Choice, plus a Flair base.  I was especially glad to track down the Gold Signature because those can get unreasonably pricey sometimes.

In this scan we finish up '94 with an out-of-nowhere OPC design and UD's Electric Diamond parallel of the flagship product.  Then '95 opens with a Collector's Choice trio:  base, Gold Signature, and SE Silver Signature.  Notice anything on the middle card?  I'll give you a second to compare it to the Silver one on the right.

...

...

Yep, that signature belongs to a different Morris:  newly-minted Tigers HOF pitcher Jack!  The error went uncorrected.

We continue that year with cards from Donruss' Top of the Order game, one of Leaf's coolest base sets, and an insert from that same product, 300 Club.  Hal indeed hit .313 from 1988-94 with a career high .340 in 1990, his first season with the Reds.  He'd finish his career at .304 over 13 seasons, during which he eclipsed the .300 mark six times.

You can tell I had a lot of luck finding Hal's stuff from 1995 because this whole scan is from that year and still doesn't finish it out.  The first row starts with Leaf's high end Limited product then moves on to Pacific's restrained Crown Collection and acid trip Prism set.  Down the middle is a fun trio of Score's Hall of Gold parallel, Pinnacle's high end Select Certified, and blog favorite Sportflix from the first of its two-year run.  The bottom features Topps' Stadium Club Members Only 50 (a boxed set available to club members), Pinnacle's Summit, and Topps' (thankfully) short-loved Embossed.

The first five cards here are finally enough to finish up '95.  The execrable Topps Embossed duo is complete thanks to the Golden Idols parallel, and then we have an UD trio of Electric Diamond, League Leader Predictor, and Special Edition.  The first year of Zenith is finally the end.

Then '96 begins with a nice bunch that includes another Collector's Choice Gold Signature knocked off; the artistically framed Emotion-XL, Flair, and Fleer.  The latter is, of course, part my favorite two-year run of Fleer's flagship product thanks to the matte finish and excellent overall design.

It won't take nearly as long to finish up Hal's '96 stuff--just the first six cards here.  A nice looking Bronze Press Proof from Leaf (just 2000 copies!) gives way to a couple more beauties in Select Certified and its Certified Red version (whoa, only 1800 of those!).  Second-year Summit and its foil parallel (one of three available) and a very nice UD flagship design close things out.

It's a very eclectic start to 1997 (which is 20 years ago for a bit longer!) with Bowman's International parallel and base cards from Fleer's Circa and Leaf.

We briefly cap off the year that was 1997 with Score parallels:  Showcase Series and its Artist's Proofs version.

Then we can move on to what's about to be 20 years ago very soon!  That's the year Hal joined the Royals for just a season before returning to the Reds.

Pacific is a big part of this can with cards from Aurora, Online (and its Red parallel) and Revolution.  Online was such a weird product and it's a huge pain in the ass trying to find the Web Cards and Winners versions!

Pinnacle's not terribly useful Plus product is the only example from that brand, and then we finish with a couple Topps issues:  an Inaugural Diamondbacks version of the base flagship card and then the Silver version of Morris' appearance in Stars (#3900/4399).

'98's Ultra Gold Medallion is the last example from that year, and the sepia-toned version is one of the cooler ones Fleer made.  1999 is then dominated once again by Pacific:  a very nice looking flagship product (they made a few around that time), Crown Collection, a less cringeworthy Prism, a Gold parallel from one of my all-time favorites in Paramount, and Private stock.  A lone Ultra card--another Gold Medallion--is the only other '99 challenger.

My horizontal haul is very parallel-heavy for some reason, which is totally fine.  Cards #2 and 8--'93 Upper Deck and Pinnacle's UC3 from '95--are the only base entrants.  The others are '92 Topps Gold, another Gold Hologram from '93 UD, '94 Stadium Club Golden Rainbow and Member's Only, '94 Topps Gold, and one of the bigger finds this time:  a '95 Pinnacle Artist's Proof.  Trust me, those can be tough to land!

Today's final scan opens with five more x-axis cards:  '96 Pinnacle Foil and Score Dugout Collection, plus '98 Crown Royale, Fleer Tradition, and SPx Finite (#7457/9000).  The latter gives me Hal's trio from the product.

We'll go small ball for the final cards:  Topps Micros from 1991-93, and a 1999 Private Stock PS-206 mini.

In all I added an excellent 96 cards to my Morris PC, 95 of which went towards his checklist to give me 254 of the 359 I have listed (about 70%), and 260 total issues.  This was a very productive purchase when it came to his collection!

With all of that out of the way, happy new year to each of you who read and follow, and may your year of collecting in 2018 be a great one!