11/3/18 card show report: a Topps heavy day of serial-numbered insanity

I had a great time as always at my usual monthly show in Taylor a couple Saturdays ago, though it was anything but the usual in many ways.  While I got good value for the little money I spent at my favorite dealer's table, I had to limit my time there a bit so I could get home to catch the start of the Michigan/Penn State game.  Also out of the ordinary is the fact that the vast majority of what I bought is staying with me instead of heading to trade packages.  And out of those I ended up with way more Topps stuff than I usually do, though you'll see why in a bit.  Finally, I didn't turn up anything for my Michigan PCs so you won't see a second post on TMM this evening.

As for the comfortingly familiar, though, I had a blast pulling stuff for my many PCs, landing 49 cards of six players.  In all I snagged 60 from his 5/$1 box and nine that were a dollar apiece, giving him $20 for the bunch.  Here's what I got:

First is a trio of the Grandyman.  The former namesake of this here blog stars on one of the $1 cards I picked up, a low-numbered 2008 Topps Moments and Milestones Blue parallel.  I know there's multiple versions of each card so it's not as rare as it looks, but it was still fun getting a favorite player of mine on something /10.  Meanwhile the $0.20 entries were a Rediscover Topps Gold buyback of his 2014 Topps base, plus a numbered offering from the short-lived original return of Stadium Club in 2008 (#318/999).

Sticking with the G-men, player #2 is Griffey on a nice pair.  My second dollar card is an excellent Dufex insert from 1998 Pinnacle called Spellbound, and this is the first of Ken's seven issues which spell his last name.  He's joined in that 50-card set by the likes of Ripken, Gwynn, Frank Thomas, and others, and I wouldn't mind finishing up a few of those names!

Joining that is one of his two appearances in Upper Deck's 2008 Masterpieces base set.  The product is one of the many reasons I miss UD nowadays because it continues to impress me even 10 years later.  I have yet to track down the SPed second Griffey card from this set, by the way.

Tony Gwynn was a winner today, just not the winner (more on that soon).  Here's eight of the 10 cards I found of Mr. Padre at this show.  The first five are from a 1999 Pacific Omega insert called Hit Machine 3000, a set honoring Gwynn eclipsing the magic milestone that season.  There are 21 cards each numbered to 3000 so I have almost a quarter of the set!  These were $1 a pop, a reasonable price in my opinion.

Rounding out the group is a trio of Upper Deck inserts.  Curtain Calls was a foil-heavy chase set from 1999 Ovation and it differs greatly from the baseball texture of the base design.  The next two come from 2000 Hitter's Club and are called Epic Performances (again noting Tony joining the 3000-hit mark) and Generations of Excellence (again again noting that feat, joined by Wade Boggs who did the same that year).

Gwynn's day ends with a lower-end insert from the kid-centric '98 Collector's Choice, a Mini Bobbing Heads card--and one of my favorite inserts, 2001 Fleer Platinum Classic Combinations.  The latter included multiple appearances for several players, and here Gwynn is paired up naturally with "The Man", Stan Musial, on a card numbered 1501/2000.  It was worth every penny of the buck I paid for it.

Gwynn's PC got a nice bump but nobody was going to touch Greg Maddux's staggering 30 new cards on the day, exactly half of what I took home!  You wouldn't know it by this group, but as I keep teasing, you'll see why in a minute.  The first five include '93 Triple Play's Diamond Kings-like Gallery insert, drawn as always by Dick Perez.  The final dollar card today is insert #2 from 1995 Sportflix's Double Take chase set, a very cool card that pairs Mad Dog with Jimmy Key, a guy who wasn't in Maddux's class overall but who was quite good, good enough to be the runner-up for the AL Cy Young in '94.

The other three are from the subsequent decade, starting with Upper Deck's 2000 Pros and Prospects Best in the Bigs.  "Pinpoint control" is a good way to describe the mound artist.  Similarly, Fleer considered the pitcher the Cream of the Crop in this 2003 Hot Prospects insert.  Lastly, one of two non-standard size Maddux cards you'll see today is a fold-out Ticket Studs card from Fleer's 2003 Authentix.  This ticket-like card noted Maddux would open the season against Montreal in 2003 and that it was likely he'd throw a "pitching masterpiece".  Oddly enough he gave up five runs (four earned) in a 10-2 loss, though he'd eventually recover to have another great season.

The biggest reason Maddux was the biggest winner today is a huge pile of 2008 Topps Moments and Milestone cards.  They may not be as rare as their numbering makes them look, but for $0.20 apiece I happily added 24 of them to his collection.  This scan includes cards highlighting his 20 wins and 199 strikeouts during his first of four straight Cy Young-winning seasons.

Next, this one moves on to the '93 award he won in his first year in Atlanta.  I found one card from the 20 commemorating his 20 wins plus 14 from the bunch made for each of his 197 strikeouts.

These last six are from that same group and include the one with the lowest serial number, 002.

That wasn't quite all, though, as I also found this 1998 Sports Illustrated Then and Now Great Shots mini poster, the other odd sized card of the HOFer (and one of three such posters I found that day).  It represents card #601 in his collection meaning I'm celebrating another PC guy hitting the 600-card mark!

Among the many, many Rediscover Topps buybacks I flipped through, mainly from 1988 and '89 (what a surprise) was one other PC guy to join Granderson:  former Michigan pitcher Steve Ontiveros on his '88 Topps base.  I was glad to be able to add something new like this to one of my few PCs for which I've completed the regular checklist.  As with Granderson's card it appears to be the Gold version, but it's much easier to tell in-hand rather than through a scan.

The last player in today's post is the fourth member of my non-Tigers PC quartet, Cal Ripken Jr.  Only one of the three items I found of him in the $0.20 box was a regular sized card, a Class 2 version of his 2001 Topps Gold Label base.  If you're a fan of this design like I am make sure you check out Chris' group break over at Nachos Grande!

You'll remember I mentioned in Maddux's section that I found two other 1998 Sports Illustrated mini posters and these are them.  The second is from the same Great Shots insert set as his while the first is from the original Sports Illustrated product's Opening Day Mini Posters.  That one has Cal representing his Orioles on a fun collectible that doubled as a team schedule for the season.

Getting all of this and a few other things for a measly $20 meant yet another successful show for me as we head towards the end of the year.  Barring anything unforeseen I should be making it back to this show in December and padding my other purchases with big orders from Sportlots and COMC.  Thanks to Black Friday I should be doing a bunch of spending on the latter leading to another round of Christmas cards just in time for the holiday season!

2016 trade package #19: happy Dougsgiving from Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

A few weeks ago I received an expected package from Doug over at Sports Cards From the Dollar Store, who was sending me pickups from the annual Expo he attends (and I'm sure a few other sources).  I think he'd spent time time amassing the contents because he mentioned that he couldn't remember most of what he sent.  I know the feeling!

I didn't have to open it to know it would be quality, but I did have to open it, because, I mean, new stuff from Doug!

You'll find the bulk of the package posted over on TMM this evening, but I have a few baseball-related items to show off:

From this year's Topps Update set comes a pair of Tigers that were new to the team in 2016.  Maybin came back to Detroit for a second tour of duty in late November last year, in plenty of time to appear in flagship Series I with...the Braves.  It was fun to see him roaming CF again and I feel like he was a nice spark plug for the offense when he was healthy.  I'm glad Topps finally got around to showing him with the Tigers since the team shipped his salary off to the Angels a month ago.  Topps gonna Topps.

Salty, whose name is awesome and serves to remind folks how to pronounce the "CH" sound in Italian--like a "K"--was a solid, cheap pickup a year ago since the Marlins were on the hook for his salary.  While his overall numbers were pretty Alex Avila-ian, he did pop 12 HR in 92 games (while hitting .171!).

Besides this pair of Tigers, Doug tossed in a couple more cards from the sport.  They actually come from one of my Michigan Baseball PCs, but I've decided to start posting those over here instead to get them more views since I think the baseball guys I collect generally have a wider appeal than those from the other Michigan sports.  And maybe that'll get more of you to send some stuff of those guys my way!

Steve Ontiveros 1986 A's Mother's

Steve Ontiveros 1988 Starting Lineup A's

Not only is this a fun new pair to go in my Ontiveros collection, it's also a pair of oddballs!  Sure, I'd seen some of those rounded Mother's Cookies cards around the hobby, especially within the blogosphere, but I'd never owned one until new.  Hell, I never even though to see if any Michigan alumni were represented, so Kudos to Doug for catching that and sending me Steve's card from '86, which looks fantastic.

The Starting Lineup card is a bit more familiar to me, though, as I have a similar one of Lou Whitaker.  Again, though, I wasn't aware that Ontiveros appeared in the set.  I finished up what I consider his "mainstream checklist" of 71 cards a while ago so I loved getting a couple more to toss in his PC.  Good looking out, my Canadian friend!

Again, don't forget to head over to TMM for a bunch of hits, 2016 Donruss football, a Detroit Lion card I'm actually excited to get, and more!

Thanks again for the great stuff, Doug, and I'm happy to say I'll soon be sending a return your way that'll send off 2016 in style.

Complete sets: 1995 Topps (Series II)

In what should likely be my final complete set purchase of 2013 (and for a while, for that matter), I scored a full set of 1995 Topps baseball on eBay for $4.25 and another $10 shipping, which excited me since I hadn't seen sets anywhere near this cheap.  I actually already had Series I and got this just for the second, which I never got around to chasing after I somehow ended up with the former.  No problem, now I have an extra Series I set for trade--anybody want it?

'95 flagship Series II includes a pretty good group of stars, not to mention four current HOFers:

The photography on the Griffey, Gwynn, and Ripken issues is fantastic, featuring three of the game's best hitters in mid-swing.  Bagwell, Piazza, and Jones include some great posed close-ups.  In the center square position is one of the Kirby Puckett-est Kirby Puckett cards you'll ever see.  Rickey looks like he's heading home again, which he did a mind-boggling 2295 times in his career, good for the career MLB record!  And finally, Nomar makes his flagship set debut after appearing in '92 Traded, '93 Stadium Club Murphy, and '94 Stadium Club Draft.

And of course I wouldn't do a post like this without including the Tigers from the set:

In any other year, Boever and Moore would have seemed like scrubs, but the former won 9 games with 3 saves out of the 'pen while the latter led Detroit starters with 11 wins on an awful team in a strike-shortened '94.  Tram had a bit of a down year but was still ok, and '84 World Series teammate Gibson, who returned to Motown the previous year, chipped in 23 homers as a DH.  Gaspar, Bergman, and Penn never amounted to a damn thing, with Gaspar a typical waste of a 90s first-round pick.  Finally, Phillips and Tettleton continued to be two of my favorite Tigers journeymen.

Because the set is relatively small at 264 cards (especially compared to Series I's count at 396), I didn't dig up as many cool photos, but here's a few I did like:

Walker and Alomar each get a very cool posed shot, with Walker bringing to mind the Guerrero in yesterday's post--maybe that card was an homage to Vlad's predecessor?  Meanwhile, Yankee 2B Pat Kelly catches some mad air flying above sliding future Tiger Dean Palmer!

And again I'm including a card back for completeness:

Junior was a tough out in Little League!  Topps' gimmick this year was "Diamond Vision," which I could take or leave, but I think in general Topps did a nice job overall with the backs.

And finally, I ended up with just one Michigan Baseball PC card again, this time one of pitcher Steve Ontiveros, who was back for his second tour of duty with Oakland:

With the addition of this set I now own a complete run of Topps' flagship offerings from 1994-2010, a streak I'm fairly proud of!  While I have a small handful of additional half-completed sets (e.g., only one series), I'm not necessarily motivated to chase those, and will instead devote time and money towards completing the minuscule baseball wantlist that remains!