Thursday, February 27, 2014

The Cardsone Chronicles - Baseball Edition (Season 2 Episode 1)

Most of the repacks I buy are from the dollar store. There is a Dollar Tree where I live and I usually stop in there around once a week. Quite often they have what is a labled as an "Ultimate Super Jumbo Pack", in this case the "Baseball Edition". The company is called Cardsone, and these packs generally contain cards solely from the junk wax era. I still enjoy opening these and often will open one before I go to bed. It sort of winds down the evening for me. The most recent batch of these featured a card from 1988 Donruss peeking through the wrapper.



1988 Donruss Jose Mesa (Orioles)
1984 Donruss Scott Ullger (Twins)
1984 Topps Ozzie Smith AS (Cardinals)
1985 Topps Gene Richards (Giants)
1990 Donruss Tim Teufel (Mets)
1985 Topps Terry Forster (Braves)
1990 Donruss Steve Avery (Braves)
1990 Donruss John Cerutti (Blue Jays)
1987 Topps Scott McGregor (Orioles)


1987 Topps Jose Oquendo (Cardinals)
1990 Topps Mike Jackson (Mariners)
1981 Topps Dennis Kinney (Padres)
1986 Topps Alex Trevino (Giants)
1989 Upper Deck Mike Dunne (Pirates)
1990 Topps Craig McMurtry (Rangers)
1990 Upper Deck Xavier Hernandez (Blue Jays)
1986 Topps Donnie Hill (A's)
1988 Score Les Straker (Twins)


1987 Topps Tom Niedenfuer (Dodgers)
1989 Donruss Rick Aguilera (Mets)
1992 Upper Deck Jack McDowell (White Sox)
1987 Topps Rick Burleson (Angels)
1981 Donruss Larry Milbourne (Yankees)
1987 Fleer Floyd Youmans (Expos)
1987 Fleer Bryan Clutterbuck (Brewers)
1988 Fleer Devon White (Angels)
1987 Jaime Cocanower (Brewers)



1987 Fleer Todd Worrell (Cardinals)
1991 Topps Les Lancaster (Cubs)
1989 Topps Luis Polonia (A's)
1986 Fleer Update Neil Allen (White Sox)
1990 Donruss Larry Anderson (Astros)

I haven't been buying these as much lately as I've been focusing on working on completing sets rather than just buying random packs of cards. I did like seeing the 1981 Donruss Larry Milbourne and the '87 Fleer cards. I've still got a ways to go to complete both sets. Ditto for the '84 Donruss, so it was cool to see the Scott Ulger card.




Monday, February 24, 2014

Harold Ramis (1944 - 2014)


Since he wrote or co-wrote some of my most favorite movies growing up, I must pay tribute.


National Lampoons Animal House.


Meatballs.


Caddyshack.


Stripes.


National Lampoons Vacation (which he didn't write, but he did direct).


Ghostbusters.

Rest in peace, Dr. Spengler.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

From The Snow To A Show

Guess what? It snowed here again....and again...and again.



It snowed out this past Saturday (insert surprised expression here), and the forecast was for 3 - 5 inches. I let my dog out a couple times Saturday night and it was snowing pretty good. I was hoping to hit a card show on Sunday, so as long as we didn't get much more than that, it wouldn't be a problem.

3 - 5 inches of snow is nothing in this area, it's when we get a foot or a foot-and-a-half that I limit driving in it to something absolutely necessary. As much as I love cards, they don't fall under that category.

So when I woke up to somewhat clear roads (and sun!) on Sunday morning, I grabbed my lists and headed to a card show.

This is the only show I go to that is "local" to me. By "local" I mean, not an hours drive each way.

The card show is at an Elks Club, and as I got there, I couldn't see the sign that was usually there advertising it. I thought "Don't tell me they cancelled it!", but as I drove into the parking lot I noticed the sign perched way up high upon a snowbank.

I've thought about setting up at this show, but like most shows in my area, there isn't a lot of people there. If someone is next to me looking through cards, most often it's a dealer from another table, as was the case a few times at this show. Most shows that I go to, if I hear the dealers talking to each other, they'll most often say they aren't doing that well sales-wise.

I've said this before, but I used to do shows in the early 90's. I never really did all that well. I always made table, but usually not much more than that. I seemed to not have what someone was looking for, or if I did, they didn't bring their list... you know how it goes. So I've been contemplating this for the better part of the last few years...and I'm still contemplating.

So enough of that, let's get back to the show. I've got my list, plus a list from someone that I've owed cards for months, and I start to hit the tables. Usually when I go to a show, I'll look at all of the tables first before I decide where I'm going to spend my money.

(Note to card show dealers...if you have a dime box, I'm coming back to your table first. You can blame Nick for this.)


This is from the 1991 Upper Deck Final Edition set, which I just should buy and not waste my time with singles. I wanted to see what this was going for on eBay, and I found a listing for a graded PSA 10 GemMint copy for...wait a minute...people pay to have these cards graded?

That alone deserves a forehead slap. So for the low price of $5.99 plus $3.00 shipping, this card could be yours.

Or you could do what I did, and go to a show and get it for 10 cents. It's up to you.

Lets move on.


1994 Mike Piazza Tombstone Pizza. This will fit nicely with the Mike Greenwell that I picked up at the last card show I went to. It's a thirty card set. So at this rate, twenty-eight more shows to go and it will be done!


I've gotten a few of the 2008 Upper Deck National Baseball Card Day set, so when I saw this I grabbed it.



A few months back I got a good starter set of 2013 Topps Chrome from a monster box I bought at my LCS. One of the dealers had a bunch of singles so I picked up thirteen of them.


I also snagged another one from the 2008 National Baseball Card Day.




I'm still quite a few away from finishing 2013 Topps Update, and I was able to eliminate twenty-four off of my want list.


I found two more for my 1992 Upper Deck Minor League set.


I was also able to find a lot of oddballs, like this 1981 Fleer Baseball Star Reggie Jackson...


...and a couple of 1980 Burger King cards. This is the first time I'd seen these.



More oddballs. Seven from the 1989 Ames 20/20 Club set...



...and eight from the 1988 Kmart set.


I don't have very many from the 1987 Fleer Star Stickers set...


...and this is the only card I have from the 1986 Yoo-Hoo set.


This one is pretty cool. It's from the 1994 Kraft Singles set.


If you pull up the top you can see his stats, or his "batting record" as they call it.


And if you pull the tab all the way up and flip the card on it's back, you have a Pop-Up Andy Van Slyke!


Like the '91 Upper Deck Final Edition set, I should probably just buy the '86 Topps Traded Set rather than buy singles, but this Joe Sambito was calling to me.


As was this 1990 Topps All-Star Set Nolan Ryan.


This is from the 1991 Stadium Club Charter Member Set. I was not a charter member back in the day, so I was not privy to these at the time. Apparently, the prestige of being a charter member is not what it used to be, and us nonmembers are able to scoff up some of these cards at discount prices.

According to BaseballCardPedia there were two printings of this set, although it doesn't mention why. The first printing has one asterisk by the copyright date (in the lower left-hand corner), the second has two. My card has two. Second printing.



I also picked up a few cards from the 2001 Fleer Red Sox 110th Anniversary set. You would think I would have been all over this, being a Red Sox fan. Not when it's $5.00 a pack. I also picked up my first Pumpsie Green card.


As you can see, I've saved the vintage for last. I really hadn't planned on getting the one '67 Topps card and the two from the '69 set, but I had spent so much time at one dealer's table and not seen anything I liked, I felt like I should buy at least something. They were only 50 cents a piece, so it wasn't like I was going to break the bank. He had a couple of boxes of 60's and early 70's vintage for that price. If I was doing those sets I would have bought a lot more.

While I was just about finished looking through what he had at his table, I became aware that all the cards on the table behind me were his as well. There was about six monster boxes, side by side...and all dime boxes!

Needless to say, in addition to those three cards I just mentioned, a good chunk of what you see posted I got at his table, or should I say tables.


Even though I'm mainly focusing on my 1979 Topps set, I can't turn down '77 and '78's for a dime apiece.


I picked up this card for no other reason that I know I need it.

I ended up spending a couple of hours there and pretty much only bought from two dealers. Like most shows I attend, the majority of tables contain only "hits", and I think you all know by now that I'm not going to spend 10 bucks on a "maybe it's a jersey or maybe it's a tablecloth" memorabilia card.

Especially when I can get all of this for less than that.

Saturday, February 15, 2014

2013-14 Series One Upper Deck Hockey

I had planned to get back into collecting hockey cards this winter, but so far it hasn't really materialized. I did however get a couple of packs of Upper Deck a little bit ago.

I have not followed hockey much or bought many hockey cards since the 90's, so it's almost like buying minor league baseball cards for me. I don't recognize anybody.

Pack 1




Shane Doan (Coyotes)
Logan Couture (Sharks)
Steve Ott (Sabres)
Ray Whitney (Stars) - Yay! Someone I recognize!
Jason Pominville (Wild)
Anders Lindback (Lightning)
Josh Bailey (Islanders)
Alexandre Burrows (Canucks)

Pack 2



Ondrej Pavelec (Jets)
Teemu Selanne (Ducks) - Another name I recognize!
Tyler Myers (Sabres)
Chris Stewart UD Canvas (Blues)
Nicklas Backstrom (Capitals)
Sven Baertschi (Flames)
Cody Eakin (Stars)
Jordan Staal (Hurricanes)

I like this set. Although I'm doesn't look like I'll be getting that much more now that 2014 baseball is out.


Thursday, February 13, 2014

Miscut Misfits - 2010 Upper Deck Kevin Youkilis (Special Snow Edition)


As you can see, it's snowing here again. We're supposed to get another foot of snow today, and I'm debating whether or not to call out of work tonight. I'm leaning towards it, but I called out last Wednesday when we got about a foot as well. It's supposed to be snowing the heaviest when I leave for work, with sleet and ice added when I would return home.

Now that I'm looking at it "on paper", I'm actually not really sure why I'm debating this at all.

So to warm up a snowy, cold, wintry day, here's another brilliant piece of work from 2010 Upper Deck.



Another Kevin Youkilis connection besides the alleged resemblance: 

He was born the same day my sister was.

Fortunately she was not born in or anywhere near Cincinnati.