Archives, Pokemon, and Discounted Relics

I had a rare weekday off last Thursday and after doctors appointments for my wife (where we found out we were having a son) and my 4-year old (it looked like he had hurt his foot the night before but it turned out he was fine), we all went out for a bit of a celebration. First stop was some lunch at Chik-Fil-A and then we headed over to the card shop while we were out for a treat. 

First thing I found was a bin full of hockey relic cards. The cards were unmarked and had no price anywhere to be found. There were a bunch that I could have gone for but since there was no price marked I decided to play it safe and grab the Morgan Rielly and Patrik Elias cards above, which to be honest were the two best in the box. Turns out they were $3 each or 4 for $10. Had I known that, I would've dug a little deeper!

Next there was a box full of marked down vintage cards. I quickly flipped through a few rows and found this gem for $2. This Joe Nuxhall Kansas City A's card is actually one of my ten most wanted cards, mainly because it's the only card I know of that doesn't show Nuxy as a member of the Reds. For two bucks, I'll gladly cross it off the list.

There were TONS of packs he had on the shelf. I almost grabbed a few packs of Donruss but then I spotted Archives. While they were a little pricey at nearly $6 each, I couldn't help myself and get two of them.

My son wanted Pokemon cards so he got two packs of the newest release, Sun & Moon Guardians Rising. I'm not terribly big into Pokemon but I kind of enjoy the new season as it takes place in a tropical locale and the animation style has been changed up a bit. 

As far as what I got in the Archives packs ...

They were both kind of duds, totally not worth nearly six bucks each. The first pack netted me an Eddie Matthews base card and a Nolan Ryan Bazooka insert so that's kind of cool.

The highlight of the second pack in the Monte Irvin card. The Pettitte card is a duplicate so it'll go in the trade box to be sent out in PWEs the next time I sent out a mass mailing (probably Labor Day-ish).

Out of the Pokemon packs, my son got this shiny Mimikyu card. If you're not familiar with Mimikyu, it's a creepy, mysterious "disguise Pokemon", and it has a hatred for Pikachu that has yet to be revealed. 

And that's another trip to the card shop in the books.

Going Through the Archives

This past weekend was Father's Day weekend and, despite the underlying current of a rather expensive car repair and bad customer service at the dealership doing the repair, it was still a fun weekend. The threat of rain kept the family and I indoors for much of Father's Day proper but the day before my mom took us out to eat at Chili's. As a gift to myself, I was on the lookout for Archives. We stopped at Target before lunch but no luck as it looked like their shelf hadn't been updated in over a month. On the way home, we stopped at Walmart and behold ... there were only a few blasters left on the shelf. I nabbed two of them. 

Last year Archives really stepped up their game I thought and it was going to be hard to top it. Wouldn't you know it though, Topps nearly succeeded. I say nearly because the 1982 design was used just a few short years ago in the 2013 set. If they were going to use an early 80s design, how about 1981? Regardless, they are still fun cards. 

The other years that Archives celebrated are 1960 and 1992. The 1992 set I have fond memories of as it was one of the first Topps sets I remember collecting from my youth. Some of the pictures they chose are just great, especially the horizontal ones, such as the Astros cards above. Also, much like the 1960 set, every card in that design in a horizontal one as well.

I got one Bazooka insert in each blaster. They're neat little cards and I was pretty happy to get a Kris Bryant one. The Moncada "rookie star" card and the Verlander are ok. I was sort of hoping for something like last year's Topps Supers in the insert department but these are fine.

One of my favorite things about Archives is that you get cards of players on teams that they aren't normally associated with (the lone exception in this batch being Hank Aaron). The Ozzie Padres card is just absolute gold. Unfortunately, I didn't get a Reggie Jackson Orioles card in either blaster.

The one thing I could've done without is the Jeter reprints. These are the only thing out of the Archives box heading for the trade bin. If they were reprints of older Jeter cards, say from the 90s, then I probably would have kept them. As is, I honestly have no use for reprints of cards from just a few years ago.

Moving on from the negativity, this was the only parallel that came from either blaster, and it's of Juan Marichal. No complaints there. This is the second neat Marichal pull I've had recently as a few years ago, I bought some Heritage packs and pulled out a Juan Marichal jersey card numbered to 49. Maybe the hobby gods are trying to tell me something?

Another great thing about Archives is you get cards of players from way back in the day. I've found that Honus Wagner cards are usually found in the higher end products, at least from Topps, so getting his card from the very first pack was really neat. I also like that they kept them to the old 1960 design instead of trying to put them on a newer design.

Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby? I'm good with that.

And a two more cards that I found to be pretty neat. I can't say I've seen too many cards recently of Blyleven in a Tribe uniform, especially the old late 70s/early 80s design. Also, Eddie Murray has a striking resemblance to Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction. I'll have a royale with cheese, please.

Finally, there are two of these coins in every blaster. In case you can't see by the scan, I got David Dahl, Giancarlo Stanton, Mookie Betts, and Anthony Rizzo. I'm not sure how exactly these will fit in pages so for now I put them in the box that has just miscellaneous stuff in it.

Overall, I definitely dig Archives this year and these definitely made up for the stress and otherwise awfulness I had to deal with from the car repair shop. 

Card Show Report Pt. 1: A Sampling of 2016

For a Father's Day present, my wife let me have my choice of card shows to go to. There were three happening in June, one on June 4th at the Wright State Nutter Center, and two on Father's Day weekend itself, with a small show at a local card shop on that Saturday and a large 75-table show the next day in a northern suburb of Cincinnati. I weighed all options.

I've been to the Nutter Center show before and while not big, it's not small either and I know what to expect, especially since the layout is pretty spacious. The show at the card shop I've been meaning to go to every time they have one but I'm not one to enjoy people crammed in a tiny space sorting through mounds of cards which I imagine it to be. Speaking of lots of people, the large show isn't my style and it's big wheelers and dealers with tons of tables in a large hotel ballroom. In the end, I opted to go back to the Nutter Center show as it's quiet, spread out, and relaxed ... exactly my style.

While the pickings were pretty slim and dime and quarter boxes seemed to be non-existent at most tables, I was able to find a number of good things by doing some digging. Enough, in fact, to break up my findings through four posts. For this portion, I took a page out of Dimebox Nick's playbook and picked up 2016 singles on the cheap in the bargain bins.

I grabbed a bunch of 2016 Series 1, Gypsy Queen, and a handful of Archives singles from one dealer who had boxes and boxes of 2016 base cards for a dime a piece. The person next to him had loads of singles from Diamond Kings and across the gym, another person had loads of Archives singles.

Diamond Kings

I'll start with Diamond Kings as it's the only Panini product I found singles of. Only one person had these so I cleaned up with them. You'll see a trend on some of these products where I gravitated to the older retired stars than current players and that's especially true with this. The thing for me with Diamond Kings is that you feel like you're getting a high end product but not at a high-end price. Sure, the packs themselves are about $7 each and that's just above what all of these cost in one deal.

Nothing but legends on this page. I think it's really cool that not only are the usual suspects included like Lou Gehrig and Rogers Hornsby, but there are others like Frank Chance and Harry Breechen who get little to no cardboard love from Topps. The only downside is that since Panini can't use team names, I have no idea if Hornsby is in a Cardinals uniform or Browns uniform. If I had to guess, I'd say Browns.

Because the backs are important too, these are equally as great. Sure, it's the same photo but there's also a brief bio, which is helpful for those who might not be as familiar with those from baseball's early days

I grabbed the Henie Groh card simply because it was a Reds card. Jake Daubert I grabbed because he played for the Reds on the 1919 World Series team and had a pretty solid career with both the Reds and Dodgers. The thing I really like about seeing dead ball stars on these cards is the fact that Panini doesn't need to airbrush out team logos on uniforms. 

Some more old timers and handful of current players. Lamb has really struggled in the Reds rotation as of late and may risk losing his spot once Homer Bailey comes back from the DL. Waldrop has been a handy player off the bench when needed. However, I consider the fact that I got Nap Lajoie, Honus Wagner, Roberto Clemente, and Kyle Schwarber cards without getting taken to the cleaners a really nice bonus.

The last page of Diamond Kings and some really awesome inserts! Both of these black insert sets are absolutely gorgeous but my favorite has to be the Nap Lajoie card. You may also notice that there's another Frank Chance base card. No, I didn't scan it twice, I accidentally bought two copies. Oh well, I can think of a few Cubs collectors that could use it. 

Gypsy Queen

I generally don't buy packs and boxes of Gypsy Queen just because it's out of my budget. Sure, I might grab a few packs here and there if I have extra cash and I feel like splurging on some packs at $5.99 each but otherwise I'll just pick up the cards I like. I really enjoyed last year's design and wasn't too thrilled when I saw this years cards. However, the more I saw it, the more I liked it. All of these cards cost exactly a dime a piece.

First page up and it's all Reds. I believe this is the Reds team set (minus short prints which I'll get to in a minute) and I'm pretty have I got all of these for under a buck. The cards with Votto, Mesoraco, and Bruce in the red jersey just absolutely pop.

I also grabbed current players that I like along with a few Indians cards I found in the box as well. I had to grab the Ichiro since he's probably going to hit 3,000 hits this year. 

A few more card from the Gypsy Queen dime box. I still dig getting Todd Frazier stuff and I find it super odd still to see him in a White Sox uniform.

This was the only card I bought out of a display case the whole show and I snagged it for a mere $2. The picture on this card is just great and you can't really go wrong with a Johnny Bench card for two bucks.

Flagship/Series 1

When the details of Series 1 along with the card design was released last fall, I got pretty excited as it looked like Topps was at least thinking out of the box in terms of design. When these were released however, it wasn't received well at all by most. I personally don't mind the design, it stands out and I'll be able to pick it out unlike 2013 and 2014 which are very, very similar and I still can't tell apart unless I look at the backs.

There were a ton of commons that I thumbed through but I did manage to find some gems, especially the Noah Syndergaard and Kris Bryant cards which I thought would have been quickly snatched up by someone. 

The middle row of this I call the "fun row" just because of how entertaining these cards are. The Royal World Series victory photo, Huston Street getting doused by water, and the Orioles being generally overjoyed. Not to be forgotten either is the Johnny Cueto card with him celebrating. Good for him to get a ring in Kansas City last year.

Archives

Now the star of the show ... Archives. Much like Gypsy Queen, I avoid buying packs and boxes of Archives because the last few years Topps jacked up the price with the Major League cards and Will Ferrell cards in the product. This year it's Bull Durham which seems to have brought the price down to earth somewhat. The movie does nothing for me so I didn't bother with any of the cards from that part of it. I grabbed a few of these from the dime box guy and the rest from another person across the gym who had loads of singles. I think I spent about $7 combined from both vendors on these and there are a lot!

I'm sure by now everyone has seen some of these cards multiple times on multiple blogs but cards like Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, and Andres Galarraga haven't gotten much love from the cardsphere. The 1991 style cards pretty much steal the show here.

I saw the Gaylord Perry card on someone's blog right before this show and my first thought was "I've got to have that!". I love the old school 70s Indians logo coupled with the red uniform. It's a beautiful card. Not to be outdone, Satchel Paige peering over at someone while next to a brick wall just spells trouble.

No 1991s on this page but one thing to notice, especially on the 1953 style cards, is the difference in logos. Use the Tony Perez and the Billy Hamilton card as examples and you'll see what I mean. It's the little things that make some of these cards that much better.

Get ready for a plethora of 1991 style cards as this page and the next page are nothing but that. I didn't scan the back of either these or the 1979 cards but everyone knows they have full stats on the back. That's really awesome and reminds me that Eddie Mathews had a cameo for the Astros or that Andre Dawson played for the Marlins. Again, the little things. By the way, look how vibrant the Carlos Gonzalez card is!

The photography on these makes me wish they would do stuff like this for Heritage instead of dull posed shots on pretty much every card. Again, the old school logos for the old school players is awesome.

The final four Archives cards. Really cool to get Peraza in a Reds uniform finally.

That's it for the first part of the card show report. Settle in, there's lot more good stuff to come!

You've Got Mail #7: Baseball Card Breakdown

Gavin at Baseball Card Breakdown had offered up a really cool Edwin Encarnacion 1st home run medallion card for trade after he broke into a blaster box of Topps Update about a month ago. The week before Thanksgiving it arrived and was accompanied by a whole boatload of Reds cards on its cross-county journey in the confines of a priority mail box.

Here's the card that triggered this whole trade. It's even nicer in person and it's the first medallion card I have. I'm not going to go out chasing these but there are few other Reds ones out there (Josh Hamilton and Johnny Bench) that I would definitely like to pick up.

These are my two favorite Votto cards in my collection right now.

One of the podcast hosts I like to listen occasionally says "If you haven't see it, it's new to you!" and these are definitely new to me. I had no idea that Stadium Club chrome cards existed. Pokey Reese (left) was a good second baseman for the Reds in the late 90s and Scott Williamson was a lights out closer for the Reds in 1999 but kind of flamed out a year or so later.

A few old school style cards. Word around the campfire is that Arroyo is interested in returning to the Reds and he's just the kind of mid-level starter the Reds need to eat innings and give the young guys a rest ... of course, he has to prove he's healthy first. The Dunn is from 2002 Upper Deck Vintage, a set I actually took the time to put together when I was last collecting in the early 2000's.

Archives is one of my favorite brands and these cards from the 2015 set are great. I almost didn't catch the fact that the Jay Bruce card is one of the #1 Draft Pick inserts.

Two of my favorite Reds players right now, Tucker Barnhart and Todd Frazier. I've been on the lookout for a nice Barnhart RC and this will do just fine.

Two nice Cingrani cards. I'm guessing that the one with the Illinois flag in the background is a parallel of some sort?

Jose Rijo had a great comeback story. He was out of baseball for over 6 years with assorted arm injuries and made a surprise comeback in 2001 as a reliever and was a nice story for a Reds team that was the worst of the decade. In 2002, he made a bunch of starts and started the final game ever at Cinergy Field.

Finally, here's a nice card of Jesse Winker who is really close to being ready for the majors and will hopefully be a regular in the Reds outfield in 2017.

There were a ton of other great cards that were in the box too but these were the best ones I picked out for scanning. Thanks Gavin for the giant trade box. I'm digging through my cards and working on finding you some stuff to send in return.

Card Stories #1

Here are a few cards from my "good stuff" as I call them and the brief story behind them. Let me know if you like these random card profiles and I'll do more of them ....

This card came from a blaster box of Topps Archives that I picked up at Wal-Mart just for the heck of it while I was buying some groceries. My experiences with blaster boxes are pretty dull and boring, as was the case with a Gypsy Queen blaster I bought earlier this year but I have to say, I was pretty pleased with this. Not only did I get this cool John Franco card, I also got some nice commons, some Reds for my Reds binder, and a Will Ferrell card. Not bad for 20 bucks!

 

 I picked this up while I was visiting family in the Akron area over the July 4th weekend. My uncle and I ventured over to Medina, about 20 minutes away from their house, and we stopped in the card shop up there. Of the cards in the case, this was by far the best one he had in my price range. After getting the guy to knock two bucks off the price (really?) I got this and three packs of Panini Prizm. My elation after my purchase was short lived, only to realize the dude had sold me packs of 2012 Prizm he had in with the 2015 Prizm for the same price as the 2015 product! Anyway, the Manziel card is nice and #'d out of 115. This fits pretty well next to the Cris Collinsworth card I mentioned a few posts back as I start to build up my football collection.

Over the easter weekend I was visiting my in-laws in North Carolina and I decided to check out the card shop down there. While there, I was still on a kick of buying 2015 Heritage packs. I picked up probably five or six packs and when I got home and opened them I was pretty excited to pull this out of the last pack. Along with a Mike Trout action variation SP and an Albert Pujols SP, these were some pretty good packs.

Finally, we have this Jorge Soler card. Not a big Cubs fan, especially since they are in the same division as my Reds, but I do respect what they've done this year and Soler is one of their best young players. This came out of the last batch of Donruss packs I bought at the card shop earlier this summer and it displays pretty nice along side the Marichal card shown above.

Hope you enjoyed reading these "Card Stories" posts as I call them. If you like them, let me know and I'll do more of them.