Dime Boxes -- The Low-End Baseball Card Collector's Journey

As seen on TV

2012-03-05T21:32:00.000-08:00

Over the years, baseball players and television programs have clashed on several occasions.

They don't always blend well, though. One of my all-time favorite TV shows is "Arli$$". ESPN Classic used to rerun episodes at around one in the morning, and I always recorded them and watched them the following day.

The show was fantastic, but they had a ton of athletes who did an absolutely horrible job acting.

So for those athletes' sake, I won't be using any of the guest appearances from "Arli$$" on this list.

Chuck Connors had one of the most fascinating lives in history, from what I've read about him. He was a big-league ballplayer in 1949 and '51 for the Dodgers and Cubs. He also had a brief NBA career, playing in two seasons for the Celtics from 1946 to '48. Not only that, but he was drafted by the Chicago Bears, if that wasn't enough. (He never played in the NFL, though.)

Connors went on to have a successful acting career, securing the lead role in the 1960's Western show The Rifleman.

My dad and I used to watch the Brady Bunch on TV Land when I was younger.

I haven't watched that show in years, but I vividly remember the episodes that featured Dodgers greats Don Drysdale and Wes Parker.

In one of the episodes, Greg lets a compliment from Drysdale get into his head, causing his grades to fall. Drysdale comes back to knock Greg back into reality. As with all '70s sitcoms, Greg realizes the error of his ways and becomes realistic again after being shelled in a baseball game. ("And then the coach gave Greg the hook!")

Wes Parker ("A real life Dodger!") appears as the boyfriend of Greg's math teacher in one episode, promising Greg two tickets to the Dodgers' Opening Day game if he gets an A on his next math test.

I don't really have that wide of a taste in television shows, so most of these last ones are going to be from Seinfeld.

As I've mentioned before, Seinfeld is, without question, my favorite TV show.

A few Yankees players have appeared on the show, due to the fact that George lands a job with the Yankees in the later seasons.

Danny Tartabull appeared on the show not once...

...but twice.

In one of my favorite biographies ever featured on a baseball card, Tartabull's 1997 Topps card reads "Danny has twice appeared in the TV series 'Seinfeld'."

Bernie Williams and Derek Jeter both briefly appeared on Seinfeld together.

As George often does with Yankee players, he tries to help Williams and Jeter with their swings. In one of my favorite lines of dialogue from the show, Jeter says, "We won the World Series, you know."

To which George smugly replies, "In six games."

You've got to bring these guys up when you're talking about Seinfeld.

Roger McDowell is probably more known for being "The Second Spitter" than a major-league pitcher, delivering the "magic loogie".

Kramer and Newman are under the impression that Hernandez was the one that spit on them, but Hernandez tells them otherwise at the close of the show. ("Nice game, pretty boy!")

Bob Uecker appeared on the TV show Mr. Belvedere for a short time, although I've never seen it.

Although I've only discussed TV shows thus far, Uecker has to be brought up when talking about athletes-turned-actors.

People still recite Harry Doyle's famous "Juuuust a bit outside" line from the film Major League.

Call me crazy, but I actually like the Major League II better than the first one. The brawl scene is still one of my favorite parts of any movie.

Uecker has a pretty prominent role in the sequel as well. The way he goes from a drunken stupor to being full of enthusiasm once the brawl starts is one of the best parts of the movie.

I'm sure there's a lot of athlete cameos in television shows and/or movies that I haven't yet seen.

For now, I'll enjoy watching Harry Doyle.

Zero-Year Cards, Part 24

2012-03-05T13:39:00.000-08:00

1970 Topps #603 Ray Oyler (A's)

I'm fairly certain that this is the oldest "zero-year" card that I own.

I know there's a few pre-1970 "zero-year" cards out there, notably the '62 Topps Robin Roberts that lists him as a Yankee, but I don't yet have any in my collection.

Jim Bouton's Ball Four is one of my favorite baseball books. Ray Oyler is a key part of many of my favorite portions of it. It's not surprising that Bouton and Oyler seemed to develop a rapport on that 1969 Seattle Pilots team, because they were quite a pair of characters.

Oyler is one of the more interesting figures in baseball that not a lot of people know about. He may well have been the worst hitter in history. He played in the majors from 1965 to 1970 for the Tigers, Pilots, and Angels.

He had a career batting average of .175 in those six years.

In his final year in Detroit in 1968, Oyler hit an anemic .135 in 215 at-bats. His fielding is (obviously) what kept him in the majors.

In what would become the only season in Seattle Pilots history, Oyler hit .165 with seven homers. However, he was a fan favorite, so much so that Pilots fans started a Ray Oyler fan club.

The Pilots became the Milwaukee Brewers shortly after the 1969 season ended. In December of '69, the Brewers dealt Oyler and pitcher Diego Segui to the A's for infielder Ted Kubiak.

Oyler would be purchased by the Angels before ever suiting up for the A's. (Segui would go on to lead the American League in ERA in 1970.)

Oyler's 1970 Topps issue is one of my favorite cards in the entire set. Other than the fact that it's a "zero-year" card, I'm not quite sure why. I picked it up for fifty cents at the flea market last summer, and I've cherished it ever since. One thing I've noticed: This is as much green as you'll ever see on a card. The uniform, the grass, and the outfield wall. All green.

It might be my all-time favorite "zero-year" card.

What I've learned

2012-03-04T18:29:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that I've been at this blogging thing for almost three months now.

I have to say, I've learned more about collecting in these three months than I have at any other point in my collecting life. I was a little hesitant to start a blog at first, but I've found that it's a lot of fun to just talk about anything you want in the world of baseball cards.

My initial trek into the blogosphere came last summer. I guess I was bored one day and decided to do a quick Google search for baseball blogs. One of the first ones I came across was some blog called "Night Owl Cards".

I've been hooked on blogs ever since.

In the past few months, I've discovered dozens upon dozens of new blogs, all of them with their own unique themes and styles. I've got about 80 blogs in my blogroll right now, and I'm sure that's barely even scratching the surface with all the great stuff that's out there, waiting to be discovered.

I can remember the first thing that made me realize how great blogging really was.

Hideo Nomo.

Night Owl brings him up a lot on his blog. He seems to be engulfed in Nomo cards. After a little searching, I discovered that Nomo even had an entire blog pretty much dedicated to his likeness.

I think I've read more about Nomo in the last few months than I have in my entire lifetime.

I knew that there had to be something special going on in the blogosphere for people to get that excited over Hideo Nomo.

I still love being a member of the trading forum I'm on, but I have to say that I've spent a lot more time on my blog than on the forums lately. I've realized that you tend to see a lot of repetition on the forums, as far as trading goes.

"I want Jeter, Pujols, and A-Rod!"

"Trade me your Jeter, Pujols, and A-Rod!"

I'd never seen anyone who wanted stuff of Hideo Nomo before entering the blogosphere.

It's good to know that guys like Hideo Nomo aren't being ignored in the hobby.

I've also found that it's fun hearing everyone's opinions of the newly released sets.

2012 Topps was really the first "big" set to be released since I started this blog in December of last year.

I personally liked the set, but it was really fun reading everyone else's take on it, both the positive and the negative. Before the blog, I tended to just give the cards a quick look over and then start with the trading.

I probably would have never noticed that Topps listed walks with a "W" or that a lot of cards accidentally listed triples as "2B" on the back of the 2012 cards had it not been for the astute observations of other bloggers.

Blogging has taught me to take a closer look at newer cards.

I also have a newfound appreciation for horrible airbrush jobs.

The "Airbrushed Fridays" posts from "Cards on Cards" are among my favorite to read of all the blog posts out there.

I'd noticed bad airbrush jobs like this Matty Alou card before, but I didn't really think much of them at the time.

Now, I see them as yet another reason to love vintage baseball cards.

Although I don't plan on doing it anytime soon, I've learned to appreciate the set builders out there.

My only taste of set building came with the 2009 Topps American Heritage and '09 Topps AH Heroes Edition sets. Those are the only two sets I've ever hand-collated.

It was fun to chase down all the cards I needed. The only downside to it was those last few cards you could never seem to find.

I remember it took me a couple weeks to finally find the last card I needed for the first American Heritage set.

None other than John Paul Getty himself.

It's probably the least-flattering card ever needed to complete a set.

Whether it's 1973 Topps or 1977 Topps, I've loved reading all the set-based blogs out there.

When building a set, I've learned that each card has a story behind it.

That's why I love them so much.

I've also learned that there's a lot more team collectors out there than I originally thought.

I mean a lot more.

It's been fun reading all the team-centered blogs and posts out there, whether it's Night Owl and his never-ending quest for Dodgers, or Ryan and his continuing search for Orioles cards.

From what I've seen, team collecting is no easy task, folks.

One of the most important things I've learned is that there's a whole other way to trade cardboard.

It's a thing called generosity.

I love trading on card forums, but trades are almost always book value for book value. Which is fine. But before I joined the blogosphere, I'd begun to lose sight of what trading was really about.

Helping the other person.

Perhaps the most eye-opening experience in this regard was when William over at "Foul Bunt" sent me a big stack of 2012 Topps inserts I needed. All he asked for was a few base and insert cards for his collection and a few Tim Lincecum cards for his son.

I couldn't believe it.

People have been extremely generous and accommodating to me ever since I started this blog, and I've been grateful. Hackenbush from "Can't Have Too Many Cards" also recently sent me a couple dozen cards that helped kick-start my brand new Ryan Dempster collection.

I've been taking after the actions of other bloggers I've dealt with in the last few months, adding in extra cards I think they might enjoy in trade packages.

After all, isn't that what it's all about?

I've loved reading everyone's card show reports in these past few months as well.

"Card show day" is indeed a special day in the life of a collector, and the spoils deserve to be shown off.

It's been great seeing different perspectives on what everyone looks for when they attend one of their local card shows.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I've learned that I'm not the only dime box nut out there.

Earlier this week, I started reading through some of the older card show posts from "Coot Veal and the Vealtones". It turns out that he loves dime boxes every bit as much as I do.

If there's one thing I hope I've brought to the blogosphere, I hope it's a little bit of inspiration to dig through a good ol' dime box at the next card show you attend. My whole blog has been dedicated to that fact.

In the meantime, I'll keep learning new things from all the great blogs out there. I'd just like to say one more thing to all my fellow bloggers.

Thank you.

The Gems of Junk Wax, Pt. 23: 1988 Score #225 Steve Garvey

2012-03-04T12:58:00.001-08:00

Juxtaposition.

There's a lot of it on this card.

This is Steve Garvey's final card. Interestingly, it was produced by Score, a company that was in its first year of producing baseball cards.

One of the most remembered figures of the 1970's had his final card produced by Score. Not Topps, not Donruss, not Fleer. Score.

That just doesn't seem right.

Score was the first major card company to receive a license to produce baseball cards after Fleer and Donruss joined the ranks in 1981. Upper Deck would follow in '89, followed by what must have seemed like hundreds of other companies within the next few years.

Score's initial offering in 1988 actually isn't that bad of a set, in my opinion. In fact, I think it's one of the better base sets in Score's history, although I'm not sure how much that really says.

I'm always a fan of colorful borders. Plus, most of the shots for the '88 Score set are in-action pictures, and the front of the card does a great job of showcasing them. (Although I wish they would've scrapped that little white square inside the picture frame. It serves no purpose.)

I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but Score did a great job in capturing a shot of Garvey at Wrigley Field. After all, arguably his finest moment came against the Cubs in Game 4 the 1984 NLCS, when he hit a two-run, walk-off homer to extend the series.

Although he only played five seasons in San Diego, it cemented his place in Padres lore.

Another great example of juxtaposition.

However, it's easy to see why Garvey had just one card in 1988. He played in just 27 games the year before, hitting a paltry .211 in his final season.

While it wasn't a great way to go out on the field, Score chose a great way to send Garvey off on his final piece of cardboard. This action shot captures the precise moment that a Cubs pitch met Garvey's bat, although it looks like Garvey got under it a bit.

Some of the greatest players in baseball history had less-than-flattering swan songs in terms of their baseball cards.

However, the same cannot be said about Steve Garvey.

He got a proper send-off.

Dime Box Heroes: You know his name

2012-03-03T17:56:00.001-08:00

1972 Topps #423 Oscar Gamble

It doesn't get much better than Oscar Gamble.

As Night Owl said in his last '71 Topps post, Gamble might well be the most talked-about player in the blogosphere.

But that's a good thing. How can you ever get sick of talking about him?

Surprisingly, my Oscar Gamble collection is less than a year old. Before I decided to start collecting him this summer, he was just kind of "that guy with the Afro". I didn't know how much of a cult figure he was in the baseball community, or that he was actually a decent ballplayer.

I came across his legendary 1976 Topps Traded card in a nickel box at the flea market this past summer. (Yes, a nickel box.)

I'd seen the card before, but I'd never actually held a copy in my hands. In that moment, I realized that this was a guy I couldn't ignore anymore.

I had to start collecting Oscar Gamble.

At the National this past summer, my dad and I came across a table that had a dime box. Only one box, but it was gigantic. There had to have been over a thousand cards in there.

After looking through a few stacks of cards from the box, I noticed that there were quite a few 1970's cards inside, not something you see out of your everyday dime box. I just knew that there were going to be a few legendary cards inside this one.

And I was right. Although it was mostly '70s and '80s singles, the box had a few newer cards. About halfway into the first row of cards, I found a Nomar Garciaparra parallel numbered to just 40 copies from one of the Upper Deck Fortyman sets. Since I figured it could be decent tradebait, I bought it. Little did I know that the card was worth 25 bucks. (I dealt it for a bunch of Hall-of-Fame goodies for my collection that very same day.)

But the single greatest find from that box was the '72 Topps Oscar Gamble card at the top of the post. I think my dad was actually the one that originally found it, as we each took a half of the box to look through.

Other than '75 Topps, my personal favorite design from the 1970's is '72 Topps. It's just so...'70s. It's the "Magical Mystery Set".

I'm not sure that any ballplayer represented the swingin' times of the '70s like Oscar Gamble.

I call this one the "Sly Stone" card, because my dad often says Gamble looks a lot like Sly Stone in his '72 Topps photo. (Although this was just before Gamble grew his legendary Afro.)

These days, Oscar Gamble is among my favorite players to collect. I've accumulated a decent number of his cards so far, but I'm still missing a few key pieces.

Hopefully, Oscar Gamble is hiding in a few more dime boxes out there, just waiting to be discovered.

It's good to be back

2012-03-03T13:39:00.002-08:00

These might possibly be the greatest words I've ever typed since I started this blog:

Baseball is back!

There was a spring training game yesterday (Mariners vs. A's), but it wasn't televised, at least in my area.

MLB Network televised it's first spring training game this afternoon. Yankees vs. Phillies. I don't really have much attachment to either team, but I was so happy to finally watch a game of baseball! (The Phillies won 8-5, if anyone cares.)

Baseball got me through some particularly rough spring and summer months last year. One of the few pleasures I got during that time was watching baseball games each day.

I'm happy to say that things are going much, much better than they were at this time last year. The beginning of baseball season can only add to the happiness!

Not only is Opening Day right around the corner, but the bi-annual card show that I've mentioned before comes back on St. Patrick's Day this year. And the local flea market re-opens on April 1st. Needless to say, this is a great time of year.

So prepare for some baseball card goodness in the coming weeks!

I know I am.

The main thing I was looking for in this afternoon's game was to see if Scott Podsednik got the chance to play.

He's always been one of my favorite players. The home run he hit in Game 2 of the 2005 World Series was indeed a "Classic Walk-Off". I was literally jumping up and down in the living room after I saw the ball leave the park. It was just so shocking because he didn't hit a single homer during the regular season that year.

I'm a Cubs fan, but the White Sox are one of my favorite teams as well. (Is that blasphemy?)

Seeing the Sox win the World Series in '05 is still probably my single favorite baseball moment in my life.

Podsednik had a triumphant '09 season in which he hit .304 in his second stint for the Sox. He didn't do that bad in 2010, hitting .297 with 35 steals in a season split between the Royals and the Dodgers.

He's fallen on some rough times as of late, though. He had to settle for a minor league deal in 2011, signing with the Blue Jays. He suffered a foot injury in spring training and was released soon after. He didn't play a single game in the bigs last year.

Thankfully, the Phillies decided to take a chance on "Scotty Pods" this year, signing him to a minor-league deal. I really hope he can manage to find a spot on the Phils' roster at some point this year.

He hit a double in his first at-bat today.

It was the best moment of the afternoon.

My favorite piece of baseball trivia

2012-03-02T21:43:00.002-08:00

There's a lot of useless baseball factoids running through my brain these days.

Rod Carew got his 3,000th hit on the same exact day Tom Seaver collected his 300th win. Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, and Willie Mays all finished their careers in the same cities they started in, only with different franchises. "Boog" Powell's real name is John.

But I'm proud of all these seemingly useless facts. Ask anyone my age who Ted Kluszewski is and all you'll get is a blank stare.

There's some great baseball tidbits out there, but here's my personal favorite. It certainly made my jaw drop the first time I read it. I had to re-read it to make sure I saw it right.

See if you can get the answer without scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Other than these two players...

...who is the only player to hit a home run in more than 15 consecutive seasons in Braves history?

I'll bet that this is probably the first guy that comes to mind:

On a side note, these inserts are among the nicest I've ever come across.

Eddie Mathews hit at least one homer for the Braves from 1952 to 1966. (I'm pretty sure he's the only guy to have played for the Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta Braves as well.)

The question asks for guys who have hit a homer in more than 15 consecutive seasons, so Mathews isn't the answer.

Nope, the answer to this trivia question has an "outside the box" element to it.

Besides Chipper Jones and Hank Aaron, the only player to have hit a homer in more than 15 straight seasons in Braves history is...

...Warren Spahn.

It's true. You can look it up.

(While we're on the topic of nice-looking inserts, these "Enshrinement" ones are among my all-time favorites.)

Although he was just a .194 career hitter, Spahn hit at least one homer for the Braves for 17 straight seasons (1948-64).

His single-season career high was four, which he did in both 1955 and 1961. He'd finish with 35 career round-trippers.

On a side note, Spahn won 363 games in his career. He also finished with 363 career base hits.

Baseball's a strange sport sometimes, isn't it?

Maybe you'll impress your friends with this seemingly useless factoid.

"Short Term Stops", #9: Rick Ankiel

2012-03-02T12:10:00.000-08:00

2010 Topps National Chicle #152 Rick Ankiel (Royals)

I was a little too young to remember pitcher Rick Ankiel bursting onto the baseball scene in 2000, coming just short of winning the NL Rookie of the Year award that year.

Unfortunately, he absolutely flamed out in '01, posting an awful 7.13 ERA in just six starts. He just flat-out lost his control.

He was sent to the minors soon after.

I remember hearing rumblings of him attempting to make a comeback as a hitter around 2005 or so. I never thought he'd actually make it, though.

I vividly remember the night Ankiel made his debut as a major-league outfielder. Seeing him hit a three-run homer in his first game back on the highlights that night was something else.

It really is amazing when you stop and think about it. He went from a once top-pitching prospect to a big-league outfielder in about two years.

He hit 25 homers in 2008 for the Cardinals.

Ever since his comeback, Ankiel has been a decent backup outfielder for a few teams. He doesn't hit for a high average, but he's a nice power source to have off the bench.

He hit a speed bump in 2010, hitting just .232 with six homers.

The Royals signed him as a free agent in January of 2010, but he lasted just 27 games in Kansas City before being dealt to the Braves.

This 2010 National Chicle base card of Ankiel is among my favorite in the entire set. I love the colorful background. The in-action shot is also a plus. But most of all, I like that fact that it's a card of Ankiel that says "outfielder" on the back.

The tale of Rick Ankiel is easily one of the more fascinating baseball stories of my lifetime.

A dream come true

2012-03-01T18:16:00.003-08:00

There's always that one card.

That one card that you dreamt about owning for a long time. That one card you always wanted.

Perhaps some of us have already acquired that one special card and are still admiring it after the fact. Maybe some of us haven't had the good fortune to be able to own it and are still trying to track it down.

My personal "holy grail" was the 1971 Topps Thurman Munson card. I'm not sure how I first became aware of it, but I know I've wanted it ever since the first time I saw it.

Trouble was that it was worth quite a few bucks, at least by Beckett's standards. A hundred and twenty bucks, at the least.

As you might know by know, I don't much care about the condition of my cards, especially when it comes to vintage. I always hoped I could find a beat-up copy of this card in one of those vintage bargain bins at the card shows I attended. No luck.

That is, until a card show a couple Novembers ago. One of the dealers had a bin of vintage cards for 10% of the listed price (which was the book value). As I searched through the box, I found a few decent cards (a 1967 Topps Felipe Alou for a buck-fifty, for one). But then...

My eyes lit up when I first saw it. An actual '71 Thurman Munson! I'd never actually held a copy in my hands before that point. The card had a price tag of $120 on it, so the card was twelve bucks with the discount.

At the time, though, I employed "Tip #7" of my low-end card show findings. I didn't want to blow too much of my budget on just that one card, considering I still had half of the card show to go through. Looking back, it wasn't that greatest idea. For a card I wanted that badly, I should've just bought it right there and then. What if someone came up and bought it before I got back to it? That would've really sucked.

As I moved on to the next table, that thought kept ringing in my head. So as I was in the middle of searching through a dime box, I had a "mission" for my dad. I asked if he could go back to that table and buy that Munson card for me. As always, he was happy to do so. I gave my dad a twenty and he came back with the hallowed card.

I was now the proud owner of a real, actual 1971 Topps Thurman Munson card.

The vendor even threw in a 1966 Topps Luis Aparicio with the Munson, free of charge.

I've seen this card featured on a lot of other blogs, so I don't know that I have anything much to add to all the praise it's already gotten.

All I can say is that it's about as close to baseball card perfection as I've ever seen.

I actually learned something new about this card as a result of the blogosphere. The runner that Munson is tagging out on this card is actually A's pitcher Chuck Dobson. I love cards of pitchers in non-pitching situations.

Just when I thought this card couldn't get any more awesome, it did.

Owning this card is indeed a dream come true.

Zero-Year Cards, Part 23

2012-03-01T12:23:00.000-08:00

2005 Topps #594 Ben Grieve (Pirates)

Remember him?

Until I got this card, I had no idea that Ben Grieve was still active in 2005. He signed a minor-league deal with the Pirates before the 2005 season, but was cut before ever appearing in a game in Pittsburgh.

Every time I think of Grieve, I think of my Beckett magazines.

One day, I decided to flip through a bunch of my old Becketts just for fun. Each issue has the "hot list" with the 20 "hottest" cards on the market right now. (Whatever that means.)

For a while, Beckett showed what the #1 "hottest" item was at that time of the previous year, and what the #1 item was ten years ago.

A couple of my 2004 and 2005 issues had Grieve's 1994 Topps Traded rookie card as the #1 item from ten years prior. I imagine that card was trading hands for quite a bit of money in those days, as Greive was the #2 overall pick in the 1994 draft by the A's.

For a while, it looked like the people that "invested" in Ben Grieve cards might have hit a goldmine. In his first full season in 1997, Grieve hit .288 with 18 homers and 89 RBI, good enough to net him an All-Star appearance as well as the AL Rookie of the Year award.

He'd hit 55 homers in the next two years in Oakland. The A's sold high on him, dealing Grieve to the Devil Rays as part of a three-team trade that brought Johnny Damon to Oakland.

In hindsight, the A's made a really smart move.

Grieve's career derailed in Tampa Bay, his best season for them coming in '02 when he hit .251 with 19 homers and 64 RBI. He was hampered by injuries in '03, appearing in just 55 games for the Devil Rays that year. He'd have short stints with the Brewers and Cubs in the years following.

His last year in the majors came in 2005, when he made 25 plate appearances for the Cubs in a pinch-hitting role.

Stories like Ben Grieve's are the exact reason while I will never delve into "prospecting" in baseball cards.

It's too risky. Most of all, it takes all the fun away from collecting.

I'd bet that the success rates of draft picks in baseball is by far the lowest of any sport. Not a lot of former #1 picks have lived up to their potential in the previous twenty years or so. Sure, there's busts in the other sports as well, but I can't imagine that it even comes close to the amount of baseball draft picks that didn't quite pan out.

The term "can't-miss prospect" doesn't mean much to me anymore.

Just look at what happened to Ben Grieve.

If you could revive one set, it would be...

2012-02-29T18:01:00.005-08:00

I asked myself this question today, and now I'm posing it to all my readers.

If you could pick any single set to revive, what would it be?

If you would've asked me this last year, it you'd get a quick answer.

Topps Archives. No contest.

However, since Topps is set to bring Archives back in May (although with a different concept), I had to come up with a new response. I still didn't have to think much about this one, either.

Topps Total, a.k.a the low-end collector's dream set.

Topps Total had its last hurrah just before I started to seriously get into baseball cards again. I remember picking up a few packs of it in late 2005, but I haven't seen it on the shelves since.

The packs were the best thing about the set. You could get a ten-card pack for a mere 99 cents. And it was the same year-in and year-out. It never changed.

These days, Topps Opening Day is the last 99-cent pack out there, but it doesn't hold a torch to Topps Total.

Last year's Topps Opening Day base set was comprised of 220 cards. There were some surprisingly nice insert sets in last year's product, but that's not typical of Opening Day.

For that same 99 cents, you got ten cards from a Topps Total's debut set in 2002 that contained a whopping 990 cards.

You read it right. Nine hundred and ninety cards.

That's unheard of in today's world. The three base Topps sets have that many cards combined.

While it's a nightmare for set collectors, Topps Total is a team and player collector's dream. Especially if you collect obscure guys like Tim Spooneybarger, as I do.

Mid-to-top tier player in today's game don't have very many cards at all. Perhaps a base card in the flagship set, but that's usually it.

But Topps Total had 'em all. Chances are that if they stepped foot on a baseball field the previous year, they had a card in Topps Total.

Topps Total's initial release came in 2002.

There are a few rookie gems scattered among the mammoth base set. Bobby Jenks, David Wright, and Jason Bay (shown above) all made their cardboard debuts in 2002, and they all have rookie cards in Topps Total's base set.

Jason Bay jumped around quite a bit early on in his career. He was drafted by the Expos, traded to the Mets (where Topps Total was quick to provide an updated photo), then to the Padres (for whom he'd appear in a few games for), then to the Pirates, where he'd blossom into a star.

While the rookies are nice and all, I love the array of players in the base set. I doubt guys like Jung Bong and Brad Cresse got much attention in the cardboard community, but they both have cards in this set. (I'm just grabbing a few names from the checklist as I go. Hence, Jung Bong.)

I don't remember hearing much about the '02 Topps Total set. Since I was ten at the time, I thought I would've jumped all over these 99-cent packs, but I don't remember buying any.

Topps Total's 2003 offering is by personal favorite from their four-year run.

I love the fact that the border on the right side of every card corresponds to the team featured. (Green for the A's, red for the Angels, etc.)

That's something that I wish Topps would experiment with nowadays.

2003 Topps Total was almost an exact replica of its '02 offering. The base set was still 990 cards. As with the '02 set, there were still a couple insert sets, but the gigantic base set was the main draw.

At the time, Aaron Harang was virtually unknown. He pitched in just 16 games for the A's in 2002, but he got a card nevertheless.

The 2003 set did have one major improvement, though...

Behold the almighty Topps Total Silver parallels.

They're still among my favorite parallel sets of all-time, even though it's just a simple silver border. Topps flagship had been using their gold parallels for a few years once this set hit the shelves.

There's just something about that silver border that works extremely well with the base designs. I'm not sure what it is, though.

As I mentioned in my first-ever card show post, one of the dime boxes I went through had a big stack of these silver parallels inside. I had a blast going through them.

One of my favorites from the '03 silver parallels is this one of the late Cory Lidle. I like those Blue Jays hats for some reason.

Although they weren't the main focus of the set, Topps Total did have some really cool inserts in their first couple years.

The scans don't do these justice. They look a lot better in-person.

Topps Total was back again in '04.

Although the set shrunk to "just" 880 cards, it still had all the glory of its previous releases.

One thing that Topps Total was really good at was providing updated player photos. Vladimir Guerrero was in his first year as an Angel in '04, but Topps managed to snag a photo of him in an Angels uniform in time for Total's release.

The backs from the 2004 Topps Total set are among my favorite card backs ever.

The base cards again match colors with the featured team. (I'm not sure that's ever been done since Topps Total.)

I never learned how to play the game that was featured on the back of these cards, but it's still a nice idea. You could tell that Topps had kids in mind when they released Topps Total, both with the cheap packs and the game on the back.

That's always a plus in my book.

Sadly, 2005 was Topps Total's final release.

They weren't much different from the '04 set. They still had the game on the back. They still had the "Topps Tracker" bits of info. They brought back the team-matching colored borders for the card fronts that were featured in the '03 set.

And they were still 99 cents per pack.

The base set shrunk again in '05, this time down to 770 cards.

Topps Total still had the silver parallels until the end.

They were still great.

Although I'd really like to see it, I don't have much hope that Topps Total (or anything similar to it) will ever be revived. I can't imagine it's much of a "money-maker", after all.

But to the low-end collector like me, it has everything I'd ever want in a set of baseball cards.

What I like best about Topps Total is that it didn't care if you were Albert Pujols or Tim Spooneybarger.

You still got your picture on a piece of cardboard.

(Happy leap day, by the way.)

Dime Box Heroes: An icon

2012-02-29T13:09:00.002-08:00

1999 Sports Illustrated Greats of the Game #88 Mark Fidrych

In my life, I've looked through thousands and thousands of dime box cards.

Of those thousands of cards, there's a fraction of them that have come home with me. And of those cards, there are those very special few that are in a class of their own in my collection.

This is one of those special few.

I couldn't tell you what my absolute favorite dime box find ever was, but I know this card would be in the "Top Ten" if I ever took the time to actually sit down and make a list.

This card came from one of the most spectacular dime boxes I've ever had the privilege of going through. It was at the National Card Convention this past August. In terms of the numbers of dime boxes, I didn't find there to be too much of a difference between the National and the regular show they hold in that hall twice a year.

The awesomeness of the dime boxes at the National, however, was a whole different story. There's levels of dime box cards I need, you see. There's cards I want. There's cards I really want. Then there's the "Oh my God" kind of cards that come along every once in a while.

The National had a lot of those "Oh my God" cards.

One particular table stands out in my memory. This guy's dime boxes had quite a few of the "Oh my God" kind of cards. And to top it all off, they weren't even a dime. They were 12/$1. There were about three or four of those big boxes that hold about a thousand cards, and I looked through each and every one. (Am I crazy?)

I managed to find a Ryan Zimmerman Sweet Spot rookie card in that box. A card of value and one that I really wanted. The guy also had a bunch of base cards from Topps Fan Favorites that I needed, one of my all-time favorite sets.

But what set this dime box apart from all the others that day was the stack of 1999 SI Greats of the Game cards I found inside. From my experience, these cards are a bit tougher to come by. Before the National, I only had a small handful of cards from the set.

It really is a great set. There's a few others from that dime box that I already have in mind for later "Dime Box Heroes" posts.

This Fidrych card was definitely the highlight of that dime box, if not the entire National itself.

Speaking of dime boxes, I'd just like to take a moment to say that I'm glad this blog has inspired at least a few of my fellow bloggers to dig into a dime box here and there at their local shows. They really can get lost in the shuffle with the more pricey stuff at card shows. There may be some better cards out there, but nothing is more rewarding than finding that one card you really want out of a simple dime box.

Nothing beats finding a dime card of "The Bird".

If I could go back in time to one point in post-WWII baseball history, I'd go back to 1976 so I could see Mark Fidrych. Almost everything I know about Fidrych comes from my dad's stories. The amazing hype. The effervescent personality. His nationally-televised complete-game victory against the Yankees.

Fidrych's '77 Topps rookie is arguably the most iconic card of the 1970's, if not one of the most iconic in baseball history. That card is imprinted in the memories of almost every single kid who grew up during that era.

"The Bird" himself is one of the most lovable figures in baseball history. I don't know that we'll ever see a baseball player quite like Mark Fidrych ever again.

For me, this card represents one of the most memorable years in baseball history, capturing a great moment of the man that was the forefront of the baseball world at the time.

I'll take this card over one of those high-end "glass case" cards that I always see.

I wouldn't even have to think about it.

The Gems of Junk Wax, Pt. 22: 1989 Upper Deck #145 Nolan Ryan

2012-02-28T18:47:00.001-08:00

1989 Upper Deck changed the hobby forever.

It's up to you decide whether it was for the better or worse.

Top-notch photography, great color separation, and a glossy-like card stock that collectors had never previously seen the likes of. The holograms on the back of each card prevented counterfeiting, a problem that had run rampant in the years leading up to Upper Deck's first release.

Not to mention that it was pretty much the first set to be considered "high-end". In card shops, the 49-cent packs of Topps, Donruss, and Fleer looked primitive compared to the bourgeois 99-cent Upper Deck product.

It's easy to see why when I look at this Nolan Ryan card.

I wish Topps could give these double-image shots a revival. Upper Deck's not around anymore to do it, of course. They're kind of gimmicky, but I like them. It gives the collector a different look.

It must've seemed especially fascinating compared with the slightly drab issues from the other major card companies in '89.

By the time this card was released, Ryan's days as an Astro were over.

He signed with the Rangers in December of '88 after having a slightly down year (for him) in Houston, going 12-11 with a 3.52 ERA. He'd pitch the final two of his record seven no-hitters with the Rangers.

In terms of Nolan Ryan's career, this card marks the end of an era.

But as far as the hobby goes, it represents a new chapter.

Walking off

2012-02-28T12:21:00.000-08:00

This is the first post in a while that wasn't pre-planned.

I've somehow came up with a decent-sized batch of ideas for posts these last few weeks, and I've just been running off the backlog of those ideas since.

Yesterday's "lemonade" post was the last from that batch.

I guess it's time to hit the binders in search for some new ideas. I picked the Rockies binder by chance after getting home from class this afternoon, and it gave me an idea for a few of my favorite "celebration" cards.

I have to admit, I really like the base cards from 2012 Topps. I like simple designs, and this year's flagship definitely has a back-to-basics approach to it. (Topps has done pretty will with this in the last few years.)

But what makes the base cards great is the photography. As I've said before, the theme seems to be celebrations.

And no celebration is greater than the walk-off home run.

There may be more, but here's a few of my favorite "celebration" shots.

In 2005, Rockies shortstop Clint Barmes smaked a walk-off home run off of Trevor Hoffman on Opening Day. He was well on his way to capturing the NL Rookie of the Year award in '05 until he tripped and injured his shoulder, putting him out of commission for the rest of the season.

He's never been quite the same since.

In a memorable Coors Field moment, this shot captures the aftermath of Barmes's homer, although the shot is slightly obscured by the umpire.

Ah, that's better.

Just a sea of Mariner blue. No umpires.

I love the excitement that Griffey shows on this card (near the center). He's like a kid again.

This is also one of my personal favorite night cards. On the night of September 18, 2009, Ichiro blasted a walk-off homer to give the M's the win. The homer came off of none other than stud closer Mariano Rivera.

One thing that I never knew about until I started reading blogs was being able to date cards. I'd never even thought about it before. Ones like these are pretty easy to find, but I've seen some crazy analysis from a few bloggers that were able to nail it down to a single moment in baseball history with very little info.

Just another benefit to reading all the great blogs out there!

Oops. Wait, wrong one.

That's actually kind of creepy.

There we go.

I'm a big fan of the black-background cards Wal-Mart has issued in the last few years, but it just doesn't work for a few of them. Notably, this one.

The only walk-off home run that I could find during Orlando Cabrera's days in Cincinnati was the one he hit on May 5, 2010, against the New York Mets.

Cabrera hit a solo homer in the bottom of the tenth to win it for the Reds that day.

I'm not sure that any single play in sports is more exciting than the walk-off home run.

You just can't beat it.

From the unlikeliest of sources

2012-02-27T18:59:00.000-08:00

This is one of my favorite cards.

And you'd never guess where it came from.

A card show? Nope.

How about a card shop? Uh-uh.

A friend gave it to me? I bought it online? I found it on the street? No, no, and although that would've been cool, no.

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure that any of my baseball cards have a better story attached to them than this one.

I will tell you that this was a dime box find, sort of. I wasn't the one that found it, either. My dad was actually the one that found this card for me.

A few summers ago, he came across some kids with one of those homemade lemonade stands that you see all the time. Although I never tried it in my younger years, I'm sure it's a great way to make a few bucks when you're eight years old.

Anyways, this wasn't like any other lemonade stand.

This lemonade stand had baseball cards.

To my surprise, my dad came home with a big pile of random cards for me from that stand. (He bought some lemonade too, of course.)

I couldn't believe it when I came across a 1960 Topps Whitey Ford in the stack. When it comes to the condition on my vintage cards, my motto is "Who cares? It's (insert player name here)!"

In this case, it's "Who cares? It's Whitey Ford!"

It's got some tape residue, it's creased, and the corners aren't great.

But it's fifty-two years old, and it's a Hall of Famer. Good enough for me!

My dad told me that the whole stack of cards cost just two bucks. Two bucks!

This one is definitely one of the cornerstones of my vintage collection. It's mind-boggling that a card like this wound up at some kid's lemonade stand.

This hobby never ceases to surprise me.

"Short Term Stops", #8: Bert Campaneris

2012-02-27T14:05:00.000-08:00

1984 Topps #139 Bert Campaneris (Yankees)

This is among the most interesting of all the "short term stops" cards I own.

Bert Campaneris had an illustrious career. He was the shortstop of the famous "Swingin' A's" teams of the 1970's. He hit two homers in his first major league game, including one in his first at-bat off of Jim Kaat.

He played all nine positions in a game in 1965, pitching ambidextrously during his inning on the mound.

He was a six-time All-Star. He led the league in stolen bases on six different occasions. (He held the A's stolen base record until some guy named Rickey Henderson broke it.)

However, when you talk about Bert Campaneris, his infamous "bat throw" incident is bound to come up.

"Campy" was lighting up the opposing Tigers pitching staff during the 1972 ALCS. (He'd finish with a .429 batting average in the series.)

On what was probably a purpose pitch, Tigers pitcher Lerrin LaGrow hit Campaneris in the ankle during Game 2 of the series.

In one of the wildest scenes ever witnessed on a baseball field, Campaneris got up and flung his bat towards LaGrow.

Had LaGrow not ducked, the bat would've easily caught him dead on. Both benches emptied.

Tigers manager Billy Martin was so irate that he tried going after Campaneris himself, but was held back by teammates and umpires.

Campaneris was suspended for the rest of the ALCS and the first seven games of the next season. (He was allowed to play in the '72 World Series against the Reds.)

So why is this "short term stops" card so unlikely?

In 1983, the Yankees found themselves in need of some infield depth, so they signed Campaneris. He had spent all of the 1982 season in the Mexican League.

He'd fill in nicely in a utility role, hitting .322 in 143 at-bats in his final year in the big leagues.

And who was the manager of the '83 Yankees?

None other than Billy Martin, the guy who had to be restrained from going after "Campy" eleven years earlier.

It's funny how baseball works out sometimes, isn't it?

Trying new things

2012-02-26T20:09:00.003-08:00

I guess it's fitting that this will be another movie-related post while the Oscars are on. (Not that I'm actually watching it.) I don't know what it is with me and movies these past few days, but I've found they make great tie-ins with cards.

When it comes to my baseball cards, I can get kind of anal-retentive.

I haven't changed how my cards are organized since I started collecting baseball cards again back around 2006. Still the same. If I were to change it now, it would throw me all out of whack, so I don't see a time in the future where I'll ever do a mass reorganization.

My binders are grouped by teams, each one filled with players that I've personally hand-picked. It's not really based on anything specific. It's just who I like, pretty much.

Ever since I re-started my baseball card collection, I haven't made a lot of new additions to the "binders". It's pretty much been the same guys from when I first started collecting. New additions are rare. (We'll get to that Matt Morre card later on in this post.)

I've found that it's pretty much the same with my taste in movies.

Sometimes I think that I've seen every good movie out there. Until this weekend, the last non-newly released movie I can remember really enjoying was "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". We watched it in my high school psychology class one day.

I thought to myself, "Why haven't I seen this movie before?" I love psychology (I'm even planning on changing my major to psychology in the near future), and it's a classic film. I'm even planning on writing a paper later this semester for my current psychology class on that film.

This weekend, I've watched two movies that I've never seen before. And both were fantastic.

I can't remember the last time that happened.

As I've mentioned before, there haven't been a lot of new movies that I've been dying to see in the last few years.

On Friday, I saw the newly-released movie "Goon". It came out "On Demand" on Friday, over a month before it comes out in theaters.

Even though I don't collect the cards anymore, I'm still a hockey fan. "Goon" is pretty much what you'd expect it to be about, a guy who gets into hockey because he's got a newfound talent for beating people to a pulp. (It's actually based off a true story.)

I was expecting the movie to be pretty good, but it blew me away. It was that good. It had one of the best final scenes of any movie I've seen in a really long time.

I'll probably go see it again when it gets released in theaters.

Last night, I saw another movie I haven't seen before. However, this movie has been around for quite some time now, and I was surprised it took me until yesterday to see it.

After my dad read my post about how much I enjoyed a simple dinner with a few of my friends, he recommended that I see "Diner".

"The Baseball Card Snob" also left a comment on that post saying that I might enjoy this movie, so I figured it was at least worth a watch.

I'm glad I did.

See, unlike a lot of people my age, I'm a big fan of dialogue-based movies. I don't like movies with something exciting happening every second or movies with twenty different plot twists. I just want good conversations that would seem like something you or I would talk about with our friends. (It's a big reason why I love the movie "Clerks" so much.)

"Diner" is a fantastic movie, filled with tons of great dialogue. (I especially liked the argument over the roast beef sandwich.) It had a great soundtrack to boot, since it's set in 1959.

I've been thinking lately that I should expand my horizons a bit with my movie choices. Maybe try out some movies I wouldn't have ever thought to watch before.

"Diner" only strengthened those thoughts.

I've been having similar thoughts when it comes to my baseball cards as well.

Until about a year ago, I hadn't welcomed any new guys into the "binders" for quite some time. I figured it was about time I changed things up a bit.

Matt Moore is the newest addition to the binders. I'm a big Rays fan, and it looks like he might be one of their key pieces for the future.

Next to the Cubs, the Angels are my favorite team. If Mike Trout lives up to his potential, then baseball could have a new superstar on its hands.

It's hard to believe that he's only about a year older than I am.

I have to admit, the "liquorfractors" have been growing on me lately. I like the Gold Sparkles from 2012 Topps, but I find myself wishing for the diamond parallels from last year more and more.

I originally put this card up for trade after I pulled it, but I decided that I wouldn't be able to part with it. The throwback Angels uniform that Trout is sporting on this card is just too cool.

So I decided Mike Trout would be a nice addition to the binders.

I've found that I'm a little more lenient when it comes to letting rookies into the binder. I'm not trying to do any "prospecting" by any means.

These are just a few guys I like who happen to be prospects.

Josh Collmenter was one of the starters when I went up to Milwaukee to see a Brewers-D'Backs game this past summer.

His delivery is even crazier to watch in person.

Paul Goldschmidt is one of the biggest ballplayers I've ever seen. The grand slam he hit in the NLDS last year cemented his spot in the hallowed "binders".

New additions aren't just limited to prospects, however.

I recently decided to begin collecting cards of Ryan Dempster.

To tell you the truth, I'm not quite sure why I didn't already collect him. He's an easy-going guy, he's a prankster, and he's a Cub.

What else do I need?

Night Owl isn't going to like this one, but I also decided to start collecting Brian Wilson recently.

He seems like a good guy. I'd much rather have a Wilson-like "character" than a Manny Ramirez-type "character" any day.

I was looking for him in the crowd of players during that Phillies-Giants brawl last year.

If there's one guy you wouldn't want to get into a fight with, it's probably Brian Wilson.

Heath Bell seems like one of the nicest guys in baseball right now.

Not to mention that he's one of the finest closers in the game. I look forward to seeing what he's going to do in Miami this year.

Now I've just got to find a card of him on the Mets...

Carlos Pena is the one who triggered this whole change in my collection.

I finally decided to break down and let a new player into my binder about a year ago. That player was Pena.

I've got over a hundred cards of his now. I don't know how I did it, though.

I'm sure all of our collections have changed in the last few years or so. As collectors, it keeps us motivated. Most of all, it keeps us interested. A little change never hurts.

I've found that with baseball cards, as in life, change can be a good thing.

Dime Box Heroes: The more the merrier

2012-02-26T12:32:00.002-08:00

2000 Topps "21st Century Topps" #C-9 Vladimir Guerrero

I'm sure there's at least one player that seems to follow us wherever we go.

That one guy that always seems to be in every pack you buy. That one creepy guy.

As far as packs go, I have "that guy". Evan Longoria. The guy's in everything I buy. It became apparent to me early on, because I pulled two of his 2008 Topps Chrome rookies when they were commanding righteous bucks.

However, I collect Evan Longoria, so bring 'em on. I have no problem pulling card after card of his.

This concept of a player "following" you extends to dime boxes as well. Dozens and dozens of cards of that one player.

For me, that guy is Vladimir Guerrero, without a doubt. I seem to find a few cards of his in every dime box I go through. One of the dime boxes that I looked through last year might well have had "Vlad-o-rama" marked on the front of it. About a quarter of the box was all Vlad cards. (I came away with about 75 cards of Vladdy from that one box.)

I don't mind that "Vlad the Impaler" follows me. I don't mind it one bit. He's still probably my favorite player in the game right now. (It's a toss-up between him and Ichiro.)

I currently own more cards of Vlad than any other player in my collection. An official investigation that I conducted a couple minutes ago shows that I have 580 different cards of Vladimir Guerrero.

You can chalk up about a third of that total to dime boxes I've gone through over the years. He seems to be in all of them.

There's a couple hundred Vlad cards that I had to choose from for this post, but I decided on that awesome 2000 Topps insert. It's definitely one of the neatest cards I've scanned thus far.

I hope that Vlad continues to follow me in my future dime box "quests".

Maybe there's another five-hundred-and-eighty Vladimir Guerrero cards in my future.

The Gems of Junk Wax, Pt. 21: 1990 Topps #278 Pascual Perez

2012-02-25T17:37:00.000-08:00

Wow.

Pascual Perez sported some mean Jheri-curls in his day. (I always thought it was spelled "Jerry curls" until I looked it up.)

What the heck happened with hair in the 1980's? Anyone that invested in hairspray back then must've made a fortune.

A few weeks ago, I looked through some boxes under my bed. All the boxes have stuff from the overproduction era inside, mainly early '90s Topps cards. I thought I might find one or two cards I could use for the GOJW series.

One of the boxes was all 1990 Topps. As I flipped through each card, I realized just how bland the set is. Not a great design, and next to no action shots. I'd say that it was probably Topps' worst offering in its 61-year history.

However, this card made me laugh. I don't know too much about Perez, but I do know that he had quite an interesting personality. He'd dance on the mound and sprint off the field after the end of an inning (a lot like Jose Lima).

I guess his hair matches his personality.

There's some good "hair" cards out there, but this one takes the cake.

I can't think of a better one.

You won't find these in dime boxes

2012-02-25T12:47:00.000-08:00

Up to this point, I haven't shown many game used or autograph cards on this blog.

I've done that for a reason. I'm a low-end collector these days, and this blog is called "Dime Boxes", after all.

That reminds me of a quick side story before I get into the main part of this post. I may have brought it up before in one of my previous posts, but I did actually find an autograph card in a dime box once. I can't remember who the guy was, but it was one of those more common autos from the mid-'90s Leaf Signature sets. Still, it was quite a shock when I was going through that stack of cards.

It was in one of the dime boxes at my local flea market. I thought for sure there was some mistake here. I brought it to the vendor who put those boxes out and said, "Hey, I found an autograph in here. That's not supposed to be in there, is it?"

The guy let me have it for a dime anyways. (It was the "flea market guy" that I brought up in my card show posts from a couple weeks ago.)

Anyways, adding new memorabilia cards to my collection isn't a top priority for me right now, to say the least. I can't remember the last one I bought at a show.

However, I still cherish the ones that are already in my collection. A few of them are definitely among my all-time favorite baseball cards. My dad got me a couple great game used cards this past Christmas that I love.

As I mentioned in my last post, there was about a year-long period in my freshman days of high school when I lived and breathed memorabilia cards. That's when I acquired most of the cards I'm about to show you.

I can't say for certain, but the Scott Podsednik autograph at the top of this post is what may have touched that off. To this day, it's probably still the best card I've ever pulled from a pack. My family went to St. Louis for a trip one summer. The main event was seeing a Cardinals-Cubs game one of the nights we were there.

While we were in St. Louis, we stopped at one of the malls over there. One of the stores must've had some packs of 2004 Topps Cracker Jack, so I picked up a couple. At the time, I loved Scott Podsednik (and still do), so to pull that one out of a pack was simply amazing.

It topped off a great vacation.

John Olerud is another of my favorite players, and this is probably my favorite card of his.

I think I only paid about four bucks for this card.

What a steal!

However, the main part of my memorabilia collection is my HOF/retired game used and autos.

Most of these don't come cheap, which is the main reason why I stopped going after them for the most part.

Plus, I've acquired at least one memorabilia card of almost all of my favorite post-WWII guys (barring the uber-expensive guys like Mantle, Ted Williams, etc.).

I don't have many HOF/retired autographs, but this "Mad Hungarian" Sweet Spot autograph is probably my favorite. I've always liked those Sweet Spot autographs.

Plus, how often do you come across a piece of Al Hrabosky memorabilia?

In the binder that I keep these cards in, I have a nine-pocket page with my nine favorite game-used cards.

This Rod Carew card made it into that page.

Now that's a patch if I've ever seen one.

Here's some more from that page:

This is one of the best designs I've seen on a game-used card.

I never thought I'd own a jersey card of "Stan the Man", but I nabbed this one for around ten bucks during my memorabilia collecting years.

Plus, I love the feel of those old flannel jerseys.

With dime cards, I don't usually like ones that feature multiple players.

But when it comes to memorabilia cards, the more the merrier!

I bought this card for the Hank Greenberg portion. The other guys were just a bonus.

Okay, now we're into my top three favorite memorabilia cards.

This one comes in at #3.

Numbered to only nine copies, this card features a couple of the main assembly parts of "The Big Red Machine" with Bench and Morgan, and a later Reds great with Tom Seaver.

Except for the few printing plates I own, this is my lowest-numbered card.

The base cards in Triple Threads have never really blown me away.

This one sure does.

It's tough for me to decide between these last two.

It was tough, but I decided that Dizzy Dean comes in at #2.

This was a birthday gift from my dad a few years ago. I can't even begin to tell you how great of a birthday gift that was.

Dizzy Dean is one of the most interesting figures from all of baseball history.

I still can't believe that I actually own part of a jersey that he once wore.

But what could be better than this card, you ask?

Well...

This one.

My all-time favorite memorabilia card.

I've had it for a few years now, and I'm still at a loss for words whenever I see it.

This was also a gift from my dad, this time for Christmas, I believe. God knows I never would've had enough money to buy it, especially in high school.

Personally, I think Ty Cobb is the most interesting baseball player ever. Despicable, sure. But the way he lived life and the way he played baseball is just amazing to me.

I still think he's the greatest hitter in baseball history.

It's hard to pick an absolute favorite card from my collection, but this one would definitely be in contention.

Obviously.

Card companies have gotten way too carried away with the whole memorabilia thing in the past five years or so.

Although I don't collect them much anymore, I still love going through that binder with all the game used and autograph cards that I've bought over the years.

It still feels like I'm holding pieces of baseball history.

Surviving the hobby

2012-02-24T17:58:00.004-08:00

We were all kids at one point.

I'm sure baseball cards were a large part of our childhoods as well, as I don't know of many people who all of a sudden dove into the hobby in their twenties or thirties.

Nope, most of our interest in baseball cards go all the way back to our preteen years. Perhaps we even have a few cards left from those "glory days".

I've said it before, but each generation of card collecting has those few "iconic" cards that come to represent the era.

For many of my fellow bloggers who have a few years on me, I'm sure that this Kurt Bevacqua card is one of those. Bevacqua was a marginal player in the '70s, at best.

But a whole generation of baseball card collectors came to know who he was, and perhaps laugh whenever they heard his name or saw this card.

"He's the guy who won that bubble gum contest!"

Ah, the simple pleasures of being a kid.

As far as my collecting history goes, this card stands above all.

This is the first really "cool" card I can remember getting. At the time, I didn't know this card had some value to it or that it was highly sought after.

It was just a cool, old card.

My grandma became a big Steve Garvey fan when she moved to San Diego in the '80s. Over the years, she's assembled a few pieces of Garvey memorabilia. She's been nice enough to hand a few of these memoirs to me over the years.

The first one I remember getting was this '71 Topps Garvey, his rookie card. I remember it was in one of those screw-down holders when she gave it to me, although I've since removed it.

I couldn't have been more than ten or eleven years old when I got this card.

Because of my grandma, I've begun a small Steve Garvey collection in the last few years, all built around this card.

Another all-too-common tale I've heard from many other collectors is the famous "teenage collecting hiatus".

In the past, it might have been because your parents threw your cards out. But for one reason or another, most collectors stopped collecting cards altogether during their high school and/or college years.

Which is understandable, due to everything else that goes on in one's life during their adolescent years and early-twenties. Plus, money can get tight once you're on your own, with not a lot left over for any luxuries like baseball cards.

When Joe Nuxhall made his major-league debut, he was just 15 years old. The more I think about it, the more fascinating it is. The guy pitched against Stan Musial when he was just fifteen years old!

When I was fifteen, there weren't many things that I knew for certain. As we all know, the four years in high school can be life-altering, for good and bad.

However, when I was fifteen, I knew that I still wanted to collect baseball cards. Unlike many other collectors I've heard from, I still collected with as much enthusiasm as my younger days during those four great years of high school.

I've often asked myself one question:

Why?

Why didn't I get bored with it? Why did baseball cards still find a special place in my life during those crazy years?

To tell you the truth, I don't know. Maybe it's because I needed that one constant presence with all the new people I was meeting and all the things changing around me.

Maybe it kept me occupied in my spare time and out of getting into some bad things that a lot of high school kids manage to fall into during their adolescence.

Or maybe it's just because I love baseball that much.

I like to think it's that last one.

That's not to say that my collection didn't change in high school.

Night Owl said some gracious things about me and my blog in one of his recent posts, which are much appreciated by this "dime box" collector.

One of things he mentioned is that you'd think that a collector as young as me would want the big "mojo" hit, instead of a bunch of dime cards.

Well, I was that kind of a collector for a short period of time early on in high school.

At card shows, I'd come back with mostly game used and autograph cards, not eight hundred dime cards as I do now. I knew about dime boxes then, but I didn't think they were worth the time. Just look, I can get an actual piece of a guy's jersey for a couple bucks! And here's another one! And another one...

The most tragic thing is that I totally ignored vintage cards during that time. What was I thinking?

Thankfully, it was just a phase.

I still think cards like the Josh Phelps patch/auto card at the top of this section are cool, and they still hold a special place in my collection.

But I'm just not that type of collector anymore.

I enjoy the stories behind baseball cards, not a piece of fabric that they may or may not have actually worn.

I've found that it's the better collecting path.

The main thing that changed me into the low-end collector I am today is the local flea market, which I've brought up many times on this blog. (It re-opens April 1st!)

I'd been there a few times as a kid, maybe once a year. I can't remember going at all during my GU/Auto collecting years.

A couple summers ago, my mom and I decided that we should check it out again. I couldn't believe how great it was. I remember one of the guys that first week had a gigantic 25/$1 box with a bunch of early-'80s Topps cards in it.

I had a blast looking through that box. My mom and I were regular attendees from that point on.

I found myself more interested in dime cards than those three-dollar pieces of fabric after a while. But there was still one thing missing.

Vintage.

I still didn't have much interest in vintage. The flea market also changed that.

One week, one of the vendors put out a box of low-grade '60s and '70s vintage cards for a quarter a piece. I figured at a quarter a piece, why not at least take a look?

It must've hit me when I started to look through that box. I'm holding pieces of baseball history here. Look, it's Hank Aaron's brother! Look, it's Tony Oliva! Look, it's "Yaz"!

After I got done drooling over that box, I had a newfound passion for vintage.

That vendor was always there with that quarter vintage box, filled with a different stack of cards each week.

And I'm still a regular at the flea market, buying stuff from the same vendors each time I go. They know me by now and always knock a couple bucks off the final price.

It really is a great way to spend a sunny summer afternoon.

These days, my collection is still going strong.

I still get excited over the new sets. I love going to card shows. I love trading online. I love writing for this blog. I love reading other's people's blogs. I love it all.

I firmly believe that everyone should have a hobby that they're genuinely interested in.

These days, the "hip" hobby to have among people my age is video games or cars or "Facebooking" or something.

For me, it's baseball cards, and it always has been. My collection has certainly taken on many shapes and forms over the years, but I've always had a collection to admire.

I still love baseball cards.

Zero-Year Cards, Part 22

2012-02-24T12:57:00.000-08:00

2000 Topps Traded #T46 Michael Young RC (Blue Jays)

In today's era of big free-agent contracts, loyalty to a single team throughout a career is getting harder and harder to come by.

I can't say I blame the players, though. I'd much rather see the "free agent" era that we're living in today than the dreaded reserve claus that ruled the first century of professional baseball.

Plus, money talks.

However, it's still extremely satisfying to see that a few players have stayed loyal to their organizations. Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera are the first names that come to mind, and I have no doubt that they'll both retire as Yankees.

Jorge Posada probably could have caught on with another team this offseason, but he decided to hang 'em up and retire as a Yankee.

Good decision, Jorge.

Yankee players aside, Michael Young may be the best example of team loyalty. Even after his disastrous offseason a couple years ago, when the Rangers basically forced Young out of consistent playing time via free agent signings, he stayed loyal. He did ask for a trade (although the Rangers couldn't find anyone willing to give up enough to get him0, but he put all of that aside once the season started and had a spectacular season.

Young has been in Texas since 2000, when he appeared in two games as a September call-up.

Ever since then, he's become a Ranger legend. He's currently the franchise leader in games, hits, doubles, triples, runs, at-bats, and plate appearances.

He's also a seven-time All-Star.

However, what many people don't know is that he was originally part of the Toronto Blue Jays' organization. The Jays drafted Young in the fifth round of the 1997 draft.

The Jays sent Young to the Rangers for pitcher Esteban Loaiza in July of 2000. To be fair, Loaiza did have a legendary year in 2003, but he had already moved on to the White Sox by then.

Loaiza pitched just two full years in Toronto. Although he did total 20 wins for the Blue Jays in those two full years, he never had an ERA below 5.00.

I bet the Blue Jays would like to have that trade back.

A night to remember (and while we're on the topic of movies...)

2012-02-23T23:55:00.000-08:00

Twenty years from now, I have a feeling that I'm going to look back at nights like tonight and wish I could relive them all over again.

My friends and I usually play basketball once a week. We decided that tonight was "basketball night". Even though I have next to no interest in watching basketball, I love playing it. Plus, it's great exercise.

After we got done playing, a couple of my friends and I decided to go to Denny's for a "midnight dinner". The food was great, but that's not the reason the night was memorable.

I always hear people older than I am rehashing those good times, when they were simply...young. Nothing to do, nowhere to go, just living life and enjoying it.

Tonight was one of those nights.

We didn't really do anything. We just talked. About whatever. Everything from recalling old stories from middle school ("Remember that time we dissected the pig in science class?"), remembering old friends that we no longer spoke to ("Whatever happened to that kid that punched a locker and broke his hand?"), and looking toward the future ("What are you planning on majoring in?").

It made me appreciate both being young and having great friends. When you're young, you don't often take the time to step back and cherish that.

But tonight, that's exactly what I did.

That's why it was a memorable night.

Anyways, sorry to get a little off the topic of baseball cards there.

As a result of being out a little later than originally intended, I didn't really have time to plan a post for tonight.

Since I mentioned that I had made a Top 25 movies list in my previous post, I figured I'd share it with my fellow readers.

I'll tie it in with a few of my baseball cards, since this is a baseball card blog, after all.

There's not a lot of "classic" movies on this list. No "Titanic", no "Citizen Kane", etc. Most movies I watch are comedies, and those take up the bulk of this list. I'd be glad to hear what my readers agree and/or disagree with from this list!

Enjoy!

#25-- Wayne's World
#24-- The 40-Year Old Virgin

#23-- 61*

This film is about as factually accurate as possible. Director Billy Crystal is a huge New York Yankees fan, and he was in the prime of his childhood in 1961 when Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were on pace to break the hallowed single-season home run record held by Babe Ruth.

By '61, Mantle was the definition of a "Yankee". Well-respected by his teammates and adored by the fans. As the "M&M Brothers" got further along in the race, they both realized that the New York fans only had room in their hearts for one home-run king. Maris was booed in his own stadium after hitting home runs.

Maris broke the record, although he was under extremely severe stress at the time. (His hair began falling out.) And the New York fans cheered him as he made his way around the bases.

#22-- Animal House
#21-- The Rookie
#20-- Napoleon Dynamite
#19-- Adventureland
#18-- Office Space
#17-- Duck Soup (Marx Brothers)

#16-- Miracle

One of the greatest stories in sports history is the tale of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team.

It's also one of the greatest moments in American history.

A bunch of ragtag college kids come together to pull of the unthinkable, beating the powerhouse Soviet Union team, who had won four straight gold medals before the '80 Olympics.

It became apparent that it was so much more than a simple sports victory, however.

It was a reason for Americans to feel good about themselves, something that hadn't happened much in the years prior.

#15-- Juno

#14-- Eight Men Out

Even with its minor factual issues, "Eight Men Out" is still one of the greatest sports movies ever made.

The film tells the sad story of the 1919 Chicago White Sox, who "threw" the World Series in an attempt to earn some quick cash from gamblers. The team was severely underpaid by owner Charles Comiskey, who was known for being quite the cheapskate. (He made the Sox players pay to wash their own uniforms.)

Very few of the players actually saw any money, though. In a frightening array of double-crosses and death threats, the Sox did eventually lose the best-of-nine series to the upstart Cincinnati Reds.

The fix was uncovered, and the Sox players were eventually brought to court. Although they were exonerated by the judicial system, baseball commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis still banned the famous "Eight Men Out" from baseball for life.

#13-- The Breakfast Club

#12-- The Blues Brothers

#11-- Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

#10-- A Hard Day's Night

"A Hard Day's Night" captures the "Fab Four" in all their glory. (Although this card shows them during their "Help!" stage.)

Personally, I prefer the "moptop" Beatles over the later Beatles. Some of their best work comes from their later period, but I'm big on songs that are simply catchy. And that's what early Beatles songs are all about.

This movie has some of the greatest and most quotable lines ever seen in cinema. ("Stop being taller than me!")

And to top it off, it's got quite the soundtrack, featuring my personal favorite Beatles song, "I Should Have Known Better".

It captures a typical madness-filled day in the life of the four Beatles. All while having to look over Paul's "very clean" grandfather, who keeps managing to make trouble for the lads.

The film culminates with a typical Earth-shattering Beatles "concert", played to a bunch of screaming fans.

#9-- High Fidelity

#8-- Dazed and Confused

#7-- Clerks

#6-- Monkey Business (Marx Brothers)

#5-- Superbad

Okay, I know this one probably isn't a favorite of many of the people who didn't go to high school when I did.

But let me tell you, it's exactly like what my high school was like. Or any other high school for that matter.

My dad says that "Dazed and Confused" paints a perfect picture of what high school was really like in the '70s. I like to think that "Superbad" is an updated version of "Dazed and Confused".

This is also one of the most quotable movies I've ever seen, but I can't really repeat a lot of the lines here. There's the whole "McLovin" thing, for one.

The basic plot is three outcasts who have to get beer, go to a party, and, of course, chase girls along the way. But it also has a much deeper theme to it as well. Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera), best friends and the two main characters of the film, have to come to grips with the fact that they'll be forced to separate once college comes around. However, they have trouble coping with that fact, where it all blows up at the big "party" scene at the end.

(Spoiler alert!) They both "get the girl" at the end of the film, which means that their final summer together will be abbreviated with the fact that they both have girlfriends to deal with now.

Every time I watch this movie, I find myself wishing I was back in high school.

#4-- That Thing You Do!

Tom Hanks is one of my favorite actors, and this is my favorite film of his (which he also directed).

It tracks the ever-so-short fame of a fabricated 1960's "one-hit wonder" group, who is fittingly called "The Wonders". Their song, "That Thing You Do!", skyrockets up the charts and garners the band unexpected fame. To put it in a nutshell, their singer gets to be a little too full of himself, which eventually leads to the breakup of the band, during which the members go their separate ways.

As Tom Hanks says in the film, "It's a common tale."

I've always said that the 1960's was the greatest decade of music.

These "one-hit wonders" are a major reason why.

#3-- The Big Lebowski

"Is this your homework, Larry?"

"They've got some good burgers there, Walter."

Okay, this is the most quotable movie in history. (Again, I can't repeat a lot of the quotes, though.)

If you haven't seen it yet, please rent it.

You'll develop a new appreciation for bowling, and I guarantee you'll start saying "dude" a lot more.

There's not really much of a central plot to the film, only the fact that the main character, "The Dude", is tasked to recover a multi-millionare's kidnapped wife, screwing it up all the way through.

I could go on about this movie for a lot longer, but it's getting late.

#2-- Ferris Bueller's Day Off

I assume that most people have already seen this movie, so I won't go too much in-depth about it.

I'm sure we all ditched class at some point in high school. But was your day off as legendary as Ferris Bueller's?

I don't think so.

Another thing I love about this movie is that it's set in downtown Chicago, where I've been on many occasions. Every time I watch this movie, I find myself constantly saying, "Hey, I've been there! And there!"

#1-- The Sandlot

This is the movie.

All others pale in comparison.

This has been my favorite movie for as long as I can remember, and I doubt that will ever change. I'd guess that I've seen it around thirty times.

And it's always as good as the first.

Sure, the fact that it's centered around baseball is a major plus. But what makes it so great is that it captures what I talked about at the beginning of this post.

Savoring your younger days.

This movie also has my personal favorite line from any film.

"You're killin' me, Smalls!"

Again, I'd guess that most people have seen this movie, so I won't go too much into depth. Because of this movie, I can visualize what playing on a sandlot on a beautiful summer day feels like.

As a kid, I'm not sure anything beats that.

Dime Box Heroes: At the movies

2012-02-23T12:25:00.000-08:00

2000 Impact #17 Jim Morris PROS

I'm not much of a movie connoisseur these days.

In the past three years or so, I've only seen five movies at the theater. "Hamlet 2", "Grown Ups", "Jackass 3.0", "Captain America", and, most recently, "Moneyball".

That's it.

I didn't really even want to see "Grown Ups" or "Captain America", but I went because my friends were going. ("Captain America" actually turned out to be a decent flick.)

When I was younger, it seemed like there was a movie coming out every month that I wanted to see. The early-2000's were also the death rattle for good sports movies, at least to me anyways. The '90's had a bunch of great sports movies that were marketed towards kids. I was only one when my all-time favorite movie, "The Sandlot", was released. I was only about four or five when movies like "Rookie of the Year" or "Little Big League" came out. But I caught up with them later.

Even though I'm twenty years old, I still feel that all of those were fantastic movies.

A couple days ago, I was bored and decided to make a list of my all-time top 25 movies. I'd only seen four of them in theaters.

"The Rookie" was one of them.

Finding that "The Rookie" made the list was a surprise to me, coming in at #21 (just ahead of "Animal House"). I didn't think it would make the cut.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized how great it was. I loved it as a kid, and I still love it now.

It's not overly dramatic like a lot of movies nowadays, and it's almost entirely truthful. The term "based on a true story" is thrown around a lot when it comes to sports movies, but it's often not entirely true. (Just look up the actual story behind the film "Remember the Titans". Not even close to the movie.)

However, "The Rookie" is pretty consistent with what actually happened to former pitcher Jim Morris, from what I've read about him. He did actually go from coaching high school baseball to "The Show" in four months. He was a 35 year-old rookie who was a former minor-league pitcher in the '80s. He did all of a sudden develop a 98 MPH fastball, although no one's sure exactly how that happened.

And he did actually strike out the first major-league batter he saw. (Sorry for the spoiler, but I figure it's okay since the movie is almost ten years old.)

The makers of the film even got Royce Clayton to play himself, since that was who Morris struck out in his first game. (Clayton also played Miguel Tejada in the film adaptation of "Moneyball".)

Morris did have some minor league-issued cards in the '80s, but he never had a Topps, Donruss, or Fleer rookie card.

Jim Morris didn't have a "rookie card" until 1999.

I do have Morris's '99 Ultimate Victory rookie card (also a dime box find), but I love his 2000 Impact issue because of the juxtaposition.

The word "Prospects" is proudly displayed across the front of the card. A year before this card was released, very few people even knew who Jim Morris was.

In 2000, Jim Morris was now considered a "prospect". A year before, he was teaching high school chemistry.

It's certainly a great story.

Short Term Stops, Pt. 7: Steve Carlton

2012-02-22T19:34:00.000-08:00

1988 Fleer #7 Steve Carlton (Twins)

The final years of Steve Carlton's career are largely forgettable.

Judging from the picture on this card, you'd never know that this guy was one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history. By 1988, Carlton just looked old and worn out. This '88 Fleer issue is Carlton's final baseball card.

Not the best way to go out.

During his Hall-of-Fame career, Steve Carlton racked up 329 wins, 4,136 strikeouts, and ten All-Star selections. He also took home four Cy Young awards, including his magnificent 27-10 season (with a 1.97 ERA) in 1972 for a last-place Phillies team.

But by the time this card came out, Carlton was 43 years old and in the twilight of his career. In 1986, he played for the Phillies, Giants, and White Sox. In '87, he suited up for the Indians and the Twins.

1988 would be his final season. He'd close out his career in Minnesota, going 0-1 with a 16.76 ERA in 9 2/3 innings that year before being released in late April.

Until I got this card, I had no idea that Carlton even played for the Twins.

Perhaps it would've been better if it stayed that way.

Not for investment purposes

2012-02-22T14:53:00.000-08:00

We started taking about the stock market in my business class today.

I still can't believe people buy and sell stocks for a living. How do they get any sleep at night, knowing that one major slip-up could potentially ruin them?

Anyways, as we started to delve further into the topic in class, I began to think about the "investment" side of baseball cards.

I can't believe that there are still "investors" out there when it comes to baseball cards (or any sports cards, for that matter). Everyone should know by now that baseball cards are probably among the worst investments you can make right now.

I've always been against collecting for investment purposes. If you've got the money to do it, then go right ahead, but don't be surprised when you come back empty-handed.

I'm happy to say that 99.9 percent of the people in this hobby are great. But the few jerks I've come across at card shows or wherever are the people who are in this hobby solely for the money. They're also probably the middle-aged guys you might see searching packs at your local Target or Wal-Mart.

"Flipping" a card every once in a while is fine by me, though. When I was collecting hockey cards, I managed to pull two Upper Deck Sidney Crosby rookie cards. At the time, they were worth two-hundred and fifty dollars a piece. I sold one for a decent chunk of change, and I eventually wound up trading the other one for some baseball cards.

But I must admit, I am guilty of having bought a card for investment purposes. Just once. At the flea market a few years ago, I picked up the Rich Hill rookie card you see at the top of the post for two bucks.

I'd heard that Hill had decent stuff and might be a good pitcher. At the time, I thought I got a steal on it. Surely this card would net me a decent return when Hill becomes the ace in the Cubs' rotation.

Shows what I know.

Hill didn't do much in his time in Chicago. He's had short stints with the Orioles and the Red Sox since.

The Hill debacle showed me that baseball cards are always a whole lot better if you're just in the hobby for fun. Don't take it too seriously, and don't expect to make any money.

I still have Hill's rookie card in my collection. It's a great reminder of the reason I got into collecting cards in the first place, and why I'm still doing it today.

For fun.

An impulse buy

2012-02-21T17:37:00.000-08:00

Up until about a week ago, I had only made one impulse purchase as a result of seeing a card on another blog.

I was browsing through some of Night Owl's older posts a couple months ago and came across one of his "Awesome Night Card" posts that featured this Brent Mayne card.

In one of the best games of the 2011 baseball season, Phillies shortstop Wilson Valdez earned a pitching victory in a 19-inning game versus the Reds. He retired three straight Reds hitters in the top of the nineteenth before the Phils got a run in the bottom of the inning to earn the "W".

Before Valdez, catcher Brent Mayne was the last non-pitcher to earn a victory. Mayne pitched a scoreless top of the 12th for the Rockies in a game against the Braves on August 21, 2000. The Rockies would score in the bottom half of the inning to win the game.

This impulse buy set me back a mere 80 cents via Sportlots.

It was worth every penny.

I made my second impulse purchase as a result of another blogger's post last week.

A few weeks ago, Ted over at "Crinkly Wrappers" made a post showcasing the 1994 "Origins of Baseball" set.

I'd never heard of the set before Ted's post. Naturally, I set sail for Ebay in an attempt to get one for myself. No luck.

I'd forgotten about the set until last week, when Ted graciously sent an email alerting me about a couple of these sets that popped up on Ebay. I pounced on one of them. All in all, the 100-card set cost me just $20 shipped.

The set came in the mail today.

A big thanks to Ted for his original post on these cards and sending me the follow-up email that allowed me to purchase one for myself! I probably wouldn't have these in my hands today if it wasn't for him.

After I got home from school today, I spent about an hour just going through the cards and reading the backs.

I'm a total nut when it comes to baseball history, especially the pre-1900's stuff.

These cards go all the way back to the earliest bat-and-ball games, which apparently originated around 700 A.D. according to the above card.

A lot of the cards were stuck together as a result of being in that box for almost two decades. I managed to separate most of them with little damage, but a few didn't turn out so great, like this "Pud" Galvin card.

No matter, as I'm not much of a sticker for condition anyways. (Which is good when it comes to some dime boxes, as the cards look like they were literally "thrown" into the box sometimes.)

This is my first card of Galvin, who won 365 games in his fifteen-year career.

On a side note, he was also the first player known to be using performance-enhancing drugs. In 1889, he used an elixir which contained monkey testosterone. (Look it up.)

I love the mustaches on a lot of these old-timey baseball pictures. I find it hard to believe that most adult men walked around with those things at one point in time.

This is also my first card of "Old Hoss" Radbourne.

Radbourne holds the all-time record for wins in a season with 59 in 1884. The book Fifty-nine in '84 is a great chronicle of what was a truly crazy season in baseball history.

There's another reason why I like this card so much. Radbourne is subtly extending his middle finger on the right side of this card.

That was over a century before the famous Billy Ripken incident.

There's some outstanding team photos in this set as well, this one of the 1886 Chicago White Stockings.

So many mustaches!

Catcher Buck Ewing invented the modern catcher's crouch over a century ago.

Before Ewing, catchers would stand straight up and would point their glove downward. Ewing was the first to crouch behind the plate and give the pitcher a target.

I love seeing photos of pre-1900 catcher's masks, like the one Ewing is holding in this shot.

They've certainly come a long way.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm not sure it gets much better than an action shot from the dead-ball era.

You can see how far "Wee" Willie Keeler choked up from this shot, as his left hand is about a quarter of the way up the bat.

I think this is my favorite card from the set.

In 1889, the Chicago White Stockings embarked on a "World Tour" to bring the game of baseball outside of America.

A few of the members of the White Stockings are shown here at the famous Sphinx in Egypt during an afternoon break from play.

This is the best set I've come across in a long, long time.

It may be the best twenty bucks I've ever spent.

Zero-Year Cards, Part 21

2012-02-21T12:08:00.000-08:00

2011 Topps #479 Justin Duchscherer (Orioles)

This is the newest inductee into the "zero-year club".

After about two or three years of collecting cards of Duchscherer, I think I have finally memorized how to spell his last name.

Duchscherer (pronounced Duke-sher) is one of the classic examples of a talented player who just cannot stay healthy for whatever reason.

He was an All-Star reliever in 2005, finishing the year with a 2.21 ERA in 85 2/3 innings. The reason I started collecting Duchscherer stems from that 2005 All-Star game. He was also an All-Star in 2008, this time as a starter. He'd finish the season with a 10-8 record and a paltry 2.54 ERA.

However, he's only pitched 28 big-league innings since his All-Star season in '08. Injuries coupled with a bout with depression have limited his action. He missed all of the 2009 season, and started just five games in 2010, going 2-1 with a 2.89 ERA.

He'd sign with the Orioles as a free agent in February of 2011. However, a hip injury forced him to miss the entire season.

The O's released him in August of last year. Duchscherer never got the chance to pitch a single game for Baltimore.

He's still a free agent. Even with all the injuries, I really hope an organization is willing to take a chance on him with a low-risk minor league deal.

It could pay huge dividends.

The Birthday Haul, Pt. 2: Bustin' wax

2012-02-20T20:23:00.000-08:00

In terms of baseball cards, this has been the best birthday I can remember.

My dad got me a great assortment of vintage (plus a few other odds and ends), and my mom took me to a card show last week as an early gift.

My mom was also gracious enough to get me a 2012 Topps hobby box for my birthday yesterday. This continues a tradition of receiving a box of Topps' inaugural offering for my birthday. It's been that way since 2009.

I don't open a whole lot of boxes. The only other box I busted in 2011 (besides Topps Series 1) was Topps Update. I've gotten a box of Update every year since I got back into baseball cards in 2007.

It will probably be the same story this year. I'd like to pick up a box of Heritage at the card show I'll be attending in March, but we'll see if I have the available cash.

When I do get a box, I'm not really looking for the "hits". I just like going through the base and inserts, picking out the ones I need for my massive amounts of player collections, and then making the necessary trades for the rest I need. It's a rewarding process.

It's no different with 2012 Topps. I really wanted the Tim Hudson base card from Topps flagship, but I hadn't pulled it from any of the packs I'd opened before yesterday's break.

Boy, was I happy to see it fall out of one of the 36 packs I opened. It's up there with Tom Gorzelanny and Reed Johnson for the best card in the set. Plus, it's another one for this collection of mine.

As I've said before, Topps really nailed it this year with the photography for their initial 2012 offering.

There's a lot of great horizontal shots, including this great card of Jacoby Ellsbury.

I previously called 2012 Topps the "celebration set". There's a lot of great shots of players celebrating (like Billy Butler) in the base set. Heck, a lot of the SPs this year are devoted to that very theme.

Say what you want about this year's short prints, but they're a lot better than the "sparkle" SPs from last year, in my opinion.

There's some great non-celebration action shots from this year's set as well. Bobby Abreu joins Melky Cabrera in the "robbing a home run" category.

Base cards are fine and dandy, but now onto the inserts.

I've had horrible luck pulling Gold parallels of guys I need in years past. Even though Topps omitted the numbered Gold parallels in 2012 (an interesting decision considering everything else seems to be gold-related), I still didn't have much luck with the sparkly parallels. (While these sparkly parallels are cool, I personally liked the gold-bordered parallels from years past a little better.)

The only one I needed from the box was this Vernon Wells card. Oh well, at least I've got a little more tradebait.

Topps struck gold with the '87 minis insert set this year. (I can't say the same about most of the gold-themed inserts, interestingly enough.)

The Uggla might be my favorite from the entire set. I love those throwback Braves uniforms.

I don't care what anyone else says. I actually like these cards.

Granted, they could've at least gotten a few different pictures of Mazeroski instead of using the same one three times. A team shot (like on the Carlton Fisk one) would've been a nice touch.

They're still cool in my book, though. And gold is nowhere to be found on them.

If there was actual gold in all these Gold inserts from 2012 Topps, we'd all be rich.

I've mentioned it many times, even before 2012 Topps came out. I wish Topps would change up the selection of Hall of Fame players for their insert sets.

Give me some more cards of Bill Mazeroski. Give me more Robin Roberts. And I'd love to see an insert set devoted to pre-1900 players.

I don't hate on Topps very often (the packs are still just two bucks, after all), but this is an area where I'd like Topps to step up their game.

I'm a big collector of old-time HOFers like Ruth and Cobb. I love getting cards of them. But I think it's time to see a little change, don't you? I don't need ten different Jackie Robinson or Mickey Mantle insert cards in each set.

I didn't think the HOFer selection could get much worse. But then I saw the "Golden Greats" insert set. There's not just one more Cal Ripken card, there's five different Ripken cards in this set. And five different Nolan Ryans. And five different Jackie Robinsons...

I'll let Bill and Ted speak for these two cards.

This was the big "hit" of the box.

There was also another good pull from the box. Luckily, it was an O's card that I can send to William from "Foul Bunt" to help repay him for the great cards he's sent me lately. I don't want to ruin the surprise, so I won't show it.

I pulled this card in the 36th and final pack from the box. It's for trade if anyone wants it.

That wraps up the "haul" from my birthday this year. A heartfelt "thank you" goes out to both of my parents for the fantastic gifts this year!

Now that my birthday is over, I've got just one thing on my mind.

Spring training is here!

The Gems of Junk Wax, Pt. 20: 1992 Topps #40 Cal Ripken Jr.

2012-02-20T11:32:00.000-08:00

This might be the all-time greatest pose to ever grace the front of a baseball card.

As we all know, Cal Ripken Jr. is the record holder for consecutive games played (with 2,632), breaking Lou Gehrig's record of 2,130 games, a mark that many considered to be unbreakable.

In general, 1992 Topps is a very good set. Not too flashy, but not too boring like 1990 Topps or other offerings from the overproduction era.

Topps knocked it out of the park for Ripken's 1992 issue, having him pose with Lou Gehrig's monument at the famous Monument Park in Yankee Stadium. The pitch-black backdrop just tops it off.

What's interesting about this shot is that it was actually taken before Ripken broke Gehrig's consecutive games record. The "Iron Man" was well on his way to overtaking "The Iron Horse" by '92, but what if Ripken suffered some freak injury that forced him out of the lineup? If that had indeed happened, I don't think too many people would understand what Topps was hinting at for this card.

Thankfully, Ripken stayed healthy and wound up breaking the hallowed record. It's still the most memorable baseball moment of my lifetime, as far as I'm concerned.

In this day in age, I don't think anyone will ever come close to breaking Ripken's record. We rarely see guys play in all 162 games in a single season anymore.

Although Ripken was a fantastic hitter and a Gold Glove fielder, he will always be remembered for his amazing durability.

It's the same with his baseball cards.

Although he's had some great cards over the years, Ripken's 1992 Topps card is the first one I think of.

It's the one I'll always remember.

The Birthday Haul, Pt. 1

2012-02-19T19:14:00.000-08:00

This has been one of the best birthdays ever.

Great time with the family, great "eats", and, of course, great gifts.

Not only that, but pitchers and catchers are starting to report, and Season 3 of "Eastbound and Down" is premiering today. And I'm off school tomorrow.

Does it get any better?

I'd also like to thank all of you in the blogosphere for the birthday wishes, especially David from "Can't Have Too Many Cards" for including me in his daily "Blow Out the Candles" post.

Along with a couple of discount packs from Target and a 2012 Topps hanger box (and a Beach Boys documentary), my dad got me a nice assortment of cards for my birthday this year, much like the Christmas present I previously posted about.

This time, he insisted I prepare a large list of cards that I'd like that he could pick from. This way, I still wouldn't know exactly which cards I was getting while also avoiding duplicates.

However, my dad went off of the list for a couple of my gifts, such as the Pete Gray card at the top of the post.

I was a little late in recognizing the greatness of the Obak sets. I've wanted a card of the famous one-armed Pete Gray forever, only finding out he had a card in the 2011 Obak set a couple months ago.

Here's another great Obak card from my dad's gift.

This card is quite striking. Even though the famous double play combo never actually played at Wrigley Field, it's still an awesome card.

Here's a couple of cards that I couldn't believe I didn't already own.

It's good to see that Jose Cardenal was still rockin' the Afro in 1979.

I especially like that Al Oliver card. What's with the folding chairs in the stands?

Neither of these cards were on my list either. But I sure do love Hostess cards!

That "Catfish" Hunter card is among the better-cut Hostess cards I've seen. Perhaps the kid that cut it from the box had OCD or something. It's that good.

The "Bert Hooten" on the other hand...let's just say that it really wasn't cut well. And Hostess managed to spell Burt Hooton's first and last name wrong. (His name is spelled correctly on the back, though.)

The fact that everything is off on the Hooton card is what makes it so great. It's one of the best Hostess cards I've come across!

Speaking of error cards, my dad actually stumped me with a piece of baseball card trivia.

I'd never heard about Ralph Lumenti's 1959 Topps card. Perhaps he never did either, because the player featured isn't him. It's actually former Senators pitcher Camilo Pascual.

I say it all the time. You always learn something new in this hobby.

I love cards of Tony Conigliaro. However, there aren't many out there because his career was much too short.

This is my fifth vintage card of good ol' "Tony C". I also have his '65, '67, '69, and '71 issues.

I've wanted both of these cards for a long time.

Billy Martin's 1962 Topps card would be his final issue as a player. His first card as a manager would come in 1969, where he was also featured with the Twins.

I actually owned the Martin card before, but I don't like to talk about what happened to it.

Okay, I traded it for some hockey cards when I was starting to get into collecting hockey. (Shudder.) What can I say? I was young and stupid then.

But I've got it now, and that's all that matters.

Wilbur Wood is one of my favorites. And that's his rookie card.

His real, actual rookie card. Score!

Now on to the top three cards my dad got me for my birthday.

This is one of the most iconic cards from the 1970's, without a doubt. It's up there with Herb Washington and Mark Fidrych.

I wish I could've seen Reggie Jackson during his playing days. He really stood out, both on and off the baseball field.

I think this is my new favorite Reggie Jackson card. Nope, I know it is.

I can't decide which of these last two cards I like better. I'll call it a tie for first.

Even though the picture isn't the greatest, this card is absolutely amazing.

I don't know a whole lot about Hoyt Wilhelm from after his playing days. Apparently, he served as a pitching coach in the minor leagues for a little while.

And he even has a baseball card to show for it. Apparently, "Hills" released a minor league set at some point.

I don't know much about this card. I don't know what year it's from, and I don't know what minor league team that is.

All I know is that it's awesome.

I've previously mentioned how much I wanted this card.

And now, it proudly holds a special place in my collection.

Dick Allen is one of my favorites from baseball history. His career got a little off-track in the early 1970's. Who knew he even played for the Dodgers?

This is one of the dreaded high-numbers from the 1971 Topps set (#650). Not only that, but Beckett also lists it as a short print. A short print and a high-number? Man, that's one rare card.

I first became aware of this card's existence a few months ago while doing a search for Dick Allen cards. Once I saw it, I knew I had to have it. And now I do.

I love this card.

I'll be back tomorrow with Part 2 from my "birthday haul".

Thanks for the awesome birthday gift, Dad!

Guess who has a birthday tomorrow?

2012-02-18T13:10:00.000-08:00

I'll give you three guesses...

(I might be the only teenager in the world who knows who the Marx Brothers are.)

Give up?

Well, this guy, for one.

Miguel Batista turns 41 tomorrow.

I hope he can stick around for at least one more year. He's a good guy from what I've heard.

Oh yeah, and me. Today is my final day as a teenager, as I'll be turning 20 tomorrow. (I still can't believe it.)

It was a good run.

Who knows what will happen to my collection during my twenties? Only time will tell.

Anyways, I'll try to get a post up tomorrow night to show off the "spoils".

My twenties should be...interesting.

The low-end collector's card show: My findings over the years

2012-02-17T19:06:00.000-08:00

I was all set to do a post about an idea I had last night. I had the cards scanned and was ready to go.

And then Kev from "Bonus Cantos" left a comment on my last post that gave me an even better idea for tonight's post.

He's attending a card show tomorrow (good luck and let us know what you find!), and wanted to know some tips for what a low-end collector should look for at a card show without breaking the bank.

First thing, though. I'd definitely encourage finding a card show near you if you don't already attend them. Beckett actually has a great resource for finding card shows in your state here.

Even if you don't have the money right now, it's probably good to know that there is one if you ever come up with a little extra cash.

Speaking of cash, I'm sure most of us have set budgets when we go to card shows. I know I do.

I had $90 with me at Saturday's card show, but I really didn't want to spend more than sixty bucks. (I only spent about $50.)

I guess that's one of my tips: If possible, try to have a reservoir of a little bit of extra money. Don't act like you even have it, but just know it's there in case you really need it.

Just to tell a quick short story, I know the "reservoir" didn't really apply to a guy I saw at one of my first card shows. I've told this story over and over to my parents ever since it happened.

I was at one of the tables at the bi-annual card show, just after I started to get back into baseball cards. I had picked out a few cards I wanted to buy. There was another guy in front of me, picking out a couple of the "glass case cards" (as I call them) that he wanted. When he was ready to buy them, he pulled out a wad of hundred-dollar bills that I've never seen the likes of since. It was like in the movies or something.

There had to have been a couple grand in that guy's budget that day. It must be nice.

Anyways, I'm sure most of us in the blogging community don't have that kind of money to spend at card shows. (If you do, then more power to you.)

Ever since I started going to card shows about five years ago, I've never had a huge budget. I saved up my allowance for weeks, and I usually had around $100 to go wild with at each show, sometimes a bit more. (The bi-annual show here is huge.)

I've probably gone to around fifteen shows in those five or six years, and I've never run out of money at any of them.

What makes collecting so great is that we all have our different goals. Obviously, you and only you know what you're looking for once you enter those hallowed doors of your local card show.

But I've come up with a few general tips that could be applied at most of them. Hopefully, they might be of a little help to some of my readers.

Enjoy!

Tip #1: Try at least one dime box!

Okay, you knew it was coming.

This post won't be all about dime boxes, but I've got to give 'em some love.

If you've never looked through a dime box, I highly encourage you do so. If you're open to just finding some cool random cards, they're awesome. If you're a team collector, they can be fantastic as well.

Just look at that fantastic Joe Mauer card from Saturday's show! To think that it only cost me a dime!

They're extremely budget-friendly at just a dime a piece. (Think of it, that's ten cards for just one single, solitary dollar bill!) Plus, most of the cards that vendors put in those boxes are cards they just want out of the house, something that might help them make a few extra bucks.

As a result, they might shave a few bucks off the final price. (Even less than a dime a piece!)

At a card show I attended this past November, I found about 170 cards from one specific dime box. The dealer only charged me ten bucks for all of them, so it was like getting 70 of the cards free of charge.

I always love a good quarter or fifty-cent box at a card show, but nothing beats a dime box. Just think, for ten bucks, you can either get 40 quarter cards, or 20 fifty-cent cards.

For that same ten bucks, you can get one hundred dime cards.

One major thing I've found is that cards in quarter or fifty-cent boxes aren't that much different from a lot of dime cards you'll find. I bet that Mauer card is in a lot of dealers' dollar boxes.

A lot of it is just chance.

Tip #2: It doesn't hurt to pick up a few "tradebait" cards.

As I've said a few times before, most dealers don't even look through the dime cards they put out before the show.

As a result, you may be able to find a few cards of value in there.

I previously mentioned a $25 David Ortiz rookie that I got for a dime. Although I already had a copy, I picked up this Prince Fielder rookie for a possible trade in the future. Why not?

This part isn't limited to just dime boxes, either. If you see a valuable trade chip at a reasonable price at one of the tables, go ahead and pull the trigger.

It could net you a lot more in the future.

Tip #3: Cards you're not sure if you already have or not...

This one is kind of subjective.

As far as dime boxes go, I'll buy any card I think I need. If I'm 90 percent sure I already have a specific dime card, I'll still buy it.

If I do indeed already have it, it'll be an extra card for trade, which couldn't hurt. (Which was the case with the above cards.) And it only cost me a dime.

If I don't, then I spared myself the indignity of leaving that card behind.

With quarter/fifty-cent/dollar boxes, it gets a bit fuzzier. I have to be pretty certain that I need a quarter card to buy it. If you buy too many of these cards that you already own, that's a few bucks that could've been better spent at another table.

With dime boxes, definitely pull the trigger. With others, you might have to think it over a little more.

Tip #4: Discounted vintage is a must!

I've had this blog for a couple months now. I've been reading blogs for about six or seven months.

All this time, I've never come across a blogger who doesn't like vintage. So I think this one applies to most of us.

You're not going to find an all-vintage dime box (although you might find a few individual vintage cards mixed in with the others). However, a quarter vintage box is always great. At the very least, it's just fun to go through all those forty or fifty year-old cards.

If you're not a huge stickler on condition, then I'd recommend at least browsing through a discounted vintage box.

The two cards you see above set me back just a quarter a piece. Worth it?

I think so.

Tip #5: Don't be afraid to wait sets out.

I mentioned this in my first card show post, but I'll mention it again.

When sets like A&G, Bowman, or Finest first hit the shelves, they're "hot" items. Card dealers around the country will be cracking open box upon box, case upon case of the product.

What I've found is that most of the non-"hits" eventually find their way into discount boxes after a few months, as they're just taking up space for the vendor who's waiting for the next big product.

You don't have to get that CC Sabathia insert right away. If you wait, there's a good chance you might find it for a lot cheaper later on.

I don't look through GU boxes much at card shows, but it's probably the same thing. You can get that A&G David Wright jersey or auto for a few bucks less in February than right after A&G hits the shelves in June or July.

Tip #6: They don't all have to be discount cards.

Although I heavily promote them on this blog, I'm not saying that you have to find all your cards in dime boxes.

Believe it or not, I do actually spend more than a dime or quarter on some cards. Spending a buck or two on some individual cards is always great. I just don't recommend you spend your entire budget on them.

I don't collect Dustin Ackley because he's a "hot prospect". I collect him because he's got the same last name as one of the characters from one of my favorite books, The Catcher in the Rye.

The card cost me a buck, and it was worth every penny.

Tip #7: You can always go back to some tables.

This is one of the more important things I've learned.

I've mentioned it a few times before, but there was a two-dollar vintage box at the card show I attended this past November. My dad and I passed it about halfway through the show, but I didn't want to look at it then. I still had a long ways to go, and I didn't want to blow too much of my budget.

At the end of the show, I had about $25 left, waiting to be spent. That's when I went back to that table and found a bunch of great vintage, like the Eddie Mathews card you see above.

Don't be afraid to pass up a more expensive table. You can always go back if you've got extra money after all is said and done.

If you don't have any extra money at the end, then there's always the next card show. If it's a smaller show, chances are good that it's a lot of the same dealers each time.

Tip #8: Help out your fellow bloggers!

This is my last (and newest) piece of advice.

Saturday's card show was the first I attended since starting this blog.

For the first time, I was looking for cards for other people, not just myself. I still need to repay William from "Foul Bunt" for a bunch of good stuff he's sent me lately. He collects Orioles, so I picked up a few for him.

There's some guy named "Night Owl" who collects Dodgers too, or so I'm told.

If you see something that you think a fellow blogger might like, it couldn't hurt to pick it up if you've got the available cash.

Most of the time, their reaction to the cards you find justify the price you paid.

Well, that's all I've got for now. There's probably a couple other card show tips, but I can't think of any at the moment.

Card shows are my favorite thing in the hobby, and these are just a few strategies I use to make them even more enjoyable.

If there's one thing I believe about card shows, it's this:

There's something for everyone.

Dime Box Heroes: 1980's nostalgia

2012-02-17T13:13:00.000-08:00

1980 Highlanders Nostalgic Enterprises #11 Willie Keeler

Almost all dime boxes are fun to go through.

In my experience, I'd say I've found at least a decent stack of cards from about 95 percent of the dime boxes I've come across. Every once in a while, I'll see one filled with mostly newer Bowman Draft and TriStar-type cards, complete with hundreds of guys that I've never heard of and probably never will.

I pass those up. Dime boxes aren't about trying to predict the future, trying to find that new "hot prospect".

They're about taking a ride through baseball history, one card at a time.

For the most part, the more diverse the box is, the better. The boxes that have a nice mix of current sets with earlier stuff are the best ones. The main reason I love dime boxes so much is because you never know what you'll find.

That's especially true with those types of boxes.

One of the dime boxes I searched through at Saturday's card show was mostly newer stuff from sets like Bowman, Bowman Platinum, and Finest. While I genuinely enjoyed looking though those (I came away with about sixty cards), I'd much rather look through a box filled with random cards.

Of all the dime boxes I've ever seen, there's been just one exception to the "diversity" rule.

About a year ago, I came across one particular box that caught my eye. Usually, you can tell if a dime box is any good by grabbing a couple handfuls of cards at random, and seeing if you need any. If you don't find much after that, it's probably not worth the time.

After sifting through a couple stacks of cards, I didn't find much. A decent amount of it was cards from the overproduction era. I almost walked away, but I decided to try just one more handful for the heck of it.

I'm glad I did.

That particular stack was filled with late '70s/early '80s baseball card goodness, and I found quite a few cards from just that handful alone. At the time, my collection was really lacking in cards from that era. I decided to dig a little deeper into the dime box.

I soon found out that the whole box was '70s and '80s stuff. But it was as fun as any other dime box I've seen. Just seeing all those names and faces from that era made it a blast to dig through.

In the end, I came away with about 100 cards.

I found quite a few neat cards, including a 1977 Topps Rico Petrocelli (his final card) and a 1981 Topps Traded Bobby Bonds, to name a couple off the top of my head.

But probably my favorite out of all the ones I found was the "Wee" Willie Keeler card featured at the top of the post.

I'm not exactly sure if these are reprints of actual turn-of-the-century baseball cards, or if they were made specifically for this set.

They're cool either way. Keeler's nickname was quite appropriate, as the back of this card has him listed at 5'4" and just 140 pounds! It's hard to believe a guy that small was one of the best hitters in baseball history, posting a .341 career batting average.

Keeler also is responsible for the famous quote, "Hit 'em where they ain't."

To find a card of a guy like Keeler for a dime is amazing. Especially a card as nice as this one.

It just goes to show that you really never know what you'll find in a dime box.

Insanity indeed

2012-02-16T18:01:00.000-08:00

Last year, my family made one of the best decisions ever.

We got the MLB Network.

It's the default channel around here nowadays. I'll watch other programs sometimes (I've got the Blackhawks game on right now), but I'd say about 80 percent of my TV time is spent watching the MLB Network.

Before we got it, ESPN was my main source of sports information. I have a lot of gripes with that channel. I think there's a secret law around there that says they have to mention the name "LeBron James" at least once or twice during every show. And I'm not sure that ESPN even knows baseball still exists.

The only time I watch ESPN anymore is to catch "Pardon the Interruption".

PTI can't get enough of the Jeremy Lin saga. Apparently, he's tearing up the NBA right now. I don't follow basketball, but it's a great story from what I've heard. (I promise this post will tie into baseball, don't worry.)

As they've mentioned on PTI, the NBA is quite predictable. You know most of the teams that will be there in the postseason, and the former college stars are usually the ones that dominate. There isn't much of the "underdog" factor.

That's why I like Lin so much. Former Harvard graduate gets waived by a couple teams, then comes out of nowhere to turn the lackluster Knicks into a force to be reckoned with.

But as great as the story is, I can't help but think that this guy will flame out within a month or so. Maybe I'm just cynical when it comes to the NBA.

I'm sure there's a few other examples out there relating to baseball, but whenever I think of Lin, I think of this guy:

Chris Shelton.

Remember him? Does the name ring a bell?

While I haven't done the research on Jeremy Lin's cards, I'm sure they're going for obnoxious prices right now.

Shelton hit nine homers in the first 13 games of the 2006 season, and everyone went nuts. I remember it vividly.

"He's the next big thing!"

I specifically remember his cards skyrocketing in value. The card you see above is one of Shelton's rookie cards, numbered to 1,999 copies.

I can't be sure, but I bet this one was trading hands for about twenty bucks at the height of "Shelton-mania".

Well, it turns out that he wasn't the next "big thing".

He really wasn't.

Here's a couple more of my Shelton rookies, which I'm sure were garnering a few bucks a piece in early 2006.

Shelton really struggled after his amazing start. And all those guys that bought his rookie cards for ten bucks a piece were left sobbing over now-worthless cards.

By the end of July of that very same season, he was sent back down to Triple-A.

Shelton was traded to the Rangers in 2007.

He spent all of '07 in the minors before appearing in 41 games for Texas in 2008.

The last time Shelton played in the majors was during a brief nine-game stint with Seattle in '09.

He's been cut from a few rosters since and is currently a free agent.

Where did I find all the cards I've featured in this post? You guessed it. Dime boxes. I couldn't have dreamed of that happening for a brief period of time.

I bet I'm the only guy still out there who actually collects Chris Shelton cards. But he's an interesting footnote in baseball history, and he fits right in with the kind of obscure guys I enjoy getting cards of.

If I'm right and Lin fades back into obscurity, I won't feel sorry for the collectors who are dropping hundreds of dollars on his cards right now.

But I wish the best for Jeremy Lin. I really do.

Hopefully he won't turn into the next Chris Shelton.

"Short Term Stops", #6: Joe Carter

2012-02-16T12:54:00.000-08:00

1984 Donruss #41 Joe Carter RC (Cubs)

What you see here is quite possibly my favorite card to ever come out of a Donruss set.

I say it about a lot of my cards, but it's especially true for this one: This is one of my personal favorites from my collection.

I've always liked these unfamiliar uniform-themed cards. I've collected them for as long as I remember, even when I was into football and basketball cards as a wee lad.

One of my first "quests" as a kid was to find a card of Joe Carter on the Cubs. I'm not sure why, but I really wanted one. I looked everywhere, but I couldn't find any. I just assumed that there was never one produced after a while.

Around freshman year of high school, I started to get back into collecting baseball cards after a short plunge into collecting hockey.

At one of the first card shows I attended that year, I came across a little box with half-price rookie cards. My eyes lit up when I first saw it. Joe Carter on the Cubs! I couldn't believe it.

Carter was the Cubs' first round pick in 1981. He made his major league debut in 1983, hitting just .176 with one RBI in 23 games for Chicago.

He'd be traded to Cleveland that offseason, in the trade that brought ace Rick Sutcliffe to the Windy City.

Ever since getting the original Joe Carter rookie, I've acquired two other cards of him in a Cubs uniform. But they're both just reprints of this card.

Call me crazy, but Carter's rookie is my favorite card in the set. Not the Don Mattingly.

Joe Carter's finest moment was obviously his walk-off homer in Game 6 of the 1993 World Series, bringing the title back to Toronto.

But as far as my baseball cards go, Carter's finest moment came with Donruss in 1984.

The Gems of Junk Wax, Pt. 19: 1991 Topps #530 Roger Clemens

2012-02-15T17:19:00.000-08:00

1991 Topps makes their third appearance in this series with this card.

First, there was this one. And then this one. Both are fantastic cards, especially if you're a fan of catchers.

Since starting the GOJW series, I've started to appreciate the 1991 Topps set a lot more. I'd forgotten how many great shots there were.

The '91 Topps Clemens card you see above was yet another dime box purchase from Saturday's card show. I'm pretty sure it's the first Clemens card I've ever voluntarily welcomed into my collection. Although he was a great pitcher, he's one of my least favorite players in baseball history. (Throwing a broken bat towards Mike Piazza cemented that "honor" in my book.)

However, as I said in my first card show post, I'm starting a new "collection". If I find a card with a great picture in a dime box, I'm buying it, even if I don't collect the player featured on the card. They'd especially be great for future blog posts.

That's exactly what we have here. When I nabbed this card out of the dime box, I didn't just get a great card. I got an idea for a blog post as well.

Clemens was on top of his game in 1990, going 21-6 with an astounding 1.93 ERA. He'd finish second to 27-game winner Bob Welch in the Cy Young voting, however.

As a result, he was rewarded with one of the better "scoreboard" cards I've ever seen. Most people know what the "Green Monster" is, baseball fan or not.

Whoever thought of this pose is a photography genius. The "strike" and "out" signs obviously hint at the fact that Clemens was arguably the greatest strikeout pitcher of his era.

Most of the time, I'd rather see an action shot over a pose on a baseball card.

Not in this case.

The most "interesting" autograph out there?

2012-02-15T13:31:00.000-08:00

I bought the Chrome version of Jorge Cantu's 2000 Bowman Draft rookie at Saturday's card show. (Chrome cards don't scan too well, so I'll show my copy of his base RC instead.)

I'm not exactly sure why I bought it as I don't really collect Cantu. Although I couldn't put my finger on what exactly it was, there was something I just liked about it.

I think I figured out what that "something" was while looking through my card show finds this afternoon.

The autograph. More specifically, the lack of it.

The entire right-hand sides of 2000 Bowman cards are pretty much reserved for facsimile autographs.

This was all Jorge Cantu gave us. That tiny little signature.

I originally though to myself, "This has to be one of the worst autographs I've ever seen."

But the more I look at it, the more I like it. From the close up, it looks to be fairly detailed. Perhaps Bowman accidentally shrunk Cantu's signature.

If that's actual size, then it's quite the accomplishment. How'd he put all that detail into that tiny space?

I haven't seen too many autographs over the years, but is the most interesting one I've come across.

While we're on the subject of National Chicle...

2012-02-14T16:55:00.000-08:00

I'm still drooling over the awesome 2010 National Chicle Joe Mauer short print I received yesterday.

But I still can't get over how awesome this Ichiro card is, and I got it over a year ago. It's safe to say that I love this card. (I had to used the word "love" at least once today since it's Valentine's Day and all.)

I've said it before and I'll say it again. National Chicle is one of the more underrated sets ever produced. I don't remember people talking about it too much when it came out. There's a right way and a wrong way to incorporate a set comprised entirely of paintings, and Chicle definitely did it correctly. (Not like these horrifying things.)

My favorite player in the game today is Ichiro, without a doubt. I even got to see him in-person in a Mariners-White Sox game last year. (The only downside was that he was DH-ing that day.)

He's just so much of a throwback to the old days. I bet he could hit 30 homers a year if he wanted to, but it's just not his game. Much like Ty Cobb. (Cobb once hit five homers in a two-day span to prove to the media that he could hit homers with the best of them.)

However, the throwback Pilots jersey is what makes the card so cool. I love anything related to the Pilots franchise. I even own a Jim Bouton replica Pilots jersey.

So what we have here is my favorite current player paired up with the Seattle Pilots.

That's about as close as it gets to baseball card perfection.

Zero-Year Cards, Part 20

2012-02-14T10:38:00.000-08:00

2001 Stadium Club #165 Grady Sizemore (Expos)

Before I start, I'd just like to note a blogging milestone that I achieved today, or should I say a milestone my readers achieved today.

I now have 50 readers following "Dime Boxes"! A huge thanks to all my readers out there, starting this blog was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Now on to Grady Sizemore.

Sizemore has always been one of my favorites. He had some big years from 2005 to '07 in Cleveland. What might seem even more amazing now is that he actually played in all 162 of the Indians' games in both '06 and '07.

Sizemore has been absolutely riddled with injuries the lately, playing in just 104 games over the last two years. It's already been proven that he's got a lot of talent. It's just a matter of staying off the DL now.

Although there were some rumblings of Sizemore becoming a Cub this offseason, I'm glad he's staying in Cleveland. He deserves another shot there.

Although he's spent his entire career as an Indian, he wasn't originally a part of their organization. He was originally drafted by the Expos in 2000.

The Indians pulled off one of the better trades in major league history in June of 2002. They'd send ace Bartolo Colon to Montreal. Colon would only make 17 starts as an Expo, signing with the White Sox that offseason after becoming a free agent. He'd end up winning 20 games in '02 between the Indians and Expos.

In return, Cleveland got Sizemore, second baseman Brandon Phillips, and pitcher Cliff Lee (and Lee Stevens). A three-time All-Star in Sizemore, a three-time Gold Glover in Phillips, and although his career in Cleveland began a bit shakily, they eventually got a Cy Young winner in Cliff Lee.

Now that's a trade.

Dime Box Heroes: Like a kid again

2012-02-13T18:51:00.000-08:00

2001 Fleer Platinum #500 Arizona Diamondbacks PG

This was one of the many cards I bought at Saturday's card show.

I'd found a few of these "Postseason Glory" cards in dime boxes at the last few shows. I love 'em. It's just something about those black-and-white photos.

Plus, they chronicle one of the best World Series ever played. I'm not sure you could write a better script.

This picture captures the moment after Craig Counsell scored the winning run in Game 7 of the series, after the famous "bloop" single by Luis Gonzalez. Counsell leapt onto the shoulders of teammate Matt Williams after crossing the plate, ending what could only be classified as a emotionally-charged 2001 season.

Even the umpire can't help crack a smile at the amazing scene that's unfolding in front of him.

What really stands out to me is the reaction of Mark Grace in the right-hand portion of this card.

Mark Grace is one of the most beloved players in Cubs history. Of course, the downside to being a post-1908 Cub is that you don't have a World Series ring with the franchise.

Grace chose to leave Chicago and sign with the D'Backs for the 2001 season. It proved to be a fantastic choice, as he won his first and only championship in Arizona.

As you can see, Grace was utterly thrilled to have finally realized his dream of winning a World Series.

The enthusiasm that Grace shows in this shot reminds me of those crazy backyard baseball games that many of us played in our younger years.

I never really had the type of friends that wanted to play a game of baseball at the park when I was younger. It was always football or basketball. No baseball.

That seems to be pretty typical of all kids in this day in age. Whenever I drive past a park in the summertime, I never see a bunch of kids playing a pickup game of baseball, our national pastime. If I do see a sport being played, it's always soccer or something. Or maybe they're just all at home "chatting" on Facebook or playing "Call of Duty". I don't know.

Little League is one thing that has spanned the generations. I definitely had my moments then. I was a two-time Little League "All-Star". And I even turned an unassisted triple play once.

After I stopped playing Little League when I was in 5th grade or so, I devised my own type of "schoolyard" baseball game, since I could never get my friends together for a game of baseball on a regular basis. Since I lived in a condominium complex (and still do), there wasn't a backyard. So I mapped out a "game" that I could play in my own living room. I still give my parents a lot of credit for letting me run around the living room like a crazy person on the "game days".

I used to have this little yellow foam ball. From about twenty feet away, I'd just toss the ball up and "hit" it with my hands clasped together. There was a small gap between where the couch was and the living room window, so anything over that on a fly was a home run. Anything that bounced off the couch and into that gap was a ground-rule double. Any bloop that landed and stayed on the couch was a single. To get a force out, you had to hit the little reclining chair before the "runner" got there.

It seems silly now, but I even made up fake names for all the "players" in my league. I even gave them "tools". Some guys had exceptional speed, and some were big home-run hitters. Some of the pitchers threw knucklers, and some were power pitchers.

I'd play a "season", filled with triumphs and devastation, comebacks and blown leads. The best-of-three championship "showdowns" (after one-game playoffs in the semifinals) were big days in my kid life. The championship games would be filled with excitement and tension. A game-changing home run. Getting out of a bases-loaded jam.

After the last out, I'd jump around the room and celebrate, actually acting like I had won a big-league championship. It was a great day for the "team" that won it all.

Looking back, I find it amazing that I thought up all of that when I was just a fifth grader. It was my biggest dream.

Mark Grace lived my dream on that fateful November day.

Please Mr. Postman (A trade post) -- From Christy to Yogi

2012-02-13T13:20:00.000-08:00

I was happy to find a few packages waiting for me after getting home from school this afternoon. (I think I've got a case of the "Mondays".)

I was excited to see that one of them was from Ted over at "Crinkly Wrappers". He'd inquired about some extra vintage cards I had and we worked out a nice and simple trade.

Out of all the bloggers I've talked to thus far, I think my collecting goals are most similar to Ted's. He likes Hall of Famers, guys in unfamiliar uniforms, all that good stuff. (It made it easier to find some extra stuff to send to him that I thought he'd like.)

Once I opened the package, the first cards I saw were a few Hoyt Wilhelms.

Out of my vast amount of player collections, my Wilhelm one is easily my favorite. (The second-ever post on this blog was dedicated to him.)

Unfortunately, I already had the couple Wilhelm inserts that Ted sent. But it's the thought that counts!

However, the manu-patch at the top of this post is a prized new addition to the collection. Normally, I'm not a huge fan of the manu-patches, but who cares?

It's Hoyt Wilhelm!

But Ted didn't stop there.

He also sent me a bunch of cards from my set needs and an array of HOF/Retired cards.

The cards I collect are ever-changing, but one thing is for certain. I will always collect cards of the old-timey HOF guys, like Christy Mathewson.

Jack Chesbro was one of the best turn-of-the-century pitchers, winning 41 games for the New York Highlanders (later the Yankees) in 1904. This is just my fifth card of Chesbro.

But I love cards of almost every Hall of Famer, not just the "dead ball era" guys. Ted included a few of them as well.

As you might know by now, I love the 2001 and '02 Topps Archives sets. I'm surprised I didn't already own the Yogi, but I do now!

Hank Greenberg is not just one of my all-time favorite baseball players. He's one of my favorite figures from all of American history.

I've already mentioned how much I love these Conlon Collection cards.

These are a couple of the Burgundy parallels from the 1994 Conlon set. I haven't been able to get my hands on too many of these thus far.

Here's a couple more of the great HOF cards Ted sent me.

A couple of my personal favorite players, especially Harmon Killebrew.

I wish I had more of these cereal box refractor cards that Topps issued a couple years ago.

This Spahn one is especially neat. Plus, my scanner does a great job with refractors.

Wilhelm patch aside, this might be my favorite out of all the stuff from Ted.

Nine times out of ten, I'll take a card of a Hall of Famer over a current guy.

But this card is just so darn awesome. I loved the the 2010 National Chicle set. (One of the more underrated sets in recent memory.) The SPs were especially neat. They included HOFers "wearing" current jerseys, and current guys wearing the throwbacks.

Joe Mauer in a Washington Senators jersey? Too cool.

This might be my second-favorite card from the set, next to Ichiro in a Seattle Pilots uniform.

Thank you so much for all the great cards, Ted!

Hopefully you'll enjoy the cards coming your way as much as I enjoyed these.

The first ever "Dime Boxes" card show post, Pt. 2: Who loves vintage?

2012-02-12T18:19:00.000-08:00

Here's part two of my latest card show excursion. Enjoy!

My last post contained all the more modern finds at yesterday's show. The more recent cards are great, but I absolutely love the array of vintage cards I came away with.

The four 1975 Topps Minis you see above cost just $1.50 together. They're in pretty good shape, too. (Not that I care either way.)

The Gamble mini was one of the greatest finds of the day. I got that one and the Valentine from the "flea market guy" for just a quarter a piece.

I was looking though one of the dime boxes when I noticed a small stack of '75 minis at the table next to the one I was at. At first, I thought, "I'll just look through them after I'm done with this box." But I decided to take a break from the "dime box dig" and look through those minis. The Thornton was on the top of the pile (one of my favorite cards from the '75 set) and I found the McCarver about halfway through.

They cost just 50 cents each.

It's a good thing I decided to look through them at that moment, because literally a minute later, a guy came up and bought all the '75 minis the vendor had.

I'm glad that I was able to snatch those two minis out of the pile before the other guy got to them. I would've been kicking myself for not looking at the minis earlier, and that would've put a damper on the whole day.

Those two minis have only been in my possession for a day, and they already have a great story attached to them.

I love Hostess cards.

My dad always tells me how he used to go through all the Twinkies boxes when he was at the grocery store as a kid, looking for cards he needed.

These set me back just 75 cents a piece.

More from the "flea market guy".

These were also priced at just a quarter a piece. I can't believe I didn't already have the Tiant.

I like the 1977 Topps set, but that shot of Griffey isn't one of the better ones. I can barely see his face with all the shadows!

Two more from the "flea market guy", also at just a quarter a piece.

I'm not a huge fan of McCarver's broadcasting, but I don't seem to hate it near as much as a lot of people do. His cards are still great, though. I even found a beat-up copy of his '62 Topps rookie in a 3/$1 box at a card show once.

Jim Kaat has also found a career after baseball as an announcer. He and Bob Costas often broadcast games on the MLB Network. (Mostly Red Sox-Yankees games, though.)

One of the vendors had a box of half-price vintage cards.

Usually, the price listed is the book value at those types of tables. The half-off makes it seem like you're getting a "deal".

The guy had a bunch of 1969 Topps "Deckle Edge" cards. A very underrated set, in my opinion.

The Denny McLain was one of the better buys of the day.

You can't go wrong with cards of Rusty Staub or Curt Flood.

The three Deckle Edge cards cost just four bucks together.

I found quite a few 1970 Topps cards at yesterday's show.

The Kessinger is yet another purchase from the "flea market guy", priced at fifty cents.

I've wanted that Norm Cash card for a while ever since I saw it in one of my old "Hall of Shame" books. Notice that Cash's fly is open.

I'd never even seen the card in-person before, mainly because it's a high number. It set me back three bucks.

A couple more high numbers from the 1970 Topps set.

I've wanted that Rusty Staub card for a while. I like any card of "Le Grand Orange", especially ones that feature him in an Expos uniform. Cost? Four bucks.

The Nettles set me back $2.50.

And yes, I still collect Graig Nettles even after what he did to Bill Lee.

And now, I present to you the "find" of the day...

A 1959 Topps Bill Mazeroski!

This one set me back a whole six bucks, but I figured what the heck. It was definitely worth it.

It's just an awesome card, picturing the man behind one of the greatest moments in baseball history. (He's a Hall of Famer, too.)

Well, that does it for my first-ever card show post on this blog. I have to say that these couple posts were among my favorites I've written thus far.

Yesterday's show made me even more excited about the card show my dad and I will be attending next month.

I think it goes without saying that card shows are one of the greatest things in the hobby.

Probably the greatest.

Please Mr. Postman (A trade post) -- A bonus

2012-02-12T13:14:00.000-08:00

After I got back from the card show yesterday, I found another package from Wiliam over at "Foul Bunt" in my mailbox.

He was already nice enough to send me a great batch of cards about a week ago, and he told me he already had another pile of cards for me a few days after I received that one.

William sent me a bunch of cards for my Hall of Fame collection. The Sutton is one of the best cards I've seen from 1986 Topps.

The Giamatti fits nicely into my oddball collection. It surprised me to learn that Giamatti served less than a year as baseball commissioner, passing away shortly after banishing Pete Rose from baseball.

I also found a few 2012 Topps base cards I needed in the package from William.

The Gorzelanny is my early favorite for card of the year.

This just blew me away.

William is a huge fan of Virgil Trucks. He and Trucks regularly write letters back and forth to each other, something which William has mentioned quite a few times on his blog.

In one of our emails, I mentioned that Trucks was one my favorites of the somewhat obscure guys I like to collect.

I was shocked to find an actual Virgil Trucks autograph in the package I received. It may just be the greatest card I've received since starting this blog.

Thanks so much, William!

The first ever "Dime Boxes" card show post, Pt. 1: What a day!

2012-02-11T20:45:00.000-08:00

It's my pleasure to give to you the first ever card show post here on "Dime Boxes"!

So, yeah, I went to a card show today, like I said I would in my last post.

It was everything I was expecting it to be, and much, much more. It was fantastic, if you're into the whole brevity thing.

Also, I would've had this post up a lot sooner, but my friends called me to play an impromptu game of pickup basketball right after I got home from the show. The game lasted about three hours, and my legs are killing me.

I'd never attended this particular show before because it's a bit of a ways away from where I live. One of the card guys at the flea market I go to during the summer mentioned that he sets up at this show during the winter months. My mom gave me fifty bucks for the "card show fund" and even drove to and from the card show this afternoon as an early birthday present.

So before I go any further, I'd like to thank my mom so much for the great birthday gift. One of the greatest presents ever! I ended up spending $53.50 at the card show (I brought along a few bucks of my own) and came home with 408 cards.

That's about 13 cents a card. One of the cards I bought was a whopping six bucks, but that's a card for tomorrow's "Part 2" of this post, which will feature my vintage pickups. It's just too much to squeeze into one post!

I'll focus on the more modern cards I bought tonight, and we'll begin with the odd Nolan Ryan card at the top of the post.

I was expecting the show to just be a couple small rooms, but it was actually about the size of a school gym. I'd guess there were around 30 to 40 tables.

The first table I saw had a dime box, which was a great sign. I'll feature a couple cards I got from that later on in the post.

The guy also had some cards displayed on a table, all priced at fifty cents each. The Nolan Ryan was one of them. I just recently decided to start collecting Angels cards of "The Ryan Express". The picture that Upper Deck used for this card is just so odd. They couldn't find a picture of him with his shirt on?

As I said, the first table had a dime box, which had a bunch of random cards that ranged through all different eras. Some current stuff, some '80s stuff, everything.

Those are the best kinds.

Just a couple days ago, I was kicking myself because I somehow didn't own either of these two cards from the 2001 Topps Archives set. (I'd done a "Checkoutmycards" search for the set.)

The Parker is cool because it's a "short term stops" card, and the Bobby Thomson is neat because, well...it's Bobby Thomson.

Thankfully, the guy at the local flea market that I mentioned before was there today with his usual smorgasbord of dime boxes for me to peruse through. Even more than usual, actually.

It's like the guy knows exactly what I collect. It scares me sometimes.

I love the 2009 OPC set, and he had a big stack of the black-bordered parallels in the box. Topps Total is another of my favorite sets, and he had a bunch of the Silver parallels mixed in with all the other dime cards.

Needless to say, it was my favorite dime box of the day.

The "flea market guy" also had some other assorted non-dime cards.

I had to pay a whole quarter for this one. (That's sarcasm, in case Sheldon Cooper is reading this.)

A fantastic card commemorating one of the major events in Wrigley Field history.

All in all, I had about 170 cards from the guy's dime box (they're 100 for $7 if you can find that many), and some other various quarter and fifty cent cards. The guy also had some great vintage, but we'll save that for tomorrow.

With all those cards, I was expecting to pay around fifteen bucks, if the guy cut me a deal like he usually does.

He only charged me five bucks for all those cards. He usually cut me deals for the stuff I bought at the flea market, but never anything that huge.

I couldn't thank him enough.

That's another great thing about dime boxes. The vendors are usually great people, always willing to cut you a deal.

Cards like these are always neat to find in dime boxes. The Jocko Conlan is the first umpire card I've bought in a long time.

Plus, who's going to turn down a Jimmy Piersall card for a measly dime?

One of the dime boxes had a bunch of newer base and insert cards.

I don't really care about sets like Bowman Platinum or Finest. I just wait for all the dealers to open up their boxes and throw all the base cards into a dime box.

From there, I can get a lot of the cards of the guys I collect without opening a single pack or making a single trade.

I bought about forty or fifty Platinum/Finest base cards for my various player collections. That's about the price of one pack from either of those sets.

It's definitely the way to go.

A couple of absolutely fantastic additions to my John Olerud collection here. The one on the left is numbered to 10,000 copies. Do they really make much more than that anyways?

And as far as the Pacific Prism card goes, I've just got one question.

Disco, anyone?

One of the guys from the last card show I attended in November was at this one. I bought a few hundred cards from him the last time. (I'm sure I was a valued customer that day.)

I came away with about 75 cards from him this time around.

My dad and I called him "Milosh" after the last card show because he had almost the exact same accent as Milosh from "Seinfeld".

I'm surprised that he recognized me. He even said, "You're that guy who found all those cheap cards from me the last time, aren't you?" (Or something like that.)

He didn't have the dime boxes on display, but I saw that he had them in the back where the vendors were. He was nice enough to let me go "backstage" and let me look through them behind the counter.

I got all four of the "Father and Son" Griffey cards you see above from his dime box. And that's a dime for all four, not a dime each. They were all grouped together in one sleeve.

I'll usually come back with a few cards that I bought for the sole purpose of trading at every card show. These are my two "dime box tradebait" cards from today's show.

"Milosh" must not have looked through that box beforehand, because these two cards were just a dime a piece.

Yep, I got rookie cards of Matt Kemp and Darryl Strawberry for just a dime a piece.

Ninety-nine percent of the cards I buy from card shows go straight into my PC. But it's always nice to find something like this that could net me some neat cards later on.

I found not one, but two new Wilbur Wood cards for the good ol' PC!

I love Wilbur Wood.

The one on the left is one of my personal favorites from today's show. It comes from the 2004 Topps Fan Favorites set.

I've decided to take on a new collecting philosophy this year.

If I see a card with a cool picture, I'm buying it. I used to just say, "Oh, that's a really neat picture. Too bad I don't collect that guy."

In the long run, a great picture is worth much more than a dime.

That wraps up part one of this two-part post. I'll show off the vintage I got tomorrow, there sure were some great ones! (Beware: Mini alert!)

Few things beat coming home from a successful card show and just admiring all the new pieces in your collection.

It's a great feeling.

On the eve of the card show, a post about...card shows

2012-02-10T18:01:00.000-08:00

I've mentioned it in a few of my previous posts, but barring any unforeseen circumstances, I'll be attending a card show tomorrow as an early birthday present from my mom. (Thanks, Mom!)

It will be the first show since I started this blog in December. Hopefully, I'll come back with some good stuff to show off to my fellow readers!

In honor of the event, I thought I'd share a couple of my most interesting card show experiences.

I can't say for certain what the best card show I've ever attended was. There's the time I met Mark Fidrych. There's the time I bought my coveted 1971 Topps Thruman Munson card.

But most of them just blend together for me, in a good way. I come home with a big bag of cards, sort them, admire them, store them away in the binders, and repeat.

I can't remember ever attending a bad card show. Getting shut out at a garage sale that advertises baseball cards? Happens all the time. Going to a new flea market for the first time, but coming home empty-handed? Sure.

But as far as actual card shows, I can't remember a time where I came home disappointed.

There was the one time it was a sick card show...and I don't mean "sick" as in "Check out this sick patch card!" (An expression which I hate, by the way.)

Nope, I was actually feverish and sick one of the days I attended a card show. But I went anyways. My dad and I did the usual pre-card show routine of going to IHOP for breakfast (although I didn't eat much), taking the bus to the train station, getting on the train, and walking the block or so to the card show. Now that's dedication.

After all, that card show only comes around twice a year.

Walking around made me a bit dizzy, but once I sat down I felt better. It would be nice if all the dime/quarter/dollar box vendors at card shows put out chairs for potential customers, but that's not always the case. I did have to stand at a few of the tables.

I specifically remember one of the tables at that show that had boxes upon boxes of dime cards. My dream table. They had chairs, but they were all occupied by the time I got there. I was starting to worry that I'd have to pass this table up, because there was no way I'd make it standing up.

Luckily, someone got up a couple moments later and I got the chair. And I'm pretty sure I looked through all those boxes. One of the crown jewels that I can remember was the Ryan Freel rookie card you see at the top of the post. Freel spent just one year as a Blue Jay, so it's a great addition to the ol' "short term stops" collection. Not only that, but it's numbered, too. Numbered cards in dime boxes are few and far between, for the most part.

In terms of just cards, that show was just another great one. I still came home with my sack o' cards and everything.

I ended up getting even more sick the next day due to all the action at the card show. But it was worth it.

Or maybe I'm just crazy.

As I said before, I couldn't really tell you what the best card show I've ever attended was.

But I can tell you what my best collecting weekend was.

Two summers ago, I somehow scrounged up enough money to go to two card shows on consecutive days. The twice-a-year one that I just mentioned, and another one that's about a half-hour away.

I was in full health for the twice-a-year show this time (although they held it three times that year for some reason). I've said this before on this blog as well, but this card show is in the same convention hall that they hold the National in when it comes to Chicago. They hold a couple other card shows every year when the National isn't in town.

It was actually the one time I worried that I'd come home from a card show disappointed. I got about three-quarters of the way through and didn't have a whole lot to show for it.

Luckily, all the dime and quarter boxes seemed to be hidden in those last few aisles. I still came home with a whole bunch of cards.

There's always a dealer at these shows that has a gigantic bin of lower-grade vintage cards just scattered about, all individually (and very reasonably) priced. The only way to search through the box is to just grab a handful of 'em and sift through them. And do it again. And again.

I go to almost all these shows with my dad, and that bin is always fun to go through with him. As far as newer stuff goes, only I know what I collect as there's just so much different stuff out there. But my dad's got a great handle on the vintage guys I like, so he knows what to add to the "pile" and what to put back.

I'd found a 1959 Topps Bobby Thomson for fifty cents and a 1963 Topps Ron Santo for a buck in the bin at previous shows.

This time, I found the 1960 Topps Podres and Zimmer cards you see above for a mere fifty cents a piece.

Another success.

The next day, me and my dad attended another card show. This time, I had to drive there. No train or anything. (More on that later, though.)

I'd never attended this particular show before. In terms of the size of the show, it was pretty much the opposite of the humungous one I attended the previous day. It was held in a hotel, so it was only a couple of rooms, which is about was I was expecting.

The first room was mainly just packs and boxes and whatnot, not something I'm interested in at shows. One of the guys had a box of early '80s cards for a dime a piece, so I ended up with about a hundred cards I needed from that.

The other room was sheer paradise. There were only about seven or eight vendors, but they all had dime boxes. I remember it was right around when 2010 A&G came out, and a couple of the dealers had stacks of the base cards for a dime a piece. I was able to knock out most of my base needs from that set right then and there.

I found a ton of great dime cards (about as much as I did at the gigantic card show I attended the day before), but the find of the day wasn't one of them.

One of the dealers had three huge boxes filled with dime cards, and I looked through every single one and came up with a few hundred cards I needed. He also had some other stuff on display next to the dime boxes, including one single silk card from 2010 Topps. As I moved in closer, I noticed who it was. Casey Kotchman. The guy only had one silk card for sale, and it's Kotchman! Quite possibly my favorite card from the 2010 Topps set!

Casey Kotchman is one of my favorite players in the game right now, and he was my second-ever player collection, after Hoyt Wilhelm. At the time, I thought this 2010 Topps card would be his last, because he had an atrocious year for the Mariners that year.

He shocked us all with his fantastic 2011 season, and he's now a viable first-base option for a lot of teams. I wish him the best of luck in Cleveland in 2012.

I usually don't even ask about cards that don't have price tags on them, but I made an exception for the Kotchman card. I was almost afraid to ask for a price on it because I worried that the guy would tell me something that was out of my range. It would've hurt me to have to leave that card behind.

My worrying was for naught, because he priced the card at just three bucks, which is more than reasonable for a silk card. It's still the only silk I own and it might just be my favorite Casey Kotchman card.

It kind of represented the whole card show that day. Going in, I wasn't expecting too much, but I came home with tons more than I would've ever expected.

The only downside was that we got lost on the way home and ended up about an hour away from home. Needless to say, it's the most driving I've ever done in one day.

The card show I'll be attending tomorrow is the first time I'll be checking it out.

I love reading everyone else's card show posts, and I'll definitely be letting my readers know what I find.

The days I attend card shows are among the greatest days of the year for me because they're so few and far between.

Tomorrow will be no exception.

"Short Term Stops", #5: Don Sutton

2012-02-10T12:20:00.000-08:00

1985 Topps Traded #116T Don Sutton (A's)

Thanks to MLB Network's "Baseball IQ", one of the better baseball facts I recently learned is that Don Sutton is the all-time leader in ten-win seasons for a pitcher, posting 21 seasons with ten wins or more. (Curiously, he only had one twenty-win season.)

That's more than Nolan Ryan or Walter Johnson. It's even more than Cy Young. I would've never guessed Don Sutton in a million years.

Now that I think of it, it does make sense. Sutton never spent a single day on the disabled list in his 23 years of MLB service. ("Donny" was never out of his element, to quote The Big Lebowski.)

After he left the Dodgers in 1980, he pitched for a few different teams, going from the Astros, to the Brewers, to the A's, to the Angels. He'd finish his career in 1988 where he started, pitching in 16 games for the Dodgers.

I was aware that he played for all those teams. Except the A's. Sutton pitched in 29 games for the A's in 1985, picking up thirteen of his 324 career wins in the process. He was dealt to the Angels in a late-season trade that year, pitching the final five games of the season for the Halos.

This card came out of a 15/$1 box at the last card show I attended, so the card itself cost a little over six cents.

So for six cents, not only did I get the card, but I learned something new about baseball history.

I'll take that deal any day of the week.

The Gems of Junk Wax, Pt. 18: 1989 Score #645 Randy Johnson RC

2012-02-09T17:24:00.000-08:00

Few players dominated the game as much as Randy Johnson did in the 1990's and early 2000's.

"The Big Unit" was famous for his serious, sneering personality on the baseball field during his reign of terror. That kind of attitude sharply contrasts the comical powder-blue Expos uniforms of the late-'80s.

A lot of people forget the Johnson began his career in Montreal. The Expos nabbed him in the second round of the '85 draft, but then dealt him to the Mariners in May of 1989 for Mark Langston.

All in all, Johnson would pitch in just 11 games for the Expos between 1988 and '89. (A decent "short term stops" nominee as well.)

Johnson's '89 Score rookie is probably his least-discussed RC, but it's my personal favorite, mainly because it's the only one that features an action shot. Plus, call me crazy, but I kind of like the '89 Score design.

The most famous (and valuable) rookie card of "The Big Unit" is actually his '89 Fleer error, which shows a Marlboro ad in the background. Fleer blacked-out the ad and issued a "corrected" version of the card, which I also own.

One of the upsides to the overproduction era is that you can get rookie cards of some of the greatest players of the era for loose change. Thanks to the craziness that I alluded to in my last post, you can own rookie cards of greats like Maddux, Biggio, and Smoltz for a few quarters.

I'm sure that you can find this card in a quarter box with a little searching.

A rookie card of a 300-game winner? A rookie card of the man who is second on the all-time strikeouts list? A rookie card of a sure-fire Hall of Famer?

All for a quarter?

That's a "gem" if I ever saw one.

Once upon a time...

2012-02-09T12:07:00.000-08:00

From what I've read, the baseball card universe got a little crazy during the late 80's and early '90's.

I'm not just talking about the card companies churning out millions and millions of cards.

The collectors contributed to a lot of the wackiness as well. A lot of people that weren't actually "collectors" started to get into the hobby, mainly for the wrong reasons.

The prices of cards began to skyrocket. From what I know, this Jose Canseco card was one of the "hottest" items on the market.

I'm not sure on the exact price, but I'd guess that this card was trading hands for good money at the peak of the overproduction era. Canseco's rookie card from '86 Donruss was worth over a hundred bucks at one point (thanks for the info, hiflew!).

Canseco was tearing up the league at the time.

As we all know, the card market crashed and most of the cards produced during the era were worth next to nothing.

This past summer, I found it in a 12/$1 box. So I paid about eight cents.

I don't collect Jose Canseco (except his "zero-year" cards), but I bought it anyways, just for laughs.

It's a great reminder of how crazy this hobby once was, and it makes everything now seem so much simpler.

Dime Box Heroes: It doesn't translate

2012-02-08T17:39:00.000-08:00

1981 Fleer #595 Maury Wills MG

I actually found this card in a nickel box along with a bunch of other early-80's Fleer and Donruss cards. (Yes, another flea market pickup.)

So technically, it's a "nickel box hero", but you get what I'm saying.

As a player, Maury Wills was probably the most feared base stealer of his era. His 104 swipes in 1962 broke Ty Cobb's modern single-season record. Wills took the baseball world by storm that year and captured the NL MVP award in the process.

While he had short stints in Pittsburgh and Montreal, Wills is best known for his time as a Los Angeles Dodger. He is one of the most well-remembered players to ever wear the hallowed "Dodger Blue", as he represented the decade of the 1960's to many Dodgers fans.

His short time wearing the "Mariner Blue" in Seattle is also fairly well-known, but for completely different reasons.

It was a disaster, to put it lightly.

After his playing career ended in 1972, Wills managed in the Mexican Winter League for a few years. He openly bragged that he'd be able to turn a last-place big league team into champs within a few years. (The Giants even offered him a one-year deal to manage in San Francisco, but he turned it down.)

After firing Darrell Johnson, the Seattle Mariners hired Wills as their manager in August of 1980. He'd manage their last handful of games that season.

In one of his most famous incidents during his short tenure in Seattle, Wills was going on about his "new" center fielder, Leon Roberts, stating how good Roberts was at covering ground and his determination on the field.

Then one of the Seattle writers reminded Wills that Roberts had been traded to Texas a few weeks prior.

It didn't get much better once the season started. In fact, it got worse.

Before a game against the A's in April of 1981, Oakland manager Billy Martin noticed that the batter's boxes on both sides of the plate were a foot longer than regulation size. The Mariners' head groundskeeper admitted that Wills had told him to lengthen the boxes, presumably to get a better look at breaking pitches.

Wills was fired a few days later.

He lasted just 24 games into the 1981 season. His career record as a manager? 26-56.

Here's a few better tidbits from Wills's managing career, courtesy of the Big Book of Baseball Blunders by Rob Neyer.

Wills once made out a lineup card that listed two third basemen, but no center fielder.

Wills once held up a game for ten minutes while he searched for a pinch-hitter.

In the sixth inning of a spring-training game, Wills left the field without telling anyone and hopped a plane for California.

Shortly before he was fired, Wills skipped most of batting practice three days in a row.

Wills's 1981 Fleer card is a perfect example of a card that might not be worth much in actual value, but is priceless in personal value. It's a reminder of one of the most disastrous managing tenures in the history of baseball.

Fleer was the only card company to produce a card of Wills as a manager, not counting the '81 Topps Mariners team card. It's one of the best cards to come out of Fleer's initial offering (not counting their '60s legends cards), if not the best.

There's always been a debate among baseball circles. Does success as a player translate into the managerial field? Not in the case of Maury Wills.

Not at all.

It's all just random

2012-02-08T13:16:00.000-08:00

If I had one word to describe my collection, it would probably be "random".

There aren't any specific teams I collect. I don't really build sets. (The set needs tab on this blog is mostly just player needs in disguise, it's a lot easier than having to list out each player and the number.)

I do have player collections, but there are literally hundreds of different guys I collect. There's guys that I want every single card I can get my hands on. There's some guys that I only collect in specific uniforms. And there's some guys that I just decide to start collecting right out of the blue.

Some of the guys I collect are pretty obscure, like John Patterson...

...and some are not. Case in point: Ichiro.

Next to Vladimir Guerrero, my Ichiro collection contains the most different cards, 413 to be exact.

"Random" would also be the one word I'd use to describe my blog as well.

Here on "Dime Boxes", I hope I've given my fellow readers a truly random and maybe different look at the world of baseball card collecting. After all, that's what those dime boxes you see at card shows are all about.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love to read all the team-centered blogs or set-based blogs. It gives me a look at something I've never had the experience doing. Whether it be collecting Orioles cards, or just giving me a look at every card in the 1979 Topps set, I really enjoy reading them.

I just can't believe it took me until last summer to look into the blogosphere.

Maybe it's just a card that will make you laugh.

I call this one the "Lighten up, Francis" card. Don't take it so seriously, Mr. Wagner!

Maybe it's just a neat card that you've never seen before.

Something about a brick wall backdrop instantly makes any card way cooler.

I guess what I'm trying to do with my blog is remind all the specific team, player, or set collectors that there's a whole other realm of baseball card collecting.

And it's the collecting path I've chosen.

But all the team, player, or set-based blogs have reminded me of that fact as well. Before I started reading all the baseball card blogs out there, I had trouble grasping how anyone could just collect a single player or a single set. Teams I could see, because there's so many Dodgers cards out there (for example).

Seeing all the set and player-based blogs and posts out there have reminded me of just how many different ways there are of collecting baseball cards, and have given me a better understanding of a few of the other ways people do so. And that might be the greatest thing about baseball cards.

There's no wrong way to collect.

It's got it all

2012-02-07T16:53:00.000-08:00

I love this card.

I really, really love this card.

It's vintage, after all, and who doesn't like vintage? Especially 1950's vintage!

The fact that it's an older card is awesome, but there's a different reason why this card is so great.

It's just pure "baseball". In no other sport could you take a picture with as much mystique and elegance as this one has.

Only in baseball.

You've got journeyman outfielder Elmer Valo hovering near the bat rack, carefully selecting a couple pieces of lumber that are to his liking. You've got the old-timey TV camera behind the rack, along with the cameraman behind Valo. The cameraman looks to be pondering over the day's work ahead of him. And then you've got a fan just relaxing in the background (top-right), his feet settled onto the seat in front of him, presumably waiting for a great day of baseball ahead of him.

Not only that, but this card has a couple good stories attached to it.

The reason I even collect Elmer Valo in the first place is that I once read that he was one of the few major-league players to be born in (then) Czechoslovakia. I'm not sure on the exact number of Czechs to play in the big leagues, but it can't be many.

Valo was a surprisingly good hitter in his career. While he was a bench player for a large part of his career, he still managed to post a career .282 batting average, coupled with a fantastic career on-base percentage of .398.

I purchased this card at a card show this past November. After going through all the tables, I still had about 25 bucks left in my pocket. My dad said he saw a box of '50s and '60s vintage cards at two bucks a piece when he was walking around. I don't usually like to look at too many tables that have cards priced at more than a dollar because they eat up a lot of my budget. If I would've bought 20 cards from the $2 box early on, poof...there goes a third of my budget at one table. And the card show is absolutely huge, so you don't want to spend too much too early.

But since I was already done looking through all the dime boxes and whatnot, I figured "what the heck". How else could I better spend 25 bucks than on some '50s and '60s baseball cards?

I picked out a few too many cards on my $25 budget and had to put a few back (a painful feeling for any collector, I'm sure). I got it down to about 14 cards until it would've really pained me to put the remaining ones back. The Valo card was next on the "put back" list. Thankfully, the vendor cut me a deal and let me have the fourteen $2 cards for the $25 I had, which meant that the Valo was coming home with me.

I am eternally grateful.

This card's vintage. It's got one of the best pictures I've ever seen on a baseball card. It's one of those kind-of obscure guys that I really enjoy collecting. And it's got a great story attached to it.

Like I said, this card's got it all.

Zero-Year Cards, Part 19

2012-02-07T11:39:00.000-08:00

2001 Fleer Platinum #157 Jose Canseco (Angels)

Jose Canseco has already been inducted into the "zero-year club" thanks to an extremely short tenure with the Montreal Expos.

But he'd already been a "zero-year" member of another team before that. He spent a grand total of two months with the Angels in 2001, from January to March of that year.

He'd be cut by Anaheim after the end of spring training.

Thus far, I've tried to avoid repeating teams for my "zero-year club". But I just figured screw it, this card needs to be seen by everyone!

Jose Canseco is the only repeat player I could think of. I'm not sure too many players had cards issued with two different teams that they never played for.

Canseco would catch on with Newark of the Atlantic League after being cut by the Angels. The White Sox purchased Canseco from Newark in June of '01. He'd hit .258 with 16 homers in 76 games for the South Siders.

They would be the last major league games he'd ever play. (Thank God!)

I can't decide whether I love or hate this card. After all, it is a "zero-year" card. But it's Jose Canseco.

In a way, I guess it's so bad it's good.

"Short Term Stops", #4: Dale Murphy

2012-02-06T16:55:00.000-08:00

1993 Ultra #353 Dale Murphy (Rockies)

Sorry, Dale Murphy fans, but this one has to be brought up when this topic is discussed.

Dale Murphy had a great career, to say the least. He's a borderline Hall of Famer in my book. But his career stats were hampered by the fact that he played a few years too long.

1991 was Murphy's last full season. He'd hit just .252 in 153 games with Philadelphia. The Phillies released "The Murph" after a horrid 1992 season where he played in just 18 games (with a .161 average).

The Rockies signed him on the same day he was released, presumably to bring some "veteran leadership" to the club. I'm not sure about it, but I'd guess that Murphy was the oldest player on the Rockies roster in their inaugural 1993 season, at 37 years of age.

Murphy's career wouldn't end on a high note, as he hit just .143 without a single homer in 26 games with the Rockies.

The ends of the careers of once-great players often look pretty ugly on the back of their baseball cards.

But they sure make for great additions to my "Short Term Stops" collection.

Please Mr. Postman (A trade post) -- The generosity amazes me

2012-02-06T13:13:00.000-08:00

I came home from school today to find my mailbox packed with 2012 Topps goodness.

Most of the packages were from trades I made on a trading board I'm on, but the crown jewel of the packages was from William over at "Foul Bunt".

William had sent me an email after he saw I was following his blog a few days ago. (I can't believe it took me so long to discover it, it's a fantastic blog!)

After a couple emails back and forth, we began to discuss a possible trade. I gave him a list of the 2012 Topps inserts I needed.

I wasn't able to help out too much with his needs, but he offered to send me all the 2012 Topps inserts he had for me anyways.

As I've said before, it seems to me that everyone in the blogosphere has a genuine interest in helping out other fellow bloggers with their needs. Like I told William via email, I guess I'm too used to the BV-for-BV trades on the trading boards I'm on, because I was scrambling around to find something, anything from his needs when we were talking about a trade to "even it out". But he said no worries, I'll send you the cards anyways.

The "I'll send you these now, just get me back later" type of attitude between bloggers has really caught my attention since my entrance into the blogging community. BV-for-BV trades are fine by me, but it's always great to see looser attitudes when it comes to swapping cards.

William was nice enough to send me a total of 37 different 2012 Topps inserts I needed. 37! (Unintentional "Clerks" reference for anyone who's seen that flick.)

The '87 Topps Mini inserts are my favorite from the Topps flagship set in a long time. They remind me of the other "throwback" Topps sets like Archives and Fan Favorites.

I'm not a huge fan of the "Golden Moments" inserts, but that doesn't mean I won't go after ones of guys I collect.

Any Roger Maris card I don't already have is always welcome in my collection!

I haven't seen the "Gold Standard" insert set get a lot of love. Next to the '87 minis, it's my favorite insert set from 2012 Topps.

I love any card of Tom Seaver, especially one that features him in a White Sox uniform.

As if sending me all those 2012 Topps inserts wasn't enough, William also sent me some other odds and ends that he thought I might like.

I'm loving that Chris Sale card. He's one of the few current rookies that I collect, and he plays for one of the hometown teams.

Are you kidding me? More stuff?!

The "Hollywood Walk of Fame" inserts from 2011 American Pie are among my favorites of the entire 2011 card season, baseball or non-baseball. I guess you could consider the Miles Davis one an "in-action" card as well.

And a Cognac Legend SP with the Robbie Alomar? It's all too much for me to take. (Chalk up another Beatles reference.)

Again, thank you, thank you, thank you William for all the great stuff! I'll be sure to look for some hits to your needs at the card show I'll be attending this weekend.

Yes, readers, my first card show post will be happening this weekend, as an early birthday present from my mom. So get ready, 'cause I'm excited!

Again, thanks so much to both William and the entire blogging community!

It's been a fantastic first couple of months, to say the least.

They're different (No, really, they are)

2012-02-05T17:56:00.000-08:00

I have a passing interest in the Super Bowl this year, at best. I don't have any bets or anything on it, either.

I did my best to zone out that horrendous spectacle they called a halftime show by doing some scanning for this post. I was unsuccessful, and I actually had to hear Madonna "sing" (we all know she was lip-synching). Meanwhile, I wish "LMFAO" would go the "F" away, because they're not at all clever.

Anyways, enough about that. Let's talk about some baseball cards, shall we?

Topps puts out special hometown team sets of their product each year. I always see the Cubs and White Sox ones hanging next to the rack packs at my local Target, but I never really had any interest in buying them.

One of the regular card vendors at the local flea market must've bought one of each, because he had singles from both of the sets available for a quarter a piece. I bought the ones of the guys I collect. Since I was a regular "customer" of his, the cards came out to more like a dime a piece because he always cut me a deal.

My favorite part about the team sets are the stadium shots. You can't get them anywhere else besides the team sets. I've seen a few from the other teams and they're great. The Comiskey Park one you see at the top of the post is no exception. (I refuse to call it "U.S. Cellular Field".)

Here are some of the team set cards paired with the player's regular 2011 Topps issue.

Can't tell which is which? That's because the fronts are exactly the same on these. The only thing that differentiates the two is the "CWS" prefix on the card number on the back. (Ex. Matt Thornton is #622 in the regular Topps set, his team set card is #CWS-8.)

More of the same.

Fukudome was the only Cub left in the team set singles box by the time I got to it. Someone else must've picked through it. That says something, but I'm not sure what.

If there's even the smallest difference between two cards, I want to get one of each of them. I'm a stickler for that, and these are a great example. That would be hard to explain to a non-collector. (Try explaining the '08 Topps Heritage Black Backs concept to someone who doesn't collect. Or the '08 Topps Gold Foils.)

However, a few of the team cards (seen on the left in each of the scans) have different photos than the regular Topps issues.

The pictures taken for the Juan Pierre cards (both are fantastic shots) were probably taken from the same game. Same with Chris Sale.

The Adam Dunn team set card features the same photoshopped shot as his 2011 Topps Opening Day issue. But it's way different from his 2011 Topps Update card.

What was stopping Topps from putting different images on all the team set cards, like these three? They'd definitely make the sets more desirable.

But I'll still be on the lookout for the team sets at the flea market this year. Only two more months till it opens. It'll be like blogging paradise. Can't wait!

For now, I'll go watch the Super Bowl.

Then I'm going to go back to counting the days until spring training.

The Glory of Their Time, Chapter 13: Tom Gorzelanny

2012-02-05T13:04:00.000-08:00

In terms of baseball, or just professional sports in general, I'm sure that most of us have a "local hero".

It doesn't have to be a big superstar; the fact that someone from around your town actually played in the highest level of sports is enough.

My "local hero" is Tom Gorzelanny. The fact that he's turned into a respectable big-league pitcher just adds to how much I like him.

2003 Bowman Draft #BDP45 Tom Gorzelanny RC

Gorzelanny was born in Orland Park, Illinois, which is a bit of a ways away from where I live.

He attended the University of Kansas for his freshman year. He'd transfer to a Triton Community College for his sophomore year, a college which I'm sure most people have never heard of.

The reason why Gorzelanny is a "local hero" is that Triton is only about ten minutes away from my house. I know a lot of kids that go there. I've even stepped foot inside the college on a couple occasions.

To know that I'm on the same college campus that one of my favorite big-league pitchers once roamed is an amazing feeling. And the fact that Triton is actually mentioned on the back of Gorzelanny's 2003 Bowman Draft rookie card instantly makes it one of my favorites in my collection.

Gorzelanny was drafted by the White Sox out of high school in 2000, but didn't sign. After a year at Triton, the Pirates drafted him in the second round of the 2003 draft.

He'd sign with Pittsburgh, beginning his professional baseball career with low-A Williamsport in 2003.

2004 Bowman Chrome #165 Tom Gorzelanny

Gorzelanny would move up to high-A Lynchburg by the end of 2004, and by 2005 he was already at double-A, going 8-5 with a 3.26 ERA.

His showing at double-A in '05 earned him a September call-up with the Pirates, making his debut on September 20 of that year.

You may have heard of another player that attended Triton College. He goes by the name of Kirby Puckett. And he's a Hall-of-Famer.

It's simply unbelievable to think that a guy like Kirby Puckett attended a college that a lot of my friends go to.

But Gorzelanny is special to me because I was in grammar school at the same time he was attending college. Gorzelanny is still a big-leaguer, and it's amazing to see him on TV, knowing that I've got a connection to him.

Who knows, maybe I saw him walking on the Triton campus one of the times we drove past it as a kid.

2006 Topps 52 #245 Tom Gorzelanny

The Pirates' trade of Oliver Perez opened up a spot in the rotation for Gorzelanny in 2006.

He'd go just 2-5, but post a respectable 3.79 ERA and strike out 40 hitters in 61 2/3 innings of work.

I don't think many people were expecting what he'd do the next year.

2007 Bowman Heritage #184 Tom Gorzelanny

Gorzelanny had a fantastic breakout year in 2007.

The Pirates gave him a full-time starting gig for the 2007 season, and he didn't disappoint. He'd finish the season with a 14-10 record, along with a 3.88 ERA in 135 strikeouts in 201 2/3 innings.

Not bad for a guy who had made only 12 big-league starts before the 2007 season.

2008 Topps Heritage #460 Tom Gorzelanny

Unfortunately, Gorzelanny has never been able to duplicate his 2007 season.

He'd have a disappointing year in '08, going just 6-9 with an awful 6.66 ERA in 105 1/3 innings.

Things were about to change in a dramatic way for Gorzelanny.

2009 Topps #109 Tom Gorzelanny

Even though he hasn't been a fantastic pitcher in recent years, Gorzelanny has been given some great action shots for his cards. His 2009 Topps issue is a prime example.

He'd be moved to the bullpen for the 2009 season, not making a single start for the Pirates that year. A finger injury limited his action, as he'd only pitch in 8 2/3 innings in the first half of '09.

At the 2009 trading deadline, Gorzelanny was dealt to...

2009 Topps Update #UH35 Tom Gorzelanny

...none other than my favorite team, the Chicago Cubs.

I remember when I first heard the news. I was so excited. My local hero was actually going to play for my favorite team!

I was so excited.

Gorzelanny switched between the rotation and the bullpen during the rest of '09, going 4-2 with a 5.63 ERA in 13 games with the Cubs (with seven starts).

2010 Topps Update #US51 Tom Gorzelanny

Gorzelanny made 23 starts for the Cubs in 2010, the highest total since his 2007 season.

He'd go 7-9 with a 4.09 ERA in 2010. It was not a spectacular year by any means, but it was a step in the right direction for Gorzelanny.

Sadly, 2010 would also be his final year in Chicago.

2011 Topps Update #US301 Tom Gorzelanny

The Cubs dealt Gorzelanny to the Nationals for a few minor leaguers in January of 2011.

It was sad to see him leave Chicago, but at least he went to another team I like in the Nationals.

He had an okay year in 2011, going 4-6 with a 4.03 ERA (his lowest since '07), again splitting time between the rotation and the bullpen.

I don't yet own Gorzelanny's 2012 Topps base card, but I've seen it. It's a fantastic "play at the plate" card, which will fit well with this collection of mine.

We all have our favorite players for our own reasons. I know I've got mine.

But being a "local hero" carries more meaning than just being a "favorite". It's like a special bond or connection that you feel to a major league baseball player.

With me, that player will always be Tom Gorzelanny.

Just one wish

2012-02-04T20:40:00.000-08:00

In terms of my baseball cards, I've been extremely lucky.

I've got a great collection and a family that encourages and supports it. I really couldn't ask for much more.

But if I could wish for one more thing, it would be a friend whom I could share my collection with. Right now, it's pretty much just me and my mom and dad. Not a lot of people know about my collection outside of my family.

No one's asked.

It wasn't always that way, though. Around my 4th and 5th grade years, me and a bunch of my friends at the daycare I went to started bringing our cards every day to trade and play around with.

It was great, especially considering we were there every afternoon during the summer weeks. Each day at daycare, we'd go to the local park district and go swimming. But we always had a lot of time to kill before that.

It gave us plenty of time to do some trading. And I know it sounds corny, but our cards also helped build friendships. There were some kids there that I probably would've never talked to had we not shared an affinity for baseball cards.

I remember one of my friends came into daycare one day with the Mark Prior card you see at the top of the post. By the end of the day, the card was mine as a result of a trade. It was one of the first big "scores" of my collection. (How long has it been since someone used the word "score" in the same sentence as Mark Prior?)

I don't collect Mark Prior, but this card will never leave my hands. It's hard to let go of any card with that kind of story attached to it.

I'll probably talk more in-depth about MLB Showdown at other points on this blog because it was a major part of my preteen and adolescent years. (I still play it fairly frequently.) But it deserves a small mention here.

A little while after we started bringing our baseball cards into daycare, I figured I'd try to get my friends into the MLB Showdown card game. My dad and I played it almost every day. So I brought my MLB Showdown cards instead of my regular cards one summer day.

For some reason, I vividly remember that first day I brought my MLB Showdown cards in. I was showing one of my friends how to play it, and a crowd slowly began to gather around the table we were at. By the time my friend and I had finished our first "test" game, there must've been fifteen kids huddled around that table.

MLB Showdown cards began to replace our actual baseball cards at daycare. A bunch of my friends got hooked on it and went out and bought packs to build their own MLB Showdown teams. Instead of trading, we'd just play MLB Showdown all day.

I miss those summer days.

Our daycare only went up to fifth grade, so I was pretty much on my own with my collection and my MLB Showdown cards after that.

I got one of my friends into baseball cards in seventh grade. I had just started collecting baseball cards again after a year-long plunge into hockey cards. It was funny because he was never really into baseball before he started collecting. But I convinced him to buy a couple discounted packs at Target once and he got hooked.

Some of my favorite pre-high school memories are just going to Target with my friend and buying some packs after school, then going back to my house and ripping them open.

Isn't it funny how simple it was to have fun before adolescence and girls started to really come into the picture?

My friend came over to my house one day and showed me some of his new acquisitions, one of which was the Jamey Carroll card you see above. I couldn't believe it. I had always liked Carroll but hadn't been able to get one of his cards yet.

After a little convincing, I got my friend to trade me the Carroll for a creased Michael Young jersey card I had. (Keep in mind that this was way before I knew about online trading.)

Sometimes I find myself regretting that trade. But then I just look at the Carroll card and remember how neat it was to have a friend that actually collected baseball cards.

I feel better after that.

As high school began, my friend began to lose interest in collecting and I pretty much lost touch with him altogether until senior year.

I met a lot of great friends in high school, but I never met another person who collected baseball cards like I did. It was hard enough meeting anyone who liked baseball in the first place.

Everyone in my class knew that I loved baseball and knew a lot about it (thanks to a rainy-day Trivial Pursuit game where I got all the baseball questions right). I was Nick, "The Baseball Guy". A few of my friends knew I collected cards, mainly the people that came over to my house at one point or another and saw the baseball shrine in my room.

But I usually got a reaction similar to this when I told anyone else that I collected baseball cards.

That's not to say that I'm ashamed to collect baseball cards. I treat it as something great that sets me apart from most people my age, not some dark secret. Most of my friends are nice enough to feign interest if I happen to bring the topic of baseball cards up, much like I feign interest when they talk about video games.

The picture that you see at the top of this section is me sporting the finished product of my all-time favorite school project (with my awesome Johnny Ramone t-shirt). They are some of my favorite "baseball cards", even though they're not really cards at all.

Senior year, our teacher asked us to do a project in psychology. We had to create baseball cards of a few famous psychologists, complete with a design, photo, and "stats" on the back.

Here's a closer look at the "cards".

I tried to make them look like '73 Topps cards, but with my artistic "abilities", they didn't come out that way. (I'm not sure why I added the colorful borders.)

The day they were due, we had to "trade" the cards with other classmates and try and get some our favorite psychologists. I traded Pavlov for Jung.

I got an A on the project.

A few of the kids in my class were enthusiastic about the project like I was. It was a great day to collect cards.

My teacher that year loved baseball (he even took Opening Day weekend off because he was going to Washington to see the Nationals' opening game), and we'd often talk about the goings-on in the baseball world. He was a big fan of Sigmund Freud, and I brought in the 2009 A&G Freud card to show him. He loved it.

That's all I ever asked for, to be able to talk about baseball cards with someone else at school. Even if it was just a Sigmund Freud baseball card.

Except for those couple blessed days in my psychology class, I rarely talked about baseball outside of my own home.

This past summer, one of my friends and I (a different friend from the one I mentioned before) drove up to a Dick's Sporting Goods to look for something he wanted. There's a little card shop next to it, so I asked if he wouldn't mind if we stopped in. He said no problem.

I bought a few 2001 and 2002 Topps Archives cards, including the Maris you see above. My friend is really into hockey and baseball, but never really delved into cards. The shop had some cheap overproduction era packs priced at fifty cents a piece, and my friend decided to buy a couple of the hockey and baseball ones. It was awesome seeing him rip open those packs with so much enthusiasm on the way home.

I offered to give my friend my Blackhawks cards from when I collected hockey. He really enjoyed them.

Maybe there's hope.

Don't get me wrong, I love hanging out with my friends, even though most of them don't really care about baseball, much less cards. (I actually just got back from playing basketball with them.)

But I just wish I had that one friend who I could share my collection with.

That's all I really want.

Dime Box Heroes: Two birds with one stone

2012-02-04T12:41:00.000-08:00

2003 Bowman #285 Hanley Ramirez RC

Yes, believe it or not, I did find this Hanley Ramirez rookie card in a dime box. (It was the same dime box in which I found this card. And this one.)

As I've said before, it's always nice to find a higher book value card for a dime.

But I knew this one was an instant PC card as soon as I pulled it out of the dime box, no matter what it was worth.

Although I've soured a bit on Hanley Ramirez in the last few years, I still have to admit that he is a heck of a baseball player. He's got pure talent, and he's a five-tool guy. Now, if only he could get a little more motivation...

When you think of Ramirez, chances are you see him in a Marlins uniform, not a Red Sox one. People forget that he was originally part of the Red Sox organization, although his major league tenure there didn't last long.

That's why this card is so great. It could also easily fit into the "Short Term Stops" section of this blog. Hanley's big-league career in Boston consisted of two at-bats in 2005, both strikeouts.

That's about as "short term" as you can get.

He'd be traded to Florida in the blockbuster deal that sent Josh Beckett to Boston in November of 2005. We know the rest.

So who knows? Maybe there's a Hanley Ramirez rookie card in a dime box near you.

You'll never know until you look.

"Short Term Stops", #3: Ozzie Guillen

2012-02-03T18:28:00.000-08:00

1998 Upper Deck #652 Ozzie Guillen (Orioles)

A lot of people forget that Ozzie Guillen wasn't a lifelong White Sock (or Sox?) during his playing days. He actually played for a few teams after his days as a White Sox shortstop were over.

Guillen signed with Baltimore in January of 1998, after spending the previous thirteen years on the south side of Chicago.

His stint as an Oriole would last just 12 games, as he'd be released in May of the same year. He only collected one hit and finished with a .063 batting average in Baltimore. Needless to say, it was an unspectacular stint.

He'd sign with the Braves five days after his release and would play all of the '99 season in Atlanta. He'd finish up his career with the Devil Rays in 2000.

Obviously, "Ozzie" has gained notoriety as a "you either love him or hate him" manager in the last few years. I personally don't know how I feel about him. He definitely knows the game of baseball, but he lets his emotions get in the way of his managing all too often.

I wish Ozzie the best in Miami this year.

Who knows what we'll see between him and Big Z?

Tales of the post office

2012-02-03T13:57:00.000-08:00

You never know what's going to happen once you set foot inside a post office.

Tony Perez represents my general attitude towards the good ol' PO most of the time. Happy (okay, maybe not that happy) and excited, because I know that the packages I mail out are going to someone that is going to care for them more than I ever could. (Isn't that what trading is all about?)

Plus, I know that somewhere out there, someone is mailing cards that will be in my hands within a few days.

An example. Today, I had to mail a few things. I used the automated machine (why don't more people use these things instead of standing in line?), and was in and out within minutes. Fantastic.

No hassle.

But not all trips to the post office are that peachy.

I've been waiting to use this Bob Boone card for a while. It just has so many uses. It could represent being angry. Or maybe confused. Or if there's something that I'm not looking forward to. This card fits with all those.

For this post, let's make Bob Boone have an "angry" face.

It's not the postage increases. While it's hard to mail a lot of packages on a jobless teenager's budget with the recent postage hikes, I understand why the increase was needed. The post office has not done well at all over the last few years, and something needs to pay the bills. In the long run, it's a small fee for the cards you're getting in return most of the time.

I'm sure that 99 percent of people that go to the post office have some sort of idea on what they're doing when they get there. They don't have to know what "delivery confirmation" is or anything, all they need to know is that they have an address of where the package needs to go and they want to get it there. That's fine, and that's all I ask for out of anyone who has to mail something.

It's the other one percent that irritates me sometimes. The people that have absolutely no idea. I've been in line at the post office a few times where people in front of me have just tried to mail a blank box. No address, no nothing. Then they get upset when the postman says they need a mailing address.

My mom told me that a guy tried to mail a crate full of unwrapped hot dogs one of the times she was at the post office. Needless to say, he was turned away.

Last summer, someone hit the car I was driving while backing out of their parking space at the PO. No major damage, but it put a hamper on my day.

And the last time I was there, a guy was at the counter with literally a hundred packages that needed to be mailed. Chances are that if you've got that many things to mail, you're running a business of some sort. And if that's the case, there has to be alternative options of mailing your products. C'mon, man!

All in all, the post office is one of the more interesting places I've come across.

I'm sure we've all got our own "tales of the post office".