The dime box frankenset, Page 32: Numbers 280-288

Last week's frankenset voting was a shocker to me.

Win -- 1999 Topps #274 Brian Hunter (10 votes)

Place (tie) -- 1973 Topps #273 Chris Speier, 1997 Stadium Club #279 Scott Servais (6 votes each)

Show -- 1971 Topps #275 Vada Pinson (5 votes)

The Hunter is an outstanding card, but I didn't think it had enough power to take the crown. I figured the vintage goodness of Speier and/or Pinson would beat it. Or possibly the Servais collision at the plate, which is the card I ended up voting for.

Undeterred, the bag bandit stole the victory last week, taking ten of the 28 total votes. A slight dip from the 35 we saw a couple weeks ago, but still a nice number nonetheless.

Let's see if we can get the turnout up a tick this week.

Today's completed frankenset page is nothing but '90s.

Every card you see here was produced between 1992 and '97. A happy accident, I guess.

Let's meet the nominees.

1996 Stadium Club #280 Jeff Conine

Jeff Conine, racquetball enthusiast.

1995 Upper Deck #281 Mike Bordick

An outstanding double dip, complete with a lurking outfield decal in the backdrop. 

1992 Stadium Club #282 Lonnie Smith

A bone-jarring collision at the plate from the 1991 World Series. 

1992 Upper Deck #283 Jose Oquendo

Ryno makes a cameo on this nice double play shot. 

1997 Ultra #284 Joey Hamilton

Joey Hamilton channeling his inner Cat in the Hat at Wrigley. 

1993 Upper Deck #285 Mickey Morandini

Out by that much, Mr. Morandini. 

1995 Stadium Club #286 Jeff Montgomery

Stadium Club really went the extra mile for this "fireman" photo shoot. 

1992 Upper Deck #287 Mark Eichhorn

A great shot of Mark Eichhorn signing for a few members of our armed forces. 

1993 Upper Deck #288 Jose Melendez

That little tyke is probably in his mid-twenties by now.

On a personal level, this week's batch may be my toughest decision yet. All nine candidates are highly viable options. It may be a couple days before I decide who to pick.

In the meantime, the polls are now on the sidebar.

Happy voting!

Repack wars: The return

It's been a while since I opened a repack.

I've come to realize that repacks tend to keep me on the saner side of collecting. When you're in the Target card aisle (or whatever your local big box store happens to be), it's easy to buy a pack of something you don't really want.

I came ever so close to grabbing a pack of Series 2 during a recent Target run with my dad. Never mind that my Series 2 needs are minimal and can be filled on Just Commons for a couple bucks, if need be.

Thankfully, I decided to quell the urge and went with a couple fun repacks instead. One of the rack pack variety, and one encased in one of those plastic hangers that are absolutely impossible to open. It presented a perfect opportunity to revive my little "Repack Wars" series.

If you're unfamiliar with the setup, it's about as unscientific as humanly possible. I give and take random amounts of points at will and without much reason behind it. It's about as unclimactic of a war as you'll ever find.

All I want to do is kick back and have fun with a couple repacks. We'll start with the rack pack.

Stadium Club, of course, is a special point of interest in Dime Boxedonia. And, as I recently learned, it's back with a vengeance here in 2014. I spent a good couple hours last night poring through Ebay and admiring all of the quality cards in this year's product.

That said, I doubt anything can top the immortality of early '90s Stadium Club.

Stadium Club bonus, +4

Repack #1 running total: +4

I've covered all ends of the spectrum with '95 Upper Deck.

I went from hate to acceptance to unabashed love all in the span of about a year.

All I need to figure out is why I ever hated a set as beautiful as this.

Better late than never, +2

Running total: +6

A couple awesome shots of a couple hard-nosed ballplayers.

The Brett has to earn some bonus points for being a night card.

Nitty-gritty, +2 each
Night card bonus, +2

Running total: +12

It's a Kevin Brown hot pack!

Ugh, -2

Running total: +10

You can't go wrong with early Fleer.

Grainy photos and all.

Love the blur, +2 each

Running total: +14

Metal Universe and Circa.

Definitely two of the loudest sets ever.

Headache bonus(?), +1 each

Running total: +16

This particular repack had the common Three Vintage Cards Inside! sticker on the front.

I'm pretty sure vintage is anything pre-1981 to the people in charge of producing these things.

If I'm right, then this nifty '79 Brewers team card qualifies.

But so do these three.

I already had the Garber and Kessinger. And, although Lamar Johnson is nothing more than a vaguely familiar name to me, his '77 Topps issue does a great job of showcasing those groovy '70s Sox jerseys.

Four pieces of vintage for the price of three.

Beating the odds, +4

Running total: +20

This was probably my favorite pull from the rack pack.

Donruss gratuitously reprinted some of their older cards (including Leaf) with a set called Recollections in the early 2000's. Each single is significantly curved with a chrome finish, which frankly doesn't seem to work well with Donruss designs.

Still, pulling a shiny version of Greg Maddux's 1990 Leaf issue certainly made for a fun and fascinating change of pace.

That's really all I ask out of a repack.

Change it up, +5

Repack #1 final total: +25

Could repack #2 beat that solid effort?

Let's find out!

The hanger box repacks have one big advantage over the rack packs, in that they're a buck cheaper. (Four dollars instead of five.)

Another plus of the hangers is that you can see a few of the "cover boys" through the little windows of the plastic. This Ryan Howard caught my eye at the front of the first repack on the shelf.

I believe these were actually Target-exclusive Topps inserts back in 2008, modeled after the turn-of-the-century T206 tobacco releases.

Definitely a great way to start a repack.

Cover boy bonus, +3

Repack #2 running total: +3

A couple of the other cover boys weren't half bad, either.

More cover boys, +3 each

Running total: +9

The early '90s are always good for a little fun.

Note the random line of people in the backdrop on the May.

Have some cards and a smile, +1 each

Running total: +11

A little more overproduction-era fun.

Sorry, Fleer, but I have a tough time believing there was ever a big league ballplayer named Sherman Corbett.

Especially with specs like those.

Corbetts and double dips, +1 each

Running total: +13

A card so nice they gave it to me twice!

Yeah, right.

Double fail, -2

Running total: +11

Raul Ibanez was 38 years old when he (assumedly) made this gem of a catch.

He's currently 42 and still kicking with the Royals.

That's some serious longevity right there.

Hats off to Raul Ibanez, +4

Running total: +15

The repack gods threw a trinket my way with this one.

I just kickstarted a new Rickey Henderson player collection a few months ago that has been growing by leaps and bounds lately. Here's an awesome oddball that I doubt I could've found anywhere else.

That has to be a good omen.

Rickey, Rickey, Rickey, +5

Running total: +20

I assumed this was a double at first.

One of the best cards of 2011, sure, but I don't have much use for dups.

Into the extras pile it went.

That is, until I noticed a string of Flagship Yankees and Red Sox all bunched together.

Not something you'd see out of your everyday repack. Something didn't seem quite right.

Curious, I grabbed the Ellsbury and flipped it over.

Well, that explains it.

Note the BOS-7 numbering in the top right. These weren't doubles at all.

They're actually from team sets Topps issued back in 2011. My local Target has carried the Cubs and White Sox ones the past few years. I'm guessing big box stores on the East Coast did the same with these two clubs.

So, then, how the heck did they wind up in a repack all the way back here in the Midwest?

Your guess is as good as mine.

All I know is that they were an absolute treat to find.

Team issue bonus, +15

Repack #2 final total: +35

For what it's worth, the second repack ended up taking the crown. Those team issue cards pushed it over the edge.

Still, I think most collectors realize that it's not about winning or losing when it comes to repacks.

The sheer fun of ripping them open is worth the price of admission.

Faces in the outfield

I found myself flipping through one of my Dodgers binders last week.

No particular reason. Just absorbing my collection, as usual. I've spent many a peaceful night plopped down on the couch with a binder of baseball cards in my lap.

When I came across this Steve Finley, I had to take it out for a closer look. Doing that brought back a lot of memories.

Tracking down a copy of this beauty was a major mission of mine for a long time. I first saw it on Night Owl's blog not too long after I started blogging. It was one of the first MUST HAVE cards I ever discovered via the blogosphere.

It sat on my "Dime Box Dozen" list for about six or seven months before I took the easy way out, ordering it from Just Commons late last year. A proud day.

The reason for my drooling over it should be obvious. Yes, it's a great "at the wall" shot. But Fernando Valenzuela's giant face on the wall behind Mr. Finley steals the show.

When I took this card out of my Dodger binder the other night, however, a question instantly popped into my mind.

A question I can't believe I'd never asked myself before.

How many other cards in my collection feature outfield murals?

My mind instantly shot to this one, another excellent Dodger Stadium image from the Ultra brand.

Though Mr. Owl (again) recently featured it on his blog, I've owned the Gold Medallion Everett parallel for as long as I can remember. (This base version just recently came into my possession.)

The chunk of old Dodger Stadium wall seen here commemorates Kirk Gibson's famous dinger in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.

The Dodgers really need to bring these murals back.

I stumbled upon this one by chance the other day.

Former Rockie outfielder Ryan Spilborghs is seen here making what looks to be a leaping grab at Turner Field, right in front of the gigantic #44 Hank Aaron mural.

I knew there had to be more.

I remembered the murals on the Busch Stadium wall from when I went to a game there a few months ago, so I figured my Cardinals binder would be a good bet.

There, fresh from 2014 Topps, stood Matt Holliday in front of the immortal Bob Gibson mural. Since I've seen this card on so many occasions this year, I'm surprised it didn't instantly pop into my mind.

Funny how the brain works sometimes.

From what I've seen, having actual photos on outfield walls is a relatively new phenomenon.

However, other teams had honored some of their own greats in other ways before. I'm not exactly sure where the outfield mural idea originated, but this '94 Topps Tino Martinez was the oldest example I could find on cardboard.

In what has to be one of the most well-framed shots in baseball card history, Mr. Martinez is seen here catching a foul pop with the #19 Bob Feller mural in the backdrop at the now-defunct Cleveland Stadium.

Taka Tanaka also punched a hole through the Lou Boudreau mural in Major League II.

No card of that, though.

We get pieces of two different murals in this fantastic shot.

That's part of Nolan Ryan on the left, and Bob Boone's huge mug on the right.

Boone seems to approve of that Garret Anderson great grab.

Wrigley Field's iconic ivy often overshadows the outfield wall of their crosstown rivals.

Comiskey, I mean, uh, U.S. Cellular Field has perhaps the best outfield murals in all of baseball in left-center.

Considering they've been around for over a century, the club's nine retired numbers don't seem like a whole lot. (Make that ten, assuming the Sox retire Paul Konerko's #14 next year.)

Topps featured the bulk of knuckleballer Ted Lyons's mural in this terrific shot. They got part of the sleeve of Billy Pierce (#19) as well.

In a perfect world, I'd like to see every club have murals like these lining the outfield wall. They're certainly attention-grabbers, and I had a ton of fun digging for the few examples I could find in my card collection.

I know I probably shouldn't start another mini-collection at this point, but...

Gifts from the garage sale gods

Baseball cards were barely at the back of my mind when I woke up last Saturday.

I'd just finished up with a yet another mammoth filing session the night before and, much to my delight, was able to bask in the glory of a clear desk.

But then my mom had to go and ruin it by telling me about a garage sale happening around town. It was a mere ten-minute drive away, and, most importantly, listed baseball cards in the Craigslist ad.

The address sounded vaguely familiar when she mentioned it, but I couldn't figure out why. It wasn't until we turned down an open alley that it hit me.

I've been here before.

It was the same guy that hosted a rather remarkable garage sale about a year ago. Astounding as it might seem, the guy actually remembered me. I guess the kind of cards I buy make an impression with people.

Because I went in November, the big, heaping boxes of singles the guy had on display last year were all football. There were more huge bins scattered around his garage this time, although I told myself not to get my hopes up. A quick peek through one of them, however, instantly put a smile on my face.

Baseball.

I knew what to do from there.

The guy had a good five or six 3200-count boxes spread around the side of his garage. A couple, yes, were football and basketball, but most of them were baseball. I spent a good half-hour digging through the goods.

One thing that grabbed me was the amount of newer brands he had available. Relatively recent sets like Panini Cooperstown are something you'd find at a huge card show, not in some guy's garage.

There aren't many shots of Jackie Robinson as a Kansas City Monarch, so the card at the top of the post was a special find for me.

The spiffy wood-finished insert of "The Peerless Leader", Frank Chance, was another indication that this garage sale would be something special.

We got to talking about the hobby after a while.

As fantastic as the blogs are, it felt great to have an actual, in-person conversation with a fellow collector. That's not something I get the chance to do too often, unfortunately.

Although he told me tales of busting high-end cases of sets like Immaculate and Tribute and other holy names (he had a Clayton Kershaw autograph for sale in the glass case next to the 3200-count boxes), he's a perfectly nice guy.

I learned long ago that just because someone chases after more high-dollar cardboard doesn't automatically make him or her a snob. I have my dime boxes, these people have their Mike Trout autographs.

That said, I was a little hurt by the news of Panini making Cooperstown into an uber-high end brand for 2014. (I can't find a link to the story, but I remember reading about it a couple weeks ago.)

Looks like no more fun Colgan's Chips inserts for me.

Ah, but the madness didn't stop at 2013.

The guy had quite a selection of 2014 brands as well, something I can't say I've ever seen the likes of at a garage sale.

There wasn't a ton of A&G, but I did manage to land a few to my liking. I didn't even realize this Eck was a short-print until I got home later that afternoon.

A sweet find made even sweeter.

This was the only mini I found in the guy's boxes, but it was a doozy.

Granted, the horizontal A&G issues don't exactly translate well into mini form. But this is still a nice little card of young hotshot Jose Fernandez, a guy who I'm sure has a couple Cy Youngs in his future.

And I found it at a garage sale.

I still can't believe it.

No, I haven't come around on the Prizm brand.

I never will.

If they're cheap enough, though, I can't turn down hits to my wide array of player collections. Even if they do come from one of the worst sets in recent memory.

The guy claimed that 2014 Panini Prizm was, and I quote, "a beautiful set" during our conversation. He, like so many other collectors, is disappointed that Panini isn't licensed by MLB, claiming that Prizm would look even better with logos.

Me, I'm not so sure.

I doubt I'd like Prizm much either way.

Same goes for Donruss.

Admittedly, I am starting to come around a tad on these. Not much, but a little. Enough to actually want to say good things about the product.

Donruss made up the bulk of my purchases from the guy's boxes, comprising about a third of what I bought. I'm guessing the guy opened a few boxes (or, dare I say, a case) of the stuff at some point. 

They were mostly Series 1, although there were a few Series 2 singles sprinkled in for good measure. I actually had the Grady Sizemore in my Just Commons cart, seeing as how I doubt there'll be many cards commemorating his short time in Boston this year.

I can't pass that up.

There were cards almost literally strewn around the sides of the guy's garage.

Cards in penny sleeves, cards in toploaders, cards with no protection whatsoever, and not to mention random stacks of whatever sitting atop the 3200-count boxes on display. One of those random stacks, as I found, contained nothing but 2014 Archives.

I still need quite a few of the base cards from the brand, but the inserts were what really caught my fancy.

This Goldschmidt features a '70s Topps hockey design on a baseball card, something I find to be an oddly pleasing combo.

These pay homage to the Glossy All-Star series Topps released throughout the '80s.

Archives put its own personal touch on the idea by including guys from older generations. It's fun to see someone like Sandy Koufax on a design that I so closely associate with the 1980's.

The Nettles was the first part...

...of the Nettles-mania I encountered while digging through the guy's cards.

Archives included Mr. Nettles in quite a few of its insert sets this year, something I noticed the very first time I first started flipping through the checklist back in May.

I'm happy about that, considering I can't remember the last time we've seen anything of Graig Nettles. The cardboard industry has barely made a peep about John Olerud since his retirement, so it was awesome to see him included in this fun Deckle Edge series as well.

The world needs more Oleruds.

This guy's selection knocked out about two-thirds of my Archives base needs.

It also added a new mini-collection hit to my binders with that Zimmerman throwback.

I honestly forgot that Archives even had SPs while I was digging.

Like the A&G Eck, only later did I find out that I'd unwittingly unearthed some coveted short-prints with this trio.

Because most of his cards were grouped by set, the guy didn't have a whole lot of random for random's sake.

These two Dodgers, however, didn't fit in with much else on display. The Nomo was the only '90s card I found, and I've actually been on the hunt for that unlicensed Thome since Signature Stars hit the shelves in 2009.

It's a prime addition to the squad's "Short Term Stops" roster.

One of the other boxes included a selection of obscure late-2000's releases that I never much cared about in the first place.

Think SP Authentic, SPx, pretty much anything with an "X" in the title.

I was instantly interested by the section marked "2006 Topps Update". I opened a lot of packs from this set from my local Target back in the day. Because my collecting methods were a bit different then, however, I probably traded away a lot of cards I'd keep nowadays.

I can't be sure, but I think I had that obnoxiously alliterative Highlights card of the "Big Hurt" at one point. For me, the big highlight of the Updates was that Carlos Pena gold parallel. The guy played all of 18 games with the '06 Red Sox, yet still received a card in the checklist that year.

It's the only card I've ever seen of him with the Sawx, which makes it an instant favorite.

Right next to the '06 Updates came the biggest development of that obscure box.

A budding stack of 2002 Stadium Club.

Regular readers of this blog probably know how big of a Stadium Club nut I am by now. I could collect for the rest of my life and still not discover all the hidden gems the brand has to offer.

Their early 2000-ish releases seem fairly hard to find, which made stumbling upon this stack even sweeter.

This beautiful celebration shot of Brian Giles with the serene PNC Park backdrop spoke to me.

Love at first sight.

The masterpieces just kept on coming.

Double dips. At the wall shots. Plays at the plate.

Even a card of good ol' "Operation Shutdown" himself, Derek Bell.

This one may have been the best of the lot.

Busted bat, no batting gloves, ball inches away from the point of contact. Oh, and all that in horizontal form, by the way.

Cardboard gold.

Everything I've already shown cemented this garage sale as an unquestioned success.

Luckily for me, the garage sale gods still had a few surprises in store.

Yes, what you see here is indeed a '75 Topps MMMMMMMIIIIIIINNNNNIIIIIIII of none other than Mr. Bob Gibson. The last appearance he'd ever make in a Topps checklist.

I saw this one scattered amongst the guy's miscellany sitting on top of a smaller box of football cards. It was priced at five bucks, but I figured I'd at least see what kind of deal the guy was willing to give me (if any) before I made the final decision.

This is a good time to note that all of the singles I'd previously picked out were unpriced. I flirted with floating into semi-uncharted territory, but something about the guy's good nature made me feel like I'd get the insider's deal.

And I did.

After all was said and done, I had about 150 cards in my hands. The guy charged me a grand total of ten bucks for the lot. Yes, that's including the Gibson mini. That, and everything else, for under a dime a pop.

As I went to fish a ten out of my wallet, my eyes started to wander to a few other things I'd missed the first time around.

I don't know how, but I noticed this Jake Taylor "Major League" insert buried under a stack of other penny sleeved cards on top of a random 3200-count box.

He had it priced at four bucks, but accepted the two-dollar offer I made. The guy commended me on my good eye, noting how much of a fan he was of the "Major League" series. Only Eddie Harris stands in the way of my set now.

It was at that moment that I remembered something I'd seen right after I stepped foot in the guy's garage.

I initially let this beautiful '62 Topps Luis Aparicio slide because of the fifteen-dollar price tag.

I couldn't afford it. After a short deal of consideration, however, I figured I could at least ask what the best price he could give me was. Especially considering the deal he gave me on everything else. The answer made my eyes light up.

Five dollars.

Sold!

Aside from the miscut at the bottom, this gem is in absolutely pristine shape. A far cry from most of the vintage I usually buy. No corner wear. No creases. No nothing.

For five bucks, you can't go wrong.

Between the array of recent singles, the Taylor, and the "Looie", I spent a grand total of seventeen bucks at this garage sale. A small price to pay for such beauty.

I don't know what I did in a past life to be so lucky. Even I'm shocked at my tendency to find cardboard gold in such unexpected places sometimes. All I can do is thank the almighty garage sale gods for their bounty.

Maybe I should offer up some '89 Fleers in tribute.