Mail Day! Some new Detroit Tiger pick ups

Stadium Club Members Only card of my 2 favorite players growing up. Only the club members got this card back in the day. I learned about this card from the Dub Mentality   blog. Check it out.

My blog is getting hot and heavy as I have reason and somehow time to post everyday. I got a great stack of bubblemailers and PWE's today and brought them inside safely from the monsoon outside. I will warn you now; I did get more Panini stuff. I already feel guilty as if I crossed the striking line but who knows how this autopen crap will play out?
Three thoughts I had today while ripping this stuff open:
1. Dudes are still not using painters tape or safer methods for sealing top loaders. If it happens to you, politely enlighten the sender. We can all make the hobby better with positive constructive feedback.
2. Every card transaction should contain bonus cards. I don't care if its eBay or a trade, when sending cards take an extra second to toss in something as a bonus. I did it when I was selling on eBay 100% of the time. Sometimes I'd send a auto or relic card to someone who bought a common from me for 99 cents. Most of the time it was a pleasant surprise for the recipient and it brought them back to me. If you enjoy receiving little bonuses, send them out.
3. Nick Castellanos is ONLY A MONTH older than Aaron Judge and has played in 508 career games. Now, I know Judge is tearing it up but Nick has been around for a long time already. One good rookie year doesn't get you in the Hall. If you are looking to invest in players, Castellanos is still crazy young (25 years young) and has an average players career numbers behind him. Just a thought.
Now the rest of the cardboard porn in order of opening:

Not numbered and pretty common but I needed something other than a basic bowman Manning.

Along the same lines, Burrows is gonna be something special.

Adding to my McCann collection.

Blastellanos is gonna have some great career numbers without showing up on anybody's radar.

/149, /149, /299 respectively

5X7 not numbered but begging for an autograph across it

/199 Once I get an auto from this dude I may hold off on buying him for a while until he shows something more.

/4000 Picked up for my bro.

Look at those good looks. No wonder supermodels flock to him.

Bonus Cards

Bonus Card

More unexpected bonus cards. Now I HATE Nelson Cruz and don't care for Ryan Braun but I do love the Topps Game Cards nonetheless.

Card Show! Dimebox Digging at its Finest. Box Breaking Nostalgia

Today I hit the local card show with my brother and nephew. It was my brother's first card show and he knows now the limit a 4 year old can be put to sitting in a chair while we rifled through boxes. Poor kid. I really had no game plan going in which made for some very random purchases. Here is what I took home:

First of, both my brother and I were on tight budgets but wanted to get into some kind of hobby box. The price was too good to pass on the 2013 Hometown Heroes. I am a little embarrassed to post Panini products in light of the recent issues with the company and its autographs but we didn't have Topps Museum money. We did well with this product nonetheless. I bought three packs out of the box from him. The funny thing is the box boasted 3 autos. He opened all his packs and pulled 3 autos so I figured my packs were junk but I ended up pulling the best auto we got. Must have been a relatively hot box.

Here are the 3 autos he pulled. Petry is a hometown guy for us for sure. Under further research so is Moreland. Actually,  Keith Moreland had a hell of a 1987 with league MVP type numbers for the Cubs. Lo Duca was a great catcher for sure. The auto not shown is Ruben Sierra, a favorite of both of us growing up.

Pulled a few variations from my packs and some rookies!

I also talked myself into a box of 1991 Upper Deck for pocket change. I also grabbed 4 jumbo packs of 1992 Upper Deck, my favorite set of all time. Here are the highlights of breaking that entire box today:

Oh, that takes me back!

Nice Pedro RC from one of the packs. I already have this graded 10.

Every pack in the box held a hologram sticker. The count: 24 Yankees, 2 National League, 2 American League, 2 Twins?! I am thinking these boxes may have been packed regionally.

I got multiples of these future Superstars!

The Ryan was midpack but damaged. The Fielder is my second favorite card of all time!

I was unfamiliar with these Homerun Heroes style inserts. Must be a jumbo pack thing.

There are always those boxes or sets that you want but are always available so you never pull the trigger. The Baseball Grossouts were amazing when I was a kid so I bought a box for $1.

Three different packagings for packs. Such beautiful colors and artwork. I'll keep these packed up for a while. Maybe save them for Nolan when he's old enough to care.

I spent $8 on a hobby pack of Gypsy Queen and a Ryon Healy RC was the best card. I am ashamed to say I can't tell the difference in Retail and Hobby packs and couldn't find it on Google on the spot, so I trusted that what was sitting in the box display was indeed the original packs from the hobby box and not retail blaster packs placed in a hobby display box.

I also bought 2 "grab bags" that potentially held different items including hometown superstar autos or cash but guaranteed at least one autographed card. Here are the autos I pulled:

Here is some of the dimebox stuff I picked up and some other junk:

Big Daddy 4X6!

Brent Dlugach was a big deal for about 5 minutes in Detroit. I am a bit worried JaCoby Jones is headed the same direction. I thought this card was cool and discovered it was signed on the back too when I got home. Weird.

Finnegan was a beast his rookie year late in the season. 

Anybody remember the year Chris Shelton started off on pace for like 100 homeruns on the season?

I thought this Seager card looked cool. It looks a bit busy now that I'm looking at it again.

I would have signed on the eyebrow.

Can't go to a show without getting at least one Canseco, Fielder, and Ryan.

This Jim Price card looked like it could tell some stories. I bought it mostly for the wear on it. Classic.

Pat Burrell was a masher for a long time. I thought this card looked sweet.

The "other" Fielder in my house.

Needed some kind of Hudson relic. Such domination. Probably still throwing somewhere.

Thought the piece of court was jersey until I got home. Still a cool card.

Will Rhymes will be a favorite second baseman of mine forever. A less successful, quieter Dustin Pedroia.

No idea what this Sonny Gray card is but it looks cool.

Those are some of the highlights. I came home with a good haul. I hope we can do it again next month and really crush the dimeboxes.

Garage Sale $5 Treasure Box! Cards, Cards, Cards!

WARNING: This post will be lengthy and wordy but full of pictures. Feel free to scroll to the cards and skip the jibber jabber. I get excited.

The spoils!

As I pulled around the corner to my house a voice from heaven whispered into my ear "...cards..." as I drove past a small garage sale. With nothing better to do I grabbed all of my debt collection junk mail at the mailbox and wandered over to the sale. From the outside it looked like your standard garage sale with old tv's and tools. Then suddenly; a small sealed box of 1992 Topps Traded. Then I spotted a few Starting Lineup figures, and  a Macfarlane Griffey 3". I got worried. In my pocket was the cash I had scraped to get for the card show this weekend. I asked the guy nonchalantly "how much for the cards?" He said give me a minute and let me look them up online and I'll make you a deal. Then he pointed to another table I hadn't noticed and said "that box is five bucks," pointing to a large shoe box overflowing with early 2000 baseball cards. To shorten the story I will just say I bought the $5 box, a MLB baseball that looked game used for $1, a 2006 World Series collectors baseball $1, and 3 nerf guns for $1 each. Both baseballs were thrown in with random rubber and plastic t-balls so I don't think the guy even looked at them. Here are the treasures, oddities, and interesting contents of that treasure chest:

I have bought a few of these crazy boxes from yard sales and garage sales in the past and often try to play detective to figure out the collecting habits of it's previous owner. What year are the cards? Are there any teams/players missing? Are they sorted in any special way? Question after question pops in my head and I try to get down to who this collector was and why it came to be that I could purchase their prized possessions at such a dirt cheap price. This collector had me thrown for a bit of a loop but I can assume a few things from the box. Here is what I deduced:
1. 90% of the cards came from 4 sets; 1989 Upper Deck, 1994 Upper Deck, 1995 Upper Deck and 1999 Fleer Ultra
2. Most of the cards looked as though they had been removed from their packaging, looked at once and tossed in this box. I assume the 1989 Upper Deck were purchased later than 1989 and as boxes and not a complete set because there were duplicates and the only card I know was missing was the Griffey RC. Case closed on those cards. He bought 1989 Upper Deck looking for Griffey and tossed everything else. 
3. All the stars and even inserts were in the box. Most of the time these boxes lack the Nolan Ryan, Ken Griffey Jr., and Cal Ripken Jr. cards that should have been there. This one had them, other than the missing Griffey RC. Even all the teams were accounted for including the Tigers.
4. This collector must have been a high dollar card collector and had no time for commons or even basic inserts. Jackpot for me!

I'll start off with probably the most valuable card in the box. This Morneau RC is gold and numbered on the back. I found only one on eBay running $27ish. Its a cool card and a sweet find in a $5 box. My second favorite comercial of all time is for MLB the show the year Justin Verlander said "I know Morneau better than Morneau knows Morneau and Morneau knows it." My first favorite being everybody's favorite; Chicks Dig the Longball.

The stars were well represented in the UD Choice cards from 1999. This box is funny because it basically filled in the years I was away from the hobby and barely collected. God sent me this box.

I did have these as a kid. Some of them at least. I was in love with the pictures of the stadium outlines on these. Very cool cards from Upper Deck 1994.

This set I don't know much about. It looks like there are variations of cards based on the Biggio's and I can't tell what is an insert and what isn't but the cards look really cool. 1998 UD3, I guess. There were a few Tino Martinez in the bunch. He was the reason I even tried batting lefty before I could switch hit.

Some Fleer Laziness!

Which frame came first? I doubt Cal wore his hat like that often.

I had never seen this card before. Now I have 3 of them. This is why Fernando Valenzuela is a badass with style.

An insert set of prospects. That Konerko guy was alright. I probably pulled 10 different AJ Hinch rookie cards from this box.

I didn't know the Electric Diamond variations included the star rookie cards until now. Now I have to chase the Tiger ones.

How quickly they grow up. Great infielder!

Another insert set that had the players embossed on the card. Very cool.

Some random cards from the box.

There was a stack of POST cards in the box so if anyone needs any of this years cards I have duplicates of almost all of them. I thought POST did a great job on these cards even the backs. The Sabo and a Mark McGwire from another pic were oddballs.

Another different set that was in the box. Mike Hampton could rake, eh?

Some more randoms. The Dempsey was a strange card. The oldest in the box and all by itself. I have no idea what the DiMaggio is. Had a lot of Guerrero's and Ortiz in his Twins uni.

Some more randoms. The Piazza is gorgeous. The Giles card is a great picture. The Milacki card is now my worst cut card I own. The Coleman is numbered. Love Big Daddy cards even in the halos uni.

Look how young Edmonds and Colon look, two of my favorites. The two Nolan Ryan cards are sweet!

Another insert set I am assuming. Kerry Wood was included so I threw two more Wood's on the page.

A Guillen I had never seen before. Fullmer could demolish a ball. Pena RC I think. I don't remember Mike Lowell as a Yankee.

The Wagner Electric Diamond is sweet. I have that Johnny Damon card signed. I think I posted about it years ago when I got it.

Another insert set. These cards were in great condition. I know I have found them peeling and faded a lot of times. I guess there were variations on these too look at the gold and silver Nomo's. There were a ton of these so if anyone is looking for a certain player let me know I probably pulled it.

I have never even heard of Topps Gold Label. These cards did not scan well. They are beautiful thick cards much like the old Flair.

So many 1994 and 1995 Electric Diamond cards, the thought of trying to collect the whole set in them crossed my mind many times. I couldn't take pictures of 10% of them. Check out the White Sox Jim Abbott card. That one is new to me.

More of those.

This set had great pictures. I love a good landscape card and Upper Deck really tried on this set and it shows. The Abbott Electric Diamond is cool.

The 1999 Fleer Ultra had the "Gold Medallion Edition" randomly thrown in. I received a couple dozen of those. I wish they were embossed with a serial number on the back not just the label.

A couple of new Tim Salmons to round it out.

I had a stack 2 feet high of cards I wanted to scan and show but my scanner sucks and takes forever and there are just too many cards. Probably my best garage sale buy to date.