Card Show Weekend!

I'm up in the Twin Cities this week and I'm happy to discover that there is a card show over in Bloomington [which is the home of the legendary Mall of America].  The show is put on by an organization called the TCSCC which stands for the Twin Cities Sports Collectors Club and they organize a monthly card show with signers each month.  This month they have twelve Minnesota Vikings signing over the course of Saturday and Sunday...including current Vikings Toby Gerhart and Kyle Rudolph.  You can find a complete list of signers here.

Here are the show details:

Valley West Mall
10590 France Ave South
Bloomington, MN 55431
http://www.tcscc.org/

Go Twins!

The Loneliness of a Centerfielder

Denard Span patrolling the outfield versus the Oakland A's May 29th, 2012.

Topps Archives Alternatives

I've been going back and forth on buying a box of Topps Archives and I haven't mainly because when I've gone to the two local Twin Cities card shops that I frequent one had received their Archives allotment and were sold out and at the other shop I got distracted by other shiny cardboard and I didn't want to pay $100 for the box when I've seen much cheaper.  

Thumbing through the 1972 box at Uncommon Cards I found six copies of my favorite common card ever Billy Cowan's halo card and...

One personalized version letting everyone know that Billy started off his career with the Cubs in 1962.

1972 Topps #19 Billy Cowan

I also found a card that is sort of a brother card to Cowan's.  Clyde Wright's card features the Angel's scoreboard prominently but instead of Wright standing with the halo positioned perfectly he is crouched pretending to field a grounder.  I wouldn't be surprised if this photo was taken on the same day possibly moments before or after Billy's photo was snapped.

1972 Topps #55 Clyde Wright

Bake Sniped

AFTER GETTING SNIPED THREE TIMES ON BAKE MCBRIDE FAN FAVORITES AUTOS ON EBAY IN THE PAST FEW DAYS.  

Finding Out You've Been Scammed A Year Later Or I Haven't Seen These Discounted Before

You know you are a hardcore card collector when the prospect of a new Target or a Walmart with a card section that you haven't investigated before ends up being the highlight of your day.  Or it means your life is incredibly boring. Nevertheless, it was great to stumble upon some clearance Heritage.

Unfortunately, I didn't find anything too remarkable was to be found inside.  We'll start with a couple of "Then and Now" inserts

#TN-2 Frank Robinson/Miguel Cabrera Than and Now
#TN-9 Warren Spahn/Roy Halladay Then and Now

And two short prints which slightly beat the odds of one SP in every two value packs.

#493 Rookie Parade SP
#443 Brian McCann SP

I love the duo cards almost as much as I love the floating head cards.  

#306 Red Sox Rippers David Ortiz/Dustin Pedroia

Posting these also allows me to dig into my scanned images folder and dig out a card I scanned last year.  It was my first green tint card from the original 1962 set.  I picked this up at The National last year for a couple of dollars which I thought was a pretty good deal.

1962 Topps #92 Sam Jones [Green Tint]

Well, nearly a year later, I discover that this card is NOT in fact a green tint variation.  The green tints are in the second series of the cards which run from cards #110-196 and so my card #92 is clearly not anything special and the background of Mr. Jones' card just happens to be green.  Searching eBay I found an auction that is selling a "green tint" version of the Sam Jones card and so at least I'm not the only person to have fallen for this before.  If only I had just taken a second and took a look at Baseballcardpedia.

I Searched 2012 Topps Archives Packs Today

I did something this morning I hadn't done in well over a year: I called a baseball card shop to see if a new product was in stock.  They told me that 2012 Topps Archives hadn't arrived yet but they were expecting it in the afternoon.  So I went around and found Archives in person today at Target and while there was a box of retail packs I went with two value packs instead.  

 

As in previous releases you can clearly see the name of the bottom card on the reverse side of these value packs. "Do I dare?" I thought to myself.   So I pulled a few of the packs off the rack and took a look to see if there were any Bryce Harper or Yu Darvish rookie cards staring back at me.  No such luck, but I did find packs with Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau base cards.

Here are the two cards for which I denigrated myself to the lowest of the low.   More detailed scans of these packs will soon be up on Heartbreaking Cards' sister blog A Pack To Be Named Later.  

#90 Joe Mauer

#175 Justin Morneau

The Five Star Club

TOPPS ANNOUNCES THE FIVE STAR CLUB.  

Meeting In The Aisle

WHEN I MEET ANOTHER GUY IN HIS 30'S IN THE CARD AISLE AT TARGET WHO ISN'T PACK SEARCHING.

Just Walk Right In

WHEN I REALIZE THAT I'LL SOON BE IN A CITY WITH MORE THAN ONE CARD SHOP THAT I CAN JUST WALK INTO AND BUY A BOX OF 2012 TOPPS ARCHIVES FAN FAVORITES.

Heritage Mars Attacks Is Live On July 15th

Posting has been sporadic and simplistic recently as I've been moving but I had to take some time and write about that we now have an official release date for the Heritage Mars Attacks set.  It will be live on July 15th [which is a Sunday] and so we are less than two months away.  

Pre-orders are available at Dave and Adam's for only $48.95 for a hobby box.  I was wondering what the price point was going to be and I'm pleasantly surprised so I think I'll be getting two boxes rather than one.  

I haven't added any original Mars Attacks cards recently but I've got a few saved up that I haven't show yet.  Here is card #3 from the set which is the earliest numbered card that I own.  Looking at this card and the five soldiers being killed on it and it really is amazing that this set was produced at all, let alone in 1962.  

1962 Topps Mars Attacks  #3 Attacking An Army Base

Success

CARD COLLECTION HAS BEEN MOVED SUCCESSFULLY!

When You Only Buy Baseball Cards

WHAT IT'S LIKE TO CHECKOUT AT TARGET WHEN YOU ARE ONLY BUYING BASEBALL CARDS.  

Opening A Blaster

WHEN I'M ABOUT TO OPEN A BLASTER.

Moving The Card Collection

AFTER I'VE MOVED ABOUT 1/3 OF THE CARD COLLECTION.

Fan Favorites Autographs

WHEN I FOUND OUT THERE WOULD BE OSCAR GAMBLE AND BAKE MCBRIDE AUTOGRAPHS IN 2012 TOPPS FAN FAVORITES.

The Infamous Bobby Bonilla Contract

There is an absolutely amazing article in the latest ESPN The Magazine about the infamous Bobby Bonilla contract with the Mets.  If you remember, Bobby is going to be paid roughly $1.2 million dollars for each of the next 25 years.  This came about when the Bobby was going to be paid $5.9 million on the last year of his contract in 2001 and he proposed instead of that large chuck on money that the payments be smaller and paid out over a much longer period of time starting in 2011.

This contract is oftentimes sited as an example of baseball spending gone out of control.  Reexamining what actually happened though, you learn that the Mets were doing a hugely smart financial decision if only they weren't going to rely on Bernie Madoff to help them pull it off.  Basically, the Mets would take that $5.9 million that was due Bonilla, invest it with Madoff, and by the time Bobby's payments would end in 2036 the Mets would have made between $60-70 million dollars more than if they had just paid Bobby his $5.9 million in 2001.  It's playing the long game that would have worked had Madoff not misappropriated many, many billions of dollars.  

Retail Pack MOJO

WHEN I PULL AN AUTOGRAPH FROM A RETAIL PACK.

Kate Upton Card

WHEN I FOUND OUT TOPPS WOULD HAVE A KATE UPTON CARD IN THIS YEAR'S ALLEN AND GINTER.

Putting The Blog On Pause

I'm placing the blog on pause for the next few weeks as I'll be in the middle of moving back to the land of Cheeseheads, Brewers, and Badgers.  I haven't had to move my card collection for four years and it has expanded greatly so that should be a fun endeavor.  So if you happen to be sending me a package any time soon, please hold off for the next few weeks and I can get this set.

To tide you over here is a great remake of the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" video.  Before seeing this new video I didn't think I would be humanly possible to improve upon "Sabotage" but we live in an unpredictable world don't we?  



And here is the original video to give you a reminder of how great that was:

 

Buck O'Neil Mural

The most striking thing you come upon in visiting the Negro League Baseball Museum isn't at the museum at all.  A couple of blocks down from the museum on one of the walls of an old YMCA building there is a huge Buck O'Neil mural.  

Initially when the mural was put up it was something beautiful in a rather depressing area.  Since then though, they have added a small baseball diamond in the empty lot directly in front of the mural and next to it they have added a second mural showing all the great players that were on Kansas City Monarchs teams including Jackie Robinson, Satchell Paige, and Elston Howard.

Satchel's Uniform

Satchel Paige's jersey from the Negro League Baseball Museum with a little Streamzoo help...at some point I should probably mention that photography is strictly forbidden in the museum. I had to be a little covert to get some of these photos I've shown and wait until I was alone in a given room. 

Buck O'Neil Way

Found just south of the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, MO.

Satchel's Book

Found at the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City:

Although this looks to be an autobiography, he has a separate book entitled "Maybe I'll Pitch Forever" which was published in 1962.

BaseballCardPedia Card Store Pickups

For anyone serious about baseball cards you probably already know baseballcardpedia.com as the best source for checklists and background information on inserts and new products.  What you might not have noticed is that they also have a card store with the proceeds going to support BCP.

Shipping is very cheap and reasonable and the cards are great for the low prices that are listed.  I purchased a group of 25 cards [hello, $2 shipping] with most of them being O-Pee-Chee cards from the 80's and a whole bunch of Jim Thome cards.

The cards arrived super quick [three days after placing the order] and were packaged very well so I highly recommend you taking a look if they have cards listed you are interested in.

Here are some of my O-Pee-Chee:

1983 O-Pee-Chee #17 Kent Tekulve

1979 O-Pee-Chee #374 Reggie Jackson

1979 O-Pee-Chee #151 Rod Carew

1983 O-Pee-Chee #196 Tommy John

Here are a few Thome's that I didn't have yet:

1998 Donruss #69

1998 Fleer Metal Universe #135

2000 Upper Deck Ionix #35 Jim Thome

1999 Topps Finest #268 Jim Thome

It Doesn't Feel Like I'm Buying A Card Magazine

It doesn't feel like I'm buying a card magazine with this big green box over the cover.  Beckett should really consider doing this and maybe include some free cards with their magazines as well and I might consider buying an issue for  $10 .  Here are three promo cards that were included in my issue highlighting a new Marvel set, a Tarzan set, and a new card set for The Big Bang Theory.  

Mascots x 6

I think it's safe to say that each year as we open out new packs from new products we always keep in the back of our minds a mental inventory of our favorite new card.  Towards the end of the year many of us will blog about our selections.  As we search for this year's perfect card there are some cards that must be set aside because they are so perfect it is simply unfair to compare them with the rest of the new cards.  Mainly I'm speaking about any cards featuring the Milwaukee Brewers mascot, Bernie Brewer.  The mustache, the green eyes, and how confident must a man be to be comfortable in public wearing overalls?

#M-1 Bernie Brewer

And here are some newly aquired 2012 Topps Opening Day mascot cards I needed:

#M-10 Pirate Parrot

#M-12 Paws

#M-6 Raymond

#M2 Baltimore Oriole

#M-7 Mr. Met