My days are numbered.
Not on the blog, but in my hometown.
This is likely my last full week in my hometown, before three weeks of vacation, a few extra days back home, and college. I'm trying to take everything in for one last time, or at least the last time for a while. And one of those things was the card shop that I'd been frequenting ever since I got into the hobby. It wasn't going to be easy to walk in, grab cards, and go...and then not come back until likely a year from now. But it had to happen.
Well...I visited this card shop two days ago. It was sad, and it was sentimental, but it had to happen. And I got a good 120 cards that I felt like getting (all baseball).
Let's see what I got.
90's stuff:
As usual, the card shop had stocked its 10 cent bins with 1990's junk wax, which I'm always on the lookout for. More specifically, I'm looking for the Topps sets from the glossy-era, which is 1993-2005 (all the sets I don't have complete box sets for). Luckily, the guy had some assorted Topps, including those five 1995 Topps cards. The Thome is a CyberStats insert.
1997-1999 Topps. A few Bagwells. You'll notice a lot of Tony Gwynn cards in this 90's bunch. The guy had a lot of his stuff.
2000 Topps (these next two photos aren't 90's, but they fit the theme). It was nice to finally nab a card of McGriff on the Rays. That one had been eluding me for a while.
2001 Topps. A few more current stars, although 2/3rds of them are retired, and the other third is basically at the end.
Now, knowing me, you're probably wondering if I nabbed any stray Stadium Club singles. And the answer is yes, of course. This Alomar is just an example of the really nice photography the '94 release had.
Assorted early 90's Stadium Club. I think the Bagwell is pretty cool.
Two 1980's superstars on unfamiliar teams. Dawson is on a 1993 Ultra issue, with the Red Sox. Murray is on a 1996 Bowman card, with the Indians.
This was in 1995 Upper Deck, two years after Robin Yount's final season, yet still serving as a final tribute to his nice career, which I thought was pretty cool of UD to do. They also did final tributes for Nolan Ryan, George Brett, and Ryne Sandberg, who would be back in baseball by the time the card came back.
Now...THIS is what we call a rarity.
Not Black Diamond. Black Diamond's pretty common. No, I'm talking about Randy Johnson in a Houston Astros uniform.
I didn't know that he was an Astro until far into his (future) Hall of Fame career. It was a bridge between his two landmark teams, his Mariners run and his Diamondbacks run. For the longest amount of time, I've always wanted a card of Johnson on the Astros. Thankfully, now I have one.
2000's Upper Deck:
The last time I went to this shop, this turned out to be a major pattern. I kept finding lots and lots of 2006, 2007 and 2008 Upper Deck cards peppered throughout, which was nice, because I collected those sets intermittently when they came out. This Johnny Damon was the only 2003 Upper Deck card I found.
The players on top are currently not employed by an MLB. The players on the bottom are. Two of them are playing for the Dodgers.
Mike Piazza isn't with the Padres in this shot, but the shot is so awesome that I really don't care.
This one's my favorite of the 2006 cards I got. This is a triumphant Thomas, finally getting a World Series trophy to call his very own, even if he was injured for most of the 2005 season. Really great shot, even though he's credited as an Athletic.
A trio of 2007 UD cards.
Upper Deck sure put out a lot of trophy cards back in the day.
Nine cards from Upper Deck 2008. A nice array of different shots and players.
Four sideways shots.
Thought this was pretty noteworthy. Upper Deck was nice enough to produce a Final Tribute for Schilling, who retired after missing the 2008 season. Class act.
Vintage:
Yeah, like usual, I racked up a ton of vintage stuff from the ten cent bins, including this 2008 A&G card of Tex in between his Rangers and Yankees years.
2007 and 2010 Topps Heritage. Surprisingly, these two years of Heritage aren't very well represented in my collection, though I do enjoy the 2007 release.
2005 and 2007 Bowman Heritage. Consequentially, I do own a lot of 2007 Bowman Heritage, which is kinda sad, because it's the last year that they did it, and it's a really nice line of products. The crispness of the art is what makes it so good.
A shiny brick card from the 2006 release. Good ol' Vladdie.
Six from 2005 Turkey Red, another favorite. The top three are in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The bottom three will likely be joining them eventually.
Quite a bit of 2005 UD Classic, so I scooped up these guys. You don't see a lot of modern cards of a lot of these guys, especially Morris and Kell.
Two rookie cards that probably aren't worth much anymore, yet I scooped them up anyway, because it's not everyday you pay 10 cents for a Barry Zito rookie.
The last thing I want to show you is the array of numbered cards the guy had, especially for a 10 cent bin. First of all, this is a rookie card of Yankees pitcher Brandon McCarthy. AND it's numbered to 799. But I found a lot more than that.
Smoltz: #'d to 350
Dunn and Gagne: #'d to 499
Pierzynski, Roberts and Stewart: #'d to 200
Sexson, Hudson and Dye: #'d to 100.
And all for ten cents each. That is pretty nice.
Well, overall I say that this was a fitting send-off. I'm sure I'll be back eventually, but not until I'm back from a college break. I think these cards will tide me over though.
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