30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

The Long Haul

One of the perks of being a teacher are the numerous breaksOne week off at ThanksgivingTwo weeks off at ChristmasPresidents' Week in February.  And Spring Break in April.

They're spread out almost perfectly... with the exception of two times.  The last seven weeks of the school year and something my friends and I call... The Long Haul.

What's The Long Haul?  It's an eleven week stretch from Labor Day to Thanksgiving Break with only one day off in between.  We're only on the fifth week and I'm already starting to get burnt out.  The good news is I five really solid classes and no major issues as of yet.

How does it affect this blog?  Well... I normally would show off my entire card show haul in one post.  Unfortunately... I'm exhausted and have a few errands to run.  So I'm gonna break things up into two (maybe three) posts to keep things short and sweet.

I'll go ahead and kick things off with my dime box purchases, since most of us can appreciate cheap, cool cards.

One of my buddies had rented out some of his table space to a guy who had these really nice dollar bins.  In fact when I stopped by, there was a small crowd digging through them.  I was definitely curious, but since I'm a little claustrophobic, I stood around talking to my buddy waiting for the crowd to dissipate.

To kill some time, he told me I should look through the guy's dime boxes.  One was filled with baseball.  The other football.


Round 1The Baseball Dime Box  $4


Anytime I can find inserts and oddball issues of guys like Nolan Ryan and Babe Ruth for I dime, I'll grab them.



2017 Topps Archives 1959 Bazooka #59B-11


I know that I complain a lot about Topps flooding the market with too many inserts, but you'll never hear me complain about the Bazooka cards.

2015 Panini Cooperstown Etched in Cooperstown #4

I also tend to avoid purchasing 99% of Panini baseball cards, but this card reminded me of Pinnacle's dufex technology from back in the day.  Plus it features The Sultan of Swat.

1997 Donruss Preferred Cut to the Chase #175

Back in 1997, this card would have been a pretty nice pullTwenty years later, it's still a pretty nice dime box discovery.

1983 Fleetwood First Day Covers

Never seen this card before... but after a little research... it seems like it's part of an uncut sheet that looks like this:

Image Courtesy of COMC

Here's another oddball I've never seen before:

1993 Brookshire Brothers Nolan Ryan Coupon #1980

Overall there wasn't anything too mind-blowing, but I was able to add some stuff to my binders with plenty of leftovers for future care packages.



Round 2The Football Dime Box  $5


The football box was filled with much cooler stuff including a bunch of inserts numbered to less than 100.

Sadly I don't think there are a lot of football people who read my blog, so I just scanned two of my favorites:

2015 Panini Prizm Air Marshals Prizm #AM1
2017 Donruss Optic 1981 Tribute #27

Well that's it for today.  Next time I'll show you all what I found in the dollar bins that everyone was crowding around.  Hopefully I'll also be celebrating an Oakland Athletics victory over the New York YankeesHopefully.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

14 comments:

Matt said...

Some sweet snags there. I am one of the football followers you have!

Peter K Steinberg said...

Go A's!

Commishbob said...

Nice cards you snagged. I'm a football guy, btw.

As to the lede... I will never forget something my dentist asked me when he found out I was a teacher/coach..."What do you do with all your free time?" It was all I could do to stay in the damn chair. I wish teaching was as easy as people who haven't ever stood in front of a classroom think it is.

Hang in there, you'll get thru it, You always do!

Alan Deakins said...

-Football card collecting is definitely different from baseball....I do wish Topps could get back into it....I like what Panini has done with Donruss football even though the original Donruss didn't have football cards...Surprisingly, thinking back to your junk wax posts, basketball wax boxes unopened packs, etc. from the era have really gone up in price compared to both football and baseball. Michael Jordan high graded cards sell at a premium especially the early 1990s cards.

night owl said...

You can't really say anything about a teacher's time off without a teacher shouting you down, so I'll sit on my tongue. ... Nice Ryan card.

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

Just BB for me, nice oddballs.

Ana Lu said...

Teachers have all those breaks but many have to keep working even without classes. Paper work has to be done..But don't tell anyone ;)

You can get all those cards only for 4$/5$!? Damnnnnnnn Paradise..

Nick said...

Can't say I've ever seen a baseball card coupon before. Very cool.

The Snorting Bull said...

I have the next three weeks off from teaching, but my school year starts in July. Not sure I could ever go back to doing any sort of traditional school calendar at this point. No matter the calendar, there are always stresses. I always feel that the second half of the time I teach, eight to ten week blocks, are always really tough. Less time for cards and fun stuff.

Love the Griffey Donruss card. I have a bunch of those Preferred cards somewhere. Actually thinking about doing a little project with an insert set from that product in a few weeks.

Russell Wilson cards are also always nice! Go Pack!! #GTHC

Baltmoss68 said...

Another football fan here(I actually collect almost any sport). Great finds. Love that Ryan! I have an Essksy hot dog Ripken card/coupon. Love the unusual combo.
Respect for your teaching. It’s a tough career. I still get nervous teaching Sunday school to adults much less working daily with kids...
And many thanks for the care package!!! You selected some awesome cards. Love those Broncos backs!!

Scribbled Ink said...

Pedroia XFractor and Maddux Black Gold in a dimebox? You found gold indeed.

Fuji said...

Sport Card Collectors - I'll keep that in mind for my next card show post.

Peter K Steinberg - that was the toughest lost of the season. heck. it's the first time i've felt bummed by an a's loss all season.

Commishbob - thanks buddy. you're 100% correct. i think a lot of people think it's so easy and that anyone can do it as long as they know the content. but a lot of those people don't take the time to consider things like class management and motivation/inspiration.

Alan Deakins - I wish Topps had their NFL license... just like I wish Panini had an MLB license. As for basketball... I think there are a lot of collectors outside of the states that help stir up demand for guys like Jordan, Kobe, and Lebron.

night owl - i'd never shout at you ;)

John Miller - Baseball makes up the majority of my collection as well. It was a completely different story 10 years ago.

Ana Lu - I've been pretty good about leaving my work in my classroom and not taking it home with me. But when I taught elementary (5th and 6th grade), I brought stuff home all of the time.

Nick - Me either. I'd like to find a complete set of these.

Snorting Bull - Enjoy the next three weeks off! I'm seriously jealous. Looking forward to reading about this project of yorus.

Baltmoss68 - I could never teach adults. Over the years, I've had several principals ask me to run inservices on classroom management and things like literature circles. I always say "no". Not because I don't want to help my colleagues... but because I have a hard time speaking to adults in an instructional way. Talking to other adults about baseball cards? Now I can do that.

P.S. Sorry it took so long to ship out that contest package. Glad it arrived safely though.

Scribbled Ink - Thanks.

Bulldog said...

Lots of great cards. You definitely made out in the football card area. Great job and look forward to the next posts .

Fuji said...

Yeah. Seems like dealers carry more football and basketball cards in my area than baseball.