Multiple Meanings

As many of you know... 2023 was filled with a lot of ups and downs.  It will forever be marred by the loss of my father and my friend Mike in a span of a month.  But it wasn't all bad... these two tragic events brought me closer to my siblings and strengthened the bond between close friends.

The hobby also helped me get through that rough patch by serving as a healthy distraction.  One of the most therapeutic things for me outside of building Lego sets is sorting cards and building sets.  Walking around flea markets and card shows also helped.

Back on Saturday, December 16th... I was able to do both.  Today's post covers a pair of purchases... one from each.  Both of these purchases were BIG... but in different ways.

Let's start with my most expensive hobby purchase of 2023 and a BIG addition to my Ichiro PC:

2023 Finest Flashbacks Auto #183

I was hanging out at the Silicon Valley Card & Collectibles Show at my buddy's table.  And within minutes... my eyes were drawn to this gorgeous card that took me back to the 90's when autographs were on-card and rare.  I wanted it.

Right next to the Ichiro was the other 2001 Rookie of the Year Award winner:

2023 Finest Flashbacks Auto #179

I wanted this card too.  The only problem is my hobby budget doesn't allow for BIG purchases like these.

After watching two other collectors show an interest in the Ichiro, I decided to pull them out of the case and have him hold them for me.

When things settled down... he offered me the pair for $450.  Yeah... that's BIG money (to me).  But a month has passed and there has been zero buyer's remorse.

He tossed in this cool refractor to sweeten the deal:

2000 Topps Chrome Combos Refractor #TC5

I know this particular insert set is polarizing among collectors.  You either love it... or hate it.

I obviously love it!  In 2000, Nomar, Alex, and Derek were the BIG 3 among American League shortstops and although we crossed into the aughts, refractors were still reasonably tough pulls.  These inserts were seeded into 1:80 packs.

The other BIG purchase I made that day took place earlier in the morning at the Branham Flea Market.  I stumbled across a guy with a binder containing a bunch of oversized cards.  He wanted $10 for the binder, but was focused on the quality of the binder itself and not the cards.

So I asked him if he'd take $5 for the pages and cards without the binder.  He accepted.  I had taken a photo of all of the stuff, but accidentally deleted it.  However I did scan the highlights of the purchase which were these BIG inserts and parallels from the 90's before putting them all away.

Since most of you are baseball fans, here's the only baseball card of note:

1995 Score Rules Jumbo #SR25 (#'d 2,489/3000)

This is a BIG (7.5" x 10.5") parallel to the pack inserted counterparts.  Back in 1995, Score produced Baseball Collector Kits that contained twenty-six assorted packs of Score Series 1 and Series 2 baseball, a binder, ten collector pages, and one of these oversized parallels.

Based on how many are available on eBay, they aren't very common... even though 3,000 copies of each card was produced.

The next card was the key to the purchase:

1997 Donruss Studio Stained Glass Stars #15 (#'d 0318/1000)

This BIG acetate insert is gorgeous!   Once I saw this card, I knew I wanted the entire lot.

There were two BIG names featured in the lot:

1997 Donruss Studio 8x10 Gold Portrait Proof #29 (#'d 0115/1000)

1997 Donruss Studio Red Zone Masterpiece #20 (#'d 0853/3500)

The Elway is a BIG addition to my Stanford PC... while the Moon is a BIG Seahawks pickup.

Well that wraps up my two BIG purchases from back in December.  Gotta love multiple meanings... and overpriced and oversized card purchases.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!