A Pair of Surprises

Another card show recap... and another surprise purchase.  Back in June, I picked up a Muhammad Ali pack pulled, on-card autograph for my collection.  Three weekends ago, I found another "biggie" for my PC.

Neither are considered super rare, but neither pop up at card shows on a regular basis either.  But before I get to the big find of the day, let's check out another surprise...

Purchase #1:  Dollar Box  $10

2024 Bowman Draft #BD-56

I was pretty stoked to find this Nick Kurtz in a dollar box.  If you're not familiar with this kid, he had one of the greatest games in MLB history on July 25th.  The twenty-two year old rookie went 6 for 6 with four home runs, six runs scored, and eight runs batted in against the Houston Astros the night before and was definitely the "talk of the show".

As expected dealers were pulling his 1st Bowmans from their cheap boxes and marking them up.  This guy had this lone copy sitting in his dollar box.

Here are the other cards I picked up from this vendor:

1971 Fleer Harlem Globetrotters #72

2024 Topps A&G Mini Rookie Design Variation #RD-6

1976 Topps #204

Not sure I'd normally buy this O.J. Simpson card, but I couldn't pass it up after flipping it over:

This card features 25% of card #205... which is the NFL Interception Leaders.

Rounding out the dollar box was this six pack of football and baseball:

Now for the big surprise...

Purchase #2:  Vintage Billy Ball Oddball  $125

1949 Remar Bread #NNO

I got to experience first hand Billy Ball back in the early 80's at the Oakland Coliseum.  That's why I will always have a deep appreciation for his cards.  The past few years... I have been tracking this particular card for my Oakland Oaks collection.  This was the first time I came across a copy at a card show.

I've bid on multiple copies, but always fall short.  It's a good thing I did, because I was able to pick up this gorgeous copy for a slightly higher price.  After purchasing the Ali, I had zero plans of dropping triple digits on a single card at this show.  But I just couldn't pass up this opportunity. 

Purchase #3:  A Kirby Puckett Rookie Card  $18

1985 Topps Rack Pack

The dealer who sold me the Billy Martin also had a few sealed rack packs from the 80's.  Each of them had a key rookie card featured on the back:

I passed on the 84T Darryl Strawberry and 85T Dwight Gooden, but grabbed the Puckett.  It pairs nicely with this cello pack I purchased back in 2011:

1985 Topps Cello Pack

Well that wraps up the final card show of the summer.  I know that there are two more coming up in September, but I don't have any plans on attending them.  On the other hand... maybe I'll need a distraction from the school year.

If I end up going, you guys will be the first to know.

Until then...

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!

Unexpected Expenses & Surprises

Life is full of unexpected expenses and surprises.  Last month it was repairing my AC unit.  Yesterday it was replacing the alternator in my daily driver.  Oh man... what an adventure.

The story began on Thursday morning when I woke up early to hit up the Capitol Flea Market.  I noticed a slight hesitation when I tried starting my car.  It caught my attention, but didn't stop me from seeking treasures at my former favorite flea market.  The issue occurred again at the flea market, so I went straight to O'Reilly Auto Parts.  That's where I purchased my battery last summer.  They said it was fine, but that the alternator was dead/dying.  I immediately called my mechanic and he told me I could bring it in that day or tomorrow (Friday).

I was meeting up with some co-workers (we're all on spring break) for lunch on Friday, so I made plans to have my friend pick me up from the shop (after I dropped off my car).  We'd go to lunch and Trader Joe's, then she'd give me a ride home.

Unfortunately when I tried starting my car in the morning, the battery was dead.  Normally my portable jump starter would easily fix this issue, but it came up short.  AAA came to the rescue and got my car running.  However before letting me drive off... they had me turn on everything in my car (fan, lights, radio, etc.) and run the car for five minutes.  It lasted about three.  In other words, I wasn't driving my car anywhere until the alternator was replaced.

AAA originally sent out a truck that specializes in "jump starts", so they had to send out another truck to take me to my mechanic.  It was sort of embarrassing, because it sort of looked like my car was being repossessed.

Anyways to make an already long story... a little shorter... my mechanic installed a new alternator and had O'Reilly give me a new battery (it was under warranty).  As expected... it wasn't a cheap adventure.  Between that and the AC repair from early March... I had to dip into the rainy day fund.  But that's life.  It just means that I won't be making any large hobby purchases in the near future.

That's okay, because I have plenty of stuff to blog about... include some recent purchases I've made.  One of them was a 1996 Pinnacle Mint coin starter set I bought off of Greg over at The Collective Mind:

1996 Pinnacle Mint Football Coin Starter Set

Last month he left a comment on one of my Flea Market Finds posts where I bought the John Elway coin from this set.  We started exchanging some emails and he offered to send me what he had for free.  With the rise in shipping costs, I couldn't accept this offer unless I could pay him a nominal price for the set and cover the shipping.

I'm pretty stoked to add these coins to my collection.  I actually bought the 1997 and 1998 baseball coin sets back in 2023, but they didn't include this special coin display that Greg included.

He also tossed in a bunch of bonus material, some of which he mentioned in our emails.  The one I was most excited about was this awesome Brett Favre coin:

1996 Pinnacle Mint Nickel Coin #NNO

This shiny silver coin is so cool.  Pinnacle actually released a fine silver version of this coin, but you can easily tell them apart by looking at the back.  On the fine silver coins, they stamped the words "fine silver" under the word "CLUB".  According to this Beckett thread, both versions were inserted in packs.  However the fine silver coins came with a COA card.

The Favre was paired up with this Heath Shuler:

1996 Pinnacle Mint Nickel Coin #NNO

Pinnacle Mint also produced die-cut cards that collectors could match up with the coins.  Greg included twenty-one of them:

I'll definitely be hunting down the four remaining coins, but I'm not sure about the die-cut set.

Finally, he also sent me some cards for my PC's...

2024 Topps A&G Mini Exclusive #394

When I first pulled this card out of Greg's mailer, I just assumed that this card was your standard Ginter mini.  But in the process of writing this post, I discovered a very unexpected surprise.  This card was originally inside of his Masyn Winn rip card.

I completely forgot that he had damaged this card when he removed it and that I offered to give Shota a loving home in my Damaged Card PC.  What's even crazier is that I didn't even notice the damage and it's now sitting among the rest of my Imanaga cards.

Speaking of damaged, he also tossed in these miscut cards from the early 80's:

1981 Topps #472

1981 Topps #23

1981 Topps #323

These three look like they might have been lined up on the same sheet at one time.  Now they're lined up in the miscut section of my Damaged Card PC binder.

Next up is another card Greg pulled from his 2024 Topps Allen & Ginter box breaks:

2024 Topps A&G Foil Filagree #201

Yamamoto was outdueled last night by Paul Skenes, but he still pitched really well and is having a pretty stellar season.  This is a very nice addition to my collection.

Here's the third and final Ginter card that Greg sent me:

2023 Topps A&G Spotless Spans #SS-28

This card celebrates Rickey's 84 stolen bases before the 1982 MLB All-Star Game which took place on July 13th.  That's 84 stolen bases in 88 games.  To put that into perspective, the last time anyone stole 84 or more bases in a single season was in 1988.  The player?  Yup.  Rickey.

I don't remember this particular piece of baseball trivia, but there was a better than average chance that I attended at least a game or two when he swiped one of these 84 bases.

Oh and I almost forgot, here's another cool card from the 1996 Pinnacle Mint set that was part of this purchase:

1996 Pinnacle Mint Gold #9

I would have loved to pull this out of a pack back in the 90's.  These gold parallels were inserted into packs at a rate of 1:48 packs (or 1:3 hobby boxes).  This copy isn't in mint condition, but until I find an upgrade this card is going into my Brett Favre PC.

Thank you Greg for selling me the 1996 Pinnacle Mint Coin starter set and tossing in some really generous bonuses.  I spent about an hour scrolling through your "want" pages... but didn't come up with anything yet.  I'll start looking through your player collections next.

As for the rest of the people taking the time to read this post, I hope you encounter more unexpected and pleasant surprises in life than unexpected expenses.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Big, Bigger, and Biggest

Opening Day has come and gone.  I've been working on a post related to it for about a week.  Hope to finish it up over the weekend and publish it in a few days.  Until then I have a quick post with some big things to cover.

Let's start with a pair of really cool oversized cards that John over at Johnny's Trading Spot sent me:

1995 Bowman's Best Jumbo Refractor #21

This shiny Gwynn is approximately 4" x 6" (slightly larger) and absolutely gorgeous.  Unfortunately my scanner doesn't do it justice.  Here's a peek at the back:

According to Baseballcardpedia, these cards were distributed in Treat repacks.  There are ten cards in the set.  With this Gwynn, I now have four in my collection.

John also sent me this Stadium Club box topper:

2020 Stadium Club Oversized Box Topper #OBHM

This card is slightly bigger than the Gwynn and measures approximately 4.375" x 6.25".  It looks like this photo was taken either right after the Yankees beat the Phillies to win their 27th World Series Title.

Unfortunately, the Topps didn't mention anything about this on the back of this card:

It does talk about him being the all-time MLB home run leader among Japan-born players.  He held this crown for over a decade until April 21st, 2024:

2025 Topps Greatest Hits #GH-8

Shohei Ohtani is now the all-time leader.  Topps produced a pair of Topps Now cards for him back in 2024, but I don't own either of them.  I did however pull this insert out of a jumbo pack I purchased back in February.

The next card is not big in size, but it sure was a BIG disappointment:

2019 Topps Clear Travel #CP-60

This Mullins was suppose to get me one step closer to completing my 2019 Topps Clear Travel set build.  Unfortunately it's in pretty rough shape.  It's hard to see from the scan, but I took some photos which reveal the damage a little better:

There's some serious surface damage with some edge and corner issues, so this card will be headed into my Damaged Card PC.  It was part of an eBay purchase with the regular flagship version:

2019 Topps #318

This card is far from mint too.  It's extremely off-centered.  I actually think it's kind of cool, because you don't see miscut cards in current products very often.

If you're wondering if I reached out to the seller, I didn't.  It's totally my fault.  When I looked back at the listing, the photos showed that neither of the cards in this lot were mint.  Thankfully this big mistake only set me back a few bucks.

Finally I wanted to quickly share a purchase I made this morning.  My buddy has been trying to sell me his 2011 Topps Update starter set for almost a year.  It's missing a little over 100 cards, but all of the big rookies come with it, including the big fish:

2011 Topps Update #US175

This is my BIGGEST card purchase in a long time, but I was helping him out and he gave me a decent price.  I paid $300... which is way more money than I want to spend on cards these days.  But considering the Trout alone sells for more than that, I'm at peace with the purchase.

I have a bunch of boxes of cards that my buddy gave me two years ago that are sitting in my classroom.  He says some of the missing cards should be in those boxes.  Hopefully they are, because I don't want to really spend a bunch of money on commons.  We'll see when I get back into my classroom on Tuesday.

Until then...

Thank you John for these two big cards for my Gwynn and Matsui PC's!  Thank you Ben for selling me this iconic card!  And thank you to everyone who took the time to read this post.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!