It's Show Time!

It's official.  I'm addicted to cheap cards.  Seriously... it's a problem.

Ten days ago, I walked into the annual TRISTAR Sports Collectors Show with a plan:

#1:  Show some self-control and limit my dime box and dollar bin purchases.

#2:  Look for either a graded 1956 Topps hall of famer or a complete 1973 Topps baseball set.

Pretty simple and not too challenging, right?  Wrong.

My friends set up next to the guy from COMC, who happened to bring a boatload of shoeboxes and 5,000ct. boxes filled with dollar and dime cards.  It was almost as if the Cardboard Gods were testing me.  If they were, I failed miserably.


Purchase #1:  Dime Box Purchase  $10

If you're a 70's vintage guy who doesn't care too much about card condition, than this was the show for you.  The COMC guy had monster box after monster box filled with 70's baseball.  I saw multiple rows of 1971, 1972, and 1975 Topps baseball.

When I got there, three guys were sifting through them, so I skipped those boxes and targeted his other dime boxes:

I ended up grabbing 121 cards for $10, which is a little over 8¢ per card.  Eight cents for a 1984 Topps Traded Bret Saberhagen rookie card was hard to pass up.

Can you believe that back in 1990 this card sold for more than $20?  Talk about sports card depreciation.

However... that's nothing compared to this card:

I found this card, which I needed for my 1986 Donruss set sitting in the COMC guy's dollar bins.

Purchase #2:  Dollar Bin Purchase  $100

I probably should have started with these boxes, because they were loaded with all sorts of cool stuff.  Vintage.  Memorabilia cards.  Rookie cards.  Autographs.  Low numbered inserts and parallels.

One of my first finds was the 2006 Upper Deck Dustin Pedroia rookie card and after about an hour, I had pulled out 129 cards and 6 sets.  Here's a sampling of the stuff I found:

I was kind of shocked when we added up everything and was about to start putting cards back when he told me to take everything for $100.  That's about 75¢ per card.

After sifting through them at my house, I discovered that about half of the cards were damaged to some extent, which was kind of a bummer.  Oh well... you get what you pay for.

I'm still stoked that I found this minor league card of Edgar Martinez:

It wasn't the best deal in the purchase, but it's my second favorite card in the bunch right behind the Canseco, which as crazy as this sounds... actually booked for $100 back in 1990:

I realize that most people don't take Beckett's values seriously anymore, but back in the day... the card shop I worked at couldn't keep these in stock and routinely sold them for full Beckett value.

Based on percentage rather than actual value, can anyone think of other cards that have depreciated as much as or more than the 1986 Donruss Jose Canseco?

Purchase #3:  Dime Packs  $5

There's nothing Earth shattering here, but for the price of a Whopper and some fries at Burger King, I was able to pick up 58 packs for a rainy day.  I'm mostly looking forward to the 1980 Topps Footballer cards, which I'll eventually share over on APTBNL.


Purchase #4:  8x10 Cards  $2

There are a number of you who don't like these oversized cards, but when it comes to my player collections, I'll take them... especially when they're 8 for $1.

My favorite?

I've always loved this action shot of Nomo... and the Dufex technology is a nice added touch.

Purchase #5:  Sets  $8

My first four purchases were made with the COMC guy.  This one came on the other side of the show, where there was a guy selling complete sets for a buck each.  He seemed motivated to dump his sets, so there's a good chance I could have gotten these cheaper.  But there's no need to haggle when you're already getting a good deal.

After eight hours of hanging out at the show, I dropped $125 on a ton of cards.  Unfortunately... I accomplished neither of my original card show goals.  I'm still debating whether or not it was worth it.  On one hand, I got a lot of cool stuff for myself and fellow bloggers.  On the other hand, $125 would have easily paid for a PSA 4 graded Willie Mays or Sandy Koufax without cluttering my office with stacks of cardboard.

Who would have thought that card collecting could create such first world problems?

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

The Cream of the Crop

One of my favorite things about reading old Beckett and Tuff Stuff price guides are the different lists they created.  It's fun to reflect on what was popular back in the day and compare it to what's hot now.

This afternoon, I spent over an hour digging through my Tony Gwynn scans in an effort to list out my Top 10 favorite cards for a contest Collecting Cutch is holding over on his blog.  If you're interested in seeing other people's responses, click here.

Without further adieu...

#1: 1983 Topps #482/1983 O-Pee-Chee #143

This really shouldn't be a surprise, since I just wrote about for another contest a few weeks back.  The 1983 Topps baseball card design is one of my personal favorites.  The fact that it happens to contain the key rookie card of my all-time favorite player locks this card down at #1.  I decided to include his O-Pee-Chee rookie card too, because they're both in a league of their own.


#2:  1982 TCMA Hawaii Islanders #10

This is Gwynn's first official trading card and as of today, my second favorite card in the collection.

#3:  1999 UD Century Legends Epic Signatures #TG

I've been a big fan of autographs since the mid 90's and after almost twenty years, this set remains one of my favorite designs.

#4:  1993 Finest Refractor #77

I have a few Tony Gwynn refractors sitting in my collection, but none of them are as significant to our hobby as the 1993 Finest Refractors.  Prices on these cards have fluctuated a lot over the years.    There was a time in the late 90's when this particular card sold for hundreds of dollars.  After two decades, I finally added this card to my collection last April for $63.50, which seems pretty pricey for a 90's parallel.  However the last three copies to sell on eBay have sold for $107.61, $137.50, and $153.50, so I'm pretty happy with the price I paid.


#5:  2007 UD Sweet Spot Classic Signatures #TG

Upper Deck sure knew how to produced some amazing autographed cards.  Sweet Spot Signatures was one of them.  I love the color scheme and seeing a sepia tone photo of The Murph in the background.


#6:  2007 UD Masterpieces Stroke of Genius #GW

This is the third Upper Deck autograph of Gwynn to make the list and I know that I'm not the only one who misses UD Masterpieces.  C'mon MLB... bring UD back!  Bring UD back!  Bring UD back!


#7:  1992 Donruss The Elite Series #14

Anyone else here collected back in the day when a print run of 10,000 was considered super rare?  This card is a symbol of those times and I'm sure some of you can appreciate its hobby significance.

#8:  2013 Five Star Signatures #TGW

Surprise.  Surprise.  An autographed card not pulled from an Upper Deck product.  Honestly, Topps has produced it's fair share of beautiful autographed sets.  This is one of my favorites, because of the simple design.  The light background really helps the blue signature stand out.

#9:  1997 Upper Deck Game Jersey #GJ2

In 1996... Press Pass made cardboard history by embedding swatches of game used jerseys into their college basketball product.  Upper Deck joined them and created jersey cards for their football and hockey products.  The next year, they added baseball to their lineup and this Tony Gwynn card was born.

#10:  2002 UD Vintage Timeless Teams Bat Quads #2

How often do you find three first ballot hall of famers and the all-time home run leader on one memorabilia card?  But that's not what put this card into my Top 10 list.  It's the fact that it features my two favorite players of all-time on one single card.

Here are a few cards that fell just shy of making the list...

Honorable Mention #1 and #2:  1983 Donruss and Fleer Rookie Cards

I flip flop between which rookie card design I enjoy more.  I'll take the easy way out and call it a tie for today.

Honorable Mention #3:  2014 Topps Tier One Acetate #TOATGW

A while back, I targeted this card because it was one of the final sets that Tony Gwynn signed for before he passed away in 2014.  Although I'm not a huge fan of the smoke-like design in the background, I was pretty happy to add this on-card autograph to my collection.



Honorable Mention #4:  2013 Topps Triple Threads Relic Combos #TTRC-GHJ

This is my most recent Tony Gwynn and Rickey Henderson purchase.  Anytime I can find both of these guys on the same card, it's a must have for my collection.

Well there you go Collecting Cutch.  That's my Top 10 Tony Gwynn list for today.  Will it be that way six months?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Maybe one day, I'll go back and rerank them to see.

Until then...

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

One of a Kind

When I think of the biggest influences in my life, my parents are obviously the first people who come to mind... followed by other family members, friends, childhood teachers, and people I've met while teaching the past nineteen years.  

However the movie franchise, Star Wars, has played a pretty big role in my life as well.  Go ahead and laugh, but I'm totally being serious.

The first trading cards I ever collected were the 1977 Topps Star Wars cards, which eventually led me to collecting sports cards.  After years of collecting sports cards, I eventually worked at two different card shops where I met tons of fellow collectors and sports enthusiasts.

One of those people is my buddy Mike, who recently held a private signing with Jeremy Bulloch, who was the actor who played Boba Fett in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.  Like many Star Wars fans, Boba Fett is one of my favorite characters.  Over the years, I've slowly put together a small collection of his stuff.

Three years ago, Santa Cruz Skateboards produced a limited edition, hand assembled skateboard made of Mapa Burl, Rustic Burl, Walnut Burl, Padoik and Ebony wood veneers.  These skateboards had an MSRP of over $400, but NHS Fun Factory was blowing these out for $99.95 (free shipping) back in February.

The stars were aligned, because that's when Mike was putting together the private signing with Bulloch.  He ended up signing it in black Sharpie right under Boba's helmet and added the inscription "Boba Fett".

When Mike handed him the deck, he told him that this was the first time he's ever seen this skateboard before.  So I guess it's safe to say it's a "one of a kind" piece of Star Wars memorabilia.

Mr. Bulloch also signed my Funko Pop:

Both of these items are nice additions to my Boba Fett collection that now stands at a total of five signatures:

8x10 Photo

Official MLB Baseball

2015 Topps Tek Autograph

 Here are a few of my other pieces in my Boba Fett collection:

2014 Topps Chrome Helmet Medallion

Star Wars Black Series Figure

Santa Cruz Blister Pack Skateboard

2013 Hasbro Amazon Exclusive Slave I

I also own the 2015 Lego UCS Slave I, but I'm still honing my skills on simpler sets.  One of these days, I'll bust it out and build it though.

Until then... I'll continue to collect Star Wars memorabilia, watch everything and anything that Star Wars related, and celebrate special days like... May the Fourth.

Happy Star Wars Day and sayonara!

Symbol of Courage

When I think of 50's baseball cards, the first thing that pops into my head is the 1956 Topps set.  It's been my favorite set design for quite some time and I don't think that's going to change anytime soon.

So when I read the Day 9 topic in Tony's 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge, which is to show off one of your favorite cards from the 1950's, it would make sense for me to choose a card from this set.

Well today I'm feeling rebellious and decided to go with my 1959 Topps card of Roy Campanella:

1959 Topps #550

I remember seeing it sitting in the display case at the card shop I worked at in the early 90's and thinking what an amazing card.  Who can't appreciate a card honoring the courage of one of baseball's greatest catchers?  Plus the combination of the card's title, "Symbol of Courage" and seeing Campanella in his wheelchair with a huge smile on his face automatically makes me smile and feel inspired.

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure this card was fetching close to $100 back in the day and at the time I was a struggling college student making less than $5 an hour.

Two decades later, this card was still a "dream card" sitting in my Top 10 Wantlist, until one day Commishbob (a.k.a. The Five Tool Collector) generously donated this beautiful card to my collection.

Today it not only serves as a Symbol of Courage, it's also a Symbol of Generosity within our hobby and community.

That's why it'll always be one of my favorite baseball cards from the 1950's... even if it's not part of the beautiful 1956 Topps set.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!