30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Monday, February 20, 2023

Something You'd Find at a Souvenir Store


Last week was a little hectic.  A couple of long work days paired with a trip down to Las Vegas to hang out with my dad.  But it's Monday.  I'm back in the Bay Area.  I've got the whole week off and the goal is to finally ship out care packages.

I'll be spending today and tomorrow putting them together.  I also have a doctor's appointment scheduled for tomorrow.  My left wrist has been giving me problems for a few weeks and it's time to see what the deal is.

On Wednesday, I'm having two new electrical boxes installed in my ceiling along with four new smoke detectors.  Later in the day, I have a dentist appointment to get my dental implant post installed.  On Thursday I'm hoping to get my taxes done and possibly get an oil change in one of my cars.

But today it's all about cards.  In the spirit of President's Day... here are a pair of cards that were part of a shoebox purchase I made two summers ago.  It was right around the peak of the hobby boom and I set up as a dealer at my buddy's card show.  It was truly an experience of a lifetime.  I won't rehash the story, but if you're interested click here.  

I walked a way with a nice wad of cash in my pocket... and had no plans of forking it over to other dealers.  But I came across a guy with a box filled with 2018 The Bar base and relic cards at a very good price that barely scratched my pay day.

Nineteen months later, I'm finally writing about two Ronald Reagan PC additions from the box:

2018 The Bar Pieces of the Past Mementos Relics #NNO

2018 The Bar Pieces of the Past Antiquity Edition Relics #NNO

Yes.  These look cheesy and something someone made out of my garage (which is probably why I was able to buy stacks and stack of them for about 30¢ each.

The relics appear to be newspaper clippings.  One of them mentions his name, while the other mentions Patty HearstAre these technically a piece of the past?  Yeah.  But I'm guessing most people find these things nothing more than novelties you'd find in a Las Vegas souvenir store.


If you look closely... on the back of the card, it states that you can visit www.thebartradingcards.com to view the artifact that was used to create this relic card.  It took a little digging, but if you're interested... I think these are the artifacts they are referring to.

There are a few other relics that I may show off in the future for specific holidays or historical events, but we'll see.

Happy President's Day!  I'm off to start building some care packages.  Happy Monday and sayonara!

14 comments:

Greg Zakwin said...

Love unique adds like these, congrats!

The Angels In Order said...

"...but today it's all about the cards..." Indeed. Busy life but gotta get to the cards as often as you can.

Chris said...

I've seen a few of these on COMC and the concept misses the mark for me (and judging by that low price I'm not alone) I think the cards would look nicer without the newspaper square embedded in the middle, and if they wanted to use "pieces of the past" maybe the newspaper pieces could be card-sized inserts on their own? Just a thought.

Enjoy your week off!

The Lost Collector said...

Love to see you doing stuff for you during the time off (minus the dental work!).

The Diamond King said...

Interesting, I had not seen those before. Sounds like you are planning on getting a lot done with your week off. Not something I can relate to lately!

Dennis said...

"Invaders from the planet Moooolah!" I've seen some folks play that slot, it has a pretty good bonus.

I hope all goes well with your wrist and the rest of your week!

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

First, I love that first card, awesome! Second, I remember when "The Bar" came out, those cards weren't that cheap back then. Great grabs!

Nick Vossbrink said...

Oh man I get my implant post installed in three weeks. I know things are supposed to get increasingly simple but ugh.

night owl said...

You know, I should like newspaper "relics" more than most, given my profession, but I don't get this. I'm not even crazy about collecting the so-called "cards" that newspapers used to print in issues.

I'll remember you this week when I'm trying to cram errands around a 45-hour work week.

Anonymous said...

Finally good to know there are card shows happening! I was at a little card show over here in South Carolina and there was an odd gentleman sitting near a Topps display and every time I set my items down on the table near them I would be like “Hey, can I help you?” And finally he’s like “Dude, I’m Charlie O’Brien” and boy did I feel stupid. He’s actually really cool and he went on about how he argued with a representative from Topps for hours to get a card in the 1993 Finest set to no avail. He also said he had a baseball bat in his garage that he took from Mark Carreon as a prank, forgot that he left it in his bag and hasn’t called Mark about it yet. He’s had that frikkin bat since like 1992!

Great stories! Glad to see you’re posting more often!

gcrl said...

i am not a fan of what the bar has put out on to the market, but those reagan cards without the paper insert would be interesting.

also, i read the title of the post to the tune of "raspberry beret".

Jon said...

I'm pretty late to the post, but I hope that your week is going well so far, and that the remainder of it will continue to do so :)

Fuji said...

greg zakwin - thanks. lots of interesting names on the checklist. the relics are mostly just cuts from books and newspapers, but i guess that's unique

the angels in order - agreed. i got some card related stuff done... but not nearly as much as i had hoped.

chris - sad to see the week off come to an end. i don't like the 2nd reagan relic nearly as much as the first. not sure why they thought it was a good idea to block his chin with a newspaper clipping

the lost collector - crossed some key things off the to-do list this week (at least earlier in the break). the second part was mostly out of commission. the dental thing was not very fun and the wrist thing hasn't gotten better.

the diamond king - things were pretty productive up until the oral surgery. then... things slowed down fast.

dennis - lol. that's the line you wait around to hear from the slot, because it signals the bonus and hopefully a decent payoff.

johnnys trading spot - do you need any of the presidents? i think i might have some dupes laying around.

nick vossbrink - the procedure was pretty quick, but oh man... after the lidocaine (or whatever they use in the shot) wears off... it's not a lot of fun. good luck buddy.

night owl - hope you were able to get all of your errands done. i tip my cap to you, because i have no idea how you write all of those posts while working 45 hours a week and being a father/husband with normal everyday stuff to take care of.

anonymous - anytime you get a chance to interact with a mlb player... it's pretty cool. sucks that he didn't get that finest card.

gcrl - now that you pointed it out... i'm hearing raspberry beret too :D

jon - it went well up until the oral surgery. it's sunday and my gum is finally returning back to normal. but can't complain. the first part of my break was very productive

Jafronius said...

I'm not getting how a newspaper clipping is a relic from the President. It's like taking a screenshot of a comment to Fuji and saying it's an authentic Fuji relic.

I also tried the link just now and GoDaddy says it's available!