Show the show

The stars aligned this weekend, allowing me to drop the dog off for her grooming early in the morning, then heading out to hit the monthly show in Orland. I've been overdue hitting the show. My '64 set build has been stalled since I cannot find what I want at the price I am willing to spend. And the past couple visits to the Orland show has shown no sign of my vintage seller. Also, I have a few sets I need to complete and the right seller's dime boxes would help. If anything, I would get a few hours digging for cards, and that makes for a good day.

Arriving, I did my usual - a lap around just to see who was there. My vintage guy? Check. Cheap dime box set filler guy? Check. Both of them, however, had no room for digging, so I found a new seller with dime boxes, and I pulled a Nick on him, finding 100 from a 5k count box. Ok - maybe a 15% Nick, but still quite the stack.

Quite the assortment of cards, and thankfully the local teams were not pulled out, so I found a few Cubs cards for a couple people. Not sure what that gem background Bere Bowman card is, but I wouldn't pass it for a dime. Same with the Alvarez minor league card.

Custom binders were well represented. I also found the chrome of the Galarraga in the upper left. I almost passed on the '68 Chico, figuring I had it. But then I thought "it's only a dime, so I took a chance. I needed it. I wish I found a 2nd copy of that McGwire Homerun Heroes, and you will see in a couple seconds.

Yes - I am building the 2009 Upper Deck set, so finding a couple cards, along with a dozen from the Team USA subsets were a good dig. As were 7 Homerun Heroes insert cards from a couple years of UD. I need to organize what I have so I know what I need. That El Duque GQ card? It's a short print. And it was a dime.

Now the other GQ was part of 20 I found at the set builder's dime boxes, along with 4 cards for the Stadium Club build. I'm shocked at the lack of SC in any set building boxes. I may have to buy a lot online. Might be better off taking a chance on another box at the price I'll pay.

Complete White Sox 2016 Diamond Kings team set? Yes please. But why is Sale only a relic in the set and no base card?

Player collections from the set builder's Chicago dime box. Man Donruss is ugly. Just ugly.

YES!!! I marked off 17 cards from my vintage guys 3 for a buck bin. But before you pat me on the back, that Killebrew was not 33 cents. But I thought 2 bucks was a fair price even in its condition.

Another great part of 3 for a buck bin is finding Sox vintage team set needs. I found a total of 4 - I didn't scan the 1960 card I found, but trust me on the price. Had some paper loss on the back.

Harmon was almost the most expensive purchase, but I decided to round up my set builder's dime box purchase of 120 cards (Nick 18%) with this card for a whole 3 dollars.

Yeah, I know he is no longer a Sox, but I thought I may as well pick it up for $3. I hated the thought of making sure he had singles.

And just as I paid, my phone goes off letting me know the grooming is done. Perfect timing. Hit the road and picked up my well coifed pooch.

From 1 to 10, we'll call it 11

This post has been delayed a couple days. My brain just hasn't been in the frame of mind to talk or think because this stupid butt muscle of mine is getting no better, and in fact seems to be getting worse. A couple weeks back, my doctor diagnosed it as piriformis syndrome. The main gist is this: the piriformis muscle, in your tush right under good ol' gluteus maximus, is inflamed and/or tight. This muscle controls turning your leg in and out, and the sciatic nerve runs right next to it or even thru it, so any issue with the piriformis will give you the pain down your leg. Anyway, nothing is helping. I can barely do the stretches from the pain and limited motion. Anti inflammatory drugs don't seem to be making a difference, and in addition to the shooting pain and tingling, I now have hip pain, calf pain and a bunch of other crap occuring. I'm basically falling apart it seems.

Sometimes, while standing up or sitting down, the pain is beyond unbearable. I am like a flamingo getting out of the car, standing on the left leg and slowly extending the right while the hamstring attempts to loosen. It's almost brought me to tears from the level of pain, but I will not be defined by this injury. I hate when they ask me to give the pain a number. When I am flailing like a rag doll to try and get myself in a comfortable position, 10 seems to low.

Yeah - right.

I get some sick joy in saying or acting in a way that will leave people with their mouth agape and a deer-in-the-headlights look in their eyes, but having your doctor looking that way doesn't qualify as a positive. So I have a MRI scheduled, along with an X-ray and physical therapy. No change in 2 weeks, or nothing on the photos and I go to a specialist. Yay me (not really).

Right now, though, I am hopped up on Norco, and I really need to give a shout out to Brian at HSCA. His mailing was the largest of the conspiracy mailings, plus an 11 in the opposite direction of the pain scale, that I have to break it out into a couple posts, so bear with me. Think of me as your pirformis as you read through these two posts - I am a pain in the ass anyway.

If my numbers are correct, Brian just about filled a 300 count box with about 262 cards. I've mostly sorted them all, so here are some of the major highlights from Brian generosity.

We'll start with the White Sox portion - 111 cards sent. I have thought about a Durham player collection for a while - I like 2nd basemen and I have a lot of Ray's cardboard. These three went to the Sox box for now. That Rookie Cup in the center is the very first I have of that set. I'm surprised it took me that long to get one, and in a mailing too. Have never seen one from that set even in a dime box. Jury is out if the Flair is a double play. I'm saying it is, but won't go in the binder.

The 90's, amirite? The 90's in baseball cards is like the late 70's in fashion - what the hell were we thinking?

I know one card that is losing it's protective cover. Love that 1970 Kellogg's May, though it's actually an image from 1968. The Sox dropped the pinstripes on the home uniforms in 1969, and also changed the cap logo to somewhat match the script on the chest.

Woo-hoo! Lots of bunting cards in the box. Yet another sighting of Brett Butler laying one down. Third basemen must have hated him. And hey look - Rookie Cup again. That makes 2 cards. When done properly, there is nothing sweeter than a drag bunt.

Juan doing his thing as well. I'll have to run a report and see who is the 2nd most in the bunting binder after Butler. Pierre is up there, as is Otis Nixon. I love how my scanner makes Bowman Heritage foil cards electric blue.

VINTAGE!!! Technically, McAuliffe is a dupe, but I wanted to show that beauty off with the other cards. I now realized I put the two Angels players side by side. Stupid OCD. Brian sent 69 cards of bunting ballplayers. I believe about 20 were new entries.

These may have been put in as Sox entries, but all were added to the respective player collections. Rowand now totals 56 cards and Konerko is sitting at 332. Or something like that, because when I entered a card into Zistle, it turned out I had it in the binder, so now I have to organize the thing to find out what I missed. By my rough count, I think I should be at 335. First world problems.

We'll stop today with this last image. In the mailing, Brian dropped 45 throwbacks on me. Unfortunately, I think just 4 were new. I thought many more would be added. I should take that binder out and thumb through it to appreciate what I have. But these three are great in their own rights. One of may favorite uniforms on Jackson with the San Fran Seals. A nice Negro uniform on Greinke. And that Broussard is a great card in the long run. The fact he is wearing a throwback to the 54-57 Cleveland uniforms is the icing on the cake.

Ok - that's all for part 1. We'll talk about the rest of the box on Friday, I hope. Depends on the butt, but I am going to fight through it.

What I've been buying

I really just have one trade package to post, and my brain isn't too witty today. Instead, I made a recent purchase off Sportlots for some set fillers, and to pad out the envelope for shipping costs, filled the order to each seller with some PC cards. I went to Sportlots mainly becuase I wanted two cards to knock out the 2012 Panini Golden Age base set, and I would have spent over $4 for the two cards with shipping via COMC. I knew I could do better elsewhere. JustCommons didn't have what I needed, but a few sellers on Sportlots did the trick. So the '12 Golden Age is done. I miss that set - do wish there was a 2015 version, but oh well.

I focused on three of my player collections - Crede, Rowand and Petrick. When all was said and done, added 10 new Joes, 5 new Bens and 9 new Aarons.

Here's 4 of the 5 Petricks. I am still behind Arpsmith in regard to my Ben Petrick collection. You would have thought that UD base card would be easy to stumble across, but nope. I am a huge fan of Gold Label. That set was far too short lived for the quality of the cards. My Petrick collection sits at 88 cards.

Crede pickups were across the board. I have the autographed version of the Boys of Summer, but not the base, until now.

More Gold Label! I like the framing of the Authentix - less of a ticket and more of a mini matted photograph.

There's the last Petrick. That is not the base Topps, but a "limited edition", according the the foil near the bottom. Not sure what that means, except that I needed the cars. The Team Heroes in the center is one bizarre format. Kind of an upside down '15 Gypsy Queen look to it. No justice to the Certified Cuts scan card at the lower right. Much nicer in hand. Crede collection now at 143 cards.

Couple Phillie cards in the Rowand pile. I wish the Turkey Red wasn't of a softball jersey, though. Could have been much nicer if it was the road grays.

Last of the mailings for Rowand. I forget that he wore 44 in the first two years he was in the bigs on the south side, moving to the more familiar 33 in 2003. The Chrome at the lower right is the most interesting card. And not because of the front.

It took me two seconds of looking at that to realize that is not Rowand on the back. That's Konerko. Rowand's base Topps card for that year has the same incorrect back. Uncorrected error. I'M RICH! My Rowand collection is the lowest of these three at just 53 cards.

JustCommons order goes out soon to add more for each of these players.

BARNEY'd!

As I have mentioned, by desk is at the front of my house. To my immediate right is window that looks out on the street and my mailbox is in plain view. I can see the postal worker drive up to the mailboz and slide in any mail addressed to my home. Even while I am working, I can steal a glance to my right and see what's going in the box, giving me an idea what I may be pulling out when I take the trek to the street. Basically, if one of you sent me something in a manila package, I can see it leaving the driver's hand. If it's a PWE, it's a surprise when I open the box.

I ATE THE FREE SAMPLE OF CHEERIOS!

That's not to say I'm still not surprised. For the second time, I saw the mail carrier slide in a purple package.

It took me until I retrieved it from the mailbox that I remembered this is the 2nd shiny purple mailer I have received from Weston at the awesome Fantastic Catch. Yeah, the mailer is that bright when the light hits it. You can see the two team bags Weston sent over, And boy did he load them up with binder additions.

Two new cards for the player collections for Iguchi and Rowand. The Iguchi was in my Zistle list, but as a throwback binder entry - it went in before I started the player collection. It was one of the cards in my collection that bugged me, because it was in two different custom collections online. Now, that is fixed.

Three cards off the 2009 OPC team checklists. When I pulled the Sox card, I was certain I must have screwed up my want list, or Weston misread it. Nope - it was needed.

The custom collections is where Weston really knocked it out. Seven new bunting cards were added as well as a couple double play cards. Jesus at the bottom left is a refractor, or whatever the hell Prizm calls them.

Weston also included 33 throwback cards, of which 11 are new additions to the binder. And so much wonderful cardboard. I keep forgetting about Rizzo's top from the Cubs 100th anniversary uniforms. So much 70's in the rest of the cards. And if Oakland doesn't bring back those old Philly A's throwback, I will stop cheering for them.

Wait - I am being told I have never cheered for the A's. How about that?

Weston, I appreciate and praise the purple packaged postal parcel.

A rookie no more

In the MLB, you are considered a rookie as long as you have had less than 130 at bats, less than 50 innings pitched or spent less than 45 days on the active roster of the team. For the NFL, you are only a rookie if you are on an NFL team for the first time - any time spent in Canada or Arena don't count. That's about the same for the NBA. In the NHL, you need to be younger than 26 and played less than 25 games the previous season.

Julie, over at A Cracked Bat, has been around long enough she is no longer a rookie. And when she sends you unsolicited packages, then she gets the All Rookie logo on her 2nd year card. A while back, Julie dropped an envelope of goodness for the boxes and binders in my house. From the Sox box, to the player collections and the relics, Julie added a lot of cardboard to my collection.

I don't seek out box toppers. If I buy a box (rare) and get one, then awesome. I certainly will not turn down a box topper and repect each one I have. See what I did there? That Obak is straight up awesome. A card like that bumps another bunting card from the first page to the back of the binder.

Lots of shiny cards too. Alexei went to the throwback binder. Durham went to the DP binder. Johnson hit the Sox box.

So much for my player collections. It's hard to pick a favorite. The best thing about packages are cards I never thought about being added to my collection. I'm not a prospect hunter, so hunting for early cards of any player collections is off my radar.

Dang near complete set of Fleer Flair? Ok. Nice posed fielding shot of Alvarez. Or he's constipated.

The sheer amount of Big Hurt cardboard astounds me. Again, I am not making a player collection of him. One day I'll figure out how much space the Big Hurt takes up in the Sox box.

WHOA!!! Julie packed the evelope with some great hits. An UD Goodwin when they had a MLB license ('09 was a great set), a Topps Triple Threads Dunn to the odd number of 18, and a sweet Lopez auto that goes into the bunting binder. That's two cards that got the bump to the back!

Jules, I am working on a return package. You put the pressure on me to make it a good one.

No, I'm last.

Chris at the awesome Nacho Grande threw up a post today about a package he received from the awesome Junior Junkie. It was the mailing he received from the Brooklyn Bridge length receipt that TJ created from a bevy of mailings that went out. Chris made the comment that everyone else had posted about what they got in the mail so he might as well be last. Not so fast, partner.

I'm-a gittin'

I was another one on that list of many, and TJ did another fantastic job in packing an envelope with cardboard.

Player collections cards for Rowand, Konerko and Crede. Yeah - that one on the right in silver, not blue.

Shiny cards. That Thome looks better in person - the silhouette didn't scan well in the background.

Instant rainbows of former White Sox prospects.

Junk wax team sets. Take a close look at them. Either TJ was being a goof and penny sleeved the set before packing (a possibility knowing him), or someone really thought these would have value in the coming years.

Seventeen new cards for the bunting binder. Young in the upper left is wisely pulling back the bat on a high pitch.

Two sweet relic cards. It's nice the Sale and Santos swatches are different colors.

This last one is interesting. A serialed, uncirculated Magglio card still in the Topps sealed card holder. And it was destined for me - LOOK AT THE NAME! Well, the Topps foil sticker wasn't sealing the case anymore so...

BE FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE MAGILLA!!!!! Thanks again TJ.