Best Player Collection Pickups From the Shriner's Show

As usual, I made the most of last Sunday's Baseball card show and dedicated lots of time and resources towards boosting my many player collections. 

The focal point of my entire Baseball card collection, I usually try to add cards to my player collections at every show that I attend. This never proves to be overly difficult, for the sheer number of players I collect combined with the millions of cards out there guarantees that, as a player collector, I'll never be bored.

Whether it's a search through the dime bins or a visit to my Baseball card show's case breaker, I'm looking for some new player collection cards virtually everywhere I go. They are, and will always be my #1 priority as far as my Baseball card collection is concerned.

Likewise, I was looking for cards for my numerous player collections throughout last Sunday's Shriner's show, no matter what vendor I was buying from. In some instances, I was searching solely for Red Sox PC additions. Other times, I kept my eyes open for whatever I could find to boost my 250 different player collections.

While I can't say that I've ever had an unsuccessful card show, I successfully added a few hundred new cards to my player collections last Sunday, something I don't accomplish all too often. I'm accustomed to purchasing roughly $20 worth of dime cards at every show that I attend, but I went above and beyond at the Shriner's show.

I bought cards for my player collections from every vendor that I did business with last Sunday. Needless to say, I wound up with some pretty stellar PC pickups, so I've decided to showcase those cards on the blog today.

The cards aren't in any particular order, but here are the greatest player collection pickups from last Sunday's trip to the Shriner's show.

First things first, I'm ecstatic to officially declare that the Pedro Martinez player collection has achieved the platinum tier mark following the Shriner's show. I now have 206 cards of the Hall of Fame pitcher, yet only 11 of them are Expos cards.

I don't remember exactly what I paid for this card, but it was far from unreasonable. I never quite realized how rarely I come across cards of Pedro on the Expos, and that made me appreciate this card even more.

The final vendor that I visited on Sunday was one that I do quite a lot of business with at the Woburn show which I frequently attend. He's a case breaker, and thus, he always has base cards, parallels, and inserts from the new releases.

I hadn't seen him since 2019 Topps Gypsy Queen was released, so my eyes were immediately drawn to the hobby box-exclusive chrome cards from this product. Not only did I pick up Scherzer, but I grabbed chrome cards of Jacob DeGrom and Nolan Arenado as well.

The GQ chrome cards are some of the most beautiful cards that I've seen in quite some time. It would've been foolish of me to pass up the opportunity to add a few of these chrome stock cards to my player collections.

I showcased this card yesterday during my PC overview of Reggie Jackson, but I'll gladly feature it on the blog once again today. This High Tek Orange diffractor card from 2018 is numbered out of just 25 copies. Topps, I've noticed, likes to keep it consistent with a majority of their colored parallel numbering. 9 times out of 10, an orange parallel/refractor will be numbered out of 25.

This is the first numbered card of Reggie Jackson in my entire collection, and it's everything that I love about modern cards. It's excessive, undoubtedly, but there's something magical about the combination of the orange background and the iconic gold and green A's uniform.

I've probably purchased enough of these 2001 Topps Combos cards to come close to completing the insert set, but I don't think I've bought one of the chrome versions until last weekend. 

Once again, I'm not sure how much I paid for this card. However, regardless of the price, this card is one of the greatest pickups from the entirety of last Sunday's show. The 2001 Topps Combos inserts, on their own, are appreciated by card collectors. With that being said, the chrome version elevates these fabulous cards to a much higher level.

The "Sweetness" card features arguably the 2 greatest overall hitters in Baseball history; Ted Williams and Tony Gwynn. While I collect both of these guys, the Red Sox usually take priority so this will be going to the Ted Williams PC.

Rest assured, the 2001 Topps Chrome card wouldn't be the last combo card that I picked up at the show. I added 2 additional vintage combo cards to my Al Kaline and Wille Mays player collections. Totaling roughly the price of 1 hanger box of Series 1/Heritage, the cards are from 1958 and 1960 Topps respectively.

Combo cards may not be as valuable as a base card of the same player(s) from the same set, but I've always loved the style and names associated with combo cards from the late 50s and 1960s. The Kaline combo card is one of many that I'm familiar with from the 1958 Topps set.

On the other hand, the Mays combo card from 1960 Topps could very well be the oldest card that I own of his. Although I'm not familiar with Rigney, I can only assume he's Mays' manager.

From funky modern parallels to classic vintage combo cards, and everything in between, I ended up with a huge range of different player collection additions from last Sunday's show. 

Truth be told, it's cards like the ones above that symbolize exactly what I love the most about being a player collector.