The Best the Dime Bins Had to Offer: Card Show Recap #9 Part 2

It began with an unexpected discovery of multiple 2018 baseball cards. But by the end of my time at the dime bins at yesterday's card show, it had turned into far more. I ended up with a grand total of 180 cards, 19 of which are from 2018. All 161 other cards are from an endless amount of brands, sets, and years. Though, most of them are from the 2010's. Then again, these dime bins are typically overflowing with 2010's baseball cards anyway.

The recent online organization of my player collections via Google sheets has truly inspired me to take my player collections to the next level. I realize that I shouldn't be looking at my player collections only by the number of cards in them, but seeing the numbers while scrolling down on each player's sheet inspires me to keep going. It gives me a realistic goal. For example, my Hank Aaron collection was at 97 cards before yesterday's show? My goal? Get that player collection to 100.

Well, I was unable to reach that goal due to the dime bins not having a single Hank Aaron card. However, I was able to achieve certain other goals such as expanding Joey Votto's collection to over 90 cards and getting new cards of players I haven't gotten to in a while such as Joe Mauer.

I was also able to pick up some set needs from the 2 dime boxes I ended up looking through. I actually picked up 4 cards from 2017 Topps Salute. 1 was from Series 2 which I am not collecting, so onto Sportlots it goes. Another was a double of Albert Pujols which will go towards his player collection. So, I ended up going 2/4 with this Brandon Belt card and the Luke Weaver card being the 2 that ended up being needs for my 2017 Salute Series 1 set.

I also found a couple cards that I needed in order to complete the 2016 100 Years of Wrigley Field insert set. With the addition of these 2 cards, I am now just 8 cards away from completing this insert set. Unlike Salute, I don't think this was continued in Series 2. But if it was, I'll definitely have to make a plan to complete this at a bit of a faster rate.

Moving on to player collection cards, these 1991 Topps Stadium Club Members Choice cards, which I can only assume are the predecessor of Members Only, were some of the many sets that, like in most dime bins, came to me in groups. There were about 6 different Members Choice cards. I only took home 2. One of Ripken and one of Ryan, and if you ask me, that's all I need from this set. 

Despite a sizeable gap in time between the 1991 and 2017 Stadium Club, the concept is still very much the same, and the execution of the set has done nothing but improve year after year. I originally thought this Bobby Abreu card was just a base card, which I knew I had. But this subtle Stadium Club black parallel was quickly spotted and added to my stack.

Like I said, Stadium Club sets come in groups. For example, I don't believe I had ever seen more than 1 or 2 of these 1995 Bowman's Best cards before Sunday. Now, I own 4 cards from the set of players I collect. The names are very hard to read, even in-hand. In fact, I had to look at the Billy Wagner in the top left corner for a good 15 seconds before discovering who it was. Thank god Topps has improved their chrome cardstock since then. I can't imagine having to squint at cards to see the name in this decade.

Actually, I take that back. Because 2015 Bowman exists.

Another set I had barely seen before Sunday's show was the DK Originals insert set from 2015 Panini Diamond Kings. I've always said that the best way to produce an unlicensed card is to not make the logoless photo quite as obvious. The Ichiro does a solid job of this. The Bumgarner, not so much. Too much cap for me. They should've cut it out a little bit more like they did for the Ichiro card.

It would be nearly impossible to do it, but I can at least dream of owning every card of Randy Johnson on the Expos ever made. The Expos jerseys are some of my favorites of all-time. Plus, Randy Johnson is a personal favorite pitcher of mine. I knew that this card existed, but when I saw it in the dime boxes yesterday, I realized I still didn't have it. Well, now I do. And it's just as amazing as the 2017 Gypsy Queen card of him on the Expos that I got a little over a month ago. Though that one was an SP, so it cost me a bit more than just a dime. 

Another card from 2017 Topps Archives that I found was this Winner variation of Whitey Herzog which was one of 3 variations of 2017 Archives. The others were grey backs for the 1960 cards and missing black plates for the 1982 cards. I don't think I own a single additional card of Herzog, but I absolutely love the powdered blue Royals jersey. Unless I can make a decent amount on the card on Sportlots, it'll probably go into a frankenset. The card is incredibly nice, especially for a dime.

I found some various Allen & Ginter inserts that I needed for player collections as well, beginning with 2017 What A Day cards. I realize some people think the set is overdone at 100 cards, and I can't disagree. But the concept behind the set is very cool, and I don't think just any Topps product could pull this kind of thing off.

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure many other products could have pulled off The Numbers Game insert set from 2016 Allen & Ginter. Maybe Gypsy Queen, since this was before the product started to go downhill. But other than that, Allen & Ginter was the easy choice for this insert set.

And while we're talking about Allen & Ginter, I may as well bring up this 2008 Allen & Ginter rookie card of Evan Longoria that I found in the dime bins as well. I guess rookie cards aren't as valuable as they used to be, but you'd think this card is worth more than a dime. After all, Longoria is sure to reach well over 100 RBI in his carer, will probably get to 3,000 hits, and could finish his career with a .280 batting average if all goes right. 

Then again, that's the beauty of the dime bins. You can find steals like this if you look hard enough.