Focusing on Red Sox Cards; Card Show Recap #16

With my want list in-hand and certain goals rolling around in my head, I made the trip to the Mansfield card show today after being absent from shows completely for around 2 months.

With roughly 1 show per month, the Mansfield card show is a bigger shown than the Woburn show that I usually attend. It includes some of the same vendors as well as new dealers like the one I bought a lot of Red Sox cards from today.

I usually stay away from setting goals for myself at card shows simply because there's no real guarantee that I'll be able to find exactly what I'm looking for. 

However, I've learned that setting general goals, such as "pick up some nice Red Sox cards," can be accomplished while I might not have as much luck with a more specific goal like buying a certain card.

So when I walked into the card show earlier today, I had a mission to find some Red Sox cards in addition to some dime box pickups and a little bit of vintage. I'll begin today by showing what I was able to find for Red Sox cards, and you'll soon see that there was quite a wide range of different Sox cards for sale.

As I previously mentioned, the dealer I bought most of these Red Sox cards from doesn't sell at the Woburn show, so I took advantage of the fact that he was present at the Mansfield show by going after a few players, in particular, one of them being Rafael Devers.

Despite his injuries and batting average struggles in 2018, I still have high hopes for Devers, and apparently, Baseball America did as well with the A+ grade that they gave to the 3rd baseman in the 2017 Bowman's Best set. 3 of these cards will be going to the Devers player collection while the Heritage New Age Performers is a need for the 2018 set.

While I don't foresee myself buying a box of the product, I enjoy picking up singles from Topps Heritage Minor League of players that I collect in order to add some unique cards to my player collections. For $1 each, it was a no-brainer to pick up these 2 inserts of Devers from the 2017 product back when he was with the Red Sox's AA-affiliate, the Portland Seadogs.

If the card costs me a dime, I usually don't have a problem with unlicensed cards. With that being said, it takes something special for me to spend a few dollars or more on a card without MLB logos. 

Numbered 94/99, this silver framed parallel from 2018 Panini Diamond Kings is an elegant looking card dominated by dark and light grey shades. It's not your usual Red Sox card with tons of red on it, but that's part of the reason why I picked this card up for Devers' player collection.

Because he had a better overall 2018 season than Rafael Devers, Andrew Benintendi's cards were a bit more expensive, many of them more than I was willing to pay. He's still one of my favorite Red Sox players, so I picked up a couple of nice, non-numbered parallels for the Benintendi player collection nonetheless.

Unfortunately, this particular vendor did not have a section of his boxes dedicated to Craig Kimbrel like he did for other Red Sox players, but a little digging around resulted in me finding one of his rookie cards from 2011 Bowman for just a dollar. 

I also spotted an Archives encased auto of Kimbrel today, but my dad wisely advised me to hold off on his cards until he signs in free agency, either with the Red Sox or another team.

One thing that I was very pleased with was the variety of Red Sox players whom I purchased cards of today. Thanks to the vendor's excessive selection of both past and present stars, I was able to add to many of my Red Sox player collections. 

Included in the cards I purchased today was a few different high-end cards, including a Boggs and Bogaerts base card from the 2017 Topps Tribute set, cards that, in my opinion, are unnecessarily too thick.

Topps Triple Threads is usually a set that breaks the typical serial numbering of parallel cards from sets like Bowman Chrome and Topps Finest. With orange parallels out of 150 and greens out of 259, I was pleased to see affordable, high-end parallels of 2 of the greatest players in Red Sox history. 

It's a tough call, but I'd have to say the Williams is my favorite of the 2 because of the improved base set design with the 2018 Triple Threads product.

This is definitely a first for me; a Home Run Heroics card from 2004 Upper Deck Play Ball, featuring the box score from the game in which Ted Williams hit his 500th career home run. 

Easily one of the coolest cards I picked up today, the card has an old-time feel which is something I believe Upper Deck was going for with their Play Ball product. It's a pretty crazy card, and it's opened me up to an insanely cool insert set that I'll have to take a look at later on COMC.

The best word I can use to describe this 2004 Fleer In-Scribed Induction Ceremony relic card of Carlton Fisk is "awesome,' because this silver and black card takes the relic card to a whole new level. It's serial numbered out of just 100 copies, and this is one time where I'm actually thankful for the plain white jersey, for it goes well with the simple colors across the rest of the card. 

Every detail of the card is meticulously chosen, and it shows, big time, with this card already becoming one of my favorite relics in my collection.

Told you today was an excellent day for Rafael Devers cards. In addition to all the cards I showed before, I purchased my first-ever coin card today, also from 2017 Topps Heritage Minor League. Included on the card is a nickel that was minted in 1968, and the colors throughout the card really do embody what the 60s sets were all about.

For someone who doesn't plan on buying a box of Heritage Minor League, I certainly bought my fair share of Devers cards from that set today.

But even with coin cards, parallels, and a few oddballs as well, it was this Carlton Fisk relic card from 2010 Topps Triple Threads that captured my attention more than any other card today, and not just because the card is numbered out of 27, Fisk's jersey number from his time in Boston.

Rarely do you see a card that consists of as many bats or jersey pieces as this Carlton Fisk relic, spelling out his successes from the 1972 season. His All-Star appearance, Rookie of the Year award, and Gold Glove award are all spelled out in pieces of his bat as well as the season that he accomplished all these feats.

I picked up my first Triple Threads letter relic, for the lack of a better word, a couple of weeks ago, featuring Chris Sale and numbered to 9. Now, I'll have a Carlton Fisk to accompany the Sale card, and it's the crown jewel of a stellar selection of Sox cards from today.