$5 Cards; Card Show Recap #25 Part 2

In what will likely be my final Baseball card haul until Black Friday (I'll either buy cards on COMC or head to the Mansfield show), I decided to vary in what I purchased so that I ended up with a wide range of different cards.

After initially picking up a stack of 90s oddballs and 2010s Red Sox cards, I wandered through the show floor with nothing particular in mind that I was searching for. As is often the case, I didn't have to look that long before I came across something of interest, a 2-row box of cards marked at $5 each.

Once I'd spent several minutes searching through the stacks of $5 cards, I knew where I'd be spending the rest of my time and money at the show. The bin didn't consist solely of Baseball cards, but there were, nonetheless, gems scattered across the 2 different rows.

Whereas I sometimes have to narrow down what I purchase to fit a certain budget, there were exactly 8 cards that caught my eye. Thankfully, I didn't have to swap any of them out and was able to secure every one of them.

The first one I chose was a 1960 Topps card of Brooks Robinson, one of my favorite Flagship designs of all-time. Robinson is one of my gold tier player collections, meaning I have over 100 cards of the 15-time All-Star. This new pickup, however, is now the oldest card that I own of Robinson.

While each of the other 7 cards in this lot is a base card, the Joe Morgan card above is actually the only relic in the group, a bat relic numbered out of 99 from 2016 Panini Pantheon.

I purchased this card with a full understanding of the fact that relics aren't what they used to be because I believed that a $4 HOF relic was too good of a deal to pass up. The concept, however, is where I'm a tad confused.

This bat relic is from a subset called Gallant Gloves, so wouldn't it make much more sense for the memorabilia to be from one of Morgan's game-used gloves? Or if Panini can't get enough gloves to produce these cards, name the card something else.

Still, I purchase inexpensive Hall of Fame relics whenever I get the opportunity, and the Joe Morgan bat relic, despite the contradictory name, fits the bill.

2011 Topps Update is obviously known for the iconic Mike Trout rookie card, but the set is also home to first-year players such as Jose Altuve, Paul Goldschmidt, and Anthony Rizzo.

Though I'll likely never come across a Mike Trout rookie card for a reasonable price, I can at least say that I have some of the other top rookies' cards from the highly sought after set, those players being Jose Altuve and, now, Anthony Rizzo.

Rizzo has been one of my favorite players in the game over the last several years. His consistency, both offensively and defensively, is truly remarkable, and I can only imagine what today's Red Sox team would be like if he was still a part of their organization.

His rookie card might not be the most valuable of the bunch, but I'm, nonetheless, thrilled at the price I paid to add this card to my Rizzo player collection.

The $5 price point was to steep for me to take a risk and purchase a card that I may already have in my collection, so I decided to check my player collection spreadsheets before adding this 1974 Topps Nolan Ryan card to the stack that I was amassing. Sure enough, I didn't have the card, but I do now.

This card, along with a few other .50 cent cards from yesterday's show, is getting me even closer to the 500-card mark that I'd like for the Ryan PC to reach by the end of the year.

The current total, with the additions from the card show, is around 485, and I'd like to get to 500 without explicitly buying 15 Nolan Ryan cards on COMC.

Because league leaders cards, particularly those from the 1960s and 2010s, often feature multiple players whom I collect, I need to have some way to decide which player collection the card will go towards.

I have a rule that the card will go to the highest-ranking player who also happens to be one of my player collections. I don't have a PC for Sandy Koufax (though I really should), so this 1967 Topps card, noting the '66 NL wins leaders, will go to Juan Marichal.

There's something about rookie cup cards, particularly those with the tall trophies from the 1960s, that never fails to captivate my attention. Plus, vintage rookie cup cards are a nice, inexpensive alternative to rookie cards, yet they're a tad more interesting than just a simple base card.

The condition of this 1968 Topps Tom Seaver card might not be too stellar, but the All-Star rookie trophy along with the extremely fair price helps me look past the crease down the middle of the card. Not to mention, the '68 Topps base set design happens to be one of my favorites.

The final 2 cards from the 8-card purchase are set needs, the first of which I have been trying to track down for quite some time now. I'm talking about Hank Aaron's final Topps Flagship card, an iconic shot of the true home run king as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers.

As is typical for the 1976 Topps set, the card features a daring color combination (pink and purple) that Topps was, somehow, able to pull off. Before Sunday's show, I hadn't seen a fairly-priced '76 Aaron card, so it was huge for me to check such a major card off the list.

Now, as far as I know, there isn't another big card like Aaron's standing in my way of completing this set.

 The most critical pick up from yesterday's show, undoubtedly, would have to be the 1961 Topps Willie McCovey card above, another major set need, of mine that I can now cross off the want list.

Unlike '76 and '79 Topps, there are several expensive veteran and 1 rookie (Juan Marichal) cards standing in my way of completing the 1961 Topps set. While I was able to make progress at The National, there's still a long way for me to go if I want to complete this 589-card set.

Adding this McCovey card to my collection is huge because it's another Hall of Famer, not to mention a high number, that I don't have to worry about.

But with Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and most of the All-Star cards still on my radar, I'll have to hope that another bargain like this comes my way.