Select Singles: Card Show Recap #26

Today's trip to the card show marked the end of the holiday Baseball card purchases for my Dad and me.

First came our annual Bowman's Best hobby box which delivered the greatest hit we've ever pulled. Now, a trip to the local card show to check in with the dealers, pick up some singles and grab a surprise that I'll be saving for tomorrow.

The first purchase that we made actually produced the content for this entire post, but I didn't expect our purchasing of singles to end there. I spent time searching through dime boxes, miscellaneous bins, and wandering the show floor, peeking into display cases.

That being said, however, nothing really caught my eye, so after being at the show for over an hour, we regrouped and made a decision as to how we'd spend the rest of our funds. The result will be the subject of tomorrow's post.

For now, I have 4, yes four select singles that I spent the better part of the show choosing. Though the total number of cards is less than what I typically amass, I chose each one carefully, and I'm very happy with the outcome as well as the price.

As you can see, the first card, shown at the top of this post, is a gorgeous combo card from Topps Gallery, the best one I've seen so far that features both Vladimir Guerrero and Vlad Jr. I've seen a few others online and even have one in my collection, but they can't compare to this masterpiece.

The closer I examine the card, the more little details I pick up, particularly the overarching theme of Canada, given that the teams are the Montreal Expos and the Toronto Blue Jays.

As if the artwork, specifically that of the uniforms, wasn't fabulous enough, the Canadian flag in the background brings it all together.

If you know about the Chicago Cubs teams from the late 1960s and early 70s then you'll understand why my Dad chose for us to add this '66 Topps rookie stars card of Bill Hands and Randy Hundley to our Cubs PC.

The photos may not be the most flattering, but there's always been a market for rookie cards, something that's been significantly enhanced over the last decade or so.

We wouldn't buy a card like this for just any team but in an effort to build-up our Cubs PC, we were more than willing to part with the $2 that this rookie stars card cost.

As far as Topps Flagship and, additionally, Topps Heritage is concerned, there's nothing better, in my opinion, than a well-executed combo card, and the Padres Power from 2019 Topps Heritage High Number is no exception.

Truth be told, I hadn't seen this card before in my life until I was searching through stacks at the card show today. I'm not the biggest Machado fan, but I have promised to "super" collect Fernando Tatis Jr, my favorite non-Red Sox or Cubs player in the game.

Once 2020 comes along, he'll no longer be considered a rookie, and the prices of Tatis Jr cards will be significantly lower than they've been this year.

However, if I'm going to pay for a Tatis Jr rookie card, at least I can find them for affordable prices at the card show, not to mention how lucky I am that they're available in the first place.

I was shut out when it came to Tatis Jr cards in the box of 2019 Bowman's Best that I opened, so I went into today's card show looking for a base card and possibly a refractor. While I didn't find the former of the 2, I found a gorgeous refractor that the scanner, per usual, did not do justice to.

If Topps isn't going to bless me with Tatis cards right out of the pack, at least I have the card show to help me out.