All For Half the Cost of a Blaster; Card Show Recap #24

Ever since I got back from The National, I've felt torn when it comes to where and how I'd like to buy my cards, and I've yet to find a solution to this newfound confusion.

Usually, whether I come home with a stack of dime cards or a hobby box, I'm thrilled with what I've purchased, but that hasn't always been the case as of late. I haven't had the best luck with packs, but when I switch over to individual cards, I don't find as much value as I would like.

The internet, moreover, is a double-edged sword. Sure, you can find something super specific that's been on your radar, but you can also find virtually every card out there, so the rationale of "I can only find this online" applies to such a wide range of inventory that it becomes slightly overwhelming.

Apart from whichever box I choose for myself on my birthday this upcoming week, I think I'll be taking a break from packs until Bowman's Best is released just before Christmas.

After today's spontaneous visit to the card show, I realized that, even at smaller shows, I can be more than content with purchasing individual cards, something that hasn't been the case for several weeks; I just have to look a little more closely.

I spent the majority of my time at the show today searching through bins, picking out cards for player collections. Though I was tempted by a couple of inexpensive hobby boxes, as soon as I left the show, I knew I made the right choice.

For starters, I found a ton of cards for my 2019 Panini Prizm project, something that I wasn't able to accomplish at The National believe it or not. I relied on the Google Sheets app on my phone which, with such a large inventory, was a little challenging to maneuver.

Nonetheless, I made progress with this set for the first time in months by adding 20 new cards to the collection, half of which were the hyper blue Prizm parallels showcased above.

I wouldn't be attempting this crazy project if I didn't love all the shiny parallels, but I especially like the contrast between the bright jerseys and the hyper refractor. Mancini, Heaney, and Correa's cards certainly do the trick.

The silvers a fairly hard to come by (3 per hobby box), so I enjoyed finding 2 in one of the dealer's bins this morning, especially of well-respected sluggers like Schwarber and Donaldson.

Before today, I'd never done business with this vendor before, and he didn't have prices on the majority of his stuff. Usually, these would be 2 strikes against this dealer, but he said that he'd make reasonable offers on whatever I brought over to him.

As you'll see, all the cards in this post cost me less than half the price of a blaster box.

I opened 2 hobby boxes plus a retail mega box of 2019 Prizm before I stopped buying packs as I was beginning to accumulate duplicates. Since both of my hobby boxes were hot boxes, I came across a ton of parallels which inspired me to begin this crazy project in the first place.

The 2 lowest-numbered parallels are the blue and red mojos, and I absolutely love the look of these refractors. In addition to the 2 above, I picked up a blue mojo of Joey Wendle (#/399).

While it wasn't unusual to see the blue and red mojos (since they have a higher print run), I was shocked to see 2 power plaid parallels, each of which is serial numbered out of just 75 copies.

Better known as x-fractors in Topps Chrome, these cards were fairly hard to come by when I opened my packs (I believe I pulled just 1-2), yet if I want to complete this unfathomable project, I'll need all 300 of them.

But it wasn't just 2019 Panini Prizm, the vendor had a ton of other cards (which I'll showcase over the next few days), including one of the greatest things to find at a low price; Kellogg's 3D cards.

Just like my last trip to the show, I was able to make a purchase for one of my newly-organized PCs. Though the Dwight Evans will go to his player collection, the Bill Buckner card will go to the miscellaneous 1980s section of one of the Cubs binders.

The dealer didn't have any Hall of Famers for sale, but I found a reasonable number of semi-stars from the 1982 Kellogg's design. Better yet, he had 5 cards of players that I collect, including 2 players from the Big Red Machine who, years after the dynasty ended, were still playing in Cincinnati.

I commented last week about how thrilled I was to add a '74 Topps George Foster card to my collection, for I don't see his cards all too often. Well, I guess I'm lucking out because I picked up my 2nd in 8 days. 

Finally, a Bill Madlock card in an awesome Pittsburgh Pirates jersey caps off a selection of cards that ended up costing me half the price of a blaster box that I could've picked up at Target instead.

Combined with the fact that I haven't had great luck with hits this year, you can see why I'll be leaning more towards singles for the next few months.

Frankenset Page #65

Hopefully, I'll be able to get back into the habit of posting regularly over the weekend, since I've missed a few more posts than I would've liked so far this month. Thankfully, I have the reoccurring frankenset series that I can always count on when I need ideas.

This page, #65 in the binder of 74, showcases cards #577-585 and covers 3 decades of MLB history (the 1980s, 2000s, and 2010s). 

#577 1989 Fleer David Palmer

In addition to the mediocrity of the Boston Red Sox, one of the biggest shocks of the 2019 MLB season was how disappointing the Philadelphia Phillies were.

Despite having Bryce Harper, Rhys Hoskins, Jean Segura, Andrew McCutchen (though he got injured), and J.T. Realmuto, they were eliminated from playoff contention by the Nationals, who clinched a Wild Card spot earlier this week.

If nothing else, at least Harper has 12 more chances to make the playoffs in Philadelphia.

#578 2015 Topps Ender Inciarte

One of the more underrated players on a formidable Braves team, Ender Inciarte arrived in Atlanta via the Arizona Diamondbacks as a part of the Dansby Swanson trade back in December of 2015. 

A career .286 hitter with 113 stolen bases, Inciarte has won a Gold Glove award in each of his seasons so far with the Braves (2016-2018). He's been limited to just 200 at-bats this year, so I don't believe he'll continue this streak.

#579 1988 Donruss Gary Lucas

After 1985, the quality of the Donruss base sets deteriorated as the "junk wax era" commenced. Though the '86 and '87 designs were average, 1988 Donruss is one of the most uninspired and bland sets of that era.

I suppose I chose this card because of the California Angels uniform because I don't know how else '88 Donruss would make it to my frankenset.

#580 2007 Topps Garret Anderson

Given how today's game has become centered around the home run, it seems like we're seeing fewer and fewer highlight reels of catches like the one on Garret Anderson's 2007 Topps card. There's less of an emphasis on defense, contact hitting, and almost every other stat category in favor of homers.

With that being said, I'm buying into this craze a little, and I'll be keeping an eye on Pete Alonso this weekend to see if he breaks Judge's single-season rookie home run record.

#581 2009 Upper Deck Alexei Ramirez

Speaking of highlight reels, I always remember, for some reason, seeing White Sox infielder Alexei Ramirez make the SportsCenter top 10 plays list on a semi-regular basis. 

A career .270 hitter, Ramirez enjoyed success during his time in Chicago, including a 2008 AL Rookie of the Year runner-up campaign when he was beaten out by Evan Longoria.

#582 1983 Topps Marshall Edwards

There have been plenty of 1983 Topps cards across my 65 frankenset pages thus far to the extent that anything I say about the set will likely be repetitive. So, I'll just reiterate how much I love these cards and move on.

#583 2016 Topps Didi Gregorius

As impressive as the Houston Astros are and as consistent as the Minnesota Twins have been, the New York Yankees should be the most feared team going into the postseason. 

After all, they're 102-56, and that's with Gio Urshela and Brian Tauchman starting far more frequently than superstars Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge, and Didi Gregorius. 

I could dedicate a whole post to how many challenges this team has overcome, but, for now, I'll just wish the best of luck to whoever crosses their path in October.

#584 1983 Fleer Johnny Bench

I'm not sure how this Johnny Bench card ended up in the frankenset instead of the Bench PC, but I'm even more surprised to see 3rd base listed as his position on this 1983 Fleer card. 

I knew that Bench played other positions throughout his 17-year career, but I always assumed that catcher would be listed above all others.

#585 1984 Topps Dan Driessen

By the mid-1980s, few members of the Big Red Machine that won 2 World Championships in the 1970s remained in Cincinnati. Bench and Dan Driessen were among the players who stuck with the Reds, even after Joe Morgan, Pete Rose, and Tony Perez all moved on.

Top 5 Cards; Joe Morgan

As today's game becomes more focused on high-velocity home runs and puts less emphasis on batting average, multi-tool players are becoming scarcer.

Guys like Mookie Betts, Jose Altuve, and Mike Trout are still some of the best players in the game, but it's become acceptable for players to bat around .230-.240 so long as they rectify that batting average by hitting 30 or more home runs.

2017 and 2018 were historic years for homers, and 2019 is shaping up to be the same. Each year, the total number of dingers rises along with the number of strikeouts. In exchange, there have been fewer hits (singles, doubles, and triples), and players' batting averages have, overall, gotten worse.

I won't get into whether I believe the obsession with home runs is beneficial for the game or not. However, there was a time when the contact hitters outnumbered the power hitters, and there were far more multi-tool players in the game.

One of the most talented of these players was Joe Morgan, an essential part of the Big Red Machine during the mid-1970s. Morgan made the All-Star team for 8 consecutive seasons with the Reds from 1972-1979.

Throughout his 8 years in Cincinnati, he hit .288 with 152 home runs, 612 RBI, and 406 stolen bases. Besides the Reds, Morgan played for the Astros, Giants, Athletics, and Phillies, though the best seasons by far of his 22-year career were with Cincinnati.

I've been collecting cards of Joe Morgan as well as other essential members of the Big Red Machine (Bench, Rose, Perez, Concepcion, and Foster) for several years.

At 92 cards, the Joe Morgan PC is almost at gold tier (100 cards) status, so I figured this was the perfect time to write this top 5 cards list.

#5 2013 Panini Golden Age

This is one of my only cards from the 2013 Panini Golden Age set, a product that's virtually non-existent in the dime boxes at the shows I attend. Similar to Upper Deck Goodwin Champions, Panini Golden Age combines sports figures with pop culture icons. 

One of the athletes that they chose for the '13 release happened to be Joe Morgan. Panini, likely in an attempt to hide the logoless helmet, chose a sensational photo of the 2-time NL MVP award winner and paired it with a gorgeous vintage design. 

A revive of the Golden Age brand is highly unlikely, though it would be interesting to see what Panini could make of this set if it was a part of the Chronicles product.

#4 1985 Fleer

Morgan spent just 1 year of his career with the Oakland Athletics, so it stands to reason that there aren't many cards of him on the A's out there. The only one in my collection is this beauty from 1985 Fleer, my favorite design in the brand's history.

Truth be told, there's not a single color in the '85 Fleer set that doesn't pair beautifully with the silver borders. I absolutely love the combination of light green with grey along with the simple shot of Morgan at the plate in an Athletics away jersey.

I don't know how expensive is it to purchase this set online, but I might just go for it when my birthday or the holidays come along to have a complete version of this gorgeous release.

#3 2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces

Oftentimes, I find that Topps dominates the majority of my frankenset and top 5 cards posts, so it's refreshing to see other brands represented.

So far, Panini, Fleer, and Upper Deck have appeared on my top 5 cards list for Joe Morgan, the latter of which is a gorgeous painted card from 2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces. This set went the same route as most art sets (Gallery, T206, National Chicle, and Turkey Red) and disappeared after a couple of years.

Thankfully, the dime bins, particularly those at my LCS, helped me to appreciate this fine product and all of its stellar cards.

#2 1970 Kellogg's

The newest addition to the Joe Morgan PC came my way via The National. One of a few cards that I have of the 5-time Gold Glove award winner on the Houston Astros, this beauty from the 1970 Kellogg's set was a bargain back when I bought it in Chicago.

Virtually everything about this card, from the Astros cap to the blue sky background and even the facsimile signature, is so cohesive together. The '70 Kellogg's design is incredibly simple, and that's exactly what makes this card such a standout.

#1 1966 Topps

I keep my relics/autographs and graded cards in separate boxes than my player collections, so I don't count the Joe Morgan rookie card that I have as a part of his PC. This allows me to focus on the other cards when it comes to making the top 5 cards list, like the 1966 Topps card above.

I absolutely love the old-school Topps All-Star rookie trophies from the 60s, and it's a shame that they won't be replicated in Heritage for much longer. In addition to the rookie cup, the Astros uniform and Morgan's pose elevate this card to the #1 spot.