Top 5 Cards; Jacob deGrom

A couple of hours, New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom captured the 2019 NL Cy Young award, giving him back-to-back award wins for the 2018 and 2019 seasons.

Last year, when the right-hander posted a historic 1.70 ERA and struck out 269 batters, deGrom was a lock for his first-ever Cy Young award. Though he was, once again, fabulous in 2019 (2.43 ERA with 255 K's) he wasn't quite as dominant as the year before.

He also faced some tough competition from division rival Max Scherzer and Dodgers pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu, but the results, more or less, remained the same. Once again, deGrom received 29/30 first-place votes, catapulting him to his 2nd straight award win.

I'll be intrigued to see what rookie manager Carlos Beltran does with a Mets pitching staff in 2020 that'll consist of deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz, and Marcus Stroman.

This rotation, barring any injuries or declines in performance, should be among the best in baseball, and they'll have an excellent ace at the helm.

I haven't been player collecting Jacob deGrom for all that long, but I've amassed 61 total cards of the 31-year old. This total puts him at #100 on my list of player collections, organized from largest to smallest.

Though the countdown may not feature as wide of a variety of cards as some of the other players that I collect, I'm quite pleased with how the top 5 turned out.

#5 2018 Topps Chrome Negative Refractor

When deciding which cards should make the top 5 and what the order should be, I try not to include a card solely because I like the set design/parallel. I did, however, feel obligated to make a small exception for deGrom's negative refractor from 2018 Topps Chrome.

Unlike paper parallels or even, say, other refractors from Topps Chrome, the negative encompasses the entire card, so one's feelings towards this type of refractor will dictate their thoughts on the card itself.

Because I love the look of negative refractors, this card was a no-brainer to make the top 5.

#4 2016 Panini Donruss 1982 Design

If this 1982 Donruss insert from the 2016 set had the MLB license, it could've made the top 2 on this countdown. The fact is, however, that deGrom's helmet looks incomplete without the New York Mets logo as does his home uniform.

That's not to take away from how creative Panini was with this insert card by showing a picture of deGrom at the plate rather than on the mound. He's actually one of the better hitting pitchers in the NL after launching 2 home runs in 2019.

The lack of logos may have caused this card to miss out on making it higher up on the list, but I still appreciate the little nuances that make this insert so unique.

#3 2017 Topps High Tek Blackout Parallel Pattern 1

One of the benefits of player collecting 250+ guys, both active and retired, is that it exposes me to a plethora of products that I'd otherwise be widely unfamiliar with. I can think of no better example than Topps High Tek, a set I'll likely never buy a box of in my life.

The veteran base cards, however, routinely end up in the dime bins, even serial numbered cards and parallels, like the blackout one above. I particularly like the sleek design, for the back of the card is a light shade of grey and creates a contrast from the front.

#2 2019 Topps Inception Green Parallel

I don't know if I paid a dime for the green parallel above like I did for the blackout card from High Tek, but I'm certain that I haven't opened a box of Topps Inception in my life. As a result, we have yet another instance of my collecting a surplus of players and, thus, being exposed to a ton of different products.

A lot is going on with this card, to say the least. There's the green parallel along with the purple/blue background, making for an extremely modern design.

From the handful of Topps Inception singles that I have purchased, I love the base design and wish they'd release something like this set in a more affordable format.

#1 2017 Topps Bunt Infinite

It's not as flashy as any of the parallels on this list nor as creative as the Panini Donruss insert, but the simplicity and, honestly, the overall awesome design of this 2017 Topps Bunt insert helped catapult this card to the #1 spot on the countdown.

I love the contrast between the slightly-faded picture of deGrom and the outside of Citi Field, and while that's pretty much all this card has to offer, there's something to be said about its simplicity.

Some days, I'll go for a negative refractor or a blackout parallel to capture the #1 spot on a top 5 cards list. Other times, however, I prefer something simple yet stunning, and that's exactly what the Topps Bunt Infinite card does.

One Last Hurrah

I'm very certain that in the distant future, I'll look back at this particular week as one of the most exciting weeks for Baseball cards in my entire life.

Including this one, my last 7 blog posts have been devoted to new cards that I've acquired within the last 10 days or so. Trades, Baseball card show trips, eBay packages, and LCS pickups have all been present as of late, and I still have one more group of cards left to go.

In a way, it'll be nice to go back to a calmer week where I'm not adding new Baseball cards to my collection nearly every day. With that being said, Topps Heritage's impending release this Wednesday means things won't settle down completely, and I'm totally fine with that. 

After all, Heritage has consistently been my favorite overall product for years on end. Even though I've never completed a Heritage master set in my life, the variations, SPs, and simply the recreating of a vintage Topps design makes this product extremely appealing.

I'll have more time to talk about Heritage next week, but in the meantime, I have one final group of new Baseball cards that I added to my collection during this action-packed week. 

These cards, courtesy of my LCS, are from the dime bins, though I could expect to see a majority of these cards for a far greater price than simply a dime.

Included in the owners' dime box this time around was an impressive stack of 2017 Topps Museum base, including 9 different players that I collect. It's not uncommon to spot high-end cards in the dime bins, but typically, I stumble upon 2 or 3 of them. Never have I spotted so many cards of guys I collect from a product as expensive as Topps Museum.

Better yet, the lot featured far more retired players than current MLB stars. Of the 9 players shown above, only Ichiro and Anthony Rizzo are currently playing. All the others, including my largest player collection, Nolan Ryan, are retired MLB legends.

After picking up the base card, bronze parallel, and serial numbered red parallel of Greg Maddux, card #84, I could see myself going after the complete parallel rainbow. If I can track down a sapphire blue (#/150) and an amethyst (#/99), I'd have my first ever parallel rainbow completed, assuming I'm not forgetting any other colored cards from the product. 

Update; there's an emerald 1/1. So, unless I can track that card down and for a reasonable price, my hopes of obtaining the entire rainbow will be unsuccessful. 

For a dime each, I have zero complaints about these holo blue parallels from 2018 Panini Donruss, even if the logoless hats are rather obvious. I was able to spot 4 different cards of players that I collect, including my 2nd Nolan Ryan card of the trip so far. 

I think I acquired somewhere between 3-5 Ryan cards at this trip to my LCS alone, making my goal of reaching the 500-card mark for his player collection in 2019 much more achievable. 

The very moment that I spotted this Roger Clemens card in the dime box I was searching through, I found a strong resemblance between this card and the holo blue Donruss parallels. 

Even though the similarities appear far more evident in-person, I wouldn't be shocked to hear that Panini took inspiration from this Ultimate Victory parallel when designing their holo blue parallel cards.

While Baseball fans are continuing to wait for marquee free agent Bryce Harper to sign his much-anticipated max contract, I wasted no time in adding these 2 high-end base cards of the 2015 NL MVP to my stack of dime box cards. 

I realize that neither Triple Threads nor Museum revolves around the base set design, but I still must commend Topps on creating 2 well-executed and elegant base set designs, both from the last few years.

This duo of dime box pickups, like the 2 Harper's shown above, also appears very elegant with the border color and photo choice. However, the Ozzie Smith and Ernie Bank's cards are not from a high-end product like Museum or Tribute. 

Instead, I believe these cards are inserts from a certain set of cards. Titled "The Elite," these could be a rare inclusion in Flagship or some sort of special insert from an actual high-end product. If anyone recognizes where these cards are from, don't hesitate to let me know.

As if I hadn't already picked up enough retired players' cards from this particular dime box, a duo of early 2000s Upper Deck cards boosted my total even more. The Gibson card is classic-looking while the Fingers, featuring a gold uniform and yellow/orange border, is a far more unconventional choice from the 2001 Upper Deck Decade 1970s set.

There's something about 2011 Topps that enhances these retired players' short prints even more than any other Flagship product to date. Alongside a plethora of fellow legends, Mike Schmidt was included as a retired player SP in 2011 Topps. 

Sharing card #50 with Alex Rodriguez, the Phillies' 3rd baseman is shown in the classic powder blue Phillies uniform while perhaps making a call to one of his fellow infielders.

Even if I spent the next 20 years focusing on it, I doubt I'd be able to complete the 2008 Upper Deck Yankee Stadium legacy set no matter how hard I tried. That doesn't stop me from adding new cards from the 6,227-card insert set. At this point, I've probably acquired around 50 cards, so on the bright side, I'm 0.008% of the way there!

Similarly, Mickey Mantle has an insert set from 2007, consisting of, I presume, 1 card for every home run ever hit by the 3-time AL MVP, afar easier set to complete than the Yankee Stadium Legacy. I've seen yellow, red, and blue-colored cards from this product, but I'm not sure if the colors are different just for the sake of it or if there are actual different-colored parallels in this insert set.

Card companies never fail to get me hooked on shiny cards and refractors, something that's proven every time I return home with a stack of dime cards. This time around, in addition to plenty of others not shown on this post, a Craig Kimbrel refractor and a Jim Thome Bowman's Best insert are among the many shiny cards that I landed thanks to some well-stocked dime bins.

While I'm on the topic of bright and shiny Baseball cards, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the duo of cracked ice parallels of Cleveland Indians' ace Corey Kluber that, somehow, are not serial numbered at all. I honestly have no clue how Panini can produce enough of these cards without serial numbering them, but that's not to take away from the gorgeous parallels that these cards are.

Considering that both the cards I picked up are inserts, I'm guessing that the cracked ice cards also appear in the base set. Now that's a parallel worth chasing down, especially if you're looking for a particular player's cracked ice card.

Another high-end product that I was able to locate some dime cards from, Topps High Tek was also quite prominent during this trip to my LCS. In this case, for almost every player who had 1 card in the dime box, there was a different pattern card of that same player right near it. 

Among some of the parallels, the various black pattern parallels take a standard pattern and change the background to black rather than white. This enhances the card quite a bit, especially when there's a colorful uniform to counter the black background like there is for deGrom and Bagwell.

It's going to take me a while to find this specific Ken Griffey Jr parallel on COMC and list it on my player collection inventory, but if that's the price I'm forced to pay in addition to the mere dime that this card cost me then so be it. 

This parallel of The Kid is serial numbered out of 250, and he is shown on my favorite team that Griffey Jr played for, the Cincinnati Reds.

Here they are, the 2 rookie phenoms from 2017 who cleared out retail shelves and caused hobby prices to soar at a nearly unprecedented level. As if this box improve any longer, I spotted not 1, not 2, but 3 rookie year cards of Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger towards the end of my time at my LCS.

Along with another holo blue parallel from 2018, I found a Bellinger insert from 2017 Bowman's Best along with both players' Rookie Performers inserts from 2017 Topps Heritage High Number. Thanks to the retro design, the Heritage High Number inserts are definitely my favorites of the bunch.

Finally, the greatest card I found in the entire dime box, and one that I certainly would never expect to be there; a 2014 Bowman Chrome prospect card of none other than the previously mentioned, Aaron Judge.

I don't care that the card isn't his 1st Bowman card. I couldn't care less about the centering. I understand the surface isn't perfect, but none of this is a big deal for me. Finding this card in a dime box was nothing less than shocking, and I couldn't add it to my stack fast enough. 

Judge is currently entering his 3rd season, and even as a Red Sox fan, I don't hate seeing him do well so long as it's not against Boston. In addition to the rookie cards that I have of #99, I now have my 1st ever Judge prospect card, giving me even more incentive to hope for his success.

But regardless of how I feel about him or any of the other cards that I purchased from this dime box, the Judge card alone makes the entire trip completely worth it.

Multitudes of Modern Dime Cards; Card Show Recap #16 Part #2

It seems a given that no matter what card show I attend, I always return home later that day with a stack of dime cards, most of which goes straight to my player collections.

It also helps that I've been fortunate enough to have the dime boxes as an option at nearly every single card show I've ever attended. There's this one vendor, in particular, that exhibits at both the card shows that I regularly attend. Most of the card show dime box hauls you see here on this blog are courtesy of his well-stocked boxes.

As expected, this dealer was present at yesterday's Mansfield show, and since I've been doing business with him for many years now, he's recently allowed me to take a dime box into the hallway and look through it there to beat the large crowds that sometimes form around his dime bins. 

Per usual, there was a wide variety of cards in these boxes, but what I wasn't expecting was to find quite a few set needs in the box I searched through, particularly from Topps Heritage.

Last year was the first time since 2015 that I didn't purchase the Topps Heritage base set from one of the dealers at my nearby card show for $20-25 in hopes that I could complete the base set myself with the help of fellow bloggers and packs of the product. 

Even though the process has taken a bit longer than I originally envisioned, it helped save me money in the long run. Thanks to yesterday's show, I was able to land 4 more cards that I need for the base set, bringing the total number of missing cards down to just under 20 base cards from the 400-card product.

With 3 straight years of Topps Heritage remaining incomplete, I'm uncertain as to whether or not I'll attempt to finish the set for a 4th straight year in 2019 with the 1970 design. I still have lots of progress to make with the sets from 2016-2018, but every card I can get my hands on will help, including this New Age Performers insert of Kris Bryant from the 2016 product. 

It's pretty amazing that I was able to land cards of 4 retired players that I collect, including 3 Hall of Famers, from 2017 Topps Tribute for a dime each considering that the same cards of Red Sox players can cost over 10 times as much money. 

While I'm always trying to add more Boston cards to my collection, it's far less expensive to chase down cards of other players that I collect rather than Red Sox players because of the show's location and the Red Sox coming off a World Series victory.

Even though I've always taken a strong liking to shiny and numbered cards, it was only recently that I actually noticed how fond I am of these types of cards, including serial numbered ones specifically. One thing I love about card collecting is knowing that you one of just a few thousand, hundred, or even a couple dozen cards in the entire world.

There were a ton of shiny cards in this particular dime box, including a Holo GrFX AUsome card of Mo Vaughn and a Heritage refractor of the Late Jose Fernandez (RIP).

The original Topps Tek set was a giant product with dozens of different parallels for each player in the entire set, resulting in a checklist that consists of thousands of different cards. I picked up my first Topps Tek card of Chipper Jones a while back, and it was joined by a few more cards of players I collect, featuring all sorts of different and crazy patterns, the very thing that Topps Tek was known for.

The Vladdy card with the MLB logo background might be my favorite of the Topps Tek cards from yesterday's show due to how perfect the pattern design seems to pair with Guerrero's Expos uniform. The one thing I could do without on this card is the logo placement as I feel it could've been chosen a bit more carefully.

Both the original set and the revived product, Topps High Tek, are known for featuring many different parallels with some being slightly rarer than others. I'm not sure why the name was changed to High Tek, though it could be because the newly-revived product is a high-end set. 

Even with all the different colored parallels in addition to various pattern cards, at least the set doesn't consist of thousands of different cards like the original product from the late 1990s.

I already have one of these Omar Vizquel Bowman Chrome cards exclusive to last years' National, but that doesn't mean I won't jump at the opportunity to add another one to my collection, especially for such a low price. These prism refractors were originally wrapper redemptions that came in 4-card packs. I'm guessing Vizquel was included because of the shows' location in Cleveland, Ohio.

And then came one of the craziest cards not just from the entire dime box or card show, but maybe one of the most interesting cards that I've ever seen in my life. An insert called Dugout View Net-Fusions from 2000 Pacific Aurora, the card features Dodgers outfielder Shawn Green, but I originally thought the player shown was a Montreal Expo which is why I bought the card in the first place. 

Even though I don't collect Green or the Dodgers, I don't have a single regret buying this oddball. After all, it was only a dime, and unless anyone wants it, it'll likely earn a spot in my next frankenset.

Card Shows > COMC Sales; Card Show Recap #15

After what was a relatively long debate, it was decided that I would skip the annual COMC Black Friday sale and instead, take a trip to the once-a-month or so Mansfield sports card show. Rather than waiting in line with dozens of other people at a Target or some other store, I'd much rather be at a baseball card show, searching bins of cards.

I'll spend the next couple days or so to talk about how special this show was, but I'll start off with something that I search for at nearly every show I've ever attended.

Dime boxes.

Yes, even at a card show with around 70-80 vendor tables, I still couldn't resist the urge to go through a row of my favorite dime boxes at the show from a dealer I've been doing business with as long as I can remember. Plus, due to how crowded his booth was, he allowed me to take a box into the hallway and pick out what I wanted there. How could I possibly say no?

Even though I'm not actively collecting the massive set that is Panini Chronicles, I'm piecing it together with whatever I can find for a good enough price. That said, I wasn't expecting the 2 per hobby box Spectra cards to be in the dime bins, let alone a parallel of one of them numbered out of 99. 

Consisting of all rookies, the 4 Spectra cards I found were definitely a shock, but I knew that even though I don't collect any of the players and will likely never complete the set, they'd make awesome additions to my collection of 2018 Panini Chronicles cards.

While I'm talking about unlicensed cards, I should definitely make note of the abundance of Panini Donruss Optic parallel cards in the dime boxes today with specific players appearing more so than others. In fact, I spotted 3 players with 2 different parallels in the bin, the first being Salvador Perez. The orange is not numbered while the aqua parallel is serial numbered out of 299 copies.

Next up is Dallas Keuchel, the free agent lefty who I also picked up a duo of Donruss Optic parallels of. The orange on the left is the same as Perez's first parallel while the 2nd is some sort of orange and yellow combination that I can't seem to identify, but it too is not serial numbered.

Finally, the last of the 3 players is Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard who, unlike Perez and Keuchel, had 2 different numbered cards as opposed to 1 or 2 non-numbered parallels. First up is what I believe to be a red parallel numbered out of 199 while the 2nd card is a Diamond Kings card with another parallel that I can't seem to identify. That one is numbered 50/50, a true steal for only a dime.

Wrapping up a majority of what I picked up for unlicensed cards is a duo of Panini Donruss Aurora inserts from 2018, an insert set I'm very pleased Panini decided to bring back. Like the 2017 versions, the Aurora inserts are vibrant with tons of bright and eye-catching colors. The 2 players I picked up, Ichiro and Buster Posey, are both at or very near 100 cards with Ichiro currently closing in on 200.

Speaking of top-tier players collections, guys like Ichiro and Ken Griffey Jr. benefited from the dime boxes, as usual, this time with cards from the 2007 Bowman's Best set. Like the Aurora cards, the 4 guys of whom I found Bowman's Best cards are all players I heavily collect, 3 of them being Gold Tier PCs.

Bowman's Best was far from all that I brought back of high-end cards. A couple 2013 Topps Tribute World Baseball Classic cards found their way into the bin which was met with appreciation on my part. After deciding only 2 picks up cards of guys I collect, 3 players (Joey Votto, Jimmy Rollins, and Miguel Tejada) were chosen, players from 3 different countries (Canada, Dominican Republic, and the U.S.).

Rounding out the rest of the high-end cards I brought back is another addition to my Corey Seager player collection which has become abundant with lots of prospect cards, parallels, and rookie cards. This time, the newest addition is a Topps Museum card from his rookie 2016 season.

With all the various sets put out, especially by Fleer and Donruss, in the early 2000s, it's difficult for me to be familiar with each and every one of them. Up until today, I had little to no knowledge of the Donruss Greats set having only recognized 1 year or so of the set. 

With the help of these 4 cards from 2 different sets, I'm able to gain the slightest bit more knowledge of past released and picked up some nice cards for a few '70s and '80's PCs while I was at it.

I suppose the same could be said for this set from 1996 though I'm still not certain what the set is referred to as. Even so, knowing the name would help my understanding of the confusing decade of cards that is the 1990's. Plus, once again, I'm able to boost a couple player collections along the way.

The things I've been talking about are major aspects of what makes the dime bins so enjoyable and interesting to look through, even if it means limiting the number of new vendors I'd get to do business with. By finding new products and insert sets, I'm able to develop a deeper understanding of the crazy and sometimes overwhelming hobby of collecting cards.

Guys like Vladimir Guerrero were examples of common denominators between the 2 different insert sets I found from the 2001 Upper Deck Vintage product, the first year of that specific Upper Deck set.  The simple black and red combo make the Retro Rules cards appealing, but it's the font used for Matinee Idols that makes the card look almost like a comic book, especially with the green or red color in the background.

If I'm not mistaken, 2014 was the very first year of the revived Topps High Tek brand, a set that's been going strong with 5 different releases and the creation of Bowman High Tek, both of which have become extremely popular with higher-end collectors.

The different patterns made me pay extra attention when looking through these cards of Nomar Garciaparra and Pedro Martinez, just to make sure I was taking advantage of all the different variations these cards have. There appear to be 2 different parallels among the 2 players above, meaning I found 2 different patterns for both players. Not too bad.

I've been a dime card buyer for so many years now that it barely surprises me anymore to see somewhat recently released products already in the dime bins with even parallels and insert cards appearing there. While it wasn't a huge surprise, I gladly added cards from 2018 Topps Stadium Club insert sets into my player collections. Though Stadium Club isn't necessarily known for insert cards, I'm a big fan of this years' Power Zone design.

Finally, while I'm talking Stadium Club, I might as well bring up my favorite card from the entire dime box purchase; a Stadium Club Chrome Clayton Kershaw from 2018. another card I was baffled to see in a box where each card was just a dime.

Stadium Club Chrome cards are some of the more underrated cards you'll ever see along with Heritage Chrome. They don't get the recognition they deserve, yet they're also extremely rare meaning that you don't see them all that often. Seeing one in the dime bins is pretty special, but the fact that it's Clayton Kershaw elevates it to a whole new level.

First Up, Dime Boxes; Card Show Recap #14

In what turned out to be the largest sports card show I have ever attended with the exception of The National, I'm pleased to announce that I made the 30-minute car ride up to Wilmington, Massachusetts earlier today to attend the Greater Boston Sports Collectors Club show at the Shriners Auditorium.

You may recall that I attended a show at the Shriners Auditorium back in April, but it turns out that was a different card show, not the once-a-year card show that takes place the first week of April. Although this wasn't my first show at this facility, it was my first time at this particular show, and I have to say I think I did pretty well.

As soon as we arrived at the show earlier today and entered the building, my Dad and I decided it was best to separate so that we could each do our own thing and eventually meet up in a little over an hour. As long as I'd been planning on attending this show, I knew the very first booth I wanted to stop by.

A vendor from the show I usually attend made a point to tell me he was planning on exhibiting at this show when I last went to the show a few weeks ago. Given how fabulous his dime boxes were then combined with the promise that they'd be even better, I knew I had to stop by and see what he had in store.

Per usual, a couple sets began to jump out at me and seemed to just appear in an abundance out of nowhere. This time around, one of those sets was the vibrant 2001 Fleer EX. Consisting of bold colors and chock-full of players I collect from the early 2000's, this set helped boost over 5 of my 100-card player collections as well as assist my Ken Griffey Jr player collection on route to 200 cards. 

Going into today's show, I needed just 5 new cards of his for that player collection to be the 4th to reach 200 cards after Nolan Ryan, Manny Ramirez, and Greg Maddux. Since I'm not entirely sure how many cards of his I picked up, it'll be a couple days before I know for certain.

Another set that was everywhere, and I mean everywhere, was 2017 Topps High Tek. Out of the 15 cards or so that I brought back from this high-end product, it's hard to know for certain how many different pattern designs there are considering how similar some of them look to one another. One thing's for sure, I'll be relying heavily on COMC when entering these cards in on my online spreadsheets. 

In addition to all the modern High Tek cards, I spotted an original Topps Tek card of recent Hall of Fame inductee Chipper Jones. Like the modern version, the very first Topps Tek cards also featured an extensive number of pattern designs. Once again, COMC will be more useful than you'd think as my eyes will have to work extraordinarily hard to spot the whichever specific parallel this is, made even harder to tell when these cards are scanned.

Of all the Topps Gallery sets, the best one for the art alone would have to be 2003 Topps Gallery; Hall of Fame Edition. Not only is it a set solely for Hall of Famers, but it also featured some of the brightest colors and most detailed images you'll ever see on baseball cards in any set of cards.

Thankfully, someone put the variation cards from 2003 Gallery Hall of Fame Edition into penny sleeves and labeled them "variation" in big bold black letters. Due to the sheer quantity of cards I typically have to enter in online, I don't usually have enough time to check COMC for what exactly the card is, leaving slight room for error. 

This time, I know in advance these cards are variations, so a few quick clicks online will let me know what in particular makes this card different from the regular version, and I'll make sure to note that on my online inventory.

This rainbow foil-type parallel of Tom Seaver came with the rest of the HOF Gallery cards, though I'm not exactly sure what this parallel would be called. However, when I took the time to enter in some cards online a few days ago, I discovered Tom Seaver was just 1 card away from 100. So despite not knowing what exactly this card is, I do know I have yet another player who's officially reached the 100-card mark.

It's very fitting that I found a rather strong selection of Willie McCovey cards in today's dime boxes given his passing at the age of 80 back on Wednesday as well as the tribute post I did for him yesterday.

RIP Stretch.

I suppose what I did today for McCovey is similar to what I've been doing for Roberto Clemente at the card show all my life; buying his cards as a way to pay tribute to his life. We all know the tragic manner in which Clemente lost his life, and I've made it my goal since I started collecting cards to continue adding to his collection to pay my respects to him.

On a lighter note, there were still some other players who were quite common throughout the dime boxes, one of those guys being Tigers legend Al Kaline. After a few months of having the autograph of him and Bob Gibson from The National around my house, I finally decided to get it framed a couple weeks ago. I'll make sure to do a quick post about it after I pick it up later this week.

Finally, Harmon Killebrew closes out the plethora of prominent players in the dime boxes today with more than meets the eye in terms of what I brought back. In addition to a duo of All-Time Fan Favorites/Topps Archives and 2 cards of Killebrew on the Senators, there were an additional 4-5 cards of his at least that I grabbed for the ever-growing Harmon Killebrew player collection.

Moving on to one of the more "interesting" parts of these dime boxes, for lack of a better word. It has to do with a large group of numbered cards from 2 years of the Topps Co-Signers set, 2006 and 2007.

As you can see, this card claims to be of Roy Oswalt and Andy Pettitte, though I collect only Pettitte so where I put this card won't be an issue anyway. However, the back tells a different story.

The back of the card implies that this is a card solely of Pettite with no mention of Roy Oswalt's name anywhere. Given that the front of this card seemed to equally emphasize both players, I was genuinely surprised when I turned the card over.

The same thing happened with this duo of Yankees cards from the same set, and that's not including the different colors parallels of the 2 images on the right of each card that brought some confusion. The gold one of Johnson and A-Rod is numbered to 115 on the back while the Jeter/Cano is out of 150.

Besides that smaller detail, these 2 cards do the same thing as the Pettite which I, unfortunately, didn't realize until I got home. While I collect both A-Rod and Randy Johnson, the subjects of card #1, I don't collect Robinson Cano while I do collect Derek Jeter. Alas, Cano is solely featured on the back making this "his" card despite it including both names and thus, it would seem a bit odd to place this card in my Derek Jeter player collection.

Same problems, different set. That was the case for the next year of Co-Signers which delivered similar results to the cards from the 2006 set. In the case of these cards which are part of a set that's become so confusing that I don't even know what to call them, they both happened to be of the guys I collect on the card and not the guys I don't. This means that my Miguel Tejada and Chipper Jones PCs got lucky that these cards weren't of Brian Roberts of Tim Hudson.

The same goes for Jimmy Rollins and, once again, Miguel Tejada only, in this case, the blue and gold players in the backgrounds lead to these cards having different serial numberings than the first 2. The blue of the 2 Phillies players is numbered out of 250 while the 2nd card of the 2 Orioles is numbered to 225.

I guess the best way to describe these before searching COMC is "orange foil" as this set becomes even more elaborate than I once believed it to be. Now, we have an example of these 2-player cards tricking me once again as the 1st card, numbered to 175, actually features Gary Sheffield, someone I don't collect, on the back instead of Ivan Rodriguez, one of my larger player collections.

Lastly, in what eventually became the last of these slightly-confusing dual-player cards, the Chipper Jones and Brian McCann card on the right numbered to 75, is actually McCann's as I learned from a quick glance at the back and not, in fact, a new card for my Chipper Jones PC. With that, I ended up with 3 cards of players I don't actually collect, all of which are up for trade if anyone's interested.

Moving on, I have some gold cards to help get me back into the normal 1-player per card swing of things. Including 1 from 1992 and 3 from 1993, Topps Gold cards from the 1990's will always be some of my favorite cards from the junk wax era.

It's always nice to find rookie cards for the right price, especially when these cards are from the dime bins. Additionally, while I was originally going to use the Devers card to talk about the Red Sox, I instead want to take notice of why Evan Longoria's rookie card from 2008 Upper Deck Goudey says "Ken Griffey Jr. says..." while showing a picture of Derek Jeter.

Since Longoria was in the AL, it's supposed to say "Derek Jeter says..." instead. Either I've found some magnificent error card with a fortune, or it's a mistake Upper Deck made for all of these cards, decreasing the overall value and resulting in it ending up in the dime bins.

I have a feeling it's the latter.

I must say, I have never seen a card from this set before nor do I understand why Panini wouldn't at least attempt to photoshop Craig Kimbrel into a Braves jersey for his rookie card. Despite all that, I'm more than happy to add this card to my Kimbrel Collection given that it's not every day I find one of his rookies.

It's also not every day you spot 2 unique Corey Seager prospect cards in the dime boxes either which serve to further boost what's already a pretty special Corey Seager collection of prospects, rookies, autographs, and relics. I'm starting to have a feeling that these dime boxes are pretty damn special.

I don't know if other collectors feel the same way, but I don't think there's anything more satisfying than finding a card in the dime bins that you saw online for $10 a couple weeks ago that you desperately wish you had but refused to pay that kind of money for.

Also, this stained glass card is absolutely stunning when scanned and in-person. No wonder I wanted it so much.

At the rate I'm at, you might as well throw in a collection of special Topps Heritage cards from the last few years that will either go to player collections in Adam Jones' case or towards my special cards of 2016 and 2017 Topps Heritage respectively, including a Stephen Strasburg mini numbered out of just 100 copies.

Though all 4 of these cards are silver pack cards to commemorate 35 years of 1985 Topps as stated on the backs, I'm not quite sure why the bottom 2 look different than the 2 on top. It could be that the top 2 are from Series 1 and the others are from Series 2 or Update, but I don't necessarily know why Topps felt the need to change up the design.

Speaking of changing the design, or not, I found it intriguing, if nothing else, that Topps decided to go with the same set design for Yogi Berra's Topps All-Time Fan Favorites cards 2 years in a row (2003 and 2004). Though the sets are virtually the same, the photos used are very different, one showing a much older Yogi than the other. With that being said, I like the 1st one a bit more than the 2nd.

I don't know that I've ever seen a full-blown pennant appear on a baseball card before until spotting this All-Time Fan Favorites card from 2005 around the same time as the 2 Yogi Berra cards. It appears that Bench is being asked to sign a few items, including the pennant, and the slightly-confused look on his face says it all from there.

Many years and well over 150 cards later and I finally have my first ever card showing Ryne Sandberg as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies. Considering that it's an art-based card from 2010 Topps National Chicle with clear showings of attention to detail makes this card everything I wanted it to be and then some.

But as far as dime cards go, you can't get much better than a TCMA Satchel Paige, even when you take into account as many numbered cards or shiny refractors as you can. Adding to the Satchel Paige player collection for a dime is virtually unbeatable, let alone the fact that this card is from the 1977 TCMA set. Out of the hundreds of dime cards I picked up, it's safe to say I have an easy winner right here.