Frankenset Page #30

As of yesterday, it's been a month since the Red Sox won the World Series. That means it's been a full 30 days since any of us have seen a live game of baseball.

No wonder it seems so cold and bleak outside. We haven't had baseball games on TV to cheer us up in a whole month, and with 4 more to go, it's safe to say that we're officially deep into the offseason.

However, there hasn't been a ton of signings or trades made so far. Apart from James Paxton being traded to the Yankees and Steve Pearce resigning in Boston, we've yet to see any major moves. In a way, this emulates a lot of what we saw in last years' offseason with free agents and teams holding off for a while until it was late February/early March and players had yet to be signed.

Obviously, everyone's watching Harper and Machado in order to see where they end up, but there's still a talented core of pitchers rumored in free agent signings and trade talks that will, hopefully, add some excitement to the offseason. 

I'll be looking forward to that because when you're without baseball for 5 months, you'll take any chance you can get to find something exciting.

I still have plenty of baseball-related things to keep me entertained throughout the offseason that isn't a live game. For example, today's blog post, the 30th page of my frankenset which come to think of it is loaded with Rockies and Twins cards as they take up 5 of the 9 slots. 

We're beginning to approach the halfway mark of the set as page #30 begins at card #262 and ends with #270. Let's get started.

#262 2016 Topps Ervin Santana

I'm not sure of the exact history of these uniforms, but I know the Cardinals and Brewers are examples of other teams that have this retro-style alternate home uniform that the players wear fairly regularly. It's intriguing considering that these aren't the typical home uniforms for these teams, but it's also not like the shy away from wearing them semi-often.

#263 2016 Topps Gypsy Queen Max Kepler

See what I mean? I guess having multiple Twins cards is helpful since Max Kepler's 2016 Topps Gypsy Queen card can help to prove my point. Both cards show Twins home jerseys and are from 2016, but Kepler's is obviously different from Santana's due to the uniform being pure white rather than off-white, a different font is used for Twins, and Santana's uniform, unlike Kepler's, has pinstripes.

#264 1992 Leaf Gold Darrin Fletcher

Anytime I see a Montreal Expos card, I begin to miss the franchise more and more, simply because there was never a team quite like the Expos. It appears, however, that the talks of there being an expansion team in Montreal are picking up some steam, so perhaps it won't be long until there's another baseball team in Canada. 

#265 2017 Topps Charlie Blackmon

Though I'm not too familiar with either of them since they play in the NL West, I pay enough attention to be able to draw comparisons between Rockies outfielder Charlie Blackmon and Dodgers 3rd baseman Justin Turner. They both have beards, had breakout seasons later in their careers, hit for contact, have power, and well-respected and talented guys.

#266 2008 Upper Deck Goudey Matt Holiday

I'm not sure what these cards are supposed to be modeled after, but especially with the Rockies uniform, this black and white card looks dope. If I'm not mistaken, Matt Holliday is another big name Rockies free agent, though he certainly isn't the player he used to be. At the age of 38 and coming off a disappointing couple of seasons, I wouldn't be surprised if he retired.

#267 2011 Topps Sam Fuld

Before 2015 Topps, 2011 was the last year of Topps that I genuinely liked. It features enough fantastic photography that it could almost pass as a Stadium Club set, especially when you consider the minimal set design apart from the photo. After that, Topps got lazy with the set for a couple years before making huge strides in 2015.

#268 2001 Upper Deck Vintage Jeff Cirillo

I still wonder to this day how Upper Deck was capable of getting away with this design for the 2001 Upper Deck Vintage set given that it nearly perfectly matches the 1971 Topps product. Years later, they did the same thing as another Vintage set had an extremely strong resemblance when compared to the 1965 Topps product.

#269 2009 Upper Deck Goudey Ichiro

If anyone knows whether or not these crazy cards with little cartoons in the background existed in the original Goudey sets, please do let me know. Not only were these cards my favorite part of the Upper Deck Goudey set for 3 years, but this would be a major incentive for me to track down my very first original 1930's Goudey card.

#270 1999 Skybox Metal Universe Cliff Politte

I don't think I had ever seen many cards from the 1909 Skybox Metal Universe set up until adding this one to the frankenset. Even though the card is titled Building Blocks, implying that it's not in the actual base set design, it makes sense as to why I'd never seen this type of card before. Still, for a late 90's baseball card, it's pretty nice.

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.