Card Shop Singles

My much-delayed 2020 Topps Heritage hobby box recap will be posted sometime this weekend, but before I get into a more in-depth analysis of this year's product, I thought I'd share a select few singles that I picked up before grabbing the Heritage box on release day just over a week ago.

When your spending money on a hobby box in general, you're not usually too inclined to splurge even more and grab some individual cards, but I figured it couldn't hurt to take a look. I purchased more cards than I actually chose to show, but they only added around $5 to the total cost.

Plus, I can't remember the last time I went on a dime box search: that is, giving myself a $20 budget and scanning through the cards until I reached the limit.

The whole process is wonderful because I end up with 200 new cards for my player collections that I can sort later that day, especially during the Baseball season when the Red Sox are playing.

I might be going off on a tangent and/or getting ahead of myself, but all this talk of dime boxes is inspiring me to get back to the card show and look through the bins. As I mentioned, it's been far too long since I significantly boosted my various PCs.

Moving on, I have a few cards that I specifically chose for today's rather brief post, starting with the one from the 2017 Topps Stadium Club set at the top of this post. No, I don't collect Willson Contreras, and I didn't necessarily choose this card because he plays for the Cubs.

Instead, it was the cameo that Aroldis Chapman made that sold me; 10 cents is well worth it for a parallel of a guy who played in Chicago for just half a season.

The Contreras card with a Chapman cameo didn't spell the end of my Stadium Club pickups. Despite how much 2018 I ripped, this is definitely my first time seeing the Carl Yastrzemski card, and I don't believe I'm familiar with the Ty Cobb either.

Some products end up in the dime boxes a lot more than others, but both Topps Stadium Club and Archives are pretty dependable in that, year after year, I can pick up singles for my player collections a week or 2 after release day.

Come to think of it, I can even wait 8 months and find new cards for my PCs in late February.

The 2 cards above were located directly next to one another in the order of the dime box, so for a quick second, I thought they were from the same set. As I soon found out, one is from Fleer Maximum Impact while the other is from Upper Deck SP Signature Edition.

Overall, Derek Jeter and Harmon Killebrew could not be more different. One was a contact hitter with superb defense while the other would've been a DH had it been implemented and focused on crushing homers rather than upping his batting average.

In my opinion, one of the better parts of specializing in player collecting is that you can find cards of all different players from virtually any era in Baseball history, allowing you to expand your repertoire as a baseball fan and card collector.

Plus, thanks to both Topps and Panini, both current, retired, and future players get their own cards thanks to the extensive range of different products.

As I've said before, there are abundances of cards from various sets/brands depending on when and where you search through the dime bins. In the case of my most recent visit to the card shop, that particular set was 2003 Donruss Team Heroes.

There were a few other cards in the Team Heroes stack, but the majority of them, oddly enough, featured members of the Chicago Cubs.

Though Ron Santo was not included, Jenkins, Sandberg, Banks, and Williams all were, so I'll definitely take this as a victory and an opportunity to enhance player collections from my 2nd favorite team.

I don't really have an effective way to transfer from 2003 Donruss Team Heroes to a "power plaid" parallel from 2019 Panini Prizm, but I wanted to save this card for last because it is a nice addition to my 2019 Panini Prizm project, which I haven't had the chance to add to in a while.

Anyone who follows my blog closely knows that I don't necessarily believe that I can achieve the goal of tracking down all parallels with print runs higher than 25 in a 300-card set, but I'm going to everything in my power to at least try.

Panini is going to release Prizm once again this year on May 13th. As much as I'll be tempted to rip into some packs, I'm going to give it my best effort not to open any of this product. Instead, I plan on saving the money I would've spent on the new release and concentrating on picking up singles for my project.

Whether or not that happens is an entirely different story.

First Dime Box Haul in a While; Card Show Recap #23 Part 2

Despite how much I prioritize my ~250 player collections as the center point of my card collecting habits, it's been many months since I've come back from the card show with a dime box haul.

Though they used to be a common feature on the blog, my card collecting habits over the last several months simply haven't allowed for a proper all-dime card purchase. I took many weeks off leading up to and following the National, and I didn't make the dime bins a priority while I was in Chicago.

I know I have access to terrific dime boxes at my local shows, so I wanted to branch out at the NSCC. Even upon returning, however, I found it challenging to return to my old ways. Thankfully, a trip to my weekly card show, much smaller than the one in Mansfield, allowed for just that.

After all, it's hard to beat coming home with a bag full of dime cards following a card show, just waiting to be sorted, categorized, and properly stored.

Within a few minutes of scanning through the dime boxes, I always get a reasonable idea of what player, on this particular day, is going to appear frequently. Almost right off the bat, while searching through the bins on Sunday, I concluded that one of those players was Ken Griffey Jr.

The 13-time All-Star currently trails Greg Maddux by 8 cards for the #2 spot on my list of largest player collections, and these cards will definitely help to close that gap. I did, however, pick up a few Maddux cards, so we'll have to see where the chips fall, though I doubt anyone will ever catch Nolan Ryan (474).

I don't know when or if I'll ever bite the bullet and add the iconic 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr card to my collection. I know that I either want the card to be graded or in good enough condition to come back at an 8.5 or above.

With that being said, my collection, per usual, is all over the place, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to commit myself to add this prized piece to my collection.

Following my complete reorganization of the Red Sox and Cubs PCs over the summer, I'm now able to actively collect cards of my 2 favorite teams besides my player collections.

I don't have a PC for Heyward, nor Ty Buttrey, but these refractors were only a dime each, and I figured they'd be perfect for the PCs. The way I organized the various binders allows me to find any card I want fairly quickly. The next step? Categorize them all online.

Another of my projects from over the summer was the creation of new player collections to add to my already extensive list. Most of the newcomers are rookies from 2018, like Ozzie Albies and Rhys Hoskins, though it also includes superstars like Alex Bregman, Freddie Freeman, and Javier Baez.

Though I haven't made these new player collections official yet, I'm working to accumulate as many cards as I can just like any other PC. For a dime each, these 2 rookies are a heck of a deal.

Though I try to sample almost every available retail product as it's released, I still miss out on the majority of player collection cards. As a result, I frequently depend on the dime bins so I can hunt these cards down, whether it's a set that I buy a fair amount of (Archives) or a product that I've never opened a pack from (Diamond Kings).

Even though I purchased and opened a fair share of 2019 Topps Stadium Club upon its release, I still missed out on a few key cards for my player collections. Before the show, I wasn't familiar with Rivera nor Bank's card from this beautiful set.

I can sufficiently say that if I had known of the Banks card back when I first opened 2019 Stadium Club in June, it would've been strongly considered for the top 10.

As I mentioned, some players are simply more common than others when it comes to a given dime box haul, and this trip to the show was no different. In addition to Ken Griffey Jr, Padres legend Tony Gwynn showed up several times.

I haven't been collecting cards of the 15-time All-Star for all that long, but Gwynn seems to show up in dime boxes no matter where I go. I've only been collecting his cards for a few months, but he's already surpassed 30, not bad considering my hiatus from dime cards.

There's something so drastically different about each of these Roberto Clemente cards that makes me like them all the more. On one end, you have a classic black and white photo paired with a simple design, reminiscent of a fairly high-end product.

On the other hand, you have a retro-style card all about the 1970s. The design, uniform, and even the set name emulate the era incredibly well.

Oddly enough, these 2 cards were produced by the same company, Upper Deck, in the same year, 2001.

After not making much progress for a little while, I'm back on track to reach 500 cards of Nolan Ryan, my largest player collection, by the end of this year. Taking Sunday's purchase into account, I should be hovering around 480 cards, leaving 20 for the next 3 months.

I hope, obviously, to reach this goal and reach the 500-card mark for the first time, but I hope to get there with something besides Texas Rangers cards. Though the best years of his HOF career were spent in California, Topps loves to depict the all-time strikeout leader with the Rangers at every chance they get.

Even with the surplus of Nolan Ryan cards on the Texas Rangers, it felt great to pay the dime bins a visit again. After all, I don't know if I can go this long without them ever again.

Unbeatable Dime Boxes; Card Show Recap #20 Part #2

While my Dad spent the first hour or so of Sunday's Baseball card show searching for a wide range of different oddball vintage cards, I took more of a safe approach with the first vendor that I visited that day. 

Virtually every time I look through dime bins at the Baseball card show, they're from a particular vendor that I've known for years. Whether it's the local Woburn show, the larger one in Mansfield, or the twice a year Shriner's show, this dealer always shows up, this time with 5 total Baseball card dime bins.

I didn't even finish looking through my 2nd dime box before I met the pecuniary limit that I set for myself before I began searching through the bins. While I could've kept going and doubled or even tripled the number of cards that I purchased, I wanted to save my funds for other aspects of this show.

After wandering around for 10 minutes or so in search of this vendor, I landed at his booth and found myself standing directly in front of the 5 previously mentioned dime boxes that he brought to the final day of this 3-day show. 

Without hesitating, I chose one of the 3 bins, started in the first row, and began shuffling through the cards. The selection wasn't incredibly strong at first, but it continuously improved as I progressed through the various rows and bins.

Even though I've most definitely stumbled upon dime bins in the past that featured an exorbitant number of refractors and chrome cards, I don't believe I've ever seen something this impressive ever before. 

Scattered throughout the rows in 1 of the boxes that I looked through must've been 100 or so refractors from Bowman Chrome, Topps Finest, and Topps Chrome. Out of all those cards, a respectable number of them are players that I collect, making this dime box find one to remember.

I wouldn't be surprised to hear that I only had 9 2015 Topps Finest cards in my collection before Sunday's show. It was exciting to acquire so many different cards from a product that I'm unfamiliar with, especially since they can boost a lot of my modern day player collections.

A couple of pitchers whom I still collect; guys whose lives were cut far too short. RIP Yordano Ventura and Jose Fernandez. Man, the black background of that Jose Fernandez card is especially somber.

On a lighter note, the refractor-crazy dime box didn't stop with cards from the 2015 Topps Finest set. In fact, it ended up delivering a surplus of different cards from varying sets and brands. Among these products, there was 2014 Topps Finest, 2012 Bowman Chrome, and 2011 Topps Chrome. 

I've been purchasing dime cards for as long as I can remember, and I don't recall ever seeing a selection of chrome cards quite this strong. There are all sorts of different refractors, brands, sets, and players featured, every one of which is a guy that I collect.

It's truly challenging for me to pick a favorite from this wide range of different refractors. That said, the Evan Longoria x-fractor from 2014 Topps Finest is pretty incredible, the first of those refractors from '14 Finest that I've ever seen.

After the initial refractor craze began to die down, I noticed another trend as I continued to make my way through the dime bins. Now, instead of running into Bowman Chrome, Topps Finest, and Topps Chrome cards everywhere I went, there were oodles of cards from various Bowman products, featuring both veterans and prospects alike.

For starters, there were a bunch of colored parallels from 2012 Bowman Platinum, parallels that I didn't even know existed as a part of this set. Green, gold, and pink were all present, and while none of them are serial numbered, I can't complain given that they cost me only 10 cents apiece.

As I continued to scan through the stacks of cards, I found another group of the same cards in a small stack together. This time, it was a bunch of light blue parallels from 2010 Bowman. They're also serial numbered out of 520 copies, some of the only numbered cards that I picked up from the entire dime box.

As I explained yesterday about Curt Flood, I don't add cards to my Adam Dunn or Tim Lincecum player collections too often, so it's always rewarding to find a card or 2 in order to boost one of those PCs. 

The same goes for quite a few of the players that I collect. Since I don't come across their cards all that often, I'm always very pleased when I can track down some cards to add to those player collections.

Although I've purchased a few value packs of 2019 Bowman so far this year, the last thing I consider myself is a prospect collector. I don't stay up-to-date on how certain top prospects are doing, and I certainly stay away from spending too much money on Bowman products that I'll likely never get my money back from.

With that being said, there's no harm in picking up a few different prospect cards if they're available for the right price. In this case, I grabbed 4 prospect cards of guys who have either already made their MLB debuts (Flaherty and Torres) or top prospects waiting to get called up to the big leagues (Adell and Bichette).

I also picked up a couple of Red Sox prospect cards for my brand new rookie and prospect binder. Moreover, I was quite shocked to find 2019 Bowman cards already in the dime bins. I half-expected some veterans and rookies to be in there, but it was surprising to see the highly-desired chrome prospect cards for only 10 cents each.

Both Michael Chavis and Yoan Moncada have been playing stellar Baseball over the last few weeks, so it makes sense for me to grab these 2 Bowman Chrome cards. 

With Chavis called up, the Red Sox farm system is almost completely depleted, making it even more imperative for the Red Sox to break out of their World Series hangover.

A significant departure from Bowman Chrome prospect cards, cards from a couple different Upper Deck Masterpieces sets was the next as I continued to search through these unbeatable dime boxes. 

One of the many different art sets attempted by card companies throughout the 21st century, Masterpieces encompasses both retired and current players in the checklist. Thankfully, old school uniforms are included as is evident with the Steve Carlton and Willie Stargell cards in the photo above.

Even though all the Baseball card shows near my house take place in the Boston area, that never stops me from finding Red Sox cards in the dime bins. This time, it wasn't just any Red Sox cards, but high-end cards of Boston legends, all of whom played on the 1975 team.

The Fisk and Yaz cards are very sleek looking base cards from 2012 Topps Triple Threads. Even though the Fred Lynn card from '05 Upper Deck Past Time Pennants is nothing to look down upon, my favorite card of the 4 shown above is the Jim Rice bronze parallel from Topps Museum.

Given how fond I am of anything that has to do with the Montreal Expos, I always try to find at least 1 Expos card each and every time I look through dime boxes. This time, I landed, at least, 4 different cards, including 2 guys who I rarely see in Expos uniforms.

Yes, I'm ecstatic to add cards to my Vladimir Guerrero player collection, but Pedro Martinez and Brandon Phillips aren't guys I see too often in Montreal Expos jerseys, especially the latter. 

This makes sense, however, because while Martinez played some of the best seasons of his career with the Expos, Phillips was only there for (I believe) 1 year or so.

Unlike 2019 Bowman, a set that has only been out for around 2 weeks, 2019 Topps was released roughly 3 months ago, so I understand why these insert cards from that product are starting to appear in the dime bins. 

Even so, that doesn't take away from how fantastic these 1984 inserts look. For the 3rd year in a row, Topps took a beloved Flagship set and enhanced it for modern times with a healthy mix of veterans and retired players.

There's no denying that Topps did an incredible job with these cards. Now, let's hope they don't burn us out on yet another 80s set, but something tells me they most definitely will.

Oh, and I also tracked down 2 of the Scratch Off inserts that I need to complete my 2019 Topps Heritage master set. Because I only pulled 1 or 2 of these cards per hobby box of Heritage, I was shocked that these cards ended up in the dime bins.

Yes, they don't feature rookie players or Mike Trout-caliber veterans, but these cards are pretty tough pulls out of 2019 Topps Heritage. With that being said, I'm, in no way, complaining. Finding these cards simply capped off a nearly unbeatable search through the dime boxes.

A Quick Yet Productive Visit; Card Show Recap #19

The intent behind today's trip to the Woburn Baseball card show wasn't to acquire cards to boost my player collections. However, per usual with my Baseball card purchases, I ended up with a large stack of new additions for many of my PCs.

Rather, there were 2 reasons for my first visit to the Baseball card show for the first time in a month and a half.

The 1st reason was that my Dad and I were both searching for a certain item that I'll recap tomorrow. The 2nd deciding factor was that we wanted to catch up with the vendors at the show whom we hadn't chatted with in a while.

Not only did we find the item that we desired, but the 2 of us searched through an impressive dime bin before departing soon after. The box that we looked through seemed to have a ton of rookie and prospect cards, but that isn't really what my collection is centered around.

Instead, I simply searched for cards of players that I collect and left the rest up to whatever I could find in this box. As always, the bin that I searched through had specific trends, including players and sets that appeared very often.

In this case, Vladimir Guerrero was one of those players who appeared quite often across my search through this dime bin. I was very pleased to track down new cards for this player collection considering that, for whatever reason, I haven't been finding too many Guerrero cards in the dime bins.

Given that the Expos are my favorite all-time ballclub behind the Red Sox and the Cubs, I was happy to find numerous cards showing Guerrero in a Montreal jersey. There are many strong candidates, but the card in the bottom left corner is my favorite of the group, even though I don't know what set it's from.

Theoretically, I should be saving this card for last since it's definitely one of the best cards of the entire purchase, but it seems more fitting to have it alongside the other Vladimir Guerrero cards. From the 1995 Best set, this prospect card is the very first card listed of Vladdy on COMC.

The design is pretty standard no matter how you look at it. Therefore, the best part of this card is that it's a prospect card of one of my favorite all-time players rather than having a compelling design or an intriguing photograph. 

As expected in a modern Baseball card dime box, there was no shortage of different parallels/refractors available, some of which were serial numbered; others were not. 

While I agree that Topps over-produces parallel cards (cough cough insert parallels cough cough), a simple gold bordered card or a base refractor never hurt anybody. Not to mention that I boosted my CC Sabathia player collection, a PC that I don't get the chance to add to all that often.

As I continued to make my way through the dime bins, I observed more and more trends that were taking place. First, I found a sizeable number of Vladimir Guerrero cards. Next, there was a surplus of different Panini Diamond Kings inserts from the past few years. 

Just like my CC Sabathia collection, it's not super often that I add to my Tony Perez and Orlando Cepeda PCs. Additionally, I'm usually skeptical of willingly purchasing unlicensed cards unless they're above my expectations. 

Needless to say, these Diamond Kings inserts, featuring retired players, were able to fit the bill.

Although these Gypsy Queen inserts only lasted 1 year, I still applaud the effort of Topps' artists for taking the time to create these beautiful cards 2 years after the set's release. Labeled as Hand-Drawn Art Reproductions, each player in this set receives not 1, but 2 different cards, featuring different pictures and colors in the background. 

My guess is that these cards were too reminiscent of Allen & Ginter cards to return for another year, but that doesn't stop me from appreciating the attention to detail on these gorgeous inserts.

As long as I'm discussing insert cards from 2017 Topps Gypsy Queen, it's critical that I point out one of the most creative card sets that I've ever seen; the Fortune Teller insert cards. Returning to Gypsy Queen for a 3rd straight year in 2019, these unique cards make bold predictions about what players will achieve by the end of their season. 

The 2017 card design isn't anything out of the ordinary, but the cards get the job done. Both the 2018 and 2019 styles embody the Gypsy Queen product way more. Out of all the decisions that I made today regarding dime cards, adding all of these Fortune Teller inserts to my stack was one of the easiest choices that I had to make.

The 2018 Bowman Platinum product featured one of the most interesting set designs of last year. Showcasing a black background combined with a colorful swirl, these cards depart from the traditional rainbow foil cardstock that we've become so accustomed to seeing.

Even though I obtained only a handful of 2018 Bowman Platinum cards last year, I ranked this product at #6 on my sets of 2018 ranking, ahead of cards like Topps Big League. Now, after seeing even more of these cards in person, I'm confident that I made the right choice, judging solely by the base set design.

Unlike the 2018 Bowman Platinum set, I didn't think too highly of the 2017 Topps Gold Label set when it was released. In fact, I placed this product 2nd to last at #15 back when I ranked the sets of 2017. Since then, I've come to appreciate this set more than I originally did, mainly due to all the retired players in this product.

The Gold Label set is separated by different classes with 1 being the most common, followed by 2, and 3 being the rarest class within the product. All of the cards above are from the 1st class, something you can notice by the faint writing on the lefthand side of the cards.

There were no class 3 cards available in this dime box, but I found an equal number of class 2 cards as class 1. Although the only difference, to my knowledge, is the choice of images, these cards are slightly rarer than the first group, but that's not something that I care too much about, especially when we're talking about dime cards.

I'm not sure if this is coincidental, but all of the class 2 cards above feature alternate jerseys. On the other hand, the group of class 1 cards is composed solely of home uniforms. It's quite possible that the rarer cards in the set feature more intriguing uniforms and photographs.

As I discussed earlier, this dime box included an insane number of rookie and prospect cards, a dream come true for a lot of collectors. Personally, I'm more into finding cards that I like rather than building up rookie and prospect card collections, but I did select a few standouts to add to my stack. 

Among them was a card of Corey Seager that I don't have in my collection yet, a rookie card from the 2016 Bowman set.

I'd safely bet that I'll never open a 1-pack box of Topps Inception ever in my life unless I win the lottery jackpot. Like most of Topps' high-end products, I rely heavily on the dime bins to provide me a sample of what the product looks like.

Even though the 2018 Inception set was released roughly 1 year ago, it doesn't bother me whatsoever that I'm getting my first look at the product today. The base cards look so impressive that it almost makes me want to buy a box of these high-end cards.

Finally, to end the look at this wide variety of dime cards, I have one final high-end card, this time from 2013 Topps Tribute. This may not be my first World Baseball Classic card from Topps Tribute, but Stanton is the best player that I've landed so far. 

Representing Team USA, this card will be an excellent addition to my Giancarlo Stanton PC which is currently hovering around 65 total cards.

Per usual, I was very pleased with the outcome of this trip to the dime bins. However, the main thing that I came to the card show for earlier today is yet to be shown. That's something that I'll be saving for tomorrow.

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.