The New Frankenset: Page #1

After a brief hiatus between my 2 frankensets, the series has made its return with 74 brand new pages and 666 unique cards waiting to be introduced.

Truth be told, the ~3 weeks in which I didn't write about a single frankenset page felt odd, to say the least. This feature has been apart of my blog since March of 2018, so the break was a little weird. After all, frankenset pages are my go-to option for a quick, easy, and entertaining blog post.

I think the thing I'm most excited about regarding my 2nd frankenset is the opportunity to explore a new batch of players, products, and set designs.

The last ~200 ish cards of the first binder featured primarily Topps/Donruss/Fleer base cards, so it's very refreshing to look at the page above and see inserts, as well as smaller sets and oddballs, make their return.

I fully expect to keep the same schedule for the new frankenset as I did for the original: 1 post every week or so, give or take. And with all that out of the way, nothing is stopping me from getting this series started.

Page 1, as you all know, features cards 1-9 in the 666-card set. I don't want to wait any longer, so let's begin.

#1 2015 Topps Gypsy Queen Mini Mike Trout

If you ask me, any sort of Mike Trout card is an excellent way to begin the frankenset. While I'm glad that Gypsy Queen has found its identity over the last couple of years, cards like this make me miss the old days with framed parallels and a mini in every pack.

While I'm on the topic of Trout, I'm stoked to announce that the once in a lifetime autograph pull was sent out to Beckett over a week ago and, if all goes as planned, I'll get the grade and the card by the end of this week.

I'll know what grade it receives before the card comes back in the mail, but I'll wait to get the announcement until I have it back in hand. Until then, the suspense will continue to build.

#2 2015 Topps Opening Day Franchise Flashback Ryan Braun

There have been several sets (Gypsy Queen, Stadium Club) that have shown today's MLB players in throwback uniforms, but only the Franchise Flashback insert set from 2015 Topps Opening Day has paired them with a retro-style design as well.

Aside from the unnecessary "Opening Day" logo towards the bottom right of the card, I love everything about these cards. While I don't really collect insert sets for the fun of it, the Franchise Flashback cards are inspiring me to start.

#3 2015 Topps Opening Day Franchise Flashback George Springer

I'm not too keen on featuring cards from the same set on 1 page, let alone back-to-back, but there isn't going to be many opportunities for cards as unique as the ones above to be featured later on in the set, so I was willing to make an exception.

Plus, the Springer card pairs the vibrant set design with one of the greatest uniforms in MLB history, the "rainbow" Houston Astros jerseys, introduced in the late 1970s. Once again, aside from the OD logo, these cards are close to perfection.

#4 1991 Topps Toys R Us Rookies Carlos Baerga

From what I remember, several things attracted me to this Carlos Baerga Toys R Us oddball when I was created the 2nd frankenset; the black border only enhances the colorful aspects of the card, especially the company logo, and the photo, especially for the 90s, is a nice quality shot of the Indians 3rd baseman.

I've had this card in my collection for as long as I can remember, yet I've never come across another card from this set. Though I don't collect either one of them, I like the looks of Larry Walker and Frank Thomas' cards from what I've seen on COMC.

#5 2001 Bowman Heritage Bartolo Colon

The media and fan obsession with Bartolo Colon, in my humble opinion, has gotten a little old, but I won't let that discredit the fact that he has an excellent 2001 Bowman Heritage base card. Upon seeing this black-and-white photograph-based set, I'm hoping that I've included a few more of these cards across the remainder of the new frankenset.

If the me who made this set 2 ish years ago feels the same way about these cards as I do now, I don't think there will be a problem.

#6 2015 Topps Heritage Then & Now Koufax/Kershaw

Though the comparison is made somewhat regularly, it's hard not to contrast Sandy Koufax and Clayton Kershaw, the 2 greatest pitchers in Dodgers franchise history. I don't follow the team enough to formulate an opinion, but Kershaw still has many years to eclipse the 3-time Cy Young award winner.

Seeing a Heritage insert from a few years back only makes me more excited for what's to come later in 2020 when Topps pays homage to the '71 design. My luck in 2019 may not have been as stellar as years past, but Heritage, nonetheless, remains one of my favorite releases.

#7 2012 Topps Archives 1969 Deckle Edge Joe Mauer

He may have been one of the most dominant players in Baseball in the late 2000s and early 2010s, but Joe Mauer will likely fall just short of Cooperstown due to the injuries that plagued his 15-year career.

This is to be expected from a catcher, as many of them had either shortened careers, injuries, or both throughout their time in the MLB. Once he moved away from that position, however, it seems like he didn't miss quite as much playing time.

#8 2003 Upper Deck 40 Man David Eckstein

The previous year of Upper Deck 40 Man featured flimsy cardstock and a sub-par set design, so I must say that I'm rather impressed with the 2003 release in terms of how much Upper Deck improved the look of the cards as well as the sturdiness.

Of course, it's the 2002 design that I have an abundance of cards from whereas I only own a handful of cards from the 2003 set. The Upper Deck equivalent of Topps Total, as far as I know, didn't last too long afterward.

#9 2012 Topps Gold Futures Jeremy Hellickson

Jeremy Hellickson was a member of a dominant Tampa Bay Rays pitching staff from the early 2010s that also featured Matt Garza, James Shields, and, of course, Cy Young award winner David Price.

Hellickson may not have had the "Gold Future" promised by Topps back in 2012, but he's been a serviceable pitcher for many teams since leaving Tampa Bay. Despite his 6.23 ERA last season, he still won a World Series ring with the Washington Nationals.

Well-Priced Oddballs Galore; Card Show Recap #24 Part 3

I didn't head into Sunday's Baseball card show with as high of a budget as I do when I head to the monthly or bi-annually shows in my area, but I ended up with a variety of cards that rivaled these larger shows.

After passing some time with the dealers that I chat with each time I'm there. I ventured back into the separate room where I bought the Prizm parallels and 3D cards at the beginning of the show.

The vendor made an excellent offer on that group of cards, and he had about a dozen 4-row boxes of cards that looked promising, so I had an idea of where I'd be spending the rest of my time and money.

Usually, boxes of mixed sports cards that aren't priced wouldn't draw my attention, but the prices and variety of the first purchase made me hopeful. These bins were one of the craziest things I've ever seen at my local show, and I couldn't wait to start searching through them.

There was no rhyme or reason involved in the organization, so I simply chose a bin and got to looking. This led to 1/2 of a row devoted solely to 2018 Topps Allen & Ginter hot box cards back when they were silver glossy parallels as opposed to this years' gold foil.

Though I purchased my fair share of '18 Ginter, both packs and individual cards, I never came across a single of these parallels until Sunday's purchase where I found a surplus to add to my player collections.

None of the cards were priced as marked, so I still have no clue what I paid for each individual card. Instead, I just made an offer on a lot, and the dealer accepted it, leading to some incredible deals.

For some reason, many of the hot box parallels featured Cubs and Astros players, 2 teams that are heavily represented in my active player PCs. Though I missed out on Rizzo and Altuve, I'd say I landed most of the big names from the 2018 Houston and Chicago teams.

Seeing this design in person only makes me wish that Topps brought it back for '19 Ginter as well. The gold foil cards are nice looking, but I wouldn't choose them over the glossy silver parallels.

I haven't found any information about this TCMA set from the back of the cards, but they were even more common than the Ginter hot box parallels. Because the vendor was reasonable and there were a ton of cards of players I collect, I picked up a reasonable number of these vintage oddballs.

It seems like the set is from the late 70s or early 80s based on the cardstock as well as the players in the checklist. Most of these guys stopped playing in the early 1970s, leaving a few years between their retirement and the release of this TCMA product.

Whenever it's from, these cards will be excellent additions to my retired player PCs, particularly the card of Lou Brock on the Chicago Cubs.

There was also a selection of green-bordered cards from what appears to be the same set, though pitchers and sluggers are included in this portion.

Most of the players whose cards resembled the ones above were legends from the early 20th century, but there were a couple of names from the 70s just like the 9 above.

When I hear other bloggers or card collectors talk about oddballs, Hostess and Kellogg's are almost always mentioned, but one of my personal favorites, Drake's, is often left out.

An annual release throughout the 1980s, Drake's Big Hitters featured the greatest sluggers in the game in 1 set, usually in a checklist around 30-35 cards. The designs differed slightly each year along with the selection of players.

Looking more closely at the Boggs card, I believe I already have it in his PC, but the Rickey Henderson from '87 is definitely a new addition.

One day, I'd love to find an entire bin, or at least a row, chock-full of these terrific 2002 Topps Archives Reserve refractors, but I'll take anything that I can get from this set for the time being.

These gorgeous reprints combine my 2 favorite things about baseball cards; vintage designs and chrome refractors. These 2 aspects are drastically different, yet when they come together, you can't think about Al Oliver's original 1982 Topps card without a chrome refractor finish.

Chrome cards were also one of my favorite parts of the 2019 Topps Gypsy Queen set as they appeared in a 3-card hobby exclusive box topper.

In addition to the one box of Gypsy Queen that I opened, I tracked down a few more of these singles for my player collections via the show, including the Joey Votto card above. The serial numbered versions, like the Miguel Cabrera blue that I pulled, are unbelievably beautiful.

Deviating slightly from the chrome cards that I had previously spoken of, I'm transitioning to the 2 cards of Ken Griffey Jr on the Chicago White Sox that I picked up on Sunday. After all, it's not every day that you land a card of a player who only had 131 at-bats for the team their shown to be playing for.

In addition to the base card from 2009 Topps, I found the Walmart exclusive black parallel which looks awesome with the Chicago home uniform on the foreground. Griffey Jr is one of my largest PCs, so this duo of White Sox cards will be excellent additions to an extensive player collection.

The Platinum Diamond Anniversary and Cognac parallels from 2011 Topps significantly upped the appeal that regular Series 1 & 2 had.

Though I understand it would be challenging to do something like this every year, I bet Topps could've figured something out for 150 years of professional Baseball instead of choosing a boring gold stamp and calling it a day.

I didn't buy any packs in 2011, so my selection of these terrific parallels is somewhat limited. I was, however, able to change that with the addition of these 4 cards, 1 for the Cubs PC and the rest for player collections.

Last but certainly not least, a want list pickup that was hidden amongst the vintage oddballs and shiny parallels; the Houston Astros team card from 1979 Topps, featuring the entire team in front of the Astrodome.

I don't think I could've ended on a higher note, especially considering the huge variety of different cards that these bins delivered.

Needless to say, I'll be visiting this vendor as soon as I run into him again.

Top 5 Cards; Tim Raines

The same way that Trevor Hoffman is often overshadowed by Mariano Rivera, I often find that Hall of Famer Tim Raines doesn't get the recognition he deserves due to how fabulous of a player Rickey Henderson was. 

Like Rivera and Hoffman, Henderson and Tim Raines were very similar players who played in the exact same time period. It just so happened that the former, arguably, was a tad better than Raines, and that's all it took for the 7-time All-Star to be outshined.

It took the BBWAA committee 10 years to elect Raines into Cooperstown when truth be told, it should not have taken that long. This Expos legend was a career .294 hitter with 2,600+ hits and nearly 1,000 RBI. 

Better yet, his 808 career stolen bases put him at #5 on the All-Time list, behind Rickey Henderson, Lou Brock, Billy Hamilton, and Ty Cobb.

I think a combination of playing at the same time as Rickey Henderson and playing for the Montreal Expos contributed to the overall lack of recognition surrounding Raines as a Baseball legend. He may not have been a power hitter, but he was extremely efficient in stealing bases and getting clutch hits.

Alongside Vladimir Guerrero, Andre Dawson, and Gary Carter, Tim Raines ranks as one of my most successful Montreal Expos player collections. Though the total number of cards in the Raines PC may not be as impressive as the other 3, I'm content with having 53 total cards of the 2-time World Series Champion.

Given my love for the colorful Montreal Expos jerseys, it was challenging to narrow this list down to only 5 cards, even if my Raines PC isn't the largest of all my player collections. Without any further adieu, however, here are the top 5 that I selected.

#5 2017 Topps High Tek Pattern 4

The surplus of various parallels within Topps High Tek doesn't give me enough motivation to justify paying ~$100 for a hobby box of 40 or so cards. With that being said, I have no qualms about picking these cards up when I stumble upon them in the dime bins or at other parts of the Baseball card show.

Because some collectors choose to focus solely on rookie and prospect cards, often times, you can find the veteran base and retired players' cards for a dime each, even from high-end products like High Tek.

Over the last year or so, I've added a reasonable number of High Tek cards to my collection, all courtesy of the dime bins, including the sole Tim Raines card in my collection, showing him on the New York Yankees.

#4 1981 Topps

Most of the Topps Future or Rookie Stars cards from the 70s and 80s seem to be the kiss of death, for very few of the players featured on these cards end up making it big in the major leagues.

However, one of the few exceptions to this unspoken rule is Tim Raines who was featured on this 1981 Topps Expos Future Stars card above. While I don't believe that Roberto Ramos or Bobby Pate ended up playing in the MLB for all that long, Raines, obviously, went on to have a Hall of Fame career.

I like the style of the '81 Future Stars cards in particular, so it was interesting to see them recreated in 2018 Topps Archives, featuring top tier rookies like Shohei Ohtani and Ronald Acuna Jr.

#3 1985 Fleer

I believe that I've talked about this card on the blog beforehand, but this is the first time that I've actually showcased it. The silver-bordered 1985 Fleer set allows bright and colorful jerseys to stand out more so than they typically would, and Raines' red and powder blue Expos uniform is no exception.

The contrast of the red with the silver, in particular, is what I appreciate most about this card. Albeit, it's a little off-center, but that's not a big deal for me. The card is a beautiful representation of the Montreal Expos franchise, for they were known for their crazy uniforms. 

I just wish Topps would create a card for Raines in a set like Allen & Ginter or Archives, featuring a bright red jersey like that.

#2 2018 Topps Stadium Club

Granted, the set isn't A&G or Archives, but Tim Raines' 2018 Topps Stadium Club card, featuring the same bright red jersey, is absolutely unbelievable. I recall ranking this very card as one of my personal favorites from the entire 2018 Topps Stadium Club set, and it's easy to see why.

The uniform, first and foremost, is reason enough for this card to earn the #2 spot on the countdown. However, all those bright colors combined with the bats that Raines is holding makes for a truly sensational card.

Just how the #3 card on this list embodies what the Expos, as a whole, are like, this Raines card from '18 Stadium Club perfectly represents the caliber of cards that Topps produces with this sensational set.

#1 1987 Fleer Baseball's Best Sluggers

As much as I cherish Raines' 2018 Topps Stadium Club, there's something crazy about this oddball 1987 Fleer Baseball's Best Sluggers card that I absolutely love, and I feel obligated to place it at #1.

The prominent colors, red and blue, match the jerseys that we've seen throughout all of the cards on this post, including the one that Raines is wearing in the card above. However, this is the first card on the countdown to feature the iconic powder blue uniforms, and it's hard to talk about Raines or the Expos without showcasing those jerseys.

The design is fairly simple, but it's also everything that I love about the 80s; it's colorful while also staying true to the time period and the player. 

I definitely surprised myself with this pick, but at the end of the day, there was no choice better than this crazy oddball card, and that's why it earned the #1 spot.

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.

Dollar Cards & Oddballs; Card Show Recap #15 Part #2

If the Tribe-unal combo card above, possibly one of the greatest combo cards I've ever seen before in my life including cards from the '60s, was any sign as to how the rest of yesterday's baseball card show was going to go, then I was beyond excited to continue navigating my way through the vendor tables.

I was accompanied by my Dad to the Mansfield show yesterday, though I can't say we spend all that much time together while we're there. As soon as we arrive, we tend to go our separate ways, allowing each other to pursue what we like.

At the very end, we regroup and take one last look around together before heading out, double-checking to see if there's any last thing we want.

So, while I was searching through the dime boxes for player collection cards, my Dad was finding cards of his own that he liked, mainly $1 cards with a few oddballs and dime cards thrown in. This post is some of what he was able to track down.

I've started to become the main player collector out of the 2 of us while my Dad is more of a set builder or vintage kind of collector, more so than I am, at least. With that being said, he knows a good deal of the old-time players that we collect and even a couple of the modern ones as is shown here by the group of 2017 Allen & Ginter What A Day inserts that he picked up for 10 cents a pop.

One of the main reasons why I was ecstatic for the revival of Topps Gallery last year was that it would entail stupendous art like this being featured across an entire 150-card set. The 2017 Topps Gypsy Queen Hand Drawn Art inserts offer vibrant artwork unmatched by nearly any set produced nowadays. 

One of the strong points of the 2017 set, I was surprised to see them left out of the 2018 Gypsy Queen product.

Collectively, my Dad and I are both pretty into oddball cards, especially when we can find them for player collections. Whether they're as well-known by collectors as Hostess and Kellogg's or more obsolete oddballs like Jiffy Pop from the late 1980s, there's always been room in my collection for unique cards such as these, even if I don't have a player collection (yet) for Robin Yount.

Before the revival of the company in 1981 and continuous releases through the year 2005, Fleer produced a couple years of intriguing cartoon cards commemorating the various World Series' beginning with the very first one in 1903. A couple of these sets were produced in the late '60s and early 70s, resulting in what you see above; 2 different cards with cartoons commemorating the 1951 Fall Classic.

It's relatively difficult to classify an oddball and differentiate it from, say, a card or set that you're unfamiliar with. Usually, an oddball type of set is a product not released by a major card producer with a lot of the oddballs being released by food companies either in cereal boxes or, in the case of Hostess, on Twinkie boxes.

That's why, although still unfamiliar to me, I would not classify the Babe Ruth card above as an oddball. While I'm still not sure what set it's from or what year, the card was made by Upper Deck meaning it's nothing that would stump baseball card collectors left and right.

The unknown card of Babe Ruth commemorating the historic 1936 Hall of Fame Class is not the only card in the bunch of The Bambino. A duo of bright yellow cards with the word "Superstar" was also picked up for a buck each by my Dad when he was looking around yesterday's show. 

Unlike the 1st card of Ruth, I'd count this one as an oddball since it's easy to see how collector's, including myself, would have no luck identifying exactly what the card is.

Babe Ruth's Gold Tier player certainly benefited more so than almost every other PC at the show yesterday with another oddball commemorative set helping to prove why. Among the guys in the checklist of this seemingly art-based set from the 80s is Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Jimmie Foxx, suggesting it could pertain only to Hall of Famers or 20s and 30s legends.

From Babe Ruth to the guy that's been compared to Babe Ruth for quite a few years now, Mike Trout's 3D card from a past Opening Day set was one of my pickups separate from all the dime cards shown in yesterday's post. 

After spending a good deal of my day searching through the dime bins, I began to look more for cards of selected players for a bit more money, and one of the guys I decided on was Trout, a player collection closing in on reaching 50-cards or the Silver Tier status.

Along with Mike Trout, Hank Aaron, one of my top 2 favorite players of all-time, is another guy that I'm always willing to track down cards of separate from the dime boxes. Located in the $1-$3 per card bin that I searched through was a 2015 Topps Gallery of Greats card, something that I believe to be a higher-end insert set though I'm not very well acquainted with it.

While it's easy to spend a dime or a quarter on a card of a player, spending a couple bucks on a non-numbered card isn't for everyone, and certainly not something I can do for each and every player I collect. Thus, it's necessary to narrow it down to a short list of players that you're willing to spend the money for, and one of those guys, for me, is Hank Aaron.

Willie Mays is another player I'm willing to spend a bit more on even though his player collection isn't at the totals that fellow 50s and 60s stars Ernie Banks and Hank Aaron are at. For whatever reason, I'm almost always incapable of finding Willie Mays cards in the dime boxes, as if it's impossible or something for his cards to be there. 

I recognize the 2nd card, 2013 Topps Cut to the Chase, though the first card of "The Kid" is from some type of set that I've never seen before in my life.

What I've been getting at is I'm only willing to spend more than a couple dollars on a card that sticks out to me or is something I've been wanting for a while. This could mean a lot of things; cards of my favorite players, numbered cards, 3D or oddballs, and last but surely not least, rookie cards.

Giancarlo or "Mike" Stanton as he was known back in 2010 and '11 is now a member of the arch-rival New York Yankees, meaning I can't necessarily be cheering the guy on or rooting for him at every turn. However, I have no issues with collecting cards from his days with the Marlins, especially if it's a new Stanton rookie to add to his PC.

It's Like An Online Card Show

Over the last number of weeks, I've taken time to explore Twitter for baseball cards, something I've stated numerous times I never thought I'd be doing.

 I was always satisfied with eBay, COMC, and Sportlots for my online baseball card purchases. I never thought I would need more than that.

Alas, I was quickly disproven as soon as my first ever package of baseball cards bought on Twitter arrived in the mail a few weeks ago. Then came a 2nd package, next it was a 3rd, and finally, my 4th package of Twitter cards arrived at my front door this week. 

Another example of a Twitter user I've seen other bloggers buy from, @mrbkscards had a massive sports card sale that took place over multiple days towards the beginning of October. Due to the number of cards available as well as a lot of them being of guys I collect, this haul ended up being, by far, my largest purchase of cards from the site so far.

Back when this sale was taking place, 2018 Panini Chronicles was still fresh in my mind having recently opened a couple blasters of the product. Unfortunately for me, I was unable to rekindle my love for the set at Target a number of days ago when I stopped by for cards around my birthday. 

Because the set was still very fresh in my mind when this sale occurred, I claimed as many Panini Chronicles cards as I could, though some had already been requested by other users. I ended up with a decent selection, including a handful of Orioles players like Austin Hays and Chance Sisco.

Due to the premise that the first person to claim a card receives it, I must admit that there were a couple of times in which I didn't necessarily know what I was claiming. All I knew was I really liked the design and the cards featured players I collect. I suppose it's somewhat like a card show given that you don't always know what you're buying, but you find the card for the right price which ultimately proves to be enough.

Some under-appreciated 90's cards were among the many cards I decided to claim as part of this massive Twitter sports card sale. From late 90's Stadium Club with a stunning photo of Manny Ramirez to Metal Universe with the ever-abstract backgrounds. From planets to waterfalls, that set sure is weird, and I love it.

Perhaps one of the better parts of this particular Twitter cards purchase is that I was able to discover some cards of players I don't necessarily see every day in the dimes bins at the card show. While there's never a shortage of Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez cards, players like Derrek Lee and Darrell Evans don't show up all that often. 

Even though I collect both of them and have no intentions of stopping, I can't say it's every day I'm able to add to their respective player collections along with Ryan Howard and Cliff Lee as well.

Even with an extensive variety of cards, I definitely found myself leaning towards certain sets in particular or at least certain cards from those sets. Specifically, a decent portion of what arrived in the mail from this sale were Topps Gypsy Queen framed parallels, one of the things I miss most from the old Gypsy Queen products.

Starting off, we have the bronze frame parallels from the 2012 GQ set. Although these were fairly pricey, it makes sense given the caliber of the players featured on these cards. To be specific, all Hall of Famers who remains legends in the respective cities.

Flash forward one year in Gypsy Queen and we have the white framed parallels from the 2013 set, another group of framed parallels that I deemed were worth it and scooped up during this sale. However, this group differs quite a bit from the first group due to the 2013 white parallels consisting of all current players, in 2013 anyways, with the exception of Bob Gibson.

Although the serial numbering is not shown on the cards, some of the framed parallels I picked up are slightly rarer than the others and cost me around the same price if I remember correctly. The Steve Carlton is another bronze parallel which Topps decided to serial number out of 499 in 2015 while the Juan Marichal is a blue from 2012 number out of 599 copies.

Among everything that I claimed via this mega card sale, I was most pleased when I found new cards for some of my top-tier player collections. Out of my hundreds of player collections, there are around 30 that are at the top of my list of priorities, including the 4 players shown above. 3 players (Nolan Ryan, Manny Ramirez, and Greg Maddux) have passed the 200 card mark while an additional 25+ players have PCs with over 100 cards in them.

It's adding to these player collections, finding oddball cards, numbered cards for the right price, and a few others included is part of what has helped make Twitter one of my favorite new places to buy cards. As the title suggests, buying cards on Twitter is a lot like my own online card show.