Some of the Best Dime Bins Ever; Card Show Recap #13

All in all, I was disappointed when I didn't see any dime boxes at the card show I attended a couple weeks ago. A staple at the show I regularly attend, the dealer that usually provides the show's best dime boxes stated that the lack of space at the show that day was the reason why he was unable to bring them with.

This time, the show was back in a larger-sized room and with that came the return of the dime bins. As soon as I walked into the card show today, 3 3200-count boxes chock-full of dime cards came into sight, and I instantly decided that today was going to be a dime box day.

Maybe it's because I haven't gone through dime boxes in months, but these bins seemed better than usual. In fact, I'd go as far as to say these were some of the best dime boxes I've looked through in a while, maybe even ever. Though I can't say the bins specialized in oddballs, I was able to find a decent selection of oddball cards, ranging from Metalic Snowflake parallels to Heritage Minor League.

Above all, these particular dime bins were perfect for finding a large collection of cards from specific sets. Oddly enough, 2008 Upper Deck Spectrum was one of those sets this time around with these 4 player collections benefiting from that. The selection from the set ranged from 2 100-card player collections (Vlad and Chipper) to a smaller player collection that I refuse to give up on, Dice-K.

Similarly, a set that I'm not too familiar with, 2004 Fleer Hot Prospects, dominated a good deal of one of the dime box rows with well over 20 cards, around 15 of which I grabbed for my various PCs. It faintly reminds me of Fleer Patchworks from around the same time, or maybe one or two of the Upper Deck Sweet Spot sets produced over the years. 

Even high-end base cards made their way into these dime bins which definitely surprised me as I hadn't seen this number of high-end of products in over a year. It's always a bit of a treat, if nothing else, to find sets like 2017 Topps Museum present in the dime boxes since there's certainly no other way I'd track down cards from this ultra-expensive product.

Even super high-end 2018 cards made their way into these boxes in the form of Topps Tribute base cards, making this my first but hopefully not final look at the product. As you can see, there was a balance between past and present players and even attention put into the photo choice. From the cards that I chose, there were no plain uniforms shown on the cards. All of them had a good deal of color.

In addition to base cards, refractors and parallels were also present in the dime boxes from all sorts of different sets. Opening Day and Chrome are shown above, but Bowman and Gallery were also included in addition to the bronze parallel of Ichiro that was alongside the rest of the 2017 Topps Museum cards. 

Curt Flood and Ron Santo seem to be often forgotten players from the 1970's, hence why my Curt Flood collection is relatively small and why my Ron Santo PC is nowhere near the totals of other Cubs greats he played alongside with. Both of them are examples of players I get excited when finding new cards of them, so today must've been my lucky day in the dime boxes.

These 2016 Topps Opening Day Bubble Trouble inserts were pretty hard to pull at 1 per box, and I hadn't seen one of them since pulling a Dominic Brown card out of my box of this 2 years ago. Flashforward over 2 years and I'm finally adding on to cards from this insert set.

But without a doubt, this would have to be the best dime card of the entire day, and that's a pretty bold statement given the selection of cards in the boxes today. Vida Blue is another example of a player who I don't often see cards of at the show, nevermind one with so much color and from such an interesting set. I'm crazy about these 70's Athletics jerseys, and I'm equally as fond of these Sports Illustrated cover cards. 

When you put those 2 factors together, you get a card that can't even be beaten by high-end modern cards.

3 Cent Red Sox Cards Courtesy of Twitter

It's happened; Twitter baseball card purchases are officially becoming a bad habit given that I've made 4 in the last couple weeks. Move over COMC and Sportlots, we have a new site that's using cardboard to take my cash.

To be fair, I've thought long and hard before making each purchase on Twitter, weighing the pros and cons of this option for buying baseball cards. However, this time, it was frankly a no-brainer to go for it and scoop up a nice lot of Red Sox cards for an unbelievable price of 3 cents per card plus shipping.

I have yet another card package from Twitter arriving next week, but this was one that I didn't necessarily know much about. That's because Baseball Card Addict Jenny was going through a box of 5,000 cards and was nice enough to separate the cards she found into team lots to offer up. 

Soon after this post, I swooped in to claim the Red Sox and for a great deal less than half the price of a blaster, nearly 100 Red Sox cards were sent my way.

A decent number of the cards included in the package were from early 2000's Donruss sets which I must say I'm not too familiar with. For starters, the 2003 Donruss set appears to be focused on photography, almost like a Stadium Club set. The Johnny Damon and Shea Hillenbrand cards, in particular, draw my attention for their unconventional photo choices.

Furthermore, 2004 Donruss was also present in the 94-card lot that was sent my way, a set I've begun to appreciate in the short time since discovering the design. It faintly resembles what 2019 Topps is set to look like, and the set has extra meaning to it due to it being from 2004, showing the players responsible for breaking Boston's 86-year World Series title drought.

Players like Kevin Youkilis and Derek Lowe were definitely prominent in the stacks I received recieved, but no player appeared more than Pedro Martinez, or at least not by much. I was fortunate enough to receive more than the cards shown above of the 4-time Cy Young award winner, and my favorite of the bunch would have to be either the 2004 Donruss card or the Upper Deck Black Diamond.

In addition to their being quite a few Donruss cards in the lot, 2017 Topps Stadium Club had to be the most represented set in the group with around 10 cards of the nearly 100 being from that set. Though it's a set I believed to be fairly familiar with, I was pleased to find cards from the set I did not recognize. Whether they were retired players like Damon and Varitek...

Or members of the 2017 Red Sox team, the Stadium Club cards included in this Red Sox stack claim helped make the package of cards even better than I imagined, especially since I never thought I'd be getting David Ortiz and Xander Bogaerts cards for 3 cents each, no matter what the year, set, or condition is. 

I have to say it vaguely reminds me of the 800-count box I filled back in August where I paid 6 cents a card. Now, these are examples of the kind of deals I like to take advantage of.

As for the last 2 cards, I'm showing them for no reason other than I really like the card designs. The 2003 Fleer Platinum set is one of my favorite sets from the 2000's decade, and the photo of Varitek on it in his catching gear is another major plus to what was already a fantastic card.

As for the Bryce Bentz card, I'm not quite sure how he's worked out in Pittsburgh, but I always felt like he was capable of contributing to the Red Sox teams. I've become a sucker for Topps' shiny cards, refractors, and parallels which is why this purple parallel prospect card from Bowman Platinum is another one of the standouts from the box.

Red Sox cards for 3 cents; now there's a deal pretty hard to beat.

Another Oddball Appreciation Post

Though I'm constantly on the lookout for new cards at the show, online, or at my LCS that I'd want to add to my collection, I must say that I'm definitely content with my collection right now. As far as what I collect goes, I certainly feel confident and proud even of what I've acquired over the course of the time I've been collecting. 

However, if there's one thing I wish I had more of, it would probably be oddball cards such as the set that's going to be the focus of my blog post today; 1976 Chicagoland Cards Chicago's Greats, a set my Dad and I got for free from the Chicagoland booth with a purchase of cards at this years' National.

From what I know, the set appears to have been a promotional item produced by the Chicagoland cards company back in 1976, honoring the greats to wear both Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox jerseys. 

Since this set was produced in the mid-1970's, the impact of players such as Billy Williams and Fergie Jenkins on the Cubs wasn't felt as significantly as it is today, so those 2 were left out of this product. Instead, the set is geared more towards the players from the 30's-50's with some 60's players like Ron Santo included as well.

Although the set mainly focuses on players, there are a couple exceptions with the main one being P.K. Wrigley who inherited ownership of the Chicago Cubs and the Wrigley gum company. Surprisingly, the Chicagoland company decided not to produce a card of William Wrigley Jr. who was known to be far more flamboyant than P.K. The same simple design translates to the card of Wrigley as it does for the players, and like the rest of the set, the photo chosen is in black and white.

As I previously mentioned, both Cubs and White Sox players were included in this set in what was a 25-card set with 13 White Sox included and 12 Cubs. Although I'm undoubtedly far more familiar with the Cubs than I am with the White Sox, I was able to recognize a couple White Sox names when I looked at the checklist such as Minnie Minoso and Al Lopez, players that I've shown the cards of above along with another duo of White Sox players.

I can't say I would be able to identify this card product online or anywhere for that matter if I hadn't received it from that company at the card show. The card backs, shown above, provide no information about the set but do include stats with the Cubs or White Sox (depending on the team), lifetime stats, and career highs for each of these players in addition to the basic information and a quick blurb at the bottom of each card listed under "Highlights."

Since there aren't many names associated with the eras of baseball that I am familiar with which are the 70's-80's, I had some trouble recognizing a couple names from the Cubs portion of the checklist as well as the White Sox part. Until now, I hadn't noticed that a player had been chosen from each position to represent the team, appearing like a "dream team" of sorts. A minor exception to this rule is the 2nd righthanded pitcher due to the White Sox occupying more spots in the checklist than the Cubs.

If we're going strictly off design, it's not the most exciting oddball set you've ever seen, especially if you're one who's indifferent about black and white photos. However, I can definitely see what whoever made this product was trying to do, and I appreciate that, especially considering it's an oddball set.

And like I said before about oddballs, the more the merrier.

Frankenset Page 24

This is the 24th page of my frankenset and features cards 208-216, the first full page of cards in the 200s in the frankenset thus far. Likewise, 24 is actually a fairly large number in terms of my frankenset because it means that I am about 1/3 of my way through the 74-page frankenset of 666 cards.

As I have said before, I'm not entirely sure if I want to do anything with the frankenset pages when I'm done, whether I choose a top 10 or some type of tournament. However, the good thing is I have 2/3 of the set, or 50 more pages to make this decision. As for now, here's page #24, including cards 208-216.

#208 1986 Topps Ramon Romero

Since so much of my collection, especially cards eligible for the frankenset, is from the late 2000's and early 2010's, it's nice to see cards from different eras than what we typically see nowadays, even if it's only as far back as 1986. In addition to the classic Indians jersey, Ramon Romero's blue glove almost exactly matches the light blue sky, a small detail that you don't usually see in today's sets.

#209 2016 Topps Gypsy Queen Hunter Pence

The Giants are certainly not the only team to sport these off-white home jerseys shown on Hunter Pence's 2016 Topps Gypsy Queen card. The Twins and Cardinals are examples of a couple other teams that go for these retro-style home uniforms, I must say, especially when they're put on cardboard, that I'm a huge fan of them.

#210 2016 Topps Archives Orlando Cepeda

Speaking of retro and the Giants, Orlando Cepeda was one of the most underrated players of his era of the 60's and early 1970's. Having played alongside Willie Mays, Juan Marichal, and Willie McCovey, Cepeda didn't stand out for the talented player he was, but his career .297 average and 1958 NL Rookie of the Year season with the Giants speaks volumes about his ability. 

#211 2015 Topps Gypsy Queen Fernando Rodney

Fernando Rodney reminds me quite a lot of Bartolo Colon in terms of how long he's been playing for and how it also appears he's not going to be retiring anytime soon. Unless I missed something, I've heard nothing stating that Rodney won't return for the 2018 season, his 17th major league season. It's just a question of what team he'll be playing for.

#212 1989 Donruss Mickey Brantley

I really wish MLB would have one day (preferably a weekend day) in which all 30 teams would wear throwback jerseys, kind of like the old 80's Mariners jerseys worn on this card. The teams could choose which uniforms to wear, and it would kind of be similar to Players Weekend, including auctioning off the jerseys after the games had been played in order to raise money for charities.  

#213 1993 Sporting News Conlon Collection Paul Derringer

This is, I believe, the 2nd page in a row to showcase a Conlon Collection card from the Sporting News set released in the early 1990's. As I explained the last post, I attempted not to include too many Conlon cards since, although they're incredible, any one of them could make this set. Instead, I stuck primarily to spots that were tough to fill, giving a handful of Conlon Collection cards a spot in the set.

#214 2017 Topps Jose Altuve

This card really should be in my Jose Altuve player collection, making me wonder how it ended up in the frankenset considering I was definitely collecting Altuve by the time 2017 Topps came out. I guess I'll leave it here for now, but if I remind myself and eventually spot a different card #214 that I can replace Altuve with, I'll definitely do that in order to place this card where it belongs.

#215 2006 Topps Garrett Anderson

I can't tell exactly where this photo was taken from, but judging from the grey jersey that Anderson is wearing, he seems to be playing on the road. Furthermore, the blue in the background leads me to believe this photo was captured during a battle of LA Angels vs Dodgers game from Dodgers Stadium, but there's also a chance that I could be wrong about that.

#216 1991 Topps Greg Gagne

Because of all its unique angles and photographs, 1991 Topps is a standout set in an era of dozens of bland and overproduced products. A pretty great way to end the page, Greg Gagne's 1991 Topps card is one of many standouts to me from the set that helps to make this page one of the best of the frankenset thus far.