Card show multiverse

Blogging isn't always as easy as some folks like to think it is. Or maybe it is, but just not for me. Either way, today's post is a perfect example of one of those times where you have a great idea, but for whatever reason can't seem to bring the idea fruition (this happens to other bloggers, right?).

The plan was to tie-in my love of all things pertaining to alternate realities, or parallel universe's, with the various parallels that I picked up at the card show back in February. The problem is, no matter how many times I try, it's just not working. I could blame it on being tired, or the recent problem with some unusually achy muscles in my back (not as fun as it sounds), but in all honesty, it was probably just too lofty of an idea for someone like me to pull off, such things should probably be left to real writers.

So, even though it ended up being one of those "here's a bunch of crap that I got at a card show" kind of posts, just know that originally it was supposed to be so much more than what it ultimately turned out to be.

It's hard to believe that this was my first ever Pinnacle Museum Collection (from any year), not a bad first card to get though. This is one of those times where I can't help but wonder what a young fan, or just some random person in general, one who had never heard of Ozzie Smith (and his backflips), would be thinking when they saw the image on this particular card?

This is probably a good time to mention too, that everything in today's post came from a group of 6/$1 boxes. Not quite as good as a dime box, but for what I ended up getting, I'm not really going to complain over paying an extra nickel per card.

I read somewhere recently that the First Day Issue's (on the basketball side) from '97-99 are starting, as far as collectability goes, to pick up momentum. I have no idea if that's actually true or not, but if it is, I have to wonder why collector's would only be focusing on that particular time period? To my knowledge, the earlier FDI's are just as limited, and of course the earlier Stadium Club's featured just as a good of photography as the later sets. Either way, I think I found a decent pair here, not a good look for Ron Harper though, probably should of went for the block instead. On a somewhat related note, someday I really need to tell of my two encounters with Jerome Kersey, there probably not crazy interesting to anyone other than me, but it would make for different type of blog post.

Gold has probably been the most common color for parallels, at least for as long as there's been parallels that is.

Is teal the new gold? If it isn't so already...

... it may very well be at some point in the future, at least if Panini has anything to say about it.

Refractors have been one of the more popular parallels over the years (even though they don't look it in this scan, these are indeed refractors). I got the Golden Sparkle version of the Tim Hudson HR card at the previous show that I went to, so it was kind of neat to find the regular refractor at this one. Also, I now own all of one card of future hall of famer Julius Peppers!

What would a post about parallels on this blog be without any Prizm? Finding these sorts of things for 15 cents always makes me happy, especially the 2012 red die-cut of the recently retired J-Stew (didn't even know that there were red die-cuts).

Picked up a few random 2018 Topps Chrome parallels just because. I got the sepia refractor version of the OY card at the previous show, so I felt obligated to grab the "double negative polaroid refractor thingy" version as well.

I already had a copy of each these guys, so collector's beware, now there's only 748 copies left of two guys that no one cares about out there.

This Smoltz Diamond Aces is one of those very subtle parallels. All Pacific did was silver up the A and the diamonds a little, then slap a serial number on it and tadah! You've got yourself a parallel!

Groovy!

I sure do love me some 2018 Classics, but the 2017 edition, not so much. I only grabbed this one because it was Joe Namath, well, that and I figured the yellow border signified some sort of parallel -- looks like I was right, it's a glossy parallel? Glossy front? That's the parallel? Lame! It's a still Broadway Joe though, so I can live with it.

There's probably a political joke here about "reds" in New York, but it's not coming to me at the moment.

Panini sure seems to like Tim Brown, not that I'm complaining mind you, I just find it kind of interesting that's he's in pretty much all of their sets that feature past greats. The Pioneers insert is one of those one's where there's like six different parallels, I've already got the one that's numbered to /25, and this one is numbered to /200 -- while the green High Flyers is to /199.

I'm thinking that I might try go to the show at the end of May, so I should probably try and crank out the other four posts worth of cards from February's show before then... four more posts in a little less than a month? I think I can handle that...


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.