Cards from an unlikely source

In Monday's post I talked about my semi-recent trip to Knoxville, which saw me going to McKay's and Red Rhino Cash Advance. I covered McKay's on Monday, so today I'll be focusing on Red Rhino.

Red Rhino is an interesting place, as it's basically a pawn shop turned collectibles shop, with a heavy emphasis on comic books -- but they also have things like action figures, DVD's, etc.

I first visited the store last September, which you can read about here, and have been wanting to go back ever since, my attempts to do so just haven't been working out so well. That first trip yielded quite a few neat, and cheap, comics -- so I was hoping that a second visit might produce a similar haul, unfortunately for me... it didn't!

I don't know what the deal was, but it almost seemed like they hadn't gotten any more new (not "new" new, but old new) comics since the last time I was there, I mean don't get me wrong, they still had a huge selection, it just sort of felt like it was all of the same stuff that I had already gone through -- some of which appeared to be priced a little higher than last time as well.

I did actually find three comics that I was interested in, but all three were priced a little bit higher than I would've wanted to go, so they ended up staying behind.

After striking out with the comics, I moved over to the DVD's, those too didn't end up yielding anything of interest. Action figures - NO, CD's - NO, cards - Yes, wait... cards?

Yes, cards! I was so focused on hitting up those comic book boxes, that I didn't even notice the table that had been practically right in front of me when I walked in, the table that had about a dozen 3200 ct boxes piled up on it, and below it.

All but one of these boxes were full of the Magic the Gathering cards, which I unfortunately know very little about. It seems like if one were playing the odds, there was probably a good chance that there might've been something of note in one of those boxes, and at a dime a card, it would likely be worth it for those in the know to go through them.

Amongst all of those MTG boxes was one lone box that said "Sports cards $0.25 each", and even though this is a store that sells collectibles, I can't overstate enough how out of place this box of sports cards looked. The box itself was about 80% full, one row was made up of loose cards, and the rest of the cards were in toploaders.

I was feeling a little overwhelmed from McKay's and didn't know if I had it in me to look through all of these, but then I realized that I haven't had the opportunity to look through a box of cards like this since the card show back in February, so tired be damned, I started digging!

A couple of things became evident quite quickly: a) This contents of this box had to have been for sale at a card show/antique mall/flea market at some distant date (you'll see evidence of this once I get to the pictures). b) Most of the loose cards were baseball, while the bulk of toploadered cards were football. c) The loose were in abysmal condition, they had clearly suffered from much handling over the years.

Seeing what sad shape the loose cards were in, I went ahead and just focused on the toploaders, eventually finding 21 cards that ended up setting me back $5.25, which wasn't too bad. I was trying not to spend a lot of money, and I didn't, so it worked out pretty well.

Normally I'd save the best for last, but after such a lengthy intro, I figured that it might be a good idea to start strong. These were the only '79 Topps that the box had to offer, pretty solid trio though, especially the Oilers team card. The '79 set contains Earl Campbell's rookie card, and while this team card isn't THE rookie card, it still is a rookie card of sorts -- it also features Elvin Bethea as well, so that's kind of like a little extra added bonus.

I found three of these Junior Seau promos, thought they'd look neat going across one of my Chargers pages, so obviously I got all three of them. It wasn't until I got home and went to see what set they were from, that I discovered something was amiss...


Image pilfered from Google

... as apparently they're supposed to look like this. I tried to look around and see if mine were errors, but couldn't find anything. If they are errors, they must be fairly common if I could find three together. I suppose it's possible too that someone removed the gold from the card, but there doesn't appear to be any signs of that having happened, it just looks like the gold never got applied. If anybody has any insight, I'd be most curious to know what's what.

This is probably a good time to mention that there is a mix of scans and photographs in this post, and some of those photographs did not turn out so well. Bad photo aside, it's always nice to get some low serial numbered cards on the cheap...

... :)

I hate this insert set! I've never liked ESPN (ESPNclassic was alright in the beginning though), and I've never cared for their "personalities", so it should come as no surprise that a set that was ESPN based wouldn't be amongst my favorites -- but it's a Junior that I didn't have, so I went ahead and bit the bullet.

A few of these cards that I got would've been more at home in a dime box, but a few of them were also from sets that I don't see very often, and am not willing to pay a dollar or more for on COMC, so I didn't mind overpaying by fifteen cents on a few of them. There was an awful lot of Steve McNair cards in this box, which tells me that whatever venue the cards had been for sale at, had to be in Tennessee.

This '71 high number (#710) sure was out of place in this box, it's a little rough, but I figured that somebody might still want it (no strings attached), if that's you, don't be shy about saying so.

I wasn't necessarily in the market for a Chad Pennington rookie, I just thought that the presentation of this card was kind of funny, and grabbed it for the blog. This was pretty good evidence that where ever these were being sold, it had to have been quite awhile ago, because even with Beckett's stupid high prices, I can't imagine even them having this card listed for $8 anytime recently. I suspect too that this card had been it's toploader and team bag for quite some time, possibly since 2000-ish, let's just say that the team bag was kind of gross. And apparently the clearance price of $1.99 wasn't low enough to entice someone to buy poor Chad, but all is not lost, as some sucker did eventually come along and buy him for a quarter.

This was one of the few post-2000 cards that were in the box, at least it was shiny!

I really do like the '79 Topps that I led off the post with, but this insert from Score's 1993 Costacos Brothers set might be my favorite purchase of the day. I had never seen this set before, after taking a gander at the other cards, I think this might be the best looking card in the set, which does make the buy just a little bit better.

I missed out on so much by not collecting football during the mid to late 90's, one of the biggest being all things Collector's Edge.

Ultra produced some colorful inserts way back when, they're not usually worth much, but they are fun to collect.

I liked Mike Alstott as a player, and I like the fun-ness of this card. After I got home, I found out that it's a rookie card, it's also foil parallel(?), which you can see...

... a little bit better when the card is turned.

This was probably another one those cards that would be better suited for a dime box, but I just don't ever see Crown Royale singles, so a quarter didn't seem like too much to pay for it. Plus, even though it's a base card, it kind of looks like an insert, and it looks really good on my Jaguars page (I don't have a lot of Jaguars cards).

So, what do you think? Decent haul? Yes? No?

Considering that I didn't go there looking for cards, I think I did alright. That being said, it might be awhile before I go back to Red Rhino, I can't imagine that they'll be getting too many more cards, and if their inventory of comics hasn't changed in almost a year, I'm not gonna hold my breath thinking that they'll be getting a bunch of new stock anytime soon. I still had a decent time though, got a bunch of DVD's at McKay's, a small stack of cards at Red Rhino, and only spent $5.25 (plus gas) -- and more importantly, I got out and did something!


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Getting out

Up until a couple of weeks ago, my attempts to get out and do anything fun this year hadn't been going so well, I had probably only gone to, at best, four different places through the end of June -- then July showed up (as it often does), and I went ahead and equaled my outings, up until that point, by going to four more places during a stretch of about two weeks.

Part of the problem is, and it's been well documented here on the blog, that I'm just not very much of a people person, and on top of that, large crowds often cause me to have unhealthy levels of anxiety, which not surprisingly... is something that I try to avoid.

It also doesn't help that I am, by nature, a homebody -- a trait, which has only increased ten-fold since moving to my current location almost five years ago. It doesn't matter what time of year it is, there will almost always be something that needs to, or can be, done outside around here. And since I enjoy being outside, so more often than not, if it's not somewhere that I have to go (work, grocery store, etc.), 99.9 times out of a hundred, I'm going to end up staying home. Going to places that sell cards/comics/videos is fun, but at this point in my life I get more enjoyment out of fresh air and exercise, so as mentioned, it's usually going to win the day.

There are however a few places that I really do enjoy going to, and will actually make an effort to try and get to at least a couple of times a year, one of those being, McKay's.

I have written about McKay's on few separate occasions, so if you haven't seen those, and don't know what McKay's is, you can probably just put it into the search bar at the top of the screen and find my previous posts. For those that have forgotten, or are just not interested in reading a bunch of old posts, McKay's is a giant bookstore that sells oh so much more than just books, we're talking DVD's, action figures, comic books, CD's, records, video games, etc. -- basically a geek paradise.

I've been telling myself for months now that one of these days I would be making a trip to Knoxville, and McKay's would be one of the stops, well, the stars seemed to have aligned a few weeks ago, and I actually got out and did something!

McKay's was the primary reason for going to Knoxville, but I knew that if I had any extra time I would want to go somewhere else as well, that somewhere else ended up being Red Rhino Cash Advance (pawn shop turned collectibles store), which will be covered in the next post.

Even though I was making a rare trip out, I still had to be very mindful of how much money was spent, thankfully though, I've got quite a bit of store credit for McKay's, so I didn't have to worry about spending any money there, it was just Red Rhino that I'd have to try to watch out for.

It's been quite awhile since I've opened a post in such a rambly manner, but you'll all probably be happy to hear that I think I'm running out of momentum here, so I should probably hurry up and get to the goodies!

The first stop for me is always the giant wall o' action figures, which used to have sealed, and unsealed figures on it. Now their getting so many that this wall is used just for the sealed stuff, and the unsealed stuff has been moved to a couple of other spots in the store.

Part of the fun of this wall, at least for me, is that you never know what you're going to see. I mean usually it's anything from early 90's SLU's to the latest designer toys, and everything in between. Somebody must've brought in their Star Wars collection (POTF and Episode 1), because there was an awful lot of those to be had. Plenty of Spawn and ToyBiz Marvel, as well as a bunch of newer things that were very foreign to me.

Amongst the offerings this time were a few figures from Funko's ReAction line, the cheapest of which was, Lightning, from BTILC. I own all of the Predator line, half of the Universal Monsters, and have quite a few others on my mental wantlist, but somehow, I never knew that they did a BTILC series, so this was my first time seeing one -- and at $5.95, I couldn't grab it off the peg quick enough!


Sorry about the glare

Now that I know they exist, I want them all! eBay doesn't look like a very good place to get these right now, so hopefully I can find some more cheap examples during future outings.

After the wall o' sealed figures, my next action is to turn around (literally) and hit up the ginormous section of cheap DVD's and Blu-Ray's, this is all of the stuff that is $1.95 or less, and because of the sheer quantity, is where I usually end up spending most of my time while there.

I had absolutely no interest in seeing this when it came out, but over the years, for reasons that are unbeknownst to me, I have developed a want to give it a try -- the problem has been, trying to find a cheap copy! I've been operating under the assumption that I'm not going to like it, so I didn't want to pay too much for it just in case my assumption is correct. I'm happy to say that in this instance my thriftiness has paid off, as this copy only set me back $0.95, which in my mind isn't too much to pay for something that I might like, I mean it would've cost more than that to rent it, provided of course there were still places to rent physical copies of movies.

Both of these films are in the public domain, as such they are readily available, usually in the form of those 10-50 movie multi-packs. Despite owning quite a few of said multi-packs, I somehow don't have either of these... all it took was $0.25 to rectify this first world problem of mine.

Live action superhero movies rarely do anything for me. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part I just can't get past the CGI, it's usually so distractingly bad that I'm just not able to suspend my disbelief. With that being said, it should come as no surprise to hear that I'm one of the select few who hasn't gone gaga for the series of Marvel Universe films. For my money, if you want a solid superhero film, you have to look towards the animated features that DC (and a few from Marvel) has been putting out for almost two decades now. Now I'm not saying that they're all good, but an impressively large percentage of them are, and in my mind the MU stuff couldn't even carry the jock of most of these animated pictures. [Side note: would this be considered a hot take?]

This was the first time that I had seen any of the animated stuff in the cheap bins, and while it's not in the upper echelon of the DC features, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse is still worth seeing, and is still worth the $1.95 that I paid for it (with credit), heck, the Batman/Darkseid exchange (it's probably on YouTube) is worth the $1.95 alone.

Jeepers Creepers is another movie that I had no interest in when it came out, but a few years ago I saw a video on YouTube that talked about (and showed) the opening sequence, and how it duplicated, nearly shot-for-shot, a story (one that I remember quite well) from Unsolved Mysteries, ever since then I've kind of wanted to see it. I've come across more than a few rough looking copies on video, but since it wasn't a high priority, there was no need to chance it with something that might not work. I'm glad I waited, because on this particular day I had the option of getting 1 and 2 separately, each for $1.95, or I could get 1 and 2 together for $1.95, obviously you can see which route I went .

Just bought, and watched, this earlier this year. At the time I mentioned that I hadn't seen it since it first came out on video, and that was a less than ideal experience, as I was at a friend's house, and his dad talked through the entire movie (he was great guy, but that was a terribly annoying habit). The re-watching went well, although it was kind of amazing how much of it that I hadn't remembered. The tape I bought worked great, so I had no plans to upgrade (reference intended), but for $0.95 it was kind of hard not to.

During my 20+ years of ordering things from Edward R. Hamilton, I've only had a problem with an item in the order on two occasions, the most recent being about five years ago when I got a wonked up two-disc special edition of Hulk vs.

As per policy, they replaced it with no questions asked, the only problem was that the second ended up being screwy too -- as was the third one that they replaced #2 with. Evidently they had just gotten a bad batch/case (it happens). I did get my money back, but I was still left wanting the DVD, especially since I was, with some difficulty, able to watch the defective discs, and I really liked what I had seen. I knew that eventually I would get another copy, I just didn't think it would take so long to do so. Totally worth the wait though! For anyone who hasn't seen it, I would very much recommend the Hulk vs. Thor short, as it's, in my opinion, the best animated film that Marvel has released to date.

This was the best find of the day! The Seven-Ups is another film that I would highly recommend, especially if you're into crime dramas. I had seen this movie more than a few times over the years, but had never owned it, if only because I had never come across a copy in the wild... until now!

That marks the end of the bargain stuff. I did "splurge" on one other item though:

For as long as I can remember I've had a quirk (some might refer to it as an annoying trait) that won't allow me to start watching show from anywhere other than the very beginning. So it when it comes to new shows, if I'm not right on top of them, and don't start watching them from the pilot, it can often be years, or decades, before I get around to going back and giving them a go -- no matter how interesting they look. Such was the case with My Name is Earl. I didn't start paying attention to it until I saw some of the promos during the second or third season, and while it did look like something that I might like, I had that quirk to deal with, so I wasn't able to just jump right in like most folks would've, I instead had to wait. Fast forwarding to a couple of months ago finds me finally getting around to watching the pilot episode on YouTube to see if I'd like it, which I did, and since I'm of the physical media sort, I knew that it wouldn't be long before I purchased the first season. McKay's price of $4.95 was the best that I've seen, so that's where I got it.

Haul wise, I think I did pretty well, certainly well enough to justify the drive.

As mentioned in the opening, I also went to Red Rhino, even found a few things, things that I didn't expect to find (spoiler: it was cards), but more on that in the next post...


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COMC Shuffle #20

Another week, another ten randomly selected cards from last year's COMC hoard!

2012 Panini Black Friday Panini Collection Progressions - Yellow #BM

When it comes to the Progressions, yellow is usually my least favorite of the colors, however, in Biz' case, it's my favorite. To me, it just pops.

2013 Panini Golden Age Historic Signatures #SMC

This is kind of a crossover card for me, as not only was it a needed Golden Age auto, but it also features Sam McDowell, who went 8-0 (with a 1.18 ERA) during his nine-game stint with the Portland Beavers back in 1964.

2015-16 Panini Prizm Red, White, & Blue Prizm #41

I'm not overly fond of this card, but it was a cheap LA that I didn't have, so I got it. This will be one of the few Prizm parallels that I'm collecting THAT I won't need multiples of... unless of course I happen upon a few more in a dime box!

1962 Topps Mars Attacks! #23

Even though it's fairly contemporary, I can't see this card and not think of this:

2018 Panini Classics Timeless Tributes Gold #138

Right after this set came out, a blue optichrome (#'d to /5) Marcus Allen hit eBay, I tried to bid on it, but ended up losing in spectacular fashion... that sure was a pretty card :(

1997-98 Bowman's Best Atomic Refractor #120

I've been trying to cut down on random purchases, but '97-98 atomic refractors are so darn hard to pass up when priced at less than a buck.

1998-99 Upper Deck Ionix Reciprocal #R24

John Starks in a Warriors uni still doesn't look right.

2013 Panini Father's Day Museum Collection Progressions - Magenta #MC-4

I love me some Progressions, but I'm not too keen on this one. Don't ask me why, because I don't really know, I'm just not feeling it. I got a little carried away with the Progressions, and this is one that I probably should've left behind. If I ever get around to trading via the TCDB, this'll be one of the first cards that I make available.

1933 Goudey #171

Charlie Jamieson was a new name for me, as are about half of the Goudey's I get. His last game played was in '32, so it was kind of nice of the Goudey folks to include him in this set. After 18 seasons, Charlie finished with a .303 average and 1990 hits, which wasn't too shabby for someone who started out as a pitcher (went 2-1 in the bigs). Other notable accomplishments include winning a World Series with Cleveland in 1920, and in 1923 his 222 hits were tops in the American League.

2014-15 Panini Prizm Green Prizms #144

An appropriately colored parallel given Wes' new team. Love the guy, and he will forever be one of my favorite Blazers, but I sure do wish that he would've signed with just about anybody other than Milwaukee.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

COMC Shuffle #19

Another week, another ten randomly selected cards from last year's COMC hoard!

1969 Topps #34

Even though Merlin's actual rookie card was in the 1964 Philadelphia set, this one from five years later also gets labeled as a rookie, why? Because it's his first Topps card, so therefor it's considered to be his Topps "rookie"... card collecting can be really dumb sometimes! Despite it's faux rookie status, I absolutely love this card, so much so, that I wouldn't mind completing an entire page of it. I think I have three or four now, so I'm pretty sure that attempting to fill a page would be very doable.

2015-16 Panini Prizm Light Blue Prizms #274

Such a classic photo! This ones in my top 3 from the 2015-16 set, partly because of the image, and partly because it looks good in any color, although I am of the opinion that the light blue and red are the two best looking parallels for this particular card.

1999-00 Skybox E-X E-Xceptional #7XC

This is a set that I really wanted to complete at one time, but I waited too long to try and do so, and with the amount of fake Kobe's that are out there now, I'm just not comfortable trying to buy one and hope that it's real -- and buying a graded one doesn't necessarily insure it's authenticity either, especially now that we know a little bit more about how the grading companies have been operating, and who knows what other revelations will come out further down the line. Thank goodness the Asian counterfeiters don't bother with guys like Pippen (at least not in this set), so I can at least buy a few of these (I've got three of Scottie) when they're cheap, and not have to worry about their authenticity.

2011 Topps Cognac Diamond Anniversary #490.2

I feel like I used to know what particular moment was being celebrated in this photo, but for the life of me I can no longer recall the specifics behind it, anyone?

1971-72 Topps #67

I'm less than 20 cards away from completing this set, but I'm not so sure that I'll be trying to finish it anymore. I still need Jerry West, as well as the rookies of Barry and Cowens, all of three of which have proven to be quite difficult to find in relatively good condition, at an affordable price. Plus I continue to move further and further away from sets, anymore I just don't see the appeal of spending a bunch of money to complete something, only to then put it away in a binder, or a box, and then never look at it again (that is what most people do). I do wish though that I hadn't gotten so far a long on some of these sets before coming to this realization.

1962 Post #58

As of 1962, Nick was the Lions all-time leading rusher. As of 2019, he's #5, and we all know who's number one on that list!

2014-15 Panini Prizm Yellow and Red Mosaic Prizms #205

It's always interesting to see how two of the same Prizm cards will scan together, there's always one that ends up looking better than the other, I don't know a lot about such things, but I'm assuming that it has something to do with the direction of the light that is scanning across them.

2012 Panini Black Friday Panini Collection - Cracked Ice #BM

Much like the Jim Brown Progressions rainbow that I'm hoping to complete at some point (as well as the Chris Kreider rainbow that I did complete), I went ahead and bought the base and cracked ice versions for the Biz Markie rainbow that is also 3/4 of the way towards being completed.

2014 Panini Prizm Red, White, & Blue Prizms #89

Roses are red, violets are blue, something something... J-Stew :)

2013 Panini Father's Day Progressions - Cyan #13

I don't always buy Kobe's, but when I do...

Stay thirsty my friends!


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