These couldn't have all come from a dime box

I have been trying to write this post off and on, for a week and a half to no avail. Every time I have gotten a little bit written, I have ended up going back and deleting it.

You might be wondering why has this post been so problematic to put together? Well... honestly, it has simply been a matter of being overwhelmed! I was overwhelmed when I opened the package of cards that are going to be featured here, and I'm still overwhelmed by the thought of trying to do a proper post to showcase every thing.

You might also be wondering at this point, who or what was the source of this overwhelming package of cards? Well, you (and more importantly I) can thank Nick of the world famous (too much?) Dime Boxes -- The Low-End Baseball Card Collector's Journey blog.

After my recent post discussing my new found interest in buybacks, Nick asked if I would be interested in the only one he had available, and of course I was. This then led to a proposed trade.

The trade ended up being unbalanced, in my favor (I would have preferred to have it be the other way around). This was due to the fact that Nick didn't let me know that he was sending the equivalent of a card show in a package, so now it will be up to me to try and square things up.

Since vintage baseball is always popular with the readers I will start with that portion of the package.

First up we have a '72 Topps Rick Wise IA and a well loved '65 Topps Frank Thomas (the original Frank Thomas). Both of which would be pretty neat, but...

...if we turn them over...

...you can clearly see that these aren't in fact Topps, but are instead products of are neighbors to the north. I only have a few pre-1974 OPC cards, so these are very much appreciated.


And for the rest of the oldies:

Having only one of these meant that set needs were filled across six different sets!


There was a large contingent of A&G in this package as well. These first three were a complete mystery to me:

After a quick google search I was able to find out that these are customs, and apparently pretty popular customs at that. The fellow that made these is clearly very talented and it's not hard to see why they are so popular.

This next one is just crazy:

A 2012 Michael Buffer mini  hand #'d to /25! See, Crazy! I don't even know what to say about this one.

And here's a whole mess of minis from various years:

And some inserts:

I didn't know who Lakey Peterson is, but this is still a cool memorabilia card:

There was also a sampling of Panini Golden Age minis in here to, which are very much appreciated:

Also included were two Golden Age inserts, a base card from the 2014 set, and misc. Randy Couture insert:

Here's a fun fact about me that nobody will find interesting: At one time I lived less than half a mile from Randy Couture! Fun fact!!!!

Rounding out the bulk of the package was a healthy sampling of cards from many different players of yore sets:

 It's hard to believe that I didn't have any of these! Talk about some major set helping.


And I thought it would be fitting to end on the card that was the starting point for everything else you have just seen:

Who would of thought that a 1978 Topps Larry Parrish buyback could have been the initial card that led to this treasure trove in a package that Nick sent.

Nick, I don't think I can properly express my gratitude for all of these cards. So, for the moment, a thank you will have to suffice. Also, you will be happy to know that I am actively building a pile for you in an attempt to balance out our lopsided trade.

Thank you for taking  moment to look at my page.

Card show summary part 2: The non oldies

Hopefully everyone likes pictures, because this will be another image laden post. The only things I'm not showing are the many cards that I was fortunate enough to find for other people (probably some of you reading this).

Since I covered the who, what, and where in the last installment, I'm just going to jump right in.


Seller #5: I didn't know which post this would belong in since there seems to be some debate whether buybacks should be considered old or new. I only saw two at the show and both were overpriced, in my opinion. But I had to have this one for the set, even at the hefty price tag of $2:

For some reason I just don't think they stamped a lot of '62 checklists, so I just couldn't pass it up.


Seller #6: The most expensive thing from this point on is 33 cents (3/$1 box). This seller is at every show and is set up with mostly dime boxes, although this time he had a few more than normal, along with the aforementioned three for a dollar box.

I don't why I bothered scanning this first group of 1994 Action Packed cards. Even though they are in mint condition, because of the gold borders the scans make them look anything but. On the plus side, I now only need a few more cards to complete this set:

I didn't realize there were two of Chuck Daly until after they were scanned.
 

How about some 90's refractors:

I think a few of the baseball one's are doubles (I haven't checked yet), but at 10 cents each I'm not about to leave any behind.

Here are some misc. 90's basketball inserts, which contain a few more bad scans:

You can't tell from the image, but the 1999-00 Skybox Metal card of Scottie Pippen is one of the emerald parallels.

Now is where we get to some stuff that has probably been shown a million times on the blogs, but most of it is new to me, so you'll just have to endure (or skip ahead a little):



These are some really great inserts from the 2012 Cooperstown set.

Some more players of yore sets:

Here are a couple of more contemporary cards from the 3/$1 box:

And finally from the same box, a card from a set I had never seen before:

I now have yet another new-ish set to work on.


Seller #7: This is the only guy at these shows who ever has 20/$1 boxes, along with other various priced boxes.

I will start with a trio of 1996 Leaf Preferred Steel, that were had for 25 cents each:

A few more misc. inserts, parallels, minis, refractors, etc. that ranged in price from 10 to 25 cents each:

Now for something I somehow didn't know even existed until a couple of months ago, when one was featured on Billy's Cardboard History:

These are the xplosion parallels from the 1998-99 Molten Metal set. Considering they came out during my heyday of collecting I don't know how I missed them. I don't recall ever buying any packs, but I should have at least seen them at a card shop or in a Beckett article. The Larry Johnson and Toni Kukoc were a 25 cents each, while the rest were 5 cents apiece.

Rounding out this post is a whole mess of 2001 Archives Reserve, that came courtesy of the 20/$1 box. I had seen these online many times, but never in person. I guess since I was able to get almost 1/4 of the 100 card set I might as well add this to my set building list. For those that don't know these are refractors, so that's why they look a little weird in the scans:

 

That's it for this round of card show acquisitions. At least the next three posts will be very scan heavy with trade recaps, so don't say you weren't warned (if you're the sort who doesn't like lots of pictures).


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.