christmas cards?

i didn't really want to post that 2001 pacific vladimir guerrero ornament card again, but i struggled to find some cards appropriate for today.  then i thought about red and green - those are christmas colors! so, this 1963 topps john roseboro card must be a christmas card, right?

 plus, it's the 25th, so that means a tommy john card makes sense, like this 1994 ted williams card

that shows (most of) his jersey number.  plus, the number is in red!

and then there's rickey henderson, who just happens to have been born on december 25th (happy 56th, rickey!).  unfortunately, i only have cards showing the man of steal as an oakland athletic scanned and heretofore unseen on this blog, so an a's card will have to suffice.  here's a 1991 topps stadium club charter member card

plus rickey's 1998 fleer ultra card

which is ridiculously colorful enough to have been an ornament card from pacific.  so there you go - full circle with the ornament cards.

merry christmas, everybody.

double play dime box proxy

i have not made it to too many card shows (just one?) this past year, and so my dime box digging has not been occurring at any sort of respectable pace.  luckily, i have nick from dime boxes to help out.  he recently sent over some nice double play turns for the collection.

this 1994 ted williams mike schmidt card could also fit in my 'tatooine' collection.

minor league shortstop mike schmidt.  baseball reference tells me that schmidt turned one double play as a member of the eugene emeralds in 1972.  this may well be that play.  just fantastic.

the rest of these cards will pale in comparison, but are still worth showing off.

1994 topps stadium club luis alicea

1995 score juan bell

a mess of 1997 pacific - kurt abbott

esteban beltre

that double play maestro, brent gates

kevin stocker

1999 topps stadium club scott spiezio

2000 fleer impact warren morris

2002 topps frank catalanotto

2003 topps total tony womack

and 2004 upper deck craig counsell

thanks for the cards nick!  i'll be showing more dime box goodies throughout the day...

turning two never gets old

especially when there are new dp turns to show off.  well, not all are new - just new to my collection - like this 1993 donruss spirit of the game insert of carlos baerga, and, i suppose, gary gaetti

with a reference to a sly stallone movie about arm wrestling to boot!  front and back dp goodness is tough to beat.

here's a decent 1998 topps stadium club derek jeter card

that is pretty decent - a bit dark, but still nicely done.

here's a dusty 1994 ted williams billy martin card

i saw this card for the first time over at dime boxes a few weeks ago, and went straight to sportlots to get one for myself.

here's some newer stuff - a 2013 topps danny espinosa with tony gwynn rolling in

i also picked up the target red

and emerald versions of this card

i don't think i am going for the full rainbow, but i would accept a walmart blue and a gold version if offered.

here's another 2013 topps card - this one is howie kendrick

those base cards looked familiar to me so i almost didn't pick them up.  but then i checked and saw that i only had the opening day versions.

similarly, this 2009 topps update & highlights matt tolbert card was one i surely thought was already in my dp binder

turns out, i had tolbert sign my lone copy, so it was in one of my ttm/ip/non-cert auto binders.

finally, a 2012 bowman chrome ian kinsler

and a 2012 topps golden giveaway card with troy tulowitzki's base card on it

that counts, too.

i have several more new (to me) double play cards to showcase.  eta on the greatest double play card of all time tournament is fall-ish.  i hope.

i wasn't prepared for sandy

no, i'm not on the east coast where hurricane sandy is bearing down (i hope everybody is doing ok).  the title of this post refers to what i saw at last weekend's card show.  so, to kill the suspense, i might as well lead off with my big pick up from the show - a 1955 topps sandy koufax card

i don't think i ever really considered owning this card before saturday.  i mentioned last week that i had completed the topps dodger team sets for the 1960's, but what i didn't say is that i had a fairly loose thought that my topps dodger team set collecting would eventually be complete only back to 1956, due in large part to this card.  now i have to reconsider things.  i had set my budget before heading out, but seeing sandy in the bargain bin (although it was the higher end dealer's bargain bin) made me throw my financial planning out the window.  at $85, sandy was $5 over what i had given myself to spend at the whole show.  still, i wound up only about $45 over my budget for the show, which isn't too bad when you consider the fact that i was able to get quite a few other vintage cards, too.

i picked up a few 1956 topps cards that i needed - don bessent

and carl erskine among them.

i also grabbed a billy loes

which was a slight upgrade for me, as well as an ed roebuck

that i thought i owned but actually didn't.  the '56's were $4 each, or 3 for $10.  i bought five, with the other two being double play cards.  that is, the secondary photo features the turn at second base.  heeeeeeeere's johnny

logan, that is.  looks like johnny is having a hard time getting the ball out of his glove to complete the double play.  credit the guy sliding in.

then there is this frank thomas

featuring thomas sliding in, trying to break up two.  i would bet dollars to donuts (what does that even mean?) that the fielder avoiding the slide is the dodgers' own jim gilliam.

quick - who was the last dodger to lead the league in batting average?  that's right, it was tommy davis, seen here on his 1964 topps stand ups card

complete with vintage scotch tape on the edges.  two bucks for tommy.  eddie murray should have won the batting title in 1990, but willie mcgee was traded to the american league just in time.

here's a 1994 upper deck fun packs mike piazza card

that i pulled from the 6/$1 bin.  it's heat activated, apparently, with a cartoon play at the plate scene that becomes visible when you apply heat.  yes, 18 cents is about right for that kind of nonsense.

here's another card i pulled from the 6/$1 bin, a 1994 ted williams rusty staub card

i probably won't wind up keeping the card, but it is really nice.  the expos' wool baby blues really pop on this card.  if only it were a manny mota or maury wills card from their time with the expansion expos.

the last card i'll show goes toward my 1974 topps set.  it's willie mccovey's washington nat'l league variation

it cost me $4, i believe.  not too shabby, considering mccovey's regular san diego card will probably cost me more when i am able to track one down.

i was a bit surprised that there weren't more dealers at this show.  this one is held quarterly as opposed to the monthly show in bloomington.  i was hoping it would pull in more of the dealers who work the big annual show in march/april, but there was only one guy there who i didn't recognize from the monthly shows.  he had some pretty good cheap common boxes (i picked up a few other '74 topps cards for my set at twenty cents a pop), but was going by the book for his star cards.  i think i will pick up a winfield rookie for under $20 online, rather than pay him the $35 he wanted.

or maybe i'll find one at a reasonable price at the monthly show this coming weekend, if i decide to go.  if i do go, i'll have a reduced budget thanks to sandy.  unless duke or jackie happen to show up.  then, all bets are off.