eighty cents of piazza

wanna know what 80 abe lincoln adorned coins will get you at the local card show in the way of mike piazza cards?  here's one man's haul.

this is a 1993 upper deck fun pack card, touting the italian-american superstar slugger as a 'star of tomorrow'

i'll have to look for that constellation tonight.  i think the ancient greeks called it 'crappertarius' since it looks like a guy sitting on the john.

here's a 1994 pacific piazza

i am not sure if this is just pacific, or if it is pacific crown collection.  i think in 1994 pacific just had one release, so it's just pacific.  i admit that in 1999 or 2000 i was really into some of their releases.  i think i bought a box of 2000 invincible.  it was awesome.

here's an extremely cool card - a 1995 topps stadium club piazza, in which he is a member of the 'extreme corps'

i believe this is a lesser known offshoot of the green lantern corps.  instead of yellow, their weakness is pitches thrown low and away.

staying in 1995, here's piazza's upper deck collector's choice card

he's catching a foul ball in dodger stadium.  and, upper deck is telling me that he was an all-star in 1994.  i appreciate all-star banners and shields on cards very much.  i don't much care for separate cards that tell me who was an all-star.  get back to basics, topps.

here's a  mid-90's checklist card that i didn't think i owned.  it's from 1996 pinnacle foil, and features 6 big names from back in the day

piazza is stuck looking at larry jones.  the checklist is for the 'chase' cards from the set.  i believe we now call these cards 'inserts'.

another pacific card - this one from 1998 aurora

piazza is once again in dodger stadium, this time the card is adorned with a holy looking piazza in the upper right corner, complete with the halo effect.

another 1998 card, this one from pinnacle inside

look at those numbers!  larry walker may have deserved the mvp in 1997, but good god so did piazza

finally, here's a card that features a lurking piazza, which is pretty much the only way i would buy a giants card that i didn't need for a set

of course, the piazza cards stop at 1998 as that was the year he was traded to the marlins.  there were a bunch of piazza as a met cards in the box, but i passed on 'em.  i'm still trying to forget.

brother, did i spend some dimes

for the first time in a long time, i spent some serious time at a card show with a dime box.  usually i have specific needs i am trying to fill, like vintage dodgers or finishing a set, but earlier today i was willing to do some browsing.  i wound up spending $5 on 50 cards, many of which i did not know existed prior to today.

here's a 2005 donruss elite card featuring kerry wood and shawn green going 'face 2 face'!

it's a serial numbered insert which, instead of telling me how each has done against the other in their career,  discusses wood's 20-strikeout game against houston in 1998 and green's 4-homer game against milwaukee in 2002.

next up is another combo card.  this one is from 2007 topps co-signers and features randy wolf and jason schmidt

at first i thought that topps screwed up and put jason schmidt on a randy wolf card, but then i saw his name at the bottom.  there are seemingly 200 cards of schmidt as a dodger for each of his 3 los angeles wins.

speaking of wins, here's the guy who got the walk-off walk last night, andre ethier

i wish these bowman platinum cards looked this way in person, but they just scan all pretty and blue.

i thought this card was cool, because i think it was taken at just about the same time as the 1998 upper deck vladimir guerrero card i featured in the post from this morning.  it's a 1998 pinnacle inside card

vladdy has the same gold chain; he's holding a baseball; he's in dodger stadium; and i think the guy at his right elbow is the same guy (kid?) to his right on the upper deck card.  here's that card again - you be the judge.

speaking of 1998 upper deck, i picked up a couple of cards from that set, too.  here's tony gwynn's card, which is being totally lurked by eddie murray

eddie, of course, finished up his career in 1997 as a member of the dodgers.  i'll share some more of my dime box finds over the next few days.  i also picked up some discounted vintage dodgers and some cheapie relics, too.

a call to order

i recently completed a trade with the angels in order.  i sent him some angels, he sent me some dodgers.  let's see how i made out by checking out just a few of the cards i received.

here's a 1994 topps mike piazza card

i was full of anticipation for this card back in early 1994 (or was it late 1993?) and was beyond disappointed.  it is essentially the same photo topps used for piazza's 1993 topps traded card, and lacks any sort of 'pop' in terms of color.  so disappointing.

although it could have been worse.  here's a 1994 leaf studio piazza.

that's worse.

speaking of worse, check out this 1997 pinnacle piazza card

adding insult to injury, the strongest man in socal not only tagged out the astros runner, but he is also punching the poor houstonian in the nuts.
here's a 1996 leaf hideo nomo checklist card that i had not seen before

when i flipped it over, i realized why.

all those crazy marty cordova collectors have been hoarding these cards.
i also received a 2009 topps heritage mayo insert of manny ramirez

who apparently has applied for reinstatement.  i wonder who is advising manny.  i would have told him to serve his suspension last year even if he really thought he wanted to retire.  now he has to sit out 100 games before he can come back when he could have had that out of the way.  what a dumb strategy.

there was also a 1998 pinnacle inside 'stand up guys' insert featuring various body parts of four of the dodgers five consecutive rookies-of-the year (sorry holly).  here's the side with eric karros and mike piazza's backsides

and here's raul mondesi and nomo's front sides.  mostly.

so, i had to go out and get the other card to complete my stand up dodger quad

this card seems to feature a mythological beast - a fabiotaur - half nomo, half karros

i also picked up another card from the insert set featuring nomo and what i assume to be greg maddux. 

i thnk randy johnson was on the other side with another pitcher whose name escapes me at the moment.  anyway, this was a great trade. i got some cards that inspired me to go out and buy more cards. 

nothing out of order about that!