Visit From Scott - Gypsy Queen Box Break

Yesterday was a really good day.  I was able to spend the day with my very good friend, Scott and his Dad since Scott and I both mistakenly thought the Raleigh card show was this weekend.  We had planned to meet up at the show, hang out as long as possible and then grab dinner afterward.  Since we realized that we had the wrong weekend for the show, and since both of us would be unable to attend next weekend, we decided to meet up here at my house.

Scott and his dad rolled in about a quarter to 11 in the morning, just in time to grab some lunch in downtown Greenville.  After lunch, Scott, his dad, Chris and I all did a tour of the two card shops in the area.  At the first card shop, in Kinston, Scott and I decided to go halves on a box so we would have something to bust when we got back to the house.

When we got back home, we split the box evenly and started ripping packs.  Both of us made out with our packs as each got a relic and auto and several short prints.  It wasn't until later that Scott texted me and told me that the Yu Darvish SP I got was, in fact, a super short print photo variation.  Not bad.  I think the odds of pulling one of those is 1:461 packs.  Really not bad.

I also pulled this sweet Matt Adams on-card auto.  I know two Cardinals fans who are going to be fighting each other to get this card.  The first one to email me and pony up some cash, will be the victor!

In all, I had a really great day hanging out with a fellow blogger/collector along with his dad, who was awesome enough to bring along some of his own collection (which isn't baseball cards) for us to look at.  It was really cool being able to sit around on the couch and talk about collecting, collecting regrets, auction sites, shows, etc.  I think we all decided that this would become a regular thing, so I'm hoping we all can hang out really soon.  Scott and his dad are awesome folks and I am so glad we got the date wrong on the card show.  This was so much more fun!  Go take a look at Scott's blog and give him some follows.  he's a hell of a guy and deserves more attention for his blog!

Some More Bargain Bin Pickups - Brooks Edition

No mail today.  I can't really complain, though, since I got that awesome Babe Martin TTM success yesterday.  I picked up 10 different Brooks Robinson cards for my PC last week at the Kinston shop.  I don't even know if I had any of them or not, but they were cheap enough that I pretty much created a pile of ones that I thought looked cool.

I got 2 different versions of this 2003 Fleer Rookies and Greats.  This one is the blue parallel that is numbered 226/250.  I think these cards look really sharp.  Probably sharp enough for me to look and see what the checklist looks like.

Here is a 1998 Topps Hall of Fame Brooks Robinson.  I like this card.  Probably even more now that I have seen Brooks' plaque in person.

The other Brooks cards are nice, too, but I wasn't going to scan them all, sorry.  I hope to have more stuff to post soon.  Either by trade or some more TTMs trickling in.  I've got my fingers crossed at least.

Card Shop Pickups From March 24, 2012

No mail today.  So, I'll show you the cards I got for myself at the Kinston card shop this past Saturday.  Not only did I get myself a few things, but I also found some stuff for my friends Drew, Scott and Andrew.  I picked up a Thurman Munson card for Drew, A 1957 Topps Mel Parnell and a 2004 Playoff Prestige Achievements Carl Yastrzemski for Scott and a 2008 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Lance Lynn auto numbered 570/570 for Andrew.  All very cheaply.

However, I did take care of myself some, too.  I picked up my Week 6 Prime 9 giveaway, Mickey Mantle (which I most likely will show in a later post) as well as the following cards.

I noticed when I got home last week that I had accidentally bypassed the 1969 Orlando Cepeda, so I went back Saturday determined to knock it off of my want list.  I was able to get it to scan fully, and the card looks great.  Another Hall of Famer has been knocked off of the set list.

Not to downplay a good deed I did for fellow bloggers, but the 'gift' cards I got were all in a box of 6/$10 cards I found at the shop.  Lots of autos and relics were in the box, and I found a few things in there that I wanted, so I didn't feel too bad when I spotted some that made me think "Oh, so and so would like this..."  I saw a few things that caught my eye, like the above Alfredo Simon rookie auto.  Not a bad card for less than 2 bucks.  Simon has been a really underrated pitcher for the Orioles, and I hope he can continue that.  He has been a starter, long reliever and closer in his brief Orioles career.

Finally, I found this really nice 2003 Donruss Hall of Fame Heroes Bob Feller.  I really like Feller.  I was chatting with a friend on Facebook the other night and the topic of meeting former players came up and he told me how he was able to meet Feller in person.  Oh man, I was so JEALOUS!  I would have loved the opportunity to meet Feller in person.  What an amazing American Feller was.  He will go down as probably my second favorite pitcher of all time, behind the awesome Virgil Trucks.

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you the stuff I found in the discounted box at the shop.  I hope they replenish the vintage and discount offerings at the shop because I really enjoy finding stuff there.

Picked Up Some 1969 Topps

I went to the Kinston card shop today with my wife, son and a friend to kill some time and I left there with a couple really nice 1969 Topps Orioles.  I was having a hard time finding stuff that jumped out at me until I decided to go through the vintage box.  I plan on working on the 1969 set really soon, so anything I could get my hands on was good.  These cards weren't in the best of condition, so I'll probably keep these with my Orioles stuff.

The first card shown is this Bird Hill Aces card.  I like this one because the history of the Orioles franchise has been built on pitching.  Funny thing, though, this card doesn't show the Orioles' true historical ace, Jim Palmer.  He was still young and erratic when this card was released.  Not to worry, though, Palmer would cement himself atop the Orioles rotation for the decade that followed the production of this set.

This card is awesome because it is a rookie card of one of the most beloved Orioles of all time, Elrod Hendricks.  Hendricks would spend almost 40 years with the Orioles organization until his death in 2005.  I met him in July of 2005 and got a ball signed by him.  I wish I hadn't gotten it signed in sharpie because it is slowly fading into oblivion.  Hendricks was a great bullpen coach for the Orioles over the years, and really, they should have retired his number 44 back in '05 when he passed.

Finally, I got 2 copies of this 1969 Topps 6th series checklist.  It was a Brooks Robinson card that I didn't have in my collection, which I need to tighten up on.  I don't think I have all of his all star or checklist cards, so that is something I need to research and add to my want list.  I like how the colors pop on this card.  It is a really sharp card, with a small stain on the left hand side, near the top.  You can hardly notice it.  The other copy I got has corners that are kind of soft, so that one will go in my Brooks PC and this one will go into my 1969 set.

In all, we enjoyed our trip to the shop, as always.  I almost bought 2 boxes of 1995 Topps to bust because I hadn't started that set, yet.  I held off, though because I spent some big money on Sportlots the other day.  You'll be seeing what I got in the coming days.

Checking Out Another Card Shop

Chris and I were bored this morning and decided that after we ate some lunch, we would take a ride out to Kinston and check out a card shop we had heard about.  The shop is located in Vernon Park Mall in Kinston, which is about 30 minutes away from our house.  I didn't go there with any expectations as I have driven around to check out card shops in the past only to find that they either had closed down or didn't have much of anything to offer.  I remember when I came out here to Greenville 3 years ago, I was happy to see that an actual card shop was in town and was a great place to get most of what I needed.  The only drawback about the Greenville shop is that the shop owner has pretty much sold out of his vintage stuff.

The Kinston shop we went to today is a candy store/card shop.  Interesting combination.  They had plenty of supplies as well as a nice assortment of all kinds of cards.  I took my time looking through the boxes they had set up and found a few things for myself and a couple cards for Chris.  They also had a nice selection of vintage Topps from 1955 to 1970.

I found the above Pineda/Britton dual relic in a 3/$10.00 box.  Since I didn't get 3 cards out of it, it ended up costing me $4.00, which still wasn't bad.  They had a lot of Team USA relics which I know a certain blogger would like.  I also found a nice vintage Yankee card for my buddy Drew.  I just wish there was a nice vintage Red Sox card for Scott.

 They had a box of $0.50 stars, and I was fairly sure I didn't have this Cal Ripken.  I went ahead and picked it up.

 Chris and I also bought 90s junk wax, he got a pack of 1991 Leaf for $0.50 and I got a pack of 1994 Studio for $1.00.  The Barry Larkin and Frank Thomas cards pictured are trade bait if anyone would like them.

In all, I was very satisfied with the shop.  The shopkeeper was a really nice guy who was patient with Chris and I as we searched his boxes.  Chris was able to come away with two Tim Lincecums that he didn't already have.  I also bought him a new baseball card album and a box of 100 sheets.  He and I are going to take his Lincecum cards and are going to put all of them together in one album.