Baseball Card Show Purchase #4 – Giancarlo Stanton 2014 Topps Chrome X-Fractor

Baseball Card Show Purchase #4 – Giancarlo Stanton 2014 Topps Chrome X-Fractor

While I did not walk away from the card show with the base card of Giancarlo Stanton from the 2014 Topps Chrome set like I had been seeking out, I did get one better.

I saw this card sitting in the showcase of my modern dealer – and I knew I wanted it as soon as I saw it.

It is the X-fractor parallel to the base card from the 2014 Chrome set.

And it looks pretty neat if you ask me.

Have a look:

 

I like this one a lot!

And now I am on the prowl for the base card from the set as well as the other parallels that are out there.

Wish me luck.

Baseball Card Show Purchase #3 – Miami Marlins 2014 Topps Finest Team Set w/Extra Stanton Card

Baseball Card Show Purchase #3 – Miami Marlins 2014 Topps Finest Team Set w/Extra Stanton Card

Once again, my modern dealer at the show really took care of me.  He ripped up enough of the 2014 Topps Finest product to have the full team set of the Miami Marlins in his $0.25 box.

So, you better believe that I grabbed all three cards that make up the complete Marlins team set.  And paying just $0.75 for the complete set was super nice.

Here is the full set:

He happened to also have an extra single card of Giancarlo Stanton in the mix so  I grabbed it for my Stanton collection making it an even dollar spent on the 2014 Topps Finest product.

Here is a larger scan of the Stanton card:

I like it.  And now I am after the colored versions and inserts of #27.

Baseball Card Show Purchase #2 – Lot Of (3) 2014 Topps Chrome Cards – McCutchen, Machado, Fernandez

Baseball Card Show Purchase #2 – Lot Of (3) 2014 Topps Chrome Cards – McCutchen, Machado, Fernandez

My modern card dealer at the show usually breaks a few boxes of each new product right when it is released.  He will typically pull the major hits from the box and sell the balance off for just a quarter each.

I’ve been able to grab a lot of great cards from him this way, and at the show I grabbed three cards from the 2014 Topps Chrome set for my modern player collections.

From left to right, you have the Chrome cards of Manny Machado, Jose Fernandez, and Andrew McCutchen.

 

Not a bad score for just seventy-five cents, huh?!?!

Time to go find the Stanton, Harper, and Pedroia cards…

Baseball Card Show Purchase #1 – Lot Of 3 Billy Hamilton Rookie Cards!!

Baseball Card Show Purchase #1 – Lot Of 3 Billy Hamilton Rookie Cards!!

While not purposely seeking out these cards, there was no way that I was going to pass them up either.

Billy Hamilton is one of the most exciting young stars in the game and I have watched him become an even better player as the season has progressed.  His skills on offense always revolved around his ability to run, but now he has become a good hitter.  Not yet great, but definitely good.  And from there, he uses his wheels to make things happen and put runs on the board for the Reds.

I hope to see even more improvement from him in 2015 as he gets more comfortable at the plate and with his role as the leadoff hitter and offense generator.

I picked up each of these cards for just $0.25 each.

 

And if I can find more cards of Hamilton in that price range, I will do it again.

He’s got my vote for the NL ROY.  Does he have yours too?

Baseball Card Show Review.

Baseball Card Show Review.

While not under normal conditions, I attended a baseball card show this past weekend.  Prior to this show, I had become a ‘regular attendee’ of the Friday evening show, but with a Little League game on my calendar for my 8-year old’s team, going on Friday night was not an option.

So, I developed an aggressive plan to get to the show early on Saturday with the goal of being able to leave and get to my 6-year old’s Little League game at 11AM on Saturday morning.

Well, the plan went off without a hitch.  My early start was successful and I was able to spend 70 minutes at the card show – Hat-Tip to the organizers of the show for being nice enough to allow me early entry.

As for the cards, I did fairly well.  I spent a majority of my time working with my vintage dealer as I dug into his 1975 Topps boxes and hauled away a very impressive stack of cards for my set build.  Other than that, I did a little bit of casual shopping and picked up some other things that will fill my collection nicely.

I’ll show of my purchases throughout the remainder of the day so you can see how I did.

Come back often, and ‘Thanks for reading’!

Happy Monday.

1998 HEADLINE: Mark McGwire Tops Roger Maris With 62nd Home Run Of The Season

1998 HEADLINE: Mark McGwire Tops Roger Maris With 62nd Home Run Of The Season

On this day in 1998, Mark McGwire broke one of the records in baseball that most fans thought would never fall.

At home, and playing in the historic Busch Stadium, ‘Big Mac’ hit the 62nd home runs of his 1998 baseball season, eclipsing the 61 round-trippers that Roger Maris hit during the 1961 season.

One of the game’s greatest sluggers, it was this home run that catapulted McGwire into the main-stream of America and made his name known in every household.  And while some were not too happy that Maris’ record had been snapped, it is very clear that McGwire did quite a bit in 1998 to rekindle life into a sport that needed it desperately!

Thank You and Happy Anniversary Mark McGwire!!!

1972 HEADLINE: Fergie Jenkins Captures 20th Win In Sixth Consecutive Season

1972 HEADLINE: Fergie Jenkins Captures 20th Win In Sixth Consecutive Season

On this day in 1972, Fergie Jenkins recorded his 20th win of the baseball season.  This victory gave Fergie 20 wins, or more, in 6 consecutive seasons and solidified him as one of the most dominant and consistent pitchers of his era.

Here is a quick look at Fergie’s amazing 6-year run:

Year	Wins	Losses	Win %
1967	20	13	61%
1968	20	15	57%
1969	21	15	58%
1970	22	16	58%
1971	24	13	65%
1972	20	12	63%
Totals	127	84	60%

Not a bad run at all!!!

I was trying to find out how many 1-run games Fergie lost during that time.  I know that I have heard the number before, but I don’t want to mis-quote it.  I have searched around a bit but have not come up with an easy way to find that number.  If I recall correctly, it was somewhere in the neighborhood if 15 or so…

Happy Anniversary to my favorite pitcher of all-time, Mr. Ferguson Arthur Jenkins!!!

Tony Gwynn 1989 Topps BIG – Going BIG As I Jump Back Into Collecting The Baseball Heroes Of My Youth

Tony Gwynn 1989 Topps BIG – Going BIG As I Jump Back Into Collecting The Baseball Heroes Of My Youth

Let me tell you, I had a blast while going through and documenting each and every baseball card I had in my Tony Gwynn collection.  This allowed for me to re-visit what I presently had, but it also got me pretty excited about what I can add down the road as the collection grows and takes shape.

There was a lot of, ‘I can get some of those’ and ‘Oh, I can get one of that’ and ‘Ooooh – I cannot wait to try to get that one’.  I literally felt like an 8-year old kid again as I began vividly recalling all of the amazing cards that are not part of my ‘current’ Tony Gwynn collection.  And I stress the word ‘current’, because I plan to go after this with great focus.

One of the first cards that I have picked up since getting back into the ‘Gwynn Game’ is this card from the 1989 Topps BIG set.

The card looks amazing, and I love the old ‘SD’ cap that #19 is wearing in the cameo on the right.

 

SWEET!