Rocking the Dime Box at the Card Show

The last card show I went to had some amazing dime and quarter boxes, and it's that time to show you the gems I found from my diligent scrounging.

I don't even know who Carlos Urquiola is, but I won't turn down an auto for a dime. Apparently he spent most of his time in the D-Backs system, so next time I trade with a D-Backs fan they'll be getting this card whether they like it or not. And I also can't pass up SPs from cool throwback sets.

For some reason, I keep picking up these Goudey Presidents, which are classy looking cards. I think I'm getting close to completing the set, and I'm thinking I'll just leave that up to the whim of the all-mighty dime boxes. I snag Obak when I see cool cards in the cheap boxes. The dime box culture allows me to explore the more experimental sets, without the buyer's remorse burn of buying a box. If we ever needed another reason to love the dime boxes, there you go. This Statz card is numbered out of 25, and it was actually a quarter box purchase.

These were all quarter box purchases. And I love when they yield me some nice rookies. Surprisingly, this is my first Strawberry rookie, and he gets added to the '80s semi-star rookie collection. The Cole is a refractor. Looks like he's off to a good start in his first season in A+.

Yet more rookies, most from the quarter box. The Griffey I've been going after for a while. It has some paper loss on the back, but that's fine with me. And, of course, I've been needing to add a Fielder rookie to the collection. I had a few of his rookies from 2006 with the rookie logo, but I'm kind of a purist when it comes to rookies. I need that first year card.

Always happy to find some quarter and dime box vintage. I picked up the top 5 cards when I was going through one dealer's quarter boxes. And then my eyes caught some higher-priced deals that actually made me forget about the cheap boxes, but you'll have to wait until next post to hear about that. The Hamilton I paid a dollar for, and that knocked another rookie off my list. The Mantle is from Upper Deck's 2001 set, Legends of New York. Now, I'm not a New York fan by far, but these cards were interesting enough to drop a dime on. The blue "Yankees" is all fuzzy and felty, but until they invent feel-ernet you'll just have to trust me. But the last thing any one would do with that technological innovation would be to feel my felt "Yankees." Yikes.

Moving on:

These didn't come out of the dime box, nor the quarter box. These came out of the 2 cent box. Crazy, right? This is only a small sampling of what I grabbed from dozens of these boxes. I had to cut myself off when I could no longer carry what I'd found. Above you see some of the highlights. I picked up a ton of 2010 Bowman Chrome without any discretion. I also picked up a bunch of 2010 Topps Chrome. Basically anything shiny for two pennies. I didn't scan them here, but I got a nice stack of Topps HD, because it seems like other bloggers collect this set. Let me know if you're working on HD, and maybe I can help now.

So, have you ever heard of 2 cent boxes like this? Anyone encountered a good penny box yet?

Next post I'll show off my big hits. Hint: They're pretty much all vintage.

Discount UD Heroes Blaster: Who's Inside? No, Hu!

It's that time of the year, opening day week, when Meijer discounts their baseball cards. For those of you not in the Midwest, Meijer is our local version of Wal-Mart. The Meijers around me have had a pretty sad stock of cards lately, but they hauled out the old blasters for the opening day specials. They didn't have anything too great, but I did find a 2008 Heroes blaster for $11.99 plus the special discount of 20% off. Not a terrible deal, and worth a rip. I didn't do too terrible.

Here's the highlights of the base cards:

Some decent names here. The Mauer looks cool, though I can't figure out why he's wearing a mask and no other gear. Photo opp, I guess. I've always liked this set and the design. It's a nice walk down memory lane for those of us who reveled in the first years of Upper Deck.

These were my one-per-pack black parallels. I already had the Verlander, though, so nothing to add to the player collection, but a good group of players, nonetheless.

I love the colored parallels from this set, even if they got a little excessive. This was the only one from the blaster, and nothing too special, besides the fodder for an Abbot and Costello routine. Hu's on my emerald parallel. I don't know, who?

I never know what to do with these. Does anyone collect them? Too many Yankees for my comfort.

And, finally, my big hit of the blaster. I'm glad to see a hit at all, really, though Corey Hart has no place in my collection. Any Brewers fans out there that are interested in this card?

So, not too bad, and a lot of fun to rip. I could have picked up a nice vintage Kaline card for the price of this blaster, but I can't pass up busting packs for a good deal. If anyone needs any of these, just let me know and we'll get a trade going.

A Bunch of Trade Bait

Time to get some more trades going. If you see anything you like, let me know. On with the cards:

Justin Morneau: 2006 Upper Deck WBC Collection Jersey

Grady Sizemore: 2010 Upper Deck Game Jersey

B.J. Upton: 2008 UD Spectrum Swatches Red Jersey (#ed 14/35)

Mark Teixeira: 2004 UD Diamond All-Star Future Gems Jersey

Pat Venditte: 2009 Bowman Chrome Prospects Auto
Apparently, Pat's the only active professional switch pitcher. He has a pitching rule named after him even. Pretty interesting story on Wiki.

Jeremy Jeffress: 2006 Tristar Prospects Plus Farm Hands Auto

Pat Burrell: 2003 Sweet Spot Patches

Vernon Wells: 2004 Bowman Heritage Threads of Greatness Jersey

Carl Crawford: 2007 Artifacts Apparel Jersey

Kirk Rueter: 1997 Donruss Signature Series Autographs Millenium (#ed /1000)

Garry Maddox: 2001 UD Decade '70s Game Bat

Trevor Reckling: 2008 Just Autographs

Scott Rolen: 2005 Topps Pack Wars Relics (bat)

If you don't see anything here, you can always mosey on over to my trade bait page, linked at the top. Just send me an email or comment if you see anything you want.