A benching, some odds and ends from last weekend’s flea market trip, and a bonus…

So, I’m kinda benched right now.

On Wednesday, I had my gall bladder removed, and while I’ve been doing pretty well, knock wood (down to Tylenol and Advil in under 48 hours, driving solo for short distances already, minimal discomfort overall, even made it out to Free Comic Book Day, Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 2 and the supermarket today), I really don’t wanna push it any more than I already have been, so tomorrow, as per my own orders, no flea market for me, and really, no anything for me aside from desk activity and bed rest.

As far as doctor’s orders go, rather than my own, I’m not supposed to lift or carry anything that’s got any real weight to it for 4 weeks (I’ve been sticking to that recommendation pretty well, at least), so a lot of my card activities are benched or at least siginficantly slowed down until until May 31st, anyway (if we’re in the middle of a trade, please keep this in mind). Taking that into consideration, it’s not a bad thing for me not to be tempted by cheap box lots full of crap so soon.

If I have an especially good recovery week, I may end up in Brimfield on Thursday, but again, I’ll be taking it very easy (probably a 1 or 2 field trip, max), not lifting or carrying anything heavy (not *that* hard there, given what I collect and who tends to bring what there), and I am supposed to get some walking in, as part of my recovery orders. Also, if I’m being honest here, most of my Brimfield trips are done for photography purposes nowadays, anyway, though I have found a big lot or two there over my couple of seasons of visiting the market.

I did, however, get to my local flea market last weekend, and I found some fun stuff (then managed to get a late day bonus adventure out of it). My layoff will finally give me some time to get a post up about it, too!

First up, I’ll give you an overhead view of the bigger of the 2 boxes that I got. It looks like there’s a lot of “the other three sports” in it, and there was, but there was a surprising amount of baseball in it, including a bunch of ’94 Upper Deck, ’01 Fleer Platinum, and ’98 Score base and Rookie and Traded that I needed. So, while most of the box is admittedly in my “getting dumped on Craigslist” pile, it ended up being ultimately worthwhile.

Then, there was a smaller, but way more useful box that I got. We’ll get back to it in a minute.

I also got a cheap box of toploaders that, while they may be pretty boring, saved me a dedicated trip to a fine topholder retailer, and at a fraction of the cost!

Hey, it’s a cheap copy of Halo! Ever since my partner found out that I had an original XBox, they’ve been hinting that they’d like to play some Halo, but I am probably the only XBox owner who’s never owned a copy. Now, you would think that tracking down a copy of what had to have been one of the biggest-selling console games of all time in 2017 would be fairly easy, with the glut of cheap disc console games at flea markets and garage sales (along with CDs, DVDs and PC software, flea markets are choked with Playstation 2-3 and XBox/360 stuff anymore), but nope, finding a clean copy of it took months of hunting. Thankfully, it was only a couple bucks!

NICE

Pro Tip: this is a good album.

I took a gamble on this, as well. I love Cadaco stuff (more the baseball game than the football one), it was cheap, and the box looked OK. I just checked it out. It is complete, and the lightbulb still works, too! Man, are the game rules obtuse, though.

Here’s one I didn’t pick up (or ask a price on), but I figured I’d show y’all a picture of…

As I’ve come to find out, this is an RCA Radiola 25, circa 1925 according to The Radiola Guy. It’s missing its antennae, but the tubes were all there, and my word, was the cabinet in gorgeous shape. I mean, look at that thing. That’s a 91-92 year old piece. Not my area of expertise at all, but a lot of other people who had no idea what they were looking at stopped and gawked at this beauty.

Anyway, back to the cards, before I pick up another bad habit. As you can see, there’s a 1997 Donruss Limited Limited Exposure card on the top of the small box, so let’s start there. Well…

There were a lot of those in there, but sadly, a lot of doubles, too (this picture is just the doubles), so I could only put together about half the set. There’s no way I’m gonna try to build it (they’re fun and shiny, but the double face thing combined with my not having a great frame of reference for it, and my already being in the middle of 439384292 sets rules it out), so I’ve got some for trade. (I think that was the only Rivera card, though, so that’s mine.)

Hey, remember ’08 Own The Game? Yeah, I hated it, too. Some decent players in there, though, and I got a bunch of them. I have to check through my stuff when I can, because I’m David Ortiz and Mike Lowell away from a set of it. The pile here, with good ol’ Adam Dunn on top, is my doubles pile. Ask if you’re looking for any of it.

Hey, it’s a pile of Mantle inserts! This is #46-55 of whichever Topps Mantle insert set this was, plus a handful of doubles from those numbers. Up for grabs!

Hey, it’s another pile of Mantle inserts! This is Home Run History #502-536, with another decent chunk of doubles underneath it. I already had a bunch of HRH to unload, so hopefully this will motivate me to get on that. If you’re looking for Home Run History stuff, come find me!

 

I think I got multiples of this, too, but this was a Trading Card History insert I still needed. Got an A-Rod I needed as well, but you don’t need to see it. I may someday finish that set.

There was a bunch of other stuff in the small box, but it’s in a box I’m not allowed to lift, so let’s move onto the big box, and some of the Upper Deck haul, before we go back to the small box for something.

Needed it.

Needed it, and there was a double.

Needed it.

Needed it, and between the two boxes (found some in both), I got 3 of these.

…and needed it.

So, about the other thing in the small box.

Why the hell am I showing you an ’87 Topps Billy Jo Robidoux? I mean, aside from that he has a great name, and was, at one time anyway, a guy whose name you’d hear in the same sentence as Jose Canseco’s, when people talked about baseball prospects? Haven’t I spent most of my life complaining about ’87 Topps cards?

Well…as it turned out last weekend, by chance, I heard about a mall card/comic show not too far from me. Remember those? Some love ’em, some hate ’em, but I grew up at them, and I still have a soft spot.

As it turned out, when I looked at the web site for it, they had free signers on Sunday. Mike Trombley was one, and, yes, Billy Jo Robidoux was the other. I had thought about digging through cards to find stuff from both guys to get signed, but I didn’t end up having time to do so, so I hadn’t planned on going to the show. But then, among the flea market bounty, I found what turned out to be an unusually useful ’87 Robidoux, about 90 minutes before Billy Jo was scheduled to finish signing, so…

For whatever reason, I didn’t get a picture with him (I get weird about people sometimes; didn’t even talk to Trombley, but I didn’t wanna bother him if I had nothing for him to do), but Billy Jo Robidoux was a super nice cat. From what I gather, they both live in my general area, and do this sometimes, so I’ll probably see more of them.

I didn’t do much actual shopping while I was at the show (I had over 3000 cards waiting at home for me that I hadn’t finished sorting yet, after all), and the comic stuff was fairly pedestrian, but it was a pretty vital card marketplace, and I got to get another look at what dealers charge for stuff around here (hint: way more than I do when I do card shows, so I’ll probably do OK if I set up at one). There were a few other guest signers there, but alas, I didn’t get to talk to Marlon Starling (I’ll have to look through my boxing stuff and see what I have of his, in case he’s around again; he could be an interesting guy to talk to, having gone 25-0 to start his pro career, having fought Floyd Mayweather Sr., and having fought the fights that I first remember hearing about him from as a kid, against Mark Breland, though I can’t remember if I actually saw either of those fights), Shane Douglas (I’ve no idea why I didn’t say hi; again, I get weird about people sometimes), or Denny McLain (would’ve been nice to talk to him again, but he was doing a radio call-in show while I was there). I’d actually forgotten Denny was even supposed to be there. He was listed as a guest on the site, but for some reason, I processed his appearance as a Saturday thing, when Denny just sets up tables at card shows for the weekend now and hangs out, rather than being a one-day/guest of honor deal.

Still, it was a fun little adventure to cap off what was already a solid day.

Twitter Trade With The Mayor!

The Mayor of what, you ask?
The Mayor of Cooperstown, Jeff Katz!
He’s also got a few books out, the latest of which, Split Season 1981, I keep meaning to pick up, as ’81 is the first (mostly) full season I remember details of, even with my card collection starting in ’80.
Jeff had commented on Twitter that he finished his ’70 Topps set, which led to me mentioning that I’m closing on it, which led him to mention that he had some extras left over from his set-building, and that turned into a trade, where I sent a pile of vintage football to Jeff, and he sent 26 ’70 cards from his stash. This brought me under under 100 cards on ’70 Topps, and did so in style. Here’s a partial look at the pile I got (just going with the Hall of Famers and All-Stars, as I’m mildly sleep-depped right now).

!!!!!!!
Thanks for the deal, Jeff, and good luck on ’55 Bowman football! (Folks, if you’ve got ’55 Bowman football, he’s looking. Get in touch with him!)

Topps Bunt Physical Trading Cards

Yes, I’m doing a dedicated baseball card post over here! (For those wondering why this is a big deal at all, I have another site where I usually do this. I may eventually just move all that other stuff here.)

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After a false start yesterday, I found packs and blaster boxes of 2016 Topps Bunt! For those unfamiliar (I’ve written a bit about it on this site already), Bunt is Topps’ digital baseball card trading app. If it seems like a weird idea to you, trading JPEGs or PNGs or whatnot, you’re not alone, but that’s another conversation. Anyway, this week, for the first time, Topps has issued a crossover physical card product in the Topps Bunt line, and so far, I’m having a lot of fun with it. It’s priced affordably (a buck a pack, or 11 packs in a 10 dollar blaster box), the cards (while a bit fragile) look nice, there’s good names in the set, fun insert cards, and you can also get code cards in the packs (I was promised 3 on the box, and I got 4!) that unlock digital packs back on the app, with (I believe) exclusive insert cards (again, digital) in them. Here’s some of how I did.

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buntbase2

These were the best of my base cards. As you can see, a solid if unspectacular base card design (definitely better than Topps’ flagship base design this year, though, and better than the planned design for next year, as well). Cool mix of current players and veterans in the set. I got a bunch of my favorite players, and I ended up putting together 1/6 of the set in 11 packs with no doubles!

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These were my inserts. Loving the Lightforce set (which they’d done a variation of in the digital Bunt product already), and happy to get some decent players. The Alex Gordon is for trade, and I know I have a Gordon collector who reads my other site, so hopefully they’ll jump on it.

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This is also available for trade! These come at a rate of 1:105 packs, so getting one in my first 11 is pretty good, I reckon!

As I mentioned, there were scratch-off code cards in 4 of the packs (they mercifully keep the number of insert cards in each pack to 1, for optimal set building), and I’ve redeemed those already. Let’s have a look at what happened there…

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This is what it looks like when you successfully redeem a digital pack via your web browser. Over in the app, the packs show up in your “Bulletin” dropdown. I opened them, and here’s the best of the best…

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Hey, it’s a platinum Nolan Ryan! Now, to me, the platinum cards just look like the base cards, but they’re super-limited (there were just 21 of the Ryan last I looked). I’m not a Ryan collector in physical or digital (I’ll keep a great looking card of his here and there and I keep the ones I need to finish sets, but mostly I flip his stuff for cards of different players who I do collect), so this is being made available elsewhere, along with the cards below that I mention as being stuff I’m unloading.

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Billy Hamilton, on the other hand, I do like a bunch! Always did like base stealers (the rookie card of Rickey Henderson, whose cards I’ve just started formally collecting again, was in my first pack of Topps cards, after all). Keeping it!

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The confetti you see in this James Shields picture is what happens when the app is like “HOLY SHIT YOU GOT SOMETHING GOOD!”. It’s a fairly limited card, but I don’t collect Shields. Unloading it.

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Love Jose Fernandez! Keeping this.

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I think Stephen Piscotty’s a pretty solid ballplayer, and I’ve had him on and off my fantasy team a few times now, but I’m not collecting him (I generally don’t collect Cardinals players; I’ve had a grudge dating back to Davey Johnson’s Mets…). Unloading it.

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Hey, it’s a Lightforce! I don’t collect Gonzo, though, and I’ll probably have a real hard time finishing the digital set, as these are hella limited. Let me look at the checklist and figure out what I’m doing here.

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Dee Gordon screwed up this year (or got caught for it this year, anyway), but he has always been a fun player to watch, and this is a fun card. Keeping it, and hoping he keeps his shit together from here out.

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BO. Keeper.

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These cards score 3X in the Bunt contests (kinda like fantasy baseball, you create a lineup on the app and your players score according to what they do in the day’s games), but I haven’t been playing contests lately (not enough hours in the day, and the freeplay ones have gotten weak), and I’m not a Votto collector. Unloading it.

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Hey, it’s one of them new Cubbies that isn’t Kris Bryant! Let me put it in the hands of someone who’s a bigger fan than I am.

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Sometimes, the app gives you “HOLY SHIT” stars, too! Severino’s available.

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I’m not sure where Boston and their fans are on Henry Owens, who seems to have stalled out a little, but hey, it’s a limited card. I’ll see what the open market will fetch. Update: it moved before I even finished this post! I guess folks still like him!

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More confetti, and I haven’t seen enough of Ozuna to really be a fan just yet. Unloading it.

So, remember how I had that Lightforce I was gonna try and trade for another Lightforce (the Luis Gonzalez) up yonder? Well, I found out that Bernie Williams was in the Lightforce set, so I made a trade offer to a few people on the Bunt app, and minutes later…

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YAY BERNIE

And that’s how I did!

Well, I got a bunch of “base” Bunt digital inserts too (they look like the base physical cards, but are not like the Bunt base, which still resemble flagship; the synchronicity between app and cardboard still needs some work), but you’ve seen what those look like out here in meatspace already, so there’s not much to see there.

So, did I get my $10 worth?

Absolutely!

Best time I’ve had opening a new trading card product in some time. Lots to like, lots to do. Well worth your money, if you just like to crack open packs and have a good time with this stuff.

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