May Cardboard goodies from Urbandale Card Show

Since last weekend was the second of the month, you know what that means...It's time for Urbandale's monthly American Legion Card Show.

 

It's been a couple of months since the last card show, due to the fact it was absent in April. I've been anxiously counting down the days and putting my spare change aside, so let's check out what I got in the way of San Diego Padres cards this month, shall we?

 

By the way, all these cards, except for one, came out of nickel boxes. Can you guess which one?

 

I was at an American Post Exchange in Germany in 1996 when I bought my first pack of 1995 Emotion cards. While it was the hockey set, I thought these cards from Fleer/Skybox were pretty amazing. With, a big bold player picture on the front and two more smaller player pics on the back, these cards could actually be summed up in one word. Literally, in one word. If you check out the Ken Caminiti card, his word was "secure" and and Scott Sanders' was "slider" his "out" pitch.

 

I've also resisted the impulse to come up with a bad Sanders pun. He and Derek Bell were arrested in April 1994 for allegedly propositioning undercover policewomen on a Manhattan street corner often frequented by prostitutes.

 

I'm also a sucker for hologram cards and while Rod, from Padrographs: Abner to Zimmer included a packaged trio of 1993 Upper Deck Then and Now Padres cards in a fantastic package, these individual Dave Winfield and Ozzie Smith cards from the 1993 Upper Deck Then and Now set just had to be added to my collection. 

Amongst my search for the finest cards I could find, were these from the 2003 Finest set, with Phil Nevin and Ryan Klesko, as well as Finest's 1994 version, featuring Dave Staton and Trevor Hoffman. I don't think you can ever have enough Trevor Hoffman cards.

Even though he was a Friar for only two-and-a-half years, Fernando Valenzuela looked good in Padres pinstripes in his 1996 Pacific card. I've also included Eddie Williams and Ken Caminiti's cards from the set, and the final card is a 1995 Upper Deck Minors Dustin Hermanson.

As these cards prove, I have a flair for finding cardboard such as these 1994 Flair Andy Benes, Donnie Elliott, Tim Hyers and Scott Sanders cards.

 

Here's Scott Livingston's 1995 Score Gold Rush, a 2002 Topps Heritage Ryan Klesko, a 1992 Pinnacle Benito Santiago and 1996 Upper Deck Rickey Henderson. My wife gets bored at the card shows and card shops, but she doesn't mind seeing some of the cards when I come home. She said feels the Pinnacle card is kind of freaky and shows Santiago's sinister side.

Finally, I'll display my new 2014 Bowman Jed Gyorko, 1994 Studio Andy Ashby, 1985 Fleer Goose Gossage and 2012 Panini Signature Series Cameron Maybin. I'm not very familiar with this particular line of Panini cards, but the photography is sharp and you have to like that look of intensity on Maybin's face.

 

As usual, I picked up a bunch of traders for my blogging brethren, so whenever I get around to it, I'll have a a few more cards to send throughout the continental U.S.

Hitting up COMC once more on their dime

I don't know if anyone's getting tired of my COMC blogs yet, but I made one last purchase with my "free" money. Bear with me now, as I lay a little bit of background one more time.

Earlier this month I wrote about how I made my first purchase from COMC. As they began their transition into their new catalog, they offered $1 in COMC cash for every 1,000 points earned helping inventory their stock.

They recently reinstated their challenges and needless to say, I took full advantage of it. I was able to raise enough cash to fund my third purchase from COMC.

Once again, I was able to use rest of the COMC cash that was burning a hole in my pocket to fulfill my San Diego Padres urges.

While looking among the many Padres cards within the COMC catalog, I was able to find some rather colorful cardboard, to include this 2008 Topps Replica Jerseys Jake Peavy S/N 134/499, 2014 Topps Red Foil Nick Hundley and a pair of 2013 Bowman Draft Draft Picks Hunter Renfroes, one Blue S/N 104/500, the other a Silver Ice card.

I've never heard of this series, but the artwork on this 2009 Topps Update Propaganda Adrian Gonzalez was pretty interesting. I also took the opportunity to go old school with this 1977 Kellogg's Randy Jones and 1974 Topps Bob Tolan. The San Diego Tribune recently had an interesting article on Randy Jones in its "52" section.

I've always been a fan of the Topps Museum Collection, but it always seems the packs were a tad too expensive for my tastes. I was able to pick up this 2013 Topps Museum Collection Copper Chase Headley S/N 110/424 and a 2011 Topps Heritage Minors Red Tint Jason Hagerty S/N 330/620 and a pair of 2008 Topps Moments and Milestones Black 32 Trevor Hoffman, Career Save 1, S/N 5/25 and Career Save 14, S/N 4/25. Each card represents a save in Hoffman's 601-save career. In my last purchase, I found saves 133, 360, and 411 and now I have the card representing his very first save

I added a couple of more minis to my Padres collection well, with a 2013 Topps Gypsy Queen Mini Black Yasmani Grandal S/N 24/199 and a 2011Topps Kimball Champions.

I know these aren't Brown and Gold, but I figured Green and Gold were close enough. I became a Green Bay Packer fan during the Vince Lombardi era and have been a fan ever since.1959 Topps Jerry Kramer, Babe Parilli and Max McGee, and a 1967 Philadelphia Henry Jordan .

I am now down to my final 21 cents.

Eventually, I'll add some Paypal money to my COMC account, but until then, boy, what a fun ride it's been.

2014 MLB Chipz

Since we were at our local Wally World shopping for a couple of birthday cards, I naturally meandered into the card aisle. There wasn't much to look at, other than closeout sales of 2013 Topps baseball.

I did, however, happen to catch a glimpse of the 2014 MLB Chipz display. Surely you remember them from last year - four MLB chips, a team sticker and a game board. There is one noted variation in this year's version of the clay poker chips - new color chipz. At $1.98 each, I ended up picking up a couple of packs just to pique my curiosity.

Once again, the chips are white, painted with red seams to resemble a baseball. On the front, is a player picture, with his position and an over-sized team logo. The background is color-based on the team's colors, i.e., a red background for the Reds, blue for the Rangers or Blue Jays, etc. The backs have the players' name, team name and the Topps, MLB and MLBPA logos, as well as the manufacturing info.

What's new, is this year's offering includes those colored parallels - red (1:2), blue (1:3) and black (1:4). The silver (1:10) chipz return, as do the gold (1:36), magnetic (1:4) glow-in-the-dark (1:2), relic chipz (with lower odds, formerly 1:1,047, now 1:845), and instant winner (with slightly better odds, formerly 1:5,236, now 1:4244). They've replaced the autographed chipz this year with mascot chipz (1:4).
You can also continue to play their flipping game (you can actually flip the chipz) with the enclosed game sheet.

In the first pack, I found a red Dustin Pedroia, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Robinson Cano and Carlos Gonzalez.

 

In the second, was a red Madison Bumgarner, Hanley Ramirez, Yadier Molina and Jason Castro.

 

As I stated before, I won't collect these, but I can see picking up a pack here and then just to scratch that pack-breaking itch on occasion.

Baby T-Rex throws out Petco Park first pitch

While thre are times that baseball's ceremonial first pitch is rather boring, you have to admit the San Diego Padres know how to do it up right, as they fielded a special guest during yesterday's traditional toss.

During Wednesday's rubber match of the Kansas City-San Diego Padres series at Petco Field, a life-sized baby T-Rex from the arena show "Walking with Dinosaurs" threw out the first pitch at Petco Park.

T-Rex's First Pitch

After bobbling the one-hopper from the baby T-Rex, San Diego's Swinging Friar mascot attempted to return the ball to the pitcher and, shades of "Jurrasic Park," almost had his head bitten off. I'm not sure if the T-Rex was embarrased over bouncing the pitch, or gave in to his baser instincts, but to say the least, the Fat Friar was surprisingly nimble on his feet.

You gotta' love it!

Hitting the COMC jackpot again

Earlier this month I wrote about how I made my first purchase from COMC. As they began their transition into their new catalog, they offered $1 in COMC cash for every 1,000 points earned helping inventory their stock.

They recently reinstated their challenges and needless to say, I took full advantage of it. I was able to raise enough cash to fund my second purchase from COMC.

Does anyone want to take a guess as to what cards I got?

 

I'll start out with these three autographs. The first is a 1994 Signature Rookies Signatures Joey Hamilton SN 4635/8650, 2010 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Franchise Futures Signatures Jonathan Galvez SN 808/810 and an Upper Deck A Piece of History Rookie Autographs Violet. 

 

 

I also ended up with a couple memorabilia cards, a 2005 Donruss Greats Souvenirs Materials Bat Steve Garvey and 2010 Topps Commemorative Patch Adrian Gonzalez. I'm not a huge fan of manufactured patch cards, since they can make a patch for anything, but who doesn't love the fat friar?

 

 

I jumped at the opportunity to boost my Tony Gwynn collection with the following cards, a 1987 Stuart Panels, 2000 Topps Tek Pattern1-27, 1994 Oscar Mayer Round-Ups, 1989 King-B Discs.

 

I was able to find a trio of 2008 Topps Moments and Milestones Black Trevor Hoffman 32's'. Numbered to 25, each of these cards represent a save in Trevor Hoffman's 601-save career. With these three cards, I'm now up to 11. Will I try and collect them all? I kind of doubt it, since that's a rather daunting task. However, being they're Padres cards, I'll probably pick them up as I go along.

 

These six cards closed out my Padres purchases - First Row - 1986 True Value Steve Garvey, 1981 Fleer Rollie Fingers and a 1987 Classic Update Yellow Benito Santiago. Second Row - 1993 U.S. Playing Cards Rookies Frank Seminara, 2013 Bowman Chrome Rising Through the Ranks Mini Max Fried, 2009 Topps Wal Mart Black Border Will Venable.

 

I also added to my hockey collection. With the Minnesota Wild basing their AHL team in Des Moines this year, and as a season ticket holder, I had the opportunity to see these youngsters play. Kris Foucault is represented through his 2013-14 Panini Prizm Autographs and his 2012-13 Panini Rookie Anthology RC S/N 578/699. Jason Zucker spent most of this season in Minnesota and it'll be interesting to see if he returns to Iowa next year. Here's his 2012-13 Fleer Retro Rookie Sensations Autograph.

 

In my last COMC report, I mentioned a pair of Blackhawk hockey cards I picked up in my initial purchase. Joe, who writes the blog The Shlabotnik Report, mentioned he was a COMC seller.

"As a seller on COMC, I would like to offer you my heartfelt gratitude at your tireless efforts to update the catalog," Joe wrote. "You got some nice stuff for your efforts... I wouldn't mind seeing the Blackhawk cards, would that violate the Brown & Gold theme too much?"

This one's for you Joe. Pictured is my 1952-53 Parkhurst Gus Mortson and 2001-02 Topps Heritage Salute Pierre Pilote.

 

I'd really love to stay and chat a little more, but there's only a couple more categories left to catalog on COMC and there's a few more Padres cards I have my eyes on...