Card Show Hemorrhage, Part Three: Giants Prospects Edition

As I was finally getting ready to exit last weekend's Bay Area Sports Cards & Memorabilia Expo, I spied something in the corner of my eye that was calling to me.....Jaaaay......Jaaaay......and I therefore slowed my walk. It was a large cardboard box with multiple rows that said "25 cent Giants". This was, in fact, something worth stopping for. It was packed stern to stem with recent shiny prospect cards for my favorite team, Topps and Bowman and Panini, and most of 'em each things that I'd normally pay a couple bucks for.

I mean, this table had tons of them. For every card you see listed here, there were at least a dozen more of that card available at the same low low price. What's the deal? Do dealers just buy a hundred hobby boxes, "break" them, yank out the Wander Francos and the inserts and autographs and whatnot, and then sell off the rest? That's what I assume this dealer was up to. It certainly worked out for me, as I'm big on collecting all the prospects the pundits are yammering about, like Marco Luciano, a shortstop who's likely the guy taking over for Brandon Crawford in a couple of years:

Naturally, Joey Bart, next year's likely starting catcher now that Buster Posey has retired, was well-represented, and I was pretty psyched to pick up these 6 cards of his that I didn't have:

There's also another catcher in the mix, a first-round draft pick named Patrick Bailey who is sitting there right behind Bart on the depth chart:

There's also Heliot Ramos, who may actually be on the team this next season and whom I've actually developed a surprisingly nice collection of so far without him touching the bigs:

Here are a few others that were in the mix as well:

Card Show Hemorrhage, Part Two

As discussed in my most recent post, I spent several hours last weekend at the Bay Area Sports Cards & Memorabilia Expo in Fairfield, CA. I went a little overboard, as one does. If you're okay with yet another "look what I got" post on this blog, I'll scan up & show ya a little bit of what I got.

My big goals for the show was to try and make a dent in the two sets I'm most rabid about collecting: 1972 and 1965 Topps baseball. It makes sense financially for me to fill these in with as many of the commons as I can, and when I'm left with the big-money Mays, Rose, Mantles etc. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. But since condition isn't a big factor in my world, I did okay with the five 1972 cards I picked up this time.

There were plenty of vendors selling vintage cards and honestly, "I could have spent all day", but I didn't, and kept my sanity as well as my mortgage with just Vida Blue in Action and these four:

Now as it turns out, I'm also going pretty hard after the 2021 Topps Heritage set that mimics this set, and found a place that had a few of the high numbered short prints I need, plus this relic card:

Honestly, though, I spent more time digging through the boxes of one vendor near the front doors who had just a ton of the 1965s I was looking for. I picked up 20-something cards from this set, and it's what I enjoyed the most. I didn't scan all of them for you, but picked out some of the more well-known players I scooped up this time around. 

Card Show Hemorrhage, Part One

Well, this past Saturday morning & early afternoon I found myself at the Bay Area Sports Cards & Memorabilia Expo in Fairfield, CA. It was an excellent show for parting me with my money; in fact, of the three shows I've been to this year, it was my favorite by far. Something like 300 dealers? It was insane. Yeah, it was absurdly basketball-heavy; by the looks at these shows I've been to, basketball is by far the most collectable sport, at least judging by the display cases and where people were congregated. For me, this show was about finding the vintage baseball dealers selling commons and dinged stars that I could afford, and then searching for 25-cent, 50-cent and dollars boxes wherever they were. I found 'em!

After coming in and seeing a VG+-looking but ungraded 1965 Bob Gibson for $30, and almost springing for it, I caught my breath and realized I could look all day if I needed to, and didn't need to blow a third of my $100 budget in the first five minutes. The graded cards I saw - and there were a ton of them - were lovely, and completely unaffordable, and I'm completely and totally uninterested. I may buy a graded card someday, as long as I can break it out of that dumb protective plastic case and then file the card with the rest of mine. 

So it was a bit of a card hemorrhage for me, for sure. You know how gamblers on a losing streak head over to the ATM and empty out their bank accounts to keep going? I wasn't quite that bad, but after I'd collected my pre-ordained $100 worth of cards, I did happen to go to the ATM in the mall next door and pull out another $30, like a chump. Then spent it. Guess what that means? No online or in-person card buying for the rest of 2021. No worries (for me) - I've got plenty of trades happening with wonderful human beings who actually read this blog.

I'll post some of the spoils from the Bay Area Sports Cards & Memorabilia Expo the next few posts, maybe 10-12 at a time. It was a blast. Mike Norris was there. Rick Barry was apparently supposed to be there. Card Hemorrhage was there. 

I focused on vintage for most of the show, working as I am on 1965, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1972 sets. Let's take a look at the '67s I procured - Mr. Joe Morgan above, and these guys below:

If it's not totally obvious by now, we don't care about condition all that much here at Card Hemorrhage - we like filing and organizing and completing things. If it's in great shape, awesome. If it's a little dinged-up, and I can therefore afford it, all the better. Here's some 1968s that definitely fit the latter. Dig the off-centered Lindy McDaniel!

From 1970, I found these two cards - only two '70s I got, but they're ones I definitely wanted:

And you'll best believe I was pleased to buy these 3 Hall of Famers at a 3/$10 table:

I came home and found out I already had the Joe Morgan, but hey! It's Joe Morgan! Finally, jumping out of the vintage and into the 80s, I bought exactly one 1983 Topps, and it was this guy. Until next time!

The Last Stand of the New Age Performers

We already talked in this space last week about the 25-card 2021 Topps Heritage New Age Performers series. With today's mail day having arrived, I've now completed the subset, and thought you'd maybe wanna take a look at these final three. They're good cards, and they're happy in their new home.

A Look at 2021 Topps Heritage Minors

Last year I got pretty good n' hopped-up about the 2020 Topps Heritage Minor Leagues set, based as they were on 1971 Topps, my second-favorite design of the 1970s. My favorite is 1972, so of course, just as I'm doing with major-league 2021 Topps Heritage, I'm also seeing if I might be able to pull together a bunch of the Minor League version of the set.....you know, because it's based on 1972 Topps.

I mean - are they as stunning as the original 1972 design? No, they are not. But something about the wild-card nature of prospect cards - which is totally thrilling to me and thousands of others, likely including you - and the attempt at coming close to the '72 Topps design; well, it's good enough for me.

I bought a "blaster box" - nothing makes me feel as much like an overgrown child as I do typing those words - of 2021 Topps Heritage Minors baseball cards. And lo, it was good! These blasters really go a long way toward getting a complete 220-card base set built, and of course, they include exciting things like autographs, parallels and inserts that we collecting types like to revel in.

I reckoned you probably may already know what the base cards look like, so I'm just scanning a couple of fellas from the San Francisco Giants organization who were part of my "blaster" to give you a flavor. I already scanned a couple of the base cards I'd ordered online as a "prequel" to this blaster here. Among my other base cards were a few guys I am familiar with, but no second Wander Franco card - but I did get a Wander Franco in Action.

Here are the two autograph cards I received. Can't young men sign their names any longer? I blame the internet.

The box came with these 3 cards in a special foil pack. These are the Topps 1972 Baseball Poster Cards, as I understand it. I like 'em! These are 3 of the 20 you can grab.

This, I suppose, is the most rare of the bunch - a parallel of one J.T. Ginn numbered 8/10.

Then there are these inserts that are meant to mimic the 1972 Topps Pack Cover. There are 22 of these to grab if you're so inclined.

Finally, there are minis. I don't like minis. If anyone has some of the other cool inserts I am looking for from this set, and you wanna trade them for any of these 'lil cards, let me know!