Friday, November 29, 2013

Vote in Round 2/Group 15 of the Tourney!

Only two groups to go until the Ridiculous Bracketacularpalooza. Eight cards today and eight cards in Group 16 will be sliced in half and placed into the Round 3 brackets. I'm pumped.

As always, vote for your favorite 4. Voting closes Tuesday at noon eastern. Go Reds.

Card #1 - 1964 Topps Giants Frank Robinson

Card #2 - 1961 Topps Vada Pinson

Card #3 - 2001 Ultra Ken Griffey Jr.

Card #4 - 1953 Topps Ted Kluszewski

Card #5 - 2007 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. Team Checklist

Card #6 - 1954 Topps Ted Kluszewski

Card #7 - 1973 Topps Joe Morgan

Card #8 - 1972 Topps Johnny Bench

Round 2/Group 14 Results

Group 14 has closed. Leading the charge are the '76 Bench and the '86 Perez. Following is the '56 Bridges and sneaking in is the '09 Hernandez. Group 15 will be up later today. Go Reds.


Tuesday, November 26, 2013

A Larkin Retrospective - Part 4: Partners in Crime

There are so many Barry Larkin cards out there, the card world decided to share the love a little bit and let some other kids play too. A wide array of non-Barryness found its way onto cards with Larkin, but make no mistake. These are all Barry Larkin cards.

Larkin with other Hall of Famers? Check. Kirby Puckett and Tony Gwynn.

Larkin with surefire future Hall of Famers? Check. Derek Jeter, Ken Griffey Jr., and Chipper Jones.

Larkin with 500 HR hitters? Check. Jim Thome and Gary Sheffield.

Larkin with a random teammate? Check. David Espinosa and Sean Casey.

Larkin with a ton of random teammates? Check. Jose Rijo/Rob Dibble/Roberto Kelly/Reggie Sanders and Steve Paris/Ed Taubensee/Sean Casey/Pokey Reese/Aaron Boone/Ken Griffey Jr./Dmitri Young/Michael Tucker

Larkin with other teams' shortstops? Check. Travis Fryman, Jay Bell/Jeff Blauser, and Asdrubal Cabrera.

Half of Larkin with half of Derek Jeter? Check.

Larkin looking longingly into Jeff Bagwell's eyes? Check.

This thing? Check.

Go Reds.

Monday, November 25, 2013

Vote in Round 2/Group 14

Round 2/Group 14, kids.

Vote for 4. Voting closes Friday at noon eastern.

Go Reds.

Card #1 - 1950 Bowman Ted Kluszewski

Card #2 - 2009 Topps Ramon Hernandez

Card #3 - 1976 Topps Johnny Bench

Card #4 - 1986 Topps Tony Perez

Card #5 - 1990 Fleer Rob Dibble

Card #6 - 1956 Topps Rocky Bridges

Card #7 - 1973 O-Pee-Chee World Series Game 6 ft. Menke/Bench/Tolan/Grammas

Card #8 - 2000 Topps Barry Larkin

Round 2/Group 13 Results

Aight, 52 cards are in to the Round 3 brackets. There are 12 to go. Easily making it through Round 2 are the '94 Topps Joe Oliver, the '65 Topps Frank Robinson, and the '66 Topps Tony Perez. Sneaking in is a brand new 2013 Topps Zack Cozart. Sweet. Group 14 will be up later today. Go Reds.


Sunday, November 24, 2013

Showtime: Part 3/3 - The Rest


Alright, alright, alright. Part 1 we saw a vintage haul. Part 2 we saw cards too good for the dime box from which they pulled. Today, we're focusing on, well, the rest. Some stuff that was definitely dime box material plus some stuff that maybe is slightly too good, but still standard dime box bulk stuff. An eclectic mix to close out the latest card show bonanza. Let's do it to it.

Hard to start stronger than a couple fresh Griffeys. Randy Johnson looks particularly excited to be paired with Junior on the card. We've got a 2000-something Upper Deck Highlights insert and a 2000-something SP Authentic Marquee Matchups insert. Sweet.

Jay Bruce Turkey Red. Mike Leake 2010 Ginter RC short print (an excellent dime find). Adam Dunn 2000-something Topps Own the Game insert

More Adam Dunn goodness. The Diamond King is the one from the 2005 base set, not from the DK-only sets. The Skybox LE is yet another goofy die cut. I noticed I was within one or two of completing all the Studio sets except for 2002, of which I had zero. Now I know why. They're the sweet credit card style cards that remind us all of the sweet 1995 Studio set. So I suppose no one wanted to get rid of em. Well I have one now. Boom.

Now here's some legit dime box stuff. 1982 TCMA Sluggers and Pitchers Robinson, Klu, and Rixey. Pretty cheap card stock, even for the 80's. But I'd never seen any before, so I enjoyed the find.


Wilkin Castillo UD Rookie Debut insert, Deion UD CC Big Shots insert, Dunn UD 40 Man base. The UD Playball Dunn and Morgan, apparently, are both variations in which the text on the back is brown instead of blue. Or green. Or something. I forget. Adds some 'value' though.


Six more Adam Dunns. Was a very good day for the Dunn collection. I'm nearing 400 unique cards. Second only to Barry Larkin.

Some Elite Extra Edition goodies. I didn't have any from either 2007 or 2012 so it was nice to pull these. Hopefully Travieso turns into something.

My favorite card of this bunch has gotta be the Jose Rijo SI for Kids. Dude has about a thousand from this set. Rijo was the second card in the pile. So of course I looked through every single one to nary find another Red. Such is life. The Joe Morgan is from the 2012 Topps Archives Reprint insert set.

This was not a dime find. I dropped a whopping FIFTY cents for this 1961 Fleer Jim Bottomley. Hall of Famer. 1928 MVP. Played mostly for St. Louis but slipped in three years for Cincinnati starting in 1933. Most excellent.


These I had seen plenty online, but never wanted to shell out 2 bucks for em. Found these for 50 cents apiece, so I clearly had to. Their from a 66-card 1970 Fleer set with artwork by Robert Laughlin, highlighting the 66 World Series matchups that had been played at the time. The Reds won both of these Series, by the way.

Well alrighty. An excellent show. Don't forget to vote in the Tournament in the sidebar. Go Reds.