Monday, September 19, 2016

1935 Diamond Stars #36 Ernie Lombardi

Purchased on eBay for a song. This set is so great, and everyone agrees. That's why it's so expensive. So how did my cheap ass get a 1935 Diamond Stars of a Hall of Famer for SIX BUCKS including shipping? Well, the pesky border was cut off by some kid. Ain't no thang, though. With the border intact, this is a hundred dollar card. Way above my proclivities.


As for Mr. Lombardi, if you don't know him, he caught in the majors for 17 seasons, 10 with the Reds, 5 with the Giants, and 1 each for the Robins and the Braves, from 1931-1947. He was an eight-time All Star, hit over .300 ten times, was the MVP of the 1938 season with the Reds, was a member of the Reds' 1939 and 1940 World Series teams (winning in 1940), was an inaugural inductee into the Reds Hall of Fame, is the namesake of the Reds team MVP award, and was posthumously elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1986. Decent.

Go Reds.

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Sunday Card Dump

Hey there. How about a bunch of cardy goodness right before my Bengals whoop up on the Steelers? Man that game is gonna be ugly.

All these were acquired from shows or COMC or JustCommons or eBay or who knows. Enjoy the menagerie.

Go Reds. And Who Dey?!

Saturday, September 17, 2016

Completely Red: 2003 Fleer Focus Jersey Edition, 2002 Fleer Maximum, 2001 Fleer Premium, 1988 Fleer Team Leaders

2003 Fleer Focus Jersey Edition

180 cards, 6 Reds


Checklist:

24 Barry Larkin
29 Sean Casey
66 Aaron Boone
81 Adam Dunn
124 Austin Kearns
129 Ken Griffey Jr.

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2002 Fleer Maximum

200 cards, 7 Reds


Checklist:

9 Barry Larkin
57 Sean Casey
83 Ken Griffey Jr.
119 Aaron Boone
146 Todd Walker
158 Pokey Reese
161 Adam Dunn
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2001 Fleer Premium

230 cards, 6 Reds


Checklist:

76 Barry Larkin
88 Sean Casey
115 Aaron Boone
157 Ken Griffey Jr.
176 Pokey Reese
195 Dmitri Young
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1988 Fleer Kay-Bee Team Leaders

44 cards, 1 Red

Checklist:

6 Eric Davis 
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Go Reds.

Friday, September 16, 2016

Autograph Goodness - Raisel Iglesias, Daniel Corcino, Danny Graves

Two TTM's and a purchase. Roll em.

Raisel Iglesias has been converted to a reliever. Hopefully it sticks, because we need a post-Aroldis shut-down man. Signed is a 2015 Bowman Prospects Yellow.

Daniel Corcino pitched 18.2 innings over 5 games for the Reds in 2014, Then we waived him. He showed some promise, I thought. But what do I know? He is currently in the Dodgers' farm system. Signed is a 2015 Donruss Diamond Kings.

Danny Graves spent 9 of his 11 big-league seasons with the Reds, including two All-Star years, and remains our all-time saves leader with 182. Signed is a 2005 Donruss Studio Private Signings Parallel #'d 006/100. Nice.

Go Reds.

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Show Swag - Part 4: The Other 64

Last show post. Here be the other 64 cards that didn't make it into the first three days. I love them all the same.
11 from the 2016 Topps Tribute to the Kid set. If I started collecting Mariners/White Sox Griffeys, I'd be into a rabbit hole that would bleed my bank account. So I stuck by my Reds Only rule and snagged all 10 Reds from the set. Plus the HoF card, which is ok. There's one more HoF card I suppose I'd likem then I can put this one to rest.

Minis minis minis. NEW minis. Oh and a sneaky Johnny Bench parallel.

Topps Bunt team set. I don't know why these exist.

Base cards need lovin' too. The BP heritage is an annoying short print. Rookie Chromes are always nice. As is the Bench Archives in one of the best Topps designs of all time.


Nonsense inserts! I debated whether or not that Black Sox card counted as a Reds cards, since the Reds were the winners of that World Series. Then I realized I was debating on whether or not to spend twenty cents on something I wanted. Also, I hate The Gapper.

Dime box lovin. All. Day. Long.

Votto inserts are best inserts. The Pinnacle is an acetate job.

And the closer is three oddities. Wily Mo is from a DAV set put together to raise funds for disabled veterans. Billy Hamilton minor league cards make me happy. And the Griffey is from the completely ridiculous and terrible Royal Rookies set from 2000-2001. This card is awful. It's my fourth from the set.

Go Reds.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Show Swag - Part 3: Old Guys

Why go new when you can go old?

1981 Topps Scratch offs Bench/Templeton/Blue. Unscratched. Untorn. Freakin sweet.

1981 Topps Scratch Offs Garvey/Luzinski/Griffey. I have already an unscratched, untorn Griffey from the set, but it's with different people and a different back. OLD SCHOOL VARIATION, SON.

2015 Topps 1969 Buyback Jack Fisher. I don't even know why these are a thing. But it was a quarter. So sure why not?

19?? Postcard Thingy Ted Kluszewski. It was in a 5/$1 bin. That is all.

Hall of Fame Postcards Harry Heilmann, Harry Wright. These are from the same 5/$1 bucket. I kinda like em.

1978 SSPC Near Team Set. I had somehow only come across one of these, despite having completed the '76 set. Now I'm only two shy of the '78 set. And how great is that Joe Morgan card, right?

Still more goodness tomorrow. Go Reds.

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Show Swag - Part 2: Parallels

Where, o where would we be without parallels? Could you even imagine the Mad Max-esque wasteland that card collecting would be? Just heinous. Here's a bunch from the show, all purchased WELL below Beckett book value.

2016 Topps Black Cincinnati Reds Team Card #63/65. Unexpected surprise. Part of a pile of goodness that I was charged 8 bucks for. This is my first 2016 flagship non-gold parallel.

2016 Topps Negative Devin Mesoraco. First, I don't know why these are called negatives, as they aren't. Second, I'm very surprised there's no serial number. Seems they are about half as scarce as the Blacks, so perhaps south of 200 copies is reasonable.

A slew of Bowman. The Blues are /500. That Brandon Phillips is a Silver, apparently. I was only barely sure that it was indeed a parallel, as it could easily pass as the base design. Those Purples are the complete team set of that particular portion of the unnecessarily complicated yearly Bowman shenanigans. The Oranges are /250.

Flagship goodness. I used to wonder how I somehow acquired 8 2011 Topps Update Blue Cincy cards but 0 from Series 1 and 2. Then I discovered the Wal-Mart/Target stuff didn't start until the 2011 Update set. So there's where we can pinpoint the beginning of the end.

Shiny. I actually already had 5 of these. Whoops.

Bowman Platinum goodness. I still like these sets. I don't know why.

Topps Museum Green Jay Bruce /199. Oh wait. I already had one. Good job, Matthew.

Donruss parallels. They sure do try really hard, don't they?

We'll close strong with some elusive 90's parallels. We got a Skybox Red Barry Larkin... Ahem. Not Red. A Skybox STAR RUBY Barry Larkin. Calm Down. The Mike Cameron is a Fleer Tradition Warning Track, The Hector Carrasco is a Donruss Press Proof (first 2000 printed), and the Denny Neagle is an Upper Deck Gold Reserve. Nice.

Part 3 tomorrow. Go Reds.