A break for Sox

I got some time finally. There's been a lot of Birthday's lately and the days there isn't, I wasn't feeling it. I'm in a little better mood now since I have the next 3 days off work. The card show on Saturday got cancelled as well so I get 3 days at home, sleeping in. I did hit my LCS yesterday. I had to go to conference in town and it finished at 3 instead of my usual getting off work at 4:30. It was also right up the road from the LCS. I dropped off the stuff I sorted last week and since I had 4 days off, I went ahead and grabbed 4 3 row boxes of cards to sort so that's what I'll probably be doing for those 3 days. After I sleep in that is. I did pick up 1 card at the LCS so I'll get that logged and scanned tomorrow. Since I don't have it ready, you'll get another random post but this is a team post. Although they don't play much like a team which should tell you which team since I follow 2 and they are both at the complete opposites of the spectrum.

Fred at work gave these to me. I know some of them he picked up in a quarter box at the Shipshewana show. Some of the others he brought to me at work. I love the look of the cracked ice so you know I love the Sapphire set.

I got these from sorting packs. The flagship is series 2 as I've already completed series 1. The 4 Prizm are my first from the 2023 set.

All of these last 3 scans are list players that I sorted for the LCS. Hall of Famers are automatically on the list so Frank Thomas and Tim Raines are in and Bo Jackson and Sammy Sosa are popular players so they are on it.

The real announcement is with the addition of those 13 cards of Frank Thomas (and the one further above) I have officially hit 1000 cards of him. It's my first player to 1000 and it's not even a PC of mine, he just has that many White Sox cards. My official total right now is 1003.

These 6 cards are from Kevin. The top 4 came from a box he bought at the Mishawaka show, I skimmed through it and pulled some cards for myself. The bottom 2 are from his sorting of the LCS stuff.

Do you remember the Vintage stuff I picked up at the Plymouth show? I've already shown some of it, this was also on his table so I picked it up as well. I liked Madrigal before we sent him off to the Cubs plus it's a rookie auto and as I mentioned before, I like the Sapphire set.

I'll be back tomorrow with another birthday post before I finally get some time to post other stuff.

Lotta Tier 3

We set up in Kalamazoo today and received a couple of visitors. Dennis of Too Many Verlanders and John of John's Big League Baseball Blog came in to visit us. Dennis saved some postage and brought me some cards which you will probably not see until next weekend since we are setting up at another show tomorrow so I won't have time until next weekend to get them logged and scanned. Kevin also gave me some cards to get through so I have plenty to do on my next day off.

John even got his wife to snap a pic of us.

It was a decent show, it was our first time there so we didn't have many expectations which is how we take any first time shows.

Today's post will be of the random variety and tier 3 came up.

I mentioned the quarter boxes that I hit in Michigan City, these 23 cards of the Kid are a product of that, lots of oddball stuff up there which was why I decided to go through it all.

I also picked this one up from my LCS while sorting. The new Donruss set has a bunch of my retired Tier 3 PC's, including this one.

More quarter box finds from Michigan City. These 10 of another HOF'er. You even get an 1981 Fleer card for the Vintage set (only need 19 more) and one White Sox card for that team collection. The Giants card is only my 3rd of the lefty in those team colors.

11 Ripken's from the aforementioned quarter box. Lots of those oddball create your own sets from the late 80's, early 90's. The good old days when unlicensed still had logos.

These 3 came from a sort of list players from my LCS, all HOF'ers are on the list of players to pull so I usually get some tier 3 cards. These 3 all came from the box I did the first weekend of the month. That bottom card is another one of those unlicensed make your own sets. You can also see Frank Thomas on it as well so that one goes towards the White Sox collection as well.

Last but not least, this relic of Cal was in that half off box at my LCS which I ended up getting for free for sorting for them. I'm pretty sure it's my first relic of his. 13 of these 15 cards put me at 950 cards of Ripken which is my highest count of PC players. I do have one non-player collection who has more.

37 cards from the quarter boxes, you can see how I spent $42 at the quarter boxes.

These 2 I picked up in the sorting of list players. I found a number of those 2022 A&G's that I needed. 

This was the only quarter box card of Bench that I found in Michigan city.

These 2 were from the sorting of the list players. You see another 2022 A&G. I would have guessed I already had the 1987 look-a-like but I apparently didn't.

This was another card from the half off box. I knew my LCS was going to give me a good deal so I went ahead and through this is my stack even though it's a manufactured relic. I didn't think I'd get it free but that's even better.

These 2 chrome cards came from some sorting that Kevin was doing. I like them both as one is a vintage look-a-like and the other is a Stadium Club so there's a good chance it's a photograph you haven't seen before.

I actually paid for these 2 and no, they aren't reprints. I made it all the way through the Plymouth card show without looking at any cards and was thinking I was going to get out without spending anything. Josh, the show promoter, asked me if I saw the vintage I had on his table because he knows that I love it. Now I feel obligated so I go over there and end up spending $40. Not on just these 2, you'll see another one in this post and a bunch on my next vintage post.

These 5 were also quarter box finds from Michigan City. You can see I found a ton of cards for my PC's. These aren't all, I also found quite a few on a couple other PC's that you'll see later and some Sox cards.

I told you I picked up some of the 2023 Donruss in the sorting, this is another one. 

These both came from the other list sort. That is a 1980 Topps but that isn't a 1975 Topps. It's a 60 Years of Topps Original back.

This is a 1972 Topps (it's kind of sad that you even have to point it out with the millions of reprints out there). This was another card that was on the show promoter's table. You'll see the other 4 vintage on the vintage post and I also picked up a Sox auto of the next Sox post.

I know that's a lot of cards for 1 post but I figured I'd throw up all my hall of fame tier 3 collections. I'll have another tier 3 post but it'll be the non hall of famers.

LCS Pick-Ups

I lied, I had 2 posts left. I noticed I had scans left for another post that I must have forgotten to have add to the list that I random. So today, instead of another PC, you get more White Sox cards! Although, after getting swept by the Yankees, I'm not sure I can tolerate them.

These are all cards I picked up at the LCS I went to with my cousin.

If you remember way back when I started this round of posts, I showed some Starting Lineup figures of Bo Jackson that I purchased. Here's the card & coin that came with them. I know the card is all decked out in KC blue but it does have the Sox logo with the notation that he signed with us so I kept it.

I picked up all these out of a quarter box. I just guessed at whether or not I had them. I wasn't going to take the time to look them up over a quarter. I picked up 3 or 4 dupes but it's only a buck compared to the 20 minutes I'd have to look each card up. I'll take it. Engel and Collins are the only ones still with the team now and Engel has been on the IL but he just started rehab so hopefully he'll be back soon. He was supposed to be our 4th outfielder but him and 2 of the other outfield starters (Eloy & Robert) have all been out.

Also picked these up of our (and American Leagues) MVP for a quarter a piece. Love the black Panini National Convention card as it is all black.

Also picked up this relic of Pito for $1.50. Pinstripe and numbered to /99 for a buck fifty, yes please. These 3 cards of Abreu give me 148 cards of his.

So while I wasn't too thrilled with the LCS, I did pick up a few things that I needed for cheap. For the most part, I thought most of the cards were overpriced which is why I stuck with the quarter box and cheap relic box.

Fred Sox

Today, I'm going to show off the cards that I get from Fred, whom I work with. Every few days or so he brings me a couple of cards. He's going through all his cards from 30 years ago and when he comes across Sox cards, he brings them in to me. I scan them when I get them so that's how the pics will be. He actually brought me in a couple yesterday but I haven't gotten around to doing them yet so you'll see those in the next round.

I didn't realize how often he gives me cards until I was uploading all the scans.

I had this Jason Bere from 1994 Upper Deck but I didn't have the Electric Diamond parallel and a Magglio rookie from Fleer.

When he started bringing the cards in and I saw all those 90's, I figured I'd have most of them. I had some but he gave me a lot more than I thought I would need. This is my 3rd card of Clemons and my 32nd of Roberto Hernandez.

These 2 were studs in the 90's for the Sox, Black Jack McDowell and Rockin' Robin.

As you can tell, he had some that weren't 90's. I think he'd pick up cheap cards at the LCS or card shows for me as well. This is my 13th card of Danish.

He gave me my first 2021 Topps awhile ago and he gave me these as well. They only get shown because I received them before the box breaks cards that I had won. That is my 1st card of Heuer, my 146th of the current MVP and my 10th of Leury.

Back to the 90's with this trio of Ventura cards. Again, I though I had all 3 of these but nope.

An assortment of early to mid 90's. Another Blackjack along with a Bo Jackson, I wasn't a huge fan of his, didn't hate him or anything, but wasn't really into him. I did like Ray Durham though. That is my 9th of Parque, my 26th of Bo and my 74th of Durham.

I do like getting Mike Caruso cards. I know you're thinking who? Back in the day, the White Sox had a minor league team right here in South Bend (they are the Cubs now) and he's one of the few names I remember seeing play here. Jason Bere is another one of those guys but I remember him more from his pro career. This is my 25th of Caruso, my 48th of Belle and my 37th card of Bere.

We've seen all 3 of these guys already. I thought I had both of those Award Winners. Makes me wonder how many cards I fly by flipping through dime boxes thinking I already had them. The Fernandez at the bottom is the silver signature version and is my 46th of him.

I remember buying a box of these Collector's Choice back in the day. I think my cousin (Sluggo) and I split it. That was back when cards were cheap. It is my 3rd of Fabregas and my 5th of Valdez.

Another Maggs, with a rookie cup and another McDowell. The above Ordonez's give me 161 of him and my 55th of Jack McDowell.

Another trio, this time of 1998 Upper Deck's. This Cameron makes my 20th, my 6th of Norberto and my 12th of Navarro.

He also picked up some packs of Heritage and gave me this Keuchel. It's only my 5th of Keuchel.

A couple more for the late 90's. I told you he sent a bunch of cards in the last couple of months. This is my 5th of Scott Eyre and my 15th of Abbott.

Lastly, he picked this up at a card show for me. I think he said he only paid a couple of bucks for it and he bought it for me. This is my 6th card of Thompson and my first auto of his.

I feel bad that I never give him any cards but the one time, but that one time was an 800 count box about 3/4 full of Cubs cards so it's not like he's even close to giving me what I gave him (for the record, he doesn't have to give me anything) I just feel bad because a couple times a week he gives me cards and I just keep taking. I have to remind myself that I already gave him a box.