Expo Goodies Post 22 - I love the 70's! - Part 1

Continuing an assault on my Expo box in a decade format, here are some more goodies I found. Most of these were from the box of miscellany.

Putting baseball to the side for now, here's the earliest hockey entry in this. The back of the card states that Noel was the only NHLer born on Christmas Day. Unfortunately, that is an error, as Larry Cahan was also in the NHL at this time. Heck, he also has in this very set that shows that he is also a 12/25 baby. The back also points out Larry's appropriate name.

Orland Kurtenbach is another guy who I wanted a card of for the simple reason that I liked his name.

Here's a collection of 4 cards that are incredibly California. Garish yellow uniforms, and really bad hair. The Morris Mott does a double for me, as per my listia have lists. Butch Goring is another one of those great names in the game. It does seem to be the name for a goon, but he only spent a little over 100 minutes in the sin bin over a lengthy career.

My Kitchener Rangers alumni want list drops to 2. Claire Alexander! Sean McMorrow! Where are you? The answer of  "in jail" for the latter isn't exactly what I'm looking for.

Pete "Now with Oilers" LoPresti spent a grand total of 2 games with the Oilers.

I also picked up a couple football cards, both from 1978. You know Walter Payton must have had a great year when he's the scoring leader for the NFC. That's usually the sole domain of the kickers. His 96 points beat  Efren Herrera by 3 points.

I loved the "nicknames" insert set in Hometown Heroes, I loved this. However, looking at his cards over at COMC show that pretty much all the cards included his nickname on it. Good decision, but it took until the mid-80s for there to be a base card that really gave an idea of his height. There were some generic team cards that did, though.

Tomorrow, 70s baseball! '75 minis! Tasty Hostess cards!

Another COMC Blaster (tm: Shoebox Legends)

Like any good collector I went a wee bit crazy over at COMC today, but I still think I behaved myself for the most part. I did get a couple PC cards, some trade bait, and did some nice damage to my set wantlist and Raptors frankenset.

But, since posting my shipping list would be boring, I'll instead post a small order that showed up earlier this month. A COMC blaster is basically that I spend the cost of a blaster at COMC. Simple!

First up was the one that sucked up most of the cost of the blaster. A sticker autograph of Gheorghe Muresan. The tallest player in NBA history is a member of the 2/14 club, and I'd been looking to add a hit of his for a bit. There's a choice of this, and at this point, not much else. I really like that he's added his number to the autograph. I'm sure if I were to rank my auto hits in the 2/14 binder, this one would probably be my favourite.

Why yes, this oddball of future Senator coach Paul MacLean is my second favourite in the break. It really does give the vibe of "free with package of sliced cheese". I'm more and more convinced he was born with that mustache.

I love cards that commemorate things I've seen in person. This isn't so much a commemoration card - more of "I was at this game" card. Bruce is celebrating  a safety. He teamed up with Phil Hansen to stop Barry Sanders for a safety, the only time in his career that happened. It broke a tie, and the Bills scored on their next possession to ice the game.

Another one bites the dust on my Every Raptor Ever project.

There was a seller that had a bunch of Leaf autographs for a dollar each. I grabbed the Pulsipher for my Mets collection. I grabbed the Thomas Howard because I liked his penmanship. I picked up Mark Grudzielanek because I just like saying Mark Grudzielanek. As for Don Slaught, I grabbed his because he seemed to be the only one not to use the nice space at the bottom of the card to sign his name.

I like the Riverdogs logo! What can I say?

I can't have enough cards of guys named Scooter.

Since I need a Delgado in every order, here's the one from this order.

Maybe if Paul Wilson threw like that, he'd have lasted longer in the Mets.

Since my hockey PC needed a card of the guy with the longest name in the NHL, here's a Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond for you.

And to wrap this up, here's a Gene Clines. I traded one of my two Clines cards, so I opted to pick this one up. He only lasted a season there, so I could have chosen between any of his 1976 issues if I wanted a non-airbrushed Clines, but I stayed with 1975 and got this one. Seriously, a glove on his head is far more interesting than anything that could have come from the 1976 set. It's also my first SSPC card! WOO-HOO!

Expo Goodies Post 21 - I love the 60's!

It might be Turkey Day stateside, but it just plain old Thursday up here. So, with that out of the way, let's continue into the Expo box.

I'd mentioned a box that I raided that was full of anything and everything. It worked out to about 20 cents per item when I was done with it. You've seen a card or two here that I pulled from it. A third card made it appearance elsewhere today (scroll down!). But, I'm hoping this post (and future ones for other decades) will show how random these were.

Let's start with this. While did pull some 70s hockey from this box, I only grabbed one from the 60s. It was this slightly stained artifact from 1960-61 Topps. I'm disappointed they didn't give an early start to the tradition of Rock Raines and Doc Gooden and refer to him as Moose Vasko on this card. Sports needs more people named Moose.

Some well-loved football? I pulled a couple of those as well. Here's a CFL card from 1960.

I had no idea when this card was from. It just looked vintage-y enough to catch my interest - especially the Giants logo in the upper left. It's from the 1967 Philadelphia set.

Most of the 60s stuff I pulled from the box was of a  baseball variety. I'm always partial to the wood-grain design on borders, so grabbing one that also has a classic Cubs uniform on it.  Cuno is one of 114 players to hit a home run in his first at bat. Thanks, Wikipedia!

And one nice 1962 card deserves another - so here's a Clete Boyer. It's also an uncorrected error - that's a reversed negative. Clete's a righty - not a lefty.

And why not a third 1962 card? Other than the corners, this is still in pretty good shape. Hal Stowe only had a card in this release. He had exactly 1 inning pitched in the majors in 1960, which makes this an interesting card for the old misc. binder.

A badly-frayed edge? A stain right on the player's face? Yes! Come to my binders!

Hey! My first Matty Alou card!

And since football couldn't be the only sport represented by a later 60s card, I picked this one up as well.

And that wraps up another decade. Don't worry, fans of other decades. I'm tentatively thinking the 70s will need at least 3 posts to get through.

A mid-week 2*3 PWE

Nothing beats a surprise envelope from 2*3 showing up. Although I did send a slightly larger envelope his way post-Expo, I'll assume those two events are unrelated.

First up was a brand new Milan Hejduk for my 2-14 binder. It's nice and shiny, and will be a great addition to my binder. Milan just retired, and that means that aside from my card where he's playing in Europe during the lockout, all of his cards will be with the same Franchise. That's pretty unique!

And to wrap up a nice 6 card PWE, a quintet of cards for the mask binder. As best I can tell, that Legace is also my first CupQuest subset card, so there's also that.

Thanks for the PWE. I'll check for some random Sox/Hawks to return the favour.

Expo Goodies Post 20 - HH Box Break - Pack 12 of 12

Let's wrap this box up.

Bucky Dent
Orel Hershiser
Billy Butler

Tino Martinez - And he's yet another guy with two cards among the base. I think there were three of them, all of whom for 1 of the 2 cards are Yankees. Tino. Bucky. Reggie. There are more second appearances among the SPs, but I didn't pull any of them.
Rick Aguilera
Wade Boggs

Willie Horton - Great 'stache. Again, this a "Wow. I'm pulling a card of him in a 2013 product" card.
Ryne Sandberg

Andre Thornton - Another Wow card.
Dylan Bundy
Ben Sheets
Jeff Bagwell
Ozzie Guillen

Dwayne Murphy - Another guy who I'm surprised to find. He's spent the last few tears coaching in Toronto, but retired after this past season.

Dusty Baker - Rivalry - If I was so inclined, and they had this product available at places like Just Commons, I'd probably get this whole subset. It's a great idea, and the colours work really well.when they match the team's.

Paul O'Neill - Sportdiscs

Shane Victorino - Nicknames - I thought the Flyin' Hawaiian was Chad Owens.

Dave Kingman - SP - This is the only base SP I pulled, since the Dawson was a State (err...provincial) parallel.
Ryne Sandberg - Curtain Call
Mark Lemke
Matt Moore

Jay Buhner - He's had recent cards, but he just seems like a guy that you'd think would have more.
Mark Rzepczynskji

Joe Girardi - I guess expected to see him as either a Cub or Yankee in this set. Either way, it is an interesting way to wrap up the box.

And here are the final totals for this box:

Total Base - 248 out of 260
SP - 1
Autographs - 3 (1 gold /25)
Homegrown Heroes - 2
Sportdiscs - 3
Calling The Shots - 1
Nicknames 3 (1 gold)
Defining Moments 4 (1 black)
City Hall - 4 (1 black)
Rivalry - 2
State Parallels - 7 (1 SP)
Zip Code Parallels - 2
Curtain Call - 6 (1 gold, 1 black)

Great collation on this with the only dupe being back-to-back Curtain Calls of Josh Hamilton, and those were parallels. The highlight for me was the Dykstra auto I pulled early on, but the other two (Lance Parrish and Mike Krukow) were pleasant surprises since neither had a lot of (or in the case of Krukow, any) certified autos out there. A lot of fun to break, especially if you're the type that's collected for a while, and want to see some familiar faces from the past when busting packs.

Expo Goodies Post 19 - HH Box Break - Pack 11 of 12

I can see the end from here!

Jim Abbott - All these packs open with interesting base cards, and here's another one. There have been a good number of Jim Abbott
Ron Cey
Nomar Garciaparra
Cal Ripken Jr.

Frank Robinson - 1 of 3 B&W shots in the set, along with the Jenkins and Charboneau.
Wil Myers

Bill Buckner - Two Bill Buckner cards among the base? Interesting!

Jeff Conine - Another of those "Wow. He's got a card in this set" cards.

Bill Madlock - I love how the colours of the Pirates uniform works with the design of the set.

Tommy Lasorda - Pre or post Slimfast? I post the card - you decide.
Bobby Thigpen
Gio Gonzalez
Lenny Dykstra

Mark Mulder - And this is the second guy that I'm surprised to see make an appearance in a 2013 set, given he's not that far removed from his big league run.
Gary Pettis
Buster Posey

Nolan Ryan - Nolan's always a great card to see come out of a pack.

Ozzie Guillen - Calling the Shots - A managerial subset. It's the only one I pulled from the box. But the presence of managers among the base set make up for it.
David Freese - Curtain Call

Tom Browning - I love cross-referencing with COMC to find out when the last time some of these people had a base card. For Tom, it was 1994. Looking at the auto-ed version on ebay, he must have practiced signing the letter 'T' in between time. It's really nice, and looking at other autos on ebay, he's not alone. The signatures are mostly bold and legible.
Clayton Kershaw
Kevin Youkilis
Lance Berkman
Andy Pettite

One more pack to go. I've got my 3 autos, but am still waiting for the third Sportdisc. I guess it comes out of there.

Expo Goodies Post 18 - An Oldie but a Goodie!

On the upside, at least I didn't get knifed at the Grey Cup. Getting beaten in one of the more lopsided Cups in recent memory tends to take away any anger from fans who see you cheering on the visitors.

At the Expo there was a box filled with items for 25 cents apiece. If you bought a certain amount, it dropped to 20 cents each. Needless to say, I reached that amount with ease. It was the most random collection of cards imaginable. I picked up a Fergie Jenkins card in there. I picked up a Collect-A-Book of Spud Webb. A card of 'Classy' Freddie Blassie and the Iron Sheik? How could I say no? That Denny McLain from earlier this month? There as well. A complete set of 1992 NFL playing cards? Yup. And I'll be sharing all of them over the next while.

How to group cards from this batch? I guess chronologically will do. And I'll start with the 50s. A grand total of one card.

Saying the condition is well-loved would be an understatement. If I ever decide to submit a card for grading, suffice to say this one won't be it. Still, this is a nice addition to the collection.

While the highlight here is the presence of Richie Ashburn, there are also some spectacular monikers on here. Peanuts Lowrey! Granny Hamner! Thornton Kipper! Jim Greengrass!

All for 20 cents!