It's like having my own Card Shop

Am I crazy for giving these cards away? Probably!

2024-01-12T08:29:00.000-08:00

Hey there everyone! Just wanted to let everyone here know of a contest I am doing right now through my YouTube channel. @case.loaded (Cases Loaded with Dan Wilson) I'm giving away some pretty awesome prizes, so I wanted to make sure you were all aware and hopefully you'll participate and you might even win one of these great cards!

Check out the video for all the details, but here are the 5 cards I am giving away as prizes. Yes, a Ken Griffey Jr auto! Yes, a Babe Ruth bat card!

https://youtu.be/hBPUaVqO1hc?si=bBzU5SaANMbFnjwt

A trade 11 years in the making!

2023-12-21T15:46:00.000-08:00

This week I got a surprise package from Dennis over at, Too Many Verlanders. Dennis and I have been sending cards back and forth to each other for a long time. I checked and it's been over 10 years. The earliest documented trade between us I could find was in December of 2012. That's pretty incredible.

I consider Dennis a friend and we've never met in person. We've known each other for more than a decade. I've sent him Tigers cards and he's sent me some awesome D-Backs cards. We also share a love of collecting Ken Griffey Jr. and it was Dennis that sent me the Great Griffey Giving Box back in 2017. That was such a cool project the the Junior Junkie initiated.

Here are the D-Backs cards that Dennis sent me this time. Some older and some newer.

Also included were some of the Pinnacle photos of the Diamondbacks. These come in packs of 8 and there are 16 here, so two packs worth. But what I found interesting is that there are 18 photos per team. Not sure why they wouldn't have done it evenly. 9 photos per pack and it would have been 2 packs for the set. Or expand it to 24 and have it be three packs of 8. just seems weird. But these photos are really cool! I have some of the Mariners, but didn't have any of the D-Backs before this.

Dennis is also on TCDB. I only have a small portion of my collection on TCDB, but he was able to send me some Heritage cards I need to complete a couple of sets.

Thank you Dennis! Thank you for the cards and thank you for your friendship these past 11+ years!

Junk Wax 2.0 or the greatest thing ever!

2023-12-13T12:03:00.000-08:00

I did something recently that I hadn't done in 30 years! I bought cards at Costco. As a kid, I remember going with my parents to the big warehouse stores like Price Club and PACE, which were I think bought out by Costco and Sam's Club, and buying boxes of cards. It's been a long time though. We have a Sam's Club membership, but when I found out Costco was selling baseball cards I had to get myself a membership.

Check out the video and make sure you are subscribed to my YouTube channel. I'm going to be doing a BIG contest on YouTube that you will want to be part of. I'm going to offer up some BIG cards as prizes. I've given away a 1955 Topps Hank Aaron and a 1968 Topps Johnny Bench rookie card on the blog before and these prizes might exceed those, so you definitely want to be subscribed.

Some postcards...wait, no...some Post cards!

2023-11-05T07:06:00.000-08:00

I went to my LCS this weekend and they had a couple of stacks of Post cards from 1961 and 1962. No huge names, but I picked out a few to add to my collection.

Here are the 1961 cards. These cards are in pretty rough shape. These cards are all hand cut, but some are certainly better than others, but the Boyer looks like it was cut out by a 4 year old.

Here are the 1962 cards.

The Maury Wills is still a few years before he would get his first official Topps card and 1 year before his 1963 Fleer rookie card, but it's his second Post card.

The Groat and Davis cards are cut pretty decent. I actually don't mind these cards being mis-cut. It reminds me of where they came from.

Growing up I remember getting cards from cereal boxes, but they were inside the boxes and were in cellophane wrappers. These cards were printing on the outside of the actual coral box. They had to survive the packaging process, then get shipped to stores, then get loaded onto shelves, get thrown into shopping carts, make there way through the checkout process, get bagged and carried to the car and then from the car into the house. A week or more worth of breakfasts and then a child would get the opportunity to cut them out and then do what kids did with cards back in 1961 and 1962. It's a wonder that there are any of these cards in decent condition at all!

Before Pacific there was a 1975 Phoenix Giants Team Set

2023-11-03T08:35:00.000-07:00

When I think about Pacific cards I typically think about the Ken Griffey Jr. candy bar from 1989, Nolan Ryan sets from the early 1990's, or a variety of innovative, yet under appreciated brands from the mid to late 1990's.

Mike Cramer was responsible for the Pacific brand and he just wrote a book about his life and his company, Pacific. The book is called Cramer's Choice. It's available on Amazon. You can buy it by clicking here. (This is an affiliate link, so if you click and buy it, I will get a small commission)

I've listened to several podcasts where they have interviewed Cramer and have been fascinated by his story. One of the things that he shared and it is discussed in the book is the first set of cards he ever produced.

It was a 1975 minor league team set for the Phoenix Giants. Cramer lived in Phoenix at the time and he approached the team and created a set sponsored by Circle K; the gas station and convince store. It's a 26 cards set that is pretty basic by today's standards, but it got Cramer's foot in the door and it also allowed him to advertise a collectors club here in Arizona that he started as he produced a card of himself with information about the Arizona Sports Collectors Association (ASCA).

After hearing about the set, I went on eBay and picked up a set for under $10 shipped.

Here's a look at the set, including the one and only card ever made of Michael Cramer.

Here is the back of the Manager card, former All-Star, Rocky Bridges.

This is the back of one of the player cards. I picked Greg Minton because he had a lengthy MLB career.

Here is the back of the Cramer card.

I need to look into the ASCA and see if it still exists in any form or fashion. Have you ever been a part of a collecting club?

Let's giveaway some baseball cards!

2023-10-23T14:02:00.000-07:00

***Contest is closed! Thank you to everyone that participated and congrats to the winners!***

As part of coming back to the blog-o-sphere, I want to do a giveaway. I recently picked up some 1995 Score Platinum Team Set cards from a card show and I want to share them with you all! Truth be told, these are commons, but they are beautiful cards and aren't super common.

To get the Platinum Team Set you had to collect all of the Gold Rush parallel cards from a particular team and then send them all in with a Platinum Redemption Card that was seeded 1:36 packs. Score would then send you a Platinum Team set back along with you Gold Rush cards.

So let's giveaway some cards. I have 48 cards split between 7 different teams. The first three people that comment below with one of the teams will get up to 6 cards from that team via a PWE. U.S. only.

Good luck!

Truly, One in a Million

2023-10-20T14:47:00.001-07:00

I've had a YouTube channel for years. My channel name was Daniel Wilson. Pretty clever...I know. I recently started talking with my good friend Derek about changing some things up and taking my YouTube channel up a notch.

I started with a name change. I am now Cases Loaded with Dan Wilson. @cases.loaded Now that one is actually somewhat clever. My friend took some pictures and created the artwork for my channel page.

We then went to work on a video. We started with a YouTube Short about Ron LeFlore. His story was on my mind when I was talking to my friend about ideas and this is what we came up with. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

TTM Fuel - 1973 Topps

2023-10-19T04:00:00.001-07:00

Back in late September I purchased a two card lot off of X (formerly Twitter) during a weekly vintage baseball card thread.

I spent $4 shipped on these two 1973 cards. I already have them both, but I have big plans for one of them.

First up is this Steve Garvey card. Wait it says Steve Garvey on the card, but we can plainly see the back of the jersey says Parker. Oh, the player that Parker (Wes Parker) is in front of is indeed Steve Garvey. Between Parker and the shadow, you can't really make out much of Garvey's face at all.

This card is a prime example of the "unique" photography that Topps used in the 1973 set.

I actually love this card though. It's a different shot that you don't see all that often and certainly didn't see if much before this card was produced in 1973.

We also get to see Garvey approaching home plate after a home run and him being congratulated by his teammate Wes Parker.

I am a big Wes Parker fan. He has a tremendous story and was an excellent fielder. I won't give away too much on this post because I know I have blogged about him before.

You can also notice that this card lists Steve Garvey's position as 3rd Base. When you think of Garvey you probably think of him as a 1st baseman. Wes Parker played 1st base and as I mentioned, he was quite the defensive first baseman, so Garvey didn't take over first base until Parker retired, which was actually after the 1972 season. So by the time this card was making its way into the hands of baseball card collectors in 1973, Garvey had actually taken over for Parker at first base.

But the Garvey card was not the reason I bought the lot. I bought it for this card. A 1973 Topps Rich "Goose" Gossage rookie card.

The front of the card is not in great shape, but it's not too bad. The back of the card has some staining, like it may have been glued, but there isn't any paper loss, so it's not too bad either. A couple bucks for a vintage Hall of Fame rookie card is going to get my attention 7 days a week!

I already have the card, but at this price, again just $4 shipped for the two cards, I pulled the trigger so I can send this card to Goose to get signed TTM (Through The Mail). I try not to send cards TTM that I would be devastated if it didn't come back or came back damaged. This card is perfect because it's already damaged and it only cost me a couple bucks.

I'll keep you all posted when I get it back signed (fingers crossed).

Come to think of it, Garvey also signs TTM. I just might send his card out as well.

Do you collect autographs TTM? Have you ever gotten back Gossage or Garvey? Let me know!

Butylated Hydroxytoluene

2023-10-18T15:05:00.004-07:00

It's been a while, but I am still here and still going strong in the hobby. I have been more active on YouTube than on my blog, but want to get back into blogging because this is such an awesome community and I have known many of you for a decade or more.

I am also active on Twitter and participate regularly in a Sunday giveaway thread. I give away cards there and claim cards and other items. I have seen a few books being offered up lately and I recently claimed a couple of Topps wax wrappers.

The first one is from 1979. How cool is that? Love the yellow with the blue. Love the old school Topps logo.

There are a couple different variations of the 1979 wrapper in regards to the offer on the back. Let's turn this sideways and get a better look.

Initially the 1978 copyright date through me off a little because this is a 1979 Topps wrapper. Maybe they produced this particular wrapper in 1978 in preparation for the 1979 Topps being sold early that year. Good for Topps on being working ahead back in the late 1970's.

We also get the ingredient list for the gum.

The offer is for all 26 Team Checklist Cards. 50 cents and 1 wrapper would get you all 26 cards, which seams like a pretty good deal. Too bad the offer expired on 12/31/79.

In the same Twitter, or I guess I should say, X, giveaway I got a 1980 Topps wrapper as well. Similar to the 1974 and 1976 designs, this 1980 wrapper would be the start of 11 years of very similar wrapper designs at least for the front of a regular wax pack. The major difference each year would just be the colors (typically they were blue, green or red) with wrappers after 1982 having the actual year on the front of the pack as well.

I love the 25 cent price tag on the pack. I'm old and both of these packs are from before I was born, so they are super old. I was born in 1981, so just a year later, but still. I didn't start buying packs until 1988 I think and I want to say they were probably 40 cents each. I think by 1990 they were 50 cents each. I could be wrong. Let me know.

Okay. Let's rotate the wrapper and take a look at the information that would have been on the back.

By 1980 Topps was no longer working ahead as they have a 1980 copyright date as opposed to the 1979 pack that had a 1978 copyright date. Again, we get the ingredients for the gum, which includes "BHT (TO MAINTAIN FRESHNESS). So I had to look it up and BHT stands for Butylated Hydroxytoluene, which is an antioxidant so it does help foods stay fresher longer.

The offer on the back is again for the Team Checklist Cards. Still 50 cents and 1 wrapper. I am perplexed by the picture. Were the 26 Team Checklist Cards sent in sheets and you had to cut them out? If you were collecting at this time and know, please comment below to let me know.

I have a nice Topps wrapper collection. I currently have 1974 - 1977, 1979 - 1983, and 1985 - 1991 so I am just missing 1978 and 1984. I'm just collecting one wrapper from each year and not focusing on getting all of the different variations.

Do you collect wrappers?

If you happen to have an extra 1978 or 1984 Topps wax wrapper, let me know.

Topps Player Runs

2023-08-13T09:16:00.012-07:00

I made it to two different card shops this past Saturday. Here is a look at my haul.

Some good variety here. Early to mid 1960's through present day. I got some cards (Walt Alston, Vern Law and Wally Moon)for a few Topps Player Runs that I am working on. There are some newere Paul Goldschmidt cards that I'll be able to add to my Goldschmidt PC. The bulk of the cards you see here are from dime boxes. There was also a pack of 1994 Score Series 2 that I got for free. I made a YouTube video about the cards for the Topps Player Runs and the 1994 Score pack.

If you're interested in the duplicate Walt Alston cards and have something to trade, preferably any of the Alston cards I'm missing, let me know. Thanks!

TCDB Trade with Too Many Verlanders

2023-03-22T09:19:00.002-07:00

I've been way more active on youTube lately, but I still browse the blogosphere often. For some reason, my laptop won't allow me to comment though, which is super annoying. Anyways, Dennis, over at Too Many Verlanders, sent me a package recently. I have started using TCDB this year to track my collection and I believe Dennis is the first person to look at my TCDB page before sending me cards. I love all cards, but it was nice that pretty much all of the D-Backs cards Dennis sent were needs for my D-Backs collection. Let's take a look at what Dennis sent. First up are some 2022 Topps Heritage D-Backs cards I needed.

Next up are a few Rnady Johnson cards, including a sweet 2001 Studio jersey card. I needed the Leaf card as well. I have the Upper Deck card, but I have a seperate binder for Randy Johnson, so I probably need this one for the team set. I will have to double check.

Up next are a random assortment of D-Backs cards, but they are all cards I needed. No dups!

Finally, there was a stack of 25 different 2020 Topps Heritage cards. Now I am collecting this set, but I don't have my needs updated on TCDB and I don't believe I have posted them anywhere. So Dennis, if these were sent to me by accident, let me know. If not, I do need some of them and I will put the others to good use.

Thank you so much Dennis for the awesome cards! Super glad to finally be on the TCDB bandwagon. I still have a long ways to go. I know a few other bloggers have recently posted about getting on TCDB. How about you? Are you on TCDB. If so, let me know your username and I will add you as a friend. I am dkwilson2430 on TCDB.

Funerals can get you thinking.

2023-02-07T07:42:00.001-08:00

The entire month of January came and went without a single blog post from me. I have been more active on YouTube recently, but I don't want to let any more time go by without posting here.

Life is crazy busy right now. My youngest is playing flag football through a local rec league right now and is still on a club baseball team. My middle son is playing basketball through a local rec league and has been going to open gym for volleyball at his high school. Tryouts are this week. My oldest finally got cleared to return to baseball after about 11 months (he tore his ACL). He has been practicing with the team since returning to school in January after the winter break and has been staying after practice to hit in the cages or will go to an indoor batting cage if he has free time. Tryouts for baseball are next week. He missed his entire Sophomore season due to his ACL and has been working hard to get back into baseball shape and is hoping to make Varsity, but will be happy on JV.

Two weeks ago I went to northern California for my great uncle's funeral. My sister and I drove up and back. With stops, it was 14-15 hours each way, so we drove up on Tuesday, Wednesday was the funeral, and then we drove home on Thursday. Overall, it was a really nice trip. I enjoyed the time with my sister. We stayed with an aunt and uncle, which was really nice. Got to see a couple of cousins and another uncle at the funeral that I don't see very often. The actual service was nice. There was a brief program at the cemetery and then we went to a church for a service and luncheon. My grandparents and my great uncle and his wife were best friends and so whenever we would go to my grandparents each summer, they would be there as well, but he was 94 and I'm 41, so by the time I was born he was already 53 years old and by the time I was 10, he would have been 63 or 64 years old, so it was interesting to learn a bit about him as a child and younger adult through a video of pictures of him throughout his life.

My first cousin once removed (pretty sure I got that right) is the one that planned the service. She is my great uncle's daughter. She did something that I thought was fantastic. My great uncle loved putting together model airplanes. He had tons of them that he had put together over the years. So at the luncheon, they had a bunch of his model airplanes out on the tables as centerpieces and everyone was encouraged to take one home with them as a memento. I absolutely love this idea! What a great way for each person to remember him.

This got me thinking and at my funeral I want there to be baseball cards on display and I want everyone to be able to take one home to remember me by. Now I don't plan on giving away my Hank Aaron or Nolan Ryan rookie cards this way, but there are plenty of awesome cards that are meaningful to me that could be given away in this manner. For example, how about the 1999 Topps reprint of the Nolan Ryan rookie card symbolic of my run of Nolan Ryan playing day Topps cards or this 2001 Fleer Platinum Postseason Glory card featuring Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling holding up the 2001 World Series trophy for my Arizona Diamondbacks.

These are the perfect types of cards that I think would be perfect to give away at my funeral and then best part is I have another 50+ years to pick them all out. I might even write something up about each card and why it's meaningful to me to be included. It should be fun!

Let me know what you think about my idea!

Merry Christmas Eve!

2022-12-24T09:19:00.002-08:00

It’s Christmas Eve, we’ll it’s Christmas Eve morning anyways. I wanted to take a moment to wish you all a Merry Christmas and say thanks to a few bloggers that sent me some cards recently.

First up are these three awesome O-Pee-Chee packs from Angus over at Dawg Day Cards. Angus saw my collection of Topps pack wrappers that I am working on and figured I could use these O-Pee-Chee packs/wrappers. He couldn’t be more right! These are awesome! Living in Arizona I don’t come across O-Pee-Chee cards very often, let alone packs! I think these are the first O-Pee-Chee packs I have ever seen in person. Thank you Angus!

Next up is this 1991 Fleer white border mod parallel of Nolan Ryan.

Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown sent this really sweet solar modified 1991 Fleer Nolan Ryan card to me. I had read Gavin’s post about these cards the night before he arrived and so I was super excited when I saw the envelope in the mailbox from him.

It arrived with the holiday insert, which is great in and of itself! Gavin is super creative!

I am one of just four know individuals in existence who actually like the 1991 Fleer design, but I really dig the white border mod parallel as well. Thanks Gavin!

And a bubble mailer from Greg at Night Owl Cards showed up in my mailbox the same day as the envelope from Gavin. Greg sent me some recent D-Backs cards, which are always much appreciated! Thanks Greg!

Hope everyone out there has a very Merry Christmas and a great 2023!

I had no idea!

2022-12-09T08:14:00.001-08:00

Johnny Bench recently celebrated a birthday. He turned 75 years old on December 7th. That means he was born in 1947.

Do you know who else was born in December 1947? December 26, 1947 to be exact.

I was made aware of this the other day and it did truly blow my mind. I think it's because I got to see Fisk play for a number of years, while Bench retired when I was just 2 years old. It's just hard for me to fathom them being born the same year, just a few weeks apart.

Even though Fisk retired 10 years after Bench, their career numbers aren't that far off. Bench began his career in 1967 and played continuously through 1983 (17 years). Fisk debuted in 1969, but did not spend any time in the majors in 1970. He would then play continuously from 1971 - 1993. (24 years) Bench played in 2,158 games compared to 2,499 games for Fisk. So even though Fisk played 7 more season than Bench, he had some years where he was limited due to injuries.

Bench Fisk

.267 career batting average .269 career batting average

2,048 career hits 2,356 career hits

389 career home runs 376 career home runs

1,376 career RBI 1330 career RBI

When you look at the career numbers and take into consideration how difficult the catcher position is, both careers are extremely impressive, but I give the nod to Bench for all the he was able to accomplish in "just" 17 seasons. How about you? Bench or Fisk?

$100+ Cards in Dime Boxes

2022-11-27T03:00:00.001-08:00

I posted about this on Twitter already and made a YouTube video as well, but thought I would post about it here as well because to me it's just too crazy not to.

I got to go to a card show the Saturday before Thanksgiving and I spent most of the time at the show digging through a bunch of dime boxes with one particular dealer, that I frequent every time I go to this particular show. There was another guy going through the boxes at the same time and I found this 1986 Donruss Jose Canseco Rated Rookie card early on and showed it to the other guy who was digging through the boxes and he immediately offered me a buck for it. I politely declined and kept digging.

The card was in a penny sleeve. After getting hime I decided it deserved a magnetic. For fun I looked it up in a couple different Beckett magazines. This particular magazine is from July 1991. Check out the price $100. I have never owned this card before so I was super happy to find it and even more so to be able to add it t my collection for just a dime.

I purchased 411 cards from the dime boxes. The dealer asked for $40 for the stack, which I gladly handed over.

In addition to the 86 Donruss Canseco, I grabbed a bunch of Hall of Fame rookie cards that I just couldn't pass up for a dime. Guys like Randy Johnson, Jeff Bagwell and Larry Walker. Obviously Canseco isn't in the Hall of Fame. neither is this guy.

This 1990 Leaf Sammy Sosa cost me a dime. Check out the price listed in this November 1998 Beckett. $120. Crazy! I know I talked out this briefly in a previous post about the 1990 Leaf Frank Thomas card. I actually have a couple of copies of this card already, but this dime box snag will hold a special place in my heart.

I've gotten some great cards over the years in dime boxes, but these two cards probably have the highest peak price out of any cards that I've ever pulled from a dime box. What's the best card you've ever gotten from a dime box?

Black Friday 2022

2022-11-25T04:48:00.000-08:00

It's Black Friday. I don't plan on doing much shopping. My youngest (below) has a baseball tournament this weekend. That means two games today, two games tomorrow and then the championship game on Sunday. That won't leave much time for shopping. We'll see if I'm somehow able to make it to any stores. Maybe I'll get a few things online. Best of luck to all of you that are making purchases today!

With Paul Goldschmidt Chrome cards on the forefront of collector's minds at the moment, due to the recent announcement from Topps, and it being Black Friday, I thought I'd share a couple of Black Topps Chrome Goldschmidt refractors from his days in Arizona.

What do you think Topps has in store for the Paul Goldschmidt and Aaron Judge 2022 Topps Chrome cards they are offering store credit for at certain card shops? I have a couple of ideas, but am curious to here what your thoughts are. Let me know.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2022-11-24T10:19:00.007-08:00

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! I have much to be thankful for this year as always. I have an awesome family. I love my wife and have three amazing boys.

On the hobby side of things I am extremely grateful that I found this 1955 Bowman Hank Aaron card. It was missing for at least 10 months. I had spent hours searching for it during that time.

I found it earlier this month. I had decided to look for it once again and moved some things around to get to the shelves where I had some 5,000 count boxes. I pulled off the top box and looked through it. Nope. I almost just put the box back and moved on, but I decided to check the box underneath it. There it was! I was so thankful!

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving season?

I'm back!

2022-10-23T12:26:00.003-07:00

One of my hobby related goals for 2022 is to reduce the overall size of my collection. I recently met with a fellow YouTuber, Caleb of Caleb's Cards and gave him about 20,000 cards and probably around 30 empty binders. It was really cool to meet up with Caleb. He happened to be in town for a couple of days and we were able to have dinner together and hang out for a couple hours.

Even with me giving away 20,000 cards, I've still added more cards to my collection in 2022 than I have gotten rid of, so let's give away some more cards.

For the first 5 people (US only) that comment below with who you think will win the World Series this year as well as your favorite team and I'll send you a PWE with some cards.

Me, I'm going with the Phillies. I'm a fan of Bryce Harper and I'd love to see him win a Championship and he has been playing great this postseason along with the rest of the Phillies. Plus, I think they will be facing the Astros and I don't think I could ever root for the Astros to win.

1954 Topps Jim "Dusty" Rhodes RC

2022-08-29T03:00:00.001-07:00

This past Saturday I went to The Batter's Box card shop. I made it there just as the 1 PM auction was starting. I ended up getting one item in the auction; a small lot of 1970 Topps high numbers. It was just 4 cards, but I needed all 4 and I got it for $2.50 and used a comp card for $2 off, so I only spent 50 cents out of pocket for the 4 cards.

I did buy one other card at the shop though. It was this 1954 Jim Rhodes card. If Jim Rhodes doesn't sound familiar, it might be because he didn't go by Jim. He went by the nickname Dusty throughout his 7 year MLB career.

1952 was Dusty's rookie season, but he didn't get a card until 1954. Somewhat fitting because 1954 was the greatest season in his brief career. Used primarily as a pinch hitter, Dusty would play in just 82 games and only had 164 at bats. He made the most of the opportunities and batted .341 with 15 home runs and 50 RBI.

Then came the 1954 World Series. The New York Giants would face the Cleveland Indians in the Fall Classic. Not only did the Indians win the American League pennant, but they set a league record with 111 wins. Keep in mind, they only played 154 games, so the Indians only lost 43 games during the regular season. They were heavily favored to win the series, but the Giants had other plans.

Game 1 featured "The Catch"; and as Mays himself would describe, "The Throw". Possibly the greatest and if not the greatest, then certainly the most well-known defensive play in World Series history. "The Catch, would keep the score tied at 2 in the 8th inning. Still tied at 2, Dusty came into the game as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the 10th, for future Hall of Famer Monte Irvin, and hit a walk-off home run off of future Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Lemon.

In Game 2 Dusty would enter the game in the 5th; again as a pinch hitter for Monte Irvin. This time Rhodes would bat against Early Wynn; another future Hall of Fame pitcher. Cleveland was up 1-0 at the time. Rhodes would single and drive in a run to tie the game. He stayed in the game and homered off Wynn in the 7th giving the Giants a 3-1 lead, which would be the final score.

Dusty entered Game 3 in the 3rd inning; again pinch hitting for Irvin and would hit a 2 run single which extended the Giants lead to 3-0. The Giants would go on to win the game 6-2, meaning that technically Rhodes had the game winning RBI back in the 3rd inning.

The Giants would go on to sweep the mighty Indians in 4 games and Rhodes was not needed in the final game as the Giants would win 7-4.

Rhodes had just 7 plate appearances in the World Series, but he would collect 4 hits and a walk in those 7 plate appearances. 2 of the hits were home runs and he scored twice and drove in 7 runs.

On September 29, 2017 the World Series MVP award was renamed the Willie Mays World Series Most Valuable Player Award in honor of it being the 63rd anniversary of "The Catch" in the 1954 World Series. The award was around in 1954. The World Series MVP Award was first given out one year later in 1955. Willie Mays never actually won the award and he has gone on record as saying that if the award had been given out in 1954 it should have gone to Dusty Rhodes and not himself.

I'm reading a biography about Willie Mays and when I read that he would have awarded Rhodes the MVP award had it been issued, I immediately looked for his 1954 Topps card. Lots to choose from on eBay, but I thought I would check at my LCS. They actually had two copies. This one that I bought for $14.50 and another one that was $10.95. The later actually had a whiter white, but the one I bought was centered a bit better top to bottom and the corners were just a bit better, so I paid the extra.

Fun fact. Dusty's stellar performance in the '54 World Series resulted in him taking the #1 spot in the 1955 Topps set.

2022 Topps Opening Day Set

2022-08-22T03:00:00.001-07:00

This past Saturday I went to a card shop and picked up this 2022 Topps Opening Day set. For just $4.99 I couldn't say no. Eventually I'll get more sheets and put it in a binder. I have a stack of cards and multiple set waiting on sheets as I type this. For now though, I'm okay adding this to my collection and having it sit in a box.

Pretty sure this is my first Wander Franco card. What are your thoughts on Opening Day? Love it, hate it or just don't care?

Dime Box Digging: Tim Salmon

2022-08-21T09:15:00.002-07:00

It's been a few weeks since my last post. While I haven't been posting, I've been buying, trading and organizing at a nice pace. Still not where I want to be as far as organizing goes, but I am making good progress.

Yesterday I had about 30 minutes at a card show. When I arrived some of the dealers had already left. I spent my time looking through some dime and other bargain boxes. I spent $15 and couldn't be happier with my purchases.

Here is a good portion of the 147 cards I took home.

I added 10 Tim Salmon cards to my collection, bringing my total Tim Salmon collection to 222 cards.

I collect Salmon because we attended the same high school.

Offer Up Collection Purchase Recap #1

2022-08-02T13:21:00.000-07:00

I've had fun the past couple of days going through the small Offer Up collection I picked up recently.

There was exactly one card in a top loader and only a handful of cards in penny sleeves in the entire collection. Here is the one card that was in a top loader.

I'm not even sure this card is all that deserving of a top loader, but I do collect Bryce Harper cards, so I removed it from the top loader and penny sleeve and added it to my Bryce Harper binder.

I mentioned that the older football was going to be traded to my Offer Up football/basketball guy. I reached out and already made the trade. Sorry Night Owl and Angus. I don't think there was any big names, but there was a good number of 1979, 1980 and 1981 Topps football as well as another 1000 or so more recent football cards and a few hundred 1993-94 Fleer basketball cards that I traded for these.

I know what you are thinking. More junk wax? This is true, but these are a little different and they are complete sets that eventually I will binder and enjoy. They are also sets that I don't already have, so I am happy with the trade.

Here are some other cards from the Offer Up purchase that I have been able to add to my collection from the Offer Up collection purchase this past Saturday.

I was able to add these two cards to my Topps All-Star Rookie Cup binder as the best Rookie Cup card for that year. I have these already as part of the Topps base sets, but these were able to go into my specific Rookie Cup binder.

I'm very familiar with Upper Deck MVP cards, but I wasn't familiar with this factory set. I was worried that there might be a card or tow missing, but it is 100% complete. Not only is it the base 2003 MVP set, but it contains an Update Set as well. Always happy to add complete sets to my collection!

There was a stack of about 75 1984 Donruss cards and I was able to add 6 cards to my set. There were two Diamond Kings and then these 4 that I needed. I'm down to needing just 50 cards to complete this set.

One of the other collections I traded for had a near complete set of 2000 Topps HD cards. It's a small 100 card set. I needed 10 cards. There were a few cards in this collection from this set and I needed 1 of them.

Here are a few other cards that I pulled from the boxes and will be keeping in my collection.

I probably already have this Jim Morris rookie card, but it was still a nice find. This card is usually in the $5 range.

I don't come across the Mantle Baseball Heroes cards very often and when I do they are usually a couple of bucks apiece, so it was nice to find this one.

Next up are these 1989 Holsum discs. This is a 20 card set, so I am now halfway there. The dups were of Wally Joyner and Frank Viola. I collect Wally Joyner, so that dup was put to good use.

Speaking of dups. Check out these 1989 Fleer insert sets. The funny thing is that I don't think there was actually any 1989 Fleer in the collection.

I'll probably have another post or two from this collection, but so far I think it's been worth it.

Offer Up Purchase

2022-07-31T03:00:00.001-07:00

Last week I saw an OfferUp post that had a bunch of boxes of cards for a reasonable price. I reached out right away, but I didn't hear back. A few days later I reached out again to see if they were available. He responded that he had a bunch of people inquire, but they never followed up. I didn't see the message until the next day, but made arrangements for an early Saturday morning pickup.

As you can see, the seller mentioned that they are mostly commons. The part that is missing says "great for completing or starting sets". So I wasn't expecting any hidden gems, but I was certainly intrigued. The newer looking boxes are what caught my eye. I've been organizing my collection recently and thought they could come in handy. Now, unless they are empty, they don't exactly do me any good, but that's okay.

I did negotiate a lower price just because the seller lived a ways away. I ended up getting everything for $30. I was comfortable at that price even with the expectation that they are mostly commons.

There was a little more than was pictured. Not much, but the was a couple of things. I don't believe the USPS box and the 1991 Score set and one other tin with a Collector's Choice Update set were in the pictures. This is what the collection looks like in my trunk. Not a bad haul. I went through everything briefly. Basically just opened up each box to get an idea of what was inside. There were a few boxes of football cards. There was a bunch of 1979 and 1980 Topps football cards and some other junk wax football cards. There was also a bunch of 1993-94 Fleer basketball cards. These will go to my football/basketball guy that I met through OfferUp. At this point, I think of him as a friend.

The rest was baseball. There is a bunch of 1980 Topps baseball. Enough that I will probably start that set. Right now, I am just doing 1981 - present as well as a few other vintage sets (1970, 1971, and 1973). There are several boxes of 1985 - 87 Topps, Donruss, and Fleer. The other boxes are by brand. So one box with Bowman cards from various Bowman brands and years. Another with Upper Deck. Another with Pacific cards. These are going to be perfect for my goal of having a 9 pocket page of each card se. I know that might seem like a crazy idea, because it is, but it's fun to look at each brand and how they progress year over year. This collection has a lot of brands that I know I don't have already, so that is a huge plus.

It's going to take some time to go through everything and complete organizing my collection, but it will also be a ton of fun.

1974 Topps Traded Completed

2022-07-26T16:00:00.001-07:00

Bo, of the blog Baseball Cards Come to Life, has helped me finish off my 1974 Topps Traded set. It's a small set (44 cards) and after I picked up a bunch from a dime box at my LCS, I decided to go after the set. I turned to Twitter and the blog and got a great response. The last two cards I needed were Eddie Watt and Tommie Agee and Bo sent them to me along with this 2003 Topps Heritage card of Danny Bautista. Thanks Bo!

Contest Winner

2022-07-23T10:05:00.000-07:00

Thank you to all who participated in my Sparky Lyle rookie card contest! I know the roughly month long contest was a bit much and I don't plan on doing anything like this again anytime soon.

I did my best to count up the comments (one per day) and then blog posts featuring Sparky Lyle (an additional 5 entries per post) and here is what I came up with. 164 total entries.

7 - The Diamond King

16 - Jafronius

46 - Matt

6 - Crocodile

23 - Bo

2 - John Sharp

1 - The Lost Collector

11 - Defgav

1 - Fuji

42 - Elliptical Man

3 - Ohio Tim

6 - Night Owl

And the winner is...Elliptical Man. Congratulations! Send me your address via email (daniel24303@gmail.com) and I'll get your prize package out to you as soon as possible. Matt, please send me your address as well.