back to back shows

april was a pretty busy month in terms of card shows in the twin cities. the twin cities collector club had a supplemental show in the east metro the same day that one of the local card & collectible shops was having their annual warehouse sale. the following weekend, there was the big semi-annual show at the rivercentre, and the weekend after that was the semi-annual church show on the same day as the regular monthly club show. whew.

i only made it to two of those shows - the east metro show on the 11th and the convention center show on the 17th. with the first of those shows, i was out of town in the morning but was able to make a quick stop. there are fewer dealers at this show than the regular club show, but the guy who has the best bargain boxes (in my opinion) was there. i spent all of my limited time at his table, and here's a sampling of what i took.

2018 topps update ozzie albies and ronald acuna jr

i didn't need this card, but i took it anyway.

a trio of 2019 topps greatest moments/players, including a card about the pine tar incident!

the musial is a blue parallel. the pine tar card is a 150 year parallel, so it's numbered to 150. i had no idea there was a card dedicated to the most famous of baseball tantrums.

2026 silver crackle foilboard 1991 parallel of rickey henderson

2025 topps gold holofoil parallels of kyle higashioka

and austin martin

2019 topps justin smoak logoman commemorative patch gold parallel

2025 topps factory set rookie variations of dylan crews

and roki sasaki

the back denotes that this is a "complete sets" card. 

i assume that the non-variant cards from those sets do not have that text.

most of what i looked for were dodger parallels and inserts, and i found a few, like a 2025 topps holiday gold christmas lights parallel

and a freddie freeman evergreen insert from the same set

here's a 2025 topps update gold parallel of world series hero miguel rojas

and a mvp insert from that set featuring roy campanella

i was hoping to find more 2026 topps heritage, but there wasn't a lot. still, i did pick up a couple of light blue sparkle refractor parallels of jack dreyer

and jordan dean (plus three other guys)

both of those cards are short prints in the regular set, so this is a case of having a parallel before the "base".

that used up all of the time i had to spend at that show, but the following friday, i had much more time to peruse the larger show. unfortunately, it was not a bargain shopper show even when compared to the past couple of years. dollar boxes were few and far between which surprised me because the number of sellers at this show was mind boggling. they had opened up a second area of the convention center floor with 200 additional tables from what they had the last time i went to this show. it was a lot, but a lot of slabbed product all over the place.

i wound up visiting only a handful of tables, digging through dollar boxes and one fifty cent box. here's some of what i found.

a 2009 topps walmart cereal platinum jackie robinson refractor

that i didn't already have was a nice find.

2016 topps chrome refractors of frankie montas

and ross stripling

with stripling's being of the sepia variety. i've been paying more attention to refractor parallels lately.

here's a 2018 bowman's best yu darvish refractor

and a 2022 panini diamond kings clayton kershaw blue artist's proof

that were overpriced in the dollar box, but i wound up with a slight discount from every seller i visited.

i paid more than a dollar for some on card autos of oswaldo osorio

and james outman

from 2023 bowman's best. the outman was priced at $5 and it was enough for me to finally bite on one of his signed cards. i don't think he will be around much longer in minnesota, if he is still around now. he's had a rough start to the season unfortunately.

here are some more dodger parallels i found - 2024 topps gold jd martinez

a pair of xfractors from 2024 topps chrome (outman) and 2024 topps chrome update (kiermaier), respectively

a 2025 panini select manny ramirez prizm

and a 2025 topps teoscar hernandez spring training border

a couple other cards for my double play mini collections were found - this 2023 topps gunnar henderson 1988 insert

and a 2008 upper deck derek jeter "jeter chronicles" insert

these cards feature guest appearances by vladimir guerrero jr and michael cuddyer, respectively.

there were quite a few yankees cards in these boxes, and many of them caught my eye. here's a four pack of don mattingly 1984 topps rookie reprint treatments

clockwise from upper left - 2003 topps shoebox collection, 2019 topps complete sets chrome greatest cards reprints, 2021 topps doubleheaders, and 2018 topps archives rookie history. here are the backs, all jumbled up

clockwise from the upper left we have 2021 topps doubleheaders, 2018 topps archives rookie history, 2003 topps shoebox collection, and 2019 topps complete sets chrome greatest cards reprints. i think the chrome one is probably the one seen least often.

i was a fan of the 2025 topps heritage high number bicentennial stars inserts (even though don sutton was the only dodger included) and took home a mike schmidt card

from that insert set. i also have a soft spot for 2007 topps chrome color refractors which explains how this scott kazmir card made it into my stack

one of the first sellers i encountered had a bunch of old fleer cards in his dollar boxes. these are fleer prior to 1981, when there were no licenses but lots of laughlin illustrations. i found a dodger card from 1974 fleer cloth patches laughlin's wildest days and plays

that highlights a game between the pirates and dodgers (superbas, actually). here is the back:

i also took one of the quiz cards from the 1972 fleer release

i bought it because it features the dodger logo, but also because all of the answers are yankees, including babe ruth and lou gehrig. of course, question number 2 is wrong - they meant to ask about rbi, not hits. i am now thinking i should have bought more of these.

i did venture away from dodgers when it came to 1968 and 1969 fleer cloth patch emblem inserts. this one

is a "fact card" from 1969, and this one

is a team logo quiz card from 1968. each of those last three cards are blank backs.

for no real reason, i also chose a couple of 1977 hostess twinkies cards. hall of famer lou brock

and hall of pretty good member bill buckner

were the two i chose. the black bars on the back identify them as twinkies cards, and underneath that airbrushing on buckner's card is a dodger hat.

one of the more unique cards i found in these boxes was this 1999 upper deck encore gabe kapler batting practice cap relic card

these are not too abundant, and in fact, the kapler card has never been in comc's inventory. i didn't realize that until i got it home. i wonder if there is a kapler super collector out there pining for this card.

back to yankees stuff, i found a couple of intriguing babe ruth cards i hadn't seen before. the first one has his mug on a 1952 topps design

it's from the 2010 topps new york yankees 27 world series titles set. and then there was this 1995 topps card that looked familiar

except it was colorized. it turned out to be a 1995 megacards the sporting news conlon collection version of the card that was included as part of the 1995 topps flagship set. here's the back:

the "3c" number also differentiates it from card number 3 in the topps set.

the last card i will show was overpriced but i bought it anyway since it fits nicely into my name/number on the back collection

and the 2015 topps stadium club mariano rivera card makes a nice bookend with the albies/acuna card up top.

i'm not sure when i will make it to another show, but it probably won't be in back-to-back weeks like these ones. stay tuned!

i remain unsetisfied - 1978 topps signed edition

i have a saved search for 1978 topps signed cards. i have no intention of completing the set in autographed fashion, but there are a few cards that i wouldn't mind adding to my effort, and after the national last year where i failed to fully peruse one vendor's wares, i felt the itch to add to this collection.

over the course of the last few months, i've added 36 cards to the collection. this put me over the two-thirds mark for the set, as i now have 501 unique cards signed out of 726, and 547 total cards signed. anyway, here are the new cards to share:

ron guidry

i had tried to get guidry via ttm a couple of times with no success, so i went the third party route. once i added this card, i decided i wanted to get to 66.7% which meant at least 18 more cards to track down.

the next card i added was ken brett's

brett passed away in 2003 and i was surprised to see this card for a pretty low price. his '78 topps card was well known in my neighborhood because of the back

he was good for a dinger when we played the game using card backs.

rick rhoden

i have a rhoden ttm signed card as part of my dodger collection, but i didn't have a second one for the (semi) set build. the only other dodgers i need a second signed card of are johnny oates and ted martinez.

i'd like to get as many of the manager cards in the set as i can, so i added a few more in this endeavor. here's bobby cox

i guess that could be his signature. it's a leap of faith with many of these, and i was sure to not spend too much on this one in particular.

bob lemon

i am pretty confident about this one, which was one of the cards i most wanted to add.

gene mauch

danny ozark

earl weaver

i think the only managers i still need are vern rapp and darrell johnson. nope. i just checked and i also need herman franks, sparky anderson, chuck tanner, and billy martin.

mike flanagan

mark fidrych

two guys gone too soon

for some reason, the tigers featured a lot of players i either didn't try or don't sign ttm. so, here's chuck scrivener

and fernando arroyo

brian downing

doesn't sign at all these days from what i can tell. i have his certified auto from 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams, but was glad to add this card.

amos otis

as with guidry up top, i had tried to get otis ttm but was unsuccessful. one of my favorite lines from ted lasso was "way to notice, amos otis".

jamie quirk

and jim slaton

represent the brew crew

with this bombo rivera card

i am just three cards away from having the full twins team set signed.

marty perez

is good to have, but the a's i really wanted were mitchell page

and manny sanguillen

i would be absolutely giddy if i were able to find a willie crawford signed 1978 topps card.

right after sandy alomar sr passed away, i picked up his signed card, along with three of his teammates

tom paciorek

the former dodger signed a 1974 topps card for me in a private signing, but i didn't send his '78 card, prioritizing a dodger card over this effort.

bill plummer

from what i can tell, plummer signed all of his 1978 cards the same way in the same place

pepe frias

love the shiny jacket that the then-future dodger was sporting

stan bahnsen

the former rookie of the year reminded me and my friends of lenny from laverne & shirley

bob davis

like plummer, all of the bob davis signed cards i've seen make use of his bat

pat scanlon

came from a seller who also sold me a dave freisleben signed 1978 topps card, except he sent a 1976 card

by mistake. i was refunded so no harm no foul

freddie patek

was one i really wanted for the set, and he doesn't sign. i also added the stolen bases league leader card

but have no path i am aware of to have frank taveras sign it. i did find taveras' individual card

which features one of the more eclectic photos in the set. colors and stripes and netting, oh my!

tony perez

and fergie jenkins

were high on my list of players to add. i have a 1978 topps perez buyback auto from one of the archives releases, but am happy to have this loose version in my set.

finally, one of the cards i really wanted to add the most was that of bobby bonds

i settled for this one that is made out "to bill". there were a couple of authenticated bonds cards i came across, but the prices were high and the autos maybe not as bold. i have a couple of things signed by bonds, and the auto looked good to me with a reasonable price. besides, i figure if it's a fake, it wouldn't have the endorsement.

i wish that young gcrl had taken some 1978 topps cards to the hot stove events i attended as a kid instead of a ball that has now almost completely faded or an autograph book that is not as fun to flip through as a binder of cards.

i haven't added any new cards to this collection for a bit, but i am sure i will eventually get that itch again. stay tuned!