where in the world is my wallet card? - local card shop edition

i paid a visit to the newest local card shop in the twin cities recently, and obviously, wallet card was along for the ride.  we got there a bit early...

the shop has been open for a little over a year now, and it's owners are a couple of regulars at the monthly card shows.  

once i got inside on this particular day, i was drawn to some of the bargain vintage - fifty cents a pop - and picked up a 1954 bowman fred baczewski card

i am not collecting this set, nor am i a reds collector, but the lack of the facsimile autograph, coupled with the mention of mickey mantle on the back of a card from 1954

was enough to get me to bite.

there were some 1956 topps cards for only slightly more, and i picked up a couple for the double play binder - tommy carroll

and pete runnels

funny that pete is enough of a nickname that it needed to be in quotation marks.

back to the cheap vintage, here's a 1955 bowman bob talbot

because i couldn't leave it there for fifty cents.

this is not a 1955 bowman card

but rather a 2001 bowman rookie reprint of don zimmer.  yes, there were modern singles to be had at the shop, too.

oddball stuff was in strong supply as well, as i picked up a few cards from the 1977-84 renata gallaso releases.  this particular card is from the 1983 set featuring the 1933 all-stars (the very first all-stars).  it's the national league team card

and it features a couple of dodgers - coach max carey and tony cuccinello.  here's the back

with connie mack and john mcgraw 'choosing sides'.

there was also a box of autographed cards going for fifty cents apiece, and i couldn't leave this 2006 grandstand st. lucie mets card of their trainer behind

although i won't be keeping it.

i will hold on to this 2003 grandstand vero beach dodgers card of willie aybar, though.

this wasn't all that i came away with from the shop - some of you will benefit from the haul by way of trade packages.  as for the shop itself, there's lots of good stuff there, and if you visit the twin cities i encourage you to check it out!

where in the world is my wallet card? - it wasn't at mardi gras...

the junior junkie has had his wallet card on display recently, enjoying the revelry that is to be had in new orleans, while my wallet card was in my wallet.  so, i let my 1974 topps steve garvey card hang out amongst the bounty that tj sent my way recently as part of his monster mailday.

a bit of vicarious living, if you will.

there were some beads, two blocks of cards and a couple of msa discs in the package. here are some of the non-dodger highlights.

double plays!

1992 classic best robert eenhoorn

this card is fantastic. a minor league dp, from a guy named eenhoorn, and with a expo minor leaguer who is wearing a generic expos jersey with the team's name instead of his own on the back.

also from 1992 classic best, here is jose olmeda

and a guy named carey sliding in.

1992 donruss mickey morandini

yes, tj sent me a card from the 1992 donruss set and i am glad for it!

1994 topps stadium club rey sanchez

1998 upper deck alex gonzalez

this card features a double play turn on the front…

and the back!

1999 pacific damion easley

not as nice as his 1996 pacific card

2004 upper deck bj upton

you know you play in a crappy stadium when the area upper deck chooses to highlight is the sign for the party area.

2008 upper deck first edition wilson betemit

hard to believe that betemit was at one time a dodger.  speaking of dodgers, there were a few of those int he package, too.  i'll show some of them later to prove it.

where in the world is my wallet card? - hanging out with mr. october edition

i took some time earlier today to head to the bi-annual regional card show that, oddly enough, was scheduled for the same weekend as the monthly local card show.  the reason i chose the regional show was it draws dealers from a broader range of locales, plus they bring in some interesting autograph guests.  the one signer i keyed in on a couple of months ago when i first looked at the lineup was reggie jackson.  

first of all, i could only go to the show on saturday, so that meant no bill madlock for me.  second, reggie is in the 1978 topps set (twice), and i have amassed over a couple hundred signed cards from that set.  third, even though he was a yankee who beat the team of my youth in back-to-back world series, he's still mr. october.

i arrived later than i had hoped, and missed out on handing over a 330-count box of cards to brian from hsca.  that's the box there under my 1978 topps jackson card, the autograph ticket, and my trusty wallet card - a beat up (even more beat up now) 1974 topps steve garvey card.

i chose reggie's base card over his world series recap card because, to me, it's one of his most iconic cards.  the guy behind me in line was having a 1969 topps rookie card signed, and that might be the only card more iconic than the '78.

the line for jim craig (usa! usa! usa!) was about the same length as reggie's, but they were only letting in a limited number of people at a time for craig.  there was no such metering of reggie's line.  that was ok, as the line was moving well, even as reggie took photos with some folks. he had a couple of guys helping him out - one taking the tickets and the other monitoring the stuff being signed.  i was wearing my dodger hat, and the first guy commented on it. i told reggie that he broke my heart in 1977 and 1978, but that game 6 of the '77 series was one of the most impressive things i've ever seen.  even at 6 years old, i knew enough to be impressed by 3 home runs in one world series game.  he thanked me for the words, and as i was telling him i wouldn't ask about him sticking out his hip in the 1978 world series, he reached for my wallet card.

the second guy made sure that reggie didn't sign it - i don't think he would have - but reggie did ask me who it was on the card, and i told him it was the garv and that i kept the card in my wallet.  he didn't say anything about that, but did offer his hand for me to shake which was pretty cool.

it turned out that the '78 topps card isn't the best to get signed since there's a dark background on the bottom half of the card, but i'll still take it.

wallet card and i have a nice little story to tell.

i browsed the wares of a few vendors, and found a guy selling various signed cards for a couple bucks apiece.  i couldn't resist buying a 1981 topps bill russell

a 1984 donruss bill russell

a 1967 topps jim barbieri

and a couple of 1978 topps cards - gene clines

and bob gorinski

seeing the gorinski signed in ballpoint reminded me that i had received a dave lemanczyk card signed

through the mail a couple of weeks back.

i picked up some other cards at the show, including some decent vintage for a few of you out there in blogger land.  keep an eye out.

where in the world is my wallet card - local monthly card show edition!

wallet card and i ventured out in the cold to a recent local card show.

that's my beat up 1974 topps steve garvey card in the foreground of the familar twin cities sports card collector's club card show signage.

inside, i found some things to purchase, including another vintage dodger from one of the main vintage bargain bin dealers i've written about so many times.  one of the cards he sold me was this 1955 topps duke snider card

i took duke home and promptly freed him from his cage

i am pretty sure that whomever had the card graded spent more on that than i spent on the card.  anyway, it's the last card in the 1955 set, and one of the ones i thought would take me the longest to find one that met my budgetary needs.  i was wrong - there are still a few other dodgers i need from that '55 set.

there were some modern dodgers from a two-dime box at another dealer that suffered the wrath of my dodger digging.  here's a 2011 topps pro-debut ethan martin blue parallel

i have a hard time passing up blue dodger parallels, even when they are former prospects that no longer pitch in the organization.

case in point, here's a 2014 bowman chrome dan haren blue parallel

it's a card only a dodger team collector could love.

more blue - this time a 2012 topps chad billingsley golden moments relic card

that features a swatch from the 1940 throwback unis that the dodgers wore for a few games in 2011.

here's a piece of (supposedly) adrian gonzalez's bat from 2014 topps allen & ginter

the relics were only a buck apiece.

there were a bunch of grant holmes cards in the two-dime box, and i grabbed this 2014 bowman draft picks and prospects draft night insert of the first round pick 

he had a k/9 ratio of over 10 in his rookie league debut last year. i'm interested to see what he does this year.

i have a hard time passing up tim wallach cards when i see them in discount boxes, so i grabbed this 1995 topps stadium club card.

to be honest, i've seen this card so many times, i should make sure that i actually own it before i ship it off to new mexico.

also from 1995 topps stadium club, i grabbed this brett butler virtual reality insert

based on the haul i took from the card show (i'll be showing more of it in another post), the fist bump is warranted.

where in the world is my wallet card? - astrodome edition

this is a picture of the dormant houston astrodome that i took during a trip to h-town sometime last year.

i never saw a game inside the astrodome, although i have been to a game at minute maid park, the astros' current home.  anyway, the "8th wonder of the world" was surprisingly small in scale when i first saw it in person.  the houston texans' football stadium next door dwarfs it.  still, it was home to the astros from 1965 through 1999, which means that every game steve garvey played in houston against the astros was played inside that stadium.

so, on a more recent trip to planet houston, i took my wallet card along for the ride. here is my wallet card, a beat up 1974 topps steve garvey card, with the astrodome in the background

i couldn't get as close to the stadium as before due to some events being held on the grounds.

the astros were part of the nl west for garvey's entire career, so he played in the astrodome fairly often.  unfortunately, he performed worse there than in any other nl west ballpark, and worse than in any other ballpark outside of 31 games in montreal's pre-olympic stadium venue and 2 games in cincinnati's crosley field.  in 128 games at the astrodome, garvey hit just .250 with an obp of .291.  he had only 4 home runs inside the cavernous stadium, although he did steal 11 bases there, which was more than he stole in any ballpark other than dodger stadium.

i wonder where wallet card will surface next?

where in the world is my wallet card? - twin cities edition

i was in downtown minneapolis for work recently, and my wallet card wanted to check out target field. we went down on to the plaza that leads to gate 34, and kirby puckett's statue took wallet card for a spin around the bases.

not to be outdone, harmon killebrew's statue gave wallet card a chance to hang out on its bat

here's wallet card - a roughed up 1974 topps steve garvey card - in the skyway with target field in the background.

did you know that the garv was drafted by the twins in 1966, but did not sign? he chose to go to michigan state instead.  two years later, garvey was drafted by the dodgers, and the rest is history.  garvey did play one major league game in the twin cities, however - the 1985 all-star game.  that midsummer classic was held at the hubert h. humphrey metrodome, which no longer exists.  i took wallet card by the site where the homerdome once stood, and where garvey participated in the first all-star game home run derby.

today, it's the new minnesota vikings stadium that is under construction at the site.

i hope to get wallet card to a few more stadiums this year, including one that garvey actually played in.  stay tuned.

my wallet card - same as it ever was

thanks to gavin at baseball card breakdown for initiating the call for wallet cards!  i used to carry a 1974 topps steve garvey card in my wallet, beginning in the mid-1990's.  i finally stopped about 10 years ago, and retired the worn card.

well, now it's back!

i had thought that i had sent the card to steve garvey himself a couple of years ago to sign, but i must have sent a different copy of the card.  i know this one by its green print dots and tell-tale scuffing.

some of you may wonder why i did not use a 1978 topps garvey card (my favorite card of all-time) instead, and that would be a good question to ask.  i don't know why i went with this card back then.  it, too, is a classic garvey card due to the horizontal design, the blurry spectators, and the fact that it comes from his mvp season.  no matter the reason, 1974 topps garvey is (like george costanza) back, baby!  he'll help make sure my wallet doesn't look like costanza's, however.

get ready to see the garv out and about - he's got the wanderlust...