Set Appreciation Post #15 - 2012 Bowman Platinum

It's been awhile since I have made a post about a set.  

I am kind of a softie for some of these products that came out around the time I started blogging.  Bowman Platinum has now been out for 10 years and has gone stale in recent editions.  I think the same can be said for other Bowman spin-off products that Topps created in the early 2010s.  Inception would be in that same boat. Started off great, but its fizzled in recent years.  

Let's go. 

 

Base Set 

The design on this set is decent.  I always worried that Topps would start blending the different Bowman product designs together and make them indistinguishable.  This design has some similarities to the first two Bowman Platinum sets, but I think it has a unique look compared to other Bowman products from 2012.  I like the frames around the picture and the player names.  The Bowman Platinum logo in the middle is not my favorite, but I guess it does make the set more identifiable.  

The majority of cards in this set have more of a blurred out background than the Pineda card.  Not sure why Topps left more of the picture visible on this card.  

The back of the card.  

There is a lot of other "stuff" on the back, which makes the area for stats and the write-up fairly small.  Topps still did a decent job here, especially with the write-up.  It's small, but I like the information that is provided on the cards.  I never love "busy" card backs that are cluttered with junk, but I do appreciate the large card number and player name at the top.  

Maybe I am just saying that because I was sorting out some 2021 Topps cards yesterday.  

Michael Pineda was a really big prospect in 2012.  He's had some decent seasons when he has stayed healthy, but his career highlight has to be the time he was using pine tar during a game and just slathered a bunch of it on this neck.  

This was a few years ago before the crack down on "sticky stuff"  

Pineda was ejected from the game.  

I'm Really Here For The Autographs 

The set design for the 2012 Bowman Platinum is decent, but I didn't buy these cards so I could get a Michael Pineda base card.  I bought these cards for the autographs.  Do people buy Bowman Platinum cards for another reason?  

Yes, the majority of autographs are on stickers, which kind of stinks for this product, but at least they are well blended in most cases.  There were plenty of former Durham Bulls players, some current at the time, who appeared on the autograph checklist.  That made me pretty excited to buy some of Bowman Platinum cards back in the day.    

I parsed it down to two favorite Durham Bulls autographs.  There are more.  

First up is outfielder Mikie Mahtook.  He is still in Triple-A with Charlotte at the moment, which is the White Sox affiliate.  While he has had some good years in the Minors, Mahtook has never been able to do much in the Majors.  Hence, a decade in Triple A.   He had a decent year with the Tigers in 2017, but nothing beyond that.  I think he is best known for losing a home run to a spectacular Alex Gordon catch, but not before high-fiving the first base coach.  

That Royals player in the background is awesome.  

Matt Moore was a great prospect coming up for the Rays and pitched really well in Durham.  In 2013, he won 17 games and finished in the Top 10 in Cy Young voting.  Two Tommy John surgeries later, Matt Moore is 2-4 this season with an ERA over 6 for the Phillies.  Still love his baseball cards.  One of those "what could have been" players. 

One last autograph that I picked up back in the day was a young Rockies third base prospect.

This has always been a nice card, but I was really happy to have it during the past year.  Saved me a little time, probably a little money too.  

Best Non-Cardinal/Non-Durham Bulls Card 

During the pandemic, I learned that people are also crazy for second year Mike Trout cards.  They are actually expensive in some cases.  Pretty wild.  When did this happen?  I feel like I need to put all of my early Mike Trout cards into sleeves and top loaders.  I don't really collect Mike Trout cards, but I have a ton of them from 2011 and 2012.  I could probably sell them all and pay off my car loan.  

This is a nice card, but it's my second best Bowman Platinum card of Mike Trout.  

This one is nice too.  

Best Durham Bulls Card

This was a really hard decision.  If I had to rank sets based on Durham Bulls content, this set would likely be a strong contender for the Top 10.  It's not just the cards, but also the names.  I loved the Bulls teams between the 2009 Triple A National Championship team and the 2013 International League Championship team.  Some of my favorite players.  

It's really hard to decide, so I am going to choose two cards.  

Hellickson is one of the most decorated Minor League pitchers in recent history.  He won the USA Today Minor League Player of the Year Award in 2010, International League Pitcher of the Year in 2010, Triple-A National Championship Game MVP in 2009, and was the starting pitcher in the 2010 Futures All-Star Game.  

In 2011, he pitched for the Rays.  Hellickson had a sub-3 ERA and won the American League Rookie of the Year.  Similar to Moore, Hellickson had a lot of arm problems and ended up being an end of rotation pitcher for a bunch of different teams.  

Next.  

Archer was on the Durham Bulls in 2012.  He's also from Raleigh, which makes him pretty popular in these parts.  This is actually from the short-printed prospects section of the set and would have been a favorite card of mine back in 2012.  Archer is still playing, but his career has really been set back by arm injuries.  Seems to be a theme here.  

In recent years, Archer has given the baseball world the fight between the Pirates and Reds where Yasiel Puig tried to fight the entire Pirates team.  Archer actually threw a pitch at Derek Dietrich, but somehow Puig was the angriest guy on the field.  I love Tucker Barnhardt holding on to Puig's shoe while he is trying to punch five different Pirates players at the same time.  

There are a bunch of people on the internet who love this picture and have turned it into art work.  

Wil Myers could have been a possible third, but he is on the Royals in this set.  Meh.  

Best Cardinals Card 

The Cardinals had a heavy presence in this set.  They were coming off a World Series win and had a lot of name prospects at this point.  Oscar Taveras, Carlos Martinez, and Matt Adams all had autographs in the set.  There were also cards of Matt Holliday, Lance Berkman, Allen Craig, and David Freese.  

I am going to choose none of those players and go with a role player from the 2011 World Series team instead.  Bench player the first half of the year, starter after the Cardinals ditched Colby Rasmus in the middle of the season.  

Underrated Cardinal, Jon Jay.  

Topps always made really good cards of Jon Jay early in his career.  The balanced it out by ignoring him the second half of his career.  

How Does It Compare? 

At the beginning of the post when I said, "I am kind of a softie for some of these products that came out when I first started blogging", what I meant to say is that I am a softie for the autographed cards.  I have done 14 of these posts over the last year, there is no way that a generic-looking Bowman spin off can be in the top half of the sets.

Right?  

What's it better than?  It's clearly not the worst set I have reviewed.  It's more exciting than the 2000 Topps set, but those cards are only interesting when compared to watching an episode of the Pat Boone show.  The 2000 UD Ionix set seems like a good neighborhood.  

The Ionix set had better inserts.  While the quantity of autographs offered by Upper Deck was smaller, the players were actual Major Leaguers.  I love Jon Jay and all the other Cardinals players mentioned as signers in the 2012 Bowman Platinum set, but was an autograph of Scott Rolen in Ionix.  There were also no sticker autographs.  

I am going to place this set 12 after Ionix, but before the boring 2000 Topps set.  

15. 2000 Pacific Paramount Update 

14. 2010 Topps USA Baseball  

13. 2000 Topps 

12. Bowman Platinum 

11. 2000 UD Ionix  

10. 2002 Bowman 

9. 1988 Donruss 

8. 1995 Emotion XL 

7. 2017 Topps Heritage Minor League

6. 1998 Topps TEK 

5. 1986 Topps Mini League Leaders 

4. 2001 Fleer EX 

3. 1979 Kellogg's 

2. 2002 Topps Super Teams

1. 1983 Topps 

Set Appreciation Post #8 - 2010 Topps USA Baseball

 I enjoyed making these Set Appreciation posts this summer, so I am going to try to get back into looking at the old sets hanging out in my closet. USA Baseball sets are always pretty small, so it seemed like it might be a good place to start back. I have been going to USA Baseball teams since 2006, so I got to see the college players in this set in person. Pretty good team, a few of the players worked out, a few flamed out. The usual with watching amateur players.  

Before we get into the set, here was the roster for the College National Team during the summer of 2010.  Players from the 18U and 16U teams were also included in the set, but I mainly buy these cards for the college kids.  

Again, a good mix of players here.   

Basic Design 

There are never any really well designed USA Baseball sets.  Most people just collect these cards for the autographs, right?  Maybe there is a good design out there, but I am just not thinking of it at the moment.  They always just seem bland with very little effort.  This one might be a little worse than some of the others.  

Here is the front of the card.  

What do you want me to say?  

Looks like it could be the design for the 2022 Topps base set.  Some squiggly lines around the border with a red, white, and blue color scheme.  I spent time looking for something that was good about the card.  I like that they identify the level of the team on the front of the card.  

That's it.  

Back of the card.  

None of the players have stats on the back of the cards, just a short write up about their playing career.  Some of the "this player reminds scouts of....", or "this player is just like........", or "this player models their game after......" tend to not age very well.  

ARod.  Albert Amora.  No.  

This was originally a boxed set.  If I remember correctly, you got the complete set along with one autograph per box.  Everyone bought these for the one autograph.  At least, I hope they did.  

I Bought This For An Autograph 

Do people buy USA Baseball cards for the base cards?  

No.  

Do people buy USA Baseball cards for the autographs? 

Yes.  

I keep repeating it.  Keep telling yourself the same thing if you are buying these cards for any other reason.   

I watch the games at USA Baseball.  I try to pick out some players that I think are going to be good, buy their autographs, and store them away for a few years.  I pulled an autograph of South Carolina outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. out of my set.  

Solid Major League player and the 2018 American League Championship Series MVP.  Jackie Bradley Jr. was a great college player.  If he's not in the University of South Carolina's Hall of Fame, he will be before long.  Bradley helped South Carolina win the College World Series and took home the College World Series MVP.  He was awesome in college.  Bradley ended up being a first round selection by the Red Sox, so this was a pretty good pull at the time this set was released.  

Also decided to pick up an autograph of a UCLA pitcher who seemed to be a pretty good college pitcher.  Heard that this guy turned out to be fair pitcher.  Picked this up a few years ago while he was pitching for the Pirates. 

Special Guest Appearance By....The Durham Bulls Athletic Park 

The USA Baseball teams regularly use the Durham Bulls Athletic Park for their home games.  Yes, USA Baseball has their own complex a short distance away in Cary, North Carolina, but there are always a few appearances by the DBAP in every USA Baseball card set.  

In fact, most USA Baseball cards are either taken at either the USA Baseball complex or in Durham.  Here is the USA Baseball complex field.  Note the tall green screen in center field and pine trees behind the outfield wall.  

This card has a photograph taken at the USA Baseball complex.  

Green screen with trees in the background.  

Here is the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.  

Dark blue walls and dugouts.  The seats are also dark blue.   Green manual scoreboard.  Ads on the outfield walls.  

A few cards from the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.....

and a few more cards from the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.  

It's nice that Topps put all these cards with pictures from the Durham Bulls Athletic Park in this set.  

This might be the best part of this set.  

Best Cardinals Card(s) 

Not sure there are many great options here, so I went with the only two Major League Cardinals players who appeared in this set.  Neither player spent much time with the team.  

First up is Clemson shortstop Brad Miller.  He appeared for the Cardinals last season, and was about the only person outside of Paul Goldschmidt who hit at all last year.  

Miller was on the USA Baseball College team multiple years, including one where he was backed-up by Hawaii infielder Kolten Wong.  Miller has been a solid Major Leaguer, but very good college baseball player.  

Carson Kelly also appears in the set as a member of the 16 U team.  

Kelly was one of the catchers was supposed to take over the catching job from Yadier Molina before he was traded away for Paul Goldschmidt.  I believe the Cardinals originally drafted him as a third baseman and moved him to catcher after a few years in the Minors.  The picture on this card is a little odd.  He is listed as a pitcher and an outfielder, but it looks like he is playing 2nd Base.  

Not the best pair, but it's not like Topps has any control of where amateur players end up during their professional careers.  

Best Durham Bulls Player 

Mikie Mahtook was a great player at LSU.  He was an All-American and helped the Tigers win the 2009 College World Series Championship.  He ended up getting drafted by the Rays and was on the Durham Bulls a few years after that.  

Here's the card.  

This might be my favorite card. Mahtook is a player who ended up on the Durham Bulls for a few seasons, and the photograph on this card appears to have been taken at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.  Mahtook made the 2014 International League All-Star team, held in Durham, and is a bit of a fan favorite locally.  Mikie has played a few years in the Majors, but he's never really been a regular player outside part of a year for the Tigers.  

In fact, I think he's most memorable play in the Majors was getting a home run taken away by Alex Gordon, but not before he gave the first base coach a high five. 

Alex Gordon turns Mikie Mahtook's redemption dinger into a spectacular out: https://t.co/xzOZey1Srn pic.twitter.com/L7bqHjQcZo

— Deadspin (@Deadspin) September 4, 2017

 It was a spectacular catch, but we have other things to talk about here.  

The Best Non-Cardinal Card 

There were a few different choices here, but I went with Francisco Lindor.  

Seemed like a pretty easy choice.  

How Does It Compare?  

Welp.  I have done a really good job of poker facing my way through this post.  I am really glad that Topps no longer makes the USA Baseball products.  Between the three major manufacturers that have held the license over the past twenty years, Topps did the worst job.  This set has a really boring design and packaging the cards as a set with a single autograph just feels a bit lazy.  

It's easily the worst set that I have posted this year.  

8. 2010 Topps USA Baseball  

7. 2000 UD Ionix 

6. 2017 Topps Heritage Minor League

5. 1986 Topps Mini League Leaders 

4. 2001 Fleer EX 

3.1979 Kellogg's 

2. 2002 Topps Super Teams

1. 1983 Topps 

2016 Durham Bulls Team Set

I cannot tell you how long these cards have been out, and I bought them the first week they were for sale, but for some reason they did not get posted at any point during the season.  I actually found them a few days back while I was putting away a few other cards in a box I have with different minor league team sets and minor league single cards.  For those who have seen my card room in person, you'd be hard pressed to believe this, but I actually put the cards right away when I got home from the game.

Not sure what was happening that week that would make me do such a thing.  Usually they sit on a shelf or my desk for a week or two before they are put into some sort of stack and shuffled away to a box.  Found the International League All-Star set too, that will be later in the week.  Like tomorrow.

Here are the cards with a little commentary......

There are a lot of solid names in the first batch of cards:

• Blake Snell is one of the Rays top pitching prospects and will spend the entire 2017 season in Tampa after beginning last season with the Bulls.  
• Motter was traded from the Rays this offseason to the Mariners along with Richie Shaffer in the second row.  The M's have Motter on their roster at the moment, it would be nice to see him get some playing time.  Shaffer went to the Mariners, was released and signed by the Phillies, and was released again and signed by the Reds.  
• Mahtook, Franklin, and Maile have all spent time in the Majors.  Not sure what their roles will be next year, but each of them would seem to have a decent shot of being in Tampa.  At the same time, it won't shock me if all three are back in Durham.  
• Schultz is sort of the hidden gem out of this group.  He attended college at a small school in North Carolina (High Point) and was drafted by the Rays in the 14th Round of the 2013 Draft.  Since he has struck out more than 11 batters per 9 in almost 80 starts through four different levels of Minor League ball.  His last two seasons he struck out more than 160 in 130 innings.  He's one to watch.  

There are some older players in this grouping of cards along with some fringy prospects.  Decker, Arencibia, Sappington have all seen a decent amount of playing time in the Majors.  Varona is a Cuban defector who seems like he will likely be a AAAA player, Floro has a little potential for the next level as a ground ball specialist out of the bullpen, and Belletti would also be a bullpen arm.  That really leaves two players to chat about.....

• Robertson was a highly regarded prospect in the A's system before he was traded for Ben Zobrist.  He's just 22 and played his first season in Triple A last year.  He had a decent .259/.358/.356 line.  Obviously the OBP makes up for the average, but that slugging percentage is too low.  The Rays have another hot shortstop prospect, Willy Adames, who should be in Durham in 2017.  Curious to see what happens to Robertson.
• Field was apart of Arizona's College World Series winner a few seasons back and has made his was through the Rays system in the past three seasons.  He has some pop in his bat for a little a guy, more than 50 extra base hits last year and a slugging percentage over .450, but his OBP has dropped significantly since getting past A Ball.  In two A ball stops Field was at .367 and .396, since he has gone .329, .301, and 338.  You can't steal first.  

This grouping of cards is all older guys with limited potential in the Majors.  The whole group is over 25, while some Rays fans consider Seitzer somewhat of a prospect, he is not.  Nope.  

Last three.  The mascot, but not the one from the movie, Wool E. Bull is one of the better sports mascots around in any sport.  Really good.  Snyder has been the pitching coach the last few seasons.  He went to UNC, so there is a local connection, and he seems to give my son a ball (we often sit near the bullpen) almost every time we are at the game.  Ozzie Timmons is Ozzie Timmons, pretty awesome.  

Friday Five: 5 Durham Bulls Highlights from 2015

This week's Friday Five looks back at 5 cool things that happened last year for the Durham Bulls.  While the team did not make the playoffs, I know Bulls fans are spoiled, there were plenty of things to love about the past season.  Here are my five highlights from 2015 from my favorite Minor League baseball team:

Honorable Mention- Corey Brown Hits Bull, Wins Steak
Every loves the Bull in left field of the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.  Growing up as a Cardinals fan in St. Louis we always had the Stan Musial statue in front of the stadium.  The Bull is slightly larger than Stan and he is in the stadium.  Every once in awhile you can see a player hit a home run off the landmark.  This year outfielder Corey Brown got the job done.  Not sure how many lefties have pulled off this feat......

5. Boog Powell and his Baseball Glove 

The Bulls had Boog Powell for roughly half the season.  He came over in the Ben Zobrist trade with the A's last season and provided a spark at the top of the lineup for the Bulls.  Besides working his OBP magic the speedy spark plug also played one incredible outfield.  Over summer break I took my son to a Sunday game against the Gwinnett Braves for run the bases day.  The Bulls ended up losing the game in extra innings, but we got to enjoy one of the better catches I have ever seen in person....

4. Mahtook's First Hit Home Run 
One of the best parts of watching Minor League baseball is seeing the players you watch end up in the Majors.  It's even better when they get to the Majors and make a positive impact for their team.  Mikie Mahtook spent the 2015 season traveling back and forth between Durham and Tampa.  He struggled to find consistent playing time with the Bulls, but shined off the bench with the Rays putting up a .295/.351/.619 line with 5 homers, 1 triple, and 9 doubles in just over 100 at bats.  Mahtook even picked up his first career hit with a home run against the Blue Jays.

3. Shaffer's Debut Home Run 

Richie Shaffer started the season in Double A Montgomery, spent 70 games in Durham, and then got promoted to the Rays.  Somewhere in there he hit 19 home runs for the Bulls, 7 for Montgomery, and played in the MLB Futures Game.  The highlight of Shaffer's year thought had to be his first Major League hit after being called up for the Bulls.  Self-High-Five.  

2. Motter Everywhere 

The MVP of the 2015 Durham Bulls was a no brainer.  Every night Taylor Motter was in the line-up.  Sometimes he played in the outfield, sometimes he played in the infield, but he was always somewhere.  By the end of the season Motter posted a .292/.366/.471 line with 14 home runs and 43 doubles.  As a fan of the game Motter was a joy to watch and I cannot wait to see him in Tampa.  Remember the name. 

1. Snell Wins Minor League Pitcher of the Year 

Rays prospect Blake Snell spent the end of his 2015 season with the Durham Bulls making 9 starts.  The left handed pitcher had an ERA of 1.83 and struck out 57 batters in just 44.1 innings.  He was pretty special in Double-A too.  All of this great pitching helped Blake Snell pick up Minor League Pitcher of the Year honors from both Baseball America and USA Today.  I am guessing he will start the season in Durham next year.  Go watch him pitch before he's in Tampa.  

Friday 5: Five(ish) Cards I Love In 2015 Topps Update

I opened a little bit of Topps Update last weekend and walked away with an obscene number of throwbacks.  There were other cards in the boxes outside of the all of those cool 60s and 70s Topps cards.  For this week's Friday Five I am going to work a little bit with the base set cards from the Update set.  I tried to go through and pick out just the five coolest cards from the set, but that proved a fairly tough task.  So, instead I am going with five cool things I found in my two boxes of Update using five(ish) cards.


5. Former Durham Bulls in the Majors 
The ultimate goal of a minor league team is to graduate players to the Major Leagues.  Even if they do not end up playing for the Rays in the long term, it is still cool to watch a baseball game and see somebody in there from the Bulls.  This year's Topps Update set offered several Durham Bulls, but since this post is using five(ish) cards I am going to limit this section of my blog post to exactly five cards.

First, there are the normal Minor League types who get called up to the Majors and make the team.  Mahtook was a high draft pick by the Rays out of LSU and Andriese was in the Brad Boxberger/Logan Forsythe trade with the Padres.  Both players had been with the Bulls before this season and had proven their worth to the Rays.  

Then there are a few former Durham Bulls who are good stories.  Joey Butler was a career Minor Leaguer who started the year out in Durham, but spent the majority of the summer with the Rays playing well in his first extended stay in the Majors.  Sometimes players like Butler can fly under the radar in the Update sets, great to see Topps get him a card.

Stephen Vogt has an All-Star card in the set.  He was kind of a forgotten player with the Rays and ended up being more or less dumped in a conditional trade to the A's.  Awesome to see him get a little recognition for his good play this year with a trip to the All-Star game.

and then there is this card.  Yes, Travis Shaw is a nice looking prospect for the Red Sox, but Allan Dykstra is also on the card.  Last summer he won the Triple A All-Star Game home run derby in Durham.  He signed a minor league deal with the Rays, spent time in the Majors during April, but was released in the middle of the summer.  He still has the championship belt.....

4.  Former Cardinals on the All-Star Team 

It was great to see Albert Pujols regain some of his power this summer, although his slash line was down across the board, and make the American League All-Star team.  Shelby Miller was a really good story this year.  Sure, his win-loss record was something terrible, but he still pitched well for the Braves and seems to be an important part of the team's future.  

3.  Current Cardinals All-Stars 

I really liked these cards in the Update set.  Not every team has a card like this, but I liked the idea of having a team like card show the All-Star Game representatives.  Not sure why they did not just make this a straight team card instead of assigning it to a player, this is a Trevor Rosenthal card, but I still like it.  These guys all got booed......

2.  Jason Heyward on the Cardinals 

I'm not sure if the Cardinals are going to sign Heyward.  I have enjoyed watching him play this year, but this card could be just about the last wearing a Cardinals uniform, or this could be the start of a long run of cards with him in Cardinal red.  

1.  Rookie Cards 

The best part of buying Update sets is the rookie cards.  I liked the Joey Gallo and Kris Bryant cards the best.  I swear that's Joey Gallo in all of that Gatorade.  Pretty cool card.  The Bryant card is a little simpler, but it's always nice to see a card with Wrigley Field in the background.  

 

#MyCardMonday

The Durham Bulls season has now been over for almost a month, but I am going to give one of their players the space on #MyCardMonday for their great work playing in the Majors for the Tampa Rays.  Here's a black parallel of Mikie Mahtook's 2014 Topps Heritage Minor League set from last year.  

Mahtook's line in Durham this year was rather disappointing.  Mikie spent most of the summer shuttling in between Durham and Tampa, at bats did not come at regular intervals, and his performance took a turn for the worst.  However, the Rays have been finding at bats for Mahtook and his play, especially at the plate, has been on the upswing.  For the month of September the Rays outfield prospect has hit .349/.397/.683 with 5 home runs, 1 triple, and 4 doubles.  I am hoping to see a few of these out of him next summer.....

A Rainy Saturday Afternoon Spent at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds Buying Cards From Men Behind Wooden Tables

Card shows are some of the coolest events that card collectors could possibly attend.  Yet, I have never written up a single card show on my blog.  In fact, I do not attend enough card shows.  They have them all the time at the State Fairgrounds in Raleigh, about a fifteen-twenty minute drive from my house, but I just never make it out to them.  I decided this weekend to change all of that and spend some time with a few other people who enjoy collecting cards.

Since I have never written up an appearance on at a card show on my blog I have also never shared my rules for attending a card show:

1. We always eat lunch/dinner before attending the card show
2. We have a cash budget and we stick to the budget
3. We never buy cards of the home team

So, I decided to toss the third rule since I no longer live in St. Louis and there is no home team in Raleigh.  We are all just a bunch of transplants from other cities.  Here's how I did on the other rules:


1.We always eat lunch/dinner before attending the card show

 I went out to lunch at the Cook Out in Cary.  It's a fast food restaurant that is loved by many in the south.  On this rainy Saturday I purchased the Cook Out Tray with a Hamburger "Cheddar Style", that's onions and melted cheese, fries, and a soda.  The picture of the "Cheddar Style" burger is below.

 It's delicious, but wise to pack some breath mints, or gum for afterwards.  Hand sanitizer with a strong scent is also good since the onion smell tends to stick on your hands.  Some complain about the smell of onions, so I think of the gum and scented hand sanitizer as more of a courtesy.  The Cook Out in Cary is alright, it's not as good as the Cook Out on Western Boulevard down the street from NC State, nor as good as the Cook Out in north Durham on Roxboro.  The north Durham location is my personal favorite.

 2. We have a cash budget and we stick to the budget

In this case I had right around $35.  There might have been a few extra ones floating around in my pocket after buying an attendance ticket at the Carr Building.  Here's what I got:

That's eight cards for $35-$40, or roughly about $5 a card.  Considering that included a cool Stan Musial Heritage relic, a Topps Heritage autograph, two Cardinals autographs, a Juan Gone autograph, a jumbo Lindor relic, and a sweet autograph of local Durham Bulls favorite Mikie Mahtook I am going to consider this a great day at the office.  It was also great to see a bunch of local collectors I have met over the past year or so hanging out at the local card shop.

Overall, a really fun afternoon and something I will go back to when the next card show hits Raleigh sometime in December.