Showing Signs of Life at the Card Show

You may or may not have noticed my absence from blogging over the past few weeks.  It has all been for a very good reason.  On October 10, my wife gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Theodore.  Since then my life has been occupied with 3AM feedings, daytime naps, poopy diapers, and the occasional videogame to de-stress (Super Mario Odyssey is awesome btw).  I haven't even had time to keep up with reading blogs.

Newborn Theo

Newborns are supposed to feed at least every 3 hours so I figured I would have time in between those feedings to do card related stuff.  Nope. In between taking care of myself, my recovering wife, and making sure household chores don't pile up, time goes by quickly.

Now at the almost 1 month mark, things are normalizing somewhat.  My wife was even gracious enough to let me attend my local bi-annual card show.

The largest purchase of the day (literally) was a complete set of 2008 Upper Deck First Edition.  The big draw here was the price: $5.  The design is decent enough but the real kicker was the inclusion of a relic card.

It's not a card show without picking up a few additions for my Felix Hernandez collection.  I love picking up Topps Museum cards on the cheap ($1) considering these are from a high-end set. 

The playing window on Felix is closing soon.  He deserves the respect of being an opening day starter but next year he might be pushed back to #2.  That will be a sad day.

These cards are from this year's Topps flagship set.  Gimmicky as they are, I enjoy seeing players in their holiday/special event jerseys.  When I get several more cards of these alternate jerseys I'll have to branch them out into their own PC.

 

With the birth of my son, I've added a few players to my collection roster.  I'm collecting players who share a birthday with my son.  I plan to expand upon this idea in a separate post to come later.  Andrew McCutchen is a great player and I'm excited to start collecting him.  I don't know if this 2005 Topps Update card counts as his first rookie card but either way, it's a nice looking card.

The card on the right is from Panini's 2016 Father's Day promo set.  It is the thick stock parallel numbered to 50.  For only $1 it was an easy pick up.

Troy Tulowitzki is another player who shares a birthday with my son.  Tulowitzki had a down year last year with the Blue Jays, which hopefully will help soften the price on some of his cards.  

Typically I stay away from collecting Griffey in a Reds uniform.  I'm not upset or anything that he left Seattle, it's just that with so many Griffey cards I need some focus.  I made an exception for these cards since they feature the 2001 All-Star Game logo when it was held in Seattle.  As a bonus, this is a two-card oddball set from Ritz/Oreo.

The 2016 Panini Diamond Kings Rookie Signatures Silver is the only relic (and auto) set I plan to complete.  I have over half the set and was surprised to see a set need show up at the show.  

Retail relics from 2008 Topps. I love 2008 Topps. 

At the last card show I found a WSU Cougars Smokey set.  As luck would have it, I found another set at this show.  Since the cards are unnumbered I wasn't sure if I found the complete set or not.  Unfortunately, after checking the Trading Card Database, I discovered I am one card short: Drew Bledsoe.

It will be difficult to find that card available as a single so I might have to purchase a complete set.  Bummer.

That wraps up my card show for this year.  It was a nice feeling to get back into cards! Thanks for reading!

An Immaculate Addition to My Griffey Collection

I would like to give a HUGE thank you to the guys over at Beckett Radio for running the contest that netted me the card below.

2016 Panini Immaculate - Immaculate Autograph Materials Red #4

My Griffey collection is small compared to most other collectors out there.  He was a favorite of mine as a kid but most of my collecting energy went to basketball.

As I've been building my Griffey collection, one type of card I had hoped to collect was an autograph card.  I figured wasn't going to buy one as they are quite expensive (although I only looked recently for this blog post).

A couple weeks ago I entered a random drawing through Becket Radio to win an autographed, relic card of Griffey.  Everyone and their brother seemed to be entering as the number of entries climbed higher and higher.  I submitted my requisite entries and went about my day.

Last week, moments before I was to start my job interview, I received an e-mail from Eric at Beckett informing me I won! WOW!

Fast forward to today.  One of the sweetest swings in baseball showed up in my mailbox.

This card truly is immaculate.  A low serial number, only to 10.  A colored, as opposed to white, jersey (I'm assuming) swatch.  The red foil lettering does not show up well on the scan but it looks real nice in person.  Lastly, a very nice looking signature.  Griffey obviously takes some pride in his signature.  

It's a sticker autograph but frankly, I don't care if an autograph is on a sticker or not.  I understand the argument that an on-card autograph is better because it means the player actually held the card.  However, I'm fine with receiving a player autograph in any capacity.  So long as the autograph fits on the sticker and the sticker is on straight.  Here, Griffey signed 100% on the sticker and it was placed on straight.  

That's it for today's post.  No other cards are worthy enough to be included in the same post.

Ken Griffey Jr. is in the Hall of Fame

One of my favorite posters

Two weeks ago, Ken Griffey Jr. became the first Seattle Mariner to be inducted into the Hall of Fame (HOF). Rightly so, many card bloggers posted their card tribute to Griffey during HOF weekend.  I had considered that but I wanted to add a local flavor to my post.

This weekend, the Mariners hosted their own induction ceremony for Griffey on Saturday.  I was lucky enough to attend the game and decided to share some thoughts from the game.

It's a bobblehead, alright.

The bobblehead was actually from Friday's game, which I did not attend.  Thankfully my brother-in-law went to game and scored the bobblehead for me.  As you can see, Griffey is holding his HOF plaque. Griffey will sit alongside my Dave Niehaus bobblehead, who was also inducted into the HOF but as an announcer.

The giveaway for Saturday's ceremony was a mini replica HOF plaque.  They had the real thing there that was available for a photo opportunity but the line to see it was very long.  I would have missed the whole game waiting to see it, which I'm glad I didn't as the game was an exciting comeback victory.  It's not as if this would be the only time to see the plaque as I could always go to Cooperstown.

The Mariners pulled out all the stops for Saturday's ceremony.  The giant banner, his number painted in center field, the number going up next to Jackie Robinson's.

I love seeing a sold out Safeco Field

It was a great ceremony.  Seattle legends came out to support Griffey, including Dan Wilson, Jay Buhner, Alvin Davis, Jamie Moyer.  Not only that but other Hall of Famers such as Steve Largent, Cortez Kennedy, Spencer Haywood, Tony Perez, Gary Payton, and Ricky Henderson showed up. WOW.  I mean, my god, the talent on that field.

There were also video messages from greats like Willie Mays, Kobe Bryant, Jeff Gordon, and Hank Aaron.  Mays had a funny story saying that he called Griffey when the official vote talley was announced.  However, Griffey didn't answer his call and never called him back.  In the video, Mays told Griffey to call him sometime, which Griffey did right on the field.  Great stuff.

Unbelievable that all these players come out

Now onto the cards.  I don't have many Griffey cards but according to my collection on TCDB I have 18 different cards.  Eighteen is good enough to be ranked #2 in my collection, only behind Ichiro. I'm glad he's ranked so high but for a player with so many cards, it could be higher!

1991 Score - 1990 Donruss - 1994 Fleer Sunoco

1994 Post Cereal - 1992 Donruss - 1991 Donruss

The bulk of my Griffey cards are from early on in his career.  I think growing up one of my favorite cards was the 91 Score card.  It's a great image that captures his sweet swing.

1997 Upper Deck Seattle Mariners Stadium Giveaway

This is from a full set of 20 cards that was given away at a Mariners game.  I wish teams did more card giveaways at games.

2003 Upper Deck Honor Roll

The only Reds Griffey card in my collection.  The Tribute to the Kid insert below doesn't count as those aren't base cards.

2015 Topps - Inspired Play

2016 Topps - Hallowed Highlights

A nice tribute card to Griffey's 1997 AL MVP season.

2016 Topps - Tribute to the Kid

2016 Topps - Tribute to the Kid

The Tribute to the Kid insert from this year's Topps celebrates Griffey's career.  It's a nice retrospective and it's a good sized set that isn't difficult to complete.

2016 Topps Now

The latest addition to my Griffey collection is the Topps Now card from his HoF induction.  I like the idea of Topps Now and the execution based on my one-time experience is satisfactory.  The card selection, however, is very hit and miss.  The player selections skew heavily towards teams you would expect like Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs.  The Mariners have had a decent number of cards but as of late they have been all but ignored.  Flame throwing rookie Edwin Diaz, called up from AA and striking out players at a high clip? Nah.  Mariners retire Griffey's number and Hall of Famers across multiple sports show up? Nope.  Mariners sweep the Angels? Forget about.  But don't worry, Trout got two cards this weekend.

Anyway, rant over.  The card is nice but at $10 a pop it won't be something I buy again.  I can't justify the cost for one card for an event that will be largely forgettable by the end of the year.  Unless the Mariners win the World Series, I'm done.

That wraps up this Griffey post.  I'm sure we will see new Griffey cards for years to come.