Trade Bait from the Card Show

As I mentioned Wednesday, I went to a card show a couple of weeks ago two days after Christmas. I hit the jackpot as far as Paul Molitor cards were concerned.  With the smaller show, though, I had a bit more money that I'd budgeted available for me to spend. 

So, before I left the vendor who had those Molitor and Yount binders, I checked out what else he had. In the middle of his table, he had a bunch of random small sets for the low price of just $2 each. There were a ton of minor league team sets -- none of which really caught my eye. The seller and I had a good laugh about how even minor league sets were overproduced in the late 1980s and early 1990s while I flipped through those.

I stopped, though, when I started finding some cards that interested me.  For instance, I knew for a fact that I needed both of the cards below for my player collections:



While the Cooper might show up somewhere in a dime or quarter box -- and maybe I could have waited out life for that to happen fortuitously with the Carter -- I very well might have agreed to pay $2 for these two cards together.  Instead, I got the complete 33 card set for $2. So, if you're looking for that elusive Bill Buckner card, or the George Foster, or the Tony Armas...or, more likely, George Brett, Rod Carew, Johnny Bench, Steve Garvey, Carlton Fisk, Pete Rose, or Mike Schmidt -- well, let me know you want it.  The link above is to the Trading Card Database set listing, so take a look.

Another of the $2 sets was a set that really had nothing for me. It is a ten-card set from Corn Flakes/Kellogg's and Sportflics in 1992. Of course, I am drawn to food issues and oddballs like a moth is drawn to a bright light, so I picked it up.



Bill Madlock is listed on the Dodgers, even though he spent only parts of 3 seasons with them (the end of 1985, all of 1986, and the beginning of 1987) and was never an all-star with the team (he was an all-star once with the Cubs in 1974 and twice with the Pirates in 1981 and 1983). Once again, if you're looking for any of the cards in that set, let me know.

The next bunch of cards up for grabs is hardly a rare set, but it's one I've never had in my hands. 

Here's the checklist for that set from the back of the King's card:

Disappointingly, I received two Bucky Dents and zero Jim Spencers. But the rest were there, including the great photo variation of Hall of Famer Rich Gossage:

Goose looks far less intimidating there -- without the massive fu-manchu mustache and with a smile instead of a snarl on his face. 

Still, if you're interested in some or all of that set, let me know.

The last two $2 sets were insert sets from the late 1990s.

The first one is the "Sandlot Heroes" insert set from the 1999 Pacific Invincible set. The set I got includes both variations for each player, so I have both of the Chippers, the Madduxes, the Ripkens, the Big Hurts, the Jeters, and the Piazzas, to name a few. If you need something from this insert set, let me know.

The second one is visually far more jarring than the first...

At first, I thought this might be Derek Jeter's first appearance here on Off Hiatus, but then I realized that I've posted his cards a few times before through repacks, other trade bait posts and in the 2014 Gint-A-Cuffs.  Still, I have never laid my paws on any of the 1999 Pacific Invincible Seismic Force insert set before this show, and now I have the entire set available for trade -- even if it does look like the same players are in each of these two insert sets.

And Finally

A video highlighting the 15 stupidest lottery winners (by one person's account) is probably appropriate for me as well. 

You see, during most of 2015, I didn't buy any unopened packs. This was a conscious decision for me. I'm not much of a set collector right now -- maybe I will be in the future, but I am not currently as chasing all the Milwaukee Brewers cards and oddballs I don't have is more than enough for me to chase. So, I find my money can be better spent loading up on COMC and Just Commons orders (I made my first order just before Christmas...spent $80 and got over 400 cards in the package...) rather than buying and ripping packs.

But, I wanted a special birthday gift -- something a bit out of my ordinary card sorting.  

So, I bought a hobby box of....

Bowman Draft. I mean, after all, the Brewers are rebuilding, so Bowman sets will be providing me with my hope for the future. The one guy I'm really rooting for is Demi Orimoloye, as I have mentioned before, in that I'd love for the Brewers to have the first African-born major leaguer in the Nigerian-born Orimoloye. I'm not going for an official PC for him until he gets to the majors, but I'm going to try to set myself up to make the PC in the meantime -- trying to get two cards for him from each set and the like.

Now, since it was a hobby box, I've got a ton of those cards available for trade as well. I didn't make much effort to differentiate between refractors and normal chrome cards unless they were colored differently.  Here are the inserts and my one autograph:

For inserts and that "Bowman Initiation" card -- which I think is a case hit -- it felt like every other card was an Andrew Benintendi card. I'd have happily traded the Benintendi Initiation for a Trent Clark Initiation card, but I am guessing that one of the Red Sox fans out there would love a little Woo Pig Sooey in their lives.

Of course, I see Walker Buehler's "Fantasy Impact" card, and think -- man, I wish that the Brewers had picked just ONE of the Vandy Boys so I could have had an excuse to have a minor leaguer PC. Oddly, one of my college roommates has the last name of Buehler and is a Vanderbilt grad as well. He even has his own Wikipedia page for his renown as an "all-time great" in Magic: The Gathering.  So, there's that.

Anyway, let me know if you have interest in any of the cards I've shown or mentioned here that aren't Brewers or Gary Carter. If we've traded before, well, then the cards are yours. If we have not traded before, that's cool too -- the cards are yours and I look forward to trading with you.

Be sure to e-mail me after staking a claim here as well to let me know your e-mail address and your mailing address.  Thanks for reading, and enjoy your weekend.