Pairings

The card show dime box dig lives on, largely due to my inconsistent posting over the past week.  But we're (finally) getting into the good stuff.

When you come home with a few hundred cards for your miscellaneous collections, there are bound to be a few common themes here and there.

 I'd like to think I don't have as many active mini collections as some in the blog world.  But that's probably called denial.  The Skylines insert set was one of my favorites growing up, but good skyline shots are hard to find on cardboard aside from a few select sets.  The Granderson was a $.05 box find that I had to grad when I saw the skyline background.  Maybe I'm in the minority, but I'd gladly take National Chicle back if Topps ditches the over-run A&G or Gypsy Queen lines.

 It hasn't reached full mini collection status, but Pirate cameo cards are quickly becoming something that regularly end up in my pile.  The fact that this Bobby Bo cameo is from the all-star game is just an added plus.

 Other cards didn't fit into any specific collection, but were just too cool to pass up.  The card on the left has a weird layered effect, with the player photo set on top of the weird 1950's sci fi movie background.

 And who doesn't enjoy some simple reminders of baseball history.

 The best part of digging through dime boxes is finding the weird and unknown.  I didn't think anything of Harold Reynolds would ever warrant inclusion in my collection, but this Tuff Stuff oddball was a surprise find.  I haven't taken the time to dig up any info on the card, but I'd imagine there are more popular pairings from Mariners history.

 I don't have the play at the plate love that some do, but this photo is an absolute gem from days when Topps was still using cheesy posed photos on most of their cards.  I absolutely love the cropping on the photo, just barely capturing the ball coming into the frame from the right.

This other action shot from '73 is a little less exciting, but a Stargell cameo more than makes up for it.

 Other additions were a little more mundane.  I'm amazed I still manage to find new cards capturing the 2006 all-star game.  It may be something I need to put a little more effort into researching prior to my next justcommons purchase.

One thing I miss that Topps seems to actually be rectifying is the tribute card.  The retirements of The Wizard and Kirby Puckett were really the first time I can remember being aware of a major name player retiring.  It's nice to see that almost two decades later I found those memories immortalized on cardboard, with some great photos to boot.