The Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Rose Parade have both passed us by for another year. As a kid, I used to enjoy watching a good parade. I liked all the different character balloons, and the moving floats always fascinated me. It’s pretty impressive what some people can do with a float-load of flower petals. I’ve gotten away from watching them on TV in my later years. Getting to sleep in became a luxury, so I certainly wasn’t going to wake up early to see some people I don’t know waving at other people I don’t know. Still, I like the spirit. I can appreciate a good celebration as much as anybody. The problem is there isn’t a major parade until St. Patrick’s day. That’s where I come in. I present to you the Hit Parade. Let’s look at what high school bands and oversized balloons I’ve been picking up.
Not much room for the picture
Carrying the baton is Greg Maddux in a nice shiny Sterling suit. Can’t you imagine the frilly shoulder pads and that conductor’s hat? You know the one I mean.
Looks even better in pinstripes
Okay, I know this isn’t a hit in the conventional sense of the term, but I sure do consider it one. Look at that glow. Have you ever seen a card give off an aura before? The other great part is this means I only need the blaster manufactured patch to finish my Maddux 2010 search.
captured like a poke-mans
I must have picked this up a while ago. I honestly don’t remember when or how this came in my possession. It’s like Ferris Bueller infiltrated my collection and I’m the oblivious dad.
This must be the 4th of July parade card
I told you I was going to show off the hits from The Daily Dimwittrade bait draft. I came out pretty well. Of course it helped that I wound up with the #1 pick on a snake style draft. I wasn’t going to pass this up.
Around we go
You might remember seeing these in my trade bait post. I wound up with 4 of them. I really like these multi-player/multi-bat pieces. I know they’re not exactly rare, but I think they’re cool.
Where it stops...here. here it stops
The interesting part of these is the repeated players. You have the chance to match up the relics from one card with the other. Does the wood for Thome and Thomas look the same in both to you? What could it all mean?
Crosstown classic on canvas
Here’s the last one from the draft. From what I can tell, this is the Windsor Green version. It’s a nice companion piece to the next card.
Not bad, right?
I picked this Deep Blue Linen version on ebay for a song. It’s #/75. After these two, only 9 more parallels to go. Good thing they don’t look COMPLETELY ALIKE!
That fence is quite busted. Has a big hole right in the middle of it
Remember a couple posts ago when I mentioned that batch of cards I bought on ebay and the guy used a semi-rigid on the relic. Here’s the relic. Safe and sound, but I consider that to be luck more than anything.
Another old one
When we first got back into collecting a while back, we bought a lot of Heritage. Andy and I both were attempting to collect the sets. This was pulled out of one of my boxes well before I was collecting the Big Hurt. Good thing it didn’t sell in the meantime.
Frank looks disgusted by the lack of logo
Here’s the Limited card that came with the Santana. Or Vice Versa. Two for the price of one is a deal I’ll take any day of the week. I think it’s an easier deal to find when the cards are unlicensed.
Walter White would be proud of this blue glass
What a beauty this is. Who needs a real hope diamond, when the parallel looks oh so good.
I get this and the next card confused all the time
How about that Hall of Fame vote, guys? Maybe I’ll expound on my thoughts another time, but I’m actually kind of glad no one got in. Not because of the quality of players, but too many players in general get in. I’d rather raise the denominator instead of saying every fan favorite deserves it.
I know they don't look similar, but my ebay buying confused me.
Oh, I got away from the parade motif, didn’t I? Ummm…check out this next balloon following Garfield. It’s one of the real Mr. 3000’s.
"yeaaah..I caught the hell out of this ball."
This is the kind of relics I’d love to see more. Give me some game used equipment. I think I won this from a minor league player. I won’t name drop, but it would be cool to see another card collector make the bigs.
Now I just need a shoe and base relic
Here’s another unusual relic. How cool is it to have a piece of a batting helmet? I say very. You can also see a little chipping on the bottom left. There are other chipping and frayed areas. I have a feeling this was more a problem with the product as a whole instead of anything. I’ll probably try to upgrade at some point, but for now I’m quite happy with this one.
Not in high demand
I’ve chronicled my Dempster stamp questin the past. These weren’t particularly difficult, so I’ll talk about parades again.
Bought this before Zito got sorta good again.
My boss at my old job told me about how he takes his kids “Reverse Parading.” You know how some floats throw beads or candy or trinkets or gold doubloons at the crowd on the street? Well, in reverse parading, you stand on the sidewalk and throw candy and other crap at the people on the float. The kids love it!
#/99, since you can't read it under the sparkle
Lately every series 2 relic set has come equipped with a limited edition. I’m glad they did, because Marmol had a relic in both series 1 and 2 with the exact same card number. #thanksTopps. With this little variation, it’s easy for me to match the pictures and tell which is which.
Now I only need the Sepia
Remember when Triple Threads looked like this? I think the style has improved greatly, although I don’t like that they’ve started putting only one swatch on a card. It is “Triple” Threads after all. Doesn’t matter, I’m not buying it anyway.
I always get the one with the jersey number in the signature when I can
I probably bought into this too soon. I won the Soto/Marmol dual auto back when they were both relatively good. A lot of people were trying to sell it for $50, and I can understand that to a degree. I got mine for less than $10 shipped. Now, I might be able to win it for even less.
On the lookout for the Red/Blue Stitch, Red Ink version now
Hooray, it’s not faded! Let’s throw a parade! Thank you ball point pen. You may have made his signature even worse than usual, but at least it’s built to last.
"Dirt" cheap
When I started my Starlin Castro collection, I went on a mini-rampage. Not a mini card rampage, mind you. A mini regular sized card rampage. Museum Collection was just hitting and prices were staying low. This was back when I had extra money.
The foil looks like 180, but it's #/100
Like with Carlos, I prefer to find autos with the jersey number built in. And like Carlos, Starlin’s autograph is pretty damn terrible, and incredibly inconsistent, as you’ll continue to see.
Because I can't afford the 2010 Bowman autos
Yup, that looks nothing like the one we just saw. Forgeries may be running rampant one day, if not already. What can you do? Okay, the parade is coming to an end. I don’t have Santa as my Grand Marshall, instead I have another big Starlin Castro autograph.
Holy balls, that's not even close to the same either!
Blue Refractor Auto #/199 wants to thank you for watching this year’s parade. The organizers want to say that they hope to find the Gold version of this for the next event, but he may be pricing himself out of contention. Doesn’t he know it’s just a parade?
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