A Decade of Dime Boxes

Dime Box Nick recently celebrated his tenth anniversary of blogging about baseball cards with a ten-part giveaway of some fantastic baseball cards. I tried to claim only what I needed for a set or PC. 

My eyes lit up when I saw this 2013 Topps Update Christian Yelich RC among Nick's offerings. I was worried it was a Topps reprint/tribute/insert thing, but it's the real deal. With this key card out of the way I headed to COMC to purchase rookie cards of Gerrit Cole and Anthony Rendon. Now all I need is one Mike Trout and the Nolan Arenado RC to finish the Update set!

Most of my early claims were Brewers cards, but that's simply a coincidence. Axford and Lezcano join Grimm, Carty, Weaver, and Iwakuma as potential All-Time Teams upgrades. Hammonds is a local guy.

Finally I grabbed a pair of Sox here, with Hideo Nomo and Xander Bogaerts. I assure you the Bogey is in better shape than the scan would suggest.

Nick threw in some nice extras including a pack's worth of 2021 Topps Chrome. If I'd paid $5-10 for this pack I might be disappointed. But, since I haven't bought any new Topps packs since 2019 Update I'm very happy to add these to my collection - along with a pair of fantastic Stadium Club singles.

He also added some Red Sox odds and ends, including a Jim Rice glossy All-Star that just wouldn't stay still. For a second I thought Topps included Mike Greenwell in 2020 Heritage, or an Archives set I'd missed. Then I remembered those old Baseball Card Magazine cut-outs.

Some newer Sox here including a Mookie Betts Montgomery collection thing. I don't bother with Topps' On-Demand offerings, which is why this is my first such single. Happy to have this sharp looking card.

Some 2021 singles, and a note from Nick thanking me for celebrating his blog. Nick, thank you for the great cards - and for sharing your card show stories/collecting experiences with us over the years!

While I'm showing off some new arrivals, here's a small trade I made on TCDB. My 370th completed trade on the site was with Godzilla8you. I sent him two Red Sox dupes in exchange for four cards:

My favorite here is the Rob Dibble Fleer Update RC. He's joined by another Connecticut card and a 2019 Topps Update set filler. Once my COMC shipment arrives that set will be 100% complete.

 

Not pictured: a 1993 Upper Deck Dennis Eckersley set filler I no longer needed.

I'm trying to reach 400 trades on TCDB but I've run out of active users that have the singles I need to finish off my sets. And so I turned to Sportlots, rather than paying 50 cents each on COMC and having to wait two months for my cards.

My initial goal was to finish the 1991-92 Upper Deck basketball set. These three All-Stars clear my wantlist; once my stack of Michael Jordan cards arrive from Redmond I'll have this one finished, too.

I attempted to upgrade some 1986 and 1987 football singles for 18 cents each. Not a wise thing to do sight unseen but if I want to pay common prices it's the only way to go. The '87s were a definite improvement; the centering on '86 issues is so damn tricky.

The Sportlots seller I bought from (ceveritt) offered $1.50 shipping for up to 16 cards, so I added these eight Hoops Decade needs. The grand total was $4.31 after I deducted some spare change 'loot'. Artest was an upgrade and Celestand will need one; there's a long scratch along the bottom. I'm now at just under 63% completion of this set, with another one on the way via TCDB trade.


Also I got the job.

Thanks for reading!


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