Griffnado!

Saturday was an amazing day on the cardboard front.  The monthly local card show combined with the arrival of a large package from COMC and a few eBay auction wins all combined into a bonanza of new Griffeys of every kind.  It was magical.

I couldn't possibly show you everything, but I'll go over the highlights because I'm just so darn excited about all the newness.

This is a long box filled with just the Griffeys from Saturday.  It's a substantial haul, and includes everything from relics and rookies to oddballs and 2014 inserts and everything in-between.  You might have noticed the sealed pack on the far right.

One of the nice folks at the card show had a huge box of packs for a quarter each.  Being a huge fan of the '89 Donruss set, I rooted through and dug out every pack of it I could find (as you can see I got antsy and opened one in the car).  I ended up with 19 packs total, including this one:

Looks pretty standard, right?  Check out the bottom:

You see it?  That would be good ol' #33, the Griffey rookie card, right there on the bottom of the pack!  Before I started busting I decided maybe I should check the bottoms to see if there was a rookie evident in one of the sealed ones, and here it was on the very first pack I checked.  The "Jr." is obscured by wrapper, but you can clearly see the "No Major League Experience" in the stat box.  This is definitely him.  Not bad for a quarter.  This guy is going in the Griffey box.

One of the sellers had come to the show all the way from Houston (a good 5-hour drive), so I looked extra hard for some stuff to buy from him.  I was immediately drawn to this sealed factory set of '91 Donruss not because I like the set (it kinda blows) but because of this sticker:

I'm nuts about '91 Studio, and here were all four preview cards.  This sticker was clearly meant for me.  The guy wanted $15, but when I explained why I wanted the thing he was a lot more open to negotiation.  We settled on $10 and a handful of loosies:

There are so many great Larkins out there.  That's just one of the six Pete Rose Living Legend cards I picked up.  It's a really nice set.

When I first walked up to the guy's table and inquired about Griffeys the guy was like, "Meh, I don't really have any."  A little digging by yours truly found those two on the left, both of them collection needs.  The Upper Deck card is a little banged up, but who else in this world would give a Griffey card such as that one succor in a condition-sensitive world?  Nobody.  Well, maybe Dime Box Nick.

The mini on the right I got from one seller who only deals in football but who knows I only collect Griffey.  He occasionally comes across one and sets it aside for me.  Thanks, big guy!

What card show would be complete without a visit to the Griffey Guy?

This is what my little box looked like when I left his table.  Again, I'm not going to show everything, but here are just a few of the sweet relics and numbered Griffeys from that box:

These are presented without comment because we haven't even gotten to the Junior Junkie mail bag yet.  First a few eBay auctions that landed yesterday:

I have mixed feeling about the fact that people are still out there making oddballs, but I can't complain too much when they turn out this good.  These show Copyright 2014 Rookie Cards, LLC.  Shady, yes, but that future jersey shot is a big hit with me.

Upper Deck is still making Griffey cards, y'all.  I love that.  The Mr. Turkey Superstar card has a section on the back called "Let's Talk Turkey."  Derp!  And that oddball on the right is as odd as they come.  It has a Glamour Shot of Jose Canseco on the back.  Eew.  Can't argue with that front, though.

This oddball set of sixteen cards is Copyright 1989 by Card Collector's Company, "a division of Nostalgia, Inc."  They look pack-fresh, so I can't guarantee they're really 25 years old.  The price was right, though, and how amazing are those pictures?  It's like a stalker set.

The last thing I got Saturday was a package from COMC.  I'd ordered enough cards to merit shipping them in this little mini-box within the larger box.

 The stack on the right is Griffeys, and the one on the left is everything else, mostly Marquis Grissom.

Here are a few of the choicier Grissoms I picked up.  I won't show any Griffeys from this package as this post is long enough.  There were a lot, bro.  You get the idea.

Griffnado!!