Dime Box Kryptonite #1 - Retro Crap

There are some things in dime boxes that I just can't pass up. That's not the problem. I find lots of good stuff in dime boxes. The problem is when I can't pass up the things in dime boxes that I simply don't need. Here are a few of those things. The first culprit: Retro cards.

Here's a 2006 mini card of Steven Drew. I really like the Bowman-sized minis but I'll never have the patience to track 'em all down. This was kind of an ugly set through. Well, 1949 Bowman is kind of an ugly set in retrospect. Nice for 1949, bleaargh in 2006. So will Stephen have his big season in 2011 or will he start wandering around the league like his big brother?

Topps '52 Rookies. Between this mess and the Heritage High fiasco Topps should have just kept doing Bowman Heritage. We never did get that 1953 Bowman Heritage set. Unless you count 1989 Bowman, which I do not. Here's an insert of Uggs and The Loafer from the first set. Was that 2006? 2007? Hell, I don't know. I already have this card but it had Uggla on it, so I grabbed it anyway. Halfway through the card show I realized I have no further interest in Dan Uggla cards where he is not in a Brave uniform. I got at least a month or two to wait on those.

Here's the second year Topps '52 Rookies Dynamic Duo insert. Why the hell wasn't this the Topps '53 Rookies set??!!? Because 1953 Topps is a beautiful set and Topps is too lazy and cheap to try to live up to that. The crappy, out of focus, garish colors, team logos drawn by kindergartners, design by Sy Berger with the help of safety scissors and a pack of construction paper Topps can handle. '53 they aren't worthy of any more. Oh, they handled it pretty well in the late '90s and early Aughts with Gallery but those days are gone. Nowadays when they get quality artists to do portraits they botch it utterly. Sorry, am I ranting again? Nevermind. Here's Tulo and No-No on a Duo.

Maybe I should have clarified I'm helpless when finding retro inserts in a dime box. The base cards I simply assume I have already unless I have a list at the ready. Here's another insert, no base here. This one's got MVP Hambone on it. Does anyone in the universe besides me call Josh Hamilton Hambone? Imma keep doing it. I can't help it, my mind is broken.

Ok, occasionally I'll pick up a base card. How do you pass up a rookie card of Markakis? Well, a rookie card with the O-Fishal MLB logo on it. There's cards of Marky Mark from 2003 out there. Now, without looking, I don't have a clue if this is from the first or second set. I don't know if it's a common or a short print. But it's a friggin Markakakakas rookie for a DIME. Them Orioles are going to sneak up on the Yanquis and the Redd Soxx one of these years! That'll be the year the Blue Jays storm to the Series, but still. It'll happen one of these centuries.