My Metal Dreams

I went to the semi-annual Toys and Collectibles show at my normal card store location (an old manufacturing facility turned into stores), and there were five or six card vendors there. Pretty good selection of set-building, autograph-seeking and unusual inserts and parallels. (You had to look for them, though, somewhere between the Pez vendors and the Hot Wheels and Matchbox collectors.) I did find plenty of Indians, and lots of Chippers. I guess I'm a Chipper collector now. I really respect him for his stellar play and unassuming attitude. Love that in a player. (Take that, T.O.)

Here are a few of the Indians I found at one of the vendors tables. I would say they were good value, because I got these, 4 Chippers, 2 Cal Ripkens, and 15 other Indians for only $10. I thought it was pretty good. These are the four Fleer Metal cards of Tribesmen:

   

The first card is Jim Thome from 1999, and the last three are from 2000. I like the rivet look of the 1999, but the 2000 works better all-in-all, especially the backs, where the rivets on the 1999s are fake-looking and flat, and the design, readability and shadowing on the 2000s are much better.

 

I like the Fleer/Skybox Metal cards, but I wouldn't want to collect the entire set. There are 250 base cards, with 50 short prints, 18 Base Shredders, 15 Fusion cards, 10 Heavy Metals, 10 Hitting Machines, 10 Platinum Portraits and 15 Talent Show cards. Plus the Emerald parallel set and autos. It seems to be a collectible set, not too base heavy, but I'm not up for it.