Before I flew out to the States, we went up to Perth for the weekend to rest up before the flight and see the dog, who went up the weekend before so he wasn't underfoot when we were moving house. After what could rightly be referred to as "the week from hell," I earned a trip to Al's Card Shop, I thought.

I didn't get much, just a handful of singles for various PCs and team collections. But I spent an hour talking to Len the owner, who is, despite being a native Australian, a pretty big baseball fan. I always love finding Australian baseball fans - I think they just love having someone to talk ball with.

Anyway, here's what I got. Six Griffeys for the PC, including a Skybox with more delightfully ludricrous gangsta text. The late '90s Skybox cards are definitely a guilty pleasure. While the ridiculous set name (Hip-No-Tized) originally caught my eye, just one look at the back and I knew I had to take it home with me:

Here are three parallels from the 2000 Topps subset called "Magic Moments." All three cards are numbered 475, but as you can see, they are all different moments in Griffey's career:


And then two cards of Griffey in Reds gear (there weren't any White Sox cards, or I would have for sure snapped them up). One is an Upper Deck "E-Card" from 2001 (is that before or after e-Topps debuted?) which I picked up because it's all fractal and I wasn't sure when I'd see it again. The other is an '06 UD "Amazing Greats" subset serial numbered to 699. I know many people are through with serial numbers, but I still kinda like them.


It wasn't all Griffeys. I also got a couple of Ichiros, including his 2009 Spectrum base. I like the design of the Spectrum that year and have decided to go rainbow chasing. I've got Ichiro and Griffey base (which is also a Griffey White Sox card, so I was going to collect them anyway) and King Felix's red parallel. No Lincecum cards yet, but I hope to change that soon. Did I mention that as you are reading this post, I'll be travelling around Raleigh going to card shops? Because I am.


The other Ichiro card is a 2007 SP Authentic card that commemorates his 45 steals that year. Basically, if Ichiro is on a card, I want it and I'll probably buy it or trade for it.

Finally, we have some Robinsons of both the Frank and Brooks variety. I'm a bit annoyed because I forgot to scan one of the Frank Robinson cards, and now it's back in Australia and I can't get ahold of it. First up are Frank, Brooksie and Joe Morgan all appearing in a Topps Stars "Spotlight" set. I bought all the Orioles and Reds that were available. Rest assured, had Bench or Palmer been in the binder, I would have grabbed them, too: