Post 100!!! Duluth, MN! Vintage Cards! Hooray!!!

Welcome to the 100th post in Four Baggers and Foreclosures history!

This occasion was (not) celebrated in Two Harbors, Minnesota. Which is roughly 25 miles north of Duluth. After a stressful summer and prolonged house search, we were set to close on our new home in mid-September, and are still in the process of moving in and setting it up...

I will get to the story of our three day stay on Minnesota's north shore at the same time as I describe the haul of unexpected treasure I stumbled into. I like mashing things up nonsensically, because I can!

One of the things I wanted to do while we were up here was to spend some time in Superior, Wisconsin. Which became even more important once I found out that Globe News was still open!

Back in October 2003, I visited Duluth/Superior on a one day trip with some friends. I was actually looking for a job at the time, and ripped two pages from a phone book (at an actual PAY PHONE!) for the listings of printers in town to send off some resumes.

But that's an entirely different story...

While here, we visited Globe News, due to the lure of magazines, records and baseball cards inside. I bought a couple of packs that day, but didn't have time to really look at their inventory. We didn't really have time today, but I cancelled the rest of my planned photo-ops because Globe News came through big time!

Upon entering the baseball card portion of Globe News, the guy working asked me what I was looking for. I told him that I'm looking to fill older team sets of Twins, Expos and Rockies. While he didn't have much in terms of Montreal or Colorado, he passed over couple smaller boxes of Twins singles. The first box contained a lot of newer cards from the 2000's on...

Various Byron Buxtonses

I picked up a buncha Buxton's, but only scanned these 2. The way he came on in 2017, Buxton was becoming a favorite of mine. But everything fell apart in 2018. Injuries and regression and a lack of strike zone knowledge were the main contributing factors here... I'm worried that 2019 wont be the year he puts it all together... Amazing talent, but it's needs to translate consistently now...

Some non-vintage Rod Carews

Not bothering to look up the years on these if I don't know them... While Killebrews numbered few, there were a slew of Carew! I'm assuming a Killebrew collector raided his stash before I showed up (Likely earlier that afternoon...), but Globe had Carew's a plenty! That Upper Deck Whatever Why 3K? card was my favorite of them. Never heard of the set, but it's a cool photo. Even if Upper Deck caught Fleer's early 2000's soft cornered shaped design syndrome.

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Friday 9.14.2018

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Due to multiple delays, and an incorrect turn, we met up with I-35 before the single lane construction zone was finished. We took a driving break in Hinckley, Minnesota. Stopping to buy a loaf banana bread at Tobies that we never ate, and is still in our freezer. We also passed through a strange gas station White Castle Drive Thru, then sat in the parking lot of a Hardees.

A car load of referees pulled up while we were loitering. We asked them to moderate an argument, but they declined...

Back on the road, as I drove north, Laura recorded phone video of the oncoming lightning storm, through our cars' moon roof.  Lots of lightening, but with little rain, as we approached Duluth. The road was wet and low speed limits through town and the end of 35, then onto the highway 61 bypass into Two Harbors.

We got here pretty late, and checked in around 11:30pm, then took off for our room in building 6.

It was too dark to see out very far from the deck. So we stood and watched lightning over the bay, alternating between light mist and heavy downpour. But we still needed to go back out in it for supplies...

At World Famous Lou's!

Not really... I just wanted to show the awesome neon fish!

We went to the Holiday next door (because Super One Foods had already closed) and made a purchase that every teenager would dream of..: One Hawaiian and one 4 Meat Lotza Mozza frozen pizza, 2 Diet Mountain Dew 1 liters, Rock Stars, Eggs, Butter, Soup, Cookies, Water, Pickles and Sauerkraut. $45 for that bounty... A customer was chatting with the cashier and playing lotto the entire time we were there.

Reminded me of what it must have felt like to be a customer at 99 Spillihp, back in the day...

1995 Pinnacle Gate Attraction Kirby Puckett

Back in that day, I opened a TON of 1995 Pinnacle, and I never saw one of these insert cards... Guessing they were carried via retail unavailable in my area. Nice to get the Puckett cheap. And there's that sweet MLB Anniversary Gold Patch again!

2005 Topps Gallery Penmanship Jason Bartlett

But I definitely didn't buy any 2005 Topps Gallery in 2005. Or any afterward... So this Bartlett is my first of any card from that set.

Our room looked really nice at first non-blurry glance. However, it was a housekeeping disaster... The provided ice bucket had dirty rags in it on the bathroom counter. We complained at the office on our way to Holiday, getting a clean non-used rag filled ice bucket. There were also a great deal of house flies in the room. Laura went on a killing spree while I cooked the Hawaiian pizza, which was terrible and we gave up on eating it before long...

It was better to stand out on the deck in the pouring rain. Accompanied by lightning flashes to reveal a freight ship hanging out on the north edge of the bay. None of my pictures of it turned out... So you can't see them here...

1989 Score Hottest Rookies Jeff Parrett

Globe News had a fistful of 1989 Score Rack Packs in a 50 cent bin. The Parrett insert card caught my eye, and it was thrown in with my purchase for free. The rest of the pack wasn't notable, except that I did get 2 Bo Jackson regular cards. Were it still 1989, I'd be very pleased by this. But in 2018, I'd rather have the Expos common I needed, over any 1989 Score Bo Jackson cards...

1994 Pacific Frank Bolick

A Bolick my Expos team set was lacking! 

Sitting amongst that same 50 cent bin, with the handful of 1989 Score Rack Packs, was quite a few packs of 1994 Pacific. The original price sticker reading $1.79, provides an interesting window into that era... 1994 Pacific was a base set that I really liked. That font choice for player names aside, it's a clean design, that could be improved by adding team logos. But it takes a great step forward in it's checklist. Not overly huge, but manages to include some overlooked players in the other brand's 1994 offerings.

Unfortunately, nearly 25 years of sitting sealed in a pack caused the cards' UV Coating to seal itself to itself. Making these impossible to separate. Bolick was one of the best case scenario cards out of the 6 packs he threw in on my purchase for free. A David Nied card that I really Nieded, had a chuck of picture ripped out of the surface upon separation...

About half way through opening the packs, I quit trying to tear them apart. Instead, just peeling back the corners to see who they were, upsetting myself for destroying cards that I wanted in my collection.

There's a big fat metaphor somewhere in there...

1997 Collectors Choice Colorado Rockies Team Set

My previous team set was missing a few cards, so this took care of that! That same 50 cent bin had a bunch of 1997 Collectors Choice Team Sets... All of them Rockies? That seemed really weird to me. I bet it was even weirder for him to see someone interested in buying even one of them...

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Saturday 9.15.2018

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The remedy to F-410's housefly infestation was for the office to move us into F-420! We packed back up and waited for the new key to be sent up to our old room.

Being just a couple doors down from where we were, our view of the bay was pretty similar to the first night.

Reversed in layout from F-410... Similar, yet different... Nice and nicer than...

Something that has always entertained me, is homemade panoramic pictures that are laughably bad. So in that tradition, and with less than 2 minutes spent pasting these together, I present the north bay of Two Harbors.

There were no storms, and it was cool, cloudy and breezy this morning. Whitecaps were washing ashore. Cold Case, Hurricanes and That 70's Show were on the TV...

Looking south from our deck, towards Two Harbors.

The north edge had a Canada Steamline freight ship just hanging out. A few hours later, it sailed off to the northeast.

1993 Finest Kent Hrbek

While I'm nowhere near the Hrbek fan that Laura is, the 1993 Finest Hrbek was the first ever card I owned from that legendary set. I traded for the Hrbek at a small local card show, one of the times I had a table to sell and trade. This would have been in the Anoka (Minnesota) Armory, in the fall of 1993. Larry Walker of the Expos would be my second card from that set. I still have both of those cards, as my first 2 of the 199 card (now complete) set. However, Hrbek was missing from my duplicate Twins team set. (Which I'm pretty sure is now complete...)

1997 Upper Deck Chuck Knoblauch

I just like Chuck Knoblauch. 

I don't care if that makes me a bad person.

1998 Donruss Silver Press Proof Paul Molitor

If liking Chuck Knoblauch makes me a bad person, than my opinion of the Twins firing Paul Molitor likely will...

First off, I'm not taking anything away from Molitor's playing career. He was a great hitter for many years, and is well deserving of every accolade he's received as a player. As a manager... I'd say average is a fair assessment. He may be the victim of circumstances beyond his control. No one would have seen the near team-wide performance collapse that doomed the 2018 Twins. Injuries and underperformance aren't exactly his fault.

However, after a Summer of closely following Twins baseball again, there were far too many times I had to question the choices Molitor was making with lineups and bullpen usage, plus the stubborn dependency of playing the aging veteran over the young upcoming minor leaguers, despite the team being well out of the race. All that aside, I think it is time for the "new" management of 2016 to be allowed to have their guy running the team on the field. The Pohlad's forced Molitor on them when they took the job. 2017 saw a near miracle run to the Wild Card and inevitable loss to the Yankees. Winning Manager of the year only delayed what was likely going to happen anyways.

Pretty sure Molitor will land on his feet...

And that is a really nice card!

With the 1997 Jackie Robinson Sleeve Patch!

(And good luck Rocco Baldelli!)

In mid-afternoon, we left Superior Shores to drive north up highway 61. 

Past Betty's Pies, which would have been a really cool picture if it weren't for this damn car!

Laura set up an appointment with a real estate agent out of Duluth, to check out a piece of beachfront property. We would be meeting by the south end of the Silver Creek Cliff Tunnel, at the gate of a former resort.

There used to be a small motel here that rented rooms and cabins along the lakefront. Laura and her family used to stay here when she was a kid. The resort closed in the early 2000's. Property was sold, structures demolished, and now it's just a handful of really expensive townhomes.

And the foundation for another unbuilt townhome...

With construction abandoned after installing some of the basic facilities embedded in the concrete slab.

Next to the abandoned foundation, was a large pile of weathered and neglected building supplies. This pile and the foundation were available for sale. But as the real estate guy told me, the whole thing would likely have to be scrapped before it could be built.

2002 Flair Power Tools Doug Mientkiewicz

Looks like this site needs some power tools to finish the job. Perhaps Mientkiewicz could be of assistance? I'm not a big fan of this design. Odd soft cornered shapes was a Fleer design crutch in their dying days... That said, it's a great picture and has a chunk of wood in it.

And that's cool enough for me.

2003 Topps J.D. Durbin

It's the Real Deal!

2005 Donruss Team Heroes Jason Kubel

Needed this card for my team set. Though it's design relies too heavy on it's borders, I liked the photography and the set itself. Picked up a lot of these via retail Blasters in late 2005.

On the available lot, with the unfinished foundation was one remaining cabin. This was the last piece standing from the old resort, and a cabin that Laura had actually stayed in many years ago.

The wooden door to the cabin was really cool!

I tried to get interior pictures through the one clear window. It appears to still be in somewhat decent condition, though I bet that chair isn't very comfortable... Probably chewed up by mice as well...

Stuck in the shadows is an old wood stove used to heat the small one bedroom cabin.

As incredible as the view were from the property, we pretty much wasted that real estate guy's time. This place was not in our price range, nor was it a feasible option for our needs. Still, it was a fun place to check out. I just felt bad for the real estate guy's elderly wife, who sat in the car waiting for us the whole time...

2008 Disabled American Veterans Justin Morneau

Hadn't seen one of these cards before... Quick online searching showed a few images of this Morneau card, and a Joe Mauer card, but I didn't find much else. Globe didn't have the Mauer, but I'll gladly take this Morneau!

2018 Finest Refractor Brian Dozier

Beautiful card, love the retro 1960's Twins home uniform.

And I'm also A-OK with Minnesota trading Dozier to the Los Angeles Dodgers when they did... I do not want to see this team become the Baltimore Orioles over sentimental favorites... And it's not like Dozier hit very well this season anyway...

Leaving the townhomey ex-resort, we travelled through the Silver Creek Cliff tunnel....

Then through the less glamorous unnamed tunnel...

And on into Castle Danger!

The non Dangerous Rustic Inn was too busy for dinner tonight...

A quaint little place that Laura had also visited years ago. We decided to find dining options in Two Harbors, and try again the next night.

2008 Stadium Club Nick Blackburn

I think this is a short print/alternate photo. I don't know... I don't care... It's a really cool photo of a really below average pitcher.

Yeah, this picture of us exiting the unnamed tunnel didn't turn out, but I'm a big fan of how badly it turned out. It kinda looks like we are getting shot out of an airlock into a nuclear holocaust.

Straight ahead... Oblivion!

Driving south, I could at least get some cool shots of Lake Superior from highway 61. Though quality daylight was dwindling.

2018 Topps Chrome Zig Zaggyfractor Max Kepler

We needed brighter light, something shiny such as this... These are really nice cards to look at...

Back in Two Harbors, we drove down to the docks before a supply run. Taking pictures of some older buildings along the way.

The parked train engines are a feature of Two Harbors that I always liked. There wasn't time to stop tonight, but I'd like to get better photos of them in the future.

We snapped a few pictures of the ore docks from the access road, before turning around and heading back into town.

1998 Upper Deck Retro Todd Walker Gold

The docks were used for loading iron ore and taconite onto ships. Not gold, as in the Todd Walker card. However, this became my first card of the 1998 Upper Deck Retro set for me! And it's numbered out of 500!

Driving along, we stopped at a mailbox and took pictures of old buildings. Including the 3M World Headquarters. Which was a lot smaller than I'd envisioned...

And the Two Harbors city hall...

2015 Topps Opening Day Stadium Scenes

And Target Field!

1986 Sportflics Frank Viola

And Frank Viola! 

Trust me... It is...

After our abbreviated drive through Two Harbors, we stopped at ShopKo. I'd never been in one before, and we needed some stuff that we didn't bring...

2018 Bowman Platinum Prismatic Prodigies Royce Lewis

The Number 1 Overall Pick in the 2017 Draft fell to Minnesota, and they grabbed Lewis out of high school to the surprise of many. Lewis has more than held up his end of the deal, showing great promise in his first season plus to become one of the top prospects in the game. Any cards of his, I need...

Prior to tonight, I'd not seen any Bowman Platinum in stores for a long time. With Platinum becoming a retail exclusive set in recent years, and with the current craze of rookie card mania, I usually chalk the Bowman Platinum product up as cards that I'm just not going to find... Unless I went to Two Harbors! Word of Ohtani must have not made it this far north! ShopKo in Two Harbors was the first place I've seen any on sale.

The handy ShopKo had an impressive retail display of cards for sale. Better selection than any Targets and WalMarts I've been in... All jacked up and re-priced by 10%! Whatever... They had 2 Blasters and 2 Jumbo Packs of Bowman Platinum! Yes, I will be buying all of those!

ShopKo brought us $122 worth of sleep clothes, towels, snacks and all the Bowman Platinum they had in stock. Vacations (and moving) are expensive... Screw it...

Next door was Super One Foods, for another $64 in dinner and more supplies. To be fair, $32 of this was for two Filet Mignon steaks (Cause we are celebrating damat! I'm springing for the good stuff!), along with canned corn, Rice-a-Roni, bagels, soup, pickles and Sauerkraut. Not to be mixed all together...

Back at our room, I made dinner. The electric grill attached to the railing of our deck had sticks and standing water in it. So broiling it is! Only provided the bottom half of a broiling pan, I had to fashion a rack from available kitchen supplies. Broiled  the steaks at 420 degrees, and they turned out excellent!

And dishes were cleaned up by midnight...

During the oven's duty, I sat at the notebook and opened the Bowman Platinum bounty...

In addition to that sweet looking Lewis insert card, I got his base card, and a Refractory autograph of Padres prospect What's-His-Name, numbered out of 80! Seriously, I don't remember, didn't scan it and it's somewhere in the BRAND NEW BASEBALL CARD ROOM!

Teaser....

To represent the time spent sleeping, I'll cover some of the first box of cards I picked through at Globe News...

2018 Bowman Royce Lewis

When I first told him that i was looking for Twins singles, he handed me a box filled with sleeved card from the last 20 or so years, sorted by player. With the exception of newest releases up front. These Lewis's were some of the first I'd decided to buy from Globe News.

No overpriced retail here!

1998 Upper Deck Torii Hunter

Minnesota's First Round Draft Pick in 1993, Hunter was getting his first shot at playing for the Major League team in 1998. Pretty sure Upper Deck was the only company to print a Hunter card in 1998.

Nope... Forgot Bowman...

Well, this one has a much better photo!

2007 Topps Gold Minnesota Twins Team

That fake wall blocking out the bat boys REALLY bothers me on cards...

2007 Topps Jeff Cirillo

I forget the one time Rockie had a brief stint with the Twins... Cirillo spent much of his career with the Milwaukee Brewers. While talking to the owner, he said that he rarely sells Brewers cards, despite his store being in Wisconsin. I guess the eastern edge of Wisconsin would be more likely so follow the Twins, over the Brewers, with Milwaukee's fanbase more in the southeast corner.

Either way, Cirillo's Twins run was unmemorable, since even I'd forgotten about it...

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Sunday 9.16.2018

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I slept very solid until about 11:45am.

Fog has rolled in around the building, blocking most of out view of the bay. It looked like it would be cold outside, but was actually rather warm...

Took a walk outside the building, down to the path out front. Was a very steep climb going around. Took pictures of the lake and resort buildings, from below on the path.

Walked around the Hot Tub area. My key card wouldn't let me into the pool room itself for some reason, so a took a picture of the outdoor half of the hot tub and left.

Also saw a dead bird on the patio. (I wont post that picture...)

I walked down to the edge of the property before turning around to go back. While the scenery was cool, there really wasn't anything notable.

******

Wrapping up the first box of Twins cards that Globe News had, he pulled down a second filled with Twins singles, sleeved and dating back to 1961. I joked that I knew he had a Monster Box in back filled with Expos singles, and he returned with a Monster Box full of high quality commons from 1969-1972. He said I could probably find some Expos in there... I will be more than happy to look!

1976 Topps Bert Blyleven

Most of Globe News vintage baseball stash ended at 1972, there were still some great older singles to be found in the Twins box. Blyleven's 1976 issue was lacking from my team set, and a nice Hall of Fame addition.

2012 Bowman Etc. Miguel Sano

Prime suspect for the 2018 Twins failures... Sano got fat, then hurt, then banished to high A ball to get less fat, then hurt again... Will he come back to show the promise that made him an All Star in 2017?

Or will he just get fatter...

Once back at the room from my path walk, we watched a not-Eagle swimming and fishing on the rocks of the bay.

I went back inside to write out some notes and listen to the Twins Game on TV. 

Turns out this would be one of the last times I'd hear from this manager...

1961 Topps Bob Allison & Zoilo (Zorro) Versalles

The Minnesota Twins came into existence in 1961, when the Washington Senators moved to Met Stadium in Bloomington, MN. Meaning that early series of 1961 Topps usually featured hat-less images to cover up that most players were pictured in Senators uniforms. Both of these cards are duplicates, as I already had them in my 1961 team set binder. But the chance to pick up decent quality rookie cards of prominent Twins stars of the 1960's for cheap, is always welcome!

The Twins won 9-6 over Kansas City. It was a decent enough game, but I didn't pay close attention to it. Laura spent the afternoon getting sunburned through the fog, while sitting out on the deck.

1969 Topps Jim Grant, Gene Mauch, Manny Mota

1969 was also an expansion year! The new team in Montreal meant Topps had to quickly come up with cards depicting those new Montreal Expos. Which in the early series meant trying to disguise previous uniforms. Jim Grant and Gene Mauch are passable, but Manny Mota's card looks like it was an error. Other than that blob of black paint covering the P, that is a Pirates card, plain and simple.

1969 Topps Bobby Wine

The hatless look works here too...

Without having a wantlist of cards I needed for my 1969 Topps Expos team set, I simply took a copy of every different card that Globe had. 1969 Topps Expos are cool, even in their mismatched random collection of pictured uniforms.

1969 Topps Larry Jaster

At least in later series, Topps was able to print Expos card in actual Expos uniforms!

In late afternoon, we left our comfortable temporary home for Castle Danger...

From Building 6...

At the Superior Shores Resort!

(Unpaid endorsement...)

2003 Topps Opening Day Mini Brad Radke

Were mini cards in Opening Day ever a thing? I never heard of them. But I almost never buy Topps Opening Day. Especially back in 2003... But this is a cool enough card, and I have a real lack of Radke's in my collection...

2004 Topps Opening Day Brad Radke

I really like this one too...

Laura and I were driving back up to Castle Danger, for a second attempt at the Rustic Inn. On the way we passed a souvenir stand, with a large cut-out of Bigfoot near the driveway. Even spookier in that fog...

The fog was dense in places, and non-existant in others. Bright and sunny as you approached the Silver Cliff Tunnel, but the tunnel itself was coated in fog...

The dinner didn't go off as planned. The Rustic Inn went all gourmet and ruined the planned night. We had zero interest in what their menu was offering, and left only buying a half full $8 glass of wine.

Maybe Hummus Flatbread Pizza is a hot seller on the North Shore... Not what we were thinking...

They also had a dangerously faulty railing on the wheelchair ramp. 

Perhaps that was implied in the town name?

The north end of the parking lot was home to Lakeview Liquor, but there's really nothing notable about that...

Since dinner wasn't going to be provided by The Rustic Inn, we needed to come up with a new plan... 

Cereal perhaps?

1971 Kelloggs Carl Morton - Cesar Tovar

I'm definitely adding any Twins and Expos Kelloggs cards whenever I can find them...

1976 Kelloggs Rod Carew - Eric Soderholm

More Kelloggs cards, and with no cracks!

Instead of cereal, we opted for Betty's Pies for a now late dinner. That food was much better. I had a Patty Melt renamed the Tofte Melt, to fit in with the local theme.

It was a very dark and foggy drive back to Two Harbors. With another Holiday stop for Milk & Rock Stars. At least it was far cheaper tonight.

Once back from being out, we watched the fog dissipate quickly from the deck. I took pictures of the lights and moon, reflecting over the bay. After some time, I finally got a good shot taken...

2013 Topps Chrome Orange Refractor Kyle Gibson

I place Kyle Gibson pitching a really good season for the Twins in 2018, as something more shocking than the team's collapse... Nice Rookie card for a cheap pickup!

Despite it being after 10pm, and with the pool closing at 11, Laura and I got dressed and hiked down to the pool.

You can access the other building from a tunnel on the first floor, which is a long hallway with no doors. But it Includes an odd blank space that looks like it should have vending machines in it, but doesn't...

The pool room is very large and windowey... 

With a fake rock waterfall in the corner...

And above the indoor half of the indoor/outdoor hot tub. 

An older woman was in the hot tub just before this picture, but she left once we showed up.

Good riddance!

Hotel dood came in and shut down the pool at 11pm sharp, placing a barricade into the hot tub, then rolled down a small metal door, to lock it from the outside half.

I'm still a huge fan of this version of the No Diving sign!

It was a very cold walk back to the room... With chlorine stinging my skin, I took a shower as soon as we got back, and passed out around 2am while watching Adult Swim on the TV.

2008 Upper Deck Timelines Alexi Casilla

In 2008, Upper Deck had then been producing baseball cards for almost 20 years. They were starting to cash in on their bank of past designs, featuring new sets wearing "classic" Upper Deck clothing. This Casilla, patterned after the great Top Prospect Subset from 1993 SP, does a nice job in capturing the spirit of the original.

2009 Upper Deck Retrospective Minnesota Twins 1991 World Series

Just in time for MLB to not renew Upper Deck's license to produce baseball cards, they put out the massive Retrospective insert set. Featuring events from all four major sports, plus cards honoring pop culture, news and historic events from the last 20 years. Great idea for a significant anniversary issue, in a massive 2,500 card set! I've been a big fan of almost every card I've seen from it. Buying this card wasn't even a question.

That line across the top is compliments of a crappy penny sleeve I scanned the card in. 

******

Where exactly do you go after the cancellation of Upper Deck baseball?

You just can't improve on that sort of cliffhanger...

Coming soon... POST 101: Post 100 Part 2!!!