Picked Up A Few Items Of Note

Won an ebay auction for this rather common 1984 Topps Bob Boone card.

Or is it....

Now look at this rather common 1984 Topps Bob Boone as compared to my other rather common signed 1984 Topps Bob Boone.

Takes a keen eye (and a SCBC) to spot the difference.

See it there in the headshots?

That's right, the one I just picked up is the Encased Variation, sometimes called a "Test" or a "Proof".

Encased meaning Bob's whole head is inside the black outline box, where as the regular card has the top of his head sticking out of the box.

The backs of the Encased Variations are blank backed as well.

There are 66 different player cards in the "Proofs" set according to the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards.

The Angels have 5 players issued in the Proof set, but that might be a tough team set to complete.

I'm glad to have a  least one.

1996 Bowmans Best Preview Refractor BPP 6

Won this on Listia.  Listia had it labeled as a Bowmans Best and not as a Preview.

Had trouble figuring out the difference between the regular Bowmans Best and Bowmans Best Preview, they all kinda look the same.  Appears the Preview series though were inserted 1:12 in Bowman packs (refractors 1:24) whereas Bowmans Best came in their own packs.

The BPP numbering kinda gives it away too.  

Scored a rack pack of 2014 Topps Series 1 Walmart with the Mike Trout Walmart Gatorade Variation.

It says the card is in there right on the front of the pack, so it's no shock to pull one.

Actually I've been scoring a lot of these since I keep finding them at different Walmarts surprisingly.

A couple weeks ago they were going for @ $75 bucks on ebay, I think they're down to @ $20 now.

You'd think all those racks packs would have gotten snatched up pretty fast.