Show Review: TwinsFest 2010

Okay, I seem to say this every year; "I'm not going next year." But when January comes around, I look forward to it, I buy the ticket(s) in advance, I save some spending money, I go and fight through the crowds, and end up purchasing... nothing!

If I were a Twins or Vikings fan it might be different, but even though it's labeled as the midwest's largest sports memorabilia show, nearly all the vendors have very little in terms of variety. I skipped the $6.50 dome dog (which was $4.25 if you bought the same thing in the concorse) and bought $5 in supplies. Never again.

Update

Sorry, no new acquisitions this week. I'm saving money for TwinsFest, the largest card show in the midwest is this coming Saturday. I'll have plenty of pictures and hopefully some great buys to post next week.

Head To Head: Legends Vs. Greats of the Game

This week I decided to put two base sets against each other; 1999 Upper Deck Century Legends (legends) against 2004-05 Fleer Greats of the Game (Greats). If you want, vote on your favorite in the poll at the top-right of this page!

• Condition: Legends - For some reason I see more and more Greats singles with nasty chipping problems on the edges and corners. Maybe it's because they're printed on thicker card stock.
• Design: Greats - Greats has that nostalgic wood background in a frame design that makes a complete set in a binder look awesome. Plus, I never liked the Sporting News logo UD used. I think they could've done more with it.
• Star Ratio: Legends - Legends was an obvious winner with the 50 greatest players announced in '96 plus future stars. But having to leave-out Magic Johnson (contract reasons) knocked this set out of "best set ever" contention.
• Photography: Legends - Although the Greats set has a better design, Legends had devoted more room for photography.
• Inserts: Legends - Greats just had the gold parallel and the autographs as inserts, while Legends had a parallel, autographs, and numerous insert sets.
• Result: Legends - It was close, but Greats was just outmatched. Design was a huge factor to overcome, but the overall quality and player selection of Legends was more than enough.

In The Mail This Week

Not much to post this week, but I did get a couple in the mail last week. The Stockton is onw of my all-time favorite cards of the best-ever point guard and the Mullin was a tough find and is in relatively good shape. These were hard to pass up. Look for a new Match-Up posting tomorrow and the start of a "project."