Card store mojo pickups and an A&G State Relic

Robert of $30 a Week Habit alerted me to the fact that I'm in the current Beckett Baseball (December issue - third time this year) so I had to run by the card store to grab a copy. While I was there I browsed the relic offerings and picked up a few.

 This card would have been good about seven years ago, but Willis is on his way out. He's been a member of several teams, including the Giants - he pitched for the Fresno Grizzlies minor league team last year.

 Hargrove was a pretty good player, and led the Indians to the World Series twice as manager.

 Kapler essentially retired this year, after being released by the Dodgers.

 Jim Piersall was a two-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove winner during his career, but he might have been known more for being somewhat crazy.

 Roger Clemens was a great pitcher but he was also a jerk. Yup. But despite the allegations, he never tested positive for steroids. Yes, that's a bat card for a pitcher.

Speaking of great pitchers, here's a dual relic of mound heroes Nolan Ryan and Steve Carlton. Here's the front.

 Here's the back. Wait, what's that going on with the 2 in 32?

Ah, crap. You know what, I stared at this card when I was buying it, and I never noticed the damage until I went to put it on my scanner. I'm still happy enough with it, I believe. That said, I originally bought the Clemens and Ryan/Carlton to offer to Sam in trade - he's got some cards on hold for me. I can still use the Ryan/Carlton in my own collection if he doesn't want it.

I also saw something really neat at the store. There are a nice quantity of rare pulls in one of the showcases. They are some super-auto-patch mojo cards, but also the fun rarer stuff that I never get my  hands on. There are legend SP variations, coin cards (2011 Heritage, for example), that sort of thing. And there was a single Allen & Ginter State Relic box topper sitting in the case.

It's TINY! I expected each card to be similar in size to a cabinet card, but it's much smaller than a regular card. (Oh, and look, even while I was at the shop, I took a picture of the Carlton side of the card and its damage.) While they're still awesome, the cards are so small I'm a bit disappointed. And yes, he's asking $120 for it. No, I didn't buy it, but someday I will own one of these cards.