allen ginter freakout woooo

I've been informed that I am supposed to be going crazy over Allen & Ginter now. I guess it comes out this week. I was told it was coming out in August, but my information apparently is not reliable. Packs have been popping up in Target supposedly but I haven't seen any.

Honestly, right now cards are about the 99th thing on the "Things I Care A Lot About" list thanks to some recent developments. Every Time I plan to buy a hobby box crazy shit seems to happen. Oh well. I spent much of the evening drinking beer and swiping pics from eBay to distract myself from my problems, so I may as well share my imagized bounty with you all. Warning: There are very, very stupid prices on eBay right now. Like 250 dollars for a code card. and 70 dollars for a card you're supposed to put in the ground. I'm not even going to link them the stupid is so powerful. Here's a preview of the stuff you're going to be seeing non stop on every single blog ever for the next month.

Base

How low can you go? Death Row... what a brother knows

Base cards is base cards you know what this be.

Stupid Base

Yeah this is an actual base card this year. Normally I'd be all over this card but thanks to The Fates trolling the hell out of me this year I'm in an extremely grouchy mood right now. Bullwinkle's 'special' cousin is not amusing me at the moment.

Minis

You know what minis look like, they're smaller versions of the original. The black borders are way different this year though.

It took me a while to process that border. That's some design right there, folks.

Squeezing out the mini base cards again this year are the mini inserts.

Animals in Peril

30 cards, ordered from least to most endangered. Or was that the Goodwin Champions insert set? Christ, Topps and Upper Deck have become Pixar vs. Dreamworks and are copying all each other's stuff. I'm guessing this is the 'easy' insert set to find. There's no odds on anything yet as far as I know. The other mini inserts are:

Fabulous Face Flocculence

Basically, beards. Unannounced so crooks are trying to get $99 a pop of them on the scamBay.

Flora of the World

How about you, Fauna? You wanna? Gimmick card with seeds embedded into the card so you can bury it and then grow a flower and then pick the flower and them press the flower and then send that into PSA so they can laugh in your face. These kind of grow cards are being put into boxes of snack crackers and some yobbo wants 69 bucks for it in an auction.

Fortunes for the Taking

Yet another unannounced insert set. Because Topps is completely incapable of telling us just what the fuck is in their 100 dollar boxes of garbage that we compulsively buy like lunatics. It looks nice. It's about stolen treasure. Whoop-de-damn-do. I'd rather have an accurate sell sheet.

Step Right Up

Circus stuff. Ok this one does amuse even the grouchiest of mes. You don't know how bad I want to MSPaint this thing.

Uninvited Guests

Ghosts are cool I guess. Well, they were until all those cheesy Ghost Hunter shows started popping up on the Discovery and History channels. The one from England with the horribly fake psychic was cringeworthy. I still can't understand why I watched every episode. Oh, yeah, I'm an easily entertained idiot. The one with the teenagers running around abandoned hospitals at night was pretty good bad good too.

Portaits of Penultimacy

This insert set features the second guy to do a lot of famous stuff. This one is cool as many of us will recognize the subjects. I had about 10 trades lined up with this guy that I never quite pulled the trigger on last year because I got too busy. If you want this card you'll be waiting for a while. The auction listing lists it for $250 because it's a "Ginter Code" and all you freeloaders can't see the back because YOU GOTTA PAY

Speaking of code cards....

They have stupid interlocking designs on the corners or something and the sellers are all "YOU NO SEE CODE WITHOUT PAY" and blocking the edges on a lot of them. Whatevs.

There's also a surprising amount of large sized inserts this year, and most of them look pretty good.

The Ascent of Man

These sumbitches look freaking FANTASTIC. This may end up being the insert set of the year.

Floating Fortresses

Yay boats. Original nineteenth century cards features lotsa boats, so I approve.

Minds that Made The Future

 NERDGASM

I may have to complete this set.

Hometown Heroes

I think these are the one a pack inserts but I'm not really sure about that. I hope they are, they fit in well with the previous one a packers, and there's 100 freaking cards in the set so it's impossible to complete otherwise.

Baseball highlight Sketches

The old standby insert from Ginter. I'm glad that the artists who hate me now because You Know Who made me the poster boy for National Chicle criticism when I was just trying to be funny about the Chipper Ruth card are still getting some commissions from Topps.

Ok, fuck all that bullshit, the SUPA MOJO is the only thing that is important about cards any more according to the extremely intelligent and cultured souls on YouTube, so let's show off the only ones I've found so far.

Cabinet Box Topper

Actually, I haven't found any of the box toppers on eBay just yet which leads me to believe that everything on there right now is Target retail stuff. So in lieu of MOJO, here's a lady in a rowboat.

Ok, dirty trick, I know. Promise MOOOOJOOOOO and give you some old broad on a moldy ass card. Here's your precious MOJO that are the only things of any value in any contemporary card set and will most likely be shoved in dollar boxes in a couple years.

Jersey

Auto

Bat

Enjoy the preview, it's probably my last post until I pick up my box of 2011 Ginter. If that experience is anything like picking up my box of 2009 Heritage you may be waiting a loooong time.

2008 Topps Series 2 Live

How do I know? The case busters are hard at work ripping and posting to eBay. One thing you can't do before the product is live is start posting auctions for 1/1 printing plates. Looks like it's now or never for my set preview. The Braves vs. Brewers game is on though so I'll get to it in between innings throughout the night so stay tuned... they blew it in the ninth. Argh.

BASE SET

You know how I feel about the base set design. I really like the circles motif, the foil is unobtrusive and I'm slightly disappointed in the photography. The set is 330 cards numbered 331-660. It looks like Johnny Cueto is the hot rookie in the early goings. I haven't seen any Jay Bruce cards yet so it looks like Topps jumped the gun on the sell sheet. I also haven't seen any weirdness, short prints or gimmicks yet, but give it time. It's Topps base cards. Ya like it or ya don't. I like it.

INSERTS

There's new stuff, old stuff and stuff that's gone. I'll tackle each group separately.

Stuff That's Gone:

Own the Game is gone, but it's usually a Series 1 only insert set. Campaign 2008 cards are gone, but don't worry, there's plenty of politics in the set. The strange patch cards that look like jerseys are gone, but they've been replaced by something else you don't want. I'm not sure if the gold foil parallel cards are gone or not.

Conspicuously absent are the Opening Day Matchup cards that have haunted Series Two sets for the past few years.

Stuff That's Back:

Trading Card History is back with 25 more cards, numbered 51-75. Cards 26-50 are giveaways at hobby stores and have about a month and a half to go to complete the set.

The Year in Review continuity set returns with cards 61-120.

All Rookie Team 50th anniversary continues with cards 56-110 along with the related parallels autos and relics.

The Mickey Mantle Story is now in the 1956 design with 10 more cards and a bat relic version numbered to 56.

2007 Highlights Relics and Autographs. These are the one per box things that are required nowadays.

Presidential Stamp Collection. Those plastic cards holding a postage stamp with a president's face on it are back. They book pretty well and are something different so good for Topps on bringing this strange set back.

Cut Autos are also becoming standard operating procedure for Topps. This time instead of Obama and Hillary, there is JFK and Nixon. No regular collectors ever see any of these cards.

Parallels - Gold numbered to 2008, Black numbered to 57 and Platinum numbered one of one. Press plates too.

Dick Perez inserts - I thought these were Wal-Mart exclusive, but I've seen two or three auctions for the suckers. Maybe some blasters fell off the back of a truck. Part of me wants to run out to the store to see if they're in, but it's seriously too dang late to be doing that. My guess are T205 cards come back at Target as well. There better be a Brave in one of these sets or I'm gonna cause a ruckus.

Brand New Stuff:

Topps Stars - a 25 card set on shiny foilboard. This is the insert set that always replaces Own the Game.

Home Run Derby Contest - 50 cards of potential participants in the Home Run Derby numbered to 999. If you pull the winner you have a chance to win the Jersey the player wore.

Historical Campaign Matchups - 55 cards with the two rivals for each presidential election. This continues the political theme in Topps this year. If there is an Obama - McCain card, Hillary's gonna be PISSED. There's also a junk card encouraging kids to vote on Topps.com.

Commemorative Patch Relics - More manufactured patch cards, this time commemorating the last seasons at Yankee and Shea stadium. There better be a Chipper Jones Shea Stadium patch.

Silk Collection - For some reason Topps reprinted 100 cards from the first 660 on tiny pieces of silk and encased them in the same kind of plastic holders they use for the stamps and the Allen & Ginter relics. They are numbered to 50 so don't worry about pulling any.

ToppsTown - Garbage fillers.

Also new is that hobby boxes finally have one "hit" per box. Most will be low-tier relics and the occasional prospect auto but they are there. Topps had to do something to counter Upper Deck's multiple hits per box strategy this year.

Conclusion:

If you collected Series One, you'll likely collect Series Two. The best insert sets are back so you can continue to collect that cool set from Series One if you wish. The Campaign Matchup cards won't appeal to everyone, but they look very well done and will win over a history buff like me. There are strange, low numbered insert sets to chase with various bells and whistles but they don't detract from the essential Toppsness of the set. For the first time in a long time there are no common inserts that will incite groans like the Home Run monotony or pictures of Opening day. Also NO MIRROR CARDS PERIOD. I'm dreading discovering the stupid gimmick of this set because so far I like it a lot. At least when the gimmick pops up I'll be able to complain about it.

Second Thoughts on 2008 Goudey part 2

Ok, time for part two of the Goudey preview review. Mario at Wax Heaven has images from the power sell sheet point thing up on his blog. I'll defer to him for images of the actual 2008 cards because I don't want to bother with trying to gank them off the ad. If you want to see the images, so check out Mario's site.

The base checklist is 330 cards, that can be divided into 5 subsets. Base cards, Short Prints, Presidents, '36 Goudey and Sports Royalty. 200 of the cards are common, 130 (!!!) are short printed 7:18 packs. Sound utterly absurd? Well, it's not quite as bad as it sounds. I'll go through each subset individually.

Base cards (1-200)

Last year's base set design was based on the '34-'36 Diamond Stars design, with a few details from '41 Play Ball and '33 Goudey thrown in to make a very attractive design. The 2008 edition keeps it simple and directly steals the 1934 Goudey design. It's one of the great designs of the Bubble Gum era and has already been swiped by a mid nineties Fleer football product, 2002 Fleer Tradition and an insert set from 2006 Fleer Tradition at least. There might be more, that's just all I can remember right now.

1934 Goudey is a great choice for designs and Upper Deck does an excellent job if the sell sheet is any indication on what the final product will look like. The sell sheet only shows the fronts, but last years set nailed the backs of the '33 set so I have full confidence that they'll do it right again. Here's the front and back of a couple of vintage '34s that I have. .


Compare the two and you have the closest reproduction of the original set in any card set so far. Replace Gehrig with Jeter and add the team name and position and you've got basically the exact same design. Good Job on the design by Upper Deck. I'm still sore about them wrecking the mini cards, but at least the card didn't suffer for it. It's a very bright colorful set, which was '07 Goudey's greatest strength.

Now for the checklist. Once again the non-short printed set is 200 cards. Who knows if they will pull the Red back/Green back thing again to double the set to 400 for us collectors with OCD, but there are 200 different subjects anyway. The player selection (at least according to the pre-sell checklist) is heads and shoulders above last years. The key: vintage stars in the base set. They took a page from the 2003 Upper Deck Vintage Set and liberally sprinkled old-time stars and Hall of Famers in the common cards after restricting them to the SP's last year. For example, here is the Braves base team set:

7 Mark Teixeira
8 John Smoltz
9 Jeff Francoeur
10 Phil Niekro
11 Chipper Jones
12 Kelly Johnson
13 Tom Glavine
14 Yunel Escobar
102 Eddie Mathews
103 Warren Spahn

Now that's a team set! Pretty much every pre-expansion team and the Mets have old time stars in the set. These 200 cards are enough to make me collect this set, SPs and minis be damned. Good looking cards and a great checklist equals a good set to build even for the casual collectors out there who don't have to have every single card. Of course I'm not one of those people, so here are the short prints:

Short Prints (201-230)

There are actually ten less base card short prints in 2008. The other difference is that all the subjects are retired stars. That is, assuming Roger Clemens stays retired, which is a good bet. A lot of the players were seen in last year's set like Ruth, Jackson, Ryan and Schmidt, but an interesting newcomer is Bo Jackson. Where are the short printed contemporary players, you ask? First we need to address a different subset.

Goudey Presidents (231-250)

Let's face it, this subset shouldn't even exist. Presidents have been done to death already and we haven't even hit Topps' full court press on campaign cards this summer yet. Upper Deck seems to know this, because they totally half-assed this set, but someone in upper management probably insisted on it's existence since Topps was threatening to dominate the serious political junkie demographic. There are three BIG problems with these cards as I see it.

One: They did a subset honoring presidents and then go and cut out half the dang presidents! There are forty-three presidents if I remember correctly, but only twenty in this set. While the reduced cards is actually an act of mercy by UD, there's really no point to doing this if it's not going to be done right. They freaking left out James K. Polk for chrissakes, what the hell??

B) There's no reason at all for this to be in the actual set. Make it an insert for cryin' out loud and don't put it smack in the middle of the set! No one wants this.

Also - They bungled the design. A Goudey stripe on the bottom, boring presidential portrait and flags in the background is not attractive or historically relevant. If they had blatantly swiped the 1932 American Caramel Presidents set design, then I'd be all for it. As it is now, it's annoying and unnecessary.

1936 Goudey Black & White (251-270)

This is where all the contemporary short prints went. 2007 honored the '38 Heads Up design (going so far as to include the cartoon high series) and 2008 takes on the 1936 Goudey set. Here's what the cards look like, please excuse my scroungy Berger.


The basically look like the larger premiums from that year, just in traditional Goudey size with a rudimentary baseball game on the back. I want to say Leaf appropriated this set for a numbered insert a few years ago, but I honestly don't remember and don't feel like digging through my collection to find one. The checklist is ok, and includes the usual superstars and a few youngsters like Hanley Ramirez, Ryan Braun and Matt Holliday. I'm bummed that there are no Braves in any of the SP cards (where's my Brian McCann, dammit??) and unlike last year where UD copied the Heads up set obsessively, there's only 20 cards in the subset instead of 24 like the original set. Hopefully another five get added including Mac. One other thing about this set... in the preliminary checklist there is a distinct lack of RCs. I see a couple like JR Towles and Steve Pearce, but you have to think that at least a couple will be added by July. You can't tell me Upper deck isn't watching Evan Longoria's progress in AAA veeeeeery closely.

Sports Royalty (271?-330?)

These cards aren't actually on the checklist, but there are 100 Sports Royalty autographs on there. I'm guessing that 60 of those will be whittled down and put in the set. the sell sheet emphasizes the Olympic athletes, so maybe they are trying to capitalize on Bejing. This is another subset I don't understand why it isn't just an insert set. It bloats the SP list and just makes set building a daunting task. There's a lot of cool names on there though and as far as sheer athletes go, it puts Topps' selection of dogs, poker players and spelling bee champions to shame.

Berk Ross Hit Parade of Champions

This is in the checklist but not the sell sheet, so I don't know what the heck it is. The set is numbered HPC-# so it looks like an insert, but I don't know what kind. Could be inserted into packs, could be a box topper like last year's Sports Royalty cards. It's basically a collection of Superduperstar athletes, this time focusing on the big four sports. Babe Ruth, Joe Montana, Michael Jordan and Wayne Grtezky. That sort of thing. Here's what the original 1951 st looks like, courtesy Jet Jethroe and a badly trimmed Spahnie.




So there's the set, although I'll bet that there are several tweaks to the checklist (.pdf) before it's released if only to beef up the rookies. It's not perfect, but once you get past the 130 card short print shock it should actually be easier to complete than last years. How do I figure that? I really want the base set, and I'll get it if I end up just buying a collated one from a casebuster on eBay. That's 200 cards. If I actually rip wax, I'll be looking for the short print sets though. However, I care nothing for the Presidents and little for Sports Royalty. Cut those two subsets out and you have a 200 card base set with 50 short prints. That is very easily completable even for blaster buyers. While you'll get a lot of presidents and Sports Royalty cards in among the short prints, you can sell 'em and trade 'em for what you want. That's how I'll be building this set, unless some new info comes along to change things.

Second Thoughts on 2008 Goudey

See Also: Stale Gum and Wax Heaven, who got to it first.

My first impression of this product was a bit snippy. OK, it was a lot snippy. It kinda sounded like I tried to squeeze in an entire George Carlin routine (you know which one it is, be careful when you click things) into a one-sentence review. In my defense, at least some of it was due to over medication and lack of sleep. That is not to say that Upper Deck's ballooning of the SPs, getting stingy with the minis and putting cheezy president cards into the base set didn't have a lot to do with it as well. After sleeping on it, I've got a little better view toward the product. Here's my take on the sell sheet, I'll tackle the checklist later this evening:

$4.99 per Hobby pack, 8 Cards per pack.

Obviously Upper Deck hasn't figured out yet that charging two bucks more per pack than they charge for retail packs is dumb.

18 backs per box, 12 boxes per case.

They did figure out that the $120+ price point per box was scaring away potential customers. $90 a box is still a little stiff, but more competitive with Heritage and Allen & Ginter. You still get the same number of hits per box, so the value (such as it is) has gone up a tick.

One Memorabilia card per box.

Pretty typical. According to the Checklist (.pdf file) there are 90 Goudey Memorabilia cards consisting of the usual suspects. Players range from Cal Ripken Jr. to Akinori Iwamura with everything in between. Braves memorabilia cards listed are Chipper, Frenchy, Teixeira and Smoltz. A second memorabilia set like the "Immortals" from last year aren't in the checklist, but it's early so they might sneak something else in.

One Autograph per box.

Again, this is the same as last year. There's a 60 card Goudey Graphs set that if the sell sheet, er powerpoint presentation is correct, looks like a base card with an autograph. The Goudey Graphs checklist (all this is preliminary, mind you) is all over the map. You could get a rookie like Billy Buckner or Chin-Lung Hu, a star like Griffey or Jeter, or a Legend like Mike Schmidt or Willie McCovey. Braves autos in the set are Chipper, Kelly Johnson and Yunel Escobar.

There's also a Goudy Sports Royalty Autographs set, featuring 100 cards with 100 signatures. These cards are one per case, but who knows if they are a box topper or inserted into packs. The checklist is really all over the map with this one, you could get a Tiger Woods and pay your bills for a few months, or get Fedor Emelianenko, whoever that is. Oh crap. I would pick on the mixed martial artist dude for my 'bad' auto, wouldn't I. Scratch that, you could get Tiffany Cohen. Pretty much any of these autographs are likely to be horrifically scarce though, especially the non-major sports types that don't sign often. You'll end up with a plain Goudey Graphs of David Murphy or Steve Pearce so don't worry about it.

Seven Short Prints per box.

Ok, I'll get to the upping of the number of short prints by almost 50% in due time. First I want to complain about why they decided to up the number and make them harder to get at the same time. I have no idea why the hell they didn't just insert them 1:2 packs like normal people would. What kind of stupid ratio is 7:18? Do 1:2 packs or 1:3 packs for us math deficient people trying to calculate odds in our heads, please. (7/18 equals .38888 for anyone interested)

Seven Mini Cards per box.

Upper Deck, I [Carlin] HATE you. Why do you give me a lovely set the size of original Goudey cards and then yank the rug out from me the next year? Ok, I can handle them being relegated to the parallel ghetto, poor unappreciated mini cards always end up there anyways. But at least insert them one a pack!!! No, now we got this stupid 7:18 thing again, what is this the new golden ratio?? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!?!??? Ya know some of us out here can't really afford three stinking CASES of a product in order to have a shot at a set, ya know? Stupid, stupid, stupid. Put 'em one per a pack or throw 'em in the trash bin and just put in another base card. Damn, this annoys me. Surprisingly, this is the biggest gripe I have with this set.

Four Yankee Mirror Thingys per box.

Apparently Upper Deck is not satisfied that people despise mirror sets enough. They look at the A-Rod Waste of space set and think "Why, our crappy mirror set doesn't cause nearly the venomous invective that is hurled toward that Topps issue, so we must surely be doing something wrong". Look carefully at the ratios and the number of packs per box. Seven SP's + Seven minis + 4 Yankees = 18 packs per box. Now, if I'm reading this right, it looks like in any given pack you will get a short print OR a mini OR a Yankee. I may be wrong and you could possibly get all three plus bot the Auto and Relic and a '34 Napoleon LaJoie buyback all in the same pack theoretically, but since the big buzzword is "value" nowadays, I doubt it. One insert a pack is easier to collate and gives the poor slob who can't afford cases at least one good card in the one pack they rip. So now anyone pulling a Yankee is cut out of the SP and the mini, thus fostering hatred and annoyance with the useless mirror set. Once again, Upper Deck will get more verbal abuse hurled at them then Topps does, by gum!

One Sports Royalty Autograph per Case.

See above. Again, I'm not sure if these are box toppers or case toppers or what.

One Goudey Buyback per Case.

These were in a special case topper pack along with a Diamond Stars/Double Play card last year. I'm guessing they do it again to reward the case buyers. All us Charlie Buckets buying one lone pack with a fiver we found in the snow can go take a flying leap.

One Yankee Stadium Legacy Memorabilia card per case.

They might actually stick these in the packs! That's a 1:216 shot at a Dale Berra Mirror bat relic or something like that.

Chase Cards:

i.e. the ones they'll put into the boxes that go to Beckett for their Video Breaks.

Goudey Cut Signatures

Pretty much if you don't have a Cut Auto in your product, you're '88 Donruss nowadays. I hope they're not being literal and cutting up original signed Goudey cards to stick the signature into new cards. Heh, that's silly, they would never do that...
w...w-would they?

Signs of History Exchange Card

Basically SuperMegaCrazy cut autos.


Yankee Stadium Legacy Buybacks

Now this one is intriguing to me. Did Upper Deck basically take all the Yankees out of the vintage Goudeys they acquired and call them Yankee Stadium Legacy Buybacks? Or did they buy all the Yankee cards auctioned off on The Bench and re-insert them into packs? You never know nowadays....

Stealth stuff not on the Sell Sheet, but on the Checklist:

There's an insert set based on the '52 Berk-Ross "Hit Parade of Champions" set in the checklist. No clue if they are a straight insert, a reasonably collectible box topper, or short printed to hell and serial numbered to 5 or whatever.

Ok, that's the sell sheet. If Upper Deck wants to make a product that will beat Allen & Ginter they need to do these things:

1) Hobby Packs - 10 cards per pack, 1:2 SPs, 1:1 minis. Everything else stays the same, $4.99 per pack, 18 packs per box, etc. You can even make the Berk-Ross cards numbered to 15 each.

2) Retail Packs - 8 cards per pack, 1:2 SPs (you got 130 of the goddamn things so give us a break), NO minis, a Retail version of the Berk Ross cards inserted 1:4 packs or so. Be creative and give the retail Berks a different colored back. $2.99 per pack, 24 packs per retail box, 7 packs and a bonus pack in the blasters.

That's all ya gotta do Upper Deck, and you will have a better set than 2007 Allen & Ginter. I'm not making any promises you'll beat 2008 A&G, but you'll have a damn fine set.

Checklist review in minute detail this evening assuming the caffeine high doesn't peter out.

Hastily written Heritage post before I run out to get my boxes

Ok, found a little more info on the interwebs for Heritage, here's the scoop.

Black Back parallels are 1 per pack, the last one in the pack.

SP's and inserts are usually the second to the last in the pack.

There is supposed to be a hit in every box, but there have been several complaints of that not actually happening.

This guy here pulled an all-nighter for a case break to try to cobble together an SP list. Using his data I came up with a "not quite right but possible for most of them" SP list that I'll post below. This is not even remotely the actual confirmed SP list but I want it to refer to when I bust my box. I'll post a real list once one becomes available.

There's a dude in Amsterdam who is a big '59 Topps fan who ordered a case. He's going to put the case break on YouTube, but in the meantime he has a video preview of the original 1959 cards.



I'm off to pick up my box now, today is going to be real busy so I probably won't have my first long drawn out box break post for you till late this evening. I'm crossing my fingers for a buy back chiptopper...

Ok, here's the not quite right but close enough SP list. There are 85 cards in the list and only 75 SPs so some of them are going to be wrong. Use only as a guide and not as an actual SP list.

40 Tim Hudson
129 Luke Hochevar
155 Johnny Damon
175 Jeff Weaver
176 Preston Wilson
196 Jose Valverde
210 J.J. Putz
211 Mike Sweeney
231 Kevin Gregg
285 Chad Billingsley
315 Jacque Jones
322 Richie Sexson
360 Maggio Ordonez
381 Casey Blake
409 Jon Lester
426 Kyle Lohse
427 Doug Davis
428 Pitt Hill Aces
429 Miguel Batista
430 Chien-Ming Wang
431 Jeff Salazar
432 Yadier Molina
433 Adam Wainwright
434 Scott Kazmir
435 Adam Dunn
436 Ryan Freel
437 Jhonny Peralta
438 Kazuo Matsui
441 Emil Brown
442 Gary Sheffield
443 Jake Peavy
444 Scott Rolen
445 Kason Gabbard
446 Aaron Hill
447 Felipe Lopez
448 Dan Uggla
449 Willy Taveras
450 Chipper Jones
451 Josh Anderson
452 Melvin's Outfield Trio
453 Braden Looper
454 Brandon Inge
455 Brian Giles
456 Corey Patterson
457 Los Angeles Dodgers
458 Sean Casey
459 Pedro Feliz
461 Chone Figgins
462 Kyle Kendrick
463 Tony Pena
464 Marcus Giles
465 Augie Ojeda
466 Micah Owings
467 Ryan Theriot
468 Shawn Green
469 Frank Thomas
470 Lenny Dinardo
471 Jose Bautista
472 Manny Corpas
473 Kevin Millwood
474 Kevin Youkilis
475 Jose Contreras
477 Julio Lugo
479 Tony LaRussa - All Star
480 Jim Leyland - All Star
481 Derrek Lee - All Star
482 Justin Morneau - All Star
483 Orlando Hudson - All Star
484 Brian Roberts - All Star
485 Miguel Cabrera - All Star
486 Mike Lowell - All Star
487 J.J. Hardy - All Star
488 Carlos Guillen - All Star
489 Ken Griffey Jr. - All Star
490 Vladimir Guerrero - All Star
491 Alfonso Soriano - All Star
492 Ichiro - All Star
493 Matt Holiday - All Star
494 Magglio Ordonez - All Star
495 Brian McCann - All Star
496 Victor Martinez - All Star
497 Brad Penny - All Star
498 Josh Beckett - All Star
499 Cole Hamels - All Star
500 Justin Verlander - All Star

Braves FanFest was awesome

I had a lot of fun and got a bunch of goodies to show off. I won't have the photos till at least tomorrow (digital camera issues), but here's a representative taste of the stuff I got.

I picked up a few freebies, most of which were ads like this schedule featuring Mark Teixeira. I also committed to at least one game on the schedule.

What, you thought I'd go to a place with a memorabilia show and not buy cards? You fools! This also a direct result of how my conscious decision not to stand in the three-plus hour autograph lines ultimately affected my card buying choices.

Here's another thing I made a firm decision on - go cheap on the memorabilia and souvenirs. It was tough, damn tough in one case, but as you can see here sometimes cheap is good.

Hey, what's this? I thought you weren't going to stand in the autograph lines? Well, yeah. I was kind of surprised myself when I ended up in one. Note: This is NOT John Smoltz's autograph. Not even close. Anyone who guesses gets a cookie.

I'll have this sorted out and written up sometime this week, so stay tuned!

2008 Topps Heritage checklist preview

Wax Heaven has the scoop on the 2008 Topps Heritage checklist. Click on the link to access the eight pages worth of Subject to Change checklistiness. I plan to attack this set to the tune of at least two Hobby boxes so the subject interests me greatly. I've gone over the checklist and here are my thoughts about the set. I obviously don't have any '08 Heritage cards to show off (now that would be a real scoop!) so I'll decorate this post with some originals from my Braves team set.

This is the first Heritage set that is actually smaller than the original. The original 1959 set was 572 cards, this one tops out at 500.

The short printed cards from the original 1959 set were all in the high series (numbers 507-572), although the first series cards (numbers 1-110) are slightly harder to find than the common middle series cards. The high series cards are distinctive in that while the rest of the set has red and green ink on the backs, the high series is red and black on the back. I would like to see Topps have the short prints go back to being the high numbered cards after last year's skip-numbered SP's. Even better would be if they printed them all with the red and black ink so they were easier to pick out.

Another thing about the '59 set is that it was printed on two kinds of card stock. The low and high series as well as a middle series (somewhere in the 200's, but I don't remember the exact card numbers) were all printed on white stock, while the rest were on gray cardboard. The 1956 set was printed on both white and gray stock as well, and Topps had a hobby-only parallel that had 110 cards or so printed on lighter stock for their 2005 Heritage set. It would be cool if they did something like that again this year, it would show that they are actually paying attention to the details after they put out some sloppy sets towards the end of last year. I might actually forgive them for butchering '52 Rookies if they did something like that.

Now for the actual checklist. I'm going to start with the insert cards since that's the page I have open now.

New Age Performers: It's the typical star-studded 15 card set. The only odd choice in there is John Lackey. I know he had a good year in '07, but seriously, John Lackey? Is he really one of the top 15 players Topps could have put in that set? If I pull that card, I'm going to cut out a picture of John Smoltz out of a magazine and glue it to the front so I'll have a good card.

Then & Now: This is always my favorite insert in Heritage. Matching up the league leaders from the year the original set was released with this year's leaders was a great idea. A-Rod is matched up with Eddie Mathews so there's thankfully one Brave in the set. The Magglio Ordonez/Orlando Cepeda and Ichiro/Minnie Minoso are also fantastic cards.

Flashbacks: This is also always a nice set full of vintage stars. Bob Gibson has a rookie year card in t he set and there's another Eddie Mathews card for me to chase.

News Flashbacks: Making an insert set of news events is a neat concept by Topps, but the checklist tells us one thing: nothing much happened in 1959. Card number 5, NASA introduces the first seven astronauts, is the best card of the bunch in my opinion.

Real One Autographs: This is always a great autograph set, although they are so scarce that it would be easier and cheaper to buy the original cards and then track down the players and have them sign it in person. Lots of great names fom the 50's in here: Solly Drake, Morrie Martin, Don Mueller, J.W. Porter, Bill Renna, George Susce, Preston Ward, Gus Zernial... The big hits though are Yogi and Joba. They have a dual autograph in the set also which has to be hands down the best hit of the entire set. The card that caught my eye was of Eddie Haas. Eddie has a rookie stars card in the '59 set with an extremely unfortunate photo. Eddie remained with the Braves organization after his playing days were over and was a long time coach. He had the unfortunate task of replacing Joe Torre when he was fired as the Braves manager. Either Joe got his players to overachieve, or Eddie caused them to underachieve. Either way, the Braves were terrible under Eddie and he was replaced before the season was over. Half the Flashbacks set also has an autographed version and there are cut auto inserts that include Mickey Mantle and... Roberto Clemente?!? Never mind about Yogi and Joba being the hit of the set...

Clubhouse Collection relics: The usual suspects are in the relic sets. There a handful of legends, including Yogi and Bob Gibson and the typical collection of contemporary stars. Craig Biggio gets one last relic card and the only Brave is John Smoltz unless Topps didn't have enough time to airbrush a Dodger uni onto Andruw Jones. The Flashbacks insert set has a regular relic parallel and some have stadium relics as well. Eddie Mathews doesn't have a stadium relic card, so Topps must have used up all their Milwaukee County Stadium relics already. There is also a bunch of dual relic cards including a Mantle/Brooks Robinson card and autographed relics including Joba's only relic card from the set.

Ok, that's all the inserts, now onto the actual base card checklist.

The number one card in the set goes to Vladimir Guerrero, a nice choice. Mark Teixeira is card number 4, and he better be in a real Braves uniform and not a stupid velour muumuu with a Braves logo on it this time. For those of us interested in the "premium" card numbers, here are the players with the first ten round numbers. 10 - A-Rod. 20 - Jeff Kent. 30 - Paul Konerko. 40 - John Smoltz (This is Warren Spahn in the '59 set!). 50 - Griffey Jr. 60 - Andy Pettitte (oops). 70 - Carlos Guiillen. 80 - Grady Sizemore. 90 - Hideki Matsui. And the all important card #100 is.... Jack Cust?!? No rookies in the first 100 cards, but there's lots of good young players including Ellsbury (#6), Tulowitzki (#21), Carmona (#26), Upton (#54), Pedroia (#73), Gordon (#86) and Hughes (#92). Buddy Carlyle gets a Heritage card, good for him.

The second hundred cards is notable for the Rookie Stars set patterned after the original Sporting News set from '59. Unfortunately most of the big names in the subset all have cards from 2007 and earlier. There's a Brandon Jones card in there so at least the Braves are represented. After Cust got card #100, the primo card numbers all sort of derailed (Jack Wilson gets card 160, need I say more) although Albert Pujols comes in at card #150. Yovanni Gallardo gets card #200, whoopie.

Rookie cards start showing up in the 200s after the Rookie subset is finished. Hopefully these will be normal looking cards and there won't be Rookie Stars subset cards randomly dotted throughout the set. Justin Ruggiano (#253) gets the "first rookie not in a subset" honor. The absolute coolest thing is Topps using the Combo Cards like in the original set. Card #212 in 1959 was "Fence Busters" featuring Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews. The same card in the Heritage set has Chipper and Andruw Jones. That is going to be a freakin' sweet card. However if they put Andruw in a Dodgers uniform I will hunt down the airbrusher who did it, strangle him, and post it on YouTube. That would seriously kill the whole set for me. You hear me, subcontracted Topps airbrush dude? If you screwed up that card, tell me now so I can avoid this set altogether and you will avoid a gruesome fate! Some Combo Cards however (Derek Jeter, Chien-Ming Wang & Robinson Cano) are better than others (Matt Chico & Jason Bergmann). Card #300: Chase Utley. Getting better.

Things get weird in the checklist after card 300. First there's a second Troy Tulowitzki card (#367). There are also a couple of interesting players, Yoba Chamberlain (#348) and Jason Variteck(#380). Card 383 in 1959 was "Words of Wisdom" from Casey Stengel to Don Larson. The analogous card in 2008 features Willie Randolph and John Maine. Um... yeah. Tom Glavine is card #312. I wonder if Topps will airbrush a Braves uniform onto a recent photo of Tom or if they will use an older photo and airbrush wrinkles onto Tom's face. There aren't really a whole lot of rookies in this set, Braves catcher Clint Sammons (#362) is one of the few. The 1959 set has several variation cards where the biography on the back either has or is missing a traded or optioned line. Card 362 is one of them, and Topps could probably stick an option line on Clint's card since he's got almost no shot at making the team with Brayan Pena, Javy Lopez and Corky Miller all fighting with him for the backup catcher spot. It Topps does variation cards in this set, I'd rather not have them copy the option line from the original set. I'm all for authenticity, but who wants to be scanning every card for a traded line. I'd prefer they do an old/new logo variation like they did with the '54 Heritage set. And include a Braves variation logo this time dammit! However, if Topps were to mess with John Smoltz' card in homage to the '59 Warren Spahn error with the wrong birthdate, that would be fine with me. A John Smoltz card with a birthday from 1921 would be the coolest card of the year. Vanity numbers: 350 - Jimmy "MVP" Rollins, 400 - Daniel Cabrera.

The last 100 cards in the set features the All Star subset which should look sweet. Brian McCann gets an All-Star card so I'm very happy. There's a couple more combo cards, a couple more checklists and a Rookie Card of new Braves centerfielder (assuming they don't sign a vet or simply give Jordan Schaefer the job) Josh Anderson. The Braves Checklist card is #420, oddly one card away from the 1959 Braves checklist number (#419). I'm looking forward to the team cards, I hope they look as cheezy as the ones from '59. I'm guessing Topps didn't choose to bring back the "Baseball Thrills" subset from '59, unless Ryan Theriot had a thrill sometime last year. Hmmm... Maybe that second Tulowitzki card was a Thrills card? Just what I need, another reminder of his triple play against the Braves. I really hope these are the bulk of the short print cards even though Brian McCann and Chipper Jones (#450, baby. Awww yeah) are among the high numbers. It's only right that the All Star subset should be shorted, since the original All Stars are so dang tough to find. Card #500 - Justin Verlander. Good one, Topps.

Man, this set looks awesome. If I weren't scared of Topps pulling shenanigans with the regular set and inserting a super rare George Mitchell photoshopped into the crowd behind Roger Clemens card, causing the prices to get jacked up, I'd probably skip the Topps box till later and use the cash to buy an extra box of this.

Update: Only took me a week to figure out I misspelled heritage in the title.