Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Who's in the Hall of Fame
I am! The Collector's Weekly has honored me with a spot in their Baseball Collector's Hall of Fame and have also reprinted Ephemera's interview about my Allen & Ginter card collection. (and no, I haven't forgotten about that set, I've been fighting to get the last few cards I need to complete it. You'll see some very soon) The site is an aggregation of collector's websites, information and a very prominent listing of eBay auctions that is pretty mesmerizing for an advertisement. The Collector's Weekly isn't just about baseball cards though, it has articles and links to a ton of of other collectibles. So far I've been fascinated by their board game, record and of course tobacco card pages. And of course there's a blog. There has to be a blog. It's practically a law nowadays. It's a pretty nifty way to lose an afternoon looking at all kinds of neat stuff that you might not have seen before. Or in my case, might not have seen in years such as this article on cardboard Christmas houses. My grandparents had some of these houses that they put out every Holiday season when I was a kid and I probably haven't thought about them since that last Christmas they were put around the tree. I'm normally skeptical of sites that mainly link to other sites but these guys seem to be doing it the right way.
Bruce on the Loose
Jay Bruce is finally being called up to the Reds today. A little over a week (or a couple of days, I'm not really sure) before Topps Series 2 is scheduled to ship. Question is, did Topps pull him from the set already? Was he even in it to begin with? I'm not really even sure whether Series two is coming out this Wednesday or next Wednesday actually. I've heard both dates from different people. I guess we'll find out soon, won't we...
(psssst... His 2008 card isn't his real rookie anyway)
(double psssst... It's not this card either. Try 2005)
(psssst... His 2008 card isn't his real rookie anyway)
(double psssst... It's not this card either. Try 2005)
Fresh 2 U - Steve Avery
Card Number two in the Florida Agriculture set is Steve Avery.
Steve is staring down the batter, about to send a message pitch high and inside with some deadly citrus. This is how Ave's career got messed up you know. The Florida Citrus Board saw this card and convinced him that he could improve on his strikeout rate by throwing grapefruits in the pen instead of baseballs. If you could get a big squishy grapefruit by the batter, you could certainly throw a baseball past him. They even sent him a truckload of grapefruit straight from Indian River to practice with. Problem is, Steve noticed that when the batters made contact they invariably hit a juicy grounder to an infielder for an out. Avery figured he had perfected a sinker, tried throwing them in games and got massacred. Leo wasn't able to dissuade Ave from throwing this new pitch because he was allergic to citric acid and broke out in hives whenever he came within 10 feet of Avery. Thus, a brilliant career was cut short by the evil, fruit peddling monsters on the Florida Agriculture Commission.
Ok, so maybe it didn't go exactly like that, but Florida is still evil, just ask any Bulldog fan.
Steve is staring down the batter, about to send a message pitch high and inside with some deadly citrus. This is how Ave's career got messed up you know. The Florida Citrus Board saw this card and convinced him that he could improve on his strikeout rate by throwing grapefruits in the pen instead of baseballs. If you could get a big squishy grapefruit by the batter, you could certainly throw a baseball past him. They even sent him a truckload of grapefruit straight from Indian River to practice with. Problem is, Steve noticed that when the batters made contact they invariably hit a juicy grounder to an infielder for an out. Avery figured he had perfected a sinker, tried throwing them in games and got massacred. Leo wasn't able to dissuade Ave from throwing this new pitch because he was allergic to citric acid and broke out in hives whenever he came within 10 feet of Avery. Thus, a brilliant career was cut short by the evil, fruit peddling monsters on the Florida Agriculture Commission.Ok, so maybe it didn't go exactly like that, but Florida is still evil, just ask any Bulldog fan.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Card Of the Week 5/26/08
It's amazing the stuff you find when you're not looking for it. One time I got dragged by my mother and grandmother to a bunch of antique stores and I ended up finding an old Cadaco baseball game with a complete set of player discs. My mom was amazed how I could end up finding baseball stuff at stuffy antique shops. Thanks to eBay I don't have to go out to antique stores for weird oddball stuff, I've got the equivalent of a thousand of them in my house.
I was killing time looking for lord knows what when I came across this strange little set. I'd never heard of it before but I had to have it. It contains the greatest card this hobby has ever known. I'll get to that card in a moment, but first let me explain this set. In 1993 the Florida Department of Agriculture put out two 8 card sets of baseball cards to promote Florida grown fruit and vegetables. They did one set of Braves, which I will be featuring all this week, and a set of Marlins which Mario can find and put on his own site because I hate the Marlins. They won't get out of first place! The BRAVES are supposed to be in first place, not the Marlins! You can't be in first place when Katie Couric makes more money than the whole team! It's just not right. They just won't stop winning, just tonight they beat the Mets 7-3! Well ok, right now I love the Marlins, but in a week when they are playing the Braves I will once again hate them with the fury of a thousand suns. Beating up on the Mets and Phillies is fine I suppose. Anyway, the Braves half of the set is awesome and contains this week's Card of the Week which is the best card ever in the history of anything.
For some reason almost all small oddball sets find it necessary to waste one of the few cards they have available on a header card to explain why the card set exists when everyone knows that baseball cards exist simply because they exist. Cards are very zen that way. This header card at least has a nice Braves flag to counter Bob Crawford's blithering on about fruit and health and stuff on the back. The front of the cards have a sort of a blue sideways pinstripey thing going on with red zig zaggy teeth chomping down on the card from the sides and a wavy green thing at the bottom with the player's name. The top left corner of each player card also has a Fresh 2 U logo with a baseball diamond, a gold stripe, bats and some sort of fruit or veggie all mixed up into a mess that probably sounded good in the design committee but looks dorky on the card. I'll bet the Agriculture Commissioner's wife insisted on the gold stripe and the marketing director thought using "2 U" would be "hip" and "rad" and would really appeal to "the kids". The whole thing looks like one of those cards they inserted in Topps Magazine that was designed by a 7 year old who won a contest. Ah, but you haven't heard the best part. The core theme of this set is "Ballplayers Doing Silly Things With Fruit". Combine that with the blatant ridiculousness of the design and you have a set of epic proportions.
Here's the back of the card with Bob Crawford's words of wisdom for the ages. Or more likely Bob's press secretary's words. Or rather, Bob's press secretary's spring semester intern's girlfriend at Florida State who is working on an English degree's words is the most likely bet. Speaking of Zen Cards, check out this mind bender:
This is my new Zen Koan to ponder while meditating, and I'm not even Buddhist. Forget about one hand clapping or trees falling in the woods, this is something to think about. What do the Atlanta Braves have in common with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services? The answer on the card makes no damn sense so there must be something deeper to it. Nutrition is important to spirituality, right? I often say "make me one with everything" and the guy puts veggies on the hot dog right? Relish is too a veggie! Some of those veggies are probably from Florida. It's all connected somehow.
One thing bugs me about this set - I didn't realize there was a board game that goes along with it when I bought it. It says right there on the back, "enjoy playing the board game". Now I want to find another set that has the board game so I can see what kind of weird game needs pictures of ballplayers happily munching on veggies to play it. The backs of the card do have some kind of game device, as each has a baseball with either a hit or an out written on it. There are only 8 cards in the set though and five of them have either a hit or a walk as their play so there would be some high scoring games with players hitting .571 with a .625 on base percentage. I'm not a big enough stat geek to figure out OPS, you'll have to do that on your own. You could also cheat and play your card with Bob's speech every time and hit nothing but home runs. I don't think this set ever came with a game board though because instead of having the set torn along the perforations it looks like it was professionally cut. Or at least carefully cut. The edges are kinda straight. Oh you know what I mean. I'm going off the rails here so enough of this nonsense, Let's get to the thing you've all been waiting for. This week's Card of the Week:
(drumroll)
THE GREATEST CARD EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD FROM ALL OF HUMAN ENDEAVORS AND THE KNOWN UNIVERSE AMEN
No commentary, just enjoy.
I was killing time looking for lord knows what when I came across this strange little set. I'd never heard of it before but I had to have it. It contains the greatest card this hobby has ever known. I'll get to that card in a moment, but first let me explain this set. In 1993 the Florida Department of Agriculture put out two 8 card sets of baseball cards to promote Florida grown fruit and vegetables. They did one set of Braves, which I will be featuring all this week, and a set of Marlins which Mario can find and put on his own site because I hate the Marlins. They won't get out of first place! The BRAVES are supposed to be in first place, not the Marlins! You can't be in first place when Katie Couric makes more money than the whole team! It's just not right. They just won't stop winning, just tonight they beat the Mets 7-3! Well ok, right now I love the Marlins, but in a week when they are playing the Braves I will once again hate them with the fury of a thousand suns. Beating up on the Mets and Phillies is fine I suppose. Anyway, the Braves half of the set is awesome and contains this week's Card of the Week which is the best card ever in the history of anything.
For some reason almost all small oddball sets find it necessary to waste one of the few cards they have available on a header card to explain why the card set exists when everyone knows that baseball cards exist simply because they exist. Cards are very zen that way. This header card at least has a nice Braves flag to counter Bob Crawford's blithering on about fruit and health and stuff on the back. The front of the cards have a sort of a blue sideways pinstripey thing going on with red zig zaggy teeth chomping down on the card from the sides and a wavy green thing at the bottom with the player's name. The top left corner of each player card also has a Fresh 2 U logo with a baseball diamond, a gold stripe, bats and some sort of fruit or veggie all mixed up into a mess that probably sounded good in the design committee but looks dorky on the card. I'll bet the Agriculture Commissioner's wife insisted on the gold stripe and the marketing director thought using "2 U" would be "hip" and "rad" and would really appeal to "the kids". The whole thing looks like one of those cards they inserted in Topps Magazine that was designed by a 7 year old who won a contest. Ah, but you haven't heard the best part. The core theme of this set is "Ballplayers Doing Silly Things With Fruit". Combine that with the blatant ridiculousness of the design and you have a set of epic proportions.
Here's the back of the card with Bob Crawford's words of wisdom for the ages. Or more likely Bob's press secretary's words. Or rather, Bob's press secretary's spring semester intern's girlfriend at Florida State who is working on an English degree's words is the most likely bet. Speaking of Zen Cards, check out this mind bender:"What do the Atlanta Braves have in common with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services?"
This is my new Zen Koan to ponder while meditating, and I'm not even Buddhist. Forget about one hand clapping or trees falling in the woods, this is something to think about. What do the Atlanta Braves have in common with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services? The answer on the card makes no damn sense so there must be something deeper to it. Nutrition is important to spirituality, right? I often say "make me one with everything" and the guy puts veggies on the hot dog right? Relish is too a veggie! Some of those veggies are probably from Florida. It's all connected somehow.
One thing bugs me about this set - I didn't realize there was a board game that goes along with it when I bought it. It says right there on the back, "enjoy playing the board game". Now I want to find another set that has the board game so I can see what kind of weird game needs pictures of ballplayers happily munching on veggies to play it. The backs of the card do have some kind of game device, as each has a baseball with either a hit or an out written on it. There are only 8 cards in the set though and five of them have either a hit or a walk as their play so there would be some high scoring games with players hitting .571 with a .625 on base percentage. I'm not a big enough stat geek to figure out OPS, you'll have to do that on your own. You could also cheat and play your card with Bob's speech every time and hit nothing but home runs. I don't think this set ever came with a game board though because instead of having the set torn along the perforations it looks like it was professionally cut. Or at least carefully cut. The edges are kinda straight. Oh you know what I mean. I'm going off the rails here so enough of this nonsense, Let's get to the thing you've all been waiting for. This week's Card of the Week:
(drumroll)
THE GREATEST CARD EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD FROM ALL OF HUMAN ENDEAVORS AND THE KNOWN UNIVERSE AMEN
No commentary, just enjoy.
Memorial Day
My Memorial Day post is taking a whole lot longer to finish than I thought it would so I'm going to take time out on writing it to remember everyone in the Air Force,
Navy,
Army,
Coast Guard,
and Marines.
Thanks for your service to our country and stay safe out there.
Navy,
Army,
Coast Guard,
and Marines.
Thanks for your service to our country and stay safe out there.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
New UD Fat Pack
There's a new kind of Fat Pack from Upper Deck out now, The "Rookie Edition". If you're not familiar with Fat Packs, it's basically a rack pack with two pockets cards for 5 bucks. It's a way to get more cards for less money then buying regular packs, but there are no inserts other than the bonus cards included in the pack. The back of the packs are see-through so you can pick and choose which inserts you want. Nice thing too, because with 50 cards in the insert set at 5 bucks a pop you're looking at at least $250 bucks to complete the set. This is assuming of course that you can even find all the cards on the back of the packs. I'm guessing these packs are more enticing to player collectors and people who want a lot of base cards cheap than anyone who wants to build an insert set. The Series 1 Fat Packs feature 2 Hot Commodities which have a typical clichéd flames motif that I think has to be used in at least one insert set per year according to MLB trading card license rules. Here's Smoltzie from the set:
There's also a Chipper Jones card I haven't been able to find yet and a Mark Teixiera that I don't really want. If Tex signs a long term deal with Atlanta I'll start buying everything with his face on it, but right now I'm convinced that his cards will be sharing a dusty box full of J.D. Drewand Gary Sheffield cards this time next year. At the local Mega Mart this week I found some new Fat Packs hanging up above the shelf, but these new ones are purple and have some Yankee pitcher plastered on them. They are "Rookie Edition Fat Packs" thanks to the two Rookie Debut inserts that are looking out from the back. There are only 30 rookies in this hard-to-build set thankfully. Everything else is the same though, along with the rookies you get 34 more Upper Deck Series 1 cards that you probably already had. Both Fat Packs I've gotten this year had a Yankee stadium card in it too, so that's one less double I suppose. Here's the Brandon Jones Debut card from the set:
Nifty looking design, too bad Brandon Jones is stuck in Richmond until a Brave outfielder or two break a leg and go on the DL. Last year's Rookie Edition packs were kind of a mea culpa from Upper Deck who snuck in rookie cards that were otherwise only available through a redemption. There are no redemptions in this year's Series 1 and I didn't see anything new in the cards I got. The Rookie Checklist contains most of the typical Rookie cards that have haunted Series one sets this year. Nothing special, but if you're specifically collecting one of these rookies (say, Joey Votto) it might be worth scrounging though a few fat packs to add to your collection.
There's also a Chipper Jones card I haven't been able to find yet and a Mark Teixiera that I don't really want. If Tex signs a long term deal with Atlanta I'll start buying everything with his face on it, but right now I'm convinced that his cards will be sharing a dusty box full of J.D. Drewand Gary Sheffield cards this time next year. At the local Mega Mart this week I found some new Fat Packs hanging up above the shelf, but these new ones are purple and have some Yankee pitcher plastered on them. They are "Rookie Edition Fat Packs" thanks to the two Rookie Debut inserts that are looking out from the back. There are only 30 rookies in this hard-to-build set thankfully. Everything else is the same though, along with the rookies you get 34 more Upper Deck Series 1 cards that you probably already had. Both Fat Packs I've gotten this year had a Yankee stadium card in it too, so that's one less double I suppose. Here's the Brandon Jones Debut card from the set:
Nifty looking design, too bad Brandon Jones is stuck in Richmond until a Brave outfielder or two break a leg and go on the DL. Last year's Rookie Edition packs were kind of a mea culpa from Upper Deck who snuck in rookie cards that were otherwise only available through a redemption. There are no redemptions in this year's Series 1 and I didn't see anything new in the cards I got. The Rookie Checklist contains most of the typical Rookie cards that have haunted Series one sets this year. Nothing special, but if you're specifically collecting one of these rookies (say, Joey Votto) it might be worth scrounging though a few fat packs to add to your collection.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
The Elusive Ones
When I chose to get a regular Hobby box of Topps instead of a jumbo box, I knew I was going to miss out on two things: the two guaranteed hits and a complete set. The hits I didn't mind, I can pick up a relic and auto off eBay cheap as hell right now with all the case breakers flipping their pulls. The set was a little more worrisome, I knew if I didn't get it squared away I'd bee obsessively ripping packs like mad until I finished it. Silly me, I should have realized that I'd like the insert sets so much this year I'd be obsessively ripping packs like mad anyway. Between the Trading Card History, 50th Anniversary Rookie set and the Target T205's I'll be ripping for a while, even if I end up with a pile of Mantles and 14 Joe Biden cards.
So to justify buying packs full of doubles I'm going to conduct a little experiment. My hobby box had exactly 300 cards out of the 300 card set. I still need 30 to complete it, 31 if you count the Giuliani bullcrap card. I'm going to list them here, and see how many packs it takes to finish the set just through opening packs. Don't send me trade offers, don't send me cards through the mail, I want to finish this set through wax only. I'll probably complete two other near sets before I do it, but I want to see if it's possible. I'll quit if I finish all the insert sets before the base set, but hopefully it won't come to that.
The ones I pull will be in bold and will have the players name and pack number next to them. Packs are Hobby packs unless I note otherwise.
Here's the list:
5 - Scott Kazmir - Pack 20
8 - Stephen Drew - Pack 13
13 - Kendry Morales - Packs 1-5
23 - Ross Gload - Pack 20
29 - Anibal Sanchez - Pack 46
41 - Rich Aurilia - Pack 9
64 - Mike Lowell - Pack 13
72 - Mike Piazza - Pack 10
86 - Scott Podsednik - Pack 46
92 - Ross Detwiler RC - Pack 46
93 - Kenny Lofton - Pack 46
104 - Kevin Youkilis - Pack 9
115 - Johan Santana - Packs 1-5
142 - Chris Duncan - Pack 16
148 - Gerald Laird - Pack 16
154
171 - John Maine - Pack 10
184 - Tadahito Iguchi - Packs 1-5
191 - Orlando Hudson - Pack 28
193 - J. J. Hardy - Pack 10
196 - Chin-Lung Hu - Pack 20
210 - Mark Teahen - Packs 1-5
214
232
234 - Red Sox Postseason Highlights - Pack 7
242 - Manny Acta - Pack 16
250 - Jonathan Papelbon - Packs 1-5
266
298 - NL League Leaders Home Runs - Fielder, Howard & Dunn - Pack 27
319 - Joey Votto - Pack 13
Again, NO TRADE OFFERS. I'm finishing this set through packs!
Here's the good pulls out of the packs:
Packs 1-5 ( I sorted these before I decided to run the experiment) - Biden & Edwards Presidential Candidates, YR13 Halladay Year in Review, AR10 Dave Johnson & AR12 Dan Johnson 50th Anniversary Rookies. 5 cards for the set.
Not bad, 5 inserts I needed and 5 cards for the set. Add three gold foil cards and that leaves 37 doubles. Or, looking at the glass half full, I now am 37 cards into my second set.
Pack 6 (Target) - Mantle HR530. No cards for the set.
Pack 7 (Target) - TCP12 Steve Pearce T205. Got the Red Sox without the politician card for the set.
Pack 8 (Target) - TCP14 Wladimir Balentein T205, AR3 Doc Gooden 50th Anniversary. Two sweet inserts, but none for the set.
Pack 9 (Target) - TCP7 Chin-Lung Hu T205, AR34 Chipper Jones 50th Anniversary. Two for the set AND a Chipper! I already know I will not beat this pack in this experiment.
Pack 10 (Jumbo) - Edwards Prez, 202 Mike Lamb Gold, AR15 Hanley Ramirez 50th, Mantle HR520, YR50 Verlander Year in Review, OTG11 A-Rod Own the Game, THC5 Clay Buchholz History. Good: a few nice inserts and 3 cards for the set. Bad: only three for the set out of a jumbo. there were also 4 others that I pulled in the first 9 packs though. The first Presidential candidate double was disturbing.
One box + 10 packs (including a jumbo) and I still need 19 more for the set. I'm averaging about one card I need a pack though. This could take a while.
Pack 11 - AR26 Ozzie Smith 50th. None for the set.
Pack 12 - C08-HC Hillary Clinton. No cards for the set, but I didn't have Hillary yet. I've done reasonably well on the Predidential candidate cards so far, but soon I will get nothing but doubles of them and It Will Suck.
Pack 13 - Mantle HR #506. Three for the set! I doubt I'll beat that.
Pack 14 - Mantle HR #505. Nothing for the set.
Pack 15 - AR47 Shawn Green 50th. No cards for the set.
Yipe, five packs had only three cards and they were all in one pack. If it weren't for the two 50th anniversary cards (and the Chipper Jones Trading Card History Promo I got free with the packs) this would have been horrible. Sixteen to go.
Pack 16 - AR40 Mike Piazza 50th. Three more for the set! The Piazza card beats the hell out of the Mantle Home Run card too so this takes over as "best pack".
Pack 17 - 208 David DeJesus Gold. No cards for the set. I'm not even getting doubles of the ones on the list I needed so I'll still be chasing them for the second set.
Pack 18 - OTG3 Ryan Howard Own the Game. None for the set.
Pack 19 - TCH3 Dice-K Trading card History, MMS49 Mickey Mantle Story. No cards for the set but two sweet inserts.
Pack 20 - YR53 Oliver Perez Year in Review. Three more cards for the set, but I got the WORST CARD EVER for the insert. Rotten, lousy, graargh!
20 packs in and I've pulled 20 cards for the set. One a pack. I'm getting better odds on the inserts. I fear the last ten will be exponentially harder to pull.
Pack 21 (Jumbo) - Rudy Giuliani Gold, AR33 Billy Wagner 50thMantle HR #515, YR45 Randy Johnson Year in Review, OTG14 Ryan Howard Own the Game,TCH25 Grady Sizemore Card History, two decent gold foil cards - Sox Classic Combos and A-Rod. Thirty something base cards and not one for the set.
Pack 22 (Target) - TCP13 Vlad Guerrero T205. None for the set.
Pack 23 (Target) - OTG25 Fausto Carmona Own The Game, AR19 Julio Franco 50th. None for the set and the Fausto is a dupe. I'm overdue for a trade with Indians Cards Always guy anyway.
Pack 24 (Target) - TCP5 A-Rod T205. None for the set.
Pack 25 (Target) - TCP4 Luke Hochevar T205. None for the set. How easy are these T205's to get anyway?? That's 6 in 8 packs.
Complete disaster on this group of 5 packs. I got a bunch of inserts but none of the last 10 I need. That's it for a little while until I see a blaster hit the shelves.
Pack 26 - C08-MR Mitt Romney. None for the set. Did Topps purposely find the sleaziest picture of Mitt?
Pack 27 - OTG3 Ryan Howard Own the game. I have the Howard insert already, but I finally got another one for the set. 9 to go.
Pack 28 - Kazuo Uzuki Fake Bullcrap Advertisement. The insert sucked, but I got another one for the set. Down to 8.
Pack 29 (Target) - AR11 Jermaine Dye 50th, Barack Obama. None for the set, but a Braves Dye insert. The Candidate dupes are starting to pile up.
Pack 30 (Target) - AR5 Gary Carter, TCP7 Chin-Lung Hu T205. None for the set, another dupe insert.
Five more packs, got 20% of the cards I needed. Or to put it a bit more bleakly, 2 cards out of 50. Even more disturbing is most of the inserts I pulled are dupes too. I STILL haven't seen a freaking blaster. I'm starting to get antsy about that, I want to find out what the Wally World inserts are.
Ok finally found a blaster. The Wal-Mart exclusives are interesting, but that's for another post. Here's the rips:
Pack 31 (Wal-Mart) - AR51 Francisco Liriano 50th, OTG23 Brandon Webb Own the Game. None for the set.
Pack 32 (Wal-Mart) - Nothing. First pack without inserts. The box topper pack and two inserts in the first pack somewhat mitigates this, but it's still disappointing.
Pack 33 (Wal-Mart) - MMS48 Mickey Mantle Story. No cards for the set and I think the Mantle is also a dupe. The box isn't working out too well so far.
Pack 34 (Wal-Mart) - C08-MR Mitt Romney. None for the set. One last chance for even one card I need...
Pack 35 (Wal-Mart) - MHR513 Mantle Home Run. None for the set. I was also taunted by several cards that were one number away from ones I needed.
This box was a disaster. None for the set and at least two of the inserts were dupes. The box topper made up for it though as you'll see next week. So far I've ripped the equivalent of at least another box looking for those last thirty cards and still come up short. This is why what I'm trying to do is a bloody stupid idea. Still, who knows, I could get lucky next time! (yeah right)
I haven't bought any Topps for a couple of months but I decided to try one more box to see if I would get lucky. The Box Topper pack had Man-Ram, Ichiro and Mantle Deck Perez cards so I'm off to a good start. If I get one or two of the 8 I need for the set I'll be dancing.
Pack 36 (Wal-Mart) - OTG5 Brandon Webb Own the Game. None for the set.
Pack 37 (Wal-Mart) - Useless, worthless 3rd copy of Kazuo Uzuki and nothing else.
Pack 38 (Wal-Mart) - MMS55 Mickey Mantle Story. AR28 Garret Anderson all star rookie. No cards for the set.
Pack 39 (Wal-Mart) - C08-FT Fred Thompson. None for the set. Once again I'm striking out on a Wal-Mart box.
Pack 40 (Wal-Mart) - MHR517 Mantle Home Run. None for the set.
Second straight blaster that netted nothing for the set. Starting to get the picture? I did need the Fred Thompson card though, so the inserts save the box from disaster. Maybe I should try a Target blaster since the Wal-Mart ones aren't working out too well.
I probably should have noted each time this post was updated with a date or something, but it's too late for that now. Maybe next time I try something as daft as this I'll remember to do that. True to my word, I got a Target box this time. They are discounted to $7.50 a box now, which is like a gallon of gas nowadays. Cards are increasingly becoming a better value! This box started off badly as the T205 bonus pack had a Joba Chamberlain and TWO Steve Pearce cards. I think those are my third and fourth Pearce T205 cards. Pulling just one little card I need to complete this set will make up for it though. Just ONE.
Pack 41 (Target) - YR55 Mark Reynolds Year in Review and none for the set.
Pack 42 (Target) - OTG9 Lance Berkman Own The Game, AR44 Todd Helton 50th. None for the set.
Pack 43 (Target) - No inserts and none for the set. Ouch.
Pack 44 (Target) - Another pack with no inserts and all doubles. This is getting painful.
Pack 45 (Target) - MMS46 Mickey Mantle and zippo. There wasn't even a Brave in this box.
Three straight blasters and none had even one card I needed. I need to rethink my strategery on this project.
Pack 46 (Value Pack) - C08-JM John McCain, YR3 Ian Snell Year in Review, OTG10 Own the Game Miguel Cabrera and four cards for the set! And I only cheated a little bit! Check out the full pack rip here.
So to justify buying packs full of doubles I'm going to conduct a little experiment. My hobby box had exactly 300 cards out of the 300 card set. I still need 30 to complete it, 31 if you count the Giuliani bullcrap card. I'm going to list them here, and see how many packs it takes to finish the set just through opening packs. Don't send me trade offers, don't send me cards through the mail, I want to finish this set through wax only. I'll probably complete two other near sets before I do it, but I want to see if it's possible. I'll quit if I finish all the insert sets before the base set, but hopefully it won't come to that.
The ones I pull will be in bold and will have the players name and pack number next to them. Packs are Hobby packs unless I note otherwise.
Here's the list:
5 - Scott Kazmir - Pack 20
8 - Stephen Drew - Pack 13
13 - Kendry Morales - Packs 1-5
23 - Ross Gload - Pack 20
29 - Anibal Sanchez - Pack 46
41 - Rich Aurilia - Pack 9
64 - Mike Lowell - Pack 13
72 - Mike Piazza - Pack 10
86 - Scott Podsednik - Pack 46
92 - Ross Detwiler RC - Pack 46
93 - Kenny Lofton - Pack 46
104 - Kevin Youkilis - Pack 9
115 - Johan Santana - Packs 1-5
142 - Chris Duncan - Pack 16
148 - Gerald Laird - Pack 16
154
171 - John Maine - Pack 10
184 - Tadahito Iguchi - Packs 1-5
191 - Orlando Hudson - Pack 28
193 - J. J. Hardy - Pack 10
196 - Chin-Lung Hu - Pack 20
210 - Mark Teahen - Packs 1-5
214
232
234 - Red Sox Postseason Highlights - Pack 7
242 - Manny Acta - Pack 16
250 - Jonathan Papelbon - Packs 1-5
266
298 - NL League Leaders Home Runs - Fielder, Howard & Dunn - Pack 27
319 - Joey Votto - Pack 13
Again, NO TRADE OFFERS. I'm finishing this set through packs!
Here's the good pulls out of the packs:
Packs 1-5 ( I sorted these before I decided to run the experiment) - Biden & Edwards Presidential Candidates, YR13 Halladay Year in Review, AR10 Dave Johnson & AR12 Dan Johnson 50th Anniversary Rookies. 5 cards for the set.
Not bad, 5 inserts I needed and 5 cards for the set. Add three gold foil cards and that leaves 37 doubles. Or, looking at the glass half full, I now am 37 cards into my second set.Pack 6 (Target) - Mantle HR530. No cards for the set.
Pack 7 (Target) - TCP12 Steve Pearce T205. Got the Red Sox without the politician card for the set.
Pack 8 (Target) - TCP14 Wladimir Balentein T205, AR3 Doc Gooden 50th Anniversary. Two sweet inserts, but none for the set.
Pack 9 (Target) - TCP7 Chin-Lung Hu T205, AR34 Chipper Jones 50th Anniversary. Two for the set AND a Chipper! I already know I will not beat this pack in this experiment.
Pack 10 (Jumbo) - Edwards Prez, 202 Mike Lamb Gold, AR15 Hanley Ramirez 50th, Mantle HR520, YR50 Verlander Year in Review, OTG11 A-Rod Own the Game, THC5 Clay Buchholz History. Good: a few nice inserts and 3 cards for the set. Bad: only three for the set out of a jumbo. there were also 4 others that I pulled in the first 9 packs though. The first Presidential candidate double was disturbing.
One box + 10 packs (including a jumbo) and I still need 19 more for the set. I'm averaging about one card I need a pack though. This could take a while.Pack 11 - AR26 Ozzie Smith 50th. None for the set.
Pack 12 - C08-HC Hillary Clinton. No cards for the set, but I didn't have Hillary yet. I've done reasonably well on the Predidential candidate cards so far, but soon I will get nothing but doubles of them and It Will Suck.
Pack 13 - Mantle HR #506. Three for the set! I doubt I'll beat that.
Pack 14 - Mantle HR #505. Nothing for the set.
Pack 15 - AR47 Shawn Green 50th. No cards for the set.
Yipe, five packs had only three cards and they were all in one pack. If it weren't for the two 50th anniversary cards (and the Chipper Jones Trading Card History Promo I got free with the packs) this would have been horrible. Sixteen to go.Pack 16 - AR40 Mike Piazza 50th. Three more for the set! The Piazza card beats the hell out of the Mantle Home Run card too so this takes over as "best pack".
Pack 17 - 208 David DeJesus Gold. No cards for the set. I'm not even getting doubles of the ones on the list I needed so I'll still be chasing them for the second set.
Pack 18 - OTG3 Ryan Howard Own the Game. None for the set.
Pack 19 - TCH3 Dice-K Trading card History, MMS49 Mickey Mantle Story. No cards for the set but two sweet inserts.
Pack 20 - YR53 Oliver Perez Year in Review. Three more cards for the set, but I got the WORST CARD EVER for the insert. Rotten, lousy, graargh!
20 packs in and I've pulled 20 cards for the set. One a pack. I'm getting better odds on the inserts. I fear the last ten will be exponentially harder to pull.Pack 21 (Jumbo) - Rudy Giuliani Gold, AR33 Billy Wagner 50thMantle HR #515, YR45 Randy Johnson Year in Review, OTG14 Ryan Howard Own the Game,TCH25 Grady Sizemore Card History, two decent gold foil cards - Sox Classic Combos and A-Rod. Thirty something base cards and not one for the set.
Pack 22 (Target) - TCP13 Vlad Guerrero T205. None for the set.
Pack 23 (Target) - OTG25 Fausto Carmona Own The Game, AR19 Julio Franco 50th. None for the set and the Fausto is a dupe. I'm overdue for a trade with Indians Cards Always guy anyway.
Pack 24 (Target) - TCP5 A-Rod T205. None for the set.
Pack 25 (Target) - TCP4 Luke Hochevar T205. None for the set. How easy are these T205's to get anyway?? That's 6 in 8 packs.
Complete disaster on this group of 5 packs. I got a bunch of inserts but none of the last 10 I need. That's it for a little while until I see a blaster hit the shelves.
Pack 26 - C08-MR Mitt Romney. None for the set. Did Topps purposely find the sleaziest picture of Mitt?Pack 27 - OTG3 Ryan Howard Own the game. I have the Howard insert already, but I finally got another one for the set. 9 to go.
Pack 28 - Kazuo Uzuki Fake Bullcrap Advertisement. The insert sucked, but I got another one for the set. Down to 8.
Pack 29 (Target) - AR11 Jermaine Dye 50th, Barack Obama. None for the set, but a Braves Dye insert. The Candidate dupes are starting to pile up.
Pack 30 (Target) - AR5 Gary Carter, TCP7 Chin-Lung Hu T205. None for the set, another dupe insert.
Five more packs, got 20% of the cards I needed. Or to put it a bit more bleakly, 2 cards out of 50. Even more disturbing is most of the inserts I pulled are dupes too. I STILL haven't seen a freaking blaster. I'm starting to get antsy about that, I want to find out what the Wally World inserts are.
Ok finally found a blaster. The Wal-Mart exclusives are interesting, but that's for another post. Here's the rips:
Pack 31 (Wal-Mart) - AR51 Francisco Liriano 50th, OTG23 Brandon Webb Own the Game. None for the set.Pack 32 (Wal-Mart) - Nothing. First pack without inserts. The box topper pack and two inserts in the first pack somewhat mitigates this, but it's still disappointing.
Pack 33 (Wal-Mart) - MMS48 Mickey Mantle Story. No cards for the set and I think the Mantle is also a dupe. The box isn't working out too well so far.
Pack 34 (Wal-Mart) - C08-MR Mitt Romney. None for the set. One last chance for even one card I need...
Pack 35 (Wal-Mart) - MHR513 Mantle Home Run. None for the set. I was also taunted by several cards that were one number away from ones I needed.
This box was a disaster. None for the set and at least two of the inserts were dupes. The box topper made up for it though as you'll see next week. So far I've ripped the equivalent of at least another box looking for those last thirty cards and still come up short. This is why what I'm trying to do is a bloody stupid idea. Still, who knows, I could get lucky next time! (yeah right)
I haven't bought any Topps for a couple of months but I decided to try one more box to see if I would get lucky. The Box Topper pack had Man-Ram, Ichiro and Mantle Deck Perez cards so I'm off to a good start. If I get one or two of the 8 I need for the set I'll be dancing.
Pack 36 (Wal-Mart) - OTG5 Brandon Webb Own the Game. None for the set.Pack 37 (Wal-Mart) - Useless, worthless 3rd copy of Kazuo Uzuki and nothing else.
Pack 38 (Wal-Mart) - MMS55 Mickey Mantle Story. AR28 Garret Anderson all star rookie. No cards for the set.
Pack 39 (Wal-Mart) - C08-FT Fred Thompson. None for the set. Once again I'm striking out on a Wal-Mart box.
Pack 40 (Wal-Mart) - MHR517 Mantle Home Run. None for the set.
Second straight blaster that netted nothing for the set. Starting to get the picture? I did need the Fred Thompson card though, so the inserts save the box from disaster. Maybe I should try a Target blaster since the Wal-Mart ones aren't working out too well.I probably should have noted each time this post was updated with a date or something, but it's too late for that now. Maybe next time I try something as daft as this I'll remember to do that. True to my word, I got a Target box this time. They are discounted to $7.50 a box now, which is like a gallon of gas nowadays. Cards are increasingly becoming a better value! This box started off badly as the T205 bonus pack had a Joba Chamberlain and TWO Steve Pearce cards. I think those are my third and fourth Pearce T205 cards. Pulling just one little card I need to complete this set will make up for it though. Just ONE.
Pack 41 (Target) - YR55 Mark Reynolds Year in Review and none for the set.Pack 42 (Target) - OTG9 Lance Berkman Own The Game, AR44 Todd Helton 50th. None for the set.
Pack 43 (Target) - No inserts and none for the set. Ouch.
Pack 44 (Target) - Another pack with no inserts and all doubles. This is getting painful.
Pack 45 (Target) - MMS46 Mickey Mantle and zippo. There wasn't even a Brave in this box.
Three straight blasters and none had even one card I needed. I need to rethink my strategery on this project.
Pack 46 (Value Pack) - C08-JM John McCain, YR3 Ian Snell Year in Review, OTG10 Own the Game Miguel Cabrera and four cards for the set! And I only cheated a little bit! Check out the full pack rip here.Sticky Saturday - Chasing Paper Edition
Here's another sticker from FleerFan featuring the Bravos. This sticker is blank on the back, so I'm not sure at all what year it's from. Sometime in the 70s I guess. Some of the first cards I ever got were stickers like these from a card/memorabilia store called the Paper Chase. They had a big bin the size of a card table with a bunch of random cards in it for a penny each. When I was about 8 or 9 I got to scrounge through it and many of the cards I chose were stickers with a similar design to these. It was a pretty big mess, piles of cards were everywhere getting dinged and bent. There were a few other kids besides me digging through it when I was there and we were all having having a ball. I think I ended up with more basketball cards and stickers than baseball cards. It could be that I just remember the basketball cards better though because they were the only ones I had for a long time. The baseball cards probably just got mixed up in the cigar box with the rest of my collection and don't stick out in my mind as a result.
My stickers had a puzzle of either a World Series or All-Star game on the back. Other than the back, everything else is the same down to the "Grand Slam High Gloss Stickers" text on the card. Like the basketball cards they were the only Fleer stickers from the '70s I had. I never found any packages of Fleer Logo stickers when I was a kid, but I didn't really pay attention to packs of cards till about 1981. By that time Fleer was probably focusing more on the cards than the stickers. I don't really remember anything else about one of my first trips - if not the first trip - to a card store other than that table with the big pile of loose cards all mixed up and the little pile of stickers I pulled out of it. I didn't get a Braves sticker back then (but three Twins stickers for some reason) so this is a nice addition to the collection.
Friday, May 23, 2008
One more year for Bobby
Bobby Cox signed a one year extension on his contract today, and is set to manage the Braves through 2009. This is the best part of the story:“I’m certainly going to end my career here,” Cox said. “There’s no doubt about that now. I’m happy. We’ve got great ballplayers. They’re fun to be around and it’s a fun team to be a part of. If it wasn’t fun, you should get out of the game, but I’m still having fun.”
This confirms what everybody already knew, that Bobby has a job for life in Atlanta as long as he wants it. The players want him here, the general manager wants him here and I guess the owners want him here, although I've seen no proof that Liberty Media actually knows they own a baseball team yet. I'm glad Bobby wants to stick around. Managers come and go like bad checks nowadays. It wan't very long ago at all that Willie Randolph was the #1 name on everyone's managerial wish list, now half of New York wants him thrown in the Hudson. I'd much rather have continuity in management and a strong front office instead of trying something new every couple of years hoping to get it right one of these times. Hopefully Bobby has a lot more one-year extensions ahead.
The Braves celebrated by going out and getting hammered by the D-Backs 11-1 in Doug Davis' return from cancer surgery. That probably wasn't so fun for Bobby. I'm happy for Doug though, I've been following him since his days in Milwaukee and it's good to see that he's cancer-free and still pitching well. Fortunately, the Marlins and Phillies also lost tonight so we didn't lose ground on anyone. After this little glitch the Braves can extend their league-leading home record and clean up on the rest of the games this weekend.
Minor League Baseball is Better
Cheap seats, cheap beer, autographs-a-plenty and promotions like the Senator Larry Craig Bobblefoot bathroom stall. The St. Paul Saints are giving away the naughty collectible to the first 15,000 fans at this Sunday's game. The Smoking Gun has great pictures of the giveaway toy with happy feet. All you Minnesota collectors should go support the local team, and come home with a toe tapping treat!
Thursday, May 22, 2008
How Sweep It IS
Not even the Mighty Santana could keep the Mets from dropping four straight in Atlanta.
As much as I want to gloat though, I sense there may be some gloominess at a fellow blogger's abode due to this as well as other circumstances. To try to cheer them up, I offer this card of the man who hit the game-winning RBI in tonight's game (and could it have really been anyone else?) with a big 'ol smile on his face.
Hopefully this doesn't twist the knife in further, but we just swept the Mets. I gotta gloat a little.
As much as I want to gloat though, I sense there may be some gloominess at a fellow blogger's abode due to this as well as other circumstances. To try to cheer them up, I offer this card of the man who hit the game-winning RBI in tonight's game (and could it have really been anyone else?) with a big 'ol smile on his face.
Hopefully this doesn't twist the knife in further, but we just swept the Mets. I gotta gloat a little.
Don't read that, read this!
Yeah, so it might be midnight or later before I can post anything so here's a few blogs I have come across recently that you can read while I get crap done. Thank goodness for scheduled posts or A Pack A Day might be bare for a while.
West Virginia Cards Billy tried to suck up to me with the Chipper Jones Bobblehead card and it worked!
bdj610's Topps Baseball Card Blog all Topps, alllll riiiiiight! He apparently scooped everyone on the Allen & Ginter code thingy contest.
A Pudge is a Sandwich I don't even know what this is, it's about sports, lots of NBA, A's and Tigers stuff, regrettably some Cubs stuff too, but he posted the two crazy kids dancing so it's all right with me.
Tulo Trader the guy likes Troy Tulowitzki, what can I say?
Beginner's Wax it's always fun to see the brand new collectors out there before the hobby's institutional greed and avarice jades their soon to be cynical little hearts.
Capewood's Collections is also working on something interesting but it's still in the preliminary stages so I'll let him announce it. In the meantime he's got some good cards and music up on the blog.
Did you know The Writer's Journey was an artist?
West Virginia Cards Billy tried to suck up to me with the Chipper Jones Bobblehead card and it worked!
bdj610's Topps Baseball Card Blog all Topps, alllll riiiiiight! He apparently scooped everyone on the Allen & Ginter code thingy contest.
A Pudge is a Sandwich I don't even know what this is, it's about sports, lots of NBA, A's and Tigers stuff, regrettably some Cubs stuff too, but he posted the two crazy kids dancing so it's all right with me.
Tulo Trader the guy likes Troy Tulowitzki, what can I say?
Beginner's Wax it's always fun to see the brand new collectors out there before the hobby's institutional greed and avarice jades their soon to be cynical little hearts.
Capewood's Collections is also working on something interesting but it's still in the preliminary stages so I'll let him announce it. In the meantime he's got some good cards and music up on the blog.
Did you know The Writer's Journey was an artist?
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Happy Birthday Bobby!
The Braves are giving him his one thousand nine hundred and twenty fifth win for a birthday present! How thoughtful!
Actual Trading Card History - What the hell is this card supposed to be
Ok, This history lesson is for last week's giveaway card of Miguel Cabrera. Here it is:
The back of the card says it's from a 1940 card design. There are four types of cards from this set as far as I'm concerned.
1) The card has the name of the card issue on the back.
In this instance I usually say "cool card" put it in the binder and ignore it. Most of these cards are Topps designs and everyone knows what they are anyway.
2) The card does not have the name of the card issue on the back and I know what it is.
Usually these cards will say "1933 card design" when everyone bloody well knows it's a Goudey but Topps can't use the word lest Upper Deck's lawyers get enough overtime to buy that second Benz. These are on my short list to feature, but laziness/business has gotten in the way.
3) The card has a Brave on it.
Insta-Post. I pay the card shop owner to let me use his computer so I can have it online before he even hands me the card.
4) The card does not have the name of the card issue on the back and I do not know what it is.
Now we are at the group of cards that will make me post the sucker to the blog. What happens is I look at the card, think "wtf is that" and by the time I've figured out what the heck the design is from I have enough info on the thing that I may as well go ahead and write the post. This Cabrera is one of those cards.
Now, when I finally get around to writing up these posts, here's the methodology I use to figure out what kind of card it is:
First place I look is here. It's an old Baseball Card investment guide from the late 80's (5 Year Projection for 1988 Topps - Well Above Average) that lists out all of the major card issues and a lot of the oddball issues from the 1800's to 1988. It's not comprehensive, but there are tons of photos and usually at least a half page of information on each set. The best thing about it is that it's in chronological order going backwards. So if you're looking for an unknown card from 1940 you can head straight to that date and look it up. The only 1940 set in this book is Play Ball which this card is not. So now I look in here:
Ok, it's a little old, but it's got everything I need to look up obscure vintage cards. I have no idea how the air freshener sticker got on there and I'm not going to bother to take it off. The card set that this design comes from is in this book somewhere, I just need to find it. Unfortunately the book is arranged alphabetically and not chronologically, so it's time to hit the index.
Not many card sets were printed in 1940 so this should be a quick search. I'll have to go through the book and look up each one I'm not familiar with from the Associated Stations San Francisco Seals set to the Wheaties Champs of the USA set. So what do you do if you don't have all these fancy books? The same thing you do when you look through all thse card issues and don't find a single match like what just happened to me! Off to the Interwebs!
The stupid thing is that I recognize this design, I just don't know exactly what the thing is. It sure isn't a design from 1940, unless Topps unearthed an uncatalogued card issue. So where to start? Looking at my go to pages for vintage card info, Vintage Card Traders don't have a virtual set for 1940, Baseball Almanac only has Play Ball, and Old Baseball Cards has a list of sets, but not much more info than the SCD index. Old Cardboard also has a list of card issues with links to pics, but no matches among 1940 cards. Dave's Vintage has truckloads of picks but no way to figure out what 1940 issue we're looking for.
I struck out on my go to pages, so now Google is my friend. I do a search for "1940 baseball card" and get a lot of stuff. Since I don't know what I'm looking for, but I know what it looks like, Google Images is useful. Just make sure Safe Search is ON or you might get a nice surprise. The results aren't that specific though and I'm getting everything from Honus Wagner T206 cards to some dude's grandpa. For the record the first girl in a bikini is on page 4 of the results. So back to the links. A lot of the search results are cards for sale, but those are actually pretty useful. If a card exists, it's likely to be for sale somewhere. Google shopping is ok, but why not just go to the motherlode. EBay single cards, 1940-1949.
With the now standard gallery views on the side you can scroll through a lot of pages and get almost 99% cards from the 40's instead of Gramps. This has the added benefit, or disadvantage if you prefer, of being able to keep an eye out for cool cards to buy. I'm seeing a lot of Menko cards that are distracting me right now. So after following one false lead, putting a bunch of stuff on my watchlist and bidding on no less than THREE cards (someone stop me!) I still haven't figured out where this lousy card is from using my usual research steps. However sometimes lady luck is on your side.
While flipping through the SCD looking for the 1940 Buffalo Bisons minor league set, a set by Centennial Flour caught my eye. Here's the listing from the SCD:
That looks like the right stuff! Now that I know what I'm looking for, a Google search for "Centennial Flour Seattle Rainiers" makes things easy and I find what I'm looking for. That Old Cardboard link had what I was looking for, and I actually clicked on it but didn't scroll down to see all the cards. I only saw the 1943 version and passed before finding the rest of the designs on the bottom. FKW Century Old Cards has an example from 1947 as well, and I think we've found our card. According to the SCD the '45 version is blue and white and Miguel's card is black (well, kind of sepia actually, but I'll let it slide) and white. Both sets have the same style black bar with the player name in caps and the team name in italics. Success! The Topps Trading Card History card of Miguel Cabrera, card number TCH43, is using the design from the 1947 Centennial Flour Seattle Rainiers minor league set.
So Topps for their Trading Card History set - which is supposed to celebrate the history of trading cards - used the design of an obscure minor league set from the 40's and didn't identify the set or discuss the set at all in the copy on the back of the card. Plus they GOT THE FREAKING DATE WRONG as well. Good Job Topps! Way to celebrate history! With proofreading like this, I'm looking forward to pulling a 1960 Presidential Campaign insert card of Terry Kennedy and Mojo Nixon. Even Miguel looks disgusted by the whole thing. All shall be forgiven if I win one of those auctions I bid on though. There are some really neat cards from the 40's out there!
The back of the card says it's from a 1940 card design. There are four types of cards from this set as far as I'm concerned.
1) The card has the name of the card issue on the back.
In this instance I usually say "cool card" put it in the binder and ignore it. Most of these cards are Topps designs and everyone knows what they are anyway.
2) The card does not have the name of the card issue on the back and I know what it is.
Usually these cards will say "1933 card design" when everyone bloody well knows it's a Goudey but Topps can't use the word lest Upper Deck's lawyers get enough overtime to buy that second Benz. These are on my short list to feature, but laziness/business has gotten in the way.
3) The card has a Brave on it.
Insta-Post. I pay the card shop owner to let me use his computer so I can have it online before he even hands me the card.
4) The card does not have the name of the card issue on the back and I do not know what it is.
Now we are at the group of cards that will make me post the sucker to the blog. What happens is I look at the card, think "wtf is that" and by the time I've figured out what the heck the design is from I have enough info on the thing that I may as well go ahead and write the post. This Cabrera is one of those cards.
Now, when I finally get around to writing up these posts, here's the methodology I use to figure out what kind of card it is:
First place I look is here. It's an old Baseball Card investment guide from the late 80's (5 Year Projection for 1988 Topps - Well Above Average) that lists out all of the major card issues and a lot of the oddball issues from the 1800's to 1988. It's not comprehensive, but there are tons of photos and usually at least a half page of information on each set. The best thing about it is that it's in chronological order going backwards. So if you're looking for an unknown card from 1940 you can head straight to that date and look it up. The only 1940 set in this book is Play Ball which this card is not. So now I look in here:
Ok, it's a little old, but it's got everything I need to look up obscure vintage cards. I have no idea how the air freshener sticker got on there and I'm not going to bother to take it off. The card set that this design comes from is in this book somewhere, I just need to find it. Unfortunately the book is arranged alphabetically and not chronologically, so it's time to hit the index.
Not many card sets were printed in 1940 so this should be a quick search. I'll have to go through the book and look up each one I'm not familiar with from the Associated Stations San Francisco Seals set to the Wheaties Champs of the USA set. So what do you do if you don't have all these fancy books? The same thing you do when you look through all thse card issues and don't find a single match like what just happened to me! Off to the Interwebs!
The stupid thing is that I recognize this design, I just don't know exactly what the thing is. It sure isn't a design from 1940, unless Topps unearthed an uncatalogued card issue. So where to start? Looking at my go to pages for vintage card info, Vintage Card Traders don't have a virtual set for 1940, Baseball Almanac only has Play Ball, and Old Baseball Cards has a list of sets, but not much more info than the SCD index. Old Cardboard also has a list of card issues with links to pics, but no matches among 1940 cards. Dave's Vintage has truckloads of picks but no way to figure out what 1940 issue we're looking for.
I struck out on my go to pages, so now Google is my friend. I do a search for "1940 baseball card" and get a lot of stuff. Since I don't know what I'm looking for, but I know what it looks like, Google Images is useful. Just make sure Safe Search is ON or you might get a nice surprise. The results aren't that specific though and I'm getting everything from Honus Wagner T206 cards to some dude's grandpa. For the record the first girl in a bikini is on page 4 of the results. So back to the links. A lot of the search results are cards for sale, but those are actually pretty useful. If a card exists, it's likely to be for sale somewhere. Google shopping is ok, but why not just go to the motherlode. EBay single cards, 1940-1949.
With the now standard gallery views on the side you can scroll through a lot of pages and get almost 99% cards from the 40's instead of Gramps. This has the added benefit, or disadvantage if you prefer, of being able to keep an eye out for cool cards to buy. I'm seeing a lot of Menko cards that are distracting me right now. So after following one false lead, putting a bunch of stuff on my watchlist and bidding on no less than THREE cards (someone stop me!) I still haven't figured out where this lousy card is from using my usual research steps. However sometimes lady luck is on your side.
While flipping through the SCD looking for the 1940 Buffalo Bisons minor league set, a set by Centennial Flour caught my eye. Here's the listing from the SCD:
That looks like the right stuff! Now that I know what I'm looking for, a Google search for "Centennial Flour Seattle Rainiers" makes things easy and I find what I'm looking for. That Old Cardboard link had what I was looking for, and I actually clicked on it but didn't scroll down to see all the cards. I only saw the 1943 version and passed before finding the rest of the designs on the bottom. FKW Century Old Cards has an example from 1947 as well, and I think we've found our card. According to the SCD the '45 version is blue and white and Miguel's card is black (well, kind of sepia actually, but I'll let it slide) and white. Both sets have the same style black bar with the player name in caps and the team name in italics. Success! The Topps Trading Card History card of Miguel Cabrera, card number TCH43, is using the design from the 1947 Centennial Flour Seattle Rainiers minor league set.
So Topps for their Trading Card History set - which is supposed to celebrate the history of trading cards - used the design of an obscure minor league set from the 40's and didn't identify the set or discuss the set at all in the copy on the back of the card. Plus they GOT THE FREAKING DATE WRONG as well. Good Job Topps! Way to celebrate history! With proofreading like this, I'm looking forward to pulling a 1960 Presidential Campaign insert card of Terry Kennedy and Mojo Nixon. Even Miguel looks disgusted by the whole thing. All shall be forgiven if I win one of those auctions I bid on though. There are some really neat cards from the 40's out there!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
OUCH
Ryan Church getting kneed square in the head when he tried to take out Yunel Escobar on that game-ending double play gave me a headache and I'm mad at the guy for wiping out Yunel twice. Dude has a knot on his forehead the size and color of a ripe apple. Both players had to be helped off the field, which is a lousy way to end a doubleheader.
Mailbox Sneak Peek
Hey! Lookee what came in the mail!
The Upper Deck Store catalog! What new card goodies are inside?
Woohoo! Upper Deck Series 2! Retail! Can't really tell anything from the box though other than we'll be seeing more StarQuest and Yankee Stadium cards. Oooh look! More new stuff!
2008 Artifacts! Cool, I liked this junk last year. I wonder what it looks like? Hey wait, what is that on the box?
HOLLYWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!
Looks like UD changed the name back to Artifacts from A Piece of History Baseball. Artifacts looks better on the wrapper anyway. If Spectrum is any indication of the quality of the "Hollywood" we might see concert used David Lee Roth banana hammock cards in our future.
UPDATE: Via Trader Crack from the comments, no banana hammocks in here!!! Holy crap!
The Upper Deck Store catalog! What new card goodies are inside?
Woohoo! Upper Deck Series 2! Retail! Can't really tell anything from the box though other than we'll be seeing more StarQuest and Yankee Stadium cards. Oooh look! More new stuff!
2008 Artifacts! Cool, I liked this junk last year. I wonder what it looks like? Hey wait, what is that on the box?
HOLLYWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!Looks like UD changed the name back to Artifacts from A Piece of History Baseball. Artifacts looks better on the wrapper anyway. If Spectrum is any indication of the quality of the "Hollywood" we might see concert used David Lee Roth banana hammock cards in our future.
UPDATE: Via Trader Crack from the comments, no banana hammocks in here!!! Holy crap!
2008 Finest Mini Box Experiment Part 1 - Completed!
UPDATE: ANOTHER UPDATE: I finished it! And I held out for rookie cards too! See down below! I'm yelling and I don't know why!
I was all ready to buy a mini box of 2008 Finest. Heck, I still regret not getting a mini box last year. The last time I ripped Finest was in 2005 and it was pretty fun. A dealer near me sold individual packs so I got a few and pulled a Mantle Xfractor and a Nelson Cruz Autograph. I wasn't crazy about the red backgrounds, but last year's design I really liked. I could have gotten a mini box if I really wanted to, but I held out for loose packs which never came. This year's set looks similar to last year's and I resolved to get one this year. I had the cash saved up to get one (or two, if the price was right and I decided to binge) and I was all ready to go. Then I saw this and this.
While I think they are kind of silly, I don't really mind these autograph cards of what is essentially booth fluff. Somebody has to be watching these Topps TV videos and they might appreciate one of them. As long as they didn't replace the auto hit in the mini box no one would really care. It was just yet another gimmick. It got me to thinking though... Why exactly am I buying a mini box again? I like the cards, but I've never actively tried to complete a set of the stuff. Normally I wait for the box breaking frenzy to subside and pick up a load of commons dirt cheap. Since there are thirty cards in a box (six five card packs) that are going for 42-45 bucks online, you're looking at about a buck and a half per card. OK, so they're not all commons. there's an autograph, three inserts (two Finest Moments and a Franchise Favorites), four refractors and a one in three shot at a redemption card. Just what we all want, redemption cards. So now we're looking at what... 22 or 23 commons and a handful of inserts for forty something bucks. A box wasn't looking so good to me anymore. Sure I could maybe pull a SuperGoofyFractor or a dual auto or something, but let's be realistic about it. Most people are going to get a prospect auto and one or two low numbered refractor parallels of semistars. I think I fit in the category of 'most people'.
I still like Finest though, so now I want to see if I can recreate a mini box on my own. Just check eBay, there's a freaking flood of refractors and autos out there right now, I can snag enough to fill up a mini box cheap and probably get cards I actually like too. The local hobby shop has a small pile of last year's commons, rookies, Finest Moments and refractors lurking in their cheap boxes too. I'm sure some '08's will start gettign added to them soon. The real killer for me though is when I saw the price tag for a mini box at the hobby store had a '5' at the front. No thanks. I still have my Finest money saved up though, so let's make a box!
I'll post my finds here and keep a running tally on how much my homemade box costs. You think I can beat the price of a box?
I'll start things off with the John Smoltz up at the top of the page. 50 cents for Smoltzie out of the aforementioned cheapo box. Not a bad start.
Up next is a common card jackpot. 19 different Finest cards in the 10 cent box. With a baker's dozen discount I got one free! With Smoltzie, that gives me 20 of 22 commons. Almost a whole mini box of base cards and I've spent $2.30.
Ok, a package came in the mail today with the rest of my box. Some guy busted about 50 cases and put everything up on eBay with 99 cent minimums. Combined shipping rules. Here's what I got:
Four refractors cost me $5.91 cents. The Hudson, McCann and Wladimir Balentien (I had to get at least one rookie out of this box) were 99 cents each while Chipper was the most expesive card I bought at $2.94. The tab so far is 22 commons and 4 refractors totaling $8.21.
Time for the inserts. There are two per mini box and surprise, surprise, mine were both numbered refractors! Not very likely in an actual box, but everything is possible at zombo.com. I got a Blue Smoltzie and a Black Vladdie, both are serial numbered. Once again they both went for the opening bid of 99 cents each. Our running total for 22 base cards, 4 refractors and 2 numbered inserts is $10.21. For comparison, the card shop near me is selling individual five card packs for $10.95 each.
There's also one Team Favorites card in each pack. Unfortunately the only teams who have favorites are the Mets, Yankees, Cubs and A's. All other teams have apathetic fans who don't care for any specific player. I got a Robinson Cano refractor (whaaa? another refractor?) For 99 cents just for mini box completeness sake. One card left and I've only spent $11.20! Will I drop 30 bucks on a rip girl autograph with "Hi mom" on it in red ink serial numbered to 5?Of course I won't! I'm a cheapskate! I got this for two fiddy!
JOSH ANDERSON!!! BLUE MICKEY FICKEY FRACTOR EVEN!!! Aww yeah, beat that autograph my little beeyotches! I already have autographs of Brandon Jones and Clint Sammons so Anderson was the choice. Topps still hasn't gotten the press release about his trade to the Braves though as he's still gto Astros plastered all over the card. I know he's a Brave dammit, even if Gregor Blanco has stolen his center field job and he's stuck in Richmond.Ok! Here'e the two rookies I got! I'm still yelling! LOUD NOISES!
Nick Blackburn who is 4-2 and in the Twins' starting rotation...
and the aforementioned Wladimir Balentien who has been called up to the Mariners and has 4 homers in 64 at bats. These guys cost 50 cents each.Now I have a full thirty card box which is more or less equivalent to what you would pull out of an actual mini-box with the exception of my fantastic luck with refractors. So, instead of paying 50 bucks plus tax for a mini box full of random crap, I picked out all this non-random crap by hand:
22 commons:12 Eric Chavez
15 Brandon Webb
27 Robinson Cano
31 Gary Sheffield
33 Jermaine Dye
39 Adrian Gonzalez
41 Noah Lowry
42 Vernon Wells
47 Roy Halladay
48 Delmon Young
49 Nick Swisher
53 Torii Hunter
54 Gary Matthews
56 John Smoltz
60 Jake Peavy
62 Jason Bay
64 Jimmy Rollins
68 Lance Berkman
82 Billy Butler
123 Chris Young
129 Nick Blackburn RC
150 Wladimir Belentien RC
4 refractors:36 Tim Hudson
74 Brian McCann
16 Chipper Jones Blue #286/299
150 Wladimir Balentien Black #90/99
2 Finest Moments:FM-JS John Smoltz Blue Refractor #185/299
FM-VG Vladimir Guerrero Blue Refractor #52/99
1 Franchise Favorites:TF-RC Robinson Cano Refractor
1 autograph:
159 Josh Anderson Blue Refractor #297/399
Price of a Mini Box: $50
Price of my completed hand collated Mini Box: $14.70.
It's a good thing I saved all that money 'cause I blew it in a binge! See what I got here!
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