One, Two, Three Puerto Ricans (From Washington!)

Don't worry - there's no racial profiling in this post. Three of my four favorite baseball players of all-time are Puerto Ricans - Carlos Delgado (via Aguadilla), Ivan Rodriguez (via Manati) and Roberto Alomar (via Ponce.)

There's also a song by The Wallflowers called "Three Marlenas". Listen to it and you might understand the post title a bit more.

____________________

A week or two back, the awesome Kevin of the rock solid blog The Diamond King offered up a stack of Delgado cards that for SOME reason he didn't want cluttering up his collection.

Being the great guy he is and the mooch that I am,  he offered up the stack without asking anything in return - but I like to pay it forward. There will be a nice manila packet trying to outrun a hurricane later this week (hopefully.)

Now onto the Puerto Ricans that made there way her from Washington over the weekend:

(L to R): 1997 Leaf | 1999 UD HoloGrFX | 1997 Finest

Trying to pick three Carlos' out of this pile was tougghhh. There were some dandies. 1997 Leaf is one of the best looking sets....ever. 1999 holoGrFX...not so much - but still super awesome. You here often, I am sure, that a scan doesn't do a card justice. This is like a deep-fried nuclear reaction dusted with creatine. HoloGrFX lasted one year. The 1997 Finest is an absolute beauty - but it begs the question:

Is you have a Finest card in your personal collection and you keep it in a penny sleeve and top loader - is it "ethical" to remove the protective coating?

1996 Pacific Prism | 1993 Fleer Second to None | 1992 Stadium Club

Since my return to blogging in September, the Robbie Alomars have come rollin' in. These three were quite exceptional. The Prism is a holofoil version (I think). The Fleer from 1993 was one that was in my COMC cart, waiting for me to make an offer on it, and I was sure glad to see it in this package. 

The third is from 1992 Stadium Club - one of my favourite sets, and cards like this are why. It's a legit action shot, but unlike 90% (at least) of baseball cards, it does not feature a player in blasting sunlight. The field is wet and the day is dark - just like most of the days when I played.

1994 Fleer | 1993 Stadium Club Member's Choice | 2000 Revolution On Deck

Pudge! America! (Puerto Rico is America, jerks.) And Revolution! The cards on the end are great, but the '93 Stadium Club takes it all. What a card. It's Pudge. It's low-light, and he's geared up. Unreal.

Thanks for the winners, Kev.

Oh, and of course:

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Flashy Cards Done Right: 1998 E-X 2001

1998 Skybox E-X 2001

#10 Ken Griffey, Jr.

More times than not, simple is better. A car dashboard with fewer buttons. Twenty channels instead of 987. Tommy Boy rather than Inception.

This is very often the case with baseball cards. Simple...works. Baseball is not an extravagant sport. The game is played in the inner cities of America and the windswept plains of the Midwest. 

However, extravagance isn't all that bad.

Take 1998 Skybox E-X 2001. Long name, yes. E-X would have worked just fine, whatever it means. 

Our subject today is a one Ken Griffey Junior and this wonderfully awesome slab of acetate. On the left, transparent. The middle, a moderately shiny purple and the right - a strange holofoil-acetate concoction of two parts awesome and one more part awesome.

So not all high-end over-the-time shiny glossy holofoil-y cards are all that bad. Even Midwesterners vacation to Hawaii, sometimes.

2012-2013 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey

So I was feeling classy the other night and decided I wanted to rip some packs. I knew '12 Bowman Chrome (baseball) and '12-'13 UD Artifacts (my favourite annual hockey release) had come out recently, and I was curious. So I went to Target (classy, right? The lack of "local cards stores" around here is insufferable) and luckily (?) found blasters of Artifacts and Bowman Chrome (which also had $1/card loose packs, fffthat). Like a dumbass, I grabbed one of each and a stack of eight 2010 Topps Chrome marked down to $1.59per, hopefully curing my itch to rip for a few weeks (so far it has.)

I ripped through the Artifacts blaster quickly, even with the impossible-to-open packs snagging on the corner of every card. Usually I put the cards right back into the pack, but they posed a serious threat to the condition of the cards pretty much immediately and ripped to shreds incapable of holding cards in the future - so all forty cards went into a nice, clean, inky-smelling stack. 

Initially I wasn't impressed. $Twenty, 40 cards, all base and one parallel. I knew what I was in for when reading the insertion ratios on the box - plus, it's retail. I've just had so much luck with Artifacts in the past, that this was kind of a gut-punch to end up with 40 base cards in my first one of this year.

Since then, I have sifted through the 39 going to complete my set many times.

They're beautiful. That's all there really is to say.

#29 - George Parros' Cookie Duster

The cards scanned very brightly - but that's because there is a brilliant white background, with Artifact's trademarked skate-grooves-in-ice background. The background pattern is the same on every base card - and it would be nice to see this changed up a bit, but it is no deal-breaker.

The hatched foil is perfect. The team logo has a good deal of detail for being the size that it is, but the foil-name-on-foil-border makes it only readable from a certain angle. The checklist makes up for this, though - as you'll know most of the 100 players (both legends and active players by their picture. If you're a hockey fan, you'll recognize everyone in the set. The only name I had to look at out of the 39 bases was Cam Fowler.

#14 - Dale Hawerchuk (Back)

The backs are quite nice. Brilliant white behind six or less seasons and a subtle gray team logo in the background. Artifacts stays with the cool-blue feeling on all of the backs, and it works.

#99 - Zach Parise

It's fitting that the first card I saw was Zach Parise...but I have serious issues with this card. First, it is damaged - look to the bottom left of the foil.

Second, Artifacts - according to Upper Deck's website - was released on September 24th. Zach Parise signed with the Minnesota Wild on July 4th (AMERICA!).

Yet, he is labeled as a Devil, still. I'm fine with him being pictured as one - but come on. Switch up that foil logo for me. I'm dying to see him on my Wild and the lockout isn't helping me out at all.

                                     

#8 - Brett Hull

With the silver foil and gray-and-brilliant white background, the colours in the jerseys really pop in this set, as evidenced by this Brett Hull in the '90 Saint Louis Blues primary colour extravaganza. 

But don't worry. In our colourful day-and-age, we haven't forgotten the archaic times:

#37 - Jean Beliveau

...a beauty from the sixties. Something odd about the legends cards - some are pictured in All-Star jerseys (Jagr, Sakic) and some feature the players on their teams (Hull and Twist are wearing Blues sweaters, Coffey is pictured as a Penguin). This goes for active players, too - as I look through the set: Naslund and Selanne are all-stars, others are not. UD couldn't seem to make up their mind, or I've been short-printed and I don't know it.

#35 - Jaromir Jagr Sapphire Parallel 06/85

Well, it's close to a hit. These are relatively rare, and the blue looks great. Maybe because it's a Ranger card. I'm not a huge fan, or a fan at all, of Jagr. So it goes...I'll be looking for a  nice home for this one.

There are a lot fo pros to this set: great use of colours and lack of colours, a simple and classy design, well-executed foil, and a checklist full of household names. Okay, maybe a southern Ontario household.

However, there are some issues: the foil is easily damaged by the inflated-yet-suffocating foil packs, the emerald parallels look ghastly on all teams except the Stars and Wild and while the checklist is full of stars, at only 100 players it is difficult to inserts everyone's favourites - but you're saved from cards of blokes like Blake Geoffrion and Chris Butler.

Overall, I really enjoy this set. I'd like to purchase I nice hobby box and grab some of the hits, but I'm more interested in a nice binder set with these. There are some issues, but it's definitely worth it's retail price.

Weekly eBay Steal

 Why ruin this post with too much text? I picked these two beautiful babies off of eBay last weekend for $.99 a piece with a combined shipping bring the par in under $5.

2011 Topps S2 Commemorative Patch

1997 Toronto Blue Jays

2010 Topps Update Commemorative Patch

1993 World Series

...which, y'know....WE WONNED!!!1

I know many of you hate the manufactured patches, and that's fine. I hate the Yankees, but they sure are a hell of a lot more common.

Also, I wrote this whole post using one hand to type, as a pug puppy has fallen asleep on the other.

2008 Topps Chrome Refractors

Looking to complete a "Frankenstein" rainbow refractor set from 2008 Chrome.
Please help.
This is hard.
I have doubles! Variations listed. Would loooove to throw a few reds in here, too...

# Player Variation
1
2
3 Scott Kazmir Copper, Basic
4
5
6 Daisuke Matsuzaka Copper
7
8 Jimmy Rollins XFRACTOR
9
10 Cole Hamels Basic
11 Yovani Gallardo XFRACTOR
12
13
14 Orlando Cabrera Refractor, Copper
15
16 Erik Bedard Copper
17
18 Chris Young Basic
19 Jose Reyes XFRACTOR
20
21
22
23
24
25 Alex Rios Basic
26 Jason Bay XFRACTOR
27
28
29 Ryan Howard Basic
30 Kevin Youkilis Basic
31
32
33 Jeremy Hermida Basic
34
35
36
37 Tim Hudson Basic
38
39
40 Robinson Cano Basic
41
42 Magglio Ordonez Basic
43
44
45 Carlos Zambrano Basic
46
47 Tim Lincecum Basic
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58 Melky Cabrera Basic
59
60
61 Gil Meche XFRACTOR
62 David DeJesus Basic
63 Roy Oswalt XFRACTOR, Basic
64
65
66
67 Roy Halladay Blue
68
69
70 Akinori Iwamura Refractor
71
72 Brandon Phillips XFRACTOR
73
74 James Loney Blue
75 Carston Charles Sabathia Basic
76 Jermaine Dye Basic
77
78
79 Paul Konerko Basic
80 Jorge Posada Basic
81
82 Carlos Delgado Copper, Blue
83
84
85
86 Carl Crawford Basic
87 Mark Teixeira Basic
88 Bobby Crosby Basic, Copper
89 Brian Roberts XFRACTOR
90 David Ortiz Basic
91
92
93 Fausto Carmona XFRACTOR
94 Grady Sizemore Basic
95
96
97 Troy Tulowitzki XFRACTOR
98 Troy Glaus XFRACTOR
99 Nick Markakis Blue
100 Lance Berkman Basic
101
102
103
104
105
106 Johnny Damon Basic
107
108
109
110 Aaron Harang Basic
111 Hanley Ramirez XFRACTOR, Basic
112
113 Ryan Braun Basic
114 Torii Hunter Basic
115 Joe Blanton Basic
116
117
118 Hideki Matsui Blue
119 Cameron Maybin Basic
120 Kenji Johjima XFRACTOR
121 Derek Jeter Basic
122 Chone Figgins Basic
123
124 Jacoby Ellsbury Basic
125 Freddy Snachez XFRACTOR
126 Rocco Baldellia XFRACTOR
127
128
129 Geovany Soto Basic
130
131
132 Chipper Jones Basic
133 Jeremy Bonderman Basic
134
135
136 Jeff Francis Basic
137
138 Travis Buck Basic
139
140
141 Ryan Zimmerman Basic
142
143
144 Chris Young Basic
145
146 Curt Schilling Basic
147 Josh Beckett Basic
148
149 Ronnie Belliard XFRACTOR
150 Homer Bailey Basic
151
152
153
154
155 Joba Chamberlain XFRACTOR
156
157 Carlos Beltran Blue
158
159
160 Pat Burrell Basic
161 Asdrubal Cabrera XFRACTOR
162
163 Greg Maddux Refractor, Copper
164 Eric Chavez Blue
165
166
167 Carlos Pena Copper
168 Frank Thomas Basic
169 Aaron Rowand Basic
170
171
172 Ryan Theriot Basic, XFRACTOR
173 Andre Ethier Basic
174
175 Rickie Weeks XFRACTOR
176 Milton Bradley Basic
177 Daniel Cabrera Basic
178
179 Livan Hernandez Basic
180 Hideki Okajima Basic
181
182 Jonny Gomes Basic
183
184
185
186 Paul Maholm Basic
187 Placido Polanco Basic
188 Noah Lowry Basic
189
190
191 Edinson Volquez Basic
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200 Elliott Johnson XFRACTOR
201
202 Alex Romero Basic
203 Gregor Blanco Basic
204 Rico Washington Basic
205 Brain Bocock Basic
206
207 Brian Holm Blue
208
209
210 Randor Bierd Basic
211
212
213
214
215 Kyle McClellean Basic
216
217
218
219
220

Contributors: Night Owl

2004 Donruss Studio #184 Stan Musial

This is about as perfect as baseball cards get.

Sleep tight, America.

ebay pickups: Trade Bait and a few PC additions

I've found a seller that I get along with great on ebay: cheap relic and autographed cards from the early '00's with combined shipping. Last week I placed one of my more ambitious ebay orders, totaling seven cards (I'm rather cheap, you see.)

And now, the reason everyone reads card blogs: cards!

2004 SP Legendary Cuts

Significant Swatches Paul Molitor Bat

This is a beauty. I won't be disappointed if no one makes an offer on it. The chuck of wood has a nice shape, and it thick enough that it sticks out of the card a bit. The one annoying bit is that it's a bat card....yet Pauly is taking a throw in the field. If he was wearing a Jays uniform this doesn't go anywhere. But I'm flush with Jays relics right now so this one is up for grabs. [Trade Bait]

2005 Donruss Diamond Kings

BJ Upton Dual Bat Relic #21/50

I Billy Bean'd this card, picking it up solely to trade it. It's low-numbered and I am sure I can find a taker for it here in the blogging kingdom. [Trade Bait]

2004 SP Legendary Cuts

Tony Gwynn Ultimate Swatches

Tony Gwynn is a player I'll pick up when I find a nice bargain, but not one I collect rampantly. He also finds himself as one of my most wanted cards -  a 2000 Skybox Metal Base Shredders - which is proving quite difficult to find at a reasonable price. [Trade Bait]

2010 Bowman Sterling

Jose Tabata Autograph (Sticker)

So, maybe they aren't all from the early 00's.  This Tabata auto was kind of a throw in. I waited an extra two days without paying to get the final card in this post, and with this Tabata ending a few minutes later, I grabbed it for some goodwill towards the seller. [Trade Bait]

2005 SP Legendary Cuts

Joe Carter Significant Swatches (White)

This one was for me, and a steal at $.99. The back of the card claims it is a jersey worn by Carter from a Jays game...but not a particularly significant one. Begs the question as to what actually makes this a "significant" swatch...

2005 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia

Shawn Green Absolute Heroes Jersey/Jersey/Bat #092/150

Oh, Shawn Green. But even moreso, ohhhhh Playoff baseball cards. Such awesome relics. They're good-looking cards with reasonable sized relic pieces - and certainly unique. Who else would dare stick a piece of shinguard into a card?

2003 SP Authentic

Jayson Werth Chirography Autograph 273/350

Also for me. I love the idea of Jayson Werth on the Jays, especially in catcher's gear...you just can't see his face. Jayson was traded to the Dodgers in March of 2004 for Jason Frasor. While Werth played multiple season for the Dodgers, Phillies and Nationals; Frasor has spent all of his time with the Jays (aside from a brief rental as a White So(ck?x?) in 2011) since the trade.

Collectorsfest 61 in Syracuse = Goodies

Well, I won't go all in an review this as a card show as a whole. There was virtually no one there. Sixty-seven vendors with 179 tables - dominantly modern baseball and football cards, some hockey. There was also a fair amount of vintage, but I hardly know my way around them. I was surprised at the amount of 70's-era Topps going for about $.75 in reasonable condition.

But I have an issue with rummaging through the cheapo bins. There's just so many. The show went from 10-4 or something, but I had a 4-month old pup to get home to. So I set myself a $40 budget ($4 for admission) with eyes on 2012 A&G completion, JP Arencibia, cheapo relics and autographs, some trade bait, and a box of 1987 Topps.

I found a box of '87 almost immediately, $10. I didn't want to lug it around for three hours, so I moved on. Of course, by 12:45, it was gone. So it goes.

So here's what I did manage to get, all well under my $40 budget:

Personal collection adds:

A nice little Pudge bat (as a Nat!) from '11 Allen & Ginter's

A silky Aaron Hill. I didn't want to too much, 

but the guy was excited about selling it. Whatevs - it was in a 4/$10.

An early Strasmus present. $1 - couldn't resist the old-Bowman's Best design.

Jose Theodore auto from Pinnacle Zenith. 

It was a Wild auto in a 2/$5. Why not?

Also from the 2/$5, Robby Alomar Diamonbacks-style

bat card. Relics of Robby hardly exist in Blue Jay's uniforms,

so I have to settle on cards of him in New York/Baltimore/Cleveland and Arizona. 

Some White Sox exist, too.

Prospects and Trade Bait!:

2012 Bowman Chrome Joe Benson auto-refractor. #/500

This was an awesome score. I grabbed this and 2 other trade bait autos for $2.

Jurickson Profar for $1. Won me over pretty easy (purchased with the Strasburg).

Carlos Santana Heritage jersey! If you couldn't tell from the background image,

this blog is a Carlos Santana supporter. (And really,

catchers in general.)

Major score:

Bowman Platinum

Mike Olt GU-Bat/Autograph (Sticker)

This felt like stealing. Mike Olt is a mega-prospect and a front-runner for

2013 AL Rookie of the Year (I am officially calling it.) It was part

of a 4/$10 that also including Pudge and the Silky Hill. 

Most of these are up for trade, save he Strasburg and Pudge. The Olt will take some prying if you're interested...it's a hell of a beautiful card.

I saw one JP Arencibia card at the entire show. One. Brett Lawrie? Two. Other Jays? Yes, one - a 2011 Allen & Ginter's Auto of Jose Bautista. For $60. 

Overall, mixed results. Pretty disorganized. NO signer. Mediocre show, I guess, but we do not get many of them up here...so what do I know.

Free Cards!

Over at Jaybarkerfansjunkblog.

There's an autograph there, but the card that caught my attention was a 2011 Greg Halman, a Dutch baseball players who's life was ended way too soon by of all people, his own brother.

There was a great article written by Wright Thompson at ESPN called 17 Days in November. Its a mandatory read by anyone who sees baseball players as actual human beings and not just false idols on cardboard.

New Trade Bait and In The Kitchen with JPA

New J-PAs! Keeping the text to a minimum in this one. Follow the J-PA's for some trade bait...OR GO HERE (shameless plug.)

2012 Allen & Ginter's Autograph

2012 Bowman Red Wave Refractor /25

And some lame Dodgers and/or Red Sawx Trade bait. I picked this up in the same auction as the J-PA. It's numbered 01/25. Which is neat. Any takers?

2012 Bowman Red Wave Refractor 01/25

2009-2010 UD Artifacts Hockey (Have) List

I'm 70% in to this set, but I haven't purchased a box since 2010. I need only 30 cards. Please help out if you can or relay this to anyone who may be able to.

1 Henrik Lundqvist
2 Chris Osgood
3 Jason Spezza
4 Brian Campbell
5 Kris Versteeg
6 Wojtek Wolski
7 Simon Gagne
8 Phil Kessel
9 Eric Staal
10
11 Pavel Datsyuk
12 Niklas Backstrom
13 Zach Parise
14 Steven Stamkos
15 Olli Jokinen
16 Jonas Hiller
17 Cam Ward
18 Henrik Zetterberg
19 Miikka Kiprusoff
20 Roberto Luongo
21 Andrei Kostitsyn
22 Patrice Bergeron
23 Jeff Carter
24 Carey Price
25 Teemu Selanne
26 Chris Drury
27 Thomas Vanek
28 Patrick Kane
29 Peter Budaj
30 Daniel Alfredsson
31 Joe Thornton
32 Patrick Marleau
33 Tim Thomas
34 Blake Wheeler
35 Jason Arnott
36 Shane Doan
37 Nathan Horton
38 Jonathan Toews
39 Ryan Kesler
40 Patrick O'Sullivan
41 Tomas Kaberle
42
43 Tomas Vokoun
44 Dany Heatley
45 Patrik Berglund
46 Vincent Lacavalier
47 David Backes
48 Derick Brassard
49 Patrick Elias
50 Martin St. Louis
51 Ray Whitney
52 Evgeni Nabokov
53 Martin Brodeur
54 Evgeni Malkin
55 Pierre-Marc Bouchard
56 Nicklas Backstrom
57 Shea Weber
58 Bobby Ryan
59 Mikhail Grabovski
60 Sidney Crosby
61 Nicklas Lidstrom
62 Brad Richards
63 Jason Pominville
64 Rick DiPietro
65 Ales Hemsky
66 Marty Turco
67 Mason Raymond
68 Ilya Kovalchuk
69 Mike Modano
70 Ryan Getzlaf
71 Alexander Frolov
72 Steve Mason
73 Zach Bogosian
74 Bryan Little
75 David Booth
76 Nikolai Zherdev
77 Alexander Ovechkin
78 Mike Richards
79 Ryan Miller
80 J.P. Dumont
81 Jarome Iginla
82 Sam Gagner
83 Anze Kopitar
84 Milan Hejduk
85 Drew Doughty
86 Peter Mueller
87 Marc Staal
88 Andrei Markov
89 Semyon Varlamov
90 Rick Nash
91 Marc-Andre Fleury
92 Dion Phaneuf
93 Paul Stastny
94 Tomas Plekanec
95 Andrew Cogliano
96 Mikko Koivu
97 Jakub Vorachek
98 Luke Schenn
99 Devin Setoguchi
100 (Purchased)

1987

He had already played a full season by 1987.

I know a lot of people have collected their Topps birth year set. Technically, mine is not 1987 Topps. I was born on what I assume was a typical, cold, slushy, rain/snow mix, windy ass day in December of 1986. 

That year's flagship Topps had already been out for seven months. I still wouldn't know or understand baseball for a couple years (I was an expert by age 6, I swear), but the first Topps set I would see released is 1987.

Which is awesome, because 1987 is awesome. 

Wood paneling.

Pink.

Purple.

Green.

Probably mauve or something weird.

And some pretty solid rookies.

Barry Larkin.

(Skinny) Barry Bonds.

(Skinny) Mark McGwire.

(Skinny) Rafael Palmeiro.

(Never Skinny) Andres Galarraga.

There are some great Blue Jays and Expos. It was a great time foe baseball logos, which look you in the face on every card.

Overall, it's just great. And 792 cards deep.

But I was wondering - what is the best way to collect a readily available (not so) vintage Topps set?

I am sick of ripping packs of 2012 A&G, only to get three cards towards the set, a mini, and non-baseball players. I want to rip packs of 1987 Topps. If you have any, let me know. I will trade for them.

I also want to buy some boxes, which are incredibly affordable. The boxes are often rack pack, cello or "vendor" boxes, and it seems like rack packs are the best deal. But I like old-fashioned waxies, too. I like the idea of almost all 792 cards in pack-to-binder condition, too. 

Also, it looks like I shouldn't have to spend more than $30-40 on the set (which is worth about $8, according to Beckett's black heart) but that nets me a buttload a cards that I would totally share with all of yous.

Let me know what ya'll think. There are a ton of page views with very few comments. Kinda like being the kid everyone stares at but no one talks to. 

Dear Topps: Try Harder

This. Is. Infuriating.

2012 Topps products are an embarassment to Blue Jays fans. I understand that they were trying to get the new 2012 products out with the new uniforms for the season. That's fine. But jeebus, at least look at the damned uniforms first.

This is a travesty.

Unspeakably awful.

That's not how the letters look. They're too big. They're flat. The Jays logo on the helmet (which is the wrong colour) is cocked. The Blue Jays on the uniform is straight up-and-down, where the uni obviously is not.

But the worst....is the "R" in TORONTO.

It's in Joey's armpit. Seriously. Must've swung pretty hard to dislodge it. Those Majestic unis are built pretty strong.

In case you were wondering, this is what a Blue Jays uniform looks like:

Ugh.

They got the gray background right I guess.

Oh look, there are more Joeys in this set:

LOOOOK

A real Blue Jay's uniform. I knew Rogers Communications budget wasn't so tight. Sure it's the lame AngryJay, but at least its not painted on.

Wait a second...

Topps is gonna Topps.

Keep on trollin'.

Name that rookie!

Hint: 1998 Topps

In the Kitchen with J-PA

As you may have noticed by now, my (new) number one player collection is JP Arencibia.

While searching for singles of J-PA on Amazon earlier, this popped out to me in the search box.

I was hoping for JP Arencibia oven mitts. Or possibly and authentic Miami-Cubano cookbook. Maybe even trivets or #9 dish towels. No such luck. Just a tease of what could be.

Anyways, I am going to use J-PA in the Kitchen for all future J-PA personal collection additions.

So without further Apu, here's a massive score on a 12-card, $18ish lot off of ebay I scored last Sunday. Highlight of the week.

                        

Here's a 2011 Bowman Platinum sticker auto/memorabilia (bat, desk, men's room rafter) slice. I have the auto/jersey equivalent as well, but this one features a palindrome serial #.

Ohh, Triple Threads. I am beginning to see what the hype is all about. Low numbering on this red parallel. The 9-block/Jays logo-C cut outs for the memorabilia (bat or clubhouse chair or helmet rack or pallet for carrying baseball boxes) isn't as bad as some of the other monstrosities coming out of 3Threads (Brett Lawrie's "O' Canada!" comes to mind). And the auto is on-card. Also, this card comes with the "9" added to the end of the auto, something I have only seen elsewhere on his 2012 Gypsy Queen (Wanted!) autograph. 

Ever notices the backs of 2011 Bowman Sterling and Bowman Platinum are almost exactly the same? Well they are. I didn't notice until scanning these. Gold Refractor / Refractor / Refractor.

This is a refractor but it doesn't show much in the scan. Also, YAY! I enjoy this card, JPA's Flagship (Chrome) Rookie Refractor. It's obvious at this point that Topps can slap a RC logo on anything they damn want to.

Another refractor that didn't scan as such. If there's another J-PA collector out there, there were two of these (and the '11 Bowman Platinum) that I'd love to give a good home. Also, if this card exists, then a base (non-chrome) might also exist. Gimme gimme gimme. I looooved 2010 Bowman.

Orange refractor! Getting closer to the Magical JP Arencibia Rainbow. These were basically given away free in rack packs of 2011 Chrome, and awkwardly, no Orange refractor autographs exist. 

2012 Finest Refractor. Neat! 

Arguably the "hit" of the lot, which is strange with two dual auto/relics. But this is a 2011 Bowman Chrome Gold border, #/50. I believe it is currently my lowest #ed J-PA, as I do not pursue printing plates and his #/25 Chrome Red Refractor Autographs are a bee sting to acquire.

Oh wait, I have a 2012 Bowman Chrome Red Refractor (not in my possession.) Silly me.