Baseball Card Forensics (II)

First, a few things:

1. I found this today sifting through cards for Check out my Cards. I am willing to trade it to an Orioles fan, but I would expect QUITE the haul. But do send me an email if you are interested.

2. Check out the Getting Blanked Podcast. It's delicious baseball news. This is a bunch of real talented bloggers who started out bitching about Cito Gaston and turned it into a legitimate full-time job. Obviously, all of our little blogger dreams come true.

3. There are some good follows on the Tweetz I want to alert you to. They are as follows:

• @brentandbecca - He breaks cases of cases of new product, shows 'em off, and has some giveaways. Overall a fun follow.
• @professorparks - He's a scout, and he's right about prospects a large amount of the time. Often engages with other tweeters and doesn't treat fans with snark and sarcasm like so many others.
• @samuelpair - Topps Trading Cards is taking a big dump on Astros fans, and Sam, of The Daily Dimwit, is letting them know about it. In these days of mass instant communication, we need everyone we can to stick up to bullies like Topps.
• @BertDBacks - Steve Berthiume used to be a shill to the ESPN nazi state of Tim Tebow reporting, but recently was awarded with play-by-play duties for your Arizona Diamondbacks, and he's one of the best in the game - and accepts advanced statistics! REJOICE!

Okay. On to some Baseball Card Forensics!

If you're new to the blog, this is kind of how it goes.

So without further Apu, Volume 2 of Baseball Card Forensics: 2013 Topps Opening Day Adeiny Hechavarria!

Hooooookay, so obviously this is photoshopped. Adeiny was traded to the Marlins in The Trade. The Marlins have shown a propensity to tarde for some Cuban players to cater to the large Cubano population in Miami. Then, in the case of Yunel Escobar, just trade them the hell away, in that wonderful Marlin Way.

It's actually a nice card, but Topps made one drastic mistake in this card to give away that this is indeed horrifically photoshopped. Have you seen it yet?

No?

Well, let's zoom in.

Anything yet? I'll spoil it for you: like the original Baseball Card Forensics post, the helmet gives it away. But first, draw your attention away from the helmet.

It looks like a Spring Training shotm which is strage, seeing as Hech's 2013 Topps Flagship is regular season game in The Dome.

I say it's Spring Training for two reasons: virtually no fans in the stands and the photo is very washed-out with very bright sunshine. Adeiny don't care though, he's from Cuba and the brightness doesn't even cause him to squint.

But something looks wrong. Why isn't the helmet washed out?

I don't know how or why they did this, but Topps photoshopped A NIGHT SHOT of a helmet on to midday-Adeiny.

Seriously?

A closer, annotated look shows the damning evidence behind Topps' chicanery. Those, my dear readers, are the reflections of light banks. From a stadium...

...during a night game.

C'mon, Topps.

For those of you pining for the original, here it is:

Pitchers and Catchers Report.

Ohh, those simple words.

It's that time of year when, just before being completely encapsulated by icicle and towering snowbanks...

..the clouds break. The sun comes out. Icicles turn to puddles. The salt stains creep up your jeans to your knees, but oh no, you don't care.

Pitchers and catchers reported today, you guys.

This is kind of a big deal.

And what better way to celebrate than with a mondo mailday and discount blaster extravaganza?!

Oh heck yes.

I suppose I'll start with what came first, which was of course, a debilitating trip to the post office. I figured early afternoon would be a premium time, but my favourite cashier was going to lunch and the only ones left was the old guy that loves his job so much and the surly giant with the treacherous neck hair.

Luckily, he weighed maybe one or two of the larger packages and then just priced the rest of them based on that. However, I underestimated my shipping costs, and as I usually charge $2.82 to ship, new price changes and package tracking brings one card up to $3. So I took a hit there on my twelve ebay packets and two three trade packages. So it goes.

As the recent ebay purge drained my top loader supply, I went slumming to the local KMart. Luckily they had some that looked like they had fallen off of a truck and been repackaged, so I grabbed two 25 packs and perused the discount blaster pile. There was a very good selection, including:

• $5.99 2011 Topps Opening Day
• $11.99 2011 Topps Series 1 (w/commemorative patch)
• $11.99 200? Goudey (guarnteed hit + general shittiness)
• $11.99 2009 UD Piece of History (1 hit)

I ended up grabbing a Series 1 and the Piece of History.

The Piece of History was actually an enjoyable open, resulting in this nice swatch:

 Not terrible at all, with a nice stripe and commemorative of his 2007 no-hitter. However, in typical 2009 Upper Deck fashion, the rest of my decent cards were Yengwes:

...I cannot avoid A-Rod right now. Ugh. This one is numbered /249 and I may put it on ebay, where he is selling surprisingly well right now. Another Yankee hit was a Johnny Damon insert #/149, but we've all seen enough of him.

The 2011 Topps S1 blaster resulted in this:

Yeap. That was the highlight. A card my Mom didn't throw out, but probably begged me to. I don't know if I ever owned the original, and I certainly do not now. If you've got an original to send my way, go ahead and do so. I don't have any Robby Alomar rookies. My manupatch was a 1909 Cleveland Indians of Shin-Soo Choo. Which was nice when I won an auction of it for about $1.50 last fall. So, if you want one...

Anyways, the better schtuff came in the mail upon my return.

This is number 10 in my crusade to get one of every color of every Blue Jay (that I like) in Series 1. This is going to be hell by the time Series 2 and Update are out. Progress, dammit.

I had seen this a few times on the 'bay but never found a reasonable price. $4 was reasonable, and it arrived today. With signature confirmation. Overkill, yes.

Like I mentioned a few days ago, my Carlos Santana collection is coming along nicely.

But he has a lot of catching up to do to ever catch my Arencibia collection numbers.

The previous two cards were from the same auction, in which I absolutely pillaged a seller's 2013 Topps inserts via combined shipping, also landing these four:

...to go along with my own Babe Ruth, Matt Cain, Ryne Sandberg and...ugh, someone else. It's a start.

Like today.

The start of Spring Training. Happy New Year, everyone.

Epic Mail Day (Volume II) Part D: Baby Jays

There have been no outs recorded in the Orioles/Yankees ALDS game tonight, and I have already turned it off. The game, which by MLB mandate, was scheduled for prime time  was delayed two hours, so the Nationals and Cardinals could be tortured by the brutal midday sun of St. Louis and Bud Selig and the ravenous beast of prime time television can feast off of post-6pm viewers. 

Yes, I am bitter. Deal with it. This is not a Yankee-friendly blog.

So I will update ya'll on my final installment of my COMC order for September-Oktober; Baby Jays Edition!

And getting right into it:

2011 Bowman Topps 100 / 2010 Bowman Chrome

Adeiny! Adeiny grew on me in the waning days of the fiery train-wreck that was the 2012 season. He needs to slow down a bit in his fielding, but it otherwise pretty slick with the leather. I'd love to see the player Adeiny (or Adeinis, if it's still 2010) can grow into, out of that scrawny frame. He's got nice pop for a player with a very low hit tool, and his speed probably won't warrant more than 15 steals per season. However, I can see him projecting to an Omar Vizquel-type shortstop, which is pretty damn good by my standards. $.25 and $.43. 

2011 Topps Chrome Rookie Autograph

Ohh heyyyyyy Kyle. So nice of you to join the post. And you brought a Sharpie with you. How nice. Kyle Drabek was the victim of the fickle ulnar cruciate ligament this season, and injury which I think was bothering him way before he actually went on the DL. However, the brief delay in his career has led to a drastic fall in the prices of his single card, as I grabbed this one for only $2 (and his Sepia's twin for $6.)

2012 Bowman International

I had to super-size my boy JPA. Because the 'A' stands for AMERICA.

PS I am totally in love with this card. $.20

2011 Finest Freshman Refractor

Aww lookit that bright JPA smile. Guess how many shits he gives about hitting .226? About twenty-three hundreds. Which isn't much. This was labeled as an Orange Refractor, but I think it's just a regular one, as I didn't see any other colour variations. $.60

2011 Topps Diamond Anniversary

So sparkly. I am making some serious progress on getting every variation of this card. Between Topps flagship and Chrome, there are probably 20+ of this card, which I will have and will wall-mount. $.49

2011 Chrome Refractor

Aaaand a little bit closer. I love refractors. Got any JPA refractors? Give 'em to me. No reason for me to be shy about it.

2011 Topps Chrome Rookie Autographs Sepia Refractor /99

And back to a huge JPA to end the post. So beautiful. After 2010 Bowman's purple refractors, I thought that the hierarchy of colour-variant refractors was complete. Then in 2011, Topps got all hipsterish and threw down some sepia. And it was glorious. This was actually from eBay. A seller dropped his Buy-it-Now from $22 and change to $15. Easy decision. Definitely a favorite for a top spot in my personal collection power-rankings. So beautiful.    

Epic Mail Day (Volume I)

When I am expecting cards in the mail, I have a tendency to compulsively check order tracking on ebay, Sportlots, COMC, wherever throughout the day.

Today was no different, as after a staff meeting, a small morning job and a dead afternoon, I probably checked my shipping statuses on ebay roughly 25 times.

From what I was reading, one card had been delivered, 2-3 were sitting in Rochester sorting facility purgatory, and a few others had no tracking information.

What I saw when I got back to the house was astounding. We pay our bills online, sometimes get family party invitations and fliers, and thus rarely get mail. However tonight, in the light of the early evening, our mailbox was stuffed.

Stuffed to the point that the lid couldn't close...likely due to the box which contained my new (read: old) Washington Redskins belt buckle and a total of five manilla envelopes and packages.

In card blogger-speak, cards.

Now that I've whet your little card-devouring mouths, on the the good stuff: pictures!

2012 Bowman Platinum

Adeiny Hechavarria Autograph

Refractor

I'm really glad this card scanned in the yellow-pink range. You never know what you're going to get scanning refractors, and this one came out quite unique. Hechavarria will probably never tear the cover off the ball, but I like him. This is my first card of him at all, and a refractor auto to boot. All for ~$5 shipped. A little of an overpay.

2012 Topps Heritage Minor Leagues

Travis D'arnaud Clubhouse Collections

Red "Jersey?" Swatch

This is  another firstie. I've been putting off going hard on D'arnaud for a few reasons. One, JP Arencibia is my favourite active player, and D'arnaud is his direct competition. I'm afraid D'arnaud's emergence will mean the end of days of JPA (who just had a passed ball in Baltimore) in Toronto. Which would be devastating. Also, many of his cards are Phillies. Phillies annoy me. Red pinstripes remind me of the worst uniforms I ever wore while playing, and the gross #14 on my back at the time. However, D'Arnaud is likely going to be a great catcher and batter for the Jays in the future. And it's not a gray or white swatch, but a nice deep red from a New Hampshire Fisher Cats jersey, one of the best jerseys in ALL of the minor leagues (Montgomery Bisquits, you're on notice.) This was a ridiculous steal @ $1.80.

2012 Bowman Chrome

Brandon Morrow 

Red Ice Refractor 20/25

I wanted to pad my morrow collection a bit, and truthfully, nice Morrows are difficult to find. He's super awkward and had beady eyes. But damn, he's a good pitcher. And I wanted a sweet Red Ice Refractor, so back off. $4.

2011 Topps Chrome 

J.P. Arencibia Autograph

Blue Refractor 088/199

What a beauty. JPA's autograph is kind of boring, but recognizable. The Blue in the Jays uni is accepted by the blue border and lovely refractory-ness. Just a glorious card overall, and contribution #2 of 8 to my Magical JP Arencibia Autograph Rainbow Crusade. This was almost offensive how much of a steal it was. Ready? $5.88. SHIPPED.

And now...

For what may possibly be the best relic card.

Ever.

Wait for it.

Here it is:

2005 Donruss Prime Patches

Ivan Rodriguez Past & Present

Shoe, Glove, Chest Protector, Jersey Patch Relic 008/128

Deep breath. This one came all the way from Pudge-land itself, Puerto Rico. This card leaves me kind of speechless. I mean come on. 

Jersey  patch of Pudge? Awesome.

Fielding glove? Super awesome, couldn't ask for more.

CHEST PROTECTOR? FOR REALZIEZ?

Shoe? Sure, why the hell not at this point.

You cannot really ask for a better relic card. And I probably won't try and top this one. It's the pinnacle of my Pudge collection. Envy it.