Towards the Goal: The Reverse Tribute Box

A few days, possibly even a week ago at this point, I decided to cook up another FU to the folks at Topps Cards.

Their Tribute set from this year looks nice, just like last year's, but I'll be damned if I could tell the difference between the '12 and '13 sets. Taking a look at the cards available on ebay, I decided to go after a few. After I received my first autograph of Salvador Perez for less than the price of half-of-one-pack and only numbered to /35, I decided that I would reconstruct a box of the stuff: thirty cards, three autographs and three relics and a pile of parallels.

My perez, a "sepia" parallel with not a single bit of sepia-tone to it, cost $10. The above Jose B. Reyes, a blue parallel of a dual-memorabilia piece...$5.50.

Now, both of those are more than I'd like to spend on cards, but at the same time, I would never, in my life, purchase a high-end box. My greatest box purchase at this point? 2010/11 Panini Rookie Anthology hockey at about $60 at the last card show I went to.

So, pick 30 2013 Topps Tribute cards, mostly one-by-one, for a fraction of the cost? Or take a steel-toed $275 kick in the testicles from Topps and purchase a box?

No thanks, Topps.

The thrill of opening your packs isn't worth it anymore.

Progress: 2/30
Total Spent: $15.49
Budget Remaining (DA Card World price $275 - Total): $259.51

Unrelated

On a side, I picked up the hella refractory Drew Hutchison from another reverse-box caliber product, 2012 Bowman Sterling. I personally loved the design of 2012 Sterling, while most complained quite a bit about it.

I've only picked up a few from it so far, including 5-8 Francisco Lindor autographs, a few Stryker Trahan autos (including one very awesome refractor) and the Lindor base refractor.

This one cost me the most, as you may have guessed.

That there is a mighty fine purple refractor on my favourite busted Blue Jay, Drew Hutchison. Normally I don't have many cards #ed lower than /50, so finally pulling in a Purple Refractor /10 of one of my favourites was quite enjoyable.

More coming soon. Maybe even a sad post about getting old and stepping away from the game you love. 

Recent Additions to the Puma Box

I posted a teaser earlier today. Now I am ready to show of the newest beauties to my Puma Box - or as others may say, "personal collection."

First, the oft neglected member and current number five started for your Toronto Blue Jays, Ricky Romero:

A nice large keystone black swatch - and numbered to 50. This is a great-looking card, and 2012 Platinum is starting to grow on me something fierce. I scored this for about $2.50 on ebay, and the seller, some carbon-copy of a JohnnyG screen name took about two weeks to ship it. Sellers have been awful, lately.

Retail odds on this are 1:3226, so I am wagering that this came from a hobby box.

Also coming my way recently via the Bay was this Drew Hutchison from 2012 Pro Debut.

The gold parallel of the base autograph that I pulled from the second of my two boxes back in January. Very nice card, and surprisingly very little competition for it, since it is numbered to only 50.

Slightly more common, but considerably more difficult to find in pack of 2013 Topps was this Brett Lawrie:

It's the short-printed Out of Bounds variation of his 2013 Topps base card. It came my way via Classon Ave, who was very unhappy about pulling it and accepted a pile of 2013 spare parts in exchange.

And lastly, my one and only foray into 2013 Turkey Red.

The Fat Cats at Topps decided to short print an ass ton of the actual good players in this set, and JP was one of the victims. Luckily, I grabbed the first one to hit Ebay. If you've got a favorite player in this set, go get their cards right now. This is the best Turkey Red yet, but the print run is pretty low.

Obligatory Sunday Post (1)

First, with a state-of-the blog:

As with most of the blogospheroid, I work Monday-Friday. My occupation, at least in the winter, is semi-labourious, and as a result of that and beating myself to death behind home plate for a decade plus, I tire myself out pretty easily. Needless to say, my posting has been sparse of late, but I have some good news in relation to that.

My current work contract send on January 31st. I was hired in June for some intern-type duties and to spearhead a forestry project in Onondaga County. I was only supposed to be there for six months, but if you check the math, January 31st is about seven and a half months. I also received a raise in this period, which is almost unheard of in this county within a a six-month duration.

Anyays, I was pulled aside by the bossman on Friday afternoon once I returned from the field. He told me I was done on 1/31 (which everyone already knew) but that the county and the higher-up project leaders wanted to bring me back for next season, with another "salary enhancement" and potential of creating a more permanent position - the project is on a 20-year timeline.

Sounds good, eh? It is.

However, I'll be off in February and March. Language and rewriting the grants and bureaucratic red tape will keep me out of work and glued to MLBNetwork coverage of the World Baseball Classic (U-S-A! U-S-A!).

Oh deary me, what a way to waste two months.

So, although I won't be purchasing as much cardage due to two months without income* (don't worry too much, I've saved a good deal of my poorly-earned grad student $), I will be able to put a huge effort, in comparison  to writing here, and possibly on my other blogs - which once they are revamped, will be pimped out to no avail right here.

My collecting foci have not changed so much.

I've added Marcus Stroman and Matthew Smoral to my list of Puma Box participants. Been working on acquiring some Hutchisons while he's hurt and cheap, as well as Drabek. As for Nue Jays acquired in The Trade, I'm only collecting Jose Reyes retroactively and will go after Josh Johnson and Emilio Bonifacio pictured as Jays. Hopefully in 2013 Flagship Topps will take a more serious approach to photoshopping on new logos. No way they'll be able to take photographs and print up Nue Jays in Spring Training digs.

I'll know, Topps.

Topps has been airbrushing/photoshopping/paying Chinese tweens $.10/day to change logos. I cannot change this.

For those of you that have made it this far without pictures, I applaud and appreciate your effort. You're a tribute to plaingrayswatch.

So here's your shiny award, and believe me, it is quite, quite shiny.

2011 Topps Finest
Red Refractor 09/25

The rainbow of 2011 Finest JPAs was never a big issue to me until I saw this card. Via scan, it's not so outstanding, but in the morning Sunday light of my man cave/rabbit den, it's absolutely gorgeous. This was acquired for less than $10, which to me, is great for a red refractor #ed to 25. The serial is 09/25, which is, you guessed it, JP's number. ONE OF ONE!!!!1/1

2012 Bowman Chrome DP&P
Red Ice Refractor 16/25

Let's stick with the red. This is a red-ice refractor from 2012 Bowman Chrome of Jays #2 (still a 1st rounder) of Marcus Stroman. Another steal at under $10, Stroman's cardboard is selling quite well right now. He'll start 2013 under a drug suspension, but if you look at lil' Marcus you can tell he's probably not a juicer and he just took something over-the-counter that, as a draft pick, he didn't know was illegal. So it goes. Live, learn, close games.

2012 Bowman Sterling
Autograph - Base

Okay, I'll admit that I am hoarding 2012 Bowman Sterling autos. This is my second Marcus Stroman. I have five Francisco Lindors and two base Stryker Trahans, plus a refractor. I really love the design of these, and they're easy pickin' right now after sellers flooded the ebay market at the turn of the year. Hoping for some decent resale once Stro' is called up in September. Trahan and Lindor, however, are a few years off still.

2012 Bowman Chrome
Franchise All-Stars
Asdrubdbdbbaball Cabrera & Francisco Lindor

Speaking of Francisco Lindor, our friend Dennis at Pictures of Men (easily one of my favourite blogs, both from cards and a Blue Jays perspective) sent me this Lindor/Cabrera in exchange for a purple refractor of Roy Halladay. Done deal.**

2012 Finest
Rookie Autograph Refractor something/198

Aaaaand the obligatory Drew Hutchison refractauto. I don't have an explicit affinity for 2012 Finest, but this one came in on the cheap. Silly me, this card is absolutely gorgeous in-hand, in natural light. Plus, it's numbered to /198.

2011 and 2012 Topps Chrome Refractors
XFractor, Black (/100), Red (/25)

Like I said, I am going after Jose Reyes retroactively. Why? Because I enjoy the uniforms of both the Mets and Marlins, and they tend to make great cards. The 2011 XFractor I pulled from a $1.59 Target pack. I buy them out all the time. Which reminds me, I have to assault one of the other OC Targets to see if they've restocked...

I really like Jose Reyes refractors. Maybe its because they're flashy as all hell and so is he. The black (/100) and red (/25 again) came from a lot off ebay where the seller accepted a lowball of $18, which may seem like a lot, but I don't mess around with red refractors - it has taken me five plus months to track down a 2011 JP Arencibia, so I jumped on this. The black refractor, with the orange and black of the fake Marlins jersey, is stunning. Black refractors look good with every team, except the Yankees, in which every card looks like a pile of puke.***

Well, this has been a long post. I do not have many singles coming in the mai--

Oh wait, I have a sixty-card COMC order arriving this week.

Never mind.

Be on the lookout for a huge series of posts on that order. Could be at least six posts. You've been warned.

*Which is not a huge problem. There won't be anything new coming out anyways - I'll be tracking down some Jays from the 2012 Donruss Elite EE set, likely, but just singles. Once returning to work in April, the good stuff will start coming. Bowman, A&G Civilizations insert, NUE JAYS on 2013 cards.

**If you have Roy Halladay cards to trade, send them to Dennis. He's a big fan and will appreciate them more than I. I love Halladay and always will, but the red pinstripes just leave me feeling empty. At least, until I see Jose Reyes in blue this Spring.

**Send me your Jose Reyes refractors, jerks.

Warning: Beautiful Baseball Cards.

Yesterday, the 'burbs of Syracuse, New York were buried in about 18" of fresh powdery snow. I have to drive a good amount for my job (about 70 miles/day) in a rear-wheel drive Ford Ranger - a vehicle which has no place on anything other than tarmac in even the best of weather. Knowing full well that I had recently won many auctions of some very exciting cards off of the 'bay, I used my hard (read: moderately hard) earned vacation time to hang out, exhume cars from the depths of December and watch a mini-marathon of No Reservations until my shiny new awesomes arrived.

I know, I'm living the life.

However, the cards never came. In fact, they should have on Wednesday, but they didn't then, either. Patiently (or, obsessively refreshing every 10-20 minutes) checking the tracking info, I received a message around 8pm that the postal carrier left an undeliverable note in the box. This was not so - we had placed the rent check to be mailed out in the box earlier in the day, and it was still there by this time. Jerks.

Anyways, today the packages came. All four of them. This is one of those times where you'll hear some ridiculously repetitive spiel about how these cards look so much better in person! or the scans just don't do these justice!

I'll spare you that. Just know that these are some of the best-looking cards to come out in 2012. Bottom line.

I'll start with my main man and current Blue Jays rotation afterthought, Drew Hutchison.

Sepia Swooooon

This is the sepia refractor variation of Drew's 2012 Topps Chrome Rookie autograph. I will admit Topps have been pumping out some great Jays rookie autos of late, from Kyle Drabek and JP Arencibia in 2011 to Drew Hutchison and Brett Lawrie in 2012. Any version of this card which featured a full-colour photograph is an absolute abomination. One of the worst Toppshoppings I have ever seen. Awesomely, though, there are only 75 of these buggers. Happy to have one.

Have you ever seen a 1st Bowman Card of a 32nd round, 985th overall pick? Well, Jorge Saez is one, and Bowman decided to feature him on this card for 2013. I can find almost nothing on him. In fact this is the only one I have of him - COMC is bare and everything else on ebay was overpriced.

The Jays drafting Saez shows Jays Brass' love of college catchers. JP Arencibia, Yan Gomes (now with the Tribe) and Saez - all recent picks. The blue refractors are astonishing with the new Jays uniforms, even if they are Toppshopped - and Jorge's catcher's gear makes this card that much better.

This card, however, was just a $.99 throw-in to the main attraction:

Hello, I love you.

Introducing the perfect baseball signature card. This card is absolutely stunning. Its really hard to convey that message through a poor scan (after vicious cleaning of the scanner bed and checking the card over for imperfections), but believe me when I say that this card is absolutely perfect. Francisco has an original, instantly-classical signature. Rarely do you see such a compelling "F" in someone's inkings. I've had quite an adoration of Lindor since hearing about him on Baseball Prospectus' Up and In podcast - the best podcast ever, if you were wondering - and have made him a cornerstone of my collecting interests with this purchase and a pile of Lindors waiting for me to request shipment on COMC.

By the way, I've bought four of these so far.

Yep. Four.

And that does not include the following three, all 2012 draft picks of your Toronto Blue Jays.

Round 1, Pick #17:

DJ Davis

Bowman Scouting Report: Davis has scary speed and good instincts, which lead to myriad outfield highlights*. His strong forearms whip the bat through the zone, generating line drive to all fields.

I do not know too much about DJ Davis - mostly that he's a hell of a sight in centre field and was regarded as the fastest in the 2012 draft class. Some of his major-league comps include Alejandro de Aza and Michael Bourn. That's fine by me, but I'll be honest, I was hoping Lucas Giolito would slip one spot lower than he did. So it goes.

I do, however, love Davis' signature. It's so authentic. Its not forced. It doesn't look like he has been practicing it since he was eleven years old. It's just...honest.

Round 1, Pick #22 (Supplemental):

Marcus Stroman

Bowman Scouting Report: Stroman turned Duke into destination for scouts*, unleashing 95-mph fastballs and filthy sliders against overmatched ACC competition. His efficient delivery, obvious intelligence and rare polish make him a good bet to zip up the Blue Jays chain.

I am quite excited for Marcum Stroman's future as a Blue Jay. He was amazing at Duke. Unfortunately, a banned-substance suspension ended his 2012 and will cut into his 2013. I highly doubt that Stro' is juiced - it doesn't fit his build or his performance. However, Marcus immediately took responsibility for his actions and vowed that this instance was entirely a mistake and will be buried in the past.

Round 2, Pick #50 (CA)

Matthew Smoral

Bowman Scouting Report: Left-handed swingers never feel very comfortable against Smoral, whose low, three-quarters arm angle and long limbs can make his low-90s heater seem like it's jumping at hitters. A plus-slider and an improving change-up keep the righties at bay, too.

Smoral seems like decent replacement in the ranks for recently-traded Noah Syndergaard. Big, tall, lefty, with solid control and medium heat. I love the way the Jays uniform, albeit inauthentic, looks on this card. Blue jersey. Blue border. Blue ink.

Matthew's signature is definitely the least interesting, though, but it's bound to morph into something different during his trip through the Jays system.

This post was wordy, but most of the good ones are. I try to avoid the cliche "look what I found on ebayz!!1" posts and actually write something rather than just...write. Something.

I hope you enjoyed it. Leave comments to let me know you did or did not.

Crickets.

*I apologize for the abysmal grammar on these cards. I doubt they were actually written by baseball scouts, but rather deciphered from their notes and columns and so on.

2012 Topps Pro Debut 2-Box Break

Phew. It's been a busy night. But since I posted a teaser of these two beautiful babies, I thought it would just be the right thing to pose them up. I busted these way back around 5:30, collated them by 6:30, scanned them, made a grocery run and whipped up a batch of white trash for tomorrow's office Christmas party, scanned a few more images and now I sit, watching, conincidentally, a baseball-themed episode of Psych, and have finally got around to writing them up.

Breath.

On to some baseball cards!

Ahh, prospects. Except, these prospect aren't so much anymore. Manny Machado came on in August and killed it for Baltimore. Harper was up by May (two weeks before I moved back to Syracuse - way to get hurt, Zimmerman). Billy Hamilton was a September call-up and was pretty much just a blur - possibly the fastest man in baseball right now.

Xander Bogaerts, Jurickson Profar and Starling Marte. Xander easily wins the Greatest Name in the Baseball award, while also being one of the best prospects in baseball. Jurickson Profar made a name for himself during the Futures Game this year in Kansas City when he smoked one out to right field - and again when he homered in his first major league game a couple months later - in his first at-bat. 

The MiLB All-Stars fall 1:3. They're pretty nice for a six-per-box insert, with a solid design and all-star player selection. I was quite happy to pull both Marte and my man AJ Jimenez, a baby Jay catcher who'll probably be fast-tracked to the MLB with the outsourcing of Toronto's catchers of late.

The gold-border parallels fall one-per-box and are numbered to 50 copies. Coincidentally, mine were both of Mets farmhands.

 Of course, I had to sneak in some more blue-chip prospects before the hits come. Deal with it.

...and some more. I was a bit disappointed Hak-Ju Lee wasn't pictured in a Montgomery Biscuits uniform, but the Charleston Rock Crabs aren't too bad, either.

Here, you jackals. Here are the autographs from box one. As you can see, nothing spectacular. Yet. I am going to do a  bit of digging on these guys eventually.

Soooo, this is my second Hutchison autograph from this set. Why second? After I purchased the boxes on 12/10, I figured there was no way, even though I would be pulling in four autographs from these boxes - that one would be my main man Drew Hutchison. So of course, towards the end of box two. That guy fell out. Also, the Sean Buckey is a gold variation, inserted something like 1:196. No big deal.

There are also relics inserted 2:box, and I was lucky enough to land ANOTHER gold parallel (/50), this time of an Xavier Avery bat. Junior Lake was the second bat card, both of these coming from the first box. I also pulled a Mike Adams jersey from box two, but in the haste to scan and post the next card, it must have been lost on the cutting/blogging room floor.

Boom! A Will Middlebrooks manufactured cap patch from the Pawtucket Red Sox. What a beaut. This is a very thick card, thick enough as to replace six cards in a pack. Awesomely enough, it was sandwiched between Bryce Harper and Noah Syndergaard base cards. What a pack that was. There is some mystery as to the insertion ratios of the cap patches, but I watched in the neighborhood of seven box-break viedoes of this product, and along with my two boxes, I saw three of these pulled. So my best guess is one in every three boxes, so it's a solid hit, but not nearly as rare as the gold relics or autos that I also pulled. Yes, this is me rubbing it in.

Blue Jays! I mean, Fisher Cats! I managed to piece together the entire base set, which means I was able to see all of the Jays cards. Drew and AJ are some of my favorites, but I haven't heard much of anything about Deck since he was drafted...so I am not expecting much more than a bullpen arm out of him.

By piecing the base set together, I also got a pile of no-longer-Blue Jays. I was sad to see Sundergaard go, not nearly as much as d'Arnaud however. I am hoping d'Arnaud is going to kill it in Queens, he's got the skill set and the work ethic, I just hope his knee is all healed up. I was never super-high on Nicolino, who for some reason isn't pictured as one of the Lansing Three. I suppose Topps just wanted to throw a Vancouver Canadiens card in. Fine by me.

So that's it. I am so happy that I bought & busted these boxes. I have a lot of base card doubles, so if you're interested in acquiring some of your future collection needs, let me know, and I will be happy to share.

Goodnight everyone.

COMC Black Friday Dealz

I may be jumping the gun on this post a bit, but I don't care.

Recently at comc.com, the great gang there was running a special for Black Friday, the newest American holiday.

Aside from their seller incentives, which with myself not being a seller, I don't know the specific, buyers were being rewarded handsomely. COMC was offering free shipping on orders of 10 or more cards shipped on Friday, as well as a $.10 store credit gift for every one of those qualifying cards. I grabbed 18 in a few hours drinking coffee with my Dad that morning, and here's some of the highlights:

I suppose it wouldn't be a Black Friday without a BLACK refractor autograph, would it? I have struggled to find this piece of the Magical J-PA Rainbow Crusade for under $30 without shipping, and the seller graciously gave this one up for a meager $7.75 - the most I have ever spent on one card off COMC, and I'd do it again.

I picked up a Drew Hutchison autograph from the world-ending Bowman Chrome release. Probably the start of another rainbow.

I like anything with a Montreal Expos logo on it.

A Nue Jay that can match his siblings, a J-PA bat and plain gray swatch of jersey. Emilio, or "Boni" as John Buck referred to him as recently in an interview, is supposedly one of the best teammates anyone could ask for. Maybe he can work his magic on Cletus B. Centrefielder this season...

I love mini relic cards. My only other relic of Ricky prior to this beauty was from an Upper Deck Team USA set, decked out in stars and stripes and holofoil. This, however, is just as American.

Any relic featuring catcher's equipment is a must-have, and this John Buck from his backstopping days in Houston is no exception. There are four versions on this one, I believe, with the near-impossible-to-obtain five-piece, featuring shin guard is the top tier. This is also the inspiration to a new banner for this blog that I hope to roll out soon enough. #80want

I also decided to work towards my World Baseball Classic relic collection. While this Nick Weglarz of TEAM CANADA (shameless attempt at Canuck page hits) isn't my first, this was the first real movement on this goal since 2010 or so.

I also knocked of South Africa (in refractory-fashion)...

And Mexico. These were rushed into my Black Friday shipment, and with more sellers capitalizing on the the weekend deals, by Sunday night I had also checked off Cuba (Yulieski Gourriel) and South Korea (Po-Hsuan Keng) to go with the Venezuela (Magglio Ordonez) I already had.

Hey, Nice Rack! (Volume 1)

2012 Topps Update Series

I'm not a huge fan of 2012 Topps. Or, really, Topps Flagship in general. I miss Upper Deck, Donruss (Panini), Studio, Fleer, Fleer Ultra, Pinnacle, etc.

But the void left by these companies must be filled by something, and Topps-Bowman are doing their best (not really) to throw out fresh (read: recycled) products every year.

I do, however, enjoy Topps Update Series. Yes, I can do without those blasted inserts. And three-five card of every player is totally unnecessary.

But I don't care. I love the 1987 minis (but of course, I pulled Chipper, CJ Wilson and MadBum...not scanner worthy) and I wanted me some Harper-Cespedes-Trout-Darvish rookie p0rn.

And some new Blue Jays

And classy powder-blue 2012 All Star Logos.

And I got them. All of them. Sometimes twice on the same card. Except Darvish.

So here they are. I bought 4 rack packs in a total Nationals win celebratory move last night. Enjoy.

Really great looking card. I have been having no trouble pulling Cespedes so far. Let's hope that continues.

BRYCE!

Another looker. Energy. Bright red Nationals alternate away jersey. Shit eating grin. Very, very Harper.

(Click the Joeys to embiggen)

It's nice to have a perennial all-star in Toronto that actually deserves it (I'm looking at you, post-2004 Vernon Wells). There's a lot to love about these. The diving grab in the Blue Jays base (with sexy blue glove). The Home Run Derby logo, in Royals Blue & Gold in the All-Star card. Two really great cards that I enjoy quite a bit.

MOAR HARPERZ

The overall design of the Golden Moments insert is fine for a memorabilia insert, but if you're not going to stick a shred of your neighbor's high school varsity swimming trunks inner-lining, don't bother. Cards with big empty spaces just don't work. But hey! This doubled my Harper collection. Yes. I now have two.

Golden Greats...kind of lame.

But who am I kidding. Take a picture of Junior Griffey hungover after New Year's, laying on his couch in Yankees attire and slap it on a baseball card. Chances are, I still want it. 

Hutch!

I looked briefly at the Blue Jays Update checklist before buying. I knew it wouldn't have many heavy-hitters on it, but it would be my first chance at a Luis Perez (who was F# nails before HIS injury, and who I did manage to pull), but must have skipped over Drew Hutchison. Hutch was super-impressive before he was injured. And then Drabek was injured. And then Luis Perez and eventually Brandon Morrow.  Yeah. Not a good season.

And finally, Yasmani Grandal in shimmery gold. I pulled this, the gold version of the base of the MLB Debut date and the base-base RC logo. Ugh. Too many. Also, the base-base has a sick catcher shot. Which is wayyyy better than this, but significantly less shiny.

And we all love shiny, don't we?