2014 Stadium Club Blue Jays Team Set

2014 Stadium Club was too expensive. Topps, in general, is too expensive. 

There. I got that out of the way.

Yet when it comes to base cards, we can always wait a few months and take advantage of disappointed case breakers and prey upon junk, worthless, common cards. The nerve Topps has putting base cards to fill up these packs and waste time getting to these ultra mojo hits. The nerve, indeed.

For a couple weeks I perused ebay, waiting for a reasonably priced (read: offensively cheap) Blue Jays team set.

$3.49 later, I was rewarded. Sort of.

You see, the cards look great. Every thing that made Stadium Club great: great photos, nice color, a good sheen and no borders.

Except Topps decided to put all their energy into the mojo, and in turn printed these cards on fortune cookie paper.

So it goes.

I'll start with Robert Allen Dickey, the knuckleballer. Dickey is a cool dude, but I'll be supremely disappointed if he starts Opening Day again in 2015. He's league average now. But well above replacement in terms of style with that baller Canada Day jersey and high socks. I'm pretty sure he got smoked that day, too.

Rule #45 of card blogging" always show the backs. Someone out there cares. Edwin is a good player for this chore - if nothing else you can appreciate those numbers that so few non-Blue Jays folks see day in day out. The backs look good, too, but you'd better be careful you don't stick your finger tips through the cheap card stock. 

Any post on this page is incomplete without my boy Marcus Stroman, who should be the Blue Jays ace. In a way he already is, but we don't need to place that label on him already. This is a pretty generic pose, though, and a weak effort from Topps. That said, I'll still be chasing his autograph in this set - pretty much the only Blue Jays insert to be found.

Gone, but never forgotten. I'll miss Brett, but Josh D. is an overwhelmingly better baseball player. This is a great shot - one I'd like to cal a pitcher shot - as its zoomed in close enough to give you the feeling of being on the mound while Brett makes a routine throw across the diamond which inevitably sails into the sets behind first base. 

Quite possibly the greatest Blue Jays card of all time. At least 2014. Jose Reyes. DIRT. I love dirt. I miss dirt. I miss Jose. I miss baseball.

But it's just...it's not the best baseball card of 2014. It may be number two, but number one is so far ahead.

So far ahead, so far away. There was never a competition. 

Its this.

Doc. 

Dad jeans and all. 

Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the background. 

Struggle face. 

The faintest glimpse of a smile.

The very heart and soul of every one of the Blue Jays faithful. In one baseball card. 

A Blue Jay for one last day. One last pitch. 

Thank you for everything, Roy. 

Love, Roy. 

Big Deal(s)

Two posts in one month is kind of a big deal now.

Don't get me wrong. I am as excited as ever for the 2014 baseball season. 

Even if the Blue Jays are set to have another mediocre year, there is plenty to look forward to. I have a few fantasy baseball leagues - including some with some fine bloggers around here - that will serve as a time sync and post generator for this here blog. 

In theory, anyways.

Things always come up. Like this:

We're buying a house. And that's kind of a big deal. Don't let the photo confuse you, though. The house is currently buried in an unimaginable, unmeltable amount of snow right now. But by the time we're there, I'll finally have space! Sweet, glorious space.

Space for my brewing equipment.

Space to chase my dog(s, eventually) around.

And space for things like this:

Anthony Gose cards. They're becoming a theme here. Why? He's fast. I like fast. He's a good fielder - and underappreciated tool now. 

He's just not a great hitter. And as such, his cards come cheap. Like this one:

Granted, this 2014 Gypsy Queen auto never broke anyone's bank. But at minimum bid and manageable shipping costs, this was easily mine. And it's a good one. A good photo. And the auto isn't on some heartless Topps propaganda sticker. So, you know, it looks good.

Not as good as this, though:

Topps finally got it right in 2013 after years of barf designs (which of course, was resurrected in 2014!) At the height of this was the sepia refractors of Chrome. At release, this one would have set me back a bit. Instead, it was received for $2.99 shipped with the next card and a 2013 Allen & Ginter's common. 

This card, which looks like it could have come from a 2005 Upper Deck release. MVP, maybe. Which, I suppose, is why I like it. 

That's right, a 2014 Topps card I like. Other than Anthony Gose's base card. Two out of 400 isn't bad, right?

But hey, baseball season is coming. I heard Vin Scully's voice today. On a television. While baseball was happening.

Live.

So cheer up.

July eBay Binge Part 1

With the recent acquisition of a real job, I've been a little bit fast and loose with my eBay spending of late. Personally, I think it's justified, as I'm not spending a terrible amount, nor is there anything decent on the shelves to pass the time of late. One of the players I have been chasing after lately is Syracuse Chiefs CF/LF Eury Perez.

Eury is a very fast Dominican prospect in the Washington Nationals organization. Since he plays nearly every time we witness a game, and usually plays quite well, I've decided to start acquiring some of his cards. 

The above Futures Game relic and the aside 2010 Bowman Chrome Purple Refractor (likely the best year for Bowman Chrome refractors) were had together for around $5. I am particularly fond of the purple refractor. Good looking card right there.

If you've followed this blog closely through the years, you've likely noticed by affinity for purple baseball cards. Even better are purple cards with some of my favorite backstops in the game. While I posted the Salvador Perez one already, it was with my old scanner, which has nothing on the premium quality of my new scanner and this 2013 Bowman Purple Ice of Carlos Santana. I've really been upping my Carlos Santana collection of late. This one might be my new favourite.

However, this one is quite excellent as well. The victim of a late afternoon "let's see whats ending on ebay in the next hour" mission, this patch/bat/uni relic from some year's Topps Marquee was had pretty easily due to an odd afternoon end time.

Speaking of patches being had easily, this one had had my eye on it since it's release in June. It's Jose, it's a patch, and it's a maple leaf. Win, win, win. This was another one with a strange ending time, which I believe was about 8am on Wednesday morning. It seems to me that the best time to grab cards is during strange end times like this, but unfortunately, it is a rarity that they are listed as such.

And what would one more patch hurt? Not much at all, I say. Thus, for your enjoyment, I present another 2013 Tribute World Baseball Classic patch. This one is of Team China-Taipei's Hung-Wen Chen, who was also with the team in previous WBCs. This was had for around $7 (that's just a guess), which was surprising as Taipei cards usually seem to do quite well on the 'bay. This is the basic refractor version, but features a very nice three-colour patch from the Taipei jersey.

Yet as you can see from the title, this is only part one. It's not that Part 2 will blow you away, but it those "pieces" haven't yet arrived, nor are they baseball cards. So, you know, for the sake of being consistent, you may have to wait another day.

Something!

Normally, some bloggers would follow-up a post like mine yesterday with a "...well maybe yesterday I was a bit harsh..." introduction, but I won't be doing that. Aside from the base set and maybe 1-2 inserts per series, 2013 Topps is not special. Series 2 was a major step down in player selection, photography and inserts. 

But, at least there are no pies in the face.

Which I hate.

My JV baseball coach, also one of the most influencial human beings on my life, once said something after we walked-off versus a division rival:

"Act like you've done this before."

You'd think after so long in baseball, the adult men would do this, but they haven't. And so it get shoved in our face in the form of pie-in-the-face, walk-off jump-on-the-plate and horrific celebration cards. No thanks.

At this point I'd like to mention that that little rant there was not planned. But on the bright side, the pie-in-the-face cards have been replace with something much more palatable: 

Autographing! This is the only autograph SP I've really noticed in Series 2, mostly because I just don't care. However, all of your Jose Reyes shall belong to me, soon enough.

On a side, 331 was the final card of Series 1. And the first card of Series 2. More Topps trolling. 

Also, Jose's facial hair on any other human being would be so douchey that I would have guerrilla attack it with a Bic lighter or angry doberman.

While I have my issues with Topps Flagship, I am still going after all of the parallels for certain players. They just look so damn good in pages. My first numbered parallel of Series 2 is a camouflaged Melky Cabrera:

Which leads me to the question -  is this photoshopped? The piping on the pants looks a bit odd, and the scrolling across the chest is a bit too bright, and oh, HIS GLOVES ARE ORANGE.

I would think Melky would have had enough time to find some new batting gloves after his, umm, suspension in 2012. Plus, as the fable goes, he left all of his shit in the Giants locker room once he got slammed...so why would he even have them as a Jay?

One thing I secretly enjoy about this one, however, is this:

Neat. 

Enough Series 2.

Hey! More Joses!

Jose Reyes roooooookies! And a Francisco Lindor purplefractor! These both came to me on Monday night, but at the time, I was hosting an old freind. I enjoy them, but am seriously thinking of un-slabbing one of those clunky cases. Boo.

Of course, I saved the best for last.

That's a thing I often do.

And it's a good one:

Oh yes.

Rymer Liriano is out with Tommy John surgery (I sit back and watch the hits roll in) in 2013, which means his cards can be had quite cheaply. I don't know how many of these I have yet, or how many I need, but I know it's not going to get any easier. Oscar Tavares, Dylan Bundy, Matt Harvey still remain, and they will not come cheap. 

Also, that Lake Elsinore Storm logo is PERFECT for this insert set.

Perfect.

At least it's something.

nothing.

Nothing.

That's what was going through my mind after opening two blasters of Series 2 this weekend.

Not a damn thing.

Sure, JP Arencibia got some zoomed in love.

The most polarizing of your 2013 Blue Jays.

There were some rookies, and of course, some underloved Blue Jays that never play.

Topps really overdid it on the new Blue Jays BP cap.
Seemed like every Jay in S2 has one on.

But what else was there?

Some parallels.

Well, these two stood out over their barely-replacement-level red counterparts.

Well, it's moderately enjoyable. Anytime where JHey isn't succeeding, I enjoy.

Occasionally quality photographs.

These certainly don't suck, but Topps felt they had to photoshop a Phils uni on Revere, anyway.

More minis, though I love these two second baseman:

Of course, more retired guys on retread inserts:

These guys will have homes.

These will go to their highest bidders. Blow me away.

And two new inserts about as inspiring as an eighth-grade farm boys book report on The Tale of Two Cities:

Some exceptional player selection, I must say, but every damn one looks the same.

The only card out of 160 that made me smile. But how could you not??

And so I felt nothing.

Which is really how things have been going in the card blogosphere lately. Series 2 is a dud. I'll chase my Blue Jays rainbows, but that's it. I might not even attempt to complete it. Even if I do, I'll have to solicit all of you to donate your doubles, because I sure as hell am not buying anymore of this.

Perhaps I was rolling a bit too high after the luck I had with Series 1 (which netted me two Camo parallels and some great blue/red parallels.)

Or perhaps, with a quality, though not-extraordinary effort from Bowman, along with a catshit reiteration of Gypsy Queen, I thought Topps would step it up with a quality product for Series 2. False.

Return of the Crotch Logos

Maybe's it's not so much of a return in the "definition" of the word (whatever that means), but Bowman baseball in recent years has made an effort - likely (hopefully) unconsciously - of placing MLB team logos directly on the crotch of unsuspecting big league players.

Perhaps it's censorship, perhaps it's laziness or individuality (no one else seems to be logo-ing up crotches), but the heart of the matter needs some acknowledgement from us, the people who still notice these things, and that will be my intentions with this post.

I swear. Just acknowledgement. No jokes.

Let's start with my boy Jose Reyes.

Based on the look on Jose's face, he's either super-happy to be a Blue Jay and not photoshopped (finally), or a nice Blue Jays logo on the crotch tickles a little bit.

Tickle or not, sometimes you get the dangling Ol' English D:

Hopefully the Venezuelan flag in the background is a bit of a distraction from that BAM right in the groin Tiger logo on Avi here.

I'm kind of speechless on this one. I mean, I am sure the mail-order art degree clan that design Topps cards (Let's take the border and make it 1/10 of an inch wider at the bottom! Genius!) saw this one on the printing logo and thought that it was an instant gem. Yet, the ever-so-softly floating A's logo seemingly descending from, uh, Yoenis' Cespedes, seems kind of fitting to how I feel about the hobby right now.

Unless the logo is ascending...then it's kind of how Topps feels about their customer's these days.

The winner, however, is actually from the chromed-up Top 100 insert set. Behold:

Dylan Bundy's number one.

Eep.

I mean, come on. That has to be intentional.

But seriously, folks. These are just jokes. If you want to go ahead and get offended by the comments I've made on these cards, feel free to not visit this blog ever again. 

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. 

2012 Bowman Retail Box Break (1)

Cue rapid heartbeat.

Let me get this off my chest, early on.

I love Bowman flagship, and I am extremely unapologetic about it.

Bowman provides collectors with a robust but not watered-down checklist. Tons of prospects but stars aplenty. Easy coloured parallels. A manageable retail price. The chance for hits is low, but no so rare as as bottom quality sets and not nearly as expensive as multi-hit boxes.

A hobby box of Bowman nets you one guaranteed autograph of what is very likely an unknown product. A year after it's release, I found a box of 2012 Bowman on Amazon for $50. That's half the price of a hobby box, same amount of cards, no guaranteed lame ass autograph.

Worth the gamble if you like the product, which I adore, and hey - you net about 30 parallels and a bunch of rookies and prospects. Sounds like money to me.

First - I had some goals for this box.

1. 24 Gold Parallels - They're guaranteed, so this will obviously be fulfilled.
2. 1-2 Blue (/500) or Green (/450) parallels. There are no stated odds, so I don't know what to expect.
3. 4 Bowmans Best Prospects/Veterans. They're seeded 1:4, so there should be two of each.
4. Individual Players: Xander Bogaerts and Oscar Taveras. I don't have any cards of these guys yet, so it would be awesome to finally get some. Ultimate goal is the International parallel of Xander Boaerts, featuring the flag of Aruba in the background. 
5. 3 International Parallels: They fall 1:8, which is kind of steep for their meager "market" value. Bowman's main fault is that it is extremely overproduced, and the paper cards are "worthless" to many breakers and are even thrown out in some cases.
6. An autograph. After pulling an auto from a Bowman Sterling rack pack and a Francisco Peguero autograph from a 2010 Bowman Chrome blaster, I am convinced their is a reasonable shot to get one, on average, in every retail box, row of blasters or row of rack packs.

I'll start with some base cards, but I won't address any of the goals or inserts in this post. I've seen other bloggers do this. Kind of a tease, I suppose, but oh well.

Straspedes

Hey, look you guys! Bowman base cards!

Pereyez.

I grabbed just about every one of my favourite players, including Blue Jays - which many of the readers here helped out with since my return in September or so. If you want some Blue Jays from this set, let me know, as I have tonsssss. But I am also okay with hoarding them, so if you don't want them, I will take them.

I know they're not spectacular, but aside from 2008, Bowman is always a clean-looking set, with good color usage under-appreciated photography and subtle and dignified design. It's no 2010, which most find incredibly boring, but 2012 is a very solid year for Bowman. Before this box arrived I had decided to go after the complete set. I stand by my decision. 

Brarper Jr.

Prospects and veterans are equally represented in Bowman. No short prints.

Doesn't that sound like a novel idea? 

Say it aloud to yourself:

No short prints.

I am willing to bet a smile came across your face.

I did pretty well with prospects, scoring two highly sought-after ones pictured above in Bryce Harper (which I dinged after scanning) and Jackie Bradley Jr. Also, these two guyers:

Mapldor.

Dillon Maples is one of the better pitching prospect of the Chicago Cubs (#4 on one of my more trusted sources if I remember correctly) and is also the subject of that sweet 2012 Bowman Platinum Autograph I pulled last month. Lindor, of course, has full-on Man Crush credentials at this point, and has become one of my stronger player collections of those who have never made a major league at-bat outside of Spring Training - and is the Cleveland Indians #1 prospect.

On to the review: Base Cards (Weighted 25%)

The design is clean. Crisp lines, solid colors matching team's primary . The foil is unnecessary and the lack of it would probably reduce price. A good deal of the prospects are photoshopped to horrific proportions, and recently traded players also show the same. Sometimes, the logos are placed directly on the crotch of the player due to poor photo cropping decisions.

Overall, nothing is offensive about the design and the checklist is very, very good. Overall, I give the base cards 4 out of 5.

Tremendous Jose Reyes Mailday

After a typical St. Patrick's Day weekend, I was checking some ebay package shipments religiously. In between my corned beef an cabbage - soaked in vinegar (drool) and nearly a surprise fantasy baseball draft, coordinating another, I would load up the 'bay. Wait from tracking information to work after tries number one and usually two, and see where some new goodies, and Jose Reyes collection cornerstone, may be wandering about the country.

Saturday evening, it seemed everything Jose Reyes was sitting in a sorting facility in Rochester, New York. Patiently, with the help of said corned beef and cabbage as well as an extremely drawn-out fantasy draft, I made it through Sunday.

And then Monday came. And on my doorstep, a trio of manilla/white envelopes and a flat rate cube.

One of the manillas was from Cardboard Conundrum, and deserves it's own post for another time.

The first, non-Jose Reyes package contained this gem:

20/99

No, it's not Jose Reyes,  but it came on un dia de Jose, so get over it. This is a JP that had been eluding me for a while - or rather, teasing. No one had it listed for a BIN of less than $20, which is way too much to spend on a JPA numbered to 99. Eventually, this one popped up, via auction and starting bid around $6, and I snagged it with only one other bid to compete with. Since then, at least one, maybe two colored parallels have popped up with starting bids of $.99...so we'll see how that goes.

In another, overly-large padded mailer contained this:

13/99

Ohhhhh yes. Number 8 of 9. Which is now 11, with that damn redemption that I was too late to get in to. This was actually way better-looking than I had hoped. Some of the Camo parallels look rather bland, but this one looks great. I jumped on this one, which to me is an EBAY 1/1!!!!! LOLZ!!1, as it is serial numbered 13/99, the player I wore through my "youth". I now wear #1, or did last summer. We'll see how this summer shakes.

Now for the big one.

I normally don't go after memorabilia or non-certified autographs. But this one came from a legit card manufacturer and memorabilia distributor - Just Minors. While their cards leave little to be desired, their efforts to supply the fans and collectors with game-used and replica-autographs merchandise is tireless, and it usually ends up being an awesome product.

This isn't game-used, but is still awesome:

Click to embiggen.

A Norfolk Tides autographed mini-helmet! When I saw this on Ebay, I knew I had to have it. It came in around $34, but prior to that I had a pretty decent month of sales, so I only ended up putting about $20 into it. Worth every cent, I say.

97/120

I like how Just numbers by hand, on the hologram. It's a nice touch, something different.

Joey Kings!

A close-up of the signature/Tides logo medley. This is my least favourite of the Tides logos. Because, come on, man. Tides cannot wear baseball caps. Red ones, no less.

Inky.

And the obligatory signature close-up. From this angle you can see the logo is a sticker, and not printed on the helmet. Wish I had known that before, but I still would have grabbed it. From this shot you can see the slight smudge in Reyes' last name.

You know what I really love about Just Minors? The belief in their authenticity:

Click to embiggen.

I mean that's just great. This has everything I want to see in an authentication:

1. Hologram
2. Picture of whoever signing whatever
3. The guarantee
4. Supplemental online guarantee

Yep. I really love this little helmet.

And yes, in case you're wondering - it does fit on the pug's head perfectly.