i checked out my cards: the oldest of friends

Right.

Back to it. This is the 3rd Edition of "i checked out my cards 2017" Black Friday binge, where I hit the core players in my collection: Roberto Alomar, Carlos Delgado, and Ivan Rodriguez. Previous entries here and here. It's an Alomar-heavy crop, so if you don't like Hall of Fame second baseman, just leave. No one will miss you.

On to the cards.

The original Bowman's Best (1994) was basically a cacophonous version of Topps Finest, which was a huge hit in 1993 and the original high-end set. I don't remember their releases, but I can imagine they were hyped up back then. Bowman's Best had kind of a granite countertop thing going on beneath the chrome, which as a (very) young geologist, I appreciated.

The original Topps Finest was solid, but the design certainly hasn't aged well. There were parallels back then, of course, like this blue one (1 of 5,000!) featuring Alomar in the white-paneled Jays cap. Superb.

Topps of 1993 is an important set to me, not so much because I like it now, but because its the first cards I remember opening. The Blue Jays had just one their first World Series in 1992, and Alomar was a star. Black Gold cards were the first insert I remember aside from regular old Topps Gold, but they were the first with the hologram-style foil. Nearly 25 years later, I still love the Black Golds.

This time through my COMC Black Friday binge, there was something I was searching for in my Alomar collection.

Headbands.

Topps is still producing Alomar headband cards, such as the Archives offering from 2016. Not my favorite Alomar, but I'll take any one of him in the headband.

Like this 1993 Fleer:

Or this much higher-end 1995 SP:

And my current favorite, this 1994 Collector's Choice Up Close & Personal.

I'm pretty sure I pulled this card as a kid, but I was about eight years old and those corners are going to straighten themselves. I've replaces a few gems from my childhood.

This isn't one of them:

Ewww, Orioles. Bowman's Best was much more cleaned up and impressive in 1995, and while it's hard to tell from the photo, the quad-player offering is actually a refractor. Desi Relaford didn't make much of himself, but on the back is Craig Biggio - another Hall of Fame second baseman and Luis Castillo, who did have a nice career.

Okay, one more Alomar for the road.

I would have to put Diamondbacks Alomar as my No. 2 to Blue Jays Alomar, as his cards with them are pretty rare and given his long career, seems almost ridiculous. I've had my eye on this one for a few years. I must have been the only one who wanted it. That's fine.

On to Carlos Delgado! You might want to put your sunglasses on now because it's about to get really shiny around here.

I've always wanted an International Refractor, and a 1998 Bowman Chrome of one of my favorite Jays is a great place to start. Delgado is easy to collect in that way: his cards are affordable, he never played in an era of low print runs, and there's not a whole lot of competition for him. It leads me to pick up cards I wouldn't normally jump on, ones I just admired in black and white from the pages of Beckett, like this 2000 PACIFIC Prism (with an "S", that's how you know its good) Drops Silver parallel.

And man, is it heckin' cool in-hand. Prism from 2000 was a pretty set regardless, but this background pattern is especially fun. Shall we taste the rainbow?

Upper Deck (UD if you were a cool kid) Ionix was a fun one-and-done brand in 2000. The bend of this card gave it a good scan, but in-hand kind of looks like how a card would look if you somehow turned SURGE into cardboard and printed baseball players on it. Which fits into the style at the time. 

LOUD. Delgado spent just one season with the Marlins, but it was a very good season in which he hit 33 HR and drove in 115. As a 1B, the analytics didn't love him, and he only put up an fWAR of 3.3.

Also that year, the Detroit Tigers were very bad, but they had a very good All-Star catcher that season in Ivan Rodriguez. There's no Tigers cards to show here, just Ranger - but they are magnificent. We'll start with this absolutely perfect 1994 Topps Stadium Club where he's deck out in the Tools of Ignorance:

It doesn't get much better than that. TSC 1994 is a set I will have to complete someday. It's not as artful as some other TSC offerings, but the photography remained outstanding and the plastic-personalization name labels was so fitting for 1995.

In 2001, Pudge won his 10th Gold Glove. Upper Deck was getting more interesting with the memorabilia cards by that time, and the price was right for me, 16 years later, to grab this game-used batting glove card. 

Okay. You've made it this far, and you deserve something great. I give you: 1994 Upper Deck Ivan Rodriguez - Electric Diamond parallel!

Pretty cool, right? Pudge was so popular by 1994 that he warranted one of the best-looking cards in the set. However...

It.

Gets.

Better.

Are you ready? Good.

...

BAM.

We're not worthy. 

Going Dutch

As I remarked almost a week ago, posting will be a bit sparse here lately. As will trades and such, but I will still be around. Especially when material for a decent post begins to pile up, and it becomes too oppressively hot to do anything but bang away at my Samsung keyboard.

Before I get too far into this one, I'd like to express my congratulations to Timmy Lincecum on last nights baller effort versus the Padres. But seriously, you San Francisco Giants fans are spoiled. No hitters, World Series titles, ideal baseball weather and a breathtakingly beautiful ballyard...why don't you share some with the rest of us?

Anyways.

In my last post I mentioned the completion of a few uninspired trades of late in which I received piles and piles of clearinghouse-style Blue Jays cards from the 90s and 00s. It led to this comment from blogger favorite Jeroen of Dutch Card Guy fame:

The Dutch Card GuyJuly 7, 2013 at 10:37 AM

Go for the dutch guy Schoop !! By the way, i respectfully send you a small junk wax package last week :-)) hope you like it :-))

ReplyDelete

Now some may have been deterred by that comment, but I knew the package on its way across the Atlantic Ocean would be a pleasant surprise, not an envelope full of junk wax and ricin. We've exchanged cardboard a few times, and every time it works out well for both sides.

And no, it certainly was not junk wax.

To me, Griffey Jr is beyond junk wax. Especially when he is battling aliens weightlessly in the dark space between seemingly molten planets of metal.

The same with these blokes. There's some heavy hitters in there, including the best DH of all time (THERE, I SAID IT), a first baseman with a helmet and pretty boy Alex S. Gonzalez. These cards are very awesome in-person, so I think in this case the non-scanned images work to my advantage.

This one is a bit of a confession. I really enjoy cards of current Blue Jays in Blue Jays uniforms. It's a simple thing, really. The Rajai is a duplicate, but will fit nicely into my small Raj collection as the first of this one is in my 2013 Topps Rainbow binder. Sergio Santos cards are always welcome. 

But it hasn't been all trades lately, as I have pretty much abandoned ripping packs for buying singles. Fitting into a small player collection of up-and-coming Diamondbacks backstop Stryker Trahan is this beautiful slab:

  

These are very nice, but do not warrant the price tag associated with them. I picked this up for less than $5 I believe - which is an incredibly diminished resale value for this set. I will say, though, that parallels and memorabilia cards from this set are selling for nauseating amounts. 

But let's keep with the Dutch theme.

As you may know, I am a huge proponent of International baseball competition, with nothing falling as dear to me as the World Baseball Classic. And while I generally despise Topps Tribute, holy sweet molasses they blew all other high end sets away with the treasures of 2013 Tribute World Baseball Classic.

Wow. I mean, that is majestic. At least 75% of the patches in WBC Tribute are 2-3 colors, with the solid patches actually in the rare and selling for low dollar amounts.

But it gets better:

This is actually a green, and least necessary, colored parallel from the patch inserts. And it's Jonathan Schoop, who I really, really like. And seriously, look at that patch. Breathtaking. 

Thanks for the cards, Jeroen. Some aces headed your way....eventually.

CARDS!!!! From S'Crawford

Well, I finally got out of my rut. Despite the bad language and racial, um, acknowledgements, it seems no one had unfollowed the blog, sent me hate mail. or asked me to move to Arizona or Mississippi. And that's cool. You bloggers and blogreaderers are a solid bunch.

With yesterday's post and the heavily accelerated bloodflow from baseball that means something on my TV once again, I feel like I can get back into the swing (hey-o!) of writing again.

So what better way to do so than throw up yet another trade post! Right?!

Right.

This one came from Scott Crawford (on cards), who I've never actually seen on cards, so he must be a big fat liar.

Just kidding, Scott.

Anyways, on to some CARDS!!!!!!!!!!!1

2010 Mothership Update, Gold-Flavoured

First, the centerpiece. Yeah, a $.79 card on COMC might not be a centerpiece, but this one has been hard to come by. There are many things I love about this one. The gold border. Ghetto serial numbering, classy RC logo (on a true, what I understand to be XRC), catcher's equipment. What I don't like? JP's douchey sunglasses.

2010 Bowman Firstie

...and JP's Bowman "Rookie Card." This is not a rookie card to me. I like the Dunedin shot, though, and this is a nice, classy first-year card. I have a few incarnations of this one, but my first of the Flagship, coincidentally.

2011 Bowman's Best

Devin Mesoraco? Sure. Why the hell not? I love this Bowman's Best release. I've got quite a few of the heavy hitters in this one and really want to go after the complete set, because, well, it's gorgeous for a flashy release. And I usually don't care for flash. As for Mesoraco, he's a young catcher, so he kind of fits into my Puma Box collections, meh. I am undecided.

1992 Greatest Set of All-Time.

Classic Pudge.

Pudge Squared

PUDGE OVERLOAD.

1997 Score Awesome

Any trade with a horizontal, catching Carlos Delgado is a good trade. Especially if it's three years after he lost relevance as a catcher.

2009 Upper Deck is Beautiful

Earlier today I commented on a blog that I just don't care for cards with sketches, drawings, cartoons, caricatures, etc. This is a big exception. Geographic relevance on baseball cards would be my biggest turn-on if it had anything to do with a woman's personality traits.

2002 Upper Deck WTF

I don't know what set this came from. HALP.

*Junior Griffey in a Reds uniform is kind of like learning there's no Santa Claus. Of course, I don't ever really remember believing in Santa. By the way, I grew up to be a scientist.

HOOOKAY.

You made it this far. Didn't even know this card was coming. It was the surprise of the package and now is one of my favourite Junior Griffeys, EVAR:

1990 Topps Rookie Cup

It's soooo blue. Blue Eye of Springfield borders, blue uniform pacthes, blue hat, blue batting gloves, blue foam (or cement) on the dugout. I don't even like blue so much, but damn.

This card is unspeakable beautiful. Listen to me. I'm just rambling. I really need to look into more Junior Griffeys from these day.

Oh, and, you know. Topps Rookie Cup. An actually deserving one. No  big deal.

Huge thanks for these, Scott.

Isn't trading great?

Quick & Dirty Trades

In the environmental field, we often don't have enough time or daylight or tornado-free weather to due thorough investigations. When the environment gives you a deadline, sometimes you have to cut some corners to accelerate your days. 

It's a big picture kind of thing. Straight to the important core. No fluff, or filler, it might not be the prettiest of things, but the job gets done.

In the field, we call it "quick and dirty." 

Lately, I've been getting that feeling from trades. A few cards either way are agreed upon, and within a few days (turnaround has been sharp), cards are flying cross-country on the USPS steed, with happy traders on both ends.

Most trade lately have been base cards for base cards. '12 Update for '12 A&G doubles. Some '13 Topps are already trading places for more appreciative binder pages. This is fine, but I'll be honest:

It's damn boring. I'm just not excited by pulling in filler base cards, but I am too far into '12 Update, '13 Mothership and '12 A&G to look back. So it goes.

The trade which I'll be writing about here is not one of these trades of bases. It is, however, a quick-and-dirty trade with blogger mainstay Lechuza Noche. Some purple Dodgers his way, some green Marlins and shiny Blue Jays mine. Quick and dirty. Two happy bloggers, I'm sure.

Particular happiness was brought on by this:

This year's Mothership has some quality. The base set, I'll admit, is beautiful. The inserts are bland, the modus operandi of Topps, but every thousandth pack or so, you may find something special. The Lechuza found this one in his blaster, a silk Rookie Card (patch?) of Ken Griffey Jr., childhood hero. Coincidentally, I do not own the original. Hint, hint.

I was robbed of my Rookie Silk/Manupatch in my own blaster purchase and have been heavily ignored by @toppssupport ever since, so the inclusion of this card leaves me feeling slightly vindicated. Big thanks to Greg for this one - he could have easily threw it up on ebay for a quick $10, but chose to share the love with a fellow blogger. 

I like Jose Reyes. And Austin Barnes. Not sure if that one was included for my love of catchers, it's refractory awesomeness or that delightful Miami Metrosexual Marlins logo, but it hits on all three. Well done, again.

What would a quick-and-dirty trade post be without a poorly-scanned, painted Carlos Delgado Gallery card from the early 00's? It wouldn't be worth reading, I'm sure. Always welcoming of this-era Delgados. 

As always, thanks for the trade, thanks for reading, and don't drink and drive. Ever.

Trades and Upkeep

Many of you recently participated in Ryan over at Another Orioles Blog's trade bait closeout. It was a pretty fun experience, as a lot of great cards were snatched up by many a great bloggers - and I am certain that Ryan was able to haul in a massive amount of sweet Orioles cards in the process.

I myself sent him a not-huge but a rather heavy-hitting assortment of O's, and in return I efficiently flushed his collection of lovely cards to add into my own collection. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose, and as of right now I am holding on to these beauties.

This Aaron Hill from 2005 Bowman was the one I made sure I had to have. I enjoyed Aaron Hill's time in Toronto marginally more than most - as I likened myself as a similar role-player to Hill in my own playing days. I also love the Futures Game (not to mention autographs and game-used bases), and Hill was the MVP of the one in 2004 (U-S-A! U-S-A!) Annoyingly, the card does not divulge what exactly Hill did to enjoy such honours. So it goes.

I enjoy a well-designed autograph card, and this is a good example. Churchy was a casualty of the Nationals-Pirates-Mets mediocrity of the mid-to-late 2000's, where all teams seemingly exchanged very similar role players who neither hurt nor helped there teams - they just all seemed to play for those three.

A nice Carlos Delgado relic is always appreciated. This one is a nice, simple blue swatch from the early-2000s Blue Jays uniforms that I, seemingly, was the only one to enjoy. That's right. I was the one guy who liked the muscle-bound Jay. Looking closely, this jersey swatch has a nice seam going through it. I like that.

As the trade with Ryan progressed, I demanded Griffey refractors. I, the awful collector that I am, had not yet possessed one. This is my first, and I quite enjoy it. Black cards work well with Reds uniforms from the mid 2000s and any refractor with a black background will certainly be well-loved by this bloggar. Ryan also sent a reprint refractor of Jr. Griffey's 1989 Bowman, but logistics of scanning the heavily-warped (no fault of Ryan's) card was not worth the effort. So just to let you know, I have it, and enjoy it. I may scan it another time in a top-loader for better results.

I also selected these future-cornerstones of my player collections of Mikie Mahtook and Daniel Norris. It feels a bit dirty, collecting a Rays player, but Mikie was an LSU guy and was raved about on the now-deceased Baseball Prospectus Up and In Podcast (I do miss it so...). Plus its a dang purple refractor - second only to blacks in the rainbow hierarchy of refractors.

Also included is a rather limited (245/250) Orange parallel out of 2012 Bowman of future Blue Jays ace (that's right, I said it) Daniel Norris. One of two remaining of the Lansing Three after Justin Nicolino's departure to South Beach. Normally I am  not big on the range parallels, but this one will do - even wth the horrifically photoshopped Jays jersey.

Thanks for the cards, Ryan. Now on to other things, or rather, fragmented thoughts.

I've started selling on ebay again to offset my looming "seasonal unemployment." You can check my stuff out at the seller name "rolewiii13".

I'm contemplating adding another blog (or two) to my agenda. It will be entitled Rust Belt Cards and will contain longer, more thought-out posts about not just cards, but the importance of sports in my homeland, America's Rust Belt. It'll also feature my own photography.

I have a lot of other stuff to catch up on. I've sent out a few trades recently. Let me know when you get them.

I am expecting card-purchasing to die down for a while, at least until spring, as I wait until the contract that employed me starts up again "during the middle of the first quarter of 2013." Whatever that means.

I'm trying to organize my collections a bit better - but I could use your help. I would like to display cards on the wall - but am looking to learn of/invent a new, affordable solution to do so. Let me know what you know.

The Blue Jays claimed Eli Whiteside days after non-tendering whoeverthefuck Bobby Wilson is. It appears my main man - John-Paul Arencibia's days in Toronto may be numbered. So it goes.

This post now shares something in common with my coffee mug - it has dried up. My cue to click "post."

Peace, love, baseball.

Collection Favourites: Ken Griffey Jr.

During the Holiday season (yesterday was out first snow), money is a bit more scarce as it is being funneled into different, "more important" avenues such as presents, foodstuffs for family gatherings and a noticeable change in the heating and electricity bills.

So it goes.

And while I won't be posting rips of sexy new high-end products at an impressive frequency, I'll still be posting. More than likely complaining about Topps, looking for flaws and redundancy and posting ebay and COMC grab.

But in terms of this post, I'll be writing about my "older" cards more frequently. I have a lot of great cards, or at least great to me. From time to time, I want to show some off. So I'm starting a new series in which I talk about my favourite players and their cards.

And of course, I am starting with Ken Griffey, Jr. I don't go after his relics or autos - so don't expect and three-colour patches or such on here. What drew me to his cards were 90's-00's inserts and commons from the Saved by the Bell era.

The format of these posts will be simple. The front and back of nine cards - the amount which fits on my scanner - and a short bit about each one. So let's get started.

1989 Donruss #33 Rated Rookie

There was no clear-cut KGJ to post first, here, so I went with possibly his least appreciated rookie card. I was only 2-3 years old when this card was minted. I love the violet-purple fade and black vertical borders. And of course, the v-neck jersey. AND the orange background. It's Ken's hipster rookie card.

        

2000 Upper Deck HoloGrFX Star Views #SV1

Yes, it is as awesome as it looks. Somehow the scan picked up the 3-dimensional star background similar to Score's Artist's Proofs parallels of the late 1990s. I may try and find the complete set of these, but I sure its full of jackasses like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Alex Rodriguez.              

2000 Pacific Invincible Reyes del Diamente #10

The Reyes del Diamente (Diamond Kings, for those english-only readers) set out of 2000 Pacific Invincible set were super awesome. While not picked up by the scan, the background is sort of a cream colour and the 'card' markings are in a deep red foil. Very cool set, even with the picnic-table-cloth backs promoting the pack you already purchased (and boy, did I purchase a LOT of Pacific from 1998-2004.)

1989 Upper Deck #1

Of course it's here, why wouldn't it be?

2007 Fleer Ultra Swing Kings Relic #SK-KG

I pulled this from a discounted blaster of '07 Fleer Ultra in about 2009. I was sitting on the floor in my girlfriend's room and almost cried over this plain gray swatch (hey, look at the header image of this blog...). Griffey was always a childhood favourite of mine, and this was my first relic I have pulled. I never bought any and still have not (though I have been eyeing some batting glove cards). It wasn't as great as seeing him hit a HR in a meaningless June blowout in Yankee Stadium in 1998, but it was still amazing and possibly my greatest pack ripping moment.

2004 Donruss Studio #60

While the Kid on the Reds was never great for my fandom of him, it came during a time when my baseball card collecting was ripe. Here's a "dark" Griffey. In most cards he's smiling, joking around, having a great time. Here he's zoned in. It's a great nighttime shot and has a beautiful skyline photo of a not-so beautiful city behind him. By far one of my favourite Griffey cards from one of, if not my favourite set of all time. 

2000 Skybox Skylines #9 of 10SL

Speaking of my affinity for anything skylines and Griffey, here comes one of my favourite insert sets of all time. The colours and silver etched foil in the background explode off of this card. It's just perfect, even for a horizontal set. Once again, the ten cards in this set feature a bunch of jerkasses (Rodriguez, Bonds, Sosa), but the good guys included (Griffey, Ripken, Nomah, Jeteah, Piazza, Chippah) make it worthwhile to collect. I have 3 of the 10. I you have any, let me know and I will make a trade worth your while. 

1994 Donruss 90's Dominators 6 of 10

 You see, Topps? You don't have to design a card just for a relic. You don't have to print 10 different parallels and claim Hall-of-Fame(dom) on a player just to make a nice insert. I love the 90's Dominators set, and every other one I have seen is just as beautiful as this one - which as you might be able to tell NEEDS to be replaced, as it has been loved. The edges are chipping and there is some kind of glue-spot on his left glove/right shoulder.

2000 SP Top Prospects Minor Memories #Jr2

I'll close with a card from an insert set from 2000 SP. I think there are only about 5 in this set, and they may have a pretty low print run (ebay results: 6, including one Michael Jordan). They're a nice set, with a bright holofoil background. Simple, yet sorta flashy. Well done, definitely.