COMC #2: Prospectin' Francisco Lindor

I like to think that on this here blog, I don't keep secrets. If I find a market inefficiency, I will share it. My COMC deals and methods? Shared. Prospecting? Shared. Mostly. Some of my prospecting should pan out quickly.

See: Marcus Stroman, Taijuan Walker.

Some other will take time.

See: Strkyer Trahan, AJ Jimenez and the starring role in the post you're reading: Francisco Lindor.

Much of my prospecting comes from the bang-on analysis of prospects I originally heard in the now defunct Up and In podcast from Baseball Prospectus featuring Jason Parks and Kevin Goldstein. Goldstein is now a higher-up in the Houston Astros (long overdue congratulations), and Professor Parks will be returning this spring with a new podcast. This inspires elation in me.

The guys on the podcast were big on Francisco Lindor. Until recently I didn't know much about him. What caught my eye to him was his gorgeous signature featured on baseball cards. It's always something simple like that, isn't it?

Unfortunately, this post does not feature a signature of Frankie Lindor. However, it does show off some goodies I picked up of him earlier this month from COMC.

Let's move through time:

2011 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects & guys you've never heard of that will be selling oranges on the Freeway by January.

Two-thousand and eleven featured Francisco Lindor in a Cleveland Indians get-up for the first time, as you may have noticed from the iconic 1st Bowman Card stamp in the upper left. The first/RC logo/XRC clutter plaguing out collecting universe needs to end. Rookie Card logo, All-Star Rookie logo, nothing else.

For some reason, 2011 Bowman had prospects shrouded in black borders. As a fan of cards in black, this is actually not one of my favourites. So it goes.

2011 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects but chrome this time instead of paper.

Hey, look! It's Lindor's 1st Bowman CHROME card! That's different, somehow! 

Possibly. I guess chromes, though usually around 2-3:1 packs, are a parallel to the Bowman paper cards. I'd rather have a paper rookie card. You cannot beat that authenticity. 

So I'll admit, at this point, that Lindor cards are kinda repetitive at this point. It won't get much better, save for a new photo and borders on the following:

Internationale.

One of the selling points on Lindor is his ability to switch-hit, while being rangey middle infielder who hits line drives and is apparently a hard worker. Sign me up.

The Bowman International parallels, exhumed for 2012 are my favourites of the year. Even more, brace yourself, than purple refractors. Happily, I was able to obtain this one of Lindor, featuring a Puerto Rican flag. Lindor was born in Puerto Rico but moved to Florida for boarding school at the ago of 13. I think his folks knew they had something in their young middle infielder at an early age.

Wavy.

Ohhhkayyy so maybe these beat the International parallels in a taste test. Blue Wave Refractors are simply fantastic. If you're having trouble picturing the light-exploiting effects of this card, go through a search on ebay or imagine an XFractor Laser Show if it happened in 1994. Sure, they're loud and gaudy and colourful, but is that really that much of a bad thing?

I don't think so.

COMC #1 - JPA and the Miscellaneous

I managed to raid the COMC silos filled with cardboard goodies again recently.

I enjoy COMC orders every time. While the first or second was probably the best, it's not ad if they're getting worse or anything. Every time there is something new. My player collections are quite fluid, so the previous statement becomes more true every time.

And while I will get into some newer player collections in future posts, this one will stick with my number one - JP Arencibia.

As you can see from the photo above, JPA is currently being awesome on the Jays Winter Tour, which, sadly, does not come through Syracuse.

Might have to call up Paul Beeston and have a discussion on that.

Anyways. On to some new John-Pauls:

Diamonds and white trash parallels.

Black and white J-Ps from 2011 Topps. The white devil is from the factory set, which were stamped with a special logo in the top left, in case you forgot last (two years ago) was Topps' 60th Anniversary,

Fred Lewis is making a ton of cameos on this blog. Might as well give him a mention.

Nice card, poor analysis.

Not totally sure what set this is from*, but I really enjoy it. I don't always agree with Baseball America. And their podcasts are about as interesting as cud drying in the Wisconsin sun. I'm more of a Baseball Prospectus guyer.

Tristar Stylee

Another new Arencibia, and another Arencibia making a rediculous "who ripped one?!" face. This is some sort of rainbow foil.

Doble Gypsy

A Gypsy Queen Gypsy Queen from 2012. What the hell does that mean? There's a picture of some Hungarian woman, likely my GEOL 451: Remote Sensing professor printed on the back.

Also, my favourite back-type from '12 Gypsy Queen.

That's it for JPAs in this post, but it wouldn't be a tear-assing party without this guy:

#proooooo

Lawrie cards are expensive. This one, actually wasn't. But it's still awesome.

And of course, the lonely, single card from the iciest of sports, hockey:

Downtown Koivu

These cards are just great. This is number two in my collection, and is headed straight to the Puma Box to hang out with new teammate Zach Parise.

More COMC posts coming soon. There may be up to seven, you've been warned.

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.

In which I rip two rack packs of 2012 Bowman Chrome...on camera.

I'll likely embarrass myself here, but this is something I've been wishing to do for quite a while.

Lately, something happened in the card blogosphere (which I will not detail) that ignited a fire in my little blogger self. Consider posts from here on as writing with a grudge.

I want to improve this blog. I want people to come here, comment, complain, so on. And I wanted to that without making a list of resolutions just to revisit in December as a sobbing, even more embarrassed blogger.

One improvement, along the lines of reader participation and interaction, was to run some group breaks. However, since there are about seventeen going on right now, that will have to wait. I'm hoping for a nice break once some more 2013 products are out.

In these breaks, I want to make some videos. Since there are no new (affordable) or exciting products, I ripped a really, really shitty one from 2012.

Bowman Chrome.

(shudder)

Aside from the top-shelf stuff, BowChrow is just the worst in terms of value, but there was only one hockey alternative at Target tonight, and it was the also overpriced 2012-2013 Panini Certified.

So I bit the proverbial bullet, grabbed two rackerz of BowChrow, and drove home.

And then I recorded it.

So here.

Watch me embarrass myself. I swear my voice sound like that.

Hey, hockey is back.

So let's celebrate with a re-pack!

$5.99 slipped into my grocery cart tonight. Let's see what we have.

Could be much, much worse. I guess.

I'll start with the repack-in-a-repack, a product with no name.

Yep. That's a checklist. Awesome start, eh?

1997-1998 Leaf. I love Leaf!

Some legitimate star power on a truly excellent base-set design. I dig.

2005-2006 Parkhurst. Back to the Future! Err, recent past. Or something.

In case you were wondering what every pack of 2005-2006 Parkhurst looked like, well, that's it. Every one. Just like that.

2006-2007 MVP

I think I've seen every one of these cards about 76 times. But they're colourful. Might be a nice binder set. For a six-year-old.

2006-2007 Ultra

Ultra was very, very unimaginative in the mid-to-late 00's. This is that same set as 07-08, but this one has a horizontal foil line. In 08-09, they tilted the player's names. Mind you, this all came after the Upper Deck takeover of Fleer. Before that, Ultra was great. UD neutered it.

2010-2011 Upper Deck

So colourful. Upper Deck hockey in 2012 beat the hell out of UD baseball. What a dreadful set that was. Clutterbuck saves this repack.

Well, it was full of mustly trash, but fun. I'll have to shred some modern hockey before too long in celebration. 

Catching up on some Puma Box additions.

If you're curious as to what goes in the Puma Box, look approximate right here^.

I've been busy on ebay lately. While some good Blue Jays and Puma Box players cards have been popping up, and aside for Drew Hutchisons' recent in demand cards (what the hell?) - most have been easily attained.* However, my concentration lately has been mostly on prospecting and exploiting market inefficiencies. More on the second one, later.

First, in the parlance of our times, some bloody hockey:

Don't ever leave me again, hockey. Also, sorry, Puckheads, this is the last hocker card you'll be seeing in this post. Total cardstock tease, eh?

Sepia refractors are just great. This one came with a heaping wad of scotch tape stuck to the back. FUN!

Someone will be receiving that top loader in a trade as protection to USPS' shipping calamities.

Keeping with the refractor them,e, here's DJ Davis, the Jays' #1 from the 2012 Domestic Draft. There's a lot to like about Davis, especially this solid pose. And he's really, really fast.

From the (not same) Bowman Chrome set is a bangin' John-Paul Arencibia gold refractor. If you do not possess a goldie yet, go angrily type in your favourite player's name into ebay with "gold refractor" added on. You'll be glad you did. PS, they're numbered to /50, and are usually a steal as everyone else is blinded by the eyesore superfractorz.

"Hey everone, I found JP again, and he brought his BRO, Brett Lawrie."

If someone says this to you at a party, leave. If you don't you run the risk of winding up in a life-and-death match of drunken badmitton or fleeing across the Arizona-Mexico border while JP and Brett are doing whippets and pounding Red Bull in the back of a stolen Scirocco.

And some prospectin'. Francisco Lindor is one of my targets right now, and also a non-Blue Jay cornerstone to my Puma Box. I enjoy 2012 Bowman Sterling quite a bit, and Lindor's penmanship is excellent. Oh, and he's projected to be a hell of a shortstop in coming years in Cleveland, too.

More mail coming soon. Should have been coming today, but apparently delivery confirmation just...doesn't work anymore.

*I apologize for the dreadful punctuation in this sentence. But you're not Mrs. Edkin, my 9th grade English teacher, so kindly piss off if it bothers you. By the way - my high school English (and history) teachers practically begged me to go to college for journalism. I should have listened to them.

Last Second Additions:

1. I just added a new banner. I love Brett Lawrie ('s life).
2. Something else.

Out of the Woodwork with a Trade Post

G'evening everyone. It's been quiet around here lately. I myself haven't posted since what I think was December 21st. It had been quiet on most blogs until the past few days, where it seems posting is once again rampant.

Which is nice. It gives me something to do.

The recent posting spree spurred a trade between myself and Marcus of ...All the Way to the Backstop, a solid Padres-centric scroll with the most 70's of colour schemes. The boring Plain Gray Swatch approves.

In exchange for some cardboard with cut-up pieces of Padres jerseys, Marcus sent a couple team bags full of Blue Jays goodies, some set-building material, and some recent Puma Box collection needs.

So without further Apu, here's some pipin' hot Texas baseball cards:

I decided to start with the Pacific Coast League cards Marcus sent of ex-Blue Jay great Travis D'Arnaud and future Corey Patterson Anthony Gose. Unintentionally, I scanned these cards in such a juxtaposition to actually create a pretty awesome image. If only the railing and bunting in the background lined up...

It just wouldn't be a proper trade post without some John-Paul Arencibia cardboard. This is my second of the 2012 Bowman and yes, I do plan on hoarding these. Send 'em. The Archives is one of my favourite JPs. It featured the signature and his newly coloured 2012 Jays catching gear, which is way better than the gray/black angry Jay scheme. I already had the gold-foil parallel, which is a beaut, but the base is new to me. And I enjoy it.

As I mentioned prior, Marcus was the first to send some cards of my recently re-upped Puma Box collection, Joe Mauer. This is a Heritage sticker from I have no idea when and an O-Pee-Chee from an era of collecting which I was not involved in...so 2009 or so? Either way, some great Mauers here. Many,many more coming in the mail from COMC soon.

What's not to love about a favourite player, in a unique pose, being remember for destroying the Evil Empire with a 9-RBI night? Possibly the fact that the card commemorate a batting accolade, and Carlos is being shown fielding a ball....likely pretty poorly.

Set builders. Not too much to say here, but these were the cardboard meat of the sandwich in this trade. A contribution of 4% overall to my 2012 Allen & Ginter's woes is always appreciated (hint.) I'm a bit further off with the '12 Update Series, but that's okay. I know they're out there, and not short-printed.

This may be one of, if not my favourite Blue Jay card from 2012. I just love it. And of course, it comes out of the set which I loathed the most in 2012. Heritage...puke.

Still, love the cards, Marcus. Your's will hit the road soon once I can pad them with some more Friars.