Pitchers and Catchers Report.

Ohh, those simple words.

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

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

Pitchers and catchers reported today, you guys.

This is kind of a big deal.

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

Oh heck yes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The 2011 Topps S1 blaster resulted in this:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Like today.

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

Gauging Interest: 2013 Pro Debut Box Break

Greetings, all. There are some pretty outstanding group breaks going on out there right now. Sam is planning to rip a whole damn case of 2013 Gypsy Queen in April. A little bit sooner, and our friends at Joe Average Collector will be ripping some awesome products circa 1998-2003.

I've wanted to throw my hat into the group break ring as well, but wanted to do so with a little bit of a different kind of product.

One of my favorite sets from 2012 was Topps Pro Debut. It follows the same design, card stock and quality of the Mothership, yet the checklist is defined by the top prospects within every farm system. The boxes I opened a few months ago were astounding, easily the two best boxes I have ever opened.

What make Pro Debut great is the ease of landing quality hits, low number parallels and unique inserts in every box. It's not extremely overproduced like Topps or Bowman, so the cards hold their value well.

In 2013, Topps has made some changes to the fourth issuing of Pro Debut. A common box break will now net you:

• Two autographs:


• One relic:

• One Manupatch:

• And an additional relic or scarcer Mascot patch card:

• 190 cards (220 card set)

While they haven't released the odds of the parallels in this set, last year, golds (/50) fell 2:box.  On top of this, I received one gold auto or relic per box, which I managed to beat the odds twice there.

For this break, I was thinking two boxes of Pro Debut (so everyone gets a full team set), an older box of Pro Debut (2010, 2011 or the lovely 2012) and possibly a box of either 2011 or 2012 Topps Heritage Minors and possibly some 2013 Heritage Minors (note: this hasn't been announced, as far as I know.)

Also, as I love these products so much, I am willing to take up to 1/3 of the team slots. Preferably, Blue Jays, Marlins and Indians, but if someone was interested in those I would pass. Boxes of Pro Debut are about $65, Heritage is a little more, and the older boxes are about $45-$75. It's a unique opportunity to land some card of your favorite team's future stars. 

Please, let me know what you think. I will be busting Pro Debut, no question, but I want others to join in on the awesomeness as well. I also hope to make this an affordable break.

Updates:

• Interest  has been shown in the following teams so far:
• New York Mets (Doug/Buckstorecards)
• Toronto Blue Jays (Doug/Buckstorecards)
• San Diego Padres (Marcus/Backstopcards)
• Texas Rangers (Marcus/Backstopcards)
• Miami MetroMarlins (Roy-Z - Ozuna, Marisnick, Etc.)
• Cleveland Indians (Roy-Z - Lindor PC)
• Boston Red Sox (Roy-Z - I wants me some Xanders)
• Baltimore Orioles (Ryan H - O No!)
• New York Yankees (Jeroen/The Dutchman)
• Pittsburgh Pirates (Pirates Treasure Room (cool name))
• Detroit Tigers (Patrick - Hot Corner Cards)
• Colorado Rockies (Joe Average)
• Chicago Cubs (Matt M/Once a Cub)
• Washington Nationals (Matt M/Once a Cub)

So we're making some progress. If I can get interest in 20 teams, this will likely go down. I'll keep updating. (Feb. 11)

Price Updates: There seems to be a lot of interest in this for the $10-12 range. Let's hope we can do this. Like I said, I am fine with the mop-up duty of unclaimed teams. 

Stray Thoughts

I've been thinking of posts for a few days. None of them have seemed to be enough to warrant an entire post, so here are some stray thoughts for you snowbound northeasterners or west-coasters who are too lazy to go outside and enjoy what a wonderful place you live in.

This Santana came from Ryan at Building a Better Collection, or my new depository for my much-maligned Barves cards, or piles of Barve as I lovingly refer to them. I think the two of us completed two trades in less than two weeks. That's definitely a first for me. But I shouldn't say completed - I still have to export a vast pile of 2013 doubles, triples and quadruples out your way, Ryan. Patience.

If you came here because you saw the Carlos Santana and thought, "Hey, no 2013 Topps!!1", then you should probably just leave now. I'll be showing some, but don't worry. I won't be talking about them much.

Right after this article was written, Ryan Braun was once again pulled into the life-sucking and baseball news cycle-encompassing monster that is alleged PED usage. While some guys on the list make sense, and some have alibis, and some are douchebags and I hope they get caught but probably won't (looking your way, Danny Valencia), I otherwise don't care.

MLB's drug policy is a joke. HGH is bad. Cortisone is good. You can take steroids if you, say, have asthma, but not to heal injuries. Ban everything, or ban nothing.

Here's a little nugget that Topps slipped into Series 1. Remember when Mark Buehrle made his debut for the Blue Jays? Neither do I, but apparently it was a very hot and steamy night at the Skydome to get the Big Man sweating up that much.

Mark Buehrle has decided to live in Toronto by himself throughout the duration of his Blue Jays contract. You see, Mark is living by himself in lieu of abandoning a family member, the Buehrle's pet pit bull, Slater. Ontario currently has one of the most despicable laws in existence, a BAN on the pit bull breed.

If you're not a dog lover like I, you may not get it, so I'll try and explain it to you. Dogs are family members. They complete a house hold. I'm currently laid off of work (albeit only for two months) and if I did not have my dog to keep me company, I'd surely be falling apart right now. Baseball on TV this offseason doesn't hurt, either - but that's not the point.

Companionship. Floor cleaner. Portable, furry space heater. That extra heartbeat warming a cold apartment in the middle of a snowbelt winter.

Read the article, here.

Many of you do not like this insert set from 2013 Mothership. I do. Why? Drew Hutchison, Kid Canada, Harper, Pomeranz, Kelly, Altuve, Middlebrooks, Stanton, Turner, etc. Pretty colours. Big logos. ROOOKIESSSS.

Plus, most of you don't like them, making them easy pickin' for moi.

I have a couple I need still, so check out my list of wanting, aqui.

That will bring me, via a nice segue, into my next point. While I haven't written a nice, long, thoughtful post since Tuesday, that doesn't mean I haven't been active here. I've been flooded with trade emails and ebay auctioning, which has consumed most of my allotted blogging time. I'll work on those trade emails today.

However, one such thing is a new page atop the blog, known as the Staheekum Box. Like the Puma Box, it represents my own personal collection, except this one is more for special projects. One such project is my attempted rainbows of the Blue Jays cards from Series 1 - mind you these are just the ones I like, so no Brandon Lyons or JA Happs need apply. I do, however, like these guys:

I was super-hard on Edwin for, well, about two and a half years. Last year shut me the hell up, and did so quickly. Guy can rake, and this year he'll have Jose Reyes, Melky Cabrera and Jose Bautista batting in front of him. That's a little bit better than a melange of Rajai Davis, Kelly Johnson, Yunel Escobar, Laynce Nix or whoever they hell they called up from shitty Las Vegas that week.

Ugh. Mike McCoy.

Edwin brought a friend with him to my mailbox yesterday, too:

Black steals the show again this year. Camo are nearly twice as common and about 1/5 as interesting. No one looks bad on a black-bordered Mothership card. Well, except maybe this guy:

It's only February 9th, but I am naming this the worst card of 2013. I dare you to argue.

And since I wasted part of your precious life looking at that monstrosity, I give you the best card of 2013, so far:

The fact that I was watching this game, and recall the moment exactly, thinking: "That should be Rajai's 2013 Topps card" seals it. Topps touched this one up a bit - you'll notice Joey's face and Butter's good side are blurred a bit - making the dream sequence aspect of the card come through.

Well done, Mothership.

Baseball Card Forensics (1)

Baseball cards are simple things, right? Right.

Only, you're wrong. 

Much of what I read in the card blogospheroid is trades, product reviews, player collections, team collection, unique collecting challenges. This is great. I really enjoy reading everyone's posts. Most of the time. 

With the revamping of this blog not so long ago, I wanted to do something different. And it seems this time around, others wanted to to the same, too. Analysis of the hobby is a bit more ripe this time around. The collectors are antsy. With the regurgitation of old ideas, fake relics and overprinting cards, bloggers are looking for something new to write about. Digging deeper.

Completely on accident last night, I fell into one of those dig deeper situations. I recently won an auction for JP Arencibia's relic from this year's Mothership Series 1. It's a nice card. I like the design of these, unlike everyone else it seems, and when you twist them landscape-wise and throw a plain swatch of jersey on them, they look pretty damn good.

One thing I like to do with cards is to observe where the picture was taken. Sometimes with players changing teams so often and Topps photoshopping every damn card, I wonder how accurate the pictures are. On any player who's in a new uniform, or a changed one, I look to see if it's 'shopped.

While JPA wasn't traded this winter (as so many thought he would be), I was curious as to whether they'd use a 2012 uniform picture - and based on the image in this card, they did. I do not see any evidence of photoshopping:

So that's nice. As an appreciator of fine photography, I also look into the time of day in which the shot was taken. Anyone can take a photograph of a ballplayer in the bright sun of August, but well-executed photographs at night and during twilight are where talent truly shows.

Looking closer at this card, there are some clues. 

Let's look a little closer.

The uniform shows very little shadowing (a clue that this isn't a mid-day shot), and the glow atop the skullcap is telling that there is some natural light is still reaching the playing field.

The reflections in the helmet will give it away.

Excellent. You'll notice in the helmet reflections two distinct areas. Area 1 is dark, with a light line atop the shadowed area.

Area 2 is lighter. There's no dominant sun reflection, no glaring beacon of afternoon baseball and beer and hot dogs. From the lack of shadows on the catcher's gear, the light reflections atop the helmet, the darker shadows and the light streak in between (which, of course it the stadium lights), we can ascertain that this was taken at twilight. The Skydome is open, the Blue Jays are in town. All is right with the world. Right?

Not so fast. Like I mentioned earlier, I do not trust Topps. I am always expecting something shady from them. Thankfully, they didn't, this time.

But Roy, how do you know?

Well, friends and loyal readers, look even closer.

See that little spire there? What the hell is that?

Well, if you've ever been to the wondourful city of Toronto, Ontario, you'll know that just outside the Skydome is something just as iconic and mandatory on any tourist trip to the GTA, the CN Tower:

Awesome.

Appreciate your baseball cards.

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.

It's that time again: 2013 Topps S1 Need/Trade List

For Trade:

Emerald:
All traded. 

Base (Red denotes Claimed):
 2, 3, 3, 3, 10, 10, 10 28, 38, 45, 50, 50, 51, 51, 60, 61, 61, 64, 69, 75, 81, 81, 84, 88, 88, 97, 97, 97, 100, 102, 108, 108, 112, 113, 115, 116, 116, 119, 119, 125, 127, 127, 129, 133, 133, 134, 135, 135, 136, 140, 140, 146, 150, 155, 157, 162, 162, 165, 167, 167, 172, 172, 174, 176, 178, 187, 188, 190, 196, 208, 210, 212, 212, 217, 217, 222, 225, 225, 226, 226, 235, 236, 237, 239, 242, 249, 249, 251, 255, 255, 259, 262, 262, 265, 267, 269, 269, 269, 272, 275, 275, 277, 279, 280, 281, 283, 283, 289, 290, 292, 292, 304, 305, 308, 310, 314, 316, 318, 323, 328, 331, 331.

*I have a ton of base. If you want me to check out your want list, let me know, I can probably blast a solid chunk of it away.

Chasing the Dream:
3, 4, 6, 10, 11, 18, 18, 22, 38.

1975 Minis:
9, 9, 11, 12, 16, 21, 22, 22, 29, 29, 32, 33, 36, 45, 49, 49.

WalMart Blue:
32 (Breslow), 159 (Felipe Paulino), 180 (Kotchman), 221 (Heath Bell), 258 (Fister).

Target Rojo:
3 (Pence)
6 (Howard)
40 (Wang)
43 (Dickey)
50 (Wainwright)
54 (Jaime Garcia)
58 (Hellickson)
61 (Bauer)
63 (Masterson)
79 (Eaton RC)
82 (Vargas)
96 (Mujica)
154 (Romo)
104 (Lowrie)
115 (Hudson)
131 (Ian Kennedy)
139 (Parnell)
143 (Jim Johnson)
150 (Danks)
155 (Mat Latos)
158 (Billingsley)
165 (Ramon Hernandez)
167 (Hochevar)
188 (Fuentes)
190 (Descalso)
195 (Heisey)
197 (Cloyd)
206 (Rollins)
212 (Eric Chavez)
223 (Yonder Alonso)
230 (David Robertson)
236 (Nathan)
245 (Isringhausen)
251 (Marshall)
252 (Ackley)
262 (Correia)
261 (Rosenthal RC)
273 (Fowler)
274 (Miguel Montero)
291 (Sweeney)
297 (Michael Saunders)
299 (Barney)
208 (Jennings)
313 (Izturis)
316 (Reddick)


Toys 'R' Us Purple:
45, 65, 89, 97, 102, 136, 139, 162, 170, 171, 172, 185, 190, 195, 235, 237, 244, 254, 268, 291, 292, 314.

Gold Border:
162 (Kyle Seager /2013)

Chasing History, No Foil, Gray/Silver Ribbon:
2, 6, 15, 25, 25, 26, 28, 29, 32, 34, 38, 42, 47.

Chasing History, Foil, White Ribbon:
4, 8, 11, 16, 27, 31, 35, 39, 45, 49, 50.

Chasing History, Foil, Gold Ribbon:
1, 4, 5, 9, 25, 27, 29, 38, 40, 46.

________________________________________________________________________________

Needz:

Base (Green indicates Incoming):
123

Rainbows! Just doing these of favourite Blue Jays, no Brandon Lyons or JA Happs (Incoming, possibly incoming.)

13 - Brett Lawrie
Need: Red, Purple, Gold, Camo, Black, Pink, Slate

68 - Colby Rasmus
Need: Blue, Purple, Black, Slate

84 - Adeiny Hechavarria
Need: Blue, Emerald, Camo, Pink, Slate

124 - Ricky Romero
Need: Blue, Emerald, Gold, Slate

183 - Drew Hutchison
Need: Base, Blue, Purple, Pink, Slate

304 - Kyle Drabek
Need: Blue, Camo, Black, Slate

310 - Edwin Encarnacion
Need: Red, Purple, Emerald, Black

311 - Rajai Davis
Need: Blue, Red, Emerald, Black, Pink, Slate

331 - Jose Reyes
Need: Blue, Purple, Camo, Slate

Extras: Colby Rasmus Camo, Drew Hutchison Camo, Colby Rasmus Red, Jose Reyes Emerald (Maybe).

Chasing the Dream:
Done!

Cut to the Chase:
Have: 8, 11, 13, 17, 18, 20.

Whose broad stripes and bright stars

Its an odd time of year to feel patriotic. The snowbelt has once again been buried in the fluffy white death. Cars slip and slide and cause twenty-vehicle pile ups. The sunlight doesn't last long and most of your meals are ate when its dark outside.

Its winter, so far from the 4th of July, from Memorial Day, from anything else in which we wave flags, drink Budweiser straight from the can and celebrate the Independence of our nation by blowing up small chunks of it.

Yet, oddly, I still feel patriotic. Gripped by the icy cold fingers of February, I reach into my mailbox (which will inevitably snap shut on my fingertips) and pull out an assortment of all-American goodies. A pair of W-2s, tuition somethingorothers, and that one thing that warms every blogger's little 2"x3" heart...the padded manilla envelope.

This week, I received quite a few. Trades have started up again after about a month away, but ebay has been ripe with deals.

Fueled by the spirit of the World Baseball Classic only a month away at this point, I've been searching out cards showing varying degrees of patriotism in the form of Team USA (for a team Australia touch, stay tuned) baseball cards - something I quite enjoy.

I'll start simple.

Ahh, the plain white swatch of ex-Blue Jay great, current Diamondback cyclist (see what I did there?) and all-around solid bloke, Aaron Hill. Hill and fan-favourite John MacDonald were shipped from the GTO to Arizona late in 2011 in a post-deadline deal that brought (ugh) Kelly Johnson to Toronto. I'd rather have Hill and Johnny Mac, but the three involved all benefited from a change in scenery, before Johnson reverted back to his normal, miserable poor second base defense and ever present strikeout woes. Although, he would occasionally make a nice play and for a brief stretch late in 2012 would hit home runs whenever the girlfriend walked in the room.

And it's Aaron again! I've said enough on him so far, though I didn't say too much about him, really, so I'll move on to the card itself and the story behind them. I originally won four separate auctions from a seller on ebay as far back as November (the case has since expired). The two Aaron Hills were in there along with refractor rookie cards of The Pasty White Hope and one of my favourite Blue Jays, Casey Jansen. The package arrived postage due, which irritatetd the hell out of me, so I sent it back. Seller claimed he never got it back, and eventually the case expired - however, I won all four for a princely sum of something like $.81, so I wasn't too discouraged. THEN, this week, all of them arrived with a note and apology from the seller. I was very happy about that.

At this point, you should expect a JP Arencibia Team USA card of some sort. That's just how things go around here. However, I didn't receive one this week.

I received three. And they're all exceptionally awesome. I'll start with the most boring of them all, a lowly signature from 05/06 Upper Deck USA Baseball. That's right, a baseball set with hockey dating. America!

Awesome. There is much to love about this one. Team USA cards almost always feature the catcher in full-gear (something I require), blue serial numbering on the front, and usually some awesome red foiling on the names and company logos.

Also of note it that JP signed the "44" of his jersey number on this one. He wears #9 on the Blue Jays, and very rarely inscribes that into his baseball card signatures now. You will, however, find baseballs and bat, things not signed assembly-line style with a 9, on occasion.

But like I mentioned recently, this was one of the more bland (which it totally isn't) card of the bunch. It just gets better from here.

Oh hell yes, that's how you make a baseball relic-auto card. Full on America boner? Check. Cut-style signature window? Sure. Catcher in gear, doing something catcherly? Hell yes. Plain gray swatch? Where would I be without it?

This one, of course, deserves a scan of the back, which I rarely ever do anymore:

Sigh. I long for the days of something-like-honesty in the card collecting industry.

In 2007, Upper Deck still had some integrity in baseball, and they emphasized their authenticity with a photograph of the jersey on the back of the card. I miss that.

This photograph was also used on the last card that I'll be writing about in this post - which until I actually started writing this section, didn't occur to me. I grabbed both of these in the span of about a week for less than $30 combined. But this is the one I've been waiting for. I saw this once about three years ago on ebay. When my saved search popped up on ebay last Sunday, I jumped. Must have made the seller happy, as he accepted my BestOffer within twenty minutes, and since the card was only travelling across one state boundary, I had it in-hand by Tuesday.

So without further Apu, here it is. The new cornerstone of my John-Paul Arencibia collection and the final piece of the pentafacta:

Oh, sweet baby Jeebus.

Modern baseball cards just don't get any better.