I'm a little late to the party, but I have an excuse

Part of my monthly card show purchase a couple of weeks ago was something I hadn't bought in quite a while.  I splurged for a hobby box of 2016 Topps, for a couple of reasons.  First, I'm building the set, so instead of piecing it together with a shit load of retail packs, I thought I may as well get it over with (most of it anyhow) in one shot.   Second, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

First of all, the base set collation was good.  I only pulled one duplicate (Mark Melancon) which I can live with.  Second, I was very curious as to what I was going to pull when the dealer said "good luck" after I paid for the box.  Lottery, here I come!  I needed just 40 cards to complete Series 1 after opening the box, and that dropped to 30 after opening a couple of rack packs.  Manageable for sure.

I do not mind the base set, there are some good photos in there.  I like that Topps included World Series, team cards and cards like the Hollywood Production card (battery powered, a cute play on words).  

As it is every year, the inserts are just too damn tedious for me.  I don't care for them, and never will.

Nice pairs of teammates on these cards, but they just don't fit for me.  I'll never be a master set builder, so these are available. 

OK, I get it, these guys got to pitch.  Did any of them do it a few days after an appendectomy?  If not, then I would say that they were hardly "pressed into service".  Unless they did it just after their uniform was ironed.   Available to anyone who wants them.

Cards commemorating a ceremonial baseball toss.  Only Mo'ne Davis should be on one of these, the rest of them I'm sure didn't get their pitch to the plate.  Even better, Carrie Brownstein was in the box twice.   Anyone want any of these?

Perspecitves.  OK, some pretty good names and photography on these.  I'll call this the insert set of the year so far.  Still, not my cup of tea.  I also pulled Craig Biggio twice.   Up for grabs to anyone...

LOL!!  Berger's Best in my opinion is just a rehash of "Cards Your Mom Threw Out" a few years ago.  For me, it's a big fail.
The 100 years of Wrigley is a nice tribute to a stadium that I still have to visit someday.  All 4 of these cards are available.

Now, these 3 cards are truly a mixed bag of emotions for me.  One, they made me laugh.  Helping me enjoy my box break certainly helped.  Maybe these would have been better in the Opening Day release, which is more geared to the younger collector, in my opinion.  The kielbasa catchers mitt is my favorite of these...which are all available.

Another type of parallel set.  Foil.  Sorry kids, no comment on these.  They're available.

All of you who have read my blog over the years knows that I enjoy a good gold, pink, black, blue, green or yellow parallel.  But the borderless cards for 2016 really make these parallels disappointing for me.  I really liked pulling gold parallels from packs the past few years, because you could actually tell they were gold.  I actually missed the Gordon and Holliday cards until I looked at all the cards a 2nd time.   Not good.   These 5 are available.   Speak now.

I really haven't pulled any great hits from hobby boxes (outside of the Gwynn auto a few years back from A&G).  This Mauer jersey with a thin pinstripe isn't that bad though.  Joe does need a shave though.   It's available to any Twin or Mauer collectors in the blogosphere.

I didn't bother scanning the 2 buyback cards that I pulled, because to be honest I'm tired of the concept.   Would rather have had 2 base cards that I needed rather than a '74 Boots Day or a '84 Ron Oester with the special stamp on them.   You want them?  Let me know.

I'm no designer, so I will not comment too much on the design other than to say it's OK, but I do miss the borders.  Leave the full bleed to Stadium Club or the other higher end products is what I say.  Want to make me happy Topps?  Cut the number of inserts down, or failing that, quit reusing old ideas.

That's my $60 worth...

All of these cards are available....leave a comment, and if you only want 1 or 2 of these cards, let me know if a PWE works for you.

Thanks for reading, Robert

National Saturday: Flat rate cards

It took a little time for me to decide how to split up the Saturday purchases that I made at the National.  Again, at least in my opinion I got some more great deals on my 2nd day at the show.  After a little bit of thought, I figured I would split the first post among two tables where the cards I purchased were an easy flat rate.

The first table was actually the Dave & Adam's booth.  I'm sure you're familiar with the Western New York multi store/internet retailer.  Well, as usual they had their mega sized booth with some pretty good deals on wax. 

I am proud to say I resisted the temptation to purchase any wax at the show!!  But...tucked in the back corner of their booth, I found several boxes of jersey cards at a flat rate of $4 per card.  A digging I went...

The A.J. Burnett card I displayed last Sunday on my post was one of the 7 cards I picked up.  The 2nd card is one that I failed to scan before I sent it off to Brian at Play at the Plate.  I'm sure once Brian receives it, he'll show it off for you.  The next three were all Maple Leafs jerseys, a particular weakness of mine as well.

Sittler jersey card for $4!  You bet it is coming home with me.

I also found another pitching star among the boxes, a longtime Blue Jays star that I couldn't leave at the show.

Calling Dr. Halladay

After what seemed an eternity digging through these boxes, I finally found a jersey card of the newest PC that I've started....Jim Thome

The first...

While I spent roughly 30 minutes looking through the myriad of jersey cards at that booth, the next purchase is quite the opposite.

On my out of the show, I hit a table that had a few people milling around.  One of the display cases had a starburst sign on it that caught my eye.

"All cards in this case, $5"

OK...let's take a look then!  Needless to say within 5 minutes, I was 4 cards closer to my '64 Topps set.  I was able to snag 4 League Leaders cards that he had...

Ford, Bouton, Pascaul, Koufax, Drysdale...all on 2 cards for $10!!  You betcha!

The Killer and Hank Aaron....2 cards for $10...how can I say no??  I couldn't...

The 2nd day of the National gave me the opportunity to do something that I wanted to do, which was to start finding some of the "medium" priced cards for this set.  Yes, there still is the matter of cards like Mantle, Rose, Clemente and others that are going to be tough to find for less than triple digits, but those are later on down the line.

1 more post of National treasures to show off....and yes, it is more vintage ranging from 64-75...

Thanks for reading, Robert

A blast from the past...2002 Topps Gallery

I've always been a sucker for what I call "art" cards.  You know, use an artist's portrait of a player or players instead of a photo.  I guess that's why I decided to pull this set out and take a look, because it was one of the first of this type that I collected.  The 2002 Topps Gallery set was only 200 cards total, which consisted of 150 current players, 40 prospects/first year players, and 10 retired greats.  The only significant RC in the set is Joe Mauer (card pictured below), but one thing I really liked about the set is the card back.

The year's stats are broken down by month, and in Carlos Delgado's case, he had a pretty solid month of August for the Jays in 01(.374 avg, 10 HR, 23 RBI).  The back also feature Gallery Notes about the player, and even a bio about the artist. 

The artwork on the cards for the most part was pretty spot on as well (although when looking through the set tonight, Albert Pujols' card left a little to be desired). 

This is also one of the many sets over the years never to be completed, but at least the want list is small.  Only 19 cards remain:  17,151,153,161,163,165,169,170,175,179,180,181,184,185,189,190,192,196,197.

If you have any of these, don't hesitate to send me an email at rmitchell6700ATyahooDOTcom

thanks...