It's the end of January and this is just my third post of the year and none of the posts have been on the topic of my baseball card room. I have spent some serious time in there recently working on cards. If only I had time to sit down and write about it.
This is the current stack of cards that I am sorting out.
Just loose singles that do not belong to a set. Most of these were organized while I was watching the NC State and Wake Forest basketball game on Saturday afternoon. I went to the women's game on Sunday against Notre Dame. I should have brought a stack with me to the arena.
Both NC State teams are good this year. The women's team has been ranked the entire season, the men's team is just outside the Top 25.
On to the Pujols card.
Topps has done a really good job with their Pujols cards this year. They have all been good cards including this Heritage card.
The front of the card.
Good shot of him clapping for something in the Cardinals dugout. While I was putting this card away I ran across his 2001 Bowman Heritage, which was his first appearance in a Heritage product. I thought the cards bookended well next to each other. The first card is a black and white photo of a young, clean-shaven Pujols waiting to bat. The final card is in color and shows him on the bench, older with a beard.
Lots of contrasts.
I know, I am giving Topps too much credit and they likely did not put that much thought into their 2022 Heritage Pujols card. I would guess that Pujols will also appear in most of their 2023 products. I would be surprised if they did not use him beyond that for autographs and the whatnot.
Back of the card.
I love the cartoon on the top of the card. I also love when the player has been around so long that you need a magnifying glass to clearly read the stats on the back of the card.
Excellent card.
Pujols looks like he's in his early 30's on that Topps Heritage card. Hope you're having fun with that sort.
ReplyDeleteHe does look younger. There is no grey in his beard there. I had wondered if he colored it, or if Topps touched up the photo. I couldn't find proof either way on the internet. The sorting has been a blast, which is why I want to make posts about them. So many great cards from throughout the years. Not many have monetary value, but just some really good names.
DeleteThere were sadly no Heritage High Numbers I could find at the card show this Sunday, but I did grab his Update card, which is a really nice one with him tipping his cap as if to say goodbye.
ReplyDeleteHeritage High Numbers is about the only retail that is available in my corner of the world. There are a few stray boxes of random products, but not much.
DeleteI'm not too keen on modern players being shown in b/w, but like you said, the two cards do provide quite a bit of contrast.
ReplyDeleteI think it depends on how the card company is using the black and white photos. Topps has used black and white as a parallel in recent years on their base cards and I think they look terrible. However, there are some decent set concepts that use black and white photography well. One of my students gave me a really low numbered TJ Warren basketball card a few years back that was a black and white Panini. Maybe print run of 10 or 15, which means it's a $10 card. Fabulous design, never posted it, but I might need to revisit that card at some point.
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