More Five Star Autographs

A little bit of a follow up post from yesterday, but I wanted to give my new Five Star autographs a post of their own.  The Oscar Taveras card appeared in the Best Autograph Set of 2014 post, but probably also deserves a little bit of a nod in it's own post.  Five Star always seems to come out really late every year and just when you think the card calendar has come to an end, there is a really nice product with really nice autographs that pops up.  Want lists are revised and plans for filling in the last remaining holes in the 2014 sets are placed on hold.

As discussed in the previous post, I am really high on this set.  I love the thick card stock and I love the on-card autographs.  I have seen a few people compare the background design to a paisley shirt that Will Smith might have worn on the Fresh Prince of Bel Aire, but I am cool with it.  I actually think it looks a little bit more like the Basilica Cathedral in St. Louis than a Will Smith shirt and I am sure if we could talk with the design folks at Topps I am sure they would probably side with my interpretation of the design.  

I picked up two Five Star autographs to start out.  I really liked the Taveras card, but also decided to add the Craig since it was being sold by the same seller on Ebay and had almost no bidding on it.  I believe that this is the first autograph for Craig in a Red Sox uniform.  Kind of wonder if it is also probably his last autograph in a Red Sox uniform.  As for Taveras, I will be talking a little bit more about Oscar later this week.  I have avoided the topic over the past two months, but have had some time to think and process everything.  More Oscar later....

Needless to say, I am on the look out for a few more Five Star autographs.  I am thinking about adding another Cardinals autograph or two, but I really like the Vladimir Guerrero autograph.  I am thinking of doing more 90s baseball autographs out of this set more than my usual Cardinals and Rays.  

Another Trip To Big D's Sports Cards

It had been awhile since I had managed to make my way into my favorite local card shop, Big D's Sports Cards, in Raleigh.  I do not have school on Monday and little responsibility for the next five weeks I am tracked out of work, so it was a no brainer that I needed to hit up the card shop.  Jimmy had a couple of things waiting for me.  Some of the cards he had found and set aside for me, while a few of the cards I picked up in a trade with a local collector. 

So, first up is a small side project in my collection.  A few Michael Sam cards from different Topps base sets.  The one card would appear to be a variation, but I might be wrong on that.  I actually know almost nothing about football cards, but I like picking up a few things from Mizzou and NC State guys here and there.  Sam was the SEC Defensive Player of the Year last year and was drafted by the Rams in this year's rookie draft.  

I also picked up a pair of Hak Ju Lee autographs which were signed in person while he was a member of the Durham Bulls.  He should be back in Durham next year, but the Rays seem to be working pretty hard on trading away everyone this offseason.  He will probably end up on the Padres.  

I love the Bowman autograph on the right hand side.  That is kind of the quintessential Hak Ju Lee defensive pose.  Spend five minutes watching the Bulls take infield practice before the game and you will see that pose half a dozen different times.  On to more serious things.  

I have been trying to work on a few new player collections.  The statement above about the Michael Sam cards being a side project should have probably been typed in blue (for sarcasm).  I am really trying to develop a player collection away from baseball cards, but let's face it: I am not a football person.  

As a resident of central North Carolina it is hard to go wrong with collecting something basketball.  I like basketball and I graduated from one of those North Carolina basketball schools.  So, I am happy to add a second autograph to my collection of T.J. Warren cards.  This time he is wearing a Suns jersey and not NC State.  Well, he's at least holding a Suns jersey.  Roll Pirates Roll.  (Google Riverside Durham)  

While I was in the shop I also decided to pick up a copy of a Trea Turner autograph that looked really sweet.  It is from Leaf Valient and is a die cut autographed serial numbered out of 25.  Turner went to NC State and was drafted by the Padres 13th overall in the draft this summer.  He was in the Will Myers trade last week, but since he has not played for a full year he's in some sort of baseball purgatory.  This was too cool of a card to pass up.....

Last two cards for this post came in a trade from a local card collector who traded me a pair of Cardinals for an autograph of Red Sox prospect Henry Owens from his days as an amateur with the USA baseball program.  I thought I was only getting an Allen Craig.  Looks like I owe you a card on the next trade. 

The Edmonds patch card is a great throw in for a card for a card trade and I love the Allen Craig card.  The PinchMe phrase is in reference to his appearances off the bench for the Cardinals during their 2011 playoff run which resulted in the team's 10th World Championship.  Craig pinch hit playing in Busch and was the DH in Texas.  He started game 7 because of an injury to Matt Holliday and ended up hitting the go ahead home run.  

Bring Me A Supreme Sprinkle Doughnut

Merry #WorldSeries! Getting game day started off on the right foot with some classic Fall #SprinklePower! #12in13 pic.twitter.com/712GmqId41
— Torty Craig (@TortyCraig) October 26, 2013

I am not always great about drawing the line with collecting cards from former Cardinals.  Sometimes when a player leaves under not so great circumstances it's really easy to cut the ties right then and there and move on to other players.  Other times, it's much more difficult.  It starts out with some sort of contemplation about whether or not to sell or trade their cards, followed by regularly checking their box scores, to just caving and still picking up some really sweet cards of that player.  

I liked Allen Craig when he was on the Cardinals.  He was a great hitter for several seasons and a really important part of the 2011 World Series team.  In Game 7 alone he hit the go ahead home run, robbed Nelson Cruz of a home run, and caught the final out.  I could make a whole post about his postseason antics that year.  So, six months after the Cardinals traded him to the Red Sox I am still sitting here adding his cards to my collection.  Two during the past few weeks.  

This card is numbered out of just 40 and features a really nice jumbo piece of grey road jersey from Craig.  While I am not thrilled that this card is a sticker autograph, it cost me just slightly more than $5.  I like the looks of the Topps Supreme cards too and I have not seen any players that I collect with this style of card.  I am going to have to go pick up my other Allen Craig autograph tomorrow and post it sometime next week.  Also a cool card.  

Allen "Torty" Craig Autograph

The Cardinals have an on-field mascot at Busch Stadium, but also have a mascot floating around in their locker room too.  Outfielder/First Baseman Allen Craig owns a pet turtle which is the unofficial mascot of the Cardinals.  Many Cardinals fans have missed the exploits of Torty this year, who is usually hanging around on Twitter spinning stories about Adam Wainwright and Jon Jay dancing around to Kenny Loggins classic Footloose, or talk about "Master Allen" and his love of sprinkle doughnuts.  Pictures of the doughnuts are included.  Torty last appeared to tell the story of Carlos Beltran's departure to the Yankees.

 Torty first came to prominence during the Cardinals 2011 World Series run where his "Master Allen" had a strong showing including the go ahead home run in the seventh game. 

While Allen Craig is off to a bit of a slow start during the 2014 season, Cardinals collectors are still have a good time tracking down his cards.  Craig is featured prominently in the 2014 Museum Collection release and I decided to track down a nice signature card of the Cardinals right fielder.  

I loved this card when I saw it and was quick to pick up a copy of this card.  Craig also has an autographed jersey card in the Museum set, but the signature is on a sticker and several of the autographs have the last loop at the end of Craig's autograph cut off.  This card is also a pretty affordable pick up.  These cards have been come off of Ebay for right around ten dollars shipped.  Really cool card for the price.  Free Torty. 

ManuMascots

There are a few Cardinals manupatch, ring, cup cards in the first series of Topps 2014.  I managed to pick up the first of them last week with this Allen Craig patch card:

The traditional looking manupatch cards have really faded in popularity and price since Topps started putting out the ultra-thick, shiny, and sparkly Awards based manu cards last year.  I understand Topps is trying to freshen up these cards a little bit by throwing in some mascot cards this year, but I think it's just proving the point that the manupatches might be a little bit stale.  Just a bit. 

Topps put a set of mascot cards together last year in the ProDebut set and they actually turned out nicely and also put out mascot autographs in the Opening Day set last year.  While the Pro Debut cards were cool, and the mascot autographs were popular, I am not sure these are really very good cards. 

Blind Trade

I have been flying low on the trade market recently.  I cannot remember the last time that I made a post on my trade page on Facebook.  If I have made a trade over the last few months it's strictly been with a few people whom I had already traded with before.  This last week I tried something a little new in regards to trading: A blind trade.

I know that collectors often send each other packages and return packages back to each with considerations for the original package.  This is not my style, but I am willing to try something out at least once.  I have always been very specific about what I am looking for and what I am willing to part with in my collection.  So, this trade was a big step for me to let go of control, accept what came in the mail, and send back what the collector collects.

I received four cards, three current Cardinals, and one former Cardinal.  Here's what I got:

2008 UD Documentary Kyle McClellan Autograph 

This is my former Cardinal, but still a really cool card.  McClellan played for the 2011 World Series Championship Cardinals team.  In fact, he started 17 games for the team and won 12 games.  McClellan ran into the wall later in the season and was not active on the post season roster, but was a vital part of the regular season team.  McClellan also pitched for the Cardinals in 2012, but had some arm problems and was not tendered a contract.  He was signed by the Rangers and appeared in a few games for the team last season, but was injured again.  Always cool to get a new autograph of a Cardinals player on a World Series team.

2013 Topps Green Emerald Matt Holliday 

I actually picked up two green emerald parallels in this trade and have picked up several of these throughout the year.  These cards are the best parallel cards that Topps has put out in recent memory.  Love the looks of the card and think they are very sharp.  I also picked up the Allen Craig card below.

2013 Topps Emerald Green Allen Craig 

The card below is my favorite in the trade package I received.  If you have not been watching the baseball playoffs then they have missed out on Cardinals prospect Carlos Martinez pitching the set up role for the team.  Martinez started in the minors, but the Cardinals have been using him in the relief role late in the season and during the playoffs.

2013 Bowman Blue Mini Carlos Martinez 

This card is from the 2013 Bowman set and is apart of the awesome line of minis.  I have really enjoyed some of the mini cards Topps put out this year.  I have the regular Martinez mini card, but this blue parallel is serial numbered out of 250.  Really sweet card.  

One half of the blind trade is done, so I have spent a little bit of time this weekend putting together a package of Pirates, Big Hurts, and other cards.  Hope the other half of this trade enjoys.  

Bird of A Different Feather

I spent my last Tier One post complaining about the lack of new signers that Topps has offered collectors during the 2013 baseball card calendar.  As a Cardinals fan I was quite happy to see that the the card maker brought back Cardinals first baseman/outfielder as a signer in this year's product.  Craig has signed before in the past for several different Topps and Bowman products, but none so far in 2013.

2013 Topps Tier One Allen Craig Autograph 

Craig has a great signature and has kept it consistent since he first started appearing in Bowman products about four years ago.  His career got off to a bit of a slow start since he was frequently injured and blocked at first base by Albert Pujols and in the outfield by Lance Berkman and Matt Holliday.  Craig was a key contributer during the 2011 postseason run for the team and was moved into the lineup at first and in the outfield during the past seasons.

There are always naysayers with any baseball player, but Craig seems to have a large number of them who do not see him as a quality player.  I get that people are going to argue about All-Star appearances, and whether or not players are deserving, but Craig is a solid candidate and was deserving of the honor.  I know that the stats nerds, I can be one too, will argue that RBIs really are not that important.  However, when you are batting .454 with runners in scoring position that says a lot about the quality of the player.

Yes, there are players who hit more home runs.  Yes, there are players who drive in more runs.  Craig hits when it counts though.  In fact, recently Craig knocked out his first grand slam of his career.  The home run came in an important game against divisional foe Cinicinnati with the Cardinals trailing late in the game.  Take a look.

While Craig's clutch hitting does not always get him respect with fans, his popularity has been pretty steady with card collectors.  His Topps autographs issued over the past two or three years tend to fetch between $10 and $20 with his 2009 Bowman autographed rookie card fetching between $20 and $30.  

It's true that Allen Craig is a little bit different type of player, but he's good at what the Cardinals need him to do: drive in runs.  It's nice to see that the collecting world is a step ahead of some baseball fans on this guy.  

My Favorite Sets and Autographs of 2012

We are down to our last few days of 2012 and I have had a great time this year venturing into the world of blogging and sharing my baseball card collection with those who care to read about the different cards in my collection or that I add to my collection through trades or purchases.  I thought it would be fun to make a reflective post back over the past year and share some of the highlights of collecting year.  If I had more resources and time perhaps I could create a little statue mold of the bull sign and mail them to the people that traded or sold me the cards in this post.  Some would, of course, end up with the different brand managers at Topps.  Maybe next year.


Best Set: Topps Five Star

2012 Topps Five Star Evan Longoria Auto/Quad Jersey Book

In my opinion this was a pretty easy choice. Topps put out about a dozen baseball products this year and I really liked several of the products for different reasons, but found many positives with the Five Star product.  First, the cards are very well designed, limited in quantity, and feature on-card autographs.  I did really well with this product by not opening the packs and instead strictly relying on trading and buying single cards on the secondary market.  I am sure that there are many people that have opened boxes of this product and had great fun in doing so, but I would probably end up with a few Vida Blue autographs, or Luis Tiant's, if I actually touched a pack myself.  No disrespect to Luis Tiant or Vida Blue intended.  So, for half a pack's worth of trade value I was able to pick up an Evan Longoria autograph/book last week.

2012 Topps Five Star Terry Pendleton

I was also really happy with the actual signers that Topps featured in the set.  As a Cardinals fan, I was able to add several nice Allen Craig and Jon Jay autographs to my collection early in the year with a few of the early Topps releases.  However, the pair were featured over and over again in sets throughout the year.  Five Star throw out some new names that collectors could target and add to their collections.  I really enjoyed tracking down this Terry Pendleton autograph two weeks ago.  While, he might be best remembered as a Brave, he spent the beginning portions of his career in St. Louis and he also has a limited quantity of autographs on the market.

Best Set Runner Up: Topps Archives

I will keep this one a little bit simpler.  I really enjoyed the card designs, especially the 1984 designed cards.  One of my favorite sets as a kid and I still love them almost thirty years later.  Topps did a spectacular job of copying every last detail into the design of the Archives cards.  Of course, Topps also used designs from the 1971 and 1980 Topps sets too in producing this year's Archives release. 

2012 Topps Archives Allen Craig

 The autographs in the set were also really cool.  There were many different players from different eras, and of differing star level featured in the set.  More on that later too.

2012 Topps Archives Jose Oquendo Autograph

Favorite Autographs of 2012
I am actually going to go with a list here.   I am also not going to limit this list to cards issued in 2012, but will open it up to any autographed card that I added to my collection during the past year.

2011 Topps Finest Mike Trout Autograph

2011 Topps Tribute Sandy Koufax Autograph/Jersey

2010 Donruss Elite Jordan Swagerty/Magic Johnson Error Autograph

 

2006 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Miguel Cabrera Autograph

2012 Topps Archives Ray Lankford Autograph

Pretty easy list to explain.  Mike Trout received a lot of attention this summer from collectors, and while I did not go out and try to find a Mike Trout card, I ended up adding one to my collection anyway.  The card has grown on me throughout the summer and hope that he can repeat his success again next year.  The Koufax card was just a nice addition and I do not own much in the way of Koufax stuff.  There also isn't a ton of it out there.  The last three cards were much more intentional additions.  The Magic Johnson/Jordan Swagerty error autograph is a card that I have looked for the past few years, the Miguel Cabrera autograph was my favorite Cabrera autograph I added this year (I add a lot of Cabrera cards this year), and the Lankford autograph was a welcome addition to my already existing collection of Lankford cards. 

Trade with Los Angeles Inspiration

I worked out a trade last weekend with a new partner over at the blog Los Angeles Inspiration.  If you haven't checked it out yet, it does a really great job of covering all things sports around Los Angeles.  Baseball, Basketball, Hockey, and College Sports too.  Jesse, the writer of the blog, also does a lot with card collecting and autographs.  Last week he was asking about a Mike Stanton autograph I had picked up a week ago and we were able to iron out a trade.

Jesse had a huge trade list to work from and I was able to fill out some holes in my Cardinals autographs for the year, as well as picking up a few extra cards.  My favorite two Cardinals cards I picked up were a Bowman Platinum Matt Adams autographed jersey card and an Allen & Ginter Allen Craig autograph.

2012 Bowman Platinum Matt Adams Jersey/Autograph

2012 Topps Allen & Ginter Allen Craig Autograph

I also picked up a 2010 Allen & Ginter B.J. Upton autograph I needed for my Rays collection.  While I am aware that there is little to no chance Upton returns to the Rays next season, he is still one of my all-time favorite Durham Bulls players.  

2010 Topps Allen & Ginter B.J. Upton Autograph

I also picked up a Jon Jay autograph from the Gypsy Queen set, a Topps Chrome Darwin Darney autograph, and a Brandon Phillips jersey relic from this years Allen & Ginter.  Jesse also threw in a stack of Cardinals cards with some nice cards in the mix including a cool looking Scott Rolen insert from the 2005 Zenith set and a couple Jason Motte's.  

2012 Topps Gypsy Queen Jon Jay Autograph

2010 Topps Chrome Darwin Barney Autograph

2012 Topps Allen & Ginter Brandon Phillips Jersey

A few Mottes and a cool Rolen

More 2012 Triple Threads

I continued to work on adding to my Triple Threads collection for 2012 this past week by adding three new cards.  The Triple Threads set has become one of my favorite annual releases by Topps and have enjoyed beginning the process of assembling some cards from this year's release.  My biggest challenge by far this year has been adding Cardinals cards.  They have drifted a little bit high on Ebay, COMC, and other secondary card spots and there aren't a ton of them out in the trade market.

 I always end up with a good group of Cardinals cards, but I feel like they might be high this year because of the team's current playoff run.  For example, Carlos Beltran only has a Unity Relic in this years release which features on small piece of jersey.  The cards sell between $12 and $25 on Ebay and trading...ridiculous.  One trader last week trader last week traded me a Carlos Beltran jersey from the Topps Update set for an Ian Kinler jersey, but wouldn't trade me a Beltran Triple Threads card for a Kinsler patch.  Really wanted the patch, but not for a plain Beltran patch.  Hmm.

Anyway, I was finally able to add an Allen Craig jersey/autograph later in the week.  The card is a Unity Relic Autograph and is numbered out of 99.  This is the second year that Allen Craig has appeared in the Triple Threads set with an autograph.  Honestly, I would rather have one of the portrait style Triple Threads cards with the multiple jersey pieces, but will settle for this one.  The design on this years single jersey piece Triple Threads cards are much better.

2012 Topps Triple Threads Allen Craig Jersey/Auto

My last two pick ups were also trades.  I picked up two other Triple Threads cards in two separate trades.  One added to my Rays collection with a nice David Price piece.  Price actually has several different pieces in year's Triple Threads set, but I like this card the best.  Some of the autographs are nice, but for some reason we are back to sticker autographs on high end cards.  Thanks Topps. 

2012 Topps Triple Threads David Price Jersey

Last card for the day is a sweet Matt Kemp Triple Threads card which I picked up in a trade for some sticker autographs of Giants players and a Joe Rudi.  This is the second consecutive year that Topps has made a Bison card for Kemp, but I still think they are sweet cards.  I have one more really cool Kemp Triple Threads on its way later in the week.  

2012 Topps Triple Threads Matt Kemp

2012 Topps Archives Set. My Favorite Thing.

I am putting together a set of the 2012 Topps Archives set.  I've had a really good time trading for lots of cards and opening packs.  The heavy lifting in putting together any set is finding all of the short prints and inserts without paying an arm and a leg in trade or cash.  It's always a bonus to get something special from each set too.  I got a cool autograph.  I got a cool relic card.  The base set of the 2012 Topps Archives set has really caught my eye this year.

In the past Archives sets, the cards all had different designs from different Topps sets throughout the years.   This year's set though features four different types of base set designs with the majority of the players coming from today and a few older players thrown in throughout.  There are cards with designs from the 1954 set, 1971, 1980, and 1984.  The 1984 design cards really caught my eyes and attention.

My first full year of collecting was 1984 and I vividly remember the cards like it was yesterday.  It's one of those old sets that I look through a few times a year.  The last two weeks I have probably looked back through the set twice and yesterday picked out a cool card to compare with a current Archives card.  My winner?  (My scanner is being snarky today)  This awesome Floyd "Sugar Bear" Rayford card.  Polyester uniform, bad puffy facial hair, powder blue unis.  Did I mention Floyd Rayford?

I've also gone through the Topps Archives set and spent a long time looking at the cards.  I love how Topps got a lot of little details into the 1984 design.  The backs are perfect and the color schemes on the front match the teams color schemes from the 84 set.  The Nationals even have the design from the Expos.  My favorite is Allen Craig.  

New Gypsy Queen Cards

I've been working on putting together a set of Gypsy Queen, but I actually didn't buy a box.  I've been trading for lots and I've opened some retail packs, but those routes generally don't land you any autographs or materials cards from the set.  Since I am putting together the set through trades, I have had my eyes open for some cool autographs or materials cards to put together with the set.  Busting open wax is always fun, but it is also nice to have some control over what extra inserts, materials, and autographs.  I got my two primary autograph targets from the set in a trade last week.  I received a Jon Jay and Allen Craig autograph.  I particularly like the Craig autograph since the picture is from the last out of the 2011 World Series.  Craig caught the last out in left field.  I also picked up a Jeremy Hellickson jersey card from Gypsy Queen and a 2012 Museum Collection Longoria jumbo jersey card.  I have a few more cool Gypsy Queen materials cards coming later this week.

2012 Topps Gypsy Queen Allen Craig Autograph 

2012 Topps Gypsy Queen Jon Jay Autograph

2012 Topps Gypsy Queen Jeremy Hellickson Jersey Card

2012 Topps Museum Evan Longoria Jumbo Jersey

This Week's Trades Part I

I have made several trades this week, but haven't had a chance to post any of them on my blog, so I am going to spend this evening and tomorrow showing off my trades from the past week.  Sunday I will show off a few collection pieces I have put together over the years involving a lot of cards I picked up in a trade earlier this week.  

This evening I am going to focus on three different trades that I made earlier in the week.  The first trade involved a dealer from St. Louis.  Living and collecting baseball cards in St. Louis for most of my life I've noticed that the market for Browns cards is non-existint at times.  It's true that the Browns were a terribly run franchise and were unpopular for a good reason, but they did have a few good players during their history.  George Sisler might have been the best of all the St. Louis Browns.  In fact, he owned the American League hits record until 2004 when Ichiro Suzuki broke it.  In the process of breaking the record, Ichiro studied up on Sisler and grew to appreciate the Hall of Famer so much that he visited his gravesite outside of St. Louis during the 2009 All-Star Game.  I snagged this card for a pair of Pujols and Holliday relic cards.  

2010 Topps Sterling George Sislger Bat Card 

The second trade was completed on Facebook.  I traded a few Red Sox and a Matt Moore autograph for these two awesome cards.  The first card is more of a curiosity and I've always wanted this card.  It's a 2006 Topps Alex Gordon cut out card.  This card came in the pack this way.  The long story short is that Topps had some sort of contractual problem and printed these cards too soon.  They needed to get Alex Gordon off the cards and this was the solution.    The other card I received in this trade was a 2011 Topps Ozzie Smith bat card.  Always great to get some Ozzies.  

2006 Topps Alex Gordon Cut-Out

 2011 Topps Ozzie Smith 60 Bat

Last trade for tonight.  A local one.  Josh Hamilton cards are really easy to trade in these parts.  There are many people that have stories about how they saw Josh Hamilton play in high school, or Legion, or their uncle's backyard.  I believe Athens High in Raleigh might have outdrawn the Pirates, and perhaps the Reds, while Hamilton was in high school.  I pull out a few Hamiltons, listen to some stories, and walk away with some sweet cards in the end.  A few Hamilton jerseys and a pair of Hamilton Heritage Chromes and I got.....

2012 Topps Museum Collection Matt Moore Autograph

 2012 Topps Museum Collection Allen Craig Triple Jersey Auto