A Few Thoughts On 2017 Topps......

The 2017 Topps base set dropped last week and I went out and picked up a jumbo box and a few loose retail packs.  Always a fun day when the Topps set drops and I had a blast opening up my packs.  Here's my quick take on the newest Topps product....

First, when I bought my jumbo box of Topps I also ended up picking up two silver packs of cards.  The silver packs were available at hobby shops and were given to customers buying boxes 2017 Topps.  Each pack contained four cards of 1987 style cards with a chrome finish.

My best card was Dansby Swanson.....

My scanner did not want to make a straight picture, sorry it's crooked.  I also landed Max Scherzer, Orlando Arcia, Madison Bumgarner, Manny Machado, Aaron Nola, Yu Darvish, and Nolan Ryan.  Very nice cards in my opinion.  You cannot really show card stock on a scan, but they are a little thicker than the normal chrome cards.  The back of the card has a little different finish then the front, but again really nice cards.  

On to the base cards.....

My first card of 2017 belonged to Marlins pitcher A.J. Ramos.  I am still a little contemplating the design, but it is definitely different for a Topps base set.  It looks like something from Upper Deck or some other card company.  I will get back to the card backs on another post.  I am a little snarky about it.  

Buybacks....

There seem to be new buybacks every year now with some sort of foil stamp.  The stamps are different colors, blah blah blah.  I saw that there is a pretty diverse group of players included in the buybacks this year, always hopeful a Ray Lankford card will pop up, but apparently not this year.

The relic cards are thicker this year, but I am kind of tired of the whole relic thing.  I know a lot of other people are too.  At least it's Longoria.....

Also a little tired of the manu-patch, relic cards that seem to be in every Topps box now.  I thought all of the All-Star type cards were in the Traded/Update set?  They have spilled over into series 1 now too?  I guess they made the metal relic thing two sided, that's my positive take away here....

and finally my two best pulls from the box.  Parallel first.....

I haven't really done anything with Gary Sanchez before now, I know he's popular with collectors, but I don't think there are many of his cards hanging out around my house.  This seems like a good addition for my first good card of the Yankees catcher.

Last up my autograph...

can't end on a better note than pulling an autograph of a player you have started collecting in the past year.  I am hoping for big things out of Alex this year, would have picked this card up at some point anyway, glad I can save a little time and energy.

2015 Topps Heritage Part 1

I am going to break down my Topps Heritage boxes into two posts this weekend.  Even though my favorite local card shop closed recently, the shop owner Jimmy, is still helping all of us card collectors in central North Carolina with our wax.  I picked up two boxes of the popular annual Topps product which, this year, is based on the 1966 Topps set.  Here's a quick look at a base card......

More on the base set tomorrow morning.  I was happy that Topps returned to coding the backs of the Heritage set cards to help collectors pick out the different variations.  The bottom of the base cards feature the numbers 253 as the last three digits of the code.

I am going to focus on the variations and inserts that I landed in boxes in this post.  I pulled some nice cards and was happy with my boxes.  I would have loved to have landed an autograph, but the short prints and variations were really nice in my box.  Let's start out with the inserts, since they have been basically the same since the start of the Heritage product in 2001.  

The basic inserts in the Topps Heritage year in and year out are the Now & Then set, which features league leaders from the past year and design year, Flashbacks, which feature both sports and non-sports events from the design year, and the New Age Performers set, which features younger star players.  There are also Chrome cards this year.....

and there are also several different box toppers.  I pulled an original 1966 Topps card and one of these  mini card sheets....

My two relic pulls weren't bad.  I would have loved to have pulled an autograph, but two nice players here with the Wright having a centered pinstripe.  The Mauer also has a pinstripe, but it is way over on the very edge of the window on the card.  Now, my favorite parts, the short prints and variations.  

The high numbered cards, above 425, are short printed and seeded at about 1 in 3 packs.  There are a total of 75 short prints and I ended up with 19 different short prints in all.  The basic short prints have the 258 code at the end....

I pulled two variations on the short prints.  I pulled two of the action variations.  A Tanaka and a Puig....

and the code on the back of the action short prints....

Finally the best card of my box at the odds in 1 in 140 packs is this great looking Mike Trout Banner Swap short print.....

Pair of Bulls and CarGo

I am working on catching up with a few 2014 releases I have not delved too far into over the past month or two.  Working out a few Cardinals cards from Triple Threads still, but I did start working on a few former Durham Bulls who appeared in the card set.  One of the tricky parts about this year's Triple Threads set was it's timing around the trade deadline.  For example, Joe Kelly appears in the set as a Cardinal, but is actually a Red Sox now.  I have ran into several Cardinals collectors who are still collecting Joe Kelly cards and are trying to also track the cards down.  Same with several Red Sox collectors I know.  Allen Craig, former Cardinal and current Red Sox, seems to be following a similar trend on his Triple Threads cards.  It seems to be a trend in more than a few places this year. 

The card I spent the most time seeking out from the Triple Threads set was the Nick Franklin Jumbo Jersey card.  There are also some patch versions of this card which were my initial target, but I missed out on them all.  Similar to the Craig and Kelly cards, Franklin was traded at the the deadline for Rays star pitcher David Price.  Similar to Craig and Kelly, there seems to be a little bit of competition for the his cards.  Especially the patch versions which feature some nice Mariners pieces. 

While the overall numbers do not blow people away with Franklin, he has been rated as high as the #44 prospect by Baseball Prospectus.  He still has not produced at the big league level, but I saw him several times in Durham during their playoff series games against both the Columbus Clippers and the Paw Sox.  The ball looked good coming off his bat and he had several big hits and a home rum or two to boot (a long loud foul too).  He got a cup of coffee in Tampa in September and will be a little surprised if he is back in Durham next year.  On to the card....After missing out on the patch pieces I ended up settling for this number......

It's got a nice dark navy piece of jersey and is numbered out of just 36.  Franklin does not have any autographs in the Triple Threads set, just the jersey and patch pieces.  I am hoping Topps will throw a Franklin autograph into their Traded set later this fall.  Franklin has always been a pretty signer.  Besides the Franklin I picked up one more former Durham Bull...

This Matt Moore card was dirt cheap.  I know he is out for the year with Tommy John, but he was good before the surgery and the bounce back rate on elbows is pretty good.  I am sure we will see Matt Moore back with the Rays next spring and he will be just fine.  Although if the Rays sent him to Durham for a little conditioning I would not complain. 

I bought both the Moore and Franklin from the same seller on Ebay and can never pass up on free shipping.   This CarGo jumbo jersey card was slightly more than $2.  The stripe is crooked, but hey there is a stripe.  More Triple Threads cards to come. 

A Trip to Big D's Sports Cards

It's been a slow week around my blog this week mainly because it's been a busy week around my house getting ready for the holidays with decorations and presents.  It's also been the final week of school for this quarter which is always busy.  Throw in a wife under the weather and a 70 degree day yesterday and I have spent a huge chunk of my weekend chasing a three year old around a few parks around town.

The little guy and I made a deal yesterday morning that I could visit my favorite new card shop in exchange for a trip to his favorite park which features a giant green concrete dragon.  Seemed like a fair trade, so I made my second trip into Big D's Sports Cards.  The owner Jimmy was awesome again and helped me pick out some more awesome cards for the collection.

During my first trip I spent my time focusing on Rays/Durham Bulls cards, but branched out a little bit this visit and added some Cardinals pieces too.  So, without further delay here'a look at my new cards:

2013 Topps Triple Threads Matt Holliday Jersey

Jimmy actually picked this up at a show he attended last week.  I have another version of this card numbered out of 36, but this one is numbered to just 27 and also features his jersey number 7 on the card.  I am not super huge into the whole "Ebay 1 of 1" thing with cards being numbered 1, last print, or to a jersey number, but when I find them and there's not a ridiculous premium attached they are cool.  I paid for a Triple Threads Matt Holliday card which is a great price to pay for this awesome card.

2002 Topps Tribute Bob Gibson Jersey 

A Bob Gibson jersey from a good set is pretty self-explanitory.  I actually saw this the last time in the store and gave it some thought.  Yesterday I pulled the trigger.  Cool card from a cool set.

2011 Topps Tier One Albert Pujols

My interest in Albert has died down, but I will always look and listen when I see something cool.  This is a pretty nice piece.

2012 Topps Tribute Jaime Garcia Autograph 

Hoping Jaime can bounce back this year if he fits somewhere in the middle of Wainwright, Wacha, Kelly, Miller, Lynn, and Martinez.  Cool card from a cool set.  Next up, two Longos.....

2013 Topps Tribute Evan Longoria Dual Bat 

2010 Topps Peak Performance Evan Longoria 

and finally, I always go out on the limb for a card.  Last time it was a great looking Tulo quad from the Topps Museum set.  Not starting a Rockies collection or anything, but could not pass up adding a nice piece from Triple Threads featuring Carlos Gonzalez.  Sweet card.

2011 Topps Triple Threads Carlos Gonzalez Jersey 

It was a good Saturday at Big D's, a little rushed with the little people, but I am really happy with the cards I picked up.  A return trip is definitely in the works before I go back to school in January.  Speaking of return trips, Big D is hosting a Trade Night later on in January.  I am in and hope if you live in the Raleigh-Durham area you will take a little time out of your calendar to stop in and trade a few cards.  Link above, picture with details below.

2013 Topps Tribute Carlos Gonzalez Autograph

I am really impressed by the cards in Topps Tribute this year and decided to pick up a few for the collection.  The Tribute line started back in the early 2000s and featured high-end cards with great on-card autographs.  The formula was simple, but this product was always one of my favorites to pick and choose a few nice cards from every year when it hit the shelves.  My favorite Topps Tribute card is this Sparky Anderson autograph from the 2003 version:

2003 Topps Tribute Sparky Anderson Jersey/Autograph

Of course, Topps decided to tinker with something that was a pretty good formula and started putting sticker autographs, redemption cards, and last year's weird encased cards.  Luckily, Topps went back to the roots of the Tribute brand and made this year's cards much like the original releases of this product.  Seeing a few of the cards on Ebay, Facebook and Twitter pages, and a few blogs prompted me to haul a nice autograph in for my collection.  However, after checking out the Cardinals autographs included in the product I decided to reach out for something a little bit different.  Sure, I will go back and pick up a Lance Lynn and a Matt Adams autograph, but for the moment it can wait.  This week I went with a CarGo card.  

As you can see the design of the 2013 Tribute product is very similar to the 2003 version minus the jersey relic.  However, this is a great card and I am happy to add it to my collection.  Oddly, as many cards as I own, I do not own a Carlos Gonzalez autograph.  I had a Donruss autographed rookie, but traded a long time ago and have not touched his cards the past few years.  Really impressive player and a great autograph to add to my collection.