Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Lose, Sometimes It Rains Part 2

Bowman Platinum released recently I opted not to buy a box.  I have had some rough luck with this product over the years, so this year I decided to stay clear.  Well, I tried to stay clear.  You see something that looks flashy, bright, and nice.  Next thing you know you are picking up cards that you told yourself you were not going to pick up.  Next thing you know you are the proud owner of a James Ramsey bat card.  

Ramsey started the year strongly with the Springfield Cardinals posting a .313/.405/.552 line in April with 6 home runs and 17 RBIs.  Ramsey's hot start continued into May where he posted a .291/.371/.636 line with 5 home runs, 4 doubles, and 11 RBIs.  Then came June and July.  Ramsey hit 2 home runs during the two months and drove in 8 runs.  His on-base percentage has stayed strong at .372 and .391, but the Cardinals already have a crowded outfield.  Ramsey is now an Indian.  

The Tribe promoted Ramsey to Triple A Columbus and Ramsey has been unable to hit anything.  Ramsey has 2 hits in 5 International League games for an .095 batting average.  Stellar.  

The good news is that I also picked up an Austin Meadows autograph at the same time that I landed this James Ramsey.  Meadows is a nice prospect.  I am waiting for the power to show up, but he's still young and has hit for a good average and gotten on base.  In the meantime, his card prices have come down dramatically.  

Facebook Goodness

The world of Facebook trading has slowing turned into some sort of raffle frenzy which has left me trading other places.  I do not chance on possibly getting a good card, I would much rather just go out and buy or trade for the pieces I want to add to my collection.  Luckily, I ran into one of my favorite Facebook card people a few days back in the way of Ryan Marcus King Dee.  He's one of the best card collectors on Facebook and always has plenty of cool cards for sale or trade.

This week I picked up four cards from Ryan which helped out my collection in several ways.  Let's take a look at the cards that I added:

2008 Topps Triple Threads Justin Ruggiano Autograph/Jersey

I have collected Justin Ruggiano cards for several years.  While Ruggiano is currently playing for the Marlins he spent quite a few years hanging out in the outfield for the Durham Bulls.  Ruggiano was always a pretty good player for the Bulls, but he always seemed to be blocked for one reason or another at the big league level.  Ruggiano left the Rays organization as a minor league free agent at the end of the 2011 season, played briefly in the Astros system, before landing some playing time with the Marlins.  Ruggiano leads the Marlins in almost every major offensive category this season.   While he has moved on to the Marlins, I still spend time searching out his cards and was happy to add another Triple Threads color variation to my collection.

2011 Bowman Platinum USA Baseball Autographs 

Stroman is one of my favorite all-time college players from the ACC.  He was a pitcher for the Duke Blue Devils and also played for the USA Baseball College Team.  Last year he was drafted by the Bue Jays and is currently playing for their AA team in New Hampshire.  Stroman should be a pretty quick riser to the majors and has tons of good, affordable autographed cards.  

2012 Leaf Valiant James Ramsey Autograph 

Ramsey is both a Cardinals draft pick and former ACC player at Florida State.  He was a nice player at FSU, but I think the first round was a bit of a stretch for the outfielder.  Ramsey has done a lot of signing since the draft and is a frequent user of inscriptions which are usually bible verses.  Interestingly, he rarely uses the same one very often.  I already had Romans 8:38, so this is a different (though slight) than the other version of this card that I own.  

20112 Leaf Pete Rose Autograph 

I have already given my two cents on Pete in this space before.  Cool that he signs so much stuff, but he signs so much stuff.  Might have to package a few of these together and see if I can get a non-licensed card of Pete in an Expos uniform.

2012 Bowman Chrome Draft James Ramsey Autograph

I picked up a new Cardinals autograph, this past week in a small trade, of Cardinals draft pick James Ramsey.  I got to see Ramsey play a few times over the past few years while he was playing at Florida State and enjoyed watching him play.  I am not sure how he will do as a professional player, but I am still trying to collect some of his cards since I saw him a few times in college.  Last summer Ramsey only played a half a season with the Palm Beach Cardinals.  During that time he only batted .229 and slugged .314.  However, he displayed great patience at the plate walking 33 times in 56 games.  Ramsey also had 13 extra base hits during his short time in A ball.

2012 Bowman Chrome Draft James Ramsey Autograph

This card is my third Ramsey autograph that I've added to my collection over the past two or three months.  Ramsey has many autograph issues already and seems like a pretty good signer.  Many of his cards are signed with Bible inscriptions and seem to have a wide range of different inscriptions.  Of the three Ramsey cards I now own, two of the Ramsey cards include inscriptions and both of them are different.

2012 Topps Pro Debut Tim Beckham

I also was able to add a Tim Beckham jersey card in this trade.  Two weeks ago I added a sweet Beckham manu-patch card from this same set and was happy to add this jersey card to compliment my other Pro Debut Beckham.  

 

Three New Bowman Sterling Autographs

I am still trying to catch up a little bit from December, but I picked these three cards up a few weeks ago and haven't had a chance to post anything about them yet.  I have been a little reluctant to add Bowman Sterling autographs before in the past since they are a high end product that I won't open myself and they tend to be sticker autographs.  The players in the Bowman Sterling set often have cards in the Topps Chrome set, Bowman Chrome set, or Bowman base set that are nicer in appearance and are on card autographs.

For example, a few years ago I had the opportunity to see Orioles outfielder Nolan Reimold play a few games against the Durham Bulls and was really impressed by him.  I came home and found a few Reimold autographs include a Bowman Sterling.

2009 Bowman Sterling Nolan Reimold

While this is a very nice card, and it was very inexpensive, I can't imagine that the person who pulled it out of the Bowman Sterling pack, $50 range, would be very happy.  I paid less than $5 for this card including shipping.  However, I don't like to settle for sticker autographs, so I also tracked down this Bowman Heritage.  The autograph is on card and I paid the same exact price for it as the Bowman Sterling.  

2007 Bowman Heritage Nolan Reimold

Over the last few years, little has changed with the Bowman Sterling product.  It continues to be a high end product that features sticker autographs and a steep sticker price.  I gave the product little thought as it was released a few weeks ago, but I did take a few minutes one day to check out a Chris Archer autograph.  I found several copies of the card on Ebay and COMC, but also saw that the card featured sticker autograph.  The card design was cool, but I figured I could get a copy of the Archer as a throw in as part of a trade.

A week later, I ran into a copy of the Marcus Stroman autograph and was really impressed by the card. The blue background was nice and simple compared to whatever is behind Nolan Reimold above and best of all, the autograph was on card.  Copies of the card were inexpensive on Ebay, but I also found a few available for trade.  I went the trade route and landed a copy of Stroman, who pitched at Duke, and a few other cards from the Bowman Sterling to go along with it.  (Smudges on the card protector)

2012 Bowman Sterling Marcus Stroman Autograph

I was happy to get the Stroman since I collect his cards, but I was a little bit more excited about landing a Nick Castellanos autograph too.  Castellanos is a Tiger's minor leaguer who hit over .400 last year in the Florida State League and also won the MVP award at the Futures Game in Kansas City last summer.  I've been trying to pick up a few more Tigers cards over the past year, so this card was a very welcome addition.  I am hoping he gets up to Toledo this summer, so I can see him play in Durham.  If not, I am sure it will happen soon enough.  

2012 Bowman Sterling Nick Castellanos Autograph 

My third, and final card, for the evening is another Bowman Sterling card.  I saw James Ramsey play twice for Florida State the past few years, once at an NC State game and another time at the ACC baseball tournament in Durham.  Ramsey was one of the better players on the FSU team, but I am not quite sold on him as a Major League Player.  He's a good player, but I am not sure he does anything really well.  A lot of people said the same thing about Jon Jay, from U. of Miami, and he has turned out pretty well, so I will hold on to the card and see how things turn out.  

2012 Bowman Sterling James Ramsey Autograph 

You're Going To Need A License For That Card

I was recently trading with a fellow collector trying to wrap up a trade when I was told about the chance to trade for a sweet Bob Gibson autograph.  The card was not only autographed, but also had a sweet patch.  I was eager to see the scan and quizzed the trader about the card.  What year is this card?  Set?  The answers were rather vague, but I was still hopeful.  I opened the scan and saw it: Omaha Tech.  What is Omaha Tech?

It's a high school in Omaha, Nebraska that lists one Bob Gibson as one of its famous alumni.  The card I was staring at was a 2010 Panini Century Collection.  Yes, the card did have a Bob Gibson autograph (on a sticker) and it did have a patch (which looked rather new).  I quickly shot down the card.  Nope, I cannot take that card.  My counterpart prodded me about the card.  What's not to like about a Gibson autograph with a patch piece.  My eyes darted to the words Omaha Tech on the front of Gibson's basketball uniform.  I couldn't put it into words at the time.  I worked around the Gibson card and finished up the trade.

It bothered me for a few days afterwards.  I took a stroll through the cards posted on my blog and took a look through my boxes of autographs.  I have almost 3000 autographed baseball cards in my collection and I can count the number of cards that are on a card from an unlicensed card product on one hand.  I guess it's really not been a conscience decision, but here I barely a Panini, Donruss, or post-2010 Upper Deck autograph to show for things.

2009 Donruss Elite Collegiate Patches Ryan Jackson Autograph

One fellow collector was chatting me up on the subject a week or two ago and brought up my love of the Donruss Elite College Patches.  While it is true the cards are a Donruss product, they aren't really a Major League product.  Sure, I picked up this Ryan Jackson card because he is on the Cardinals, but it's  really a University of Miami card.  Donruss has a license to make college cards and use the logos.  The card has the Miami logo and the picture features Jackson wearing his college uniform.  While I would rather have a Bob Gibson autograph over a Ryan Jackson autograph, this card is clearly much different than the Omaha Tech card.  If Donruss made a Bob Gibson Creighton card I would trade for one, or buy one a second.  

1991 Jimmy Dean Will Clark

Really, it boils down to this.  When I was a kid I hated the cards that came for free with frozen pizzas, sausage links, or ice cream cones.  Cereal sometimes.  Like this Will Clark card is really ugly.  Why?  It's an unlicensed card and Will Clark should have a big orange SF in the middle of his helmet.  I can get past the fact the this card was packaged with a bunch of sausage, it probably has the same value as many of the 1991 Topps cards, but the lack of logos and uniform markings really burns me.   

Does that make me a card snob?  If it does than I am willing to be content on missing out on a certain segment of cards available out on the secondary market.  I can still pick and choose and every once in awhile I can find some that really have some appeal.  For example, I have always really enjoyed the Tri Star Signa Cut Cards.  They have no logos and few have pictures, but the simplicity of having an autograph surrounded by a piece of colored cardboard frame can actually be appealing.  

2008 Tri Star Signa Cuts Dwight "Doc" Gooden Autograph

Most of Dwight Goden's autographs are stickers anyway and he was definitely one of the great pitchers from my childhood.  Even if he was only dominating for a few years, he was really dominating.  This card passes the litmus test into my box of autographs.  The cards that I really dislike look like the card below:

2011 Leaf Draft Carlos Martinez Autograph

What can I say about this card?  I was really digging some of the things I heard about Carlos Martinez, saw he had an autograph and picked one up.  They were hard to find via trade, so I went the Ebay route and paid somewhere just south of $20.  Of course, they were all going in that price range at the time.  However, Martinez now has out a few Bowman autographs and this card is selling for below $5. So, I have a card with Carlos Martinez wearing a black cap, which has been photoshopped to make it look like he bought it at a gas station, and a $10 loss.

So, make basic argument is this:  Why would a collector choose to buy an unattractive card that has been air brushed, or creatively photographed, not to show the logos on the jersey and cap of a player?  Is it worth the extra money or cards in trade to acquire a card made by a licensed card maker?  I would, of course vote yes. 

Case in point is my latest edition to my card collection.  I actually decided to make this one a double.  A short time ago Leaf released it's Draft set and included two Cardinals draft picks.  Michael Wacha was a first round pick, but I already had several USA Baseball cards, and James Ramsey.  Ramsey was a first round pick, a bit of a stretch in my opinion, out of Florida State.  I was tempted to go out and pick up a few of his autographs right away.  Some of his Leaf autographs sold for as low as $0.99 on Ebay. I held out and waited for Bowman Draft.  Luckily, he was included.  

2012 Bowman Draft James Ramsey Autograph

I ended up trading for the card and my trading partner was kind enough to send me this scan for my post.  I estimate that I probably put in about $20 worth of cards in snagging this Blue version which is limited to 150 copies.  They are selling on Ebay and COMC for between $20 and $30, so the value of this card is clearly between those two amounts at the moment.  I also went shopping for a Ramsey card from the Leaf set.  I wanted something similar with a limited print run and autograph to measure the cards value.  I found this:

2012 Leaf Valiant James Ramsey Autograph

This card is autographed and is serial numbered out of 99.  It's also selling for under $10 on Ebay.  I also factor in that Ramsey went crazy with the inscriptions and you still aren't paying a premium for rare or unique versions.  See Pat Neshek.  For my money, and yours, the clear choice is to focus your time, energy, and money on finding cards from licensed card makers.  They have a clear advantage with design and style, but also have value advantages both in the short term and long term.