and for no reason, here is Jose.

I was really missing Jose Abreu a few weeks ago.  You guys all remember the White Sox first baseman who was really popular back in 2014?  I loved collecting his cards back then, but so did a lot of other people.  He had some great looking cards back in the day.....

like four years ago.

For awhile I thought he had disappeared completely.  Nobody was talking about Jose anymore.

Apparently he still plays baseball for the White Sox.  Funny, I just don't hear anything about him anymore.  Jose is still good too.  Last season he had 33 home runs, 43 doubles, 102 RBIs, and led the American League in total bases.

So much excitement.  Back then.

I am sure some of Abreu's lack of notoriety these days is due to the fact that he's more or less all alone on the White Sox waiting for their highly regarded farm system to start churning out some help.  Avasail Garica is there too.  Honestly I forgot about him too.

I was recently reminded of Jose.  A few weeks back when I was picking up a card off an Ebay store.  There was a Jose Abreu autograph sitting there for a fraction of what they used to cost three or four years ago.  It was a nice looking card.........

and now it sitting on my desk ready to be filed away with the rest of my autographs.  

This card is from the Heritage 51 set which came out in 2015, sold as a complete set with one autograph per set.  The concept reminds me a lot of the late 1990s/early 2000s traded sets, but the design is borrowing from a vintage Topps set.  In this case, these are based on the 1951 Red Backs.  I know that Topps rehashes these every few years for some set, but they still look nice.  The signature is on card and Abreu has a pretty consistent autograph down to the #79 jersey number.  

Really, this was just a nice looking card of a good player.  It does not really fit in with most of the cards that I normally post on my blog, but there is nothing wrong with just adding a nice card of a nice player just because it's there.  We all need a card like this every once in awhile.  

Snorting Bull Awards: Newcomer of the Year

Newcomer of the Year 

Last year I gave this award to Byron Buxton and we all know how that turned out this year.  Hopefully this year's winner will fair a little bit better next year, if not I am going to have to scrap this award next year.  The 2014 baseball card products had two clear rookie favorites: Masahiro Tanaka and Jose Abreu.  There were other sets with popular rookie cards or anticipated debuts, but no two players had a bigger impact on the baseball card industry than these two players.  Both players saw their cards fade a little bit during the second half of the year, but the market and demand for both players is still pretty strong.

I did not pull anything out of the ordinary in the way of Tanaka cards, but I did have a really great pull from of Abreu's from the 2014 Topps Archives set:

Besides the printing plate, Abreu managed to stay on the field for the entire season and post one of the strongest rookie campaigns ever closing out the year with a .317/.383/.581 line with 36 home runs, 35 doubles, and 107 RBIs.  Tanaka was strong too, but only made 20 starts for the Yankees.  It's a close call, but I am going to have to give the nod to Abreu for this award.  Really, I am not sure you can go wrong with either, but I felt like he had a little bit better season and also a better showing in around the hobby.  

As mentioned before, both Tanaka and Abreu have fallen off a little bit in price, but still remain fairly strong sales wise.  I recently bought a Jose Abreu from the Topps Tek set, dabbling with the idea of putting this set together, and found that bidding on the card was competitive and very aggressive.  I was actually surprised to walk away with the card.  I tried to bid at the last second, but sat nervously though the last five seconds as about three or four other bids come in at the very last second.

Just to give you an idea of Abreu's strength in the hobby right now, take this into consideration: While common patterns of Abreu cards might only sell for a few dollars, the short printed copies are easily pushing up over $10 with some landing as high as $20.  One Abreu short print numbered out of 50 went as high as $35 dollars, which is in the same neighborhood that the Topps Tek cards of Mike Trout are currently selling at.  His autographs from the set are also regularly pushing north of $50 and  are pricing at comparable levels to players like Frank Thomas and Clayton Kershaw.

Clearly Abreu has enjoyed a strong year on the field and within the baseball card industry.  He is clearly the best overall new player to the hobby and a deserving winner of the Newcomer of the Year Award.  Jose was not available for comment.  Maybe next year.

Beating the Odds, Slightly.

I dropped by my favorite local card shop, Big D's Card Shop in Raleigh, NC, after work on Wednesday to pick up a pair a Archives boxes I bought. I always enjoy Archives and usually make it one of the sets I try to assemble every year. It's fun to open the packs and find cards with today's players on yesterday's designs. Especially designs that Topps used during my childhood. This year I was excited about the 1986 and 1989 designs. Here's a look at the base set cards.

For today's post I am going to focus on my hit cards from the boxes. I love the base set, parallels, and inserts, but we'll save that for another day. There are two autographs in every box and a relic too. The expectations for the autographs in an Archives box are always a little bit different than the traditional box of cards. There are usually a few current players for each of the teams and then a few older guys mixed in too. The majority of older guys tend to be good players who might be a little short on Hall of Fame credentials. For example, the Cardinals signers for set include Matt Adams and Shelby Miller from the current team, and also long time third baseman Terry Pendleton. 

So, I started my boxes out with those expectations, but left completely blown away.  My first box yielded me an awesome autograph just two packs in....

This "Jake Taylor" Tom Berenger autograph is just awesome. I had seen the Major League cards in the previews and reviews of the Archives product, but had not really given them much thought until I actually pulled one. The odds for these cards are pretty tough and I obviously really like the move Major League. Great baseball flick.  This autograph alone would have made my day, but with almost two full boxes left I had plenty of other good hits coming my way.

My first box was rounded out by another autograph and a relic card. 

My second autograph belonged to long time Atlanta Braves slugger, briefly a Cardinal, Bob Horner. This is a pretty typical Archives autograph actually. Horner was a good player managing over 200 career home runs with just over 1000 career games, but is certainly not a Hall of fame caliber talent. 

My relic hit from the first box was a piece of jersey from Diamondbacks All-Star Paul Goldschmidt. This is a nice card and I love the design.  

Now, my second box was even better than my first box for hits. The first pack of the box was mind- blowing. I pulled this beautiful looking card...  

The odds on the back of the Archives packaging list the odds on Printing Plates at 1:1400. Really long odds. How cool is it to land a copy of one of the Jose Abreu plates?  I am still in shock and it's been a few days. So, after pulling an autograph of Tom Berenger and a printing plate of Jose Abreu, any other hits from the box were gravy. In this case the gravy was pretty delicious. Next hit....  

Ron Gant Autographed Printing Plate. Those printing plates were 1:1400 and I pulled two out of a box. Second time this year. Perhaps I should start playing the lottery?  Probably not. The Gant plate is really cool though. I have seen plenty of autographed printing plates over the years, but most of them were sticker autographs on a plate. This is an actual on plate autograph. Again, really cool hit. I still landed another autograph out of my second box that prevented me from having to track down a copy of this card. 

I have picked up a few Pendelton autographs over the years, but they are all Braves cards. This is my first autograph of Pendleton wearing a Cardinals jersey.  Love the 1989 design too.  

Overall, I don't know how I could have done any better on the hits portion of my Archives boxes. A sweet Major League autograph, two printing plates, and two autographs of players who appeared for the Cardinals?  Anyone of the Berenger, Gant, or Abreu printing plate would have made for a cool pair of boxes by themselves. Throw them all together and all I can say is wow. 

The Snorting Bull Presents.........2014 Bowman

Did I Mention Gypsy Queens?

I had an incredible time opening up some Gypsy Queens a few weeks back and swung back through Big D's Sports Cards during my delicious day out last week.  I did pick up a really cool Gypsy Queen patch of Tigers pitcher Rick Porcello, but I also decided to try a little more Gypsy Queen.  Here's a run down of my box, which was nice, but was not quite as good as my previous boxes.  Is the bar too high?  Maybe. 

Gypsy Queen boxes have two relics and and two autographs.  My two relics were pretty ho hum, but I was pleased to see a copy of former Durham Bulls star Alex Cobb in my pair of relics.  Elvis is okay too. The Andrus is a mini framed relic while the Cobb is just the regular relic card.  Neither card is serial numbered. 

My autographs were hit and miss with one really cool pull and another autograph that was a duplicate from my first box.  The duplicate was Jeremy Hefner who is currently not playing after undergoing Tommy John surgery and then was non-tendered by the Mets.  Heffner was a pretty good pitcher for Buffalo in the International League in 2012 posting a 2.77 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP in 9 starts, so maybe he will bounce back somewhere later this summer. 

My other autograph was the real prize out of this box of Gypsy Queens:

This Adam Jones autograph is limited to just 25 copies.  He also seems to be one of those players who signs a lot, but I never seem to land a card of the O's talented outfielder.  I love the darker frame and the on-card autograph is sweet.  This card is a keeper all the way.  Outside of the Jones autograph I did manage to pull two other cool cards out of the box.  Both of the same player.....

 

This is the regular Jose Abreu rookie card which is a short printed high number card.  If you have not checked out Abreu this year he is having a great year playing first base for the White Sox.  At this moment he is battling Albert Pujols for the American League lead in home runs.  "You can put it on the board"

I also managed to pull a copy of Jose Abreu's miniature card from the Gypsy Queen box.  This copy is the variation of the mini which features Abreu wearing the White Sox Sunday Softball Specials.  Why is there not a picture of Lamar Hoyt airbrushed into the background?