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 Card Shop Part 1

My trips into my favorite local card shop tend to focus on adding some cool Cardinals or Rays cards to my collection.  Actually this trip was for a box of cards, but in the meantime, the owner of Big D's Jimmy had his eyes open looking for some cool cards for my collection.  We will get to the box in Part 2 of this post, but first let's look at some cool single cards.  Lot's of cool things here, the Rays are up first....


Both Rays items I picked up yesterday were signed items from players who had stopped in Durham on their way to the Majors.  Really cool items that Jimmy found from a great local autograph collector.

This is a Jeremy Hellickson autograph on a ticket stub from his first Major League victory.  Really cool and unique item of one of my favorite Durham Bulls.  I love collecting autographs and the vast majority of my autograph collection is in card form, but I love finding unique items like this.  Who has a ticket stub from Jeremy Hellickson's Major League Debut hanging out in their house?  I do not know, but I am really happy to own this piece.  Here's a look at Hellickson during the game.  John Jaso is catching....

I also landed a nice ball from pitcher Matt Moore.  Moore spent a good deal of time in Durham before landed a job in the starting rotation of the Rays.  The ball is from the Southern League and features a nice signature of Moore on the sweet spot of the ball.  

Two really nice Rays autographs and both are on unique pieces.  On to the Cardinals half of the post. All my Cardinals additions are in baseball card form.  First up are a few Yadis.

Starting simple, this is a Molina short print from this year's Topps Heritage set.  Not many cards show off Yadi's cool neck tattoos.  One more Yadi short print.....

I posted one or two of these variations before with my box breaks.  This is the Stats variation which features the Sabermetric stats on the back of the card instead of the traditional stats that Topps has put on their cards for years and years.  Topps has already added the WAR stat to the back of the regular cards, but think a few of these stats could find their way onto the regular issue of Topps cards.  I'd love to see the OPS+ stat there.  

Still staying pretty simple, this is a pair of rookie cards from new Cardinals pitcher Sam Tuivailala.  I have a good feeling about Tuivailala and could see him moving into a prominent role in the Cardinals bullpen in the near future.  I had posted a pair of his autographs a few weeks back.  Nice player, give him a look.

On to things that are a little bit harder to find...This is a nice copy of a 2013 Bowman Platinum Blue parallel.  The card is numbered to 40/199.  Taveras cards still seem to be selling low even though he has started to pick it up at the plate in recent weeks.  Hoping that Matheny can find him some at-bats on a regular basis next season.  Next Taveras card.......

I have always love the Bowman Inception cards.  Last year the set was my favorite product of the year.  It was a nice product again this year, and I have added a few autographs from the set, but not quite as gaga over this year's issue.  Still I love this Taveras.  He's got a great signature and the card has a nice on-card autograph.  This is the green version of the card and is serial numbered to just 75 copies.  

Jimmy picked this card up for me this past week.  I pulled a copy of the Hank Aaron card like this and was more than happy to pick up a Wacha card numbered to just 25 copies.  Have you looked at the Wacha card from Allen & Ginter and compared it to the Trevor Rosenthal?  They could be brothers.  

On to my favorite.  I LOVE THESE.....

Topps puts out all kinds of parallels.  Pink, camo, etc, etc, etc.  The best of them all have been the Acetate parallels numbered to just 10 copies.  I have picked up a few Cardinals cards.  Love this card and the set.

Overall, the single cards and items I picked up from Big D's today were all really awesome adds.  I am not sure how I would ever find half of the cards I pick up for my collection if it were not for the owner, Jimmy, keeping his eyes open for all of these cool cards.  If you live around Raleigh-Durham, or are visiting, a trip to Big D's is well worth your time.  If you can't make it into the store, you can also check out the shop on Facebook and Twitter.  

2014 Donruss Box

I have been a little intrigued over the past week or so by some of the posts other bloggers and collectors have made about the 2014 Donruss set.  The design of the set and different card elements within the set are very reminiscent of the old 1980s Donruss set.  The only real draw back is the whole Panini thing.   It's not a state secret that I am not a huge fan of the Panini, non-licensed, card releases.  Well, I decided to go for it and picked up a box of 2014 Donruss from Big D's Card Shop in Raleigh.  Here's a break down of the cards:

The base set of the 2014 Donruss cards have a white border which was common on the earlier 80s Donruss sets.  The logo at the top is also an older design of the Donruss logo.  The colored lines on the logo are new, but the card has a good early 80s feel to the card design.  The baseball design on the side of the card is almost identical to the 1987 Donruss cards.  

Many of the elements from the back of the old Donruss cards are also visible on this new relaunch.  Not perfect, but close.  The number in the corner in a baseball, the full name, and blurb at the bottom are all consistent with the 1980's Donruss cards, but the stat box used to show five years of stats, not just one, and the player's contract information was posted in between the stats and the blurb on the bottom of the card.

The 2014 Donruss set is a 200 card set and the box was really well collated.  I did not complete the whole set, but some of that had to do with short printing.  Really I had very few dupes out of my box and could easily spend a small amount of time on Ebay or COMC and have the rest of the set finished quickly.  The biggest pieces missing from my set come from the first 30 cards which are the Diamond Kings cards.  Just like old times....

These look a lot like the original Diamond Kings cards.  I am not sure if the Diamond Kings cards are advirtsed as a short print, but I only pulled five of them, plus a jumbo Diamond King.  The other cards at the beginning of all the Donruss sets?  Don't scroll down...

The Rated Rookie.  There is a good mix of prospects in this set and these cards seem like they might also be slightly short printed.  Some of the pictures seem like they might be Minor League pictures too which is totally cool in my book.  I am taking this Billy Hamilton card as a picture from the Louisville Bats.  Way cool.  There are also is a picture of Chris Archer wearing a Durham Bulls uniform.

Overall the 2014 Donruss base set is excellent.  If you did not collect baseball cards during the 1980s this set may not be for you, but the good vibes generated from cards is well worth the price of the box of cards.  Yes, I bash Panini for not using logos, but I was not even looking at that while I was opening these cards up out of these packs.  I saw that Adam Dunn card and thought about him oleing some ground balls at first base.....

and not the fact that I could not see the White Sox logo on the front of his jersey.  Of course there is so much more to the 2014 Donruss set than just the base set.  Let's look at some more cards.

There are Rookie cards.  The Rookie insert kind of look like the 1988 Donruss cards, but that's a stripe and not a plaid design.  I love the Beckham card on the right.  Durham Bulls uni?  I vote yes.  Again, these cards were a part of the early Donruss years right down to the little logo in the corner.  

There are some elite themed insert sets complete with serial numbers.  A classic of the early 1990s.  The scanner did not do these cards enough justice.  The have a cool foil finish.  Both sets are serial numbered out of 999.  I believe that there are autographed versions of these cards.  

There are also the usual jersey cards.  The Moore card is cool.  I am not sure about Jordan Lyles, but why not.  It's got a pinstripe.  There are also some cool autographs...

Really like the Gausman autograph.  He seems like a really good pitcher and the Cobra is also cool to land.  There are a few Donruss autographs that I will have to chase down now that I have opened my box.  Namely, Kolten Wong.  

The set is not a complete throwback to the 1980s and 1990s Donruss sets.  Panini also borrowed a few elements from the first Donruss relaunch which took place in 2001.  The cards were definitely a 2000s set with autographs, serial numbers, and a lot of foil and gloss.  Here are two cards that fit the 2000s Donruss mold:

The Press Proof cards actually started in the late 90s, but they became really prevalent in the early 2000s.  Pinnacle used the Press Proof concept across their card brands beyond Donruss which made the concept get old really fast.  Search out Press Proof on Ebay and your screen will be littered with a rainbow of different colored Press Proofs from Donruss, Donruss Elite, Leaf, Leaf Certified, Leaf Cuts, Playoff, Playoff Prestige, etc, etc, etc, etc.  

Panini also used the Stat Line cards.  Slightly cooler than the Press Proof cards, but still a product of the 2000s Donruss relaunch.  Player collectors really like these cards, I have dozens of these for Ray Lankford, and they create a good chase.  

Big D's Sports Cards

I was shocked a few weeks ago to find out that a new card shop started up recently in Raleigh.  I was really excited at the prospects of finding new places to find cards.  If you read those cool places to live lists Raleigh, Durham, and its immediate suburbs often appear on those lists.  Money Magazine recently rated my corner of North Carolina, Apex, as the ninth best place to live in the US.  In reading all of these lists and accolades the writers often do not take into account the fact that the Raleigh-Durham metro area has almost zero card shops.  How does a metro area of almost two million people end up without any decent card shops? 

For eight years I have been perplexed at the lack of card shops.  It's not that there are none, but it's more like the ones that are here are a little disappointing.  The major hurdles facing card shop in the area are plentiful, but I mainly blame two factors.  First, college sports rule in central North Carolina.  While there are college sports products and memorabilia, it's a little bit of difficult market to base a whole card shop around.  Second, Raleigh-Durham is a huge transplant area.  During my twenty-five minute commute in the morning I am often astonished to see how many NFL, NBA, and NHL team stickers and license tags I see on different cars.  Name a major sports team, drive around Raleigh for a day, and you will see something of that team attached to a car.  Imagine trying to stock a card shop for a city with a diverse population of different fan bases.

I can be a little bit tough on card shops, but I have my standards and I stick to them.  Finally, almost eight years to the day that I moved to Raleigh-Durham I found a card shop that I not only bought cards from, but I will return to the shop and buy more cards.  So, here's my run down on Big D's Card Shop:

The card shop owner Jimmy is an awesome person.  Knowledgeable and friendly about cards and sports.  He's also tech savvy and can be found on the internet using the information on the card posted above, or by visiting his Facebook page and his Twitter page.  He posts pictures of cards to his pages, so even if you are not in central North Carolina he's a great person to follow and talk cards with via social media.  You know that I am a baseball only collector, so I cannot give you a complete and detailed run down on all of the different sports, but he does have a nice variety of football, hockey, basketball, and college sports items with a good range of prices from high end stuff all the way down to dollar boxes and common boxes. 

The display cases are well organized and it's really easy to find cards in the shop.  The display cases are full with all kinds of cards, but the items for sale are stacked and organized so they can easily be looked at and seen by customers.  Jimmy is also great at pointing out cards of interest without being high pressure and is more than willing to pull cards out for closer inspection.  When I entered the store we talked for a few minutes and he did a great job of helping me try to pick out some nice Cardinals and Durham Bulls cards.  I had my choice of several nice cards of Bob Gibson, Matt Holliday, David Price, Matt Moore, and the list could go on.

I usually try to limit my first visit to a store and have a set number of dollars to spend entering, but Big D's Sports Cards made that rule a little bit challenging.  I had several nice single cards to choose from along with wax which was priced very competitively.  I would go so far to say that Big D's has the best wax prices of the card shops in Raleigh-Durham.  I haven't really dabbled in the Bowman Draft set yet, but I would have a hard time beating his prices on Blowout Cards or Atlanta Sport Cards. 

So, after much deliberation I settled on having myself a Durham Bulls kind of day during my first trip into Big D's.  Here are the cards that I walked out with at the end of the day:

 2013 Topps Chrome Jake Odorizzi

2012 Topps Triple Threads David Price Jersey

 2013 Topps Museum Collection Matt Moore Quad Jersey-Nice 3 color patch

2013 Topps Triple Threads Jake Odorizzi Jersey/Auto

2011 Bowman Sterling Wil Myers

2012 Bowman Chrome Wil Myers All-Star Futures Game

I have also picked up a pair of non-Durham Bulls too.  Love the Tulo. 

2013 Topps Triple Threads Troy Tulowitzki Quad Bat

1983 Topps Archives Miguel Cabrera 1983 All-Star

This was clearly the best card shop I have ever been to in North Carolina and it's not even close.  The variety and quality of single cards cannot be touched and the wax pricing is great.  Single card pricing was great too.  I was happy to find a store where I could find Cardinals cards and also find some really great additions to my Durham Bulls collection.  Finally, I would not be doing fair or quality work as a blogger if I did not mention the Braves cards.  Jimmy has an absolutely incredible selection of Braves cards.  There is a little taste on his Facebook page, but the store display is awesome.  If you are a Braves fan, Big D's is a must stop.  If you are not a Braves fan, shop at Big D's. 

A Pair of New Cards From Facebook

A picked up a new pair of cards late last week from a Facebook friend and have been a little too backlogged with all of the Ginter posts this week to post the new acquisitions.  I have been not very active on my Facebook trading page in recent months, but still try to maintain some contact with a few of my favorite traders around the different trade pages.  It seems like many of the collectors around Facebook have become hooked on raffles, which really are not my cup of tea.  So, here are two quick cards for this evening.

First up tonight is a 2013 Topps Matt Moore autograph.  I actually did not pick up very many base autographed cards out of the two Topps series when they released earlier in the spring and fall.  The Moore card was on my radar, but I had not found it for a price that I liked until now.

2013 Topps Matt Moore Autograph 

  

While the card features a sticker autograph I really like the design of the card with the giant Rays logo behind the action shot of Moore throwing a pitch.  He's also have a great season with a 14-3 record and almost a strikeout per inning.  Moore is one of my favorite former Durham Bulls.

Next card:

2012 Donruss Elite USA Baseball Dom Nunez Jersey/Autograph

I took a flyer on a Dom Nunez card.  I am going to put this card in a box for the next four or five years and forget I have it.  Hopefully when I find it I will be pleasantly surprised and happy.  Nunez appeared last summer with the High School All-Stars at USA Baseball.  I heard some good stuff about him from some locals, so I figure he might be worth a gamble.  This summer the Rockies selected the infielder in the sixth round and assigned him to the Pioneer League.  He is currently hitting under .200, but half of his hits are extra base hits.  Maybe this card works out, maybe it does not.  It's one of the fun things about this hobby.  

Trio of Sweet Tribute Cards

I picked up three new 2013 Tribute cards this week in a trade.  Each of the new cards is equally cool in it's own way, but I am always happy to add a nice new autograph from a great set like Tribute that features on-card autographs.  So, let's get started with the first only non-autographed card in this trade.

2013 Topps Tribute Green Yadier Molina 

This card actually started this trade.  My brother in-law pulled this card out of a pack of Tribute and we started working on a trade.  It can be tough to find cool Molina cards since he longer signs autographs and rarely has any new relic cards.  There are a few floating around here and there, but there is a definite premium on the cards and a serious lack of supply.  Of course, there are always parallel cards.  This card is limited to just 75 prints on really nice card stock and features a picture of Yadier in his catcher's gear.  It's been awhile since I have picked up a Yadi card, so I decided to go ahead and trade for this card which helped me land two more nice autographed Tribute cards.

2013 Topps Tribute Andy Pettitte Autograph 

I think at one point I owned a 1996 Leaf Signature Andy Pettitte autograph, but it has been awhile.  Pettitte, in my opinion, probably is one of those Hall of Very Good players and not a Hall of Famers, but he has been around forever and won a lot of games.  In fact, he picked up his 250th win yesterday.  Outside of his win total, I am not sure what Pettitte does really well.  His Baseball Reference comparables page is filled with other really good pitchers, not Hall of Famers, like David Wells, Mike Mussina, Kevin Brown, and Charlie Leibrandt.  

Despite being a little short on Hall of Fame credentials Pettitte has some pretty good and valuable cardboard floating around.  He's a definite fan favorite in New York, you can find an occasional Astros fan, and his cards are in pretty high demand.  Hall of Very Good Player with Hall of Fame prices.  It happens.  

2013 Topps Tribute Matt Moore Autograph 

Last, but not least, is one of my favorite former Durham Bulls.  Matt Moore is off to a really good start this season in Tampa sitting at 8-1 with an ERA just below 3.  I picked up a bunch of Moore autographs last year, but this is my first of 2013.  Moore has a great signature and his autographs have come down a little bit from last year making them a little bit more affordable.

2012 Topps Five Star Jumbo Jerseys

There is an old adage that buying a brand car is a horrible investment since the second you drive it off the dealer's parking lot you've lost thousands of dollars.  Honestly, I like new cars and both of the cars I currently own I bought brand new straight off the lot.  They both had that terrific new car smell and are still both fun to drive.

 In many way baseball cards a little bit like new cars.  Last fall one of the last releases of the 2012 card year put out by Topps was the Five Star set.  Collectors loved this high-end product and flocked to buy up the wax.  Cards also popped up all over the secondary market and were really popular.  I picked up several along the way focusing mainly on the autographs.  Since they were low-print runs and on-card autographs, I figured that many of the cards would run dry after a short time on the market.  My favorite autograph I picked up was this Evan Longoria:

So, how does this all relate to driving a brand new car of the lot?  If you could move back the hands of time to the week that Five Star was released and set a goal to trade or purchase three jumbo Five Star jersey cards you would likely have paid fifteen to twenty dollars in trade for each of the cards.  Collectors opening wax were quick to throw the large jersey swatches up on Ebay and recoup some of their money.  I had three primary targets: David Price, Matt Moore, and David Freese.

The week of the Five Star release I had the opportunity to buy all three for around $65 delivered.  I did not like the number, so I waited.  While cards maintain there new card luster a little longer than a new car, the price eventually does float downward.  You just need a little bit of patience.  So, this weekend I was looking around for some cards when someone approached me with two Rays jumbo jerseys.

2012 Topps Five Star David Price Jumbo Jersey

 2012 Topps Five Star Matt Moore Jumbo Jersey 

I naturally picked up both cards and was able to swing a day later that day for my third, and final, jumbo jersey card from my target list.  David Freese.  All in all, it was a successful day and went a long way in wrapping up my collection of Five Star cards.  I have one more autograph I am trying to track down and I will be able to put this set to rest.

2012 Topps Five Star David Freese Jumbo Jersey

A Dozen Alternatives To Triple Threads Pt. 2

In the first part of this post I took a look at six sets that fans of the Triple Threads releases should take a look at for their collection.  This thread will continue with six more and include my favorite out of the bunch, the 2003 Topps Tribute set.

2012 Topps Museum Collection Jon Jay Dual Jersey/Autograph

2012 Topps Museum Collection Matt Holliday Quad Relic

2012 Topps Museum Collection Matt Moore Autograph

7. 2012 Topps Museum Collection- See the description of the 2010 Topps Marquee set too.  This set has some Triple Threads looking cards with a different package.  I did really like the white cards with the autographs though.  Generally young players, but good card design with clean space for signing.  There might be 400 of them, but I have always loved this Matt Moore autograph.  

2005 Topps Pristine Aaron Boone Autograph

8. 2005 Topps Pristine- Always a hilarious high end set in my opinion.  There is more than one issue of it.  The cards had packs of cards within packs of cards when you bought the boxes and the cards were always "limited".  One must realize that when Topps uses the word limited, it means that the card is slightly hard to find then toilet paper.  For example, this cool Aaron Boone autograph has an "Uncommon" label in the corner.  It means there are 247 of them.  

2010 Topps Sterling George Sisler 6 Piece Bat Card

2009 Topps Sterling Carlton Fisk 4 Piece Bat/Autograph

9. Topps Sterling- Like Triple Threads I didn't put a year.  This set actually has cooler relic pieces than Triple Threads and they tend to have some cool Hall of Famers.  See George Sisler.  However, that Carlton Fisk card is destroyed by the sticker autograph. 

2012 Topps Tier One Mike Morse Autograph

10. Topps Tier One- This card set is really nice.  Topps put the autographs on card.  There are some really good players out there too.  This set is one of the better ones on this list.  

2003 Topps Tribute Sparky Anderson Dual Jersey/Autograph

11. 2003 Topps Tribute-This set featured a lot of Hall of Fame players with on card autographs.  Tigers fan, or no Tigers fan this card is really cool.  Topps has continued to issue the Tribute cards, but they continue to tinker with them.  For awhile, they went to sticker autographs.  Nice cards, but not nearly as nice as the card above.  

2011 Topps Tribute Barry Larkin Bat/Autograph

Of course, Topps switched back to on card autographs this year, but they are in card containers and some people (Matt Kemp) haven't signed their redemption cards.  

2009 Topps Unique Scott Rolen Patch

12. Topps Unique-Really cool idea with really small patch cards.  There are autographs, but they have stickers.  If you are looking for a jumbo chunk of someones jersey, this is your set.