Two Terrific Tajs

The Taj Bradley collection has crossed into double digits, but the blogger posts are still not numbered. At least, not for the moment. At what point should I start numbering them? I think I am getting close. Anyway, I picked up two more terrific Taj Bradley autographs for the collection during the past week.  

First up, an autograph out of the $425 per box Topps Museum Collection. Cost of this card was north of $10 making it one of the more expensive Taj Bradley cards in my collection. I appreciate all the people who open up boxes, so very much.  

I couldn't do it without you.  

I was somewhat hopeful that the orange patches were connected to the Durham Bulls when I first bid on this card, but after doing a little research, it appears this is likely from Bradly's appearance at the Futures Game a few year's back at Dodger Stadium. The orange seems slightly muted compared to photographs from the game, but there are patch cards that match this jersey.  

 

What I would do to get a Durham Bulls patch card......

One day. 

Last card for a quick post.......

Bradley signed for the 2024 Topps product, but was a short-printed autograph with just /199 serial numbered copies.  Seems like a player who would not be on the short-print list, but here we are.  The serial number is on the back of the card and this is a quick post, so you can imagine it's there.  It says "087/199". 

This is one of the first autographed cards I have purchased out of 2024 Topps, and while I have not been rah-rah about the product this year, this is a really well-blended sticker autograph. You can barely tell on the scan.  

Predictable Marcell

The Topps products sometimes run together these days and they the cards have become all too predictable. 

I got a new Cardinals autograph. 

It's Marcell Ozuna.  He's just swung his bat and likely hit a fly ball.  Can't really tell. 

He signs a lot for Topps.  Topps uses him in every product.  

This card could be better if they showed Marcell missing a fly ball.....

or when the television cameras use his signature neon green arm band as a green screen.  

Marcell is interesting.  Let's try a little harder on these baseball cards.  

I Just Want To Give It My Best Shot

A quick post about player collecting.  I have given up on it over the past year in the traditional sense over the past year.  Not sure I ever put that in a post.  There was one in the works at one point about it, sure it's my my drafts somewhere.  Sort of felt like revisiting the whole thing after the Canseco super collector retired and started selling off all thousandsomething of his cards.  

I need to revisit that draft badly. 

There are so many different card products these days, with all sort of parallels, and variations.  It's not really possible to go out and track down a large percentage of a player's card checklist the way you could in the 1990s when I first started a few player collections, mainly focused on Ray Lankford.    

I do not own a bunch of Ray Lankford printing plates, and there are several low print run cards that I do not own, but I usually crossed off the overwhelming majority of his cards every calendar year.  

That feels nearly impossible nowadays.  Money being one factor, but also the fact that I do not want to take the time to track down all of the cards.  So, instead I have borrowed one of the cliches from Bull Durham to describe my modified approach to find cards of favorite players.

Of course they're boring, that's the point.  

I like Anthony Banda at the moment.  True, he's on the disabled list and is not coming back until next year.  It's also true that he pitched well for the Durham Bulls and Rays while he was healthy.  Banda has many cards for sale on Ebay.  I have been picking out a nice card here, nice card there.  Really, not bad prices for a decent prospect with some upside.  

So, two new cards to start the weekend.  

This is from Museum Collection.  Love how many different uniforms the Diamondbacks wear.  Earlier in the week I posted an Inception card with a picture of Anthony Banda wearing a purple and green throwback Diamondbacks jersey.  The patch swatch on the card was the dark grey road jersey.  

This card has the purple and green jersey swatches that match the Inception card.  Seems like there could have been some better planning here.  

Always amazed at products that cost more than $200 a box, but the autographs are on a sticker.  That's why I do not buy $200 boxes of cards, just buying your $5 cards of Minor Leaguers.  Just gave it my best shot and I won an Ebay auction for this card.  

This Banda Inception autographed card was a little bit harder to find at a good price.  All I wanted was to own a nice card of a player I enjoy watching.  I just wanted to give it my best shot.  I can't blame collectors for listing cards like this for $30 and $40 considering the cost of the Inception boxes.  I set out to find one copy of this card, the color of the parallel and serial numbering did not really matter.  Just wanted to own a nice card of a player I enjoy watching. 

Even though this copy if numbered to 150 copies, kind of a high number for Inception, it's a great looking card with a nice piece of patch.  Second Banda card in the past two weeks with a huge chunk of jersey patch, those are still sort of cool. 

Lost In The Closet

I go through sorting lulls at times where I just end up stacking cards on the shelves of my baseball card closet.  Giving my work schedule I know that I am never far away from a two to three week down period away from it all.  Generally I work nine weeks and then have three weeks off.  A few more during the summer and around December and January.  In my mind it can be a great excuse to procrastinate on certain chores and activities around the house.  Card sorting is not immune.

I have actually improved a lot over the last year or two.  There used to be a table in my card room that was buried with all sorts of commons, doubles, and the whatnot.....

While the situation has improved, I am a little ashamed at the state of my card closet at the moment, so I will say that it looks better than the picture above.  At the same time it's not like every card is in a box, not really even close.

A few days back I decided to tackle a stack or two of the cards in the closet that were not sorted into boxes.  Loads of commons, doubles, a few odds and ends.  Welp, I also found a few really nice cards hanging out in there too.  Most notably were two Carlos Martinez cards that I got from?  Your guess is as good as mine.

One of the cards was a C-Mart autograph from last year's Topps Museum Collection.

Martinez's autograph always seems to change every year for the good.  This is an on-card autograph too.  I like the black and grey design on this card with the red highlights.  Seems to fit well on a Cardinals card.  Nice picture of C-Mart pitching too.  

The other Martinez autograph was a jersey relic from last year's Tribute set.....

Same picture as the Museum autograph above, but there are some things that I like about this card.  First, I have been really down on materials cards the last few years.  I went through some of my posts from the last year a few weeks ago and there are almost zero, not quite, posts that deal with just relic cards.  It still is a larger swatch and it has one of those cool stickers on it.  That always means that I get to take a field trip over to the MLB Authentics website and figure out whether I should be excited or disappointed....

The jersey is from a Cardinals vs Royals game in July of 2015.  The question is always whether or not the game involved the player.  The answer is........

what does Carlos do when he sits on the bench?  He builds cup pyramids and throws water on players when they hit home runs.  Carlos was doing something with cups the day he wore the jersey on the front of this card.  Randal Grichuk and Matt Carpenter also hit home runs that game so maybe a little bit of this too...

Anyway, the prospects of finding two really nice Carlos Martinez cards in the random stacks of the card closet has made me feel a slight push to sort through some more of the cards just sitting around.  Maybe there is something else really nice in there, maybe it's just a bunch of 1991 Fleer cards.  Either way, I am excited to find out.  

Museum Archer Autograph

I found a really Chris Archer card a few days back on Ebay that seemed worthy of an add to the old collection.  The Rays cards have been pretty limited in the early going of the 2015 card calendar, so adding new autographs and relics has been a rather difficult task over the past two or three months.  However, I really liked this Archer autograph in spite of the fact that it is a sticker autograph.  The two patch pieces on the side are not huge, but both are multi-color.  I really like the light blue patch piece on the bottom.  I am not sure I have many light blue jersey pieces from the Rays.  Cool story, back to school work....

#MyCardMonday

As a baseball fan I am excited that we are getting close to the start of the season.  We are just 34 days (from Monday) from the first game of the season between the Cardinals and the Cubs.  As a Cardinals fan it seems like there are a lot of questions circling the team this spring.  The Cardinals always seem to have all of the answers and inevitably end up playing important baseball games in October.  One of the more intriguing stories at Cardinals Spring Training this year is pitcher Jaime Garcia.  

When Garcia is right physically he is a really nice pitcher.....

The problem is that Garcia has not pitched a complete season since 2011.  Since then there have been shoulder surgeries and thoracic outlet operations with very little pitching.  Garcia is back with the Cardinals this spring trying to win a spot with the team.  I am guessing that he will end up pitching in the minors on some sort of rehab assignment at the beginning of the year, but at some point he could very well help the Cardinals out with some starts during the season.  

The early returns look good: 

I would be excited to see the good healthy version of Garcia return to the Cardinals starting rotation and recently had to breakout my Garcia cards.  The card above is probably my favorite Jaime card that I picked up a few years ago from former blogger DodgerBobble.  He is still on Instagram and runs a great page with tons of autographs.  Anyway, the card comes from the Museum product with a nice on card signature.  Love the contrast between the blue ink and white background.  I like the faded area around the bottom of the card which gives a nice spot for the signature.  

Big Blue Yadi

I am extremely happy with the cards I have been able to track down from this year's 2014 Topps Museum set.  I have been able to add several very nice Rays and Cardinals autographs and relics.  I had a pair of cards left on my wish list.  I've been eager to get my hands on a copy of the Yadier Molina Museum Jumbo relic and managed to track one down last week on Ebay.  Strangely, the relic on the copy of this card is pretty unique. 

The Cardinals do not wear blue alternate jersey, nor do they have blue batting practice jerseys.  This swatch is likely from a special event wear Molina was wearing a dark blue jersey.  After a few minutes of research this jersey swatch most likely came from Molina's appearance at the 2010 All-Star game in Anaheim.  Looks like a pretty good fit. 

Museum Jumbos

I am still spending some time tracking down some more Museum cards.  The price of some of the jumbos has fallen slightly since product released a few weeks.  The prices for Museum cards are already a little bit low this year, so there are some really good bargains floating around out there for collectors.  This past week I managed to find two really nice jumbo Museum cards for my collection. 

First up is one of my favorite former Durham Bulls pitcher Chris Archer.  This Archer card is one of two variations he has in the Museum Collection on his jumbo cards.  This card is a swatch of his home jersey, but there is also a copy floating around with a nice piece of his alternate light blue jersey.  This piece of jersey is numbered to 50 which is one of the higher print runs of Museum Jumbo cards in the set.  Still trying to find a copy of that one.  Next...

The Matt Holliday jumbo card is numbered out of just 35.  There is also a copy of this card with a print run of 10 and a print run of 50, but I am not sure if he has any other colors or variations on his Museum Jumbo cards.  Just big pieces of white home Cardinals jersey. 

Quad Yadi

I am slightly sad to say that this is my first really cool Yadier Molina card of the 2014 calendar year.  Topps did a great job of including the great Cardinals catcher in their 2014 products.  Molina is now entering his 10th year of service time in the Majors, but has rarely appeared in card products outside of base sets and parallels.  Early in Molina's career he had a few nice autographs and a few nice relics, but there have generally been less than 2 or 3 every year after 2007.  This year Molina has appeared in Topps products a both a signer and on relics cards.  Here's a picture of my first Molina:

Find a nice quad relic out of the new Museum set is an excellent way to start off my Molina cards for the year.  The card is limited to just 75 copies.  I have seen a few Museum relics of Molina's floating around with patches, but those have had some pretty spectacular prices.  Hopefully as the year goes on Topps will continue to use Molina in their sets and I will be able to add a few more nice cards to my stack of Molinas.  An autograph would be outstanding. 

The Wizard of Museum Collection

I have been putting up a few Topps Museum cards the past few days, but have mainly focused on the jumbo relics.  I did manage to land a nice Wil Myers autograph, but still had my eye on a couple of other autographs floating around in trade rooms, Twitter, and Ebay.  My favorite Cardinals autograph target was an obvious choice.  Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith is featured on an awesome card in this year's Topps Museum set.

This is a great looking card and features a nice signature from Ozzie Smith.  The bottom of the autograph on the zz is slightly cut off which netted me a nice discount from the person who was selling this card.  Add in two bat pieces and a print run of only 50 and you've got a winning card.  

Myers Graph

I have posted several Museum jumbo relics over the past few days, but I have also managed to pick up a few autographs from the Topps high product too.  Similar to the relics, the autographs have also trended a little bit lower than some of the other traditional high end Topps products.  I had this Myers autograph scouted out for a few days and was really surprised at how little the price moved leading up to the end of the auction.  I ended being able to pick up the card for less than the jumbo relics. 

The autograph is the usual Wil Myers scrawl which I really think hurts his card values sometimes.  Honestly, I really like Myers and enjoyed watching him play in Durham last year, but feel a little bit squeamish spending money for his end autographs when there does not appear to be much effort put into signing the cards.  It could be why his autographs in high end products, like Museum, have a hard time crossing $20. 

Jumbo Longo

I have already posted one Jumbo Museum card, and just fair warning, there are several more coming this week.  This was the card I was originally look for when I stumbled upon several other cool Cardinals and Rays also with cool Jumbo Museum cards.   I'd do a theme week of only Jumbo Museum cards, but I also have an autograph or two to show off and I still want to throw out some Durham Bulls cards this week too.  So, here's the jumbo Longo. 

This card is numbered out of just 10.  Is this the Gold Version?  I am not sure, but it is pretty sweet and I was shocked that it cost me a little more than $10.  Really cool card for the price.  In fact, several collectors I have worked with on putting together a few pieces from Museum have noted that the set is trending a little bit lower this year.  I really like the Museum cards, but I think some of the case breakers and high end collectors are starting to feel like there is a lot of duplication from this set in other products.  The autographs are similar to Museum and the Jumbo relics are similar to some of the cards Topps has put out in other high releases like Five Star. 

Jumbo Beltran

I have a big stack of Museum cards I need to post and will be working on for the next few days.  Museum is a pretty pricey product, but there are some great cards in this product.  It's also one of those products that is a tad bit risky to open, so I went ahead and let someone else assume all the risk in pursuit of some big hit cards.  Thank you case busting people.  I could not do it somedays without you.  My first cool Museum card of the year was this beautiful Carlos Beltran:

I picked up a couple of these jumbo pieces from Museum last year, but I kind of like the look of this year's pieces better.  This Beltran card has a really nice big chunk of bat.  Cool looking grain on the bat piece and limited to just 25 copies.  My copy gets double brownie points for being numbered to Beltran's number 3 uniform number with the Cardinals.  Luckily the person selling this card did not market it as an "Ebay 1 of 1" and ask $300 for it.  This copy cost me a little less than $20.

While Beltran is no longer on the Cardinals Topps has had Beltran as a Cardinal in all of their early 2014 releases.  I have Carlos on my fantasy baseball team this year, so I am counting on a good year out of the newest Yankee.  No hard feelings.

Facebook Trades

I am spending a little time this morning typing up some of my trades from the past two weeks.  I am glad everyone is enjoying my countdown posts, but I need to put up some cards coming into my collection too.  This morning I am writing up two trades that I made with one awesome Facebook collector.  My cards this morning came from Brian who is in several Facebook trade groups and has lots of good stuff on his page.  A few weeks ago he traded me a Sweet Spot Miguel Cabrera autograph.         Last week, I picked up five different autographs from him:

First up is a childhood favorite Vince Coleman.  Coleman was a big cog on the mid and late 90s Cardinals teams.  He played on the for six years and stole almost 550 bases.  Coleman's first three years in the league all produced 100 steal seasons.  Vince does have a few autographs including a 2003 Fan Favorites, a Tristar Obak, and an Upper Goudy.  Of course, he also has this one which I was previously missing:

2008 TriStar SignaCuts Vince Coleman Autograph 

Next up is my first Mark Trumbo autograph.  I have picked up a few Trumbo cards since seeing him at the All-Star Game Home Run Derby this year, but no autographs.  I was really impressed with his raw power and figure this would be a good add.  Trumbo's cards have picked up some steam this year and should be a solid add considering he will probably spend the next couple of years hitting behind Mike Trout.  Plus, this is a beautiful card.  

2012 Topps Museum Collection

I also picked up an early Max Scherzer autograph in the trade.  I saw Scherzer pitch earlier this summer against the Angels and was very impressed.  I've always kind of watched him since we are from the same corner of St. Louis County and he pitched at Mizzou.  Scherzer was a high draft pick and I think he finally starting to live up to some of the hype.  Fight Justin Verlander for the league lead in strikeouts is a nice accomplishment.  Anyway, I have only sticker autographs of Scherzer, so this was a good add for my collection.  

2005 Upper Deck USA Baseball Max Scherzer Autograph/Jersey

Last two autographs I will put together.  I picked up a Starlin Castro autograph from this year's Topps Heritage set.  I love the 1963 Topps set and have picked up a lot of the cards from this year's set.  There are a lot of cool autographs in there too.  Last card for this morning is a Paul O'Neill from the 2012 Topps Tier One set.  I enjoyed watching O'Neill as a Red way back in the day and still liked him on the Yankees.   O'Neill was a really good productive player.  He made a few All-Star games in his career and will never make the Hall of Fame, but he won a lot of rings.  

2012 Topps Heritage Starlin Castro Autograph

2012 Topps Tier One Paul O'Neill Autograph 

2012 Topps Museum Matt Kemp Quad Relic

We have one last card for the weekend, but I will be sharing a few more cards from the last week's trades and will also continue my countdown of the best sets from the past 30 years.  

I had the opportunity to add this Matt Kemp card in a trade I made on Twitter last week.  I have been trying to add Kemp cards throughout the season and really liked the appearance of this card from the 2012 Topps Museum set.  The card has three pieces of bat and one cool piece of jersey with a blue patch.  This is by far the best Museum relic card that I have picked up this year, but would still love to add a Miguel Cabrera quad relic pieces if I can find a good one.