The Box I Got vs The Box I Want Part 3

During the first two posts in my set about my Ginter box break I have shared my box topper, followed by a trade, and my relics cards, also followed by a trade.  There was also that Rollins autograph.  For the third installment of posts on my Ginter box I will focus on the base set.  This year's set is 350 cards deep and features 300 regular cards and 50 short prints.  The final 50 cards in this year's set are the short prints.  

Unfortunately it is mathematically impossible to complete a set by ripping a single box of a product and often when it is possible, collation usually prevents it from happening.  Ginter boxes are actually quite well collated with few dupes, but collectors attempting to put together a complete set are left with something of a challenge.  I assembled my complete set, including the short prints, in just over a week through a few trades and by purchasing up a few lots of cards on Ebay. 

Here's my quick take on the base set:

2013 Topps Allen & Ginter Evan Longoria 

Allen & Ginter has become an annual release from Topps and I would venture to say that it is probably one of the more anticipated products every year.  While I do not have the sales numbers to prove the products popularity, it is often hard to find boxes of this product on Internet Card Stores, such as Atlanta Sports Cards, after the first few days.  There are still boxes floating around on Ebay, but they dry up within a few weeks too.  The base cards of the Ginter set are always on a white background and feature some sort of border inspired by some of the original Ginter cards.  

I always think of the base set in three parts: current baseball players, vintage baseball players, and pop culture cards.  The Longoria pictured above is one of my favorite current players in this years set.  I like the horizontal card design, most are vertical, on this card and like the picture of Longoria's follow through.  I would say that sixty percent of the set is made up of current baseball players.  

2013 Topps Allen & Ginter Willie Stargell

The other forty percent of the set is composed equally of the pop culture cards and vintage baseball players cards.  The vintage players are pretty cool, but Topps can be a little bit repetitive with the older players they include in some of their sets.  Why is there always a Wally Joyner (Wally Joyner 117 OPS+, Ray Lankford OPS+ 123.  More Lankford)?  I like looking at the pictures on the vintage cards and often like looking at the different unis on the vintage player's cards.  This year I really like this Willie Stargell card with the yellow Pirates helmet and the black pinstriped polyester uniform.  The are plenty of other good ones in this year's set. 

2013 Topps Allen & Ginter Nik Wallenda

The final segment of the set is the pop culture segment.  The original Allen & Ginter cards were actually filled with all sorts of cards like these.  The pop culture segment can also include, besides people, places, events, and objects.  I always thought of the original Ginter cards as being really informational.  This year's set is mainly filled with people, but also has a fair number of places mixed into the set too.  I am going to post a little more about the non-sport cards in the Ginter sets this weekend.  

That Other Guy

Sometimes when trades are made baseball fans get caught up in the players on the Major League level and forget all about the other players involved in the transaction at the minor league level.  During this past off-season the Rays made a large off-season trade with the Royals sending their front line starting pitcher James Shields to the American League Central in exchange for Wil Myers, Jake Odorizzi, Mike Montgomery, and Patrick Leonard.  The Rays also gave up Wade Davis and Elliot Johnson, but most of the evaluation of the trade has focused on Myers, Odorizzi, Montgomery, and Shields.

While Shields is only sporting a .500 record at 8-8, he has been an innings eater and provided quality starts for the Royals.  The Royals are 8 games behind the Tigers in the Central and 5 behind the A's and Rays for the Wild Card spots, but when have the Royals been close enough to sniff the playoffs?  The Rays have certainly done well with Myers and Odorizzi and Montgomery pitching well in the minors.  The trade may very well tilt further in the Rays favor if Odorizzi or Montgomery evolve into a solid Major League pitcher capable of providing the Rays with a quality starts and innings.

There is also that other guy in the trade: Patrick Leonard.  Not much has been said about the inclusion of Leonard in the trade, but he's definitely an intriguing talent for the Rays to try to develop.  He spent his senior year of high school playing for former Astros second baseman, and future Hall of Famer, Craig Biggio.  At 6'4 and 225 Leonard has some serious size and serious power.  The Royals selected the former third baseman, turned outfielder, in the fifth round of the 2011 Major League Draft.

Since his trade to the Rays, Topps has included him in their Bowman, Topps Debut, and Bowman Platinum releases.  I was able to pick up a copy of his Bowman Platinum card last week, which features a large chunk of bat and an autograph.

2013 Bowman Platinum Patrick Leonard Bat/Autograph 

There are 200 copies of this cool Leonard card, but almost every single copy of the card is probably on Ebay, or has been on Ebay.  The price is rather low for the potential player that Leonard could be down the road.  Copies can be acquired for less than $5 shipped.  Even if you do not like the Rays this is a pretty sweet card for that price.

Part of the lackluster card market for Leonard could be a slight decline in his performance on the field this season.  However, it seems like many card collectors ignore the performances of minor league players and purchase and trade blindly solely on the word of experts and prospect rankings.  Why isn't everyone buying George Springer cards?  Leonard's average and homers have both dropped in his step up from Rookie League to A Ball, but his doubles have almost tripled.

Leonard is still only 20 and given the Rays ability to constantly stock their Major League team with ready and able bodies from the Minor Leagues, $5 seems a small gamble to take on a player like Leonard getting some opportunity to produce someday down the road in Tampa.  While WIl Myers hit for a high overall average, he also experienced droughts in power before his breakout performance in 2012 playing in AAA.

The Box I Got vs. The Box I Want Part 2

This weekend I started a set of posts on my 2013 Ginter box I bought last week and how I am reshaping my hit cards to better fit my collection.  During my last post I focused on my box topper, which was a Josh Hamilton, but I turned it into a Miguel Cabrera.  My relic cards will be the subject of today's post which I will say might have made some really happy.  I was not so happy, but I cashed in on a really good pair of relics and landed four cards that better fit my collection.

So, here are my two relic cards:

2013 Topps Allen & Ginter Nick Saban Used Shirt? 

2013 Topps Allen & Ginter Nelson Cruz Jersey

Nelson Cruz is just kind meh, but I know a lot of people that would have been hoping up and down if they had pulled that Saban shirt card.  Honestly, I do watch college football, but it's somewhere down on the list behind baseball and college basketball.  I do follow and watch NC State and Mizzou I would not say I am a die hard fan.  I can watch any baseball game and be pretty happy, not so much with football.

Saban once stepped over a player have a seizure to go sit in his office.  Saban gave his quarterback a spanking once on national television.  From the perspective of a casual fan he seems like a bit of an asshole.  I do not care if the guy wins, he's like college football's version of John Calipari.  Although, I am not sure that Calipari ever looked like this....

So, obviously the Saban card was getting shipped out, but I just was not sure what kind of haul I could get for that card.  I have known a Bama fan or two and know they can be a little bit over the top, so I was patient, and played my cards well and cashed out Little Nicky for a pretty good haul.

2013 Topps Allen & Ginter Paul Goldschmidt Autograph

2013 Topps Allen & Ginter Chris Archer Autograph

Not a bad thing ever to dump a relic card for two autographs.  I was especially happy with the Goldschmidt autograph.  He's have a great season and I feel like his cards are probably underrepresented in my collection.  The Archer is self explanatory: Durham Bulls, Raleigh native, and Rays.  Goodbye Saban.

Which left me with the Nelson Cruz.  I decided to package the Cruz jersey together with a couple of other Rangers relics and traded them to a Rangers fan who had pulled two Cardinals relics of Matt Holliday and Adam Wainwright.

2013 Topps Allen & Ginter Adam Wainwright Jersey

2013 Topps Allen & Ginter Matt Holliday Jersey

Both cards are welcome additions to the collection and got me started on putting together my Cardinals team set from the Allen & Ginter set.  Overall, I was happy with my two trades.  I started out with two relic cards, one average and one above average, and walked away with a pair of autographs and a pair of jersey cards from the Cardinals.  More Ginter later in the week.

2001 Fleer Focus Ray Lankford Green Parallel

The Fleer Focus set was released several times in the early 2000s by Fleer.  The set was a pretty standard release for Fleer during that time period.  The boxes weren't overly pricy and collectors had the opportunity to pull a decent autograph or relic card.  The Fleer Focus product also gave the collectors the opportunity to find a couple of different parallels of their favorite players.  In a cool twist, Fleer did not run the standard parallels of 50, 100, and 500 or other common numbers that card companies run their parallels to.  Instead, Fleer ran a lot of the parallels in the Focus set to player's stat lines with each stat being a different colored parallel.  Donruss also had parallels that ran to the player's stat lines, but Fleer started these cards with Focus.

2001 Fleer Focus Ray Lankford Green Parallel

I was recently able to add the Ray Lankford green parallel collection this week.  The green parallel is numbered to the players Batting Average or their ERA.  In this case, Ray Lankford had a batting average of .253 during the 2000 season, Fleer made a grand total of 253 copies of this card.  Ironically, better position players would have a greater number of parallel cards in this set, while pitchers would likely be the opposite.

While Ray Lankford was a career .272 hitter he had a low year in 2000 with knee issues and missed almost 30 games to start the season.  In fact, the first months of the 2000 season the former Cardinals outfielder only hit .176.  Lankford would put up a similar .250ish line for the Cardinals in 2001 before the team traded him to the Padres for pitcher Woody Williams.  Not the hardest parallel to find, but still a welcome addition to the Ray Lankford collection.

The Box I Got vs. The Box I Want Part 1

I have been flying a little bit low on wax this year.  Reorganizing my collection has meant holding the line on adding large lots of single cards and more focus on assembling card sets from small lots and then filling in with single cards from trades and purchases from secondary market websites such as Ebay.  There are sets that I still have not missed with the wax such as the base Topps sets and Gypsy Queen.  One of my other targeted sets, Allen & Ginter, also released recently.  I had to get a box.

I shared my cool hit from my box on the site earlier last week, with my cool autograph of musician Henry Rollins.  It was a cool card, so I will share again.

2013 Topps Allen & Ginter Henry Rollins Autograph 

Now, the rest of my box was pretty disappointing.  I love Ginter and I loved the look of the cards this year, but I feel like my disappointment had more to do with the players on the hit cards I pulled more than the actual content of the box.  The set is incredible and I have been working hard to put together the base set including the short prints.  So, what do you do when you open a cool box, love the set, and hate the hits?  Swap them out.  I went to work in the middle of the week and came up with some good trades and great improved my take away from this product.

Tonight I will start with my box topper.  When you buy a box with a topper and it's a dud it sets a bad tone for your entire box.  I felt really sad when I ripped open my oversized box topper pack and was staring back at this:

2013 Topps Allen & Ginter Josh Hamilton Cabinet Card

Hamilton has turned into one bad player since he has left the Rangers and joined Arte Moreno's band of underachieving/overpaid band out in Anaheim.  Luckily, Hamilton is a local Raleigh guy and loved by a lot of people in central North Carolina.  His cards are pretty easy to pass on around the area if you are willing to listen to stories about how the person met Hamilton at a Target or Cook Out or something.  Like all Hamilton cards I was able to successfully pass this card on locally for......

2013 Topps Allen & Ginter Miguel Cabrera Cabinet Card

I am not sure the person who swapped me this card has actually paid attention to what's happening this season with this two players, but I walked away quickly got in my car and drove away.  While the Cabrera card is a better card, both are very attractive cards, and very well made.  I love the design with the black and white photo and cool frame.  Even the backs of the cards are really cool....

I love the design and writing around the edges of the card and always like how Topps puts the vintage ads on the backs of the retro brands like Ginter, T206, and Gypsy Queen.  Gives the card a good authentic vintage feel.  Happy to add this Miggy jumbo to my collection and honestly like the cards enough that I might try to assemble a collection of box toppers once I have my base set put together.  

2013 Bowman Platinum Kolten Wong Jersey/Autograph

I am in need of a few more Kolten Wong autographs and was happy to add a new on earlier this week. A busy week at work has kept me from typing and posting this card, but I was really happy about this one.  For those who are not familiar with Wong, the Cardinals drafted him out of the University of Hawaii in 2011.  He's risen up through the minors during the past year and a half and actually made his Major League debut yesterday for the Cardinals.  Here's a look at the card:

2013 Bowman Platinum Kolten Wong Jersey/Autograph 

 

Wong's promotion onto a full Cardinals roster means that someone is going to lose some playing time.  Most are pointing at Cardinals third baseman David Freese.  With current second baseman Matt Carpenter enjoying a career year, most do not see him losing playing time.  Carpenter's natural position is also third base.  Add in the fact that Freese is not hitting, has always been a little suspect in the field, and you've got some time riding the pine.  

The Cardinals have had a bit of a revolving door at second for the past decade, so the addition of Kolten Wong will hopefully provide a little stability at the position moving forward.  It will be nice to have a solid performer manning the position for the next couple of years rather than waiting to see who will fill in the role occupied by Mark Grudzielanek, Tony Womack, and other notables from the Cardinals pile of retread second baseman.

On to the card.  I have added a few Bowman Platinums this summer, but this has to be one of my favorites.  It's a sticker autograph, which is a downer, but Wong is a pretty consistent signer with a clear autograph that looks something like Kolten Wong.  The jersey piece is also cool.  Though it is not clear on the scanner, it's allergic to Royals/Tar Heels colors, the jersey swatch appears to be from the Futures Game in 2012 at Kaufmann Stadium in Kansas City.

Pudge? Where's Raffy?

I ran across a really inexpensive dual relic from the early 2000s this week when I found a really nice dual bat of Ivan Rodriguez and Alex Rodriguez.  This card hails from the 2001 Upper Deck MVP set, which has some great relic cards for a cheap box, and features the two former All-Stars as Rangers teammates.

2001 Upper Deck MVP Ivan Rodriguez/Alex Rodriguez Dual Bat Card

While the 2001 Rangers were a pretty good offensive team with the two Rodriguezs, Raffy Palmeiro, Ruben Sierra, Michael Young, and Rusty Greer the team finished in last place 16 games below .500.  I guess signing ARod for 250 million then letting Darren Oliver and Rick Helling anchor your rotation is not a great idea.  Anyway, I have spent some time over the years collecting the relic cards from this set, batting gloves and dual bat pieces, and have whittled my checklist down to a Raffy card.

If it weren't a busy week I would scan all the cards, batting gloves too, and post them.  However, I do work a job that pays money and I have an Open House tomorrow night.  Might be nice to be prepared. So, instead of a whole set, I bring you my five favorite dual bat cards from the 2001 Upper Deck MVP set.

2001 Upper Deck MVP Chipper Jones/Rafael Furcal Dual Bat Card

A future Hall of Famer, and former Durham Bull, in the person of Chipper Jones and a shortstop from the Cardinals 2011 World Championship team.  What's not to love?  

 2001 Upper Deck MVP Carlos Delgado/Jose Vidro Dual Bat Card

Anytime you can find a cool Expos card is a good day.  Anytime you can find a cool Expos card without Dawson, Carter, or Vlad is double cool.  Not sure I dig Delgado, but if Upper Deck had done an Orlando Cabrera/Jose Vidro card the awesome meter might have exploded.  

2001 Upper Deck MVP Jose Canseco/Ken Griffey Jr. Dual Bat Card

I really have a nice collection of Griffey cards for a non-Griffey collector.  Then I have this conversation piece with Griffey and Canseco.  

2001 Upper Deck MVP Frank Thomas/Sammy Sosa Dual Bat Card

There are not many Sosa relics, or Sosa autographs, floating around out there.  I like this one with Frank Thomas and the two good Chicago players from the time.  I could have also put the Magglio/Frank Thomas card here too, but Sosa.  

2001 Upper Deck MVP Kerry Wood/Rick Ankiel Dual Bat Card

Neither really lived up to the hype, but it's a really sweet card.  I like that Ankiel is hitting even though he would have been a pitcher at this point in his career.