Yesterday Basketball, Today Football

Last non-baseball (or loosely related) post of the week.  

There are plenty of two sport athletes left floating around in this world.  This past weekend was a great showcase for Russell Wilson, who was former second baseman for the Ashevile Tourist (Rockies A-Ball) and former college quarterback for NC State and Wisconsin.  I doubt that Wilson will see any playing time for the Rangers this summer, who own his baseball rights after the Rule 5 draft this winter, but I guess you never know. 

Chad Hutchinson, Brandon Weeden, Drew Henson.  The list could go on and on.  Can we consider T-Mac a two sport star yet?   This past weekend I took a little time to track down an autograph of a former prime time baseball prospect turned NC State linebacker. 

 

Not the best brand in the world, but this is a new acquired autograph of Diamondbacks outfield prospect Ty Linton.   He was drafted out of Charlotte Christian High School in 2009 and slid to the 14th round purely out of concerns with his signability.  Arizona got him signed and he started playing minor league baseball for Missoula in the Pioneer League.  During his first full season he post a .756 OPS which is not bad for a high school kid with a big frame and has some power potential.  However, after his first season in the minors Linton slid.  Badly.  Bleacher Report listed him as one of the biggest flops in the minors and his OPS was .440 in his third attempt at the Pioneer League.  

Linton was a pretty big deal around North Carolina for baseball, so it will be fun to watch him play football the next few years in Raleigh.  His highlight video released by State looks pretty good, but I am sure he might need a season to shake off the rust.  

 Plus with State not winning a conference game last year the only place to go from last season is up.  Rivals and ESPN seem pretty high on the recruiting class at NC State heading into next fall.  Linton has no official rating at this point, but was a three star recruit coming out four years ago.  Go Pack!  Go Linton! 

One Man Wolfpack

I saw a really cool basketball autograph while working out a baseball trade late last week.  Normally people ask me about football, basketball, and hockey cards and I look the other way.  There are tons of baseball cards in my life and really no reason to expand my collection beyond my favorite sport.  I dabble in football and hockey, but I do actually follow college basketball pretty closely.  I have spent a little time on here discussing college baseball, so it's probably no secret that my favorite college hoops teams is NC State.

I went to State a few years back and picked up a Master's Degree in School Administration and studied ACC basketball in my spare time.  Seriously, I went to as many basketball games as possible.  I got to see a lot of good players up close and personal and had a great time watching the games.  Best game I saw as a student... (I am in the video wearing a red hoodie)

State is the third best program around these parts behind Duke and the dreaded Tar Heels.  Still, for a team that has not been to the Final Four since 1983 the school has accomplished plenty on the hardwood.  Two National Titles, Three Final Four Fours, 10 Sweet Sixteens, and 18 ACC Titles.  There are plenty of names basketball fans might know from the program, but one player stands out above all the other NC State players.  In fact, the school honors basketball jerseys, but only one player has a retired jersey.  David Thompson.

If you do not know the name I can probably not do him justice in one single post on a blog that specializes in baseball cards.  He was the best ever at NC State, maybe the best ever in the ACC, and always gets some serious debate when talking about the greatest college basketball players of all-time.  Take it from Michael Jordan who idolized Thompson growing up in North Carolina and had him introduce him at his Hall of Fame induction speech.  Jordan said of Thompson at his Hall of Fame speech:

"I've had a lot of questions over the last four weeks, and everybody's saying well 'why'd you pick David Thompson?' I know why, and David knows why, and maybe you guys don't know why, but as I grew up in North Carolina, I was 11 years old in 1974 I think when you guys won the championship. And uh, I was an anti-Carolina guy - I hated UNC, and here I ended up at UNC. But I was in love with David Thompson. Not just for the game of basketball, but in terms of what he represented. I was inspired by him. And when I called him and asked him to uh, stand up for me, I know that I shocked the shit outta him."

So, back to the trade.  Like always I was going to turn down the trading for a David Thompson autograph.  However, I was basically trading a $15 card away and landed a really cool autograph of a really cool basketball player.  After checking a few places selling autographs of the former Wolfpack star, I decided it was a good price to pay and here it is:

More than happy to add this great looking card to my collection and I do not plan on making basketball autographs a regular part of my collection.  If you want to see more of David Thompson I strongly suggest checking out a few old ABA clips of Thompson on the Nuggets, or check out my favorite of the 6'3 David Thompson rejecting the 7'0 Bill Walton.  Send it back big man, send it back.

The Falling Price of Minis

I posted the results of my 2014 Topps Jumbo box here over the weekend and spelled out my collecting priorities for assembling the first series of the set over the next few weeks.  First on my list of probable pickups was the completion of the 1989 minis set.  After making a list of cards needed to complete all of my insert sets, picking out a few autographs and relics to target, I set out onto Ebay to find out how much I could expect to be out through all of my purchases.

After looking at the pricing trends on the Minis I have decided to adjust my priorities slightly.  The 1989 mini set appeared tough at first.  The cards are seeded at 2 per hobby box or five per jumbo box.  Assuming you do not pull any dupes, it is going to take a few cases to put together a complete set of minis.  The secondary market seemed to share this thought during pre-sales leading up to the release of Series 1.

With pre-sales reaching highs over $100 I thought the process of putting together a mini-set would be slow with the best approach being to piece together the set from lots and singles picked up in sales and trades.  The minis then started to trend down slightly right before the release of the set.

$75 is certainly better than the initial sales figures, but that is still steep pricing for a stack of minis.  Consider that in past year's most case breakers selling Master Sets on Ebay included the minis as a part of their sale, along with the base set and three or four other inserts, and usually sold them for around $100-$120.  With the price of the minis running high this year, the price of Master Set sales has also escalated to well north of $150 to $200.  That's steep too.  Luckily, the prices tumbled a bit more once the cards actually started to hit the shelves and collectors started to get the cards in their hands.

At the end of the first week the prices had slid back into the mid $50s.  Again, pricy for an insert set of minis from a base Topps set, but still a lot of people bought these sets at this price.  Now, before we move on, please note that in the week surrounding the release of Topps 1, the 1989 minis went from multiple sales at, or over, $100 and by the end of the week had been nearly cut in half.  It's not unusual for cards to settle in price after they have been out on the market for a few days, or even weeks.  Die hard player collectors or set builders often push the prices on cards upon their initial release for the sake of quickly assembling the cards they need for their collection.  Again, this is a huge drop.  However, it gets worse and if you are a collector who buys sets off of Ebay, and you bought at one of the top two prices, do not read any further.

Magically over the weekend the price almost fell by half again.  The price just north of $30 is not just an isolated sale that I picked out.  There are several sets which have sold at this price in the last 24 hours.  Meaning that the 1989 Minis set has gone from selling in the low 100s and high 90s all the way to 30 dollars in the course of a week.  Now, it would be fun to piece together this set in singles and a few lots, but by the time I pay shipping I will probably be paying way more than the $30 I could just buy the set for.  So, I am going to make a compromise and hold out for a large lot.  There is something not very sporting about just buying a set off of Ebay.  I promise I won't.

Hawaii's Finest Redbird

It's a warm Sunday out here in Raleigh after a cold and snow last week.  We are ill-equipped for winter weather around these parts and I would love love to flip over another page or two on the calendar at this point and just get to spring.  The warm weather today also has me thinking of Spring Training and is making me a little bit eager for the start of the baseball season.  It seems there are a lot of other baseball fans and collectors also gearing up.  While we are still waiting for the official start of spring and baseball I have a few new cards on their way in this week.  

I spent this past week working on the new Topps release and have already started to fill in some holes.  I kind of assumed that I was not going to be lucky enough to snag a Kolten Wong autograph out of my box of Topps, so I went ahead and bought one ahead of time.  It arrived yesterday:

2014 Topps Trajectory Kolten Wong Autograph

Most people will remember Kolten Wong for getting picked off of first base to end Game 5 of last year's World Series, but the future is actually pretty bright for him.  The Cardinals had been playing Matt Carpenter, a natural third baseman, at second last year since the team had David Freese manning third.  Freese continued to decline and Wong continued to impress in the minors.  Last season in Triple A Memphis the second baseman out of Hawaii posted a .303/.369/.466 line with 39 extra base hits (10 homers) in 107 games.  Wong struggled at the Major league level, but was also not given a chance to play consistently by the Cardinals.  

Since the end of last season the Cardinals have traded away David Freese to the Angels and shifted Matt Carpenter back to third clearing a space for Wong on the infield.  The Cardinals seem like they are going to make him the starting second baseman, but the team has also signed Mark Ellis...just in case.  

Wong will also be one of only five active players from Hawaii next year.  There have only been a grand total of 38 in the history of the game, so Wong's emergence has been pretty well followed back in his home state.  An internet search of Wong's name yields dozens of articles about his trek through baseball and some of the milestones.  For example, he was the first ever Hawaiian player to be selected in the first round of the baseball draft.  The press in Hawaii even covered his infamous pickoff and put a positive spin on the play by noting that Wong stood by his locker and answered all the press questions.  

I am eager for the season to start and eager to see what Kolten Wong will bring the Cardinals at second base.  I am hoping to see lots of good press coming out of Wong's home state about his great play.  Maybe some of the newspapers and television stations should call ahead for All-Star game credentials.  Okay, I am getting ahead of myself. 

Minis? Who Remembers Jumbo Cards?

During the late 90s there was some odd rush on jumbo sized cards.  I am not sure quite why, but I ran into them yesterday afternoon sorting out cards and was really intrigued flipping through some of the cards.  Really, there seemed to be two main products which released gobs of jumbo cards: Studio and Zenith.  The cards, especially the Zenith, actually have some great photography.  If you are into lugging around 8 x 10 baseball cards then here's my take on the two sets.  If not all of these cards can be found on the standard sized baseball card too...

1997 Pinnacle Zenith Mark McGwire 8x10

I always thought the Zenith cards were the best of the jumbo cards.  If Studio was the base/standard for jumbo cards, then the Zenith cards were clearly a premium product.  The cards are made on a thicker stock and have great photograph with a high gloss finish.  At some point I had thought about making a point to get this set signed, but I am not really one to chase people down or do a lot of TTM autographs.

1997 Pinnacle Zenith Ken Griffey Jr.

This Griffey card from the set has always been amongst my favorite cards of him.  Just an incredible picture of the future Hall of Famer and his awesome follow through.  The Zenith's only downfall at the time seemed to be the fact that jumbo cards did not seem too popular and there was a serious lack of chase cards.  All 90s sets needed something good to chase down to be truly great, right?  Here's one insert from the set...

1997 Pinnacle Zenith V2 Alex Rodriguez

The V2 cards were pretty cool with the GIF like flip replay on the left side of the card.  I loved this card back in the late 90s.  Only card I have from this insert set.  Should probably find the rest?  Maybe not.  There were more jumbo cards still....

1997 Donruss Studio Masterstrokes Andy Pettitte

The Studio cards of the late 90s were kind of the staple jumbo cards.  Not as nice of a product as the Zeniths, in my opinion, but still a pretty nice set of cards.  Studio cards had inserts and serial number short-prints in addition to the regular cards.  They even threw in some autographs.  Donruss disappeared after 1998, but after it reemerged in 2001 the Studio cards reappeared with jumbos again.  They were all autographed. 

2001 Donruss Studio Private Signings Rick Ankiel Autograph

I actually really like the Studio autographs and own a handful of them.  That alone made discovering my stash of jumbo cards worthwhile.  Especially this Ankiel card.  There were other ventures made by card companies into the jumbo card market, but they all ended the same way: unsuccessful.  Probably because there really is not a market for jumbo cards.  Still doesn't mean they're not fun.  One last one for the road.  We all like cheap wax and cool looking cards.  What late 90s set had some cool photography?  The 1998 Topps set.  You want a copy of that set in jumbo form? 

1998 Topps SuperChrome Barry Bonds

Released during the 1998 and 1999 seasons, the SuperChrome sets picked out 36 of the best Topps cards, put them in Chrome form, and made them Jumbo sized.  Nobody collected them, but I do have the complete 1998 set.  Pretty cool set with cool pictures.  Better yet, the cards are still out and about and dirt cheap in wax form.  Go on Ebay and search Topps boxes.  Guaranteed to be one of the cheapest things out there is the 1998 SuperChrome boxes.  No problem finding them for less than $20.  It's worth it for the Vladimir Guerrero card alone. 

2014 Topps Jumbo Break-Base Set and Parallels

One of my measuring sticks of a successful Jumbo Box is the percentage of set completed.  Some people like to measure the doubles in the box, but that is really disingenuous to think that the dupe rate is going to be low when you are opening a box of 500 cards for a 331 card set.  Get real.  So, I sat yesterday afternoon and assembled my Series 1 set and came up with 327 of the 330 cards.  That's slightly over 99% of the set.  Yes, I do have a big stack of doubles.  Luckily, I had walked to Target and picked up a few rack packs on Tuesday.  I manged to land the three missing cards: Elivs Andrus, Martin Perez, and Jason Grilli.  

Looking for a reason to put together the 2014 Topps Set?  I have got five reasons:


1. Red Parallels

There are a bunch of different parallels like normal.  Camo, Pink, Green, Yellow, and these.  I like red.  Cardinals and NC State.  SEMO too (look that one up).  These are like the Emerald Green cards of last year, so I will have to put together a set of Cardinals for this parallel set.  They are not serial numbered and seem pretty reasonable on Ebay.  I landed this Mariano, so that's going to look good with my Cardinals set.  By the way, I got one card out of the Cardianls set done.

I like any Cardinals card with the retired numbers in the background too.  Wonder if Matt Holliday caught this flyball?

2.  Final Regular Cards For Helton and Rivera 

I am sure that Topps will put Helton and Rivera in plenty of sets in the near future, but it's sad to see them make their final regular card appearance.  Both players have been great for the past twenty years or so and have been regulars in baseball card sets throughout that time.  If I have more time to flip through the cards I am sure I can probably find more players making their final appearance too.  Dawg, where's Lance Berkman?

3.  There's No AIRBRUSHING!

You want players in old uniforms?  You got it.  Thank you Topps for not airbrushing players into their new jerseys.  Peralta is still a Tiger.  McCann is still a Brave.  Both cards look fine.

4.  Throwback Uniforms

 

Lots of cool old uniforms in the set.  Reds, A's, Brewers, and many others.  Always like to see some of these in every set.  Topps has been putting plenty of these cards in sets recently and this year's Topps I is no different.  

 

5. Coco Crisp's Hair

 

Kind of a throwback to the seventies.  Where's Oscar Gamble?  

2014 Topps Jumbo Box Break Inserts-Part 2

Yesterday I posted the inserts I landed out of my 2014 Topps Jumbo Box.  This morning I want to take a little bit of time to show off the hit cards that I landed in my box.  Each jumbo box of 2014 Topps includes an autograph and two relic cards.  Relics can also include manufactured cards.  So, let's start with the autograph:

 

I hate redemption cards.  I am sure that Anibal Sanchez will sign the cards and I will have this card at some point, but still there are always worries with these types of cards.  The postseason cards autograph and relic cards have always been a favorite of mine and I was surprised that Topps expanded the set beyond the typical cards made for the World Series winner.  It's actually a pretty cool idea.  I was disappointed that the Cardinals did not win the World Series last season, but there was still plenty to remember from last season's playoffs.  

I would imagine that the Pirates cards from the set might be a cool add to the collection too.  I have not seen an autograph for the Bucs, but have seen a few nice patch pieces from McCutchen and Alvarez.  On to my relic:

 

This is basically what I expected to land as far as a relic out of my jumbo box.  It's not bad.  I would love to have landed a Cardinal or Ray, but you cannot be too picky with relics out of a box of base Topps cards.  Honestly, I like Elvis Andrus I do not have a relic card of him.  Besides the market for base relic cards out Topps boxes is generally $5 and less, so I should have no problem picking up the Cardinals and Rays relics out of the set.  However, I will mention that the Cardinals relics are Bruce Sutter and Red Schoendienst.  Might be north of $5. 

Favorite hit card out of the box.  The manupatch cards this year are generally really cool.  It looks like the hobby boxes have the rings, like this Rickey Henderson, and the rookie cup cards.  The retail patches are team logos or mascots.  Not thrilled to see an Allen Craig card with Fredbird, but it's better than David Price and Raymond.  This Henderson card comes from the Rookie Class Ring set.  I mentioned a few times in my last post how this year's set was heavy on the rookie theme.  Here it is again.  Love the old yellow A's jersey.  Ring is cool and the card is thick.