Snowpocalypse Post 1-Mizzou Basketball Cards

When it snows in North Carolina you get stuck inside.  When you get stuck inside you get bored.  When you get bored you start cleaning stuff.  When you start cleaning stuff you find oddball stuff in your collection.  Mizzou Basketball cards from 1990-1991 are a good oddball find.  This is not a complete set, but let's run through the list ranking the players by quality. 

 

Jed Frost?  Who?  The back says he was a walk-on and the picture shows him running fast while the other player in the background looks like he is barely running.  Was 90210 on the air in 1991?  That air looks like something Luke Perry.  Jed is now a premier handbag maker.  Seriously.  

 

I vaguely remember this guy shot Mizzou out of a few games.  If your a left-handed outside shooter your supposed to be good.  This guy is now a basketball coach and he uses Norm Stewart and Roy Williams as references.  Danny Ainge too.  

I am at a loss here.  Cool Reebok pump shoes.  If this guy had gone to middle school in 1991 he would have been pretty cool.  

I remember this guy came off the bench, but I cannot tell you much more then that.  He's not wearing the cool Reebok pumps.  Jamal might have had some problems with the bookstore.  

 

Pretty good center for Mizzou.  I think he had some pretty good battles with Ostertag.  If this guy weighed 100 pounds more he would have made a better goony NBA center than the O.  On to the important players...

 

 

Lamont Frazier started for a few years at Mizzou.  His cousin Ricky Frazier also played at Mizzou.  Both were from a small town in southeastern Missouri.  The town, Charleston, was one of the really good high school programs at the time and the Fraziers were legendary in that part of the state.  There were all sorts of people I went to college with who played against the Fraziers.  Pretty funny stuff.  Lamont also played for the football team while he was in grad school.  He coached Poplar Bluff for a few years and now coaches at Willard High School in Willard, Missouri.  Never played in the NBA, but a nice player who could do a lot of different things.  

Jevon Crudup was a really good interior player at Mizzou.  He was drafted by the Pistons, but I do not think he actually ever played a game for them.  He did take money from an agent and got a whole bunch of wins thrown out after he left school. 

 

Now we are to someone important.  Some people may not remember Melvin Booker, but he was a really good college basketball player.  He played a few games here and there in the NBA, had a long career playing in Italy, but was just a really good college basketball player.  His best accomplishment at Mizzou  was helping the 1993 team to an undefeated Big 8 title.  It was the last year the Big 8 was around and I believe it was the only time a team ever ran the table with a perfect record. Hit the game winning shot in the last regular season game.   

Booker's son is actually a highly recruited shooting guard and will be playing for Kentucky next year.

Ebby Calvin "Nuke" LaLoosh Once Said:

"Sometimes you win, sometimes you win, sometimes it rains"

One of my favorite lines from Bull Durham.  A little bit off today.  The quote and my day.  Here's a recap: 

I had a really cool 2014 Topps card I was really eager to share within everyone today, just waiting for the mail.  Not the best player in the world or anything, just a cool card.  I had the day off of work today too.  Here's my day:


8:00-9:00
My three year old checked out a movie from the preschool library.  He watched the movie last week in my work laptop.  I left my work laptop at work.  Why wasn't I at work?  Later.  I drove to work.

9:00-11:30
After returning home from work my wife, and aforementioned three year old, ran the movie back to the library and went grocery shopping.  I worked on removing all the empty 800 count card boxes from my man cave.  All of my cards used to be in 800s, but I have taken a lot of them out.  Here's what they used to look like:

I also checked my email and saw that my cool card was out for delivery.  Wife and 3 year old return from library and store.  Three year old is hooked on eating dry Raisin Brand.  I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch.  Who's three? 

11:30-12:00
After eating lunch it started snowing in Raleigh.  It looked something like this:

12:00-1:00
Quiet time started for the little people in our house.  I walked down to the end of my subdivision.  Remember I live in the south.  One hour and two inches of snow.  

1:00-2:00 
After returning home I started watching the news.  Nothing beats the news in the south once it starts snowing.  All sorts of cool pictures:

This is Durham:

and here is Raleigh:

2:00-3:00
Growing impatient for my mail I type up a post for an Allen Craig/Fredbird card I received in the mail yesterday.  Here is the card:

as I was typing the post on the card I had also debated about including a story about Allen Craig's pet turtle in the blog post, but instead decided to listen to some music.  At some point earlier in the day I was in a music debate about the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Album list.  Why is Bonnie Rait on there?  Why is Bonnie Rait on there twice?  and Coldplay?  Kid A is also not the best Radiohead disc.  OK Computer was much better and more important. 

3:00-4:00

This photograph of Glenwood Avenue in Raleigh appears on the internet.  People are amused by Raleigh.  Chipper Jones does not rescue anybody here. 

 

4:00-5:00

People start complaining about whether or not the Duke/Carolina game should be played.  Tim Brando is live tweeting his drive from Durham to Chapel Hill.  Normal day 10 minutes, today 5 hours.  I am thinking about this awesome tweet the entire time I listening to people complain.  

UNC officials are pleading with fans to treat this game like a UNC class. Do not show up.
— Jake (@BloggerSoDear) February 12, 2014

5:00-6:00
Work is cancelled for tomorrow.  My employer uses the hashtag #snugglealert 

ALERT: All schools will be closed Thursday, Feb 13. #snowday #snugglealert
— Wake County Schools (@WCPSS) February 12, 2014

6:00-7:00

I'm getting impatient waiting for the mail to arrive.  I walk a block to my local grocery store which always appears to restock rather well after everyone panics and runs home.  Well played Lowe's Foods.  Well played.  The streets at rush hour look like this:

7:00

After getting home from the store I have lost my patience for the mail.  I go check the tracking number and.....

It looks like I am going for a walk tomorrow morning.  Post office is five minutes away.

ManuMascots

There are a few Cardinals manupatch, ring, cup cards in the first series of Topps 2014.  I managed to pick up the first of them last week with this Allen Craig patch card:

The traditional looking manupatch cards have really faded in popularity and price since Topps started putting out the ultra-thick, shiny, and sparkly Awards based manu cards last year.  I understand Topps is trying to freshen up these cards a little bit by throwing in some mascot cards this year, but I think it's just proving the point that the manupatches might be a little bit stale.  Just a bit. 

Topps put a set of mascot cards together last year in the ProDebut set and they actually turned out nicely and also put out mascot autographs in the Opening Day set last year.  While the Pro Debut cards were cool, and the mascot autographs were popular, I am not sure these are really very good cards. 

The Expanded Topps Postseason Set

I have always really liked the Postseason cards that Topps has included in their products starting with the 2006 Topps set.  The cards always focused on the World Series winning team and often featured a mixture of autographs and relics.  My Cardinals won two World Series titles during that time and I was happy to add a few cards from both sets to my collection.  Topps has always done a great job of getting a good sampling of players from the winning teams too.  The 2007 Topps version of the Cardinals team had a Pujols card, but also featured some lesser names who made big contributions to the team winning the series.  One of my favorites...

 

Weaver had a rather lackluster career after being a pretty highly touted prospect, but pitched a bunch of big games in the playoffs for the Cardinals that year and was a key contributor in the team's World Series win.  While the older Postseason sets do feature role players from the World Series team, they have provided collectors great value.  It really does not matter who you pull from the set, the cards sell, and price out very well.  For example, I was interested in adding a copy of the 2007 Topps Ronnie Belliard card.  The Cardinals traded for him at the deadline that season and he filled a need and made some great plays for the team.

I kind of thought it might sell for $50, but did not see this card getting much past that.  I was in on this item, but lost it.  These are the types of cards that made the Postseason set great though.  Limited numbers of cards with content that generates a great deal of interest.  What Cardinals collector wouldn't want one of these cards?  Who cares if it's Ronnie Belliard, he won a ring too.  There are plenty of other players just like Ronnie Belliard on the checklist though.  Anyone remember Preston Wilson playing on the Cardinals?

The other World Series cards have been cool too.  I have a couple of non-Cardinals cards in my collection and I hold on to them for several reasons.  First, they are really cool cards.  Second, I am pretty sure that I can trade them pretty high up on their value.  The White Sox and two Giants sets might be my favorite two outside of the Cardinals, though the Red Sox from 2008 has a good look about it.  This is from the original 2006 World Series Champions set:

So, this year Topps has decided to add in cards of all the Postseason teams.  Meaning that besides the usual band of Red Sox cards, for winning the World Series, we also are blessed with cards of the A's, Tigers, Rays, Tigers, Braves, Cardinals, and Dodgers.  While the cards have a nice look to them they have really dropped in price.  I landed a Anibal Sanchez card in a Jumbo Box, but have held onto the card after watching the prices slide over the past two or three weeks.  Cooler card than the price they are selling for on-line.  

I know that Anibal is not the biggest name on the Tigers, but it's not like their setting the world on fire the value of their postseason cards either.  Let's just go ahead and look at Miguel Cabrera cards in the set.  The only active auction on Ebay is offering a card for $50, but more than a handful have landed south of forty dollars in auctions, including one that failed to reach $20.  

and while I am sure that many Tigers fans and card collectors would love to add a cool Miguel Cabrera relic, I am sure the postseason last year was not at the top of their good memories list.  In fact, knowing fans of all the eliminated teams, I think that their fans had all expected better.  In the long term I think that these cards will continue to underperform the Postseason cards from past years save for a few Red Sox and the Pirates.  In fact, if Topps wanted to add Postseason cards, some sort of Pirates postseason set would have been really cool.  Wildly popular too.  

Bison Graph

Every year I try to pick out a few players who are primed for a good season, or primed for a good bounce back in their career.  You can usually find a few young players whose numbers are steadily climbing towards something great, but it's also easy sometimes to find a player who could be special if they came back and resume their career at it's past level.  Of course you have to sort out some players who are declining because of age and usually you have a few options left to choose from.  

This year I am going to hedge a little bit on Matt Kemp.  He has had difficulty staying on the field the past year and a half, but has been great when he has shown up.  Before playing about a third of the season last year while injured, Kemp had two great seasons in a row at ages 26 and 27.  In fact, I am still not sure how he did not win the MVP in 2011.  During the 2011 season Kemp posted a OPS+ of 172 and lead the National League in home runs and RBIs.  In 2012 he ended with an OPS+ of 147, but missed parts of that season.  The first half of the year he hit .355 with a dozen homers.  Since the injuries have piled on.  

Kemp is still south of 30 and who remembers his cards being red hot in 2012?  Me.  Probably a lot of other people too.  The price of Kemp cardboard has definitely comeback to Earth, but he is still a player who seems like he's worth a role of the dice on.  So, here's my first gamble on Matt Kemp this year:

2012 Topps Heritage Matt Kemp Autograph 

   

The pricing on Kemp cards has been a bit crazy this year.  If you search the sold items on EBay there is a blue ink autograph, just like my copy, which sold for $100.  However, there is also a red version with a print run of 63 which sold for $60.  Go figure.  To avoid the crazy fluctuations, I decided to trade for this copy of this card.  I put together a package of White Sox autographs and a pair of World Series relics from the 2006 Topps set to land this card.  

Hopefully buying and trade for Kemp cards on the cheap will pay off and "The Bison" will put together a good season for the Dodgers.  If not, well....I like Matt Kemp.  

2013 Panini USA Baseball Carlos Rodon Jersey

College baseball is about a week away, depending on your rooting interests.  I am getting ready to check out a few games this spring at all three triangle universities (Duke, UNC, and NC State), but am most excited to see NC State junior Carlos Rodon pitch.  Rodon is the likely first overall pick in the amateur draft this summer and is a great talent.  Many see him as a polished college pitcher who could rise quickly through the minors and be up in the Majors at some point during the 2015 season.  We'll see. 

In the meantime, there are plenty of great Rodon cards already floating out on the market thanks to the USA Baseball program.  Rodon has several relic and autographs out in 2012, but thanks to spending another summer on the College All-Star Team, Rodon is making the rare back to back appearances in the set.  Here's my first card from the set: 

 

I believe that this is the highest numbered version of a Rodon relic card, but is selling less than $10 currently.  The swatch is not a jumbo, but it is definitely more generous than the average swatch.  Love the dark blue piece of alternate jersey from the USA Baseball uniforms.  Very nice piece and a welcome addition to my small Rodon collection.  

St. Patty's Day Holliday

It started out with Panini autographs, now I am buying their relic cards too.  I found a really cool copy of a Matt Holliday relic card last week and was able to add it to my collection on the cheap.  The card actually has a really good look outside of the fact that the card does not have any uniform logos since Panini does not have an MLB license. 

2013 Panini America's Pasttime Matt Holliday Jersey

This is one of those cards I would love to see Panini make with a license.  Would be pretty sweet.  Still I like the overall style of the card.  The colors give it a 50/60s kind of feel with the institutional blue color, the pennant, and the black and white headshot of the Cardinals left fielder.  The card is also limited to just 50 copies.   While I like the style and looks of the card, the jersey was also interesting to me. 

Nothing wrong with the scan, that is a green Cardinals jersey.  Obviously the jersey is likely from the Cardinals St. Patty's Day uniforms they wear in Spring Training.  Last year they looked a little something like this: 

 

Topps has also used the St Patty's Day cards recently too.  Check out last year's Triple Threads set and you will find a bunch of them spread out throughout the set.  In fact, most Major League teams put their St Patty's Day green items up for sale on the MLB auctions site towards the end of Spring Training.  Given the authentication problems that card companies have had in recent years with dealers selling them fake jerseys, I cannot say I surprised that card companies are going through MLB team sites to acquire actual authentic game used items for use in their products.  

The other cool thing about owning a unique piece of jersey, like a St. Patrick's Day or throwback uni, is that it is one of the few relics that can be tied to a unique game.  If you are looking for a few unique jerseys I would recommend checking out some of the White Sox relics in Topps products from 2012.