2013 Topps Pro Debut Hat Logo Patch Alex Colome

2013 Topps Pro Debut Hat Logo Patch 

Topps has put out a Pro Debut set the past few years and it has quickly become one of my favorite sets to put together every year.  Bowman has typically been the set for minor league baseball fans to find their favorite players from the minor, but Topps often takes the players pictures during Spring Training while the players are wearing their Major League uniforms.  Or they just air brush them into their Major League unis.  The Pro Debut set on the other hand captures Minor Leaguers in their Minor League digs.  For me, Pro Debut means getting to see a few of my favorite Durham Bulls players in their Bulls uniform, not a Rays uniform.  The Bulls are one of the most iconic Minor League franchises and the Rays run a great farm system, so it seems like a slam dunk that some sort of Bulls player, or the mascot, make an appearance in this set.

There are several Bulls cards in this years Pro Debut set including a card in the Hat Logo Patch set.  This hat logo card sort of speaks for itself.  It's a great looking card, featuring a very good prospect in Alex Colome, and is limited to just 75 copies.  The Bulls also had a card in this set last year with infielder, and former number one overall pick, Tim Beckham.  The Hat Logo in this years set features pitching prospect Alex Colome.  While he is a high rated prospect in the Rays system, Colome has flown under the radar this year in large part due to the emergence of Chris Archer and Wil Myers.

Colome has actually appeared as a starter in three games for the Rays this season posting a 1-1 record with an ERA of 2.25 and 12 strikeouts in 16 innings.  Colome has also performed well in the International League this season with the Durham Bulls despite having a 4-6 record.  In fourteen starts for the Bulls this year Colome has more than a strikeout per inning and has only surrendered five home runs all season.  While I do not think he has as high of a ceiling as Archer, I think that Colome certainly has a bright future as a successful Major Leaguer.

Complete Set: 2013 Topps Series 2 Cut To The Chase Set

I have been a little bit slow in assembling some of my cards for the second half of my 2013 Topps set.  There have been several new card releases over the past several weeks and I guess that some set had to take a backseat to the others.  It would not be a calendar year without a Topps set, so I have started looping back to finish up Series 2.  One of my favorite parts of the set this year is the Cut To The Chase set which was also featured in the Series 1 of the 2013 Topps set.  

This great looking die cut set features another group of 24 cards.  The second series goes back and picks up the first card in the set, Mike Trout, who was oddly left out of the first series, and then adds cards 24 and 26 through 48.  A bit confusing with the card numbers, but high on style points.   There are some great cards here, so let me pick out two cards to talk about during this post.  I will go with my top card and the card that I would replace.  Best card first:

2013 Topps Cut To The Chase Rickey Henderson 

There are actually several Hall of Fame cards in the second series of the Cut To The Chase set, but for my money this Rickey Henderson card is the best of the lot.  Topps really does a great job focusing on the history of the game and produces a lot of cardboard with Hall of Famers.  However, Rickey seems like he does not make too many appearances.  He's one of the best players from my lifetime, and while I saw him as a Padre and Met, it was still fun to see him play.  

Further, this Rickey card does a great job of capturing him as a player.  He's wearing an A's uniform and he is running.  Sure Topps might have upped the card a little bit if they had found a shot of him sliding into a base, but that's hard to do on a vertical card.  I also have noted that Rickey is pictured wearing white batting gloves and not neon green.  Still a cooler card than Seaver, Koufax, or the other Hall of Famers in this set.  

2013 Topps Cut To The Chase Matt Holliday 

I am going to shock people a little bit today and say that Matt Holliday probably does not belong in this set.   I know that collectors will point out that Yoenis Cespedes is also included in this set, but he still gets a little break for being a highly sought after younger player in the baseball card world.  I am sure that someone at Topps probably thought it would be nice to make a Holliday card since he has generally been a pretty consistent performer at a high level for the past decade with the Cardinals, Rockies, and A's.  I agree with the sentiment, but if I were assembling a set with the top dozen current players or so, half of the players in this set are retired, I think I could choose someone a little bit better than Holliday.  

So, I do I propose replace Holliday in this set?  The best player on the Cardinals: Yadier Molina.  Similar to Rickey Henderson, Molina is often greatly underrepresented in the world of cardboard.  While the Cardinals are committed to Matt Holliday for the long term, the team has also recently signed Molina to a new five year contract.  Further, Molina leads the National League in hitting with a .346 average and ranks 10th in the league in WAR.  All while playing Gold Glove caliber defense.  Sure, I love Matt Holliday and have posted plenty of his cardboard on here during the past year and a half.  Sometimes it would be nice to see Topps branch out a little and give credit where credit is due.  Now, if I had the photoshop skills of some of those bloggers who post their own custom cards I could show you how the Molina card would look, until then you will just have to imagine.  

2010 Bowman Platinum George Springer Jersey/Autograph

I started my George Springer collection just a few short weeks ago, but have only added one autograph of the Astros outfield prospect to my collection before last week.  Over the weekend, my second autograph of the top prospect arrived in my mailbox.  Similar to my previous Springer autograph, this card features him in his USA Baseball team uniform.  In fact, I am finding that most of his early cards are from the former UConn Huskies time with the USA Baseball National College team.  This particular card is also from 2010, but hails from the Bowman Platinum set.

2010 Bowman Platinum George Springer Jersey/Autograph 

The USA Baseball team was featured throughout the 2010 Bowman Platinum set and is worth a little bit of your time as a collector.  Beyond Springer, the set also features Jackie Bradley Jr, Gerrit Cole, Sonny Gray, Nolan Fontana, Sean Gilmartin, and Alex Dickerson.  All good upcoming prospects and worthy of picking up for your collection.  The autograph cards in the set are stickers, like the 2010 Topps USA Baseball set, but the cards still seem to hold their value pretty well.  The Bradley card often sells for between $25 and $30, Cole in the mid $20s, and Springer cards sells for $10-$15.  While the Bradley cards have taken off in value, the Springer and Cole have held steady and offer a good value to collectors looking to add their signatures.

2012 Topps Pro Debut Mascots Wool E Bull

I do not attend baseball games to check out the mascots, but I must admit that Wool E. Bull is one of the coolest mascots around sports.  When most people think of the Durham Bulls mascot they probably think of this guy:

However, the bull mascot from the movie is not the actual mascot of my favorite minor league team.  Instead, it is the awesome Wool E Bull. 

 While I am sure that many of the other minor league mascots are excellent, I am pretty sure that Wool E Bull is a good enough mascot to hang in the Majors.  I know that he's better several of the Major League mascots that I have seen during my time traveling to Major League parks.  Rosie Red?  Please. Slider.  Terrible.  Homer looks like Mr. Met.  I might even put Wool E Bull ahead of Fredbird.  When I saw that Topps was putting mascot cards in their Pro Debut set I was positive that they would have Wool E Bull in the set.   

2013 Topps Pro Debut Mascots Wool E Bull

  

Sure enough Wool E Bull landed in the Mascots set.  The center of the card is a fabric material with a picture printed on it.  The bull is raised slightly on the card giving it a feeling of being embossed.  It's a beautiful and well designed card, but a definite knock off of the college mascot cards that Upper Deck put out earlier this year.  

2013 Upper Deck College Mascots Mr. Wuf

2013 Topps Museum Collection Jon Jay Jumbo Bat

I've picked up a few nice pieces from Museum Collection this year, but had not picked up any of the jumbo pieces from the set until this week.  The prices for the jumbo pieces often come with a premium and deservedly so given that the print runs of the jumbo pieces are often out of 25 and 10 versus the 100, 50, and 25 of the regular jersey and bat pieces.  I looked at adding several Cardinals and Rays pieces to my collection from the jumbo line, but the pricing was rather difficult on several of the pieces.

While willing to pay a premium price for a premium card, I am still not going to pay an outrageous amount for a card of a player like Jon Jay.  While Jay is a nice player it's hard to justify spending $40 dollars or more for one of his cards.  Even for something like a 1/1 printing plate of the Cardinals outfielder, I have seen the prices much lower than that.  So, when this years version of Museum Collection dropped the prices on the Cardinals jumbo pieces were a bit backwards.  The Adam Wainwright jumbo jersey card, for example, hovered in the teens.  Meanwhile, collectors fought tooth and nail for the jumbo version of Jon Jay.

Finally, the copies of the cards started drying up and one or two final copies floated up on Ebay.  I waited patiently for copy to end and was able to secure this copy of the Jay card for less than $10.

2013 Museum Collection Jon Jay Jumbo Bat Card

While it was pointed out to me by a fellow collector, during my pursuit of this Jay card, that the pricing premium was probably caused by the fact that this is the only Jay jumbo relic on the market, it also reiterates the fact that collectors need to set their budget where they value the card.  If you are honest with yourself about where the price should land, chances are that the secondary market will eventually correct itself, and you will find your card for the price you want it for.

We Don't Need No Rules

This blog is something that I do for fun and relaxation at night.  My day job is working with nine and ten year olds as a fourth grade school teacher outside of Raleigh, North Carolina.  One of the most important parts of teaching is establishing and following procedures and rules.  In my classroom my students walk in the morning and they work on their math warm-up, which is usually some sort of word problem which the students solve and write a response explaining their process and thinking behind their work, watch the morning announcements, and then finally start math class after the school pledge and Pledge of Allegiance.  As the students are working on their math warmup the students know that they can work with a partner, since different students have different math warmups they know who can and cannot be their partner, the students can also find a quiet spot on the floor or in a common area to work out their problems.  Some students prefer to work out their problems on white boards first before their record their final work on their paper.  Meanwhile, other students record their explanation for their math word problems with an Ipod or Ipad talking their way through their explanation and solution to their problem.  That's just the first half hour of the day.  

I could go on and on about the routines that I use throughout my day as a teacher, but all of us can think of ways that our life, whether it be at work, home, or leisure has rules and structure.  At some point during the day all of us face some sort of structure, routine, or rules.  I am often surprised at how many rules there are with collecting baseball cards too.  If you join a trade group or forum there are often rules and etiquette in how cards are traded.  If you buy cards off of Ebay there are rules for when you have to pay and how.  Rules.

Despite the fact that many of us have to follow rules, routines, or procedures in life one of the largest names in the card business, Topps, has decided to not follow its own rules.  I know it seems silly since they are their own company they can make their own rules right?  Yes, to a degree.  The bigger problem with Topps is the fact that they create rules for distributors and businesses selling their products, but they fail to properly enforce the rules which is resulting in anger, frustration, and volatility in the secondary card market.  For example, let's look at this awesome Oscar Taveras card...

2013 Bowman Inception Oscar Taveras Autograph 

This card is sitting here on my desk and has been in my possession now for almost four days.  I've been really excited about the fact that I was able to add this card to my collection and I could have very easily done my normal post about the card and a little information on the player.  Fifteen minutes and I would be hitting the publish button at the top of the page.  So, here's were this card gets thorny.  According to my good friends at Atlanta Sports Cards, the Bowman Inception product does not release until today.  Now, before we move on I will tell you that I did not get this card out of a pack, nor did I buy this card as a single from Atlanta Sports Cards.  They are just good at what they do.  Check the release date on their webpage, of which I have provided a convenient screen shot.  

I actually bought this card off of Ebay and I actually frequently buy cards off of Ebay that are opened before they are released.  In fact, there are a lot of people that do the same exact thing that I do: they check their calendar and see that Topps is releasing a product soon.  The rush to their computer, search out a few cards on Ebay, and before the product has even officially dropped they have their cards.  Even places like Target and Wal-Mart frequently display and sell products before their release date.  The official response from Topps is just deafening silence.  Check their Twitter and Facebook pages this morning and you will see all sorts of posts and tweets celebrating the release of their newest product: Bowman Inception!  There will be pictures and contests and all the sorts of hoopla celebrating their product despite the fact that this product has been selling actively on Ebay since June 20th.  

So, why is this rule so bad to break?  I know a lot of people that buy cards pre-release and celebrate the fact that the cards are out and floating around early.  Why wait until the actual date to buy, when you can buy here and now.  There are actually several good reasons not to buy or sell the cards ahead of time, but lets start with the biggest problems first.  Topps obviously ships out their products to sellers ahead of the release date to make sure that it is on shelves and in the hands of collectors on the day of the release.  Their efforts in this regard are much appreciated.  However, once the product is sent out to the shops and distributors shouldn't Topps have policies in place to make them comply with their rules?

My Oscar Taveras card came from a Fairview, Texas shipping address.  A quick Google search of Fairview, Texas card shops shows that their are two in town.  What are the chances that the Taveras card sitting on my desk, and the 38 other Inception autographs they sold on Ebay, came from one of those two card shops in Fairview, Texas?  If I am a betting man it would not be too hard to figure where the cards came from and who opened their cards too soon.  Just like other people and places in life Topps could develop a set of consequences dealing with stores ripping into their wax too soon.  I know it does not sound great, since we are all eager to get our hands on cards, but there are a few other things to consider here.  

First, lets consider the sellers and card shops that play by the rules.  One of my favorite people to buy cards from on Ebay is BrentandBecca.  They are case busters from Arkansas and they always have tons of great product on their page.  They are also on Twitter where you can follow their case breaks and they also do a great job of talking with collectors.  I frequently watch their Ebay page and their Twitter page and know for a fact that they are very strict with following the set release dates issued by Topps.  However, in doing so they miss the initial wave of card sales on new products which frequently bring some of the best sales and prices from the sellers side of the story.  

Many of our local card shops face the same predicament and most choose to hold back their products and wait for the proper release date before they open their cases and boxes up to customers.  For many of these people and places it's a question of integrity, but also the fact that they do not want to be the store that is the first to be punished, or made an example of for selling their product too soon.  I spent a little bit of time chatting with a card shop owner outside of St. Louis this past weekend about this issue and he summed it up this way:

'Since Topps is the only real game in town with baseball products, you're walking on egg shells with them all the time.  Wait for the date and someone else has already beat you to a bunch of sales.  Open your cases early and get singled out by Topps, your business is hurt badly" 

I do not know about you, but I do care where I shop and I know that the number of card shops has been dwindling for the past decade.  As a hobby, we need to do all we can to support the people that make it possible for us to buy our cards locally.  Or, in my case-until this weekend, buy from the places that you love and trust to provide you with great cards for your collection.  

Lastly, opening cards before the release date can cause bad variance in the secondary market which hurts (usually) the collectors.  This spring I tracked down a copy of a Matt Carpenter Gypsy Queen autograph.  I actually bought the card from Brent and Becca for $10 after watching the card fluctuate for a week landing some copies of the card north of $25 dollars.  Now, I now as a person who is primarily in this hobby to add cards, that we all want the best deal possible for the cards we are buying. Did the person who bought the Matt Carpenter card for $27 get a good deal?  No.

However, the prices of cards on secondary sites like Ebay often vary wildly when they are sold prerelease.  My awesome Oscar Taveras Inception card has sold anywhere between $45 and $89 in the past week.  A few days ago I tried to pick up a Wil Myers autograph from Inception on Ebay.  The price of the card was under $50 with two minutes to go.  I was excited to see a Myers autograph for less than $50 that was not an off brand, so I put in a bid.  It closed in the low seventies and I lost the auction.  This afternoon though I ran into a trading partner on Facebook who flipped my a copy for $45 delivered. 

The unwillingness of Topps to stand up and actually enforce their release dates is hurting everyone who takes part in this great hobby.  Collecting baseball cards would be so much better if Topps would dig in their heels and actually call a few places out for breaking their release date and find a suitable punishment which helps enforce their policies.  In my job as a teacher, I am expected to enforce my policies, procedures, and rules on a daily basis.  I know that does not always go according to plan, but its an easy fix when things do not go as planned.  Consistency is the key.   I know that they might step on a few toes and upset some of their cliental, but for the greater good of the hobby it would be great if Topps would be consistent with their releases.  

1998 Topps Gold Label Red Ray Lankford

A quick post for tonight before a pair of longer ones for tomorrow and Thursday.  I would consider myself a Ray Lankford super collector.  I own hundreds of Lankford cards which is a hard feat to pull off considering he is a pretty ordinary player who roughly played for only a decade.  During that time there were a fair number of Ray Lankford cards, but he's not an overwhelming, or impossible, player to collect.  Think of this way: The hardest part of collecting Ray Lankford cards is chasing down the parallels he had in all the different sets.

Many people who collect an individual player would probably say the same thing.  However, since most of Lankford's cards were produced during the 90s there are very few of his cards that are 1/1 or printing plates.  There are a few floating around, but not many.  I make sure that I monitor Ebay, Check out My Cards, and other places including trade forums and groups looking for Lankford cards.  Recently, I actually ran across one that I did not own.

1998 Topps Gold Label Red Ray Lankford 

This card is from the 1998 Topps Gold Label set.  I have several other Lankford parallels from this set already, so I was extremely happy to add this card to my collection.  In my opinion, the Gold Label sets were some of the best high end products out on the market in the late 90s and probably one of my favorite Topps releases from this era.  The 1998 and 1999 sets are the best two.  The set came in three different classes, or variations, with each of the three variations have a red or black parallel.  Overall, a nice addition to the Lankford collection, but it has been way too long.