Heavy Bottomed Chrome Cards Make The Rockin World Go Round

I did not buy a box or open any packs of Topps Chrome this year. This is actually the second year in a row that I have decided to skip this product.  Nothing to do with chrome rehashes or anything like that, but more to do with the fact that the product could be described as "bottom loaded".  To some degree all products are "top heavy" in their concentration of high-end autographs being the hardest to pull and low end autographs being easy to pull, however Topps Chrome takes it to a different level.  Again, not "top heavy" like most products, but "bottom loaded"

Here's the skinny on the Chrome autographs.  The originally sale price on Chrome boxes was around $75.  Collectors received two autographs per box.    Think about this way:

If you go on Ebay and search sold items under 2014 Topps Chrome Autographs the first page (I'm using 50 items per page sorting high price to low price) has a few listings which go for over $500 (there are seven as I am typing this) and then several pages of cards that cost somewhere between $200 to $100.  After that it goes off a cliff quickly.  Let's explain it this way.  Flip the search around and look finding the lowest sale priced cards first....It takes 41 pages, with 50 items on each page, to clear the price of $5.  Now, resale price on your hit cards is not everything in the world, but over a quarter of the 2014 Topps Chrome autographs on Ebay sold for less than $5 and over half sold for less than $10? 

Here's another comparison.  Half a box of Triple Threads (or one mini box) cost the same as a box of Topps Chrome.  At the quarter mark of completed Chrome sales on Ebay, collectors reach the $5 mark.  On Triple Threads, the completed sales for the bottom quarter sales on Ebay top out at $10.  At the $5 mark on Chrome collectors can find names like Ethan Martin, Enny Romero, and Tommy Medica.  Sure there is a Taijuan Walker and Yordano Ventura autograph slipped in there, but most of the low end autographs in that product are low end for a reason.  The quarter mark on the Triple Threads sales include names like: Christian Yelich, Matt Adams, Mike Napoli, Sonny Grey, and Adrian Gonzalez.  

So really, for the price of Chrome, collectors should call up a friend and go halveses on a box of Triple Threads.  Better names, better value for the price hence the term "bottom loaded"  So about those Chrome autographs...I still like the looks of the products, but why should I spend $75 opening a product for two $5 autographs when I can let someone else do the work for me?  I bought two lots of Topps Chrome autographs in the past two weeks each lot of cards cost me roughly $10.  Here is the first:

Get on your bikes and ride....

Pair of Bulls and CarGo

I am working on catching up with a few 2014 releases I have not delved too far into over the past month or two.  Working out a few Cardinals cards from Triple Threads still, but I did start working on a few former Durham Bulls who appeared in the card set.  One of the tricky parts about this year's Triple Threads set was it's timing around the trade deadline.  For example, Joe Kelly appears in the set as a Cardinal, but is actually a Red Sox now.  I have ran into several Cardinals collectors who are still collecting Joe Kelly cards and are trying to also track the cards down.  Same with several Red Sox collectors I know.  Allen Craig, former Cardinal and current Red Sox, seems to be following a similar trend on his Triple Threads cards.  It seems to be a trend in more than a few places this year. 

The card I spent the most time seeking out from the Triple Threads set was the Nick Franklin Jumbo Jersey card.  There are also some patch versions of this card which were my initial target, but I missed out on them all.  Similar to the Craig and Kelly cards, Franklin was traded at the the deadline for Rays star pitcher David Price.  Similar to Craig and Kelly, there seems to be a little bit of competition for the his cards.  Especially the patch versions which feature some nice Mariners pieces. 

While the overall numbers do not blow people away with Franklin, he has been rated as high as the #44 prospect by Baseball Prospectus.  He still has not produced at the big league level, but I saw him several times in Durham during their playoff series games against both the Columbus Clippers and the Paw Sox.  The ball looked good coming off his bat and he had several big hits and a home rum or two to boot (a long loud foul too).  He got a cup of coffee in Tampa in September and will be a little surprised if he is back in Durham next year.  On to the card....After missing out on the patch pieces I ended up settling for this number......

It's got a nice dark navy piece of jersey and is numbered out of just 36.  Franklin does not have any autographs in the Triple Threads set, just the jersey and patch pieces.  I am hoping Topps will throw a Franklin autograph into their Traded set later this fall.  Franklin has always been a pretty signer.  Besides the Franklin I picked up one more former Durham Bull...

This Matt Moore card was dirt cheap.  I know he is out for the year with Tommy John, but he was good before the surgery and the bounce back rate on elbows is pretty good.  I am sure we will see Matt Moore back with the Rays next spring and he will be just fine.  Although if the Rays sent him to Durham for a little conditioning I would not complain. 

I bought both the Moore and Franklin from the same seller on Ebay and can never pass up on free shipping.   This CarGo jumbo jersey card was slightly more than $2.  The stripe is crooked, but hey there is a stripe.  More Triple Threads cards to come. 

A.J. Cole and a Dumpster Fire

One of my favorite Triple A teams to watch this year was the Syracuse Chiefs.  They had a great season and had a lot of great talent on the roster.  I have done some raving and ranting about Stephen Souza and a few others over the summer, but I am saving one of the better ones for last.  Meet the 53rd best prospect in all of baseball (according to Baseball Prospectus) A.J. Cole.

The right-handed pitcher for the Nationals spent his season split in between Double A Harrisburg and Triple A Syracuse.  During the first half of the season he went 6-3 with an ERA of 2.92.  His SO/9 was below 9 for the first time in his career, but overall good enough to get the call up to Triple A.   With Syracuse the pitcher posted a 7-0 with an ERA of 3.43.  Again, his K's per 9 was a little low, but Cole looked really good with the Chiefs.

While I am sure that Cole is still another year away from the Majors, I am pretty sure that Cole has a very bright future with the Nats.  Curiously, his cardboard prices have not quite caught up with the brightness of his prospect star.  This card cost me right around a dollar.

While I am not a huge fan of the sticker autograph, this Bowman Platinum card has a decent autograph, and the jersey piece is really nice.  The Nats do not have a minor league, that Cole has played for, that wears any orange on their jerseys.  The patch piece is likely from his 2013 Futures Game Jersey, hosted by the Mets, which Topps seems to use old All-Star game jerseys all over the place this year.  

I picked up another card along with the A.J. Cole autograph.  The second autograph also is from the Bowman Platinum set and features Rangers prospect Corey Knebel.  He started out the year with the Tigers, but posted an ERA over 6.  Knebel was traded to Texas for Joakim Soria.  Not sure that really solved the Tigers bullpen woes.  

Knebel has a great autograph, again on a sticker, and strangley the card features a piece of jersey with a pinstripe.  Not quite sure where the pinstripe can from, none of the Tigers Minor League teams wear them, but it's another nice piece of jersey.   

#MyCardMonday Part 2

I am not sure why, but I always seem to forget a card when I go into a card shop and start writing up a post about the cards that I added to my collection.  I scanned this card this past weekend, but then forgot to add it to my post.  I need to make myself a list.  Anyway, I really liked this cool die cut Topps Chrome card of Angels first baseman Albert Pujols.  Do you think he's played a round of golf yet?

#MyCardMonday Part 1

More than one #MyCardMonday ?  That's what happens when I have a day off of work.  I am going to have all kinds of good posts this week.  Tons of them.  I am going to start off with a Royals card.  I do not do a lot of Royals cards and I must say that I have not met too many Royals fans during my card collecting journey.  I also spent most of my life living on the wrong side of Missouri.  So, here's a Royals card......

I am a pretty big fan of this guy and am hoping he gets a shot at pitching in Tampa next year.  Although I have a feeling I will see him start off in Durham.  Not going to complain.  

2014 Topps Stadium Club Box

Another trip into Big D's card shop and another great box.  Today I opened up a box of 2014 Stadium Club.  I'm not sure I can do this in three pictures and a video like I did the 2014 Bowman Chrome box the other day.  A few more pictures and I apologize is the video is too heavy on love for this set.  I love Stadium Club.  Great work by Topps on this product.

The Best Looking Ray Lankford Checklist Ever

I have written a little bit about the Pacific checklists before, but picked up a great look one last week. I dare say, this might be the best checklist that Pacific ever put out.  If you did not click the link in the sentence that started this article, if did skip ahead past this sentence, Pacific actually made their checklists inserts.  Not easy to find inserts at that.  Often the checklists were one per box or harder.  Add in the fact that they ARE checklists and collectors do not sell or trade them, because they are a checklist, and you have got a difficult to find card.

This Lankford, McGwire, Bottenfield 2000 Pacific checklist has been on my radar for a long time.  I once saw it at a card shop in St. Louis with a $25 price tag on it.  $25 for a checklist?  No.  I've seen it on Ebay once or twice for a similar price.  The last time I saw it there it actually sold for $20.  I was starting to think that I was going to have to buck up and drop an Andrew Jackson on this card, but COMC bailed me out by listing on for $3.  Thank you someone!