Marp in a Minute or Five.

It has been a really busy day and tomorrow is going to be just as busy.  Saturday looks at this point though.  There is nothing on my calendar, no report cards to type up, or any school work that needs attention.  So, my usual Friday Five posts, which are some of my favorites to research and type, are going to be delayed this week until Saturday.  I am still calling them Friday Five posts and they involve both Greg Luzinski and Rusty Staub this week.  What could the category be?  Come back tomorrow.  

I am at a breaking point currently with my work, so here is an autograph I picked up last week from the Topps Supreme set.

The Supreme product was only released in Asian markets and was still pretty popular in the US.  I picked up a copy of the Chris Archer autograph and had a few other cards from the set I considered.  This year's version of Supreme was released in the US and has been a huge hit with collectors.  I have added a few cards, but I am not a huge fan of the sticker autographs that Topps used for this set.  This is supposed to be a high end product?  Hmmm.  Anyway, cannot go wrong with a cool Matt Carpenter autograph.  This card is limited to just 35 copies.

Enjoy your Friday!  

Writers Block, Unblocked

Sometimes I get cards and I cannot think of anything to say worth posting.  This is way way to wind down each night and I put myself on a time limit most nights.  There are dozens of little cards that just get passed over.  For awhile I used my Facebook page and put a "Best of the Rest" post at some point every month showing off a few of the other cards I picked up that month.  Other times they walk right past the scanner and into a card box in my closet.  

I have used several posts this year on one Steven Souza, an outfield prospect for the Nationals.  I saw a Syracuse Chiefs game this summer in Durham, saw him play in the Triple A All-Star Game, and picked up a few of his cards including an autograph in Topps Update and an International League All-Star Card.  

I picked up this copy of a Souza Topps Heritage Autograph about a month ago.  Initially it skipped the scanner and went straight into the card box.  I was happy to add it to my collection, but I also understand that there is a limit to the number of Steven Souza cards y'all want to hear about. 

It's not the prettiest autograph.  Souza is a scrawler, it's on a sticker, and the autograph is cut off.  So, what made me pull this card back out?  In case you are living under a rock you probably heard that the Rays traded Snorting Bull favorite Wil Myers this afternoon to the Padres in a three team deal with the Nats.  FanGraphs actually put the two players projected numbers up, pretty comparable....

I am not sure that many Rays fans are excited about the deal, but I am staying optimistic.  Souza really impressed me last season and I am hoping he can help the team avoid a repeat of last season.  He's a fun player to watch.  Wouldn't even mind seeing him make another appearance in Durham, but just for a few games.....

Snorting Bull Awards: Newcomer of the Year

Newcomer of the Year 

Last year I gave this award to Byron Buxton and we all know how that turned out this year.  Hopefully this year's winner will fair a little bit better next year, if not I am going to have to scrap this award next year.  The 2014 baseball card products had two clear rookie favorites: Masahiro Tanaka and Jose Abreu.  There were other sets with popular rookie cards or anticipated debuts, but no two players had a bigger impact on the baseball card industry than these two players.  Both players saw their cards fade a little bit during the second half of the year, but the market and demand for both players is still pretty strong.

I did not pull anything out of the ordinary in the way of Tanaka cards, but I did have a really great pull from of Abreu's from the 2014 Topps Archives set:

Besides the printing plate, Abreu managed to stay on the field for the entire season and post one of the strongest rookie campaigns ever closing out the year with a .317/.383/.581 line with 36 home runs, 35 doubles, and 107 RBIs.  Tanaka was strong too, but only made 20 starts for the Yankees.  It's a close call, but I am going to have to give the nod to Abreu for this award.  Really, I am not sure you can go wrong with either, but I felt like he had a little bit better season and also a better showing in around the hobby.  

As mentioned before, both Tanaka and Abreu have fallen off a little bit in price, but still remain fairly strong sales wise.  I recently bought a Jose Abreu from the Topps Tek set, dabbling with the idea of putting this set together, and found that bidding on the card was competitive and very aggressive.  I was actually surprised to walk away with the card.  I tried to bid at the last second, but sat nervously though the last five seconds as about three or four other bids come in at the very last second.

Just to give you an idea of Abreu's strength in the hobby right now, take this into consideration: While common patterns of Abreu cards might only sell for a few dollars, the short printed copies are easily pushing up over $10 with some landing as high as $20.  One Abreu short print numbered out of 50 went as high as $35 dollars, which is in the same neighborhood that the Topps Tek cards of Mike Trout are currently selling at.  His autographs from the set are also regularly pushing north of $50 and  are pricing at comparable levels to players like Frank Thomas and Clayton Kershaw.

Clearly Abreu has enjoyed a strong year on the field and within the baseball card industry.  He is clearly the best overall new player to the hobby and a deserving winner of the Newcomer of the Year Award.  Jose was not available for comment.  Maybe next year.

Quite Possibly A Perfect Card

I spent the majority of my childhood and early adult years living around the St. Louis area.  I still love the Cardinals and still really enjoy following all of the sports teams from the area.  I mean the Cardinals are the clear number one, but I still dig the Rams and Blues.  I still watch Mizzou games.  I moved to North Carolina in my late twenties and have enjoyed the sports scene in the Raleigh-Durham area.  It's a college heavy town, especially for basketball, but there is still plenty of good baseball, college football, pro football in Charlotte along with a heavy mixture of Skins fans, soccer, lacrosse, and even a hockey team with a Stanley Cup banner.

Every once in awhile the North Carolina and Missouri worlds of my life collide.  Last year Mizzou played, and won, a basketball game at NC State.  The Blues tangle with the Hurricanes, the Rams play the Panthers and the Redskins, and I get to see my fair share of former Cardinals players floating around in the minors attending Bulls games.

There are also a fair number of pro baseball players from North Carolina who have connections to St. Louis.  Cardinals outfielder Enos Slaughter is from Roxboro (The Rox), Cardinals pitcher Seth Maness went to East Carolina, former Cardinals/Rockies/Rays outfielder Quinton McCracken played football at Duke,  and former Cardinals second baseman Mike Tyson is from Rocky Mount.  I could spend hours talking about the connections.  New players, old players, good players, bad players, mediocre players........

My newest connection is one of the best baseball players to ever come out of Greensboro.  Rick Farrell played 18 years in the Majors from 1929 through 1945.  He had two stops in St. Louis, both with the Browns, but his best years were spent as a Red Sox.  The 7 time All-Star posted a career .281/.378/.363 line and was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1984.

Topps included Ferrell in their 2013 Gypsy Queen product as a St Louis Browns player.  The set included a base card of Ferrell along with a cool coin card.  Here is the front and the back of the Farrell coin card which I picked up last week:

I love the coin cards, but have never found one out of Gypsy Queen that I really like enough to add to my collection.  First, they are limited to a print run of just 5 copies which makes them pretty pricey.  Earlier coin card sets, such as the Topps Gallery versions, featured no serial numbers and were much more affordable.  This card has been on my Ebay watch list for months, but was sitting at $50.  I made an offer or two, but never budged the seller.  Finally another copy of the card appeared and I managed to talk down the price.  I love that Ferrell is in a Browns uni on the card, but the North Carolina quarter is an added bonus.  A great connection between my childhood home and current home and a great and welcome addition to my collection.  

#MyCardMonday

Here's a different name for this week's #MyCardMonday: Matt Morris.  Matty Mo was a stalwart in the Cardinals rotation for almost a decade start around 1997 running through 2005.  He had some good years and some mediocre years, but was the best pitcher on several of the late 90s/early 2000s Cardinals teams.  Morris was a little bit tricky to collect.  He had a few autographs and a few relic cards, but nothing too spectacular.  I think at some point I owned a patch card of his from the 2003 UD Authentics set, but sold it after he left the Cardinals for the Giants.  I still have a nice autograph of the Cardinals hurler from the 1997 Donruss Signature set and he also signed for the 2004 Upper Deck USA Baseball set.  Oh and he signed in a Stadium Club Co-Signers set.  This dual Morris relic out of the 2004 Donruss Diamond Kings set was always one of my favorite Matty Mo cards.  I loved the artwork on these cards and opened several boxes of this product.  Really fun open.  

Snorting Bull Award: Best Base Sets

Best Base Sets of the Year

This is one of my surprising picks of the year and really required a little bit of time and reflection.  My early favorite for the award was Gypsy Queen.  I loved the product and had a really good time with that product that this year.   It was also probably my best box break of the year.  A button card, some printing plates, a few autographs, and one of those flag cards and I was in love with that product.  Eight months later I have had a chance to take a step back and really think about all the different sets I have had a chance to work on this year.  So, you can sort of see where this is going....It's not Gypsy Queen.  

Part 1- 

I actually almost always get an email from Jimmy at Big D's Cards, my favorite local card shop, before a product hits the shelves asking if I want him to set aside a box of whatever is coming into the store.  I did a bunch of different products this year, but also skipped a few.  We can't do them all.  One of the products I skipped was Topps Finest.  I am not sure why I thought the product looked meh, but I just did not get a good vibe from some of the different website reviews and product write ups I read.  

About three months ago I made a trade for a few cards and was really happy to see that the other collector threw in a base set (1-100) of the Topps Finest set.  It was a really generous move.  There was a sticky note inside the box that read "Thought you might love this...give it time"  So, I did just that.  The Topps Finest set sat in it's box on the edge of my desk.  The first week or two I basically did not open the box.  Then slowly I started opening the box and taking a look at the cards.  Every day I would pick out a few cards, check out the pictures, read the card backs, and slowly fell in love with the cards.  

I almost fell like I am giving out an award right now and at the same time also giving myself an award for big collecting regret of the year.  Yes, yes if I could do it again I would have opened a box of Topps Finest and enjoyed every moment of the process.  So, here's a look at the cards and what I love about them......

The best thing about the Topps Finest cards is clearly the design of the cards.  Topps spends a lot of time trying to be nostalgic and half the time they cannot get out of their own way in trying to do it.  Last year Topps celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Topps Finest product by releasing a product that full of cards using the 1993 product designs.  This year's Finest product had a throwback insert for the 1994 Finest set, but the base set design went out on it's own and was unique to this set.  I am not sure who at Topps came up with this product design, but as a fan of all things 1990s baseball cards, this set was awesome.  The design, the feel of the cards, the texture, the backs, everything 90s.  

The colors on these cards are really the best part of the design though.  The silver lettering on the top of the cards is the same on all of the cards, but the similarities on the rest of the cards ends there.  The shadowing of the Finest title at the top of the card is shadowed in all sorts of different colors, the geometric shapes on the bottom right hand side of the card are different colors and shading on all of the cards.  Add in some really cool photography and the cards are really cool looking from a design and color standpoint.  This David Wright card is one of my favorite.  I love the white uniform on the darker background with the bright oranges and reds towards the bottom of the card on the shading and on the picture.  Great look and great looking set.  Definitely worthy of some kudos and deserving of one half of my Base Set of the Year Award.  

Part 2- 

Sticking with the whole 90s card rehash theme I am actually going to pick a second set that I thought was deserving of this award.  Again, Topps did a really good job this year getting some of the 1990s rehash sets down well.  I loved the Finest set, I have just started to get into the Topps Tek set, and also really loved the Stadium Club set.  Someone at Topps is doing a really good job of connecting with the 30 somethings/40 somethings how collected baseball cards in the 1990s.  So, my second Best Base Set of the Year is obviously the Stadium Club release.  

When Stadium Club first released the product was based on cool photography and was the Topps answer to the early Upper Deck sets.  The designs were always really simple and were just dominated by a really good photograph.  Over the years Topps changed Stadium Club, let Stadium Club go, and tried to bring the product back a few times along the way too.  This year's relaunch was awesome.....

Topps did a really good job of recreating the original product concept of Stadium Club which was great photography with a simple design.  I have still not quite finished this set, but it is about the first thing on my list of hobby goals for my up coming winter break from school.  Despite the lack of closure on my Stadium Club set, this is one of those sets I find myself flipping through every couple of days.  I love the pictures and the feel of the cards.  Like with the Finest set, Topps did a great job of making this set....

Acetate Overload

I have probably pushed my limit on acetate cards this week.  There was a post giving a set of acetate cards a good award, a post giving an acetate card a bad award, an acetate autograph I picked up of Jason Heyward because I am not going all in on collecting him......Now this:

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Acetates: The Summation of a Facebook Messenger Conversation

Fellow Collector:  "Hey, you collect acetate cards?"

Me: "Yes"

Fellow Collector:  "Hey, I am practically giving away these two acetate cards because, well, they are   

                                 cards of Jason Castro and Dan Haren"

Me: "Acetate!"  "Dan Haren was on the Cardinals for ten minutes once?"

Fellow Collector:  "Sure.  LOL"

Me:  "Paypal address?"

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It's really rough right now.  I need a compelling backdrop to make the conversation seem more dramatic.  Maybe the negotiations could be a bit tenser, or the curtains in my living room should be on fire.  Something.  I am actually going to say that was pretty terrible and just show the cards.  By the way, I love the green grass background on the Haren card.