One Last Etopps Delivery

I've been meaning to take one last delivery of eTopps cards from my portfolio- at least some select cards- before I'm done here.  Delivery is damn expensive ($12 first card, $1.75 each additional), but I'm getting worried that soon Topps is just going to pull the plug on the site (they stopped making new cards back in 2011, and recently took down the message boards) and my cards will be lost forever.  So I figured I'd bite the bullet and get the cards I really wanted and hope for the best on the rest.  I have a couple of complete sets that would be painful to ship, but I'm hopeful that someday there will be a special offer to clear out one's portfolio.

Anyway, my cards arrived the other day:

Four bubble wrapped blocks of shiny eTopps cards.  Aren't you excited to see them all?

Here they are out of the bubble wrap:

Sorry, I know that's a strange angle.  All the cards come in their own little zip-loc baggie.  So we'll take the next step and look at them all lined up out of the wrap and out of the baggies:

These are the T-206 cards.  They are every bit as beautiful as you think they are.  I still need about 8 cards to finish the set, but they are getting really hard to trade for on the site.

I didn't take an individual shot of the Matt Weiters card in the bottom left of the photo above.  But I managed to trade for one and took it in hand.  Why?  It's Weiter's only Topps card.  I learned that from a comment by a guy named Stubby on a previous eTopps post I wrote.  Thanks for the tip Stubby!

So the challenge of taking pictures of eTopps cards is that not only are they in hard plastic cases, the cards are shiny too.  So my picture styles aren't consistent.  Because I just kept snapping away until I got images that didn't have ridiculous glare.

As much as it ticked me off to pay that much for shipping, I absolutely love these cards.  Especially the T206s.  Here are a few up close for ye:

At some point, I plan to have this Willie Keeler card in it's original T206 form too.  For now, this will work.

I took a bunch of standard eTopps cards too:

 It's neat to have a couple of cards of Christian Colon, who has been mentioned on my blog many times before.

 I got this Mauer just because I thought it would be a nice looking card in hand.  I was right!

 See what I mean by shiny?  Isn't that Maddux gorgeous? 

I took all my Derek Jeters for delivery.  No way I'm leaving those at risk with the website.

These two are from the 2004 set.  As far as eTopps sets go, 2004 is considered one of weaker offerings, and the cards are very cheap to obtain up front before delivery.  But I have to say they are very striking in hand, and a great value in comparison to the other sets.  If I decide to take more cards in the future, I'm loading up on stars from the 2004 set.

I could probably get 2 or 3 more posts out of this haul, but you get the idea.  I will say that I'm not especially interested in trading these just because I wouldn't know what would be fair for them.  On the one hand, the degree of difficulty getting these in a portfolio, coupled with expense of shipping means I'd want something good for them, but on the other hand the initial "cost" per card doesn't warrant getting something good for them.  Mostly, I don't want to go to the effort to replace anything I trade out.

I Came Here To Show Cards And Chew Bubble Gum.

And I'm all out of bubble gum. 

Hmmm.  That was supposed to sound a lot more tough that it came out.  Between you and me, it came across a little dorky. 

But now I'm committed to showing cards, so let me show you some awesome cards, courtesy Greg from Plaschke, Thy Sweater Is Argyle.  I sent him a Jose Bautista auto and a few other Dodger cards and he sent back a few items right in my wheelhouse:

This was the highlight of the package.  If this Mike Moustakas auto showed him in his Northwest Arkansas uniform, it would have been more than I could bear.  I'm still hoping the light switch goes on for Moustakas at KC- he was certainly a beast while he was here in AA ball.

 

 

Speaking of beasts, Peyton Hillis was a man-child while at Arkansas.  I remember him coming in as a freshman and absolutely flattening people.  He was wildly popular and fans around here couldn't believe it the next year when Hillis starting losing playing time to a couple freshmen named Darren McFadden and Felix Jones.  What I love about the cards is the uncanny resemblance between his and my arms.

Finally, Greg added this cool mini SP of Jurickson Profar.  Not only is the card cool, but this is the first time I've ever seen a mini card toploader.  Sweet!

Thanks for the trade Greg!  And don't go revealing any secrets you think you may know about me!

Stage 1 of My Set Building Process: Sampling

I'm arriving a little late on the scene with a Heritage post.  Heritage hasn't traditionally been a set I'm all that into, but I think this year's set intrigues me.  I "think" it intrigues me I say.  Sometimes I know immediately if I like a set, and sometimes I need to go through a steps to know for sure, like this: 

I suppose this isn't a Heritage post as much as it's a forum for me to articulate my set collecting process (see above). For a good review of 2013 Heritage,  I direct anyone interested  to these fantastic posts about the set from dayf. 

Basically, when I set I'm maybe interested in comes out, I start like this:

Stage 1:  Sampling

If I'm not certain I'm going to go all in and collect a set, I like to test the waters with a rack pack or a couple of wax packs.  There's little money spent, I get enough cards to get a sense of the set, and I can count on at least pulling 1 or 2 cards that I'd want for my collection anyway.

The sampling phase is:


A first date over lunch
Renting a game at Red Box
The first sip of the first jack and coke
The free 30 second listen of a song on iTunes

My sampling of 2013 Heritage was:

This was the first card out of the pack- a good omen for me I guess.  Moustakas a player I collect, mostly because he was someone I was able to see play several times in person while he was in the area playing for the Royals AA team.  A pretty sharp card I think.

Later in the pack was this Cliff Lee card, another of my favorites.  Former Razorback, former Ranger.   Two big feathers in his cap. 

I'm under the impression that there are mixed reviews on Heritage out there.  I'm not completely sure I'm going to chase the set, but the criticism I don't understand is the complaint about the card stock.  I'm with dayf on this one and like the card stock just fine.  More than fine in fact.

So I got a couple of cards I like and I'm on board with the look and feel of the set.  But I'm not all in yet.  The next phase is gathering, which means I need to open a blaster (or two) and get more context on the set.  I need to see if inserts take up a lot of space, and if so, do I like them?  My instinct is that this is a set where I won't give a rip about building the insert sets, so I hope the blaster I get doesn't have a lot of them.

Once I have gathered some cards (more on that later this week when I have a blaster to open) I can decide if I'm collecting, the final phase of building a set, or if I'm in danger of simply accumulating these cards.  I'll explain the difference between "collecting" and as I see it, it's ugly step sister "accumulating", later as well.

3rd Blaster of 2013 Topps

I'm picking up my Hobby Box of 2013 from Cleve's (LCS) this Friday and I'm giddy with anticipation.   I have to say it's going to be hard to top the fun I've had from opening the retail blasters though.  I guess I've had some good luck so far with the 3 that I've bought.  Most of the comments on the first two I opened Monday revolved around the number of Bryce Harper cards I hit. 

I decided to pick up a 3rd blaster yesterday, and in my opinion, my good luck continues.  The only complaint I have is that this time I got a Commemorative Patch rather than one of those nifty rookie card reproduction patches.  But this was still pretty cool:

And, let me get this out of the way, I did get another Bryce Harper card:

I would rather have hit a Jurickson Profar, but I'm sure there will be one of those in the hobby box Friday.

My favorite card in the box though:

This card is so brown and so beautiful!  Great, great card!

I guess I also got one of those SP cards of guys reaching over a fence:

I'm a little dubious on this.  I already see a bunch of these on eBay, and I get one in a blaster so I'm not sure how "SP" these really are.  But it's a cool card nonetheless. 

And I got a few good inserts too. 

I really need to stop buying blasters, but I'm on a roll so until the lovely wife catches me, there's probably more to come. 

Card Show Recap Part 2: The Expensivies

Something I haven't done at a card show in a long time is purchase a "nice" card.  I usually only end up with dime box material, which is fun- don't get me wrong, but I usually only get my nicer cards online or at Cleve's auctions. 

As I said yesterday, we had a pretty nice card show this weekend and I came across a few things I'm pretty proud of:

I've been trying to get a good deal on a Mike Moustakas auto card for a while now.  Moustakas absolutely tore it up during his AA stop here in NW Arkansas (NW Arkansas Naturals), which is where my interest stems.  I got what I thought was a good deal on this Bowman Sterling auto'd rookie.

Speaking of former Naturals, I also picked up this Aaron Crow relic and Wil Myers Bowman Chrome rookie at great prices.

I didn't neglect my Rangers either. 

Last but not least, I picked up this Fergie Jenkins Triple Threads relic for only $5.  Jenkins is one of those guys that I think I may start collecting.  He's a HOFer, a former Ranger, his cards aren't too expensive and from what I've seen in interviews, he seems like a really decent guy.

Naturals Night

Last night at the Fayetteville Mall, the entire NW Arkansas Naturals team was signing autographs, so I packed up the family and we headed out.  As a father, it was exciting to see my son getting a baseball and a few cards signed.  He’s five, so I don’t think he was all that stoked about it to begin with, but as we went around the table, and he was more comfortable talking to the players, he really began to enjoy himself.  When we were done and his ball was completely covered with signatures, he was very excited!  I was too, thinking, “This is the year he really becomes a baseball fan, and we can really enjoy the game and the cards together.”   Then he saw the Cookie Co., handed his ball off to his mother and didn’t mention the Naturals the rest of the evening while he savored every bite of his true prize of the evening.   

Overall, the players were very pleasant and gracious.  Most took a moment to look my boy in the eye and say hello. A few just took the ball, signed it and passed it down without looking up, which as a father kind of ticked me off.  But I imagine this kind of event kind of gets to be a grind for a player, especially with how pushy and obnoxious some fans can be.  But come on, talk to my boy just a bit.  He is, after all, the cutest 5 year old on the planet.

I would like to mention John Lamb in particular as someone who was very gracious with my son.  He is considered a top 100 Major League prospect, and a good bet to be on the Royals roster in the next year or two.  As a card hobby enthusiast, I was thrilled that he signed a couple of cards that will mean more to my son over time, and I wish him the best.  I also found cards of Derrick Robinson and Christian Colon who were very nice as well.  One player I could not find a card of was Wil Myers, who is a top hitting prospect, and supposed to be on par with Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer.  I know I have his Bowman 2010 card somewhere, but couldn’t locate it.  At least we got his signature on the ball and poster.

Here are some of the fruits of our evening: