Cornering the market

It's weird being really the only market when it comes to collecting certain players. Now, I don't have complete proof of this, but I believe I'm the only person actively chasing Ty Hensley cards.

Even with my Tino Martinez collection, I face competition from Yankees fans, especially for some of his rarer cards and autographs. I still manage to snag most of the ones I want, but it's not easier.

Then you've got the super collectors with collections centered entirely around popular players. I can't imagine how hard it is for Junior Junkie or Collecting Cutch, as both must face a lot of competition for rare cards of Griffey and McCutchen, respectively. Although I have to say, I can't imagine anyone beats those two for key cards of that particular player.

I'd assume P-Town Tom (Vogelmonster) and Zippy Zappy (Torrens) can relate as to being the only market for a certain player. While it's great to not be in a major competition for cards, it can also be frustrating.

For me, Ty Hensley carries the label of "YANKEES FIRST ROUND DRAFT PICK." And that's true. He was. In 2012. Yet many of his cards still carry a premium price because of the interlocking NY, despite Ty's struggle to succeed in pro ball. It's annoying seeing cards I need that are either overpriced, or the seller isn't willing to negotiate. I just want to be like, "dude, if I'm not buying this card, no one is."

Luckily, anytime there is an auction with a minimum bid for a card I need, I usually end up with that card, and usually at the lowest price. So when this autograph numbered to /10 popped up with a $.99 bid, I was all over it.

And won it for $.99. The problem I now face is really the fact that shipping usually outweighs the card cost, but at this point, I don't have a ton of choices if I want to keep building this collection.

Is my kid a Griffey supercollector?

The Junior Junkie has decided to send about 200 Griffeys my way over the past few years.

First off, I did ask him for this specific card.

You see, back in 8th grade, I traded it on the AOL forums (along with a few other Griffeys) for a box of about 700 Tino cards, thinking that's what a Tino super collector needed. That was stupid of me, as most of the card were 1991 Donruss and the likes. It was a dumb trade, and I regretted it.

Well, JJ has helped me write a wrong by putting that Griffey back in my collection. I do still need the 1998 Ultra Fall Classics though.

But he didn't stop there. He sent about 80 other Griffeys. Perhaps this is a spin-off of Project Griffey? These will definitely go into my kid's binder, and between the last batch of Griffeys, we're looking at about 200 cards.

So there you have it. My kid is a Griffey collector and he has no clue who Griffey is. I guess I'll have to teach him one day.

Here are some that I particularly like. I feel like I found an error on the write-up of the one below, as it says he homered from both sides of the plate three times. I'm pretty sure he never batted righty.

Junior Junkie, I am going to send your son 200 Tinos. Cool?

SuperTraders #8: Junior Junkie

It's well-known by now that Junior Junkie had a mini Junkie. The man was smart enough to get his affairs in order before the baby came, which meant a massive amount of #SuperTraders packages went out. Lucky for me, I was one of ‘em.

Tony Burbs recently called out the fact that these old Pacific Crown diecuts tend to look like brass knuckles. I definitely agree.

At the time, this was my first taste of 2016 Donruss. I think they are fine, but very similar to last year's design. It’s not a good sign when you get a new card and have no clue if it’s from 2015 or 16.

JJ’s relic and auto game was strong in this package. The Jim Bouton Golden Age auto is super cool, and I would never turn down a Moose jersey swatch.

Classic Topps right here.

I had never seen this set from 2013 Hometown Heroes. The “Hometown Rivalry” set is interesting, but it really doesn’t work very well when you cannot use team marks or names. New York Baseball Club vs New York Baseball Club. I know what they are trying to do, and I think it’s neat, it just doesn’t work with their limitations. Even if they used color photos that would have helped.

This mini Jim Abbott is really cool. It’s from Humpty Dumpty snack foods, which I admit I’ve never heard of and had to Google. The card is still in the cellophane. I’m guessing it was a prize in a snack package?

I like this Mattingly from Topps Trubute. The purple is actually pretty cool, and I like the shot of him catching a fly ball. I have so many cards with Mattingly’s sweet lefty swing, that this is nice change of pace.

One thing JJ always takes care of me is with his Tinos!

Lastly, I think he must’ve sent me most of his Mariano Rivera collection. I counted 17 different Riveras! Pretty sweet.

TJ, thanks for the great package, and I hope Trip is doing well!

Best Binder Page: Tino Martinez

The Junior Junkie had a cool idea, picking his nine best/favorite Ken Griffey Jr cards and putting them together in one binder page. I'm sure he wouldn't normally store these ones in a binder...in fact, he already said he keeps them in a Swiss bank overseas. However, for the sake of this exercise, he created a binder page.

I did the same last night with my Tino Martinez cards. I thought about including other players or TTMs, but decided to just keep it strictly to Tino cards. Maybe I'll do a TTM one later because this was fun.

Not all of these are my rarest or "most valuable", but there's a combination. Some are rare, some are not. Some just have a significant meaning to me or were really hard to find. Some, I just really like.

So in no particular order other than how I put them into a binder page, here we go:

This particular Tino is a common card, but I like it for a few different reasons. For starters, when I was a kid, it meant the world to me that Tino won the HR Derby in 1997. He had a career year, and by winning the Derby, to me that put him on the same level of a slugger as Bonds, McGwire, and Griffey. Obviously he wasn't, but I wanted him to have that same respect.

You'll notice the card is signed as well. Tino is a very tough TTM signer, but in September of 1999, on my birthday no less, this card arrived signed. Tino was on the DL at the time, so I figured maybe I'd send him a request, and somehow I got it back. I was a pretty smart kid, eh? Since then I have gotten Tino once more TTM, but this one is super special to me.

I wanted this card since I first saw it in 1998. That year, I spent all of my 8th grade graduation money on a box of Stadium Club, just knowing I'd pull this card. I didn't pull any Co-signers at all.

It would pop up on eBay every now and then, but I could never shell out the cash. Then, about a year ago, it showed up on Listia. I had a decent amount of credits, but I quickly put a bunch of cards up on 3-day auctions to accumulate as many credits as I could. I think I racked up close to 100,000 credits, then won it for 57,552. Nowadays, I don't think you could get it for under 100K as Listia credits keep inflating and inflating. Either way, I was so pumped to win it!

It's also from that same awesome seller who sends me tons of autographed cards. Man, I lucked out with that one.

There are still versions of this card with Sandy Alomar Jr and Andy Pettitte (which I've never seen for sale). This Roberto/Tino combo is from Group C, which is the most common. However, I think I prefer this one since it has a HOFer on it. The Pettitte would be awesome though.

Pacific has been known to do some wacky things, and this "In The Cage" diecut certainly falls in line with that. I think it may be my favorite non-auto/relic card of Tino. It's just so cool. The cage is also laser-cut, so it's a pretty delicate card. Again, Tino being included in this set was a huge sign of respect after his 1997 career year.

Metal Universe Precious Metal Gems in all sports go for mega bucks these days. Just check it out an eBay listing. Common guys go for easily $20, while stars fetch hundreds. I know it's the same across sports too. I was fortunate to get this from the AOL forums back in the '90s (where I did a lot of my initial online buying), and I definitely paid less than what I would now. It's another one of those cards that just doesn't pop up much, as it's limited to 50.

The card itself is really nice, with a refractor-type shine. This design was much less outlandish than some previous Metal designs. These cards chip really easily, and the edges of mine definitely are not pristine.

A freaking Donruss Crusade, in the words of Junior Junkie. This is another one of those late '90s insert sets that is really popular, and the cards are very scarce. They come in green (#'d to 250), purple (/100), and red (/25). They are very, very rare despite the print runs. There is a Tino graded red 10 on ebay right now for $875. Not happening. The most common of greens will run you at least $8. If you see one in a bargain bin at a card show, grab one.

Many of the cards I've seen also have some obnoxious print lines on them. I'm not sure what happened in production. You can see the line in mine right through Tino's name. I know that serious collectors strive for versions without the line.

In person, the cards are spectacular. I knew they were special in 1998, but I feel like their legend has grown a bit. Panini has knocked them off in some recent products, but there is no replicating the original set. It's that perfect. Even the Crusades that followed were nowhere near what 1998 was.

Again, I bought a box of Donruss in 1998 figuring I'd at least pull one Crusade. I didn't. Sadly, I don't remember how I got this card. I'd assume it was the AOL forums, once again. It ranks up there as one one of my favorite all-time cards.

I loved this 1999 UD HoloGRFX A Piece of the Series insert set so much that I completed the set (including Jeter). However, this was the first card in the series that I got.

Each card features a piece of game-used base from the 1999 World Series. As a gentle reminder, the Yanks sweeped the Braves to win the Series that year. The checklist is great (Maddux, Rivera, Jeter, etc) and the cards really are attractive. The base has a nice, rubbery feel to it.

There are also autographed versions of each card, but they are very hard to find. I do not own the Tino, but am always on the lookout even though it exceeds my collecting budget.

This 1997 Leaf Leagues of the Nation insert set was very sexy at the time. The set celebrated the first year of interleague play. On the back of the card, Scott Rolen represents the NL East. Keep in mind that Rolen was in the middle of his NL Rookie of the Year season, so it made this card a bit tougher to acquire. I know it was running $12-$15 when it came out. Now it can be had for a buck or two.

The banner portion of the card is a felt-like material. It's diecut, and you can see that the bottom of the ribbon has two points, so it's easy for these cards to be damaged.

Its also #'d to 2500, as 1997 was really a year when serially numbered cards started to blow up. 2500 was still considered pretty rare at the time, although now that print number doesn't make you blink twice.

There were a lot of great cards in this Yankees Dynasty set, but something about Tino and Paul O'Neill sharing a card just seems right. To be picky, I wish O'Neill had a nice fat pinstripe. You can sort of see one there if you looks toward the left edge of the logo.

Overall, the card is simple but tastefully done. I like the interlocking NY shape for the jersey placement.

Last but not least, this card is from 1997 Topps Stars '97 All-Stars Insert set. It's not rare or a low print run, but man this thing was tough to find. I think I searched for it for several years before I finally got one. 1997 Topps Stars was a really pretty set. I bought one pack in my entire life at a card show, and remember that I pulled a Vernon Wells RC.

While the base cards have a matte-like finish, the All-Stars insert is more of a foil refractor type. It almost acts as a hologram, but it's not. I chose this card because it reminds me how much fun it is to finally get a card you've searched long and hard for

This was no easy task. I went back and forth on a few different cards, and if you ask me for my top nine tomorrow, my choices might be different. One thing it did do was force me to really look through my Tino collection, and I haven't spent much time admiring it over the past few years. I also realized how much time and effort I've invested into the collection, and I have to assume it's one of the top few in the world. I'm sure there is a person or two out there with a better, bigger collection of his, but there can't be many. No way.

That makes me feel special.

T-t-t-t-t-today, Junior.

Junior Junkie is the man.

The dude is one of the best out there. He takes any mundane topic, and makes it worthy of being read. It beats the shit out of my “look what I got posts.” He’s creative as hell, constantly throwing out new concepts and things to try on his blog. His #WalletCard posts were all epic. His Junior collection is second to none. His organization skills bring a tear to my eye.

Oh, and he sends me Tinos and Yanks. 

First of all, did Donruss really do this? Did they really pull out the Rated Rookies and sell boxed sets? Tino is in there, but that's a pretty uninspiring group. I hope no one bought a lot of these as an investment. Invest now, get your Bernard Gilkey rated rookie!

Ok, these are two guys hopefully worth the investment one day. Dermis Garcia and Nelson Gomez are the big bats the Yanks spent on in last year's international spending spree. They are super young, so it might be awhile before you hear more about them.

A lovely Andy Pettitte relic with a damn fine pinstripe.

Here's a great assortment of cards I did not hate. I know he's hurt and his UCL will snap at any second, but damn it's still special for me to get a Tanaka.

 

 

Last but not least, JJ sent me this sweet Aubrey Huff card!

In addition to the one above, these next five Tinos were all new to my collection! That's a big number! I had no idea 1996 Collector's Choice had an Update/wrapper redemption set! That's sweet.

Thanks again, TJ!

 

I love Junkies!

In the cardboard world, junkies are ok. This one, in particular, is a Junior Junkie, and he sent me some awesome Yankee cards.

I have Phil Rizzuto listed as PC guy, but I'm not as aggressive picking up his reprints as I am picking up new stuff of Ty Hensley and Michael Pineda. However, I still love getting new Rizzuto cards in trade packages. This package contained a cool one from the 2002 Fleer Box Series:

Along with a few of Phil's pals:

All of these were #'d 0367/2950.

There was also a Yankees 2003 Fleer Box Set. It's a great looking set that I hadn't seen before. The checklist is pretty funny too, seeing some random guys (like Juan Acevedo and Erick Almonte) from the 2003 team along with Yankee legends.

I'm also nearly certain these are just the second 2014 Topps Archives cards I've been sent. I LOVE the John Ryan Murphy card. He looks like a little legauer!

And lastly, a Topps Chipz of CC!

Thanks, Junkie! Great stuff, as always.