Finishing Lineage by cheating 9 years later

Back in 2011, eleven days before my son was born, I said I was going to collect the 2011 Topps Lineage set as his "birth year" set. My rationale was simple. It was an attractive 200-card set, featuring Hall of Famers, retired players, current (at the time) stars, and a few rookies. It would serve as an education for him, of sorts. Here's how the game looked the year you were born.

Turns out I probably should have collected 2011 Topps Update for him.

It also turns out that I don't set collect, so I probably got about 90% of the way there and never saw it through.

Recently, I had the opportunity to fix that.

Nachos Grande ran a big, bracket style Ultimate Allen & Ginter mini set bracket. Somehow, I ended up with the winning bracket. I really finished second but the winner didn't identify themselves. In full disclosure, I felt a little guilty about winning. I don't like A&G and I sure as heck don't like A&G minis. So I 1. didn't expect to win and 2. felt a bit hesitant to claim my prize as the bracket winner.

However, I didn't just fill out the bracket to be a prize hound. Chris put a lot of work into it, and I appreciate that. He's also been sharing his love for A&G, and specifically A&G minis, since I started blogging. He even has a signed custom mini of himself! I wanted to participate because Chris is a great dude, has always been generous to me, and filling out a bracket is a small thing to support someone I consider to be a hobby friend.

Back to Lineage. So as mentioned, I was crowned champion of picking the winners. I wish I had a method to my madness, but this is definitely like Janice in accounting winning March Madness by blinding picking schools to win. Chris listed some very generous prizes, but one immediately stood out:

A complete set of 2011 Topps Lineage.

Fate! So I jumped at that, and now can say I (cheated) and collected the set for my son. Maybe I'll binder it up for him and stuff it away. But happy to have that one officially done, even if it's nine years later!

Chris, thanks for the prizes and congrats on successfully running the bracket!

A swell Babe from Brad

Literally! I like these Swell cards a lot, and this one is, well, swell. It came in an unexpected package from Brad of Brad's Blog.

There was a bunch of goodies in the package, but here a couple highlights.

I gotta say, I love getting old inserts of Alfonso Soriano. Collecting in the late '90s/early '00s, it was a big deal to pull a Soriano, let alone an insert. There were a lot of the too, because, well, the 1990s. This would have been a good one to pull from Skybox Metal.

I like this card. It's just very simple and plain, but obviously perfectly fitting for Mariano.

And finally, a nice sparkly card of Phil Hughes, who I can't hate on too much. He had a fine career in NY. I actually really liked Lineage. I just wish the card backs had stats instead of just a short write-up.

Brad, thanks again my friend!

Blog Bat Around - dissing A&G one last time in 2011

Favorite Release of the Year – Topps Lineage

Without a doubt, my favorite release of the year was Lineage. I’ll say it up front – I hate the card backs. Major flaw in the set and a miss by Topps. The one or two sentences instead of stats was a poor call. With that out of the way, I’ll focus on what I liked. First of all, the set checklist. It was a lot of fun opening each pack and seeing such a nice mixture of Hall of Famers and current stars. I have every intention of picking up the complete set, and using it to educate The Lost Collector Jr (due in 11 days!) on the players who were stars the year he was born, as well as some of baseball’s greatest players of all time.

Second, I loved the minis and mini relics. This was the coolest insert set of the year in my opinion. The relics were tastefully done and looked great as a mini. I also had success with them, pulling an Eddie Murray from a blaster and receiving a CC Sabathia as a contest prize (thanks Robert!). That certainly helps my perception of them. The non-relic minis were fantastic as well. While the colors and schemes may have differed slightly from actual ‘75s, I didn’t mind one bit and have had fun trying to collect all the Yanks.

Third, I liked the parallels. Two kinds of shiny parallels – and although the names still confuse me, both were good looking cards at the end of the day.

Unfortunately I didn’t pull one of the cool 1952-style autos, but that won’t change my opinion for Set of the Year.

Least Favorite – Allen & Ginter

This man signed over 1,000,000 autos for Topps this year.

I just don’t get the fuss with this set. I thought it stunk. The cards were ugly compared to past years. The autos and relics were mostly Angel Pagan and David DeJesus. There were cards of flowers and states and ghosts. Why would I want one of these? I have a serious problem buying a pack of baseball cards and getting a card of Guy Fieri. I’ve stated multiple times that I think he is a loser. I think it’s because of the TGI Fridays commercials. Or the frosted tips. Or both. I just don't need a card of him.

I thought the card design was poorly done. I like the simple design from earlier years, such as 2008. It was classy. These weren’t. Not that they should use the same design every year, but this year's felt like they were trying too hard to be different.

It’s all a matter of personal tastes and I understand and respect that. Most found this to be an attractive set. Some like the minis or trying to crack the code. Many bloggers enjoy the subsets and the variety. I, for one, do not. I’ll absolutely give A&G a try again in 2012, and maybe I’ll be singing a different tune. But for 2011, give me anything else please.

Contest Winnings from $30 a Week Habit - Part 1

I don’t win blog contests often, but when I do they usually are really good ones. I was extremely lucky to win an awesome one from Robert at $30 A Week Habit. I missed his initial contest post, but found it in time to enter on the last day. Well, somehow random.org decided to pull my name as a winner once the contest closed. Robert sent me a great prize which I’ll highlight in two posts.

I’ll first show off the four singles that Robert sent me. He knows I collect Yankees, so he sent me the following:

This is awesome! I traded away my only other ’75 mini relic, so I was pumped to get a new one, and a Yankee to boot! These are some of my favorite cards of the year, and adding a CC relic to the collection is always great. I would have been happy if this card alone was my contest prize. But it wasn’t.

Two fantastic Thurman Munson parallels! One from Lineage, one Liquorfractor from Topps Update.

Lastly, a Babe Ruth refractor from the Topps value boxes. Sweet looking card.

In part two, I’ll show off the contents from these:

Check out that rack...pack of Lineage

Along with a pack of Topps Stickers and Topps Chrome, I picked up a rack pack of Topps Lineage. I still love this set, despite this not being a very sexy pack. I might just buy the set instead of trying to collect it, but we'll see. I can probably get it for the price of two rack packs.

I was happy to get Ruth and Granderson. I really wish I had gotten a Duke Snider TTM auto before he passed away. I'll always regret that. Anyhow, I love the mixture of current and past stars.

Lineage Blaster w/ HOFer Relic

I've been wanting to get my hands on Topps Lineage, but hadn't come accross any until I stopped by a Modell's over the weekend. Since I refuse to step foot in my rip-off LCS and Target is a bit of a hassle to get to, I stop in Mo's once a week to see if they have any new cards. Most of the time they don't, but once in awhile I'll find a fresh shipment of blasters or packs. This was one such occasion.

I eagerly opened the box and expected a lesser relic. It's just how I've been conditioned. I was extremely delighted and surprised to find this:

Nice! A HOFer! And the orange jersey is particularly cool. This was the first time I had actually seen one of these up close, and I love them. The "Game Used Memorabilia" words are a little too small and blend together illegibly, but otherwise I think these are a great set. I like that it's a mini relic, but is unframed.

I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to do with the card just yet. I could easily use it as trade bait. I could sell it on eBay and use those funds to contribute to a vintage Mantle that I want. Or, I could just keep it because it's a cool little card and I don't have any relics of HOFers. As a baseball fan, the third option is enticing.

I enjoyed the rest of the box. I hoped to pull an auto (which I didn't), but I did a decent job of beating the odds a few times considering there were only seven packs in a blaster. I didn't get a pop-up, but I did get some nice inserts and a bunch of Yankees (including two inserts). I also really like the base cards, and it was fun to open a pack where every player was either a past or present star for the most part. I wish there were stats on the back instead of the write-ups, that's my only real disappointment. This is by far my favorite set of the year, which shows how different my taste is than most collectors. Many went gaga over A&G while I hated it and thought it was awful, and many hate Lineage while I think it's great.

Pack 1:
67 - N. Cruz
74 - Brooks Robinson
84 - Kershaw
TV4 - Zimmerman Venezuelan (nice! I didn't even know I got this until I looked at the card for this post)
189 - Jaime Garcia
114 - An elf named Dustin
120 - Ichiro
166 - Gallardo

Pack 2:
7 - Mantle
42 - Jackie Robinson (not a bad first two guys to get)
56 - Victorino
154 - Fergie Jenkins Diamond Anniversary shiny
14/20 - Nishioka Rookie
138 - Prince Fielder
167 - Corey Hart
178 - Pujols

Pack 3:
48 - Fisk
34 - K. Drabek
25 - Whitey Ford
16 - Walter Johnson
82 - Ike Davis Mini
125 - Mark Teixeira
117 - Torii Hunter
109 - Latos

Pack 4:
82 - Ike Davis
91 - Morel (I pull this dude's cards in like every pack)
99 - Honus Wagner
52 - Andre Dawson
140 - Albert Belle Platinum Diamond (it's kind of cool to see him back in a set)
23 - A crazy person whose last name starts with the letter Z
141 - Ozzie (or Ozzy to Topps) Smith
131 - Carlos Lee

Pack 5:
38 - Carpenter
24 - Nishioka
12 - Andrus
50 - Gehrig Mini (awesome!)
152 - D. DeJesus - wait, this isn't autographed?! Does he have cards that aren't autographed?!
169 - Cliff Lee
142 - Haren
133 - Greinke

Pack 6:
2 - Jeter
19 - Larry Walker (good to see him recognized here too!)
26 - Grady Sizemore
37 - J. Upton
49 - Matt Kemp Diamond Anniversary shiny
124 - F. Gutierrez
116 - Pedro Alvarez
108 - Hank Aaron

Pack 7:
45 - Ryan Howard
57 - McCovey
71 - Kurt (If Ichiro Suzuki can go by his first name, so should Kurt Suzuki)
Jeter 3D!!!!!!
164 - Beachy
181 - Frank Thomas
177 - Hughes
197 - Andre Dawson Rookie Cup

How did I do against the odds? Each blaster had seven packs:
Diamond Anniversary 1:4 (got 2)
Platinum Diamond 1:4 (got 1)
Minis 1:4 (got 2)
3D 1:12 (for 1)
Cloth Sticker 1:12 (none)
Topps Venezuelan 1:12 (got 1)
Rookies 1:6 (got 1)
Stand-ups 1:12 (none)
No autos or additional relics.

So, overall it was a pleasant experience. I wanted to run out and get another blaster, but I decided against it. I'm not a set builder, but I'm tempted here because I really like the mix of players. Hmmm, I'll think it over. In the meantime, if you see any non Yanks you really like/need, let me know and we can work something out.

Donruss Pop-ups

Seeing a few of the Topps Lineage stand-ups brought back fond memories of the late '80s Donruss Pop-up cards. I know that I had many, many of these cards. And I popped 'em all like a kid from Georgetown pops his collar.

I still have two of them - they've been popped but here they are in flattened form.

 

Do you guys still have any of these? What were your favorites?

2011 Topps Lineage

I am a nerd and joined Topps' Facebook page. A few minutes ago, they just released some images of 2011 Topps Lineage, due out in mid-August. The base cards look nice - simple. To me, they look like something from the early 2000's - like an Upper Deck MVP type design. There also looks to be players in retro Topps designs...which is what I thought Heritage was for? The inserts are nice looking though. Here are a few images that they posted: