Around The Card Room, Take 1

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  My highlights included going to the NC State and Georgia Tech basketball game Saturday afternoon with my son and father and getting to do a little writing for this space.

My Wolfpack ended up winning, but it was closer than it needed to be.  

On to baseball stuff.  

My writing this weekend focused on my card room. I drafted a few posts and am obviously publishing this one. Over the past fifteen years, my wife has tried to keep me focused on just sticking with baseball cards and not saving everything. She has been largely successful, but there are still plenty of non-baseball card items that occupy a place in my baseball card room.  

These items are going to be part of my story.  

Today, I am going to show off one of my favorite Durham Bulls bobbleheads. Half of the baseball card room has shelves around it that hold bobbleheads and figurines that were largely giveaways at baseball games. My item for this week comes from this shelf of Durham Bulls stuff.  

Today's item is a Chris Archer bobblehead that was given away at a Rays game in 2016. I did not attend the game and ended up with this item via eBay. I think I might have paid more in shipping than for the bobble, but Archer is one of my favorite former Durham Bulls players.  

Chris Archer not only played for the Durham Bulls, but also lives locally outside of Raleigh. He had an autograph signing a few years back at the USA Baseball National Team complex. Really nice guy. 

He personalized everything. Loved some of these inscriptions.  

These were the autographs he signed for myself and my son.  

My wife also tagged along to get a baseball signed for her brother who is a big Tigers fan.  

I have been waiting for Chris Archer to end up on the Tigers. 

This experience earned my fandom, which is why the bobblehead of Archer in on my shelf. Here is the front of the bobblehead.  

The bobble includes a K counter, which is a neat feature considering Archer's propensity for missing bats. He's averaging more than a strikeout per inning throughout his career with 1,454 Ks in 1,357 innings. Unfortunately, he has not had the best luck with health during his career, so I have not really updated the K Counter the last few years. In 2016, when this bobble was given away, Chris Archer struck out 252 batters. Last year, he struck out 84. Big drop off.  

Injuries stink and it's honestly amazing that he is still even playing.  

I also love that Archer is shown smiling on the bobble. He is a fun player and a happy person while he is pitching. He's not Bob Gibson, Randy Johnson, or Max Scherzer.  

Let's not forget the time Archer created a fake college degree for the Astros mascot so the Rays players could pelt him with water balloons before a game.  

Back of the bobble.  

Love the back of the bobble with the Rays sock pattern. Archer has worn his socks high throughout his career.  

Set Appreciation Post #15 - 2012 Bowman Platinum

It's been awhile since I have made a post about a set.  

I am kind of a softie for some of these products that came out around the time I started blogging.  Bowman Platinum has now been out for 10 years and has gone stale in recent editions.  I think the same can be said for other Bowman spin-off products that Topps created in the early 2010s.  Inception would be in that same boat. Started off great, but its fizzled in recent years.  

Let's go. 

 

Base Set 

The design on this set is decent.  I always worried that Topps would start blending the different Bowman product designs together and make them indistinguishable.  This design has some similarities to the first two Bowman Platinum sets, but I think it has a unique look compared to other Bowman products from 2012.  I like the frames around the picture and the player names.  The Bowman Platinum logo in the middle is not my favorite, but I guess it does make the set more identifiable.  

The majority of cards in this set have more of a blurred out background than the Pineda card.  Not sure why Topps left more of the picture visible on this card.  

The back of the card.  

There is a lot of other "stuff" on the back, which makes the area for stats and the write-up fairly small.  Topps still did a decent job here, especially with the write-up.  It's small, but I like the information that is provided on the cards.  I never love "busy" card backs that are cluttered with junk, but I do appreciate the large card number and player name at the top.  

Maybe I am just saying that because I was sorting out some 2021 Topps cards yesterday.  

Michael Pineda was a really big prospect in 2012.  He's had some decent seasons when he has stayed healthy, but his career highlight has to be the time he was using pine tar during a game and just slathered a bunch of it on this neck.  

This was a few years ago before the crack down on "sticky stuff"  

Pineda was ejected from the game.  

I'm Really Here For The Autographs 

The set design for the 2012 Bowman Platinum is decent, but I didn't buy these cards so I could get a Michael Pineda base card.  I bought these cards for the autographs.  Do people buy Bowman Platinum cards for another reason?  

Yes, the majority of autographs are on stickers, which kind of stinks for this product, but at least they are well blended in most cases.  There were plenty of former Durham Bulls players, some current at the time, who appeared on the autograph checklist.  That made me pretty excited to buy some of Bowman Platinum cards back in the day.    

I parsed it down to two favorite Durham Bulls autographs.  There are more.  

First up is outfielder Mikie Mahtook.  He is still in Triple-A with Charlotte at the moment, which is the White Sox affiliate.  While he has had some good years in the Minors, Mahtook has never been able to do much in the Majors.  Hence, a decade in Triple A.   He had a decent year with the Tigers in 2017, but nothing beyond that.  I think he is best known for losing a home run to a spectacular Alex Gordon catch, but not before high-fiving the first base coach.  

That Royals player in the background is awesome.  

Matt Moore was a great prospect coming up for the Rays and pitched really well in Durham.  In 2013, he won 17 games and finished in the Top 10 in Cy Young voting.  Two Tommy John surgeries later, Matt Moore is 2-4 this season with an ERA over 6 for the Phillies.  Still love his baseball cards.  One of those "what could have been" players. 

One last autograph that I picked up back in the day was a young Rockies third base prospect.

This has always been a nice card, but I was really happy to have it during the past year.  Saved me a little time, probably a little money too.  

Best Non-Cardinal/Non-Durham Bulls Card 

During the pandemic, I learned that people are also crazy for second year Mike Trout cards.  They are actually expensive in some cases.  Pretty wild.  When did this happen?  I feel like I need to put all of my early Mike Trout cards into sleeves and top loaders.  I don't really collect Mike Trout cards, but I have a ton of them from 2011 and 2012.  I could probably sell them all and pay off my car loan.  

This is a nice card, but it's my second best Bowman Platinum card of Mike Trout.  

This one is nice too.  

Best Durham Bulls Card

This was a really hard decision.  If I had to rank sets based on Durham Bulls content, this set would likely be a strong contender for the Top 10.  It's not just the cards, but also the names.  I loved the Bulls teams between the 2009 Triple A National Championship team and the 2013 International League Championship team.  Some of my favorite players.  

It's really hard to decide, so I am going to choose two cards.  

Hellickson is one of the most decorated Minor League pitchers in recent history.  He won the USA Today Minor League Player of the Year Award in 2010, International League Pitcher of the Year in 2010, Triple-A National Championship Game MVP in 2009, and was the starting pitcher in the 2010 Futures All-Star Game.  

In 2011, he pitched for the Rays.  Hellickson had a sub-3 ERA and won the American League Rookie of the Year.  Similar to Moore, Hellickson had a lot of arm problems and ended up being an end of rotation pitcher for a bunch of different teams.  

Next.  

Archer was on the Durham Bulls in 2012.  He's also from Raleigh, which makes him pretty popular in these parts.  This is actually from the short-printed prospects section of the set and would have been a favorite card of mine back in 2012.  Archer is still playing, but his career has really been set back by arm injuries.  Seems to be a theme here.  

In recent years, Archer has given the baseball world the fight between the Pirates and Reds where Yasiel Puig tried to fight the entire Pirates team.  Archer actually threw a pitch at Derek Dietrich, but somehow Puig was the angriest guy on the field.  I love Tucker Barnhardt holding on to Puig's shoe while he is trying to punch five different Pirates players at the same time.  

There are a bunch of people on the internet who love this picture and have turned it into art work.  

Wil Myers could have been a possible third, but he is on the Royals in this set.  Meh.  

Best Cardinals Card 

The Cardinals had a heavy presence in this set.  They were coming off a World Series win and had a lot of name prospects at this point.  Oscar Taveras, Carlos Martinez, and Matt Adams all had autographs in the set.  There were also cards of Matt Holliday, Lance Berkman, Allen Craig, and David Freese.  

I am going to choose none of those players and go with a role player from the 2011 World Series team instead.  Bench player the first half of the year, starter after the Cardinals ditched Colby Rasmus in the middle of the season.  

Underrated Cardinal, Jon Jay.  

Topps always made really good cards of Jon Jay early in his career.  The balanced it out by ignoring him the second half of his career.  

How Does It Compare? 

At the beginning of the post when I said, "I am kind of a softie for some of these products that came out when I first started blogging", what I meant to say is that I am a softie for the autographed cards.  I have done 14 of these posts over the last year, there is no way that a generic-looking Bowman spin off can be in the top half of the sets.

Right?  

What's it better than?  It's clearly not the worst set I have reviewed.  It's more exciting than the 2000 Topps set, but those cards are only interesting when compared to watching an episode of the Pat Boone show.  The 2000 UD Ionix set seems like a good neighborhood.  

The Ionix set had better inserts.  While the quantity of autographs offered by Upper Deck was smaller, the players were actual Major Leaguers.  I love Jon Jay and all the other Cardinals players mentioned as signers in the 2012 Bowman Platinum set, but was an autograph of Scott Rolen in Ionix.  There were also no sticker autographs.  

I am going to place this set 12 after Ionix, but before the boring 2000 Topps set.  

15. 2000 Pacific Paramount Update 

14. 2010 Topps USA Baseball  

13. 2000 Topps 

12. Bowman Platinum 

11. 2000 UD Ionix  

10. 2002 Bowman 

9. 1988 Donruss 

8. 1995 Emotion XL 

7. 2017 Topps Heritage Minor League

6. 1998 Topps TEK 

5. 1986 Topps Mini League Leaders 

4. 2001 Fleer EX 

3. 1979 Kellogg's 

2. 2002 Topps Super Teams

1. 1983 Topps 

The Pirates? It Could Be Worse.

My first run in with Chris Archer came back in 2012 while he was pitching for the Durham Bulls.  He was a fun player to watch and quickly became one of my favorite prospects.  I was fortunate enough to see a bunch of his starts while he was pitching in Durham. 

The bullpens at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park are on the field and close to the seats.  When I attended games where Archer pitched, I would always try to arrive early and take in his pre-game throwing and bullpen session.  He has great stuff, a live arm.   

Archer was a very popular member of the Bulls.  In part because of his on-field talent, but he also grew up and went to high school in Clayton, North Carolina which is short drive from Raleigh.  A few years ago I was able to actually meet him at the USA Baseball facility during the offseason.  Sort of an under the radar free signing. 

I do not do a lot of in person signing, not really much into tracking down autographs, but I will go to free signings.  Archer was very out going.  He sat and talked with the people who came out to see him, answered questions, and took the time to personalize items.  I got a ball signed and he wrote a short message on the side of the ball.  

My son, who was three at the time got a Durham Bulls card signed by Archer.  It's the only baseball card that he has owned that has not met some terrible ending.  The smudge is from the day it was signed.  

Needless to say, I have collected a few Chris Archer cards over the years.  However, with him now moving over to the Pirates it might be a little bit harder.  The Pirates are not exactly low on my list of teams, certainly not the Cubs, but they are in the same division as the Cardinals.  That complicates things a little bit.  Plus, I would have really liked to have seen that Cardinals trade for Archer.  That was a reported possibility.  

It could be worse, I could be seeing cards of Archer on the Cubs or Brewers.  I will still dabble in Archer cards from here on out, but I will still primarily focus on cards from the Rays years.  Since we are at the end of an era, I wanted to take a few minutes and share out a few of my favorites from the past seven to eight years of Chris Archer cards.  A little bit of everything.  

Speaking of Archer cards on the Cubs.....

First up is a 2010 Bowman Platinum card of Chris Archer.  Everyone remembers him as a Cub?  He actually never pitched for them, but was in their Minor League system for awhile.  The Cubs traded him to the Rays for Matt Garza.  Not always a good topic of conversation with Cubbie fans, so I like to bring it up every once in awhile.  It's not nearly as bad of a trade as most make it out to be, but still not good. 

Plenty of good cards in this set.  Plenty of sticker autographs in this set too, but fortunately the Archer signature is on the actual card.  I would still own it if were on a sticker though. 

I have barely touched the whole patches and swatches and pieces of stuff that players might, or might not have worn at some point scene over the past few years.  However, this card is pretty ridiculous.  Would not surprise me that Archer wore this jersey for 5 minutes once, but at the same time maybe he wore it more.  Possibly even in a game.  

Minor Leaguers no longer wear these patches, but they used to be on the back collar of their jerseys.  Here is a picture of Archer wearing a jersey with the patch, it's above the flag.  

At minimum, the card is an interesting conversation piece.  

Archer is a pretty good signer, lots of autographs out there, but this 2013 Heritage autograph is easily my favorite.  Clean design, nice signature, not much not to like with this card.  There are shinier autographs, low serial numbers, autographs with huge patch pieces, but I think that sometimes simple is better.  

Favorite insert, actually a parallel.....

is this acetate card from the 2014 Topps set.  Great looking card, I love the colored front with the black and white back.  If I had to own just one Archer card it would be a coin toss between this card and the Heritage autograph.  

That's it for the moment.  I will continue to follow Archer's career as a Pirate and wish him many wins against the Cubs, Reds, and Brewers.  Let's just stick to some no decisions against the Cardinals.  Either way, I will continue to support your tweets about books and bookstores.....

If I drank coffee I would follow those tweets too.  Later Archer.  

Things I Am Sorting Part 9

A whole bunch of things to run through and catch up tonight, so let's start out with a card connected to yesterday's post.  I was hoping this card would arrive in time to put together with the Carlos Martinez and Blake Snell card, but it was a few steps too slow.  So, here is one more Holiday Relic from the Big Blue Box Store......

Archer is one of my favorite Durham Bulls, out of the Rays relics on the checklist, this one was a must have if I am going to put these into the collection.  The snowflakes in the corners of the card are a little bit more visible on this card than the two yesterday.  Cool picture of Archer too.

Next up is a card from my latest set project.  I am working on the 2002 Bowman Futures Games Autographed Relics.  Nice looking set that I am piecing together.  First addition to the set since I announced the project is kind of the oddball of the set....

The set is a relic set, like the vast majority of Topps cards produced from All-Star Game related events, the cards contain pieces of jersey.  For whatever reason Toby Hall is a game used base card.  I have no idea why and I am sure that I will never know.  It's still a really cool card and added bonus, Hall was on the Durham Bulls at the time of the Futures Games and the production of these cards.  He was a serviceable Major League catcher, but has a career OPS of .899 and a batting average of .326 as a member of the Bulls.  

I will cross this card off of the checklist.  One third of the set is done.  

Next is another set, but this one is a new release and it's already completely put together.  We are going to do a little compare and contrast with the cards.  

I picked up a copy of the much ballyhooed Gold Label set.  If you really like this set, hear me through until the end.  It starts out rough.  First, this set is not nearly the quality of the original Gold Label sets.  I love the design, on first glance I loved these, but then I held one in my hand.  The card stock the cards is printed on is cheap and the edges of the cards are chippy.

The original Gold Label cards, or any of the original run through the early 2000s, blow these cards away in terms of quality.  The card stock is thick, the edges are not chipped, and the gloss finish is much nicer.  This is a card from the original.....

If there was a way for me to allow each of the readers of this blog to reach out and touch these two baseball cards you would feel the difference immediately. Unfortunately that sort of technology does not exist, so you are going to have to take my word for it, or go get your own Gold Label cards.

The backs of the cards are quite different too.  I do not talk a lot about card backs, but I always enjoyed the backs of some of the late 1990s and early 2000s set.  Many of them had nice finishes, color photos, and interesting designs.  The original Gold Label back.....

Very well done 1998 Topps card designers.  A little busy, but overall I like that the stats are a little different and you have the nice color picture of the player.  Not sure what I would get rid of, maybe the factoid or the name at the top (I didn't know BJ worked out with JJK, but I did know his name was Brian Jordan), but the card seems a little busy. Again, I really like these backs though....

and the Gold Label.  It's not bad, but this is supposed to be a nice product.  Where is the effort?  This is a passable card back, but I want another picture of Manny Machado.  I want some cool stats, like his average exit velocity on extra base hits.  Give me something.  Anything.

Sigh.  Let's talk about one more thing.  This can be applied across the board to all Topps products, I just had never expressed this opinion before.  It's been lingering in my head....

This is a 1990s remake set.  There are current players in the set and then there are older players in the set who have retired.  I get the modern players, while the original Gold Label did not have retired players in the set, I am accepting of the concept of having older players.  However.....

lets look at two Braves cards.  I like Hank Aaron.  I like Greg Maddux.  Not really.  One of the players would seem to fit a little bit better into a 1990s remake set than the other.  Again, I like Hank, but you are not a 1990s player.   The set has Randy Johnson in a Mariners uniform and Mike Piazza in a Mets uni which I really like a lot.  It has Cal Ripken in an Orioles uni, but it's an 80s Orioles uni.  cartoon bird, not the black hats with the serious orange bird.  

Just my two cents, but I would love to see remake sets with past players match up a little bit better.  As a 1990s collector I think I would have enjoyed the checklist a little better if I had been able to see some good players from that decade.  Give me Albert Belle, Sammy Sosa, Brady Anderson with sideburns.  

Really, the design of the cards in Gold Label is nice and I think this is a set that is worth owning if you can find a copy of the set on the cheap.  The boxes are not too bad as far as cost goes, but a few autographs and a copy of the set can be had for roughly the same amount of money.  

Really, the back of the card design is probably me just being nit picky and the card stock thing is just kind of how cards are nowadays.  Some of the recent Five Star sets had some nice thick card stock, but even that has thinned out over the last year or two.  

Trading Card Co-Op

It's been awhile since I have had a chance to visit a local card shop here Raleigh.  It's been almost a year and half since the area has had a shop.  I have enjoyed hanging out at the card shows that are at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds during the hiatus.  There are always plenty of good cards at those shows, and it's fun to meet and talk to all the different collectors, but I have still missed having a card shop to call my own.  

A few of the collectors, who run some of the booths at the local card shows, have been working on a plan to bring back a card shop to the area.  After a lot of planning and hard work their shop, the Trading Card Co-Op, opened this weekend.  Sure, there was a tropical storm lingering around North Carolina during the beginning half of the weekend, but that was not going to stop me, and a bunch of other collectors, from making a trip out to the Grand Opening.    

If you live in the area, or are visiting the Raleigh area, the shop is in the Royal Building on Hillsborough Street across from Meredith College.  It's in the same building as The Brickhouse restaurant and Ben & Jerry's.  A convenient location, just a stop light down from 440.  

The shop has a really cool feel and has a little bit different set-up from other card shops.  The store is inside the building and collectors are welcomed by a glass facade, which makes up two of the four outside walls of the shop, and a nicely designed store logo on the front door.  

The inside of the Trading Co-Op has a really cool concept and feel.  From the outside doors it looks like any other card shop:  Boxes of new products on shelves, tables with boxes of cards, display cabinets, etc.  However, once you get inside the front door and start looking at the store's inventory and talking to the owners you will see why this is a unique and must see hobby shop.  

When I first visited the store I spent some time talking with Jimmy, who ran Big D's Card Shop and was also a fixture at many of the local card shows, along with James who is also a fixture (and organizer) at the local card shows.  There are several other collectors who frequent the local card shows who have also an interest in the Trading Card Co-Op, which is really where the shop takes on its flavor.  

The Trading Card Co-Op has much more of a card show feel than a card shop feel.  The display cabinets are each stocked by one of the steak-holders in the store.  There is literally something there for everyone.  When I visited on Saturday morning, I had a fairly busy day planned, and can honestly say that the forty-five minutes to hour that I spent in the store were insufficient to take in everything that I would have normally done on a visit to a card shop.  

Again, a stand alone brick and mortar card shop might be doable in that amount of time, but a good card show?  You can't pass up a good table, I have been there.  Only, at the Trading Card Co-Op you are looking in the standard card shop display cases.  

I started out with Jimmy's cabinet since he always has some Durham Bulls goodies lurking inside for me.  You can't see it too clearly from the picture, but there are some nice Blake Snell cards on the bottom shelf.  Jimmy is also the resident expert on the Carolina Hurricanes and always has a nice mix of hockey cards.  

I had actually done a little work with Jimmy on a few cards the week before the store had opened and picked up two nice cards, one Cardinal and one former Durham Bull. 

 Cardinals player first:

I have a bunch of the Cardinals autographs out of the Past Time Pennants set, but did not have the Gibby autograph.  Always a nice signature, plus he is wearing his trademark jacket underneath his jersey.  Jim Edmonds rolled like that for awhile too.  

Durham Bulls player:

I have not done much with memorabilia cards this year, but this one was too nice to pass up.  The card has the authentication sticker on it that Topps started using last year with the Strata cards.  I am typing this post while holding a baby, that's been most of my day, so I still need to look up the code to see when Archer wore this jersey.  

So, this is where the card shop feel kicks in.  After finding a pair of nice cards from one seller, I moved over a cabinet and found a few more nice things around the shop.  I picked up an Aledmys Diaz Optics rookie card from James.....

who had a stocked cabinet filled with all sorts of great baseball, football, and basketball cards along with some great autographed memorabilia.   If my budget had been a little larger I could have had a pretty fun time picking out some of the cards in here.....

Really I could go on and on about each of the different sections of the store, but I am not writing a dissertation here.  Let's summarize it this way:  The inventory is really strong in each of the cabinets and the collectors running the store are very knowledgable.  Here's a look at some of the other cabinets......

This is one of the cabinets (above) that I could have spent some more time on.  I see that Rodon on the top shelf.  Let's hope its there next week.  Some very nice hockey and football stuff in here too.  

This cabinet (above) was baseball heavy with a lot of nice modern stuff on the top and some vintage stuff underneath on the bottom two shelves. The vintage cards looked sharp.  The cabinet below had some great basketball autographs and cards, a little soccer, and a nice Piscotty card on top. 

a cabinet of autographs......

and more...

                  

They even have a cabinet with gaming cards. 

If I had spent another hour or two at the store I could have sat down at each of the cabinets and done a write up on each of them and had a lot of material for my post.  I feel that way moving from table to table to table at a card show sometimes too.  I picked out a few cards, but could have easily bought something from each and every cabinet in the store and the pieces would have been strong additions to my collection.  

There is even a section in the middle of the store with boxes sorted out by teams for collectors looking for some more inexpensive single cards.  I found a cool old Pacific Darryl Kile parallel numbered out of 70...

The store also sells packs and boxes, which is the direction I went, since my time was limited and I have been a little behind on my 2016 cards.  I missed the basketball, football, and hockey boxes, but in the picture at the bottom you can see the shelves wrap around most of the store.  They also post collectors opening boxes and their hits on their Facebook page. 

I decided to work on Stadium Club and Finest.  I know the post is getting long at this point, but everyone wants to know what came out of the boxes.... 

 Let's start out with the Stadium Club.  

The base set probably deserves its own post, or two, which it will get in the coming days.  I pulled two autographs out of the box.  First up, is Reds catcher Kyle Waldrop.

Waldrop has been in Triple A with the Louisville Bats for the last few years.  The Reds had him up the last week or two, but I believe he's been sent back down to the International League.  The Bats are out of the playoffs, so I am guessing that he might be done for the season after this weekend.  

Which brings me to my other autograph....

which belongs to Rangers pitching prospect Luke Jackson.  Kind of a different looking card, so I had to flip over to the back which revealed that I pulled.....

a 1/1.  While Jackson has not spent a ton of time with the Rangers this year, the former first round draft pick, is still rated by most publications as a Top 20 prospect in the deep Texas system.  In fact, several have him ahead of Michael Matuella, former Duke pitcher, who once was considered a candidate to go first overall in the 2014 draft.  

and the Finest.  I will do more pictures, less words....

all very nice, so the two autographs had a very strong Durham Bulls flavor to them.  First up is Andruw Jones.  Always a very nice looking signature....

and the final autograph was my favorite card I landed from the first weekend of the Trading Card Co-Op: 

This is just a great looking cards.  Not sure it needs a lot of explanation.  

Overall, I had a great time during my brief stop at the Trading Card Co-Op, but I am looking forward to my return visit in the very near future.  There is so much in the store and it is such a cool concept to have a card show set up and feel.  If you live, or have the chance to visit, the Raleigh area I highly recommend a visit.