It's Been A Minute, Evan Longoria

I think my audience has turned over during the past decade of writing in this space, but when I originally started writing I had a really healthy collection of Evan Longoria cards. He was the most noteworthy Durham Bulls alumni in the Majors. My Longoria collection was not quite to the level of my current Blake Snell collection, but it was close.  

There are autographs......

Autographed patches. 

Manufactured patches. 

and whole letters off the back of his jersey. 

After getting traded off the Rays, my Evan Longoria collection came to a halt. I have not really touched his cards over the past six or seven years, but decided to go back and fill in a few holes. Nothing I am willing to put in my collecting goals for the year, but here we are with an important early card I missed adding to my collection years ago.  

This is his 2006 Bowman Sterling autograph.......

This used to be a fairly expensive card. There were nicer options at the time that were on-card autographs, so I skipped over this one. Several of the "missing" Longoria cards from my collection are early sticker autographs I did not choose to buy specifically because they were sticker autographs.  I actually like the design of this card and the sticker is farily well-blended for having a white background.  

More Longoria card later.  

The Retail Card Aisles of Northern Michigan - Part 2

On the previous post, I shared a few of the cards that I picked up while visiting my in-laws in northern Michigan. The card aisles of the two large box stores in town, Meijer and Wal-Mart, both had more packs of cards than I have seen living outside of Raleigh during the past year and a half to two years.  

A quick refresher. 

 

The Meijer card aisle is on the left, Wally World on the right.  

For this post, I am just breaking the cards into brand rather than by location purchased.

First up is another pack of the Panini Chronicles cards. Again, I am still confused as to whether or not these cards all come from a single set or they are different sets packaged together. I don't care enough about Panini to research the answer and I fear it's a rip off of the 1998 Donruss Collections product.  

If you don't know that one, the card manufacturer Pinnacle re-released all of their Donruss and Leaf products at the end of that year, but they put some foil finish on the cards. In my opinion......

I have three highlights from this pack of cards. 

On the left is Akil Baddoo. I saw him with the Tigers this summer and enjoyed his style of play. I am looking forward to picking up some more of his cards this year. More Akil later in the post. 

In the middle is Clayton Kershaw. This is the same style card as AJ Puk and Gregory Polanco cards from the previous post. Again, the card has a nice finish on the surface and the thick card stock is always a plus. The Pete Alonso is another acetate card, but it's different from the three in the previous post. Are the acetate cards supposed to have variations like the Topps Tek cards?  I love acetate baseball cards, but the line pattern on this one is boring.  

Next up is a few cards from Topps Archives. I have really become torn on this product in recent years. Topps has gone completely overboard with reusing former designs in current products. At some point they are going to completely ruin the Topps Heritage product. However, for the moment I still really enjoy the autographs and a few of the inserts in this product. Topps does come up with some nice cards here.  

Topps did a really good job of picking out photos for the 1970s players. Not a Nolan Ryan fan, but good job putting him in an Angels uniform. Dick Allen and Mike Schmidt have great 1970s hair. The uniforms in the picture are an added bonus. The red version of the White Sox uniforms is underrated. I felt like the 1970s players had the best looking cards in this year's set.  

Next up is a pair of Movie Poster inserts. These are really neat.  

Most of the cards are team themed, like the A's card on the left. However, I do really like the Black Aces poster card.  The black and white photo with the red background really pops. The term "Black Aces" was coined by long-time Indians and Twins pitcher, Mudcat Grant. There are players who fit Grant's description left off of the card. One of those players was Grant himself.  Give credit where credit is due.  This would be a better card if Grant had been included.

Just my two cents.  

I did not land many Cardinals cards in my packs of Archives. My only two options were Lou Brock and Paul DeJong. I am sorry, but Paul DeJong is a no at the moment.  

Lou is an easy choice.  

My favorite Durham Bulls card....

I am going with this Evan Longoria insert, but let's talk about this card for a minute. This is card is the direction that Topps should take the Archives set.  This is a modernized version of a 1989 Topps Big card. They were a kid-friendly oddball set released that ran for several years. 

This is the original design.  

Topps always uses past oddball designs for insert sets in Archives. They should just make them the base set design for the entire product. Small change, but it would help to preserve the former flagship brand designs for future Topps Heritage sets. Again, just my opinion.  

Onto the last group of cards. These are out of the Update Series. I got two of these box toppers.  

I like the Satchel Paige card.  Big Papi.  Meh.  

I also ended up with two more Akil Baddoo rookie cards. Did I mention I hate when Topps overuses former designs?  I am going to ignore that for the 1986 Topps card on the left. That is a good looking baseball card.  

I also picked up a pair of Luis Patino rookie cards. He has been my go-to Durham Bulls player of sorts during the past year. However, the card on the right is a little ridiculous.  

Topps made Rookie Debut cards for a handful of players in the 2021 Update set. Read the small print there and you can see that Luis Patino actually made his Major League Debut in August of 2020. He was traded to the Rays in December of 2020, started the year in the Minors, and was called up by the Rays. I get the card on the left since Patino was both traded and called up to the Majors in the past year. I do not understand why he is getting a Debut card from a previous season.  

Favorite Cardinals cards.  

Ignore the previous comments about Topps reusing old designs here too.  The Molina has a Chrome finish, Arenado and Carlson are the regular card stock. I love the 1992 Topps cards. 

Favorite former Durham Bulls players in this set....

I am going with Blake Snell and Jake Cronenworth.  Easy choice.  

That's it for the card aisle. 

My Annual Post About A Relic Card

I am always amazed that card companies still make relic cards.  In the span of 20 years we have gone from collectors knocking themselves over to own a small inch sized piece of Tony Gwynn's jersey fixed on the front of an Upper Deck card, to having to sort through dozens of Mark Grudzielanek game used bat cards to find the decent cards in the dollar bins at card shows.

The old ones are still great cards in my opinion.

Mass produced, problems with the relics actually being authentic, companies putting "event" used jerseys on cards, etc.  There are dozens of reasons that people stopped collecting relic cards, but I am surprised that the little square and circular pieces have not just completely gone away.  There will likely always be a place for the premium patch pieces companies use for high end products, but the small piece relics are basically irrelevant.    

I have seen a few products in recent years that have gone to using authentication stickers on relics.  Not sure how popular I would say the cards were, the ones in my collection are there strictly because they were also autographed.

Doubtful I would have a Dallas Keuchel relic card just because.

Welp.  I was purchasing a Jim Edmonds card off of Ebay, just because who wouldn't want to own a card of Jimmy Ballgame wearing some awesome 1990s pinstriped Angels uniform.

I owned one of these hats in college, definitely a go to hat in the collection.  I always check out sellers other items when I am after a card.  Why pay for shipping multiple times?  That's when I ended up with a relic card of Evan Longoria.

The authentication sticker, which tiny, is almost as big as relic swatch.  This card is out of Tribute, which is a nice product, but I see no reason why this won't be in dollar bins soon.  The one redeeming quality about the card happened when I typed the number into the MLB Authentication page.....

The relic comes from a 2016 game between the Rays and Yankees, which did not end very well for the Rays.......

However, this is a Longoria relic, and he did have a hit in the game.....

so at least the relic is not from a game where he just sat on the bench.  Until next year relic cards.....

Evan Longoria's Tiny Head

I got a really nice card last weekend of former Durham Bulls star Evan Longoria.  It pains me a little bit to say former Ray, or Giants third baseman.  Still in denial.  He will always be a favorite player and I still intend on collecting his cards no matter where he is playing baseball.  My more recent Longoria cards have been more towards the high end of the spectrum, although Longoria cards are not really all that expensive at this point.

This was my last Longoria card......

which was from last year's Five Star set.  

The new Longoria card also comes from a high end product, but it's a set that Topps retired a few years back.  I liked these cards....

out of Topps Sterling.  

These were always attractive looking cards, although I never really liked that they had sticker autographs.  Sterling was always a product that I never actually opened myself, just bought the single cards off of Ebay.  I like the appearance of this Longoria Sterling card, there is just one thing that seems off about this card.  

The autograph is nice, though it's on a sticker, the relic pieces look fine too.  Card design is decent.  However, the picture of Longoria on the top of the card is somewhat ridiculous.  He's tiny.  I almost wonder why Topps even included a picture on this card.  

Was this standard on Sterling cards?  I consulted my card collection for answers.  I found a few.  

Bernie Williams?  Normal.  

Pujols?  Normal.

A-Rod?  Normal.  

Sterling cards from other years?

Normal and......

normal.

I understand that the Longoria card has a whole bunch of relics, and an autograph on the card.  The space around all of that stuff is pretty small, but the Sterling Longoria card has to have the smallest head shot of any card that I can remember.

While I was looking through my for my Sterling cards, I actually found another Longoria card with a limited amount of space for the picture....

even a card with a giant letter smacked in the middle of the card has a bigger picture of Longoria than the Sterling card.  

Sure, it's a card with a tiny picture, but in the end a Longoria autograph with a print run of ten is nice no matter how goofy someone at Topps went with the design.  

Friday Five: My Five Favorite Autographed Longoria Cards

I was sort of expecting the Rays might trade away long-time third baseman Evan Longoria this offseason, but it was still rough actually seeing it happen last Wednesday.  I started following his career after he made an appearance with the Durham Bulls towards the end of the 2007 season.  Longoria is easily the best player to have ever donned the Rays uniform and provided some of the best moments in franchise history.  

He helped the Rays make their only World Series appearance in 2008 by hitting 6 home runs during the American League Division and Championship Series against the White Sox and Red Sox.  My personal favorite moment was his walk off home run on the last day of the 2011 season which put the Rays into the playoffs that year

I have had a good time collecting Longoria's baseball cards over years.  There are plenty of nice ones out there, so for this post I am going to stick with a few autographed cards which I have enjoyed having in my collection.  Maybe next week I can do another post with the great non-autographed Longoria cards in my collection.  

Honorable Mention:  2013 Topps Tier One Autograph/Patch

I have a few Tier One autographs from a few different years.  Longoria has appeared in the product in some way every year that Topps has put out the product since 2011.  Most years the autographs are on-card, which is one reason why I usually like to pick up an autograph or two out of that product every year.  I really like the design of the 2013 Tier One autograph below, but I cannot put it in my top 5 based on the fact that the card is a sticker autograph.  I love the patch piece, I love the picture, I love the design, but I am bothered by the sticker.  Small thing, but this was a tough list to get down to five.  If I made a list of my favorite sticker autographs of Longoria, this card would be first.  

5.  2014 Topps Tribute 

Tribute is another product that has been a mix of sticker and on-card autographs over the years, sometimes even within a year.  Most of the relic cards from this set that have autographs are stickers.  I have a few different autographs out of Tribute, but this simple autographed card is my favorite of the group.  I like the finishes and design of the card.  It has a nice glossy front and a little bit thicker card stock.  Tribute is also one of those products that has all sorts of different colored parallels, some of them can look a little goofy at times.  I like that this card is low key in background color.

4.  2016 Topps The Mint 

The Mint was one of those ridiculously priced products that was something along the lines of a four digit number for a box.  There were several autographs that I looked into picking up from The Mint, but I was happy that the cards ended up being reasonable in price after a few weeks of the cards sitting on Ebay.  I love the darker background and the on-card autograph.  I sort of wish that the autograph was signed in a different color ink, gold or silver would have been a good look, but the blue still is nice on this card. 

3.  2017 Topps Five Star Autograph/Patch 

This is a recent addition and there is a recent blog post about this card.  Bascially, I have really slowed down on the whole relic card scene.  I don't go after them, I don't trade for them, I don't spend money on them.  I even feel sort of in different when I land one in a pack of cards.  However, this card is something a little different.  I like the jumbo patch which is from the nameplate of Longoria's jersey.  Very nice card that filled a void in my collection of Longoria cards. 

2.  2009 Topps Allen & Ginter Evan Longoria Autograph 

Not the flashiest card.  There is no foil or fancy card stock.  Allen & Ginter is one of my favorite products every year and I really like the framed autographed cards.  Longoria has other Allen & Ginter autograph that are fancy with jersey pieces.  He also has another framed Ginter autograph, but this is my favorite one in my collection.  

1.  2008 Topps Chrome Red Hot Rookies Autograph

I really love the 2008 Topps set.  The little circles at the top are a neat design element that make these cards unique and easy to recognize.   There are always autographed rookie cards in the Topps Chrome set, but the Red Hot Rookies set was actually a redemption in this product.  Not sure when Topps started these cards, or if/when they stopped.  I really hate redemption cards, so this was an early Longoria rookie that was a more recent addition to my collection.   Well worth the wait though, this is my favorite Evan Longoria card.  

Half An N, Sliver of An O

Five Star is one of those products that I won't touch while it is sitting in a pack on a shelf in a card store.  I would likely spend the $125-$140 for a one box, with two autographs, and pull something along the lines of a Terry Pendleton autograph.

I paid something like $10 for this card and I love it.  I would just be irked if I spent that much on a box of cards and pulled something like this fabulous card of the former Cardinals and Braves third baseman.  So, I let other people go ahead and open the packs of Five Star.  I just sit here in my office and watch the listings on Ebay.


I am willing to spend for some nice autographs out of this product.  I still really like the original set from 2012.  This is one of my favorite cards that I picked up that year......

So much to love about this card.

I know that the Cabrera card is a relic/autograph card, but I have really gone away from the relic cards in the past two years.  I just really care about the autographs.  I usually try to pick up two-three Five Star cards every year:  one Cardinals player, one Durham Bulls, and one just generic good player.

I have already picked up a Mark McGwire Five Star card this year, so that might count as my Cardinals card for this year.  It was not a current year card, put out in 2014.  I am not sure I really feel the need to pick up another Matt Carpenter or Aledmys Diaz autograph.  Diaz was actually just traded to the Blue Jays

So this is likely it.....

unless I can find a cool Alex Reyes.  I have no desire to touch another Grichuk Cardinals card, let alone spend time money, or trade other cards to get one of his autographs.

So, that really left me with a Durham Bulls player to track down.  In the past I have found some nice cards of Blake Snell, Andruw Jones, and Evan Longoria.  Again, I usually avoid relic cards, but my favorite Durham Bulls Five Star card that I own is a Longoria booklet that I picked up out of the original 2012 set.

I hate scanning booklets.

There are usually some nice relic cards in the Five Star product, but they often carry some exorbitant premium that goes beyond the point of making them a worthwhile purchase when compared to the price of a base autograph card.

With that being said, I am not against the idea of still collecting relic cards.  Which brings me to my Durham Bulls card out of Five Star for this year.....

I actually found someone who had pulled this card on Twitter and was going to post it on Ebay.  Always a good way to find cards.  The seller doesn't have to mess with listing fees, I don't have to mess with sitting there at the end of the auction hoping not to get sniped.  

Not sure that I love the green tint on the outside edges of the bottom portion of the card, but the top half with Longoria's picture and signature is solid.  I know the 50/50 serial number is one of those Ebay 1/1 things, but I am rather in different to that.  Sometimes a player's jersey number can be cool.  

The patch piece on the right side is from the N on his name plate, with the left-side relic being the bottom portion of the O.  After scanning the completed auctions on Ebay it looks like Topps only used the name plates off of Longoria's jersey for the relics in Five Star.  Some of the relics are blue with white letters, the rest are white with blue letters.  The premium patch pieces, low serial numbers, are the MLB logo from the neck line.  

I am fine with my Half an N and a sliver of an O.  Makes for a nice card and I didn't pay an arm and a leg for it.  

A Few Thoughts On 2017 Topps......

The 2017 Topps base set dropped last week and I went out and picked up a jumbo box and a few loose retail packs.  Always a fun day when the Topps set drops and I had a blast opening up my packs.  Here's my quick take on the newest Topps product....

First, when I bought my jumbo box of Topps I also ended up picking up two silver packs of cards.  The silver packs were available at hobby shops and were given to customers buying boxes 2017 Topps.  Each pack contained four cards of 1987 style cards with a chrome finish.

My best card was Dansby Swanson.....

My scanner did not want to make a straight picture, sorry it's crooked.  I also landed Max Scherzer, Orlando Arcia, Madison Bumgarner, Manny Machado, Aaron Nola, Yu Darvish, and Nolan Ryan.  Very nice cards in my opinion.  You cannot really show card stock on a scan, but they are a little thicker than the normal chrome cards.  The back of the card has a little different finish then the front, but again really nice cards.  

On to the base cards.....

My first card of 2017 belonged to Marlins pitcher A.J. Ramos.  I am still a little contemplating the design, but it is definitely different for a Topps base set.  It looks like something from Upper Deck or some other card company.  I will get back to the card backs on another post.  I am a little snarky about it.  

Buybacks....

There seem to be new buybacks every year now with some sort of foil stamp.  The stamps are different colors, blah blah blah.  I saw that there is a pretty diverse group of players included in the buybacks this year, always hopeful a Ray Lankford card will pop up, but apparently not this year.

The relic cards are thicker this year, but I am kind of tired of the whole relic thing.  I know a lot of other people are too.  At least it's Longoria.....

Also a little tired of the manu-patch, relic cards that seem to be in every Topps box now.  I thought all of the All-Star type cards were in the Traded/Update set?  They have spilled over into series 1 now too?  I guess they made the metal relic thing two sided, that's my positive take away here....

and finally my two best pulls from the box.  Parallel first.....

I haven't really done anything with Gary Sanchez before now, I know he's popular with collectors, but I don't think there are many of his cards hanging out around my house.  This seems like a good addition for my first good card of the Yankees catcher.

Last up my autograph...

can't end on a better note than pulling an autograph of a player you have started collecting in the past year.  I am hoping for big things out of Alex this year, would have picked this card up at some point anyway, glad I can save a little time and energy.