Not $400.

I am old enough to remember when boxes of Topps Finest Baseball cards were not $400.

Looks like I am also now old enough to remember when they were $400.

Greedflation at its finest.  

Luckily, for us collectors on a budget, there are people who buy $400 boxes and sell the single cards on Ebay. Finest comes with two autographs per $400 box, so I started out trying to find a nice pair of autographs for less than $400.  I ended up find 3 autographs rather than two. The total cost of the three cards was less than $20 after shipping. All three cards fit perfectly into my little collection of baseball cards.  

First, an autograph of Giants catcher Patrick Bailey. 

I have several other cards of Bailey in my collection from his time playing at NC State and USA Baseball, but this is my first autograph of him since he turned pro a few years back. Patrick has shortened his signature down considerable over the years.......

but I still love this Finest autograph. Beyond attending NC State, Patrick Bailey also was the Giants catcher for Blake Snell's no-hitter. I really need to post some more Patrick Bailey autographs. Maybe next Monday......

The Bailey autograph was the majority of the not-quite-$20 I spent on these three cards.  

Next up is a pair of Durham Bulls players, one current and one former.  

Curtis Mead is a consensus Top 100 prospect with Baseball Prospectus ranking him highest at 42. Mead actually spent several weeks up with the Rays, but struggled with his bat before being demoted back to Durham. I am a big fan of the Australian third baseman and think he has a bright future somewhere. 

Last card. 

Tristan Gray was on the Durham Bulls the past three seasons. He hit a ton of home runs for them, but never got much of a chance with the Rays. Gray is an older prospect at this point, late twenties, and was traded to the Marlins in the off-season.  I am kind of surprised that he is not on the Marlins on all of his 2024 cards, although I think it's a bit of a surprise that Topps included him in any of their products. 

Anywho, his cards are very inexpensive and I enjoyed watching him play for the Bulls. 

Buy This Guy

Baseball card people love prospects. It's just really hard to figure out which Minor Leaguers are going to end up being good Major Leaguers. So much money lost. In fact, I was playing around with some Delmon Young cards just a few days back. Going to make a post about those later this week.  

I try to spend very little on prospects, but let me sell you on one of my current favorite Minor League players.  

I have posted a few Jonathan Aranda cards over the past year, but not really given him much of a write-up. Honestly, he does not have very many cards, nor is he a very highly regarded prospect. The cards that Aranda does have are generally really inexpensive, like he's typically the amongst the cheapest autographs or inserts in the products with his cards. I honestly have no idea why more people aren't in on his cards.  

Let's rewind to the 2021 season. Aranda played in Double A with the Montgomery Biscuits. He won the Southern League MVP and was a Postseason All-Star for his performance in the Double A playoffs. Last year, Aranda played with the Durham Bulls. He won his second straight MVP Award, was named a Triple A All-Star, and was named a Triple A Postseason All-Star for helping the Bulls win the Triple A National Championship.  

This year?  

Aranda is still playing for the Durham Bulls and is batting .339 with a .613 slugging percentage. He has 25 home runs and 23 doubles in roughly 350 at-bats. There is a very good chance he's going to win his third league MVP in row later this fall without taking another at-bat. Add in that the International League is a pitcher friendly league, and as a left-handed batter, the Durham Bulls Athletic Park has a deep right-field line and power ally. 

Aranda has now been up with the Rays for two weeks. He was up briefly earlier in the year due to injuries, but this latest call-up feels like it might be for good. Especially considering Aranda has hit. In two weeks worth of games Aranda has on-base percentage over .400 and has a handful of extra base hits.  He's walking as often as he is striking out, which is a very good sign for a young hitter. 

Here are my latest cards of Jonathan Aranda. 

Again, this is just about the cheapest autograph in Topps Finest this year. I got this for under $5 and it has been that low for the majority of the summer. There are colored parallels that cost more, but I like the base autograph just fine. I also like that he is batting in this card. Strangely the majority of his cards show him in the field, which is his real weakness. Not the best defender.

Next. 

There are some really bad autographs in this year's Topps Chrome set, so this is not quite the cheapest autograph. It's still right around $5. Little better signature on this card. Aranda has variance on how he signs the "A", which is a better look here than on the Finest card. 

Last card.  

Not an autograph, but I am a sucker for combined shipping on cheap cards. I picked this up as a bonus with the Topps Chrome autograph. The same seller had this Silver Pack insert listed for $1. Great looking card of Aranda playing second base. 

If you're into prospect, you should definitely buy this guy.  

2019 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 8

Finest came out a few weeks back and there is a Blake Snell autograph in the set, which is on a rehash of a subset from the 1997 Finest set.  I was not really a huge fan of the mid to late 1990s Finest sets.  If you are unfamiliar, they are the ones with the "protector" labels over the cards.  Like this one.....

No fun at all.  

If I may say so, the Snell autograph is a huge improvement from the original design.  It's not that the whole "Blue Chips" idea was bad, they were all young players, but the peel protectors completely ruined the card.  

The autograph is also directly on the card.  No sticker autograph here.  

The back of the Snell autograph.  

Again, borrowed from the 1996 Finest set, but Topps did a good job of fitting the "You have just received" into the existing design of the card.  I also like the picture on the back.  Looks like a photo that would be good on the front of a card. 

Overall, a good card. 

But Bad Trades Are Part of Baseball

"But bad trades are part of baseball - now who can forget Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas, for God's sake?" -Annie Savoy 

Has Doyle Alexander had any cards on the Tigers recently?  

Not since 1990.  

Does Topps make Cubs cards of Lou Brock?  

No.  

Any recent Reds cards of Milt Pappas?  

Not really, looks like 1968 was the last one.  

Jeff Bagwell on the Red Sox.  

Doubtful.  

So, I opened a few packs of Finest the other day.  I pulled a Cardinals autograph.  

Ouch.  

At least there is no mention of Rick Wise on the back of the card.

A Fine Wizard

My eight year old has been stuck on Harry Potter the last two months.  He's a good reader, but the books are beyond his reach, so my wife and I have been reading them with him at night.  I teach fifth graders.  I am very familiar with the books.  I read the first two books the first year I taught because the students in my class were completely enamored with them.  At different points I felt the need to read the other books to keep up with my students.  I am big on rapport.  

Wizarding has now extended past the book, I cannot tell you how many times I have been sorted during the past few months.  

Actually, I am not really big into reading fantasy books.  The C.S. Lewis Narnia books?  Yawn.  Lord of the Rings?  It was painful, but I had to read them in high school.  Terrible.  

More of a dark humor person, but fifth graders cannot read Vonnegut.  I recommend.....

While I am doing my best to make it through the Harry Potter books, but I will admit that there is one wizard that I really enjoy.  

He was a shortstop for the Cardinals.  

He is in the Hall of Fame.  

You already know who it is....

Topps always manages to squeeze Ozzie Smith into their autograph line-up a few times a year.  One of the cards that was recently rolled out was from the Finest set.  A little different looking Ozzie card, thought this might be a good add to the collection.....

I know there are Padres autographs of Ozzie Smith out there, but I just have never owned one of them.  It's not like it's a Cubs card.  The Padres are a friendly team that the Cardinals run into every once in awhile in the playoffs, but they never lose to them.  The brown 1970s uniform is an added bonus.  Ozzie has such a great signature too.  

Finest? Not This Year.

I am usually a big fan of the Finest product.  If you are willing to give the title of "classic" to a modern card product, this would be a long running brand that would be worthy of that honor in the opinion of many collectors.

In recent years, I feel like the brand has done a good job of returning to its roots.  It had sort of drifted off into the wilderness at some point in the mid 2000s, but Topps did a sort of reboot with the brand in 2013 for it's 20 anniversary/birthday.  The reboot included an insert set with 2013 players on the 1993 designed cards.

Some of the others years since have also been strong.  I have not done much with the base sets, but I have still tried to find the Cardinals and Durham Bulls autographs.  Always some nice cards to add to the collection.  I think my favorite of these autographs has to be a Carlos Martinez I picked up out of the 2016 Finest set.....

Which brings me back to this year's Finest set.  I feel like we are somehow back in the wilderness again with this year's design.  The difference between the Martinez autograph and the cards below are pretty stark.  The Martinez card has a simple colored bar on the right side with a team logo.  Add in a splash of color on my copy.  Simple designs are really easy to like.

Then we have this.....

What in the world is behind the players on this card?  It looks busy and complicated.  Apart of me thinks it looks like some random piece of graffiti which could be spray painted an overpass or sound wall.  You get the point.  

I ended up with five different autographs from this year's Finest set.  I used it as a chance to pick up a pair of autographs from players who are not in my collection and two players who are a focus of mine this year.  One is here just because....  Alcantara is the first, above.  He is no longer a Cardinal, traded for Marcell Ozuna, but Topps did not airbrush him into a Marlins uniform.  Gave me sort of a mulligan to find one of his cards.  

This Shaw card was for sale with the Alcantara card.  Saved a little on shipping, neither cost me much at all.  He is not an All-Star by any means, but a solid player with the Brewers after washing out with the Red Sox.  Saw him play for Pawtucket a few times a few years back too.  Always like getting cards of players I see in Triple A.  

Last three picked up in a trade off of a Facebook group.  

I like Matt Olson and I know that I have picked a few autographs of his last year when he caught fire with the A's.  He's likely to hit 30 home runs again this year, likely to strikeout more than 150 times.  I think he's the sort of player that the "modern baseball is horrible" crowd really hates.  He hits home runs.  This is also some sort of insert card, but it cannot be that hard to find based on the trade package I gave up for this card and the two below it.  

These are the two cards that I was really interested in when I started in on the Finest cards this year.  I have become a pretty big fan of Jack Flaherty this year.  Still not an ace by any means, but he's really young and I would at least go as far as saying he's one of the top two or three pitchers on the team at the moment.  Player collecting kind of stinks nowadays, but I am interested in getting my hands on some of his autographs this year.  

Last one.  I have been working on Banda cards this year too.  He was on the Durham Bulls for awhile this year, spent a bit of time with the Rays too, but was shut down with an elbow injury a few months back.  Banda ended up having Tommy John and is out for the remainder of this year, but I am still out trying to find some more of his cards.  A few more really good ones are coming soon.  

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.