An Online Set? Why not.

The baseball season starts and I always have to check out the rosters for my teams to find a few projects for the season.  New players, new cards.  Old players, new cards.  All sorts of combinations of those words.  So, this post started sometime last fall when the Cardinals brought up outfielder Tommy Pham.  He's been in their system forever, just never stayed healthy.

He had a good end of the season and had a nice Postseason moment when he hit a home run against the Cubs in Game 1 of the NLDS.

and all of the Cardinals collectors lost their minds over Tommy Pham cards.  He has an autograph in the 2015 Topps set, but they are fairly expensive.  I decided to wait for the excitement over Tommy Pham to die down a little.  I went on Ebay, put a few of his cards on my watch list, and kind of ignored them for awhile.  

Prices came down a little bit on a few of his cards and I found a really cool looking Topps card of Pham that I thought looked really cool.  There was a Buy It Now and also one or two floating around in auctions.  

Pretty nice card.  I didn't know much about this card when I first started watching it, so I did a little digging and found that there was also a Stephen Piscotty card in this set.  Then I found out there were only 13 cards in the whole set.  Then I found a set for $10.  I bought them all.  They are all numbered out of 99 and are print run 99.  Pretty cool.  I guess Topps sold these sets in their online store.  Kind of cutting out the card shops there big guy....

The cards are also oversized at 5x7.  Not only are they postcard sized, but they also appear to be made out of the same material as the common postcard.  Perhaps an Office Max Brand index card.  The cards are really thin and the George Springer card has a little ding on the bottom right corner.  Here's a look at the other 12 cards...... 

The Never Popular Felt Baseball Card Set

Every once in awhile I have a hard time deciding whether a card set is genius or a complete flop.  Sounds funny, but sometimes I think there is a very thin line between the two.  Take for example the 2001 Upper Deck Legends of New York set.  I initially passed on buying anything from this product when it was first released since it just focuses on four teams which I do not particularly care for.  One of my local card shops had a box of this product sitting on its shelf were it sat for a long time.  At some point on some weekend several years after 2001 I talked the shop owner down on price and figured I might get lucky with something cool.  Luckily, I pulled a cool autograph.  

2001 Upper Deck Legends of New York Reggie Jackson Bat/Autograph 

While I was really happy to pull an autograph of Mr. October I was also really intrigued by the base set of cards which featured felt.  The stuff on pool tables and the lining of your glasses case on a baseball card.  Who would have thunk of that?  Obviously, somebody at Upper Deck had this idea and put it into motion with the Legends of New York set.  At first I thought the cards looked cool and I assembled a set.  There are four basic card designs in the set featuring cards of the four New York franchises: Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, and Giants.  

2001 Upper Deck Legends of New York Ron Darling

The card above shows the most basic design from the card set which is divided equally into quarters between the four teams.  The felt part of this card is the team logo on the right side of the card.  If you cannot tell from the initial glance at the card, the felt is actually shedding.  Like a dog, or a cat.  Which is really the lowlight to this set.  Have you ever considered vacuuming out a box of baseball cards?  

2001 Upper Deck Legends of New York Mickey Mantle 

I have never actually vacuumed out the box of cards with my Legends of New York set, but there is excess felt floating around the inside of the box.  The cards, like the Mantle above, with the felt square cut around the team logo seem to shed a little less than the basic logo card, but they still are not perfect. There is also a set of cards recognizing the teams Championships, or Banner Years, which has a felt script writing with the teams name on the front of the card.  Another big shedder.  

2001 Upper Deck Legends of New York Duke Snider

If you look around the world of baseball cards you will notice that there has not been another felt set of baseball cards since Upper Deck issued the Legends of New York set in 2001.  Card companies have dabbled with other materials, like Topps and their silk cards, but nothing in felt.  After looking back over this set I fully understand why card companies have not duplicated this design or concept since this product.  

Sounds like a flop, so how do they also border on genius?  

In working on my reorganization project, this was one of the first sets that I pulled and sorted.  Frankly, I was astonished at the response I received from my efforts to trade a lot of doubles.  There is something a small cult following with this set and there are collectors that will go all out in order to complete a sale or trade.  Not lukewarm, not those are cool looking let me think about it.  More like, let me email you my want list from the set and lets fill some holes.  If you search out single cards from the set on Ebay most list for more than $1 per card, with the Mantles and Sniders fetching several dollars.  Complete sets can actually settle in the $50 range.  Not bad for a $70 box of cards considering you are likely to get either a bat or autograph card too.  

When I starting pulling doubles and triples out of my sets I expected there to effort and interest from collectors on my extras from sets like the 2001 Topps Heritage set, but the Legends of New York?  I understand that the set features four teams with good collecting bases, but was shocked to trade off one lot of doubles and sell another lot and make as much as I did.  

So, what ever comes out of my collection in way of doubles and multiples is being redirected into good things, so the Legends of New York, minus Reggie-he stays, netted me three pretty nice cards:  

2013 Bowman Inception George Springer Jersey/Autograph 

2013 Bowman Inception Shelby Miller Autograph 

2013 Topps Tribute World Baseball Classic Ben Zobrist Autograph

Not a bad haul for a set and lot of duplicates from a felt baseball card set.  I am not completely sold on the World Baseball Classic cards, but the other two cards are solid adds.  Not that I am down on Zobrist, but I am not a huge fan of the actual WBC event, barely watched it this year.  The Miller autograph is on card, while the Springer is not, but are players that I like having in my collection.    

2012 Bowman Sterling George Springer Autograph

I have posted a few George Springer cards over the past few weeks and have really enjoyed collecting the Astros outfield prospect.  There are plenty of good Springer cards out on the market including plenty of good autographs.  I had started my Springer collection after he posted a .297/.399/.579 line with 19 homers and 23 steals in AA.  At the time he was being promoted up to the Astros AAA in Oklahoma City.  Since his promotion there has not been much of an adjustment period.  So far in PCL Springer has posted a .404/.507/.842 line with 7 homers and 5 steals.  It's only 70 at-bats, but clearly there is a lot of talent here.

Naturally, I was happy to add my third Springer autograph to my collection during the third month.  Like the other two Springers, this card from the Bowman Sterling set, features a sticker autograph.

2012 Bowman Sterling George Springer Autograph 

Of course I am still on the hunt for more Springer autographs and was thrilled to see Topps insert an autograph of him into the Bowman Inception set, but the pricing has started to tick up on his cards.  A month ago when I started hunting down Springer cards the market for his autographed cards was generally in between $10-$20.  Some of his harder to find, or unique cards, drifted north of $20.  However, I considered his cards very affordable for a top flight prospect.  Many of his basic autographs are now settling in around $20.  Premium autographs, such as the colored version of the Bowman Inception autograph, and his 2010 Bowman Autograph, are now selling between $40 and $50.

2010 Bowman Platinum George Springer Jersey/Autograph

I started my George Springer collection just a few short weeks ago, but have only added one autograph of the Astros outfield prospect to my collection before last week.  Over the weekend, my second autograph of the top prospect arrived in my mailbox.  Similar to my previous Springer autograph, this card features him in his USA Baseball team uniform.  In fact, I am finding that most of his early cards are from the former UConn Huskies time with the USA Baseball National College team.  This particular card is also from 2010, but hails from the Bowman Platinum set.

2010 Bowman Platinum George Springer Jersey/Autograph 

The USA Baseball team was featured throughout the 2010 Bowman Platinum set and is worth a little bit of your time as a collector.  Beyond Springer, the set also features Jackie Bradley Jr, Gerrit Cole, Sonny Gray, Nolan Fontana, Sean Gilmartin, and Alex Dickerson.  All good upcoming prospects and worthy of picking up for your collection.  The autograph cards in the set are stickers, like the 2010 Topps USA Baseball set, but the cards still seem to hold their value pretty well.  The Bradley card often sells for between $25 and $30, Cole in the mid $20s, and Springer cards sells for $10-$15.  While the Bradley cards have taken off in value, the Springer and Cole have held steady and offer a good value to collectors looking to add their signatures.

2010 Topps USA Baseball George Springer Triple Jersey/Autograph

I started a bit of a new collection this week with Astros outfield prospect George Springer.  I am by no means after every Springer card under the sun, but I have been thoroughly impressed with his performance and have decided it is worth my time, money, and cards to own a few of his cards.  Having USA Baseball nearby offers great opportunities to see good young players.  Honestly, I missed on Springer and did not really get into him as a player until this year.

In many ways, while Springer was playing for USA Baseball, he reminded me a lot of Pedro Alvarez.  Great college mashers with big long swings.  The results often look pretty in college while they are facing weak pitchers, but when they get into the minors the long swings mean lots of whiffs and not always the most promising baseball careers.  While Alvarez played for USA Baseball I saw him hit some pretty impressive home runs, but he had a long swing.  Springer was the same way.  Marlins draft pick, and former UNC third baseman, Colin Moran has the same thing going on.

While Springer's strikeout totals remain high while playing in the minor leagues, his on-base percentage has hovered around .400 this season.  Further, Springer has several 30 stolen base seasons under his belt in the minors.  So, while he will swing and miss quite a bit, Springer still finds his way onto base and punishes opponents with his speed and base running.  Sold?  I am, so here is the first of many George Springer cards that will walk into my collection.

2010 Topps USA Baseball George Springer Triple Jersey/Autograph

The 2010 Topps USA Baseball set is one of my favorites and features some great names.  Earlier this week I posted a pair of sweet Gerrit Coles from this set making this card my third card from the set for the week.  While I prefer the on-card autographs in the set, I still really like the looks of this card.  Three nice pieces of jersey to go along with, at the time, the UConn sluggers autograph is pretty sweet.  

The Springer autographs are not rock bottom basement steals at this point hovering in the mid teens, but considering how he is playing, there are lesser prospects with far more expensive cards.  I know that part of the problem is that Springer plays with the Astros, but I honestly do not think the team is the wreck that people make them out to be.  

Currently, the Astros are one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball and are likely to finish the season near the bottom of the standings.  However, almost all of the Astros minor league affiliates are finding success on the field with a good pool of prospects.  For example, the top two Houston affiliates, are highly competitive.  The AA affiliate in Corpus Christi won the first half title in their Texas League Division and are in first place in the second half standings.  The AAA affiliate in Round Rock sits in third place, but they are well above .500 and are only 2 games out of first.  The Astros are going to be good again in the near future and I am betting that George Springer is a big part of their future.