Goal Number 1, Part 1

Way back at the end of 2023, I made a few goals for my 2024 card collecting year. My first goal was to find more Blake Snell insert and parallel cards. It's now the middle of September and I have not posted a single one of these cards. I actually worked on the goal during my blogging break this summer, but never got around to posting any of the cards until today.  

I decided to put heavy emphasis on parallels to start. I made them brand specific, which you will see as you continue reading this post and future posts about this card goal. Plus, there are tons of parallels these days and they are easy to find. I am a long-time Snell collector, but I am a little late to the party when it comes to non-autographed cards.  

For today, I am going to post several parallels I have picked up from Gold Label sets.  Always liked the looks of these cards....

First up is a 2019 Gold Label card. It's a Class 1 card, so it has higher serial numbers. I believe each class of the three classes of cards has a few different parallels, which all have different serial numbers. This card is out of /150 and cost me less a few dollars on COMC. The pictures on the card also change by class. Thinking facial hair versus no facial hair here? That's not actually a thing.  

The next three are all from the 2016 Gold Label set, which make them all rookie cards.  

All red parallels.  

The middle card is photoshopped from a Durham Bulls game.  The tall, dark blue wall is from the left field corner and the sign to the right his head is from a local orthopedic office. The bottom card is the obvious prize of the post with a serial numbered print run of just 25 copies. 

Overall, a nice start to my my first goal of the year, even if came a little bit late.  

I'm Going To Build These Different Frames, With Gold Colored Metal...."

So what's the deal with all of these cards having gold frames these days?  This all started a few years back when Topps put a bunch of these gold framed inserts into their 2014 Topps Update set?  Did we need a gold frame around Joe Morgan?  He's a great second baseman and all, former Durham Bulls player too, but why can't we just have a baseball card with him on it.....

I mean is the frame holding the card together or is it a decorative thing?  If I pull the corner apart will the whole card just crumble, or will it look like a baseball card without a gold frame?  I rather like Joe Morgan, so it's not like I am going to pull the frame on this card apart.  Just when you thought they were going to leave the gold frames here, nope here come even more gold frames.

If Topps had known they were going to have this many cards with gold frames they should have called up Eric Sogard back when he was in contention for the "Face of MLB Award", and gotten him to switch to gold framed glasses, it would have been the perfect marketing campaign for a brilliant idea.  

Maybe just as good as selling just the tops of muffins.  What do you do with the bottom of the muffins?  The same thing could be asked about all of the baseball cards Topps makes without gold frames.  

 

Topps also had these guys in Museum Collection with the gold frames.  Do you think a card with a gold frame, but signed in silver ink is sort of like wearing a black shirt, black shoes, but you are wearing a brown belt?  I personally don't like the combination.  but I don't mind breaking some of those fashion rules at times.  White shoes with black jeans seems like a good idea.....

So after all of these other gold frames someone over at Topps had this great idea to put some more gold frames baseball cards.  When these cards came out I was thinking maybe Topps really likes this look, or maybe they got some bulk deal on gold card frames.  I don't really look around when I go to places like Costco, maybe the gold baseball card frames are sitting up on one of those top shelves with all of the shipping crates with the plastic wrap...

Since Topps is saving money by buying the gold frames bulk at Costco it means that this time around they had the chance to get a few different Major League Players to sign the cards inside the gold frame.  It's not Keith Hernandez or anything, but this is one of the cards.....

This guy is supposed to be baby Pedro Martinez, who was on the Mets for awhile, but he couldn't win a World Series.  He's not Dwight Gooden.  Either of them.  

Since when did they have baseball in Tampa?  

People go to Florida to die, not to play baseball.  This guy is kind of young, probably not making any money yet, so he's probably eating dinner at 4:30 so he gets the Early Bird Special.