A Christmas Card Now

I did a few of the Topps Now cards this year, not as into the whole thing as some other collectors, but I found some nice cards that fit my collection.  I have a of the cards still on my radar at this point, mainly some of the former Durham Bulls that have ended up spread throughout the league.  Not in any rush to get them, but if they pop up and are the right price I would be happy to pick them up.

In the meantime, I picked up an unexpected Topps Now card a few days back in the mail.  I like classy gestures, and it was nice to see Topps send out a bonus card to all of the collectors who bought a Topps Now card at some point this past summer.  Or at least that's what I think they did based on a few different discussions around Twitter and Facebook.

Here is the card which is two sided....

The front has Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant and Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez.  The Topps Now cards usually have a specific event attached to them, but nothing is mentioned on here as to why they are being celebrated.  The Bryant side looks like the final play from the World Series, the Sanchez?  I must admit though that I did not follow along with the Yankees too closely this year.  He hit a bushel of home runs....

The back has Ichiro, 3000th hit, and David Ortiz, who was retiring.  I must say that this was a really cool free card to pick up from Topps and a nice way to thank collectors.  It even has a cool snowflake print around the edges to give it that holiday feel.

The card was enclosed in a holiday card from Topps.  The front of the card.....

and the inside of the card.....

Again, very appreciative of the cool holiday card.  Great way to reward collectors at the end of the year.  

A Venerable Old Card Part 23

It was a big day for two big baseball names yesterday.  Ichiro picked up his 3000th career hit when he tripled against the Rockies and Alex Rodriguez announced that he will play his last game on Friday against the Rays.  So, for this week's Venerable Old Card I am going to do a little bit of a double header showcasing a card of each player.

First Up, Ichiro.

When Ichiro showed up on baseball cards in 2001 I sort of missed out because I spent my entire year tracking down Albert Pujols cards.  I do not regret the whole Pujols thing, but I also feel bad that I missed out on some great Ichiro cards.  I have worked hard to find his cards over the years, but I am not a super-collector of his or anything close.  More of a distant admirer.

I have run into quite a few Ichiro collectors over the years and I actually have a cool card of his which is actually deemed "cool" by hardcore collectors of the Japanese superstar.  I picked up this card three years ago to finish off a set of All-Star patches given out by Topps at the All-Star Fan Festival in St Louis at the 2009 All-Star Game.

Here is my card:

Not the most expensive card, or the rarest, but just a neat card with a good story.  Not going to rehash the reasons why Ichiro has a card in the St. Louis All-Star game set in this post, but you can read more about it here.

On to ARod.

So much I could say here about ARod.  I was in high school when ARod's 1994 rookie cards came out and created one of those rookie card rushes.  I am now in my late 30s with a job, house, kids, and bills and ARod is still playing.  His career has spanned a significant amount of time I have been collecting cards and he has been an important and influential figure in the hobby almost the entire time.

Even now, his star has fallen and collectors still love his cards.  I have a bunch of favorites and will be writing about ARod more throughout the week, so I am going to go with a simple card that I picked up long ago....

Long ago these on card autographs were pretty expensive, but are much more affordable these days.  There are actually a ton of Alex Rodriguez cards from the late 90s and early 2000s that are a lot more affordable and easier to find than they were 15 years ago.  I have been working a little on ARod cards the last three years and wrote about it awhile ago.   

My Top 50 On Cardboard- #18 Ichiro

My Top 50 On Cardboard
#18
Ichiro

2001 Topps Ichiro 

In making a list of the best 50 players featured on a piece of cardboard over the past 30 years there were many hard decisions to make.  The first challenge was compiling a last to be considered for the 50 slots, then within those 50 players were challenges about placement.  For me, this was one the the absolute hardest placements for me on my list.  Ichiro has been a great player for more than the past decade, and few can question that he should be on a list of the most important players to the baseball card industry over that career, his impact and influence seems to have wained.  Sure Ichiro is older now, but I think there are several factors which have also hurt the future Hall of Famer from achieving a lofter status with fans of the game and within the baseball card industry.

Hobby Impact-
Before there was Bryce Harper there was the summer of 2001 which featured Ichiro and Albert Pujols. Ichiro was the most important Japanese player to enter Major League Baseball since Hideo Nomo came over in the mid 90s.  If a set was released with an Ichiro rookie then it was a big deal.  Many were short printed and had a fairly low print run, others were just regular base card.  No matter, for one summer they were all popular and all great cards to own.

How popular?  Let me put it this way.  The cheapest of all cheap sets in the early 2000s was Upper Deck Victory.  It was the last set which still had dollar packs and they were often old at retail locations. Nothing wrong with the set, in fact, I am not sure why there isn't a low end set like that now that could be attractive to the younger collectors.  Anyway, you can find copies of that set for $5.  Meaning all the singles in the set are basically commons.  Ichiro rookie cards from that set sold for more than $10 for awhile that summer.

The rest were just simply off the charts.  Anything low run was at least $20 if not hundreds of dollars for things that were really rare.  Personally, I had bad luck finding Ichiro.  I think the best I pulled was a Ovation short print which was just limited to 1999 copies.  Not too great.

Ichiro is still pretty popular these days, but his cards have become a world of extremes.  Want an Ichiro card?  You could be out a dollar or you could be out hundreds of dollars all depending on what it is that you want to add to your collection.  Ichiro is one of the few modern players whose autograph has never appeared in my collection.  Ever.  The cards are hard to find at times and Ichiro has not signed very much during the past decade.  Your best bets are early 2000s Upper Deck cards, which often have asking prices of $300-$400 on Ebay, or you can find a more modern release from Leaf and might only pay $200.

Anything else out of Ichiro is actually quite reasonable.  I had actually stayed away from Ichiro most of his career, but came around to picking up a few of his cards along that way specifically because the price had dropped.  One of the my favorites...

2011 Topps Triple Threads Ichiro 

I was shocked to find a Triple Threads card of Ichiro for less than $10.  However, after taking a little time to look around it's actually not much of a steal.  The price of Ichiro cards has come down dramatically over the past decade.  If you're an average collector then most Ichiro cards are actually going to be in your price range.  I am sure if this had some patch pieces on it the price might be outrageous, but that can be said about lots of cards.

On The Field-
It' my belief that certain aspects of Ichiro's career have actually hurt his hobby value.  First, his rookie season in 2001 was at the age of 27.  Ichiro won the American League Rookie of the Year and the MVP that year.  Since that time he has also been to the All-Star game ten times, won three Silver Slugger awards, 10 Gold Gloves, and 2 batting titles.  While all of the awards and accolades are great, Ichiro would actually be passing a few automatic Hall of Fame milestones if he had played in the US long.

For example, last summer Ichiro became the third player in the history of baseball to reach the milestone of 4000 hits.  I was really happy for Ichiro and made a celebratory post to my Facebook page and Twitter page, but not many baseball people really got into the milestone.  Even the people at Yankee Stadium last summer gave him a friendly ovation, but it wasn't that big of a deal.  Imagine if Ichiro had all 4,000 hits in the MLB instead of split between the States and Japan.  Much bigger deal.  Here's a look at number 4000

Ichiro will likely surpass the 3000 hit mark in the US sometime during the summer of 2015 which will make him a Hall of Famer at some point in this country, but I still think his impact on baseball and the baseball card industry would have been much greater if the numbers weren't split.  

I think the second factor which has hurt Ichiro's career was the fact that he spent his prime playing on the West Coast for the Mariners.  I am not sure how many people actually got to see Ichiro, or how many people in the Eastern and Central time zones stay up to watch West Coast baseball.  As a teacher, with some time off during the summer (not as much as you think) I try to stay up and check out the West Coast teams during my breaks.  Loved watching Ichiro, even when the Mariners weren't great.  

Favorite Card-
An easy question to answer with this player....

2009 Topps All-Star Game Fan Fest Patch Ichiro 

Ichiro has a pretty cool connection to St. Louis.  Check it out here.