My Best Archives Pull Was, Oh Wait....

Well, I typed up that post about the autographs and inserts that were in my Archives box yesterday, and in an attempt to save my best card for last, I actually forgot to put the card in the post.  Not too smooth, but I decided to wait until this morning to post the card.  In the meantime, I had a chance to sort out my base cards to assemble my set and found that I pulled an even cooler card than the card I had originally thought was the best card from my boxes.

Here was the card I forgot from my post yesterday.......

This card is a knock off of the 1990 Topps Frank Thomas rookie card error/variation that left his name off the front of his card.  Topps actually made a whole series of these this year and put them in packs at more than 1:1000 rate.  Pretty tough pull and they have been selling really well on Ebay.  Kind of a cool variation.  As of yesterday afternoon this was my best card from my boxes of Archives.  Then I started sorting out my base set and found this card......

I am not sure what the rate is on the short prints is in Archives, but it seems to be a pretty tough pull.  This card is currently selling north of $200 on Ebay.  I think Mr. Bryant needs a new home.

2015 Topps Heritage Part 1

I am going to break down my Topps Heritage boxes into two posts this weekend.  Even though my favorite local card shop closed recently, the shop owner Jimmy, is still helping all of us card collectors in central North Carolina with our wax.  I picked up two boxes of the popular annual Topps product which, this year, is based on the 1966 Topps set.  Here's a quick look at a base card......

More on the base set tomorrow morning.  I was happy that Topps returned to coding the backs of the Heritage set cards to help collectors pick out the different variations.  The bottom of the base cards feature the numbers 253 as the last three digits of the code.

I am going to focus on the variations and inserts that I landed in boxes in this post.  I pulled some nice cards and was happy with my boxes.  I would have loved to have landed an autograph, but the short prints and variations were really nice in my box.  Let's start out with the inserts, since they have been basically the same since the start of the Heritage product in 2001.  

The basic inserts in the Topps Heritage year in and year out are the Now & Then set, which features league leaders from the past year and design year, Flashbacks, which feature both sports and non-sports events from the design year, and the New Age Performers set, which features younger star players.  There are also Chrome cards this year.....

and there are also several different box toppers.  I pulled an original 1966 Topps card and one of these  mini card sheets....

My two relic pulls weren't bad.  I would have loved to have pulled an autograph, but two nice players here with the Wright having a centered pinstripe.  The Mauer also has a pinstripe, but it is way over on the very edge of the window on the card.  Now, my favorite parts, the short prints and variations.  

The high numbered cards, above 425, are short printed and seeded at about 1 in 3 packs.  There are a total of 75 short prints and I ended up with 19 different short prints in all.  The basic short prints have the 258 code at the end....

I pulled two variations on the short prints.  I pulled two of the action variations.  A Tanaka and a Puig....

and the code on the back of the action short prints....

Finally the best card of my box at the odds in 1 in 140 packs is this great looking Mike Trout Banner Swap short print.....

My Top 50 Players on Cardboard-#37 Joe Mauer

My Top 50 Players On Cardboard
#37
Joe Mauer


2002 Bowman Heritage Joe Mauer RC

Hobby Impact-
Mauer started off in the baseball card hobby as a very desirable and highly sought after player.  The statement is somewhat true today, but Mauer has definitely lost a little bit of his steam around the hobby.  I am sure that a big chunk of the reason for the drop in Mauer's popularity has to do with the fact that he plays for Twins.  In my opinion, while I view Mauer as a very good player, I think he's someone that people in the hobby overestimated and have therefore cooled on.  I am sure that many collectors were think Mike Piazza when they first laid eyes on Mauer, but instead they got something different.  Different is not always a bad thing, which some collectors have failed to realize in this case.

Mauer still has a very strong hobby following, and while prices on his cards have tailed off during the past decade,  you are still going to pay a pretty good price when you run across a nice Mauer card.  One of my first decent Mauer pulls, outside of his rookie cards, was a 2004 Upper Deck Etchings autograph.  I do not even remember what it was numbered out of, but everyone who signed for that set signed a ton of cards.  Which is a good thing with Mauer's hobby presence.  He does have a ton of cards including a wide selection of autographs, relics, and low print runs.  My favorite autograph of Mauer in my collection:

2004 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Joe Mauer Autograph 

Generally, premium Mauer cards are going to sell and sell high.  I nice autograph of the Twins catcher can easily approach $50 with a low print run.  Most common autographs settle somewhere in between $25 and $40 based on brand quality, sticker, non-sticker, etc.  Again, Mauer has a healthy stock of autographs floating around on the secondary market with many being on-card.  If you want a cheap sticker autograph, those are out there too.  Pretty good price for a Hall of Fame autograph.

On The Field Impact-
Mauer is one of the best hitting catchers of all-time.  Before I get into the numbers with Mauer, let's not forget that Mauer is only 30 and still has plenty of time to add to the numbers that he's posted during the first part of career.  Whether or not he remains a catcher or not almost does not matter at this point.  Given where Mauer ranks among catchers currently, and his company on those lists, point me in the direction of him being a shoe-in for Cooperstown.

I have really been digging the JAWS ratings on the baseball-reference site.  If you have not clicked the link on the bottom of a player's page you should check it out for sure.  The JAWS rating for catchers places Mauer as the thirteenth best catcher of all-time at the mid-point of his career.  The players in front of him include Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk, Pudge, Bill Dickey, and Yogi Berra.  There are a few non-Hall of Famers on that list like Ted Simmons, but a lot of those are errors the Hall of Fame writers should correct.  Translation: Tell me again why Ted Simmons isn't in the Hall?  Mauer is a better average hitter than anyone on the list, but lacks some of the pop that players like Bench, Berra, and Piazza possessed.

How good of a hitter is Mauer?  One of my favorite, non-numbers, factoids about Mauer is the fact that he has broken up three different no-hit bids in the ninth inning.  I am not sure if anyone else has every accomplished such a feat in MLB history, but it's a cool enough factoid that Major League Baseball has put the three hits into a video montage on YouTube.



Mauer is also an above average defender behind the plate and has captured a total of three Gold Gloves.  Some of his defensive work has taken a hit recently with injuries and knee issues, but he still shows off every once in awhile.  One of the coolest meaningless catches I've ever seen in a game:



Pretty good grab there.

Favorite Card-
It was a toss up, for me, between the 2011 Topps base set card and his 2002 Topps T206 variation card.  I am actually going to side with the 2011 Topps base card here, but the 206 card is pretty sweet if you are a Mauer or Twins collector looking for a good card to track down.

2011 Topps Joe Mauer

I love this card, because it shows Joe Mauer doing what Joe Mauer does best: Hitting.  This action shot shows a good picture of Mauer's great looking left-handed swing and I like the background too.  You get a little glimpse of the limestone in Target field just above Mauer's bat too.  Great card by Topps.

30 Year Top 50: 2002 Topps Total

#40-The 2002 Topps Total set was the largest release Topps had ever put out when it was released it the middle of the summer in 2002.  It was the set builders dream with a large checklist and a very cheap sticker price.  The boxes of Topps Total came with 36 packs and each pack contained 10 cards.  I clearly remember to this day the two boxes of Total I busted that summer.

Back in those days I worked at a traditional calendar school and had all summer to open, sort, trade, buy, and sell cards.  I picked up my two boxes from a card store in South Saint Louis county, made a run to Imo's for a pie, and popped in a movie.  Usually I am not very meticulous about sorting out cards into a set while I am opening them, but I was determined with the Topps Total set.  The cards had a pretty ho hum design, but the 900 card set was a huge challenge that I was determined to meet.

2002 Topps Total Mike Matheny

Besides the challenge of putting together a large set, at the time of release, many collectors were also excited about the prospects that were included in the set.  Of course every team had it's veteran players, but there were also many younger players too.  The best of the rookie cards in the set is the Joe Mauer.  There is also a David Wright rookie, not his best, and a Chone Figgins.

2002 Topps Total Joe Mauer  

After two slow box openings and lots of collation I decided that I was probably going to have to open at least four boxes of cards in order to complete the set.  I made a checklist and slowly added to the set throughout the summer.  A few years later, I found this box of cards and my list and cheaply completed the set.  I still own the set today and enjoy looking at the players.  I also consider the completion of this set an accomplishment because of it's enormous size.  

The largest set every distinction did not last very long for this set, but the fact that it allowed collectors a small slice of the days when the Topps sets were large, poorly collated within packs, and close to 800 (792) cards, made this set a great part of the hobby.  

Like the 2002 Topps Total Set?  Not on my countdown of Top sets of the past 30 years are the 2002 Upper Deck 40 Man Set.  The concept of the set was identical to the Topps Total set.  Large set, featuring many players, and a great chase for set builders.  In fact, Upper Deck went a little bit pass Topps.  Upper Deck literally included ever player on every teams 40 man roster minus the players who were signed off of replacement player rosters during the 1995 spring training.  No Damien Miller.

2002 Upper Deck 40 Man Francisco Rodriguez

Upper Deck 40 Man had two major flaws.  First, the price of the packs was around $3 with only 24 packs in a box and 10 cards per pack.  Collation of cards was okay, but the cost of buying the boxes and assembling the set was far greater than value of the set.  Further, unlike the Topps Total set, this set has no important rookie cards.  None.  There aren't many completed 40 Man sets floating around, so it would be fun to put together....or not.  

2004 SP Authentic Joe Mauer USA Signatures Auto

This card brings back some great memories for me.  I was looking at some cards last week on Facebook and ran into a great trader from Wyoming and I had to pull the trigger.  I remember the day I got on Mauer in 2004.  I went to 1,000,000 Baseball Cards on Manchester Road in west St. Louis county to pick up a box of UD Etchings.  I bought wax pretty blindly back then and most of had some pretty heavy shades on this particular day to slap day some money for this box, but I did actually buy a box of Etchings.  

Now, I have started a countdown on my blog of the fifty coolest baseball card sets of the past thirty years.  At the bottom of each entry I dedicate a little space to talk about a set that didn't make my countdown, but has some sort of cool nuance.  I thought one post could have a worst sets rant and UD Etchings would be a candidate.  What's wrong with Etchings?  Ugly, high print runs, sticker autographs.  However, I pulled a Joe Mauer autograph. 

2004 SP Authentic USA Signatures Joe Mauer Autograph 

Loved the autograph and the player, but hated the card.  I traded my Etchings Mauer along with some cash for a different Mauer autograph.  Then for several years I hunted down Mauer autographs.  Picked up a few here and there and had a nice collection going.  I am not sure the day I didn't collect Joe Mauer cards, but somewhere along the way they got traded for Cardinals cards, autographs, or something else good.  Not sure.

Anyway, this card caught my eye for several reasons.  First, the 2004 Upper Deck USA baseball line is really strong.  The cards aren't the strongest in terms of book value, but there are some great names across all of the products.  This Mauer card is one of the signatures in that set along with Nomar Garciaparra, McGwire, Ryan Zimmerman, and Tulowitzki.  The other players in the set range from solid to scrubby.  Second, the 2004 SP Authentic autographs were the last that from that product that featured on card autographs.  Find an 2005 and it's a stickers.  Besides, the 2004 had some great autographs.  Great sets of cards if you are looking to add an on card autograph of a great player.