Quick Glance At 2015 Topps

It's like the start of a brand new school year, or being the first kid out in the snow.  The beginning of the "new" card year is always a really exciting day.  All week on Twitter I had heard about collectors finding retail packs at Target or Wal Mart, but I had not been successful myself.  Honestly, I was not really trying that hard.  However, while I was at Target picking something up for a meeting, I saw this glorious sight......

The card section at my local Target is a hot mess.   This was tucked into a corner along next to all of the odds and ends of the card aisle.  I picked up a few packs along with a bundle of bananas and bottled water to help pull me through an awesome staff development at work.  Here's a quick glance at the cards and a few thoughts on their design and the whatnot.

A lot of the initial talk with the 2015 Topps set has been focused on the design.  It's different from the white bordered designs that has ran with for the better part of the past decade plus.  2007's black border and the blue borders in 2003 are the last two non-white borders that I can think of off the top of my head.  This is a quick post, so perhaps I am wrong.  I spent a little bit of time talking about the design with Jimmy, the owner of a local card shop, and we both agreed that the bottom is a little bit different.  However, some of the parallels look really nice.

The gold parallels in particular are very nicely done.  Clearly the patterns within the design are the same on the base and the gold parallel, but there is something nice about the color scheme on the bottom card.  Topps also made a really nice home-like parallel for the 2015 set, but I am not sure how well this card shows up on the scan.....

The scan seriously does not do this card justice.  The Topps Chrome product might be really nice this year.  There are also some really nice insert cards in this the 2015 Topps set.  The Opening Pitch set has been a pretty popular topic on Twitter and in discussion rooms, so I am going to leave that set alone until I show off the hits from a jumbo I am opening at my local card store.  Here are a few other cool inserts.....

First, I have to say that any insert sets that highlight defense are always first rate.  I pulled two of these out of retail packs last night and they are both outfielders.  One centerfielder and Hamilton in left.  Not sure if these are just outfielders or if they have them for all of the positions.  Again, this is a quick right up and I am not going to go and look stuff up at the moment.  Just remember, defense always makes a great insert set.

This set about Free Agents reminds me a little bit of the 2011 Topps 60 set.  Really nice looking set and I like the cool picture on this card of Carlton Fisk in the 1980s White Sox uniform.  Maybe this will end up being the coolest set in the bunch, but I am going to say this is going to be a winner of an insert set.

I almost made it through a post with no Rays and no Cardinals, but I am not passing by a Stan Musial card.  Topps did a bunch of stuff last year with the World Series, but it appears that the theme might spill over into this year's set.  This insert set is Highlight of The Year, many of which probably happened in the World Series, so again this is a set I will give a little more feedback to when I open a box of the product.  

and my last one just because I like the look of these cards.   This Carlton card has a blurb on the back about him learning to throw his trademark slider after taking a trip to Japan.  I have high hopes.  More on 2015 Topps in a cool post this weekend.  

My Top 50 Players On Cardboard-#38 Josh Hamilton

My Top 50 Players on Cardboard
#38
Josh Hamilton


1999 Topps Traded Chrome Josh Hamilton

Hobby Impact-
Anytime you make a list there are always moving parts.  If I had made this list two years ago Hamilton would have been higher than 38.  If I revisit this list in a few years, I would expect him not to appear.  However, there is still a chance that the on-field portion of Hamilton's career will recover which in turn would help recreate enthusiasm around his cards again.  His cards have already taken a nose dive and recovered once before.

First, Hamilton was the first overall draft pick in MLB's amateur draft in 1999 out of Athens High School in Raleigh.  There was a tremendous amount of lore surrounding Hamilton's high school accomplishments, athletic ability, and potential ceiling as a Major League player which drove the price and popularity of his cards sky high when they were first released in the fall of that year.  Hamilton's career was derailed and got back on-track a few later.  I am not going to rehash the whole thing, but Hamilton did write a book about the ordeal.  I'd get it from the library.

Hamilton's cards have been generally uber popular since his return to professional baseball in 2007 with the Cincinnati Reds then later with the Texas Rangers.  His performance on the field at times matched the expectations that fans had for Hamilton coming into the Majors from the draft.  The height of Hamilton pandaemonium came after the  2008 All-Star Game Home Run Derby.  Video isn't the best, but you get the idea...



Everything Hamilton on cardboard with a likeness of Hamilton was gold for a few years.  Autographs and relics were easy to sell and trade and were highly desired by a broad sweep of collectors.  Rookie cards were very popular and the population of cards that were submitted for grading, always a good sign of a popular rookie card, were staggering.  If I rated just the height of Hamilton's collect-ability he might make the Top 10 on this list.

and then Hamilton signed with the Angels.  It's been a complete disaster.  With the disaster has come a slide in Hamilton cards.  There are still avid Hamilton collectors out there and people still track down his cards, but it's definitely not the same as before.

On The Field Impact-
Hamilton won the American League MVP in 2010 and led the Texas Rangers to their only World Series appearances in 2010 and 2011.  Hamilton struggled mightily in the two playoff runs the Rangers made to the World Series which brought a hefty amount of criticism from Rangers fans.  I have always viewed Hamilton as an incredibly streaky player, who at his best, is capable of carrying a team single-handedly with incredible production.  When Hamilton is off, he's off.

For example, during his MVP season is 2010 Hamilton started out the year in fine fashion crafting a .265/.351/.494 line in April and a .294/.322/.505 line in May.  Good, not MVP, but good.  Then the second half of the season his monthly lines were:

June .454/.482/.815
July .418/.468/.707
August .356/.433/.644

Hamilton then missed most of September, which means he one the MVP and lead the league in batting, slugging, and OPS playing one month less than everyone else.  Pretty streaky, but then there's the playoff line which include these eye poppers:

ALDS: .111/.200/.111
ALCS .350/.536/1.000
WS .100/.143/.250

Pretty rough right there, but that's the story of Hamilton's career.  He looks like a Hall of Famer for a few games and then looks like he should be in AAA.

Favorite Card-
Perspective.  I'll give my explanation first on my Hamilton card.  For most people Josh Hamilton is a guy with tons of tattoos who has been a good player in the Major Leagues for the past five or six years.  He overcame a lot to get to where he is and there are plenty of people who rehash the whole be sympathetic to Josh Hamilton line when his name comes up.

Honestly, I try to tune out the Josh Hamilton.  He plays on a team I really do not like and I am not really into him as a player.  However, I do find Hamilton an intriguing figure and I do have a nice stash of his cards in my collection.

 For me, as a resident of the Raleigh-Durham metropolitan area,  Hamilton is one of those great local legends.  Everyone played against, coached, coached against, saw him hit a 500 foot home run in elementary school, or throw a no-hitter while throwing 95.  He's the Paul Bunyun of central North Carolina.  Obviously some of what you hear about Hamilton around Raleigh is completely false.  Some is true.

So, for the reasons listed above, I choose to remember Hamilton as a high school kid from Raleigh who has played baseball against every person from Raleigh around 30 and been coached by, or coached against by every little league instructor too old to have played against Hamilton.  I go with the 2001 Topps Stadium Club card.

2001 Topps Stadium Club Josh Hamilton

Many of Hamilton's early cards were posed.  In fact, they are basically the same picture that appears on his rookie card shown at the top of this post.  This card is an actual action shot of Hamilton and I like that he has the old Rays gear.  I know a lot of Tampa fans hate these jerseys, but we all start out somewhere.

The Box I Got vs. The Box I Want Part 1

I have been flying a little bit low on wax this year.  Reorganizing my collection has meant holding the line on adding large lots of single cards and more focus on assembling card sets from small lots and then filling in with single cards from trades and purchases from secondary market websites such as Ebay.  There are sets that I still have not missed with the wax such as the base Topps sets and Gypsy Queen.  One of my other targeted sets, Allen & Ginter, also released recently.  I had to get a box.

I shared my cool hit from my box on the site earlier last week, with my cool autograph of musician Henry Rollins.  It was a cool card, so I will share again.

2013 Topps Allen & Ginter Henry Rollins Autograph 

Now, the rest of my box was pretty disappointing.  I love Ginter and I loved the look of the cards this year, but I feel like my disappointment had more to do with the players on the hit cards I pulled more than the actual content of the box.  The set is incredible and I have been working hard to put together the base set including the short prints.  So, what do you do when you open a cool box, love the set, and hate the hits?  Swap them out.  I went to work in the middle of the week and came up with some good trades and great improved my take away from this product.

Tonight I will start with my box topper.  When you buy a box with a topper and it's a dud it sets a bad tone for your entire box.  I felt really sad when I ripped open my oversized box topper pack and was staring back at this:

2013 Topps Allen & Ginter Josh Hamilton Cabinet Card

Hamilton has turned into one bad player since he has left the Rangers and joined Arte Moreno's band of underachieving/overpaid band out in Anaheim.  Luckily, Hamilton is a local Raleigh guy and loved by a lot of people in central North Carolina.  His cards are pretty easy to pass on around the area if you are willing to listen to stories about how the person met Hamilton at a Target or Cook Out or something.  Like all Hamilton cards I was able to successfully pass this card on locally for......

2013 Topps Allen & Ginter Miguel Cabrera Cabinet Card

I am not sure the person who swapped me this card has actually paid attention to what's happening this season with this two players, but I walked away quickly got in my car and drove away.  While the Cabrera card is a better card, both are very attractive cards, and very well made.  I love the design with the black and white photo and cool frame.  Even the backs of the cards are really cool....

I love the design and writing around the edges of the card and always like how Topps puts the vintage ads on the backs of the retro brands like Ginter, T206, and Gypsy Queen.  Gives the card a good authentic vintage feel.  Happy to add this Miggy jumbo to my collection and honestly like the cards enough that I might try to assemble a collection of box toppers once I have my base set put together.  

30 Year Top 50: 2000 Topps Traded

#37-The 2000 Topps Traded set comes in at this spot, but this is a set that I could see becoming more important over time.  The evolution of this set has been pretty interesting to say the least.  At the time of it's release the 135 card set was issued as a factory set with an autograph per set.  The autographs were a skip set featuring some of the rookies that are in the base set.  Most of the important rookies signed cards except for Adam Wainwright.

2000 Topps Traded Ben Sheets

Much of the early hype surrounding the 2000 Topps Traded set followed two cards:  Ben Sheets and Francisco Rodriguez.  The Sheets card spiked after his appearance in the 2000 Olympics where he pitched the US Baseball team to a gold medal upsetting the Cuban team which fielded pro players.  The Francisco Rodriguez card spiked after the 2002 World Series run by the Angels.  Both cards slowly slid backwards as Sheets ran into injury problems a few years into his career as a Brewer and Rodriguez signed with the Mets and floundered.

2000 Topps Traded Adrain Gonzalez 

The Adrian Gonzalez rookie was also fairly popular at the time of the sets initial release.  Gonzalez was the number one overall pick in the 2000 amateur draft.  The card eventually trended downward after Gonzalez bounced around his first few years in the league.  A trade to the Red Sox saw a jump in his cards popularity and price, but he has cooled a bit since his trade to the Dodgers.  A few good years in Los Angeles could pick this card back up again.

2000 Topps Traded Miguel Cabrera

Overtime, the Miguel Cabrera rookie has emerged from this set as the most important card.  Whether you believe he is the equal of Pujols or ARod, or not, he is an important player and probably a Hall of Famer.  After this year's Triple Crown effort his cards have climbed in popularity and price.  While the base version of his 2000 Topps Traded card is readily available and easy to find he did sign cards for this set too.  

2000 Topps Traded Miguel Cabrera Autograph

I don't think Topps has ever put a production number on the Topps Traded autographs, but I would guess there are probably at least 1000 of each card.  Some of the autographs haven't held up too well, so condition is going to eventually play a part in the availability and affordability of this card.  There are always a few floating around Ebay and COMC, but you are going to have to pay a lot for it.  By the way, check out the Cabrera autograph on this card and a current card.  Good job with keeping the autograph consistent.  

2000 Topps Traded Adam Wainwright

2000 Topps Traded Brandon Phillips

A few other good rookie cards are floating around this set that have also emerged in more recent years.  There were popular periods of time for Carlos Zambrano, Barry Zito, and Juan Pierre.   The two pictured above, Adam Wainwright and Brandon Phillips, are probably the two biggest movers.  Wainwright has never won a Cy Young Award, but has been close a few times.  He came back from Tommy John surgery this past year and pitched fairly well, so it will be interesting to watch if he can recapture his old form. 

Brandon Phillips is another good player who has started to get a little bit of love from card collectors.  In my opinion his cards have always been a little bit lower than what they should be.  He's a great signer and has a nice looking autograph to go with everything the guy does on the field.  His rookie card from this set is pretty easy to find, plus a signed cards from the set.  

The Phillips autographs aren't hard to find and won't cost you a second mortgage on your house like the Cabrera.  However, the Phillips autographs have also been some of the worst aging autographs in the set.  This is my copy which has been sleeved and placed in a top loader in a box.  Yet, if you look closely at the signature it clearly has some points where the ink has started fading.  

Overall, this set is a great addition to any collection given the quality of rookies included.  Plus, if you can find a sealed version you always have a shot at pulling out a Cabrera autograph.  The base set will generally set you back about $50, or you can try to find the Topps Chrome version which will run between $100-$120.  

Like the 2000 Topps Traded Set?  Not in my Top 50 countdown is the 1999 Topps Traded set.  Similar to the 2000 Topps Traded set, the 1999 version was loaded with high talent rookies.  However, while the 2000 Topps Traded set continues to have its rookie crop rise in performance and value, the 1999 set has gone the other direction.  

At the time of it's release the sets key rookies included C.C. Sabathia, Josh Hamilton, Adam Dunn, Carlos Pena, Carl Crawford, and Alfonso Soriano.  The best of that bunch is the Hamilton and Sabathia cards.  The others have all trailed off for various reasons.

1999 Topps Traded Josh Hamilton 

1999 Topps Traded C.C. Sabathia

While both the Hamilton and Sabathia are nice cards and good additions to the collection I would be hesitant and skeptical of their future values.  While I am sure that most teams interested in signing Hamilton this offseason will be successful in managing his off the field issues, I am not sure that he is going to hold up well in the long term.  The second half of this season should be a warning.  Sabathia is chugging towards 300 wins and has proven durable most of his career, but he did have some injury problems this year.  Plus, C.C. is not the most well conditioned professional athlete and I would, like Hamilton, have to question how well he will hold up over time.  After all, there are those who believe the C.C. stands for Captain Crunch.  As in, two boxes per day.