Gallery Of Reasonable Baseball Cards

I really cannot stand Wal-Mart.  There is one a mile or so from my house.  I spent ten minutes trying to think of one item that I regularly buy from that store.  I have got nothing.  The last time I went there it was only because it opens at 6 in the morning and I needed to pick something up for the science club I run at my school.

Sure, part of the dislike has to do with the fact that the card aisle is garbage, but it also smells like cat food.  Needless to say that when a retail only product comes out I have zero chance of finding any packs of whatever it is anywhere near my Wal-Mart.  I guess I could do that whole thing where I drive from Wal-Mart to Wal-Mart all over central North Carolina, but I value my time too much to go on such a venture.

I guess I "miss out" on all of the fun.

Annual Bowman craze over some prospect?  I got an Ohtani card last year.

In the past I have ended up with plenty of cards of Bryce Harper, Steven Strasburg, or whoever else has made people scour all of their local retail stores for packs of Bowman.  I will wait a few more weeks and buy a Bowman base set for a whole lot of not much compared to what they were selling for when the set first came out.  

Remember when they had the baseball cards in the Wal-Mart brand pizza?

Big shout out to the internet for a picture of a pizza box from Wal-Mart.  I question whether the food material inside of the box can even be called a pizza.  Ultimate meat pizza?  I have my doubts.  I missed the pizza card craze and I feel like I really did not miss anything.  I can buy the two Cardinals cards in the set off of COMC for less than $3.00.....

and I have never eaten a Wal-Mart brand pizza.  It's a win-win.  

Which brings me to last year's Wal-Mart exclusive......

the Topps Gallery set.  People want a little crazy about these boxes.  Two autographs for $70 at Wally World?  I decided to wait out for singles.  The former Durham Bulls players in the set were within a comfortable price range last fall.....

so I have picked up most of those cards.  Although the Rays ended up with Christian Arroyo in the Evan Longoria trade, so there is still one out there to find.  Not sure what is up with the drawing of Kiermaier's face on this card.  A little off.  

So, on to the Cardinals.  I found a copy of the Paul DeJong and Alex Reyes autographs about two months ago, which left me with two more autographs to find.  I could have bought the Luke Weaver last fall, not too bad on price for one of his cards.....

in the Gallery set.  I went ahead and picked up this card once I found the final Cardinals card that I needed to complete the team set.  I never quite understood, of all the players, why Cardinals fans went a little overboard on Magneuris Sierra.  He is a decent prospect, mainly he's just really fast....

I suspect that some of the love for Sierra came from the fact that he is something off a 1980s Cardinals team.  He's not Vince Coleman, or Willie McGee, but he might be the closest thing the Cardinals have had the last twenty-five years.  

Since he got traded to the Marlins this offseason, he will never have the chance to duplicate those players as a Cardinal.  The good news is that most of Sierra's cards have gone from outrageous to $5. Very reasonable for a player I suspect might turn into a Billy Hamilton clone, minus a step.  I was a little excited to cross off some cards that will close out some team sets.  The Gallery card was first up on my list. 

I feel like the sticker autograph is a little more noticeable on this card than on the Weaver and Kiermaier cards.  I also feel like the art work is also better.  This is my first decent Sierra autograph too.  About a year ago, I picked up a copy of a Panini autograph....

though as an unlicensed card, it is really unattractive.  Not even close to the Gallery card.  Maybe a few more Mags cards later on this summer.  

It's Not Jon Jay Nice, Still......

I have really enjoyed some of the cards Topps has made over the past several years using acetate, some people prefer the term plastic, over card stock.  I think plastic and acetate are pretty interchangeable.  In some ways the whole acetate/plastic card media start long ago.  Topps has just picked the idea up in recent years and ran with it.  I think my first "plastic" set of cards that I really enjoyed collecting were the 1998 Skybox EX-2001 set.  These weren't specifically deemed acetate cards, plus the silver part and player picture is actually made out of cardboard on these cards.

These are a modern classic.  If you do not own one, I would highly recommend it.  I still take the cards out of from this set and look at them from time to time.  Fast forward nearly twenty years and we still have some nice acetate/plastic cards that are being produced. 

My favorite current patch of acetate cards are the Topps clear parallels that have been appearing in the base set for the past few years.  They are limited to a print run of just 10, so they can be a little hard to find, but they are really well done.  My favorite was the 2014 Jon Jay card.    

The colors on the front of these cards really pop out on the acetate media and the card backs are spectacular with the reverse image of the players done in black and gray.  

Just a really nice look.  Topps has had other acetate card products that haven't been as nice as the clear parallels, but still I have enjoyed collecting.  The Strata cards come to mind.  Nice looking set, not everything was acetate or plastic, but still very fun to collect.  

Not an obvious acetate card at first spot, but the backs of these cards have some of the same cool features of the Topps base card parallel.  Again, not quite as nice as the clear parallel.   

Here you can see the signature on the front of the card showing through to the back.  Which brings us to our newest entry into the world of acetate cards.  I was initially worried about this product.  Nothing would be more disappointing than promising collectors an all acetate set and then making it somehow really mediocre.  I seriously feared this when I saw the previews for Topps Clearly.  

It has it's plus and it's minuses.  Here is my first card from the set, there are more on the way.

First off, this is one of those products that you want someone else to open.  50 some dollars for one autograph?  Open away, I will buy your $5 Luke Weaver cards off of Ebay.  I am also a little disappointed that the cards are in magnet cases with a seal over the top.  What is so cool about these cards that they have to be in a case?  I get that Topps has done this with Archives Signatures and a few other products recently.  Let me hold the card in my hand.  Seriously thinking about taking this out of the one-touch.

and the best thing?  If you read my other acetate card posts you'd know it's always these cool looking card backs.....

Same basic idea as the acetate cards in the Topps base set, but I love that you can see the player's autograph showing through on the back of the card.  This card doesn't have a very clear background, but there is a color background with a Cubs player standing behind Weaver.  It's just not totally obvious at first glance... My other Topps Clearly card will be here in a day or two, looks like it has a clean card front aside from the player photo, curious how it will compare to this card.....

Still waiting to find a nicer acetate card than the Jon Jay.  This card is not Jon Jay, but still, it's nice.  

We've Come For Your Boxes

I went out Saturday afternoon in search of a few boxes for some of my larger 1980s baseball card sets which I have been working on for the past few weeks.  There is a large bundle of baseball card boxes in my house, but most of the modern sets are smaller than the old 792 standard Topps set of my childhood.  For this reason, most of the boxes in the closet are less than 550.  What to do?

Off to the local card shop.

Now, I was supposed to be looking for boxes and I had my six year old chaperone along to watch over my purchases.  My wife talked him up before the trip out about keeping me to only boxes.  However, I looked around a bit and found two inexpensive cards that seemed like a good fit for the old baseball card collection.

First card.

Luke Weaver had a pretty good debut last year, but is back in Memphis with the Cardinals Triple A team to start the season.  He's signed a lot of stuff this year and his cards are really affordable.  I am not a huge fan of this year's Tribute set, more in a minute, but I don't have much in the way of Major League issue Weaver cards.  

A quick run down on Tribute:  There is a pattern in the bottom lower left corner, another sort of pattern around the Tribute logo in the top left corner, and something else on the name bar.  Many design patterns, one card, my ADHD is killing me.  

Fidget spinners don't really help.  Don't buy one for you or your children.  

Second card.  

Souza is a Ray, most of the Rays players that I like were on the Durham Bulls.  Souza played for the Bulls on a rehab assignment, but never appeared for the Bulls on a Minor League assignment.  Regardless of his lack of time in Durham, I still really like him as a player based on his time with the Syracuse Chiefs.  He was by far one of the more impressive Minor League players that I have ever run across.  Obviously he is not quite as impactful at the Major League level, but the guy is still putting together a pretty good year...

The card is from last year's Triple Threads.  Not one of those cool cards that spells something out like Souz Not Suzie, but nonetheless a very nice looking card.  I like the dark backgrounds with the gold trim.

As an added post bonus I bring you this incredible video of Souza recently diving for a ball....

and yes I got boxes, but no I did not put a picture of them in this post.  Sorry to crush your spirits.  

Trading Card Co-Op Part 2: Cardinals and Heritage Cards

I have a little bit of time away from work for the next few weeks, so I decided to venture out a few days back to pay a follow up visit my local card shop here in Raleigh.  I ended up picking up a pair of single cards while I was there and also decided to dabble a little bit with two products; 2016 Topps Heritage Minor League and 2016 Topps Heritage High Numbers.

I will do a little bit more of an in depth breakdown on the two Heritage products in a separate post.  For now, I am just looking at the singles and hit cards I pulled.  I had originally had decided to come in for the Topps Heritage Minors cards, always one of my favorites as a Minor League baseball fan, but found two sweet Cardinals cards while I was perusing the boxes and displays.

First, we are going with a Cardinals player wearing their college uni.....

I haven't done a lot with last year's Panini College cards, mainly because the NC State cards have gotten pricy with both Russell Wilson and Tree Turner being featured on them, and a complete lack of Mizzou cards.  I had seen some Weaver cards in a few of the Cardinals trading groups on Facebook, but had not pulled the trigger on any of these yet.  All of my Weaver cards up to this point have either been Cardinals cards, or from his time on the USA Baseball College team.

This is a pretty sweet card with a nice swatch of jersey, clearly from a Florida State uni.  Nice card, now I need to find one of the Weaver autographs from this set.

Next.

I was really excited about this one.  Most of the time when Triple Threads comes out I sit around and ignore it for a month.  I love these cards, but they are so hard to win in auctions online when they first come out.  Sure, I could just buy a box, but I usually just want the Cardinals and Rays cards out of this set.  I just go for the singles.

This year's Triple Threads cards still generally have the jersey and patch pieces going horizontally across the bottom of the cards, but this year there are also quite a few cards with a vertical format.  These remind me a lot of the 2010 set.....

The Tsunami card is pretty sweet too.  I know that Martinez was in the last two year's Triple Threads sets too, but I do not think that Topps made any cards of Martinez outside of the plain Jane jersey card with an autograph.  Nice to see Topps throw out his nickname on a card which is tattooed on the inside of his forearm.  

On to things that are not single Cardinals cards.  I checked out two newer products when I went into the Trading Card Co-Op.  I was initially just going to with a box of Topps Heritage Minors, but decided to dabble a little with the Heritage High Numbers product too.  Last year I did well with the retail version of High Numbers, why not.  

Again, I will do a full write up on both sets at some point this weekend.  

Minors is up first and I am just focusing on the hits I pulled.  The box claims that you are guaranteed two hits; an autographed card and a relic card.  I did a little bit better than the stated odds.  My first hit card I pulled was my relic....

I pulled a Hunter Harvey jersey card.  The Orioles pitching prospect is a North Carolina native from Catawba and has been ranked in Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus Top 100 Prospects lists at different points over the last two years.  The former first round draft pick ended the year playing A Ball.  Aways from the Majors, so this is going to get filed away for a few years and we will revisit.  

My first autograph belonged to Royals prospect Nolan Watson.  He was a first round draft pick in 2015 and started out locally with the Burlington Royals, but was promoted up the Lexington Legends last year.  In two year's Watson has 35 starts and an ERA of almost 7.  This year he gave up almost 2 home runs per 9 innings.  Hopefully Mr. Watson can turn it around at some point.  

Next.  

I am really intrigued by this card.  There are prospects who are really good, they play well in the Minors, and the whole way up their cards are popular and have value.  There are prospects who are really bad, but they were really hyped in the draft, their cards are expensive....I just scratch my head.  Then there are players like Martes.  Who is he?  He was traded for Colin Moran.  Not excited?  He played in Double A last year for Houston's Corpus Christi Hooks, struck out more than a batter per inning, and now is appearing on Top 100 prospect lists at Baseball America, MLB.com, and Baseball Prospectus.  This card sells for a whole lot of nothing, but seems like it is one to hang on to.

Last up.

Heritage High Numbers only has one hit, which for me, was a red autograph of Twins prospect Jose Berrios.  The Twins had a rough year, Berrios too, but he has been in Triple A the last two years and been very impressive.  Perhaps a little bit better supporting crew and he will be just fine.  Excited to land a red autograph though all things considered.

Trinity, Killer Patch

I do not dabble in the non-licensed sets too often, but I will bend that rule for something really cool.  I have had my eye on a couple of cards out of the Leaf Trinity set the past few weeks.  While I am not a huge fan of Leaf, they do a great job of getting recent draft picks to sign and include some really cool patch pieces too.  Initially, I was looking for some of the players who were on the NC State baseball last year.  Then I found a few Cardinals cards that I really liked.  

I decided to focus on Luke Weaver cards.  I saw him pitch for USA Baseball and Florida State the last two years and was impressed with his play.  Plus the Cardinals have done pretty well the past two years with Michael Wacha and Marco Gonzales.  So, this is what I ended up landing....

I am not sure where the patch piece ranks in my Cardinals collection, but it is pretty spectacular.  There were other cards with pieces of his name or number, but I decided a piece of the Cardinal would be even cooler.  Hopefully Mr. Weaver will make it to St Louis, but if not, this is still a really cool card. 

Oh, and the title......

Snorting Bull Awards: Worst Set of the Year

WORST CARD SET OF THE YEAR

We are meeting here too often.  This is how awards get named after people, or in this case a set, and it's not really a good thing.  Mental note: If Topps releases this set again next year and it is truly garbage again my award for Worst Card Set of the Year will be renamed after this product.  Really there is no need for this sort of thing to happen.  We've discussed airbrushing in several different posts over the years and no matter how it is done, collectors can all agree that it is not a good thing for the set.

So, if you worked at Topps and you wanted to showcase the talent that was drafted in the amateur baseball draft how would you go about doing this?  There are several good examples, a few mediocre examples, and a ton of poor examples.  The poor examples are mainly recent.  Here's how I view some of the draft cards over the years:


The Good: 1992 Topps Stadium Club Dome

These are sort of a classic in many circles.  Manny Ramirez was at Duke Chapel.  Shawn Green was in his backyard.  Nothing wrong with these cards.  I like Shawn Green in a t-shirt and a hat from his high school a lot better than an airbrushed Blue Jays uni.


The Bad: Leaf Products 

Leaf is always pretty good about getting draftees to sign for their different products.  They take the logos off of stuff, but they are not adding stuff either.  Treat Turner autograph?  Yes, please.  Why did you take the NC State logo off of his cap?  Disappointing, but not a deal breaker.

The Ugly (and winner of Worst Card Set two years running) Bowman Draft

I am not sure if this picture was taken while Turner was in college or playing somewhere in the minors, but he was clearly not on the Padres at the time it was taken.  It brings up the first problem with the Bowman Draft set: Quality.  

The SD logo on the hat is goofy and the jersey is off too.  I understand that almost every Topps set these days has some airbrushing, we all have bad days, but Bowman Draft just takes it to a different level.  Is there a card in the set which Topps does not airbrush?  I am not sure that there is. 

This Trea Turner is not quite as bad as the base card in the Bowman Draft set, but it still is not great.  This looks a lot like a USA Baseball photo.  The helmet is not quite right for NC State.  The earflaps on their helmets are a little bit less padded.  Almost a dead ringer for the USA Baseball helmets though and that dirt spot on the front of his jersey has a strange shape, but it's in the same spot as the number on is US National team jersey.  Pretty hard to get those dirt spots to cooperate with your airbrushing.  Even when Topps tries really really hard it is hard to make a quality product when you have to airbrush every single card.  

I had also thought about picking up a copy of the Luke Weaver card who was the Cardinals first round draft pick out of Florida State.  I saw the pitcher a few times the last couple of years with both FSU and USA Baseball.  His rookie card in Bowman Draft is inexcusably sloppy which is my second adjective I would use to describe this product.  

The Cardinals logo on his jersey is pretty bad, the hat is okay, but if you are going to go ahead and airbrush those two items on his jersey what is preventing you from fixing his maroon socks, belt, and undershirt showing on the card.  Seriously just airbrush the whole thing.  If I had been airbrushing him I would have put him smack dab in the middle of Busch Stadium.  What stopping you?  

Finally there is this awesome number Topps pulled on Casey Gillaspie cards which illustrates a total lack of consistency within the Bowman Draft product.  Gillaspie was the Rays first round pick out of Wichita State.  If you have never seen Wichita State play they have unique uniforms and they are probably pretty difficult to airbrush.  Topps actually waited until he reached the minors to take a photo of the power hitter first baseman.........

This insert card is not too bad.  The color scheme and design certainly fit with the Rays.  The helmet might be slightly off, but not bad.  What I do not understand is how you can create a decent photograph for one card and then completely miss on another card of the same player.  Here is Gillaspie's regular base card in the Bowman Draft set.....

I am not sure where this picture was taken, but the hat logo is terrible and the jersey logo is not much better.  I just do not understand why, if you are going to use airbrushing, you would not choose a card that is easy to work into something that looks good.  

I know that for many collectors the Bowman Draft product is the end of the calendar year and in many ways a celebration of the card year.  One final Bowman product and the first look at a few young stars before the new card year starts.   However, until Topps does something to change the quality and consistency in the product and clean up the sloppiness the Bowman Draft product will not be a serious set of baseball cards.  

It appears that other collectors are also down on this product too.  The set has not been out for very long and the set is already selling for just a little more than $5. 

Topps needs to seriously pull the plug on this product and do a complete revamp of what they are doing in this set.  I am not sure that Topps can ever really admit that they do something wrong, they are the only licensed card company in the game, but this would be a great set to either discontinue or go out on a limb and do something creative with.  In the meantime, I am prepared to rename the award for Worst Card Set of the Year to the Bowman Draft Worst Card Set of the Year Award.  As sure as the night is dark and water is wet, Topps will release this product again next year with all of the same flaws it has had the past several years running.

ACC Baseball on Cardboard

College baseball season is getting close and I am pretty excited to check out some of our local teams around Raleigh-Durham.   I am planning on making it to several games this year and have a list of players I want to see from various colleges making trips in to play one of the three Triangle schools.   Last year both NC State and UNC made the College World Series and this year look just as promising for both teams.  NC State is lead by star pitcher Carlos Rodon and shortstop Trea Turner.  The Tar Heels will be lead by pitcher Trent Thorton and outfielder Skye Bolt.  The rest of the ACC has some talented players as well and the conference should be pretty deep this year.  

While it's great to live in an area where I have several great college baseball programs nearby, fans all across the county have had more and more access to the best players in college baseball regardless of their location.  The availability of college baseball cards has greatly increased during the past decade mainly through the popularity of the USA Baseball program and its continued popularity amongst baseball card collectors.  Here's my look at four good players in the ACC who are already featured on cardboard:


Carlos Rodon-P
NC State

Rodon projects to be the National Player of the Year, the ACC Player of the Year, and should also be the first overall draft pick in the MLB Amateur Draft this summer.  He's won every individual award there is to win during his two years in Raleigh.  He has also played a few summers over at USA Baseball which means he has several autographs and relics cards floating around already.  Here's a look at an autograph:

Rodon is a pretty hard player to collect.  He has a few cards out on the market, but they are pretty pricey for a baseball player who has not thrown his first professional pitch yet.  The average Rodon card frequently costs more than $50 and the bidding is usually very competitive.  I've been trying to get my hands on one of his new Panini cards, have the money to make a serious offer, but have been outbid, sniped at the last minute on Ebay, and everything else.  You almost have to overpay to land a copy of his cards.

Here's a look at Rodon in action:

Trea Turner-IF
NC State

 Turner currently is projected as the top position player available for this summer's MLB Draft.  Turner had a great freshman year, but had battled the injury bug a bit last year which limited his playing time.  He is incredibly fast and has pretty good patience at the plate.  Like Rodon, he's been around the USA Baseball program for a few years and has several cards out floating about.  They are much cheaper than Rodon's, but I would not say they are cheap.

Turner autographed cards are frequently more than $20.  Not a terrible price, but he still has never played an inning of professional baseball.  I think Turner is a pretty safe bet for Major League teams, so I am not sure where he will go in the first round, but he will be in there somewhere.  I would also guess he is not in the minors a really long time.


Skye Bolt-OF
North Carolina

Bolt is still another year away from the MLB Draft, but should be a pretty high pick coming up in two years.  He's a very patient hitter who posted a great average average, on-base percentage, and walked more than he struck out during his first year in Chapel Hill.  He doesn't have a ton of pop last year, but I am guessing he still develops some good power.  His cards are all from releases put out during the past year.  There are some really cool ones out there, but he's already pretty popular.  I am not sure if people love the name, or they know the potential talent.

I have a base card of Blot, but his autographs are already north of Trea Turner.  Bolt also has some great relic cards that can be found for less than $10. 


Luke Weaver-P
Florida State

Weaver was a second team ACC performer last year in Tallahassee and projects as a top 10 pitching prospect for this summer's MLB entry draft.  I did not get a chance to see Florida State's baseball team last spring, so I cannot speak on Weaver's abilities first hand.  He did pitch for the USA Baseball team this summer, but honestly I made sure that I saw Rodon when I went to their games.  Here's what I know about Weaver: he throws in the mid to low 90s and has a pretty incredible strikeout to walk ratio.  He does have baseball cards.

Weaver's cards are pretty affordable with his autographs sitting below $10 and his relic cards sitting below $5.  Worth a role of the dice given he is likely a first round draft pick. 


Name to remember for later in the summer, they will have baseball cards soon:
Trent Thronton-P University of North Carolina
Landon Lassiter-IF University of North Carolina
D.J. Stewart-OF Florida State
Bryan Radziewski-P Miami
Mark Zagunis-C Virginia Tech
Mike Papi-OF/1BVirginia
Daniel Gossett-RHP Clemson
Brett Austin-C NC State
Brandon Downes-OF Virginia
Derek Fisher-OF Virginia