I'm not in cardboard rainbows, but......

I ended up picking up another copy of a 2014 Bowman Inception card of Oscar Taveras.  I added a copy of the pink card last week and already owned a copy of the green card.  Here's a look at the newest card which is gold and numbered out of 99........

I am not into the whole rainbow thing, but these cards are starting to look nice together........

and this one........

So there are four of them right?  I'm a plain autograph short of the rainbow?  I really hate EBay at the moment, but it looks like I need to track down a card.....

Pink Oscar

I ended up with a completely ridiculous Oscar Taveras card this past week.  I picked this card up from a local collector in Raleigh.  I have several other copies of this card, but did not have the pink copy of this card.  In fact, I do not think I have a copy of a pink Inception card.  The pink parallels only appeared in the 2014 version of Inception (the product started in 2013) and are all limited to just 50 copies.   I spent a little bit of time looking around Ebay and COMC at the pink parallels after buying this card.  Seems like there are some possibilities out there that would look nice in my collection.  There are not a lot of Cardinals and Rays in this set, so I will have to surprise a little bit with the next version of this pink parallel that I pick up.  Like most Bowman products Taveras is wearing a Minor League uni in his picture which reminds all Cardinals fans of that time that the team broadcast referred to Oscar as Minor League Guy.  

One Last Oscar

I bought a copy of the Topps Tek Oscar Taveras Autograph sometime in December and it has been sitting here on my desk for more than a month.  I thought long and hard about not even making a post about the card, just simply filing the card away in a box, and moving on to other cards in my collection.  However, after much contemplation I decided to go ahead and post the card. 

There is so much that I would love to say on this topic, but at this time I am going to take a pass on saying too much about Oscar, just sticking to the card.  I literally have two or three draft posts about this card and about Oscar.  Maybe another time.  

I have posted a few of the Topps Tek autographs over the last two months.  Loved this set back in the late 90s and Topps did a really great job of recreating this product.  I also love the fact that the autographs in this set are all on card.  Really sharp looking product with lots of good autographs.  

Trade with Chavez Ravining

I picked up a really sweet card this past week from Alex at Chavez Ravining.  He's obviously a huge Dodgers fan and has a great collection of over 200 Matt Kemp cards.  I helped him out with a great Matt Kemp autograph for his collection and picked up a really nice Oscar Taveras Acetate card from the Topps Update set in return.  Here's a look at my newest card:

 I have added a whole bunch of these cards to my collection this year and this card might be my favorite of the bunch.  It's numbered 2/10 and has all of the cool trappings of the Acetate cards which I have talked about numerous times this year.  This is the one of two Topps base cards of Oscar Taveras, so there is that too.    

I always have to post the back of the card when I pick up on Acetate too.  Love the mirrored look of the back and the fact that the card is translucent.  This is one the coolest parts of these cards which I hope Topps will bring back for 2015.  Here's a look at the translucentness..... (is that a word?)

2014 Topps Update Oscar Taveras Acetate 2/10 #Cardinals #OscarTaveras #OT18 #Topps

A photo posted by The Snorting Bull (@thesnortingbull) on Jan 10, 2015 at 5:40pm PST

Alex also add a stack full of extra cards into our trade.  My favorite extra card has to be this cool Topps Pro Debut Gold of Rays prospect Thomas Coyle.  The Rays second base prospect played for the Charlotte Crabs in the Florida State League (High A) last season, but had previously starred at the University of North Carolina.  

The card is numbered out of just 50.  He also threw in a whole gaggle of other Cardinals and Rays goodies which can be summarized in this short Vine.  

Overall, it was a great trade and I am really happy with my brand new Oscar Taveras card.  I still have a few other cool Kemp autographs hanging out, so I am looking forward to a few more trades with Alex.  Thank you again!  

More Five Star Autographs

A little bit of a follow up post from yesterday, but I wanted to give my new Five Star autographs a post of their own.  The Oscar Taveras card appeared in the Best Autograph Set of 2014 post, but probably also deserves a little bit of a nod in it's own post.  Five Star always seems to come out really late every year and just when you think the card calendar has come to an end, there is a really nice product with really nice autographs that pops up.  Want lists are revised and plans for filling in the last remaining holes in the 2014 sets are placed on hold.

As discussed in the previous post, I am really high on this set.  I love the thick card stock and I love the on-card autographs.  I have seen a few people compare the background design to a paisley shirt that Will Smith might have worn on the Fresh Prince of Bel Aire, but I am cool with it.  I actually think it looks a little bit more like the Basilica Cathedral in St. Louis than a Will Smith shirt and I am sure if we could talk with the design folks at Topps I am sure they would probably side with my interpretation of the design.  

I picked up two Five Star autographs to start out.  I really liked the Taveras card, but also decided to add the Craig since it was being sold by the same seller on Ebay and had almost no bidding on it.  I believe that this is the first autograph for Craig in a Red Sox uniform.  Kind of wonder if it is also probably his last autograph in a Red Sox uniform.  As for Taveras, I will be talking a little bit more about Oscar later this week.  I have avoided the topic over the past two months, but have had some time to think and process everything.  More Oscar later....

Needless to say, I am on the look out for a few more Five Star autographs.  I am thinking about adding another Cardinals autograph or two, but I really like the Vladimir Guerrero autograph.  I am thinking of doing more 90s baseball autographs out of this set more than my usual Cardinals and Rays.  

#MyCardMonday

One of my recent favorites, gone a little too soon.  #RIPOscar

The Snorting Bull will return in November.  

#MyCardMonday

I wrote a post yesterday about the hits I pulled out of a box of 2014 Topps Update.  I usually will give my two cents about the base set, but for this post I skipped the subject.  The base sets always mean something to me.  I like looking at the photography, the players in the set, and al sorts of other little things in each of the sets.  I always have favorites.  This year's Update set had a clear favorite in my book.  It's card 113 and looks like this:

The Cardinals had a long year in spite of the fact that they made it all the way to the National League Championship Series.  The offense was down and the team struggled with injuries and consistency throughout the year.  One of the real bright spots for the team was supposed to be young outfielder Oscar Taveras.  It started off well and was happy to see Topps include his debut in their set.  It looked like this:

Taveras ended the year batting .239 and really struggled to find playing time this year in a crowded outfield.  I wish Mike Matheny had found him more at bats at times this year, but I am sure his time is coming sooner than later.  I need to go find a few of the other versions of this card.  

A Trip To Big D's Card Shop Part 1

My trips into my favorite local card shop tend to focus on adding some cool Cardinals or Rays cards to my collection.  Actually this trip was for a box of cards, but in the meantime, the owner of Big D's Jimmy had his eyes open looking for some cool cards for my collection.  We will get to the box in Part 2 of this post, but first let's look at some cool single cards.  Lot's of cool things here, the Rays are up first....


Both Rays items I picked up yesterday were signed items from players who had stopped in Durham on their way to the Majors.  Really cool items that Jimmy found from a great local autograph collector.

This is a Jeremy Hellickson autograph on a ticket stub from his first Major League victory.  Really cool and unique item of one of my favorite Durham Bulls.  I love collecting autographs and the vast majority of my autograph collection is in card form, but I love finding unique items like this.  Who has a ticket stub from Jeremy Hellickson's Major League Debut hanging out in their house?  I do not know, but I am really happy to own this piece.  Here's a look at Hellickson during the game.  John Jaso is catching....

I also landed a nice ball from pitcher Matt Moore.  Moore spent a good deal of time in Durham before landed a job in the starting rotation of the Rays.  The ball is from the Southern League and features a nice signature of Moore on the sweet spot of the ball.  

Two really nice Rays autographs and both are on unique pieces.  On to the Cardinals half of the post. All my Cardinals additions are in baseball card form.  First up are a few Yadis.

Starting simple, this is a Molina short print from this year's Topps Heritage set.  Not many cards show off Yadi's cool neck tattoos.  One more Yadi short print.....

I posted one or two of these variations before with my box breaks.  This is the Stats variation which features the Sabermetric stats on the back of the card instead of the traditional stats that Topps has put on their cards for years and years.  Topps has already added the WAR stat to the back of the regular cards, but think a few of these stats could find their way onto the regular issue of Topps cards.  I'd love to see the OPS+ stat there.  

Still staying pretty simple, this is a pair of rookie cards from new Cardinals pitcher Sam Tuivailala.  I have a good feeling about Tuivailala and could see him moving into a prominent role in the Cardinals bullpen in the near future.  I had posted a pair of his autographs a few weeks back.  Nice player, give him a look.

On to things that are a little bit harder to find...This is a nice copy of a 2013 Bowman Platinum Blue parallel.  The card is numbered to 40/199.  Taveras cards still seem to be selling low even though he has started to pick it up at the plate in recent weeks.  Hoping that Matheny can find him some at-bats on a regular basis next season.  Next Taveras card.......

I have always love the Bowman Inception cards.  Last year the set was my favorite product of the year.  It was a nice product again this year, and I have added a few autographs from the set, but not quite as gaga over this year's issue.  Still I love this Taveras.  He's got a great signature and the card has a nice on-card autograph.  This is the green version of the card and is serial numbered to just 75 copies.  

Jimmy picked this card up for me this past week.  I pulled a copy of the Hank Aaron card like this and was more than happy to pick up a Wacha card numbered to just 25 copies.  Have you looked at the Wacha card from Allen & Ginter and compared it to the Trevor Rosenthal?  They could be brothers.  

On to my favorite.  I LOVE THESE.....

Topps puts out all kinds of parallels.  Pink, camo, etc, etc, etc.  The best of them all have been the Acetate parallels numbered to just 10 copies.  I have picked up a few Cardinals cards.  Love this card and the set.

Overall, the single cards and items I picked up from Big D's today were all really awesome adds.  I am not sure how I would ever find half of the cards I pick up for my collection if it were not for the owner, Jimmy, keeping his eyes open for all of these cool cards.  If you live around Raleigh-Durham, or are visiting, a trip to Big D's is well worth your time.  If you can't make it into the store, you can also check out the shop on Facebook and Twitter.  

I Still Love Oscar

I have heard so much the past few months about all of the different prospects that have moved up the ladder during the 2014 season and are now either knocking down the door to the Majors, or they have gotten the call up with expanded rosters in September.  Some of the prospects are legit talents who will be around for a long time to come.  I had a chance to see Ruseny Castillo last week with Pawtucket and was really impressed by his performance in the International League playoffs.  He should be a force for years to come along with Mookie Betts.

Other prospects have entered the Majors and have had a slow start.  Cubs shortstop Javy Baez has 9 home runs in his first 41 Major League games, but is hitting .169 and has 74 strikeouts in 178 plate appearances.  The poor initial performance out of the Cubs infielder has cooled off the values of some of his cards.  A quick search of completed items on Ebay shows that his 2011 Bowman Sterling autograph was frequently selling north of $50 at the beginning of the baseball season in April and into the middle of summer before his call up to Chicago.  Collectors can now find a copy of the Baez rookie for less than $30.

Similar to Baez, Cardinals prospect Oscar Taveras saw the prices of his cards fall throughout the 2014 baseball season after he was called up to the Majors and failed to produce much beyond a .200 batting average with limited power.  While Baez's average has gone from .188 in August to .130 (with a .278 slugging) in September, Taveras has actually started to rebound and produce better numbers and results for the Cardinals.

In July, the first full month for Taveras, he posted a .176/.216/.206 line which started the fall of his card values.  Last month during August his numbers were up to .244/.292/.289.  It's an improvement, but still it was trending up.  This month?  Taveras has played a dozen games in September posting a .385/429/.538 line.  More than okay.  Of course, his card values did not magically recoup over night.  Autographs of the Cardinals right fielder are still hovering under $20.  Pretty cheap.  I am taking advantage of the current prices.....

This is the blue version of the Taveras 2014 Topps Chrome autograph which is serial numbered out of /199.  While the regular 2014 Topps Chrome card sells for less than $20 the serial numbered version of the card sells for just a few dollars more.  Five to ten dollars more get you a limited print run of a great looking card.  I am not going to put together the rainbow of this card, but I would still love to add a regular base autograph of Taveras.  I am also curious how these cards will fair if Oscar continues to improve his on the field performance.  A nice postseason run with some big hits by Taveras can only help.

A Trip Into Big D's Part 2- Cardinals (Mizzou too)

In the first part of my A Trip Into Big D's I highlighted the Rays cards that I picked up at my favorite local card shop.  Besides picking up a handful of sweet Rays cards I also picked up some really nice Cardinals pieces too.  Again, the card shop owner Jimmy found all of these cards for me.  Always awesome to have an extra set of eyes looking out for cool cards.  Let's start simple:

This is a game jersey card out of this year's Gypsy Queen set.  Nice looking card of the Cardinals young first baseman.  I am not quite done with completing the Cardinals autographs and relics from this set, but I am close.  Adams was a need.  Along with the Adams card I picked up a copy of an autograph from a former Mizzou player Martin Rucker.  

Mizzou had a bunch of good tight ends starting somewhere in the mid 2000s.  Rucker was an All-American and was one of the primary offensive weapons on the 2007 team that was a Big 12 Championship game away from the BCS Championship Game.  They still beat KU.  

More good stuff.  Back to baseball.  

Topps puts out a ton of parallels.  I swear collectors could go crazy trying to put all of these things together, or at least I would.  I know people who love these.  I really slowed down on parallels a few years back when Topps went wild with camo, pink, sparkles, pies in the face, etc.  Overwhelmed.  I think I have a pink card or two, but none of them are Cardinals and they are whatever I happened to wander into out of the box or packs I opened.  This Freese is numbered out of 50.  

Yes, he's no longer a Cardinal, but Game 6 of the 2011 World Series means I collect him.  He probably does not pay for many of his own beverages around St. Louis.  

I have not done a lot with Rob Kaminsky yet, but he's 19, was a first round pick, and has some really good minor league numbers in A ball.  I've heard good things.  His cards are inexpensive.  Why not?  Two more really good Cardinals.  

Love this card with the green background and the red on the Cardinals jersey.  Not a commonly seen combination, but it works here.  Throw in a nice autograph from the Cardinals top prospect and this a beautiful card.  It's a high number for an Oscar autograph, but it's also an on card autograph.  Last, but not least.....

  

One of the other customers at Big D's pulled this card and already had a Piscotty autograph from his appearance at the Triple A All-Star game from earlier this summer.  Jimmy picked it up for me and I was happy to give this card a new home.  The Cardinals have a crowded outfield, so who knows what the team will do with Piscotty, but this card is a keeper.  Well done Topps. 

Uber Taveras

The market place on Oscar Taveras cards really cooled last year when the Cardinals uber prospect wasted his first full season in Triple A with an ankle injury.  Add in a buffoon sports writer in St. Louis questioning his maturity and the team's commitment.  Taveras had a little fine tuning done on his bum ankle, worked hard this off-season, and is back to crushing minor league pitching for the Cardinals Memphis affiliate.  The sports writer is still trolling is own fan base.

The reaction to all of this from the sports card hobby was a slide in the price of Taveras cards.  Sure Oscar is hitting .320 something with power in Triple A, but last season still lingers in the minds of collectors who sunk hundreds of dollars or more into Taveras autographs and short prints.  The reluctance to spend on Taveras autographs has pushed the price of some of his autographs down below the $20 mark.  

I suspect that the Cardinals are planning on leaving Oscar Taveras in Triple A until the second half of the season.  The team already has a crowded outfield in St. Louis with Matt Holliday, Peter Bourjos, Allen Craig, and Mike Matheny's man crush on mediocrity, Jon Jay.  Throw in that Taveras is sharing the outfield with two other top offensive prospects, Stephen Piscotty and Randal Grichuk, and something is going to have to happen to make room for all of these players on the Cardinals bench.  

I suspect that as long as Taveras is in Triple A his cards will not regain the value the cards possessed during the summer of 2012.  If you are a regular reader you know that I am always cautious with spending money or trading resources away for high priced, high end rookie cards, but Taveras should be very high on your buy list at the moment.  

I figure at worst Taveras is probably going to be an above average Major League player for the next decade or so.  Add in the fact that he plays in a baseball crazy town with a good market for baseball cards and you've got to be pinching yourself over the prices Taveras cards have been selling for this year.  It's amazing what a high ankle sprain and garbage journalism will do to help out your cause.  

So here is my latest Taveras autograph I added to my collection:

I am still pinching myself a little bit over the cost of this card which I traded for over Facebook.  I ended up parting ways with a pair of Mets autographs, a Jeremy Hefner Gypsy Queen autograph and an Upper Deck Etchings autograph of former shortstop Jose Reyes, for this great looking Taveras autograph. While I already have a copy of this card, it's hard to pass up on this card at that price. Plus Upper Deck Etchings is one of my least favorite sets of all time. 

Sterling Bird Signatures

I picked up a pair of cool Bowman Sterling autographs of two Cardinals prospects.  I am always a little bit leery of Bowman Sterling cards.  High price tag with cards that can be easy to find with high print runs and low prices.  It's a great product to let someone else open and then swoop in to pick up the cards.  Yes, opening packs of cards is fun and I could potentially pull something really sweet.  However, I have been burned too many times with these sorts of products.

A month or so after the product was released I managed to pick up a cool pair of autographs at a really good price.  First up is a cool card that any prospect collector would love to have in their collection.  The best prospect in baseball.....
 

 2013 Bowman Sterling Oscar Taveras Autograph

Taveras has a bit of a lost season in 2013 due to an injury to his ankle, but should be back in 2014.  I am not sure if he is going to be in Memphis to start, or on the bench in St. Louis.  I would guess that even if Taveras ends up in the PCL at the beginning of the season, he will be in St. Louis at some point during the 2014 season.  Taveras is an excellent hitter and has hit for a high average at every level.  His power has increased every year he has played in the minors, so the Cardinals are probably hoping for an improvement over his 22 he posted in 2012.  Taveras is pretty popular in he hobby, but the prices of his autographs has cooled over the last year. 

2013 Bowman Sterling Robert Kaminsky Autograph

Kaminksy is not as well known as some of the other prospects in the Cardinals system, but I think he has a pretty good shot to be a good contributor the team in the future.  The Cardinals drafted Kaminsky out of high school in New Jersey, but he had a scholarship offer and had committed to play baseball at North Carolina.  After being selected in the first round, Kaminsky skipped college to play for the Cardinals.  Spend a little time reading up on Kaminsky and you will find he's got three pitches including a fastball, curve, and change-up.  The curve ball is supposedly spectacular.  I am hoping to see Kaminsky in St. Louis in the near future.  

We Don't Need No Rules

This blog is something that I do for fun and relaxation at night.  My day job is working with nine and ten year olds as a fourth grade school teacher outside of Raleigh, North Carolina.  One of the most important parts of teaching is establishing and following procedures and rules.  In my classroom my students walk in the morning and they work on their math warm-up, which is usually some sort of word problem which the students solve and write a response explaining their process and thinking behind their work, watch the morning announcements, and then finally start math class after the school pledge and Pledge of Allegiance.  As the students are working on their math warmup the students know that they can work with a partner, since different students have different math warmups they know who can and cannot be their partner, the students can also find a quiet spot on the floor or in a common area to work out their problems.  Some students prefer to work out their problems on white boards first before their record their final work on their paper.  Meanwhile, other students record their explanation for their math word problems with an Ipod or Ipad talking their way through their explanation and solution to their problem.  That's just the first half hour of the day.  

I could go on and on about the routines that I use throughout my day as a teacher, but all of us can think of ways that our life, whether it be at work, home, or leisure has rules and structure.  At some point during the day all of us face some sort of structure, routine, or rules.  I am often surprised at how many rules there are with collecting baseball cards too.  If you join a trade group or forum there are often rules and etiquette in how cards are traded.  If you buy cards off of Ebay there are rules for when you have to pay and how.  Rules.

Despite the fact that many of us have to follow rules, routines, or procedures in life one of the largest names in the card business, Topps, has decided to not follow its own rules.  I know it seems silly since they are their own company they can make their own rules right?  Yes, to a degree.  The bigger problem with Topps is the fact that they create rules for distributors and businesses selling their products, but they fail to properly enforce the rules which is resulting in anger, frustration, and volatility in the secondary card market.  For example, let's look at this awesome Oscar Taveras card...

2013 Bowman Inception Oscar Taveras Autograph 

This card is sitting here on my desk and has been in my possession now for almost four days.  I've been really excited about the fact that I was able to add this card to my collection and I could have very easily done my normal post about the card and a little information on the player.  Fifteen minutes and I would be hitting the publish button at the top of the page.  So, here's were this card gets thorny.  According to my good friends at Atlanta Sports Cards, the Bowman Inception product does not release until today.  Now, before we move on I will tell you that I did not get this card out of a pack, nor did I buy this card as a single from Atlanta Sports Cards.  They are just good at what they do.  Check the release date on their webpage, of which I have provided a convenient screen shot.  

I actually bought this card off of Ebay and I actually frequently buy cards off of Ebay that are opened before they are released.  In fact, there are a lot of people that do the same exact thing that I do: they check their calendar and see that Topps is releasing a product soon.  The rush to their computer, search out a few cards on Ebay, and before the product has even officially dropped they have their cards.  Even places like Target and Wal-Mart frequently display and sell products before their release date.  The official response from Topps is just deafening silence.  Check their Twitter and Facebook pages this morning and you will see all sorts of posts and tweets celebrating the release of their newest product: Bowman Inception!  There will be pictures and contests and all the sorts of hoopla celebrating their product despite the fact that this product has been selling actively on Ebay since June 20th.  

So, why is this rule so bad to break?  I know a lot of people that buy cards pre-release and celebrate the fact that the cards are out and floating around early.  Why wait until the actual date to buy, when you can buy here and now.  There are actually several good reasons not to buy or sell the cards ahead of time, but lets start with the biggest problems first.  Topps obviously ships out their products to sellers ahead of the release date to make sure that it is on shelves and in the hands of collectors on the day of the release.  Their efforts in this regard are much appreciated.  However, once the product is sent out to the shops and distributors shouldn't Topps have policies in place to make them comply with their rules?

My Oscar Taveras card came from a Fairview, Texas shipping address.  A quick Google search of Fairview, Texas card shops shows that their are two in town.  What are the chances that the Taveras card sitting on my desk, and the 38 other Inception autographs they sold on Ebay, came from one of those two card shops in Fairview, Texas?  If I am a betting man it would not be too hard to figure where the cards came from and who opened their cards too soon.  Just like other people and places in life Topps could develop a set of consequences dealing with stores ripping into their wax too soon.  I know it does not sound great, since we are all eager to get our hands on cards, but there are a few other things to consider here.  

First, lets consider the sellers and card shops that play by the rules.  One of my favorite people to buy cards from on Ebay is BrentandBecca.  They are case busters from Arkansas and they always have tons of great product on their page.  They are also on Twitter where you can follow their case breaks and they also do a great job of talking with collectors.  I frequently watch their Ebay page and their Twitter page and know for a fact that they are very strict with following the set release dates issued by Topps.  However, in doing so they miss the initial wave of card sales on new products which frequently bring some of the best sales and prices from the sellers side of the story.  

Many of our local card shops face the same predicament and most choose to hold back their products and wait for the proper release date before they open their cases and boxes up to customers.  For many of these people and places it's a question of integrity, but also the fact that they do not want to be the store that is the first to be punished, or made an example of for selling their product too soon.  I spent a little bit of time chatting with a card shop owner outside of St. Louis this past weekend about this issue and he summed it up this way:

'Since Topps is the only real game in town with baseball products, you're walking on egg shells with them all the time.  Wait for the date and someone else has already beat you to a bunch of sales.  Open your cases early and get singled out by Topps, your business is hurt badly" 

I do not know about you, but I do care where I shop and I know that the number of card shops has been dwindling for the past decade.  As a hobby, we need to do all we can to support the people that make it possible for us to buy our cards locally.  Or, in my case-until this weekend, buy from the places that you love and trust to provide you with great cards for your collection.  

Lastly, opening cards before the release date can cause bad variance in the secondary market which hurts (usually) the collectors.  This spring I tracked down a copy of a Matt Carpenter Gypsy Queen autograph.  I actually bought the card from Brent and Becca for $10 after watching the card fluctuate for a week landing some copies of the card north of $25 dollars.  Now, I now as a person who is primarily in this hobby to add cards, that we all want the best deal possible for the cards we are buying. Did the person who bought the Matt Carpenter card for $27 get a good deal?  No.

However, the prices of cards on secondary sites like Ebay often vary wildly when they are sold prerelease.  My awesome Oscar Taveras Inception card has sold anywhere between $45 and $89 in the past week.  A few days ago I tried to pick up a Wil Myers autograph from Inception on Ebay.  The price of the card was under $50 with two minutes to go.  I was excited to see a Myers autograph for less than $50 that was not an off brand, so I put in a bid.  It closed in the low seventies and I lost the auction.  This afternoon though I ran into a trading partner on Facebook who flipped my a copy for $45 delivered. 

The unwillingness of Topps to stand up and actually enforce their release dates is hurting everyone who takes part in this great hobby.  Collecting baseball cards would be so much better if Topps would dig in their heels and actually call a few places out for breaking their release date and find a suitable punishment which helps enforce their policies.  In my job as a teacher, I am expected to enforce my policies, procedures, and rules on a daily basis.  I know that does not always go according to plan, but its an easy fix when things do not go as planned.  Consistency is the key.   I know that they might step on a few toes and upset some of their cliental, but for the greater good of the hobby it would be great if Topps would be consistent with their releases.  

2012 Bowman Draft Oscar Taveras Futures Game Jersey

2012 Bowman Draft Oscar Taveras Futures Game Jersey

I have been slowly adding to my Oscar Taveras collection this fall and picked up a cool new card of his this past week.  Taveras was the Cardinals third rated prospect behind Shelby Miller and Carlos Martinez last year before he won the Texas League MVP playing for Springfield.  The Texas League tends to be a pitching league, so for one of the league's youngest players to come in and put up a .321 average with power is quite impressive.  I am hoping he appears in St. Louis soon, but wouldn't be shocked if he hangs out in Memphis (AAA) for awhile next year.  

I have actually picked up a few other Taveras cards this summer and featured a few in this space.  His cards have really picked up momentum and are getting to be a little bit high for a player who hasn't taken a Major League at-bat.  This card is from the over airbrushed Bowman Draft set which features a set of jersey cards from the Futures game.  I really like the design of this card, which is also available in patch form.  

2012 Topps Heritage Minor League Oscar Taveras Jersey Card

One of my highlights of 2012 baseball card season has been the release of Oscar Taveras cards.  I knew enough about the Cardinals farm system before the season to know that he was the top prospect in the system, but I hadn't taken time to watch him play or check out a scouting report on him.  Part of being a smart collector is knowing what minor leaguers to find cards for and what players to pass up.  When the year began I noticed he popped up on the Bowman checklist and was able to snag a nice on card autograph of the AA outfielder.

2012 Bowman Oscar Taveras Autograph

Taveras ended up having a nice summer playing for the Springfield Cardinals in the Texas League.  The Texas League tends to be more pitcher friendly, so the fact that he hit bodes well for the outfielder's future.  He even ended up making an appearance in the Futures Games this summer in Kansas City.  Of course, by the middle of summer his cards took off and were a little bit steep.  

Not that I won't invest in a nice card of a young player, but I am not going to go overboard on a high end minor league autograph, relic, or rookie card.  September passed and rumors surfaced that the Cardinals might call Taveras up for the stretch run and playoffs.  He stayed off the roster and his cards have cooled a bit.  I am not going to saw they are completely sane, but they are much better than this summer.

2012 Topps Heritage Minor League Oscar Taveras Jersey Card

The slight downtick has really helped me with being able to trade or buy some of the parallels and inserts that Taveras had in some of the Bowman releases and Topps Debut.  I acquired this card for a pair Topps Update All-Star Jersey Cards.  The card can be found in secondary market sites selling anywhere between $7 to $20 for the white border, or $30 to $50 for the black border, or triple digits for the autographed version.  For the moment I am happy with what I have, but will keep my eyes open for the others...at the right price.  

  

2012 Bowman Set

I am in the final stages of putting together my 2012 Bowman set.  I've assembled my set by opening one box, several retail packs, and trading and buying several small lots.  Collectors love Bowman and there is always a buzz around the product.  Almost every year there is some noteworthy rookie in the set.  Last year, it was Bryce Harper.  This year, it's Yu Darvish.

Ultimately, I end up with a complete Bowman set every year.  I box it and put it away for safe keeping.  In a few years I either have a great set, or a box of cards.  This year's set features many of the Bowman hallmarks.  Prospects, variations, chrome, and even a few inserts.

 Here are a couple:

2012 Bowman Gold Yu Darvish 

2012 Bowman Blue Josh Bowman 

2012 Bowman International Ben Zobrist

 2012 Bowman International Brad Peacock 

 2012 Bowman Bowmans Best Jurickson Profar

2012 Bowman Bowmans Best Evan Longoria

I am most excited about the autographs in this years set.  The Cardinals have some excellent first time signers in the set.  Oscar Taveras is probably the best, but Carlos Martinez is also an excellent prospect. I've also picked up a Charlie Tilson and have a Matt Adams on the way.  

2012 Bowman Oscar Taveras Autograph

2012 Bowman Carlos Martinez Autograph

2012 Bowman Charlie Tilson Autograph