Mismatched Mac

I was happy to see that Topps inked Mark McGwire to appear in their 2014 products.  Sure, Topps will inevitably overproduce Big Mac cards and kill off half of their value, but I could use a few new McGwire cards.  I know a few other Cardinals and A's collectors who feel the same way.  So far McGwire has made an appearance in Tribute, Museum Collection, Archives, and Tier One.   I was really surprised that Topps included autographs and high end jumbo relics of the slugging first baseman in their flagship set.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Topps base set, but it's not the usual place where you find a lot of high end stuff.  McGwire has both an autograph and jumbo patch in the Topps Series 2 set.  I busted a Jumbo box a few weeks ago, did not pull anything McGwire, so I started trying to find a patch or an autograph.  The autographs were more than $100, but were sticker graphs.  I moved on to the patches which were an odd mix between A's and Cardinals patches.  However, the cards have McGwire in a Cardinals uniform regardless of the patch color.

I lost about half a dozen of these auctions during the past two weeks, but finally managed to snipe on elf these out at the last moment.

This would be an A's patch on a Cardinals card, but it is still cool as hell to own a jumbo patch off of a Big Mac Jersey.  The Cardinals patches seem to have a slight premium over the A's pieces, but I would be willing to spend it if I knew I could land one for sure.  The Cardinals patches also seem to be a little bit harder to come by.  Clearly Topps made 100 jumbo patch McGwire cards, but they are clearly from different jerseys.  It would have been cool if Topps had serial numbered the Cardinals cards and A's cards separately.  I am complaining about trivial things though.  Great card and not even my best Mac card I landed during the past week.  More tomorrow.

Jumbo Zorilla Patch

I have not added too many cards from the Topps Triple Threads cards recently.  They've always been some of my favorite cards, the year really does not matter.   I already added a cool autograph of the former Durham Bulls/Tampa Rays super utility player earlier this month and was excited when I saw a cool jumbo patch card coming off at an odd time on a Sunday morning.  Mad shout out to my three year old for waking up at 5:45 on Sundays. 

 

I ended up landing this card for right around $10 which is a sweet price for two pieces of patch from a Rays home uniform.  Most of the patch pieces from the Rays uniform actually have both a white and light blue piece of trim around the patches.  The only letter without a piece of light blue trim is the left side, straight line,  of the letter R.  Pretty nice add. 

30 Year Top 50: 2001 Pacific Private Stock

#36- I have already made a few posts about this set if you want to take a few minutes to read another post or four.  The set was arguable its my one of my favorites and if my countdown were based solely on my dislikes and likes, this set would probably be in the top 10.  The Private Stock release was the swan song for Pacific in the world of baseball cards.  They bent a few rules in the cards that appeared in the set, but the release was an overwhelming success.

The draw of the Private Stock release was the fact that the every pack had one relic card.  While most people recognized it was the easiest way for Pacific to dump it's entire holding of baseball memorabilia, collectors risked drawing a Pokey Reese bat card versus picking up a patch card of Greg Maddux, Tony Gwynn, or other star.  There were also some cards that broke licensing rules that were highly sought after.  The two biggest were the Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.  I own two copies of the McGwire, but the Sosa has an extremely limited print run (I have heard anywhere from 1 to 5).  No, I don't have one.  See the McGwire here.

Private Stock had two basic types of relics cards.  There were jersey cards:

2001 Pacific Private Stock Barry Larkin Jersey Card

and there were also bat cards:

2001 Pacific Private Stock Craig Biggio Bat Card

Some of the players in the set had only a bat card, some had a jersey card, some had a home and a road jersey, while others featured both a bat and a jersey.

2001 Pacific Private Stock Barry Bonds Jersey Card

2001 Pacific Barry Bonds Bat Card

Cooler yet were the patch cards inserted in the set.  The patch cards skipped around throughout the set. Some of the patch cards are really cool and feature really cool players.  Others are not so great.  For example, as a Cardinals fan I was always a little disappointed that Pacific used Garrett Stephenson as the Cardinals player with a patch.  Not really my favorite player, or even a likable player.  Other teams faired better:  

 2001 Pacific Private Stock Todd Helton Patch Card 

As a collector, if you are looking for a collecting challenge this set is a great amount of fun.  The cards are rather plentiful still and can be easily found on Ebay or COMC.  Since the supply of cards is plentiful, collectors will often trade or sell these cards often and for a small price.  I am still missing some of the patch cards, but was able to buy or trade for almost all the other cards in the set for under $5.  The lone exception was the McGwire card.

Like the 2001 Pacific Private Stock set?  Not in my Top 50 countdown is the 2003 Playoff Piece of the Game set.  There were multiple issues of this set, but I have always liked this issue the best.  Similar to the 2001 Pacific Private Stock, the 2003 Playoff Piece of the Game set (POTG) was a relic per pack product.  However, there were some slight difference in the product.  First, the major difference was the inclusion of autographs in the POTG.  Some of the autographs were duds.   I believe I have a Runelyvs Hernandez running around my card collection somewhere, but there were also some great autographs available too.  This is my favorite one that I own:

2003 Playoff Piece of the Game Frank Thomas Jersey/Autograph

The major drawback of the autographs of course was the sticker.  I still love this card.  There jersey/bat/patch cards had the same cards had the same design as the autographs.  The one really cool aspect of the cards was the jersey picture on the back of the cards.  

2003 Playoff Piece of the Game Adrian Beltre Jersey

I always thought it was pretty cool that Playoff put the picture of the actual memorabilia used for the card on the back.  I guess there are varying degrees of game used and given the recent jersey gate scandal.  Not as cool as the Private Stock set in my opinion, but there are definitely cards worth owning in this set.   

2001 Pacific Private Stock Collection

I started this collection during the summer of 2001 and have accumulated the majority of the 182 jersey and bat cards in the set and many of the variations within the set.  I could scan and post the cards I have collected, but I am not sure how much space I want to dedicate to dedicate to the likes of Ruben Rivera and Gil Meche.  Instead I am going to focus on my favorite three favorite cards from the set.

My favorite card from the set is the Mark McGwire bat card.  At the time the set was released it was a controversial card given that McGwire had an exclusive contract with Upper Deck and few relics or certified autographs for collectors.  Pacific also included a Sammy Sosa jersey card in the set, but copies are nearly impossible to find.  The McGwire card may be controversial and short printed, but I own two copies, and paid less than twenty dollars for both on Ebay.  There are usually a couple of Buy It Now copies for $100, but if you like the card and are patient you can do much better with the price.

2001 Pacific Private Stock Mark McGwire Bat Card

The last two cards are a little less exciting than the McGwire card, but cool nonetheless.  The majority of relics in the set are either bats or jersey, but Pacific also included patches cards too.  The patch cards are a skip set, so only some of the players with a jersey or bat also have a patch card.  In some cases, Pacific's choices with the patch pieces were head scratchers.  The Cardinals set included Will Clark, J.D. Drew, Edmonds, McGwire, Edgar Renteria, and Garrett Stephenson.  Of course the only patch card of a Cardinals player is Garrett Stephenson.  There are some solid patches in the set, but there are plenty of Adam Piatt's too.  

2001 Pacific Private Stock Garrett Stephenson Patch Card

Last card for the day and another favorite from the set.  The 2000 season was the last decent half season for Mark McGwire in a Cardinals uniform.  McGwire actually injured his knee in the middle of the year and the Cardinals made a trade for Will Clark.  At the time Will Clark was old and not doing much for the Orioles.  However, his Cardinals career lasted 51 games and produced 12 home runs, 42 rbis, a .345 average, and an OPS of 1.081.  He led the Cardinals to the NLCS where he batted .412.  I am indifferent to Will Clark cards as a Ranger, Orioles, and even Giants.  However, I try to pick up his Cardinals cards.  I consider this card to be the best relic of Clark in a Cardinals uni.  

2001 Pacific Private Stock Will Clark Bat Card