The Best Ryan Howard Around

I found this really sweet Ryan Howard card last week.  Being a St. Louis native, having a few St. Louis collectors left in my circle within the hobby, that's always been a pretty popular name.  There is that one Ryan Howard who is from the western part of St. Louis County, went to Layfette High School, and then played at Missouri State until the Phillies drafted him.  Yes, that Ryan Howard is a pretty popular player, lots of baseball cards of that guy.

A few summers ago I ran into Ryan Howard.  He was playing at USA Baseball.  Always good to see a player from back home in person.  Here he is......

the other Ryan Howard.  

The other Ryan Howard is also from the metro St. Louis area hailing from St. Charles County, which is just across the Missouri River from St. Louis County.  He played his college baseball at Mizzou and also appeared on the USA Baseball Collegiate team. 

Playing for Team USA means baseball cards.  Howard has several, but I went for an autographed version.....

There are actually several different Ryan Howard USA Baseball autographs, but this is the only one that has an on-card autograph.  Although he does have a nice looking one with a signed acetate slab.  I know it's a short cut around a sticker, but they look nice....

Maybe if I can find one that is a little bit less expensive I will go for it.  In the meantime, he became a former college player last summer when he drafted by the Giants and made his debut playing in the short season Northwest League.  He even had a card in Bowman Chrome last year.....

I am hoping that he will get a few more cards at some point this summer.  Maybe even an autograph in something?  Even if the other Ryan Howard gets shut out of baseball card sets for the first half of the summer, he is currently hitting .317 with the Giants High A team in San Jose.  That's worth a few baseball cards, right? 

Looking forward to more of this Ryan Howard, who just happens to be at the moment, the best Ryan Howard around.  

Complete Set: 2009 Topps All-Star Fan Fest Patches

The All-Star Fan Fest provides card collectors the chance to pick up some unique items for their collections.  One of the biggest draws at recent All-Star Games has been the annual release of a patch set which usually recognizes notable players in the game, or local legends recognized by the team hosting the All-Star game.  The sets started during the 2007 All-Star Game in San Francisco when Upper Deck released a set of cards only available at the Fan Fest event.  Since the Yankees, Cardinals, Royals, and Mets have all worked with Topps to put out a patch set.  

This years set looks really tough with a limited print run of 150 copies per card.  Oddly, this years set is half Mets and half Yankees.  Needless to say, the price tag on some of the cards from this year's set has been quite high.  Last year's Royals issue was also limited and featured Yu Darvish and Bryce Harper.  Those two cards are nearly impossible to find for less than $50.  However, somewhere in the not to distant past the All-Star Fan Fest patch cards were not serial numbered and the teams attempted to make more of a connection with their hometown crowd, rather than with the card collecting crowd.  

In 2009 the All-Star Game was played in my hometown of St. Louis where Topps made three Fan Fest Patches available to fans: Ryan Howard, Albert Pujols, and Ichiro.  The Pujols card has an obvious St. Louis connection as the star player of the Cardinals at the time of the game.  The Howard card was put in the set since he is a St. Louis native, attended the same high school as David Freese, and still has a residence in the area.  Ichiro is a little bit more of a stretch, but a cool story and good connection to St. Louis and the baseball history of the town.  At the time of the All-Star game, which I did not attend, I was able to track down and trade for two of the three cards:  

2009 Topps All-Star Fan Fest Albert Pujols Patch 

2009 Topps All-Star Fan Fest Ryan Howard Patch

I was pretty content at the time with the two patches, but I have actually become a little bit of a closet Ichiro fan in recent years.  The Ichiro connection to St. Louis actually started in 2004 while he was chasing down the single season hits record in 2004.  The record had belonged to St. Louis Browns star George Sisler.  During the 2004 season the Mariners played an interleague series in St. Louis against the Cardinals and had the chance to meet Sisler's family.  The family took interest in Ichiro's pursuit of the hits record and flew all the way to Seattle to attend the game where Ichiro passed Sisler's old hits mark of 257.  

When the Cardinals were awarded the 2009 All-Star game Ichiro actually made plans to take the chance to meet up with Sisler's family again and even visited the grave site of the Browns Hall of Famer.  The attention that Ichiro brought Sisler's career and achievements was pretty cool and certainly well deserved since not many people spend time catching up on their St. Louis Browns history.  The Cardinals gave a tip of the cap to Ichiro by making sure he was included in the All-Star patch set.  

2009 Topps All-Star Fan Fest Ichiro Patch 

I was missing the Ichiro for the past several years and actually have seen the card numerous times, but just had never closed the deal, or won the auction, to add this to my collection.  Last week, I was able to spot one in the lead up to the All-Star game and quickly snatched it up helping me complete my Fan Fest All-Star Patch Set.  The set as a whole is not serial numbered and is actually not difficult to find.  The individual cards usually run less than $10 and the set can be had for between $20 and $30.  Great find considering that most of the more recent All-Star patch sets run more than $50 for a single card.  

30 Year Top 50: 1993 Topps Finest

#18-Today's set is rresponsible for introducing the world to the term "Super-Premium" baseball card.  I guess that between 1989 and 1992 collector's quickly got tired of the notion of simply receiving just "premium" baseball cards.  The Topps Finest brand was supposed to represent the best of baseball in 1993 according to the Topps company.  The set had a limited print run and a set of exciting chase cards, limited to a print run of 241 cards each, called refractors.  The term and use of refractor cards has greatly expanded over the past decade and is now found in multiple Topps sets.

1993 Topps Finest Mark McGwire 

I think that some collectors would have placed this set higher on the list, but I had two real issues with the set.  First, there are no important rookie cards in this set.  I don't care how much you like J.T. Snow, or think how great of a player he was, he's not significant in the world of baseball cards.  Rookie cards are always important, in my opinion, in the long-term success of a set.  Second, Topps expanded the use of the technology used in this set to sets that weren't super premium and not limited in print run like this set.   If this set, along with a few other limited "Super-Premium" sets were the extent of the refractor use, I believe these cards would be even more valuable and more sought after.  

1993 Topps Finest Refractor Ozzie Smith

In my opinion, this set is a really great chase set.  What cards does everyone want?  The refractors.  They are super rare at a print of 241, which for 1993 was microscopic, and they have a huge following making the secondary market very competitive on sites like Ebay.  Sellers have a highly desired item and can often sit on them and wait for a collector to pay their price for the card.  Which sure enough someone will eventually.  

1993 Topps Finest Refractor Lou Whitaker

I have a rather large and extensive card collection, but actually only own three of the Topps Finest Refractor cards from this set.  Two of them are Cardinals and the other one, the Lou Whitaker above, I found on Ebay way under price because the lister had misspelled Whitaker, Witaker.  

1993 Topps Finest Refractor Ray Lankford

While I am sure that someone has assembled the entire 1993 Topps Finest Refractor set, there aren't many copies of these cards floating around and they make for a great chase.  If you are a set collector, these cards are probably going to disappoint unless you are long on time and money.  I do think this is a fun set to look into if you have a favorite 90s player, or a team that you collect.  After ten years out on the market, I am still looking for the Lee Smith, Gregg Jefferies, and Todd Zeile cards from this set.  Not that I can't find them, but I don't love Todd Zeile for $99.  

Like the 1993 Topps Finest Set?  Not in my Top 50 countdown in the 2008 Topps Finest Autographs.  I know it sounds like a bit of an odd choice, but this one is more of a personal preference and the ability to actually find and assemble the set.  Like I said above, the refractor and "Super-Premium" innovations that Topps used in making the 1993 Finest set have been reused and rehashed so many times over the past decade that there are easily two dozen other sets that I could potentially place in this space as a similar quality product to the featured set.  

2008 Topps Finest Finest Moments Ryan Braun Autograph

There are several reasons to love the autographs in the 2008 Topps Finest set.  First, for some reason Topps has equated "Super-Premium" to mean that it's cool to buy a box of cards for around $100 and find sticker autographs.  The 2008 set is an on-card autograph set.  The background space where the players signed the cards is white and clear and it appears, for the time being, that the autographs are actually going to hold up and not fade.  

2008 Topps Finest Finest Moments David Wright Autograph

Second, the autograph cards in the 2008 Finest set are a solid collection of players.  There aren't any must have cards in the set, but at the same time, you can find the autographs of Hanley Ramirez, David Wright, Ryan Howard, Ryan Braun, Cole Hamels, and many others.  In my opinion, if you are a fan of baseball and like collecting autographs, they are all worth owning a card of.  Why not an on-card autograph like these?

2008 Topps Finest Finest Moments Ryan Howard Autograph

The last reason to check out these cards is that you can actually assemble the entire set.  The 1993 Topps Finest set is 199 cards and most people collect the refractors.  Most common refractors sell for $10-$20 and the star players can run into the low $100s.  Plus, some of the cards are becoming difficult to find.  The 2008 Topps Finest autographs aren't difficult to find and shouldn't cost you more than $20-$25 for one of the better cards, like Ryan Braun.  

A Dozen Alternatives To Triple Threads Pt. 1

I am still running on my Triple Threads posts for one more day and I promise I will move on to bigger and better things in my blog space.  After each of my posts in my Top 50 card sets I have offered a glimpse at a similar set which I did not include in my Top 50 countdown.  Today I am going to offer that same piece for the Triple Threads post except I am going to offer you a dozen card sets (broken into two posts) with some quality cards instead of the usual one alternative.  The sets are listed in alphabetical order and not in order of quality.  I will go ahead and tell you that the 2003 Topps Tribute set is my favorite alternative.  You will throughout many of these sets that Topps puts way too many sticker autographs in high end products.

2007 Bowman's Best Tom Glavine Autograph

1.  2007 Bowman's Best-Bowman's Best was always the shiny snobbier twin of the Bowman releases which focused on rookie cards of young minor leaguers.  Many collectors assemble these sets and put them in their closet, pull them out in five years, and see what they have.  Others go crazy of the here and now of 19 year olds in baseball uniforms playing in A ball and sink mad amounts of money into these cards.  I am more of the closet person, but I also know I pay a premium for some of these cards I could have had at cheaper prices (Not often).  The 2007 Bowman's Best set was cool because it actually included veteran players. The drawback for this set is the sticker autographs.  Common theme, get used to reading it in this thread.  How cool would this card be if it was signed on card?  See the 2003 Topps Tribute cards.  

2010 Bowman Platinum Jose Bautista Jersey/Autograph

2.  2010 Bowman Platinum-This set was similar to the Bowman's Best set except some of the cards were actually signed on the card.  Thank you, Topps.  Veteran players appear in this set too, but they are all on stickers.  The cards had a decent design and the jersey pieces.  In some cases patches.  Later issues of Bowman Platinum have followed the same pattern.  Veteran players and rookies with the former being on the stickers, rookies being on card.

2011 Bowman Platinum Shelby Miller

2004 Bowman Sterling Blake Hawksworth Autograph

3.  2004 Bowman Sterling-Bowman's Best was apparently not sparkly enough, so Topps brought us Bowman Sterling.  The cards always look cool, but they are almost always sticker autograph.  There are some on card autographs from Bowman Sterling floating around, but mostly from the 2004 set.  There are also sticker autographs in this set.  Think about the card below with an on card autograph.  Would be very nice.  

2004 Bowman Sterling Adam Wainwright Jersey/Autograph

2001 Topps Archives Enos Slaughter Autograph

4.  2001 Topps Archives-The greatest of all Archives/Fan Favorites releases.  There are cool autographs in some of the other Archives releases and Fan Favorites releases, but this one beats them all by a lot.  There is a great check list for every single team in the set.  My second favorite set on this list after the Topps Tribute.  

2008 Topps Finest Ryan Howard Autograph

5.  2008 Topps Finest- In my opinion the best of the Topps Finest autographs.  Again, a high end set needs autographs that are the card and not on a sticker.  Take a spin around Ebay or COMC and you will see some good names in this set with on card autographs including David Wright, Ryan Braun, and Cole Hamels.  Worth your time to find a copy of one.  The 2010 Finest set with the Letter autographs is cool too.  

2001 Topps HD Rick Ankiel Clear Autograph 

6.  2001 Topps HD- This is a 2001 Set without a Pujols rookie card, so you can find the boxes on the secondary market at really reasonable prices.  There are very few autographs and relics, but the design of the base cards is excellent with great photography and thick card stock.  This was the first autograph set and relic set I ever put together and still have all the cards.  The hardest card to find is a Todd Helton autograph which might set you back $10.  All autographs are on card and the jersey pieces are on clear cards too.    

2011 Topps Marquee Jeff Niemann Jersey/Patch/Autograph

2011 Topps Marquee Miguel Cabrera Quad Relic

2011 Topps Marquee Angel Pagan Autograph 

6. 2011 Topps Marquee- Tell me how this set is much different than Triple Threads?  It's not.  The cards generally feature sticker autographs, but there are a few non-stickers floating around.  There were plenty of cool relics cards too with multiple pieces of bat, jerseys, patches.  Basically, this set is Triple Threads with a different package.  

Yearly, my favorite box is ____________.

The new Topps cards coming out is the best baseball card day of the year.  If holidays revolved around baseball cards, the drop date would be a national holiday.  My first memory of being excited for a new card release was in 1986.  More than anything else, I wanted a Vince Coleman rookie card.  I remember getting my first packs of that year at the Manchester Dierbergs.  It hurt a little bit that I didn't pull the card right away, but I wanted that was the card more than anything.  I eventually ended up with one, but it took me awhile that summer to finally land one.

1986 Topps Vince Coleman RC

The 1999 Topps set also comes to mind as being a memorable box.  The Series I boxes released right after Thanksgiving that year and I was away from home in St. Louis.  I still managed to locate a card shop nearby where I could buy my brand new Topps box.  In fact, for many years growing up and during the early part of my adult life the product was always released right after Thanksgiving, but before the holidays.  Topps has moved the release date back into January and February which irks me a little somedays, but I am still not sue there is anything like it.  The highlight from that set was the variation on the Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa home run cards.  

1999 Topps Mark McGwire #220 62 Variation

Both variations were a huge deal for Topps that year and paved the way for a series a variation cards that still find their way into the boxes of Topps every year.  The 2003 Bonds cards also offered a variation on the Home Run Record, but I am not sure they hold the value that the McGwire and Sosa cards hold.  More recently I think the variations have become silly at times.  The 2007 Derek Jeter and the 2010 Ryan Dempster/Abe Lincoln stand forefront.   

Even today, there are still memorable cards each and every year even if the variations have gotten a little silly and out of control.  For example, this year I really enjoyed finding the complete set of 1987 minis.  They were a throwback to a set that I remember collecting as a kid and really enjoyed assembling the set, not only across the first series, but also the second series and into the update set which will release in a few weeks.  I especially enjoyed this Ryan Howard card:

2012 Topps Ryan Howard 1987 Mini

Pretty cool of Topps to put a card in with a player wearing an 80s throwback uniform.  It would have been a cool touch to see on some of the other cards in the set, but I realize you cannot get everything you always want.  

Going into this fall the days on the calendar are getting shorter and I still wish that Topps would change the release date back to fit in between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but in the meantime I will offer one other suggestion for Topps heading into the 2013 set:

Can we please get rid of the airbrushed cards?

They have appeared in Topps sets for the better part of the decade and they almost always blight up the set.  For example, the 2002 Jason Giambi card features him wearing a Yankees uniform since he had just signed with the club that offseason.  However, the card just looks ridiculous with the airbrush. 

2002 Topps Jason Giambi 

As traditional as Topps tries to be this card throws tradition to the wind.  Everyone knows what the Yankees uniforms look like and, not matter your feelings for the team one way or the other, they never change.  This is not a Yankees uniform.  Why not put him in the Update set?