My Annual Post About A Relic Card

I am always amazed that card companies still make relic cards.  In the span of 20 years we have gone from collectors knocking themselves over to own a small inch sized piece of Tony Gwynn's jersey fixed on the front of an Upper Deck card, to having to sort through dozens of Mark Grudzielanek game used bat cards to find the decent cards in the dollar bins at card shows.

The old ones are still great cards in my opinion.

Mass produced, problems with the relics actually being authentic, companies putting "event" used jerseys on cards, etc.  There are dozens of reasons that people stopped collecting relic cards, but I am surprised that the little square and circular pieces have not just completely gone away.  There will likely always be a place for the premium patch pieces companies use for high end products, but the small piece relics are basically irrelevant.    

I have seen a few products in recent years that have gone to using authentication stickers on relics.  Not sure how popular I would say the cards were, the ones in my collection are there strictly because they were also autographed.

Doubtful I would have a Dallas Keuchel relic card just because.

Welp.  I was purchasing a Jim Edmonds card off of Ebay, just because who wouldn't want to own a card of Jimmy Ballgame wearing some awesome 1990s pinstriped Angels uniform.

I owned one of these hats in college, definitely a go to hat in the collection.  I always check out sellers other items when I am after a card.  Why pay for shipping multiple times?  That's when I ended up with a relic card of Evan Longoria.

The authentication sticker, which tiny, is almost as big as relic swatch.  This card is out of Tribute, which is a nice product, but I see no reason why this won't be in dollar bins soon.  The one redeeming quality about the card happened when I typed the number into the MLB Authentication page.....

The relic comes from a 2016 game between the Rays and Yankees, which did not end very well for the Rays.......

However, this is a Longoria relic, and he did have a hit in the game.....

so at least the relic is not from a game where he just sat on the bench.  Until next year relic cards.....

I'm Just Happy To Be Here, Hope I Can Help The Ball Club

I knew from the first time that I saw Steven Souza play for the Syracuse Chiefs, the Washington Nationals Triple A team, that I needed to go out and find a few of his cards.  He was an older prospect, but absolutely one of those players who is fun to watch.  So, I went out and I found a few of his cards with the Nats.....

Next thing you know, he gets traded to the Rays, and they send him to Durham.  I got to watch a few games with Souza on the Bulls, I also had to go out and find a few cards of him in a Rays uniform.  His first two seasons in Tampa were a little rough, which made finding his cards a little easier, and a little bit easier on the old wallet.....

Then last year, Souza turned into a pretty good player for the Rays.....

which means he got traded this offseason.  It did seem like the Rays traded half of their team from last year away.  The Souza trade was pretty surprising though.  Not sure I focused on who the Rays got back from the Diamondbacks, as much as I tried to figure out who was going to be on the Rays this year.  Also, whether or not the Durham Bulls would finish higher in the American League East than the Rays.  

The Minor League baseball season has started and I got to watch pitcher Anthony Banda throw against the Gwinnett Stripers a few weeks back.   I also got to check out the Bulls new third uniforms.  

Banda is a hard throwing lefty.  Very impressed with him.  A quick look at the new Rays prospect facing Ronald Acuna.  

I have started working on a few Banda cards since seeing him make this start against Gwinnett.  He actually started his career with the Brewers, but was traded to the Diamondbacks in the Gerardo Parra deal.  He has a few Brewers cards, but they are all Panini draft type products.  Hard to really tell that they are Brewers cards.  He has had several Diamondbacks cards over the last few years, including in several of this year's Topps products.  

So far, I have added three different Anthony Banda cards.  First up.....  

The only non-2018 Banda card in this post.  The Bowman's Best cards are always a really nice looking brand.  Last year's product was no different.  On top of a nice design, I also like that this brand uses on-card autographs.  Banda always signs his first name and last name in this same top and bottom style, rather than side to side.  I have seen a few Diamondbacks and Rays collectors complain about this autograph, I do not mind it.

Next up.....

is an autograph from this year's Gypsy Queen set.  This card is really busy.  Not sure that Topps could get much more on the margins of this card.  Team name, player name, playing position, a Topps Certified autograph stamp, an MLB rookie card stamp, and some sort of Gypsy Queen logo.  And you thought people liked cards because they have pictures of baseball players.  That's sort of an after thought on this one.  Still, it has a Banda autograph.  

The goggles and tattoos appear on this card too.  Fairly certain that Topps airbrushed the tattoos off of his right arm on the Bowman's Best card.  

Last.  

A "high end" card of Banda.  This is why I don't spend money to open packs of high end products.  I like Anthony Banda, like his baseball cards, but I cannot imagine spending $300 on a box of cards and landing this autograph.  Thanks to whoever opened this card out of a pack.  This card was printed on nice stock, fairly thick card, and has a nice glossy finish.  

More Banda cards later.  

Double Helping of Piscotty

Thanksgiving has been good this year.  My in-laws were in town from northern Michigan and my wife and her sisters made a really good dinner.  I got the day off of work and had some really good time with my kids today.

I couldn't fit the cranberries on my plate and passed on the sweet potatoes.  Pretty sure I am one of the few people who lives in North Carolina who is not crazy about sweet potatoes.  

I had a good time today sorting out a few cards and sets that were lingering around my baseball card room and I also had the chance to sit down and scan a few cards.  Tonight I am going to share a pair of picked up a few weeks ago that were in my stack of cards that I sorted out today.  

Piscotty is one of my favorite current Cardinals.  First card.  

Love the Strata cards.  The cool thing about these is the authentication sticker that can be traced to a specific game.  Some of the jersey swatches are tied to some eventful games, others not so much.  Last month I picked up a Strata card of Astros card Dallas Keuchel who did not even play in the game tied to his jersey swatch.  

The Piscotty swatch?

The Cardinals won the game 10-2 against the Reds and Piscotty even played in the game.  He was hitless, but did walk and scored a run on a double by Mark Reynolds.  Not the best stat line by any means, but given the game that was connected to the Keuchel swatch, I am happy just knowing that Piscotty was actually in the game.

Next.

I have always really enjoyed the Bowman Inception cards and this year's were no different.  On-card sigs, nice design, etc.  Very cool.  Piscotty has actually been in previous Inception sets, but this might be my favorite autographed card of his over the past few years.  I like the card dark background with the faded area for the autograph.

You Didn't Even Leave The Bench

I like the idea of the stickers on the Strata cards which make the jersey swatch on the cards have a specific game attached them.  The whole game used relic thing has gotten a bit stale in the past few years and there have also been some serious doubts raised along the way about how "game worn" some of these items that are swatched and put onto baseball cards truly are.  

Strata puts that all to rest with the stickers.  Here is my first Strata card of the year......

I saw this card on the cheap, and since Keuchel won the Cy Young Award last year, decided to go for it.  I know it does not really fit into my collection anyway or anyhow.  Still nice to pick up a cheap card of a player who has won a Major Award.  More specifically I was sort of hoping that perhaps that jersey swatch/patch would be tied to some cool game from last year.  20th win or a playoff game, something.  

Here's what I saw when I plugged in the sticker number......

I went ahead and went to the box score section on Baseball-Reference to check out what happened in the July 25th game between the Astros and Royals.  I can tell you that the game went 10 innings and was won by the Royals on an Alcides Escobar walk off single.  

Unfortunately, the game was start by Scott Feldman, not Dallas Keuchel.  Meaning that the jersey/patch piece on the front of this Strata card probably just hung out on the bench in Kaufmann Stadium for a few hours one night in July before it made its long journey onto the front of this baseball card.  

Duff Man. Oh Meh.

The Rays picked up Matt Duffy from the Giants in the Matt Moore trade and promptly sent him down to the Durham Bulls on an injury rehab assignment.  Since he is on the Rays I considered picking up one of his cards, but since he played in Durham it ended up on my to-do list.  

Now, I would much rather have an autograph than a relic card, but Duffy appears to be one of those players whose on-field performance and hobby prices are a little misaligned.  Don't get me wrong, he had a solid year for a player under 25 in 2015 going .295/.334/.428 with 12 home runs, 6 triples, and 28 doubles.  However, he's also not Kris Bryant or Nolan Arenado.  The 2016 season has seen a step back from Duffy, but his autograph prices seem to be in the $10 to $15 range for a lot of the cards for sale on Ebay and sites like COMC.  

I'd rather have a Matt Carpenter autograph for that much.  

After spending a few scrolling through Matt Duffy cards, I ended up finding something that looked pretty sweet on my computer screen, and still even looks pretty good sitting in front of me on my desk.  

This is also my first Strata card of the year.  If you remember last year I found a bunch of these cards, really liked them, but marveled at how anyone broke even opening up these cards.  Really, I'm still enjoying my Steven Souza autograph from last year.  Rodon and Kluber too, I just didn't pay anything for any of them.  

Same with Duff-Man here.  

Of course, the best part of getting a Strata card is typing in the little code on the sticker to found out when and where the player wore the jersey.  Off to the MLB Authentication site I went and this is what my Matt Duffy jersey back as....

I saw the date of the game, went to Baseball-Reference, and typed in the date for the box score.  I was hopeful when I saw that the Giants won the game 8-0 on a complete game shut out by Mad Bum.  Then I clicked the box score.  Sigh.  

It seems like every Giants player in the line up did something to contribute to the eight runs except Matt Duffy.  A giant bagel.  So, lets stick to the positives for a moment:

I now own a cool card of a player who appeared in a few games this year for the Durham Bulls.  

Let's also point out a few other details surrounding Matt Duffy.  Like I said earlier, Duffy is having a down year.  He did little to change that after coming over to the Rays in the trade.  I am even more skeptical about the fact that the Rays have decided to play him at shortstop.  I get Evan Longoria, but then let's trade for a usable part.  

To re-work a Simpsons catch phrase: Duff Man.  Oh Meh.  

Two Keepers

This week was sort of an unplanned vacation away from blogging and baseball cards.  Monday's post about the Derek Jeter statue from the Durham Bulls was solid, but then my daughter decided to show up a few days earlier than scheduled.  Nothing got written this week.  

It was fun to take a little bit of time away from everything and spend some time with the little one.  This is our second child, and while she showed up a week early, this has not been as much stress and drama as my son who showed up a month early and spent considerable time in the NICU.  

I wrote a post last summer about my son's stay in the NICU and the baseball card that made the trip with me everyday to go see him in the hospital.  Here's a look at the Colby Rasmus autograph....

This week I did the same thing for my daughter.  Fortunately, the trips back and forth to the hospital only last for a few days and there was no NICU stay involved this time.  She was born Wednesday, so I took the lone envelope out of the mailbox that day and stuck it in my car.  

What was in it?  It's pretty sweet.  

I picked this up really cheap a few weeks back and I guess it spent a little bit of time making its trek to my mailbox.  Colome is a former Durham Bulls player and current closer for the Rays.  I picked up a few Strata cards last year, but none of the big patch piece cards.  I like the patch piece on this card, but there are some really nice ones out there.  Probably why this card was way cheap.  Or, maybe it's the fact that the Rays are not very good and not many people know Alex Colome.  

The back of the card.....

has the standard Congratulations blurb.  I was actually wondering where the little round silver authentication sticker was that Topps supposedly put on the cards in this set.  My Stephen Souza card had one.  Sigh.  

Looks like I can file this Alex Colome card away into the keeper box.  I am sure that my daughter will be thrilled to know that she has a baseball card in my collection in a few years.  I can picture her expression.....

A Nice Strata

I have only picked up a few of these Strata cards, but I have been really impressed.  Not impressed enough to go buy my own box of these or anything.  Seems like it is pretty hard to get your money back.  Still, I have had fun sorting through them on Ebay and buying a few.  My latest Strata is of Cleveland Indians pitcher Corey Kluber.

I like watching Kluber and am always surprised at how inexpensive his cards are to buy.  This card was less than $5, which seems to be the trend with almost all of his Strata autographs.  Even the patch card version of the Kluber sold cheaply.  More Strata to come.....

Authentic Souza

I posted my first card I picked up out of the Strata set a few days back.  I really liked the look of these cards and have been on the look out for a few other cards from this product.  My second Strata card arrived in the mail just a few days back.  A little different looking than the first Strata card which was just a straight autograph with no relic piece.

I have posted a few other Souza cards on here in the past.  While he did not come up with the Durham Bulls, I saw him in Triple A a few times with the Syracuse Chiefs (Nats Triple A team) and really enjoyed watching him play.  He was traded to the Rays last year and actually ended up playing a few games in Durham this year on injury rehab.  Back to the card....

I was curious about the jersey relics and the authentication stickers that appear on the cards.  Jersey relics were cool about fifteen years ago, but have been on the slide since.  Sure, I like cool patch cards, but I probably have a few thousand cards with a small grey or white jersey chunk on them.  The relic card has become a little stale and the authentication sticker is somebody's latest effort to freshen them up a bit.

I've heard good things and bad things about collectors looking up their relic item.  So, when I got this Strata autograph of Souza I opened the envelope and admired the autograph for a few minutes before I had to go enter the code into the MLB Authentication website.  Here's what I got......

Seems pretty legit.  Souza jersey from a game played against the Tigers in July.  The only thing that would make this card cooler would be to see if anything happened that day with Souza.  It would be a little disappointing to find out he sat on the bench, or worse, injured and not even on the active roster.  Good and bad possibilities raced through my mind.  I went to Baseball-Reference to check out the box score. 

Not a bad game for Souza.  It's not a game he hit a home run, or anything, but 1-3 for two runs scored is a nice line for just picking out a random box score and game from the Rays season.  Still have a few more Strata cards on the way.

Shiny New Card In The Mail

The Strata brand has been around for awhile.  It was a football card product, maybe basketball too, and then a baseball card insert.  I pulled a redemption for one last year, but I never got the card.  I even had Topps substitute the redemption, but apparently they do not really follow through with that either.  Here's a look at my glorious Strata autograph of Julio Tehran in all it's glory.

This year Topps put out an actual stand alone Strata product.  It's a one pack per box, one autograph, one relic card kind of a deal.  I don't those types of products for the most until after someone else has done the ripping.  Sure, there are quite a few players I am interested in the set, but I am not sure that any of them are really worth the $80ish layout for a box.  I am not going for that jumbo Matt Adams patch, more like Steven Souza.

I like the looks of the cards, so I went ahead and picked up my first Strata card last week.  It arrived in my mailbox yesterday.  I spent some time with the card in front of me today on my desk just looking at it.  Very nice card.  Here is the front......

Topps used a thicker card stock for these and they have a really nice finish.  The picture of Rodon on the front of the card is translucent when held up to the light, but the signature space is transparent.  If you flip the card over onto the back the signature on the front.

While this is probably nit picking, I would have loved to see the autograph space on the front of the card have a little better defined space to allow it to show through in the transparent panel.  The top of the signature on the back is slightly covered up.  Not a biggie.  Really nice card, another couple of these are on the way soon.