Friday Five: Top 5 Sets From 2007

5. Topps Heritage- It's never a bad thing thing to start out with a Topps Heritage set.  Always a great set every year, I find myself sitting down every week and putting my thoughts down about another year and it is so difficult to avoid the Heritage products.  The 2007 Topps Heritage set is based on the 1958 Topps set.  Topps did a great job of duplicating some of the original details and also provided the usual challenge to set collectors to track down bunches of different short prints and variations.  Not really keen on any one short printed card, or variation from this set, but I do love the design.  Back in the day the first birthday present my mother-in-law ever bought me was a box of 2007 Heritage cards.  I landed a Chrome James Shields (former Durham Bull) card in the box.  Still a favorite card from a great looking set.  

4. Topps- I like when Topps goes with dark borders.  I am not sure if these cards will be as condition sensitive as some of the other black bordered Topps sets, but it still stands out for some reason.  Maybe not the blue borders from 2003, but I have always had a soft spot for the 1986 and 1971 sets.    I also threw this set in for the Jeter card.    I have never quite decided whether this was intentional, or not, but it got a lot of attention and seemed to get the ball rolling on Topps using a ton of variations, sometimes really silly ones, for their base sets.  At the time the card appear Topps had only gone to the well one time and the card brought a vibe to the 2007 Topps base set which had been missing for a few years.  Cool design and a really cool card land this 4th on my list......

3. Donruss Elite- I love college.  I love college sports.  I love cards.  Roll all of those things together and you get the 2007 Donruss Elite set.  This multi-sport product mainly focused on players selected in the baseball draft, but there are some other college athletes in the mix too.  I know that locally a lot of collectors love the Dean Smith autograph, which looks similar to the Cory Brown autograph above.  This product ran for a couple of years and has always been one of my favorites.  There are some good names in each of the sets, but even if you just are a fan of a certain college, there are patch cards are cool enough looking to own just for the sake of owning one.  

2. UD Black- This was a really cool set that I do not think gets enough love sometimes.  Loads of cool patch pieces, autographs, and all kinds of other goodies.  I have not seen too many affordable boxes of this floating around, but the singles are pretty easy to pass and can sometimes be a really good deal.  The sticker autographs are a little bit of a drag, but Upper Deck did a great job of designing this set and downplayed the stickers significantly by making them clear.  I also really like the autographed cards with the manufactured flags.  So many cool looking single cards, definitely a set you should look into if you have not done so already....

1. Upper Deck Masterpieces- This was easily my favorite set from 2007.  The cards were based on paintings, which is not really a new concept, but they had a really cool canvas card stock which was really unique.  The design of the cards was awesome with a dark border and really nice artwork.  Incredible looking relic and autograph cards with some nice names makes this, not only one of the better products of 2007, but one of the better products of the past decade.  

The Original Rayhawk and Friends

I have seen several Cubs fans this week who were excited at the prospect of seeing some of Joe Maddon's fun themed filled road trips and clubhouse antics when he starts working on the north side of Chicago.  There was that hippie weekend, James Bond formal, the white trip to Miami (Don Johnson suits), football uniforms, letterman jackets, and that press conference when he wore a Buccaneers helmet.

One of the earliest "fun" Maddon events took place during the team's World Series run during the 2008 season.  The Rays adopted a "Rayshawk".  They were really Mohawks, but people really seemed to latch on to the fact that all of the Rays players were walking around during the Postseason with mohawks.

The "Rayhawks" were actually adopted from Rays second baseman Akinora Iwamura.  The team's second baseman styled his hair into a mohawk and the "Rayshawk" was inspired by Imamura's unique hair do.  It looked something like this......

Besides inspiring one of the first cool Joe Maddon themed events, I actually had the opportunity to see Iwamura play a few games for the Durham Bulls during an injury rehab and also saw him him play for the Pirates Triple A team towards the end of his North American career.  I always liked Iwamura and have a few of his cards in my collection.  This past week I was able to flip around a few Cardinals cards, including a Marp autograph, to land a nice autograph of the Rays former second baseman.

This card of Aki Iwamura come from the 2007 UD Black set.  One of my favorites from the late 90s. Tons of really cool autographs and loads of cool patches.  This card is just an autograph, but I love the silver signature on top of the black background.  I know that lots of sets use this look now, but seven years ago this was one of the first sets to put this look together.  The card is also limited to just 10 copies.  Really cool card.  

I also picked up a copy of the Chris Archer jersey card from the Gypsy Queen set in the trade and also landed a nice looking black framed Rod Carew jersey card in the trade.  Also picked up a few nice single cards of some Rays players including a Joe Maddon, a sweet David Price Gypsy Queen insert, and a very nice James Shields Bowman refractor.  

Awesome Lo Brown Autograph

I have found myself dabbling a little bit in basketball autographs the past few months and managed to add another favorite player from my alma mater NC State.  I never start out looking for basketball cards, but somehow manage to run into them here and there.  I was actually looking for a few Topps Museum cards last week when I stumbled upon a great looking card of former NC State point guard Lorenzo Brown.  The card was far too pretty to pass on....

I miss having Upper Deck make baseball cards and this card took me back.  This card has a fabulous design and is very well made.  Thick card stock, cool transparent section with the logo and player picture, and I love the the black background with the silver signature.  Just a really well made and designed card.  I know that Topps just signed an extension on their exclusive license with MLB, but we can all dream a little bit right? 

Lorenzo Brown (or Zo or Lo Brown) played for three years at NC State holding down the point guard responsibilities.  He was a very good college point guard, but has had some trouble settling down in the NBA.  He was a first round pick of the Timberwolves, but was traded to the 76ers.  He has spent the year shuffling in between the Sixers bench and the D-League.  Hopefully he will get some playing time down the stretch for the worst team in the NBA.  Favorite performance in college was his eleven assist game against the UNC-Cheaters last year.

2007 UD Black Garrett Atkins Quad Relic/Autograph

A quick post this morning about an inexpensive single card I picked up this past week from the 2007 UD Black set.  The UD Black set was issued only once in 2007, but it is worth a little bit of time to check out the cards.  There are lots of great patches, autos, and low run cards.  The set does feature sticker autographs, but they are as well done.

2007 UD Patch Garrett Atkins Quad Relic/Autograph 

My latest card cost me $3 on Ebay which isn't a bad price for any card that has two patches, two pieces of jersey with pinstripes, and an autograph.  Not a huge fan of Garrett Atkins, but I can add it to my collection of other UD Black cards and it makes a nice addition.  I will have to post more about some of my other cards from this set another time.