Final Trade of 2013

The last post of 2013 featuring the last trade of 2013. A mix of stuff from the wantlist via Zistle. The above Ellis Burks was almost on my 30 best Rockies card list, and is a welcome addition to the Rockies binder.

Tulowitzki 1/1 Addition

While not an active collector of printing plates, the odd one shows up that I feel the need to add to my PC, the most recent being a Troy Tulowitzki Magenta plate from 2012 Gypsy Queen, only my seventh printing plate and my first from 2012 Gypsy Queen.

Snobby Trade

A quick trade post to catch up on, Paul over at The Baseball Card Snob was interested in a Granderson relic I had and I noticed he had a Brad Hawpe auto in his trade-bait. Trading a Yankee relic for an auto of one of my favorite players in Rockies history is pretty exciting for me. Hawpe's decline was pretty fast, always a streaky hitter, Hawpe lit it up in the first half of 2009, and might have been the All-Star game MVP if Carl Crawford had not robbed him of a go ahead home run in the 7th inning. 

3 Newest Hall of Famers with a 71 Topps link

Most people have heard about the three newest Baseball Hall of Famers, the much deserving Bobby Cox, Tony La Russa and Joe Torre so I won't really go into that. The thing that I found interesting as a fan of the 1971 Topps set, a set that partially let me to start blogging in the first place, is that with Joe Torre's addition in 2014, there are now 46 Hall of Famers with cards in the black-bordered masterpiece that is 1971 Topps. I have no idea if that is close to a record for base cards of then current players, but something I thought was worth noting.

To save typing them all out I found a Sporcle quiz, a pretty fun way to test your knowledge.

http://www.sporcle.com/games/jaysee/1971thof

edit: After seeing CaptKirk42's comment I looked and Night Owl did start on a "Most Hall of Famers" project, his links are below. It looks like 1971 might have the lead with 1969 second at 44.

http://nightowlcards.blogspot.ca/2013/04/the-most-hall-of-famers.html
http://nightowlcards.blogspot.ca/2013/05/the-most-hall-of-famers-update-1.html
http://nightowlcards.blogspot.ca/2013/07/the-most-hall-of-famers-update-2.html

Check out my Rockies (Dec 2013)

Another COMC order, another edition of Check out my Rockies. These packages are always fun for me as I usually forget what I all bought so there are usually a few surprises. The highlight is the card to the right,the only card of Jim Leyland with the Rockies, from the 1999 Police issue set that was probably released as a stadium giveaway, coming from ebay via the COMC mail box service. I have never even seen a scan of the card before so it nice to have one find it's way to my collection.

Acetate Appreciation: 1999 Finest - Peel and Reveal

An insert set from when peel off protective film coatings were a common thing to see on cards. These cards came in packs of Topps Finest with a black film on both sides that had to be peeled of to see which card you got. The three parallels were Sparkle, the most common (roughly 1 per box), Stadium Stars, the least common (roughly 1 in every 5 boxes) and Hyperplaid being somewhere in the middle (about 1 per 2.5 boxes). These cards are very hard to identify by scans so I used a black background below to help out. The Sparkle are just what you would expect, with shiny specks in the clear space, Hyperplaid are probably the best looking in person looking similar to X-Fractors from recent Topps Chrome releases. The Stadium Stars are the hardest to see with Stars and Circles that create a slight 3D effect.

Why did I even buy this?

I usually have a small niche that I collect, and try not to stray to far from that for budgetary reasons. I mostly collect base cards, and an un-numbered autograph means just as much to me as a low numbered color-fractor parallel. Sometimes my itchy bidding finger gets the best of me and I end up with something outside my comfort zone. This is one of those things. A Topps Vault Blank Back 1/1 card, from Topps Mini no less, and with all apologies to mini fans, a set that I have absolutely zero use for.

First off, I find it disgusting that Topps produces these things as a straight to ebay item. They are nothing more than a quick cash grab that really adds nothing to the hobby. If they were released into packs as redemptions (I know, that last thing we need is more redemptions) or something like that I would have no problem, but as a straight to ebay only item, that's what I have a problem with. I realize that most cards end up on secondary market sites like ebay anyway, and it is an easy way to get things like this into collectors hands, it still seems a little shady. As someone who hates redundancy (hence my Topps Mini dislike), these things don't really need to exist.

Obviously, I am not as outraged at these as I thought I was, because I bought one. It was relatively cheap and is pretty nice in it's Beckett graded case, and it fits into my 2013 Topps Ramon Hernandez rainbow that any regular readers (If I have any) have seen me working on for a few months.

Remembering #21

It's now six years since Sean Taylor passed, you may see a few tributes to him posted around and I urge people to go out and check some of his highlights on youtube. He was an incredible football player who had Hall of Fame talent and would have only been 30 years old this year. Still the only time that I have shed a tear over pro sports. I will never forgot that week leading up to the Bills game in which Gregg Williams and the Redskins defense started the game with 10 players, leaving Taylor's safety spot empty.

Green is the Colour...

2013 Grey Cup Champions!

Johnny Bucyk: Bruins Stanley Cup Auto

A retro Bruins Stanley Cup autograph, of Bruins great and Hall of Famer Johnny Bucyk. The holder of most Bruins career records until Ray Bourque, Bucyk is still the franchise leader in goals with 545, and second in games (1,436) and points (1,339). A member of the 1970 and 1972 Stanley Cup teams, he also had his name engraved on the Cup in 2011 as a member of the Bruins front office staff.

These 2012-13 Panini Classics cards are among the best looking retro style sets I have seen, especially the card backs. Along with a legible and stylish on card auto, this ranks pretty high up in my auto collection.

Acetate Appreciation: 2007 UD Elements

A very weird and confusing set released by Upper Deck in 2007, the cards were released with 3 mini-boxes per box, 5 packs per mini box, 3 cards per pack, with what was advertised as "3 unique Technology Cards" with Relic and Auto cards mixed in as well.

Box 1 contained cards 1-42 and 127-168 on "Foil Board" (Think Chrome Refractors)
Box 2 contained cards 43-84 and 169-210 on "Lt Fx" (Think Fleer Metal)
Box 3 contained cards 85-126 and 211-252) on "PETG" (Think thicker than average acetate)

The first 126 cards were of veteran players, with one card per "Technology" and cards 127-252 being all rookies limited to 550, meaning each player has 3 different cards in the set. The PETG (or Polyethylene terephthalate glycol-modified) are clear plastic cards that fit into the "acetate" part of my collection. The "Technology" is pretty much wasted on these as only the top portion of the card is clear, and the back containing a bio and stats shows though to the card front. The photos used on the PETG cards look to all be posed studio shots, making my dislike for these cards even greater.

Massive Mailday, 2011 GQ Style

One of my top collecting goals was to finish the 2011 Gypsy Queen set, after sitting at around half done for a long time, a lot came up on the bay and I ended up getting it. Most of the base set with a pile of inserts, combining this lot with what I already had finished the regular set and left me 3 cards shy of the short prints. If anyone is still working on this set I now have a pile of doubles for trade and if anyone has Danny Valencia, Kila Ka-Aihue or Konrad Schmidt to help finish the set I would love to set up a trade.

Updated 2011 Trade/ Want List

Trip to the LCS (Bowman Chrome, Topps Chrome, Topps Prime)

A trip to the local card shop for some supplies led to a few packs, as I don't want to be a guy that goes in, buys some supplies and leaves without really supporting the shop. Starting with the best pack of the bunch, the options are mostly limited to Hockey so after picking out a few baseball packs, I grabbed a pack of Topps Prime Football. For $10.00 a pack I was taking a gamble, and while not getting a huge hit, it was the best purchase of the day. A Quad Relic, numbered to 99, of Stepfan Taylor, a rookie for the Cardinals who has a total of 53 yards in 9 games played. At 4 hits per 10 packs I did ok on this, even though I have never heard of this kid.

Hocky Trade Bait

Cleaning out the card room and some things have to go, some might end up on ebay or on COMC, but here is the first shot, I will try and add descriptions when i have more time, let me know if you want more info on a card if anyone is interested in trading.

1997-98 Donruss Limited #28 Ed Belfour / Andy Moog
1983-84 OPC #160 Bernie Nicholls (RC)

1995-96 Collector's Choice Player's Club Platinum #45 Pavel Bure

1995-96 Summit Artist's Proofs #10 Joe Murphy

1995-96 Pinnacle Clear Shots #6 Doug Gilmour

The Dan Cloutier is an Electric Ice Parallel

The shiny one is 1991-92 Upper Deck Award Winner Holograms AW5 Ray Bourque

1992 Classic LP's # LP8 Curtis Bowen (Ottawa 67's / Detriot Red Wings)

1995 Classic Silver Parallel #79 Chad Quenneville (Providence College)

1995 Classic Gold Parallel#38 Dwayne Hay (Guelph Storm / Washington Capitals)

1993 Classic Top Ten #DP1 Alexandre Daigle (Victoriaville Tigres / Ottawa Senators)

1995 Classic Autographs #2 Greg Bullock (UMass-Lowell)

1994 Classic Four Sport Gold Parallel #117 Radek Bonk (Las Vegas Thunder / Ottawa Senators)

1992 Classic LP's # LP2 Alexi Yashin (CCCP / Ottawa Senators)

1995 Classic Gold Parallel #34 Christian Dube (Sherbrooke Falcons / New York Rangers)

1995 Signature Rookies Signatures #65 Andrew Taylor (Kitchener Rangers)

1995 Classic Autographs Kent Fearns (Colorado College / Hartford Whalers)

Acetate Appreciation: 1996 Collector's Choice - Crash the Game Exchange

Collector's Choice was a product released by Upper Deck in the mid 1990's. One of the selling points of this line was the "Crash the Game" redemption/contest inserts. The cards featured players with specific dates and if the player hit a home run during that time the card was a winner and could be redeemed for a different card of the same player. In 1996 the inserts were a shiny/foily kind of thing, and the redemptions were acetate.

The design is very similar the Thunder Boomers inserts from 1998 Thunder with a wood grain border and the player photo in a broken out section. Of the 30 players in the set 27 of them have redmeptions, Tim Salmon, Larry Walker and Joe Carter didn't hit home runs on any of their redemption dates. The cards are kind of flimsy and fairly simple, but a pretty nice design for early acetate cards.

Buckstore Trade

A trade I thought I had posted, but realized I had totally forgot about until Sportscards From the Dollar Store posted his side of the trade here. He wanted the Chrome Familia auto I pulled and I wanted the Nolan Arenado refractor he pulled and thus a trade was born. He sent along Garrett Atkins relic numbered to 15 along with some random cards.

Zistle Trade #14

A quick little trade, some 2013 Topps inserts in exchange for some Series 2 from my wantlist, including a Tyler Chatwood to finish off the Rockies and a catcher card for Hector Sanchez.

A Couple Thoughts on 2013 Topps Update

Among the sets that I look forward to the most, Update is right up there, and always has been. Since my early days of collecting I always looked forward to year end sets with rookies and traded players with their new teams. This years Update really doesn't do much for me at all though.

Postives: From what I have seen Topps did a really good job with selecting photos for this years set, lots of throwback and alternate jerseys. Yup, that's the list.

Negatives: My biggest complaint this year is the checklist, focusing on the Rockies because that is who I collect, 5 out of the 11 base cards are "new" or updated (first Rockies flagship cards) players. Part of this is because of the 4 All-Star cards, which do little for me, but that is more personal preference, I really don't need 2 more Michael Cuddyer base cards. As for the other players, Christian Friedrich has been on the DL all season and has not thrown a pitch in 2013, his rookie card is in last years update so I really don't see the point in including him (Michael Pineda also fits this category). Reid Brignac was let go by the Rockies in May, signed with the Yankees, was let go by them in June, then spent the rest of the year with the Rockies AAA team on a minor league deal, yet he has a card in update, as well as a Silk parallel for some bizarre reason. The worst is Rafael Betancourt, who had a card in Series 2, and has another card in Update with a very similar photo. And how did they not include Munenori Kawasaki, I am not even Blue Jays fan and I am pissed off by this.

Acetate Appreciation: 1996 Select Team Nucleus

A 28 card insert set from 1996 Score Select, featuring 3 of the top players from each team. Pretty boring design on a multi player card. The thing that stuck out to me was Larry Walker, Andres Galarraga and Dante Bichette combining for 107 homers and 335 RBI in a strike shortened season, led by Bichette who hit .340 with 40 bombs and 128 driven in, sending the Rockies to their first playoff appearance.

Check Out My Rockies (Oct 2013)

After a recent COMC package arrived, I thought a few cards deserved to be highlighted here. First off this Will Swanner Bowman Black Collection from ebay via the COMC Mailbox service. Just a beautiful card on thick stock, numbered to 25, featuring a Rockies catcher. I may have overpaid for this, but for such a nice looking card, it doesn't hurt that much.

Zistle Trade #13

Just a quick post to document a trade over Zistle.com, one of the few trades I have completed that didn't have to cross an International border. The usual Rockies, catchers and randoms, in exchange for some 2013 Topps Series 1. Some Pacific Online cards with a nice Kirt Manwaring play at the Plate, and a Larry Walker from Donruss Originals, which must have been their version of Archives.

Quite Possibly the Best Catcher Mem Card Ever

Playoff's Absolute Memorabilia product was responsible for some of the best Mem cards I have seen, featuring relic cards of Hall of Famers and weird stuff you don't usually see, like the game used mask card I showed a few months ago. This John Buck is now, by far, my favorite mem card. What more could you ask for as a collector of catcher cards, the only thing missing is a piece of his cup, which I am glad is absent. The peice of shin guard is even all scuffed up. Kinda makes you wish more than one company made MLB cards to come up with new and different ideas.

Acetate Appreciation: 1994 Studio Editor's Choice

The oldest baseball acetate card in my collection comes from the 1994 Donruss Studio line. These were inserted at a rate of 1:36 packs, or one per box. The 8 card set is designed to look like a film strip, a pretty obvious idea for acetate cards, but one not widely used. These cards scan very nicely, but don't look as good in person, the whole card is clear as opposed to the player photo being solid like on most acetate cards. This leads to a really washed out look on the card and make it really dull. It adds to the feel of being a photo negative, but makes for a pretty boring card.

A 2x3 PWE

Plain White Envelopes don't show up here very often, but a much welcomed one arrived the other day from Jeff at 2x3 Heroes. A couple 2013 Topps Series 2 to check off the list including a Gold Tulowitzki Chasing History, I really love how this design works on the vertical cards, the horizontal versions don't do much for me, but the vertical ones are among my favorite inserts of 2013. Justin Morneau goes into my small, but growing, Team Canada collection, along with a few base for the set, this package along with a few others that just arrived leave me 21 cards short of the set. A big thank you to Jeff for helping me out with my Series 2 list.

As exicted as anyone has even been over a MLB Showdown card

Aaron Ledesma, an easy forgettable player, who played in 284 MLB games from 1995-2000, best known for being a bench player for the expansion 1998 Devils Rays. A player with 49 cards in the Beckett database with a total value of $80.15. A player who spend two months with Colorado, playing in 32 games, starting 3, before being DFA's in June of 2000. This was the player that was at the top of my want-list since I started this blog over two years ago. A card from a set that I hate, MLB Showdown with its rounded corners and generic playing card back. A card I am sure I hate for taking so long to track down, or love now that I finally have a copy.

The reason for this being so high on my list is this is the last card I needed to "finish" my "One of Every Rockies" collection, or at least be up to date until 2013 Update comes out. It's hard to call a common base card of a player no one remembers from a set that no one cares about a "white whale", but there is no small satisfaction in adding this one to the collection and striking it off the want-list.

Jhoulys Chacin Mini Plate Mailday

I don't really collect Topps Mini cards, but finding a printing plate of one of the more underrated pitchers in the National League for less then $9.00 shipping is something I will usually jump on.

Jhoulys Chacin just finished 2013 with a 3.47 ERA, which moved him into first place in Rockies history with a 3.61 career ERA, passing Ubaldo Jimenez who had a 3.66 ERA with Colorado.

2013 Topps Chrome 2nd Box Results

Box number two was a little kinder than the first box. Most of the big rookies were in this one with a
Hyun-jin Ryu refractor, Wil Myers 1972, and base cards of Puig, Gattis, Arenado, Jose Fernandez, and Myers. Pulling a Tulowitzki die cut is always nice for a Rockies fan. The color consisted of two Sepias and a blue Melky Mesa. I had actually heard of Darin Ruf, so that a step up my from first box's autos, but the second auto is a redemption, numbered to 499 of a Reds prospect that will probably go on eBay.

My two box total put me at 145 of 220 (with 4 dupes), leaving me 75 cards short of the base set. The decision I have to make now is to either track down the rest of the set, or just use them as trade bait. Another box would bring me close, but I pre-ordered these and got them for just over $60.00 a piece and they seem to be around $80 right now, which is more than I want to spend.

2nd Box Totals:
Base: 74 (No Dups, 34% of base set)
Refractors: 8
X-Fractors: 4
Sepia: 2
Blue: 1 (Melky Mesa)
Autograph: 1 (Darin Ruf)
Autograph Refractor: 1 (Tony Cingrani)
1972 Chrome: 2
Connection Die-Cuts: 2
Dynamic Die Cuts: 1

2013 Topps Chrome Box 1 Results and Review

Anyone who was jealous of the two boxes I posted yesterday, probably won't be after reading the next few posts. I will start with the base cards, I have read about some bad coalition in this product, but my box had zero duplicates, which is always a positive for someone who started collecting in the late 1980's, but one box still puts you at about 1/3 of the set. I am actually a little disappointed in the base set, I really liked the 2013 Topps flagship design, but it looks kind of drab with the chrome replacing the white. That being said, the refractors look amazing, other than the X-Fractors which I am not sold on. The Black parallels are stunning and might be my pick for the best looking design/parallel of 2013.

The inserts didn't really do much for me either, Topps did a good job with the 1972 style cards, but I am not really a fan of that set, so that is more or a personal taste issue. The Dynamic Die-Cuts are a nice design, and the Connection Die-Cuts seem like they are designed specifically to annoy people trying to put them in pages or penny sleeves.

The autographs look good with the on card auto's, but I pulled two duds in Jeurys Familia and Alfredo Marte. Out of my 96 cards the highlight is either the Tyler Skaggs Black Refractor or a Bryce Harper X-Fractor, which is pretty depressing. No Puig, Jose Fernandez, Gattis or Nolan Arenado, not even a base. I think this might be a combination of me expecting too much and getting a weak box, but I am pretty disapointed by this one.

Below is a full list of what I pulled:

Base: 75 (No Dupes) (34% of the base set)
Refractors: 8
X-Fractors: 4
Black Refractor: 1 (Tyler Skaggs)
Sepia Refractor: 1 (Jim Johnson)
Autograph: 1 (Alfredo Marte)
Autograph Refractor: 1 (Jeurys Familia)
Connection Die-Cuts: 2
Dynamic Die Cuts: 1
1972 Chrome: 2

2013 Topps Chrome Mailday

I am far from a Chromey, but I did buy a couple boxes to keep me busy for a while and celebrate selling my house, full break details, recap and trade/wants coming soon.

Custom Card: 1990-91 Skybox NBA Todd Helton

A design I have been playing with for a while, 1990-91 Skybox was a favorite of mine when it came out, combining a simple border design with weird and colorful background and a glowing basketball. Now considered junk wax, it remember it being a pretty big deal back in the day.

The second point of this post is just to acknowledge Todd Helton who played his last game in Denver and will have 3 games in L.A. this weekend to close out his career. Obviously as a Rockies fan I loved watching Helton and really hope he makes the Hall of Fame. He will be fighting the Coors Field stigma, as well as playing in a market without much national media attention but that's an argument for a later date, now is just a time to reflect on a great career and just say "Thank You Todd".

Rockies From Japan (2006)

I didn't collect much from around 1998-2011, but I did pick up the odd team set including these Japanese cards. From what I can find they are from the 150 card 2006 Konami Powerful MLB set. Judging by the card backs these might have been a video game cross promotion. Nothing really special here, just a chance to show off some unusual cards while waiting for some packages to arrive and show off some new stuff.

COMC Mailbox Service Review

As a Canadian it has been getting harder and harder to buy singles from online site like the Bay and Sportlots with the postal rate increases on packages to Canada. So when COMC.com added their Mailbox Service (link here) I was hoping this would be the answer to sellers asking $7.00 to ship a single card up North. Last month I found a couple cards I wanted that did not offer Canadian shipping so I decided to try it out. If you are already a buyer on COMC this service is great, all I needed to do was change my shipping address to the COMC Mailbox one and my cards shipped out. About a week later I got an email with a picture of the package and the cards. Over the month I ordered three packages (2 from the Bay and 1 from Sportlots) with a total of 5 cards and all it cost was $5.00. The cards were added to my account and added to a stack of cards I had waiting to be shipped, very easy and much cheaper for me than international shipping would have been.

Zistle Trade #12

 

Another trade from Zislte, a site I can not recommend enough for organizing a collection and trading. I have been staying away from football cards as I have around 1,000 Redskins on my trade-list, but I could not resist a Sonny Jurgensen with the old Spear helmet from 2012 Topps. The Rest was the usual mix of Rockies, catchers and a few set needs.

Acetate Appreciation: 1996 CE President's Reserve NFL

President's Reverse was a product put out by Collector's Edge, a company that focused mainly on NFL cards during the 1990's. 1996 would be the only year a President's Reverse line was released and it really is a pretty forgettable set. The design doesn't use the clear portion well and the photo is not the sharpest which is a problem with most acetate cards. The entire 400 card base set is acetate with each card listed as being "1 of 20,000". Not a set I like very much, but it is an excuse to post a card of a punter, not something you see very often anymore.

2014 Gypsy Queen First Look

Something most people have probably seen already, but seeing as Gypsy Queen is my favorite Topps product I just want to take a moment to look at the newly revealed 2014 version.

The first thing that struck me was how similar this feels to 2011, the color looks similar and the player and team name are outside the border in a small strip. While the border design got more complicated and intricate from 2011-2013, 2014 breaks that trend with a nice simple border, while keeping with the knotwork-like accents. I really like how, to me anyway, it looks like the emphasis has has been moved back to the player photo, where in 2013 this first thing I noticed was the border. To me, going back to rounded corners really helps rather than the sharp corners at the top of the 2013 design.

A big selling point for Gypsy Queen is the on card autographs, and these will now have colored parallels, which I would guess will still stick with the framed borders that have been a part of the product since 2011. Another new feature is 1/1 acetate mini cards, while I love acetate cards, I am a little disappointed they are limited to one each, which will probably put them out of my price range.

So far every release of Gypsy Queen has had things I liked and things I didn't like, and based on a first impression, I would personally rank the 2014 design above the 2013 and 2012 releases, but still a step behind my personal favorite, 2011.

Gypsy Queen from My Cardboard Habit

A nice package from My Cardboard Habit that has been sitting here a while waiting to be scanned in. Along with the last cards I needed for the base set, the package also included two Rockies autographs, two Collisions at the Plate and a short print of Hal Newhouser. Thanks for the much appreciated cards and a return package is being assembled.

2013 Topps Update Wishlist

A Short list of what I, as a Rockies fan, would like to see in 2013 Topps Update .

Michael Cuddyer Autograph - A 2013 National League All-Star, Cuddyer has not had a certified auto since 2009. For a guy that has had articles written on how nice his autograph is (link), it's a shame he doesn't have more examples out there.

Jon Garland - As a fan of Garland, I was pretty disappointed at how short and unproductive his Rockies career was. He hasn't been with Colorado since early June, but if we can get Jamie Moyer in 3 sets last year long after he was released, I hope we can get at least one of Garland this year.

Edgmer Escalona - This was a make or break year for Escalona in Colorado and injuries combined with lack of performance probably has spelled the end to his Rockies career, but can we please get a card of the best player in MLB history named Edgmer.

Josh Outman - A left-handed reliever who has been solid out of the Rockies pen this year, but more importantly, we need a card in 2013 of a guy in the old-school sturrups.

Roy Oswalt -With a less than impressive 0-4 record and a 7.64 ERA before his injury, this has not been a good year of Oswalt, so this might be a possible sunset card.

Adam Ottavino -  A workhorse reliever I profiled with a Topps Total custom in May, can pitch multiple innings and has saved the Rockies bullpen with 79 innings pitched in 2012, and so far in 2013 has thrown 71 innings with a 2.79 ERA.

Nolan Arenado - Has had Bowman cards since 2010, but still doesn't have a "true" rookie card. After making his MLB debut in late April I would be shocked if he's not included in update.

TTM Success: Matt Herges

Kind of a weird TTM success in the fact I didn't actually mail this to Matt Herges himself. About a month ago I got an email about one of the first customs I posted, a 1992 Pinnacle Matt Herges, and if I would sell a couple to get signed. Not wanting to sell homemade cards I asked if that I mailed a few out, that one could be signed and mailed back to me. The deal was made and the return arrived in the mail today, signed with a gold sharpie at a R.C. Quakes game, a Dodgers affiliate where Herges is the pitching coach.

Rockies from Japan

A sort of odd ball mail-day with some Rockies cards from the Japanese Sega Card-Gen set. These cards show up on the bay from time to time so they are not really that rare, but still pretty different. The Helton and Rosario are from the 2013 set and the Belisle is from the 2012 edition. I believe these are used in an arcade game, but most of the info is in Japanese so I'm not sure the details. Most of the text on the card backs is in Japanese other than a few lines, one of which has Rosario as a "Strong Plate Blocker" and Belisle as a "Dependable Relief Workhorse".

Acetate Appreciation: 2013 Momentum NFL Clear Cut

Panini seems to have embraced acetate this season with inserts in the Prestige product and now clear parallels of the entire Momentum set. These have been a little out of my price range and have been slow in showing up so I cheated by stealing some scans off the Bay. The "Clear Cut" checklist is the same as the base set, but the card design and photos are different. From first glance these cards are very nice, I love the faded logo behind the player photo and the design is nice and simple, with the base "non-rookie" cards being the better of the two in my eyes. The rookie design is very similar to the 1999 Playoff Momentum SSD acetate set that I will be posting about next week. I will definitely be trying to track some of these down.

2013 Orange Rockies Catchers

Another installment of 2013 Topps flagship parallels. This time it's the orange border from the Factory Set, numbered out of 230. These are challenging the pink borders for the ugliest version of flagship, and look even worse with the Rockies purple in the design. This brings me up to 12 different versions of the 2013 Ramon Hernandez and a pink parallel should be making it's way here via the COMC mailbox service to complete the rainbow.