BaseballCardStore - Baseball Pick-ups

The last of the baseballcardstore.ca order, the baseball cards, starting with a couple of the better photo selection for the Rockies from the last couple years.

Good things comes in 3's

Unfortunately due to high International shipping costs I have to turn down a trade every so often, sometimes it is just not worth even a PWE for a couple junk wax cards both ways, but this 3 card trade was totally for it. One of my favorite parallels, the 2014 Topps Red Hot Foil, or Raining Blood parallel of a pre-beard Charlie Blackmon.

Top Baseball Parallels of All-Time (as voted by me) 6-10

This is a post that I have been mean to do for a long time and finally just getting around to it. Honestly, I am not overly fond of parallels, for the most part I find them annoying, but I still get sucked in and search out a few, the ones that really catch my eye. So, because I like lists and am lacking an real content, here is my two part, top 10 baseball parallels that I could think of this past week.

10. Upper Deck Collector's Choice - Silver Signature (1995-1996)

Probably the least flashy of the bunch, but the first really baseball parallel I collected, 1994 had them, but 1995 was the first year the border matched the color. I opened a ton of 1995 Collectors Choice SE and always loved pulling a silver parallel, I know the Golds are harder to come by, but I still like the look of the silver better.

9. Fleer Ultra - Gold Medallion (1996)
Ultra had Gold Medallion in other years, but 1996 was the year they went all out, going from a small icon in 1995 to making the whole background gold in 1996. Incredibly gaudy and over the top and oh so mid-1990's.

8. Topps - Red Hot Foil (2014)
Topps did a lot of this style from 2011 thru 2014, they had Cognac, Diamond, Hope Diamond, Gold Sparkle, Silver Slate, Sapphire and a couple I am probably missing, but the Raining Blood remains by favorite. They don't look as good with the Rockies, any red teams like the Angels and Cardinals make for a pretty sweet looking card.

7. 1999 Fleer Brilliants - 24KT Gold (1999)*
This one comes with an asterisk because I don't actually own any of them, numbered to 24 and in pretty high demand, you can have the Larry Walker I stole the scan of for only $299.99. This set was released for baseball, football and basketball and they all go for high prices, maybe the fact they are so hard to find makes people want them more, or maybe they are just really nice cards, hard to say until I actually track one down.

6. Upper Deck SPx - Radiance (2000)
These are hard to judge by the scan, but are very cool in hand. Very swirly and refractory. Limited to 100 and not as high in demand as Fleer Brilliants, but still a little more than I usually like to pay for a parallel.

Another Buckstore Trade

Another trade with somewhat regular trading partner and fellow Canuck, Sportscards From The Dollar Store

First off, he completed my 2013-14 Upper Deck Series 1 set, including my first Torey Krug card,

then checked off all but one of my 2014 Flagship needs, just Jean Segura left to go,

finally finishing my 2014 Gypsy Queen base set, just the short prints left to go. Thanks for the great trade!

Red Hot Zistle Trade

A quick Zistle trade, as tired as I am with Parallels (I know that seems weird from a guy that built a rainbow last year), I love the 2014 Topps Red Hot Foil parallels, so when two Rockies were offered up, I jumped at the trade. Nolan Arenado is quickly becoming a favorite, after winning the Gold Glove as a rookie in 2013, he is looking as good or better in 2014, and his bat is starting to heat up. Rex Brothers has crazy closer quality stuff, but can be a little wild. I am really looking forward to filling up a page with these.

Canadian Trading

It's always nice when a trade doesn't have to to cross international borders, this was the case with the latest Zistle trade with fellow Canuck Olerud363.

 The highlight for me was 3 Gypsy Queen short prints, leaving me 9 short of the 350 card set.

Zistle trade with Pittpanther88

More set help from a fellow Zistler, again I will not flood a post with base cards, but just taking time for a quick thanks. More 2014 Topps Flagship and another 1971 style from 2012 Archives. The 2012 Update Brian Bogusevic is seemingly pretty random, but after seeing it mentioned on a few blogs showing the at-the-wall catch and the lady with her dog in the stands, it was added to my wantlist and included in this swap. Thanks for the trade!

Set Help From Zistle

More activity on the trade front from Zistle.com. Not the usual Rockies and Randoms, but mostly set help. The lone Rockies card was a Joe Girardi from 1993 Flair, which was the first real attempt at a high-end set, before everything was autographs and patches. I remember the Hockey version of Flair coming in cardboard packs instead of the regular wax, pretty impressive for 1993.

2014 Topps Trade/Want list

2014 Topps Wantlist
Updated March 11, 2015

Base: 
215

Red Hot Foil:
13, 17, 20, 25, 69, 139, 152, 221, 225, 273, 277, 290

Green
275

Walmart Blue: 
273, 275

Target Red
275

75th Anniversary Buybacks
Any 1971s

For Trade

Base:
4, 8 (x2), 11 (x2), 13 (x2), 15, 19, 22 (x2), 32, 33, 35, 45, 46, 48, 57 (x2), 59, 67, 69, 83, 86, 90, 92, 94, 95, 112, 115, 116, 123 (x2), 129, 134, 136, 137 (x2), 152, 159, 167, 182, 183, 184, 186 (x2), 189, 191, 192, 194, 198, 201, 208, 209, 212 (x2), 219, 220, 226, 230, 231 (x2), 236 (x2), 241, 252 (x2), 256, 260, 261, 263, 264, 268, 269, 274, 277, 282 (x2), 283 (x2), 284, 288, 292 (x2), 301 (x2), 302, 305 (x2), 312 (x2), 322, 329

Red Hot Foil:
55, 61, 71, 102, 141, 143, 195, 224, 227, 251, 259

Gold:
51, 81, 102, 158, 181, 25, 319

Green:
28, 67, 111, 144, 145, 171, 184, 186, 188, 280, 305

Power Players:
52, 92

50 Years of the Draft
3 David Price, 6 Josh Hamilton, 8 Ken Griffey Jr. (x2)

75th Anniversary Buybacks
1974 #503 Eric Soderholm

Future is Now:
1, 2 (x2), 7, 12 (x2), 16, 19 (x2), 23 (x2), 25, 27

Super Veteran
11 Matt Holliday

All Rookie Cup Team
2 McCovey, 3 Morgan, 8 Griffey Jr.

Upper Class
1, 2, 9, 13, 14, 18 (x2), 19, 20, 28, 32, 36

First Trip to LCS of 2014

I couldn't just stop at the LCS for the supplies I needed, I had to pick up some wax in the way of the last Jumbo pack of 2014 Topps there. I won't flood you with 2014 cards you have already seen, but will show off a few. Yadier Molina was the first card from the pack, a catcher with a goalie style mask, so a score for the PC. Rex Brothers was the first Rockies pull of 2014. My inserts started with Ryan Braun, an ugly card of a player I dislike, off to a rough start. I love the Furture is Now inserts, but the checklist is stupid, every player has multiple cards, how about spreading it around some, and no Nolan Arenado, Booo.

Acetate Appreciation: 2014 Topps Clear

We have all seen pretty much everything 2014 Topps has to offer by now, but something that I haven't seen a lot on is what I have found the most exciting, the clear parallels. These have been selling very well on secondary markets so I have not acquired one yet, but judging from the scans I have seen these are pretty sweet. Paralleling the full 330 card base set, and numbered to ten, with all the parallel overload in the last couple years, this is one that I really support. Hopefully the success of these cards leads Topps to embrace the clear plastic cards and include them in future products.