2014 Topps S1 – Packs 1 and 2

Posted by cardboard hogs on February 8, 2014

I’ve always been a little slow and therefore have been late to various things in my life. So i’ve developed a mentality of sitting and waiting for other people to do something before I go. It allows me time to think of what I want to do or can provide…since 2014 Topps has been out for a couple of weeks I’m going to show you what I got as well as give you a piece of my mind! 🙂

I know some folks don’t like the Topps flagship or are upset with their exclusive MLB license. You won’t get any of that vibe over here though, I’m all in for the Topps flagship. To the parallels and inserts, I say…”I don’t care” or “I choose to ignore you”. I say that to the cards. Take them out of the center of the packs and put them aside. Sift through the base cards first and them make my way to the “hits” part of the program. You should probably also know that I always eat muffins by starting from the bottom and working my way up. I like to save the best for last. Gives me something to look forward to.

On to the card judgement.

Topps has come back with the white border cards and personally i’d like to see a different color border, or possibly a full bleed. I know this isn’t anything groundbreaking but a little variation would be great for the borders. I’d like to se a card from each year and know that there was more than just a slight variation of the previous years designs…something bigger like the changes in card designs from 85 to 86 to 87. Basically I want a fresh and new design each year. The photos though, those are great. Lots of action photos from what i’ve seen so far and great shots of men leaping in to walls.

One of the things that Topps has done with their photos is select the image that makes you stop…and look…and think…why this photo? The Crisp card has appeared all over the blogosphere and it now appears here. That afro is straight up Oaktown. If rappers had baseball cards, this would be the exact same image that Boots Riley from The Coupe would have. Big Ass Afro and a clean pair of mutten chops piercing out of each cheek, shoulders back doing the Bernie lean.

Besides the cool images, you get the obligatory post game celebration photo. The gatorade bath. Now, this would make a much better football card. In fact, I think Topps should have one football head coach card next year and it should be Pete Carroll getting an orange bath after the Super Bowl and it should be card number 48. That’s a free one for you Topps people, run with it. This Dozier card though…it reeks of gimmick that folks complain about. Dozier…remind me of the Souls of Mischief lyric…’Maintain composure, hit dosia, pick a booga, don’t be shook up, i got the hook up.’

TWO OAKLAND RAP REFERENCES in one blog post!

This kid. Love this kid.

One last base card before i show a couple of the ‘Hits’. The Kendrys Morales card. This card should never have been made unless it was a Mariners team card. In this modern world of high price cameras and digital media at every turn, how can you have a card of a player that only shows his back. AND THE BACK IS OUT OF FOCUS!!! Seriously??!!??! The only guy that’s really in focus is Felix Hernandez. Not Morales! The moral of this card is that team celebrations are good and should only be shared as a team card. Really bad decision on this one.

Mini’s. Die Cuts. I love both and that’s what you get this year! Some 1989 design mini with various border colors that are die cut! Yes please! Sign me up for that. AND I get a Lou Gehrig. Such a lucky boy I am.

This next pair of cards came in my first two packs and I started to think I had a Segura Hot Box. Guess you will have to wait and see…I’m not trying to tease you, I have no idea either as i’ve only opened two packs.

Be on the lookout for the following 8 packs America. I can only hope that I get more blurry cards of guys backs.

A DC Die Cut Delivery Day

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 22, 2014

I came home to a few PWE’s with my name on them and a rigid piece of something in them. It’s card delivery day! YAY! I’m sure those cards were just waiting to get delivered to my mailbox after the holiday yesterday. Ironically all three cards were die cut cards of young DC sports stars…and here they are!

The Jordan Reed card is probably my favorite as it appears to have the least amount of surface area and was a little tricky to get the 2.5″x3.5″ box around the card when I scanned it. It’s a pretty simple card. No flash, no serial number, but the perimeter of the card is quite nice.

The Stephen Strasburg card is also pretty cool. This one is a little more flashy since it’s from the Topps Chrome collection. This one seems like it should have a stand in the back so you can display it somewhere nice.

The man-child Bryce Harper with the mountain main beard was the last card I received. Only minor die cut action going on here, but Bowman Platinum is always a nice card. Plus with Topps pledging to bring me closer to the game from the past, present and future, I feel good about these three going in to my player collections. I should add these to the page, eh?

Strasburg with few words

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 17, 2014

I am way too tired to write about some fancy cool cards that I picked up at a card show last weekend from the dollar bin. So, i am just going to show them to you and like fine art you can interpret them for yourselves. Remember kids, fine art. So lets get some intellectual insight to the gems below.

I like that this one is chrome and shiny. The problem with shiny cards is the fingerprints and other sticky stuff prior to sleeving and top loading them. I get these cards from a guys that’s always at the shows. He comes up from Salem and is a really nice guy, but his cards always seem a little dirty…and sticky…and sometimes…hairy….ehhhhh…

Check out that reconstructed elbow on this one. It would be interesting if any kid that pitched 3+ years of college baseball got the ol’ Tommy John surgery prior to starting their professional career. I wonder how many major league seasons could be saved if this happened? Probably a bad idea…just spitballing.

I really like this mini. Very cool card with Stras looming over Stras. I would be very happy if he did indeed become a Champion Base Ball Pitcher this year when the Nats win the World Series.

Strasburg in Red! Love the old school socks and short knickers for this GQ Mini. Both of these minis were simply dropped in the top loader. Why do people do this? If anything the minis NEED a penny sleeve to keep them from bouncing around.

Look at the Harper kid

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 14, 2014

Here are a couple more pickups from the Mall 205 card show for one of the new kids on my PC block. A few inexpensive Harper cards that set me back a grand total of $2. Can’t beat that for this kids baseball card.

look at the kids well manicured eye brows here. Very precise, just like his nearly flawless swing. Seems to be some very minor controversy about him ‘ballooning’ in weight over the off season as if he’s lost control of everything and just letting himself go…DC media…build you up and knock you down.

look at the clean shaven Harper. There has been some crazy beard action going on in this country and it is very heavy in Portland…i’m putting full blame on the hipsters and all those folksy/campy 12 piece banjo bands that keep popping up on my spottily streams. One thing I will not miss is the beard phase. You know what’s worse? A dude with a full grown beard, a vest and a handlebar mustache. Absolutely no excuse for that, at all!

I will post a couple Strasburg cards I picked up from the dollar bin as well soon! Good night kids.

Shiny Baseball Cards

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 6, 2014

My football card blog is lagging in baseball card posts…not really, I just have a few Harpers and a Hanley I wanted to show you kids.

These bad boys have been sitting in my man cave aka, my closet! Just sitting there, precariously perched on a box of top loaders stacked on a box of books, next to a pair of jeans that no longer fits my ever growing winter ass.

Bryce Harper everyone!

I managed to pick up 3 Harper cards that do not have him with a Curly W Nats hat.

This one is very patriotic and shiny and Prizm-y.

Here is the Hanley Ramirez card I noted in the very first sentence of this post. I love Hanley and hope that he can stay healthy next year.

I have paid more attention to the Dodgers in the 1 1/2 years since they picked him up…this also gave me a great opportunity to listen to Vin Scully. Man, I miss baseball already…

Hobby and Collecting Goals for 2014

Posted by cardboard hogs on January 1, 2014

My first year of blogging is in the digital books. I have had a great time and was able to connect with quite a few bloggers that i’ve been reading for a couple years now. There are a lot of friendly collectors out there and it gives me hope for our community. My objective for starting the blog was to be able to connect with other guys like me and I think that i’ve started to do that this year. I’m hoping that 2014 will be an even better blogging year and that I can connect with more bloggers. Before I look forward though, i’d like to take a look back at what I wanted to do and what i accomplished.

First and foremost, i really need to get organized and finish getting my checklists in order. This is something I have been working on for years and always start great, but never finish. I have managed to get the Redskins team checklist set for Topps cards, but the player collections are really lagging behind. Guess i should get some excel time in soon. -Ummm, no. Like many of you guys out there I am lagging in my organization skills. That seems to be the trend with our hobby. The very basic and generic foundation of this hobby is collecting, consumption and to some extent…hoarding. I’ve done a fantastic job of picking up cards that I do not already have, but I don’t have any of them documented. Without any kind of documentation, i’m not really sure what I need…or really have.
As a follow up to the item above, i would like to complete the Redskin Topps team sets for the 70’s and 80’s. This is mostly complete except for the 1970-1973 sets and some random cards for most other years. Once the season is over i can start posting completed pages of Redskins joy! There is a great shop in NE Portland where i could probably knock out the missing cards on one Saturday. -I have visited the NE Portland shop a couple of times and picked up plenty of cards that I don’t already have. Unfortunately, this goes back to the lack of organization. I believe I have most of the 70’s Topps Redskins team sets complete and have a great deal of the 80’s cards done as well.
For the past 3 years, i have been scooping up Chris Cooley, Clinton Portis and Santana Moss cards with no real recollection of what i have and what i want. This is the year i get these guys organized and stored properly. Why these three players you may ask? Well, these three guys reflect some great and miserable times as a Redskins fan. All three players were vital to the playoff runs in 2005 and 2007…especially Clinton Portis. I know there are a lot of fans that don’t look too highly on Portis, but for me, the way he carried the team down the playoff stretch will always be remembered. Not to mention the way he rose to the occasion after Sean Taylor was taken away from us…These guys are always going to be Redskins in my mind and am so happy that Cooley and Moss are a part of the 2012 NFC East Division Champions! -Organization, collating and documenting is lacking…again.
Speaking of Sean Taylor…He was a phenomenal player, someone that created so many problems on the field for offenses and made some nasty hits on receivers…and punters. When he was murdered, i was completely shocked and felt like I had lost one of the potentially greatest players of our generation. Some idiots like Colin Cowherd and Michael Wilbon made light of his murder with callous comments suggesting he had it coming. Regardless of what you think of Sean Taylor, he would have been a great player for many years to come. I have been working for years to collect all of his base cards along with some jersey cards, probably staying away from the 1/1 cards though…too much for me. -I actually have not picked up too many Sean Taylor cards this year. His cards are hard to find at shows and card shops and the stuff I see on ebay and COMC are more than what I want to spend. This one is something that I’d really like to focus on again this year.
Last and definitely not the least of my goals. I would really like to get one, just one, on card autograph rookie card of Robert Griffin III. I’m only shooting for one right now due to the cost of the cards…crazy expensive right now and i can’t rationalize spending $500+ on any piece of cardboard right now. At the last card show i noticed the Leaf Signatures card…such a beauty…but going for $250. Kind of steep…but if it’s still around for the next show and i can convince myself that it’s an investment, i will pull the trigger! -Ok, this goal was accomplished…twice this year. I was able to find a great deal on two cards from ebay just after the injury. There were a lot of people dumping his cards and I was able to jump on them for a great price. I had been saving my paypal money and ended up with two on card autographs that I am more than happy with.

Now as I look ahead to 2014 and what I want to do. Organization has to be at the top of the list along with the purging of stuff I don’t want or need. I am also hoping to generate a few more trades.

Organize my Redskins! Get my Redskin Topps team sets organized, in sleeves and in binders with labels on the spines. Maybe if i just focus on the Topps stuff the other brands and sets will quickly follow.
Purge, purge and purge again! I’m hoping to post more items on ebay or COMC this year…or make trades to get rid of cards that don’t fit into my selected PC items.
Trades! I’ve made some nice trades with The Daily Dimwit, Fantastic Catch, My Cardboard Mistress, Collector’s Crack, Cardboard Collections and one in the works with Nachos Grande. I’d like to expand my export/import operation with a few of you bloggers out there in hopes of completing some our checklists.
Read! I know this isn’t really something that’s sports card related but i’ve really been trying my best to find some time to read more. As you may have noticed, I posted two images of books that I am reading on the right column. My hope is to read 24 books this year. I’ve finished the two that you see now and am looking to add two more. I have plenty of books available to me (it’s fantastic and terrible working across the street from the largest independent bookstore in the world, Powell’s) I’m not doing book reports because I’m 38 and have done that already. Although, if any of you folks out there are reading/have read the books, i’d love to discuss them with you.
Add and Purge! Since I decided to start collecting Tim Duncan, Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg, I think it’s time to cut the chord on a couple other players that were once in my collection. I will be getting rid of my duplicates for Justin Upton, Evan Longoria and Carl Crawford. If you are interested in any of these guys, let me know what you need and I can see if they are available from my collection.
Posts! I was hoping to keep my list to 5 items but am going to add a 6th for good measure. I am pushing to have at least 200 posts. I got 127 out in 2013, which is ok for the first year. I do have a personal rule of making one post a day and plan on keeping that. I may end up writing multiple posts about one visit to stretch this out…but maybe that’s cheating?

There it is. My list of things to reach for 2014. I hope all of you had a safe and fun first day of the new year and wish you all good luck in your collecting adventures. I love reading the posts and plan on keeping/getting in touch with most of you guys this year.

Thanks for reading and as always Hail to the Redskins!

Black Friday Heritage

Posted by cardboard hogs on December 19, 2013

So, I did some Black Friday shopping in my pajamas like a good American.

No, I wasn’t at Wal-Mart at 3am busting down the storefront and trampling mustached women in rascals. Even better, I did it online over at the Check Out My Cards wonderful website. I had been building up my cart for some time, nearly 6 months, and decided I needed to work on completing some sets. Most of what I picked up was 2010 Heritage base cards, but I also picked up some New Age Performers from this past years set along with a couple Then and Now cards.

And here they are!

Miguel Cabrera involved in a deeply personal thought about SABRmetrics

Yoenis Cespedes. It took me about 5 tries to find this card, because apparently Yoenis is nearly impossible for me to spell. Yoenis.

Billy Butler is both excited and nervous about the pitch he just hit…one can only wonder…

Check out the baby faced Aparicio and the babier face of Michael Nelson Trout. I believe the Mathews/Dunn card would have been perfect if we could have gotten some chest hair on the Dunn photo…Taco meat for everyone!

Time permitting, i’d love to scan some of my other pick ups from COMC…but i’m not sure time will permit in the next few holiday days. One cool thing of note is that I have Boxing Day off. This is the second year we’ve had this holiday since we were taken over in a not so hostile manner by a Canadian company. I’ve heard positive things and negative things about the holiday, so i’m not sure if I should let my white guilt reign over me or if I should just buy some more baseball cards. Any thoughts out there from our friendly neighbors to the north?

Breaking Box

Posted by cardboard hogs on December 18, 2013

Some of you kids, if not most of you have heard of Collector Revolution. It’s supposed to be a revolution for collector’s in that it’s not ebay…or feebay as some like to call it. For those that don’t know, it’s a place where collector’s can sell their goods to other collectors online. Not a new concept, but a pretty cool place to find some good cards at a good rate from people you can sorta trust. I still prefer COMC as my #1 online shopping for singles, but collectors revolution is something i may be looking into in the coming year.

One thing they have that really intrigued me was their online box breaks. The intriguing part for me was that they are fairly inexpensive for good product…the drawback is that the breaks are all random, at least the ones i’ve seen. If you are into big hits, which i tend to not be, than this is something you may be interested in. For me, I like a little more focused collection process. I don’t have a ton of money to spend on the hobby so any dollar I have to spend on product is stuff for completing sets or chasing players i like from teams i like. That said, i wanted to give the breaks a few chances.

I was a little weary about the breaks at first, so went with a lower end football break of 2013 Leaf Certified and Platinum Football as well as a break of 2013 Topps Triple Threads. I picked up two spots on the football break and one for the baseball break for a total of $30. As i expected, I got teams I wasn’t excited about – San Diego Chargers and Indianapolis Colts. I was hoping for a Luck auto…but the best card i received was this Dan Fouts serial numbered card.

The baseball break was a little better. I got the Tigers and received these two very nice cards. An Al Kaline serial numbered card…

…and a Prince Fielder Largest Card memorabilia card. Nothing too exciting, but nice cards no less.

Me being a glutton for punishment, i went in on a 4-box break for 2013 Topps Chrome…and pulled the Jacksonville Jaguars…i know…

$13 TC Denard Robinson 86 Refractor$

Not wanting to go out on a bad note, i thought i would buy a spot for the Topps Five Star for $14.50. I figured, i would never buy this product ever and may end up getting lucky. I was essentially buying 7 mega millions lottery tickets…and I lost. I pulled the Astros and ended up not getting anything in the box. When you go hitless in the box break, you name is added to a special bonus box break…which has yet to happen…i’m hoping it happens soon though!

All in all, I like the idea of the box and case breaks but not the random teams. I’d rather pay a little premium to get the Redskins or Yankees or Nationals. I guess at the end of the day it’s no different than buying a pack or box of cards in that you have no idea what you will get. You could end up with a short print auto relic or you could end up with a 7th round offensive linemen…it’s always a gamble. One that I will probably avoid in the future as it doesn’t fit my collecting tendencies.

PS – If you are interested in any of the cards above, let me know as they are up for trade!

PPS – as a side note and something completely unrelated…my favorite album of the year Run the Jewels from El-P and Killer Mike was noted as Okayplayer.com top album of 2013. There are a few other albums on their I need to dig deeper into before I can agree with the ranking (Earl, Tyler and Chip).

I can make a M’s hat more famous than a Mariner can

Posted by cardboard hogs on December 7, 2013

I took some artistic licensing with the well know Jay-Z verse on this post.

Robinson Cano is no longer a Yankee and I am kind of sad about that.

Next to Jeter, he was my favorite baseball player…a very close second mind you. I loved his hitting and his quiet confidence on the field, some may say it was apathy or laziness. I’m going with subtle greatness. The kind of numbers he put up, you had to love him as a baseball player. Even if you are a Yankee hater. I have complete respect for Dustin Pedroia and you should have respect for Cano.

My admiration for him will continue to keep him in my personal collection for the duration of his career, albeit less of a priority now to Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg. I can take some joy in the fact that he is now a Mariner and I don’t hate them. I actually like the M’s and have the opportunity to watch him more frequently on TV and possibly in person…if I can convince the wife to take a trip or two up to Seattle. Which is never too difficult! The great thing about Panini cards is that they only need to change New York to Seattle. DONE! No additional photoshop skills needed!

As for the Mariners locking him up for 10 years at $240M, i can’t believe that’s a great contract for them in their market. Now, i’m no market analyst, but i’m just thinking that when I pick through the great baseball franchises the Mariners rarely come up, if ever. That’s not to say I don’t like them. I am actually a fan of theirs and tried my hardest to make them my second team when i moved to Portland…but I just couldn’t do it. Other than Ichiro, they didn’t have any player that I could latch on to. Griffey, A-Rod and Randy Johnson were gone and they were a franchise sinking away. They have King Felix, whom I love to watch pitch, but doesn’t really do it for me.

I really hope this signing helps catapult them into relevance as Seattle is a phenomenal baseball town with a gorgeous ballpark. I just don’t know if his contract is going to allow them to get the various pieces they need to compete year in and year out against the thrifty A’s and powerful Angels and Rangers…and Astros.

Robbie is going to continue to put up great numbers and play well for the M’s, but i’m thinking in 3-5 years he will end up getting dealt for prospects to a larger market team. Maybe the Yankees?

A break from football and new PC additions

Posted by cardboard hogs on November 24, 2013

So, i was going to do a post on some Redskin cards that have been sitting around the computer but thought i should mix it up with a couple of baseball cards. Being a Redskin fan i tend to listen to DC sports talk radio and over the past 5 years, that has bled over to their coverage of the Wizards, Capitals and Nationals. Not being a huge fan of hockey or basketball, two of those teams didn’t quite do it for me. But one has, the Nats. Normally when you become a fan of a team and collect sports cards, you want to start a collection of their better players or at least the guys on their team you enjoy watching. I’ve been a fan of Ryan Zimmerman for a while but haven’t jumped all in for his cards but have decided to roll with Harper and Strasburg…with the potential to start collecting Zimmerman, assuming Spanky is cool with that 🙂

Harper was a pretty easy decision for me. I love the way the kid plays. He may be a little to intense and hasn’t had the best reputation for being a modest humble guy…but most great players are not quiet on the field, right? I will admit that he has some growing up to do, but you gotta love a guy that sprints around the bases after going yard, right? Or a guy that dives in to a wall to make a catch, risking his face and his health…and his beard! Harper is the new addition to the PC. I will more than likely be focusing on the base cards and a few inserts, avoiding the autos and super short prints.

The other player that i’m adding to the PC is Stephen Strasburg. He is going to be the first pitcher added to the collection, which for some reason, i’ve never started a Mariano Rivera collection. I guess that can come at a later date since i’ve never started a PC for a retired player. Strasburg was a tough decision. Pitchers are always tough decisions since their health is always a concern and Strasburg has proven to not be a tough durable guy. When he is though, he’s lights out…and that’s what i’m counting on. The lights out part. Similar to Harper, I will be focusing on base stuff and a few inserts…maybe i can pick up an autograph or two next year.