Cedar Hills Show – The low budget version ep.II

Posted by cardboard hogs on June 28, 2013

One of my goals at last weekends show was to pick up some Robinson Cano cards. For whatever reason, he is difficult to find at our local shows and shops…at least inexpensively. I was hoping to get a handful of Cano cards for a dollar or two each…didn’t happen. In fact, I didn’t pick up one Cano card. BUT, i did manage to find a few nice cards of other players I collect…and here they are.

The first card is the classic Mattingly Topps Rookie reprinted from 2001.

Next a Rickey Dodger incarnation from the 2003 Upper Deck set.

And a Rickey A’s from the 1981 Fleer Sticker set. Nice!

Also picked up an Allen and Ginter Mini

And a Prizm. This is both a cool card and one of my least favorite card. I really have a tough time with the photoshopped logos and team names.

The Hanley was part of a 7/$5 deal and it’s numbered to 25. Can’t beat that.

A Crawford Prizm in his Los Angeles Baseball Club jersey…photoshop…

Last up area few Jeter cards. I specifically said I wouldn’t purchase any Jeter cards at this show because he is one player that I have never organized…but always manage to pick up one or two when they are marked for a $1. Also, I couldn’t pass up this trio of cards or the mini. All were part of the 7/$5 deal. Sometimes you justgottagettajeta!

and the Mini!

Box Break: 2013 Bowman

Posted by cardboard hogs on June 1, 2013

Bowman is one of those in between sets for me. Do I buy packs? A box and build the set? Pull my favorites out and part ways with the rest of them?

I’m not a prospector, but I love to pull some of the great rookies that I read about.

I don’t put together too many sets, but I love to buy packs and sometimes a box of cards that I enjoy openings packs of.

I like inserts, but too many of them become overwhelming.

Bowman has a way of providing a response to each of these contradictions in my collecting habits. When Topps brought back the Bowman cards in 1989, my friend Alex and I were all in. The cards were weird and big and didn’t fit well anywhere, but they were cool and had a Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card. Griff was the man in 1989 and his rookie cards were something every kid in America that collected cards wanted. I had them all, and loved the oversized Bowman version (after the Upper Deck version of course…) Although the cards weren’t that great. The photography was a little grainy at times and the overall design was weak…plus the stat on the back were quite confusing and took some getting used to. Either way I was going to collect this set…and all other versions that would come out in the future. That was, until 1992 rolled around. The card quality became significantly better and the rookie class was pretty stellar at the time (I still have my Raul Mondesi in a screw down holder, iknowright!). 1992 was also the time I began to realize I can’t collect everything…because I couldn’t afford it. So I never completed the set and ended up getting rid of my other sets from the previous years.

Fast forward to the future that is today. The card quality has improved exponentially and in relation to the other stuff that’s being issued, Bowman is quite affordable. I’ve purchased a box of these the past three years and took a bigger step this year and bought the jumbo pack box from Dave and Adam’s card world. Here is my review.

Card Design – 3 of 5

The overall design of the cards is quite simple, which I love.

No extra weird things going on here, just some simple graphics and all the basic information you need on a baseball card. I do like the subtle variation on the front of the card that differentiates the Bowman Prospects from the Major Leaguers. Bowman also carried this through as they do on the back of the card with the numbering and color of the card stock.

Photography – 3 of 5

The photographs are your typical action photos mixed in with awkwardly posed for photos of young men in uniforms. There are a lot of beards and facial hair in general around the world these days and the major league baseball franchise is no different. I’m thinking Panini needs to do a facial hair card set. Maybe Josh Reddick get the coveted #1 card?

Hits – 4 of 5

Like I said before, I’m no prospector. I simply don’t have the patience or wherewithal to invest in people I don’t know and Bowman counts on people doing this. That’s what makes this set so wonderful though. If you do pull a great auto of a young talented player or a refractor you have a nice piece of cardboard. If you don’t, well, you have something shiny to look at i guess. Another thing with the hits is that you have to wait a couple of years for these guys to pan out and get a year or two under their belts. Just because you are a top 100 prospect doesn’t mean you are going to be a star in the bigs. All that said, It’s nice to get the ‘First Bowman card’ of a potential star.

Another thing that i really enjoy about the Bowman cards and the young stars is the names of these kids. Damn.

Review

Bowman is always fun to open and the cards are always a very solid quality. I’m not sure if I will buy a jumbo box next year unless i plan to start building the sets again…but getting 32 cards in a pack is pretty cool.

The overall look and feel of the cards is great, nothing to complain about here, plus the price is right with Bowman, especially for what you get.

Mini’s are cool.

So are Flags…

and blue or maybe purple cards?

$13 BB Brett Gerritse Blue Refractor 60:250$ and who doesn’t love them some autographs!

$13 BB Yordano Ventura Refractor Auto 79:500$

Oh yeah, this guy…Han Ram

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 8, 2013

Looking at my recent purchases from the card show and my tagged items, i just realized i’ve never done a post about one of my favorite non Yankee baseball players, Hanley Ramirez!

$08 TC Hanley Ramirez Refractor$

I’m not really sure why i’m so drawn to him as a ballplayer as he hasn’t been that special the last couple of seasons mostly due to poor health. He is without a doubt a phenomenal talent though. A very good hitter (average wise), but he does tend to strike out a lot. Good power and speed, stealing 102 bases in his first two full seasons. To this point, his peak year was 2009 which was also the same season he got his huge contract…not saying the two had something to do with each other, but it’s not like it’s never happened before. Young player works hard to get to a point in his career where he can get a big contract to take care of himself, his family and friends. Then, the level of production tends to drop off…it’s not uncommon and sometimes it gets rectified.

$07 TC Hanley Ramirez Refractor$

I think the real reason i was drawn to him was through fantasy baseball, which i played religiously for quite a few years. I was targeting him in the late rounds of one of our drafts in a keeper league as i had done my research on the one time Red Sox phenom (always know your enemy!) Two picks before i was going to take him, he was snatched up by the guy sitting next to me. His words as i recall went something like this “I have no idea who this Henley guy is, but he’s at the top of my guys left in the queue…” so there you go. My guy was snatched away from me. No worries though. I traded for him, giving up a very talented and coveted at the time, Bobby Abreu. Needless to say i won the player for player trade in the long term. BUT the guy that got Abreu ended up winning the league that year…and i came in 9th of 16 teams. I was blasted for a few months in the league for making the trade, but i knew what i was doing as it paid out a few years later when i flipped him for some good talent and came in second place, just a 1/2 point from the title.

Hanley is young enough that he has plenty of time to get his career back on track and be a perennial MVP candidate and put up big numbers…especially if he can get healthy and stay healthy. I also love that he’s with the Dodgers, i can listen to his games on the At Bat app at night while i write up these wonderful posts.

Any Hanley fans out there? Marlin Hanley fans, Dodger Hanley fans, or just Hanley fans like me?

My GQ Post

Posted by cardboard hogs on April 10, 2013

Each year when Gypsy Queen comes out, I get a little excited about the cards…but it’s always tempered. I think the cards look great and the photography is really nice, but i don’t love them. Don’t hate them either. Kind of indifferent I guess. My annual buy in is maybe a few hobby and retail packs, possibly a blaster or two from target, but that’s about it. I think my aversion to the cards is the lack of statistical information on the back…or it could be the overly ornate border? As an architect, i’ve been trained to have a dislike for ornament and decoration so i guess that has carried in to my hobbies as well. The celtic-like border is nice, just not my cup of tea.

One thing that i really do like about GQ is the inclusion of age old veterans in the base set. Topps does a nice job with these and making them blend in nicely with the other modern players. Rarely do the players appear dated and they are never irrelevant to current collectors. PLUS, i always think it’s great to include HOF’ers and past great players so the young kids can learn a little history about the game and have a card from someone their parents or grandparents enjoyed watching play.

I also do enjoy the inserts that GQ comes up with. The two cards below are a great example of this. It’s nice to have the a highlight reel play represented on a card. We all remember the Trout catch last season as it was shown incessantly on the MLB network as well as the mothership.

Mini’s. Can’t go wrong with minis and you can’t go wrong with these two guys. One thing i enjoy about the mini cards is that i can put them at my desk at the office for a little while to enjoy the new pieces of cardboard. How great was Eddie Mathews? When people talk about the all time greats, i feel like he is always forgotten. Imagine if he played in New York how much more popular he would be? And just look at Lou Brock…chillin…total GQ pose…the other one.

Not overly excited about these inserts, but both pitchers are/were pretty great and the photos capture their intensity well.

Here is a ‘hit’ from the rack pack i bought. It’s Jacoby Ellsbury. He’s pretty big here in Portland since he played at Oregon State and from Madras…but he’s a Red Sock, so i’m not too excited about him…he is pretty great though. Love that they mention how great a player he is when he’s healthy.

And the best has been saved for the very last. Mr. Cano donchaknow. Pretty cool to get the base and a retail white border card in the same rack pack of a player you collect. Wonder why Topps removed teh vertical portion of the elegant border on the left and right sides as well as the name panel on the bottom?

Heritage Box Break Update

Posted by cardboard hogs on March 24, 2013

So I finished breaking the boxes of Heritage last night while watching ESPN’s 30 for 30 on Jimmy V and the 1983 NC State team. If you haven’t watched it yet, you really should. I’m one of those people that can’t get in to much of what ESPN does and haven’t watched Sportscenter since Olbermann was pushed out. I feel like their programming is only slightly above MTV these days. The guys at Grantland and Bill Simmons have done a phenomenal job on the 30 for 30 series though and i never miss an episode, including the shorts on the Grantland site. Opening packs of cards and watching sports on TV way past your bedtime is a little treat for me these days. Our 6 month old boy is really moving around a lot these days and requires a ton of attention and love during the daytime hours. I have no problem doing, but it’s nice to have a break at night. PLUS i have an amazing wife who gives our son tons of love and unfortunately is tasked with the onerous responsibility of getting him to sleep at night.

As i mentioned in the initial review post of this years Heritage, i am a big fan of this set and love putting it together each year. In the past couple of years, Heritage has fallen out of favor due overproduction and too many SP’s which makes getting the base cards somewhat easy but difficult to complete the whole set. The boxes i opened were pretty nice and i noticed quite a bit of SP’s that i may post in the future, but i wanted to show off the hits that really caught my eye. I’ve heard that Heritage was going to add more autograph hits this year and i was lucky enough to pull 4 in the boxes i had. Not only did i get 4 cards, but i got a good haul of quality players. Nothing jaw dropping, but nice cards no less.

And there they are…

The first one is David Freese, and he looks as if he is about to get his DMV photo taken.

Next, Mr. Paul Goldschmidt of the Arizona Diamondbacks. When i was looking at graduate schools i was trying to decide between the University of Oregon and Arizona State. This was around the time the D’backs won the World Series and i thought it would be great to live in a major league city, but just couldn’t deal with living in a dessert since i grew up in hot, humid San Antonio for so many years. So i chose Oregon. Had i chosen ASU, i would probably be a D’backs fan and be super excited about this card. But, i am only excited. He is one of the young up and coming stars and could be a big home run guy in the future.

Next was Lance Lynn. My second Cardinal. Honestly, i would have missed this card were it not for the hand numbered 43/64 in the top right. The red ink auto pretty much disappears into his glove and with my color deficiencies, i can barely make out the Topps Certified Autograph Issue on the name stripe at the bottom. This could have been done better Topps.

The last autograph is pretty awesome. Maury Wills. The auto is nice and placed in a great spot on the card. You can tell this was done by a professional, someone who has signed a million autos in his lifetime. This autograph is actually a long time coming for me. I believe in 1989 i went to a show in Austin, TX where he was supposed to be signing autographs for a small fee. This was around the same time when i was doing the through the mail autos and thought it would be great to get a veteran player added to my collection…but he never showed up. I was pretty upset, not Sheldon Cooper vs. Wil Wheaton upset, but upset no less. I had an 8×10 and baseball all ready for him to sign. I never found out why he didn’t show up, but attempted to mail the baseball to him a few months later and never recieved anything. Chalked to experience up as a failure and moved on with my life. Now we have come full circle.

The next few cards are the annual jersey cards from the Clubhouse Collection series. There were significantly less cards that i pulled than in years past. Which i am ok with as these cards seem to be uninspired and a little boring. Here’s hoping Topps does something different with these next year and maybe does larger swatches or better photos? I don’t know, but something different would be great.

that’s all, thanks.

Box Break: 2013 Topps Heritage

Posted by cardboard hogs on March 18, 2013

Have you ever had a hot box, or better yet, been hot boxed. Well, I was hot boxed over the weekend and it was wonderful. I saw blue refractors everywhere while listening to the Stones. There were giant heads and men shooting imaginary arrows after pulling ripe plantains out of their pants. Others were smiling, giggling and simply staring in to space…and I swear I saw a Marlin with photos taken before and after a clean shave. It was all magical, and now the trip is over…the flashback is now Monday night and I have a hangover.

Topps Heritage is a set that I LOVE putting together each year. I know a lot of folks out there are indifferent or hate it, but I really enjoy the set. I love that it’s set at a decent price. I also love that you can complete a base set with minimal headaches while managing to still eat lunch each day. I admit the SP’s and SSP’s are a little bit of a pain, but isn’t that what collectors really want? They can definitely come off as gimmicks, but they also represent the desire to chase and build sets. Part of my enjoyment with collecting cardboard is that I know I can’t have everything I want…even though I really want everything. To me, that is the joy in collecting. The chase. I have binders of the flagship Topps set with all the cards in their proper position. I have binder of Topps Heritage with huge chunks of cardboard missing. It’s infuriating at times but I can’t quit it. It’s like that girl in high school that talked to you enough to be a friend, but you just couldn’t get closer to her…it was the chase. You didn’t hate her for it, you knew deep down that nothing would ever happen, but it never stopped you from trying did it? That’s what I love about Heritage. I will never complete all the Heritage sets I’ve started, but I will try and will buy boxes to open packs to put in sleeves…that’s what I do. That’s why I collect.

To chase the un-obtainable.

Ok, I’ve been rambling a bit here tonight. Each year I buy a few boxes of Heritage throughout the year to build a full set with all the SP’s. This year I ordered my boxes in advance from Dave and Adam’s cardworld and have slowly started to open them. Just out of curiosity, I did something I’m a little embarrassed about. I weighed each box on a small digital scale my wife uses around the kitchen. I found three different sizes of the boxes 1lb 4 3/4oz, 1lb 5oz and 1lb 5 7/8oz. Hmmm. Think I’m going to open the heavy box first. Glad I did as it was what must have been a HOTBOX!

Holy Hot Rocks I’m Hot, so give up the props – just a little something from Redman to lead into the magical Blue Refractor imagery.

$12 TH Jeter Rivera Blue Refractor$

I also managed to pull an awkward looking Adam Jones Clubhouse Collection White Jersey Card.

Here is the archer/plantain man. Just watched him lock it down against the Netherlands. Any fans of the WBC out there? I’ve really been enjoying it this year, plus the Dominican Republic team is stacked like an all star team.

A young stoned Stones. This photo was taken before Keith Richards made his deal with whatever devil that allowed him to live to 150. Maybe he’s a vampire?

Lots of gigantic heads in the ’64 remake here. Wonder if that was the trend in the mid 60’s, to get right up in a man’s face and release the shutter? I’m not up on my camera lens history, but I imagine a lot of fixed lenses back then creating the up close shots. One of the many reasons I like Heritage is their attentiveness to focusing on the mimicked set. My one complaint about it would be the photos though. I think Topps could take easily use the same angles and focal lengths, but get sharper photos rather than attempting to copy the grainy old school photos. I know, I know…that’s the whole point of this set. I just think the technology of today shouldn’t be limited in order to duplicate what couldn’t be done 50 years ago.

I got a Heritage Suite card too, SSSP?

The thing I love about this card is these two guys look like a before and aftershave photo. Maybe Mr. Mattison can find a razor and trim that beast up a bit?

Nothing to hide.

This guy is WAY TOO INTENSE.

Card Design 3.5 of 5

This isn’t one of my favorite designs, it’s a little too simple for my liking. The backs are great and I think Topps has done a great job matching the original design and feel of the cards again.

Photography 3.5 of 5

The photography is what it is. They are matching what was done previously. Just think more can be done, especially with all the technology we have now.

Hits 3.5 of 5

Although this box was pretty dope, I can’t say that Heritage has great hits. They just don’t and that’s what has a lot of folks upset. That’s not my concern though. I like the Clubhouse Collection cards as simple and non-descript as they are, I think they work for this price point and set. The box toppers are only nice if you don’t get a panel. The panels are terrible because you can’t really do anything with them and nobody wants them…at least that I know.

Review

I have a long way to go to completing this set, but I am going to enjoy every minute of it regardless of what people think. I like the simple non glossy cardboard that is Heritage. It reminds me of the cards I collected as a kid, only better stock.

2013 Topps – Packs 7 and 8

Posted by cardboard hogs on February 19, 2013

I’m getting close to the bottom of this jumbo box. As usual, it’s taken thrice as long as i had expected, but i can finally see the end in sight. I’ve been a little lackadaisical in putting these things in their respective binder slots, but that will come in due time. I’d like to get these cards organized so I can stay on top of completing the set during the baseball season…rather than waiting until the ~~Super Bowl~~ Big Game to wrap it up. (sorry NFL, didn’t mean to infringe on your copyright restrictions)

Let’s get started on the 4th row of packs.

The first card just might be my favorite card of the year. At the very least it’s a front runner. Gotta love the looks on these drunken fools faces. Some have the look of panic like the blondie on the left and her overly tanned mom on the right. Although their fear may be due to the double barrel gun show reaching out from the card’s left border and Hawaiian shirt from the right. What about the guy, or girl…not really sure…with the black wife beater. I will call him/her Pat. Sorry if you are reading this blog. I mean no harm, just unsure and i don’t want to assume anything here, but I do love the joy on your face dear sir, or madam. Hey, what about that Pirates fan, he’s pretty stoked isn’t he? If Mr. Raburn could see the grief/joy he was about to bring to these fans he would think twice about catching the ball. My favorite though is the dude above the the glove in the stoner glasses. I really need to get outfield tickets this season and make some sweet ass faces for the cameraman. Anyway you call it, this card is awesome.

Don’t have much to say about the next two cards other than one guy had a great career and the other probably will. The Past and the Present. Manny looks like he’s going to be a super star for many years. My man Jeet is nearing the end of his career and i’m not sure he will get another ring, but he will always be a legend. Collecting his cards is one of the most difficult things I have ever done in my life…there are exacting 50million cards and counting. I’ve decided to only buy the ones that i think look really cool. There are just too many to pick up.

Putting this Verlander card in because he got down with Kate Upton…allegedly…and that’s good enough for my book. It’s Kate Upton people, Kate Upton.

Didn’t Topps have enough of the sparkle cards last season? Didn’t we all hate them because simple sun flashes looked like SP starburst cards? Are they back? What the HELL is going on HERE!!!

This is what the Jayson Werth card should have looked like. How could they not have put Werth’s walkoff in game 4 on a card…unless i’ve missed it. Morse wasn’t too happy with the Nats offseason and he is now in Seattle. A place that has become baseball purgatory for a lot of player in recent years. They do appear to be building something nice through multiple trades and good drafting. There is a lot of young talent and Felix Hernandez is pretty nice with his.

You can never, ever, ever go wrong with a shiny Willie Mays, now can you. I am pretty fond of this card, although when i was scanning it I noticed it didn’t fit within the 2.5×3.5 box. It was slightly bigger, what does that mean? Was Willie Mays on some delayed growth hormones that have miraculously affected his glossy cards? Sorry, that was weak. Mays is one of those guys that i wish i could have seen play in his prime…if only one game. He was a true legend of the game and a phenomenal talent. I would love to have the cash to collect his vintage cards, maybe one day when architects are paid what I think we are worth.