My Final 2012 Topps series 1 Purchase

I think this is my last purchase of series 1 for this year.  I've nearly got the whole set and I only ended up with one card I needed for the set out of the 72 in the hanger box.  I've got 10 of the Golden Giveaway Code cards that I'm going to stash away for now.  Well, at least until series 2 comes out and the Markakis gold 1/1 becomes available for redemption.  It's a complete longshot to redeem that one card but you gotta increase your chances any way you can!

I know I've spent less on series 1 this year than I did the last 2 years.  I've bought 1 hobby box, 2 hanger packs, 1 jumbo rack pack, and 3 retail packs.  So overall I've spent about 85 or 90 bucks on series 1.  Not too bad I don't guess.

Overall, I've noticed many of the bloggers have spent less on Series 1 this year and have said so in their respective posts.  If you have spent less this year than years past, leave a comment below stating why you have chosen to spend less.  Is it the design, too many inserts, too little cash or another factor?

So onto the cards I got from my last hanger:

I think the Gold Standard cards are the best inserts from series one because of the gold stamped medallion.  I'll admit they aren't perfect because of the blank space under the medallion but I'm willing to forgive that fact.

I can't seem to get away from Yankees cards lately.  I think the Gold Parallels have grown on me a little bit as I like them more now than I did when the product first dropped so long ago. 

Here's my 2 Target exclusive red borders. I wish they were a little more red though.  They look more maroon to me.

 I was pleasantly surprised to pull a relic from a hanger pack because they are a 1:18 packs pull.  See what I mean about the Yankees cards though?  This is my second Cano relic from the same Target in less than a year (I got a mini framed GQ relic last spring).  Does Robinson's mother shop at my Target?

All of these cards are for trade.  If you see something you can't live without, gimme a shout.

OH NO!!!'s Poor Vintage Collection #6

The cards that are featured in this recurring theme were found by my father strewn about the floor of an abandoned farm building near my childhood home. There were approximately 1000 cards that laid undisturbed from the late 60's to early 90's when he discovered them. Most are in poor condition because exposure to the elements. I should be able to retire on these cards but alas they are mostly in poor condition. My Father recently passed them on to me and I will feature them periodically here on my blog.

1965 Topps #350  Mickey Mantle

The other day when AJ from The Lost Collector showed off his '67 Mickey Mantle card that he won in an ebay auction it immediately reminded me of my own vintage card of #7.  I had almost forgotten about this ongoing little series of posts about the great cards I have that are in terrible condition.  I'm going to try and revive this series a bit and try to post a few more of the cards every now and then.

So, onto this card.  It doesn't seem to be in as bad of condition as some of the other vintage cards I've shown.  There aren't any creases or rips or even paperloss.  Just some soft corners and a few minor stains (probably from rain, chicken poop, or both!)

I guess this is my required vintage Mickey Mantle card for my collection.  Its the only solo of his I own and I'm proud to have it even though I'm not a Yankees fan.

Trade with William of foul bunt

I received some cards from my buddy William at the foul bunt blog over the weekend for some "cards to be named later".  He had some miscellaneous Orioles cards that he thought I'd be able to use for my collections.  He knows me too well!

He knows I'm a fan of Mark Reynolds because of his 136th homerun ball that I have (autographed too!) of his and that I'm trying to get all of the 2012 Golds of the Orioles.  It all comes together to form this perfect storm of a card.  (BTW, let me know if anybody has any of the Golds, I only have this one and Guthrie! Thanks!)

He also knows that I have a weird obsession with Matt Riley cards.  I guess he was the big time Orioles hot prospect when I started paying attention to the minor leagues.

I guess he also knows that I enjoyed watching Charles Johnson catch for the Orioles too.  I always thought it was awesome how he would catch the pitch, drop his mitt into the ground between his legs, grab the ball from behind his back and then throw it back to the pitcher.  Oh yeah, he hit pretty well during his time at Camden Yards too.

I like this card because of the groovy colors.  I flipped it over and looked at the stats too.  He really had quite an interesting trek around the league for a few years.  He spent the first 8 years as a Dodger and thats when he started to rack up the frequent flyer miles.  He played for the Mets in '67, the White Sox in '68, Pilots and Astros in '69, Astros, A's and Cubs in '70, back to A's for '71, then back to the Cubs in '72 before finally landing in Baltimore for about 3 and a half seasons.  He was finally able to unpack his bags for a few years before he hit the road again in '76, he signed with the Yankees but never played for them getting released after spring training. He then signed with the Angels and was then purchased by the Royals late in the season.  WOW, what a traveling history!

Thanks William for the cards!

Trade with Derek of Tomahawk Chopping

I recieved a nice little package in the mail the other day from Derek over at Tomahawk Chopping.  Derek and I have traded several times, and this one is just as good as any.  He always seems to come up with some great stuff for me.

Here's my favorite insert card from 2012 series 1.  I think Topps nailed it with the gold stamped medallion.  I've seen this picture of Cal before and I'm 99% sure that it's actually his 3000th hit swing.

I have a love it/hate it relationship with Topps Finest.  I've never opened a pack of Finest but I generally think the cards look great.  It's hard for me to justify collecting the Orioles team sets though because they are usually only 2 or 3 cards.  It's not a Finest Problem, it's an OCD Ryan problem.  Instead of going for team sets, I'm just going to pick up cards of my player collections and be done with it.

I'm finding out in my search for earlier Topps Gold cards that they are tough to find.  I've nearly completed O's team sets from 09, 08 and 07.  Golds from 2003, and 2004 are tougher to find for some reason.  I understand the scarcity of 2001 since that was the first year that Topps resurrected them from the dead and were serial numbered.  

The Golds from the last couple of years have been much easier to come by.  I've essentially completed 2010 except for Corey Patterson, Mike Gonzalez, and Jake Arrieta from the Update set.  Apparently, these 3 along with some other players were shortprinted by an extreme amount.  I'm talking less than 50 and maybe as low as 25 are known to exist.  This 2011 "Rookie Debut" of Zach Britton is one of the last few I need  other than Adams, Guerrero, Hardy, and gregg from the Update series.

Thanks again Derek for the trade.  I look forward to our next one.

2012 Topps: Observations, Hits, and Tradebait

I know everybody is sick of hearing reviews of the not-quite as new as it was last week 2012 Topps series 1.  I'm going to spare you a review but I do have a couple observations.

One thing I didn't touch on though is the black stripe behind all of the last names on the base cards.  It really makes the cards scan like crap.

I don't feel like I'm swimming in insert cards like I was last year.  There's a good little stack there but there wasn't 4 or 5 in a pack.  The most I ever got was 2 in 1 pack.

No reprint sets.  WOOHOO!

No ToppsTown set.  Double WOOHOO!

Moving right along, I didn't get any crazy mojo hits from my box, which I'm OK with... It's Topps Flagship, not Tribute or Triple Threads. I was fortunate to get this "Celebration" Shortprint of Ryan Braun.  I feel like an idiot.  Since Braun was the first base card everybody saw in the promos for series 1 way back in 1997, you would have thought this card would have made me look twice at it.  I didn't.  I skimmed right on past it and onto the next pack.  I didn't think anymore about it.  Then I was searching Baseballcardpedia.com the next day and looked over the variation list and this one was on it.  

It's still a thrill to pull a Cal Ripken card out of a pack after all these years.  Its the same photo they used for his Marquee base card last year but I don't care.  Its CAL!  I really wish they would have gold stamped the coin like they did the Gold Standard inserts.

Here's my hit.  Its a player I have a slight interest in since I see him play on MASN  when the O's aren't on and he went to UVA.  I'm still a little confused as to why Topps has the disclaimer on the back that says: "The relic contained on this card is not from any specific game, event, or season."  I wish they would do it like the old days when it said: "Congratulations, you've received a card with a piece of Jersey worn by Ryan Zimmerman.  Upper Deck Topps pledges to bring you closer to the game!"

So here's the rest of the inserts that I got if you are inclined to trade for them:

Gold Parallel: 29 Active NL Wins Leaders, 53 Cardinals WS GM 7, 90 Chambers, 91 Active AL HR leaders, 128 Duda, 170 Ellsbury, 231 Fowler, 292 Revere, 308 Leake

1987 Minis: TM-15 Cano, 42 Hamilton, 46 Price, 49 Weaver

Classic Walk-Offs: CW-12 Alex Gonzalez, 13 Podsednik, 14 David Ortiz(2), 15 Jeter

Gold Futures: GF-4 Freeman, 5 Hosmer, 9 Hellickson, 13 Rizzo, 21 Vizcaino, 22 Lavarnway, 24 Goldschmidt

Golden Greats: GG-2 Gehrig, 3 Gehrig, 8 Ryan, 15 Mays, 32 Mantle, 48 Koufax, 61 J. Robinson, 67 Pujols

Golden Moments: GM-3 Jeter, 8 Dawson, 10 Fielder, 15 Braun, 29 Pujols, 32 Maris, 42 Kaline, 46 Pedroia, 48 Aparicio, 49 Shields

Gold Standard: GS-3 Molitor, 8 Banks, 12 Kaline, 10 R. Jackson, 15 Cobb, 20 Jeter, 23 Seaver

Timeless Talents: TT-2 Utley/Ackley, 12 Pettitte/Lee, 16 Dawson/Upton, 19 Musial/Berkman, 23 E. Martinez/D. Ortiz, 24 Maris/Granderson

Topps Owes Me Nothing!

For the first time in 2 years, Topps doesn't owe me any redemptions.  Here's a sweet card that finally came in the mail yesterday:

Its a refractor #'d 81/500.  Woulda been cooler if it was #'d 103/500.

2012 Topps: I Found the Gamechanger!!!

I think I figured out the "Gamechanging" part of the set that Topps has been touting.  I looked back at my set from last year and compared them to this years cards  


They are actually changing the game of baseball by changing stats on the backs of cards.  


Doubles will now be "3B" instead of "2B".
Triples will still be "3B" to add some confusion to the sport thusly creating a buzz on Twitter and Yahoo.
Walks will now be "W" instead of "BB".  (Denard Span had 27 wins last year?)
Slugging Percentage is now "SP" instead of SLG%".  (Brennan Boesch had .458 of a Starting Pitcher last year?)
Strikeouts will now be "SO" instead of "K".  (Apparently Chris Sale had 79 shutouts last season?)
Shutouts will now be shown as "SHO" instead of "SO" so that they will now be confused with a late 80's Ford Taurus.

Who was the Genius that thought changing the way the stats are denoted on the back was a good idea?

Trade with Dennis of Too Many Verlanders

A couple weeks back Dennis from the fantastically named Too Many Verlanders blog offered up some cards that he was trying to rid himself of for little or no return.  I was able to send him some cards from his wantlists and he sent me a nice pile of Bowman Chromes for my sets (which I still need plenty people, help a brother out!)  and a few Orioles cards, most of which I needed for my projects.

Here's Slamming Sammy in Yankee stadium probably flying out.  He sucked so bad towards the end of the season, that he packed his bags and left the team early without permission.

There were a bunch of Adam Loewen cards in the package that I was able to fill several holes in my team sets. I find this to be a sort of ironic card since Loewen is definitely not a "Team Hero".  He totally pooped all over the gentleman's agreement he had with the Orioles when he decided to become a hitter.  Instead of resigning a minor league deal like he was supposed to do, he instead flew home to Canada straigh into the Blue Jays nest.

These 2 cards finish off team set for 2003 Leaf. Exciting for me, but probably not so much for you.

2008 Baseball Heroes was filled with colored parallels and the charcoal parallels are just one of the many.  I might actually have the team set of these charcoals as well as a few other of the colored varieties.  I'll check and get back to you, or not.  We'll see!

Thanks Dennis for the help on my Orioles Binders and on my Bowman Chrome sets.