Topps-O-Cuffs Tuesday

The rip-off is moving along somewhat smoothly and to date has left us in a dead heat. My eyes are exhausted from scanning every millimeter of the cards in search of a way to tack on points, but I suppose this is a good thing.  I have a completely new appreciation for card design!  Let’s see what the standings look like after another six packs…

Pack 1

• Yunel Escobar (+5 sunglasses, +5 bonus player)
• Ryan Howard Topps Town (+5 top team)
• Bo Jackson Tales of the Game (+5 horizontal)
• Jose Valverde (+5 horizontal, +10 TWO umpires)
• Gil Meche
• Javier Vazquez
• Buster Posey
• Jorge De La Rosa
• Zach Duke
• Dustin Pedroia, Topps Town

Pack 2

• Juan Rivera (+5, flying bat)
• Adam Dunn Topps Town (-5, bottom team)
• Warren Spahn/Tommy Hanson Legendary Lineage (+5 horizontal)
• Reggie Jackson Tales of the Game (+5 horizontal)
• Asdrubal Cabrera (+5 horizontal, +5 bonus player, +10 flip up shades)
• Ryan Theriot (+5 bonus player, +10 flip up shades)
• Diamondbacks Franchise History (+10, bonus player posed… one time only bonus!)
• Michael Dunn (+5, Yankees… scan available upon request, forgot I was getting points for these)
• Ummm… other cards.  I opened this pack at 6 a.m. and filed them away before writing down what they were.

Pack 3

• Albert Pujols Peak Performance
• Carl Crawford (+5 horizontal, +5 bonus player)
• Josh Beckett (-10, Red Sox base)
• Luke Scott
• Nationals Franchise History
• Derek Jeter, Cards Your Mom Threw Out, ‘93 Topps RC
• Ichiro Topps Town
• Mike Sweeney
• Brandon Morrow
• Mets Franchise History

Pack 4

• Frank Robinson, Vladimir Guerrero Legendary Lineage (+5, horizontal)
• Carpenter, Lincecum, Jurjens Leage Leaders (+5 horizonal, +5 umpire… behind Carpenter, look closely!
• Baltimore Orioles (+5 horizontal)
• Million Card Giveaway
• Ichiro
• Brad Penny
• Kendry Morales
• Albert Pujols
• Pirates Franchise History
• Miguel Cabrera Topps Town

Pack 5

• Magglio Ordonez (+5, flying helmet)
• AL Era Leaders (+5, horizontal)
• Anthem in the Bronx (+5 horizontal, +5 Yankees base)
• Dustin Richardson (-10, Red Sox base)
• Hank Greenberg Turkey Red (+10, old timer)
• Matt Gamel
• Kevin Youkilis Topps Town
• Randy Johnson Cards Your Mom Threw Out (2000 Topps… huh?)
• Joey Votto
• Chris Ianetta

Pack 6

• Rocco Baldelli (-10, Red Sox base)
• NL Batting Average Leaders (+5, horizontal)
• Carlos Carrasco
• Cesar Izturis
• Brian McCann Topps Town
• Reggie Jackson, Cards Your Mom Threw Out
• Andrew Bailey
• Josh Butler
• Rick Porcello
• Blue Jays Franchise History

By my count, these six packs yielded me 135 points (including one massive pack and one in the negatives), bring my total to date to 290 points!  Time will tell if that’s good or bad.

I’m still liking the Cards Your Mom Threw Out insert set, though some cards are questionable selections such as the Randy Johnson from 2000 Topps.  I wouldn’t have even noticed if this card was thrown out, it’s almost meaningless in the grand scheme of the collecting world. It’s not even a particularly appealing set from a visual perspective, so I can’t come up with a good reason why this card was included.  Not that Topps has asked me for reasons for any of their cards, but that’s not my problem.

2008 UD Ballpark Collection, pack 4 of 4

The grand finale!  About a month has gone by and I’m on the final pack of my box of 2008 UD Ballpark, by far the highest end product of which I’ve purchased an entire box.  I’ll post the hits from pack 4 and  leave you with my thoughts on the set as a whole.

Two base cards, Tom Glavine and Eric Chavez:

Dual Swatch, Mike Mussina and Jorge Posada.  Tough to complain about this as a Yankees fan, though it’s only the second best all-Yanks relic card from the box.

Quad swatch, Vladimir Guerrero, Howie Kendrick, Casey Kotchman, and Chone Figgins.  Four Angels – bleh.  At least one of the swatches is red:

Jersey Auto, Jeff Baker.  There were plenty of other autos I was hoping for, so Baker’s was somewhat disappointing.  I don’t know much about him other than that he’s no longer with the Rockies and is in a platoon role at second base with the Cubs.

This pack was the worst of the bunch, but I didn’t expect to win ‘em all.  I’m left unsure how I feel about Ballpark Collection.  Did I enjoy opening each pack?  Yeah.  Do I feel that I’ve now got a treasure trove of valuable cards on my hands?  Not really.  Now, each pack is certainly a quick thrill.  The combination of three jerseys/autographs is reasonably priced around $40-$50 a pack, since to get that many hits out of something like Sweet Spot you’d have to spend at least ten dollars more.  On the other hand, if you’re a set builder and try to stretch your card collecting budget, this product probably wouldn’t interest you at all.  Some of the relic combos are nice (Jeter/Ripken, for example), but others – like the quad swatch pictured above – are less than exciting.

I would not buy another box of the stuff, but I can see splurging on a pack of the ‘09 stuff on occasion at my hobby shop.  I think it actually makes Sweet Spot less enticing, other than the sweet spot autos, due to the price-per-hit factor. If quickie hits are all you’re after, there are worse ways to spend your money than UD Ballpark.

Topps-O-Cuffs Weekend Update

Four packs in, still torn about the product.  There are some really exciting action shots, but I’m starting to notice some repeat poses.  There are only so many actions that take place in a major league game so I suppose this is to be expected, but for some reason I notice it more this year than any other before.  I’ll chalk it up to actually studying each card in search of points for Topps-O-Cuffs.

Pack 1

• Randy Wolf (+5, bonus player)
• Orlando Cabrera (+5, sunglasses)
• Mike Gonzalez (+5, horizontal)
• CC Sabathia Turkey Red (+5, current player)
• Melvin Mora
• Tommy Manzella RC
• Detroit Tigers, gold border 1222/2010
• David Wright Topps Town
• Cole Hamels
• Manny Ramirez

Pack 2

• Andruw Jones (+5, sunglasses… look closely!)
• Adam Jones Topps Town (-5, bottom feeder)
• Brewers Franchise History (+5, parallel)
• Darin Erstad (+5, sunglasses… he played for the Astros last year??)
• Joe Blanton
• Curtis Granderson
• David Eckstein
• Orlando Hudson Gold Border 1342/2010
• Andrew Bailey
• David Wright “When They Were Young”

Pack 3

• Adam Dunn (+5, horizontal)
• Alex Rios (+5, umpire)
• Josh Johnson Turkey Red (+5, current player)
• Rickie Weeks
• Kevin Hart
• Tobi Stoner
• Tim Lincecum
• Chad Tracy
• Nolan Ryan History of the Game
• Roy Halladay Topps Town

Pack 4

• Pedro Feliz (+5, horizontal)
• Matt LaPorta (+5, sunglasses)
• Brian McCann Peak Perfomance Game Worn Jersey (+20, relic)
• Dodgers Franchise History
• Gerald Laird
• Homer Bailey
• Tim Lincecum Topps Town
• Jackie Robinson, Cards Your Mom Threw Out

Total points from this group of packs:  75.  Keeping track is getting confusing, hopefully it gets easier as we get deeper in to the box.

Don’t call it a comeback

Gotta love when manufacturers put new tags on old merchandise and sell them as new again.  The whole retro themed card design as been crammed down our throats over and over again, and I feel like the same thing happens with shoes, too.  Every time I go shoe shopping (for running shoes I can actually, you know, run in) I see models that I remember from 10 years ago, back on the shelves and more expensive than ever!  I swear I’ve seen what I remember to be Grant Hill models, and the Air Jordans seem to be geting regurgitated as well.

Turns out, functional shoes are sooooo 2009.  I now have to go to a specialty running store for decent shoes that’ll hold up for more than one long weekend run.  Grrr…

As for hats, I guess I’m a sucker.  I want all of them.  What this has to do with baseball cards, I don’t know.  I guess nothing, really, but it was a passing thought that crept into my head in the wee hours of the morning.  UD Heroes, Timeline, Topps Heritage, Turkey Red,  and the “Cards Your Mom Threw Out” insert in ‘10 Topps are all regurgitated designs that come to mind, and perhaps not coincidentally I love them all! But if there’s something I collect in addition to baseball cards, it’s hats, although calling it a “collection” is simply a way for me to justify buying and owning more hats than I could wear in a month.  What was your favorite hat from the 90s?  Are you a fan of the timeless design that never changes (Yankees, Tigers, etc.), or are you more the wacky trendy type?

It’s on!

Finally.  It’s been over a month since pre-ordering my boxes and after reading everyone elses’ posts about the product I’ve finally gotten my hands on 2010 Topps.  Ring the bell, Topps-O-Cuffs 2010 is officially ON.  I’ll post the cards that get me points and conveniently “lose” all the ones that are worth negative.  I kid, I kid.  You’ll see those, too.  Click on the Topps-O-Cuffs logo on the right hand side of the page for the complete breakdown of the rules.  Does life get any better than ripping the first packs of Topps of the new year??

Let’s roll.

Indians Team Card +5 horizontal; Justin Upton +5 horizontal, +5 bonus player (we’re counting coaches as a “bonus”, too; Prince Fielder +5 horizontal, +5 bonus player(s):

Red Sox checklist +5 horizontal, -10 Red Sox base; Colby Rasmus +5 horizontal, +5 sunglasses; Ronny Cedeno +5 bonus player, +5 sunglasses:

Robinson Diaz +5 sunglasses, +5 bonus player; Elvis Andrus +5 sunglasses (and return of the Rookie Cup!!);

Legendary Lineage, Schmidt/Longoria +5 horizontal, Snider/Ethier +5 horizontal:

Topps Town top teams, Yankees +5, Twins +5, Dodgers +5:

Total points: 80

The cards aren’t as off-centered as they may appear to be, blame that on the white borders being tough to scan/crop against a white background.  Not a bad start, I don’t think.  Or it could be.  Two packs is tough to judge a box, but I can tell that this box is going to be absolutely loaded with inserts.  In addition to the Legendary Lineages posted above I pulled a Tales of the Game, two Peak Performances, one of those Million Card Giveaways (LOVE that idea), and these two from “Cards Your Mom Threw Out” (no points, just for fun):

If my mom threw out an ‘89 Topps Gary Sheffield rookie card I didn’t notice, because I had about fifty of them.  Everyone who collected cards in the late ’80s had fifty of them.   My mom had fifty of them, and that was after throwing out some of her own cards.  OK, so this isn’t actually a card that would’ve made me rich had it not been thrown away, but this set is great.  I love throwback/tribute designs, even if it’s a “throwback” from within my relatively short lifetime of an utterly worthless set.

My initial impression of ‘10 Topps is that I like it a lot.  I don’t love it (yet), but it’s well worth the money.  The sizing of the fonts/logos is horribly unbalanced (team logos are huge, rookie logos are tiny) and this is something that particularly bothers me since I work in the graphics field, but the photos are amazing.  I could do without the overload of inserts, but I like the ones I’ve seen.  Heck, even Topps Town looks better this year.  The guy who runs this site is the type who looks better with each beer.

This is gonna be a fun box.

Baseball cards on ESPN

Mike and I are ironing out the scoring from our first couple packs of 2010 Topps and will get them posted in just a couple hours.  To pass the time until then, Jim Caple has written a piece on ESPN.com about the hobby, including a video with a shop owner in Washington.

Check it out.

Free cards to a good home

My 2010 Topps boxes are arriving today and I’ve got to make some room in a storage box.  Before you get too excited, note that these hardly count as “cards”.  I’ve got about 46 unredeemed Topps Town cards from my box (and additional packs) of 2009 Topps Update, free for the taking.  I don’t collect them nor can I redeem them, and if nobody wants them I’m dumping them in my fire pit.

Now, I know most of you don’t really like these, and to make sure they’ll actually be appreciated, please tell me why you’d like them.  Leave a comment telling me why you’re interested, and the winner takes the cake.

Tip: The answer I’m looking for is that they’re going to your kids, or you’ve got a nephew or neighborhood kid that collects them.  The codes have expired 1/31/10 and I’m not sure if Topps extends that deadline or not, so these won’t do you a whole lot of good, but it’s a cheap (free!) and easy way to give someone a stack of cards to play with.

There are some doubles, and if there are a couple good answers I’ll try to spread them out – no reason we can’t have more than one “winner”.  I’ll even cover postage just help get these out of my collection and I want nothing in return.  Even if you don’t have or know kids who’d like them, but you do, go ahead and leave a comment, because ya never know.  Anyone taking these off my hands is better than no one.  I’m hoping to have these shipped out by the weekend so I’ll leave this giveaway open for a couple days, max.

Card shop Monday???

Whaaaaaaaa??

It’s true, I spent my Monday lunch hour at the card shop, a short 72 hours after I’d visited on Friday.  I’d left the shop last week with a box of ‘08 Topps Update and some cheap relics but forgot to pick up what I went for in the first place: storage boxes.

Oops.  No worries, as another trip to the shop was the most minor of inconveniences, but I was determined to NOT spend much this time around.  My relic/auto box is overflowing, so I picked up a larger replacement as well as some smaller 330 ct. boxes to be used for organizing serial numbered, rookie, and other assorted insert cards as well as any sets in the process of being collated.  An uneven total of $7 was the last thing I wanted, so naturally I raided the new bargain relic bin.

Welcome to the club, Ben Sheets:

Gabe Kapler:

And John Olerud:

These are about as plain as relic cards can get, but I especially like the shot of a junk wax era card on the Olerud.  Today’s most forgettable “craze” meets one of yesterday’s most forgettable products!

2008 Upper Deck Ballpark, pack 3 of 4

After two packs of the highest end product I’ve ever purchased, I’ve been more than satisfied with my pulls.  It’ll be tough to go back to “just” one or two hit per box products, but I’ll manage.  And really, after two Yankees-themed relics in two consecutive packs, there isn’t really anywhere for this box to go but down.  Or is there…

First up, the mandatory base card.  Nobody cares.

Dual Swatch, Derek Lee and Alfonso Soriano.  I like the color scheme going on – red, white, and blue just works, ya know?  The blue Soriano swatch keeps things interesting.

Quad swatch: Mike Schmidt, Albert Pujols, Ken Griffey Jr., and David Ortiz.  One of these isn’t like the others, and even Red Sox fans should be able to admit that Papi doesn’t quite fit.  Schmidt, Griffey, and Pujols are indisputably three of the best of all time (assuming Pujols continues at his current pace for a few more years), but Ortiz has been linked to performance enhancers.  Not that the other three are guaranteed “clean”, but Griffey’s name doesn’t pop to mind every time steroids are mentioned.  If only the Schmidt patch could’ve been baby blue…

Eight swatch:  Prince Fielder, Ben Sheets, Albert Pujols, Mark Mulder, Ken Griffey Jr., Aaron Harang, Derek Lee, Carlos Zambrano.  That’s a whole lotta jersey!  Some good – some not so good – just like the NL Central, which seems to be the theme of this card.  No Pirates or Astros, not that either team had much to contribute in ‘08.  Gotta like pulling two Pujols and Griffeys in one box.

Three boxes down, one to go!

Is Ryan Wheeler “good”?

I ripped in to the two packs of ‘09 Elite Extra Edition from Friday – shiny stuff!  I managed to pull one auto of a guy I think I may have heard of, Ryan Wheeler:

So is he any… you know… good?  Or maybe the “Wheeler” I’m thinking of is Zach Wheeler.  Obviously he’s a good baseball player or else he wouldn’t be playing at the professional level, but is this a “good” card as far as prospect autographs are concerned?  I guess I thought I knew more about them than I did.  Either way, good or not so much, it’s a nice looking card.

The back says that Wheeler “was Arizona’s 2009 Minor League Position Player of the Year after leading the Northwest League with a gaudy .461 on-base percentage.  The fifth-round pick from Loyola Marymount fanned 28 times in 234 at-bats.”

So pretty much he’s the next Albert Pujols… errr… yeah.  This card is for sale for $500.

I’m trying hard to like autographed cards, I really am, but there’s something so impersonal about a sticker that I just can’t get past.  I’ll try, and I’ll definitely buy more Elite in the future – it was a fun couple of packs.

And for your viewing pleasure on this fine weekend, enjoy a better look at Friday’s bargain bin relics: