Coming Soon!

If you're like me, and you probably are, you can't wait for the next release. It seems like Opening Day came out right in time to replace my waning interest in Topps (being that I have nearly finished the set). But then Heritage came along right after it, running it over like a Hummer overtaking a Geo Metro. But what's next? And what are my plans with each set? You probably know about all of these releases, but here they are, all together, with some random short commentary added in. Links will take you to the sell sheets. Of course, stuff will move around, it always does.

April 6: Tribute. This stuff is way out of my price range. Six hits per box, plus parallel sets and of course the base set. This is a set that looks good in its simplicity - it is a fitting design to honor some of the greatest. Of course all the autographs look stickered, but at least the stickers match the shiny hit cards. I kind of like the design on the parallels. I say parallels because the sell sheet doesn't show what a base card looks like. I guess nobody who pays $250-300 for a box cares about the base cards. This comes out in a week, apparently. And to whoever pulls that Ichiro patch book, I'll give you $50 cash. In small bills if you want. Yup. Fifty big ones. I'm a big spender.

April 20: Gypsy Queen. Less than a month away, this is the next big thing for average collectors, or so Topps hopes. I'm going to have a base set, but there are also nine parallel versions (including the minis) and eight forms of autographs/relics. Inserts are fairly minimal - three sets with mini parallels, plus the Gypsy Queen with auto and relic versions. This feels like Allen & Ginter with only baseball. Or I guess a replacement for National Chicle.

April 21: Topps Attax. I like that Topps is pushing the "game" aspect of this more, and while $2 for a pack of cards can be a lot of money for a kid, $8 for a full starter kit seems pretty good. I don't see any mention of parallels or insert sets - which means this is strictly a game set. Maybe some of the cards will be rare, maybe not. However, I did notice that there will be mascot and ballpark cards which must figure into the game somehow. I would like to put together a set of the ballpark cards. Why is this being released the day after Gypsy Queen?

May 11: Bowman. Everbody buys this set for the rookies. Or do they? Does Platinum replace this as the RC set? I don't do rookie speculating, so I'm not big on collecting Bowman. I bet if I went through all my old Bowman cards there would be a few lucky hits in there somewhere. Anyway, this year's set looks basically the same as before. And as usual, there are gold, blue, orange, red, and plate parallels. They're adding an International parallel with a map in the background "pinpointing the respective player's birthplace." If these are easy enough to find, I may actually put that set together. Once again there are all the autos and relics and USA stuff you'd expect. The cut signatures seem interesting in that they're in book format with an original '48 or '49 Bowman card. Good luck with that 1/1. And the inserts don't excite that much either - including the rehash of the '94 Bowman's Best design.

June 1: Pro Debut. Topps reissues its minor league set, with four hits per box. Why is Topps doing cut sigs of rookies, cut from their own cards? Why? This is a fairly simple issue - autographs, relics, and a few parallels, plus All-Star inserts. I'm not really interested in minor league sets (as I said above, I don't do the rookie thing).

June 9: Topps Series 2. Just a week after Pro Debut, Topps finishes its flagship brand set. Well, Update really finishes it, but the card numbering restarts. Anyway, most of the Series 1 stuff returns, as expected.

June 22: Bowman Platinum. Earlier than last year, and with four hits per box. Like regular Bowman, the design isn't great, though all that silver can look nice when refractorized. You already know this is the premium version of Bowman - rookies and prospects, with autographs, relics, and parallels. I don't really have much interest.

July 14: Allen & Ginter. I've already talked about this set here. In fact, it inspired me to dream up my own relic set here, here, here, here, and here (in order). And I'll go after the full base set, and I hope to get several of the insert sets including the state relics. This will probably be my biggest interest this year.

July 28: Triple Threads. Another package I can't afford, even though this is $100 less per box. But then, you get four hits per box instead of six. Of course, some of those books look awesome, and I like the look of the Unity relics (if you had all three, of course), but the design isn't that interesting to me. It's all about the hits here.

Colbey's Break

Saturday was kind of a disappointment. I went to a mall card show to hopefully scour the dime, quarter, and fifty-cent boxes for fun and profit. Well, fun, and trade bait. I did find some stuff for both categories, and I'll get to that on Tuesday. But it was a nice afternoon when the mailman delivered a nice large envelope full of cards from Colbey at Cardboard Collections with my results from the break and a trade.

I'll start with the break. I picked the Giants and the Mariners - I was hoping to pull some nice Bonds and Griffey cards. If it was just Bonds, I would have probably gone with a different team, but I have been a Giants fan since I started collecting. I'm not going to show everything - there's like 250 cards in the stacks he sent, you'd be bored by seeing 15 scans of cards just because, and I plan on showing some of them later some time because they just are that cool and I want to devote a whole post to them. Oh, and if you didn't know already, I love mid-90's stuff - inserts and subsets were relatively fun and interesting. I'm not really showing them here, just a few of the highlights.

First, the Mariners. 

Jay Buhner, 1994 Fleer. Did he just hit a home run? Is he tossing his bat away or did it get loose? Is he trying to recreate the Carlton Fisk wave? And by the way, I love the shades, Jay. So cool.

Some of the Griffey Jr. love. I like the UC3 set, even though it was a failed concept. I like 3D cards in general. And you gotta love the Silver Signatures from '94 Collector's Choice. Especially that photo of Griffey for his regular card. Griffey gets no love on the card value front but he started playing when I started collecting and he was the biggest thing as my interest in the hobby was in its adolescence. There were plenty of other Mariners in the group, but I'll get to them some other time!

Now, the Giants. Back when they played in the the 'Stick. Where I saw my first game, where my first World Series was played (no, I have never been to a World Series game), and when I was more Braves than Giants. I became a Braves fan pretty quickly upon moving to Atlanta, though the Giants stayed with me, and now that I'm living in San Francisco I'm back in Giants mode. (Hey, at least that means you might have someone to buy in for the Giants in your breaks more frequently!) Anyway, just a taste of what I received:

I chose a little bit more variety in this scan. I like Topps Embossed, although it was another failed concept. Actually kind of a gimmick. Gimmicks have been the thing since the 1980s, if you think about it, with all those released theme sets (1982 K-Mart?) and the start of inserts (Glossy All-Stars), but the release explosion of the 1990s definitely took it to a new level. Topps had several failures in the mid-'90s, but that's a whole other post. Anyway, next to Darren Lewis falling over is Will Clark in a Topps Kids release. I kind of like this set for the cartoons.I included one of the 1994 Score cards - I had a few survive with minor damage from the bad box. And I know now to buy any 1990s Score/Pinnacle products with extreme caution. I wonder if my '94 Scores are all stuck together. I chose that card of rookie Steve Scarsone because if you look closely enough, Tim Wallach (I think) of the Dodgers is sliding in to second, quite violently (he is literally grabbing at Scarsone's pants) and he's getting it back doubly hard (Scarsone appears to be kicking Wallach in the face). And for the last card there - the Will Clark shot - that's just a great picture, and in my mind a great pose for an art card (like National Chicle). I wonder if Topps will drop the throwback idea and just release a nice artist set for the sake of being art, like Diamond Kings was.

Now, the trade. We're almost done! I sent Colbey a group of 2011 Topps base and inserts, and he sent a bunch of stuff in return.

One of the most expensive things for me to get are the exclusive inserts from stores like Target and Wal-Mart. I either have to buy a blaster, hanging pack, etc from the store, or I have to find it on eBay, and I end up paying half the price of the pack for just this card. So it was great to get these.

Colbey also included some odd-and-end cards I needed, and a decent selection of Braves cards. In fact, I think there might have been a full team set of those red Score cards! There were more than what's shown here, I just wanted to keep this post under 500GB, you know?

The piece de resistance. Or however that's spelled. He included a relic from 2010 Topps Update! My scanner chopped off the bottom of the image. I feel like a tech newb.

To sum up this long post, I loved the break. This was the first break I joined and the only one to be completed so far. (I'm part of The Other World's break next week and the two Gypsy Queen breaks.) This is going to have to be a monthly thing for me! And thanks a ton, Colbey, for the trade! I'm going to have to find something to even us up!

It's a Mixed Bag

I like variety. In fact, some of my favorite releases of my lifetime are those that provided a very large variety of subsets or inserts (not parallels - I'm talking 1995 Fleer, not 2005 Donruss/Playoff). And for that reason I like those variety repacks you can find at retail stores. Sure, the packs are probably searched and they're all old retail, but I buy those for fun. And occasionally, you pull something like an autograph. Last week, I grabbed a 10-for-$10 pack. So what did I pull?

First pack: 2007 Ultra
For player selection, this was a pretty good pack. Chipper Jones, Dontrelle Willis, Derek Jeter, Chris Carpenter, and Jeff Baker RC.

Second pack: 2008 Stadium Club
Mark Teixeira, Jorge Posada, and three RCs: Nick Adenhart, Jeff Niemann, and Greg Smith (1st Day parallel). I've decided to try to assemble this set by hand, since they never seem to end up on eBay. These cards will be a big help for that.

I have most of the Stadium Club sets already, which I collect for the photography. I liked the photography in the Ultra pack, too, and I think I'm going to go back and put those sets together (or buy them complete) as well. I probably won't actively do this for a while - I would like to finish the Stadium Club and Upper Deck runs before taking on a new run.

Pack 3: Goodwin Champions:
Only three and a half cards in this pack. Brooks Robinson, Kevin Garnett, Daisuke Matsuzaka mini, and a 20th Anniversary that mentions Kevin Garnett.

Pack 4: 2007 Upper Deck:
Nobody important, and no inserts. 8 cards of commonality.

I have the Goodwin set completed already, but I can use at least the Robinson and 20th Anniversary. As for the Upper Deck pack, I will eventually have a complete set. I haven't even begun to fight. But what a bummer. I do like Upper Deck photography though. More on that later!

Pack 5: 2007 Fleer
Prince Fielder, Ivan Rodriguez, and Mike Lieberthal are the highlights in this one, along with a Josh Barfield Rookie Sensations, Ryan Howard Crowning Achievement, and Steve Finley mini.

Pack 6: 2009 Topps Chrome
Akinori Iwamura, Kenshin Kawakami, Manny Ramirez, and Hein Robb WBC.

I recently picked up a factory set of '07 Fleer, but I like this issue because of the inserts. Of course, that always makes it hard to put together a set, when 30% of your cards are inserts and parallels. As for the Chrome, it's Chrome. And it isn't curled. 3/4 of the players in this pack are from a different continent.

Packs 7 and 8: 2008 First Edition/Update
Omar Vizquel, Greg Maddux, Jason Varitek, Ryan Braun, Eric Chavez, Scott Kazmir, Milton Bradley, and Vladimir Guerrero and David Ortiz Starquest

Pack 9: 2007 Topps Series 2
Chase Utley, Juan Uribe, Jose Guillen, Blue Jays, Derrick Turnbow, Kevin Cameron

Now we're getting into the budget stuff. But what amazed me was how good the photography is in the First Edition sets. Of course, they used the same photos as the regular set, but the images look nice and crisp even in this basic release. And the design that year was very minimal, allowing more of the photo to show. But that '07 Topps card wastes so much space with those colored dots. Not really my favorite design. But, look, two players who are actually throwing the ball to finish a double play, Topps! Too bad nobody's there to see Chase throw (look at all the empty stands in the background).

Pack 10: 2009 Upper Deck First Edition
Jake Peavy, Troy Glaus, Johnny Damon, Johan Santana, Hideki Matsui, Casey Kotchman, and David Wright Starquest highlight the last pack.

Finishing strong. Yeah, not really. In fact, I think Upper Deck took a step backwards from the previous year, as there is a lot of "blank" space in the design around "FIRST EDITION" and the position. And four of my 10 cards were New York players (two Mets, two Yankees).

Overall, I like these variety packs. I didn't get a hit, and three of the packs were Upper Deck First Editions, but it still makes for a fun rip, and is great value for collectors who have a low budget.