Cards I Didn't Know I Even Had: 2011 Topps #405 Ian Kinsler Sparkle Variation

Ever since "discovering" COMC and now Sportlots (notice how the number of cards I have in my wantlist is shrinking???), I've been giving a lot of thought about sending my cards to either or both places as the Bay really hasn't been kind to anybody selling off the kind of inserts I have.

As I was looking at a box of inserts that I marked "2011 Topps Inserts," I noticed that I had a few cards from the base set mixed in among the others.  Which is not surprising since sometimes if I have a bit of room I'll throw some base cards in to fill up the box.  But for some reason, I was taking stuff out to look and this one caught my eye:

No, it wasn't the fact that Kinsler is fully focused while the umpire and the catcher are blurred (that's a pretty cool effect though, you have to admit).  Wait.  What's that on his bat?  Let's get a closer look...

Is that...

Why yes, it is.  It's one of those Sparkle Variations that made everyone actually look at their cards to see if they had one.  I guess I failed on that as I didn't even know I had it. 

Or did I?

I am very sure that I didn't find this card in any of the packs that I opened.  That must mean that somebody had to give it to me?  But who?  And why?  Regardless, if it is indeed somebody being kind enough to give me a card to tell me what one of these look like up close, thank you very much for your generosity.  I truly appreciate it.

The lesson here is that you really have to pay attention to the cards you have.  You never know what you have until you look at them.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

If You Want to See All 60 Sparkly Cards in Series 2 Together...

Last week, I received an e-mail from friend of the blog, all around good guy, and Topps Super Collector Craig Parker (aka Craig from Texas).  Back in February, he scoured the internet and put images all 60 of the Series 1 Topps Sparkle cards on his website for people to use for reference purposes. 

Well he did it again.

In his own words:

"JayBee,

"Hey there!  I hope all is well.  I appreciated the shout out you gave me on your blog when I created the series one Topps Sparkles checklist.  Well, I wanted you to know that I got after it again and created Series 2 so everyone can find those sparkles!  I hope that you add this info to your blog -- I read it every day and appreciate how you are always on top of everything.  Here it is:

www.mytoppscards.com

Enjoy!"

Craig from Texas"

Both series of Sparkles are on his site RIGHT NOW!!!  So please take time out of your day visit his site, and print out images if need be (or at least take down the checklist for yourself).  So that when you're sorting out your cards, you can figure out if you have one of these beauties or not.  Then take time out of your day to thank the man for his hard work.

Thanks from this Topps collector. By the way, Craig, how far along are you on the big Sparkle hunt?

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Just When You Thought the Sparkle Cards Couldn't Get Any More Complex...

The number one source in the Hobby has posted today that inside packs of 2011 Topps Series 2 are cards that take the Sparkle concept to a whole new level.

That's right...DOUBLE SPARKLE CARDS!!!

In an effort to make people actually look at the base cards, a limited number of cards will, based on the picture, have an even larger, more obvious sparkle to them.  Almost blinding, I know.  But there is a reason for the insanity.

If you manage to get all 3 (that means, only three subjects are involved) of these double sparkle cards, you have to be the first person to send an e-mail to Topps (who in turn will probably ask you to send the cards...no sense in sending scans or a picture...they want PROOF), and you will get an autographed bat from today's best players (no idea who they might be). 
None have been seen on the Bay...yet.  Which means if they do show up, the bidding wars will be extremely interesting to follow. 

Now, the boys and girls at Beckett asked a very interesting question to go along with the announcement.

1. Is this too much of a good thing?
2. Is there one thing you would eliminate from the hobby? (BASEBALL ONLY)

I've posted my responses, and so has a certain Mr. Harris with his take on it all.  I am pretty sure I know what the most popular answers are going to be.  But I can't wait to see how people respond to them.

Later on, hopefully, I'll be able to get to see some pictures of the new cards.  And hopefully, buy a set.  Cross your fingers.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

If You Want to See All 60 Sparkly Cards in Series 1 Together...

This is Ryan Braun's Sparkle card (2011 Topps #1). Want to know where to see the rest?
Give thanks to friend of the blog, eBay rival, and all around good guy Craig Parker. Because he took time out of his busy day to put together images of all 60 cards that have those lovely sparkles that I mentioned on this post late last week.

Because I have not asked formal permission to use his images, I highly recommend going to Craig's website http://www.mytoppscards.com/sparkles. Not only are there images of the 60 cards for your perusal, but he also circles where the sparkly thing is on each card. So that when you're searching through your cards (yes, it turns out that these things can be found in retail packs...although I didn't get any in my packs), you will know exactly where to look. Many can be found rather easily. Others, not so much.

Thank you Craig for doing this. Somehow, I wouldn't be surprised if you managed to win them all.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Figures. Sixty Sparkle Cards in Topps Series 1

After feverishly checking eBay auctions and social media outlets, message boards and other checklist sites have been compiling lists of confirmed 2011 Topps cards with a certain twinkle to them. A couple of places had found sixty and remained steady for some time.

On Topps' Facebook page, it has just been confirmed that in fact there are 60 cards within series 1 that sparkle somewhere on the card. The checklist:

1 Ryan Braun
3 Jon Lester
5 Joey Votto
15 David Wright
20 Hanley Ramirez
23 Jaime Garcia
25 Carl Crawford
35 Shin-Soo Choo
40 Justin Upton
42 Mariano Rivera
44 Martin Prado
50 Alex Rodriguez
60 Andrew McCutchen
61 David Price
67 Vladimir Guerrero
70 Kyle Drabek
75 Jered Weaver
78 Mike Stanton
80 Desmond Jennings
100 Albert Pujols
102 CC Sabathia
108 Zack Greinke
110 Aroldis Chapman
120 Mat Latos
128 Manny Ramirez
140 Brett Anderson
150 Miguel Cabrera
165 Jeremy Hellickson
166 Josh Johnson
169 Chipper Jones
174 Roy Oswalt
177 Brian Matusz
195 Nick Markakis
200 Ichiro
208 Clay Buchholz
209 Carlos Santana
210 Brian Wilson
214 Chase Utley
216 Jose Bautista
218 Victor Martinez
236 Nelson Cruz
240 Andre Ethier
241 Wandy Rodriguez
247 Starlin Castro
250 Carlos Gonzalez
255 Torii Hunter
269 Stephen Drew
270 Ubaldo Jimenez
271 Adam Dunn
275 Clayton Kershaw
290 Ike Davis
293 Justin Morneau
294 Luke Scott
299 Chris Carpenter
300 Roy Halladay
307 Alex Rios
315 David Ortiz
320 Michael Young
322 Brent Morel
330 Derek Jeter

I had originally thought that all 330 cards were involved. But at least now we know that the number of cards is much smaller. Still, doesn't make them any easier to find. And for all the naysayers and "gimmick" callers, give Topps some credit. They've finally succeeded in making us look at base cards again.

Now if they could only confirm that there are 24 legends variation cards instead of the originally planned 25. This doesn't include either Crawford and Gonzalez Red Sox variations...

Or this monstrosity supposedly found at some card convention in Atlanta (thanks to Bill Kearney on bringing this to my attention yesterday). More on this card after I do a bit of digging about Brian Wilson and The Machine.



Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

The Unannounced Super Short Prints This Year!!!

Pretty. Sparkly. What??!

So last year, we got Pied in the Face. From the Yankees in series 1, to five random guys in both series 2 and the Update series. This year's SSP's (super short prints) might not necessarily be akin to the PITF's (or the Abe variations), but it seems that every card might have a variation that has a sparkle to it.

That's right.

This year, it gets a bit...sparkly.










After reviewing a few auctions from the 'Bay (and taking a tip from the girls from A Cardboard Problem), I am going to speculate that while these appear to be super short printed, they are not going to be akin from last year's stealth variations. Instead, these may very well appear to be another parallel set that is extremely short printed.

Further information as it develops.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama