The Pains of Being a Set Collctor

I actually went to a card show on Sunday.  Not just any card show.  A Fred Copp show.

Let me explain.

For years, Fred Copp has been running card shows throughout the Chicagoland suburbs.  His shows are most often set up within the confines of a hotel, either in the lobby or in one of the conference rooms. The first Copp show I ever went to was just a few minutes away from where I work.  And it seemed that every Friday, he and a bunch of other sellers would be there, selling, trading, or just talking about the Hobby. 

Anyway, on Sunday, his show was set up at a hotel in Schaumburg.  Normally, I am all the way in Chicago on Sunday mornings, nowhere near the shows in the 'burbs.  But because of the annual Women's luncheon that my wife attends, my son and I (my daughter stayed with my wife), found ourselves with way too much time on our hands.  So why not, I thought, go to a card show.

My son and I drove to the hotel, not even sure that the show was even happening.  But once we walked in and saw the sign indicating that the Sports Card Show was just down the hall, we knew we were in luck.  The show took up two conference rooms.  They rooms weren't that big.  And there wasn't that much space to walk around.  But my son and I found a few things that piqued our interest. 

My son wanted a couple of packs of Wacky Packages.  For two bucks, no problem.  I found a flyer for Topps 206...from 2002.  Perfect for my Topps 206 binder. I also found a couple of original back cards from 2011.  Just two.  One of them was mixed in with the regular inserts. 

But the key find was a lot of cards from the 2011 Topps/MLB Network Prime Nine giveaways.  And for five bucks, the guy behind the table said I could have them.  So I paid my five bucks, and found out why he was willing to sell so cheaply (and you'll see too in a minute).



2011 Topps Prime 9 Set...Minus 1

 I am missing one card.  The shortstop.  The #4 card of the giveaway.  Yes, folks, I'm missing Derek Jeter. 

When asked why his card was missing, it was because somebody had come in and BOUGHT IT!!!  And left the other eight cards on the table. 

Why???

WHY??!

You had in your hands a complete set, and you ruined it by taking that one card away.  A set collector's nightmare!!!

Now I know there are player collectors (there must be a million Derek Jeter card collectors), and team collectors (Yankees?  Come on, it's Topps!!!)  But you (and I'm talking to the guy or gal who bought the Jeter) had in your hands all nine of these beautiful chrome cards, all with extremely sharp corners, full gloss, and no scratches.  Why not just take them all with you???

So on Twitter, I posted the following Tweet:

"I can't believe I am typing these next nine words: I need Derek Jeter's 2011 @toppscards Prime 9 card. #collect Anyone??? DM me please."

I'll probably try to find it on the Bay, but if anybody has a spare Jeter card from this set and would like to trade or sell it to me, please send me an e-mail at bdj610@hotmail.com and let me know what it would take to take it off your hands.  Thanks.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

The Results are In: The Readers Like #2!

The poll that I ran for the entire month of September is over and 137 votes were cast (I only had 137 people read this blog ALL SEPTEMBER??!). The poll asked which of artfuas' 12 design concepts for 2012 Topps would have been better than Topps' actual 2012 design (Which of the 2012 Topps Design Concepts Would You Have Liked Topps to Use?). Voters could have picked any one of the twelve, or even voted to say that they actually liked the real 2012 Topps design.  Let's review the results:

• 23 votes were cast for design #2,

• 21 votes were cast for design #6,

• 13 votes were cast for design #12,

• 12 voters said they liked the 2012 Topps design,
• 12 votes were cast for design #7,
• 11 votes each were cast for designs #5 and #8,
• 7 votes each were cast for designs #1 and 10,
• 6 votes were cast for design #11,
• 5 votes were cast for design #3,
• 5 voters decided that none of the 13 designs were good (none of the above),
• and finally, 2 votes each were cast for designs #4 and #9.

What does this all mean?  That beauty is in the eye of the beholder (unless the votes for #'s 4 and 9 were out of pity).  Now personally, I liked design #6 with #12 a close second.  You have a large photo dominating the card, with unobtrusive design elements that take away from the image.  I do see where #2 would have been a good choice as well (pennants), but I'm not sure I like where the player's name was going to fit.

I predicted that #4 was not going to get a lot of votes if only because there is just too much white space at the bottom of the card.  It looks like someone stuck a bandage on the card with someone's picture on it.

Thanks to all who voted. And thanks to artfulas for allowing me to use his designs for the blog.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

It's the End of the Month, End of the Season, Blogroll Cleanup Time.

Had to make this post before October strikes. Let's see how far we get.

As the title of the post states, the baseball season is over. September is now in the books. But before we flip the calendar page to October, it's time to do the monthly maintenance on the Sports Card Blogroll.

So let's get on to business. At the beginning of the month (or after the last Blogroll clean-up post), there were 335 blogs on the active blogroll. Twelve blogs were added to the roll in September to bring the total up to 347 (we're almost at 350 folks...keep those blogs coming). But the following blogs have reached six months of inactivity, so now it is time to move them to the inactive list. Those blogs include:

• CPD&NRP Cards
• Seabolt's Cards
• The Player To Be Named Later
• Budget Baseball Cardboarding
• MLB Prospect Card Watch
• All Your Base Cards Belong To Us
• gratzi's collection
• Boxes of Cards
• Bozeman Breaker
• Sports Jambalaya

Ten blogs. That brings our total down to 337 active blogs to start October. Meaning that the blog experienced a gain of +2 blogs from last month.

As always, if you, or someone you know, has or plans on starting a Sports Card Blog, in any sport, please e-mail me at bdj610@hotmail.com so I can add it onto the active roster. If you are the writer of any of the above blogs, or any other blog that hasn't been updated for more than six months and you plan on writing again, please let me know too. The more voices, the more knowledge we can share about this great Hobby.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

P.S. I just noticed one particular blog that hasn't been updated in five months. If that blog reaches six months by the end of October, the Hall of Fame section in the blogroll will have a new member. Whose blog is it? Let's just say that this blog was one of the pioneers and most popular blogs of the time. And the writer was a big help to me when I first started. jba

Pack Break Week 2: 2011 Topps Gypsy Queen

More than two weeks ago, I bought six random packs at Target, hoping to have another Pack Break Week celebration before the end of the season.  Unfortunately, circumstances beyond my control forced what was supposed to be a one week adventure into a three week disaster.  Am I disappointed?  Yeah.  Only because it means, once again, that I failed to finish something that I either promised to have done by a certain time, or because what I thought would be a great idea became a challenge when actually applying it to this humble little blog.

But no more.

With the 2011 season now over, it is time to refocus.  And it is time to actually deliver on the promises.  (I better, otherwise, this blog will just nosedive into insignificance and irrelevance).

So let's (finally) conclude Pack Break Week with the final pack of the bunch, 2011 Topps Gypsy Queen.

Reaching into the history of trading cards once again, Topps re-introduced the Gypsy Queen, a product from the 1800's, to 21st century collectors.  Many of the original photos from the original set came from the same photographer as those used in another legendary set, Old Judge.  But the Gypsy Queen in today's product actually included "Gypsy Queens," to go with cards of our baseball heroes. Some called it a gimmick.  I call it genius. But they short printed the Queens, so getting one in my pack most likely was not going to be in the cards (ha ha ha).
Here is what was waiting for me when I opened my pack of 2011 Gypsy Queen:

The cards that came out of the pack are (in the order of how they were packaged):

• #64 Josh Hamilton
• #221 Martin Prado
• #244 Scott Kazmir
• #SF14 Alcides Esobar Sticky Fingers
• #320 Dexter Fowler Mini Card
• One Thick blank filler card (had hoped for a relic, this must be Topps effort to thwart pack searchers)
• #HH24 Rogers Hornsby Home Run Heroes
• Checklist 4 of 4

Some quick thoughts.  If Escobar is supposed to have sticky fingers (I'm guessing for defensive prowess), why does it look like he missed the ball?  Other than that, it's a decent pack.  It would be one that would make me want to buy more. But at this point, I think I'll wait for set prices to go down.
So finally, Pack Week 2 ends.  Just like our MLB season.  Tomorrow, I will start the process of naming players to my 2011 End of the Year All-Star Teams.  A number of obvious names, and maybe some surprises, will fill out both 36-man rosters.  But before I get to that, I have to (finally) show the results of the 2010 All-Star Game simulations. 

Once again, I have to make good on these things.  Maybe one day, I'll get back to the Randomizer and the Archives project. 

Better sooner than later.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

RE: And Then There Were Eight...

What a wild finish!!! Any doubt that the Wild Card Experiment was a bad idea went away last night as four teams had to fight for the right to get the final two spots.  We can talk about chokes, collapses, and conspiracies all year long.  The fact remains that the season is now over for 22 teams and the remaining eight are moving on to the postseason.  There will be a new champion as the defending WS champs are taking the rest of the year off.  But the AL team in last year's World Series is back and can't wait to get started.
 
The Playoff fields are now been set and once again, there will not be a game 163 played.

So for the NL, you have:

• the Philadelphia Phillies, who've won the NL East division for the fifth consecutive year,
• the Milwaukee Brewers, who've won their first NL Central EVER (and their first division crown of any sort since 1982),
• the Arizona Diamondbacks, who've returned to the playoffs after two consecutive fifth place finishes in the NL West, and
• the Wild Card winners, the St. Louis Cardinals, who overcame an 8.5 game deficit in the WC standings to win the right to play in the postseason.

The AL has these four teams going into the postseason:

• the New York Yankees, last year's Wild Card team, now AL East champ,
• the Detroit Tigers, the first team to punch their tickets to the playoffs,
• the Texas Rangers, last year's AL Champions and the team to beat,
• and the Tampa Bay Rays, the AL Wild Card winners, who overcame a 9 game deficit in the WC standings and made it in the most dramatic fashion.

 
May the best team win.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Pack Break Week 2: 2011 Topps Series 2

So last week, I decided to go ahead and open one pack of cards that I bought last weekend at Target. Yesterday, I opened another pack of Topps Attax. Today, it's time to open a pack the franchise, the eponymous product, the reason why we all collect, 2011 Topps Baseball Series 2.

Since 1993, Topps Series 2 has given us a taste of what the Topps Traded/Updates and Highlights/Update Series would have looked like if they just saved the pictures of players in new uniforms for the end of the year set. Series 2 just doesn't seem to get as much press as the much heralded first series.  Of course, every one looks forward to Series 1 to whet their appetite for the upcoming season.  And no other product is excruciatingly put through the wringer as Series 1 is in terms of its design.  But regardless, while series 1 is greeted with high anticipation, series 2 doesn't get much respect. The feeling with series 2 is, "What took you this long???"  But series 2 adds on to the greatness of series 1 in a way that the Update series can't.  I mean, with series 2, you get the full set.  The factory sets only contain series 1 and 2, not 3 nor Update.  Just the 660 cards that make up the flagship product.  This is Topps' bread and butter, so to speak (I mean, they have a thriving candy business to boot), by which all future card products are judged.

Well, if by judging, I just hope that history doesn't use this pack as evidence.

Here is what was waiting for me when I opened my pack of 2011 Series 2:

The cards that came out of the pack are (in the order of how they were packaged):

• #347 Dawin Barney
• #344 Michael Kohn
• #431 Marcos Mateo (two Cubs...YES)
• #383 Ryan Ludwick Diamond Parallel
• #DS-24 Ryan Braun Diamond Stars (Shiny)
• #468 Chone Figgins

• #657 Nick Blackburn
• #397 Sean Rodriguez
• #493 Ryan Sweeney
• Two Security Tags...Wait...WHAT??!

That's right.  Not just one of those security tag things on a card (to prevent shoplifting)...

BUT TWO!!!

That mean my pack of 12 cards realistically held 9 cards and TWO SECURITY TAGS!!!  That's 11 pieces of cardboard total.  So, what am I missing?  One card or three?  Not too happy with this pack. The only two things that are keeping me from screaming at Target and/or the Topps Company at this point are these:

• I already have a complete set of this series.
• I just prevented some poor kid from buying a pack of cards that was totally shorted.  Perhaps the pack that I could have bought that is now in the hands of this child was the first pack of cards his or her mom allowed her child to buy.  And that pack contains cards that will excite and amaze, and even make the child want more. 

I could call Topps' customer service number (at 800-489-9149) to complain, but it's the weekend.  They're not going to open.  And by the time Monday comes, I would have already forgotten about this fiasco.  Until then, allow me to brood and be disappointed...

Okay, over it.

The next pack to be opened will be the pack of Gypsy Queen.  Will I be blessed with a good pack, or cursed with a bad one?  Only the Gypsy Queens know. 

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Pack Break Week 2: 2011 Topps Attax

We now return to Pack Break Week. Thanks for your patience.

So last week, I decided to go ahead and open one pack of cards that I bought last weekend at Target. Las Thursday, I opened my first pack of Topps Lineage.  Today, it's time to open a pack of 2011 Topps Attax.

Ah yes, Topps Attax.  For the third straight year, Topps put out a card game for kids to play.  This product does not count towards MLB Properties 17-product quota.  It's a simple game really, it puts Pack Wars in a baseball game-type setting.  Higher number between batter vs. pitcher determines if a run "scores" or if the batter is out.  Most runs after "three innings" (or all nine batter cards are used once), wins. 

But this year, Topps added a bunch of extra features and conditions so that the Attax game can be played a bit more like a real baseball game.  It's got strategy, it's got drama...it's got mascots (woo hoo).  The more complex rules can be found in every starter kit of Topps Attax (still available at your local big box store).

Okay, back to the break.  Here is what was waiting for me when I opened my pack of 2011 Topps Attax:

The cards that came out of the pack are (in the order of how they were packaged):

• #165 Nick Markakis
• #76 Drew Stubbs
• #25 Bobby Abreu
• #66 David Ortiz
• #177 Ricky Romero
• #117 Jonathan Papelbon

• #213 Dinger (Rockies Mascot) Refractor???
• #112 Joe Mauer
• #47 Chase Headley
• #167 Omar Infante
• #124 Josh Hamilton
• #41 Carlos Peña

My thoughts. It's a decent booster pack.  Dinger gives the batter a +10 boost when "entering the ballpark" (whatever that means).  The diamond theme is prevalent as there are diamonds at the bottom right corner of every card (I think depending on the gem, it determines rarity...not sure).  Got a Cub (Peña), so I'm thrilled.  I have to, eventually, sort out what I actually have and then decide if I want to go for it (a complete set) or not.

The pack also came with a checklist or all 258 cards (206 players, 25 mascots, and 27 stadiums). A couple of questions.  The checklist does not name every mascot (like Dinger, or Billy the Marlin).  Was Topps not allowed to include the names of the Athletics, Blue Jays, Braves, Diamondbacks, Orioles, Royals, and White Sox mascots?  And where is Lou Seal (the Giants mascot)?  I know the Cubs, Angels, Dodgers, and Yankees don't have mascots, so I'm not worried about them. But where's Rosie Red's card?

Also, there are 27 stadiums listed (the Marlins, Athletics, and Rockies parks are excluded). Progressive Field, the home of the Indians, has a card here.  So why doesn't it have a card in the 17-card retail set? 

The next pack to be opened will be the pack of Series 2.  Can't wait to see what it includes.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama