My Post-Halloween Post

Last year, I took Supergirl and a cowboy while my wife stayed home to wait on trick-or-treaters and cook the traditional Halloween spaghetti dinner. Yesterday, I got to watch my wife, a snow princess, and Batman, go on their annual Trick-or-Treat walk around the neighborhood while I stayed home and cooked. And all that time I realized that I didn't post anything special for Halloween. This hopefully should make up for it.

I'm not too much into the Halloween spirit (no pun intended) since I was in 6th grade. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I dressed up for Halloween since then (and even then, I hated it...not good for a theatre worker in high school). But all the same, stories of ghosts, monsters, and mysteries of the unknown always fascinated me. I don't mean the stories that were made up (okay, few exceptions here), but real stories about ghosts and haunted houses and buildings. I try not to scare easily, but when there is a good real ghost story on the television or a book that I'm reading, I let all of that go, and just get spooked.

While I don't have any Halloween themed baseball cards, here are some cards that could pass, especially with their involvement with the unknown...(cue Inner Sanctum crypt opening music...)


There have been many stories about visitors seeing the ghost of Abraham Lincoln in the White House. While he is probably the most famous ghost residing at the Oval Office, there are others who haunt the Presidential Mansion.


Okay, there were those on the Topps Message Boards who questioned the sanity of the Topps Company when they created this card for the 2007 Topps Allen & Ginter set. Why glorify a murderer was asked a number of times? There wound up even a guy who signed on as Satan (or a reasonable facsimile of) and said that he had an autographed copy of the card. Funny stuff.

The fact is that because Topps was honoring the Allen & Ginter sets of the 1800's, it only made sense to include important events of that time. And sadly, this was one of them. I was going to provide a link that showcases the history of the Ripper Murders, but due to the subject matter, and the fact that the one site I went to goes into really graphic detail on the subject, with pictures, I'm going to pass on doing so.


Whether or not you believe in vampires, you can thank Bram Stoker for giving the world Dracula.


And who knew back then (remember, this is the late 1800's) that a teenaged woman could create one of the most complex and terrifying tales of all time with the classic "The Modern Prometheus." This was just the subtitle to Mary Shelley's classic tale of a mad scientist's quest to give life to the monster known as Frankenstein.

Victor Hugo showed us all that not all "monsters" are bad when he wrote his classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

So that ends my little jaunt into Halloween. I promise that next year I'll do better.

(Previewing another What??! of the Week)

Topps, he's been with the Yankees, since the 50's. He's wathced everyone from Mantle and Maris, to Jeter and ARod, and everyone in between.

What were you thinking when you picked THIS picture of the "Voice of God" Bob Sheppard??? He looks like the Crypt Keeper. Wasn't there a better picture to use. This one scared my daughter when I opened the pack in 2004. I know Mr. Sheppard's health is deteriorating (as noted at the All-Star Game this year), but was this the way to include the guy in a set called "All-Time Fan Favorites??!"

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

It's Finally Over...Congrats to the Phillies!!!

The City of Brotherly Love can now celebrate their second World Series win. Congratulations to the Phillies.

Now...


Can we get to the business of 2009 Topps Baseball please??!

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Wanted: 2008 Topps U & H Retail Exclusive Insert Cards

2008 Topps Updates and Highlights WalMart Dick Perez Art Johan Santana insert card #WM22. Wow what a mouthful!!! Picture blatantly stolen from the Cardboard Junkie. You'll still send me the card right???

With money being pinched all over the place, I have decided not to buy any blaster boxes that are on the shelves at WalMart, Target, or KMart. Does that mean I don't want the bonus cards anymore???

OF COURSE I STILL WANT THE BONUS CARDS!!!

That said, I am now going to go on my proverbial hands and knees and make the following request:

"If you purchase any blaster boxes or packs of 2008 Topps Updates and Highlights from the above three stores, and do not want the bonus cards (which should be: WalMart Dick Perez cards, Target T205, and KMart Rookie Gold Variations), please send me an e-mail. I would love to take them off your hands."

Just let me know what cards from 2008 Topps U & H you are looking for. If you need singles, I'll get singles. If you want all the players from a certain team, I'll throw in any inserts from those teams. If you want a Sarah Palin card...wait, I want one too...moving on...

So please, if you're willing to trade me those retail exclusive insert cards for something you really want, e-mail me with what you come up with and what you would like in exchange for them (I'll even buy if the price is reasonable).

The boys and girls on the Topps Message Boards are soon going to compile a checklist of the retail exclusive insert cards from U & H. Won't you help by not only telling me what you get, but letting me have them??? Thank you very much in advance.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

P.S. If you do happen to get either of the Palin cards and want to give those up as well, let me know. Thanks. jba

Cards That Will Never See the Light of Day...EVER!!! 2002 Topps Future Archives

It's been a while since this I wrote anything for the Light of Day segment and I know it was something that I was going to work on during the off season. So before I completely forget to write anything on this humble little blog this week, it's time to bring up the bonus cards that were featured in 2002 Topps Baseball factory sets. Because there were two separate sets exclusively included into the factory sets, I'll write two separate posts about them. This edition will focus on the 2002 Topps Future Archives set.

Following the wildly successful 2001 Topps Future Archives series, Topps brought this series back for another run in 2002. Topps picked 10 "current" superstars and reprinted their rookie cards (or first Topps cards), adding the 2002 Topps Archives logo onto each card.

But unlike the previous year, where any five cards could be found in any factory set, the cards were specifically included in certain factory sets. Meaning, depending on the kind of set you bought, and more importantly where you bought it, you would get five specific cards.

In every 2002 Topps Hobby Factory set, you received the following five cards (players, and the year of the card reprinted):

• Alex Rodriguez, 1998
• Jason Giambi, 1994 (previously discussed in a What??! of the Week post)
• Pedro Martinez, 1993
• Ichiro Suzuki, 2001
• Jeff Bagwell, 1991 Traded

So now some questions remained. Who were the other five cards of? Where could you find them? Beckett had the answer, and I'll list them below, but nobody seemed to know what set they were inserted. I asked everyone on two separate message boards (this was actually my first post on the old Beckett Message Boards) if they knew anything. Alas, nobody did. A call to Topps Customer Service line was fruitless too.

As a last resort, I decided to send an e-mail to four people at Topps. Now before anyone begins to think I have connections, rest assured that I do not, and I was just guessing on names and e-mail addresses. An e-mail was sent to Arthur Shorin, Clay Luraschi, Marty Appel, and Sy Berger which read in part:

"Topps inserted five Future Archive cards in with the factory sets, with the only exception of having only 10 players on this set instead of 20. The cards were announced and placed on the checklist that was on the sales flyer that was given to hobby shops across the country. In purchasing a factory set, I opened the box, and found the first five cards mentioned (see above). On the back of each card, each was numbered 1 of 10, 2 of 10, 3 of 10, etc. That meant that there were five other cards to complete this subset. However, in talking to others who purchased factory sets and opened them, they found the same five cards I found in my set. The names of all 10 players somehow found their way on a checklist printed by a hobby magazine. However, in talking to many other collectors, nobody seemed to either know what I was talking about, nor did they open their factory sets to find them. And when they did, only the first five cards were in the factory set...

"I know I am taking a lot of valuable time away from your duties, but I just have one question, and I thought after asking everyone else, it was recommended that I ask you. Do these last five cards really exist? If they do, is there a way to acquire them directly from Topps? And if not, does that mean that they will come out again with the 2003 Topps factory sets?

"Thank you very much for your time."

Believe it or not, I received a response from Clay Luraschi the following day which stated:

"Yes, they do exist. I believe the 5 you have were found in a complete set that was featured in red box. Well, we made that the same set in a green box that was exclusive to JC Penny (sic) and Sears. And this is where those other 5 cards are.

"Cheers,

"Clay"

You mean that these other five cards could only be found in factory sets sold at these two stores? I didn't even know they sold baseball cards. I spent a day at the mall, visiting these two stores. But neither of them sold baseball cards. After talking to somebody at Sears, the gentleman said that while they don't sell cards at the store, they do offer them online.

A trip to the Sears website proved successful as the factory set that had the five elusive cards was right there. I bought it right away, and when it arrived, I opened the box, grabbed the factory set, opened said set, and included were:

• Ivan Rodriguez 1991 Traded
• Mike Piazza 1993 (previously discussed in a What??! of the Week post)
• Nomar Garciaparra 1995
• Ken Griffey Jr 1989 Traded
• Albert Pujols 2001 Traded

After months of frustration, the five cards that I needed to put this set to bed were in my hands and immediately added to my Topps Archives binder. It was a good hunt, practically a year in the making. It was also an indication of how far I would go to get the cards that I want. I was willing to spend for just those five cards.

Next time, I'll talk about the other set included into 2002 Topps factory sets, 2002 Topps Draft Picks. And we'll take a look at where they are now in their careers (if any of them panned out).

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

P. S.: To my friend the drizz, sorry about not posting scans earlier. It was late at night when I created this post, and I knew I wasn't going to get to scan the cards until this evening. For your viewing pleasure...jba

Yeah, He Was Right...I Was Wrong.

A while back I created a post noting that the San Francisco Chronicle reported that there would be additional Topps cards of Barack Obama and John McCain which would be similar to the Sarah Palin variations. Then I received a comment from Hand Collated stating that these are actually going to be found in 2008-2009 Topps Basketball.

Once in a while, I'll get something wrong. This is one of those times. They look nice. And considering that Topps cancelled the Election Collection, these will have to do.

Oh and on an unrelated note, I'm almost done sorting through the U & H cards. I think it's a safe bet that I'll have a complete set on my hands. If anyone needs anything from this set, please let me know. I do have a number of inserts that I think should go to more deserving hands (like a Curtis Granderson Topps Year in Review card for example, let's see if somebody notices this...) that I'm going to use for trade bait, especially when the retail blasters come out.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

That Went a Lot Faster Than I Thought

With my daughter (and then my son) helping to rip open packs (making sure she doesn't bang them on the table like they were a deck of playing cards), all 46 packs of Topps U & H are now open.

We are still sorting out the damage, but I can tell you that we did get the guaranteed 2 relics and 1 autograph card in the jumbo box. I'm so glad I'm a Cubs fan because my relic cards were of Ryan Dempster and Alfonso Soriano. The regular box yielded a Chase Utley relic. And for the record, my autograph card was of Steve Holm of the Giants. I even got a Stamp card (Washington and Lee University).

My kids are dividing up the Topps Town cards between the three of us (they each get a gold card), and will be taking over the computer shortly. Got to go.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Spending Some Time with 2008 Topps Updates and Highlights

To those wondering where I will be for the rest of the evening, the above pictures should give you a clue. My daughter had already ripped the plastic off the boxes (darn, can't sell them on eBay now!!!) so she and I are now going to start ripping packs. Hoping for a full set (I better with both a full hobby and jumbo box in front of me), at least one Palin card (two would be a bonus), and if I do get one of the three Rookie Card screw-ups, I will hold my first ever blog contest. Stay tuned.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama