The Bryce is Right, plus even more PC rookies

I was putting together today's post, which took quite a while to finish thanks to all the scanning/optimizing/sorting/writing, and at some point during the process my mail came.  That produced a package I've been waiting on for about a week--a lot of 2011 Bowman Bryce Harpers that I bought on Blowout for under $20 (three base and a Chrome):

I picked this up mainly because I needed one base for my Prospects set (last one!) but a nice consequence is that I now have two extras each of the base and Chrome versions.  How does that benefit you?  Now that they're no longer in some seller's grubby little hands, they're in my possession, and I'm a well-respected only slightly corrupt blogger/trader.  That means that instead of selling them, I'm more than happy to trade them to those of you working on these sets so you don't have to shell out the big bucks for them.  I'm not saying I'm willing to trade one for 20 2010 Topps Update cards I need, but I won't ask for the moon either, so please have a look at my various wantlists above this post and make me an offer if you're so inclined.

Hokay, now on to the actual, intended subject of this post:
More rookies!  You readers made this my 7th most popular post of all time previously, so I finally got around to adding more.  As a reminder, these are RCs that I have lying around, either because they're dupes or parts of sets I'm not collecting.  When I have more time I'll add scans of my best rookies that ARE part of sets I own/am working on.  As another reminder, you can always view the full Picasa Album hyah.  Now, on with more baseball RCs so I can get a bunch more views!

Jeff Bagwell 1991 Bowman:  Bagwell sans goofy beard/goatee thing actually looks funnier.  The "MVP" obviously doesn't refer to his '94 NL MVP award but instead a minor league crown.  He did, however, garner the '91 NL Rookie of the Year Award (edging Orlando Merced with 23 of the 24 first place votes).

Adrian Beltre 1997 Bowman Chrome:  This isn't a contract year for Beltre, so he was able to show up here.  A decent RC from the first Bowman Chrome set that started the mania.

Adrian Beltre 1997 Bowman's Best:  I just about always liked the look of the Bowman's Best sets and finally finished putting this one together not long ago after buying a box years and years ago.

Lance Berkman 1997 Bowman:  It's safe to say he was a whole lot more popular back when this card came out, but Fat Elvis has had a pretty nice career all the same, along with his fellow Killer B Astros you'll see in this post.

Craig Biggio 1989 Upper Deck:  Another set that started a feeding frenzy, 1989 Upper Deck was HUGE, and one of the most athletic, HBP-prone C/2B/OF to ever play the game was among the rookies in that set not named Ken Griffey Jr.  Biggio got to 3000 hits the hard way--he only picked up 200+ in a season once and his career BA was .281--and was the very definition of a gamer.

Barry Bonds 1987 Topps:  Yeah, I don't like him either, but this is still a decently important card, even if it's from a prime junk wax set.

Roger Clemens 1985 Topps:  See:  Barry Bonds 1987 Topps

Adam Dunn 1999 Bowman:  A solid RC of probably the most consistent active slugger in the game right now, though this season's been very rocky for him.

Jermaine Dye 1994 Bowman:  Dye won't be going to the Hall of Fame, but he put up some very good numbers for many years.  I'll always remember him (along with Andruw Jones) playing as a rookie in the '96 World Series, which the Braves lost, but Dye did get his ring with the '05 White Sox (and had himself a pretty nice Series).

Roy Halladay 1997 Bowman:  I never have completed this set because boxes and singles got so expensive when the key RCs really took off.  I am lucky to have this one, though, from the couple of years when he scuffled with Toronto before becoming one of the game's top five current starters.

Matt Holliday 1999 Topps Chrome:  Here's one I probably pulled from a pack and then set aside for a long, long time.  I did manage to dig it up when his star took off a couple years ago and now it's worth quite a bit more.  I was happy to see that he proved me wrong by continuing to put up good numbers outside of Coors.

Pedro Martinez 1991 Upper Deck Final Edition RC:  I picked this up pretty cheaply at a show a few years ago and I'd still rather have it than anything of Delino DeShields, wouldn't you?  In 18 seasons, Pedro won 219 games, three Cy Youngs (including one of the NL variety with the EXPOS), and won a ring with the 2004 Sawx.  His Hall-of-Fame numbers look to be there, and it helps that he compares to teammate Curt Schilling, Whitey Ford, Juan Marichal and even Sandy Koufax.  Plus he threw Don Zimmer's stupid fat ass down--give this man a plaque!

Joe Mauer 2002 Bowman:  A #1 overall pick that worked out well; I for one am happy he didn't go play football down south, although he happens to play the position that's probably most injury-prone on the diamond.  Here's hoping he stays healthy and puts up some HOF-worthy numbers, which he certainly looks capable of.  I actually have a couple of these because I grabbed a jumbo box and the collation was terrible!

Brian McCann 2003 Topps Traded:  Here's another good catcher who IS healthy and putting up some great numbers.  In some ways, (a healthy) Buster Posey gives him a run for his money, but McCann's great in his own right and seems to love to come up big in the clutch, which you just don't think of when you're talking catchers.

Justin Morneau 2001 Bowman:  Speaking of catchers--just kidding, everybody knows he doesn't play behind the dish anymore and that the "C" on this card stands for "Canadian."  Morneau is an unfortunate example of what a concussion can do to a good player's career, but at least he'll always have the 2006 MVP.

Justin Morneau 2001 Topps Chrome Traded:  You sure as hell won't find packs of this stuff for cheap anymore thanks to all the great cards in it--especially Pujols and Ichiro, who pretty much automatically inflate the price of anything with "2001" in front of it.  I had a pretty nice run with it when it came out, though, and do have the non-Chrome base set, plus a nice collection of Chromes, inserts and other stuff.  The fact that Morneau is one of the LEAST impressive says something.

Mike Mussina 1991 Bowman:  You'll see plenty from this set in my RC collection because it was a pretty good set for rookies, even if it is a bit junk wax-y.  I picked up a box or two of these at a K-Mart by me way, way, way back (probably in the mid-90s) and went to town on the set.  Not a bad Moose, either.

Mike Mussina 1991 Ultra:  Moose was one of my favorite Orioles, so I was sad to see Baltimore's consistently cheapskate/asshole owner run him out of town on a rail when he became a free agent and--gasp!--wanted more money.  Moose was the picture of consistency in his 18 seasons and he finally nabbed a 20-win season in 2008, which, oddly enough, was his final season.  His 270 wins are a nice stat, but he never won any major awards and fell short in both World Series appearances with the Yankees, which makes me think he won't make the Hall.

Hanley Ramirez 2003 Topps Traded:  You might think the Sawx would love to have this guy back, but I still see him more as a fantasy baseball darling than a guy that would cause them to undo the deal that netted them World Series heroes Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell.  Still, Hanley puts up some killer stats at a premium position, so in a way the Marlins' typical cheap-skatedness worked out for them here.

Jose Reyes 2001 Topps Stars:  Reyes has put up some nice numbers in the past, but I wonder if he's got Adrian Beltre syndrome now that he's due a big payday.  I'm not a Mets fan but it would be weird if he and David Wright weren't patrolling the left side of the Mets infield next year.

Mike Scioscia-Fernando Valenzuela 1981 Topps:  Some mike like this card because of fond memories of Fernandomania.  I say screw that noise, that was a couple years before I was even BORN.  No, the key player on this card for me is Scioscia, a catcher I could be proud of as a fan, and a guy that turned into a brilliant, successful manager, without having to resort to breathing through his eyelids.  Also, he was on the Simpsons.

Ichiro 2001 UD MVP:  This is not my best Ichiro RC by far, but the rest are in sets and will have to come later.  I really don't care for the MVP sets now that I've collected some of them, but I really like the shot of Ichiro about to lace another single into center with his trademark swing.

Frank Thomas 1990 Topps:  No, this isn't Frank's best RC either, nor is it the famous error version, but it's easy to come by and not a bad card at all.  It's cool seeing the Big Hurt in his Auburn uni (he really doesn't look all that different from his playing days there), but I can't decide which looks more ridiculous--the runner's uniform or the border of the card.

Jim Thome 1991 Bowman:  Thome is a player who's extremely easy to root for; he consistently puts up great numbers, he's not a jackass and there's really no reason to think he got caught up in the steroid crap.  Some have made comparisons between Harmon Killebrew and Thome and I like how neatly that works out, so I tend to run with that.  Unlike other sluggers who don't really offer anything else, I don't have any problem seeing Thome into the Hall of Fame regardless of his (almost) 600 HR.

Omar Vizquel 1989 Upper Deck:  Omar's 1993 trade to Cleveland became a key moment in the Indians' big run in the mid-to-late 90s.  Unfortunately they ran into the '95 Braves steamroller and the '97 Marlins farewell tour.  He was a very good player for years and the gold standard at the position after Ozzie Smith retired.  Also, this is from '89 Upper Deck, so that has to be worth something.

Joey Votto 2002 Bowman Draft:  Votto's one of the younger players on this list, but I think his MVP season warrants it.  I never did build this set but was apparently lucky enough to pull this guy and not trade/dump it in the years that I owned it.

Barry Zito-Ben Sheets 2000 Topps Chrome:  We'll finish off with a pretty good multiplayer RC.  Neither guy is as bright a star as he was when this card was made but both have put up nice numbers at times.  Plus it's Chrome!

Keep an eye out for more PC RCs in the future--I promise I'll get them up there for you to enjoy.  For now, please shoot me some comments about these--whether you have them or don't, if you like them or hate them, if you'd like to see others, that sort of thing.  Until then, I'll be enjoying tonight's Home Run Derby along with the season premiere of one of my TV favorites, Eureka!

More retail stuff from Meijer

Please forgive me as I begin lots of my posts with "I was at Meijer getting something else and decided to grab some cards..." but, yeah, that's exactly what I did today.  Specifically, I saw one surprisingly unpurchased 2011 Bowman rack pack and four more 2008 UD Heroes blasters (again for $7.50 a pop).

The blasters treated me a bit better this time as I pulled the following:

Numbered parallels of Hamels and Webb were a nice start, then the Sheets was a nice addition, but the best was the Harang #d 039/125.  I even pulled the base Rich Hill this time!  I also snagged eight more Yankee Stadium Legacy cards, including A-Rod and Babe Ruth, which gives me a growing pile of stuff to send BA Benny's way.  All four above are up for grabs anytime, though.
I'll be creating a wantlist for this shortly, and I should have a bunch of dupes available (plus almost all of my Blacks since I'm not collecting those) so hopefully I can get some trading done on these.

The lone Bowman rack pack was more lucrative, as you'll see here:

I first flipped to the Verlander, which I was excited about (#d to 500, which is nice), and the CarGo was a nice bonus (probably headed to Hiflew with some other stuff), but what made me laugh--mainly because I was shooting for the Base Prospects version of it--was that I pulled the Chrome Bryce Harper.  I just got one of these in a great trade with Derek of Tomahawk Chopping and now I have another to do with what I please.  Right now I think my plan is to try to flip it in a deal for the Base Harper and his Bowman's Best, which I still need.  Anyway, a pack well worth my $5.

Merry Strasmas Jr. and stuff that's less-hyped

Thank God the Nats don't pick first next year...
Derek (of Tomahawk Chopping) and I recently completed our first non-break trade, one that was mainly centered around our 2011 Bowman wantlists.  Of primary interest to me was Derek's ability to cut a major swath into my Chrome needs.  In terms of what was changing hands involving 2011 Bowman stuff, I came out way ahead, so I made sure to send a bunch of Bravos Derek's way, including a few hits he had previously coveted (the best being a Mike Minor autograph).  Well Derek responded in kind, AND HOW:  today in the mail I received

the love child of Stephen Strasburg, the Virgin Mary and maybe the ghost of Mickey Mantle, as far as the baseball media are concerned.  Yes, it's the second coming of Strasmas, Bryce Harper's Bowman Chrome Prospects "RC".  The reason I'm so excited is not because I'm any kind of prospector--I'm just doing my best to complete this set like everyone else, along with the "base" Prospects and Bowman's Best, which is just a great looking set that's fun to collect.  This guy is probably the best of the bunch, and it puts me 1/3 of the way towards my set-building goal.  Seeing as how this is currently a very desirable card that's probably worth its weight in sticker autos, I really appreciate Derek being willing to send it my way (where I promise it will remain with the rest of my set, not in an eBay auction titled "Bryce Harper Bowman Chrome RC PSA 10? 1500 HR? L@@k" with a BIN of $1000) so thanks again to a great trader and blogger.

Thorzul rules, politicians drool
For those of you who didn't see Thorzul's post today, first, shame on you for not following his awesome blog, but secondly, go show some support for a guy that (among others) got handed a pretty raw deal thanks to some continued questionable decisions in his state.  Politics aside, (and that's often best among friends, naturally) dude deserved better, as does education in this country in general.  You don't want future generations unable to point out Canada on a map or think that $200 for a pack that includes a scrub sticker auto, quad-single color jersey and serial-numbered scrub RC is exactly what the consumer is begging for, do you?

More trade bait draft II stuff
Update courtesy of the man himself, Tim, including draft order and a hint about the card that'll earn you a free box of UD baseball.

Not enough no-hitters
Anybody catch that gem by Justin Verlander last night?  I'm making it official:  if he throws another no-no this season, I'm officially changing this here blog's name to Too Many Verlanders, and old Curtis will just have to deal with it.  I did it once before and I'll do it again--this time permanently.

Go 'Nucks!
I don't technically have a horse in this race, but it's been fun watching Vancouver's quest for the Cup, a co-worker pulls for them, and they have the advantage of having a former Wolverine star, Jeff Tambellini, possibly playing for them tonight in the clincher, so good luck to the Canucks!

What $6 gets you on the Blowout forums, plus updated 2011 Bowman wantlists

2011 Bowman:  catch the fever (which you've probably done since I'm guessing a lot of you are sick of it):


Before I get to the meat of today's (brief) post, now that I have everything I've acquired in terms of 2011 Bowman in hand, here's my latest lists; please help if possible!

Prospects:  1
Chrome Prospects:  1 17 29 42 62 73 80 92 94 103 105
Bowman's Best Prospects:  1 5 6 10 13 14 21 22
Bowman's Best Veterans:  1 3 5 11 13 15 18


As a reminder, all my baseball wants can now be found here, which is that "Baseball set wantlists" tab above my posts.


Time to send a blank check to the Blowout forums:


Since that's where I get a large chunk of my cards, anyway.  Here's what I got for $6 delivered (yes, I do mean $6):

2008 TriStar Prospects autos of Jason Knapp (Phillies) and Xavier Avery (Orioles), 2007 TriStar autos of Adrian Cardenas (Phillies) and Brett Sinkbeil (Marlins)


I know what some of you might say, but this is only half the haul. (which cost how much again?  $6?)  Plus Knapp and Cardenas (since traded to Oakland) are past Top-100 Baseball America prospects, Avery is Baltimore's current #3 and Sinkbeil rounds out a group that comprises nothing but 1st and 2nd round picks.  That doesn't always end up meaning anything, but keep in mind I consider these the "worst" of the bunch, so that's saying something.

2009 Donruss EEE autos of Dustin Dickerson (Marlins) and Charles Ruiz (Rockies), 2004 Playoff Honors Carlos Vasquez auto RC (Cubs) and 2010 EEE Aspirations auto of Mike Nesseth (Phillies)


Ok, that's a bunch of Phillies, but I loves me some EEE autos, and I REALLY like the Aspirations die-cut versions--last year's design rocked and the blue just looks outstanding.  All four of these sigs are serial-numbered (Vasquez of 675 if you care) by the way.


So here's the part you care about in a post where I show off the eight autographs I picked up for $6 delivered (which is $0.75 per autograph shipped!):  I got all of these for trade bait, so if you see something you like, please let me know, and for an idea of what I want in return, please hit this link or point your mouse at "Singles and player wantlists" above.


</blowoutloveletter#500> 

More 2011 Bowmania (plus Cool Story, Bro!)

On my way to some batting cages this afternoon (gotta enjoy the nice weather somehow!) I decided to stop at a nearby Meijer and give Bowman racks another shot.  I quickly scanned the card section and came up empty, or so I thought.  A guy, clearly older than me--so at least 30s--jumped in front of me out of nowhere and grabbed a huge handful of red rack packs that I eventually determined were Bowmans I had managed to overlook.  No big deal, I'm not that desperate, but this pathetic idiot then proceeded to feel up every single one of those packs.  I decided to look for some other stuff I needed then come back when he was done so I could grab whatever he left.

That's exactly what I did roughly 15 minutes later, only to find that captain jackass was STILL there, feeling up the SAME packs.  What was this guy even looking for?  I thought memorabilia cards were worth a pittance nowadays, and I don't know that it's all that easy to pack search autographs.  So it's bad enough that I or anyone else that wanted to buy some of those didn't get the chance because he was too busy getting fresh with them, but now even if he does leave the ones he doesn't think have anything in them, they'll have been molested by this guy and possibly bent to hell.

My solution:  a card molester registry.  Why not snap pics of all these losers in all their glory and slap them up on a Google map or something so they can be celebrated for their stupidity?  Anyway, that's my Cool Story, Bro...

On to happier news: undeterred by El Molesto above, I hit a different Meijer on the way home (I left the other one without buying anything) and got the stuff I needed--along with seven Bowman racks.  I won't do a full review since that was yesterday's news, literally, but I wanted to show off what I got:

Pretty nice start, right?  Guess what?  These all came in the same pack!  As a reminder, the Greens are #d to 450 and the Blues to 500 (was that really necessary, Topps?  Can we have one numbered to 475 and split the difference?)

A couple more Greens and a few more of the inserts I already pulled.  AJax is a keeper, natch, but everything else is up for grabs.

Four Purple Refractors (1:4, so I beat the odds there)

As for the updated standings for my pursuit of the base sets:

• Base set:  103/220 (47%)
• Prospects:  58/110 (53%)
• Chrome Prospects:  33/110 (30%)

Extras:

• Base:  24
• Prospects:  2 (!)
• Chrome:  20 (including 5 triples)

Since I'm so (justly) hard on Topps when it comes to collation, I give them this much credit after buying two blasters and seven racks (a total of 300 cards):

• I ended up with zero extras in terms of Base and Prospects when I opened the 16 blaster packs
• I had zero duplicates amongst the seven rack packs (obviously when combined with the blasters I had some)
• Overall, my collation has been above-average for Topps

I now feel justified in my guess that rack packs were the better value (20 cards for $5), and I'm going to keep on keepin' on with those until it's no longer worth it.  I'm gonna have to pull my base and Chrome Harpers first, though!

2011 Bowman baseball blaster (x2)

Remember when I used to do some of these sometimes?  Given that they were a major part of the reason I started a blog, I'm annoyed that I've done so few box/blaster reviews the last few months, but there's just been a dearth of stuff I've been interested in.
Enter 2011 Bowman, a perennial love it/hate it set.  I tend to fall more toward the "love it" side because I like collecting the occasional prospect set, not to sell them--that never works out--but because I genuinely have fun doing so.  I don't get the "I bought a box of these and don't know any of the guys--this set is dumb" faction because you know what you're getting into with Topps (then again, you could argue I'm just as dumb for buying Topps and complaining about their trademark terrible collation and QC).
Anyway, I had hoped to score some rack packs since that's where all the action seemed to be, but the Meijer I went to today only had these two blasters.  How did my 2011 baseball blaster debut go?  Read on to find out.


Purchased from/price:  Meijer, $19.99 (x2)
Packs/cards:  Eight packs of 10 cards (x2)
Set size:  220 Base Cards; 110 Prospects; 110 Chrome Prospects
Key features/cards:  Have you heard of this guy Harper?  Lots of rookies, "rookies" and "First Year" cards, plus the usual smattering of autographs and parallels

Base cards:  

Fronts:  Base, Prospect, Chrome Prospect

Backs (Base, Prospect, Chrome Prospect)

• Set completion:
• Base cards:  62/220 (28%)
• Prospects:  32/110 (29%)
• Chrome Prospects:  15/110 (14%)
• Extras:  
• Base cards:  0/62
• Prospects:  0/32
• Chrome Prospects:  14/29 (48%)

I was thrilled as I was sorting these and came out with zero Base and Prospect doubles since I focus on those way more than the Chromes anyway.  Then I went to sort the Chromes, and while it had felt like I pulled a few doubles, I had no idea almost half of them were extra!  As much as that bugs me, it's nice to be almost 30% done with the non-Chrome base stuff after two blasters.

However, a special note, because this happened:  I opened one pack that was shorted one Chrome card, and the one Chrome the pack contained was pretty chewed up, like-a so:

The top circle is a scratch; the second is a pretty major crease that's hard to see here; the third is also a pretty nice crease.  Lying prone, this card looks like a topographical map of a flyover state that isn't Iowa.
Topps made up for shorting that pack by kicking in an extra Chrome in the next one, but first someone let their kid use it as a teething ring:

Luckily (or, not really, given my Chrome collation) both of these were dupes.  Big thumbs down, though.

Inserts:  37

Bowman's Best:  2, Miguel Sano and Ryan Braun (1:6, 2-3 expected)

Bowman's Brightest:  2, Mike Trout and Tyson Auer (1:8, 2 expected)

Finest Futures:  4, Carlos Gonzalez, Troy Tulowitzki, Domonic Brown, Buster Posey (1:4, 4 expected)

Gold parallel:  16, including the ones above (Granderson!) (1:pack, 16 expected)

Green parallel:  2, Cole Hamels (#105/450) and Ronald Bermudez (#275/450) (1:13, 1 expected)

International parallel:  2, David DeJesus and Brent Sinkbeil (1:8, 2 expected)

Purple Chrome Prospect Refractor:  1, Eric Thames (#567/700) (1:26, 0 expected)

Topps 100:  6, all above (1:3, 5-6 expected)

Topps of the Class:  2, Lucas Duda, Chris Carter (1:8, 2 expected)

I did pretty well here--I got every insert I was due, plus an extra Green parallel and the Purple Refractor beat the odds for me.  I'm most excited about the Bowman's Best set--people love them or hate them, but I enjoyed putting together the '94 set they're patterned after, so a little nostalgia doesn't hurt.  That total insert number is inflated by the Golds, but still, it's pretty cool averaging more than two per pack.  Note to 1:pack Gold parallels:  GO AWAY!

Hits: 0

It seems like these are being nabbed more often from racks and value packs when it comes to retail.  The easiest pulls are 1:42, which isn't terrible, except of course that means about 1:5 blasters.

Best card:  My favorite was the Thames Purple Refractor, mainly on looks.  Thames was the Jays' 7th round pick in '08 and showed some nice power last year to go with some pretty good stats this year.

Quality control and collation:  15/20  Ten for the Base/Prospects and five for the inserts, zero for the Chromes.  I freakin' got doubles of almost every single Chrome I pulled, and two of them were wrecked!  Big thumbs up for the base collation, though.
Base set: 17/20  Not exactly a big departure from recent Bowman sets, but that's ok.  As usual, I'm more drawn to the design of the Prospects set.  330 seems like a reasonable total as usual for the base plus prospects, and I'm happy to ignore the Chromes as I usually do.  
Inserts:  13/15   While some of the sets (such as International, Topps of the Class, Finest Futures and Bowman's Brightest) don't do anything for me, I really like the Best and non-Gold/non-International parallels, plus the Topps 100 aren't bad.  You sure do get a lot.  Negative points only for the always worthless Golds, the ToppsTown of Bowman.
Hits and extras:  10/15  Points based on potential since I've seen some pretty nice stuff get pulled, including Superfractors, great color parallels, and autographs, including the latest little baby baseball Jesus, Bryce Harper.
Value:  25/30  Out of the two boxes, I averaged 31 base, 16 Prospects, 15 Chrome and 18 inserts.  Plus I got to bust eight packs (twice).  I'm satisfied with that for $20, though a hit wouldn't have hurt. 

Overall:  80/100  As usual, one of my reviews falls in that B-C-minus range, but I was reasonably happy with these.  I think my biggest requests would be for Topps to remove the Chrome from this set, then ditch the tremendously useless Golds (or just not make them 1:pack).  From what I've seen, I think you're going to want to go with rack packs, but I don't see anyone regretting grabbing a blaster of these.


Just about all the inserts are available as usual as parts of larger trades, but I'm not putting together a base wantlist until I figure out if I want more of these.