2015 Sportlots purchases: more than three quarters worth of Sweet Lou

I think it's about time that I finally get around to posting all the Lou Whitakers I landed from some Sportlots packages in the last few weeks:

1984 Donruss;  1985 Leaf;  1987 O-Pee-Chee

1988 Leaf;  1989 Sportflics;  1990 Sportflics

1992 Topps Gold;  1992 Upper Deck Gold Hologram;  1993 O-Pee Chee

Lots of variety here:  vintage, Canadian, holograms, and useless parallels (the UD card has a gold hologram on the back, trust me).  My favorites in the scan are the Diamond King (because duh) and then the Sportflics cards because they're always interesting.

1994 O-Pee-Chee;  1994 Triple Play;  1995 Collector's Choice

1995 Collector's Choice SE Silver Signature;  1995 Donruss;  1995 Emotion

1995 Flair;  1995 Fleer;  1995 Pacific

This is actually kind of a blah group of cards.  I do like the multiple fielding shots, though, and it's kind of fun to see some of the stuff Fleer threw out there in the 90s to see what would stick.  Spoiler alert:  Flair lived on in several incarnations while Emotion pretty much disappeared.  I'll award the Collector's Choice SE insert the best photo with the Emotion card as a reasonably close second.

1995 SP Championship Die-Cuts;  1995 Stadium Club Super Team World Series;  1995 Stadium Club Virtual Reality

1995 Topps D3;  1995 Topps Embossed Golden Idols;  1995 Ultra Gold Medallion

1996 Collector's Choice Silver Signature;  2004 UD Legends Timeless Teams #234 and #271

Now we're back on track, with eight pretty good cards surrounding an absolute turd.  Topps' D3 was their too-late attempt to try to compete with Sportflix, but besides the stupid logo I kind of like how they look.  The Embossed set is one for which I'll never forgive them, though.  Embossed sets rarely look presentable, and this one rates a Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas on the ugliness scale; the gold parallel proves that you can't polish a turd.
I've always enjoyed the "tribute"-type cards UD and Fleer made around this time period, though, especially when that effort resulted in something like the Collector's Choice card above.  And finally, UD's Timeless Teams set was a fantastic idea that was executed very well.  There was never really any question which two teams they'd choose for Sweet Lou, and I hope I can track down the various autographed versions of those two beauts.

1988 Topps Big;  1990 Topps Big;  1991 Topps Micro;  1992 Topps Micro;  1993 Topps Micro;  1994 Fleer Extra Bases

Finally, here are the oddball-sized cards that warranted a scan of their own.  It's fun having all of them on one page since it really messes with your sense of scale--nothing here is a standard size at all!

That's 33 new Whitakers, and adding them to my existing collection gives me a new total of 221/292, good for more than 75%!  A large chunk of those I'm missing are going to be tough-to-find hits so for now I'll take what I can get and see how much I can track down of the stuff made before he retired, but I'll keep plugging away!

Three up, three down: at a low Price

This is something new I've been meaning to try:  a feature where I cover three positive and negative events in the hobby and my favorite sports.  Let's see how it goes.  Look, I even did up an MSPaint for the occasion:

I'll start with the negative first since it's nicer to end on a positive note.

Three down:

1.  Panini comes out on Topps:  Looks like football cards will be a Panini-opoly starting in 2016.  For those of you who know how much I bash Topps, don't assume I'm in favor of this--less competition is always bad (coughISPscough), and you would think the NFLPA would have learned from the massive mistake made by the MLBPA to hand Topps the keys to the kingdom.  Good luck finding any positives here, other than maybe some laughs when Topps inevitably posts some hypocritical comments about the ills of exclusive licenses!

2.  Repack products are re-ripoffs:  This Blowout thread from a few weeks ago showed a break of yet another repack product, this one called "Super Deluxe Box Breaker Edition."  The discussion centered on the breaker pulling pretty much the best hit in the product, a Jose Abreu Superfractor, and how much of a hit to the wallet collectors take when purchasing the product and not pulling that winning lottery ticket, especially with the exorbitant price of the box (apparently around $7000 for 10 hits with lots of other useless gimmicks).  These products really don't add anything to the hobby, at least not for collectors, but I'm sure the manufacturers are laughing all the way to the bank while breakers chase a few extremely high-end hits.

3.  Tony Dungy avoids distractions, except when they're convenient:  Jeez, what's the deal with the NFL right now?  Ray Rice gets a slap on the wrist from the league for assaulting his wife while comparatively minor drug offenders suffer much harsher penalties, and then previously-respected coach and commentator Tony Dungy says he wouldn't have drafted Missouri DL Michael Sam, the All-American SEC DPOY, because he could be a "distraction."  "Things will happen," he explained.  "Things" such as an openly gay player being part of the league, causing an uptick in purchases of fainting couches, apparently.  Is he worried about the locker room, maybe?  I don't think he should--this excellent piece from ESPN's Body Issue makes sports locker rooms sound extremely homoerotic in a frat boy sort of way.  No, this is obviously Dungy's sour grapes because the GayRoller is coming for him and the rest of America.  You may as well just come out and say what you mean--that's what's so great about free speech.  Also, for people who aren't backwards-thinking hypocrites (that "distraction" theme seems awfully familiar when it comes to sports...), it makes it easier to identify people you can safely tune out.

Three Up:

1.  Gint-a-cuffs II:  The Second One:  I know this isn't really the second year of Gint-a-cuffs, I just wanted to make what will soon be a dated reference to the Sharknado sequel.  I have exactly zero interest in Topps' A&G product for a multitude of reasons, but I recognize how great this blog national holiday is for the hobby, so I welcome it with open arms, even if I'll never participate.  Enjoy, guys, and good luck!

2.  Baseball Hall of Fame lives up to its name:  This year, Cooperstown welcomed six new plaques to its famed Hall, and the list of names is mind-boggling:  Frank Thomas, Tom Glavine, and Greg Maddux, as well as manager trio Bobby Cox, Tony LaRussa, and Joe Torre.  Other deserving names aren't on that list, but hopefully those wrongs will be righted next year, and for now we should enjoy this impressive sextet.  I don't know that collectors needed any further incentive to collect any of the three star players, but Hall entry usually provides a nice boost, and those guys clearly deserved it.  As a child of the 90s, I applaud this monumental induction enthusiastically--congratulations to all!

3.  The Tigers pay a low price for a high Price!:  This is probably the one you knew was coming.  2014 proved to be one of the more exciting trade deadlines (and months of July) in recent memory, especially with the A's making multiple blockbuster trades.  Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski appears to have skunked everyone else, though, with an amazingly bold deal that brings Rays ace and #1 deadline prize David Price to Detroit in exchange for Austin Jackson, Drew Smyly, and a minor league SS prospect.  I came to admire Jackson when I finally came around on the Granderson trade years ago, and I'll fondly remember him, but I won't necessarily miss his maddeningly inconsistent bat, plus he's a free agent after 2015 and likely wouldn't have fit in the budget anyway.  Smyly's a bigger long-term loss since he's so cheap and under control for several more years.  But the immediate fact is that Detroit's rotation is scarier than standing between Prince Fielder and a buffet, and the team was able to be creative in landing Price despite a dearth of quality prospects.  I'll likely continue to collect at least Jackson's Tigers hits, and I don't know about Price because he may be gone after 2015 (or sooner?), but in terms of the on-field team, I'm very excited about the playoffs now!

Complete sets: 2006 Topps Rookie of the Week

It's been a few months since I last posted one of the complete sets sent to me by the legendary BA Benny in his last trade package to me before signing off (and more than a year since that mammoth trade).  Short of content for the moment, I thought it might be fun to look at another set, with this one being much newer than the last.

Today's set is Topps' 2006 Rookie of the Week promotion.  According to BaseballCardPedia (always a wonderful source for more info about sets), "This 25-card set was distributed exclusively through Topps Home Team Advantage dealer network. A new card was available each week, and to acquire that week's card collectors had to purchase a pack of Topps cards from their local HTA dealer.  Each card is a reprint of the player's Topps rookie card, but with a different photo then the original."

The same set/different picture is something Topps had started doing more of around that time, especially with the contemporary Fan Favorites set, which are far superior to the more recent Archives product that focuses on just a couple designs.  The monopolists did a pretty nice job of player selection overall, with its 24 different players (more on that shortly) comprising mostly retired HOFers along with a few modern stars.  As you'll see, nobody in this set will raise any eyebrows in 20 years.

Here's a look at the 25-card set:

The first group starts with Topps Baseball Tebow, Mickey Mantle, naturally, and then another eight Yankees right aft--oh wait, he's the only Yankee in this group of nine!  Wow, that's actually kind of nice.  I think Topps did well to jump all over the different decades instead of making these a lot more predictable and going chronologically.  The alternate photos are pretty good too.  I do have to laugh at the pair of assholes Bonds and Clemens going back-to-back, though. 

First things first--I love that Killer, and the design guys understood the history of the product enough to make his card look great even with alternate images.  The rest of the group sticks to stars from the 60s-80s except for Ichiro, who'll join the other guys in the Hall soon enough.  Of the formerly multiplayer RCs with other players cropped out appearing in this set--Ryan, Ripken, Seaver, Bench, and Schmidt--only Schmidt's card really looks weird after the edit, so that's a plus.  And hey, still no other Yankees so far!

With Jeter's impending retirement, this is another group that will be 100% HOFers very soon--and by the way, I in no way argue against his inclusion here.  My hat's off to Jeter and his excellent career, in addition to being a rare star that never really acted like a douche or got caught in any terrible scandal.  I love the choice of Gibson as well since he really doesn't get enough hobby love nowadays, plus he's one of just four pitchers in this set.  The trio of 83s that went consecutively--Gwynn/Boggs/Sandberg--was a cool outcome, though I'm not sure if it was done on purpose.  And finally, my only real complaint about the set:  a second Mantle card.  Topps, we get it--you're obsessed--but in a set this small, would it KILL you to give us 25 different players?  At least you're consistent in your suckiness.

This is still a fun set to look at once in a while, though, and I'm curious to hear some opinions from those of you interested in enough to comment, so have at it!

Topps is the Shia LaBeouf of baseball cards

Or Carlos Mencia, if you like.  Basically, they suck at what they do unless what they're doing is ripping off others and disappointing their customers.

What made me jump to that conclusion this time?  Just another box break of 2014 Topps on Blowout.  A guy managed to pull this boring-ass Puig relic from a blaster,

(SO exciting, I know) and I guess I can't blame him for being a little amped since at least it wasn't one of the 50 new parallels that exist this year.  All I had to do was eyeball this hit for two seconds before I immediately thought of

2001 Pacific Private Stock's Game Gear relics.  Those of you who are younger or weren't collecting that year might not remember it, but this was one of the earlier one-relic-per-pack products back when that was something almost unheard of.  Maybe Topps is counting on people to have forgotten these.  Congratulations to them for picking one of the older designs that hasn't aged very well while honoring the legacy of the boring-ass swatch.

That crap just adds to the clown show that is 2014 Topps, which includes the aforementioned parallelarrhea, and this ridiculousness:

(Taken from this eBay auction)

Wait--did you--did you just...I mean, hang on........did you SERIOUSLY reprint a rookie card from TWO YEARS AGO?!

Welcome (back) to Detroit, Brad Ausmus!

This afternoon the Tigers held a press conference to announce the retired Jim Leyland's successor as manager of the Detroit Tigers.  After speculation and interviews included Lloyd McClendon, Tim Wallach, Dusty Baker, and others, Detroit tabbed former catcher Brad Ausmus to lead next year's club.  The 44-year-old was a 48th round pick by the Yankees in '87 who was grabbed by the Rockies in the 1992 expansion draft and flipped to the Padres the following year.  After about three and a half seasons he was sent to the Tigers, but he played just 75 games for them before being included in a deal with Jose Lima to the Astros for future closer Todd Jones and others.  Detroit got him back before the '99 campaign (in which he made his only All-Star appearance) and kept him through the 2000 season before sending him back to Houston AGAIN.

Brad finally found some stability there, staying with the club from 2001-2008.  He was part of playoff teams in '01, '04, and '05, the latter being the World Series showdown with the White Sox that Chicago won easily.  Ausmus then signed with the Dodgers and appeared in 57 more games over the 2009-10 seasons before hanging 'em up for good.

During his 18-year career he was a very well-respected backstop with a reputation as a defense-first catcher who was brilliant with his team's pitching staff.  He earned rave reviews for both his glove and his leadership (though not his rather anemic bat) and is yet another example of a well-respected catcher being promoted to a manager position despite a lack of any previous experience.  Detroit had plenty of candidates with lots of years in the game, so they obviously saw something they liked in the former Tiger above all else.  Perhaps after the recent success overseen by former manager Leyland, GM Dave Dombrowski went for a likable field general to build on that work instead of a grizzled veteran or rah-rah teacher type.

In any event, I'm excited, not only because the guy's a former Tiger (and not Dusty Baker!), but because I like the shift to a younger guy to put a very talented team over the top.  Will he be able to solve some of Detroit's most glaring issues from last season, such as the bullpen and an inconsistent offense?  Time will tell.  For now, all I can say is welcome back to Detroit, Brad!

By the way, the card you see above is the only Ausmus Tigers issue I had handy, but it's an especially good one as it hails from the 2000 Stadium Club set.  Stadium Club, if you began collecting after 2008, was a premium set Topps introduced in the early 90s that featured A-plus photography and a very pleasing full-bleed design.  It was so well liked that Topps axed it after 2008, because screw you, collectors!  Anyway, this is a perfect example of the greatness of Stadium Club, and perhaps best of all, this one happens to feature a play at the plate!

Attention Allen & Ginter hobby box busters: check your lids

I'm no fan of this set, or Gypsy Queen, which is the same difference as far as I'm concerned, but since so many of you are busting hobby boxes of A&G right now, I wanted to alert you to a thread I caught on Blowout that's relevant to your interests.

Apparently, rippers extraordinaire brentandbecca noticed something while bulldozing through a ridiculous 384 boxes:  three of the box LIDS contained rare 1/1 cards.  The good:  this is a very cool, unexpected bonus for you die-hards that bust boxes of the stuff every year.  The bad:  nobody seemed to have been aware of this, and a number of these cards may come out damaged, if not entirely thrown out with the bathwater, as it were, by collectors who tear into their newest obsession.

I lean on the positive side, although I think Topps could have done a bit more to prevent damage by unsuspecting box-rippers.  Those of you who've opened one or more hobby boxes should definitely check them for these cards if you haven't already.

That magazine with the made-up prices and delusional editor has more details on the story here.  Much better hobby news source the Cardboard Connection also has more on the news.  Good luck to you collectors, and well wishes to all the Gint-a-Cuffs participants this year!

2013 Score Football rack packs (x4)

I've been searching high and low for 2013 Upper Deck football packs at my various local Meijers, and while I haven't found them yet, I did turn up some racks of 2013 Score today instead.  From what I'd seen get pulled from these, they were worth a flier, so I nabbed four of them for $4.99 each.

Score promises 52 cards in each pack, which appeals to the set-builder in me, though to be fair, a ton of those are rookies.  Here's the pair of Wolverines I picked so I can show off vertical and horizontal fronts:

I like the design again this year (as usual), which actually incorporates foil for the first time in a while--that can be found in the bottom score logo and designs around that part of the card, though it comes up darker in the scans.  I don't love how the name/position/team/logo bars come out when oriented vertically on horizontal cards because they just look dumb, and I also think they take up too much real estate overall, but those nits aside I think Score did well here.

Here's a look at a card back.  Quite a few look like this due to players having been in the league for quite a while, but kudos to Score for getting every year on there.  On cards where space isn't at quite so much of a premium, the card numbers appear in horizontal ovals.

One thing I tend to love about Score is that the way they arrange their sets, and as is standard, teams are grouped and sorted alphabetically, starting with the Cardinals.  This year, they incorporated a few subsets, two of which used to be (lame) inserts:   "Franchise" and "Future Franchise."  "Airmail" shows off top QBs while "Road to the Super Bowl" focuses on last season's champs.  Cards 1-220 are normal base, the Airmails fall 221-252, Road to the Super Bowl 253-266, Franchise 267-298, and Future Franchise 299-330.  Again, I love how these are grouped instead of strewn about the set all willy-nilly (TOPPS).

This year's set features some truly outstanding photography.  Topps usually seems to have some nice enough photos, but these are just crazy good--look at that action!  This is where the horizontal cards especially shine, and shots like those are enough to overcome the terrible layout of the components next to them.

I pulled 13 "regular" rookies, and you see the first nine here.  As is traditional, these are card #s 331-440, making for a huge rookie set.  Every image appears to be a close-up shot of a player in his (airbrushed) college unis, and while the lack of logos is a downer, the throwback to Score's old rookie design is a plus.

I included the back of Fisher's rookie here, plus the other four normal rookies, a pair of Blue parallels, and the two other inserts I pulled, "Hot Rookies."  I don't understand why inserts have the "RC" logo on them, but if someone wants to believe that's what they are, more power to them.  I didn't really care about the relative dearth of inserts here because I appreciate the base set more, and Score's inserts have traditionally been pretty low-end anyway.

Out of my four packs, I pulled 161 base cards of the first 330, plus an additional 13 rookies, for a total of about 40% of the set--not too bad from four racks.  I also ended up with 31 dupes, which isn't awesome, but not quite Topps bad either.  I'm thinking I may grab a few more of these, maybe if I can wait until Meijer has cards 20% off again.  I would like to finish up the set, though I'm sure I'll take my time with the rookies as they surely won't come cheap.  You know I'll want to grab Denard Robinson's soon, though!

Here's a quick summary of what I thought was good and bad:
+ Pros:  GREAT photos, pretty good design, nice backs, solid player selection, very few lame inserts, set grouped by team and subsets, pretty good value.
- Cons:  Horizontal design is weird, bottom/right portion of card takes up too much space, TOO MANY ROOKIES.

The four inserts are available for trades as well as my dupes, some of which will head out in future trade packages.  Don't forget I may have more in the future as well!  If you're working on this set now, though, please feel free to shoot me a wantlist.

While I'm talking about Score, I also picked up some 2008 clearance racks in the last couple of weeks and you can find my current wantlist on the football wantlist page.  I also have a TON of extras from those and would love to trade!

2013 Topps Series 1 rack pack

With my birthday upcoming, my brother and sis-in-law hit me up with a few nice presents during my quick stop in Milwaukee a couple weeks ago.  One of them, since my brother knows me so well, was a pack of baseball cards!  A rack of 2013 Topps Series 1 to be specific.  I won't bore you further since you surely just want to see the goods; here they are:

First, notes on availability of these cards:  the Emerald Santiago is PC, and therefore I'm keeping it.  Everything else is up for grabs, though, so just leave me a comment mentioning what you want.  Please note that if you send me a comment from an account that isn't tied to an email address I can reply to, or don't at least include some way of contacting you, I'm not going to hunt you down and your card(s) will remain up for grabs.

Second, just to see if any of you are still paying attention, the first person to comment and tell me which book and movie I'm referencing in the title and first sentences of this TMM post will have that Million Dollar Chase unused code emailed to them.

Now, for my quick thoughts on the cards:

• I could use SO much less border on the base set--I feel like I'm missing at least half of each photo.  I guess nobody does it like Upper Deck!
• The League Leader cards still bore me as usual.
• There's some nice action shots this year, including Seager's and Descalso's.
• Out of the group of inserts, the only ones I cared for at all were the Emerald (not my favorite color parallel, but not bad) and the Mini.  I still think the "exclusive" retail parallels are annoying cash grabs.  The other ones just kind of run together for me.

So while I can't say I ended up with much at all that I'll end up keeping, most important for me here was the fun of ripping open yet another pack!  And in this case, that's enough for me to say that it wasn't just the thought that counted, but the execution as well.  Long live pack-ripping (and trade bait)!

A PWE from CB, a BA Benny teaser, and @floppscards

CynicalBuddha's PWE is anything but plain:

I received a couple card-related items in my mail yesterday, and the more manageable of the two (more in a moment) came from Mark/CynicalBuddha of Collector's Crack.  Apparently he was fairly pleased with the package I sent his way recently, so he decided to send me a few more Tigers, not that he needed to do so after our last trade.  Still, it was a nice PWE surprise on an otherwise dreary Monday:

I think at this point everyone in the civilized world knows these are the Gold and Emerald parallels from 2013 Topps.  While Delmon is now part of the group of players traditionally called "former Tigers," his exploits last fall were enough to sway me to hold onto his Detroit cards. (At least until I forget why I'm keeping him and send them to someone else!)  So in short, this was a perfect kind of PWE trade to open up after the first work day of the week.  Thanks, Mark!  I definitely look forward to more trading in the future.

BA Benny tradesplosion preview!:

While he's not back among the land of bloggers (or, I guess, Blogoland, since that's one of his favorite terms), Mike from BA Benny's Stuff and Junk sent me a trade package that I've been looking forward to for a while--not that I don't understand why he just got around to sending it considering the 1980s Hollywood cocaine party's worth of snow and assorted bad weather that got dumped on his state.  As always, he made it worth the wait, and while it'll take me a while to get everything scanned and posted (I don't even know where to begin right now!) I wanted to at least give you guys a teaser of what's upcoming:

Medium flat-rate box = SCORE!

Three boxes, a boxed set, wrapped-up stuff, cardboard-protected stuff, and MegaBarry

THAT'S A LOTTA NUTS CARDS!

So, yeah, that should be a lot of fun!  Stay tuned for what I'm betting will be a series of posts about one of my largest trade packages ever from my #1 favorite trader ever.

More like...FLOPPS trading cards--oh wait...:

I don't know how I missed this up until now, but someone made what just may be a parody of Topps' Twitter account.  See, based on what's being said, it's not completely out of the question that @floppscards is the new official mouthpiece for the dictatorial card company.  I mean, they're certainly consistent with Topps' messages to and sentiments towards collectors:

Spooky.  Anyway, the whole reason I found out about this account was reading Blowout's boards as usual.  Oh sure, there's multiple threads a day about the impossibility of getting through to customer service at Topps (and, to be fair, Panini).  Still, some collectors had found a reasonable method of resolving their cases of missing hits, long overdue redemptions and the like:  tweeting at Topps' support account, @toppssupport.  Some chose to directly message Topps there while others, usually with more success, made their requests public, so that at least in theory, Topps' hand would be forced.

Well, a Blowout member noticed today that the @toppssupport account has gone the way of Topps Total, leaving lots of collectors in the lurch.  While it's possible something will step up to take its place by the time you read this, or not long after, this is a second black eye on Topps face when it comes to customer service. I'm pretty sure that means they've run out of eyes.  The company already does a horrible job of packing out its products, considering the multitude of reports of missing hits, and it appears as though they insert redemption cards as a practical joke on consumers as they fail to fulfill those in a timely fashion, if ever.  More recently, they've also taken a reputation hit after completely messing the Turkey Red distribution to disappointed buyers.  Still, at least people had the recourse of working with someone through @toppssupport instead of dealing with the most common experience I've heard so far:  trying to call, getting stuck on hold for a half hour or more, then either leaving a message that's never responded to, or failing to leave a message because that box is already full of other collector complaints about Topps' shitty QA.

So considering the fact that Topps has killed the most effective means of customer support while keeping the propaganda machine humming along, is it so far-fetched to believe that @floppscards is simply a misspelled official Topps account?

Parallelarrhea: too much of a good thing?

If you get this reference you're awesome.

A couple weeks ago my first post on things I love about the hobby discussed how much I enjoyed the invention of the Refractor, an insert I still value today.  It led to the creation of one of the most popular types of parallel cards among collectors, not to mention a reason for Topps and other manufacturers to dive in headfirst to parallels as inserts.  In many ways this was a good thing for hobbyists like us because it's resulted in some very cool cards in our PCs, be they shiny, artistic, ultra-rare, or all of the above.  But as we get further into 2013, it's worth asking:  are we at a saturation point with parallels?

"R" is for "red" and "rare"

As someone who doesn't really chase complete insert sets and isn't the devoted team collector many of you are, this isn't an issue that was on my radar at all until recently.  Last year as I sought a new challenge more interesting than "Amass as many Michigan hits as possible," I took a look at the complete print runs of some of my favorite Michigan Baseball alumni and thought it would be fun to pursue a "supercollection" of each of them.  (For my purposes, that meant one each of every non-1/1 card (which would just be a bonus) since in my collecting world, more than one person is allowed to be a supercollector of a player.)  This isn't supposed to be an extremely easy project, even if I was only chasing one player, and I wouldn't want it any other way; one of the most interesting aspects of collecting is working on a specific collecting goal, making it public on a blog and/or message board, and enjoying meeting and trading with new collectors, some of whom have the same interests as you.  That makes the project and the hobby extremely enjoyable.

"Shiny":  I don't believe there's a power in the 'verse that can stop them

However, as I've pursued my player-collecting goals recently, especially when I've been able to buy large chunks of cards from COMC, I've noticed how many parallels each card has, and it really feels like things are getting out of hand.  On Monday over on TMM I showed off nine more new cards of pitcher Clayton Richard--six from 2011 Topps Chrome and three from 2011 Topps flagship--the third in a series of posts covering Richard rainbows I'm pursuing as part of his PC.  In posting those, I realized that his Topps Chrome base card has nine Refractor parallels--NINE!  Similarly, his 2011 Topps base card includes ANOTHER nine parallel versions.  Considering we're now dealing with just Topps as our only licensed card manufacturer, it's crazy that players could have this many different versions in any given set--and that's not taking into account that Topps does this in so many of their products; don't forget Bowman and Chrome, plus Topps Mini, just to name a few more.

Blue:  don't be sad--you just pulled a Refractor!

Don't get me wrong:  I'm a big fan of each player I collect, and I pull for them to appear in as many sets as possible, because that gives me more to collect, and more importantly, that generally signifies that each player is having enough success to be included.  The problem here, though, is overload.  Whereas a few years ago I might have needed to pick up as many as five parallels for my PC, if that, my work and money spent might be doubled.  I wouldn't take issue with this if, say, Topps flagship and Upper Deck each produced five parallels of their own, but that's clearly not the case here.  Would you like to see a list of each of the nine Refractors Clayton Richard has in 2011 Topps Chrome?:

• Atomic Refractor (/225)
• Blue Refractor (/99)
• Gold Refractor (/50)
• Orange Refractor
• Purple Refractor (/499)
• Red Refractor (/25)
• Refractor
• Sepia Refractor (/99)
• X-Fractor

The first thing noticeable here is that there are two cards numbered to 99.  Why is that necessary?  Next, there's the existence of the "Atomic" and "X-Fractors," which are practically redundant:

Most of you probably already know that the X-Fractor is on the left and the Atomic version is to the right.  If you hadn't seen these before, though, and didn't know the difference, would you notice, and better yet, would you care?  And while we're at it, do we really need SIX different colors/styles (including Sepia) of Refractor parallels?  Red and Orange, for example, are redundant, but Topps has been inserting the Oranges as a "bonus" in rack packs.  Purple and blue are also fairly similar, and I wouldn't be shocked to learn that most people would favor Blue--which can really make for a stunning card--over purple.  Why not narrow things down to a regular Refractor, Blue, Gold, and maybe one other color or style that could change yearly?  I would argue that these excessive versions just don't bring anything to the table and in fact hurt the product by creating a glut of inserts.

Just as bad, if not worse, are the many versions found in the flagship set.  The base card parallels include:

• Black (/60)
• Cognac Diamond Anniversary
• Diamond Anniversary
• Diamond Anniversary Factory Set Limited Edition
• Factory Set Red Border (/245)
• Gold (/2011)
• Hope Diamond Anniversary (/60)
• Target
• Wal Mart Black Border

Another nine, and another bunch of extraneous cards.  First and foremost, the retail-exclusive Target and Wal Mart cards need to go.  There's nothing good to say about them and there never will be, especially when you're forced to try to pull them yourself or pay a premium over the base version for a card that's barely different.  Besides that, while I understand the idea of doing something special for the Diamond giveaway, was it really necessary to insert barely different numbered versions in regular factory sets?  And while I understand Topps was rightfully celebrating 60 years of making cards, did we need three different "Diamond Anniversary" cards, two of which were unnumbered and one which has the same print run as the reasonable Black parallel?  I would stick with Gold, Black, the giveaway set, and ONE of the Diamond Anniversary versions, none of which should look awful like the Cognacs:

This is the obligatory part of the post where I want to remind you that I'm not specifically trying to pick on Topps, at least not this time.  While we're all stuck with the consequences of their monopoly today, they're far from the only offenders of parallelarrhea in card-production history.  In others' cases, it may not be an offense such as producing too many parallels with the same picture, but instead one or more extremely useless versions, such as Score's one-per-pack Glossy cards.  But how many times did you pull or pick up an Artist's Proof, Press Proof, Gold Press Proof, Museum Collection, Cooperstown Collection, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, etc., and not say to yourself "Jeez, ANOTHER one?"  I can't even open a Bowman product anymore because the one-per-pack Golds are such a stupid waste of a card (remember set-building?) that I'd rather not waste my money.

The Refractor:  can't go wrong with the classics

But I know Topps can get it right, because as far as I'm concerned, there was a point not long ago when they WERE doing it right.  They took what was generally a nice design with excellent photography, then enhanced it a few different ways--the fan-favorite Refractor (maybe even a blue one!), a Gold version numbered to the year it was produced, or maybe a rare Black--making for a card that was both nice to look at and significant to pull or purchase.  Learn from the lessons of the glut of card-production in the 1990s and get things back to reasonable levels and collectors will be much better for it, while continuing to spend their collecting money on your products.  Your move, Topps.

Too many Topps

Although other manufacturers have tried to wriggle around the limitations, let's be honest--Topps has the baseball card monopoly and that's our current reality.  Fortunately, for all my railing against what I consider their declining quality (giveashitness, if you will), they do produce some cool stuff that can appeal to a wide group of collectors, and I think many of your posts bear that out.

So while I think it's overall a negative for the hobby, one that should be righted before long, I've essentially made my peace with Topps' stranglehold on the baseball card market.  Something they CAN do to make things better for someone like me, though, is to consolidate their vast array of products to the point where they can maintain a good level of choice while still trying to provide good value (and not drive collectors insane with 200 cards of their favorite player every year).

While flipping through Beckett's OPG list of Topps sets from the last two years (yes, Beckett still sucks ass), I put together this quick list of Topps Brands (hopefully I didn't miss any):

• A&G
• Archives
• Bowman + Chrome
• Bowman Draft + Chrome
• Bowman Platinum
• Bowman Sterling
• Finest
• Flagship
• Gypsy Queen
• Heritage
• Lineage
• Marquee
• Mini
• Museum Collection
• Opening Day
• Pro Debut
• Tier One
• Topps Chrome
• Topps Update
• Tribute
• Triple Threads

Well that's certainly a lot to choose from, especially when you consider that each is littered with endless inserts, parallels, and in some cases, extraneous non-sports cards (I'm looking at you, A&G, Gypsy Queen, et al).  Like I said, I think choice is great, but there comes a point where giving Topps the monopoly because of collector confusion over too many products looks stupid.  Add to that the fact that Topps produces a lot of cookie-cutter sets, plus way too many high-risk/low-reward offerings (such as anything with "Platinum" or "Sterling" at the end) and in some ways things look WORSE for collectors compared to pre-monopoly times.

But this isn't one of those posts where I bitch about Topps and move on to something else--I'm finally doing what many of you have already done well:  offering my opinion on which sets Topps should produce each year.

1.  A&G + Gypsy Queen:
I think I've made it pretty clear that I'm no fan of either of these sets, but I certainly respect other collectors' excitement for A&G to arrive each year, and as such, I definitely think it belongs.  Actually, I almost think it would be cool if Topps got involved in Gint-a-cuffs as a tip of the cap to one of the cooler innovations of the card blogging world.

Since I don't collect either, I supposed my arguments don't carry as much weight, but I'd respectfully request that A&G limit the non-sports subjects to inserts instead of muddying up the base set with F-listers like Wee Man. I'd also like to see the insert explosion culled a little bit so people don't need to buy eight boxes to get 70% of the set.  And while we're at it, can we ditch GQ's lame non-sport-in-fact-not-really-anything "relics"?

Other than that, this is a good spot for some of Topps' more unorthodox ideas, like the Ginter Code contest.  So combine those two sets into one, with the above modifications, and of course keep the minis in play.

2.  Bowman Chrome:
Notice I didn't say just "Bowman," and why should I?  Everybody knows the Chrome RC is the RC to get when it comes to anyone.  Topps experimented a few times with inserting a couple Chrome cards into base packs, and now it's become the norm, making it more difficult to collect either, and forcing one or the other on collectors that only prefer one.  Well, there's obviously no reason to continue non-Chrome Bowman anymore, so let's ditch it and keep what the people prefer.

The biggest difference here would be making this an entirely rookie and prospect set.  There are other brands that can offer the Chrome-type look for the veterans, and this is a rookie-centric set anyway, so why even maintain the pretense?

In a way, this could even be combined a bit with the Minor League Rookie Debut set, so Topps can stay true to the stupid "RC" rules that now exist.  That or spring training shots, I suppose, since it doesn't really matter to me.  The point is, this is where the high-end RCs should end up, plus potential hidden gems in the form of lesser-known rookies.  That and color--lots and lots of color!

3.  Finest:
Just because I'm keeping Bowman Chrome in the mix doesn't mean we have to kill off Finest!  However, Finest should live up to its name and be a much smaller set that only includes the biggest stars and a very select few rookies, which can then be supplemented by the rookie redemption program.  I'm thinking around 100 cards in the base set including the inserted rookies/prospects, and then a few redemptions that are decided during the season, as is the case right now.

As with Bowman Chrome, we should get a lot of color here, and a few different inserts (with Refractor versions, of course!) to boot.  There's no need to go overboard with hits, but if any relics are included, they should all be Refractor versions and none of them should include plain, white swatches--Finest's design can really make color swatches pop and this set should take advantage of that.  I also like the idea of continuing to insert hits of legends and HOFers because those have resulted in some very cool cards.

4.  Flagship:
Of course I wouldn't do away with many people's favorite release of the year.  This isn't a set that's broken, exactly, but it could definitely use some improvements.

For one thing, it should remain split into three series:  I, II and III (a.k.a. Rookie/Traded).  However, I think we need to cut down on some of the increasingly extraneous subsets, especially anything of the "Classic Combinations" ilk.  Give me one card of each player that deserves one, All-Stars (but not Home Run Derby, etc.) in Series II, then traded players (in updated uniforms) and prospects that didn't get cards in I and II in the Rookie/Traded version (but that's IT!).  The latter should be much smaller than either of the first two as it doesn't need any embellishment.

Price-wise, this needs to get back to reality at closer to $1/pack, with 36-pack boxes running under $45.  No guaranteed hits are necessary, and inserts shouldn't outnumber base cards in packs, meaning you should be given a realistic chance at pulling a base set in each box.  That should be doable as Topps should enforce a minimum five-year moratorium on reprint inserts!  It's time to make this set much more attractive to casual and young collectors who don't want to throw down $75 for 20 triples and a scrub sticker auto--get them hooked on a fun-but-subtle design every year as they look forward to chasing everybody's favorite base set!

5.  Heritage:
Heritage has some good things going for it and should definitely stick around.  Lots of people seem to like to collect a set that celebrates the design of a favorite Topps set of days past.  Considering how nice these usually end up looking, I can't really blame them.  I've always stayed away because the money it takes to build one of these sets is too much for me, especially thanks to the many short prints.  I certainly don't think they should be dropped, though, because that seems to be a favorite aspect of this set as well.

However, Heritage is one of those Topps sets that seems to inspire some imitators...from Topps.  Besides Heritage, you can see some of the same design features in Topps Archives, which is also a great set whose characteristics I do enjoy quite a bit.  Therefore, I think I'd like to see those two combined into one release where a few different classic designs are used for the base set, kind of like Archives is doing now.  I'd leave it up to Topps if they wanted to SP some of the better current stars, legends, or both.  It should then continue inserting hits of current players, some fan favorites, and of course, legends.  All of that could turn this into a set that I would conceivably actually try to collect if the value appeared to be there.

6.  Stadium Club:
As the 90s started turning towards the 2000s, Stadium Club became a set I would look forward to collecting.  While the flagship set was always on my calendar, Stadium Club was a nice treat with its outstanding photography (in my opinion the best Topps had to offer), borderless cards (hooray!), and premium design.  It was also usually a reasonable size, maybe 200 at the most, which meant it largely featured players I actually liked.

Eventually the set bought into the hit craze of the 2000s, especially the final version in 2008, which included autographed base RCs.  For whatever reason, Topps decided to kill it off then, and fans of some of the best shots in the hobby were left hanging.

Well I say it's time to give those collectors what they want.  Bring this gem back in the form of a set in the neighborhood of 150 cards.  Packs should include around eight cards and cost no more than $2.  The set should include a few inserts and the hits should come in the form of autographs only.  The base set can include some rookies, but as with some of the other sets above, just a select few to keep the bust factor to a minimum.  I don't know about other collectors, but if Stadium Club were to rise from the ashes, I'd be willing to throw down good money to once again complete one of my favorite base sets.

7.  Total:
Although I admittedly only worked on the 2002 and 2003 versions, this is a set I think should be resurrected after its untimely demise after the 2005 release, especially in today's economy.  More than flagship Topps, this set is a great way to appeal to young collectors and set-builders alike.

For kids it's a cool way to grab a very cheap pack or two, get a couple guys from your favorite team, and even just end up with a team set through packs or trading.

And set collectors have a blast working on something that totals around 1000 cards but doesn't include ridiculous SPs or variations, plus has a configuration that makes for easy trading with other collectors instead of requiring you to buy 10+ boxes of the product.

First and foremost I'd keep the price of this set as cheap as possible, with as many cards per pack as Topps can manage, because I think this is the set you use to get kids hooked on collecting.  To keep the price down, a couple inserts are fine, but I don't think hits are necessary at all here--that shouldn't be the means you use to introduce a young person or n00b into collecting.  Get them to appreciate the fun of collecting a set and they're more likely to stick around for your other sets.

Also, definitely make this a binder-friendly set with a card count that's a multiple of nine.  I hadn't ever been much of a binder person but now have both of my issues of this collection in a couple albums, where they're perfectly displayed.

8.  Triple Threads:
I'm cool with having one high-risk/??? reward set like this each year, and the one that produces the cards I like the most (once someone else has paid the ridiculous admission fee and usually come out disappointed) is Triple Threads.  Honestly, if Topps needs something akin to a cash grab like this to keep going, as long as we limit it to one, I can deal with it. And really, the high price does result in a small handful of jaw-dropping cards such as huge patch/nameplate autographs and ridiculous booklet cards.

Just a few modifications here.  Mainly, due to the high price (which, again, I wouldn't change because this, more than any other Topps set, is really a lottery) I'd prevent all hits from having both plain relic swatches and a sticker autograph; at most a card could have one of the two.  I mean the Porcello above looks nice, but if you're spending $150+ and ending up with Chris Getz (woo!) and Angel Pagan (d'oh!), would you really be all that happy pulling something like that?  This set shouldn't just be a sticker dump, and neither should buyers be punished with cards that'll bring peanuts in return.  Even crappier players can sell at a small premium when the jersey pieces feature an extra color or two.  There has to be a way to accommodate that and still keep costs reasonable considering the return Topps gets per box.  Make this one pay off just a bit more for collectors and watch more of them throw down a chunk of change for a shot at the jackpot.

In case you weren't counting, that comes to ten different releases (including flagship Series II and III/Update).  I'd have to imagine that's enough choice and variety--especially incorporating many features of duplicate/similar sets--for today's collectors.  Over the course of twelve months that just leaves two without any Topps release, which wouldn't be the end of the world (or could be supplemented by either adding a couple other minor sets or splitting a couple of the above into multiple series).  I'd argue that flagship Series I should kick off the collecting year, with II a few months later (but definitely during the season) and III available after the World Series.  Topps could then mix in the other releases throughout the year to maintain collectors' interest without overwhelming them.  This would hopefully result in an optimal amount of choice without a ridiculous number of useless, valueless sets.

Well, what say you, fellow collectors?  Are there any sets I missed, any you would axe, or is there anything you would change about my proposed release schedule?  Every collector is different and I anticipate a good amount of dissent and debate, which is ideal here since I'm just one collector.  And ultimately, how would YOU change things for the better?

Pack break: 2012 Topps Archives baseball

I've largely stayed away from retail purchases, packs and Topps (in that order), but after last week's show, Dustin and I hit up Meijer because I had a ton of Memorial Day party bottles and cans to return, which meant more money to blow on cards!  We each picked up a jumbo (I still prefer "rack") pack of 2012 Topps Archives baseball, 14 cards for a bit more than $5.  Here's a quick look at how I did:

Not pictured:  an Ichiro that I flipped to Dustin and a Paul Konerko that's headed to Jeff.  A few more of these will more than likely end up in trade packages too, but feel free to ask for any except for the Cabrera.

For all my (justified) ragging on Topps, these are very cool.  Despite the fact that within five years Topps will begin reprinting reprints of reprints (not a joke) I do like what they did here for the most part because, as a guy who has some (if not a lot) of some of these sets, I enjoy seeing new players on the older designs.  In that, Topps definitely succeeds.  And for the price, if you're just picking up a couple of these, I think you do fine.  I do consider the hobby box prices typically absurd considering how rarely one can pull a good auto (think "fan favorites" which means a niche market for most of the players) but I'm not the type to pursue that kind of thing anymore anyway.  I think I'd like to pick up a set of these when prices come back down to earth because I'd be more than happy to have them in my collection.

My only real nit with this pack:  the Strawberry.  I hadn't realized it was a Reprint insert because it has the original back.  It's not that I confused it with a card from 1986, but the only differentiation from the base set is the Archives logo.  The numbering on the back of these is stupid, but then again, from the people that brought you "BDPP111" and so on, that's no surprise.

So if you're strolling down the card aisle looking to drop a few bucks on a pack with no set commitments and low hit expectations, I'd definitely consider grabbing one of these just for the fun of seeing some of your favorite current stars on some excellent Topps designs.

Trade with Dustin: a pair of Tigers not named Granderson

Dustin and I met up last Saturday for some awesome batting cage action, though both of us were rusty enough that "awesome" became more like "not entirely terrible at hitting slowly pitched balls."  Not bad for our first time out this summer, though, and hopefully there's more of that on the horizon.

Anyway, he mentioned he was bringing a couple cards along that I might like, and here they are:

These are 2011 Topps Diamond Die-Cuts of Tigers Austin Jackson and Max Scherzer.  As it turns out, Dustin was correct that I like these very much.  I'm glad I didn't have to jump through Topps' hoops of entering 250 codes to get something decent and can enjoy the fruits of someone else's labor!  As much as I rag on Topps, these really are nice cards to have (I just think their giveaway system needs a drastic overhaul, though not before someone gives them an emergency cranial-rectal extraction first) and will fit into my Tigers collection very nicely.

Really, my only nit with the cards themselves at all is that Jackson's features a pretty glaring error:  on the back, it states that his "Diamond Deed" came "...in a 6-4 win over the Tigers on September 4, 2010."  Uh, guys?  He plays for the Tigers--he didn't beat himself.

Anyway, like the football versions, the die-cut design of these is very cool, so I definitely appreciate the haul.  Thanks, Dustin--I'll get you back the next time we hit up a card show, maybe with some Mariners, assuming none of them have been traded to the desperate Yankees by then.