Blaster break: 2014 Topps US Olympic & Paralympic Team and Hopefuls

Since I had some "free" Meijer money to play with (rewards programs are great!), I made an increasingly rare decision to pick up a retail blaster, but only a very specific one:

I'd seen some fun breaks of this year's Olympics set, the hits look fun, plus there's a nice Michigan connection thanks to the presence of five Wolverine figure skaters in Sochi.  For a typical blaster price of about $22, you get seven packs of 10 cards and a guaranteed hit, which can be an autograph, relic, one of two types of manupatch, or a pin.  My goal was to pick up some of skater Meryl Davis' stuff since it's so expensive after she won the pairs gold with partner Charlie White, but I'd be getting into the Olympics enough this year to be excited about some of the other athletes too.

First up, here's highlights from the base cards:

Bronze medalists

Silver medalists

 Gold medalists (except for Shibutani, who I included with fellow Wolverine skaters Davis and White)

And while I'm at it, here's a back for completeness:

I ended up with 61/100 of the base set with ZERO doubles.  Wait a minute, this is a fun, interesting set with excellent collation?  Hmmm....

I landed a total of 15 inserts in my seven packs, which was pretty cool, even if I tend to favor base set completion first.  Here they are:

First up are the Bronze parallels, which feature a Bronze logo stamp on the bottom-right corner.  These are apparently at least one-per-pack since the odds don't list them.  I pulled eight from seven packs, so you do the math.  As you can imagine, I was happy to pull the Meryl Davis.

Here we have the rest of the inserts.  The top three are Silver parallels, which are 1:2 pulls, so I "lost" the coin flip for the fourth, which is no big deal.  Side note:  "Sled Hockey" sounds like an amazing Paralympic sport!  Wagner, meanwhile, is a 1:8 Gold parallel, while Daly is the Gold Rainbow version, which comes in at 1:24, which is a tad tougher than one per three blasters, so I really lucked out!  The Brown curling card is from an insert called "Games of the XXII Olympiad" and falls 1:8, and the insert showing off the Iceberg Skating Palace is from "Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games Venues," and was a bit tougher at 1:12.  Overall I did very well in beating the odds, and I'm very happy with this haul.

Ok, onto my promised blaster hit:

Actually, it wasn't this autograph of figure skater Evan Lysacek, which was certainly an exciting pull.  At least, I consider it a bonus hit because as usual I sorted through the packs until I found the "thick"one so I could open it last.  This card showed up in the penultimate pack, much to my surprise!  He wasn't part of the 2014 team but did win gold in Vancouver four years ago, so this looks like an especially nice pull, and a tricky one at 1:38 packs.

Well this certainly explains why that last pack was so thick!  It really was a fantastic pull, not just because it's a tri-color relic (and a 1:22 pull), better looking than most I've seen around the internets.  It's also nice that Mancuso is a pretty well known skier, and I was happy to see her win a bronze in her sport this year, even though she surely considers her lone medal a letdown.

To sum up, the set looks nice and is well-done, the collation is flawless, I beat the odds with the inserts, and got twice the number of expected hits, both of which look great.  Ok, all the evidence is in, and this is clearly NOT a Topps product, as it literally meets the opposite of each requirement.  In all seriousness, congrats to the company for making a worthwhile product, and I can only hope they apply what they did with this set to the rest of what they make!

I haven't decided if I want to pick up another blaster yet, but I will be working on the remaining 39 base cards one way or another.  Everything else except for the Bronze Davis is available for trade, and my main interests here are picking up the remaining inserts and hits of Meryl Davis--so if you ask me what I'm looking for in return for the autograph or relic, there's your answer!  I may eventually try to sell those, but as usual, my preference is to trade.

It's always worth waiting until sale prices on these, but if you're at the store eyeing blasters and see these available, they carry the TMV seal of approval!

USA!  USA!  USA!

Complete sets: 1998 Topps (Series I)

I've mentioned a couple times recently that I lost track of a couple of my complete sets over the years I've had my collection, possibly due to the fact that it's had to move with me a few times.  One of those was an entire set of 2000 Topps baseball, while the other was 1998 Topps Series I.  In the case of '98 Flagship, it was just Series I I couldn't find since I had an extra Series II on hand somehow.  Regardless, having already picked up the 2000 version and wanting to restore my pretty decent run of complete sets, I threw down $20 even on this guy:

My judicious spending the last few months gave me some money to play with, so I scored this '98 Topps Series I set on eBay last week.  I don't recall seeing these in retail stores around me, but I do remember other boxes being packed this way. 

I think Vintage either was or continues to be a big distributor of retail stuff, probably especially repacks.  Make fun of it all you want, but the "Card Guard" totally did its job!  It also made for a big, ugly hunk of plastic garbage to toss.

Here's how the set was packed inside, with a cardboard insert holding three shrink-wrapped groups of cards.  They obviously didn't lead with the best players on top in two out of the three piles!  By the way, because I know at least a few of you collect empty boxes, I've hung onto this one for now, so if anyone wants it, please let me know!

Here's the bottoms of each wrapped pack.  I'm mainly showing these off to point out that they're not in any sort of order, so you know what that means:  I got to sort the set!  That's something I'm still fond of doing in the rare cases I buy boxes these days, and I have fond memories of doing so lots of times over the years.

Ok, enough about that, let's talk about the set:

First up is a group of nine legends, all of which should be in the HOF eventually.  As with Aaron in the 2000 set, I'm glad Topps didn't retire card #21, but did a card tribute instead for Clemente.  He was also the subject of that year's reprint set, which I have.  Leading off with Gwynn at #1 was a nice touch too.

There were exactly nine Tigers cards that I saw, and if you're having trouble telling them apart in the scan, they are, in order:  Tony Clark, Brian Hunter, Deivi Cruz, Mel Nieves, Todd Jones, Damion Easley, Bob Hamelin, Raul Casanova, and Juan Encarnacion on a three-player prospects issue.  I'm glad Clark showed up because I'd been meaning to highlight the fact that he's been appointed the new head of the MLBPA since the unfortunate passing of former leader Michael Weiner (cancer).  Clark wasn't universally loved in Detroit because some thought he never reached his lofty potential, but I remember him fondly and think he did about the best he could on some abysmal 90s Tigers teams.  I wish him well in his new position, where I anticipate some success since he seems to have been a well-liked guy.

I did one more 9-card scan to capture some of the fun and interesting cards in the set.  Wagner and Montgomery didn't win awards in '97 but were "fireman" bullpen aces at times in their careers.  The Guerrero is one of his more noteworthy base cards thanks to a nice use of perspective.  Baerga, Gonzalez, and Alicea are notable for some nice acrobatics.  Ausmus made the cut because he's the new Tigers manager and got a nice horizontal card featuring his awesome mask.  Finally, the Bell and Lofton cards showcase players and photographers having a great time.

I wanted to include one card back for completeness' sake, so I went with Eck's card #200 since it shows stats from the career of a pitching legend.  By the way, Eck would pitch one more season in '98 with the Red Sox, then call it a career with 197 wins and 390 saves in 24 seasons en route to the Hall.

'98 Series I isn't a huge set by any means, but I was surprised it only included one card for my Michigan Baseball PCs, that of Hal Morris.  Hal signed with the Royals at the end of '97 before heading back to Cincy in '99.

Ok, if you've made it this far, you're probably like "Hey, what about those four bonus cards!"  Or maybe not, since my blurry photo of the box makes it kind of hard to read that note.  In any event, this box comes with four bonus cards!  I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised by ending up with these four regular inserts:

The Kotsay is from a set I already own and is therefore available.  The Tomko and Lou-Gon hail from Topps' Minted in Cooperstown sets, kind of a precursor to the gold parallels they eventually went with.  If you weren't collecting then, I'll point out that the gimmick with them is that they were actually stamped in Cooperstown, NY.  Finally, the Clemente is reprint #6, and again, I already have all of those, so that ones up for trade, as are the Tomko and Gonzalez.

All in all, this is a set I remember fondly back when Topps didn't suck at everything, so I'm not so annoyed by having to spend a bit to reclaim it.  It takes another item off my baseball wantlist, too!  On a related note, I'll shortly have a few more additions to make that list even shorter, so stay tuned.

2013 Bowman baseball, completed Homer Simpson-style

As in,

Although I don't scan the Blowout Buy/Sell/Trade boards as much anymore as they've gotten junkier (and worse with spelling and grammar, YEESH), I happened to check it out the other day and saw a guy selling a bunch of complete 2013 Bowman baseball sets--#s 1-220 for the base and Prospects 1-110--for just $9 delivered, which, by then, he'd lowered to just $8.  That was good enough for me so I jumped on it, then came home today to find a USPS medium flat-rate box sitting on my porch.  That's right, he'd spent more than $9 to ship me a set I gave him $8 (minus Paypal's cut) for.  Still, I'd lean on the side of generosity and not stupidity here--it's pretty obvious he's a box-breaker since he used a bunch of 2012 Bowman base to pad the box--and just smile and enjoy the set.  Before I show off the goods I figure I'll link y'all to it in case you want one of your own, which you can get from this thread here.

All right, we'll start with the most relevant cards to this blog, the Tigers from the base set:

That's definitely a fantastic group, I'm just surprised they didn't include Verlander, but it's fine.  Garcia was one of the "RCs" you'll see more of in a minute, but since he's pictured as a Tiger I'll include him here.  If Jose Iglesias had a card I would have included him too.

Detroit also had four guys in the Prospects set:

The Rondon is the base version of the parallel I just got from GSNHoF.  Castro is an up-and-coming 2B, which is good since Infante won't be around forever.  I have to admit I know nothing about Moya.  As for Thompson, I got to see him in-person, as well as Castro, when I took in a Lansing Lugnuts game vs. the teammates' West Michigan Whitecaps (he wasn't all that great).

Before I get to the rest of the stuff to show off, here's a couple card backs:

This is Torii Hunter's from the base set.  As often happens with Bowman, yearly stats are replaced by more info about the player, which seems reasonable enough.

And here's Rondon's back from the Prospects set, where the extra analysis becomes more useful.  Not a bad look overall, I think.

To close things out, I thought I'd show all of the base set's "RCs" and a few higher profile Prospects.  I always have to put "RC" in quotes these days because the term has become meaningless for reasons I've beat into the ground.  Anyway, I counted 24, including Garcia's card above, and I filled out the last scan with a few top prospects many of you may already know.

 

 

Twins fans are surely geeked to have one of the game's consensus rising stars in Buxton.  Giolito was the Nats' first-rounder last year.  Schoop isn't as high-profile but has an awesome name.  And Correa was the #1 overall pick last year for a team that might have a few of those in a row.  But hey, Sam, at least they included an Astro!  (By the way, Jose Altuve's in the base set).

So while I'm no prospector (good luck making ANY money off Topps' crap anyway!) I'm happy to have landed my first 2013 set for just $8.  By the way, if anyone needs some 2012 base cards for their set, please let me know, and I'll be including some of those in future trade packages to get rid of them.

Stay tuned for another exciting TMV/TMM trade package this week!

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!

You'd better sit down--Topps came out with something I like!

Topps has unquestionably put out a lot of crappy products over the last decade, but I'm happy to hear they're going to be doing something cool with the 2013 Archives set:  including a couple classic insert sets.  Which ones?  Try Stadium Club Triumvirate and Gallery of Heroes!

From http://magazine-exchange.com/product_downloads/pdf/2013ToppsArchivesBBADDITIONS.pdf

From http://magazine-exchange.com/product_downloads/pdf/2013ToppsArchivesBBADDITIONS.pdf

The Triumvirate insert is pretty cool, though I admit that I never actually put one of those trios together.  The Gallery of Heroes cards, though, are pretty exciting.  The old Topps Gallery stained glass-style insert looked fantastic back in the day, as evidenced by this sweet Chipper,

and Topps did right by collectors for once in including these, albeit at a relatively tough 1:31 hobby packs.

This Blowout thread includes some nice pics of a few versions one collector pulled, but just in case something happens to that thread, I'm including one example here:

From http://www.blowoutcards.com/forums/baseball/520492-gallery-heroes-2013-archives.html

It's too bad there aren't any Dodger bloggers around to drool over this card.

Head over to CardboardConnection for the complete 15-card checklist, which oddly includes just five Yankees.

While I won't be busting any packs or boxes of this as usual, I'm excited enough about some of the Fan Favorites autos and Gallery of Heroes cards (especially Ripken and Cabrera) to try to pick up a few.  Congratulation, Topps, on getting one right!

Completed sets: 2011 and 2012 Topps Prime Nine promotions

You might remember that I put up a series of posts highlighting my fantastic last trade with legendary blogger BA Benny back in March.  In the very first post I was so overwhelmed with all the complete sets he had sent me that I decided to just take a quick snapshot of all of them together (mostly in boxed-set form) so I could return to posting them individually later.

Well today I'm ready to show a couple of them off, and I decided to do both of these at once because they're relatively small at nine cards each, plus they're related--the complete versions of Topps' 2011 and 2012 Prime Nine promotions.

First up is the 2011 set, which was subtitled "Player of the Week Refractors."

Topps chose nine players--one for each defensive position, of course (which means no DH!)--and then listed nine reasons each was worthy of the selection:

Happy belated Jackie Robinson Day, everybody!

The set works pretty well if you don't think of it as Topps' version of the All-Century Team or something like that.  And obviously they didn't do that or all NINE cards would have been Yankees.  Anyway, these are shiny, Refractory, purdy cards that were available at select hobby shops that year for collectors that pulled their redemption cards (two per hobby box, says SportsCardRadio).  I complain about redemptions pretty often, but a card that drives collectors to hobby shops to pick up free cards they don't have to wait for is a logical way to do it, and for this I salute the company (a rare honor these days).  And to keep the lovefest going, I'm even willing to say that the player selection here is pretty reasonable as well.  Personally, I would have gone with Ripken over Jeter, but Jeter's plenty deserving himself, so I'll abide.

The following year, Topps went homerunnier, Yankee-er and curvier with its Home Run Legends set:

Chrome cards are bendier than Bender "Bending" Rrrrrodriguez!

Each player in this series had made it to the 500 HR list at the time except Pujols, who's still around 25 shy as of today.  Conspicuously absent are players such as Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Rafael Palmeiro, though it's very likely they were left off due to lack of collector interest.  The strangest snub to me is Ken Griffey Jr.--throw him on there instead of Jackson--you've got enough freaking Yankees as it is!  Junior is one of only eight players to reach the 600+ mark, while Reggie was a self-important strikeout machine.  At least Topps deigned to include a few non-Yanks, including one of my favorite legends, Frank Robinson:

McGwire still owns the rookie record with 49, though at least Robinson went on to a much, much more storied career.  And what a card from last year said holds true today:  no active player is anywhere near his 586, with Pujols being the next big threat.

Also, it's nice to see Banks get a little more recent hobby love.  His 512 HR tie him with Eddie Mathews for 21st overall, and that total best such legends as Lou Gehrig, Stan Musial, Chipper Jones, and Carl Yazstrzemski.

All in all, I'm happy to declare both of these promotional sets a victory for Topps.  They're shiny Refractors that came from a fairly well handled promotion and highlight some players that deserve plenty of attention (and Reggie Jackson).

I'll scan more of the sets Mike sent my way in the future when my posts get boring or I'm lacking for content--and if you go back and look at that first post, you'll see I have plenty left!

2013 COMC pickup #2: a perfect Gibby trifecta

As usual, I don't have a lot of COMC pickups to show off over here because most apply to the other blog, but today's pair of cards definitely belongs on this one, in which I show off the fruits of my Tigers collecting pursuits, among other things.

Both of these cards had resided on my COMC watch list for a while until I finally pulled the trigger and scored each of them in March:

Kirk Gibson 2001 Topps Archives auto

This awesome auto came first, at a cost of $15, which is towards the upper end of what I like to pay for singles there, but was totally worth it.  The signature, running along the left side, is a bit faded, which is to be a bit expected for an on-card auto on a glossy card.  I really enjoyed 2001 Archives since my preference with these sets is reprints of actual cards, not new ones done in the style of old Topps sets (isn't that what Heritage is for?) and I'm happy to say that I do own a complete base set.  In fact, my only complaint is that the set's numbering is ridiculously tiny, for fortunately, Topps addressed that in future iterations.

This is just my second Gibby certified auto, and it immediately becomes my favorite since it's a reprint of his '81 Topps RC.  I hope to add more as I can find them at reasonable prices, but I'm more than happy enjoying this as the centerpiece of my Gibson PC for now.

Kirk Gibson 2001 Topps Archives Reserve Rookie Reprint Relics bat

But the trifecta wouldn't be complete without my new favorite Gibby relic too!  Just as I love 2001 Topps Archives, I also have a special place in my heart for Archives Reserve, the hotter, Refractor-y older sister of the base set.  I'm often against a new product that's just a parallel of the base set at a greater cost, but Reserve wasn't just a Chrome version that offered little more--it's a Refractor set!  This made lots of the cards look very cool, and that includes the relics that were thrown in too.

Don't get me wrong, I think my other two Gibson relics--a Dodgers bat and Tigers jersey--are pretty cool, but I wouldn't have thrown down $6 on this rookie reprint Refractor relic (alliteration ftw!) if it wasn't immediately going to become my new #1.  And I also had an even better reason to grab it:  as I said, this makes for a pretty unique trifecta:

On the left, of course, is Kirk's actual 1981 Topps RC.  I had one of these triple card display dealies lying around and decided it would be perfect for showing off a trifecta that included a RC plus autographed and game-used reprints of that very card!  This certainly isn't my first trifecta, but I'd certainly consider it one of the most unique and interesting I've pieced together.

I'll flip through the rest of my haul soon and see if I have anything else I can show off over here.  If not, consider this second 2013 COMC post (for now) a great way to go out with a bang!

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.

Why I love this hobby #1: Refractors

Since I'm serious about my resolution to create some more original content for this blog, something that's been lacking for quite a while, I've decided to proceed with an idea I've had for a bit.  To counteract the negativity and frustration I've experienced, mostly thanks to Topps the last few years, I'm going to start a new feature where each post discusses an aspect of the hobby that really appeals to me.  I think this will get me to appreciate my reasons for collecting even more, and hopefully it'll also garner some comments from readers like you, whether you agree or disagree with each post's topic, or better yet, have something really interesting to add.  So here we go, the first of what will hopefully be many posts about things that keep me collecting despite some of the more disappointing aspects of what can now be referred to more accurately as an industry, yet is still enjoyable enough for people like us to spend time blogging about it.

Today's post will focus on something that I know to be wildly popular among collectors--and for good reason:  Refractors!

From COMC

Let's start with a bit of a history lesson, which I can do because I'm old enough to have been at least a casual collector when these first hit the market.  1989 Upper Deck is often considered the first "premium" baseball set due to its overall design, the anti-counterfeiting holograms, and its higher price point.  Four years later, Topps certainly upped the ante with its 1993 Finest offering.  While collectors stuff commons boxes with this type of card today, those chrome cards were where it was at 20 years ago!  Packs would originally set you back an unheard-of $3.99, and when the set really got popular, they would go for five times that much.  Besides the new card technology, the fact that Topps announced how limited the print run would be (also unheard-of at the time), which was 4000 cases of 12 boxes, caused a mad rush to acquire what were extremely rare cards for the era.  And the fact that the one-per-box Refractors--also a huge leap in design tech--were limited to just 241 copies simply sent prices through the roof.  The original Finest set and its Refractor were so idolized that singles prices are STILL way above-average to this very day.

From BaseballCardPedia

While it's hard to believe cards available in quantities as "high" as 241 could easily reach $100+ in price, it's easy to forget just how amazing these cards were in 1993.  Cards had plodded along with the same old stale cardboard style since the beginning, and while various subsets and inserts took a shot at injecting some variety into collecting, things were pretty vanilla for a long time.  That's not to say there was anything wrong with things up until that point, but I'd argue that this set, and especially its brand new Refractors, were card collecting's equivalent of switching to color TV.  Think about it:  these cards were so colorful, and chrome, and SHINY!  And then there were the Refractors:  "Whoa, what's that cool rainbow thing this card is doing?!"  THEN consider the fact that rarity and collecting go together like Louie C.K. and funny.  It doesn't take a genius to figure out that card collecting would never be the same, and that for the most part, it had changed for the better.

One of my personal favorites from my PC

Soon this insert became a bit more common, especially as it began to appear in more and more of Topps' products, including Bowman Chrome, which really introduced the super-crazy-premium RC to collectors, and then the idea of completing a "rainbow" of color parallels.  As with anything that becomes easier to find, Refractors generally lost their crazy price premium, but they're no less exciting a pull for collectors today, and in some cases they've actually been improved with the introduction of various colors and serial numbering.  And why shouldn't they be an exciting pull?  Inserts may have given way to relics, autographs and manustuff, but few cards of any type look better than a Refractor--when you see one, you know it!  Just ask Kevin who runs the Diamond King, and who in November of last year surpassed his goal of 1000 Refractors from any sport.  You don't see people feverishly acquiring Bowman Gold inserts, but you can count on collectors like Kevin to amass that many of their favorite insert--and want MORE--for many years to come!

Mmmm...I loves me some Jewel Staite!  (from Fanpop)

So as do many others, I love Refractors for their novelty, their history, and the fact that they're just plain BEAUTIFUL as far as cards go.  Now here's a look at a few others that are favorites in my collections:

Rich Hill 2008 Bowman Chrome Red Refractor (#1/5)

Bill Freehan 2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Refractors (#145/299)

Jason Avant 2006 Bowman Chrome Gold Refractor auto (#35/50)

Leon Hall 2007 Bowman Chrome Rookie Autographs Blue Refractor auto (#07/75)

Love or hate Refractors, or have any other opinions on the topic?  Please leave a comment below!

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more posts like this one, as soon as I think for a while about what I'd like to cover next.  Until then, the next time you're flipping through your collecting, see if you don't find a Refractor and think about how great it was when you pulled it or picked it up.  SHINY!