Archive for rookie cards

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2020 Topps Rookie Logo ManuRelics have won me over

Posted in Commentary with tags , , , , on February 13, 2020 by Cardboard Icons

I’m really not a huge fan of Manufactured relics. Hell, I don’t think anyone is. But the 2020 blaster-exclusive Rookie Logo medallions have won me over.

I enjoy the simplicity of the card; it’s not some wacky design with a chunky piece of metal or rubber. It’s essentially a reprint of a rookie card with the small Rookie Card Logo embedded within and honestly I’m kicking around the idea of working on this set.

I’m drawn to them like no other ManuRelic I’ve seen in the past; maybe it’s my affinity to rookies. Rookie card reprints have been used as ManuRelics in the past — I believe Topps did them as silk patches in 2013 (I did NOT like them) — but the 2020 cards really are gorgeous, even more so when you hold them.

I enjoy the matte finish and the fact that even though the card is thick and has a piece of metal in it, it’s weight is not grossly imbalanced. And while the stock is thick, it resembles something I’d expect to see on a high-dollar release.

We know why ManuRelics exist — it’s an incentive to make people buy blasters; to help consumers feel as if they’ve received something special. And for the first time in a while — maybe even ever — I do feel that way with these.

If you’ve got any you’re looking to unload I’m interested. I’ll be seeking the regular versions of everyone on the checklist; and then variations of the Clayton a Kershaw and Roger Clemens cards from the set.

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Kiddo has an epic Walgreens Update hanger

Posted in Box / Pack Break, Collecting With Kids, Commentary, Misc. with tags , , , , , , on November 16, 2019 by Cardboard Icons

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: My son had an epic pull last night.

For the second time in as many weeks, my son added a big pull to his fledgling collection and this time it’s one that has big upside.

Late Friday afternoon we made a run to the LCS because it was the only time we had available this week. My boy wanted to buy something and he purchased a blaster of NBA Hoops, which contained all of the good rookies except THE top rookie. For the record he was happy and he loves this year’s design.

After his purchase, I told him I wanted to check the Walgreens around the corner to see if they had the 2019 Topps Update Hanger packs with the exclusive yellow parallels. So we went in and they had three. I told him I’d buy all three and he could choose one for his collection. My treat.

Of the three hangers, one had a massive dent in the side. The cards looked safe inside but it was the type of damage that would likely turn some folks away. Of course my boy grabbed that one from the stack. I warned him about the damage but told him the cards were probably fine. He didn’t care. He wanted that one.

As we walked to the register I explained to him what we were hoping to pull (Vlad Jr or other top rookies) and told him how the yellows were exclusive to this chain of stores and on the grand scale they were much rarer than most of the other parallels.

We got to the car and I showed him how to open the hanger from the bottom of the box. He ripped the box, and opened the inner plastic wrap on his own. He could instantly see there was something thick (a relic) inside the pack so I instantly knew he was going to be happy with his decision.

He thumbed through the first 30 cards with typical reception (a few good rookie debuts, big name all stars) and got to the inserts and found a Vlad Jr. 1984 design — already a winner — and then uncovered a Max Muncy ASG relic. As he picked up the relic to read the back, the next card was revealed.

It was a damn Vlad Guerrero yellow, a parallel of his real rookie card!

I let out an expletive because I knew this was at least a $100 Card, easily my son’s most expensive card. His next card was no slouch – it was a Mike Trout yellow, which is probably another $10-$20 card.

I was shocked, he was stunned and could not stop smiling. We then darted back around the corner to the card shop to pick up a magnetic holder for his new addition.

I’m happy for my son. Way happier for him, than I would be for myself if I pulled it. Because I am at the point in my collecting career where I want my kids to have these wins, because it’s an experience they’ll never forget. Myself? I’m a jaded veteran collecting curmudgeon who has had nice pulls and at this point an somewhat jaded by dollar signs. Each nice pull is fuel to continue down the rabbit hole.

The Vlad pull comes on the heels of my boy beating the odds Last week when he pulled his first 1/1 (a DJ LeMahieu ASG printing plate) from a Topps Chrome Update Mega Box. (Here).

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My son: “That’s probably my favorite brand this year …”

Posted in Commentary, Misc. with tags , , , , , on November 1, 2019 by Cardboard Icons

We’re coming up on about a year since my son has decided to follow in my footsteps and join the hobby.

On Thursday night before heading out the door to do some trick or treating, he sorted some more of his cards, including a blaster of 2019 Panini Chronicles he recently purchased. As he removed the cards from the packaging, I noticed he had a small stash of blaster boxes I’d grown immune to seeing.

I asked if the boxes were empty and he confirmed that they were. I then made a comment that he must really like them since he still had three boxes in the house. That’s when he made his proclamation:

“It’s probably my favorite brand this year,” he said proudly.

These three empty blaster boxes probably represent half of how many he has opened for HIS collection — some of them paid for by him, the others subsidized by me.

But it made me happy to hear him have such an opinion, and it wasn’t like he chose it because it’s the newest product on the shelf, or because he pulled an autograph from the packs.

I asked a follow up question: WHY do you like this brand?

His response is great:

“Because you don’t know which designs you’re going to get, or even how many. I like the variety. it’s not just base cards and autographs.”

Absolutely love his response. The cards don’t have logos and that will hurt long term value, but this hobby is about so much more than money. It’s about fun and personal enjoyment of a product which are contributing factors to perceived value.

With this product, every time he opens a blaster he’s getting 2-6 cards of top rookies, multiple parallels, and often a serial numbered card. And because of the configuration, the checklist is ripe with rookies of the game’s top stars.

I’ve watched my son actively pass on blasters with guaranteed hits in favor of Chronicles solely because he gets a bunch of enjoyment from the product. I personally enjoy the product a lot as well, mainly because of the variety and its a teaser as to what could be if Panini had a full license.

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The unexpected: Tatis Jr. auto pulled from NBCD Week 2 packs

Posted in Collecting With Kids, Misc. with tags , , , , , , , on August 19, 2019 by Cardboard Icons

If you follow me on Twitter then you’ve probably already seen a tweet about this. But seeing as how this blog is sort of doubles as my collecting diary, I shall document it here as well.

This weekend marked the second half of The National Baseball Card Day promotion from Topps, and as such card shops across the country were giving out packs (if there were any left over) and a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. promo card to customers who made purchases.

I had the kids last weekend, and because of my work schedule and the co-parenting schedule I have with my ex, my kids were with their mother this weekend.

I was able to take the kids to South Bay Sports Cards (Sunnyvale, Calif) on Aug. 10 for the first day of the promotion, which I wrote about last week. And this week I asked her to take the kids, which she agreed to do — hey we’re on good terms, and she knows my kids are into collecting.

The kids made their purchase and got some free Topps NBCD packs and the Vlad Card given away this week. The shop gave the kids two packs each, and unbeknownst to me, they also gave them packs to give to me as well.

I got the kiddos back from their mom on Sunday evening and after getting them, my son told me they had two unopened NBCD packs for me, which damn near brought a tear to my eye. I was totally surprised.

He showed me what he and his sister got in their packs — including a Clayton Kershaw I still don’t have — and then I opened mine, hoping to nail the aforementioned Kershaw card for my collection.

Well, no Kershaw for me, but something crazy happened — I hit an auto of one of the top rookies this year, Fernando Tatis Jr.!

Absolute insanity.

This is the second time in four years that my family has pulled an autograph from NBCD packs, and as you probably know, that’s not a simple task. In 2016 my daughter hit a Greg Bird while wearing her fancy dress, a moment that aided in my family being in an advertorial from Blowout Cards discussing the excitement about National Baseball Card Day.

While I was excited and surprised to have pulled an auto from the packs, I wish my son was the one who pulled the card seeing as how he has taken a liking to this hobby. But he was excited for me, for us, nonetheless. Rest assured that the Tatis Card, serial numbered 110/150 is off the market — the card goes into the Forever Collection, which consists of rare/good cards pulled by my kids or by me while creating hobby memories with them, and other things I’ve pulled and decided to never part with.

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Thrift Treasures 118: Hobby time capsule for $9.99

Posted in Thrift Treasures with tags , , , , , , on August 15, 2019 by Cardboard Icons

Few things bring me as much joy as finding discarded hobby gems at the thrift store for less than the price of a handful of modern packs.

It’s easy to get sucked into paying $3, $4, or $5 for a pack of cards at retail hoping to pull something that makes you feel like a hobby winner. And we all know that the agony of defeat happens much more than any sort of victory. So when we can find items that make us smile — even if some portion of the hobby doesn’t get it — it’s really a priceless experience.

Such was the case Wednesday when I stopped at a local Goodwill before dropping off two packages at the post office. It’s been a while since I’d found cards at thrift stores, so imagine the joy I felt when I found a two-row shoebox that showed some promise … and for only $9.99.

True, 75% of this box had what was obviously 1989 Donruss. But that stack of cards in Card Savers II held so much promise. I wasn’t expecting the world, but cards stored in semi-rigids can be gold hiding in plain sight.

I looked all around the store hoping to find more boxes but there were none. The box was priced some five days earlier so odds are someone beat me to the punch for others.

Nonetheless, this box was mine and as it turned out, the box wound up being a hobby time capsule for one of the most exciting times in our hobby, 1990-1992.

The mention of those years will turn people away, thinking it’s just junk wax era. Hell, after I posted a picture of the wrapped box, one Twitter follower said he wouldn’t even risk the purchase unless there were relics inside.

Insert facepalm emoji here …

I digress. I ripped open the cellophane, grabbed a handful of Card Savers IIs and almost immediately found an absolute masterpiece of our hobby, the 1991 Elite Series Jose Canseco, serial numbered to just 10,000 copies.

The Canseco isn’t rare by today’s standards. But in 1991 trying to pull any Elite Series insert was literally like trying to find a needle in a haystack — they were legitimately like 1:10 cases. In their hay day the cards were selling for several hundred dollars; today the Canseco is still a $30-$50 card on occasion, and even more of graded well.

The Canseco would prove to be the pinnacle of this box in terms of current monetary re-sell value, but there was so much good stuff in here.

This image here is basically a summary of collecting from 1990-1992:

You’ve got the Canseco Elite, the awesome and tough-pulls in the Pinnacle “Team Pinnacle”, the 1990 Upper Deck Ben McDonald error card, the 1991 Upper Deck “Baseball Heroes” Nolan Ryan Header Card, the 1990 Score Bo Jackson baseball/football card and the 1990 Score Rookie/Traded Eric Lindros.

The McDonald is actually a neat card I’d never owned. He was a top rookie that year and his basic UD rookie card had the “Rookie” logo. But in early batches of UD, there were a bunch of errors, including the McDonald rookie showing the Orioles logo. it’s still a $10-$20 card in today’s market.

Speaking of errors, there were also these other tough (for the time) 1990 UD screwups:

Jeff Innis and Scott Garrelts cards show wrong player photos on front; the Team checklist and Jamie Weston cards have him listed as Jamie instead of Mickey Weston, and the Nolan Ryan is the banner variation. Errors and variations were a big deal at the time … and some of the younger collectors don’t understand how difficult it was tracking them down at the time.

In addition to the errors and inserts, there were some big rookies in here too. And while it’s not 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. or 1990 Leaf Frank Thomas big, we’re talking some stuff that had considerable hobby weight at a time in the not so distant past … and they all look like they’ve been in these Card Savers for nearly three decades.

And there was a fair amount of hobby stars, including a very nice 1972 Topps Joe Morgan.

In terms of today’s hobby “worth” these cards wouldn’t fetch a ton at eBay or at any show. But for a guy who cut his teeth in this hobby during this era, to basically locate a rookie collectors collection from the era, and to nail down some highly desirable errors and tough insert pulls, especially the Canseco Elite Series, is absolutely priceless. I know I’ve said it before, but this was truly a time capsule, and frankly better than most massive collections that some people are still hoarding in their basements.

Oh, and the 1989 Donruss? As I suspected there was no Griffey. But the sight of these brought back the memory of a hot summer in which I walked 40 minutes to Thrifty’s to buy cello packs of the product.

Total cost of this Thrift Treasure: $9.99

You can seen more Thrift Treasures posts here

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“I put them in my pocket …” (National Baseball Card Day 2019)

Posted in Commentary with tags , , , , , , , on August 10, 2019 by Cardboard Icons

National Baseball Card Day is One of the best days of year when it comes to our beloved hobby.

This year I gathered up my two kids and headed to the card shop. And moments later my sister showed up with her kids, including her son who has gotten into baseball cards thanks in part to my son and I.

We went to South Bay Sports Cards in Sunnyvale, Calif. and while there I ran into one of my Twitter followers who recognized me from pictures I had posted of my kids. (Nick, we should have taken a group photo.)

We made a few small purchases and the kids got a few free packs and the Special Bryce Harper Card.

The purchased packs yielded nothing of real interest. Chrome had a “short” printed Eloy Jimenez.

And so had hoped to personally pull my first Mike Oz Card from a Ginter pack, both of my packs turned out to be less than spectacular.

But, that’s not really what the day was about. It was about the cards that Topps and South Bay Sports Cards put into the hands of the kids

The highlights of my son’s packs included Ronald Acuna, Javier Baez and Justin Verlander.

And my daughter’s packs yielded two of MY PC guys in a single pack and Pete Alonso.

My packs were highlighted by Mike Trout and Matt Chapman, also guys whom I have put aside for my son.

The family posed for a photo in front of the store before we set off on our separate ways.

Then after the photo I asked my daughter where she put her cards since I did not see them in her hand.

Her answer: “I put them in my pocket…”

I shook my head, told her to show me and then took a photo before telling her to take them out. The cards are hers, and I LOVED that she put them in her pocket since most of us have done the same at some point during our collecting careers. But I advised her to take them out and put them in her binder later, which she agreed was a better course of action.

I may not be able to take the kids back next week for the Vlad Guerrero Jr special card, but I’ll find someone to take the kids for me. I love these promotions, it’s especially fun for the kids now that they also collect.

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Poor packaging, fingernail marks and a Kershaw Gold Rookie Card highlight mailday

Posted in Collecting Kershaw, Mail Day with tags , , , , , on May 10, 2019 by Cardboard Icons

I received two packages yesterday, both of which contained Clayton a Kershaw cards.

The first package I shared on a twitter as the packaging alone is almost post worthy. I acquired a 2019 Topps Opening Day Dirt relic card that the seller decided to ship only in a team bag taped to a piece of cardboard, all inside a padded envelope. No Top Loader. I wouldn’t bother bringing up the packaging if the seller had used a piece of cardboard on both side of the card, however that was not the case. This seller merely left one side — the top side — exposed to the bubble wrap and whatever case into contact with it. Folks, don’t do this.

The card is Ok, I suppose. Although I now wonder if it was done on purpose as a cover-up, or to build in an excuse for the dog marks on the surface of the card — you can see there are fingernail marks, a true sign this card was pulled by a not-so-careful packsearcher.

***

The second package brought home a card I wasn’t sure I’d ever acquired. An inexperienced seller put up for auction a base 2008 Topps Update Kershaw Rookie Card along with a 2008 Topps Update Gold Border Kershaw Rookie serial numbered /2008. I managed to acquire the lot for the price of three blasters, which is a pretty decent deal considering the base Rookie often sells $40-$60 when Kershaw is healthy. True, the Gold has some issues on one corner — which is likely why some folks balked — but the two-Card lot made sense for me.

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