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General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Mets Guy in Michigan Jan 22 2015 07:38 AM

Apparently 50 Cent's somewhat wayward ceremonial first pitch will be the part of an insert set in the new Topps set. Detroit get's Jack White. Here's the list: FP-01 Jeff Bridges - Los Angeles Dodgers FP-03 McKayla Maroney - Chicago White Sox FP-04 Eddie Vedder - Chicago Cubs FP-05 Biz Markie - Oakland Athletics FP-06 Agnes McKee - San Diego Padres FP-07 Austin Mahone - Atlanta Braves FP-08 Jermaine Jones - Los Angeles Dodgers FP-09 Tom Willis - Kansas City Royals FP-10 Graham Elliot - Chicago Cubs FP-11 Tom Morello - Chicago Cubs FP-12 Macklemore - Seattle Mariners FP-13 Suzy - Los Angeles Dodgers FP-14 50 Cent - New York Mets FP-15 Meb Keflezighi - Boston Red Sox Biz Markie had better aim than Fiddy? [url]http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/detroit/index.ssf/2015/01/jack_white_gets_own_topps_base.html#incart_river

G-Fafif Jan 22 2015 09:34 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Mets Guy in Michigan wrote: Biz Markie had better aim than Fiddy? He says it's just a throw.

seawolf17 Jan 22 2015 10:06 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Mets in the '15 S1: 4 Curtis Granderson 24 New York Mets 83 David Wright 129 Jacob deGrom 133 Daisuke Matsuzaka 149 Daniel Murphy 166 Jenrry Mejia 173 Carlos Torres 199 Eric Young Jr. 236 Zack Wheeler 241 Dilson Herrera 244 Bartolo Colon 263 Dillon Gee 306 Juan Lagares And just as importantly, SEAWOLVES in the '15 S1: 31 Nick Tropeano 54 Joe Nathan 351 Tom Koehler Pretty sweet.

Mets Guy in Michigan Jan 22 2015 11:40 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

G-Fafif wrote: Mets Guy in Michigan wrote: Biz Markie had better aim than Fiddy? He says it's just a throw. Brilliant!

Edgy MD Jan 22 2015 12:56 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Biz is from NJ and lived on Long Island for a bit (which I know because I ran into him at the Sunrise Multiplex). We should not be loaning out our own to Oakland.

d'Kong76 Jan 30 2015 07:51 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Gonna be going through a lot of cards next couple of days. These are kinda cool... so far I have 13 of the 26 in the team set. Two of the cards, #2 and #22, are Bonilla special cards and are among the missing.

seawolf17 Jan 30 2015 08:20 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

1993 Pacific Spanish! One of only seven Kevin McReynolds cards I don't have.

d'Kong76 Jan 30 2015 08:44 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

I'll keep an eye out for it... what are the other six?

d'Kong76 Jan 30 2015 10:20 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

These are a unusual... 1989 team set of Topps Mini Leaders. I set the image size the same as regular size to make the backs more readable, but the cards only measure 2 1/8 X 3".

seawolf17 Jan 30 2015 10:29 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

All of the Kevin McReynoldses I'm missing are either regional issues or short-printed, so they're generally pretty hard to find. 1983 Padres Team Issue 17 1989 Donruss Blue Chips 4 1990 Donruss Aqueous Test 218 1993 Pacific Spanish 491 1993 Royals Police 2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Auto Rainbow KMC /10 2009 Upper Deck Buyback 20th Anniv 367 The Royals Police set I've seen on eBay a few times; I just need to bite the bullet and spend the five bucks. The other six I've never seen anywhere. The Blue Chips and the Fan Favorites are the only pricey cards on the list, but even the cheap ones have stymied me.

d'Kong76 Jan 30 2015 02:31 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

I found a few more Pac Span's for my set but no McR's yet. I have like eight Kevin Elster's so that's kinda frustrating. If I find two, one has your name on it. On another note, I have an unopened 1989 and 1990 Kahn's sets that I'd like to trade with someone for a 1993 set; one year for one year. The 1993 set doesn't need to be unopened, but needs to be complete and in nice shape. I have seven years in a binder, for some reason missing 1993.

seawolf17 Jan 30 2015 02:54 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

He's a Royal in the 1993 Pacific Spanish set. I need the 1996 Kahn's set myself. Not the whole set, necessarily -- just the Pete Harnisch -- but that's another one I can't find.

d'Kong76 Jan 30 2015 03:25 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

seawolf17 wrote: He's a Royal in the 1993 Pacific Spanish set. I need the 1996 Kahn's set myself. Not the whole set, necessarily -- just the Pete Harnisch -- but that's another one I can't find. That would explain him not being in this mess I call a card metsventory. You're obviously very thorough, do you need stuff like 1988 Topp's Record Breaker with McR pictured or a couple of others with him pictured with others? Set them aside as I was thumbing through everything.

d'Kong76 Jan 30 2015 04:56 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Some 1988 young familiar faces...

seawolf17 Jan 30 2015 06:36 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

d'Kong76 wrote: seawolf17 wrote: He's a Royal in the 1993 Pacific Spanish set. I need the 1996 Kahn's set myself. Not the whole set, necessarily -- just the Pete Harnisch -- but that's another one I can't find. That would explain him not being in this mess I call a card metsventory. You're obviously very thorough, do you need stuff like 1988 Topp's Record Breaker with McR pictured or a couple of others with him pictured with others? Set them aside as I was thumbing through everything. Nope. There are 200 or so Kevin McReynolds cards recognized by Beckett; I have all of them except those seven I listed.

d'Kong76 Feb 03 2015 09:50 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Remember these guys?

batmagadanleadoff Feb 03 2015 11:41 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Topps to honor Sy Berger in a 2015 throwback Red Back/Blue Back mock '51 set: [fimg=333]https://cbsnewyork.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/sy-berger-card-2.jpg?w=518&h=725[/fimg] [fimg=333]https://cbsnewyork.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/seaver-sy-berger-2.jpg?w=518&h=725[/fimg][fimg=444]http://topps.pixafy.netdna-cdn.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/500x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/A/R/ARTLE-SYB-15019.jpg[/fimg] Topps 2015 base card preview: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/02/03/ ... card-sets/

seawolf17 Feb 03 2015 12:00 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

'15 comes out this week. One of my favorite holidays of the year -- New Card Day.

Zvon Feb 03 2015 07:08 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Wow. Look at that deGrom. FUTURE STARS. Kool!

d'Kong76 Feb 04 2015 05:45 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Blue-light specials... there's a Carter too but if I have it I can't find it...

Mets Guy in Michigan Feb 04 2015 08:30 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

I can't figure out what Topps is trying to do with the new designs. What's in the border? Is that supposed to be rocks? Infield dirt? And what's with the white lines around the team logo and in the background under the name? Is that some kind of electronics motif?

seawolf17 Feb 04 2015 08:52 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

I'm looking forward to seeing the design in person -- going to stop by the card store this afternoon, even though I hate them -- but it's definitely a 25-year throwback to those 1990 borders for me.

d'Kong76 Feb 04 2015 02:01 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Edgy MD Feb 04 2015 02:28 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Put them against a grid. Like they're being computer generated humans on a holodeck grid. Could you get more 1992?

John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 04 2015 05:31 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Very fugly, busy backgrounds this year. If the Topps guy didn't just die the ugliness of his company would unleash this season would probably do the trick.

Zvon Feb 04 2015 10:45 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

I tried to get a box of 2015 Topps today. I was on the way out to dinner so I only had time to check Target & Walmart. No hobby shops close by anymore. Neither store had em. I grabbed another box of 2014 Topps update that came with 2 packs of Chrome UD. First chrome pack: DING! DING! deGrom chrome rook debut. Second chrome pack: DING! DING! Montero chrome rook. First regular pack: DING! DING! deGrom rook debut. Third reg pack: DING! DING! Quintanilla: The throwing variation. Still have a few packs to open, but I'm very happy with my haul already. Got a chrome Tanaka rook, if anybody cares. Mets Guy in Michigan wrote: I can't figure out what Topps is trying to do with the new designs. What's in the border? Is that supposed to be rocks? Infield dirt? And what's with the white lines around the team logo and in the background under the name? Is that some kind of electronics motif? It was a pain in the ass to reproduce that design for the custom Mets cards. I like the design & I expect to like it better when I see one with my own eyes.

seawolf17 Feb 05 2015 08:30 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

As always, Zvon or whoever, if you buy any '15 and pull any parallels of any of my Stony Brook guys (Tom Koehler and Nick Tropeano and Joe Nathan ALL in the set), let me know.

d'Kong76 Feb 06 2015 08:50 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

MFS62 Feb 06 2015 09:12 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Anyone waiting for this one? http://nypost.com/2015/02/05/50-cents-h ... ball-card/ Later

Edgy MD Feb 06 2015 09:33 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

I'm all over e-bay looking to complete this set:

d'Kong76 Feb 06 2015 09:40 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Brilliant!

Zvon Feb 06 2015 03:58 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

I'm all over e-bay looking to complete this set: Freakin' awesome. Cept' I wanna play t'ird! defgav from Baseball Card Breakdown gif'd it up: [fimg=200]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FzA58TGQpMo/VNLqvqZrAdI/AAAAAAAAHP4/TYKNUrZQW6k/s1600/50c1stpitch3.gif[/fimg]

G-Fafif Feb 06 2015 04:04 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Seo's SuperStripe Expos cap is to DIE FOR!

d'Kong76 Feb 12 2015 07:30 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

dgwphotography Feb 21 2015 04:38 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

I took the oldest DGW to the comic book shop to pick up her weekly pull, and picked up my first few packs of the year - Metly cards were David Wright, Daniel Murphy and the Met team card (why oh why did they use a shot with the fugly camo unis?). Also: Got an 1973 Bob Oliver card, which was ruined with a "Topps Original 2015" foil stamp; First Pitch card of 105-year old Agnes McGee throwing out the first pitch in Petco Park; First card in the first pack was a Stan Musial highlight card - Serendipity, since Musial was my dad's favorite player; I really think this year's set is Topps' best looking set in a while...

Zvon Feb 24 2015 11:11 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Just got my first packs of the year. Got a $20 blister box and a smaller box that was $10. Maybe the smaller is a blister box. I don't know what they call these things anymore. Gah! I got a big box and a small box. DING! My first Met card of 2015 (in the first pack too) is....drumroll please........Zach Wheeler! That is a good omen.

Mets Guy in Michigan Feb 24 2015 11:18 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

I bought a rack pack, which I remember buying for 50 cents a piece at the corner store in Massapequa Park when I was a kid. Now they're $5.25 with far fewer cards. The only Met: Carlos Torres.

Ceetar Feb 24 2015 11:26 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

random selection of cards from a $1 clear pack of cards in a bowling alley vending machine in Hackensack, NJ. 6 "mets" wait. 8.

Zvon Feb 24 2015 05:15 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

^That is a killing!

Zvon Feb 25 2015 05:26 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

I probably got every Met series 1 card except the one that I was going for. Wright, Muffy, Grandy, Duda, Lagares [Future Star](excellent!), Wheeler, Colon, Herrera (RC), E.Young Jr (reg and a rainbow looking version), Matzuzaka, and a pretty kool Strawman special: Mets select Straw at #1 in 1980. No deGrom. GAH! How does that always happen in bb card collecting? I wanted one freakin' card ! (I collect the other Mets too though, so in a way I did rather well) seawolf17 wrote: As always, Zvon or whoever, if you buy any '15 and pull any parallels of any of my Stony Brook guys (Tom Koehler and Nick Tropeano and Joe Nathan ALL in the set), let me know. I'm not totally up on what's what in today's card lingo. Is a parallel card a rainbowey looking one? Or the gold border 00/2015 one? Or the Walmart and Target colored cards?

dgwphotography Feb 26 2015 06:24 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Parallels = doubles. i.e. more than one of the same card. Actually, I think it would be cool to set up a card exchange here - we trade our doubles with each other to fill in our needs... I pulled a deGrom today. If I get a second one, I'll post it here.

seawolf17 Feb 26 2015 07:50 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Yes and no. "Parallels" in card parlance are variations of the same numbered card with the same photo. Usually color or background. Sometimes numbered (gold, black), sometimes not (purple), but the design and photo are the same on the front. Duplicates are multiple copies of the exact same card. I'm always up to trade. My needs are here: http://bit.ly/wVFOp3

Zvon Mar 01 2015 03:40 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

My brother stopped by with this news of a 2015 Topps Jeter error card. It's a special card, the one pictured below (archetype sub set). On the error there is no foil name. He said he saw it on Ebay for around 45 bucks. He got one in a pack and put it up for $50. I knew I got one of those cards so I looked thru my 2015 sub-set cards and the one I have is not the error. :( But right behind Jeter was a Mariano Rivera Archetype with no foil name. I was like holy shit and my brother said he was not aware of this card and that there's none up on Ebay. So this is a Rivera error, no foil name. You think this would be worth more than the Jeter? I also got 2 Tanaka Future Star cards. Hey Rogers, if you have any parallel Mets I'm open to trades! The Eyoung parallel card scanned nice. I'm going for a team set of these rainbow parallels.

Edgy MD Mar 01 2015 03:45 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

How can a Derek Jeter word cloud not include "intangibles"? Or "cinnamon"?

Zvon Mar 01 2015 06:36 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Edgy MD wrote: How can a Derek Jeter word cloud not include "intangibles"? Or "cinnamon"? ...or "gift-basket".

seawolf17 Mar 02 2015 03:11 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Those missing-foil cards happen every year. They're curiosities, nothing more. You might get lucky and find a buyer, but it's far from a gold mine.

batmagadanleadoff Mar 02 2015 03:14 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Do youse buy cards with the intent to sell them down the line for a profit? 'Cause if youse don't, and youse just wanna have the cards youse wanna have just so youse could have 'em, youse all must hate this name missing error thing parallel crap that drives the price of some cards to orders of magnitude higher than the price of a common.

dgwphotography Mar 02 2015 03:59 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Do youse buy cards with the intent to sell them down the line for a profit? 'Cause if youse don't, and youse just wanna have the cards youse wanna have just so youse could have 'em, youse all must hate this name missing error thing parallel crap that drives the price of some cards to orders of magnitude higher than the price of a common. I hate it. This sort of thing is what drove me from the hobby decades ago. I just got back into it, I figured I would buy a few packs every week, and build just the base set. I went to Topps site, downloaded the series one checklist, and the number of subsets outside of the base set just astonished me.

seawolf17 Mar 02 2015 04:13 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Do youse buy cards with the intent to sell them down the line for a profit? 'Cause if youse don't, and youse just wanna have the cards youse wanna have just so youse could have 'em, youse all must hate this name missing error thing parallel crap that drives the price of some cards to orders of magnitude higher than the price of a common. I can see DGW's point, and I'm not saying I haven't been frustrated by it, but I collect what I like. If it happens that I come up with something that someone places a higher value on than I do, I slap it up on eBay and see what happens. That's mostly why I like collecting the guys I liked as a kid, who don't have any of the big-dollar oddball kinds of things. (And when they do, I just don't collect those cards.) My challenge is keeping my Stony Brook guys collection strong, which gets harder every year as more guys get closer to making the jump.

d'Kong76 Mar 02 2015 06:58 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

After around 2000, I keep it very basic... and only Mets.

batmagadanleadoff Mar 06 2015 03:01 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

These cards sure do get me in the mood for some Clapton Bluesbreakers tunes. And Batman. [fimg=544:wssmp6ic]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8566/16544120200_08b0290477_o.jpg[/fimg:wssmp6ic] [fimg=433:wssmp6ic]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8635/16730449702_39e6f6c92b_o.jpg[/fimg:wssmp6ic] [fimg=333:wssmp6ic]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8594/16544111750_f8743cbb28_o.jpg[/fimg:wssmp6ic][fimg=333:wssmp6ic]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8601/16544111960_e3aec24372_o.jpg[/fimg:wssmp6ic] [fimg=333:wssmp6ic]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8573/16730310741_7312a87033_o.jpg[/fimg:wssmp6ic]

batmagadanleadoff Mar 06 2015 03:08 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

More. [fimg=333:jblev7gb]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8682/16111572853_e79746d618_o.jpg[/fimg:jblev7gb][fimg=344:jblev7gb]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8600/16543963078_3ef55c9fee_o.jpg[/fimg:jblev7gb][fimg=333:jblev7gb]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8636/16730311521_826537e09b_o.jpg[/fimg:jblev7gb] [fimg=333:jblev7gb]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8642/16731525685_ff6d47fc10_o.jpg[/fimg:jblev7gb] [fimg=466:jblev7gb]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8576/16730450922_3c9a2a7802_o.jpg[/fimg:jblev7gb] [fimg=433:jblev7gb]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8635/16111573843_59539c2b1a_o.jpg[/fimg:jblev7gb] [fimg=333:jblev7gb]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8596/16109214764_d74729c1db_o.jpg[/fimg:jblev7gb]

batmagadanleadoff Mar 06 2015 03:11 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

[fimg=433]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8563/16730452152_bc8d79d063_o.jpg[/fimg] [fimg=444]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8675/16109215284_1a01ff8867_o.jpg[/fimg]

batmagadanleadoff Mar 06 2015 03:13 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

I think that Terry Collins might be the new Mets record holder for most baseball cards as a manager. He's been with the org for quite some time, now.

Edgy MD Mar 06 2015 06:21 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

batmagadanleadoff wrote: [fimg=433]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8635/16730449702_39e6f6c92b_o.jpg[/fimg] I guess the Mets got edged by the Braves for second place in Heritage's standings by virtue of playing 38–38 ball within the division, compared to the Braves' 40–36.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Mar 06 2015 07:21 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

What the hell kind of lame photoshopped uni is Cuddyer wearing above? Got a Mets patch on the shoulder but clearly a Rockies number 3. And what's with METS (R) and NL (TM). Get that shit off my baseball cards.

SteveJRogers Mar 06 2015 07:33 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

batmagadanleadoff wrote: I think that Terry Collins might be the new Mets record holder for most baseball cards as a manager. He's been with the org for quite some time, now. Valentine and Johnson were around longer.

SteveJRogers Mar 06 2015 08:25 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

According to http://www.tradingcarddb.com/ Note, does include team postcard sets and parallels. The team filter though doesn't seem to count stuff like Valentine's appearances in World Series commemorative sets and the like as well as cards with multiple people from different teams on it (like a Dallas Green card where he shares it with an AL skipper in the 1994 (IIRC) Topps set. As a Met Willie Randolph as manager 49 (was in both Topps base and their Allen & Ginter sets) Gil Hodges as manager 34 (obviously a ton in recent nostalgia based sets) Davey Johnson 32 Casey Stengel 24 (obviously a ton in recent nostalgia based sets) Bobby Valentine as manager 21 Art Howe 21 Yogi Berra as a manager 17 (I'm guessing as some of the nostalgia based ones don't have images that can tell if photo is from 72-74) Jerry Manuel as manager (in as a coach in Met postcard sets and Topps Met Gift Boxes set) 10 (all off the same Topps 2009 base card!) Bud Harrelson as manager 9 Joe Torre as manager 9 Jeff Torborg 8 Terry Collins 5 Wes Westrum 5 Frank Howard 4 Dallas Green as manager (I wonder how he is as a Met in THB as he is as a Met in this site as the 1990 Wiz All Time Met set) 4 (all team sets) Joe Frazier 3 George Bamberger 1 Others Mike Cubbage 3 as a player, 9 (mostly team sets) as a coach Roy McMillan 8 as a player, 1 (Berra's 1974 card with his coaching staff) as a coach Salty Parker 7 cards listed, none as a Met

batmagadanleadoff Mar 06 2015 12:06 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Steve: I don't count cards like that. One image on one template is one card for me. If Topps wants to make 19 variations of the same image on the same template, but, say, with different colored borders, and wants to count that as 19 different cards, that's fine by me. But it's one card in my book. I know that others see it differently. But now you know my mindset when I thought that Collins might be on more mgr. cards than any other Met. I also meant while actively managing, to exclude, for example, the Caseys and Gils that might pop up today, though I wouldn't've expected you to figure that out.

SteveJRogers Mar 06 2015 12:16 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

What about card #s? Do you not count O-Pee-Chees since they have the same card image on front but number is different?

batmagadanleadoff Mar 06 2015 12:19 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

SteveJRogers wrote: What about card #s? Do you not count O-Pee-Chees since they have the same card image on front but number is different? I count 'em the way I'd collect 'em. I'd only want an O-Pee-Chee if the image is different than the one on the Topps card.

Zvon Mar 06 2015 01:35 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: And what's with METS (R) and NL (TM). Get that shit off my baseball cards. Totally agree. I was gonna say something too. It defaces the card as far as I'm concerned. It ruins the visual flow.

SteveJRogers Mar 06 2015 01:55 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Well, put it THAT way: Davey Johnson 9 Topps 7 (includes 1984 Traded) Topps Special sets 2 (1988 AS, 1990 UK Mets Set, Donruss 2 (both special 1988 All-Star Game sets) Willie Randolph 8 Topps 4 (includes 2005 U&H) Other Topps Sets 3 (Allen & Ginter 2006-2007, 2008 Heritage with John Maine), Upper Deck 1 Casey Stengel 6 Topps 6, 4 solo cards and 2 with others Joe Torre 6 Topps 4 (3 as inserts in Team Photo Card), Donruss 1, Fleer 1 Gil Hodges 5 Topps 5 Bobby Valentine 3 Topps 2 Topps Special 1 (2000 Subway Series set) Art Howe 5 Topps 3 (includes 2003 Traded) Other Topps Sets 2 (2002's Topps 206, 2003's Topps Heritage) Terry Collins 5 Topps Heritage 5 Wes Westrum 2 Topps 2 Yogi Berra 2 Topps 2 Joe Frazier 2 Topps 2 (both insert in Team Photo card) Frank Howard 2 Topps 2 (includes 1983 Traded) Bud Harrelson 2 Topps 2 (includes 1990 Traded) Jeff Torborg 2 Topps 2 (shares his 1993 card with Tom Kelly) George Bamberger 1 Topps 1 Dallas Green 1 Topps 1 (shares his 1993 Topps Traded card with Davey Johnson as a Red...I'd have to guess that's a rib on the Mets) Jerry Manuel 1 Topps 1 =;)

batmagadanleadoff Mar 12 2015 12:00 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

[fimg=363]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7642/16790901665_703d590e67_o.jpg[/fimg]

G-Fafif Mar 12 2015 05:53 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

I just mentally undressed four packs of cards from 1975. Got three of these, because I always do. [fimg=250]http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/kusick-again.jpg[/fimg][fimg=250]http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/kusick-again.jpg[/fimg][fimg=250]http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/kusick-again.jpg[/fimg]

Edgy MD Mar 12 2015 10:00 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

That guy is COOL! You just know he captures bad guys by doing flying tackles into a row of garbage cans. [fimg=100:24bs5lm8]https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7564/16219156055_74fc1ebefa.jpg[/fimg:24bs5lm8] [fimg=100:24bs5lm8]http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/board/attachments/ootp-mods-rosters-photos-quick-starts/223887d1311817742-gambo-t_wil1-photopack-craig_kusick_-1979_blue_jays-_2.jpg[/fimg:24bs5lm8] [fimg=100:24bs5lm8]http://www.tradingcarddb.com/Images/Cards/Baseball/65779/65779-14Fr.jpg[/fimg:24bs5lm8] [fimg=100:24bs5lm8]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-f8_O7Sgrb1o/TakTlu7ilYI/AAAAAAAAKWU/WZb2L-aAvYc/s1600/1980_topps_kusick.JPG[/fimg:24bs5lm8] [fimg=100:24bs5lm8]http://sheamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Craig_Kusick_1979_Blue_Jays_3.jpg[/fimg:24bs5lm8] [fimg=100:24bs5lm8]https://www.cardcow.com/images/set408/card01010_fr.jpg[/fimg:24bs5lm8] [fimg=100:24bs5lm8]http://www.district196.org/rhs/news/images/Kusick.jpg[/fimg:24bs5lm8] [fimg=350:24bs5lm8]https://prestonjg.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/kusick.jpg[/fimg:24bs5lm8]

dgwphotography Mar 14 2015 10:02 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Maybe, but he's not wear-your-headband-outside-your-cap-cool like Tito Fuentes, who it seemed was in every one of my 1974 Topps packs...

Mets Guy in Michigan Mar 15 2015 09:00 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

The difference between the 1974 set and the 1975 set is just one year, but about a million miles. LOVE the '74 set.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Mar 15 2015 09:32 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Same. Good photos, portrait/landscape mix, understated design no preprinted autographs (who called for that feature?). Only quibble maybe is that the pics were relatively small but so toowere the 75ss'.

bmfc1 Mar 15 2015 09:57 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

I love the Heritage set. If anyone has a second Mets' set that they'd like to sell, let me know. I'd rather deal with you than eBay.

Ashie62 Mar 15 2015 02:03 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

batmagadanleadoff wrote: SteveJRogers wrote: What about card #s? Do you not count O-Pee-Chees since they have the same card image on front but number is different? I count 'em the way I'd collect 'em. I'd only want an O-Pee-Chee if the image is different than the one on the Topps card. I count each unique manufacturer & card number as one card. I do realize the same photo will be used for many players as sets roll out during the year.

G-Fafif Mar 15 2015 02:25 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

There was a Colombian kid in eighth grade who wore gym shorts over his sweats. Always made me think of Tito. (He also wore a headband.) Difference between '74 and '75, I realize now that I'm thinking about it, was in fifth grade ('74) the exercise felt if not exactly obligatory but something I had to do. 660-card set, came close, eventually got 'em all. It was business on some level. In sixth grade ('75), the pursuit was pure joy. Maybe it was all those bright colors, maybe it was seeing Joe Torre get a Mets card so soon after he was traded. Also I was in a better mood in sixth than I was in fifth, getting out of elementary school soon, which struck me as mind-boggling. There was a textbook with an illustration of what Europeans supposedly thought the world looked like before Columbus, with dragons awaiting those so foolish to sail off the edge of the map. I think I wondered if that's what happened once dared to voyage to junior high. (Seventh grade turned out to kind of suck but it was too late to turn back now.) Anyway, got the 660 cards in '75, too, though I needed to give some wise guy a couple of bucks in 1978 for the last couple I was missing. It was worth it. It's four decades later and I'm exulting in it still.

Edgy MD Mar 15 2015 02:32 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

First year of Junior high was a 10-month nightmare. You don't navigate that so much as a grab onto a floatation device and surrender.

d'Kong76 Mar 15 2015 02:38 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

I wish I had a youtube video of flipping cards at day camp in those years. Serious business.

Zvon Mar 15 2015 10:49 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Mets Guy in Michigan wrote: I can't figure out what Topps is trying to do with the new designs. What's in the border? Is that supposed to be rocks? Infield dirt? And what's with the white lines around the team logo and in the background under the name? Is that some kind of electronics motif? Border looks to be just foily glitz that fades from silver to the team color. The circles eminating from the team logo is just a design touch. I thought it was a thumb print when I first saw them on-line. Yea, behind the name is 'puter chipish. I reserved judgement until I saw one with my own eyes, and personally I like the design. That the color scheme of the card matches the teams color theme, that's a big plus with me. MGIM gets an early birthday present because ever since I saw the pic (on fb or here?) I had to whip up a card from it. Don't fret. I'll still bake you a Mets cake.

Edgy MD Mar 16 2015 07:14 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

That's some big-league beltwearin'.

Mets Guy in Michigan Mar 16 2015 11:15 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Zvon wrote: Mets Guy in Michigan wrote: I can't figure out what Topps is trying to do with the new designs. What's in the border? Is that supposed to be rocks? Infield dirt? And what's with the white lines around the team logo and in the background under the name? Is that some kind of electronics motif? Border looks to be just foily glitz that fades from silver to the team color. The circles eminating from the team logo is just a design touch. I thought it was a thumb print when I first saw them on-line. Yea, behind the name is 'puter chipish. I reserved judgement until I saw one with my own eyes, and personally I like the design. That the color scheme of the card matches the teams color theme, that's a big plus with me. MGIM gets an early birthday present because ever since I saw the pic (on fb or here?) I had to whip up a card from it. Don't fret. I'll still bake you a Mets cake. BEST. PRESENT. EVER!!!!!!! Love this to death!! Thank you so much!

SteveJRogers Mar 18 2015 03:54 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Testing something out, but that is your leader in the clubhouse when it comes to major Topps brand releases by a sitting Mets skipper! =;)

SteveJRogers Mar 18 2015 05:26 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Okay, the current guy does seem to be catching up.

batmagadanleadoff Mar 18 2015 05:31 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

SteveJRogers wrote: Okay, the current guy does seem to be catching up. When I posted that I thought Terry might be in the lead, I guess that what I was saying, on some subconscious level, was that Terry' been managing for quite a while now given the Mets terrible record under him, and given that he doesn't have the excuse that Casey did. Unless the Madoff mess really has given Terry a longer leash and the FO privately recognizes what a sad mess of players Terry's been dealt.

SteveJRogers Mar 18 2015 05:51 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Also Terry's look each year kind of tells the story of his reign as Met manager! Alright, work in progress okay, lets get to work! Not as easy as I thought, but we're keeping our heads above water. Just stay positive, serenity now! WAIT! WHAT! No Harvey? FUCK! What AM I still doing around here?

dgwphotography Mar 19 2015 08:37 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Ooooooh, I just pulled a Bryce Harper short print variation.... (rolls eyes) [fimg=400:270vhu32]http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d80/dgwhitham/207-harper.jpg[/fimg:270vhu32]

dgwphotography Mar 19 2015 08:22 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

The leader (so far) to be this year's version of Tito Fuentes is Carlos Gomez. I already have 4...

Edgy MD Mar 24 2015 01:09 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Todd Zeile, bringing the hi tech.

dgwphotography Mar 24 2015 04:36 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

I have a few extra 2015 Topps Series One Mets available if anyone wants them: #4 - Curtis Granderson #24 - Mets Team Card (3 available) #83 - David Wright (2) #129 - Jacob DeGrom (3) #133 - Daisuke Matsuzaka (2) #149 - Daniel Murphy (2) #173 - Carlos Torres (2) #199 - Eric Young Jr. (2) #236 - Zack Wheeler #263 - Dillon Gee (2)

themetfairy Mar 24 2015 05:47 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

I'd take one of the deGroms.

Zvon Mar 24 2015 06:03 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

dgwphotography wrote: I have a few extra 2015 Topps Series One Mets available if anyone wants them: #4 - Curtis Granderson #24 - Mets Team Card (3 available) #83 - David Wright (2) #129 - Jacob DeGrom (3) #133 - Daisuke Matsuzaka (2) #149 - Daniel Murphy (2) #173 - Carlos Torres (2) #199 - Eric Young Jr. (2) #236 - Zack Wheeler #263 - Dillon Gee (2) This is much appreciated. I figure I'll be getting 2 or 3 more blister boxes before May (& I'd also like to order a hobby box) so I'll go to the back of the line. The adult in me wants to save $$ but kid in me wants to get em in a pack. The kid wins this one.

cooby classic Mar 25 2015 01:10 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Edgy MD wrote: Todd Zeile, bringing the hi tech. lol

d'Kong76 Mar 26 2015 11:58 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

dgwphotography wrote: I have a few extra 2015 Topps Series One Mets available if anyone wants them: #4 - Curtis Granderson #24 - Mets Team Card (3 available) #83 - David Wright (2) #129 - Jacob DeGrom (3) #133 - Daisuke Matsuzaka (2) #149 - Daniel Murphy (2) #173 - Carlos Torres (2) #199 - Eric Young Jr. (2) #236 - Zack Wheeler #263 - Dillon Gee (2) Rule #14 - never turn down stuff! I'd like one of each if possible. I'll send you a SASE if you like. OE: I also have that unopened 1989 and 1990 Kahn's if you'd like one of those years in exchange.

cooby classic Mar 28 2015 02:11 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

themetfairy wrote: I'd take one of the deGroms. I actually got to watch the game today...he's adorable

d'Kong76 Apr 04 2015 11:41 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Got cards today, dgwphotography... thanks again!

Zvon Jul 15 2015 11:32 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

I had to go 17 deep to resurrect this thread. And I'm also hijacking it for a while, so there. Had the annual ASG pack party. I've been wanting to get some 2015 Topps Archive. I checked Target & Walmart 4 times since the 1st week in June when they came out and they did not have 'em. Then a few hours before the game one of my brothers calls and says that they have boxes of Archive at Target. So we zipped out there and grabbed some. We also had some 2015 Topps series2. I knew I would like the Archive cards because I was a fan of the primary designs used: 1957, 1976, & 1983. I may come off as a card collector, and I was in the past, but up until I bought some Archive packs in 2013 I had not bought more than a couple of regular issue Topps packs a year-just to see what they looked like. With the emergence of these Mets pitchers I began buying more packs to try and get their rookie cards. The only one already released was Harvey, and incredibly I got that in a pack (I only bought a few 2012 packs-that was very lucky). So I have a nice little collection of newage Metrookie cards. I'll get back to the Mets in a bit. These are how the 2015 Archive look and I really like these cards. I'm going to try and complete the set. I love that '76 Kiner. [fimg=200:2jscfi90]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ubdQIx-1oGg/VacJj_zJLPI/AAAAAAAAcSI/JOe3GLA6dik/s598-Ic42/57BJ.png[/fimg:2jscfi90][fimg=200:2jscfi90]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-IopDVGVt7v0/VacJkUN59aI/AAAAAAAAcSM/YyzHWXMsvjs/s589-Ic42/57WB.png[/fimg:2jscfi90][fimg=200:2jscfi90]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3sQpKqrbJQc/Vacyp5VgHhI/AAAAAAAAcVM/r7wRN5U1OlI/s667-Ic42/57MB.png[/fimg:2jscfi90][fimg=200:2jscfi90]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-e-orQmbGT4w/VacJkizx1zI/AAAAAAAAcSQ/3QqsC9SZyz0/s590-Ic42/76RC.png[/fimg:2jscfi90][fimg=200:2jscfi90]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-l2OcZwCvsHI/VacrsbExyWI/AAAAAAAAcU0/U29uXtgIGr8/s667-Ic42/83LG.png[/fimg:2jscfi90][fimg=200:2jscfi90]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-EEfTPQY-ShA/VabwBtdNDOI/AAAAAAAAcOM/jjurW2RO09s/s549-Ic42/76Ralph.png[/fimg:2jscfi90] The silver border is a limited run of 199 printed. Not a Trout collector but that's nice. Maybe I'll start one. What's his rookie card? [fimg=400:2jscfi90]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-m5mxXepATPU/VacLF4EqPqI/AAAAAAAAcT8/giJUIfQzCKc/s780-Ic42/SILVERtroutWainwright.png[/fimg:2jscfi90] [fimg=200:2jscfi90]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-DJioDOGKBjA/VacyqLRUbUI/AAAAAAAAcVY/zMdUY_H9A4U/s667-Ic42/89BBauto.png[/fimg:2jscfi90] Got an autographed Bret Boone. If there are any Boone fans in the audience, I will trade this for a worthy Mets card. ....to be continued (with Mets cards).

seawolf17 Jul 16 2015 08:55 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

I love the Archives sets. I have a list of needs, Z, if you pick up more and wind up with doubles (http://bit.ly/wVFOp3), and I have a handful of doubles I can send your way if you need them too. Trout's RCs are in 2011: Bowman Draft #101 and/or Topps Update #175.

batmagadanleadoff Jul 16 2015 11:26 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015 Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Jul 16 2015 12:14 PM

seawolf17 wrote: I love the Archives sets. I have a list of needs, Z, if you pick up more and wind up with doubles (http://bit.ly/wVFOp3), and I have a handful of doubles I can send your way if you need them too. Trout's RCs are in 2011: Bowman Draft #101 and/or Topps Update #175. Do you collect every card? Every set? You must have a gigantic collection. You probably need a whole 'nuther room just for your cards.

batmagadanleadoff Jul 16 2015 11:47 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015 Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Jul 16 2015 12:15 PM

I love the Archives sets. I have a list of needs, Z, if you pick up more and wind up with doubles (http://bit.ly/wVFOp3), and I have a handful of doubles I can send your way if you need them too. Trout's RCs are in 2011: Bowman Draft #101 and/or Topps Update #175. Do you collect every card? Every set? You must have a gigantic collection. You probably need a whole 'nuther room just for your cards. When I put together those card threads on Mets who played for the current opponent, I discover many regional card sets that I'd otherwise, never get to look at. They come in handy for filling out those hard to find fringy players, or players who were on a team briefly and in the middle of the season -- and would thus, not appear in a major set. I wish some sponsor would set out to make Mets regional sets. Kahn's Meats stopped producing Mets sets about 20 years ago. Those sets used crappy card stock and the designs were basic and uninspiring, but man, those sets were large and very inclusive. Some of my favorite all-time sets were from the manager Art Howe era when Upper Deck produced their 40 man sets and Topps produced their Total (or Topps Total). Those were some large sets. Just about everybody got a card. The fourth reliever? Yep. Seventh starter on the depth chart who spent more time in AAA than with the big club. Yeah.

seawolf17 Jul 16 2015 11:56 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

batmagadanleadoff wrote: I love the Archives sets. I have a list of needs, Z, if you pick up more and wind up with doubles (http://bit.ly/wVFOp3), and I have a handful of doubles I can send your way if you need them too. Trout's RCs are in 2011: Bowman Draft #101 and/or Topps Update #175. Do you collect every card? Every set? You must have a gigantic collection. You probaly need a whole 'nuther room just for your cards. I've gone in waves. When I was on Jeopardy, I mentioned that I was working on a complete collection of Mets autos; I've cut that back to just the guys who have the most importance to me. I mostly collect Mets, particularly my favorites (McReynolds and Hernandez) and the hometown guy (Harnisch), and anyone with a Stony Brook connection (except Joe Nathan, because there's just too much out there). I also love the Archives sets.

Zvon Jul 16 2015 02:50 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

seawolf17 wrote: I love the Archives sets. I have a list of needs, Z, if you pick up more and wind up with doubles (http://bit.ly/wVFOp3), and I have a handful of doubles I can send your way if you need them too. Trout's RCs are in 2011: Bowman Draft #101 and/or Topps Update #175. I'll start sorting. I can tell you that I got almost two of every card from the 2 boxes I opened. To put it the other way there were maybe 10 cards that I didn't get doubles of out of 160. I will be happy to trade&mail, but first I have to check with one of my brothers who said he might try and build the set. He wouldn't want to do it thru the mail tho, I don't think, and If he's not visiting again til X-mas he'll have to go to the back of the line. In any case, if all 3 of us work together it should be very doable. I'll work on a list.

Zvon Jul 16 2015 03:10 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

These are the Archive Mets I got. [fimg=400:2f3twhfk]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-AKLYEQBY0N0/VacJp123MGI/AAAAAAAAcTM/LyZeANHa7X4/s831-Ic42/LagsMook.png[/fimg:2f3twhfk] [fimg=200:2f3twhfk]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Ra3Z8Uug6CY/VabwA21sFyI/AAAAAAAAcOU/7CxolPeYcn0/s554-Ic42/76MUFFY.png[/fimg:2f3twhfk][fimg=200:2f3twhfk]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-KjlqDieOW_k/VabwB1qnVjI/AAAAAAAAcOI/QP57u4zmmio/s557-Ic42/76deGROM.png[/fimg:2f3twhfk] [fimg=200:2f3twhfk]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xUhVbeMqRVA/VacJlT2XWGI/AAAAAAAAcSo/e34k1q_Kh4k/s556-Ic42/83Seaver.png[/fimg:2f3twhfk] Got two Farrell's, only scanned one. The other is a 1982 on the Reds. [fimg=300:2f3twhfk]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xh1K41XLqJQ/VacyqNClWBI/AAAAAAAAcVU/3M4tjnjzA-k/s655-Ic42/89WF.png[/fimg:2f3twhfk] And I'll need a drumroll for this one. This card has made my season. I keep fighting getting sucked in to this business where they make a card rare out of the chute with a limited run. If someone else got this I'd be bitching. But I got it so I'll jump for joy. 83 gold border Tom Seaver, #23 of 50. [fimg=300:2f3twhfk]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-NqAepwDtYpE/VabwhOWBHII/AAAAAAAAcO4/qBiYKEICAMg/s800-Ic42/TS.png[/fimg:2f3twhfk] [fimg=500:2f3twhfk]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-tJv61W-BTmI/VabwGCNylmI/AAAAAAAAcOw/9bKI4tR_CJA/s1024-Ic42/TSback.png[/fimg:2f3twhfk] This type of card is really nice but I'm not out to collect limited cards. That would drive me both crazy & broke. Also, I have a problem with that back. Why would Topps cut off the stats at 1979? From what I can see they did this to retired players with long careers. I don't like it. And Topps continually amazes me with decisions like that. More in my next post, which will show Seaver's actual 1983 Topps cards. To be continued...

Zvon Jul 17 2015 12:08 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

So now I got a wacky collection of 83t Seavers. I figure I'll end up making one for the blog as well when I get to the '83s. I am a big fan of this design. I was really out of card collecting alltogether in 83 and hadn't even seen what the '83's looked like til around '86/'87. Dwight Goodens appearance is what got me back into cards in '85 (from 85 to around 94). [fimg=200:13qgn3uk]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-iuAXnBIlEic/VacJnd3aUSI/AAAAAAAAcS0/75JcDdGz-G0/s682-Ic42/83tTSeaver.png[/fimg:13qgn3uk][fimg=200:13qgn3uk]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xoMdp968uAA/VacJnXyeA3I/AAAAAAAAcS8/ND10m8EUU6M/s800-Ic42/83opcTSeaver.png[/fimg:13qgn3uk][fimg=200:13qgn3uk]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-W7_X49MYF8c/VacJqVP_bVI/AAAAAAAAcTo/WzFlBzFciAc/s800-Ic42/83tUD-TSeaver.png[/fimg:13qgn3uk][fimg=200:13qgn3uk]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xUhVbeMqRVA/VacJlT2XWGI/AAAAAAAAcSo/e34k1q_Kh4k/s556-Ic42/83Seaver.png[/fimg:13qgn3uk] You can see on the 83tUD back they cover Tom from 1967 to 1982. And I'm sure his last Topps card has his complete stats. Why would Topps not have his complete back on the limited card? Or at least up to that year, 83? I think they are intentionally trying to piss me off so I talk about them. DOH! [fimg=400:13qgn3uk]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-iwvVSyDeNzI/VacJpDhmOMI/AAAAAAAAcTU/t05ZL6HOysE/s1024-Ic42/83tUD-TSback.png[/fimg:13qgn3uk]

Zvon Jul 19 2015 08:10 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Zvon wrote: I love the Archives sets. I have a list of needs, Z, if you pick up more and wind up with doubles (http://bit.ly/wVFOp3), and I have a handful of doubles I can send your way if you need them too. Trout's RCs are in 2011: Bowman Draft #101 and/or Topps Update #175. I'll start sorting. I can tell you that I got almost two of every card from the 2 boxes I opened. To put it the other way there were maybe 10 cards that I didn't get doubles of out of 160. I will be happy to trade&mail, but first I have to check with one of my brothers who said he might try and build the set. He wouldn't want to do it thru the mail tho, I don't think, and If he's not visiting again til X-mas he'll have to go to the back of the line. In any case, if all 3 of us work together it should be very doable. I'll work on a list. My brother's up for a 3 way. DOH! Get your mind out of the gutter. I'm going to get one more 19.99 box tomorrow and freeze there. My bro will be down next week. I'll put up lists before then. Do you want to do this here?(does the board mind if we do this here?) facebook? Just thru Email? I'm up for however. As of now the number 1 card on my want list is Brooks Robinson (83t). Hopefully that's in tomorrows haul. Looking at your lists. You're going to have an incredible collection (if you don't already). You don't have the Brooks as of that list. I know my brother got 2 in his box when he was down for the ASG. I hope I get it tomorrow cause then his will be available. I have a bunch of doubles you can use.

Zvon Jul 20 2015 08:50 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Come on Topps! Whats wrong w/the pic? [fimg=400:i0tkcvn4]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0-AtoQ6lAjI/Va19zGBoiCI/AAAAAAAAcbA/Q644RKAAwI0/s800-Ic42/2015ta202__43448.1434142128.1280.1280.jpg[/fimg:i0tkcvn4]

SteveJRogers Jul 20 2015 09:35 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

That's how they've been doing Archives since the brand started. Every so often they'll cross the time streams with card style and card photo.

batmagadanleadoff Jul 20 2015 09:49 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Yeah. That and that Bench is throwing with his left hand. The photo's flipped. OE Know what's really annoying about the Wagner. The player name font on the Wagner is not like the original '76 font.

Zvon Jul 21 2015 03:58 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Yea, Bench photo is reversed. Thats a great shot too. No idea if they will correct it (don't even know if Topps is aware of it-Id figure someone told 'em). These days, odds are good that they did it on purpose. I have a bone to pick with Topps. I'm looking into the details of the Archives set (looking at the checklists)and even though I'm only going for the base set, I will vent about what's being done to what used to be the fun hobby of card collecting. For instance- the Archive set is actually 330 cards. They intentionally make the last 30 cards in the set "short print" and very difficult to get. And they say, meh, it's part of the set and, meh, it's not really part of the set, and bullshit like this. Topps, suck mah balls, I'm gonna decide what I'll collect and the 300 card "base" set, that is not the entire set due to your shifty practices, is good enough for me. More on that later cause they have all kinds of side dishes that go with this set. After this set is completed I'm going back to getting only Mets as a protest of what has become of this hobby (I did that back in 1994 too, lol. And now it's ten times worse). If I had the license $$ I would market a set, and it would be a nice simple baseball card set. Overall I have few complaints about 2015 Archives. Here's one. Take a look at this card, a Bill Mazeroski from the archive set: [fimg=300:1gbq29ct]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-NR9A1y0zfe0/VabwB-bypLI/AAAAAAAAcOE/kqlx3C9DHqM/s555-Ic42/83BillMaz.png[/fimg:1gbq29ct] Now there's no way that's Maz from his playing days. It's gotta be an old timers game or something, right? And that yellow. Why would you use that yellow?. There was a reason you didn't use that yellow back in 1983, you numbskulls. [fimg=200:1gbq29ct]https://bapple2286.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/dave-parker-g.jpg[/fimg:1gbq29ct]

SteveJRogers Jul 21 2015 05:10 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Mazeroski retired in 1972.

Zvon Jul 21 2015 06:42 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

SteveJRogers wrote: Mazeroski retired in 1972. So? Teddy ballgame retired way before '83. The year of the border doesn't matter to Topps. I don't know that the photo on the Maz card was taken in '83. But that gut tells me it certainly wasn't taken during his days as a player. My complaint is that they should use a good pic of the guy, in his prime (at least from his playing days).

Mets Willets Point Jul 29 2015 09:55 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Journalist opens a 1986 pack of Topps, chews the gum, and then goes on a journey to meet with all the players in the pack. Read all about it on the Wax Packblog.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Jul 29 2015 11:28 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Mets – Willets Point wrote: Journalist opens a 1986 pack of Topps, chews the gum, and then goes on a journey to meet with all the players in the pack. Read all about it on the Wax Packblog. I heard about this project from the author himself who came across my Mazzilli bio. Like me he found touching base with the man directly a little tricky!

seawolf17 Jul 29 2015 12:14 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Zvon wrote: Zvon wrote: I love the Archives sets. I have a list of needs, Z, if you pick up more and wind up with doubles (http://bit.ly/wVFOp3), and I have a handful of doubles I can send your way if you need them too. Trout's RCs are in 2011: Bowman Draft #101 and/or Topps Update #175. I'll start sorting. I can tell you that I got almost two of every card from the 2 boxes I opened. To put it the other way there were maybe 10 cards that I didn't get doubles of out of 160. I will be happy to trade&mail, but first I have to check with one of my brothers who said he might try and build the set. He wouldn't want to do it thru the mail tho, I don't think, and If he's not visiting again til X-mas he'll have to go to the back of the line. In any case, if all 3 of us work together it should be very doable. I'll work on a list. My brother's up for a 3 way. DOH! Get your mind out of the gutter. I'm going to get one more 19.99 box tomorrow and freeze there. My bro will be down next week. I'll put up lists before then. Do you want to do this here?(does the board mind if we do this here?) facebook? Just thru Email? I'm up for however. As of now the number 1 card on my want list is Brooks Robinson (83t). Hopefully that's in tomorrows haul. Looking at your lists. You're going to have an incredible collection (if you don't already). You don't have the Brooks as of that list. I know my brother got 2 in his box when he was down for the ASG. I hope I get it tomorrow cause then his will be available. I have a bunch of doubles you can use. We can do it here, through PMs if you'd like. My wantlist is current. If not '15 Archives, I'm SURE I can find other things you'll want around here.

Zvon Jul 29 2015 04:41 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

I never got that additional box. They were all out at Target. Walmarts card section here in Mayslanding NJ is atrociously horrible and not kept up to date. Target had a few packs so I got them. But 5.99 a pack...thats a shame. But I did good, needed almost all the cards. Still only have 139/300. Looked into hobby boxes (only online-looks like all the old card shops around here are gone) and the price was way up there because of demand. I think it's peaked and should be coming back down. It better come down a lot. I'm not even sure of the base price but I'm not spending $120 for a box of brand new baseball cards (that was 2 weeks ago-I'll check again later today). I say do it right here if the board has no problem with it. I'll post my list here or link you to it. I already have yours. If my brother can't get by in the next few days I'll proceed w/o him.

dgwphotography Aug 09 2015 06:59 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

It's not bad enough that I got the same card twice within one pack, but it was a card I already had....

seawolf17 Aug 10 2015 07:06 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

That's odd collation. You might want to eyeball that and make sure one of those isn't a variation. http://www.cardboardconnection.com/2015 ... variations

dgwphotography Aug 10 2015 08:21 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

seawolf17 wrote: That's odd collation. You might want to eyeball that and make sure one of those isn't a variation. http://www.cardboardconnection.com/2015 ... variations These aren't variations. The collation in series 1 was messed up, too. I bought the 36 card packs, and kept getting the same players over and over. I've bought 4 of these packs for series II, and there are a couple of guys I already have 3 cards for.

seawolf17 Aug 10 2015 11:37 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Yeah, that sucks. Usually the variation (if there is one) is stuck in the middle of the packs with the inserts, so you know it's something different even if it's not apparent at first glance. I usually use the code in fine print at the bottom of the back side to see if it's a variation.

dgwphotography Aug 11 2015 07:39 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Topps revealed their 2016 base design today: [fimg=500:h8dwz07o]http://www.topps.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Screen-Shot-2015-08-06-at-4.18.12-PM.png[/fimg:h8dwz07o] Me likey. http://www.topps.com/blog/topps-reveals ... -baseball/

batmagadanleadoff Aug 19 2015 09:23 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Mike Piazza Marlins baseball cards and getting outbid on ebay over and over and over. (zvon: you should read this article. There's a money making opportunity here for you.) [fimg=233]http://a1.nyt.com/assets/article/20150818-161746/images/foundation/logos/nyt-logo-185x26.svg[/fimg] Piazza, the Marlin, And a Shared Fixation By KEN BELSON DEC. 31, 2012 One is a corporate lawyer from Southern California with few hobbies and only the mildest interest in sports. The other is a college student from Miami who is less than half his age and has amassed a stash of memorabilia that matches his love of baseball. Yet from opposite ends of the country they share one peculiar passion: collecting trading cards of Mike Piazza in a Florida Marlins uniform. Never mind that Piazza played just five games for the Marlins in May 1998, a mere pit stop on his way from the Los Angeles Dodgers to the Mets. Never mind that he did nothing of note during that stint, except hit his only triple of the season. The closest either man has been to Piazza is waving to him from the stands. Yet for Jerry Dworkin, 59, and Chris Fernandez, 25, there is no greater thrill than finding one of the more than 120 Piazza Marlins cards issued from 1998 to 2005. “I can’t deny it is obscure,” said Dworkin, who lives in Irvine, Calif., and admitted to spending five figures to accumulate more than 100 cards. “I’m not a baseball expert. I’m just a run-of-the-mill guy who got caught up in the oddity of the situation, someone as great as Mike Piazza being on a team for just five games.” Jerry Dworkin said he has spent a "five-figure number" to accumulate more than 100 cards. Fernandez, who keeps 59 Piazza Marlins cards in a cigar box, was more concise: “We kind of marvel at it.” Fans may marvel at their cards if Piazza’s election to the Hall of Fame, in his first year of eligibility, is announced on Jan. 9. Typically, a player’s rookie cards get the biggest boost from Hall entry. Piazza played most of his career in Los Angeles and New York, so the cards from those years are likely to appreciate more than his Marlins cards do, collecting experts said. Yet sports collecting is fueled by an unending flow of players who wear an endless number of uniforms and gear. And when a baseball player makes it to the Hall of Fame, some of his biggest fans will spend great sums to commemorate the moment. Trading cards are the most obvious investments because they have been around for so long and are relatively inexpensive. Years ago, scarcity and a player’s popularity drove demand. The T206 Honus Wagner issued in 1909 is the most famous card in part because few exist. Card collecting has grown immensely since then, and manufacturers have become adept at celebrating even the most obscure achievements, including Piazza’s five-game stretch for the team now known as the Miami Marlins. They recognized the peculiarity of an All-Star like Piazza being traded twice in a brief span and the potential market for his Marlins cards, and flooded the market with dozens of cards, diluting their impact. “They want to create draws for a product and will issue cards in a unique circumstance, but then beat it to death,” Tom Bartsch, the editor of Sports Collectors Digest, said of the card makers. “It’s a tactic they use to get people to buy as much product as possible. But it’s also turned a lot of people off of collecting.” The flood has limited the value of the cards, most of which sell for just a few dollars on eBay and other sites. But the value of the cards is less important to Dworkin and Fernandez than the chase to complete the Piazza Marlins collection. Dworkin saw Piazza play a few times for the Dodgers and was disappointed when he was traded. While Dworkin did not collect cards, he quickly grasped that the Piazza Marlins cards could be valuable, though he insisted that turning a profit was not his motive. “The collection as a whole has a greater value than any part,” he said. Dworkin spends a few minutes every morning browsing Web sites for baseball card traders, and he bids actively on eBay if he finds something he does not own. He has bought cards from traders as far away as Taiwan and spent months trying to buy one-of-a-kind cards, often unsuccessfully. Once, he paid a promoter about $350 to get Piazza, who rarely attends collectors shows, to sign one of his cards. Over the years, Dworkin has found others who share his obsession, but none more so than Fernandez, who began his fixation with Piazza in April 1993. That’s when the newly minted Marlins made their debut as a franchise against the Dodgers. He recalled seeing Piazza’s name on the scoreboard that day and thinking that it sounded like pizza. A 2004 signed Mike Piazza baseball card from Jerry Dworkin's collection. Fernandez kept an eye on Piazza from afar and was ecstatic when the Marlins traded Bobby Bonilla, Gary Sheffield and three other players to the Dodgers for Piazza and Todd Zeile. But his joy was cut short when Piazza was shipped to New York in a lopsided deal. “When he was traded to the Marlins, I was happy as heck, so I went out looking for cards,” Fernandez said. “I found out he was traded when I got home on my birthday. I cried like an 11-year-old.” He kept collecting Piazza cards and jerseys as well as ticket stubs from four out of the five games Piazza played for the Marlins, only two of which were at home. He has scoured card shows and shops and, of course, bid for cards online. But Fernandez was outbid with an uncanny regularity. It was only after he met Dworkin through a collectors Web site that he discovered who was besting him. “I thought I’d get them cheap, but no matter what I’d bid, he’d win,” Fernandez said. “I found out Jerry was out there and he was the reason I couldn’t get them. Knowing him now, I knew I was never going to win.” The two rivals shared tips about what cards were available, feeding their fixation. “It became a race: I’d go hunt one down and he’d grab it and vice versa,” said Fernandez, who claims to have spent about $1,000 on Piazza Marlins cards. “Most of the better cards I’ve lost out to Jerry, but my wallet thanked me.” Despite their constant contact over the Internet, they have never met or spoken on the phone. Still, “the friendship kept me going,” Dworkin said. “I gained an appreciation of the collector community,” he said. “He was someone I could talk to about it.” Dworkin said he would love to meet Fernandez in Cooperstown if Piazza makes it into the Hall of Fame. Given how popular Piazza was, Dworkin and Fernandez are likely to have a lot of company. Piazza has indicated that he would like to be inducted as a Met, and there is no chance of his wearing a teal and black Marlins cap. Piazza’s agent did not return calls seeking comment from his client about his time on the Marlins. But Piazza appears to see the humor in the tiny cult of fans who savor his time in Florida. At the end of the 2011 season, he accepted an invitation from the Marlins to help close out the team’s tenure at Sun Life Stadium. Standing with Marlins mainstays like Sheffield and Jeff Conine, Piazza smiled and waved to the fans, including Fernandez, who wore a Piazza replica jersey to the stadium that day. “You could see on the JumboTron that he appreciated the joke,” Fernandez said. Chris Fernandez, wearing a Piazza jersey at a 2011 game with his fiancée, Veronica Trujillo, owns 59 Piazza Marlins cards. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/sport ... .html?_r=0

Zvon Aug 19 2015 09:48 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

I don't know what you mean by a money making opportunity. Great article. I love obscure collections like that. I have a bunch of Piazza's but they are all Dodger rookie cards (& of course his Mets cards). Even got his O-Pee-Chee rook. I don't have even one card of him on the Fish (unless it's lost in a card box somewhere).

Mets Guy in Michigan Aug 20 2015 11:44 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

dgwphotography wrote: Topps revealed their 2016 base design today: [fimg=500]http://www.topps.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Screen-Shot-2015-08-06-at-4.18.12-PM.png[/fimg] Me likey. http://www.topps.com/blog/topps-reveals ... -baseball/ Wow. I like this a lot!

Zvon Aug 23 2015 02:51 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

dgwphotography wrote: It's not bad enough that I got the same card twice within one pack, but it was a card I already had.... Was this an Archive pack? Chris, my brother finally got with me and we pooled our Archive doubles. There's something going on here with these cards. Is it possible that there are cards from the base set that are only available in hobby boxes (I'm not including #301-330 "short prints")? It seems that some of the base cards are scarce and this is becoming a rather frustrating experience. I assume the official "short prints" are hobby only because we haven't come across even one of those.

seawolf17 Aug 23 2015 07:15 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

SPs are in retail too as far as I know, and no, none of the base cards are short-printed. You might have just gotten bum collation, which happens.

Zvon Aug 23 2015 09:40 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

SPs are in retail too as far as I know, and no, none of the base cards are short-printed. You might have just gotten bum collation, which happens. Between us (over the last 5 months) we have gotten 12 blister boxes and one hobby box (from 4 different sources). That's like 1140 cards. The base set is only 300 cards. I'm at 230/300 with the base set with 3 and 4 doubles of way too many cards. That's kinda crazy. One of my brothers says buy the hobby boxes from now on, but I will not spend $120 for a box of 24 packs with 8 cards in each pack ( I get the blisters: 8 packs, 10 cards per= 80 cards for $20). On a good side note I've gotten 6 of the 10 Farrell cards and my brother got a BLACK PRINTING PLATE for Catfish Hunter, 1 of 1. My brother didn't know what it was. He says" Shit, I got a damaged card or something. The inks all smeared." Ha!

seawolf17 Aug 24 2015 08:28 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

That many boxes, yes, that's certainly strange collation. But I haven't heard about anything being short-printed other than the official SPs, so it literally might just be back luck.

Zvon Aug 24 2015 08:44 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

seawolf17 wrote: That many boxes, yes, that's certainly strange collation. But I haven't heard about anything being short-printed other than the official SPs, so it literally might just be back luck. I've been asking around and the responses are similar so I'm going to have to agree. I have to type up my need list and I'll send that to you thru a fb private message and we can exchange addresses during the week. Have you come across an SP? I almost don't want to now for fear I'll start hunting for more. To try and complete this entire set with all the side dishes could possibly drive me crazy, certainly broke. ;)

batmagadanleadoff Sep 30 2015 07:59 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

[fimg=366:2crcp1mp]http://cconnect.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/2014-Topps-For-Mayor-Wall-Art-Tom-Seaver.jpg[/fimg:2crcp1mp]

Edgy MD Nov 06 2015 07:32 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Johnny Monell Sr. joins Kevin Maine among Met properties who peaked in the high minors but got to to see their sons go all the way to the big team: He caught himself some serious Julio. Machado and Valera.

batmagadanleadoff Nov 14 2015 06:44 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Recommended read on this published author's favorite baseball cards sets of all time. Card Stock Betcha never thought of baseball cards as art before, eh? By Colin Fleming As a kid, I had what I thought of as two epic walks that I could take. The less frequent one was by far the longer of the two, although it never felt as such to me when I kitted myself out with a mini-frame backpack and set off into the woods behind our house for a two mile romp, pretending I was Michael Douglas in Romancing the Stone come upon the latest jungle, with a baseball bat-like piece of wood wrapped in hockey tape at the base for a grip serving as my extemporized machete. I was not the coolest kid. But it was my other epic walk, which couldn’t have been more than a fifth of a mile, that always felt like the more Lewis and Clark-worthy trip, with so much of my future happiness — for that particular day, at least — hanging in the balance of what was going to go down at the tiny mom-and-pop store whose entire business was in supplying the people of our development with soda, beer, chips, ice cream, the odd bottle of glue, and — for us kids, anyway — baseball cards. The store seemed leagues away, almost an impossible journey, save that I had made it enough times in the past to know that perseverance would get me there, with maybe a grape juice pack stuck in my pocket for refreshment just in case. The reason for my skewed sense of distance, I now realize, was because I flat out could not wait to get to that store, plunk down my thirty-five cents on the counter (and there is no one I wouldn’t hit up for thirty-five cents; great aunts were particularly susceptible, I came to learn, and you could try to curry their favor several times a day when they were visiting) in hopes of landing, say, something like an ’83 Carlton Fisk Topps card, Fisk being my favorite player, and the design being a clean, well-flowing one — with just enough action in it — as I had discovered when a friend unearthed the card from one Reggie Jackson in mighty-follow-through mode. Never mind that all of us New England kids — well, discounting Connecticut kids, I suppose — were raised to hate Jackson. I was like everyone else in my neighborhood in this regard. Anyone pro-Yaz had to be anti-Reggie. In theory, anyway. But I was a little different, for I was somewhat of a baseball card aesthete. I would luxuriate in the designs of each annual set, caring, at the time, only for Topps, as they had such a storied history, and thinking little of Donruss and Fleer (nothing was tackier than Fleer, for God’s sake), whose packs were also on sale at the little mom-and-pop shop, although you had to have something wrong with you — or just wanted to be a contrarian — if that’s where your thirty-five cents went. There was no getting around it: anything but Topps, in the world of a burgeoning card buff (one who was unaware of the rich pre-Topps history of cards) was a “jip,” and there wasn’t a lot worse than that in the world of an eight-year-old. Kids would flip the cards, trade the cards, sometimes try to sell the cards, barter for recently caught pet frogs and turtles from those aforesaid Romancing the Stone woods with the cards. But I’m not sure anyone else studied the cards. I couldn’t stop studying them. I’d note their visual architecture, how each year’s new set would compel the eye to move in a different manner across the plane of an ostensibly humble cardboard slab than the previous year’s set had. I got so into all of this that I’d go to the library, storm past the perpetually assembled group of Reading Is Fundamental kids that were trying to decide what they’d like to check out, a harried librarian attempting to meet their demands, and pull out this massive tome that had a photo of every card Topps had put out since the company began releasing baseball cards in 1951. I all but slathered that book in drool. It was technically a reference book, so you couldn’t take it home, but man, I thought, what a neat idea — some adult thought baseball cards were important enough to get their very own reference book, like ancient coins got theirs, and post-Impressionist painters had theirs. I told my dad that I thought baseball cards were a form of art. Or could be. Or sometimes were. Or maybe I’d understand that they were some day. And what did he think? “Van Gogh made very small sketches about the size of a baseball card when he’d write to his brother.” Excellent, I thought. That probably counted for something. I was worried that the small size might be this uber-hurdle to qualifying as official art. So what if it was maybe just one adult ever who thought baseball cards warranted the reference book treatment. I knew, some day, that with my help — that is, in getting older — there’d at least be two of us. And you no more bartered something like a glorious 1973 Topps Johnny Bench — a pictorial distillation of a catcher’s leonine, balletic grace — for your buddy’s recently landed garter snake named Hank than you ever put a Reggie Jackson card at the top of your card pile where a Red Sox legend like Jim Rice more properly belonged. Actually, that wasn’t quite true, for me. I’d rate — and store — my cards in order of their aesthetic appeal, much as I’d later daily roam the corridors of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, arguing with myself as to what Fitz Henry Lane canvas was the most visually successful, or with what skill Motherwell could make one’s eye journey around a canvas such that you felt the simple elegance of the Monorail had been crossed with Abstract Expressionism, a largess of minimalism in a maximalist world. That’s how I liked my baseball cards. As a result, I didn’t care for a number of 1970s sets, like the disco-y ’75 issue, which was still a triumph compared to the ’72 set. This was problematic for me, as that was the year of Fisk’s rookie card, a card I came to acquire at a curio shop somewhere not far from Story Land on a summer vacation. I wanted to like Fisk’s rookie card — visually, that is — more than I did. But I’d just sit there with it in its pathetic plastic sleeve (a transportable frame for protection, of course) on the floor of my closet, the place of my own private museum, trying to believe the thing didn’t look like part of the set decoration from a Brady Bunch episode, but, alas, it did. But there was no shortage of classic set designs from Topps’ back catalog. The ’71 set, with its black enameled borders and sharp, deep-focus photography, took the palm as far as the 1970s went. The ’67 set was all liquid color, almost like the cards had originated from a series of watercolors that had crystallized inside a camera’s aperture ring. The 1950s was stacked in terms of all-time great sets, and the pull back to that decade is a strong one for collectors. I remember going to MoMA when I was a teenager, and being heartened to see baseball cards on display there, with lots of samples from the 1950s, as if there was some vanguard curator whose pictorial obsessions dovetailed with my own. Granted, the cards at MoMA were a representative slice of baseball card history, with no real attempt to say, in effect, “this is art, this is not, this is better art than this,” etc. which were the terms I came to understand I was thinking in. Of course, the further I went along in thinking these matters through, the more card sets I discovered, and, with that, the epiphany that while Topps was pretty cool, in the cards-as-art game, Topps was not by any means the company you’d exclusively turn to. But in looking at the top five card set designs of all time, we can begin with the company that started a lot of artistic mediations for me back when my mates were trying to pry Hank from his latest owner. 5. 1956 Topps This was a big year in baseball card history. Topps had bought out it’s rival, Bowman. This meant, foremost for a lot of Baby Boomers, that Mickey Mantle, who had not made a Topps appearance since ’53 due to contractual obligations, would be returning and doing so in a design that is a triumph of cardboard-based trompe-l’oeil. The Mick’s card is an easy highlight, “aw-shucks” American wholesomeness in the visage at the foreground, which humanizes the athletic virtuosity of the background as the Yankees’ Triple Crown-winning outfielder gobbles up a would-be home run. There is a painterly finesse that runs throughout the set, with the colors having more of a soft, burnished, autumnal quality than with Topps’ 1955 product. So what if Hank Aaron’s card features Willie Mays in the action shot? For me, it adds a nice, quasi-dreamy affect, like when you’re mulling over who won a batting title or the MVP in a given year and names, stats, and legends start to conflate. And never has the purity of the left-handed swing been better visually encapsulated than in the set’s Ted Williams card. Never mind that it looks like he’s just popped one up to the second baseman; any painter from Rubens on down understands the difficulty of capturing torque, and in that regard 1956 background Williams (Mini-Williams?) could be a veritable model. 4. 1953 Bowman Bowman could be rather hit or miss. In ’55, they went with a TV-based design, because that’s when everyone was getting a TV and radio was being kicked out the door. I picture Ward Cleaver digging that design. The ’51 and ’52 sets used paintings, but it’s almost like they were done in marker, just these slabby, wettish-looking works that made you think they’d feel heavier than normal cards to hold. The ’54 set was pretty good, but there was no depth of field, with players occupying 80 or 90 percent of the composition. But none of this was a problem in ’53, when the art director at Bowman must have said something in essence of “screw this, we’re using deep-set photographs that will be so beautiful that we won’t even put any text on the front of the card.” This just wasn’t done, but Bowman in ’53 did it. I’d call this set out as the most poetic baseball card set that’s ever come out, as if Walker Evans was behind the camera, James Agee pissed off somewhere that he wasn’t given more to write. Stan Musial’s card is the most commonly cited favorite of his fans, but I’m not sure you can beat the sheer visual audacity — and brilliant end result — of Dodger shortstop Pee Wee Reese floating in air in the dead middle of the composition of his card, as if he were both ruler of this infield diamond and occasional resident of a world beyond it. Which is perhaps what it most feels like to overleap a hard-charging base runner at second. read the rest at http://thesmartset.com/article09031301/

batmagadanleadoff Dec 03 2015 12:01 AM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

Bruce Markusen on his all-time favorite baseball card, the 1972 Topps Bob Oliver. The colors are so smooth and saturated, that Oliver's photograph looks as if it were painted. http://baseballhall.org/discover/card-corner/king-ollie [fimg=533]http://caimages.collectors.com/psacertimages/37671_945x1600.jpg[/fimg] excerpt: Then there is the actual photograph of Oliver, which saturates us in the style of the 1970s and the old school manner of Topps photography. We see Oliver wearing a bright satin windbreaker, as so many players did in Spring Training during that era. (This must have been considered a standard way to sweat off some excess poundage accrued during the winter months.) Oliver is also wearing a helmet while taking his fielding position, in a way that is reminiscent of two of his contemporary first basemen: Dick Allen and George “Boomer” Scott. And then we have the overly exaggerated pose, with Oliver stretching his front leg far for an imaginary throw, as if he were playing in an actual game. This kind of photograph typifies the over-the-top postures that Topps once preferred. Just to add to the fun, the angle of the Topps camera creates the illusion of a first baseman’s mitt that is significantly larger than what the rules would allow. Oliver’s mitt appears so oversized that it could be used to cook up a pancake; it might have had the length and width of your standard kitchen frying pan. As a final touch, Topps provides us with the backdrop of Spring Training, where so many of their photographs were shot in the early seventies. The presence of bright blue skies and palm trees, not to mention what appears to be some kind of storage shed deep in the background, tell us clearly that this is a Spring Training practice field, far removed from the rigors of the regular season at Royals Stadium. When you’re collecting baseball cards during the last vestiges of winter in February and March, there is nothing better than seeing cards that have been photographed in the warmth of Florida.

Zvon Dec 03 2015 03:56 PM Re: General All Purpose Baseball Card Thread - 2015

I collected '72 pretty heavy and I have a fingerprint type memory when it comes to seeing baseball cards. First series? I don't think I've ever seen that card. Might have zipped right past it as a kid but I doubt it. A few weeks ago I bought a couple of 2015 Hobby boxes. Got some kool stuff, including these two cards. These are actual old cards from 1973 that they randomly stuck in packs. I remember Clyde when he came up. Quite the prospect. Ha, figures the team card is the Royals. I think this a pretty neat thing but I have to ask: Why did they deface the card with that Topps stamp?(shows up as silver on the actual card-scan does not show that)? The cards are just commons, not worth much, but now worth nothing as far as I'm concerned. They took old common cards in decent shape and made them worthless by defacing them. I don't understand this. [fimg=400:3bhyff5m]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-hcJFxNoK8PM/VmC22QrBSGI/AAAAAAAAj94/VgD05nH5xNY/s640-Ic42/1973ToppsReprint-ClydeWright.png[/fimg:3bhyff5m][fimg=500:3bhyff5m]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-hwGJ0KiILgk/VmC247ZavMI/AAAAAAAAj-8/2zdpp-xznfc/s912-Ic42/1974ToppsORIGINAL-Royals%252520Team.png[/fimg:3bhyff5m]