Mike Schmidt 2012 Topps 1980 World Series Pin Card

I don't understand this type of card, but I like it.  It has metal.  It's an embedded metallic representation of the happiest sports moment of my pre-life.

In all seriousness, though, did you notice that when these first started appearing in Topps sets that these were numbered /736 in series 1?  The numbering faded away, so we were left to guess how many were out there for 2012 series 2 and beyond.

In a related note, I love to calculate production runs.......inaccurately. Let's try 2012 Topps series 1 just for fun.

 There were 50 of these cards on the checklist inserted into 2012 Topps series 1 packs, which means there were 36800 pin cards inserted.  These were inserted either one per hobby case or six per HTA case.  Let's assume that there were an equal number of both HTA and hobby cases, this means there were 5257.14 cases of each, which is 10514.28 cases in total, which makes perfect sense.   Extrapolating this further, there were approximately 100,000 of each base card inserted into the total HTA and  hobby cases.   Multiplying that out, that means there are 33 million base cards in 2012 Topps series 1.  How many rooms would that take to hold them all?

The bottom line is that this pin card gives the owner the power of multiplication.  Pay no attention to the card behind the curtain!  It will divide you among your brand and team loyalties! And then you can't multiply your collection as it should be!

In a related note, I just finished taking a partial inventory of my collection.  It now takes up three cabinets and a bookshelf.  It's overwhelming.  I need a pin that says that "Overwhelmed collector.  World Series Champion of Accumulation: 2013"

The Topps Online Giveaways of 2012: Result!

With the newest online event right around the corner in the form of the Million Dollar Chase, I figured it would be a good idea to get the cards that I unlocked from the 2012 Topps online code programs.  I ended up with 2 cards from my codes, and then someone offered me a 2 for 1 trade, which I obviously took.

Therefore, behold the die-cut moments of Phillies wonders.  Also, these cards are immense.  They wouldn't even slide under a door. They are also refractory in the best way possible

Roy Halladay: He's the ace of the present.  The hopes and dreams of a 2nd wild card (does that sound pessimistic?) rest on the recovery of his various maladies from dos mil doce.   I think he's already joined the pantheon of Phillies pitchers, though he made it to the team too late in his career to really move up the this imaginary ladder I'm thinking about.  Golden Moment: He pitched 6 or more innings in 63 straight road starts, the longest streak since Walter Johnson.

Steve Carlton: This guy is at the top of the list I was thinking of.  He's also one of the few Phillies pitchers to pitch with them for more than 10 years.  The awards, accolades, and strikeouts speak for themselves though.  If I had to pick one player to become a supercollector of, it would probably be Steve Carlton, but I think I have to up my obsessive quotient by a few more hundredfold.  Golden Moment:  He was the all-time MLB strikeout leader at the end of the 1983 season.

Chase Utley  When healthy, he's still a top 5 second basemen in the game, but there's the question that's still around.  Golden Moment:  Had a streak of 20 consecutive stolen bases entering 2012, his career high was 27 in a row from 2008-2010.

Tony Romo:  He's not a Phillie....at least I got a card from the football card site.....for trade.

I won the Phillies, but I'm not counting on a million dollars....let's examine the reasons why later.

2012 Topps: A Last Look of the First Look I Had or Jumbo Boxes are Full of Cards

We're all looking forward to the 2013 collecting season (coming January 30th or so to a theatre near you).  The 2013 Topps set offers the promise that the upcoming collecting season will be full of familiarity and twists as well as nostalgia and commemoration.

For the first time, I opened a jumbo box of the ubiquitous flagship product; I will not be doing this again.  I was swung by the siren song of gold rush wrapper redemptions (check out my wantlist; I actually am trying for that set!) and promise of inserts, inserts, and gold....delicious gold. Gold like honey to drizzle all over the collection boxes and leave them begging for more.   That might have been gratuitous, but you get the idea.

Here is how opening a jumbo box goes:

1. Hey, look at the size of those packs; I can make a new Bay Bridge with those packs.
2. There's a relic....that card is thick.  Check out all the metal on that card; I wonder if it's magnetic.
3. How many more timeless talents inserts are there?  Can't I make a mural of these instead of collect them.
4.  Halfway through the box now,  I only have 5 pack rips left.  That makes a sad.
5. I'm noticing a theme with the insert cards.  Why are they all erased at the bottom?
6. A duplicate?  From a box in this house?  30 duplicates in a row from the same pack?  You go back in there and sit in the naughty corner until you change into non-duplicates.  Think about being individualist in the post-modern sense....that should do the trick.
7. It's over....there's a big stack of cards.....and no set to chase.....the end.
8.  What do you mean I need 4 more wrappers for the wrapper redemption?!?

Here's what came out of the pack ripping thoughts....

 

Trevor Cahill Golden Moments Auto: First thought: It's an A's auto of a player not on the A's....I prefer Jarrod Parker.

Elvis Andrus Golden Moments Relic: First thought: You are not a Phillie, why do I care about a relic like this?

Derek Jeter World Series Pin: First Thought: Cool card; I'm glad a star like Jeter is one my collection haunter

Trevor Plouffe Black Parallel: Low numbered card alert! Break out the bacon fat!

Minis!!-but not as fun as the Kimball champions from the year before; I will not be getting all 150 this time.

Timeless Talents insert: They were both Chicago team shortstops and are Latino....third straight year of an unliked concept.

Mike Moustakas Gold Futures: A prospect laden set to show that Bowman isn't the only game in town.  What's that? Bowman is the same game? Well, forget it then.

Phillies mini!  The quest is at an end.  Plus, retro uniform!

Mini photoed minis!- These are nice cards, almost wish they were the base cards from this year....I've probably said that already.

Roy Halladay mini-I had a similar reaction with the Howard except I might have jumped left instead of right.

Joe DiMaggio Golden Greats:  This was the most annoying insert set of all.  Redundancies and a large card set makes for it being largely incollectible.

Paul Molitor Gold Standard: 3000 hits is a gold standard.....even used to be good enough to get in the HOF on the first ballot.

Howard Gold Sparkly: I like shiny Phillies.

Polanco Gold Sparkly: I like shiny Phillies redux.

Ichiro Golden Moments: Correction, this was the most annoying insert.  Is that floating team logo for real?  Also, there were 3 series and a mini card version of this insert set?  Can we get these all stricken from the record?

I didn't show any base cards, but I do have them all...

Anyway, time to look forward, not backward....happy collecting season 2013....

For Football Week 2: Two 2012 Topps Football Packs

I decided to try my "luck" and see if I could at least snag a base rookie from the latest Topps offering of football cards.  I think the last time I opened a pack of football cards was 1991, so this is a new experience either way.  I love September and the confluence of the ending of baseball season and the opening of football season.

Pack 1
300-Eli Manning, not a bad start, getting a 2-time Super Bowl MVP award winner.  He was the QB on my fantasy team last year (lost in the finals of this long-time league again)

80-Chris Johnson-C2K is looking for a bounceback season, not quite to the heights of his 2000 yard season  in 2009.  His 2011 is a testament to the perils of holding out all preseason.

320-AJ Green:  He gained 1000 yards as a rookie WR last year, the 15th time that has happened.

163-Green Bay Packers team card-They were 15-1, and didn't make the Super Bowl.  Home-field advantage doesn't mean as much as it used to.

101-San Diego Chargers team card-They have the powder blue uniforms on, it's a nice card.

Game Time Giveaway: It looks like the site is up-unlocked a Tony Romo card, is that good for the site?  Apparently, a card is 1:14 codes instead of a token...not bad.

1965 Topps Tall Boy Insert 16: Miles Austin:  What a strange shape for a mini.

258-Randy Moss:  He is a 49er this year after not playing last year and barely playing in '10.  Can he be a contributor?

413-Aaron Corp- Signed as a free agent after the draft as a Bill, did not make a roster.

126-Quinton Coples-The DE was the Jets 1st round pick in 2012

61-Brandon Gibson-The Rams WR was born in Germany.

106-Mark Ingram-The former Heisman winner had an injury plagued rookie season, but will be the principal rusher on the Saints this year.


Pack 2
52-Alex Smith-He turned the corner last year and had his first 3000 yard passing season, leading the 49ers to the NFC championship game.

408-Marcell Dareus-The DT had the most sacks by a Buffalo rookie in a decade according to the back of the card.

2-Javhid Best-The talented Detroit player has been having concussion problems.  I know how hard those are to shake, and mine weren;t as severe as what a football players' would be.

302-Shane Lechler-He averaged over 50 yards per punt last year and still didn't  lead the league!

122-Jared Cook-This TE was my sleeper pick in the draft for those who miss out on the top ones...he's still sleeping.

87-Joe Haden-He's supposedly one of the top CBs in the league, but is being suspended for 4 games for violating the league substance abuse policy.

1957 Topps Rookie Reprint Red 15-Kendall Wright- a rookie starting receiver in a vintage design, nice.

Prolific Playmakers insert Darren Sproles-had an amazing 86 receptions last year as a running back and averaged 6.9 yards per carry.

196-Curtis Lofton-This Saints LB had 147 tackles last year and a statue of his likeness in his hometwon of Kingfisher, OK.

51-Gerell Robinson-The Arizona St. alum is on the Arizona Cardinals practice squad.

278-Juron Criner-This WR was the 5th round pick by the Raiders

160-Mark Sanchez-Signed to an extension and challenged by the Tebow, I predict a career year this year for Sanchez.

The Gold Rush Arriveth

I also sent away for a pack of the Topps Gold Rush wrapper redemption. Who knows, it may be possible to strike it rich with 5 card redemption packs of cards....who am I kidding? Shiny or golden cards have been number one in collectors' hearts since 1992. Let's rip open the pack and see if there was anything to get excited about, sell all my land, and move to Alaska (or Duryea, PA).

 Mitch Moreland-Texas: Not that exciting, but at least he was on a pennant winner.

 Carlos Gonzalez-Rockies: The Coors Field extraordinaire (.999 OPS at home and .757 OPS on the road) is also golded up.

 Dennis Eckersley-A's: It looks like my scanner put the Eck askew, but it works with his sidearm throwing motion.

 Brett Gardner-Yankees: The newest Yankee speedster...still probably not going to hit leadoff, probably was the best fielding outfielder in the AL in 2011.

Josh Hamilton-Rangers: The 2010 MVP needs to get back on track by staying healthy and resisting the urge to slide into home plate head first into a catcher.    Even with that, he still only had 33 less plate appearance in 2011 compared to 2010.

So there it is, a pack of cards received in the mail...this may have been the reason I got a 2012 Topps box, one never knows.  Incidentally, this is the only insert set I'm pursuing from series 1 (besides the requisite Phillies).  What can I say, a collector's life boils down to choices....otherwise, there's just cards piled up in all corners of a living room, unsorted, and scattered.  Maybe I need a real gold rush to hire someone to take care of all the stuff I don't take care of.....now there's a redemption card idea.

2012 Topps Series 1 Up for Grabs...

I have the following duplicates for 2012 Series 1:

325, 316, 314, 300, 295, 291, 285, 284, 283, 282, 271, 264, 260, 253, 248, 240, 237, 214, 204, 188, 187, 186, 185, 182, 180, 176, 175, 171, 169, 162, 154, 138, 131, 129, 127, 121, 119, 118, 111, 105, 101, 100, 88, 84, 70, 68, 67, 66, 65, 52, 44, 40, 38, 23, 22, 14, 9, 7

First come, first served by e-mail....

If you really want to send me something in return, I need 39, 258, 317 from 2012 Topps or any other card from my wantlist. If you don't want to send anything in return, that's alright too. I'm happy to help out a fellow set collector for nothing....

Hope somebody needs these numbers...

Subsets, Star Card Questing, and Pack Opening

What I'm about to say isn't shocking, unique, or about 2012 Topps (except tangentially).  A good card for a collector can come in a variety of flavors:
a) the high dollar, extremely rare, can you believe that? card
b) a rare card of a favorite player
c) a card of a favorite player or team
d) a card that adds to a niche collection
e) a card of a star that you don't hate viscerally
f)a card that leaves you smiling

As I was ripping through a jumbo box of 2012 Topps (there's that word combination again), the sheer enormity of the pack made it almost impossible to gauge what a "good" pack would be.  Fifty cards covers a lot of range in the disappointment to elation face changes over the course of sorting through the pack. 

As a collecting tool and set completion means to an end, the jumbo packs are great.  But if you want to measure them on the scale of collecting enjoyment as a stand alone entity, they're tough to judge.    Each are fairly similar in their construction...bunch of base cards, slew of inserts, flood of base cards with some variation here and there.  There's very little of the hope of much of those categories of what makes a good pack.  For me, it would be an insert or parallel of my favorite team.  Even finding base cards were a shrug-worthy event because in most jumbo boxes, you'll run into the all the base cards at one time or another. 

Before the world of inserts, it took some imagination to get star players into multiple cards in a release.  For awhile, there were the standard all-star cards, which were soon joined by the league leader cards (1967 version shown below)


The league leader cards sometimes even felt like they were set apart for star players; I don't recall any other cards with black borders in the 1967 set.  And with some exceptions, league leader cards did feature star players.  The presentation of the 60s and 70s versions of this subset, was all about the posed shots or head shots and usually complemented the player's principal card well.





There have been other subsets over the years, with this MVP retrospective from 1975 Topps one of the best.  The card within a card concept does work, and it even fooled me as a kid as being real old cards with the Turn Back the Clock cards from 86-90.  MVPs were generally stars and added an extra element to the star player pursuer or the collector defining a good pack just opened.


The problem with modern collectible sets is not the limitation of star cards or the lack of elements that would make a good pack. It's almost the overproliferation of them.  I never thought I would be unexcited to see a Roberto Clemente card or Mickey Mantle card (that's not actually true, I still get excited, but some are definitely not).  Of course, this is a reflection of the times, collectors want every pack to have the odds in their favor to have a potentially positive experience; who wouldn't after all?  And I can see the reason, packs are not cheap, you get a collector to buy a few where there's a positive in nearly every pack, then they're likely to purchase a few more later down the line.


Contrast this approach to 2001 or 2002 (the beginning of the ultra modern collecting era) where there was an insert maybe one in every 4 packs if you were lucky for Topps.  A relic was one in every 3-5 boxes and an auto had even steeper odds.  It was real luck to pull something amazing, and there was even a small amount of luck to pulling out a pack win on the positive experience side. 


For the base set at least, Topps has tipped the scales in the nouveau collector's favor because if every pack has something to offer, there should always be another pack waiting to be opened.  For mid-end sets, this is even more pronounced.  Check out the refractor distribution in Topps Chrome over the years or look at the insert mini distribution differences in Allen and Ginter from 2008 to 2011. 


The question is have we reached a saturation point of how much positivity we can handle?  When all the elements are in nearly every pack or box, what allows a set or a concept to rise above the others?  Does this lead to more uniformity of collectors' expectations?  If we don't experience the valleys of opening disappointment (not based on perceived and intrinsic value such as in high-end), can we enjoy the peaks as much?