Three PWEs and a Song

Some folks like @dvdgao stuck a stamp on an envelope and sent cards my way. 

It's a Monday night and I just watched live sports I have a rooting interest in for the first time in four months. (Portland Timbers, and yes, if it was up to me there wouldn't be any of this sports stuff happening for the rest of 2020.) Let's check out some plain white envelopes.

First up is Ryan from "O" No!!! Another Orioles Blog, who sent over some set fillers from the most recent Allen & Ginter set. I haven't seen (or don't remember?) what the 2020 design looks like, so I'm hoping that it was cancelled. Considering the current state of baseball cards right now, it's probably coming out next week and all boxes will sell out after 20 seconds. Things are nuts right now.

We're about to head into year 15 of the Allen & Ginter line. Topps continues to design really excellent cards here. This doesn't really track with what they do with some of their other brands, but it's nice to see that they know how to do something right.

Cardinals fan David sent along some more non-Cardinals stuff, hitting a few needs from some earlier Topps Heritage sets.

Mookie Betts cards, let alone insert cards, don't exactly grow on trees. I was happy to add this New Age Performers card from the 2018 set to my collection.

Lastly from David, it's a couple of New York team cards from the 2016 set.

Our third featured player is gcrl from cards as i see them. Someone remembered that I like the Cardinals, sending some cards of star players and obscurities like Anthony Garcia. Generally speaking, I like both equally.

Fleer Legacy was a short lived set (maybe one and done), but there are some interesting cards in it.

I know there were a lot of Topps Bunt (non-digital edition) defenders out there, but I was absolutely not a fan. Blue tint filter? Great. Still, the team collection needs what it needs.

In addition to the needed Cardinals cards was a healthy stack of 2003 Topps set needs. I picked just two of those cards to scan today -- both Mariners! -- including Garciaparra the lesser.

If you haven't checked out the YouTube series Dorktown on the history of the Seattle Mariners, you're missing out. It's fascinating. I've been watching it during my work-from-home lunches. I don't think Shin-Soo Choo (or Michael Garciaparra for that matter) ever get a mention, but there's a lot of interesting nuggets that are discussed.



This is the brand new music video from one of my favorite bands out there. It even features a notorious clown. Enjoy the rest of your week!

Set Needs and a Yadi

Dodgers fan @markle05 hooks me up with some quality cards. 

The end of the deluge of trade packages sent to me over the summer is actually in sight. I still have a ton of work to do and a lot of cards to show, but I feel like I'm making (some) progress. This latest batch came back in late August from Alex of Chavez Ravining. Alex sent over a stack of needs from recent Allen & Ginter and Heritage sets along with a few Cardinals goodies (the best kind of goodies.)

From the depths of the 2017 Allen & Ginter set, and more specifically the World's Fair insert set, comes this card of the Biosphere. No, this isn't the thing that Pauly Shore had to live in as the plot of some '90s movie, as the World's Fair cards only showed the real life wonders of the world put on display.

I haven't made as much progress in this year's Topps Heritage set(s) as I would have hoped by this point, but this short printed card of the former Cardinals Piscotty put me a little bit closer. When the SPs are a full 20% of the set, you know you have your work cut out for you.

I don't know that I've ever been in a fantasy league that strictly used K% as a stat, but I wouldn't be opposed to it. I'm not sure that Randy ever knew or cared what his K rates were, though.

Here's a Heritage (High) insert from 2017 of newly crowned champion Trea Turner.

Well, I promised you a Yadi and I delivered on that promise. Well, actually, Alex was responsible for the real delivery. This is a brand new (to me, at the time) jersey card that fits well in my collection. I do miss the days when all of the memorabilia cards in Allen & Ginter sets were framed minis, but I like the design of this one here.

Why?

Pondering my collecting decisions. 

Roughly a few times a week, I'll get a card in the mail in a plain white envelope from a Listia auction. I still consider myself a casual user, but I've completed thousands of auctions over the years, which makes me extremely disturbed at the thought of how many stamps this little hobby has cost me. I use the virtual currency to occasionally win stuff, which is how this Kris Bryant New Age Performers card from last season's Heritage set came to be in my possession.

When I opened the envelope, Erin was curious about the card. When I showed it to her -- a Cub, of all thing -- she simply said one word: "Why?" While I mumbled something about Heritage, barely above a whisper without making eye contact, I realized that this is a question I've been asking myself a lot more lately. Why do I collect these things? Am I really a set collector? (No, not really.) I enjoy the Topps Heritage line, but as the season changes over to summer, Allen & Ginter will be here soon enough. And I haven't really enjoyed Allen & Ginter all that much in awhile. Do I really need all of this crap? I don't think there's ever an end to that question, personally.

Moving along, in consideration of unnecessary purchases, I went to Target tonight (see what a hypocrite I am?) and bought a few more Bowman packs. This Ryan Mountcastle card is part of a promotion where if the player featured on the card is called up at some point during the current season, you win a "BASEBALL PLAYER DEBUT PRIZE!" I have no idea what that means, and I'd normally be eager to enter the online code right now to get the ball rolling. However, a quick glance at Mountcastle's numbers and current injury status suggest that he's unlikely to get the call this season. His age and not ever playing above AA also are contributing factors. I have until the end of October to enter the code, supposedly, so I'll keep the card in pristine shape in the mean time. It would have been cool to pull one of these sure thing players (hello, Acuña) instead of Mountcastle, but these are supposedly a pretty tough pull.

In another completely unrelated note, check out what I found in a stack of college basketball and football cards in a neglected corner of my room! This Steph Curry rookie year card is going for nearly $10 on COMC right now, so I was pretty happy to rediscover it. I have accumulated way too many things that don't fit into my collection, including from other sports, so I need to find a home for some of this stuff soon. It would be awesome to put together another free Group Break like I've done in the past, only for weird crap like Kentucky basketball cards and Auburn football players that I have no idea how they got in my home.

Christmas Loot

I bought myself a Christmas @thelootlocker present. 

Incredibly, I've had something close to a 90% success rate with boxes from The Loot Locker. (My definition of success is certainly subjective, but whatever.) December's featured hobby packs in the lowest price tier for baseball were 2017 Topps Heritage High Numbers, 2017 Donruss Optic, and 2017 Topps Chrome (x2).

With the Heritage pack, I must have hit some sort of Bradley Zimmer superpack. Along with the purple Chrome refractor (which I believe you only find in so-called "hot boxes", though hobby boxes are a different sort of animal...) I found my first Heritage photo variation SP in quite awhile. I think it's been years since I've pulled something like this from a Heritage pack. While the purple Zimmer will be headed out in a trade package at some point, this one is a keeper.

I also managed to pull three (!) base cards that I actually needed for my set. Again, this was a hugely successful pack, probably the pack of the year for me in 2017 (that I actually opened in 2018.)

The shiny card from my Optic pack ended up being this David Paulino Prizm parallel, which complements the pink Prizm of this very card I pulled earlier in the year. Paulino hasn't spent a ton of time on the big league roster. Are Astros fans excited about him?

In the first Topps Chrome pack came this insert of young Pirates hurler Tyler Glasnow. I jumped all over Glasnow as someone who might help out my fantasy team, but his numbers were rather eye-popping, in the not good sort of way.

Finally, earlier this week I mentioned that I'm becoming a Ryon Healy collector whether I like it or not. This is now my second autograph from the former Oregon Ducks star. (By the way, is this how younger people sign their names now? He could fit that thing on a postage stamp.)

Heritage Takes an Encore

"Bringing Back The 1968 Topps Design... Again" 

Whether we like it or not, Topps has decided to extend the Topps Heritage set the past few years to more than 700 cards. For someone who is so fed up with the flagship set that I may as well treat these as the de facto Topps cards to get for the year, you would think I would want more, more, more of these. (And to that, I say, bring back Topps Total!)

Nevertheless, I picked up packages of 2017 Topps Heritage High Number in three configuration options: a fat/rack/jumbo retail pack (20 cards), a hanger box (35 cards), and a blaster box (a bunch of packs and the smug satisfaction of getting a bonus... pack... I guess?) As usual, it's more of the same. Players that changed uniforms, rookies and players that were just left out for whatever reason comprise the smaller 225 card set. At least there are only 1/4 as many short prints to track down this time.

This is a really fantastic looking card, except for the subject. I would have loved to pull a card of someone with Yankees pinstripes if it wasn't this chump. This is one of three cards in this post that I'm not planning on keeping, in case there's any interest. See if you can find 'em all!

This is my first Cody Bellinger card. I'm about as impressed as Bellinger looks.

There are more Game-style inserts in High Numbers, but this time there's only the Target exclusive rookies. They started over with the numbering of these at 1 again, which I'm sure won't be confusing at all to anyone.

David Ortiz retired after last season, but that didn't stop Topps from cramming another Big Papi card into America's already bloated snack hole. This one is up for grabs, because I actually pulled two of these.

Like previous High Number efforts, Rookie Performers are back. Nothing in this set is probably going to be as expensive or tough to get a copy of as Clayton Kershaw's Rookie Performers card from the 2008 set, but that's okay I suppose. (I still need five 2008 Rookie Performers cards, though I fortunately have Kershaw and Scherzer. Votto, on the other hand...)

Short print, blue sky, blue cap. Lots of blue skies on these cards.

Mike Leake, also a short print, was the only Cardinal I pulled in this entire exercise. Of course, he's not even on the team anymore.

I've seen a lot of Manny Margot cards in 2017, which must be why I could have sworn that he was also included in Target's rookie Game cards from the first set. He was not.

Here's another SP and some blue sky.

Gift Ngoepe is the first African-born player to make the big leagues, and it took him a long time to get there. He first appeared in the WBC and the minor leagues back in 2009. At 27, he's still young yet. I guess that's easy for me to say.

Now and Then are just generic highlight insert cards. This is Buster Posey, not that you'd know by anything printed on the card.

This is not the character from Mad Men, sadly.

If you guessed that this is card number three that's up for grabs in this post, you would be absolutely correct. The Venn Diagram of Red Sox fans and Panda fans probably does not intersect at all, so I might have a bit of difficulty moving this one.

We end with a very talented pitcher that Seattle coughed up. Short print. Blue sky.

The set want list will be updated momentarily. I do need all Cardinals, still, as I often do.

Envelopes upon Envelopes

Many Heritage cards stuffed in multiple envelopes. 

Not content to just send a few cards in one PWE when I was looking for extra Topps Heritage cards to fill my collection needs, reader Jeff stuffed several envelopes full of bunches of Heritage cards. His blog has been dormant for awhile, but I am linking it here anyway just in case it pops back to life one of these days.

Moncada is being featured at the Futures Game (currently in progress), while Fulmer has struggled at the AAA level so far. It seems like Moncada should get the big call-up any day now.

Jeff also sent a ton of 2016's. Sano has pulled his weight of this young Twins tandem, but Buxton has failed to do anything but be incredibly fast. I guess his ceiling is Billy Hamilton, maybe?

At one point last season, this card was the equivalent of the Aaron Judge/Tyler Austin card from this year's set. Judge has blasted past that level and, along with Cody Bellinger, seems to be completely shifting the market for low and mid level baseball cards in 2017. Meanwhile, this Schwarber card can be had for 54 cents on COMC.

Here's one for the Cardinals collection. Matt Adams heads into the All-Star break with 14 HR after riding the bench for the first six weeks of the season. It's hard to see him as the one that got away, though, as there are a ton of guys with power who have limited defensive versatility in this league. I'm rooting for him just the same, as I always hoped he'd develop into an every day player in St. Louis like he has the chance to be in Atlanta (... even though their franchise player plays the same position. Hmm.)

The Low-End Theory

Also, it's Mike Zunino Appreciation Night.

Some blogs have a theme and some just slap some Cardinals up there and call it good. While I'd like to be the former, what I do here never really comes close to the things that long-time blogger Nick (aka Dime Box Nick) and his blog (long name: Dime Boxes -- The Low-End Baseball Card Collector's Journey) contributes on a regular basis.

While I'm still putting together a pool of cards to send back his way, Nick sent over a healthy stack of set needs as well as Cardinals-based goodies. While I'm always scouting out the former, it's the latter that I am most excited about writing about here, so the Cardinals get weighted a bit more heavily here.

Here are two guys I've never heard of in my life. It will be fun to look back on this in a few years when they are both superstars. Maybe?

Although I've watched a fair amount of HBO so-called prestige dramas, I've never seen half a minute of a Sopranos episode. I've heard it was good, except for the ending.

On to the juicy stuff here. Aledmys Diaz is having the kind of down season that would escape the notice of most TV announcers, while Matt Carpenter and Dexter Fowler have gotten a lot of attention for underperforming despite each carrying an OPS well above average.

Let's pour one out for Jhonny, who was recently released. He was really good for a time, until he, you know... wasn't anymore.

This from 2016 Stadium Club is kind of a strange photo of the Wizard, likely before an All-Star or playoff game. I'd like to figure it out if I had more time.

The inserts from the Heritage High Number sets are usually some of the trickiest for me to track down for whatever reason, but at least I won't have to find this Piscotty card for my St. Louis collection.

I've given Topps a lot of flack lately for lazily paying tribute to cool things from their past like this "stand-up" card that is just a card and couldn't stand up on anything without a lot of help. They impressed me with their coins in this year's Archives set, but this and the Walmart "buttons" are still incredibly stupid to me. Still, I am very glad to knock this off my list.

Not quite a "zero-year" guy as Nick likes, Tejada logged a grand total of 40 ABs with the Cards early last season as an emergency signee when Peralta went down in the spring. Fortunately, Aledmys Diaz stepped up and seized control of the everyday SS job.

Did they end up making Spring Fever cards this year? Hobby exclusives are always so out of reach to me. This is a nice addition to my Waino collection.