More Buried Treasure

I found some more cards! 

 

I uncovered another lost pile of cards that was hanging out beneath, well, other cards. This batch of baseball players came from big Orioles fan Ryan H. I believe I reached out to Ryan over the summer because the O's were among a handful of teams where I had a glut of extra cards, and he responded to my offer with some of my needs.

Topps sometimes makes poor choices when selecting photos to be featured on their horizontal cards, and I believe this is one of those times. This is a Prizm Chrome refractor, however, so it's a nice pick-up nonetheless.

Since the Stadium Club Chrome inserts are basically indistinguishable from the Stadium Club Chrome base cards (completely different set), I'm just going to go with this being one of those. If I flipped a coin over this, I might win?

After basing a set on T-206 in 2002, the following year saw Topps release this tribute to T-205. Instead of doing something similar the next year, they seem to have dropped this idea. Eventually, the Turkey Red and Allen & Ginter sets would launch, but these days they seem more focused on cannibalizing their own designs from the past.

It's that time of year once again where I declare my hope for big things out of Jack Flaherty this season. Please, just let this happen! 

Here's one of those old Topps designs that's been beaten into the ground over the years.

Ryan also sent over a bunch of set needs, including this apparently rare People on Bicycles insert from the 2013 Allen & Ginter set. I believe this is the first one of these in my collection, and judging by prices online it might have been a case hit.

I still haven't finished off the 2009 Turkey Red inserts run, but I'm slowly inching closer and closer.

Here's a pair of Hall of Fame sluggers batting from opposing sides of the plate.

This was one of my favorite Allen & Ginter insert sets in recent times, but I felt like they included too many newer players. It's more fun when you see the older players as rookies.

Three Turkeys From a Reader

I recently won a Listia auction from reader Steve D on a 2012 Topps Heritage card, and Steve was kind enough to turn the auction win into a small trade thanks to some Bernie Williams cards I had on offer. He knocked off 3 more cards of my fairly neglected 2009 Turkey Red inserts collection.

If I manage to complete anything Turkey Red related in 2013, it will be a huge win. I'm going after the inserts (2009 & 2010) pretty hard right now, though, since they are smaller in number and fresher in peoples' minds.

Turkey Red is one of my all-time favorite designs, but I'm glad they haven't becoming Allen & Ginter-ized. I'm not sure that new design concepts would work, and there are already too many Topps sets.

Finally, here's the Listia win - a short printed Yunel Escobar. I've heard Escobar is a bit of a jerk, which is fitting because so is the Heritage set.

Two Trade Combo Platter

I usually try to give each package I receive in the mail its own fair share of space, but I've decided to do a timeshare with a couple of trades tonight, due in part to the volume of each trade. First off, some Turkey Reds showed up out of the blue from up north about a month ago courtesy of Emerald City Diamond Gems. As far as set collecting goes, these feel like they are my number one priority. Yet, I should probably focus on more attainable goals such as the last few Allen & Ginter sets.

Danny Haren is back in the American League these days, so he can no longer provide as frequent of a reminder to the Cardinals as to what they lost when they acquired Mark Mulder. After being pretty dominant for Arizona recently, it'll be interesting to see if he can put up strong numbers in the less pitcher friendly league again.

Many of the players in the 2006 Turkey Red set had team variations. You can also find Delgado as a Blue Jay on this same card, I believe, but they are both considered SPs.

This Jermaine Dye from the 2009 insert set provides a contrast between the years that used the same design. The 2009s are a bit brighter (and shinier, especially if it's from Series 2) but they use a standard Topps logo on the front instead of the somewhat vampiric Turkey Red logo.

Finally, The Lost Collector sent over just one shiny card: a Chone Figgins refractor from 2010 Topps Chrome. Even though he's really my girlfriend's guy (waaaaiiiit a minute...) I'm hoping Figgy has a better year this season. He's a fun player to watch when he's on his game.

Trading with Justin from LA

I recently completed a trade with reader Justin from the great state of Louisiana (not the smoggy city of Los Angeles.) He sent me a PWE full of insert wants from the 2009 Turkey Red and the 2008 Topps 50th Anniversary All-Rookie team. Those are some good want lists to look at, by the way. Highly recommended.

These are about the only Braves uniforms I like. They should go back to them, permanently.

Seattle just signed Miguel Olivo, reuniting the catcher with the team that he hit .200 and .151 for in consecutive partial seasons once upon a time.

Was it the 'J' thing? It seemed like Russell Martin went from an A-level catcher to pretty middle of the road in a hurry. Personally, I think the downturn was when he started using the weird initial on his jersey. I appreciate the fact that it's a family tribute (similar to Maurice Drew changing his jersey name to Jones-Drew) but it also comes off as a little bit pretentious.

Mt Cards From Nr Mt

A nice little surprise box showed up in my mailbox a few weeks ago from none other than Nr Mt. It was so surprising, in fact, that I raced through all of the little piles of stuff that I have built up for people before I realized that I didn't have anything ready to send back. Never fear, of course... I'll have something in the mail at my next go around. I even had the foresight to pick up some free Priority Mail packaging from the post office the other day since I know I have some larger packages to deal with soon.

My 2009 Turkey Red want list took a direct hit, and one Mr. Pujols was one of the casualties. I'm actually fairly sure I already had a copy of this card, so I just need to track it down so it's off of my list of Cardinals needs as well as Turkey Red set building needs. By the way, did sell sheets for 2010 Updates & Whatever They're Calling It This Year ever come out? I want to know if there really will be an additional 50 cards in this year's Turkey Red insert set for me to track down among other things.

I posed the question in yesterday's post asking if Giambi had any fans. I'm assuming he has his Rockies boosters, right? This is one of a number of 2009 Heritage High Series cards that were sent to me from my want list.

Doug Fister seems pretty talented, although he's had his ups and downs with the Mariners. It must be difficult to be a starting pitcher for a team with such an inept group of hitters. I don't know how Felix Hernandez does it.

Finally, I'll just let the cartoon speak for itself, because this is weird, weird, weird. I'd never even heard of this guy. A few people have hit my 2006 Bazooka want list. Keep 'em coming!

Trading with Tom from NY

Reader Tom contacted me awhile back about a trade for some Paul O'Neill cards and other assorted Yankees. In exchange, I managed to pick up a couple of serial-numbered Cardinals and a bunch of 2009 Turkey Reds among other things. The list is starting to become manageable now. Imagine that!

This is a really nice looking blue refractor from 2009 Topps Finest. Have I mentioned that blue is my favorite color?

Rick Ankiel hit the DL about a month ago in his first year with his new Missouri-based club. I'm hoping that he manages to get his career back on track soon, because he's fun to watch when healthy.

This 2002 Topps Jim Edmonds card does not have a glossy finish on the front. Is that normal? The back is glossy for some reason.

It's weird to see the Blue Jays with red caps. I know that it's been a secondary color of theirs for awhile, but it just doesn't look right. I'm not wild about their current logo, but I'd at least like to see them stick with it for awhile. Nothing is worse than a team that messes with its logos and unis every other season.

Long, long ago there was another dominant pitcher in the District. His fastball "hissed with danger". Okay, okay, I got that from the back of the card. Good luck trying to fill Walter Johnson's shoes, kid.

Catching Up: Turkey Red? More Like Turkey RAD!

With this post I will be officially done with all packages received in February and I can finally move on to March. I've got a box break in the works, if the thing ever shows up in my mailbox, and I still have a few more ideas of things I've been kicking around since I started this blog. After that, I'm done.

Not buying it? Neither am I. Justin from a blog I will just refer to as The Wasteland (think big Tampa Bay Rays and Lightning enthusiast) sent over a sizeable chunk of the 2009 Topps Turkey Red inserts from my wantlist. I don't remember exactly what I sent in return, but I certainly hope it was something useful. (P.S. - Don't tell anyone, but I think it involved some 1990 Donruss.)

What is strange to me about the Turkey Red inserts is how, with each base series producing 50 insert cards, they all have a completely different finish to them. The Series 1 cards (like Million Dollar Mauer at the top of the post) have your expected matte style finish that is more in line with the 2005-2006 set which uses the same design. Series 2 (see Johnny Mize, not that you'd be able to tell by the scan or anything) has some icky excess glossy UV finish to the surface of the card. Most of the cards that Justin sent were of the Series 2 variety. The Series 2 base cards, incidentally, have a slightly different finish than Series 1 - they're still glossy, but they're noticeably different even to the touch.

50 more cards were released, thank goodness, along with Updates & Highlights. These cards (Jimmie Foxx represents) are more similar to Series 1, which got it right, but they're still a bit shinier when held up to the light.

Justin also tossed in a few Cardinals, but these were no throwaways. I received a Rogers Hornsby cereal box refractor card from one of the 2009 Topps sets. I'm not sure if I ever found a comprehensive checklist of all of these things as there were different checklists depending on what store you purchased the boxes at. It got pretty confusing. The only cereal boxes I bought had either Cy Young or (I think?) Roberto Clemente in them, so I was excited to see a Cardinal.

Finally, there was another unexpected gem. Sure, I know that manufactured patches embedded in cards are sort of a bizarre concept. Granted, the fact that it is serial numbered to 50 likely only means that there are 50 of this particular letter. I still think this is pretty cool. I just wouldn't invest a lot of money in stuff like this.

2009 Turkey Red Inserts

Want List:

TR33 Joey Votto

TR107 Miguel Tejada

TR112 Vernon Wells

TR120 Adam Dunn

TR122 Kevin Youkilis

TR124 Justin Verlander

TR130 Johan Santana

TR135 Andrew McCutchen

TR144 Randy Johnson

TR147 Freddy Sanchez

TR150 Babe Ruth

[updated 3/31/26]