The Elusive Heritage

A bunch of Topps Heritage short prints from @scottcrawford.org including a couple for the Cardinals boxes. 

 

As anyone who attempts to build Topps Heritage sets year in and year out can attest, picking up those last 100 or so cards can be quite a shore. They look and feel like the regular base cards, for the most part, but they're a bit of a tougher pull at one in every 3 packs. If you crunch the numbers, I think you'll find that Heritage short prints are not nearly as scarce as their reputation holds. I blame Beckett for, at one point, pricing even the most fringe players who appear at the short end of the checklist at a starting rate of $5 a card, causing a whole generation of collectors to hoard these cards.

In any case, there was plenty of reason to get excited about adding a few dozen more SPs to my collection from Scott of I Need New Hobbies. This was easily the biggest number of these elusive cards to arrive in the mail in a single day for several years now.

Two of these cards will end up bypassing my set builds and head straight to the fancy Cardinals boxes. (Because they are scarce, you see!) This means that I'll need to track down a second 2013 Yadi Molina card, which makes me question why I insist on collecting this way.

For my 2010 set build is this pair of pitchers. These are the only cards in the lot that are easily distinguishable from their printed-in-regular-quantities counterparts without looking at the actual card numbers. The 2010 set has the short printed cards printed on bright white stock instead of the usual cardboard stock. (This was a reversal of the 2009 set, where the regular cards were on white and the SPs used a darker cardboard.)

Here's a four-pack from the 2011 set. I like this set a lot, even though I feel that it was the beginning of the seemingly unending string of boring head shots on Heritage cards throughout the 2010s. (I suppose you can't fault Topps for trying to be true to those original sets here.)

It's a pair of Joshes from the 2012 set. How many Joshes do you know? Is Joshes the right way to pluralize the name Josh? I seem to know a lot of Joshes.

It took me awhile to appreciate the 2013 Topps Heritage set because they were printed on a light stock and felt exactly like the Allen & Ginter cards they had been printing for years at this point. I know that the original 1964 set had lightly colored card backs, but it still seems like the black sheep of the 2010s Heritage sets to me.

Thanks to Scott, I added five cards to my 2014 set build, including another Yadi. It's unfortunate that he has to share with Ryan Braun here, but I already scanned this stuff and it's too late now.

A whopping nine cards received were from the 2015 Heritage set. A couple of these guys are actually still in the game. Off the top of my head, I know that Rodon (a rookie here) is in the Yankees rotation this season and Chris Sale is trying to make another go of it with Atlanta.

Here are three more from the 2016 set, including 2019 World Series champ (ugh) Michael A. Taylor.

Just a single card from the 2018 set made an appearance (and none from 2017) as I am pretty sure Scott was starting to tire of Topps and their shenanigans by this point.

Last up is a pair of grey-bordered cards from the 2019 Heritage set. I believe Yonder Alonso does work with the MLB Network these days.

Thanks again to Scott. And don't forget -- make sure you sign up for the not-actually-gambling-because-it's-free thing soon before Thursday's games tip off.

A PWE, In Order

A few cards from a longtime fellow blogger to pass the time. 

I've been trying to increase the flow of envelopes, small as they can be, full of cards to keep myself and hopefully others occupied with hobby-related things. It was nice, of course, to recently receive some cards in the popular PWE format from The Angels, In Order. There were a few Cardinals needs and a few set needs. Let's take a look.

I don't know how I missed out on this card when this set was first released, but it apparently wasn't the only base card I needed. I now just need card #217 from the 2018 Donruss set, which was one that Yadier Molina shared with Carlos Correa and Francisco Lindor. I also need countless numbers of parallels, of course, because Panini.

Despite not being heavily respected across the league and even internally, Dakota Hudson made it into the official record as a bona fide NL pitching leader. Cool!

Ah, those pesky retail exclusives. I nabbed another one! This is the black set from 2013 Heritage.

In the department of set needs were the first couple of 2007 Bowman Heritage acquisitions for me in quite awhile. I have no idea who Chuck Lofgren is. It sounds like the name of some sort of not-quite-famous actor.

The Mick! We don't see him in Topps products anymore, but I guess we were probably overexposed in the late '00s.

We end things with a sketch card of the newly crowned champ Ryan Zimmerman. I hated the way the NLCS went down as it reminded me an awful lot of the 2004 World Series, with the Cardinals suddenly completely punchless and useless after being anything but previously. It was cool to see the veteran Zimmerman get to win a ring, I suppose.

Good Enough

Brock Peterson was good enough to get a Major League Baseball card.

It's a frequently used term that can be rather derisive. The whole concept of the quad-A player, a guy who has nothing left to prove in any of the minor league's levels yet isn't a great fit with a big league crew, isn't the nicest thing in the world. We used to have AAA ball in Portland, though, and these were usually the most exciting players you'd see come to the plate. Brock Peterson finally got his shot at age 29 when he spent some time with the Cardinals, but he's back in the minors this year in another organization.

Mark Kaz from This Way to the Clubhouse sent me some cards, including the gold encrusted card of the fairly anonymous Brock Peterson. He was also responsible for what I'm fairly certain is my first 2002 Topps Chrome refractor. I made fun of refractors and their very idea when I first started this blog, but I can't help but love the shiny little devils.

I have no idea what is going on with this design. This might work on a giant poster on someone's wall, but it makes no sense on a card that's only a few inches in any direction.

Had Jesus Montero not been promoted aggressively as some sort of catcher, would it be safe to say that he may have found himself in a similar position as Brock Peterson. He's now a 1B/DH type, even in AAA, and I haven't heard any buzz about Seattle wanting him back any time soon. This card fills a nice short printed size hole in my collection, however.

Hey, it's the Pope, sans Popemobile. More Ginter cards for me! Thanks, as always, to Mark Kaz.

Hitting All the Sets

A trade stack for every occasion.

The Topps Baseball Fanatic is arguably the biggest Topps Heritage fan around. His collection is certainly putting mine to shame, but when you are doing as well on your set quests as he is, you're bound to have some doubles. Fortunately, I was once again the beneficiary of some cards he didn't need and was able to punch a few more holes in quite a few different sets that I'm working on. The Fanatic is also a big Dustin Pedroia collector, and I'm working on something to that end that he'll hopefully enjoy.

The 2012 Heritage set is probably the one I'm most sick of, but it's probably because I've opened more of it than any other year other than possibly 2008's offerings. I still have a bunch of doubles from this year, but I was able to snag a couple of short prints including CarGo here.

I actually forgot I was trying to collect these inserts. This is from the 2012 Topps Archives 3-D collection. I like these weird lenticular Sportflics-ish cards that occasionally pop up in recent products.

Josh Hamilton is surprised! And he has no signature. This is one of the variations from the 2007 Bowman Heritage set. I should really put this one to bed soon.

There are so many Dodgers collectors that I've traded with, so I don't get many chances to scan and post Dodgers cards on this blog. They're usually gone almost as quickly as they arrive. This one is staying home.

Here's another Bowman Heritage card of the foil variety. It's also a "no sig" version.

I still need base cards from 2009 Topps Heritage. That's sad. I'm missing 5 non-SP cards from the main set and 2 from the high series.

Finally, my favorite Topps insert set of all-time still has quite a few names on the list to cross off. Someday!

Trading with Chavez Ravining

 

A slick trade with one of life's many Dodgers fans.

I've been trying to follow the blogs and do as much reading in my spare time as I can, but a busy daytime work schedule gets in the way. (Is there a good mobile option for reading these things yet?) I did manage to find the time to arrange a few small trades recently, including some with folks I've never dealt with before. One of those folks is Alex from Chavez Ravining, which has a better ring to it than Dodger Stadiuming. The linchpin of the trade was a 2013 Topps Heritage Miguel Cabrera Target parallel, which fills one of the many holes in my set.

Alex threw in some Cardinals cards and a couple of player collection needs as well, which is always nice. Here's a silly card. Incidentally, the guy that provided the voice of McGruff was sentenced to 16 years in prison for owning a massive pot farm and weapons stash. Oh, America!

Colby looks like someone poured mustard on his head here.

So... this is funny and topical!

Here's one for Erin's collection. She's been accumulating quite the Tulo stash lately. I bet she'd be happier if they were Yadis, however.

I am really excited to see Wacha get a chance to take the mound every fifth game this year. That should be exciting, providing that he doesn't encounter any hitches along the way.

Oh, there's Yadi. He says hi.

All the Ginter, All the Heritage

More huge piles of cards means more huge piles of cards for me to sort.

Howard has struck again. Tonight I'm going to show off just a few cards from the first of several huge packages I've received from the man in the past couple of months. I put out a (late) call for Allen & Ginter cards last year and he was the first person to really put a dent in my want list. It was more like a mortar bomb, to be honest. This was finally the year that broke me, where I barely bought any packs or boxes of Ginter and have relied almost exclusively on fellow internet card collectors and some Listia auctions to go about putting together the set. And while I have more base card needs from this year than each of the past five years worth of sets, I'm glad I was at least able to do some good and get a bunch of extras out of someone else's home for a change.

It's a fancy lady in a fancy hat. I'm not much for royalty, so I'm always completely out of my element when people bring up the royals. Beatrix was the Queen of Netherlands, however, so I'm guessing she managed to keep herself out of the tabloids for the most part.

I can see them, man. Can't you? They're controlling our minds. And our weather. You know why it's been so cold? Chemtrails. You know why the US hasn't won more gold medals in the Winter Olympics? Chemtrails. You know why water just doesn't taste as good as it used to? Chemtrails.

This is a great looking black mini to go with The Big Hurt's uniform colors. It wouldn't have looked nearly as nice if he was shown with one of the teams he played for in later years like Oakland or Toronto.

I like that we are collecting cards of castles. You don't find this in other sets.

"So a Greek walks into a bar and..."

I decided not to scan any boring old white Heritage cards, opting for some blue ones instead. It seems like there's a million Dodgers-loving card collectors out there, so I'm probably driving everyone crazy by picking this card to show off.

And then there's this guy. He was born in the '90s, but is already starting to look like he could be someone's uncle. Yikes! At least he'll (someday) have that huge pile of money to swim around in.

Something For Every Part of My Collection

Still cleaning up the August trade stacks.

I've traded with Brian C, a member in good standing of the Guilt Free Basketball Card Club, a number of times now. When I ended up with the Pirates as my extra team in a group break this summer, I decided to dump those cards on him. In exchange I got some goodies from all reaches of my collection, like this John Axford 2013 Topps Heritage card. Now, I'm not saying that I'm starting an Axford player collection because he's a Cardinal all of a sudden, but I did need his Heritage card for my Heritage set.

Here's a shiny gold Chris Carpenter card. There will always be places for these things in my collection, even now that Carp is hanging it up. Sorry, I know you all were big fans and all, but he's all but made it official that he's pitched his last game.

I still probably need a bunch of these Chasing History cards. Now that Update is out, there are undoubtedly even more to collect, along with paralleled versions of each.

Brian even went Blazers on me and delivered me this 2009-10 Travis Outlaw Panini card that is apparently some sort of glossy parallel. That means I have a bunch more of this team set to track down, too. Stupid gloss.

Robin Lopez just joined up with the Blazers to be their starting center, at least until Meyers Leonard or another player from the future develops into the position. I'm going to take a wait-and-see approach. I don't have a Sideshow Rob collection going, either, but I am collecting this fun/weird basketball tribute to baseball's 1984 Donruss.

Brian also sent over a Ducks card, but as is my usual process, I'm going to save it for a gameday.