Chicago Show, Episode 1

Let me start by saying that I went to my first big time card show since moving to Chicago.

Let me follow by saying "WOW!"

I spent about two hours cruising the floor at the first big card show I've been to in almost 20 years. As a matter of fact, the last show I remember going to that was this this big had Billy Martin as one of the marquee autographers.

Anyhow, I spent a solid two hours pounding the floor looking for Tigers cards. 

I hit a table full of the jackpot of holy grail cards, the 2008 Topps Heritage.

I know that I said that I'd given up on Topps, but how can anybody give up on this release? I am still living up to my vow never to purchase packs of Topps cards ever again, but this was too good to pass up.

These cards are simply beautiful. Not to mention that this release ranks right up there with the 2001 Heritage as one of the best Topps design ever. I think it speaks volumes as to how crappy Topps has become that these are the most sought after release that Topps puts out every year. Classic design, NO FOIL STAMPING, and really cool insert cards. HELLO TOPPS, ARE YOU LISTENING?

But that's enough bitching for one day. Let me go ahead with the Tigers recap.

The base set has 21 cards, including short prints. (I don't remember which are SP. But if you go to ebay, and look up this team set, you will easily find the ones that aren't. Off the top of my head, the SP include the All-Star cards, Brandon Inge, Sean Casey, and Jacque Jones.)

2 Placido Polanco 

18 Dontrelle Willis 

28 Ivan Rodriguez

34 Pitchers Beware 

70 Carlos Guillen 

283 Miguel Cabrera

293 Edgar Renteria

315 Jacque Jones

329 Team Card

338 Justin Verlander

360 Magglio Ordonez 

370 Tigers First No-Hitter Since 1984 

387 Jeremy Bonderman

417 Nate Robertson

442 Gary Sheffield

454 Brandon Inge

458 Sean Casey

480 Jim Leyland All-Star

488 Carlos Guillen All-Star

494 Magglio Ordonez All-Star

500 Justin Verlander All-Star

Topps has also added the usual "we screwed 'em up in the 50's, so let's keep doing it again" variation cards. This time they mirrored the "black back" variation, where a selection have black ink used instead of green. The list of Tigers is as follows:

2 Polanco Black Back 

18 Willis Black Back

28 Rodriguez Black Back 

34 Pitchers Beware Black Back 

283 Cabrera Black Back

338 Verlander Black Back 

360 Ordonez Black Back 

370 Tigers First No-Hitter Since 1984 Black Back

There are also a couple of cool inserts, both involving Magglio Ordonez.

New Age Performers 1

and 

Then and Now 3, which features Maggs with Orlando Cepeda (I was at the HOF induction of Cepeda, which I'll elaborate on sometime later. God it was hot that day!)

They've also included chrome versions of the following, and I assume refractors as well. (Since I picked up two of them.)

C5 Dontrelle Willis

C20 Justin Verlander

C28 Ivan Rodriguez

C39 Miguel Cabrera

C42 Magglio Ordonez

C120 Jeremy Bonderman

C182 Gary Sheffield

C184 Carlos Guillen

There are also a couple of relic cards. (Which I didn't pick up, because I didn't know they existed dammit!)

CC-IR Ivan Rodriguez 

CC-JV Justin Verlander

I was able to pick up all but three of the base set including SP. (Missing the Pitchers Beware card of Granderson and Maggs, as well as cards of Sean Casey, and Miguel Cabrera.)

I also found all the black back cards, except for Cabrera, and snagged Chrome Refractors of Cabrera and Verlander.

All total I got 30 cards for $40. 

Yeah, I'm done with buying packs of Topps.

As always, if you know of something I've missed please post it. Thanks.