Thursday, January 28, 2010

2010 Topps - Ready To Trade Inserts?

I swung by the Target near where I live tonight after work to pick up a few groceries, and lo and behold if they didn't have 2010 Topps at that one too! Knowing that I need to curb spending on these until the jumbo hobby packs come out next week, I only picked up one blaster and 5 of the regular packs.

I opened the first regular pack and the two inserts inside were a Ty Cobb Red Back and an Edwin Jackson Turkey Red. Yippie! I did ok in the blaster, getting a Throwback card of Wilken Ramirez and base cards of Aubrey Huff and the AL Wins Leaders with Verlander.

I've accumulated a nice collection of inserts that I'd be willing to deal for Tigers insert cards if anybody out there is interested.


I've got patch cards of Babe Ruth, Bob Gibson, and Evan Longoria. I would likely only swap these for patch cards. The rest of the inserts I'm pretty open to mixing and matching.

I've got 40 throwback cards including Tom Seaver Franchise History, Ichiro, and AL league leaders for HR and RBI.

I've got 4 of the Cards Your Mother Threw Out with the original backs: Jackie Robinson, Carl Yastrzemski, Thurman Munson, and Paul Molitor.

I've got quite a few of the regular CYMTO, a well as plenty of other inserts like Turkey Red, Legendary Lineage, When They Were Young, History Of The Game, Tales Of The Game, and Peak Performance. I've also got a gold card of Jason Bay.


I'm pretty much only looking for Tigers inserts in return, but I'd be willing to listen if I was wowed with a nice sized lot of base cards. If any team collectors are interested, drop me a line and tell me what team you collect and I'll be glad to post a list.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

2010 Topps

I swore I wasn't going to do this anymore. I knew I was just setting myself up for getting mad. I saw the new packs of 2010 Topps in Target the other day and after staring at them for a couple of minutes was able to walk away without buying a pack.

I swore I wasn't going to do this anymore. I was walking around Target today after lunch. (I go to Target a lot....) I saw the new blasters of 2010 Topps. I picked up a box to see how many cards were inside and noticed on the side of the box that each box contained one patch card. Having never owned a patch card, and really jonesing to open some packs of cards, I knuckled under and bought a blaster.

I opened the box while sitting in my car in the Target parking lot. I dumped the packs out, found the pack that had the patch card, opened it up, and...and...and.....HOLY FREAKING MOTHER OF ALL THINGS HOLY! AN AL KALINE PATCH CARD.


Right then I knew that I was going to let Topps off easy this year. This is one of the sweetest relic cards in my collection. But then I started opening the other packs....and....and...and...

Well, nothing worth writing in all caps about, but this is a really nice product. The base cards look great and there are some great inserts too. So here's my 2¢ on 2010 Topps. (Actually my $60. I went back to Target after work and picked up two more blasters.)

THE GOOD

1. This is easily my favorite Topps design since 1991. Not coincidentally both feature the team logo prominently on the card. After years of flat designs, these cards pop. Very clean and colorful. I likey.

2. There are some honking cool inserts, the best of which are the parallels printed on the same stock as the Heritage cards. (Check out the old Topps logo on these. Nice.) Topps should have released these as a separate set altogether.

3. The Cards Your Mom Threw Out. A fifty+ card insert set reprinting various cards in Topps history. My favorites of the ones I got were a '59 Bob Gibson, '61 Roger Maris, '65 Juan Marichal, and a '74 Dave Winfield. I also got reprints of a '53 Jackie Robinson and a '60 Carl Yastrzemski, but they're not a part of that set. I'll have to investigate.

4. Babe Ruth. Three different insert cards. One called History Of The Game, one called Tales Of The Game, and a Turkey Red card. All three look awesome. I will never bitch about getting cards of HOFers, especially when they replace 37 different Kenji Johjima cards. (Sorry Topps, I'll never get over 2007...)

5. Combo Cards and Checklists. Topps killed two birds with one stone by putting the set checklists on the back of the Combo Cards and making them a part of the base set. Nicely done.

6. Franchise History. I'm not really sure what these are but the four I got look pretty cool. One of Rickey Henderson from when he was an A, one of Tom Seaver throwing out the first pitch at the last game at Shea Stadium, and a couple showing both the Red Sox and Marlins multiple World Series banners hanging in their stadiums. Very cool.

THE BAD

1. Once again this is not the set for set builders. Not if you want to build one for less than the amount of a car note. The three blasters contained 243 cards total. I ended up with 137 base cards. I haven't sorted them yet, but after doubles I'm guessing I ended up with about a third of the set for $60. I'm betting you could drop a couple of bills and not finish Series 1, and that's fucking absurd.

2. Topps Town. Is it an insert card? Is it a game piece? Whatever it is, it counts as a card in the pack. There appear to be 25 silver cards and 25 gold cards. I realize that Topps Town is geared for the kids, but since that's the case why put them in the boxes for the adults? Put them in the single packs that retail for $2. And don't put one in every pack either. I'd give up every one of these I have for a couple of the parallels.

3. SP cards. Or alternates, or whatever they're called. I got one of Walter Johnson, which I would gladly trade for the Hank Greenberg, but this is unnecessarily gimmicky. Why not just add them to the set so that everybody can enjoy them? For the first time in a long time Topps has released something worth spending money on. There's no need for this goofyness anymore.


THE RESEARCH

I got on the web trying to find a checklist so I could post the Tigers team set and insert cards, but I couldn't find one anywhere. I was able to find a checklist of the 25 SPs, but not a complete list of anything else. So for now I'll list the Tigers I got or know about and then I'll fill it in as I find out more.

The 2010 Topps Detroit Tigers:
1b Hank Greenberg (SP)
68 Brandon Inge
84 Nate Robertson
119 Wilkin Ramirez
171 Justin Verlander (either AL wins or strikeout leaders)
254 Edwin Jackson
293 Brent Dlugach
309 Gerald Laird

For inserts I got the parallel card of Edwin Jackson on the Heritage stock, a card of Justin Verlander called "When They Were Young," and a Topps Town card of Miguel Cabrera.

MAYBE (and I can't stress maybe enough...) Topps isn't going to be so Mickey Mouse after all. I give this release a big thumbs up. I like what I see so far, even if building a set is going to cost a small fortune.

If there are any team set collectors out there wanting to swap insert cards drop me a line. I've got about a hundred or so and I would love to put together a Tigers team set of the parallel cards. I've also got patch cards of Bob Gibson and Evan Longoria if anybody has a Hank Greenberg they'd like to swap.

And dadgum, that is one sweet Kaline card.....

Friday, January 8, 2010

1996 Fleer Ultra


Past readers know my take on Fleer Ultra, so I won't go into it again. But in honor of that John Flaherty card....

My top 5 favorite Lyle Lovett songs:
Fiona
North Dakota
Church
If I Had A Boat
I've Been To Memphis

The 1996 Fleer Detroit Tigers:
57 Chad Curtis
58 Cecil Fielder
59 John Flaherty
60 Travis Fryman
61 Chris Gomez
62 Bob Higginson
63 Felipe Lira
64 Brian Maxcy
65 Alan Trammell
66 Lou Whitaker
345 Kimera Bartee
346 Greg Keagle
347 Mark Lewis
348 Jose Lima
349 Melvin Nieves
350 Mark Parent
351 Eddie Williams


There was a parallel set. It was gold. If I had a pony, I'd ride it on my boat. (That's not a very flattering pic of Sweet Lou. It's not hard to see that this was the end of the ride for him.)

I only have one other insert. It's a checklist card from Series 2.

2 Cecil Fielder