2015 Reds Autograph Baseball

Here's the latest addition to my autograph collection, a 2015 Reds team signed Opening Day Major League Baseball. There are 16 signatures on this baseball: Bryan Price, Billy Hamilton, Todd Frazier, Jay Bruce, Joey Votto, Zach Cozart, JJ Hoover, Manny Parra, Chris Dominguez, Anthony DeSclafani, Ryan Mattheus, Burke Badenhop, Brennan Boesch, Mike Leake, Nate Adcock and one I can't figure out. I'm hoping I could eventually have Brandon Phillips, Aroldis Chapman, Johnny Cueto and Eugenio Suarez sign this ball.This is my ninth team autograph baseball and I have a team autograph baseball from the 1950s through the 2010s. 

Built in Secrecy

I'm just curious as to how many of us bloggers out there are worried about competing with our fellow collectors when it comes to acquiring cards. Case in point, I've always been fascinated with the concept of eTopps. The ability to purchase cards online, a limited print run, sealed and stored offsite with the ability to ship the cards to your house. It was a radical idea at the time that lasted for a decade before it became an afterthought to many collectors. I never collected any of the cards through the eTopps website. By the time I had learned about the cards the program had essentially ceased. Sure, you could still purchase cards from fellow collectors on eBay to have them transferred to your online eTopps portfolio but Topps had driven the cost of shipping those cards to astronomical rates that many collectors, I feel, just cut their losses and abandoned their account with many of these cards never to see the light of day.

Eventually I began to think how great it would be to try and actually build a physical set of eTopps cards. Instead of buying digital cards online and having them transfer to an eTopps account (to avoid shipping fees), I decided to start scouring eBay, COMC, Beckett, Sportlots, and Amazon to see if I could build a set from cards collectors already had in hand. My only stipulation was that the cards still needed to be sealed in their plastic case that Topps had sent them. I decided to settle on the 2008 eTopps set because I like the giant team logos in the background and the number of great rookie cards in the set. Joey Votto, Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer, Carlos Gonzalez, Chris Davis, Johnny Cueto, Evan Longoria, Jay Bruce, Daniel Murphy, and Clay Buccholz to name a few. In addition you have a nice collection of hall of famers (or soon to be hall of famers) with Ken Griffey Jr., Greg Maddux, Chipper Jones, Ivan Rodriguez, and Derek Jeter. The lowest print run in this set for a particular card is 499 (Carlos Gonzalez, Brandon Jones, CC Sabathia, Ivan Rodriguez, and Daniel Murphy). So theoretically there could only be a total of 499 sets ever assembled based on the print run, but because of the fact that there are team and player collectors that number shrinks drastically. Follow that up with the fact that due to the high cost of shipping eTopps cards, many of those 2008 cards will probably never hit the market. That got me thinking, realistically what could be the total number of sets ever assembled? My guess would be less than 25, but I could be wrong. I'm sure Patrick over at Radicards would be better able to run the numbers and give a more precise analytical answer.

When I first started chasing these cards down in January of this year I noticed that there were instances of only 1 card of a player being sold. I already knew that there were some cards in the set that were not even listed. I decided that if I could acquire at least 59 of the 69 cards that were produced, that would only leave me with 10 cards (or 14%) of the set to chase which seemed like a realist chance to succeed. Yesterday the last 5 of the 69 cards in this set showed up in my mailbox. You can see all of the cards by checking out my 2008 eTopps page under the pages section on the top right column of my blog.

Anyone else out there working on a secret project?

Jay Bruce Trifecta

This past week I was able to complete my latest collecting trifecta. I would have to put this Jay Bruce trifecta at the top of my list for all trifectas that I have completed thus far. All three of these cards look amazing, and while it wasn't cheap, I will say that I'm happy with the end result. The following cards make up this Bruce trifecta: a 2008 eTopps Jay Bruce, a 2013 Bowman Jay Bruce Yellow Printing Plate, and a 2008 Topps Red Hot Rookies Jay Bruce autograph. This complements my Aroldis Chapman and Johnny Cueto trifectas nicely.

2013 Topps

While every single baseball card blog has already written everything there is to the 2013 Topps base set, I have done no such thing until now. Better late than never, right? Here are a few pros and cons about this year's design. Please remember that the views expressed do not necessarily represent those of other cardboard bloggers or their subsidiaries and are the sole views of the Reds Baseball Card Collector. The pros: crisp clean design with the white border and baseball diamond/outfield incorporated into the design, great photography-probably the best I've seen in years from Topps, a nice addition to the back with the "Chasing History" stat, and a manageable size set at 330 cards. Cons: short prints, short prints, short prints!!! I'm starting to get burned out on the short print concepts from Topps when it comes to their flagship set. Ginter and Gypsy Queen I could see and even Heritage, though that might be a stretch. But in my humble opinion, short prints DO NOT belong in the flagship brand. Period. As a team collector I had to get not one, but two for my team set this year, and that's only for series one! Who knows what dastardly SPs await me for series two and the update set! Personally, Topps should have used the outstanding photos that were used in their "Out of Bounds" SPs for the standard player cards. The reason I've stuck with the flagship brand from Topps for as long as I have is due to the simple fact that it's always been affordable to put together a team set for about five bucks. So far this year it's cost me twenty nine dollars (three quarters of which belong to acquiring the short prints of Jay Bruce and Todd Frazier). Am I the only one who's rose colored glasses are starting to shatter at the thought of what the flagship has morphed into?

TTM: Aaron Harang

My favorite Reds pitcher in the 2000s and an all around classy guy. I admire the fact that Aaron Harang started Aaron's Aces at Great American Ballpark. If you're not familiar with the concept, the program honors local military families with an opportunity to get free tickets to a sunday ballgame. With Harang no longer being on the Cincinnati roster, Jay Bruce has taken up the torch to carry on this magnificent program.

Jay Bruce Bobblehead

The Texan made his major league debut with the Reds on May 27, 2008 against the Pittsburgh Pirates going 3 for 3 with 2 RBIs in a Reds 9-6 win. In 2010, Bruce hit a walk-off home run on September 28th to clinch the NL Central for the Reds and on October 6th he was the only baserunner allowed during Roy Halladay's no-hitter in the NLDS. This past year, Bruce was selected to his first All-Star game and he became the third youngest Red's player to reach 100 home runs when he did so against the Mets on September 27th in a 5-4 Reds win. The Bruce bobblehead was given out on July 4th of 2009 and is part of the collection series that shows part of a mural of Great American ballpark when combined with the other three bobbleheads in the series (Votto, Phillips, and Volquez). There were a total of 30,000 Bruce bobbleheads given out. Fans that attended the game not only picked up a great bobblehead of Bruce, but also saw the Reds beat the Cardinals 5-2.

2009 Topps

Not a big fan of 2009 Topps. The design is much to be lacking. Sure it has a cool home plate graphic at the bottom with the team's logo nicely inserted within it, but that's about it. Too much black at the bottom where they list the player's name, position and team. I think they could have and should have done a better job with that aspect of the card. For whatever reason, it's that big black mess at the bottom that just ruins the card for me. I like the dot matrix pattern that Topps uses on the top left and bottom right of the card. Is it me or does this set look eerily similar to this years Topps Lineage?

2012 Topps

OK, so there's a lot of talk out there concerning the 2012 Topps product that's slated for release next year. Honestly, I think it's a nice product. Looking at some of the photos posted on Beckett, I think the base set is nice and clean with the white borders and I like how the info is displayed on the bottom left of the card with the team logo and player name. I just with Topps would have included the player's position within that area. I like the Bruce card showing him tipping his helmet to the camera. Inserts though, I'm not a big fan of and again, the 2012 set seems to be loaded with them. From Golden Greats to Golden Moments to Gold Parallels, there's more Gold in this set than what Glenn Beck would know what to do with! Anyway, I'm anxious to get my hands on these cards next year for my Reds Team set. Who knows, maybe this will be Topps next Gold Standard.