Join the Club!

For the past few months I've been working on trying to complete my 1991 Topps Stadium club set. I'm not talking about the standard set of 600 cards. Rather, what I'm talking about is the 50 card Pre-Production set the company produced prior to launching the actual 1991 Stadium Club set. A "promo" set essentially.








While the front of these cards look just like your standard 1991 Stadium Club cards, the backs of these cards are all the same. They show a Jose Canseco rookie card with a Pre-Production sample blurb.

According to baseballcardpedia, "Not much is known about these cards. It is believed that Topps distributed these cards to their sales team and to major distributors. The set consists of 50 cards and it's believed that 300-600 copies of each card was produced." I think these cards complement my 1991 Stadium Club set nicely. Now that I have this set completed maybe I can get back to wrapping up my 2011 Gypsy Queen set.

A Little Late to the Party

Ok, most of you have already talked about this year's series 2 release of Topps. For better or for worse, I'm just now getting around to it. This past Sunday my wife surprised me with an eBay gift card for Father's Day. Needless to say, within a few hours of receiving it I had already spent it. I was able to purchase a complete set of 2018 Topps Series 2 Reds cards and three short prints. Out of the three short prints this Bench card is my favorite. There's still one more series 2 Reds card I don't have...a super short print Joey Votto card and it will probably never enter my collection. Starting bids on eBay are $50....way too steep for a modern variation card. I'd rather spend that money on a couple of vintage Goudey or T206 Reds cards.

1989-90 NBA Hoops

Ok, so this will be the last time (probably) that I mention basketball cards on a baseball card blog. This set is like a bad penny. It just keeps turning up in my collection. I remember in 1989 when this set was all the rage due to the David Robinson rookie cards. I wanted to purchase packs of this stuff but when the card stores where charging anywhere from $1-$3 dollars a pack, I just couldn't bite. As time went on thought, and these cards became MUCH more affordable I had to add this set to my collection. This is probably the third time I've had this set in my collection after getting rid of it twice because I felt like it just didn't belong. This time it's here to stay for good. Coupled with the fact that I was able to track down the special promotional binder that was released with these cards in 1989, I'm glad to have this bad penny turn up once more.

2017 Topps Cincinnati Reds Team Set

40 cards total in the base set and the update set.

85 Brandon Finnegan
110 Joey Votto League Leader
128 Adam Duvall
185 Raisel Iglesias
188 Caleb Cotham
200 Homer Bailey
253 Tucker Barnhart
288 Joey Votto
297 Anthony DeSclafani
310 Scott Schebler
386 Michael Lorenzen
395 Drew Storen
414 Zack Cozart
473 Eugenio Suarez
506 Jose Peraza
511 Devin Mesoraco
539 Amir Garrett
539SP Amir Garrett
540 Billy Hamilton
599 Cincinnati Reds Team Card
698 Tony Cingrani
US12 Lisalverto Bonilla
US43 Joey Votto
US43SP Joey Votto
US43SP Johnny Bench
US48 Ariel Hernandez
US53 Barrett Astin
US75 Jake Buchanan
US139 Luis Castillo
US140 Sal Romano
US155 Cincinnati Reds Run and Hit
US158 Phillip Ervin
US178 Stuart Turner
US205 Zack Cozart
US205SP Barry Larkin
US211 Rookie Davis
US254 Amir Garrett
US271 Jesse Winker
US271SP Jesse Winker
US285 Scott Feldman

2018 Topps

It's that time of year again! Topps has just released their 2018 flagship cards and, like I've done every year for the past 10 years, I've purchased my Reds team set off eBay. Hopefully by this time next week I should have the cards in hand. Just a couple of thoughts about this year's set. First, I still miss the borders on this set. I'll always believe that full bleed photography should be reserved for Stadium Club. Second, I think there's too much going on in the footer of the card. The color swoosh and pixel disintegration are just over the top for me. Photography is decent but I'm getting tired of chasing short print cards. It's just a pain trying to track these down every year. I feel sorry for those of you that have to track down those dreaded SUPER SHORT PRINTS! Anyway, on a much lighter note, at least baseball season is right around the corner!

Adding Silk to the Rainbow

Wow, it's almost been two months since I've posted to the blog. Just wanted to share with everyone the latest addition to my 2013 Topps Joey Votto Rainbow project. This silk card appeared a few months ago on Check Out My Cards and I knew I had to add it to the collection. Numbered 9/50 this is the first (and will probably be the last) silk card to enter my collection. I'm now up to 34 different Votto cards in this project. I'm still on the hunt for 6 more cards to wrap up this project. In case you're interested they're: 2013 Topps Factory Orange numbered to 230, 2013 Topps Wrapper Redemption Silver Slate numbered to 10, 2013 Topps Printing Plate numbered to 1, 2013 Topps Opening Day Toy's R Us Purple parallel, 2013 Topps Chrome Camo Refractor numbered to 15 and 2013 Topps Chrome Pink Refractor numbered to 5.

A Tour of the Cave

For the past few years I've had posts on this blog talking about purchases for the "Man Cave". This included anything from tin signs to posters and memorabilia. Essentially, anything that's been spoken about on this blog is in the Man Cave. While it's not 100% finished, I thought it was about time to take you all on a tour of the cave. I still need to frame and hang my World Series newspapers, but either than that, the room is essentially finished.

Here's the view if you're looking from the back of the room. While there is a foosball table and television in there for entertainment, it would have been nice to have a pool table in there as well. Unfortunately, there's just not enough space.

 

To the right of the foosball table are my seats from Riverfront Stadium. I refuse to call them Cinergy Field seats because I still don't agree with the whole stadium naming rights thing. Above the seats is my tin Louisville Slugger sign.

At the far end of the room are two additional tin signs (Topps baseball and a Shoeless Joe Jackson shoe sign), an autograph card display of some of my favorite former Reds players, and my autograph Joey Votto jersey.

To the left of the jersey is my desk where I scan most of the cards you see on my blog. On the top shelf of the desk you'll notice my trifecta collection (Rookie card, printing plate, and certified autograph) for Jay Bruce, Aroldis Chapman, Johnny Cueto, Homer Bailey, and Joey Votto.

To the left of the desk are a couple of Reds signs. The large street sign fits perfectly above the access doors on the knee wall. The Reds felt logo sign is just a neat piece detailing the various logos the Reds have had throughout their existence. 

To the left of that is where the heart of my collection resided. I have two bookshelves that are completely stocked. In between the bookshelves is the futon with a Reds felt blanket my wife and daughter made for me a few Christmases ago. Behind the futon are panoramic prints of Riverfront and Great American ballpark.

The bookshelf to the right of the futon contains all of my Reds autograph baseballs, a few bobbleheads, my Pete Rose autograph glove, my World Series tickets and all of my Reds Team sets. I also like the old school pennant behind the Big Red Machine bobbleheads.

To the left of the futon is my other bookshelf that contains the rest of my Reds bobblehead collection, a display of my old Reds player's ball gloves, and binders containing the few sets I have in my collection.

Finally, across from the futon is the TV, guitars and amp. Hopefully I can eventually add one more Fender guitar and another amp. But this is a baseball card blog and I won't bore you with that.

So, that's it... my "Man Cave". With a collection that's taken more than 15 years to put together, I enjoyed every moment of this hobby and I'm glad that I'm part of a blogging community that enjoys the sport as much as I do.