They Just Have a Certain Flair to Them

 

Earlier this year I decided to chase the 1993 Topps Finest set. Although I never saw those cards for sale in 1993, I thought it would be a great set to chase. Topps first iteration of chrome cards would be a nice addition to my collection, or so I thought. In 1993 I purchased about a dozen "packs" of 1993 Fleer's pristine product "Flair". I thought it was ingenious for Fleer to package their cards in a little box, to have those cards wrapped up in cellophane inside the box and then have the outside of the box cellophaned as well. I did own the set at one time, but got rid of it. Anyway, after I completed the 1993 Topps Finest set I just couldn't get into it. Maybe it's because I never bought any packs of the stuff. Maybe it's because I appreciated the photography used in the 1993 Flair set, or the slick UV gloss coating each and every card. Or it could be the thick card stock that almost makes these cards impossible to put in a 9 card page. Regardless, I sold the set about a month ago and picked up another 1993 Flair set with the Wave of the Future insert set as well. I don't know what it is, but it seems like as I get older I've started appreciating the different sets that Fleer released in the 90s and early 2000s. I miss the day of Topps, Upper Deck, Donruss, Fleer and Score. Now it's just Topps and Panini and it seems like the cards that are being released now are looking like a rehash of the previous year's design. Maybe I'm becoming the proverbial Grumpy Old Man as I get older. I don't think I'm asking for much when I say that I want some ingenuity when it comes to the design of cards. Maybe, just maybe, I'm longing for the good ole days of collecting cards.

Always Prefer On Card

When it comes to autographs I always prefer the on card type instead of sticker graphs. For whatever reason, I feel as though an on card auto was perhaps handled by the individual who signed it instead of a page of stickers that someone signed and sent back to the manufacturer. Case in point, Pete Rose has a ton of autographs out there. Many of these autographs are in Leaf products and many of these (especially his Living Legend autos) are sticker graphs. Don't get me wrong, I won't pass up a Rose autograph if the price is right, but sticker graphs are a dime a dozen and I'm willing to shell out more money for one that isn't. This 2014 Leaf Q is a perfect example. Did I pay more that I should have, sure I did. But I really like the card and I love the fact that the auto is ON CARD. There are a few other Leaf Q on card autographs I would still like to chase down, but those can wait for another day.

Home Runs and Strikeouts

I've been working on my 2003 Fleer Authentix set now for 17 years! Talk about a long project. I didn't think it would take this long to track down every single card (not counting the parallels) for this set, but it has. I'm still 4 cards shy of wrapping up this project. Once I track down that last card and place it in the binder I will breathe a sigh of relief and be proud of the accomplishing a task that's going on two decades to complete. Until then, I'll show off a couple of cards I picked up for this set.

There are three autographs to be found in 2003 Fleer Authentix: Barry Bonds, Derek Jeter, and Nolan Ryan. The Bonds I acquired back in January of this year and the Ryan I finally pulled the trigger on last week and purchased. I think it's fantastic that I now own autographs for the all time leaders in strikeouts and home runs. That just leaves the captain to acquire sometime in the foreseeable future. The other cards I still need are a Hometown Heroes Johnny Damon relic, and base cards of Chin-Feng Chen and Bobby Doerr.

You look marvelous for 111 years old!

It's been quite some time since I've added a vintage card to my collection. Over the past year I've been concentrating on my Votto Rookie Card project and I've been neglecting the few pre-war sets I have on my want list. If I were to devote more time to grabbing the cards I want from the T206, 1933 and 1934 Goudey, and 1941 Play Ball sets I could probably have half of those completed by the end of the year. Unfortunately, my attention span is that of a gnat and I get distracted easily with other things. Anyway, back to my latest addition to my Reds card collection. I found this T206 Bescher on eBay yesterday for a price I was willing to pay. The condition was decent (no creases) and the colors were nice and bright as well as a nice clean back. With this pickup, I'm down to only needing 9 more cards to complete the Reds T206 set. Unfortunately, 4 of those cards are Hall of Famers (2 Miller Huggins and 2 Clark Griffiths).

Gatorade Baths

As the 2020 baseball season teeters on the brink I was reading some of the articles posted the past few months about some of the stipulations that would be put in place IF the season were to proceed. One of those included no player showers after games. I guess that's ok as long as players are no longer permitted to celebrate with the mobbing at home plate or the post game gatorade baths. Sure, it stinks "literally" but it's a different world we live in right now. That being said, yesterday I stumbled upon a couple of super short prints that I thought I would never own since they were so far out of my price range a year ago. These two cards together ran me the same price as it would if I had purchased just one of these a few months ago.

2017 Topps 288 SSP Joey Votto

2019 Topps US 50 SSP Nick Senzel

While I'm not a fan of the super short print concept, I think both of these cards are fantastic images and I'm glad that they're finally part of my collection.

Changeup

According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of the term changeup is "a slow pitch in baseball thrown with the same motion as a fastball in order to deceive the batter". Wikipedia also mentions other names for the term changeup including: change, off-speed pitch, or change-of-pace. Over the weekend I was taking a look at the rookie cards I had acquired of Nick Senzel for my Senzational Rookies project and decided to change things up. While I could try to track down the numerous parallels of certain cards I had listed on the blog, specifically Bowman, Bowman's Best, Topps Update, Heritage and Chrome, I would be spending a large chunk of change on acquiring those cards just for different color borders and lower print runs. I've already attempted the rainbow thing with Joey Votto and his 2013 Topps Cards and I've been tracking down parallels for my 2008 Joey Votto rookie project. It just didn't make sense to me to throw a lot of money chasing parallels for this project too. Besides, it's been a while since I've devoted any funds to some of my vintage team sets and I would like to add more T206 and Goudey cards to my Reds binders before the end of the year. With that in mind, I've drastically pared down the number of Senzel rookie cards I'm chasing from 90 to 40. What boggles my mind is that out of those 50 cards I cut, all but 3 were parallels. I should definitely have this project wrapped up by the end of the year.

It's been 2 years!

That's right, it's been 2 years since I've been able to add a card to my 2013 Topps Joey Votto Rainbow project. Talk about a dry spell. This card appeared on eBay last week with an option of Buy it Now or Best Offer. Needless to say, I decided to pay full price for this card since this was only the second time since 2013 that I had seen a copy. The card arrived yesterday in the mail and I've already added the card to the binder. This marks my 36th card for this project. My goal is to track down four more cards for this project: 2013 Topps Factory Orange numbered to 230, 2013 Topps Silver Slate Framed numbered to 10, 2013 Topps Opening Day Toys R Us Purple, and a 2013 Topps Chrome Pink Refractor numbered to 5. At the rate I'm going now, I should have this wrapped up in 2030.