Not Quite Prospecting

When it comes to collecting baseball cards, I collect just about anything and everything.  However there's one particular genre that I typically don't mess around with... and that's prospects.  It's completely outside my realm of knowledge.

Typically I stay away from purchasing cards with the intent to flip them, but back in 2016 I read an article on Christian Yelich that inspired me to track down a few of his autographs:

2015 Museum Collection Archival Autographs #AA-CY

2015 Finest Autographs #FA-CY

2015 Gypsy Queen Autographs #GQA-CY

The article named him one of the most underrated players in the game.  At the time, he was a twenty-four year old rising star who flirted with a .300 batting average and minor power.  However most of the team's fanbase was focused on Giancarlo Stanton and Jose Fernandez.

Fast forward to 2018 and Yelich was one RBI and two home runs short of becoming the first National League batter to win the Triple Crown in eighty years.

This has started to draw some attention to his baseball cards, so I decided to dig through some boxes and pull these three autographs out and look up my COMC purchase history.  Here's how much I invested:

Card #1:  2015 Museum Collection Archival Autographs #AA-CY  $5.25

Card #2:  2015 Finest Autographs #FA-CY  $4.38

Card #3:  2015 Gypsy Queen Autographs #GQA-CY  $4.36

Currently all three of these autographs are selling in the $20 to $35 range.  I'm sure the smart move is to either sell these now while he's in the playoff limelight.

That being said... I'm not in the hobby for investment purposes.  I learned my lesson the hard way in the 90's.

These days... I'm a collector.  Who knows?  If Yelich continues to win batting titles, maybe one day I'll add him to the list of guys I actively collect.  Until then, I'm content with sitting on these three signatures and this really cool rookie parallel:

2013 Bowman Chrome Mini Red Refractor #318

A few years ago, I picked up a 2013 Bowman Chrome Mini factory set from the wholesaler.  Each set came with 30 colored refractors.  At the time I didn't really know what I had... but after looking through the stack of refractors, Yelich was really the only player of note.  He was also the only parallel I found numbered to ten:

What about you?

Have you ever read about or heard announcers talk about a young prospect... and then immediately go out and try to find some cards of that player?

If so... 

Did it pan out?

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

A Clean Desk and A Beautiful Bip

Back in August, I reached out to Gavin over a Baseball Card Breakdown and asked him if he'd be interested in making a few Bip Roberts custom cut signature cards.  A few months earlier, I had purchased three index cards signed by Bip off of eBay with the hopes that I could somehow beg Gavin into doing me this huge favor.

It was by no means an easy assignment, since the signed index cards featured large signatures.  But like Derek Jeter, he came through in the clutch and delivered this:

I love that he chose to use a photograph of Bip while he was with the Oakland Athletics.  

As for the other two signed index cards... I asked Gavin to make one for himself... and one more for Rod over at Padrographs.  The idea was to have something that ties all three of our collections together.

In addition to this awesome Bip custom... Gavin also sent me a set of his amazing Sandlot customs:

These are fantastic!  And the card backs are just as nice...

But my favorite is the 1933 Goudey custom of Art LaFleur as The Babe:

But he wasn't finished there.  He also threw in this 1972 Topps In Action custom of Rickey Henderson:

I was blown away by this card.  It combines my birth year set, my second favorite player of all-time, and a well cropped action shot.  It doesn't get much better than that.

Thank you so much Gavin for taking the time out of your busy schedule to create such an amazing custom!

It's proudly displayed on my desk right between my Masanori Murakami rookie card and Minnesota Twins ticket stub featuring Kurt Suzuki:

I honestly can't think of a better way to kick off the week than a clean desk and a beautiful Bip Roberts custom card.

Happy Monday and sayonara!

Saturday Night Five: The Five Minute Post Experiment

Today I'm going to experiment with my writing and attempt to complete this post in five minutes or less.  The five minutes does not include the scanning, uploading, and arrangement of images, but it will include the research, editing, and revising that takes place during the normal publishing process.

Ultimately my goal is to publish a complete post, so I won't be setting a five minute timer.  Instead, I'll be timing myself while keeping the five minutes in the back of my mind.  So without further ado, let the challenge begin:

Two weeks ago, I received a care package from Julie over at A Cracked Bat: Baseball Cards and a Hot Dog.  She's one of the many bloggers I exchange care packages with on an annual basis.

She sent me a bunch of Oakland Athletics and Japanese baseball players inserts, oddballs, and parallels.  In the spirit of my Saturday Night Five series, I've decided to show off five cards that really stood out from the stacks:

#1:  1994 Fleer Extra Bases #150

I realize there are a lot of collectors who don't like these Tall Boys, because they aren't your traditional standard card size.  But I absolutely love them.  Julie sent me almost the entire A's team set:

I will definitely be looking for the final three cards for my team set on COMC or Sportlots.

#2:  1989 Topps Bazooka Shining Star #5

Although I was already a junior in high school when this card came out, this card immediately took me back to my youth.  If I remember correctly, these were inserted into boxes of Bazooka bubble gum.


#3:  2013 Topps Emerald Foil #85

Green parallels of Oakland Athletics rule.  This is a beautiful card.  

#4:  2004 Donruss Leather and Lumber Materials #72

Memorabilia cards may have outstayed their welcome in many collectors' hearts.  If you're one of those collectors... feel free to send me them anytime you want.  I promise to appreciate and provide them a loving home.


#5:  2013 Topps Opening Day Mascots #M6

If there's one low-end insert set that I'd like to see stick around forever... it's the Opening Day Mascot set.  My only complaint is that Stomper isn't always included.

Here are a few other cards that Julie sent me that I just have to share:

You know I love me some Fleer team logo stickers.  I'm also a fan of the small crop of young players that hopefully be around when the Oakland A's finally get their new stadium one day.

One of those guys is Matt Olson.  Here's a card of him serial numbered to 100:

2018 Topps Big League Rainbow Foil #19

Thank you so much Julie for this awesome care package!  By the way... I'm currently way over the five minute mark.  But that's okay.  I'm going to keep practicing.  And one day I hope to have it mastered like Daniel over at It's like having my own Card Shop.  He's the blogger who came up with the five minute post idea.

Well that's it for today.  I'm gonna go ahead and hit the "lap" button, then start the editing and revising portion of this post.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

Research and Writing:  25 Minutes

Editing and Revising:  12 Minutes

Overtime

9/20/1935 - 11/13/2018

My parents are the reason I became a Green Bay Packers fan.  Jim Taylor's NFL career started right around the same time my parents started attending games at Milwaukee County Stadium back in the late 50's.  I haven't spoken to my father today, but I'm sure if he's heard the news of Taylor's passing... he said a prayer for his family and friends.  Rest in peace, Mr. Taylor.

Card Show Leftovers

When it comes to food... I have a strict three day rule.  I'll typically eat leftovers for one, two, maybe three days after I cook it.  After that... it goes into the trash.

Luckily the same rule does not apply to sports cards.  Today's post wraps up my recent card show purchases (aka the leftovers).

Round 5:  The Quarter Boxes  $3

As hard as I try to avoid dime boxes and quarter bins, I just can't walk away from 80's rookie cards:

The dealer actually had about ten more 5,000 count boxes, but my back was really starting to hurt so I quit after two.  I've met this guy before and he runs a show at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Concord.  Maybe one of these days I'll give it a shot.

Round 6:  The Dollar Bin  $10

Last week I mentioned that I killed time looking at the guy's dime boxes, while four other guys were going through his dollar boxes.  Eventually I had my chance to go through it and I grabbed these ten cards.

I was pretty happy to see this George Kell autographed card:

1992 Action Packed All-Star Gallery 24kt. Gold #11G

I'm not sure if the autograph is legit or not... but regardless... I'm still a big fan of the Action Packed 24kt. gold parallels from the early 90's.

The two other cards that really stood out to me were these memorabilia cards:

2001 SP Legendary Cuts Debut Bats #B-WP

2005 Donruss Greats Yankee Clippings Materials #YC-16

Graig Nettles was one of the few New York Yankees that I actually liked as a kid.  On the other hand, Wes Parker played his final game when I was only a month old, so I don't remember watching him play.  However... I do remember him from his guest appearance on the Brady Bunch.

Well that wraps up my card show haul.  I apologize for stretching it out through four posts, but a blogger has to do... what a blogger has to do.

This weekend I'm going to borrow Daniel's (It's like having my own Card Shop) idea and write a post in five minutes.  I'm predicting an epic fail since most of my posts take thirty to ninety minutes to write.

Fellow bloggers... what about you?

On average...

How much time do you invest on your blog posts?

Happy Thursday and sayonara!