2013 Topps Update Cubs Emeralds

Several times a week I like to run through some of my favorites searches on eBay to see if anything of interest pops up. This ranges from mini collections I'm working on such as 1991 Topps Desert Shield or Tony Campana to the biggest focal point of the collection, Cubs in general.

I search "Cubs lot" quite bit because it brings up such a variety of items. Sometimes it is cards, autographs, memorabilia or a mix of all of the above. Once I weed out Cub Scout stuff and bear figurines/knick knacks, there are a lot of hidden gems. And by gems, today I mean emeralds.

I came across a listing a few weeks back that had 14 different Cubs Emerald cards from the Update release. As someone who had just picked up the base version, I knew that there were only 14 different Cubs in the set. I don't think the seller realized because he only listed it as a "lot" and not as a complete team set. Sure enough when I clicked into the listing, it included a photo of 6 of them but listed all 14 players in the set. I had seen a couple of the sets sell for between $7-10 plus shipping. Thats's a little out of my price range considering in a few weeks/months, they'll probably be a quarter each on Sportlots or Just Commons.

I ended up winning the complete set "lot" for just $1.74. Not bad for a lot that included 5 Rookie Cards too. (But when your roster for the season includes 56 different players, there should probably be some rookies.) The shipping was a bit high at $3.50 but I picked up a few other things from the same seller to make it more reasonable. Now I just have to figure out which ones I still need from Series 1 & 2. May as well complete the whole set!

The foil names don't show up great on the scans so I've added them for the curious.

Blake Parker

Brian Bogusevic, Carlos Villanueva, Dioner Navarro

Edwin Jackson, James Russell, Junior Lake

Justin Grimm, Kevin Gregg, Kyuji Fujikawa

Luis Valbuena, Mike Olt, Pedro Strop

Scott Feldman

Trade with Dutch Card Guy

It's a great time of year to be collecting cards. Shortly after a pair of new set releases, the first packs have been opened and Want Lists have been formed. Over the last few days I've been on the receiving end of a couple of different trade packages and today I have yet another!

This one crossed an ocean to get to me and Jeroen (AKA The Dutch Card Guy) made sure to fill the package to get his money's worth on shipping. 

The card that started the trade.

Aside from the Tony Campana, I totally skipped out on picking up the 2012 Topps Cubs Minis. Not on purpose though so these four will find a good home. I can't have too many Campanas!

Another set I missed out on (aside from a couple of non-Cubs in the repack boxes) was Topps 206. These make for a very nice set. I'm going to have to find a checklist and make sure I pick up the rest of the Cubs if there are any.

I was towards the tail end of my first foray into collecting baseball cards when Stadium Club first came out in the early 90's. I remember them being a pretty big deal with their fancy photography and borderless cards, probably Topps trying to compete with the newer, pricier company Upper Deck. I'm not sure they got this Mike Harkey card right though. Lot of dead space at the top and under his throwing arm, not to mention it is poorly cropped on both sides. I think I had a parallel version but not this one, so into the collection it goes.

This last Brooks Kieschnick card is one I don't think I've seen before. No logos are shown but I'd be willing to bet its an Orlando Cubs uniform. For as few games as Kieschnick played for the Cubs (64) I'm continually amazed each time I come across another card for him. I might be approaching a 1:1 card per game ratio! Slight exaggeration but not really... 

Thanks Jeroen!!

There was one more card that intrigued me from the package but I'm going to give it a separate post later this week.

Another Trade with 2 by 3 Heroes

I use the term "trade" loosely because I haven't sent anything in return yet. But last week sometime, Jeff over at 2 by 3 Heroes left a post offering up some of his 2013 dupes. I responded, asking him to check out my want list and promptly forgot about it. Less than a week later, a package arrived in the mail with an astounding 40+ cards off my want list! Here are some of the highlights:

A Wal-mart blue border and the Emerald Darwin Barney parallels!

The rest were all 2013 Topps set needs. When I first saw the 2013 design, I really liked it but expressed some concern that it wouldn't necessarily translate into a horizontal layout (my fave). But as I've been scanning in the cards, I've noticed a whole bunch of them. Is it my imagination or are there more than usual? Just in this trade batch alone (and not even counting the League Leaders cards I got) there were eight.

Anyone know if Ziegler is a side armer or a submariner?

 

Thanks again, Jeff!

I'm down to just needing twelve to finish off Series 1 (not counting the most shortest short print ever, #7) so take a look at my Want List for those and any of the Cubs parallels I still need if you think you can help. And yes, I know there is no number 7 this year. Thanks!