How'd That Get There?! Part 3

Clearing out my draft folder again with just a quick post today.

As I was reorganizing my collection I came across a few cards that apparently, I didn't pay real close attention to when I them picked up. Upon closer inspection, they don't really belong in a team collection...but they do.

2006 Upper Deck UD Game Materials  #UD-CP Corey Patterson

I don't remember what I was thinking when I picked this card up but it was probably something along the lines of "Oh look, C-Patt in a Cubs jersey. And a nice blue pinstripe. I'll take it!" 

Maybe the orange hued background should have been the first clue, but if you look directly under the relic, you'll see that Patterson is noted as being a part of the Orioles. 

What?!

The Cubs traded Patterson to the Orioles before the 2006 season started but apparently Upper Deck still had Patterson Cubs jerseys to get rid of. Or the card was more or less made and at the last minute it was easier to just swap out the team name than scrap the card from the checklist. 

Whatever. I don't recall how or when this entered my Cubs collection but its there despite being an Orioles card on checklists.

The back is similar to the front but since it's black and white, the color Orioles logo sticks out more. Oh well, still happy to have it!

Whoops! One more from Comatoad

On Sunday I ran a post thanking Duff (AKA Comatoad from over at Bleedin' Brown and Gold) for a package he sent. As I was moving some of my scanned images into their appropriate folders from that post, I realized I left arguably the highlight of the package out of the write up.

Despite being a current Padre, Andrew Cashner as a Cub must not have fit into his collection.

This card from 2010 Topps Finest hit a quadfecta for my collection. As I mentioned Andrew Cashner is shown back from his Cubbie days. Ding! There's an autograph. Ding! Two jersey swatches, each with a pinstripe. Ding!

And when you flip it over to appreciate the backside, you can see in the upper right corner that it is serial numbered out of 499. Ding!

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a quadfecta!

The Cubs sent Cashner and a minor leaguer to the Padres in exchange for Anthony Rizzo and another minor leaguer prior to the 2012 season. Cashner seems to be following in Jeff Samardzija's footsteps this season with his low ERA (2.35) but losing record (2-5). The Padres offense has been shutout in four Cashner's nine starts this season.

I vaguely remember being excited about the three young C's coming up in 2010, Andrew Cashner, Tyler Colvin and Starlin Castro. Tyler Colvin has since moved on to the Colorado Rockies and is currently with the San Francisco Giants. Luckily for the Cubs, Castro has mostly returned to his 2010-11 self.

Thanks again, Duff!

Cubs Lot #2, Part 1: The Relics

Last week's first Cubs lot was a pretty manageable 217 cards. So much so, I was able to fit the scans and breakdown into one post. My second lot was nearly six times that size at about 1300 cards. But don't worry I'm only going to split it into four posts. Relics. Autographs. Serial Numbered. Everything else and the breakdown.

I decided to start with relics, because there were only two. (Again, buying time for scanning and cropping.)

2005 Donruss Champions Imprressions Jersey Hee-Seop Choi

Maybe it's just me, but I always wished they matched the photo to the type of jersey they used. Here, Choi is wearing the home pinstripes while the swatch is road jersey grey. But then again, the authenticity of all these game used jersey cards are in question anyway.

2005 Donruss Champions Imprressions Jersey Hee-Seop Choi back

This card looked really familiar to me but I knew I didn't have it. As it turns out, I had picked up the non-relic version at the card show a couple of weekends ago.

The other relic in the lot also happened to be Hee-Seop Choi.

2003 Fleer Box Score Wave of the Future Hee-Seop Choi Jersey

This swatch matches the uniform although it appears I have the one square inch of the jersey without a pinstripe.

2003 Fleer Box Score Wave of the Future Hee-Seop Choi Jersey back

This has to go down as one of the worst card backs in the history of baseball cards. Look at all that empty space! Maybe I have some printing error because that looks like where the congratulatory notification of authenticity should go.

I was out of the hobby when these two cards came out but I would guess they were probably $5-10 cards in their heyday. At least in the Chicago area. Hindsight is 20/20, but I probably wouldn't have picked them up unless they were in a $2-3 bin at a card show. I definitely wouldn't have sought them out individually on eBay so I'm glad they showed up in this lot.

Some 2013 Allen & Ginter Cubs Hits

I don't know what keeps me from jumping on the A&G bandwagon but I can't bring my self to get on board. By all accounts, I should like the product but as a whole, I just don't care. Maybe because I wasn't in the hobby when it came out and therefore not an early adopter. Maybe it's the price point. More than likely, its the checklist. Too much randomness.

But that won't keep me from picking up some Cubbies every now and then if the price is right. I still haven't picked up a base card team set yet but I added on some reasonably priced relics and autographs to other recent purchases.

 

You're not seeing double. As I mentioned last week, Brett Jackson cards aren't exactly lighting eBay on fire. One I added to an order I was already making with combined shipping. And as luck would have it, the other showed up in a different lot I picked up later in the week.

I was shipping out some Kerry Wood cards out to Tom of Waiting 'Til Next Year so I threw the extra one in his envelope. Problem solved!

These next two were purchased together. I didn't notice in the listing but when I got them it stuck out like a sore thumb. Hopefully, you can tell from the scan. Look at the two swatches. Are they from different parts of the jersey or different kinds of jerseys? Did the Cubs switch types of jerseys from one year to the next? Is one a gamer and the other BP or something? Darwin Barney has only been a Cub, but maybe the David DeJesus is from his Royals days? I have questions!

Funny what you notice sometimes.

I still have a few to pick up, but this was a good start.

Trade with $30 a Week Habit

First, I wanted to give a shoutout to two brand new blogs. The first is called Golden Rainbow Cards written by Bryan. He just started his blog and contacted me about filling some of my 2013 Topps Want List. He seems to be a Braves fan so don't hold that against him and check him out!

Next, is a very good offline friend of mine that I've turned from a lurker into a blogger. His name is Ty and he's starting a new blog called League Leader in Italics. His introductory post was published today and from what I hear, he'll post a couple times a week. He even joined my Blogger Fantasy League (and you should too!)

Right now, I think I'm their only follower so please give them both a warm welcome to the community!

Now on to the meat and potatoes of the post. A few weeks Two months ago (yikes!), Robert from over at $30 a Week Habit posted about completing Series 2 from last year. He showed off a 2012 Anthony Rizzo Gold parallel card he had and I left a comment that I would be interested in it if it was up for grabs.

Some of you have noticed I've been catching up on emails so I was a little surprised when I saw one from Robert marked as read but didn't remember seeing it. I'm not sure what happened because I subscribed to the post like I normally do after leaving a comment. I just missed it. Anyway, last week I sheepishly sent out a response apologizing and that if it was still available, I was still interested.

Graciously, Robert said he did still have and it showed up in my mailbox yesterday with a couple of other fantastic cards.

 

 

A couple of Gold parallels, Rizzo /2012, Kevin Gregg /2009

Sparkly 2012 Topps Joe Mather

I was a little shocked when this next one came out of the package. Given my apathy towards A&G in general, this is a card I probably wouldn't have purchased myself but am more than happy to have in my collection. One of these days, I'm going to put that indifference aside and figure out which Cubs cards I still need from the A&G sets.



2012 A&G Kosuke Fukudome Mini Jersey



This last card is unfamiliar to me as it came from a time between collecting periods. It is refractory as you can see by the rainbow front in the scan. It also seems die-cut just for the sake of being die cut because the shape doesn't form anything specific that I can tell.

The focus of the card is Major League On-Base Percentage League Leaders. Sammy Sosa was 4th on the list with .437, hence the serial numbering. Kind of weird to think the player with a higher on-base percentage has more cards available. I would think the "better" player would be more limited. But then again, I've never seen an "On-Base Percentage" themed collection so maybe its a moot point.

Sammy Sosa is a huge hole in my Cubs collection just because his playing time didn't coincide with when I collected. Plus all those potential inserts and parallels is a little daunting so I don't even know where to begin with him. 

Anyhow, thanks Robert for the great trade!

2013 Anthony Rizzo Chasing History

With several relics, autographs and an SP in Series 1, it is a clear sign that Starlin Castro's heir apparent with Topps is Anthony Rizzo. I wasn't going to go for everything this year but when I saw that the Rizzo inserts weren't going for ridiculous prices, I decided to indulge a little.

There are three versions of Rizzo's Chasing History card. First we have the relic card. Usually on these, they state that the relic came from no particular game, event or season and that is the case here. As you can see, this is an all blue swatch and he is wearing pinstripes in the photo. More on that later though. All of the versions I saw on ebay were solid blue swatches.



I like the write-up on the back of this card. A lot of what I've seen on cards this year have been pretty informal and silly. Maybe it is just me, but I prefer blurbs that will be true and/or interesting whether I'm reading the card in 2013 or 2033. The only thing that would have made this card better was if it was a dual card with both Andre Thornton and Rizzo. No relic even needed.

Next up we have the autographed version. The front is essentially the same except for the Cubs logo where the jersey swatch was and a sticker autograph across the lower part of the player photo. Also, under Rizzo's name it says Chicago Cubs rather than Game Used Memoribilia

There are two differences in the backs of the cards. The card "numbers" are close but the relic card is CHR (R for Relic) while the autograph card is CHA (A for Autograph). Also, each has its own respective disclaimer. As mentioned, the relic card states that the piece of jersey isn't from any partiuclar game, event or season. The autograph card states that a Topps representaive witnessed the signing to guarantee the authenticity.

As I mentioned above, I was a little disappointed that they didn't use a pinstripe jersey to match the photo. And to add insult to injury, they didn't even match the photo to the event!



Photo by Brian Kersey (courtesy of Getty Images)

This is the original photo that was used and according to the caption, was a first inning single on June 26, 2012. The Cubs won this game 5-3 over the New York Mets. If you remember my post from just a few days ago where I broke down Rizzo's base card, you'll note that particular photo was the event which this card was based on. Nice cards to look at, but c'mon, man!

The final version of this card contains both an autograph and a relic. Unfortunately, it is numbered to only 25 and has been running close to three figures on ebay. This means I doubt it'll be one I add to my collection. The relic part of the card is also a piece of a patch rather than jersey which seems to be more desirable.

2011 Topps Lineage Aramis Ramirez Jersey

I've read of the many different ways people use ebay to build there collections. Personally, when I browse, I always look at the seller's other items when making a choice between a seller A and seller B that have something I want for a similar price. I don't mind doing the extra leg work or paying an extra buck here and there for one item if my overall purchase price will be lower.

Because of that, I mentally upped my bid on the Barney camo card by about $2. Hindsight shows that I wouldn't have won if I had stuck with the bid I originally had in mind but did win with the extra bump. From that same seller I also managed to pick up this Topps Lineage jersey card for $0.99.

Funny how I wouldn't even give it a second look for the $4 it would have cost me by itself with shipping but for $3.28, I'll take it. For those doing the math, I consider buck it cost me, split the $2.00 shipping between the 2 cards for another buck and then take the extra $1.28 it took to win the Barney above my original bid.