Shiny Bait To Catch Things With

I love birthdays. Even though I never get any baseball cards on my birthday.

I love other people's birthdays. The correct thing to do for a friend or family member having a birthday is to buy them a birthday card, yes? And where do we buy birthday cards?

At the Big Box store of course. And we all know oh so well what's inside of those Big Box stores: Baseball Cards!

Let's see what I scored while I was out birthday shopping:

Yep, I picked up some 2013 Topps Chrome. I particularly didn't need these cards, because I have once again broken an old taboo I have about buying baseball cards, which I wrote about here quite awhile back now: I bought a whole Base Set at once.

For the first time in my collecting life I decided I wanted a set of Chrome. Mostly because I like the Sea Turtles so much that I want to see all the variations of them. And also because I wanted to get some fresh Trade Bait to encourage people to read over my kinda complex want list for Series 1 & Series 2 parallels. I think I accomplished that on the very first card I pulled out of the rack pack bonus pack which is shown above. I also pulled #69 Brad Ziegler and #218 B.J. Upton. (Yup, all up for trade). These orange parallels look sharp and indeed, an all-parallel collection of Chrome Turtles such as I am assembling for S1/S2/Update would also be a durn purdy set of baseball cards. But I have my hands full enough already with that project.

The amazing thing about buying a set of Base Cards all at once is the price. The Base Cards coming out of this pack cost about 5 times more than the ones I bought in a whole set of them. 500% more. Boo!

Which kinda makes me upset actually. I like collecting cards by buying packs and trading duplicates. It's a social thing, and a way to enjoy a set over time. But to do that, I have to subsidize all those ego stroking "hit" cards that make up the cost of each pack of baseball cards, whether I manage to "hit" them or not. The Base Cards depreciate instantaneously faster than electronic gadgets, new cars, or New York Yankee ball player contracts.

So I am seriously rethinking how I will collect cards next year. 500% increased costs are too much to be smart about money and collecting, so I might just end up buying another set of cards early next February when Series One pops. That will be boring. Maybe I'll just reach in the box and pull out a random gob of cards to binder up once in a while to simulate ripping packs. Zzzzzz.

Anyhow, I couldn't help myself with just one hanger pack. I had to get a blaster too....the cards are cheaper that way! And I wanted some more trade bait - purple parallels:

He shoots, he scores! Comb through all those stacks for 2013 parallels now... I also pulled #4 Jon Jay (the LaRussa card - you'll be pleased to know that Tony survived being Chromed just fine), #78 Nolan Arenado, and #133 Will Middlebrooks, which is the same as the Series 1 card that really started pulling me back into these sets last early February. Purple Sea Turtles are sharp and that Verlander card is one of the best this year, but those are all up for deals for your trading pleasure.

I was particularly happy to pull Verlander because he is pitching as I type. Pitching very well too. I like to buy cards the day of a big game for my team. This was a good omen I thought. The last time I bought a couple cards was last week when I had to also shop for a birthday card. The first card out of that pack was Bartolo Colon, that night's starter for the A's. That was a bad omen I thought. But come to think of it, the Tigers won that game by jumping on Colon for 3 runs right away in the first inning. Hmmm. Maybe I'm mis-thinking baseball card luck. Hurry and trade me something for that Verlander card before something goes awry!

As I mentioned I was looking for both trade bait, and new Sea Turtles on this fishing expedition at the Big Box store. I landed several:

Oooh, more Dodger Chrome. I heard there was this one outfielder from the Dodgers in this set who would finally be seen on an all new card. I was hoping to pull one of those cards, even though one is on the way to me already.

Instead I got that card. Another apropos base-running shot for Crawford, cool. But I did not expect to see this image in the set, nor understand why it was used. I had the same thought on this one:

también este uno:

as well as this card:

and even another Dodger card also:

What unites all these cards? They are all players who changed teams recently. But they have all had new cards issued with their new teams. The thing about their initial 'new team' cards is that they were all Photoshopped into their new uniforms on those cards. Now in Chrome they get brand new picture cards with authentic photos in their authentic new uniforms.

Maybe Topps feels guilty about those Photoshop cards, so they determined to make some new ones for these players; who knows? But I also pulled this card:

Which perplexes me more. I have written about Bourn's Series 2 card because it was so striking - a player who changed teams and then had a new card using an image taken in Spring Training, classical baseball card style. A great card actually, all lit up by the wonderful spring sunshine. Now in Chrome Bourn is on a card that looks like it could have been issued by an unlicensed manufacturer, save for Chief Wahoo there in the corner. A step backwards.

And if these players can get different pictures than their Series 1 or 2 cards, why can't all the players in this set? Oh, yeah, because Topps spends all their production budget on player signing fees these days, not on buying extra photos of ballplayers that they don't need. Collectors no longer care what picture is on a card, as long as it has a squiggled "autograph" on it.

Sigh. I also found what will probably be an image used in Update:

...the more traditional use of new pictures on the picture cards. Player changes teams, Topps makes a new baseball card. That run of Base Cards aren't up for trade but the other 3 dozen or so are on my List List List page  - yes, I do have a non-parallel list. There's lots of famous, collectible players on the list of course ... it's Topps Chrome after all.

I found a different such card in a group break of Chrome, which I participated in to rack up Trade Bait for next week's release of Update. I'll be in serious need of the /25 Sapphire parallels from the Update set itself, though they will issued for Series 1 and 2 as well - so your S1/S2 Rainbows aren't quite done yet and you will have to pay your Topps Rainbow Master one more time. I'm a bit worried Toy R Us won't issue purple parallels for Update, and there won't be Factory Set Orange to help on my project pages either. So I have several of these Blue /199 Refractors available for trade (list up on the Parallel Project page):

Now of course Youk deserves a new card and I expect to see this photo used in Update. Unless we see this one:

Which is cribbed from the 'Sell Sheet' for Update. Once again, I just don't get it. Topps can issue new images for Kevin Youkilis willy-nilly I guess. Everyone else has to do with repeats. And all that work on the front of Youk's new card(s), and we see this on the back:

Which June, Topps? It's October now. New baseball cards are coming out after the season is over (another bitch session for another post). The front of the card tells me he plays for the Yankees. What is a young NL West fan to think about these mysterious doings in the American League? Is this an error card? You changed the card # on the back of this card and conveniently informed me I have a 'Refractor', but no one could be bothered to compose a couple new sentences for a popular player moving to his original team's arch-nemesis?

Speaking of that 'Refractor' designation under the card #, that comes in handy sorting these cards. I only pulled one Refractor, though in 7 packs at 1:3 odds I should have found 2. They are a bit hard to notice without that little designation, though they scan up quite differently than the Base Cards:

That one is up for trade. I like Shiny but I'd say the Base Cards and the Refractors seem more like a Foil card. This is what I think of with the word 'Refractor':

It loses a lot on the scan - an Xfractor. I was really looking forward to scanning it after seeing these on another blog. My scanner puts that line in a different spot than that other blog's scanner. (Sorry, forgot the name). But ooh how these cards hyp-mo-tize me in person. Soooooo trippy. C'mon Topps, isn't it time for some new card love for Doc Ellis? And when that happens, be sure to put him in a set with XFractors. Pretty please?

I'll probably end up chasing a set of those XFractors. Maybe that will give me something to do when the 2014 Base Set I already don't like looks like just another Bowman set...won't be chasing parallels of that, though I will be intrigued to see the clear parallel. I'll probably wait till later next year when Puig's prices cool off to ever complete it, and likely won't even start on trading for it till my crazy Parallel Project is over. If ever.

Webster has an interesting card there. Topps makes cards with different images for the autograph cards (as if the auto collectors even care), though I have no idea if they do this 100% of the time since I don't collect autos nor really plan to start; not even autographed Sea Turtles. But I have seen Webster's auto card in '13 Chrome, which is just a Photoshopped version of his neat card in 2013 Pro Debut.

Now of course we can't have a new set of baseball cards without some inserts. I did better in the blaster & rack pack combo on that front as I pulled two of the 1972 inserts, and none from the other silly insert sets. And no other "hits", though I am happy to get these:

This is where we needed some Ellis, D love but the checklist is current players only. 1972 _and_ Chrome would make a nice set methinks but perhaps I'll have to wait till 2020 Heritage I guess.

A nice thing about these Chrome '72s is they are full-size. 1972 had a nice card back and I liked the ones in '13 Archives much better than the minis in Series 1 & 2. This card -

- has a particularly memorable card back, though you'll have to discover that on your own. I'm not sure I want my blog associated with the mental image that text creates. I'll be chasing this set too some day (Darvish & McCutchen are on the way now), but at a slow pace and am not looking forward to finding the Puig. Probably about the time his prices cool off Will Myers will heat up next year. I'll eventually make progress on those '72 Day-Glo parallels from Archives too. About 1/3 done with that one.

Now I couldn't wander off into the arms of a new Base Set without picking up just a few of my old faithful Base Cards from Series 2. I need those parallels; they appear generally one in every rack pack after all, and I'm over due to pull a Short Print. I didn't get a _needed_ parallel (Gold Pedro Florimon, sharp card), but I did make progress on 2 insert sets even after buying too many packs and pulled 3 Tigers and one Athletic, that had to be good. I got one Chase It Down that I still needed, a darn good insert set for a change ('13 inserts lists finally up on the regular List List List page), and one needed card that fits with the cards just above and is a perfect selection for today:

Mr. October! Surely good luck the day of a big play-off game. Way to go Topps collating machine. And a picture that I haven't seen on a Reggie Jackson card before...nice!

I also looked at those other cards. The ones that aren't picture cards of athletes. On that shelf I made a happy/sad discovery. Always happy to see new packages of Wackys:

But how could that make me sad? I haven't finished collating Series Ten yet! I'd better get ripping on that...I didn't even open all those packs yet. (I save them for particularly gloomy days). That will be fun. Also a nice shout-out to Topps on the visible sticker there on the bottom panel - that's a sticker in the set, not part of the wacky packaging promo material. So you can pack-search these quite simply for that last sticker you will need and it's a nice fuzzy warm memory of cello packs a little. I miss those. Ahhh.

Now of course I finally got within close proximity of these cards being sold retail by buying a Birthday Card. This a card blog I believe...check out this beauty:

I'm looking forward to handing out this one; even though it's not shiny it's the right card to go for the catch with. Her birthday is on Christmas Eve.

I just can't buy a Complete Set

It just goes against all that is baseball cards. To me at least.

When I was a kid, buying a Complete Set of cards was an unreal proposition. Surely, it was something only this kid could do:

I mean, I would have to save up all year long to buy a Complete Set of baseball cards. That kid could just buy one whenever he wanted. And if I spent all year saving for a Compete Set, how could I enjoy baseball cards all summer long? I would have to be stashing money away to buy the Complete Set....when? By the time I had that much money, the World Series would be over. What good would baseball cards be then?

And now, nothing has changed. Well, wait, everything has changed. I could walk in my nearest un-friendly big-box 'mart and buy a Complete Set whenever I want. It would even certainly be way, way cheaper than buying fat packs, blasters, rack packs, and plain ole regular packs and ending up with piles of extra baseball cards and all those usually silly inserts and dastardly parallels.

I still can't buy a Complete Set.

But I think I will.

It seems to be the only way to acquire the card pictured on the header for this post. And I want that card. I love the idea of owning a tiny smidgen of dirt from Fenway Park. I trust Topps actually got the dirt from there. Maybe I shouldn't, but I do. I'm not at all interested in relic cards and could care less where they come from and will most likely use any I happen to acquire to just trade for the cards I do want.

But I like Dirt Cards. You know, like this one:

I'll have lots more to babble about Dirt in the future. I would post a more favorite selection, but my baseball cards are a few miles away right now, and Theriot's is the only one from 2013 Series One that I can remember right now (it is a pretty good one actually). I also know I will probably develop a desire to own some of the old Stadium Club cards that feature actual Dirt. In the meantime, I want to own some dirt from Fenway Park.

I have never visited Fenway Park, though I have wanted to since I was 8 years old. I got close once, and I thought I would be ticking that box on the checklist. A college buddy was renting a place right across the street from the Green Monster. How freaking cool is that? I was in Boston in late September 1991, for a series of events that also featured difficult to acquire tickets, but those were in the evenings. The Red Sox had some day games. I was so excited - I had built the Topps set that year for the first time in a long time. I love that set.

Let's go, right? Nope. All sold out, way in advance, I was told. I figured it would be just like the old Tiger Stadium - always some bleacher seats sold every Game Day. If you wanted to go to the game, you just went down to the stadium real early and got in line. But the Red Sox sold all their tickets in advance, and though I can't recall the exact baseball details, I believe Boston was still in it that third week of September, so the price for a scalped ticket was way out of my sorta post-college student range. Besides I needed the money for the night time.

So visiting Fenway Park is still very high on my wish list of things to do in life. In the meantime, I can somehow vicariously enjoy the thrill of the Park by owning that card. And it seems I have to buy a Complete Factory Set of 2012 Topps to do it.

And that will work out, because how else can I know which cards I need for my weirdo Frankensets, if I don't have a Complete Set of them to look at?

So now I have two reasons to buy a Complete Set. Though since this is baseball, I guess I should need three reasons to break such a solid long-standing tradition. I'll try and think of another one. I'll have to. It might help ease the pain of buying my first Complete Set. Did I just type that?

Why didn't I just collect The Topps Set in 2012? Well that is a story for another night. I will need more internet time to find all the right images to explain why not.