May I Have a Lot of Cards

Continue on my journey of collecting in 2012, we get to May and the release of Bowman Baseball and Topps Archives. I never collected a lot of Bowman even when I was collecting heavily in the 90's. But as everyone knows, Bowman has the rookie cards. I usually buy up singles of Bowman rookie cards, buying low on some prospects who I think have a chance at hitting it big. Of course that means missing out on the Harpers and Strasburgs, but it does mean grabbing players like Chris Sale, Jurickson Profar, and Manny Machado before their card price rises.
This year I decided to grab a box of jumbo packs from LCS. The design is just okay, but nothing special. The base set has some nice rookie cards, but the real reason anyone buys Bowman is for the prospect cards and the potential to hit it big with prospect autographs and refractors.
I ended up just a few cards short of a complete base card set, but I'm not actively trying to finish it. If i finish great, if not, no big deal.  I also did well with the Prospects and the Chrome Prospects cards. I got a few Harpers and almost all of the top picks from 2011 such as Gerrit Cole, Anthony Rendon, and Francisco Lindor. The only top pick that I missed out on was Danny Hultzen of the Mariners. I also landed a number of Bowman's Best cards that I would be willing to part with if anyone was looking to complete a set of them.
I got my 3 promised hits from my jumbo box, although none of the 3 were particularly exciting. The Orange Refractor was the biggest hit because there are numbered out of 25. I also got 2 refractors in this box. I was happy that one of them was Andrew Susac, a catcher in the Giants organization, who I think is going to be a very good Major Leaguer some day. Next year, I may just try to scoop up players that I think will make it big one day instead of buying a box, but the lure of the big hit may be just too overwhelming.

Orange Refractor 20/25
Jeimer Cadelario

Blue Jays Prospect
Jacob Anderson

Yankees Prospect
Rookie Davis

Refractor 81/500 Giants Prospect
Andrew Susac

Blue Refractor 23/250 Tigers Prospect
Brenny Paulino

Looking Back at Gypsy Queen

With the 2012 baseball season coming to a close, I have been trying to sort through and organize all of my 2012 purchases. This being my first big year back in the hobby, I was buying a lot of different Topps products to see what I liked. In mid April, Topps released Gypsy Queen. While I like the idea of reproducing card styles from the 1880's and the checklist offered a lot of HOF players that I still enjoy collecting, this was one of my least favorite products of 2012. The design never really did it for me and although many of the photos, especially of the retired players were very good.

I purchased about 5 blasters from Target on a few different occasions and got some nice cards. I liked the minis, but there are just too many variations for me to keep up with. If I had my way either the Gypsy Queen or Straight back would be the base mini card.

Minis: Lou Brock and Mike Napoli Black Borders, Ben Revere Green Border and Strasburg Straight Cut 

The inserts of Moonshots, Glove Stories, and Sliding Stars were very nice and provided great photos of the players. The Glove Stories are easily my favorite and I really like the Derek Jeter Glove Story (which I am still looking to trade for).
The autograph and relic checklists have a lot of good players and lot of HOFers. The relic checklist is especially loaded with great players. I did get a few hits out of my blasters, although I got a duplicate of the Blue Framed Parallel card, at least it was a Yankee.

No you are not seeing double, I pulled 2 of the same Blue Framed  Parallel card of Curtis Granderson.

Kevin Youkilis relic card.

Update and an Update

It has been way too long since I have been able to post. This summer was an exciting time for me. I got engaged to my charming and beautiful girlfriend, so there was a lot of planning going on in July. August was a month of relaxing down at the Jersey Shore (not the one from the MTV show), so I was not doing much of anything. Towards the end of August, a new job opportunity came my way. I started the new job in September and it has been a lot of work to get things where they needed to be. Finally after 2 months, I was able to catch up on sending out trade packages and putting together a new post.
I was tracing my way through the 2012 collecting year ( I only got through Topps Heritage) and I will still continue to do so, but I figured while they are still fresh in everyone's mind, I would post about 2012 Topps Update.
Although, I wasn't collecting a ton in 2010 and 2011, the Update series has been my favorite. The photos just look crisper and brighter and really make the game come alive. I love getting rookies and guys in new uniforms, so I was happy again with the quality of the photos. I really like the SP's from this release and would like to grab a few of them, especially the Ichiro card.
One of my beefs with the set is that Jose Altuve was left out despite being the lone Astros player at the All Star Game. It would have been nice to see one of my favorite players in his All Star uniform. Which brings me to another complaint about the All Star cards in the set. As many bloggers have said before: use the photos of the players in the All Star uniforms. I like the gold border cards and was torn on whether I should reroute my project of putting together a complete Gold Sparkle set and focus on the Gold border cards. But I decided to stay the course and just try and grab some of the cards I really like.
I bought a jumbo box from my LCS and had some nice hits. I completed the base set and have a few doubles for anyone trying to complete the set. I am looking to complete the 1987 Mini's set and the Gold Sparkles. I am also looking to acquire some of the SP cards. I also have Golden Greats, Golden Moments, and Blockbusters for trade, so if you are looking for cards hit me up and we can make a deal.

My favorite hit of the box, Johnny Bench HOF Plaque.
I am open to trading Bench for another HOF plaque card.

Justin Turner Golden Moments Auto. Trade Bait

Joel Peralta Silk. Trade Bait

Pretty cool card with the Home Run Derby trophy.