Le Triple Break

Sorry for the lazy title, but the Transatlantic Triple Break speaks for itself at this point, does it not? Also, the presence of Biebs (who is somehow relevant again?) tells you this leg of the journey is coming direct from The Card Papoy.

Kevin busted open two different boxes to share- First we have 2005 Donruss Zenith

In addition to silver and gold versions, there were these crazy Starburst variations, and Ray Durham is an artist's proof.

Even more variations!  I bet this is more rare than silver or gold. No serial numbers, but it certainly stands out!

A hit! Mark Prior's bat is a fairly rare item.

The little tiles on this card shimmer like a mirror ball in the light, it is a very fancy insert.

Gotta share the Twins!


Next up is 2005 Donruss Playoff Absolute Memorabilia, whew!

Here there were gold foil and blue foil variations, the blue ones seem to be more rare.

Love those throwback unis!

As always, there were some extra Twins tossed in for good measure.

They made 25 of these, commemorating Johan Santana's 157th strikeout of 2006. He had 245 strikeouts..  so 25 times 245... ugh I didn't sign up for any math!

Thanks for the break Kevin! 2005 is still a very murky year in my collection, so all of these were new to me!

Lord Stanley's Cup

A "new" champion was crowned yesterday on the gridiron, but the trophy I want to focus on comes from North of the border. I don't actively collect hockey cards, but I have decided to start a mini collection of the best trophy in North America - Lord Stanley's Cup. A quick order on Comc and a glance through my old hockey cards from my youth gave me a start :

If you're hanging on to some hockey cards like these, I'd like to trade with you!

Don't worry, this is still a baseball first blog, we'll return to "normal" programming soon.

First Impressions - 2017 Topps Series 1

This will be a pic heavy post. Johnny Cueto - the first card pulled from the first pack of 2017 for me! Not sure what compelled me to sleeve this card and put it in a card holder, but the first card each year is kind of like a "reverse wallet card" to me...

There are a TON of horizontal cards in Series 1 - I haven't decided if that's a good thing or a bad thing. It would be crazy if Topps went all Horizontal again, this year has plenty of examples.

The backs - Colorful! Vibrant! Not everyone has an instagram, and that's OK. Beltre's instagram would probably be awesome, but I guess we'll never know. The mystery just makes it better in our imaginations.

Marcel Ozuna for a control, Base card. The parallels have the series listed in a reflective faux foil just underneath the name plate - probably makes finding those refractors a little easier?  

Whole lotta inserts. Did you know that Topps released a set in 1987? Don't feel bad if you forgot, I think they only had a few in last year's set. (Snark aside, I do like the rainbow "Future Stars" so much better than the current version). This is a 100 card subset.

Hey Remember These? I guess they didn't want to do another reprint of Jackie's Rookie card? Maybe there's several different ones, but Jackie had the only non-rookie reprint.

"Fielding Award" - did Topps forget to pay Rawlings for the rights to the Gold Glove name?

First pitch is back! These are nice, I hope they made one for Kevin Garnett at last year's Twins Opening Day! Oh, they didn't? What about a different one from Minnesota? Oh, none. But 7 different Cubs? OK.
Rookie Cups are back too! These are the right scale for this design, good job Topps!

Let's Promote Bowman!!!

This is two different insert sets - a 100 card insert set called "Topps Salute" - and another set for Jackie Robinson Day. Seems like a lot... 

One more insert set - 5 Tool players. Is Rizzo a 5- Tool Guy? He stole 3 bases in 2016 . . . Oh well, It's a cool card either way.

Gotta Share the Twins.

They have some great photos for Twins this year, so that's a nice consolation for them being a terrible team the last 4 years.

To close it out here are some of the favorites from the cards I pulled.

I think that percentage wise, it feels like there are more good / interesting / fun photo selections than in the past. The design itself is fine, though I'm not a fan of the player names - they all seem like they are the wrong size, either stretched out or scrunched down to fit in the space provided. Really need to stop with the inserts of old cards reprinted, and don't really need the 1987 Topps design in Flagship - just stick it in Archives or something. First Pitch is fun - why don't they do National Anthem singers? Just a thought. I like 2017 Topps, I won't dump them in a garbage can and then throw that can off the bridge.

Happy 2017 everyone, may your packs be filled with all the cards you need!

Not All Who Wander Are Lost . . .

Like Wander Javier, for instance - that's just the dude's name. Also, Julie from A Cracked Bat - she had a little wander away from the blogs for a bit, but she's back and we're all very happy to see her posting again!

Julie sent over this nice mailer last week, and it had plenty of shiny new Twins for me.

Minis!

These are from 2006 - I may have purchased a couple packs of cards total that year, and none of these guys were in there.

Do not adjust your set - Fleer issued B&W and Sepia toned parallels in their Tradition set - they have an old school texture to them as well - printed on honest to goodness cardboard (probably).

Bert!! The scan is missing out on the trippy refractor-y colors on this card, it's fantastic in person.

This was probably my favorite card in the package - it's a vivid shade of blue and hopefully a future MVP on the front!

Thanks so much, Julie! This was great!

Let's Make a Deal

Wallet Card Keith Here - do you like making trades? 

Here's an example of the cards I've organized by team - these are (almost) all of my Braves - Orioles - Red Sox - Cubs and White Sox. I have similar boxes that hold all Major League Teams. The bottom 3/4 or so of this box is up for trade.  

Sure, I've got a ton of Junk wax like these. They could be yours! Team collectors, set collectors, let me know what you still need to fill in those late 80s and early 90s gaps. I am more than happy to send a "grab bag" style package of junk wax wrapped with more interesting inserts/autos/vintage/specific want list items.

But I've also got Vintage like these! There's quite a bit less of this, but again, if you're working on a specific set, let me know and maybe I have something for you. 

2016 (and in a few weeks 2017) issued cards like these! Finish those 2016 (and '15) sets!

I'm looking to pare down my collection to be just the top section shown here for each team. My Twins Collection is also bursting - I have 5 boxes just like this one with just Twins cards in them, lots and lots of doubles. (So even if you are a fellow Twins collector, I probably have something for you).

So, what am I looking for in return? I've got vintage and Junk wax want lists, several player collections, and I am always interested in unique Twins.

If you're interesting in making a trade, let me know - I will still be putting together trades for #supertraders and for folks I've been trading with over the last couple years, too.