Category Archives: Game-Used

2020 Mets Card Spr-ummer Preview

Posted by on 24 July 2020 1 comment

Baseball’s back, even though it probably shouldn’t be

So, um, right. Baseball! As a pandemic rages unchecked across the country and travel and gatherings of all kinds are frowned upon, MLB is back in action. Sure, there won’t be fans in the stands. And there may be complications along the way. But, in times like this, we need baseball to let us know that everything is fine and there’s nothing to worry about, even though it isn’t and there is. But, but, baseball!

What a wild ride it’s been through the first four months of the non-season. The growing animosity between owners and the MLBPA and the utter disdain for all things minor league were laid bare as negotiations to get the season started dragged on. In the end, nobody got anything they wanted, MLB declared that the season was happening under the rules agreed to in March, and a greater battle looms as the CBA is set to expire after next season. The fun never ends! Now on to the cards.
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2019 Mets Card Spring Preview

Posted by on 11 March 2019 Comments Off on 2019 Mets Card Spring Preview

Where do we go from here?

So, yeah, not much going on here these days. After a monster 2017, I took a step back in 2018 and have continued that in 2019. Keeping up with the current releases just isn’t as much of a priority for me because there’s just too damn much out there and most of it isn’t particularly interesting. After seeing what Topps did with 2019 Series 1 Jumbo, I’m not hopeful for a whole lot of value in their products this year. And with rising overhead costs on the secondary market, it’s getting harder to track down hidden gems on the low end. On the plus side, I’ve got tons of great stuff that has yet to be scanned, so I’m buried in work if I ever come up with something to put together. Not much of a plus side, but there it is.

2019 is a transition year for the Mets as the Captain has left the field and the front office had significant turnover. That translated into a flurry of offseason moves, but whether that turns into success has yet to be determined. Last year had to have been rock bottom (just look at how many cast-offs were on the roster), but there were still a few glimmers of hope (Cy deGrom) tinged with despair (deGrom’s extension talks). Basically, same old Mets.
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Finding Futures Game Memorabilia

Posted by on 31 December 2016 Comments Off on Finding Futures Game Memorabilia

The future is not now

Every year since 1999, MLB rounds up a few dozen top prospects to face off in the <sponsor name> All-Star Futures Game. And every year since 2000, Topps has cut up the jerseys worn during that game and used them in cards released in its multitude of prospect-focused products. Two years ago, Topps was churning out more Futures Game material than ever before, so much so that I had to put together a guide just to sort out what was where. Four Mets prospects participated in the 2013 game (though one was in the Pirates system at the time), including both starting pitchers. With three different fabric types on each jersey, plus patches, there was a lot to collect and a lot of places to find it. Since then though, Futures Game material has almost completely disappeared from the collecting landscape.

This year, the Mets had three representatives at the Futures Game in San Diego: Dominic Smith on the USA team and Amed Rosario and Dilson Herrera (who was once again traded shortly afterward) on the World Team. With distinctive brown and yellow jerseys, the material from this game should stand out. If we ever see it. So far, only a few hundred swatches of material have made it out to the collecting public from the four Mats-worn Futures Game jerseys from 2014 and 2015 combined. What happened?

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Best Mets Cards of 2014

Posted by on 2 March 2015 Comments Off on Best Mets Cards of 2014

Firsts, lasts, and everything in between

It’s hard to believe that it’s March already. And this piece is two months late… Between Topps and Panini releasing products right down to the wire, chasing down cards, and chasing down answers, it took me longer than expected to get this the way I wanted it. 2014 brought us the first cards, first autographs, and first memorabilia from the first Mets player to win the Rookie of the Year award in 30 years. It also brought us the last autograph card from the first person ever to wear a Mets uniform.

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The Essentials: 2014 Mets Memorabilia

Posted by on 3 February 2015 1 comment

Panini Turns Variety Into Notoriety

With all of the cards released across dozens of products in 2014, it can be hard to figure out what is worth collecting and what might as well be forgotten. What makes something essential? It’s a mix of collectibility, notability, and attainability. Popular brands/inserts and autograph debuts will dominate here, not big money low-numbered parallels or big stars. Just about everything mentioned here should still be fairly easy to find on the secondary market at reasonable prices.

Now in the second year of the post-black era, the Mets memorabilia offerings in 2014 were a bit more colorful than they’ve been in the past. Color has been hard to find recently, but new blue and orange jerseys and a renewed focus on pinstripes at home helped to turn things around. It was looking like a great year for memorabilia until the black came back courtesy of Panini. The plague of “event-worn” memorabilia has now spread to baseball.

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2013 Futures Game Material Overview

Posted by on 15 July 2014 Comments Off on 2013 Futures Game Material Overview

Stars of tomorrow, jerseys from last year

On Sunday, Noah Syndergaard made his second futures game appearance, closing out the USA team’s 3-2 victory after starting off last year’s Futures Game at Citi Field.  It will be a few months before his jersey from this year’s Futures Game makes its way into cards, but last year’s edition is now widely available thanks to last month’s 2014 Bowman Inception.  In fact, Inception seems to have been the destination for much of the material from the 2013 Futures Game, leaving very little to fill the time before this year’s material appears (likely in 2014 Bowman Draft in November, possibly sooner).  While every year is different, here’s a look back at where the jerseys from the Mets prospects in last year’s Futures Game ended up.

For a guide to the various material types discussed here, see this breakdown of the 2013 NL All-Star jersey.

See all Futures Game material in the archives: USA Team | World Team

2013 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects


Players: Rafael Montero, Brandon Nimmo
Material: Primary

Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects is a typical landing spot for Futures Game material, so it wasn’t surprising to see the first 2013 Futures Game swatches show up here.  Of the three Mets though, only Rafael Montero and Brandon Nimmo were featured here and only with pieces of the primary fabric panels.  Noah Syndergaard would not have any material released in 2013.  Dilson Herrera, received in the August trade of Marlon Byrd and John Buck to the Pirates, does have jersey cards here but not as a Met, making them ineligible.  These cards have several serial numbered parallel tiers, but none of them contain any different material.

2014 Bowman


Players: Rafael Montero, Brandon Nimmo, Noah Syndergaard
Material: Primary, Secondary, Side Panel

As usual, the first Bowman product of the year included a few pieces of last year’s Futures Game jerseys.  And by “a few,” I mean 25 of each.  Unlike the more numerous Bowman Draft cards, these contained material from various different parts of the jerseys, including the small side panel sections, as seen in the Montero card above.  This set also featured the first Noah Syndergaard jersey cards as well as another non-qualifying Dilson Herrera card.

2014 Topps Pro Debut


Players: Dilson Herrera, Brandon Nimmo
Material: Primary, Secondary, Patch (Herrera only)

The first minor league product of the year, Pro Debut has a long history (all the way back to 2010) of including Futures Game material.  This year, it was where Topps burned off much of the material from lesser names, meaning Herrera (now shown as a member of the Savannah Sand Gnats and therefore eligible for inclusion here) and Nimmo.  While the material here is not identified as coming from the 2013 Futures Game, its origin is obvious.  The base jersey set (now called “Debut Duds” instead of “Minor League Materials”) featured two parallels (gold, numbered to 50, and silver, numbered to 25) with a mix of primary (front panels) and secondary (back panel) material.  No side panel swatches have been seen so far.  Dilson Herrera was also featured in the jumbo patch set (numbered to 5).

2014 Bowman Inception


Players: Rafael Montero, Noah Syndergaard, Dilson Herrera (patches only), Brandon Nimmo (patches only)
Material: Primary, Secondary, Patches

After a wait of nearly a year, Bowman Inception finally delivered Noah Syndergaard’s 2013 Futures Game material in quantity.  Syndergaard and Montero were both featured in the base memorabilia set with many parallels and variants containing material of various types, with many (but not all) of the low-numbered variants containing patches.  This is also the product that got most of the remaining large patches, including the apple ASG logo and letter patches (the 2013 Futures Game logo patches from Montero, Nimmo, and Syndergaard remain available for future products).

2014 Bowman Platinum

Players: Noah Syndergaard, Dilson Herrera, Brandon Nimmo (blue parallel only)
Material: Primary, Secondary, Side Panel

Bowman Platinum was absolutely loaded with memorabilia in 2014, much of it from the 2013 Futures Game. The bulk of it is from Noah Syndergaard and Dilson Herrera, including the elusive side panel swatches. Brandon Nimmo shows up in the retail-only blue parallel with primary and secondary swatches, leaving just his side panel swatches left to appear.

2014 Topps Heritage Minor League

Players: Brandon Nimmo
Material: Primary, Secondary, Side Panel

And in the final prospect product of the year with material from the 2013 Futures Game, we get that last missing piece – Brandon Nimmo side panel swatches. And his primary and secondary swatches as well. That wraps things up for 2013, on to 2014…