Category Archives: Game-Used - Page 4

CTM Mailbag – May 2012

Posted by on 5 May 2012 3 comments

Ike’s slump, Harvey’s chances, declining Mets representation, and a whole lot of nonsense

The results of our Reader Poll are in and I have a reader!  This is quite an achievement, but just getting a reader to your blog isn’t enough.  No, you need to work on getting said reader to return and eventually (don’t rush it) getting your readership into plurals.  It’s about giving the people what they want and people like their entertainment to be interactive, or so I am told.  In an effort to reach out to the fan community and give them a voice on this site, I’m starting a mailbag feature.  Post a comment here or send me a message via Twitter or however else the kids are communicating these days and I’ll do my best to get back to you at some point in your lifetime.

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Neuner wrote:

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I don’t think you can connect Ike’s lack of game-used cards so far this year to his poor start to the season.  Sets are planned out months in advance, so, if anything, it would be his season-ending injury last year (and the botched treatment) that has kept his material out of 2012 products.  The good news is that he is hitting again and his one 2012 game-used card so far is a beauty – a dual Jumbo Lumber bat card booklet with Wright in 2012 Museum Collection.  I’d say things are looking up.

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A month ago, I wasn’t very hopeful for getting Matt Harvey game-used cards this year, but two factors have me rethinking this.  First, Pelfrey’s season-ending injury has opened a door in the rotation, and while Harvey won’t be rushed, he could find himself in a very important role when he makes his MLB debut in August or September.  Second, Topps has tweeted a picture of a Harvey jersey they have in their possession, so the material is there waiting to be cut up.  Between the in-hand jersey and a near-certainty of a late-season call-up, it makes sense for Topps to plan for some Harvey cards in one of their late-season products.

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Poor Mets representation in 2012 Topps sets is definitely a concern that has been noted by the blog community.  Looking back at 2011, there was a lot of player diversity in Mets game-used cards, but most of those players are no longer with the team.  Beltran and Reyes were mainstays who also represented the team at the All-Star game, but now they’re gone.  Angel Pagan and Fernando Martinez were also starting to get some representation, but they’re gone too.  Jason Bay is Jason Bay, so Topps will probably get a few more cards out for him despite his lack of production on the field.  Jon Niese has been featured on one card this year and Josh Thole has all but been forgotten; Dillon Gee is the only 2011 newcomer with multiple game-used cards, all in 2012 Museum Collection.  That just leaves David Wright, who is left carrying the whole team.  While a lot of the other players have a strong following among the team’s faithful, they lack the widespread appeal that would make them no-brainers for game-used sets.  Without that, it could be a long road ahead to get the Mets some respect from Topps.  Winning would sure help in that department (their strong start this year did not go unnoticed by whoever is running their Twitter account, so that’s something).

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thelmarosendahl8037 wrote:

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Whatever cause you need temporary car insurance, it is a simple and simple matter to set up. Insurance providers need fewer particulars than they need for a twelve-monthly insurance policy. You’ll need to give them the car registration and inform them the length of time you wish the cover to be, and that’s pretty much it. It really couldn’t possibly be easier, and when you consider how dim a outlook the police force take about driving without cover, well, how does a two hundred pound instant payment and 6 penalty points on your license grab you? Other than the damage to your driving record there’s clearly damage to the leased/borrowed/hired auto that you would need to pay for, to not point out any injuries you cause as a result of an accident. One other big plus of this kind of insurance cover is it is extremely affordable, you can get comprehensive cover for an inexpensive rate. You have no defense to not have temporary vehicle insurance, so if you understand you could drive a car other than your own for a short time, go examine the insurance cover now.I’m a Chicagoan and, of course, I like to think that there’s something special about anything Chicago, including Chicago auto insurance. But, as far as Chicago insurance goes, there just isn’t. That, however doesn’t mean that there’s nothing about Chicago insurance that’s specific to Chicago. There is. But it’s not special, something similar happens in all large cities.

If we do get any game-used cards from the bench players and injury replacements in 2012, it probably won’t be until late in the year like Justin Turner’s jersey card in 2011 Bowman Sterling last December.  The main problem here is the lack of exciting options; Scott Hairston and Ronny Cedeno just aren’t relevant enough to bother with, Mike Baxter, as good as he is as a pinch hitter, just has too limited an upside, and Turner has already been covered.  Josh Satin has a shot given his service time last year, but he has yet to get past Taxi Squad status this year.  Jordany Valdespin and Zach Lutz have a shot, but not until next year, at the earliest.  Kirk Nieuwenhuis is a viable option as a regular for most of the season so far (and a pretty good one at that), but I don’t know if Topps can work quickly enough to make something happen before the end of the year.

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Doug Dickey wrote:

Hey man, nice blog!  Just thought I would throw it out there that I have collected R.A. Dickey since I was a kid (same last name) and I have managed to create a enormous collection.  Check out my site if you want: http://dickeyscollection.webs.com
I have some of his most rare cards that you might like to take a look at in there. I’ve almost managed to collect every single one of his cards as well :).

OK, who let a spammer in here?  Wait, is that relevant commentary?  Could this be a real comment?  The use of a link in the message body matches the typical spam format, but there’s a chance it might be legit.  If so, you probably won’t like to know that I have this:

Sorry, but this one is staying in my collection.  Your pursuit of all the Dickey in the world will forever come up short.

2012 Spring Preview

Posted by on 4 April 2012 Comments Off on 2012 Spring Preview

I’m playing catch-up here after an illness that fortunately(?) left me at home so I could watch the final two Mets spring training games before tomorrow’s opening day. So after seeing a bunch of random guys in Mets jerseys wrap up their game with a bunch of random guys in Yankees jerseys today, it was time to gear up for some games that count with players who are on the rosters.

Of course, the 2012 season started for baseball cards back in January (for Topps at least, Panini is still stuck in 2011). Already several products into the year, it’s not looking good for the Mets. David Wright is the default Mets star for Topps insert sets, but that’s about as deep as they go. Besides Wright, only Gary Carter and Jose Reyes have multiple Mets game-used cards so far this year. But hey, it can only get better, right?

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The 30 Patch Project

Posted by on 31 March 2012 Comments Off on The 30 Patch Project

Taking back the hobby on my own terms

It is purely a coincidence that the topic of the hobby’s evolution and its future has come to the forefront just as I’m getting to this reveal.  I started the buildup to this at the beginning of the month, mainly because I knew I wouldn’t have much time to develop much new content and updating a picture once a day for 30 days seemed like a good way to keep the site active.  Now that we’ve reached the anticlimactic finale, my previous “Hobby in crisis” pieces make a perfect lead-in to a story of how I’ve learned to adapt to the changing landscape of baseball card collecting.

Card collecting has become increasingly difficult as the number and variety of cards have increased (and as the print runs have decreased).  eBay has also changed the game by making common items more available at lower prices and opening the market for rarer items to the entire world.  This drives the demand for rarer and rarer items in new products, which raises prices and turns the original draw, the base set, into unwanted overhead.  The whole thing ends up being lose-lose for case/box/packbusting; if you want a set, you can get one cheaper and easier on eBay than you can by opening packs, and if you want high-end inserts, the long odds of getting what you want at random, the premium added to the case/box/pack price for at best a miniscule chance of a big hit, and the ever-decreasing prices on the secondary market make those prospects dismal at best.  I’ve built sets, I’ve collected players, and I’ve chased rookies, but it seems like the rules keep getting changed out of my favor.  It got to the point where I had no choice but to call it quits.  This hobby just wasn’t fun anymore.

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March Mystery Montage: Day 30

Posted by on 30 March 2012 Comments Off on March Mystery Montage: Day 30

After 30 daily updates, this is what we have:

Day 30

So what is it?  The full story goes up tomorrow, but for now here are the basics:

  • 30 game-used patch cards
  • One for each MLB franchise
  • All from Mets players
  • All patches match the team that the player is shown in
  • As many stars and Hall of Famers as I could manage
  • Enough players at each position to make a workable roster

 

The Side Panel: Visual guide to spotting jersey variants in the wild

Posted by on 10 March 2012 Comments Off on The Side Panel: Visual guide to spotting jersey variants in the wild

As I start accumulating posts, they will inevitably sort themselves out into various categories based on content.  For everything else, there’s The Side Panel, a collection of random rants and ruminations and musings and mutterings on minutiae.

For this first official appearance of The Side Panel (not to be confused with my earlier piece on The Number 18, which is unofficially the first, perhaps the zeroth), I’ll be looking at this feature’s namesake, the often overlooked side panels in modern high-tech jerseys.  If talk about armpits is your thing, um, welcome.  Or not.  Anyway…

Baseball uniforms have come a long way from the heavy flannel uniforms of the sport’s early years.  As competition got tougher with more fans and more revenue, teams looked for every possible advantage the rulebook allowed (and a few it didn’t).  In the days of synthetic material, changing the uniform has provided a way to both improve performance on the field and attract the attention of fans, now more likely to watch on television (either the physical box or the feed streamed over the internet) than in person.  The modern baseball uniform is made as much to appeal to fans as it is to the player who wears it, so the ideal uniform is colorful, stylish, comfortable, and able to handle dirt, sweat, and the occasional fastball.

The big trend in uniforms over the past decade has been the introduction of Cool Base materials.  The Cool Base jersey uses multiple different types of fabric to presumably perform different functions appropriate to the location of the material.  Look, I’m no fashion expert, I’m just guessing here.  It can’t be a coincidence though that the areas most likely to see lots of moisture are made of a different material than the rest of the jersey.  And having panels of different materials makes it easy to mix different colors on a jersey, resulting in the common color patterns that have been seen on countless batting practice and special event uniforms.

Futures Game and All-Star Jersey Variants

When you add in the inclusion of jersey swatches in baseball cards, these side panels, sometimes differently colored, sometimes not, introduce possible variants among the boring sameness that plagues today’s game-used offerings.  These variants were first sighted in quantity in the 2005 All-Star workout jersey swatches featured in 2005 Topps Updates and Highlights (the 2003 All-Star and Futures Game jerseys featured a smaller secondary material section around the sleeves, but pieces of this are hard to come by).  While the main colors of orange for the NL team and blue for the AL team were common, blue NL and white AL jersey swatches were occasionally seen.  These were pieces from the jersey’s side panels and this was the start of a trend that would continue through All-Star, Futures Game, WBC, and regular MLB jerseys in years to come.

So does anyone care about these “rare” variants?  Not really.  I’m pretty sure it’s just me.  Looking at the prices I’ve paid for the variants vs. the normal versions, there’s really no premium based on material type/color (though the same is true for most serial-numbered parallels, so it could just be that the market is generally indifferent towards things that aren’t sufficiently different).  I like some variety in my collection though, so I set out to get as many of these variants as I can find.  And so can you!  Here are some helpful hints to get you started.

Know the Game

Pedro Martinez WBC jersey ariants and Blake Forsythe Team USA jersey variants

Baseball uniforms today come from a variety of sources.  In addition to regular season MLB games, spring training games, the annual All-Star event (with its associated Futures Game), minor league games, the World Baseball Classic, Team USA, and various other random events produce jerseys that could make it into cards.  Identifying the sources is the first step toward finding variants.

Know the Uniforms

2010 Futures Game jersey photos with all three colors visible

The colors of the uniforms themselves will often provide clues about the source of the materials in cards.  Knowing the colors of the uniforms in question will help to determine whether variants are commonly available and will let you know when to stop looking for more.  It can take years to find some of these variants, so knowing what you’re looking for is essential.

Know the Materials

Not all variants are conveniently color-coded.  For the Mets blue Cool Base jerseys (I’m guessing these are batting practice and/or spring training jerseys), the side panels are the same color as the main body of the jersey.  How are you supposed to spot them from the tiny out-of-focus pictures people post on eBay?  The simple way is to look for white or otherwise lighter colored spots in a regular pattern in the jersey swatch.  Mesh side panels have holes in them, so the card’s backing will show through from certain angles.

Know the Products

The most obvious products to search for jersey variants are the annual Topps Update and whatever Bowman product gets Futures Game jerseys.  Other fall releases are also good places to look, primarily Topps Triple Threads.  It is common to find Triple Threads triple jersey cards with two or three of the different color variants from a special event jersey.

One-off products like 2009 Topps Unique and 2009 Topps Ticket to Stardom are also a common landing spot for whatever extra material Topps finds laying around from the last decade or so.  Above are pieces from a Jose Reyes 2002 Futures Game jersey, a David Wright 2004 Futures Game jersey, and a side panel from a Johan Santana 2007 All-Star workout jersey.

Know the Players

Sometimes, interesting pieces can show up in strange places.  When Topps took over distribution of All-Star workout jersey material in 2004 (starting with pieces from the 2003 All-Star event), their All-Star Stitches insert set became the default home for everything All-Star.  Swatches from various 2003 All-Star workout jerseys appeared elsewhere in 2004, but Topps has since managed to corral at least the first use of just about every jersey into what is now the premier game-used insert set in the annual update product.  There are exceptions though, so it pays to know who was at the All-Star event but didn’t make it into All-Star Stitches, as was the case for Paul Lo Duca in 2005.  Instead of showing up where you would expect, his 2005 All-Star workout jersey appeared in 2006 Topps Turkey Red.

Gary Carter: A History in Cards

Posted by on 19 February 2012 2 comments

In the wake of his death, countless words have been written about Gary Carter and all that he did in his life.  I’m not going to try to duplicate any of that.  I didn’t know Carter, I never met him, and I only saw him play in person twice, both from high stadium seats (once in 1986 and once in 1988).  All I have of Carter is in cardboard and ink, so that will have to do.

The start of Gary Carter’s tenure with the Mets just happens to coincide with the start of my time as a Met fan.  As with any fan of the Mets in that era, I saw Carter as part of the team’s foundation and, essentially, the face of the franchise in the late ’80s.  This was perhaps shown best when it came to boxes of wax packs.  While Keith Hernandez (1985 Topps), Dwight Gooden (1986 Fleer), and Darryl Strawberry (1990 Score) would all have their cards featured on a wax box, Carter’s smiling face took up most of the space on the top of the boxes and sets of 1989 Fleer.  He was such a dominant baseball figure in that day and continued to have a strong presence in the baseball card hobby right up to his death and hopefully well beyond.

Alpha to Omega: Carter’s rookie card and the final card released in his lifetime

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