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The Essentials: 2013 Mets SP Photo Variations

Posted by on 18 December 2013 Comments Off on The Essentials: 2013 Mets SP Photo Variations

And now for something completely different

A lot of baseball cards have been released in 2013. Between Topps (MLB and MLBPA licenses), Panini (MLBPA license), Leaf (no licenses), and Upper Deck (MLBPA license but strict MLB oversight), more than 40 baseball products have been released this year. So which cards stand out from the rest? To answer that question, we’ll break down the key Mets cards from 2013 in The Essentials.

One class of insert that has been on the rise lately is the short printed photo variation. Inserted at a rate of one per box or less, these cards are a cheap way for manufacturers to add value to their products just by printing ordinary cards. Photo subjects range from alternate photos of players to special event photos to squirrels. One thing they all have in common is that they rarely feature very many Mets.

Out of Bounds

2013’s first product brought us the first Mets photo variation of the year. The theme for the variations in 2013 Topps Series 1 was “out of bounds,” meaning photos of players making plays in foul territory or over the outfield wall. Card 400 shows a very dirty David Wright settling in under a pop fly as fans look on. Sharp readers may notice that Series 1 stops at card 331, indicating that these SPs are not limited to players featured in the base set (this trend would continue in the remainder of the base Topps releases). A similar variant was released in 2013 Topps Chrome.

All-Stars

Just like last year, Topps used photos from the All-Star game in most of the photo variations in 2013 Topps Update. And just like last year, one of the 25 base SPs features the two Mets representatives sharing a candid moment. Another SP shows David Wright chatting with some of his fellow NL All-Stars. But wait, there’s more.

David Wright sure got around at the 2013 All-Star game. He guest starred on Justin Verlander’s SP (apparently levitating a glove) and brought the entire NL home run derby team to Bryce Harper’s SP. His final appearance was on one of the 25 limited (one per two cases) SPs with Tom Seaver (not shown) crashing Matt Harvey’s US1 card number.

Gypsy Queen Minis

 

Not shown to scale

So apparently I bought a complete Mets team set of Gypsy Queen with all minis and SPs at some point this year.  And there are two photo variants in the minis, the one with David Wright not making a silly face and the one with Tom Seaver making a silly face.  Gypsy Queen really isn’t my thing, so that’s all I’ve got.

Bowman Chrome

Rafael Montero was featured twice in the Bowman Chrome Prospects set, first on card BCP50 in 2013 Bowman and then on card BCP204 in 2013 Bowman Chrome. Montero also had a photo variation in 2013 Bowman Chrome because for some reason they decided to use the same exact photo on both base cards (and Montero’s autograph card) and had a leftover photo from a spring training photo shoot. I guess they just really liked the photo from the other cards because it’s the same photo (with some uniform modification) from Montero’s 2012 Topps Heritage Minor League cards.

The Essentials: 2013 Mets Manufactured Material

Posted by on 13 December 2013 Comments Off on The Essentials: 2013 Mets Manufactured Material

The kitchen sink of baseball cards has standouts and oddities

A lot of baseball cards have been released in 2013. Between Topps (MLB and MLBPA licenses), Panini (MLBPA license), Leaf (no licenses), and Upper Deck (MLBPA license but strict MLB oversight), more than 40 baseball products have been released this year. So which cards stand out from the rest? To answer that question, we’ll break down the key Mets cards from 2013 in The Essentials.

Manufactured material, like game-used memorabilia and certified autographs, traces its roots in the modern sports card era back to the late 1990s. Aside from its use as a surface for autographs though, it wasn’t until recent years that manufactured material came into its own as a hobby offering with diversity and innovation. Topps raised the bar in 2012 with premium metal manufactured relics and continued this trend into 2013.

Minor League Logos

So many things wrong with that d’Arnaud card…

Back again after their debut in 2012, minor league hat logo patches from many minor league teams were included in Topps Pro Debut and Topps Heritage Minor League. Oddly, it looks like these are the exact same patches that were used in 2012. Topps must have had a few extras left over… Note the use of last year’s logos for the St. Lucie Mets and Buffalo Bisons (as for why Travis d’Arnaud is shown with the Bisons, well…). Between the two products, six Mets were featured on logo patch cards, covering most of the top prospects in the Mets farm system. Unlike last year, a consistent style was used for both sets of logo patch inserts in 2013. It would be nice to see Topps continue this moving forward to create a running set with top prospects for years to come. The logos need a bit of an update though.

Mascot Patches

Not shown: Buster T. Bison. Not sure I even want to…

New for 2013, Topps Pro Debut added patch cards for various minor league mascots. Cyclones mascot Sandy the Seagull was the only mascot from a current Mets farm team featured in this set, but Buffalo Bisons mascots Buster T. Bison and Belle the Ballpark Diva were shown in their 2012 incarnations, so I guess they count (though I wouldn’t exactly call them essential). I’m not quite sold on these just yet.

Retail Commemorative Patches

At the major league level, the bulk of the manufactured material was released in the base Topps products: Topps Series 1, Topps Series 2, and Topps Update. Many of those were the cracker jack-style prize inside $20 retail blasters, included as a consolation prize for spending $20 on a few packs of cards with terrible odds on getting anything good (with most of those “good” cards not worth much of anything anyway). Of course, with typical selling prices between $5 and $25, they sometimes make you feel like a bit of a chump for spending $100 a pop on hobby jumbo boxes where the only decent card is a manufactured relic that sells for between $5 and $25… But I digress.

The first of the retail manufactured patch sets feature miniature versions of commemorative shoulder patches or anything else Topps felt like making. Only two Mets were included here, David Wright with the Mets 50th anniversary patch and Tom Seaver with the 1969 World Series patch. I guess these can get filed away with all of the similar cards Topps has produced over the last few years.

The second retail manufactured patch set consists of framed mini card patches featuring an assortment of rookie cards and other random stuff. For the Mets, that meant rookie card patches from Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, and Jose Reyes and a very off-center 1970 Topps Nolan Ryan.

Silk Collection

Shoulder surgery starting pitchers for the, um, DL I guess…

Honestly, I’m not really sure how to classify silk cards. They’re not typically considered relics, but they are technically manufactured material, so here they are. R.A. Dickey, David Wright, and Matt Harvey are the big Mets names with silk cards in 2013, but I don’t have any of them so here’s Johan Santana and Shaun Marcum.

Award Winner Relics

This year’s theme for hobby manufactured relics was award winners. Each card featured a tiny metal replica of one of several featured awards, including MVPs, Cy Youngs, Silver Sluggers, Rookies of the Year, World Series MVPs, etc. The best looking of the bunch were the MVP relics, but the Mets have never had an MVP.

They have had a bunch of Cy Young winners though, most recently R.A. Dickey in 2012. Who was not featured in this set. Instead, we got Tom Seaver and Dwight Gooden.

Darryl Strawberry’s Silver Slugger rounds out the three Mets featured in Series 1 with a photo that somewhat ironically crops out the bat he is swinging. Series 2 featured Mets Rookies of the Year Tom Seaver, Darryl Strawberry, and Dwight Gooden. Um, what happened to Jon Matlack? Am I the only one who remembers that he existed?

Proven Mettle Coins

And that brings us to the last and best category of manufactured relics, the coins. Last year, Topps introduced manufactured coin relics, the first I’ve seen since some pretty lame attempts in the late ’90s that embedded what looked like amusement park tokens into cards. The Topps version uses huge coins with the card barely wrapped around them. Only one Met, Tom Seaver of course, was featured in last year’s coins. In 2013, the Proven Mettle (get it?) coins featured a three-tier parallel with copper (#d/99), wrought iron (#d/50), and steel (#d/10) versions. David Wright joins Seaver this time for a total of six Mets cards. If you only get one manufactured material card from 2013, it should be one of these coins.

Did I miss anything?  Let me know in the comments.

2013 Mets Cards: Rookie Cards of This Year (So Far)

Posted by on 18 September 2013 Comments Off on 2013 Mets Cards: Rookie Cards of This Year (So Far)

An 8 month Mets rookie/prospect extravaganza!  Of mostly Jeurys Familia.

We’re coming up on the most hectic stretch of baseball card releases as numerous Topps delays have left late September and October with new releases every week.  For the 2013 rookie class, it’s now or, well, next year.  Once we get through the next six weeks, the focus will shift from current rookies to draft picks.  For players like Zack Wheeler who were highly-touted and debuted in the middle of the season but have yet to have an official Rookie Card, they can be assured a spot in the upcoming wave of releases.  Juan Lagares, still waiting after an April debut, should also be a safe bet.  August debuts like Wilmer Flores, Travis d’Arnaud, and Matt den Dekker could have come too late for this year’s RC class.  The big question though is what will happen with Scott Rice.  14 years in the minors and the Mets’ trademark overuse leading into injury should be enough to get some hobby recognition, but middle relievers are often overlooked, as Gonzalez Germen almost certainly will be.

But before we get to the Rookie Cards that people actually care about, let’s take a look back at the rookies, debuts, not-rookies, and prospect oddities from the first 8 months of the year.  Because I’m not even sure how we got here or what this all means.  Read on for an exhaustive run-down of 2013’s Mets prospects in cardboard.

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Marlon Byrd Has One 2013 Baseball Card

Posted by on 7 September 2013 2 comments

A breakout season on the field but not in cardboard

Lost among the disappointments and the disasters that make up the Mets’ 2013 season is Marlon Byrd’s breakout season after being traded, released, and suspended for a banned substance in 2012. In 117 games with the Mets, Byrd hit .285 with 21 home runs, providing a much needed power boost alongside a surprising (in April at least) John Buck. He did all this after signing a minor league deal for a mere $700,000, barely more than the league minimum with no guarantee of major league playing time. Byrd made the team out of spring training and the rest is history. A late August trade to the Pirates with Buck brought back two promising prospects, so Byrd’s impact could be felt for years to come. After all of that, let’s take a look at all of Byrd’s cards from the first 8 months of the year:

No, the others aren’t underneath it, that’s the only one. No base cards, parallels, regular inserts, autographs, or anything else. Just one card in the online-only Topps Mini with a piece of Cubs jersey. Now, he didn’t sign with the Mets until after 2013 Topps Series 1 was released, so you can’t fault Topps for skipping him in that and some of the other early releases. He wasn’t a lock to appear in the majors until late March, so production lead times would make Topps Series 2, released in June, his first chance at a Mets card. It was mostly prospect-oriented products from that until Topps Mini came out, so at least they got to him on the second real opportunity. And then skipped over him in Allen & Ginter’s and Tier One. Maybe we’ll see more of him during the release blitz with Topps Chrome, Bowman Chrome, Topps Finest, Topps Update, and Topps Triple Threads launching on consecutive weeks from late September to the end of October.

After seeing Byrd’s 2013 checklist to date, you wouldn’t expect much from the rest of the Mets’ newcomers. Shaun Marcum signed with the Mets on January 30 and started the season on the DL; some doubted that he would even appear in a game in 2013. Marcum would have to settle for numerous cards in Heritage and Gypsy Queen in a Brewers uniform before his first start with the Mets on April 27, then his first Mets card in Bowman two weeks later. Huh? His Bowman cards were followed up by a redemption autograph in Topps Series 2, a season-ending injury after his final start on July 6, then more cards in Allen & Ginter’s and Tier One in August. Um, he appeared in 14 games over 10 weeks and is now practically a hobby mainstay for some reason. What gives?

Topps, with Photoshop, in Series 2…

John Buck was one of the few newcomers practically guaranteed to make the team straight out of spring training. As salary ballast in the Dickey trade, Buck was the only veteran catcher left in the Mets’ system. With only 6 weeks between the trade and the release of Topps Series 1, there just wasn’t enough time to get him in that product. Instead, his Mets debut had to wait until Topps Series 2 in the base set with countless parallels. That was it for Buck other than the expected base and parallel cards in Topps Mini. Collin Cowgill was about as likely as Byrd to make the team out of spring training, so it wasn’t a surprise that he wasn’t in any of the early products. His production was all downhill after his Opening Day grand slam, so there was no real reason to put him in any of the later products. Cowgill made his Mets debut with a random autograph card in Topps Series 2, released the day after his final game with the Mets. You’d have to be pretty insignificant to get worse treatment than that.

Or apparently one of the most productive players on the team. Why no love for Marlon Byrd? As I see it, there are two possibilities. First, the culprit could be the Topps release schedule, which is so heavily front-loaded that a player who debuts in April usually has to wait until October for their first card (unless they are Yasiel Puig, in which case they will be in every product for the rest of eternity within a month). With Series 1 launching before spring training starts and Series 2 usually scheduled for well before the All-Star break, there is little time to reflect current-season players in a year’s product. This makes no sense. Pushing the release dates back a month or two would allow Series 1 to reflect offseson deals and Series 2 to incorporate early-season call-ups. Instead, we get Jason Bay, Jon Rauch, and Scott Hairston shown as Mets in 2013 with Jeurys Familia and Collin McHugh as the only Mets “rookies” in the base product.

I couldn’t end this without a conspiracy theory, but this isn’t one that originated with me. It has already been speculated that Topps cuts back on the cards of players who have received PED suspensions. There isn’t really enough data to work with to come to any conclusions (that should change soon), but the lack of Byrd cards given the season he’s had (even considering lead time issues) is suspicious. Maybe we’ll be flooded with Byrd in October as Byrd’s season continues with the Pirates and the suspension can be ruled out as a factor. But if not, shunning by Topps could be yet another consequence of PED use.

2012 Mets Baseball Card Year in Review

Posted by on 31 December 2012 Comments Off on 2012 Mets Baseball Card Year in Review

At long last, I have Dickey pants

If you were looking for Mets pinstripe jersey cards this year, your only options for the bulk of the season were pieces from Gary Carter and Dwight Gooden.  In fact, the last few years have been pretty barren for Mets pinstripes from active players, with just Carlos Beltran in 2011 and Johan Santana in 2010.  No pieces from the pinstripe jerseys worn in 2010 (cream) or 2011 (ivory) have been released in cards.  On that second point, nothing changed in 2012.  The good news is that R.A. Dickey is here to save the hobby.

Not content to merely conquer mountains, books, movies, and that whole pitching thing, Dickey provided Topps with the material to produce the first pinstriped memorabilia card of an active Mets player since Santana in 2010.  And this wasn’t just any old memorabilia, it was his pants from his second consecutive no-hitter, complete with distinctive dirt stains.  On top of that, he also signed a couple thousand autograph stickers to be put on these and future cards.  This is why everyone loves Dickey.

The Mets Have the Blues

Perhaps the biggest news in Port St. Lucie this spring wasn’t related to the players but instead what they were wearing.  The Mets had tried to get an alternate blue jersey added for 2012 but failed to get the design approved in time.  As a consolation, MLB waived its usual requirement that all batting practice jerseys must be some sort of two-tone abomination and let the Mets use an all-blue version of the new style batting practice jersey (first seen at the 2011 All-Star event).  Jordany Valdespin became the first Met to have one of these jerseys released one piece at a time in Topps Finest.

While Valdespin was alone with this year’s batting practice jersey, several other players had pieces of blue recessed mesh material from previous years’ batting practice jerseys or Los Mets jerseys released in 2012 products.  Jose Reyes and Dillon Gee made their blue debuts in Topps Museum Collection, Angel Pagan debuted in Topps Allen & Ginter’s, and Ruben Tejada and Josh Thole rounded out the group in Topps Triple Threads.

And the Black Came Back

2012 was a landmark year in black removal for the Mets with the banishment of drop shadows, hybrid blue/black hats, and black socks and undershirts.  One area they fell short in though was the elimination of the black alternate jersey.  This jersey made one appearance in 2012 as part of a tribute to John Franco, whose Mets tenure, it should be pointed out, long predates the sad day when someone thought that black would good on the Mets.  The black uniform just won’t die though (it has been confirmed to be in the mix for 2013) and Kirk Nieuwenhuis made his jersey debut with pieces from a black jersey which, if Topps is being honest, must be from the Franco game.  I feel the urge to burn these cards, but I’m not ready to part with some of the dozens of Nieuwenhuis autograph cards I got this year.  Tip for Kirk: learn to sign with your right hand.  At this rate, Topps will burn you out before the Mets get a chance to.

And a Touch of Gray

While this year’s gray road jerseys looked sharp, I doubt the pieces embedded in cards will be any more exciting than the usual boring gray swatches we’ve been seeing for years.  Like the blue and black before them, three players appeared in Mets gray for the first time: Ruben Tejada, Lucas Duda, and Daniel Murphy.  Duda’s was his first-ever game-used, Murphy’s was his first-ever jersey (likely pants though), and Tejada’s was, along with his blue jerseys, his first MLB-worn material (his previous game-used pieces are from a WBC jersey), though I only ever saw one card with a gray swatch (possible Topps mix-up?).

Patches

Rounding out this year’s game-used newcomers (nobody had their first bat cards this year) are Jordany Valdespin, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Ruben Tejada, and Lucas Duda with their first Mets patch cards and Daniel Murphy with his first piping cards.

Back in April, I picked Ruben Tejada, R.A. Dickey, Lucas Duda, Chris Schwinden, Bobby Parnell, Mike Baxter, and Daniel Murphy to get some new memorabilia cards this year.  Tejada (jersey/patch), Dickey (pants), Duda (jersey/patch), and Murphy (jersey/piping) all delivered, Parnell and Baxter could be in the mix for next year, and Schwinden is probably off the radar after his waiver claim whirlwind tour of AAA that ended back where it began.  Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Jordany Valdespin exceeded expectations with jersey and patch cards released in their rookie years.  I have to give Topps credit, they turned out material from these guys much faster than I thought they would.

Stars Past, Present, and Future

The All-Star event is always a good source of new memorabilia and this year’s didn’t disappoint.  David Wright and R.A. Dickey were the only Mets on the NL All-Star team, with Beltran joining them as an ex-Met.  For the second year in a row, no former or (as of yet) future Mets were on the AL All-Star team.  Unlike last year, secondary colors were not mixed in with the primary color swatches (except in a couple of three-player cards), so we only got three blue jersey cards.  And a few outstanding jumbo patches.  With “few” meaning 6 of each player.  Sadly, this put them out of my price range (the authentic jerseys cost far less and have all of the patches, though not event-worn).  I miss the days of All-Star patch cards numbered to 100…

Over in Futures land, the Mets sent a pair of players to make their second appearance at the event.  Wilmer Flores (2009 World Team) and Zack Wheeler (2010 USA Team) went back for a second time as their days in the minors wind down.  Patch cards here were somewhat more plentiful, though Wheeler’s haven’t hit the secondary market in quantity yet (I’ve only seen two put up for sale out of the 35 total made).  As with the All-Star jersey cards, secondary colors have yet to appear.

Well, for the 2012 Futures Game at least.  2012 Topps Pro Debut featured cards with primary and secondary color swatches from 2011 Futures Game jerseys (Matt Harvey and Jefry Marte).  A few patch cards also appeared in a couple of products.  2011 All-Star jersey patch cards from David Wright, Jose Reyes, and Carlos Beltran were released in 2012 Topps Series 1 and 2012 Topps Triple Threads, though all were numbered to 9 or 1.

Elsewhere in MLB

Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes suited up with new teams this year and both had new memorabilia from their post-Mets days released in 2012.  Beltran started the year with jumbo jersey cards from a Giants uniform in Topps Museum Collection and finished it with jersey and patch pieces from a Cardinals jersey in Topps Triple Threads.  Reyes’s Marlins spring training jersey made its way into Topps Triple Threads with black, black mesh, and orange mesh jersey pieces and a few patch cards.

Oh, and there was a massive scandal involving the sale of fake game-used memorabilia to all three major card manufacturers.  The manufacturers have been silent on this issue.

Heavy Metal

Let’s face it, game-used material in baseball cards is getting boring.  Other sports have things like lacing or material other than fabric and wood, but the best MLB can do is patches, tags, bat knobs, and bat name plates.  It doesn’t help that most of the jerseys in MLB are white, gray, or black; say what you will about Oakland’s yellow jerseys, but they’re certainly not boring.

With game-used material failing to excite the masses, Topps has turned to manufactured material to add some variety to its relic offerings.  Past offerings have brought us patches, hat logos, and poorly-received glove leather, but Topps went in a different direction in 2012.  This year, Topps introduced four types of metal manufactured material cards, all in its mainline product.  The pins and rings are missing the parts that would make them pins and rings (pointy bits and, um, rings, respectively), but the coins are complete double-sided medallions.  The Hall of Fame plaques turned out to be some of the best metal cards produced, even though they don’t look much like the actual plaques.  Tom Seaver is the Mets’ lone representative in most of these sets, with a Darryl Strawberry pin card being the only exception.

Topps brought logo patches to the minors in this year’s Pro Debut and Heritage Minor League.  The Mets had representatives from their four highest-level minor league teams, though the two from Heritage Minor League came as redemptions that didn’t get sent out until late December.  I guess it’s better than that 2011 Bowman Platinum Matt Harvey Autograph I’m still waiting for…

Speaking of autographs, Panini isn’t going to be left out of this.  2012 Panini Signature included three different manufactured material autographs from three Mets.  It’s not quite Sweet Spot, but it’s a promising start.

Partying Like It’s 1969

The return of Topps Archives was one of the high points of 2012 and it came with an outstanding autograph set.  In fact, a set of retired player on-card autographs like this hasn’t been seen since Archives last appeared in 2005.  While the 2012 product can’t rival 2005’s list of Mets, it still featured seven Mets and several more former Mets shown in other uniforms (most notably Jose Oquendo on nine different cards, one for each position he played in a single game).  Among those are 1969 Mets Bud Harrelson, Cleon Jones, and Ed Kranepool, back after an absence of several years.  Kranepool later appeared on more on-card autograph cards in Topps Tier One and sticker autograph cards in Topps Update.

Justin Turner Auto Time

Also appearing on a sticker autograph in Topps Update is Justin Turner.  Turner, best known for being the guy who pies people after walkoff wins, received his first game-used jersey card at the very end of 2011 in Bowman Sterling.  He follows that up in 2012 with his first certified autograph card.

Inked

Several other Mets had certified autograph cards for the first time in 2012.  Chris Schwinden started things off in 2011 Panini Donruss Elite Extra Edition alongside several 2011 draft picks.  Jordany Valdespin became the first Met with a 2012 Bowman autograph with a sticker autograph in Bowman retail packs (sadly, no Mets were featured in the chrome on-card autographs in Bowman and Bowman Chrome).  2012 draft picks Gavin Cecchini and Kevin Plawecki rounded out the meager Mets offerings in Bowman with chrome autographs in Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects and Bowman Sterling.

Topps Heritage, as usual, added autographs from several Mets from the 1960s: Craig Anderson, Chico Fernandez, Ed Bauta, and Hobie Landrith.

Topps Breaks the Ice with a New Wave of Refractors

I am so sorry for that.  With such a limited selection of parallels between the various colored borders, colored border refractors, atomic refractors, xfractors, and superfractors, Topps was in dire need of something new.  Enter the ice parallels (base Bowman) and wave refractors (Bowman Chrome), both with serial numbered color variants of their own.  Topps leads the way in making the same card as many times as possible.

Bonus!

Everybody loves free packs, so I was glad to see that all three major manufacturers found ways to deliver added value through extra packs (though only two of them featured baseball cards).

Upper Deck had the only true “free” offering with its National Hockey Card Day packs, now available south of the (Canadian) border.  It seems like not many people knew about it in the US, because I was the first person to ask about it in one shop and the second shop gave me four packs because of the amount they had left at the end of the day.  With a 15-card set, 5 5-card packs should have been enough to get close to completing the set.  If not for another colossal Upper Deck collation screw-up.  The 5 packs only had 8 different cards, with the same two cards on the top in each pack.  Upper Deck has acknowledged the problem and claims that it will be corrected when they bring the promotion back in 2013, which may happen before the 2012-2013 NHL season starts.

Panini continues to endear itself to collectors through frequent promotional giveaways, though none of them applied to baseball until their Black Friday promotion, which featured players from all four sports.  With a free pack of two Black Friday cards for every $10 spent on boxes of Panini products, it didn’t take much to get quite a haul.  The packs featured the biggest rookies and stars in each sport and mixed in cracked ice parallels, autographs, and memorabilia cards.  It was hard not to like what came out of these packs, even if you don’t follow the other sports.  I traded away my biggest pull, an Anthony Davis serial numbered rookie card, for a couple of Mike Trout rookies; my packs had no baseball cards but were loaded with basketball, so I traded with a basketball collector who opened his packs in the shop at the same time.  I can’t wait to see what Panini has in store for 2013, they made collecting fun again in 2012.

And then there’s Topps.  Topps had various promotions in 2012, but no real giveaways; everything was an exchange, either in-store card exchanges or wrapper redemptions.  Four products featured mail-in wrapper redemptions: Topps Series 1, Topps Series 2, Bowman, and Bowman Chrome.  For the Topps line, the redemptions were for packs of Gold Rush cards, which also included autographed (sticker) versions numbered to 100.  For Bowman, the redemptions were for packs of blue wave refractors, with autographed versions numbered to 50 and red wave parallels numbered to 50.  I skipped Topps Series 1 but sent in for the others, with mixed results.  The Topps Series 2 Gold Rush packs were a total bust, with only 6 different cards between two 5-card packs (the duplicates were even in the same order, indicating a fixed pack-out sequence and an offset of just one position between the two packs).  Bowman was the big winner, with four boxes bringing back four 5-card packs loaded with prospects, with one red wave refractor and one autograph.  Bowman Chrome had half the return with four boxes only bringing back two packs with a low value autograph being the only big card.  Overall, that’s a pretty good bonus, but I could do without the Gold Rush packs (should have just sold the packs…).

Farewells

Now the hard part.  Several Mets have turned in their pinstripes in 2012, though I expect it will take a few months for the cards to catch up.

After suffering a season-ending injury at the start of the 2012 season, Mike Pelfrey was non-tendered and signed with the Twins in the offseason.  Pelfrey hasn’t been relevant in cards for several years, but he was still a reliable starter and will be missed.

The same can’t be said for Jason Bay, who was released on a largely deferred buyout after his third disappointing season with the Mets.  He didn’t have any premium cards in 2012, but he was still inexplicably featured as a short print in Topps Heritage and one of only three Mets in the Topps Opening Day set.  He signed with the Mariners and we wish him the best.

With Bay gone, the Mets had an opening for a right-handed outfielder.  Their solution?  Trade Jefry Marte for Collin Cowgill.  Marte last played at the AA level as a third baseman, so he was expendable.  He signed a ball for me at a Binghamton Mets game, so I’m a little bit sad to see him go.

The Mets have been sorely lacking in offensive production at the catcher position, so changes needed to be made.  A late-season deal sent Rule 5 pickup Pedro Beato to the Red Sox for Kelly Shoppach.  Shoppach himself was then let go in free agency.  Mike Nickeas was lost and reacquired as a minor league free agent before being traded with Josh Thole to the Blue Jays for catchers John Buck and Travis d’Arnaud (among others).  Thole outperformed expectations with the Mets but lost all of his power after a collision at the plate left him with a concussion.  Mike Nickeas didn’t fare any better at the major league level but excelled in AAA.  You hate to see guys like this leave, but changes needed to be made.

Oh, right, the centerpiece of the above trade was none other than Mets ace and Cy Young knuckleballer R.A. Dickey.  Dickey started 2012 a fan favorite and ended it a folk hero, outshining Tim Tebow and Jeremy Lin.  Unfortunately, his stellar performance and reasonable contract made him a prime trade chip, especially when the available pitching dried up and the Blue Jays needed an ace to have a chance at the suddenly wide-open AL East.  With the best catching prospect in baseball and an overpaid Marlins castoff among their ranks, they had what it took to make a Dickey deal inevitable.  And they also threw in a top pitching prospect and a young promising outfielder.  Losing Dickey is tough, but you can’t not make that deal.  Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself.  I won’t be upset if Topps takes a few months to update Dickey’s team affiliation.

A few other faces from 2012 won’t be back in 2013, though it might take a while for the offseason to shake things out.  Andres Torres has moved on and Kelly Shoppach probably won’t be back.  Update: Looks like I left Omar Quintanilla out, but he’s now back with the Mets so that one’s moot.  I also forgot about Miguel Batista, but we all forgot about Miguel Batista (or at least we try to).

Hails

After losing 88 games, the Mets needed to make some serious changes.  As of the end of 2012 though, they’re really no better off going into 2013 than they were a year earlier.  Beyond that though, the farm system is looking better, so that’s something.  It’s going to be a long 2013.

Travis d’Arnaud was the centerpiece of the Toronto side of the Dickey trade, but his card history is nothing special, just a jersey card in 2011 Topps Heritage Minor League Edition and some autographs.  He was selected to appear in the 2012 Futures Game but did not attend due to injury, so there’s no memorabilia from that.

Noah Syndergaard adds yet another interesting pitcher to a single A level that is loaded with pitching.  Even though he’s still a few years out, he already has a couple of autograph cards.

John Buck was the big haul in the Dickey trade, from a card perspective at least.  Despite not having a superstar pedigree, he hits on pretty much every type of memorabilia: autograph, Futures Game (2002 USA Team), All-Star (2010 AL), colored jersey (blue Royals), pinstripe jersey (Astros), patch (Astros), bat, fielding glove, catcher’s equipment, etc.  Interestingly, much of his memorabilia is from the Astros even though he never appeared in an official Astros game (spring training?).  At a total value of 7.25 GU, Buck rates as the best acquisition since Gary Sheffield, who came in at more than double Buck’s mark.

Needing a big righty bat in the outfield, the Mets dealt surplus third base prospect Jefry Marte to Oakland for outfielder Collin Cowgill.  Don’t everyone get excited at once.  It’s an upgrade, but the outfield looked terrible beforehand.  Sadly, I pulled one of his autographs from 2012 Topps Chrome and sold it on eBay for $0.99.  Crap.  I really need to hang on to more of these worthless autographs.

In Memorium

Several former Mets passed on in 2012, but one has been a major fixture in the hobby for many years.  As I covered previously, Gary Carter has been one of the most prominent Mets in game-used and autograph cards since 1999.  He will undoubtedly be remembered in cards for many years to come.

Mets Game-Used History: The Fall of Upper Deck

Posted by on 22 November 2012 Comments Off on Mets Game-Used History: The Fall of Upper Deck

Milestones and the end of the road

Remember when I started this blog with the first entry in this series?  Probably not, that was almost a year ago…  I’m going out of sequence with the second part because the second part chronologically (1998-1999) is pretty boring.  Instead, I’m going straight to 2010 with a card from an insert set that started in 1999 featuring a player whose first game-used cards appeared in 1998.  So yeah, we’re still kinda in 1998-1999 for this piece.

Gary Sheffield has been a personal favorite of mine (as much as I was ever able to have favorites before R.A. Dickey came along) for a long time now, dating back to the day I pulled his error rookie card out of a pack of 1989 Upper Deck.  It is fitting then that Sheffield is also the player that I associate with 2010 Upper Deck Series 1, the final major baseball card product from what was once the most innovative sports card manufacturer on the planet.  I was thrilled when Sheff was picked up by the Mets in 2009 after being released by the Tigers, not because he was a superstar player (his best days were long behind him), but because of the wealth of game-used cards he had amassed over his career.  Between countless teams and several All-Star games, Sheffield had been one of the most prolific game-used subjects over the previous decade.  It didn’t hurt that he was Dwight Gooden’s nephew either.

Oh, right, he was also on the verge of hitting his 500th home run.  No Met had ever hit a 500th home run, so that would be a first.  The baseball card connection here is Upper Deck’s A Piece of History 500 Club game-used bat insert set, the longest-running game-used insert set in history.  Started in 1999 with cards spread out over several products over the next few years until the present club was complete, with new cards showing up as new players hit the 500 home run milestone, the 500 Club bat card set would finish in 2010 with Sheffield as the final member to be recognized.  As you can see, he appeared in a Mets uniform, the only member of the club so attired.  And that’s kind of the problem.

You see, MLB Properties has a soft spot for monopolies and thought it would be swell to have just one officially licensed baseball card manufacturer starting in 2010.  With two manufacturers still licensed by the MLB Players Association in 2009, the finalists were the old standard Topps and the brash 20 year old upstart Upper Deck.  MLB Properties went with Topps and forced Upper Deck into the unlicensed card market formerly occupied by Donruss.  The loss of the MLB license meant that Upper Deck would no longer be able to use MLB team logos and names.  Most companies in this position take extreme measures to airbrush/photoshop out anything and everything that could be considered a logo or property of MLB Properties.  As you can see above, Upper Deck went with angles and cropping that obscures the logos but doesn’t hide them completely.  While that’s pushing the limits of legality, they should still be safe, right?  Well, only if MLB doesn’t look on the back of the card.

And right there are the Mets sleeve and helmet logos in plain view, with no attempt made to get rid of them.  To its credit, UD did include the statement “NOT authorized by Major League Baseball or its Member Teams,” but I don’t think a capital NOT is going to pass legal muster.  For a second opinion, let’s consult with Johan Santana.

It’s almost like they were trying to put as much of the logos on the card as possible without being overt about it.  Between the two cards, we’ve also got the complete Citi Field Inaugural Season sleeve and hat logos in full view, which probably isn’t helping matters any.  That’s just asking to get your pants sued off, which is precisely what MLB Properties did.  As is the norm these days, they agreed on a settlement in lieu of an actual trial.  The terms included some cash (which UD was late paying) and an agreement that Upper Deck would not use any MLB Properties logos in the future (which they shouldn’t have been doing anyway) and would not use photographs that had been altered to remove or obscure any MLB Properties logos (which they clearly had no interest or ability in doing in the first place).  In exchange, Upper Deck wouldn’t have to recall any infringing products that had already been shipped.  Everybody wins!

This all but spelled the end of Upper Deck as a baseball card manufacturer.  Losing the MLB Properties license was a big blow, but other companies like Playoff/Donruss, Panini/Donruss, and Razor/Leaf have gone on without licenses.  In the event that MLB Properties reconsiders granting an exclusive license, there would be a chance of being reinstated.  Well, except for the whole snubbing their nose at MLB Properties and the law and napalming that bridge.  There’s no coming back from that kind of mess.

But at least we have this snazzy un-photoshopped Gary Sheffield bat card.