Stumbling around in the Past

 Well it is once again Old Guy season in Baseball Cards, as 2025 Archives is somewhat fresh on the shelves, as is 2025 Heritage High Numbers, kinda sorta. HHN is not on actual shelves any more, just, virtual ones, as Topps has finally listened to all the complaints from shops about keeping those Old Guys away from the Middle-Aged dudes who just want to shop for their Pokemon cards in peace, without stories about walking both ways up a hill in a snowstorm just to buy some Bubble Gum Cards.

I always look forward to Archives, though some years I immediately wonder - why? Will this be one of -those- years? Let's rip a pack.

International Bonus Baby (see how Old Guy I am?) Jasson Domínguez greeted me this year as First Card, representing 2013 Heritage, errr, uhhh, 1964 Topps. I could mainly only summon memories of 2013 Heritage as I am not quite Old Guy enough to have experienced 1964 Topps, ever.

I immediately noticed that this 100 card take on the '64s would be different than 2013's was. Back in '13, a photograph from a live game of Baseball would mostly only be used as a coveted "Action" parallel printed in tiny quantities, so all the Old Guys buying up Heritage could feel more secure in owning a tangible asset rather than just a bunch of worthless Bubble Gum Cards. Me, I was still pissed about the lack of bubble gum, going on almost 5 years at that point.

Everything else feels solid about that particular Bubble Gum Card, complete with the authentic card stock. My main experience of late with a 64 Topps style card has been a reprint of Bob Gibson's 1964 Topps card, which looks OK enough in a binder page, though it has a too-brilliant white gloss shine to it, and is on craptastic modern Baseball Card printing stock that feels more like a piece of plastic. I vowed to replace that card someday if I could.

That Jasson Dominguez card there certainly looks legit with a nice night-time photograph, but it also has some odd faux analog-ness that kind of jumps at me a little, though not as much as a card from another pack we'll see later. Next!

ahh, now there's the cold unfiltered digital photography I remember so well from Heritage. Perfect for a Twins card? 

...and is that the perfect smug-ness for a Yankee? I am still quite pleased that the Yankees finally let their peeps be photographed while we look towards the outfield, rather than the prison that Steinbrenner Stadium's pressbox always appeared to be on so, so many years of Heritage cards.

So, 1964 Topps, give it a blue check-mark. As usual with an Archives release, and just as I carefully do with each year's Series One big Baseball Card day, I managed to get a box of this in my grocery cart without knowing what styles would be included in it. Just this week I had to enter a partial online-Baseball-Carding bubble of avoiding any and all Baseball Card websites with pictures (including your fine blog), as 2026 Topps Baseball images are likely circulating now. Anticipation, anticipayayshun, is making me wait... (Old Guy enough for ya?)

1996 Topps.

Tatis.

I feel, kinda, kinda, about each concept here. Somewhere I might still have the pack of cards I purchased from Topps in 1996, might not. I just know I didn't purchase a 2nd one, that year. Ditto for Fernando Tatis, Jr. I know I have some of his cards, because, but I do know I don't have any extras, deliberately. "I didn't know what 'the clear' was," uhh-huhh, sure. Between this guy and another Manny character, it is kinda, kinda way too easy to root against the Padres lately, even though they have been spending money like the drunken sailors I always figure supply them with a good amount of tickets sold. I do respect the owners that spend.

As for 1996 Topps I'm not sure I will ever warm up to it fully. Has any other "inset" set ever simply repeated the inset image from the main photo? I expect so, but I would be equally, hmmm, non-plussed as I am about 1996 Topps. I mean I can clearly see Fernando Jr.'s face perfectly clearly in the main photo - why does the card need a smaller version of the same thing? Ifffff I recall correctly, an ever less certain concept, for Old Guys, 1963 Topps set the original standard here, and one that didn't need somebody else to mistake it all up.

I will say the near Stadium Club clean-ness to the 1996 design is an overall strength however.

And, foil. Did 1996 Topps introduce this bad idea? I think 1995 did, but those were dark times. Foil sure won't usually illuminate things, unless the sun is shining.

Pitcher Face inset. Uhhh, ok. This card is a little weird in the way the outfield wall went purple just in time to match the 1996 card designer's thoughts back in the fall of 1995. At least the Giants' alternate black uniform always makes for a nice Baseball Card. I thought their lettering was orange though - that fog in S.F. is powerful stuff, sometimes; Webb's 2023 Topps card is a bit red as orange, too.

2005 TOPPS

IN THE HOUSE

I should have seen this set choice coming from 2 aisles away back at the grocery store, but Old Guys aren't known for having the best memory. I think this is now a basic tradition in Archives, to select that year's 20th anniversary set for use, or is it 30 years? And if that is a tradition, why did Topps just blow up next year's 30th anniversary in the previously seen set? Old Guys are easily confused by this stuff. But, then, so is Topps.

One thing I am no longer confused about, is what to do with my shoebox (yes, really) full of several hundred 2005 Topps cards. For a long time, I have been thinking - should I go for it? Complete it? This ices the decision. The big bold beautiful set you can never forget when you see it, is cleared for collecting launch. If you have a similar box of hundreds-plus-ish 2005 Topps commons, I'm your huckleberry.

That decision was helped by a recent serendipitous find of an incredible 2005 Topps style card hidden away in the "online only" Throwback Thursday Baseball Cards, which are always a pain-in-the-gimp for Old Guys to ever discover. I soooo look forward to the day that card can be bragged about right here on this very Baseball Card blog. i.e., when it actually arrives.

Yes, I like 2005 Topps. Looks like I'll be 'clectin it right here in 2025 Topps Archives, too. Those PLAYER LAST NAMES are just so perfect there centered on top of the Baseball Card. Plus, strong team color use, and for once Topps even defeats the color yellow correctly, too. 

What? Those PLAYER NAMES are printed in foil, too, you say? Don't remind me of the perfection that could have been with some simple black ink, like Old Guys prefer. At least it's gold foil, a big improvement over silver foil, always. Plus I couldn't hear whatever it was you were just sayn', and I already forgot, anyways.

Speaking of Old Guys, they sure do seem to get long contracts, don't they? This guy has been playing for 14 years already, is signed for 6 more to go, and is now routinely busy passively aggressively trying to get another 4-5 years added on, maybe cuz he already knows he is lucked out of becoming Baseball's first Billion Dollar Player, coming soon, and he's now jelly, as those young whippersnappers like to say. 

I do have a way extremely casual Bryce Harper collection going; it's got like, four cards in it so far, out of my 5,000+ options. But when the day comes that I have to pick from 20 (or 25?) Topps designs to memorialize this one-helluva-Baseball-player, how could I skip his HARPER card for such a collection? 'specially a sweet red-white-&-blue one.

So, a calm steady-as-she-goes traditional 3 styles in this year's Archives, just like Old Guys expect. But we also know that every pack of Baseball Cards in the 21st Century will also have a big "Hit" in it, of some kind, cuz even Old Guys don't like those super boring "base packs" any more. Let's see what's under the scratch-off box, in this pack -

tight

It's a Hit!

Topps sank my Battleship! 

Sooo many boxes checked, here:

• black Baseball Card

• weird cap possibly never seen on cardboard before, just, wrappers

• 'home' alternate solid color uni

• 'rainbow' foil, sometimes-a-fun-time, not to be confused with foil "ink"

    (hard impossible to see in this scan)

• (in?) famous Baseball Player

• I've seen this guy on TV already, unlike 96% of Rookie Cards

• I know his name even without the useless foil "ink"

• I'll probably see this guy on TV again, unlike 82% of Rookie Cards

• Rookie Card card - & worth actual money

OK, well that last double point isn't quite accurate. Rookie Card cards don't check my boxes, usually. And this one has a touch of white showing on one corner the scanner hid from ya, so it is not worth $2, it's worth $0.00 now. I should probably blow up this defective Baseball Card rip-off on TwitterX repeatedly until Topps is shamed into sending me another one, plus a couple old packs of Big League or something.

So, yeah, I likes those black bordered Baseball Cards. If I'm gonna keep it, like this one, I might just touch the white spot with the tip of a sharpie. Don't tell nobody.

I am always wistful that the black cards are often only produced in /x limited quantities, or special retail only packages in a store I am a long long ways away from, or in one of so many other ways to make them complex obtainments. Like, here in Archives being the "retail parallel," arriving at 4/blaster, probably the only retail format for this, or kinda-sorta $7.89, each, depending on if you actually want any of the other 52 cards in the box, which most people won't, unless one of the other 4 special needs cards have an RC logo on it, for one of the top 5 rooks of 2025.

That was quite a pack. But there's gotta be more Old Guy stuff bubbling up from the dusty past, right? Inserts? Archives will never let you down there:

2007 Topps All-Stars

I think this card might answer a question I hadn't been wondering, until I saw this card: where did Topps get the idea for so many phoned-it-in inserts featuring slapdash design even a child would laugh _at_ (not, _with_, which is perfectly fine), in the Opening Day and then Big League product?

Turns out, 2007 led those phone calls. With yet more foil, no yay. I guess I missed those in 2007. Stars on Baseball Card, generally good. But, sometimes...whatev. Next?

1995 Topps CyberStats

Flags on Baseball Cards always instantly make me suspicious. They say to me "we ran out of ideas, so here comes a repeat." Which is actually understandable, considering how many Baseball Card sets are created every year, each needing a half-dozen or so actual card designs. It ain't easy bein' cheezy. What flags have to do with "cyber" stats I doubt anyone anywhere could explain.

And what is a "cyber" stat, anyway? Let's flip the card over and find out -

That's actually quite enjoyable to me, Mr. Wordy-word. A nice simple paragraph detailing out an impressive statistical achievement by a Baseball player.

I think, however, I am starting to be suspicious of the word "cyber" which doesn't feel at all Baseball-y, and is somewhat as randomly incongruous as the flag on the front of the card. 

Meanwhile, the correct appellation for these cards is not 1995 Topps Cyberstats, but rather 1995 Topps Cyberstats Season in Review.

Let's review: in 1995 Topps, there appear to be a set of parallels of the base checklist which are known as the Cyberstats version. Those have a different back simply highlighting the 1994 stats while obliterating / not including any stats more than a few years old, to what mysterious purpose I can't at all divine, today. 

Also included was another small insert checklist with the text paragraphs as seen above, the Cyberstats Season in Review cards. 

Why? It sometimes seems to me that Topps often struggled out of the gate with the concept of inserts/parallels in the ever growing 1990s Baseball Card market, despite the early Home Run known as "Finest." Those cards in ... 1994 Topps? ... with the "Gold Winner" version, but also the version with a star on it, are similarly just ... confusing. I didn't Baseball Card much in the mid-1990s, and I don't think I ever will.

Though I am still decidedly dubious about cards with flags on the front, I do expect to be collecting more of 2025 Archives, the dumb way - i.e. buying it still in packs, and this will result in me owning more of these flag cards. But since what I really like about them is the backs, I can always put them on a binder page, backwards, just as I can collect just 9 of them, because looking at a page of 9 paragraphs of stat nerd stuff is probably the solid realistic limit for such a goofy concept. It's time for the magic word ... next

1987 Topps Boardwalk & Baseball

Now here is a now somewhat rare thing in the Archives product: a Topps concept I had never heard of, after so many of them have been rolled out in either Heritage or the now 15 year history of Archives (counting 2011 Lineage as year 1). Apparently this is based on a small boxed set produced for a theme park in New Jersey around 1987, or some such story you will have to research on your own time. I can't get past this:

2021 Gallery

That's a design I quite liked, and will be filling out some pages of, one of these days. These new "Boardwalk" cards are not a complete copy by the Gallery set, but I can't look at one without seeing those Gallery cards. 

Meanwhile, on the back...

...these cards introduce some new (to me) Baseball stats.

That would be the and RP and RPA* columns there on the right, which if you are squinting too hard at this card back (like me), stand for Runs Produced, and Runs Produced Average (RP divided by G).

Completely absent from this wondrous (?) development is just how "Runs Produced" is calculated, as Old Guy stat "RBI" is included here too. We are left to our own devices on that one and I have to wonder if Bill James was called about this. I suspect, not. I mean otherwise, wouldn't we all know about it in the age of endless cyber, err, SABR-metric stats all over all Baseball discussions? So confusing.

Meanwhile, the 25 card checklist includes some Rookie Card cards (surprise!), which one would think might struggle to have much MLB relevance in this way outta left field "new" stat, unless MiLB is all about the leader board for "RP," which I also basically doubt. Also on the checklist are some Pitchers, so they will have to have different stats - I suppose, though we all have a keen interest in quantities of Runs, connected to a single Pitcher. I will certainly be kinda bored-ly looking forward to seeing a Pitcher on this effort, but I definitely have zero desire to assemble these and I expect they will also have zero value to anyone except those hungry for card #2,329 in their PC of of some Baseball SuperStar. Howz about we use the magic word again -

1964 Topps Stand-Up

It's another Hit! Home Run! With me, at least. I collect 1964 Topps Stand-Ups, or at least that style of card, not having the courage to look at prices of actual 1964 Topps Stand-Ups. I got into the habit with Archives, volume 1, aka 2011's Lineage, which has a nice set of these also. Sometimes, repeats are just the ticket I like in my old-new Baseball Cards.

A few other manufacturers have dabbled in this card concept and I have a carefully stashed collection of any such cards I can find. The project that results will be epic, I promise you. The reinforcements to the idea I will be pulling from 2025 Topps Archives will be a big ole help to that long-simmering idea.

That Kyle Tucker Stand-Up there appeared in the last pack of my first blaster of this stuff; I have now opened 2 more of those. I found lots of great cards, but stumbling around my scanner can be tiring work sometimes, and I scanned a whole bunch of fun new Baseball Cards from the growing pile of 25 Archives. But to see those, check back here, soon. Us Old Guys can't always babble on about Baseball Cards quite as late as we used to...

I never thought this would happen to Me

 

I am collecting Super Short Prints now. I have mixed feelings about this, although I quite enjoy owning that there newest edition to the collection.

Collecting expensive Baseball Cards has generally been off limits to me. Not just due to financial limitations, but personal ones, on the decision making between spending money on Entertainment, vs. other life choices.

I finally admitted this to myself a little over a year ago, when I deliberately purchased some SSPs, which is somewhat different than stumbling across an exceptionally good deal for one, which is always tremulous, when collecting Baseball Cards — all the marketing phrases hit you simultaneously: "limited time offer," "act fast," etc. You know they are true because - other people collect the exact same Baseball Cards you desire.

Along the way recently I have had some successes with this always-sure-to-be-very-difficult collecting goal, and some setbacks, too. So I thought I would pass along a few experiences that could possibly help someone else ooohhhhhing and ahhhhing those partially wonderful /25 Baseball Cards.

One of those has happened 3 years/times now - December seems like a key month to have a good amount of bummin'-around-money set aside, absolutely ready for that rare card to suddenly ping your ebay search that has never pinged before. It seems logical that the Christmas season is a likely time for a card owner to decide it's time to generate a little extra cash. It also seems like there will be fewer buyers to compete with, this time of year.

That Aaron card there is from 2013 Update, and specifically the SSP checklist; I think Update may have been the product that first introduced the concept of 2 levels of short printed image variations. It was my introduction to the infernal concept anyway.

I truly lusted after that card in particular because of the workings of a card back text feature, "The Chase," about a player's chances of becoming one of Baseball's "All Time" leaders in a given statistic. And it did not disappoint on that regard, something that will make it onto the Sea Turtle Cards blog oh maybe by the year 2036 or so. (I do expect to become much more 'off the road' in another year or two and should have way more time to spend on Baseball Cards).

The reason I recently "pulled the trigger" on it was the creeping horror of understanding that the rare RCs from that checklist are only a small portion of the battle. The dozen+ Hall of Famers included amongst the 25 entries are probably now more difficult to obtain than the Rookies, as the Rookies end up in the hands of people hoping for a large appreciation gain on the card, whereas HoF players all have dedicated Player Collectors who always want Moar cards of their "PC Guy", Moar, Moar, Moar. And a good portion of the 13 Update SSPs actually feature 2 HoF players on the same card - so Willie Mays collectors want the above card, too. Arrrrrgggggghhhhhhh.

I'm not like that. 9 cards of one player is enough for me.

So now that the card in question has scrolled off your screen, can you recall anything about it that might have resulted in me obtaining it for a "reasonable" price (less than $100, in this case) ? 

The card has a severe crease across the whole top of the card, about 1/5th of the way down from the top edge. And that is fairly easily viewable, in-hand, and there is actually a slight loss of "eye appeal." In the scan above, it is most visible via the small white lines around Willie's eye brows. 

But for me, the appeal deficit is quite slight, and one quite worth saving .... $150 ? Who knows. I felt it was fairly unlikely I would ever see a copy of this For Sale, ever again, in any condition. Which is the even more frustrating part of attempting to collect a checklist like this one. Demand potentially very high, supply so very, very low.

Such concepts of eye appeal vs. likely official grade culminate in the expression "buy the card, not the grade" and can very much work in a collector's favor. Which is what happened for me finally obtaining this long-desired Baseball Card:

This copy has a short, barely perceptible surface wrinkle, well hidden in one of the black ink portions of the card. If you hold it up to a bright light and angle it just right, you can see it. Would a card grader find that? Some times, probably, maybe most of the time, or not. If they did see it, then the card would be an 8 or less, whereas the Aaron card is probably, I don't know, a 4 perhaps. I don't and will never have a lot of experience with those nutty concepts. Recently I read someone complaining about older PSA "slabs" being "often very over-graded." I truly pity such people.

That Cole card became an unfortunate keystone in this whole collecting concept, as I expected it to be one of the most expensive cards on the 25 card SSP checklist, forever and ever. Which is no longer the case, as all those Hall-of-Fame cards will likely retain their now high prices, forever and ever, and I could have purchased many of them for a fraction of their current values while I was hung-up deciding on whether to ever purchase this card for a far higher price than the HoF cards, years ago now.

I still have a love-hate relationship with the card. It is such a great card, the super anticipated 1-1 player (not the same as a 1/1 Baseball Card; 1-1 refers to a player selected as the very first in an MLB draft, like Henry Davis and Paul Skenes were, to name 2 pertinent examples) making his dramatic entrance to a game, with the big outfield wall team logo behind him while he wears a rarely-seen-on-cardboard Pirates black warmup jacket. And of course I fully expect the Cole-Pirates situation to repeat possibly quite soon on my favorite team, with Tarik Skubal, and all over again for the Pirates in a few years with Skenes. Sometimes I thoroughly dislike this ever more coast-tilted Sport. That particular Baseball Card is a horrible reminder of MLB's current structure.

And — why couldn't that be his regular Rookie Card card? It would be just exactly perfect. Some other random image, like say the one on his regular RC, could be on the /25 SSP version, inserted mainly to help create re-sale value in the box of lottery tickets. Such a card would still have plenty of dollar value, because a solid majority buy the serial number, not the Baseball Card. For soooooooo many purchasers / "collectors," card image and design are basically irrelevant. So ..... let me have the good photos, cheap, dammit!!!! Sometimes I thoroughly dislike this Hobby.

I did have some basically tangential Good Luck with finally landing the Cole as he spent 2025 off the field, for the inevitable Tommy John surgery rehab - a point where "investors" (how I loathe needing to use that word in relation to Baseball Cards) can often begin to "cut their losses," potentially. 

That likely helped move multiple copies of the Cole card into For Sale activity over the last few months, which becomes a huge help to the collector wanting a rare card. We of course all exist in the tension between sellers wanting as high a price as possible and buyers wanting as low a price as possible. But when 2 sellers attempt a sale of the same card simultaneously, the buyers have leverage that is absent when only one copy is For Sale.

Not having a lot of experience with purchasing expensive Baseball Cards, that now seemingly simple concept was a bit of an "I coulda had a V8" moment, or maybe a "I didn't sleep at a Holiday Inn last night," or probably plenty more cute social aphorisms. Also recently, that basic concept well assisted purchasing this card via Best Offer -

That one has no defects aside from my scanner's usual struggle to discern the white boundary correctly. However the card still cost about double the last price I could remember for it, only 2-3 years ago. So it goes when you have to pick your Baseball Card battles oh so carefully.

The Gehrig card is also now a card in the lower tier of (potential, because few of the entries are ever actually For Sale) prices on that 25 card SSP checklist. Best illustrated by me purchasing it for just about half of what the John Kruk card on the checklist sold for a week or two later. Players from the 30s will never be as collected as players from the 50s regardless of overall fame; not even the presence of Jimmie Foxx on this card will change that as a huge amount of Baseball fans don't even know who Jimmie Foxx was. The Stars of those days just didn't have enough Baseball Cards depicting them, unlike the Post-War era players.

I am mostly enjoying this collecting by design goal - all of the 2013 Topps design cards. Even though it hasn't yet been used for a full design re-use checklist (only 36 years to go for its use in Heritage), a semi-regular scattering of such cards do exist. And one of them is a /87 Aaron Judge Rookie, which hasn't appeared for sale in several years now, and will almost certainly never be in my price range.

That is also true of a whole number of 2013 design cards issued in 2013, despite my halting step onto the Update SSP checklist. 2013 Topps Chrome has short printed image variations too - and most of those are now 4 figure cards. Yes, as in > $1,000, each. That's because they are probably printed in an edition of /10, and there are people just like me who want to complete that checklist, too. So I also know I will never own the really cool Miguel Cabrera Chrome SSSP, which shows off the Detroit Tigers special green uniform worn on St. Patrick's Day down in Florida.

And then 2013 also included a set of autographed cards on the Sea Turtle design, most well-known as part of the Wrapper Redemption program which supplied us the /150 "Blue Sparkle" cards which are a darn purdy parallel. The small 'packs' of those included randomly inserted autos, including things like a Manny Machado RC, and Hall of Famers like Gwynn and Ripken, amongst a few others, with copies limited to just 10. I also just recently learned that 2013 Series One & Two also included similar cards of some of the same HoF players, inserted into packs though not noted on official checklists. These cards had an edition of only /5, and I will almost certainly never see one even for sale, and even if then the price will be in the mid four figures.

Me, I still shudder at the idea of the numeral "2" fronting the price of a three digit card. Pulling the trigger on the numeral "1" a few times now is still creating Doubt in my mind, which is not an enjoyable concept to attach to collecting, at all. I saw a fork in the road, and I took it. The question is .... how far to the next exit on this ever more lonely road? I think I have about 12 more exits to reach the end of this road, which is now likely to head deep into unknown parts of Nevada, although there's always .... next December.

Rest In Peace, Jim Price

 

The news came suddenly, and unexpectedly. I was driving along the top of Lake Michigan, a classic "nice area" as Jim would say, one fine late summer day in 2023 when I stopped beside the road briefly to "check messages" and double-check to see what time the Tigers game was on that night. 

That included a needed look for a message at a hunting & fishing forum I quite enjoy, where news of Price's passing had just been posted.

I got back on the road but soon remembered some key concerns about ... Baseball Cards.

This next card had been displayed on my bookshelf for many years now:

1969 Topps

Aside from being a worthy visual addition to things such as Miguel Cabrera's 2011 Lineage "Box Topper," a 1974 Steve Garvey, and another box-topper featuring Hammerin' Hank I pulled out of some product I forget, that Jim Price card was there to try and motivate me to do something with it. Something quite specific: send it to Mr. Price for "TTM" autograph. 

I kept meaning to check in with William @ Foul Bunt for the needed best tips & techniques. I had planned to even send in along with the card a donation to Price's charity, known as "Jack's Place for Autism" even though I don't think Price ever explicitly solicited such donations for autographs. His charity work was just something I admired about him.

However as Price hadn't retired from broadcasting I always figured I had plenty of time yet. I didn't really put 2 & 2 together on his occasional absences from Tigers home broadcasts the last few years prior, nor his half-retirement to Home Games only, common enough with older Baseball broadcasters, and just presumed he would eventually step away from the mic, "under his own power" as it were, and, publicly.

But that's not how things turned out. In retrospect, I quite sadly deliberately skipped what turned out to be his final broadcast, in early July 2023. His long-time radio play-by-play announcer, Dan Dickerson, had a rare weekend off, most likely for some significant event in one of his children's lives, as he usually would have a "162" listed in his "G" column, if he were to be given a Baseball Card. (Something I truly wish would happen, at least once.) This meant Jim was working with Tigers AA announcer Greg Gagne, who is ever more adept at this back-up role these days, but at the time he and Jim just had very little experience working with each other and the necessary I-speak-now-you-speak timing necessary for a joint call sports broadcast. The stop-start, halting results were not enjoyable to hear, really. And even then I didn't assign any connection to what I was hearing, on-air, and concepts of Jimmie's health.

The 2nd game of that weekend series against the A's on July 8, 2023 became a fairly historic Tigers game as it was a rare "Combined No Hitter." It became a part of my personal history in that it was my last time hearing Jim Price call a game, live. But even despite the on-going No Hitter, I just listened in fits and starts while working, and then the next day just ... skipped my usual near-daily ritual during Baseball season, awaiting Dan & Jim's return after the All-Star break, which just never happened. Thus July 9, 2023 was Jim Price's final day in the Major Leagues, after debuting on April 11, 1967; he passed away just a month later, on August 7, 2023.

That fateful day I soon pulled over again, knowing well what happens to the prices of Baseball Cards when a player dies. A whole lot of people in my exact same predicament of always-having-planned-to-buy.... suddenly buy. And thus prices rise, quickly.

Fortunately, COMC still had one copy left of the 2021 Heritage High Numbers autographed card you saw at the top of this post. And the price hadn't increased yet, with ebay recent "'comps." I gladly clicked away the necessary $50-ish and was relieved things worked out on this one small desire. Having only the limited "red ink" version of the "Real One Autographs" drove up the price considerably, compared to a "blue ink," but for such a beloved figure in my life, I was more than happy to splurge a little on the just-ego-trippin' more exclusive version that only 70 other human beings would be privileged to ever own, once all of 2021 Heritage High Numbers is finally opened, which might never happen, anyway.

That is probably definitely one of the very, very few Baseball autographs I would gladly pay real money for. If things hadn't worked out on buying that one and none were to be found for sale ever again, but I had then summoned a Genie from a beat-up old can of RC Cola with a Baseball player printed on the side of it who then gave me three wishes to get autographed Baseball Cards, I would have picked a Jim Price autographed card right away. Definitely before one from any of the 24,000-ish other people who have ever played Major League Baseball. But maybe just after selecting a 2011 Topps 60th Anniversary Sy Berger autographed Baseball Card. Tough call. Autograph #3, I dunno, right now. Probably Uecker. Yeah.

Why would I want this man's autograph so much? I figure I have heard Jim Price's voice more than any other man ever born, aside from my own father. Think about that for a minute, and who that might be in your own life, outside of close family.

He had worked on Detroit Tigers broadcasts for decades. Even before his excellent and long-time radio broadcast partner Dan Dickerson had begun his own stellar career, Price was working for the Tigers in TV & Radio. That included time calling games with the All-Time legend Ernie Harwell.

A baseball season is quite a long experience, for everyone. When you listen to most every game a team plays, you become very familiar with your regular broadcasters. For some, that becomes overly familiar; Price was one who possibly had a few more detratctors than fans by the 2010s. It is a challenge for any broadcaster to not slip into repetitive patterns of description and that is the most challenging by far for daily Baseball announcers.

I could see the point of such critics, but for me the familiarity of the phrases was a feature, not a bug, as the modern expression goes. Price probably had an old-time expression that could say the same thing, though one is not coming to mind right now, amidst memories of his "buggy whips" and "yellow hammers."

Although I have had that treasured autographed Baseball Card for some time now, I haven't had many cards to go with it. I am being similarly way too lazy on acquiring any Ernie Harwell cards, for example; I hope that never becomes difficult. Maybe this project here will get that fire lit finally. It took some time, and multiple COMC shipments, but I now have been able to accumulate an appropriate set of mates for that 71 Topps, starting with Jim's Rookie Card -

1967 Topps

His 'Topps run' was simple enough to collect:

1968 Topps

1969 Topps

1970 Topps

1971 Topps & 2021 Heritage High Numbers

(complete w/authentic centering)

Here, however, the trail goes partially cold. 5 Cards, something that would probably be less likely to happen, today, for a career back-up Catcher, as there is less room in sets these days so we can have more Rookie Card cards of players who appear in 5 games, career. Just, 5, the grand total for Jim "Jimmie" Price, of Baseball Cards as we traditionally conceive of them, as arriving in packages sold in retail stores, still with a stick of bubblegum included.

But for me, I kind of don't ever want just 5 cards of some similarity. What am I going to do with just, 5 of them? How do I put those out on the coffee table to enjoy in my future Tiny Home? For me, Baseball Cards are to be enjoyed visually, physically from time-to-time, not just conceptually, knowing they are safe and secure down at the Bank's Safe Deposit box.

Fortunately of course, we have ... "Oddballs." And there, the Cards of Many Creators biz-ness, which supplied that wonderful Heritage Red Ink HOA I will still include here one more time — came through:

1969 "Milton Bradley"

That has to be from some sort of playable game, as it has a set of results on the back to be used after rolling two dice. Somewhat like this more familiar such piece -

1970 APBA Baseball (1969 season)

Far from ideal of course, to have a picture-less piece of Baseball memorabilia, but at least I got his at-the-time nickname out of it, one which might partially explain his bouts with Cancer later in Life, which were never revealed to the fans in much detail, something fully understandable. Thankfully, that is the only such item needed here, as we'll see shortly, although there are a few more APBA 'cards' for Mr. Price.

1971 Dell MLB Stamps

And, much later on, just one post-career card, ever, excepting the 21 HHN Auto

1988 Domino's Pizza

That one is best explained by pointing out that at the time, the owner of Domino's Pizza, Tom Monaghan, was in the midst of his 9 year ownership of the Detroit Tigers, something less familiar now than the subsequent ownership by Michigan's other mega-Pizza chain clan. Those cards were issued as a 20th-anniversary-of-68-World Series deal. I quite like how it uses each corporation's "team colors," simultaneously. I also felt it worthy of including a scan of the back, cuz, yeah, I read the backs:

which astutely points out that the Tigers went down 3-1 in that WORLD SERIES, and emerged triumphant, Boston Red Sox style. Mickey Lolich, by the way, hasn't appeared on a Topps Baseball Card since 2012, nor any other card since 2013, despite being a Game 5 AND a GAME SEVEN winner, in the same World Series. Such is life, in the flyover Baseball states. Here, have another Ty Cobb card. '84 who?

So in the end I reached my needed card count of - Nine, thanks in great deal to that APBA game card.

There is just one more Baseball Picture product in Jim Price's oeuvre, one released by the Detroit Free Press newspaper as part of a "bubblegumless" series of Tigers cards, probably not long after the '68 Series I would imagine. Maybe the set name was a way to get around the tight connection between "Topps" and "bubble gum," while still using otherwise licensed MLB iconography, I don't know. All I know is I would much rather have a 9th picture on this page of cards.

As it stands right now there is a strong Mr. Jimmie Goes To New York vibe to this collection, one which I will never be able to dilute very well via just adding more cards.

But until that glorious but perhaps improbable day when I track down one of those newspaper issues, the following will suffice quite nicely at the very beginning of my Tigers binder —

The Result

Rest, In Peace

Merry Christmas, to me

C'mon, admit it, when you go Christmas shopping you have a thought on a little shopping for yourself, the whole time. Whether you buy a for-me then, or later, the obtainium is never far from mind. This year, I just snagged a hanger box of 2025 Update, and enjoyed opening it as a nice break from the present wrapping process. As it turned out, Christmas been berry, berry good to me.

I do always enjoy brand new Baseball Cards, some more than others. And I like the 25 Topps design, although I will always prefer working with it / viewing it in the daytime, on a sunny day. Foil Baseball Cards work best in those conditions. Meanwhile where they usually work least well is often on a scanner.

Lately I seem to be awash in foil cards, uggh. Recently I saw just a scan of a 2025 Topps "Vintage Stock" parallel and it looked quite intriguing, seemingly without the foil. I used to pull exactly one of those per year via opening new cards, for a nice run of 5 years, iirc. Never could figure out what to do with just one such card very well, when binder-ing them away removes access to the vintage-y part. But here I am, ogling them again.

One of MLB's new journeymen, Alex Verdugo there, welcomed me aboard. I immediately found more to like...

now that's how to throw, back

promoted straight to a binder page slot

Hooray? Nope.

This guy hasn't and more-likely-than-not never will play with a real olde english D on his uniform, a somewhat bizarre way to print a player's official Rookie Card® card. He does however have a grand total of 16 Major League At Bats, with 2 clubs, both in the city of Chicago. There is an unfortunate chance he may never return to the Major Leagues at this point, which would make him a rare Cubs-&-White-Sox only player, making this card even more of just, a pity. Why, Topps, Why. 

At this point I am soon going to be able to count how close I am to having 9 different "Never Were" Tigers cards. You will be the first to know.

It's Baty Night

yes, this happened sequentially, in the pack

I have a new theory about such card(s) appearance(s). I will call these 2 cards "exhibit A" - watch this space for more exhibits, soon.

Powder Blue Rookie

may you pitch long, and prosper

have you ever noticed that Cincinnati can just never seem to sell those seats?

now this is how to Update

I have the complete opposite feelings for this card than the previous Tigers card, because this card actually happened. Margot was a veteran signing late in Spring Training, to cover for some unexpected injuries in the Outfield. Nothing memorable happened in his few Games played (19 AB) before he was also injured, after which he did not return to The Show in 2025. At age 30 now it is unlikely we will see Margot again after a scrappy 10 year career around The Bigs. Thus, probably a Sunset card for a player Detroit never knew anyway, but all that's as it should be, on Baseball Cards.

Houston, we have a 2025 Best Empty Seats card contestant

now that's how to frame an image in a Baseball Card design

Who's on First?

aka This is How to Update II: the revenge, or something

seems like those seats should be pretty cheap, if I could just get to Cincy

I think the 2020s might already have more Tigers Rookie Debut cards than the 2010s did, and we're only halfway through. This is a good thing. However this card just makes me think some idjit will suggest Return From Tommy John Surgery Day Baseball Cards, something a seemingly mandatory part of multi-million dollar careers for all Rookie Pitchers, these days.

exhibit B

also, perhaps not my first Kwik Trip card, I think

if it worked once, don't try, try again, I guess

I was quite enjoying my paw through of some brand new, updated and everything Baseball Cards, knowing the "special" cards that might someday be worth 79¢ or so, or might not, were still ahead.

But blocking them was a chunk of odd, white cardboard. I thought it was going to be a run of upside down cards, stuck together, but then

whoa buddy

I am, uhh, still in recovery a little I think. Merry Christmas from the Family was as chillax as ever with my family, which makes this just a cherry on top, I guess. Merry Christmas, To Me.

Never did I ever expect to obtain and now own a card like this from a package of Big Box Grocery Store Baseball Cards, like I did on Christmas Eve just past.

Suddenly, through no plans of your own, having a card like this in your hand is a little scary, to me at least, as it instantly oozes card appeal all over you. Yeah, I could enjoy owing Baseball Cards like this one. Hall of Fame night at the Big Box; I will never forget it. I should go Christmas shopping more often, methinks.

Still a few cards to go in the hanger, let's be careful with the descent back to the surface going too quickly and not screw up our oxygen levels.

I confess, I purchased this momentous hanger box to check out the exclusive parallels known to be inside, the "Diamantes." They are quite an enjoyable take on Oooohhhh, Shiny, in-hand, but much like X-fractors, the joy disappears completely in a scan.

The now traditional "Foil" (or sometimes, "Rainbow Foil," but nothing too overly fancy) parallel, however, can light up a scanner -

this is what the People want in their Big Box Baseball Cards: RC parallels

should we count the ways these inserts have been done before?

no, let's not count that

classy, clean card though

This surprised me: the 1990 Topps inserts are suddenly "rainbow foil" cards too.

I do not think they were in Series 1 & 2? Weird. Or maybe, more rainbow-y on the probably most already rainbow-y Baseball Card design = more better? We'll see.

The one-per insert, or in the hanger box format, four-per, is still "Stars of MLB," like, this one -

or, maybe a star, we'll see.

I have been looking forward to seeing this guy play Baseball, somehow.

That one time per decade though, where Topps goes, hey, y'all remember that 1990s graphic design software we all had? Well, watch -this-

There can always be such quickly forgotten card design moments; I'm picky like that, I guess. Ultimately for Meeeeeee!, 2025 Topps Update was a proven winner up there, something that continued right on through the last card in the little box:

you can't win the Lottery, if you don't buy a ticket.

Wheeeee!