Meanwhile, out in the Bullpen

We get a baseball card there too. But just one, in S1/S2/Update at least.

It's not all that exciting to get this Bullpen Card, but that's more because Topps likes to zoom in so much and obliterate almost all baseball context from every card now, so I like the cards that bring the set some variety, somehow. (I'm sure you've noticed this by now).

I am fairly intrigued to know what is happening on that back wall of the Bullpen though. 52?

This is likely to be Myers' sunset card, as he made it off the DL for all of 4 games this year, and was released in August. There is one big clue to this on the card - once you see a gray hair on a player's card, well, you do the math. Baseball General Managers certainly will.

I do have a hard time understanding the set this year in regards to the zoom, zoom, zoom. Zoom zoom. Who doesn't like to say the word Zoom? Anyhow, it seems markedly different than the 2011 set in this regard. I have realized I need to do a better job of figuring this out via more homework, and I have a plan. Unfortunately you won't see the results until next summer, because I will have to get my 2011 and 2012 cards nicely tucked away in a binder, and I have been too busy with those durn parallels to do that.

I often wonder what experienced card-collecting kids thought in the early 70s when the first live action shots appeared on baseball cards. I know in my first set (1975), I much preferred the action cards. They were almost more likely to be seen on the playoffs cards, and even the highlights cards, it felt like, but I treasured the ones I did find, and this remained true throughout my youthful collecting days. Playoff cards today are just dumb, usually. If Topps had any smarts about those they will put an image of Justin Verlander, In Action, on the Tigers' ALDS card next year, after 2 straight years of winning a Game 5 in dramatic fashion. But instead we'll get a bunch of Tigers mobbing together in the general vicinity of the pitcher's mound, maybe with Verlander visible, maybe not. And I've wandered a long way from the Bullpen. This is a bull session however...

Now here in the 20-10s, I think Topps probably has access to the best sports action photography of all the decades they've been in business. And we do get to see that on the cards, frequently. In fact, a posed shot in S1/S2/Update is a very rare item these days. The ball player photos on the picture cards are nearly all from a live baseball game, but are then zoomed in so far they effectively look like a posed card anyway. I just don't get it. Probably, a live action photo is cheaper than a portrait shot, as less photographer and ball-player time is involved to a huge degree. But I just wish we could keep a little more of the baseball atmosphere all around the player image. Many of the posed cards in Vintage sets did let you see a Stadium or Spring Training setting behind the player. This is now very rare any more in the baseball card standard known as The Topps Set.

Anyhow, that's my final on that, until next year sometime, when I can compare this across 4 sets at that point.

But, hey, it's past time to see another card. I did discover one other Bullpen Card this year:

Which can only be discerned by the loops of cable up against the wall of the Bullpen, seen at the top of the card.

Most Rookies get a separate card in Chrome, and some collectors even consider the Chrome Rookie to be a player's True Rookie card. Whatever. I've never understood the attraction to Rookie Cards anyway, aside from the fact that I know it's not wise to just leave them piled in with the rest of the base card commons for ever and ever, just in case.

I recently finished binder-izing the '13 Chrome set (I just bought it, cheap), and will have several of those cards to show you, and too many thoughts on Rookie Cards. But this Wheeler card is the only one I can think of right now with any interesting context, and even this one is zoomed in so far that this isn't a very striking card, from a baseball atmosphere regard. I do like the harmony of all the parallel lines, and though they lead the gaze down somewhat, at least they flow off the side of the card, rather than straight to the ground.

I will give this card one bonus point though - you don't often see a Starting Pitcher in the bullpen, except in the Postseason at times. Makes you wonder just what Topps is suggesting here, though only an odd little baseball card blog would ask that question, and probably the Topps photo editor won't be answering it either.

The last Sea Turtles

Well it's that time of year. The last baseball cards have arrived. The last ones for me anyway. I'm sure Topps might still have some set of stitched leather $100 / 2-card pack cards that feel like a pack of smokes in your hand still to arrive, but I will never ever understand those kinds of cards.

Normally, Chrome cards aren't for me either. ...All the Way to the Backstop asked recently if anyone truly likes them. Obviously, lots of people do. But lots of people don't. I'm more in the latter camp, even though I love shiny things. I like "foil" cards quite a bit, though perhaps in more limited doses.

This year though I really grew to like the basic design Topps uses in their 'Flagship' set, and then Opening Day and Chrome. I was intrigued by the image variations in Opening Day - I think there were 7 of them, I'll compile them for you sometime soon. That led me to wonder what I would see in the Chrome set; turns out there are a whole lot of Chrome-only Sea Turtles. I'll assemble all of those for you sometime too.

Then around 2 weeks ago a new bale of Sea Turtles made it to shore, though they could only beach themselves in the card aisle of all the usually suspect Big Boxes. What the heck is a "bale," you ask? This high tech device under my fingertips that runs my life tells me that is a correct way to refer to turtles, plural. The things you learn these days.

These last Sea Turtles hail from the "Update Chrome" set. And more specifically, they only hatch from inside the Topps "Mega Box." They even have card #s that reflect this, MB-1 through MB-55. And of course two serial #/d parallels, Gold refractors at /250, and Black refractors at /100, or maybe /99. I forget, though I didn't pull any blacks. Also included in the set is one insert set, "Postseason Heroes."

For me this is another Topps product chock full of pluses & minuses. If I had known it was coming out, I probably would have purchased quite a bit less Update from the red store and the blue store, as to get these Update Chrome cards you also receive 5 packs of Update. I'm not sure why Topps even bothers with all these "packs" inside boxes any more anyway. Put the amount of cards I get for a price in a box and be done with it, like the hanger boxes. I would have purchased all hanger boxes this year, except I liked the white foil Chasing History cards only found in the rack packs, and I bought the stupid blasters because of my addiction to parallels.

The big plus of this last small set is that I pretty much could not do a Parallel set of Update without it. I was stuck at 8 parallels, not enough for one per slot on a binder page, unless I wanted to use 1/1 Platinums, 1/4 Printing Plates, or 1/50 of the "Silk Collection", which are just dumb.

But with these Chrome Updates or whatever you call them - when there is only 55 of them, it's not really a "mega" set - I could assemble 9 colorful, or shiny, cards per page. I could have just done that for my Series 1/Series 2 parallel sets, i.e. used Chrome cards, but I simply prefer glossy cards to Chrome. And really I would rather just have a full set of actual cardboard baseball cards, in a more perfect world.

The biggest minus of the set, aside from the predatory packaging "available only in this box," is that as near as I can tell, there are absolutely Zero new Sea Turtles in the 55 card set. I need just 2 cards now after some careful shopping, the "41 Puig" - i.e. MB-41 Yasiel Puig RD (Rookie Debut), and MB-54 Chris Davis HR (Home Run Derby). I have plenty to trade.

But I'm fairly certain every card is 100% identical to the originating Update card. The Yasiel Puig RC, a regular card, not the Rookie Debut, is cropped differently than his Topps Chrome RC, but then so is the Update RC. The Puig checklist card is not Chromed so he only makes it onto the checklist twice. As does Jose Fernandez and Topps' love-child David Wright. Neither of those 2 rookies have played in the post-season before this set was released of course, but David Wright has, and he appears on the insert set as well.

Some of the cards in the set are true Chrome Rookies, as the players did not appear in the Topps Chrome set, for those of you keeping scorecards at home. I forget the total, so your scorecard from this post won't be too useful. There are also players that were traded in 2013, All-Star cards, Rookie Debut cards, and even some of those exceptionally pointless Home Run derby cards, which is how David Wright makes the checklist twice.

So much for facts and figures, let's get to a card and a bunch of twisted opinion:

For some reason, I like it when the baseball itself gets "Chromed." I like these types of cards, though it takes a bit to realize there is little chance Buster is going to bust that pitch; and indeed he struck out swinging in his only at-bat in the All-Star game. But it always amazes me when modern photography can capture a pitch in flight and still show you the seams, which of course is all seen somewhat better on Posey's regular All-Star card in the Update set.

One of my favorite cards in Update also survived the rounds of Topps voting on Sea Turtle island to make it to the Chrome beach:

I love the herky-jerky action captured here. It's almost like a shot from a cartoon baseball game. A perky, happy, cartoon baseball game. I can even hear a video-game like soundtrack when I look at this card, though it sounds more like Tecmo Bowl than baseball music. And of course, I get to be the play-by-play announcer. 

The other thing I really like about that card in Update is the background, which is actually a shot from a Spring Training game -

-which can be deduced from all the blurry fans behind the chain-link outfield fence. 

I like baseball cards created with Spring Training pictures, the way vintage baseball cards were made. Except when a whole lot of a set is made from staged Spring photos all shot from the same spot. Cough, cough, Archives, cough, cough. That gets to be a little much.

Those fans of course disappear during the "Chrome" processing, whatever it is, and that is my basic complaint with Chrome cards. They obliterate all context from the image, which is something essential to me in a baseball card. Even a profile head-shot should clearly have some baseball something in the background, like a stadium or a dug-out. Chrome cards never have that.

I also like how my scanner revealed the teal accents on Franklin's shoes. Nice west coast style points there, Seattle. Now if only style points somehow scored runs. The scans look similar in revealing that but it is much more clear, in-hand, on the regular base card.

Overall my Update parallel pages will look a lot snazzier with these cards on most of them. About a half-dozen will still need those goofy Silk Collection cards, and I have been wanting just one Platinum for the project, so I might actually soon buy my first (and probably last) 1/1 card. Don't you go and bid on that one, now.

The final indignity of buying these "Mega" boxes for my project is the inserts selected, a straight copy of the PostSeason Heroes cards from Update, which I do enjoy. But I really can't see any purpose to "Chroming" a full-bleed / borderless card, particularly when the bulk of the cards are actually Night Cards. But Base Set HQ doesn't make these decisions, Topps does.

Let's see if you can tell which card is which. When I upload multiple images simultaneously, I can't even predict what order Blogger will do it in, so I don't know either.

Good luck.

Shiny Bait To Catch Things With

I love birthdays. Even though I never get any baseball cards on my birthday.

I love other people's birthdays. The correct thing to do for a friend or family member having a birthday is to buy them a birthday card, yes? And where do we buy birthday cards?

At the Big Box store of course. And we all know oh so well what's inside of those Big Box stores: Baseball Cards!

Let's see what I scored while I was out birthday shopping:

Yep, I picked up some 2013 Topps Chrome. I particularly didn't need these cards, because I have once again broken an old taboo I have about buying baseball cards, which I wrote about here quite awhile back now: I bought a whole Base Set at once.

For the first time in my collecting life I decided I wanted a set of Chrome. Mostly because I like the Sea Turtles so much that I want to see all the variations of them. And also because I wanted to get some fresh Trade Bait to encourage people to read over my kinda complex want list for Series 1 & Series 2 parallels. I think I accomplished that on the very first card I pulled out of the rack pack bonus pack which is shown above. I also pulled #69 Brad Ziegler and #218 B.J. Upton. (Yup, all up for trade). These orange parallels look sharp and indeed, an all-parallel collection of Chrome Turtles such as I am assembling for S1/S2/Update would also be a durn purdy set of baseball cards. But I have my hands full enough already with that project.

The amazing thing about buying a set of Base Cards all at once is the price. The Base Cards coming out of this pack cost about 5 times more than the ones I bought in a whole set of them. 500% more. Boo!

Which kinda makes me upset actually. I like collecting cards by buying packs and trading duplicates. It's a social thing, and a way to enjoy a set over time. But to do that, I have to subsidize all those ego stroking "hit" cards that make up the cost of each pack of baseball cards, whether I manage to "hit" them or not. The Base Cards depreciate instantaneously faster than electronic gadgets, new cars, or New York Yankee ball player contracts.

So I am seriously rethinking how I will collect cards next year. 500% increased costs are too much to be smart about money and collecting, so I might just end up buying another set of cards early next February when Series One pops. That will be boring. Maybe I'll just reach in the box and pull out a random gob of cards to binder up once in a while to simulate ripping packs. Zzzzzz.

Anyhow, I couldn't help myself with just one hanger pack. I had to get a blaster too....the cards are cheaper that way! And I wanted some more trade bait - purple parallels:

He shoots, he scores! Comb through all those stacks for 2013 parallels now... I also pulled #4 Jon Jay (the LaRussa card - you'll be pleased to know that Tony survived being Chromed just fine), #78 Nolan Arenado, and #133 Will Middlebrooks, which is the same as the Series 1 card that really started pulling me back into these sets last early February. Purple Sea Turtles are sharp and that Verlander card is one of the best this year, but those are all up for deals for your trading pleasure.

I was particularly happy to pull Verlander because he is pitching as I type. Pitching very well too. I like to buy cards the day of a big game for my team. This was a good omen I thought. The last time I bought a couple cards was last week when I had to also shop for a birthday card. The first card out of that pack was Bartolo Colon, that night's starter for the A's. That was a bad omen I thought. But come to think of it, the Tigers won that game by jumping on Colon for 3 runs right away in the first inning. Hmmm. Maybe I'm mis-thinking baseball card luck. Hurry and trade me something for that Verlander card before something goes awry!

As I mentioned I was looking for both trade bait, and new Sea Turtles on this fishing expedition at the Big Box store. I landed several:

Oooh, more Dodger Chrome. I heard there was this one outfielder from the Dodgers in this set who would finally be seen on an all new card. I was hoping to pull one of those cards, even though one is on the way to me already.

Instead I got that card. Another apropos base-running shot for Crawford, cool. But I did not expect to see this image in the set, nor understand why it was used. I had the same thought on this one:

también este uno:

as well as this card:

and even another Dodger card also:

What unites all these cards? They are all players who changed teams recently. But they have all had new cards issued with their new teams. The thing about their initial 'new team' cards is that they were all Photoshopped into their new uniforms on those cards. Now in Chrome they get brand new picture cards with authentic photos in their authentic new uniforms.

Maybe Topps feels guilty about those Photoshop cards, so they determined to make some new ones for these players; who knows? But I also pulled this card:

Which perplexes me more. I have written about Bourn's Series 2 card because it was so striking - a player who changed teams and then had a new card using an image taken in Spring Training, classical baseball card style. A great card actually, all lit up by the wonderful spring sunshine. Now in Chrome Bourn is on a card that looks like it could have been issued by an unlicensed manufacturer, save for Chief Wahoo there in the corner. A step backwards.

And if these players can get different pictures than their Series 1 or 2 cards, why can't all the players in this set? Oh, yeah, because Topps spends all their production budget on player signing fees these days, not on buying extra photos of ballplayers that they don't need. Collectors no longer care what picture is on a card, as long as it has a squiggled "autograph" on it.

Sigh. I also found what will probably be an image used in Update:

...the more traditional use of new pictures on the picture cards. Player changes teams, Topps makes a new baseball card. That run of Base Cards aren't up for trade but the other 3 dozen or so are on my List List List page  - yes, I do have a non-parallel list. There's lots of famous, collectible players on the list of course ... it's Topps Chrome after all.

I found a different such card in a group break of Chrome, which I participated in to rack up Trade Bait for next week's release of Update. I'll be in serious need of the /25 Sapphire parallels from the Update set itself, though they will issued for Series 1 and 2 as well - so your S1/S2 Rainbows aren't quite done yet and you will have to pay your Topps Rainbow Master one more time. I'm a bit worried Toy R Us won't issue purple parallels for Update, and there won't be Factory Set Orange to help on my project pages either. So I have several of these Blue /199 Refractors available for trade (list up on the Parallel Project page):

Now of course Youk deserves a new card and I expect to see this photo used in Update. Unless we see this one:

Which is cribbed from the 'Sell Sheet' for Update. Once again, I just don't get it. Topps can issue new images for Kevin Youkilis willy-nilly I guess. Everyone else has to do with repeats. And all that work on the front of Youk's new card(s), and we see this on the back:

Which June, Topps? It's October now. New baseball cards are coming out after the season is over (another bitch session for another post). The front of the card tells me he plays for the Yankees. What is a young NL West fan to think about these mysterious doings in the American League? Is this an error card? You changed the card # on the back of this card and conveniently informed me I have a 'Refractor', but no one could be bothered to compose a couple new sentences for a popular player moving to his original team's arch-nemesis?

Speaking of that 'Refractor' designation under the card #, that comes in handy sorting these cards. I only pulled one Refractor, though in 7 packs at 1:3 odds I should have found 2. They are a bit hard to notice without that little designation, though they scan up quite differently than the Base Cards:

That one is up for trade. I like Shiny but I'd say the Base Cards and the Refractors seem more like a Foil card. This is what I think of with the word 'Refractor':

It loses a lot on the scan - an Xfractor. I was really looking forward to scanning it after seeing these on another blog. My scanner puts that line in a different spot than that other blog's scanner. (Sorry, forgot the name). But ooh how these cards hyp-mo-tize me in person. Soooooo trippy. C'mon Topps, isn't it time for some new card love for Doc Ellis? And when that happens, be sure to put him in a set with XFractors. Pretty please?

I'll probably end up chasing a set of those XFractors. Maybe that will give me something to do when the 2014 Base Set I already don't like looks like just another Bowman set...won't be chasing parallels of that, though I will be intrigued to see the clear parallel. I'll probably wait till later next year when Puig's prices cool off to ever complete it, and likely won't even start on trading for it till my crazy Parallel Project is over. If ever.

Webster has an interesting card there. Topps makes cards with different images for the autograph cards (as if the auto collectors even care), though I have no idea if they do this 100% of the time since I don't collect autos nor really plan to start; not even autographed Sea Turtles. But I have seen Webster's auto card in '13 Chrome, which is just a Photoshopped version of his neat card in 2013 Pro Debut.

Now of course we can't have a new set of baseball cards without some inserts. I did better in the blaster & rack pack combo on that front as I pulled two of the 1972 inserts, and none from the other silly insert sets. And no other "hits", though I am happy to get these:

This is where we needed some Ellis, D love but the checklist is current players only. 1972 _and_ Chrome would make a nice set methinks but perhaps I'll have to wait till 2020 Heritage I guess.

A nice thing about these Chrome '72s is they are full-size. 1972 had a nice card back and I liked the ones in '13 Archives much better than the minis in Series 1 & 2. This card -

- has a particularly memorable card back, though you'll have to discover that on your own. I'm not sure I want my blog associated with the mental image that text creates. I'll be chasing this set too some day (Darvish & McCutchen are on the way now), but at a slow pace and am not looking forward to finding the Puig. Probably about the time his prices cool off Will Myers will heat up next year. I'll eventually make progress on those '72 Day-Glo parallels from Archives too. About 1/3 done with that one.

Now I couldn't wander off into the arms of a new Base Set without picking up just a few of my old faithful Base Cards from Series 2. I need those parallels; they appear generally one in every rack pack after all, and I'm over due to pull a Short Print. I didn't get a _needed_ parallel (Gold Pedro Florimon, sharp card), but I did make progress on 2 insert sets even after buying too many packs and pulled 3 Tigers and one Athletic, that had to be good. I got one Chase It Down that I still needed, a darn good insert set for a change ('13 inserts lists finally up on the regular List List List page), and one needed card that fits with the cards just above and is a perfect selection for today:

Mr. October! Surely good luck the day of a big play-off game. Way to go Topps collating machine. And a picture that I haven't seen on a Reggie Jackson card before...nice!

I also looked at those other cards. The ones that aren't picture cards of athletes. On that shelf I made a happy/sad discovery. Always happy to see new packages of Wackys:

But how could that make me sad? I haven't finished collating Series Ten yet! I'd better get ripping on that...I didn't even open all those packs yet. (I save them for particularly gloomy days). That will be fun. Also a nice shout-out to Topps on the visible sticker there on the bottom panel - that's a sticker in the set, not part of the wacky packaging promo material. So you can pack-search these quite simply for that last sticker you will need and it's a nice fuzzy warm memory of cello packs a little. I miss those. Ahhh.

Now of course I finally got within close proximity of these cards being sold retail by buying a Birthday Card. This a card blog I believe...check out this beauty:

I'm looking forward to handing out this one; even though it's not shiny it's the right card to go for the catch with. Her birthday is on Christmas Eve.