Last Piece of the Pie

When Topps T-206 came out earlier this year, collectors were treated to a very nice framed autograph set for the second year in the row. The Tigers had four autograph cards...and a redemption.

Now I used to be fearful of redemptions. Used to think that if I got a redemption card that my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow would never really come. That I'd end up with some crappy replacement card that I wouldn't care about. That it would take forever. So I've avoided redemptions up until this year, when I cashed in three. Now, within a couple months all three have been delivered safely to my home, including this, the last piece of the T-206 autograph set:

2010 Topps T-206 #TA-RPO Rick Porcello

Rick Porcello!

Is this the year for Rick? He's only 22, had a bit of a sophomore slump last year but appeared to rebound well. I think that he makes the leap this year to legitimate big league starter (and hope that our infield's defense doesn't betray him).

Admittedly, this card is not as nice as the other autographs in the set--the solid blue background is in stark contrast to the sunset/ball field backgrounds in the rest of the cards. But, it's also happens to be of Rick Porcello, which makes it the best (2nd best?) card in the set.

But now the real question. What do I do with it?

Chopping Down the Wantlist

I took advantage of the Thanksgiving deal over at COMC to knock a few cards off my wantlist. Actually, because shipping was so cheap (instead of the pretty expensive and quick to add up that it usually is) I filled out some other wants & needs as well, but that's for another time.

For now, 36.36% of my wantlist has been trimmed down including:

#3 on my list, part of the Home Run Derby contest inserts that Topps used to run

2008 Topps Gary Sheffield Home Run Derby Contest (#/999)

#5: A fantastic Heritage SP

2009 Topps Heritage #461 Tigers Coaches

#8: The last base card I need from 2010 Topps (which may just happen to be the worst card in the whole set. I mean seriously, look at that picture.)

2010 Topps Update US-24 Miguel Cabrera/Vlad Guerrero

#10: The last base card I needed from 2010 Topps T-206

2010 Topps T-206 #165 Ty Cobb

And with that, I have some serious thinking to do about how to replace these on my list. Fortunately, I've been inundated with cards lately (since when was being inundated with something good?), which means that more holes have been filled and I'm sitting on a bunch of sets where I'm just a couple cards from completion. My guess is those will be making the list--I'm looking at you 2010 Topps Gold Ryan Perry.

As always, I tend to put cards on here that are low-end, easy to find types. Just in case somebody out there happens to be flipping through their piles of cards, trips upon something on the list and feels like sending a little care package my way...

Update: And the new members of the wantlist (in the sidebar) are...
7. 2010 Topps #44 of 45 Hank Greenberg Red Back Mini (Target)
8. 2010 Topps Chrome #182 Brennan Boesch Refractor
9. 2009 Topps Heritage Chrome #CHR171 Rick Porcello
10. 2008 Topps #634 Kenny Rogers Gold Foil
11. 2010 Topps #575 Ryan Perry Gold

May the search begin!

Some Recognition for Ajax

That's right, crack a smile.

Austin Jackson's snubbing in the AL Rookie of the Year voting didn't keep him from winning the most coveted award of all: the Topps Rookie Cup. For those not familiar, you might remember the rookie cup from iconic cards of iconic players such as this:



Or, um, this:

While there are risks inherent in creating an All Star Team of Rookies, as Topps does every year--namely that the majority of said rookies will end up as middling major leaguers--you can't argue that you need to have been a pretty darn good rookie to earn the award.

Although I have to believe there was a better pitcher than a 28-year old Mark Leiter that took the world by storm, going 9-7 with a 4.21 ERA and 1.30 WHIP.

Like maybe this guy:



Oops.

Tigers Gallery & Review: 2010 Topps 206

Two posts in one day, what is this 2009?  Happy weekend everyone.  Also, Did you know that all the 2010 Tigers Galleries can be found right over here? Did you?

Only two months late (again), Topps 206 is little more than a watered down version of the ever-popular Allen & Ginter set. I benefited from a 206 case break hosted by A Cardboard Problem in which I fared very well. Here are the Tigers from the set in their full glory, my comments after the jump.

Base Set

#11 Brandon Inge	#58 Justin Verlander	#77 Scott Sizemore	#88 Jeremy Bonderman
#163 Max Scherzer	#165 Ty Cobb	#166 Austin Jackson	#207 Carlos Guillen
#220 Rick Porcello	#264 Al Kaline	#269 Miguel Cabrera	#290 Magglio Ordonez
#311 Rick Porcello SP	#388 Austin Jackson SP

Autographs Best part of the set, just like last year--There is a Rick Porcello redemption that I will add when it gets to me in the mail. Update 1/24/2011--the Porcello is here!

#TA-CT Clete Thomas	#TA-MS Max Scherzer	#TA-SS Scott Sizemore	#TA-RP Ryan Perry
#TA-RPO Rick Porcello

Relics Also A Strong Suit, Not sure if the Cabrera Dual Relic exists

#TR-JD Johnny Damon	#TR-MC Miguel Cabrera	#MBR14 Cabrera/Fielder	#DR-MC Miguel Cabrera?

Insert-Type Things This are kind of like quasi-parallels, but are numbered differently

#T2C21 Ty Cobb Gold (#/50)	NNO Ty Cobb Silk (#/50)	#T2C45 Miguel Cabrera Gold (#/50)	NNO Miguel Cabrera Silk (#/50)

Other Stuff Mostly impossible cut signatures that I don't have pictures of. Also, Stamp:

2010 Topps 206 #SR-9 Ty Cobb

Trading, de facto style

Hey "the market", would you like to trade cards?

Sure, what have you got?

I'll trade you this

and this

for this


Uh, ok. I guess. I mean two is better than one

And $13.

Like, I pay you $13?

Yeah

That seems kind of excessive.

It sure does, but here we are.

[hands over card and cash]

Sucker.

I'll Be Waiting

Humph, December 26th seems like a long time to wait. But lo! The miracles of modern technology:

@topps_support: The Following 2010 Topps T206 Redemptions Will be sent out SOON: Cal Ripken, Dustin Pedoria, Rick Porcello, Shin Soo Choo

Soon sounds like October or so. SOON sounds like any day now which, awesome.

I'm glad that this was @topps_support and not that unreliable @toppscards fellow who spouts off with nonsense like this:

@GrandCards Sorry for the delayed response. The T206 hat cards (SPs) do have bronze and mini parallels.

@GrandCards Jackson may have been a redemption in T206. I know he signed late. I don't have the list yet.

Um, no. SP Minis and Bronzes and Austin Jackson autographs don't exist until I see one. Anywhere. Just one. If you need to send me these cards to prove their existence then so be it. So is Topps Support to be trusted, or am I stuck waiting for a card that is scheduled to arrive on the most anticlimactic day of the year to receive a gift?

A Dollar?!?!

I've been searching for this card for quite some time, rarely having seen it as regular eBay auction, and never as a "Buy It Now" for less than $8. Sure, it's an SP mini, but come on...

Suffice to say, it has been on my radar. In fact, it is the last 2009 206 mini card that I need for my team set, and I'm at the point now where I'm willing to overpay for it if I ever see it listed again.

Which it was.

Snatched from my clutches by a $1 Best Offer accepted by a seller who has no idea what this card is or what he's talking about. I mean hell, it "has some staining on the back." Of course it does. ALL of the cards from that set do, by design grumblegrumble.

Am I doomed to wait another six months for one of these to be listed again? For how long will that empty page burn a hole into my soul?

Should They Stay Or Should They Go?

Wow, has this whole "back to school" thing ever caught me off guard. It's only 9:30 and it is designated mental break time even though I've got a long way to go tonight, I'm afraid. Mental break, ho!

I won big in A Cardboard Problem's case break of 2010 Topps 206. In addition to a team set, a handful of Bronze and mini parallels and two, count 'em two autographs, I also came away with these:

2010 Topps 206 Ty Cobb Silk (#/50)

2010 Topps 206 #T2C45 Miguel Cabrera Gold Chrome (#/50)

That's four hits from that case for the Tigers. And here I am, about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Karma (cardma?) is going to come back and get me, I just know. Why? Because I kind of want to sell them.

It's odd, actually, because even with my draconian new collecting policies in which I only collect pre-designated items for specific collecting needs, things like "Silk" and "Mini" tend to pass muster. And, in fact, I find both of these cards to be pretty nice examples of both silks and minis. The problem, I think, lies with the alt ighty ollar. These card are semi-big hits that I wasn't going to chase down on my own. I could sell them and buy cards that I would have gone after, say, other Tigers autographs from T206. Or from A&G. Or any number of other mid-dollar value cards that I would prefer to have in my collection.

At the same time, would I regret selling them? I could chase down the rest of the Tigers from T206, only to find that I'd be only two cards away (A Cabrera Silk and a Cobb Gold) from a master set had I not sold. Would I regret not keeping them in that scenario? Can I summarily dismiss the silks and gold minis as unnecessary parallel subsets that I can ignore? Would I feel differently if these cards were not parallels, in the "they use the same picture as the regular card" sense of the word?

Probably, Maybe and Yes. I'm a bit OCD with card-set completeness, so completing the rest of the set and having only a silk or a gold to chase down is appealing and this gives me quite the head start. Which leads me to #2--If I sell them I can mentally separate the need to chase down silks and golds. To me they won't count. Like the stamp card that I'm not going after (unless I can find it really cheap...) Now, had Topps made these inserts and not parallels, maybe we'd be talking.

I don't know. What do you think? Are these cards worth keeping? If it was your collection, what would you do? What is your opportunity cost of keeping versus selling? Why do I keep going back and forth over this? Why do I have so much homework that needs to get done??

Any help would be appreciated.

Quick Thoughts on 2010 T-206

This morning I watched about an hour of the Cardboard Problem case break for 2010 Topps T206, in which I have the Tigers cards bought and paid for. For the chunk of the video (2nd video) that I saw--approx 4 boxes of cards--here are some quick thoughts, ordered by what struck me the most:

• Man, screw those non-baseball minis. Mini cards are one-per-pack and were the best non-"hit" part of 2009's T206 set. They were the only Tigers I chased down, as I was unimpressed by the full-sizers. They're still one-per-pack this year, except a bunch of random-ass non-baseball minis are also in there. This is bull. This is not Allen & Ginter and it's already hard enough putting together a team set at 1-per-pack. It took at least two boxes to pull a single Tigers mini. Ridiculous.
• Bronze parallels. What is the point of these? Another one-per-pack insert, they are completely unnecessary and add nothing to the product.
• BIG hits. There were some legit hits in this case, with the mini relic booklets standing out. The framed autographs and relics look fantastic again this year, although the white doesn't sing to me the way last year's blue did. I understand switching it up though.
• "Big" hits. What's with the American Caramel autographs? They are awful. A landscape oriented card with a tiny picture and huge sticker autograph is a disaster for this product. What were they thinking? Sure, there were some good subjects (I saw a Duke Snider come from this case), but these are a poor effort.
• Quality control. A handful of bronzes and minis had centering/cutting issues. Need to get cards in-hand to see how bad.
• Yay me! I appear to have done well in this break. I saw a Max Scherzer auto pulled, and then a Brandon Inge cycle mini, and then...
• ...A Clete Thomas autograph? Why was this ever produced? I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, but come on. Clete Thomas has played in exactly zero games at any level this year after season-ending surgery in Spring Training. It is September. It is obvious that he hasn't played by the time these cards were being designed. He wasn't even on the prelim checklist! I don't know man. I like off-beat Tigers cards a lot, but if I had just bought a box of this and pulled Clete as one of my hits I'd be pissed.
• Speaking of checklists, can I get some freaking Brennan Boesch? I mean WTF? I get an RC and autograph of Scott Sizemore, who played on the team for all of a month but I can't have the rookie phenom who helped carry the team in May and June? Last year it was no problem to sneak in Wilkin Ramirez, who had played all of two games, into this set, and now Topps stiffs me on Boesch...Again? How long will we have to wait? I'm not happy about checklist selection here.
  
• I like the variations, the old-timer backgrounds and the no-hat motif. It give us something a little different, which is always nice. As minis, I'm sure these will look great. As full size? I was really unimpressed with the quality of the 2009 cards, so I'll need to get these in hand to really see how they are.

In all, I think that you will do right by T-206. I really think that the autographs and relics are worth the price of admission and rival their beloved Allen & Ginter counterparts. Topps needs to be careful though. This already screams "A&G Lite," and I don't like the direction they've started going with the non-baseball subset in the minis. As a team collector, watching this break reminded me why I don't really buy packs/boxes any more. I saw pack after pack of no Tigers and no Tiger minis (until a little run later on), until every now and then when a multiple-Tiger pack would rear its head. Too much chance for me. I'll just go onto eBay and buy what I want, thank you very much. Of course, that is exactly what I'll do with this set once I see what I'm missing.

Something Beautiful

It's been a long week and I've got a very distinct "blah" feeling right now as I watch the work hours tick down, even though I have some stuff I need to wrap up.

What would brighten my spirits?

2009 Topps 206 #FMA-3 Ryan Perry Auto

For one, this just came in the mail.

I love these framed autos and Perry has a beautiful signature. As unenthusiastic as I am about a 2010 version of 206 coming out this fall, I'll take a card like this any day of the week.

Tigers Checklist: 2009 Topps 206

After about a week and a half, I think that Topps 206 has fully saturated the digital market. Fortunately for us, this means there are plenty of images out for capture. As I did with 2009 Finest, where I showcased the full checklist as refractors, Topps 206 provides another excellent opportunity to show off a full checklist in parallel form.

The mini. Is the mini the greatest parallel ever? Sure, it doesn't work for everything, but for vintage cards I wonder whether everything should be tobacco card sized. From what I've seen, Topps 206 is no exception. I'm not sure what it is, but the full sized cards don't seem to impress me as much as I thought they would. Maybe the cards are a little too stylized to look old-timey so that the players look out of register or imperfect in some way--I had a lot of trouble finding scans that looked in focus--and the minis just seem to minimize that effect. Whatever it is, I think this set has a lot going for it, with the various mini parallels taking second billing only to the gorgeous framed autographs and relics.

With that, your 2009 Topps 206 Detroit Tigers--in their miniature, tobacco card sized form:

Base Set Here's the full base set. A few things of note: Ty Cobb, Justin Verlander and Ryan Perry each have short printed versions with no number on the back just "ROOKIE" or "TY COBB" in big letters. Those SP variations carry over to the mini set as well. To their credit, Topps made sure that these no number variations had different pictures on the front. Something that makes this collector very happy.

Also of note, last winter at the annual Hawaii Trade Conference Topps released a "Topps 206 100th Anniversary Preview" set of six cards. Ty Cobb happened to be #6 in the set. I've included the card here as part of the main set just for kicks (and so I wouldn't have to crate another table for one card). Interestingly the card uses the same picture as the Cobb variation that is actually in the set, but with slightly different cropping. The card is numbered to 100 and both the front and back are showcased here.

#25 Magglio Ordonez	#53 Wilkin Ramirez RC	#66a Ty Cobb	#66b (NNO) Ty Cobb SP
#72a Rick Porcello RC	#72b (NNO) Rick Porcello RC SP	#87a Ryan Perry RC	#87b (NNO) Ryan Perry RC SP
#119 Curtis Granderson	#166 Joel Zumaya	#183 Jeremy Bonderman	#230 Miguel Cabrera
#276 Justin Verlander		Hawaii Trade Conference Preview #6 Ty Cobb	Hawaii Trade Conference Preview #6 Ty Cobb (Back)

Relics There is only one relic in the set--Ty Cobb--but he has three different border variations. These cards are all amazing, with the picture of Cobb being the highlight, if you ask me.

#FR-22 Ty Cobb (Piedmont)	#FR-22 Ty Cobb (Old Mill)	#FR-22 Ty Cobb (Polar Bear)

Autographs Two autographs here, both on card which gets major bonus points. Ryan Perry has a nice looking signature. The other card is...Curtis! Which is not numbered, apparently. Huh. I've got one in transit, so if it has a number I'll let you know. Oh, by the way, it is an outstanding looking card--Granderson's best on-card solo auto?

#FMA-3 Ryan Perry RC Auto	NNO Curtis Granderson Auto

And that's it! I haven't seen a formal checklist yet, so if there are some other mystery cards out there I'll be sure to update, but for now these are your 206 Tigers. Hope you liked the minis.