Topps Finest Redemption #5 is...Not Strasburg

Sorry folks, not yet...you get Marlins top prospect Mike Stanton instead. I've got $20 that says that Strasburg is either redemption #9 or #10 so that the value of these redemption cards and unsold boxes keeps getting higher and higher as more cards are eliminated and the Strasburg remains a mystery. Think about it, if they announce him as #6, then the aftermarket value of 7-10 plummets. When it's still a mystery, they stay high up until the moment his card is announced. They maximize the value of that mystery at card #9 or #10 (it doesn't matter which).

Not that I particularly care, I just hadn't seen anybody post about this yet. Personally, I'm still holding out for an Austin Jackson or Brennan Boesch to make the cut, but it's looking less and less likely that it will happen, what with Strasburg, Carlos Santana, Pedro Alvarez (coming soon...) and other call-ups to be still in the mix for the 10 card set.

Actually, I'm much more interested in the regular Topps "Red Hot Rookies" campaign, which has already eliminated Jackson as a candidate because of his inclusion in the regular Topps Series 2 set. In the two years that they've run this redemption program there have been a grand total of ZERO Tigers, despite a Top-5 ROY finisher in 2008 (Armando Galarraga) and 2009 (Rick Porcello) and a flamethrowing righthander that Topps seems to be enamored with (Ryan Perry). Is this the year that the Tigers can break through into the set?

If it didn't happen for the players I've already mentioned, what is it going to take?

Sometimes It's Worth The Wait

At the start of the year, Topps passed on some information that they were going to be running a continuity program that featured cards of star players with big MLB Logo Patches on them. Fine. The first ten of those could be found in Topps Series 1, and then the rest of the releases would get some here and some there, but with no real word on where everything would be. Well, the first Tiger in the set has found his way into our hearts, via Topps Finest:

2010 Topps Finest #LM-25 Miguel Cabrera

ooooh. Sometimes things are worth the wait.

Kind of like facing an opposing team's lights out closer and going down 0-2 before fouling off a ton of pitches and finally hitting a game-tying home run off the foul pole after a 10 pitch at bat with two outs in the bottom of the 9th. Right Miguel?*

*Or hitting a go ahead home run in the 10th inning off of a team's lights out closer to put your team ahead for good, right Curtis?

Some things are just worth the wait.

Grand Galleries: 2010 Topps Finest

I like Finest. I particularly like it when you have the chance to look at one page and see a full multi-colored refractory rainbow of a player. It was always a goal of mine to do this with Curtis Granderson cards, but I was never able to really come close. Thank goodness for Grand Galleries then, I suppose. And for living vicariously through eBay. Have you ever heard about how people get the same mental benefit from thinking about what they would do if the won the lottery as they do from actually winning the lottery? Yeah. This is kind of like that.

A few things to note: I will include printing plates as they appear, but I'm not going to soil the aesthetics of this otherwise complete page with my big "Grand Cards" logo. Also, if you want some more thoughts on Finest, please peruse my Tigers Gallery post for the set. With that, I am proud to present you with 2010 Topps Finest, the Complete Curtis Granderson collection:

#64 Curtis Granderson	#64 Curtis Granderson Refractor (#/599)	#64 Curtis Granderson Blue Ref. (#/299)
#64 Curtis Granderson Green Ref. (#/99)	#64 Curtis Granderson Gold Ref (#/50)	#64 Curtis Granderson Red Ref (#/25)
#64 Curtis Granderson Purple Ref (1/1)	#64 Curtis Granderson Printing Plate Black (1/1)	#64 Curtis Granderson Printing Plate Yellow (1/1)

Tigers Gallery Checklist: 2010 Topps Finest

Oh Topps Finest, how I adore you. For some reason, you were never on my radar as a young collector--too expensive, I suppose--and I was blissfully ignorant of your existence right up until I saw these staring back at me. Now, three years into my world, you've done it again. Bold, Shiny and Colorful you make any collector smile, and any player collector giddy with anticipation over completing the coveted "rainbow" of your cards--despite the fact that they know in their heart of hearts that it probably is not to be.

Alas, I am out of the player collection business, but I can't help but create a scenario in which I start picking up some Finest just because.

Base Set The knock on the Finest base set is that it is little. 5 Tigers, one of whom is this season's "rookie that is in every set even though he won't make the team and isn't even the third most important rookie in the system," Brent Dlugach. Dollars to Donuts says that Austin Jackson is treated to a redemption a la Rick Porcello in 2009 Finest.

As is my way, I will highlight the "base set" in the form of much better looking refractor parallels. In this case, the Blue Refractor. The "rainbow," for those keeping score, would include the base card, and the following refractors: regular (#/599), Blue (#/299), Green (#/99), Gold (#/50), Red (#/25), Purple (1/1)

Note: This is one of those sets for which there is no checklist yet, but based on what I'm seeing on eBay, I think I'm in the ballpark on this one, even as it pertains to inserts and autographs etc. As always, if I'm wrong let me know and I will correct as necessary.

#31 Miguel Cabrera	#58 Brandon Inge	#87 Justin Verlander
#101 Rick Porcello	#145 Brent Dlugach RC

Autographs Bare bones Tigers inserts and hits this year: Rick Porcello gets a "Finest Moments" autograph, which is on a sticker (BOOOOOOOO!!!). As far as I can tell, that (with it's parallel versions) is it for non-base Tiger cards in the set. Oh well. Multi-colored refractors it is then...

2010 Topps Finest #FMA-RP Rick Porcello "Finest Moments" Autograph

And that's all she wrote for Finest. I need to get some of these in hand, but from the looks of things, they stack up very nicely to the 2009 version, which was arguably my favorite design from last year.

...But Wait, There's more! Thanks to sruchris, in the comments, it turns out that there is another card on the Tigers checklist that is worth mentioning. It is a "RC Patch" for Brent Dlugach. This is different from the Manufactured Letter patches, as you will see, and is numbered to 50 copies. Essentially, it is just the picture from Dlugach's regular card, turned horizontal and with a huge rookie logo patch on it. To wit:

2010 Topps Finest #145 Brent Dlugach RC Patch Logo (#/50)

Also in the manufactured patch realm, the first Tiger to make an appearance in Topps' year-long, cross-producted "Logoman" continuity set has come to the fore. It is none other than Miguel Cabrera looking shiny and awesome:

2010 Topps Finest #LM-25 Miguel Cabrera (#/50)

It isn't a Finest card per se, it isn't branded "Finest", after all, but it comes in the packs so it goes on the list. Once they're all out, I may re-label these as part of a different Topps subset, but we'll just have to wait and see for that.

And, barring a secret redemption announcement (I wouldn't rule out a Rookie Redemption), that should be it for Tigers in Finest.

Flashing Some Green

For no reason whatsoever, I felt compelled to show off all the Green cards that I have in my still-intact Granderson collection:

2008 Triple Threads #187a Curtis Granderson Emerald (#/50)

2008 Triple Threads #187b Curtis Granderson Emerald (#/50)

2008 UD Heroes #60 Curtis Granderson Emerald (#/499)

2008 UD Heroes #60 Curtis Granderson Emerald Relic (#/25)

2008 UD Spectrum #SS-GR Curtis Granderson Green Relic (#/50)

2008 UD First Edition #SQ-39 Curtis Granderson Starquest

2008 Goudey #69 Curtis Granderson Green Mini (#/88)

2007 Triple Threads #129a Curtis Granderson Emerald (#/50)n

2008 Topps Co-Signers #33a Curtis Granderson Green (#/200)

2009 Topps Finest #102 Curtis Granderson Green (#/99)

2009 Topps #CBQR-CG Curtis Granderson Career Best Quad (#/20)

Now please continue to enjoy your otherwise nondescript Wednesday.

Tigers Checklist: 2009 Finest

When I started to do these checklists last week I said something that I'm going to need to clarify. I said that I wouldn't be worrying about creating checklists of parallel sets. I called them the bane of my existence. I think this needs a little more clarification. Parallels are a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine, mostly because I find that they often are better looking than their "base" counterparts. They only become burdensome and awful when they are 1) indistinguishable from, 2) unambiguously worse looking than their base cards. Or if the parallels come in a million unnecessary versions. Topps Co-Signers comes to mind. Meanwhile, sets like Topps Finest, or even good 'ol Topps Chrome has easy to understand parallel versions that improve on the original.

That being said, I'm still not going to show pictures of the base set, and catalog all the parallel sets and show pictures of all of those. If you want the full list, that's what the master checklist is for. Still, sometimes the parallel versions are so nice looking that I may feel like showing them off in lieu of the base set.

Such is the case with Topps Finest. In 2009, Finest produced another great looking set--in my opinion an enormous improvement on 2008. Best among the set were the multiple parallel set iterations, each in a different beautiful color. I've chosen to showcase the Blue ones (#/399) here. Unfortunately, scanner technology has not advanced to the point where the true beauty of refractors can be captured on screen. Fortunately, the shiny base cards don't look much better. So be it.

With that, your 2009 Finest Detroit Tigers--shown in their Blue Refractor Form:

#30 Magglio Ordonez	#43 Gary Sheffield	#95 Miguel Cabrera
#102 Curtis Granderson	#141 Chris Lambert RC	Rookie Redemption Rick Porcello

Oh, right. Finest had a "Rookie Redemption" program where they incrementally revealed the players that would be included on numbered cards. Porcello was #9 in the program. Shown here is the redemption card itself--the actual card that comes as a result of the redemption has not yet surfaced.

UPDATE--now seen here is the actual (non-refractor, sorry) Porcello card that was the result of the redemption. Enjoy!

Shiny Happy Cardboard People

Blogging is an outlet, which means that I can project shiny happiness despite having just spent all of yesterday at airports, being delayed by multiple hours to get down to my final destination of the not-New Orleans or Baton Rouge parts of Louisiana. Where it is raining. Consider prolonged blog absence explained.

Anyway, this is a good early morning post, as I set myself up for some positive thinking. All of these cards came in over the last few weeks.

I love Refractors on cards. They are awesome. In fact, I've found that I have grown tired of regular chrome cards, to the point where they don't capture my attention at all, but give me some rainbow-reflecting parallels and I'll just lap them up. Like this one:

2009 Bowman Chrome #26 Curtis Granderson Refractor

I already liked Curtis' regular Bowman card this year, and the chrome refractor--especially when you can capture it with the right ratio of colored streaks--is outstanding. Truly outstanding are things like the blue-border refractors and the lower numbered parallels, but those are harder to come by, and therefore not yet in my collection.

With the technology the same, it is no surprise that the Topps Chrome version looks just as good.

2009 Topps Chrome #120 Curtis Granderson Refractor

Seriously. I might consider abandoning my entire collection just to go after all of Granderson's chrome refractors of things, in their multi-paralleled glory. Just look how much better it is than the regular card:

2009 Topps Chrome #120 Curtis Granderson

Not even close.

One exception to this can be found in Topps Finest, where this years cards were uniformly outstanding. The base cards were nothing to sneeze at--they had more dimension than your typical shiny cards--but again, the refractors really pop:

2009 Topps Finest #102 Curtis Granderson Refractor

Of course, Topps hasn't always hit the nail on the head. I was thoroughly unimpressed with what they offered in Topps Co-Signers. To quote myself:

It is fine, I guess, but for me it is way too shiny. That shine is not classy and visually stimulating like Topps Chrome, it is disorienting and bothersome, like a mirror to a cat. Notice my hands and camera sharply reflecting off the card.

2008 Topps Co-Signers #33 Curtis Granderson Green Parallel (#180/200)

See? Way too shiny. Co-Signers was card fail, even in the rarer parallel versions. Kind of. It was fail until I got the "hyper-plaid" parallel versions. I will use my pictures here in place of 3000 words:

2008 Topps Co-Signers #33 Curtis Granderson HyperPlaid Blue (#18/50)

2009 Topps Co-Signers #33 Curtis Granderson HyperPlaid Red (#024/100)

2008 Topps Co-Signers #33 Curtis Granderson HyperPlaid Bronze (#12/75)

Those are awesome. It just goes to show that there are good cards in bad products. Topps may never make these again, and the pictures may not even do them proper justice, so I recommend running out and picking up a "hyper-plaid" card for yourself. They are like Xfractors on acid.

So, that's it for today. Shiny cards abound to brighten up my dreary day on the Bayou. Regular posting should continue in the future as soon as I'm back surrounded by the comforts of home (and can take more pictures of new cards).

Curtis Granderson Into The Record Books

The Tigers are scratching and clawing their way towards a playoff spot, and over the last two days Curtis Granderson has come out of hiding to help out in whatever way he can. I'm not sure that anyone would say that he's had an Illustrious career...

2007 UD Black #IL-GC Curtis Granderson/Coco Crisp Illustrious Dual Auto (#17/50)

...Uh, ok I guess some people were willing to make this claim in 2007, but the rest of us realize that we're watching a player who is still coming into his own.

Yesterday that meant going 3-6 with a triple, three RBIs (one on each of his three hits) and 2 Runs. The Triple the other way was this close to being a Home Run, but couldn't quite make it, meaning we were treated to a sight that has been so prevalent the last few years:

2008 Topps Finest #95 Curtis Granderson Gold Xfractor (#08/25)

By the end of the night the Tigers had pulled together a huge comeback and stayed two games ahead of the white-hot Twins. Enter Sunday's series finale in Chicago. Granderson was in the game in his customary leadoff spot when Crack

2009 Detroit News Inserts Curtis Granderson

A leadoff homerun. Sound familiar? Maybe you've heard me talk Granderson the leadoff home run machine before. Sure enough, unless I'm mistaken (we're mid-game so none of the post game stories have been written yet) Granderson now rests atop the ALL TIME list for leadoff home runs by a Detroit Tiger, with his 24th (his 28th HR of the season).

Oh, but that's not all. In case that fine moment isn't enough, his record setting home run just happened to be his 100th of his career.

2008 Topps Finest #FM-CG Curtis Granderson Finest Moments Gold Xfractor (#08/25)

I know Curtis is modest guy, but that seems like two good reasons to raise your arms up and celebrate. With his bat seemingly getting hot at the right time, we may be treated to some spectacular fall colors in Detroit, and I think that slowly but surely (and despite a lot of the negativity surrounding him this year) people will realize that Granderson is a one-of-a-kind anchor for this franchise.

2008 Topps Stadium Club Curtis Granderson Sketch Card (1 of 1)

This bounty of cards was the culmination of me getting behind schedule on scanning and posting (shocker), with these packages having trickled in over the last few months.

6 in 30 from the Granderson Binder

At the start of this week, just as I was heading out of town, I realized that I could spare a quick 30 seconds to give Dinged Corners' great 6 in 30 idea a try.

Step one was to figure out which binder to use. I've got a Topps Tigers Binder from 1980-1999 (with some older cards thrown in), another one from 2000-2009, a Topps Gold Binder, and a Misc. sets binder with things like A&G, Heritage and Goudey. My Granderson cards used to share this binder, but as of two weeks ago, they were given their own dedicated binder. Once I thought about it, it seemed like the decision was obvious. So now I give you 6 cards pulled in 30 seconds from my brand new Curtis Granderson binder.

2006 Upper Deck #174 Curtis Granderson Special F/X Red (#12/50)

This is one of my all-time favorite Granderson cards, because of the close-up, over the shoulder angle on the card. I also really liked the 2006 Upper Deck design, and it was the Tigers' World Series year to boot. The base card had a number of parallel versions of which this was one, and the color-saturated special f/x effect is really neat. I especially like the red stamped serial number. Of course, it is no surprise that I picked this card first out of the binder--it is the basis of my little "Grand Cards" icon after all.

2008 UDX X-CG Curtis Granderson "Xponential"

Oh, I've talked about this card before. It is outstanding. (So good that Upper Deck re-used the picture for 2009 Goudey.)

2008 Topps Finest #FM-CG Curtis Granderson Blue Refractor (#149/299)

I've found myself drawn to Topps Finest recently, as I really like the Granderson card that they've put out. In 2008, the year after Granderson's 20-20-20-20 season, they had a base card, but also this "Finest Moments" insert. This is another of my favorite Granderson shots, and I think that the blue refractor just lets this card shine.

2008 Allen & Ginter #RC11 Curtis Granderson Rip Card (#39/75)

I got this sucker in a trade with Duane from Democratic Roadkill some time back, and absolutely love it. This is A&G taken to the max. It is so good, that I don't even care that there is a huge rip in the back of the card. Not important--look at that front! To quote myself when I wrote about it originally:

It looks the the Union Army was using Granderson to take out Confederates by hitting baseballs into a valley to pick them off one-by-one and he is looking into the distance as his most recent hit approaches its unsuspecting victim.

Yeah it does.

2009 Allen & Ginter Curtis Granderson Silk (#4/10)

A brand new, heretofore unshowcased on this blog card, also from Allen & Ginter. It is silk. It has a shiny, fancy frame. It is numbered to 10 copies and it is undeniably awesome. For no good reason, I think that silk cards are fantastic. I think it is the texture that it adds to the picture--I'm tired of things that are too shiny, I want some gritty authenticity. Certainly, a silk card wouldn't meet that criteria, but I feel like we're only a step away from "Topps Burlap" or "Topps Birch Bark" or something like that (or Topps Canvas, which would really make the most sense). Look at the world's great masterpieces and there is one consistent theme--texture. I'm just saying.

2008 UD Goudey #69 Curtis Granderson Red Back Mini

I was running out of time here, and was actually trying to grab the black mini, which I like better, but I'm missing a light above my desk so it was kind of dark and I mixed up the blue and black in my last second grab. I really do like this card a lot--I think that it is among the best of 2008 Goudey, but I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't muster one or two more binder page flips to see if I liked something from 2009 better, but when I thought about it later, I'm really not sure that I do.