A Granderson Break

We take a break from this moment of Tigers frustration, to remind our readers of yesterday's news, as yet unreported on this site.

2010 eTopps #37 Curtis Granderson (#/699)

Curtis Granderson is in this week's eTopps offering. That makes his this his third eTopps card (2006, 2007), and his first as a Yankee. Although he has struggled this year, his general likability has delayed the wrath of the Yankee faithful. Three home runs in two days doesn't hurt either. The card will be on sale through Friday via the eTopps website.

Now, we return to our regularly scheduled programming, in which my wildest dreams entail the Tigers hitting sacrifice flies, or maybe, just maybe scoring when there are runners in scoring position and less than two outs.

(Also, I realize that this site has been slim pickings for Granderson content of late. That's because most of it is either a) critical, or b) non-existent, and since this blog is a dictatorship, I'm shielding all of you from Granderson-related negativity. Not really, I just haven't been able to find the good stuff for whatever reason. I'll keep seeking out his cards and posting them up though, and when something important happens, you'll be sure to hear about it.)

A Cardboard Banana Tree

Hot on the heels of Austin Jackson's Major League Baseball cards debut, eTopps comes through with a card for Basho himself:

2010 eTopps #16 Brennan Boesch (#/749)

Boesch is the "Restricted Rookie Offering" of this week's new eTopps cards. The cards will (theoretically) be available through Thursday, at a price of $5.50. There will be 749 copies of the card made available.

Again, this is an eTopps card, so some of the luster is missing--the card doesn't actually exist yet, for one--but Austin Jackson followed his up with a card in Bowman, and is in Topps Series 2 as well. Is Basho soon to follow? If not Topps Series 2, can I get a Red Hot Rookie?

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Austin Jackson Cracks the Card World

Sure, he's got an insert in 2010 Topps Pro Debut, and he has some older Bowman stuff, but let's get on with the show. A real, live, major-league uniform wearing baseball card of Austin Jackson.

2010 eTopps #4 Austin Jackson RC (#/999)

Ok, it's eTopps. But still, this is Jackson's first Major League card, his first "official" rookie card and his first card in a Tigers uniform of any variety (even though it is a spring training photo.) eTopps or no eTopps, those are all good things.

The card is having it's "public offering" right now with an IPO price of $6.00 and a print run limited to 999 copies. So if you, like everybody else these days, are speeding away on the Ajax bandwagon, here's your chance.

On a related note, who wants to place bets that he is announced as Topps Finest Rookie Redemption #3 within the next 10 days? That's where my money is.

Mail Day! (Encore Edition)

Another day, another pair of bubble mailers in the mailbox! Greg at Lake Effect Cards sent me a surprise package of "things off my wantlist" that he had come across recently. I've anxiously waited wondering what that could mean. So when I opened the package, how pleased was I to see...
A 1989 Upper Deck Detroit Tigers Team Set!

Somehow, I had ONE of these cards, despite 1989 being the start of my career as a young collector. I have a bunch of 89 Topps, Donruss, Score, Fleer etc., but very few Upper Decks--maybe because the packs were so expensive at the time. I've been slowly and casually trying to put together sets of Tigers base cards from Upper Deck, but I still only had one from 1989 Upper Deck. Now, thanks to Greg, I have a legitimate starting point for my Upper Deck binder, instead of a haphazard page of random cards from sets that I didn't have enough of to justify a full page. Also, this set features the wonderful card of Gary Pettis looking at HIS OWN BASEBALL CARD FROM THAT SET! See?
Awesome.

Thanks Greg!

The other package was also awesome, but for very different reasons.

2007 eTopps A&G Milestones #10 Curtis Granderson (#/999)

This is the first eTopps card that I've ever seen in person. The pictures that are available online, both through eTopps and eBay belie how shiny these cards are. Good lord! These are really reflective in the way that Topps Co-Signers parallels were reflective and even the smallest bit of light casts a huge refractor rainbow all over the card. All of that makes the card really stand out and is an interesting departure from a normal A&G card. As a whole, I like the card alot--and it uses one of my favorite Granderson shots, the same one from his 2008 Topps Finest Moments card, just Allen & Ginterized. A+ job on this one, even if it is a touch too shiny. It also comes encased in a sealed eTopps container, which is fine, I guess (especially considering I don't have any mini binder pages), but it kind of rattles around in there and will have to go in the box with all of the autos and relics that I have in toploaders instead of in a binder.

The back of the card features a description of his 2007 20/20/20/20 feat, has the serial number and the Topps Hologram for authenticity sake. All in all, a very nice card to add to my collection, and I am much happier that I have it in-hand instead of in the eTopps Vault.


So that's it for packages! What a way to end the week with a flourish. That, and I'm all caught up on sending packages on my end, so I can just sit back, watch some basketball and enjoy the weekend. Maybe while continuing to do some behind the scenes cleaning on checklists etc.

By the way, my Tigers Wantlist, Tradelist and Granderson Checklist are perpetually being updated for those of you interested in Trading with me, although for any pre-2008 Granderson card, glance through my collection first, as my checklist for those is in the process of being updated.