Getting Into the Trading Game

Featured Card: 2009 Topps Silk Collection #(S158), Jamie Moyer

I haven’t properly used my massive collection of doubles as trade bait to fill holes in my own Phillies collection, and I’ve decided to proactively change this. So, I have now added a Want List page and I will slowly populate it over the coming weeks. In addition, I have created a Trade Bait page that contains cards that I hope other collectors are interested in trading for. Like the Want List page, I will be slowly populating this over the coming days and weeks. As I’m sure is the case with most collectors, this is being done as a way of cutting back on the money I’m spending — not to mention clearing away a lot of baseball cards that are otherwise just taking up space in my home. (Other Phillies collectors, take note: I have a ridiculous number of Phillies available for trade — the Moyer card shown here is not one of them, however.)

I’m willing to do trades in two different fashions. First, is the more traditional  exchange want lists and see what can be worked out. The second, and I must admit this harbors a lot of appeal to me, is to send a batch of 200 random, different cards (base cards, parallels, and inserts) from the same team in exchange for each 10 of 10 Phillies cards I need. Yes, you read that right — I don’t mind “losing” in a monetary sense because I’m placing a lot of personal value on clearing space. In fact, I’m willing to “lose” on trades handled in the first manner as well.

If you have a trade you would like to work out, check out my Gravatar profile to get my email address.

Wish List for 2014

Featured Cards: 1992 Donruss #94, Tommy Greene; 2013 Leaf Memories 1990 Buyback Autographs #474, Terry Mulholland; 2005 Topps Total #423, Cory Lidle; 1922 American Caramel (E120) no #, Jimmy Ring; 2007 Upper Deck/Majestic Phillies Alumni Night #9, Jamie Moyer; 2013 Topps Emerald #647, Ben Revere

Given that we’re already entering the last week of January and that most of the major card releases for the next few months are already in some stage of production that makes alterations impossible, stating a wish list of Phillies baseball cards for the coming year is probably a futile gesture. However, I’m nonetheless determined to plow through with the idea. So, here’s my wish list of items I’d love to see from Topps or Panini at some point this year, or, failing that, at some point within the next couple years.

1. Combo Cards
These could either be inserts or subsets — I don’t care. However they’re issued, there are plenty of awesome combo cards of just Phillies that haven’t been produced for some unknown reason, and all of them make much more sense than producing a dual autograph booklet of Carlos Ruiz & John Kruk. Although autographed and/or memorabilia versions of the cards would be awesome, “plain,” unadorned versions of these cards would be completely acceptable. To whit: Cy Young Award winners with John Denny, Steve Bedrosian, Steve Carlton, and Roy Halladay; any combination of the five living ex-Phillies who’ve thrown a no-hitter; a proper MVP-trio card of just Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard, and Mike Schmidt; a ROY-trio card of Dick Allen, Scott Rolen, and Ryan Howard; an NLCS MVP card of Gary Matthews, Curt Schilling, Cole Hamels, and Manny Trillo; & a Ruben Amaro, Sr. and Ruben Amaro, Jr., because why the hell not!

2. Autograph Cards
A couple years ago, I posted my original list of former players I’d love to see appear as a Phillie on autograph card. Since making that list, Juan Samuel and Terry Mulholland finally appeared on one. However, the six other noteworthy former Phils are still in desperate need of one: Tony Taylor, Cookie Rojas, Dallas Green, John Denny, Art Mahaffey, Tommy Greene, & Rick Wise. To that list, I’d like to add: Brad Lidge, who despite a perfect season in 2008 and retiring as a Phillie has never received a Phillies autograph card; Charlie Manuel, for obvious reasons; Dave Cash, three-time all-star while with the club; Pedro Feliz, the only starting member of the 2008 World Series club without an autograph card as a Phillie; Jamie Moyer, for sentimental reasons; & Matt Stairs, for the same reason as Moyer, only more so.

In addition, there are a few other Phillies who have appeared on autograph cards, but in my opinion could use at least a few more. Curt Schilling and Jim Thome immediately come to mind, but believe it or not, I would also include Rollins as he, comparatively speaking, has not been as well represented on autograph cards as some of the other players on the team over the years. I know that in the future, after his retirement, any autographed cards of Rollins will certainly picture him as Phillie, but I don’t want to wait for those.

3. A Simple, Comprehensive Base Set
Yes, I’m beating a dead horse with this one, but I really would like to see a base set, from Topps, along the lines of one of the great sets from the 1993 season. Hell, I’d be happy with something that looked like one of the Topps Total sets from the mid ’00s at this point. This set would feature minimal parallels (just one or two), no foil stamping (fine, put it on the parallels if you absolutely must have foil), simple gloss, full-color fronts and backs, and every player on the team. Given that the parallels are limited, I am willing to allow a crazy number of inserts — hell, the manufacturers were already issuing those en masse by 1993, so it’s only appropriate and fair.

4. A New Retro-Inspired Design
I really like the Gypsy Queen line — although it really would’ve been nice to see Topps completely embrace the idea of the original set in the manner I laid out in the early days of this blog — but based on what I’ve seen in the previews of this year’s set, it’s probably time to retire it (and Allen & Ginter, truth be told) and resurrect and/or borrow from some other pre-WW II set. However, the well is admittedly running dry, and there aren’t too many good candidates left. However, the 1922 American Caramel Series of 240 (E120) was an interesting design that hasn’t been revived as a set, and it has the added bonus of being a set where it actually makes perfect sense to make a sepia version! There’s even an historical precedent for parallels with different backs, seeing as many different companies in the early ’20s appropriated the E120 set and used their own advertising on the back. Other than that, the 1895 Mayo’s Cut Plug might work nicely, and, if it’s done properly — that is, a similar style of artwork is used or photos are given a treatment and airbrushed to appear similar — the 1912 T207 Brown Border might be an interesting experiment.

Failing all that, it would be interesting to see a new card design that attempts to look like a set from the pre-WW II era but doesn’t actually look like a previously-issued set. Get some art design experts on it, and I’m sure they could cobble something really nice together.

5. A Standard-Sized SGA Phillies Set
During the mid ’00s, the Phillies did a great job of working with various card companies to produce exclusive SGA sets. The quality of the sets varied greatly. Some, such as the 2002 Nabisco-Acme Phillies set, were hideous while a couple others, especially the Fleer 2003 Ultra All-Vet Phillies Team, were amazing. Most of the sets, however, fell well between these two extremes. Outside of the Fan Appreciation Day postcard sets, the club hasn’t really issued a set of this type for some time now. It would be nice to see them do so again — especially if it results in the only standard-sized Phillies card for some lucky player on the team — such as Rick White’s appearance in the 2006 Topps Phillies Fan Appreciation Day set.

And finally…

6. Topps Returns to Sanity With the Parallels
Look, I am fully aware that a significant number of collectors love parallels, and truth be told, Topps loves them for their own reasons. However, 17 different parallels (counting the printing plates) for the 2013 Topps flagship set was way too fucking much. I’d be happy if Topps just cut the number in half (much happier if they whittled it down further, but I’m trying to be realistic).

So that’s my wish list of Phillies baseball cards. I’m going to send a message via Twitter to Topps and Panini and let them know that they are welcome to steal from my list (not that I expect either of them to do anything at all with my suggestions). Anyone else have something they’d like to add? Even if you’re not a Phillies fan/collector, I’d love to see other ideas of what people would like to see on a baseball card.

2011 Topps Heritage ’62 Mint

Set Type: Insert
Card dimensions: 2½” x 3½”
Additional Information/14,000 Phillies Commentary: Inserted in packs of 2011 Topps Heritage. The cards contain a coin actually struck by the US Mint in 1962. The coin is held into place in a manner similar to that used by Topps with its Framed Mini Relic cards. Beckett refers to the set as “2011 Topps Heritage 62 Mint Coins.”

62M-JM

Jamie Moyer

2011 Phillies Cards in Review: Parallel Card of the Year

To those who’ve been keeping up with 14,000 Phillies over the past few months, I’m sure that this category might seem somewhat bewildering. After all, I posted a rather lengthy five-part missive back in September wherein I unleashed a furious lobby of Sturm und Drang at parallels. However, that does not mean I completely despise them. After all, I’ve actually posted more than a few scans of parallel cards since beginning the blog, so clearly I collect more than a few of them. In fact, while I do believe that parallels are mostly a waste of my time and resources, occasionally I find myself pleasantly surprised by a particular parallel card or series, and I wish to celebrate the best of those in my 2011 Phillies Cards in Review.

I’ll start with the Parallel Card of the Year. The primary factor here is that the parallel captures a little something extra that base card design lacked. In other words, whatever changes Topps made with the parallel actually made the parallel card more desirable than its base set counterpart. (The same criteria applies to the Parallel Series of the year, but more on that tomorrow.) In particular, there were two cards this year where the parallel was a marked improvement. The first was Jamie’s Moyer’s Target Retro Logo parallel. I know that Topps made such a parallel for every card in the set, but I think that there should be a new rule: as an acknowledgement of how hard it is to do, Topps should put out a parallel card bearing the old logo only for those players still playing past their 40th birthday. I especially love the fact that the back of the card uses the same dark, harder-to-read plain cardboard back that Topps employed right up to the end of the ’80s. Do this only for all the old-timers! Unfortunately, the Target Retro Logo parallels have a fatal flaw: there’s foil (a holdover from the base set) all over the front of the damn thing. With no foil on it, this card easily wins the Parallel Card of the Year award.

So, thanks to this drawback — one that is just too hard to overlook — the winner of the Parallel Card of the Year Award goes to…

Mike Schmidt for his 2011 Lineage 1975 Mini!

Admittedly, the jury is horribly biased — I love it when Topps reuses old designs. But what made this parallel all the better is that because Schmidt appeared in the 1975 set, it was like Topps was resurrecting the Topps Fan Favorites line all over again. In fact, there was one attention to detail that I especially loved: the card uses the same color configuration on the borders as Schmidt’s original 1975 card. Unfortunately, like the Target Retro Logo cards, Topps’s execution on Lineage 1975 Minis was flawed. In regards to Schmidt’s parallel, the Lineage 1975 mini lists his position as “Third Baseman” whereas the original 1975 card listed it as “3rd Base.” I have a couple other small nitpicks, but none of them are as egregious as the foil on the Retro Logos, and since we’re celebrating our winner, we’ll save those comments for some other post.

Tomorrow: Parallel Series of the Year

Featured Cards: 2011 Topps Opening Day Blue #102, Carlos Ruiz; 2011 Topps Target Retro Logo #232, Jamie Moyer; 2011 Topps Lineage 1975 Mini #53, Mike Schmidt

Illustrating a Point

Featured cards: 2011 Topps #232, Jamie Moyer; & the card’s Diamond Anniversary, Gold, Target Retro and Wal Mart Black Border parallels

I decided to use Jamie Moyer just to illustrate a point, but it could have been far worse. Just for the hell of it, I decided to get all the parallels of his Topps card this year. However, imagine if I had chosen a Phillie (i.e., Utley or Halladay) who had a sparkle variation and also appeared in the 2011 Topps Opening Day set. We’re talking three more versions of essentially the same card, and I’m not even including the Platinum, Gold Canary Diamond and Printing Plate parallels — which are all 1/1. Then there’s Topps Chrome, due out later this month, which far more often than not reuses the exact same damn photo and design. This madness needs to stop. Sadly, neither Topps nor MLB shows any inclination to curtail the atrocity that parallels have become.

By the way, the fact that the Diamond Anniversary parallel scan came out the clearest amuses me to no end.