USA Looking to the UK

Coronavirus has changed the way the entire world has operated in 2020.

Many of us know someone that has been impacted by it.  Some of us may even know someone who may have passed away from it.

The United States is mere days away from a vaccine and I don't want this to get political, but the United States will continue to monitor the United Kingdom very closely to see the reactions caused by the COVID-19 vaccine.

I mentioned a few days ago that I didn't understand why Topps needed to make the Topps UK product.

That didn't stop me from adding 3 cards to my collection though.  I already showed the base and the blue parallels.  

Because I didn't need to get all of the parallels I focused on just adding the one that really stood out to me as a unique parallel.  The Big Ben parallel is the most unique of all the Topps UK product.  It is based on the Elizabeth Tower, formerly known as Big Ben.  The tower was officially completed in 1859 and is one of the most iconic buildings in the world.

I had to add it to the collection, because unlike the gold, blue, or purple parallels actually has a connection to the United Kingdom.

It features a red and white colored design to go with the iconic building.  

It is very similar to the Independence Day parallels that Topps Flagship has been doing since 2018.

What do you think of these two parallels?

Should the Big Ben have had a numbering relevant to the tower? Maybe 12 to mark the name change to Elizabeth Tower or 59 to recognize the year the tower was completed.

Happy I Got Fat

The title may be misleading.

2018 Bowman Platinum had a few different parallels that were exclusive to different types of packs.

The icy foil parallels are exclusive to value packs and the sky blue parallels were exclusive to Fat Packs.

That's where this blog post is heading regarding me getting fat.

I have had the foilfractor 1/1 for almost 2 years, but hadn't gotten the sky blue parallel.

Well now I can cross off the sky blue

And I love the shiny foilboard this card has

Well thanks to some spare change, I finally got one.

Yup for less money than a toll on the NJ Turnpike I snagged this fat pack exclusive.

This was one of those rare cards that looks shiny, yet gets absolutely zero attention from collectors.  

22 + 78 = 100 and it's awesome!!!

I spoke about these Elite before when I showed the 2014 counterparts.  You can revisit that post here.

I like die-cuts for baseball cards.  I'll admit it.

I also really like math.

Math is fun and these Elite cards prove it.

Elite has a pair of die-cuts that are relevant to the player's jersey number.  

In this case, Andrew McCutchen's jersey number is 22 so the "Status"  card is limited to 22 copies.

The "Inspirations" is limited to 100-player's jersey number.  This being 78.

22 + 78 = 100

The Status /22 is my most recent pickup of a card I have wanted for 5+ years.  I couldn't believe how cheap this low numbered card went for.

What are some of your favorite die-cuts ever made?

Have you been able to get any cards you've wanted for 5+ years recently for pennies on the dollar? Any bargains that have also been top 10 card wants? Share your stories below

R.I.P Richie "Dick" Allen

Richie Allen, also known as Dick Allen, passed away yesterday.  

While I was too young to ever see him play, I have seen video footage and his statlines over my lifetime of being a casual baseball fan.

Dick Allen accomplished a lot in his 15 year career.

He won the Rookie of Year in 1964

He won the MVP in 1972

He was a 7 time All-Star

And he received MVP votes in all but 3 seasons which he played 100+ games

Many consider him a borderline Hall of Famer with his 1,848 hits and .912 OPS.  He finished with 1,099 runs scored and 1,119 RBI and 351 HR.  Him and Tony Oliva both fell 1 vote shy for the Hall of Fame in 2015 by the Veterans Committee. 

I don't actually have this card in hand yet, but it is part of my COMC order shipping next month.

His number 15 was retired September 3rd, 2020 by the Phillies. Unfortunately due to this past season no fans were able to give Dick a proper cheering and goodbye. 

Many Hall of Famers have said many kind words of Allen both in his life and his untimely death.  Mike Schmidt has gone on to say that Allen was a mentor to him. Goose Gossage had said he was the strongest hitter he ever had to face. 

The only interaction I ever had with Dick Allen was liking a tweet he made over the summer.

I showed off my Uncle Larry collection of Cutch only a few weeks ago, which you can revisit here.

In that post there was a few other customs I forgot to show off.

I showed off some tobacco style cards custom cards here.

I also got a sticker by Daniel Champion (who makes some of the most amazing comic art baseball themed prints you will ever find).  His website is popflypopshop.com/.  He currently has a limited edition Dave "The Cobra" Parker print for sale which I am showing below.

The post where I showed off the gold sticker is here.

And I have this custom 1988 Donruss inspired card that someone on Twitter sent me.

Much like the rest of 1988 products it is horribly off center.

I also have these gold stickers.

Needless to say I have a good collection of this image of Cutch, which the great Dick Allen said is the "coolest baseball card ever".

I have to agree with the original 1-5, number 15 Dick Allen.

I don't want to sound too morbid, but if there were ever a year to field a baseball team of former players who passed away, this year has a heck of a squad ready to roll out.

Lou Brock

Joe Morgan

AL Kaline

Richie Allen

Tony Fernandez

Jimmy Wynn

Pitching: Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, Whitey Ford, Don Larsen, and Mike McCormick

A "Big" Addition to the PC

Sometimes I come across a card that really makes me say Wow!

Topps usually saves their "Big sick mojo grail hits" for their high end releases like Dynasty, Diamond Icons, Definitive, Triple Threads, and Museum.  

Rarely do you see large jumbo patches in their flagship releases. 

There is one exception to that though and that is Topps Update.  Topps Update usually has cards from the All-Star Game.  These traditionally feature a small swatch and the cards are called All-Star Stitches.  Occasionally you will get multiplayer relics from the All-Star Games and I have shown some of these pairings off in the past. 

But for many of the starters of the All-Star Game Topps releases big, chunky, jumbo patches and they're usually serially numbered to 6 copies or less.

I have shown off the 2011 All-Star Game jumbo patch here.  That game was Cutch's 1st All-Star Game and was played in Arizona.

In 2012 Cutch elevated his game to not only be the unanimous best player on the Pirates, but he became a top 5 player in the entire game, finishing 3rd in the NL MVP voting.  He not only played in the game and stole a base, but he also participated in the Home Run Derby.  

Look at this!

Not only does the card have a big prime patch from the National League workout jerseys, but it has a very jovial fun loving image of Cutch.  I think that Topps (and Panini) miss opportunities like this to show off the fun side of players and put them on cardboard.  

It's numbered to only 6 copies on the front of the card and clearly states what game, event, and season this relic is from.  That is something you don't see too often with Topps products these days.

I now have a jumbo patch from Topps Update for Cutch's 2011, 2012, and 2015 All Star Game appearances.  I'm still looking for a 2013 and 2014. 

Why does this exist? 🇬🇧

Baseball may no longer be considered America's top sport, but I have to believe it's popularity in the UK hasn't surpassed the USA.  

I will be very open and admit that I am not tuned into the culture of the United Kingdom.  Most of my knowledge resides from things like Doctor Who, Hayley Atwell, and 007 movies.  I just didn't think there was a big demand for Major League Baseball in London.

I am all for getting the game more global and having fans around the world know who Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, and Fernando Tatis Jr are, but this latest release by Topps has me scratching my head.

Topps UK is an online exclusive release using many of the same images as Topps Flagship Series 1 and 2, but with a small UK Flag in the corner.  

For five players the images used on their cards are from the 2019 London Series which saw the Yankees play the Red Sox in London.  JD Martinez and Michael Chavis represent the Red Sox lone London Series cards.  Aaron Judge, Didi Gregorious, and DJ LeMahieu represent the Yankees for the London Series images.

The set is limited to only 200 cards so it is basically only the best of the best in the league.

It was originally sold on Topps UK site with a strong intention of not being sold to North American buyers.  

The set does have some exclusive inserts and of course there are parallels to chase. 

First up for the parallels is the most defining image, Big Ben.  The Big Ben parallels are limited to 99 copies.  

Other parallels involve colors such as blue (/75), purple (/50), gold (/25), red (/5), and platinum (1/1).

As you can see above the imagery for the parallels looks very standard to what you may find from a United States release, but with the Union Jack in the corner.

The back designates that it is a UK Edition above the card number.  Cards marked with a serial number are identified under the card number.

Among the inserts are historical figures and iconic British landmarks.  These appear 1 in 4 packs and have color parallels to chase like Gold, Red, and Platinum.

There are also 10 players with sticker autographs in the set with a print run of 10 on average per player.  Some of the names to chase after are Judge, Bellinger, Acuna, and Trout. 

🇬🇧What do you think about Topps UK?🇬🇧

🇬🇧 Would the set have had more appeal on the secondary market if it was truly limited to only those living "across the pond from US"? 🇬🇧

What's on the Sheff's Menu: Entry 2

Last month I discussed my appreciation for Gary Sheffield and how he was a favorite player of mine growing up.  The bat speed, strong arm, and angry swagger made me really like him in my little league days and early teen years at high school.  

My all time favorite player is obviously Andrew McCutchen.

Each month I am going to try to show off a card of Gary Sheffield that has also had the design used for an Andrew McCutchen card.  You can view all items on the Sheff's Menu by clicking here.  (Title for this subject to change and open for suggestions)

Today I am going to look at the Donruss Studio line.

Donruss Studio began in 1991.

It quickly became known as a set for getting to know the actual faces of the game by not only showing bust up shots of the players, but also getting more personal on the backs.

Early Studio releases didn't talk about stats, they talked about hobbies and heroes.

I didn't go through all the card backs and tried to shy away from the "Superstars" of the release time so I can get a better understanding of what athletes were into in 1991.

Well we learn that John Smiley, Pirates pitcher, and Juan Gonzalez, Rangers Outfielder, both enjoy watching Miami Vice.

Do you think that Joe Girardi and Goose Gossage ever got together to talk about their favorite Sanford & Son episodes?  Did you even know they both liked that show?

1991 Studio provided us with that tidbit of information.

Studio was made until 1998, then resurrected in 2003 and lasted for a few more years before becoming an insert set in 2014-2016 Donruss releases.  1993 Studio also had one of the coolest insert sets ever made for the early 90s Junk Wax Era when they had modern players wear the old throwback uniforms. 

It is the original 1991 design that was used in 2013 for a Panini Father's Day product that we are going to look at today.

Here are the Cutch and Sheff side by side.

As you can see, much of the original 1991 design was sustained for this limited hobby store only release in 2013.  The photos are black and white with a border.

The biggest difference is the city name replacing the team logo in the bottom left corner and the complete omission of player position in the bottom right corner.

And here are the backs.

The most notable difference on the back is the current is a sepia style card back, where the original 1991 is strictly black and white.  PERSONAL, CAREER, HOBBIES & INTERESTS are all still featured on the back.  The biggest omission is that we no longer know who the athlete's hero is. The copyright details are also different since Panini only has a player's license and not an MLB license. 

Overall, I thought the 2013 Panini Father's Day paid a very nice homage to the 1991 Studio set. Due to legal reasons there are some things they can't do with the set now that they were able to do back then and I actually like the Sepia tone more on the back than the traditional black and white.

Couple questions for today

Did you collect 1991 Studio at release and what were your thoughts on it?

(Without cheating) Can you recognize these 6 players? Hint, they all won an MVP Award