A Thing That Happened While I Was Writing My Next Post

My originally intended next post was going to be a write up about my progress on the 2001 Fleer Tradition Stitches in Time set. However, research and writing has been taking me longer than expected. So, today I decided to take a break so I could offer up some thoughts on a recent collecting trend.

I'm sure that many of you have heard/read about the new on-demand offeriring, Topps Project 2020. The concept here didn't initially grab my interest. The description from the website: 'a year-long collection on Topps.com that visually reimagines the baseball cards that have defined generations, ushering in a new era of seminal artwork. Topps is collaborating with a cast of 20 artists from around the globe, ranging from famed streetwear designers, tattoo and graffiti artists, and one of the premiere jewelry designers on the planet. Each Artist will recreate all 20 cards.' The first thought that came to my mind when I heard about this was 'just what we need, more reprints...' Since I wasn't thrilled with the concept, I hadn't been keeping up with the releases, but I would see them show up in my various social media feeds anyway. The majority of the images I'd seen were quite underwhelming, and there was a lot of chatter about their excessive cost. Each individual card is $19.99 and a bundle of both daily issues can be had for $34.99. There is a bulk discount offer much like there is for Topps Now cards, but no matter how you look at it, that's a steep price tag. I figured that I'd be skipping out on this entire concept. That was until I got the email about yesterday's release...

It was The Captain! His card wasn't on the original list published on the website(only19 out of the 20 cards chosen for the project were listed). Heck, the design isn't completely hideous either. It's actually one of the more attractive designs to drop thus far, at least to my eye. I went ahead and put in my order while I was on lunch break yesterday to ensure that I won't have to try to pick one up at some crazy, secondary market price.

As far as on demand cards go, these backs are pretty decent. I like that it lists the original card and that it has a brief write-up about the artist behind the new design. I halfway expected them to just have an image of the original on there and call it good.

Now that I've taken the plunge, I suppose I'll keep a little closer eye on future releases. I don't expect to buy very many more, but they are reimagining Mariano Rivera's '92 Bowman, Mattingly's '84 Topps, Ichiro's 2001 Topps, and Rickey Henderson's '80 Topps so who knows? I already missed out on pretty cool Rickey and Ichiro designs, and with 18 or 19 more designs left to come for everyone, I guess the odds are in favor of finding a few more designs that I like. Time will tell. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this concept. Have there been any designs you've really liked? Any you picked up yet? Thanks for reading.

Oh Captain, My Captain! A Tribute

A little over two months ago, I posted about a mail day that was my perfect reward for a hard snow day's work. Since I posted the gold version of the 2015 Topps Derek Jeter checklist card (#319) back in February, I have been in the hunt for the gold version of card #1. I've bid on at least a dozen of them, but they all ended at prices higher than I wanted to pay. I decided to start following the search. Boy, am I glad I did! The other day, I was looking through the newly listed auctions and found one that had a $6.50 opening bid with $1.00 for shipping and a buy it now option of only $8.50(also with $1.00 for shipping). I couldn't complete the transaction fast enough! Yesterday this arrived in my mailbox:

I'm still not looking to complete a rainbow, not even close. However, right after the gold Jeter arrived, I found a rainbow copy of the checklist card for way cheaper than I thought I'd be able to. So, a BIN later, and all of a sudden this card is on its way to my door. 

In he span of a few days, I took two steps closer to completing the parallels I wanted to put together. Three down, one more to go. If anyone out there has a rainbow foil copy of Jeter #1 that needs a good home, I can help with that.

Snowy Mail Day

This is the scene out my window when I woke up this morning. Granted, it's nowhere near what the Northeast is dealing with, but I live in North Carolina. This is far more than NC knows how to deal with. So, it was a stay at home and take care of the kids kind of work day today. I've got care packages prepped and ready to send to a few of you out there in the blogosphere, but getting to the post office will have to wait until another day. Sorry for the delay. I am also expecting a PWE or two and a few items I won from either eBay or Listia. So, I had at least a little motivation to go out and shovel the driveway, in hopes I'd be rewarded by at least one package.

I took my girls out to play in the snow for a bit, then we went inside and got lunch and hot cocoa. Then it was time for them to take their naps. Once they were fast asleep, I told my wife(who was taking conference calls from the home office) that I was going out to finish up the driveway. I found out two things. First, I'm getting too old for this shoveling out stuff. It took quite the toll on me. Maybe it's just because I'm not used to this anymore. It has been 18 years since I moved to NC from the Hudson Valley region of NY. As an aside, I think I'm the only transplant that actually misses the winter weather, but I digress. Second, when I made my way to the mailbox, I did have a bubble mailer waiting as a reward for my hard work. From the packaging, it was obvious that it was one of the eBay items I was expecting. The only question left was which one was it. I got back inside, took off my snow clothes, and opened the package.

THIS is what was waiting for me. I was hoping that it would be this one! I'm not going to go all crazy and try for a rainbow for either of Jeter's cards this year(no way it'll fit into my collecting budget), but I feel like at least picking up the gold and rainbow parallels of card #1 and card #319 should be reasonable. This is the first parallel in that quest. If any of my readers have any leads on these, I'd appreciate he heads up(especially since I wasn't lucky enough to pull any of the DJ parallels in my own packs). All I can say is I'm thankful that the USPS motto 'neither snow nor rain...' held true on this snowy day and they were able to make their deliveries as normal.