Swapping out my Willie / Tapping into the Reserve

You may recall back in February I showed off the new "best card of my collection", that being a gorgeous Willie Mays 2003 Retired auto refractor #'d 24(jersey number eBay 1/1!) out of 25. Well, there's a guy out there trying to complete the 03 Retired refractor auto set, just as I am for 2004. He made his intentions known for working out a deal for the Willie. I politely declined his advances for a while, but he eventually made me an offer I couldn't refuse (no, nothing mafia related, just a bunch of money).

And so it is with a heavy heart (and wallet) that I announce the Willie is mine no more. While it was a lovely card, it wasn't exactly a perfect fit for my collection. I'm not really working on completing that set (though I keep my eyes open for killer deals), and Mays isn't even a "guy I collect"! So given the opportunity to sell it for twice what I paid just a couple months prior.. well, I just couldn't pass that up. (Anybody out there with 2003 Retired refractors to sell, let me know and I'll get you in touch with my guy.)

Anyways, with the ample proceeds funding my cardboard habit, I've brought in a few nice cards to my collection (see my prior post with recent 2004 Retired pickups). Another favorite set of mine is 2001+2002 Topps Archives Reserve ("Reserve" means it's basically an all chrome refractor set; a smaller, fancier version of Archives). I've put together both base sets and shown them off here and here.

I won't focus on it till I put my 2004 Retired Refractors set to bed, but I can see myself having a long-term goal to own every Archives Reserve card.. like, a Reserve Master Set.. including all the autos, relics, and even the football set and its hits. It's a daunting chase, to be sure, but I just love those cards, so I'm sure it would be satisfying for me.

Sometimes I take a curious look on eBay for deals toward this goal. And well, who should I find but a Willie Mays auto from 2001 Reserve. Seemed to be a reasonable price (less than a third of what I sold my previous Mays auto for). Helps make up for that loss and knocks a big card off my long-term Reserve Master Set, making it a good fit for me.

So yeah, I bought it and gave it a Glamour Shots photoshoot, so let's get on with it!

Great looking reprint of Willie's iconic 1952 Topps card. Maybe not as staggering as my last Mays auto, but definitely satisfactory for my needs. I don't care much about grading, so it doesn't bug me that it only got an 8 (which is "bad" as far as grading modern cards goes. 8=bad, 9=good, 10=great). Reserve is known for often being off-center, though this Willie seems fine to me. The signature could be a bit bigger and bolder, but it's not too bad. I'll keep it slabbed for storage/protection reasons, but but again, whatever. Very happy with this card!

As far as other progress on my Reserve Master Set, I also tracked down a very elusive Gwynn.

This is from the "red-headed stepchild" of the Reserve family: 2001 Topps Archives Reserve Future Rookie Reprints. It's a 20-card set only available inserted as bonus cards in factory Limited Edition set ("Fancy Pants version of flagship"); the auction was a 2-card lot that also included the Limited Edition base Gwynn. I've got 4 of the 20 Reserve Future Rookie cards now. They aren't numbered, but I'd put the run around just 200-300 each (just a guess). They would have looked a lot better were these refractors, not just drab grey chrome cards, but hey, they've got the "Archives Reserve" logo on them, so gotta count them as part of the master set. The Jeter will be the priciest outta this little set. But the Gwynn is hands down my favorite from it, so I'm glad to pick this one up. (Gwynn was still active in 2001, his final year, so that's why he didn't get included in the regular version of Archives/Reserve along with rookie peers Boggs and Sandberg. Too bad.. I'd really like a refractor reprint of his '83 Topps card.. Do any exist? I haven't come across one. Tons of other reprints of that card out there, but none with a nice rainbow shine to it.)

And hey, look at this! I even picked up a Reserve football card recently.

full disclosure: this card isn't in-hand yet. This is the eBay picture.

This might be my best football card now. Beautiful auto of the late William "Refrigerator" Perry (I could have sworn I heard about him passing away a couple years ago, but happy to learn I'm wrong. He's still around but doesn't sign much these days). I've mentioned before that I loved The Fridge when I was a little kid.. not because I gave a crap about sports back then, but because he was a G.I. Joe guy (action figure available by special send-away offer) and I was nuts for G.I. Joes as a tyke. Great looking card and a strong first step with the football line of Reserve. Between the sickening end to this past Super Bowl, all the Deflategate bullshit, and the increasing likelihood of the Chargers moving out of San Diego, my interest in/opinion of the NFL is at an all-time low. I've even fleetingly considered dumping my entire football card collection. But nah, I'd miss it too much, particularly the old school guys and awesome cards like this one.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great holiday weekend, everybody!

Joy of a completed set: 2001 Topps Archives Reserve

I've been picking up cards from 2001 Archives Reserve here and there over the past several months, and just knocked out my last remaining needs with a recent COMC order. Let's take a look at the entire set, 1 thru 100, comprised of refractor reprints of notable Topps cards from yesteryear (mostly rookie cards).

(Ernie Banks is not featured in the set, otherwise I'd have him front and center as a tribute. RIP, Mr. Cub.)

Sorry this one's particularly blurry.

As I've mentioned before, what really appeals to me about this little set-- in addition to the purdy rainbowed shininess-- are the backs.. bright and clear as possible. So nice!, especially when juxtaposed with the main ("non-Reserve") 2001 Archives set, with its dark, hard-to-read backs. Can you guess which is which below?

Happy to put this set to bed. But of course this is only the base set. There are also autos and relics, but I don't have interest in chasing those (or should I say, interest in spending a lot for them). Maybe someday, though.

There's also a 20-card insert set called 2001 Topps Future Archives Reserve featuring refractor (or just Chrome but not refractor?) rookie card reprints of active-at-the-time players like Jeter and Bonds. Seem a little pricey to me. Again, maybe I'll chase those down someday, but not a priority. Despite the Archives Reserve logo, these aren't technically part of the same product. They were issued 5 per factory set of 2001 Topps flagship "Limited Edition"/Tiffany hobby factory sets. The regular factory set included 5 Topps Future Archives cards, but not the "Reserve" versions. It's all kind of confusing. There were apparently 3905 Limited sets produced. So one of you mathematicians out there will have to tell me how many of each Future Archives Reserve card was produced if 5 cards from the 20-card insert set were included with each factory set.

Hang on.. since drafting the above paragraph, I found an auction for 3 of these Future Archives Reserve cards together for 99¢ shipped, and couldn't pass that deal up. They arrived yesterday:

I can confirm these are not refractors, rather basically just Chrome-like parallels. That's a little disappointing. But still, if anybody has any of the other 17 cards from this insert set available, I'd love to work out a trade. It'd just be a nice little supplemental set to make my complete 2001 Archives Reserve set extra complete. Same for any relics and autos.. just in case down the line I ever want to go after a "master set" of the thing.

Anyways, I've got a few needs remaining from the follow-up sister set, 2002 Archives Reserve. That'll probably be the next set I finish, sometime in the not-too-distant future. I'm not a big set collector, generally speaking, but manageable 100-card sets like Reserve and Retired are more up my alley.

Just got a Pepitone* in-person auto!

Last night my wife and I went to a comedy club and had a great time. The comedians were Sean Jordan, Amy Miller, and headliner Eddie Pepitone. If you're not into "alt comedy" you might not know the name, but chances are you've seen him in something. He's been on Conan O'Brien a lot. I know him best from the Sarah Silverman Program, but yeah, he's been in a lot of stuff, in his distinct lovable ranting old-guy style.

I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. In you're into comedy that's not afraid to yell at you, you should definitely follow him on Twitter (@eddiepepitone) and catch him live when he comes to your town. Highly recommended.

(That clip is my wife's favorite bit.)

You old-school baseball fans will no doubt think of Joe Pepitone when you hear that last name.

Well, a few weeks ago when my wife suggested we check out the show, I got the idea it'd be fun to get Eddie to sign a Joe Pepitone baseball card for me. I'm happy to say that plan was realized perfectly. We hung around a few minutes after the show and got to meet him for a minute and he was super cool. He got a kick out of the Joe Pepitone card and told a quick story of how as a kid back in New York (When Joe was on the Yankees), he used to lie and say he was related to him, until one day the other kids wised up and put him on the spot when he couldn't ever deliver any bats, balls, etc to prove it.

But yeah, he was totally cool with signing the card, and I'm now the proud owner of a Joe Pepitone card signed by Eddie Pepitone.

That's a high level of Pepitone on one quirky piece of cardboard! Love it!

This 2001 Archives card was the cheapest Joe Pepitone card I could find on eBay (a buck-something shipped), plus I needed it for my 2001 Archives setbuild, so I figured even if the autograph plan didn't pan out, at least I'd have a card to check off my needslist. (But as it stands, I still need another copy for my set now.)

Believe it or not, this is only the second time in my life that I've had somebody sign a baseball card for me.

Maybe I'll branch this off into a silly minicollection and get other comedians to sign baseball cards of players with the same last name. I have a stand-up buddy named Joseph P. Larkin I could try to get to sign a Barry Larkin card, for example.

Thanks again, Eddie! Love you! And thank you for stopping by and reading my little tale. Have a great weekend and watch a bunch of playoff baseball.

Let the Golden Age Begin

I feel like it's a "best of times/worst of times" period in my life. I like my job a lot, but my time there will probably be coming to an end in the next month or two. I really hope I don't have to go back to a rush hour highway commute. I don't care what I'm doing or how much I'm making as long as my work is close enough for me to ride my bike to in around 15 minutes.

And I like my house a lot, but I hate my neighbors. I always seem to have cool neighbors on one side and awful neighbors on the other. My dream is to have a place out in the middle of nowhere without anybody else in earshot. Now that would be a golden age for me. But then I'm sure I'd miss some benefits of living in the city. But yeah, I really value peace and quiet at home. (Honestly, the current bad neighbors aren't really that bad compared to those of the past. I might just be a little overly sensitive at this point.)

So uncertainty at work, noisiness next door, and days when the postman has no cards for me get me down in the dumps from time to time, but for the most part I'm doing pretty great lately. Married life is treating me well. I got a cool dog, an awesome family, and cards in my mailbox with some regularity.

One thing I'm excited about starting this week is reduced hours at work. Working 10 to 4, no lunch. That's perfect. I get to sleep in, ease into my morning, play with the dog, catch up on the blogosphere, maybe a light workout. Still getting enough hours to pay the bills and have a bit left over for cards. As I mentioned, I'm not sure how long this golden age will last, but I'll enjoy it whilst I can.

I've recently also entered a golden age of live baseball broadcast viewing, one that I've not known since "cutting the cord" with cable several years ago. Big thanks to a certain anonymous someone for the generous gesture there. I hope to catch a bunch of good games here in the season's home stretch, even if my Padres aren't a factor. It's been fun watching Cory Spangenberg start off his career with a couple great games. And don't tell the other Padres fans I said this, but listening to Vin Scully call a Dodger game is always a treat.

It's funny that comic books have a "Golden Age", "Silver Age", etc, but you rarely hear about baseball cards having similar periods named after precious metals. You basically just have vintage (pre-1981 or so?) and junk (mid 80s to mid 90s?) and maybe modern (whatever you wanna consider that as).

With all due respect to old tobacco cards and early Bowman releases, seems the golden age of baseball cards really began with the 1952 Topps set. Topps followed that up with a bunch of great offerings that collectors still clamor for all these years later.

This rambling post is getting to a recent trade with The Underdog Card Collector. He had a big 92-card lot of 2001 Topps Archives up for trade to a loving home. I'd been meaning to work out an initial trade with the fellow Padre collector, so I jumped at the chance.

2001 Archives is a pretty sweet reprint set featuring faithful* reproductions of many notable players' first Topps cards, final Topps cards, and some other various cards too. Really nice-looking cards on sharp, thick stock. (*Multiplayer rookie cards are edited down to only the one guy, but otherwise the cards are pretty faithful to the originals.)

Let's take a look at a sampling of some highlights.

Kinda funny when reprints come out just a few years removed of the originals.

So there're just a few of the many great cards the Underdog Collector sent my way. This is a really nice set. I'm a little torn on whether to try to piece together the rest of the set (450 cards over 2 series), or break it up for my various player collections (there's a bunch of dudes I collect up in here, as we've seen) with the remainder as trade bait. If you've got cards from this set to offer in trade, feel free to let me know.

I'm also intrigued by 2001 Topps Archives Reserve. That's a smaller, similar set of reprints, but reimagined as shiny refractors. Those are really pretty. In fact, while typing this right now, I hopped on eBay and bought a lot of 48 cards from it at a decent price. Stay tuned for a wantlist in a few days once I get the lot sorted out.

In closing, gotta love the golden age of Topps. This post had nothing to do with Panini Golden Age. The Underdog Collector is a cool guy and you should trade with him. I like that Beck song. Trade me your available 2001 Archives/Reserve cards. Thanks for reading.