Topps Remastered

Yesterday there was a short conversation on Twitter that got me thinking about some ideas that would get me to start set building again. It seems like it is going to be ages until Topps Heritage baseball catches up to the era that I began collecting -- the 70s.

The talk came from the 1987 minis that are going to be included with Topps 2012 series 2 baseball. Now trust me, I have no love for 1987 Topps baseball. The cards looked good, but you could start a paper trail at your front door and loop the earth a few times over with those cards. There were tons printed.

Someone had mentioned revisiting the 87 set and used the term Remastered. It got me thinking about the classic card sets and why I don't build large sets anymore. I got to thinking about the music industry and how they'll look to build interest in an older act by remastering their previous releases. I love it when a record company remasters a bands catalog and improves the music quality, finds hidden gems, adds a couple of live songs, and includes a demo or interview. The remaster usually gets some sort of gold or platinum name added to the mix.

I thought about it for a minute and realized that formula would be perfect for trading cards. How cool would it be to get an updated 52 Topps set printed on the same stock that they print Topps Tribute on? They could redo the entire original set, have parallel versions with alternate photos and outtakes. There could be memorabilia and autographed parallels, and you could even add some players to the checklist that didn't make the original cut. To top it off, you could also include some of today's players within the same design.

I'm sure you and Topps could come up with a hundred reasons why this couldn't be done but I could come up with a hundred why it should be done.

Here are a couple...

Exposing a New Generation of Collectors
Today's collectors loved collecting as kids. Most, now have kids and they would be able to share their love of the hobby with their their children. This isn't going to be a low end product, so the kids would get exposed to the highest quality of trading cards made today.

Where are the icons?
The iconic players of the game graced those Topps sets. If you ask the average baseball fan who they collected, it was Mantle, Mays, Aaron, Schmidt, Rose, Brett, Seaver, Jackson, Ripken, Koufax, Ryan... the classics. The best in the game. In any classic Topps set there are 40 or 50 household names, 50-100 well-known and collected players, a large portion of rookie cards and a bunch of commons. Not any more. The formula is still relatively similar, but with the exception of Pujols, Ichiro and Jeter, there are really no players that can compare to those legends in today's sets. The rest of the bunch are mostly regarded as commons and discarded. Why do you think they keep adding legends to current products? Bringing back those sets would generate a whole new era of nostalgia for the hobby.

Set building with a twist
Value for base cards just isn't there anymore. Inserts are just one element that have destroyed the value of the base card. I've seen people just discard commons like they were trash. Putting together a 660-card set that is expensive could change all of the that. Sure it wouldn't be cheap, but the end result could bring some much needed prestige back to the base card. When the players on the cards are junk, the value goes in the toilet. But here, we're talking legends, and yeah there were lots of scrubs in those vintage sets, but just like when we were kids, you'll get to relive those moments of glory when you got that one guy in a pack that you ALWAYS got multiple times over. My guy was Jim Wohlford. I swear I got that guy in every pack I bought. Maybe this time around I would get Steve Ontiveros or Rusty Kuntz... who knows? Does it matter? Around him will be Steve Carlton, Carlton Fisk, Jim Palmer, Eddie Murray, Thurman Munson, Jim Rice, Andre Dawson and 50 other superstars.

I've got more reasons running through my crazy head, but what I don't have is time to give away ideas for free.

The other thing is that I don't want rhyme or reason. That's my problem with Heritage. Each year you know what's coming. The process is too slow to get to all of those great collections and we're only in the 60s. With Remastered you can surprise collectors with a different set every year and not be pigeonholed into following the original schedule. Start with 52. Jump to 75. Head up to 82. Go back to 69. Mix it up, make it fun, not predictable. I know you can do it Topps,the question is do you want to?

SIGnificant Cards - Fleer Genuine Miguel Cabrera Auto

The 2012 baseball season is finally underway. To me the game has completely lost its luster. I can blame many things including ticket prices, concession prices, roids, attitudes and more, but it really comes down to the fact that baseball has become watered down. There are too many games, too many teams and the league has been far too relaxed with its punishment toward players abusing their drug policies.

I was out totally for awhile. You couldn't pay me to watch a game. I'd rather tune in for a hockey game, a game of roundball or my favorite -- the NFL. To be honest, I even prefer NASCAR and Soccer these days. But, in 1999 I decided to attend a few minor league games. I watched this young kid named Lance Berkman just absolutely kill the ball in a couple of games in Las Vegas. I followed him as he eventually was brought up by the Astros. It wasn't until 2002-03 that I got lured back into watching MLB on a more regular basis. I saw the Mudcats play and this skinny kid named Miguel Cabrera was just eating Double A pitching for lunch. It wasn't long before he was brought up to the Florida Marlins and began beating down National League pitching too.

In what seemed like an instant, he became their cleanup hitter. In addition to being a phenomenal pure hitter, he smacked a significant amount of dingers helping the Marlins reach new heights and a World Series victory.

I had been a follower, and his skills made me a fan. I began searching out his rookie and autographed cards. Of the ones I have collected, this is by far my favorite. Fleer, in my opinion was producing the very best baseball cards at the time of their demise. They were trying new things and in some ways they were also playing catch-up with Upper Deck. The fact is, they also crafted some of the very best brands at the same time. Avant, Genuine, Patchworks, Greats of the Game and E-X produced some of the most exciting card designs of modern times. Say what you want about them, but you can never take that away from the team that worked there.

This Cabrera card comes from the 2004 Fleer Genuine Insider collection. The card and the concept is just simply cool. You have what appears to be a thick regular-sized 2.5 x 3.5 trading card. The magic is that the card slides out and inside is a beautiful autograph or in some cases a giant swatch of game-used material. Yeah, I said game-used, not a swatch that could be this, or might be that. You know the ones where the manufacturer won't even tell you what it is, or where it came from. It's not some swatch of junk with no description used just to make the card look nice.

Anyway, enough rambling, it's a cool card, and best of all Russ Cohen found it while dumpster diving at the Fleer offices during our broadcast that reported them closing their doors for good.

Ok, I totally made up that last part, I pulled it out of a pack myself. But wouldn't that have been funny? I know for a fact that people were indeed dumpster diving at the Fleer offices and always wondered what they found. I wish Fleer was still around. Not the Fleer that Upper Deck has, but the real deal. They were creative, innovative and with the exception of a ton of redemption cards, they did a fantasic job producing some of the better baseball cards of the early 2000s.

Update 9/2012: With one day left in the season, Miggy is looking at the first Triple Crown since Yaz did it in 1967! Cabrera is in my opinion the best player in the game today. I applaud the way he's dealt with his demons and is back on top of the game. This is a good story. Who doesn't love a good story?

SIGnificant Cards - 2005 Ken Griffey Jr. Sweet Spot Signatures

In 1989 The Upper Deck Company took the trading card world by storm. Brash to the point of nearly doubling the existing price of a pack of cards would have been enough, but they also landed one of the hottest prospects in Major League Baseball history before anyone else did. That player was Ken Griffey Jr. I had no problem finding the Griffey rookie card in those 89 packs, but let's skip ahead just a few years. Griffey would become synonymous with the Upper Deck brand. Enter the memorabilia and autographed card era. Keeping with my stubbornness, I had for a long time wanted to pull a Junior Griffey auto out of a pack.

It really wasn't because I was a fan, it was because he was a fairly difficult auto to get. I'd see him at MLB spring training in Arizona and he didn't sign very often if at all. In fact a lot of guys were like that. Bo Jackson, Mark McGwire and Rickey Henderson and Griffey weren't very cordial to their supporters some goaded the fans accusing them of selling their stuff on eBay. I always found it funny that a guy making 10 million gave a crap about a guy making a couple of bucks on eBay... but that's fact, I saw it with my own eyes. For every one of them though, there were 4 or 5 players that would sign as often as possible and that, some warm weather and good baseball is what made an annual trip to Arizona worthwhile.

It wasn't until 2005 that I finally pulled a Griffey auto out of a pack. It came from the 2005 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Baseball product, one of the best MLB sets ever made. It is perhaps the very best autographed baseball card insert collection to hit the hands of collectors even to this day. Unfortunately I've heard some collectors complain about their autos fading after some time, but I have never experienced this.

Junior signed it in black ballpoint with an extra inscription of "56 HRS". It's #'d to 175 and is one of the true gems in my collection. Do you have a favorite Sweet Spot auto? Which one is it?

SIGnificant Cards - Bob Feller 2003 Fleer Rookies & Greats The Naturals

A Bob Feller auto might be easy to find
but it is a must have.

Bob Feller. Where do I start? If you regularly listen to my show Cardboard Connection Radio you know we have a few good stories about Bob. But the one thing that all collectors know is that there are a boatload of Bob Feller autographs out there. I pulled 14 Feller autos out of packs over my years of collecting.

On one show not to long ago, we gave out a prize to the person that showed us the most ridiculous thing Feller ever signed. We did this in jest because there wasn't anything Bob wouldn't sign and collectors loved him for it. It's not often a man that has Feller's career stats still liked to sign his autograph. Well we got a lot of entries but by far the winner was a kid. Yes, you read that right, Bob once signed a kid. You can't make that up and you certainly can't pull that out of a pack!

Among the Feller autos I found in packs, the one pictured here is my favorite.It comes from 2003 Fleer Rookies & Greats. I really like the vintage image and the grayscale and black combination on the card. I think it hearkens back to the days Feller played the game and it didn't need color to be classy. It's also a nice clean and legible signature. Why they opted to do a cut-out auto instead of on card befuddles me a little, but compared to some of the ridiculous autographs you see out there today, Bob had a really great signature.

Now while Feller autos might be pretty easy to come by, there is no denying his greatness on the field. He's an 8-time all-star, hall of famer and many have said he was the best pitcher of his era. With 266 career wins, many write him off because he isn't a member of the 300 club. He is a must have for any real baseball fan that respects the greats of the game.

He served in the U.S. Navy from 1941-1954 and there is not a doubt in anyone's mind that he'd have eclipsed 300 with those additional years in the majors. I have more respect for the fact that he was the first active MLB player to sign up for the military after  Japan attacked Pearl Harbor than I have for him as a player, and he was one hell of a player.

SIGnificant Cards - 1975 Topps Hank Aaron

Possibly the best $10 I ever spent
at the National.

In my last SIGnificant Cards piece, I wrote about searching for J.R. Richard cards at the National. I also mentioned that I've attended many of the National Sports Collectors Conventions. When I take my time and try to fill set lists, seek singles, etc. sometimes you find something you weren't expecting to find. This is the tale of the 1975 Hank Aaron card I wasn't looking for, but found.

I am working on finishing up a couple of my all-time favorite sets -- 1974, 1975 & 1977 Topps. About 5 years ago I found a great dealer that had a bunch of the 75s from my want list and I was having a field day filling in the gaps. Flipping through the cards, one caught my attention, it was card #1 in the set, the Hank Aaron '74 Highlights card. The card all by itself is an all-time classic. It celebrates "Hammerin' Hank" setting the all-time home run mark by slamming his 715th and eclipsing Babe Ruth.

Any true baseball fans knows how great Hank was. They also know the incredible hardships he faced as a black man overtaking one of baseball's elite figures -- Babe Ruth. From heckling to death threats, Hank put up with an awful lot to live his dream and he did it with an extraordinary amount of class.

Al Downing was the victim, I mean pitcher that gave up the homer and Hank would add another 40 before retiring with 755. An interesting fact about that night in '74... Hank Aaron wore the #44 and so did Al Downing. Cool right? Ok now watch Hank break that record and make the home run title his beeyotch.

In my eyes, Hank is still the champ. While on paper Barry Bonds might be the current record holder, Hank was never accused of using performance enhancing drugs, nor was he brought into court to defend himself, he did it with heart, intensity and determination.

Ok, back to the card. It wasn't that I needed that card for my set, I had it already, what caught my eye was that in addition to the facsimile signature, it was signed again in blue ink. I have a handful of Hank Aaron autographs in my collection. I met him a few times as a kid and I know his signature. I pulled it out of the box and asked the guy what he wanted for it. He said $10. I said, I'll tell you what -- I have a free authentication from Global and if it comes back authentic, you've got a deal. As you can see by the image, it was indeed the real deal.

SIGnificant Cards - 2005 Topps Retired Signature Edition J.R. Richard

I have been to the National Sports Collectors Convention several times. I've only missed one since 2001. I honestly am not sure that I'd continue to go to the yearly event if I wasn't involved in the industry. That's not to say that the show is not good, it is great, but I have other avenues to purchase cards and supplies.

I used to get pumped up to get the exclusive cards produced only for the show and the great list of autograph guests, but many of the cards from the National are not even recognized by the trading card bible and are not known beyond the circle of people that attend the National. This year, I was more excited about the TNA Wrestling package than almost any of the athletes that have been staples at the show for many years. Not only was it more affordable, but the package offered more bang for the buck than any previous one at the NSCC, but alas that is another story.

When I do go to the National, I always look for certain things. One is a Kurt Warner autographed card from a leading manufacturer. To date in all my years, I have only found one and it wasn't from a dealer on the floor. He wanted way too much, so I passed. I did find one of the cool cards that Kurt sells on his website and picked one of those up. Again, another story.

One of the other players I collect is former Houston Astros fire-baller J.R. Richard. Richard was a true phenom. First of all he threw nearly 100 mph and in his first game he struck out 15. That was just the beginning of a stellar, though short career. In 1976, he won 20 games (1/4 of the Astros 80 from that season) and his salary was only $40,000! Today, he'd be making $15M. Richard won 18 games in three consecutive years from 1977-79. He led the NL in strikeouts twice and what was even more impressive was that in the 79 season where he won 18 games, he has 19 complete games! Does anyone do that anymore?

Clearly, he was overworked and in 1980 his body told him so when he suffered a stroke while on the mound. Here's a great article from the Sports Illustrated Vault about the tragedy.

He tried many attempts at a comeback, even getting released by the Astros to have a surgery. They re-signed him, only to cut him again. It was a horror story for the pitcher. He was complaining about arm issues and pain and it turned out to be a blod clot. It went undetected and it cost him his career.

With baseball out of the picture he made some poor investments and went through an expensive divorce. When it was all said and done, he was broke and found living under a highway bridge. Here's a great piece from ESPN about J.R that can let you inside his story from his perspective.

Richard's plight eventually garnered some mainstream attention and with the help of friends and his church, was able to get his life back on track. It is to date one of the most heartbreaking MLB stories.

I have all of J.R.'s basic Topps cards. I was ecstatic to pull this uncirculated autographed card of the Astros' legend. It comes from the 2005 Topps Retired Stars Signature Series and is card #TA-JR. There are so many what if's with J.R. it isn't funny. Would he have won 300, would he be the all-time strikeouts leader, would he have been better than Nolan Ryan, we will never truly know, but we can celebrate what he did accomplish and his true comeback, the one called life.

SIGnificant Cards - 2005 Justin Verlander Topps Chrome Auto

1/3 of the way to 300 at age 28 = success.

The trading card industry is funny. Some guys get super hot before they even play a game at the major league level, some are at an all-time high and then they get caught by TMZ cheating on their wife or by the police for a DUI. It can all end in a minute. Sometimes though, there are the ones that you just know are going to be iconic and you have to make a choice -- keep or sell.

I generally don't like selling cards. I think the market is soft and I don't like putting a dollar value on a piece of cardboard. Cards for me have some meaning, that's why I began writing SIGnificant Cards in the first place. Don't get me wrong, I love money and you can pay me lots for my opinion, creativity, skills, and knowledge. But when it comes to cards there are just some you know you've gotta keep and some you can just get rid of.

In 2005 Justin Verlander was the talk of the town. The Tigers drafted him #1 and at 22 he was closing in on tossing the ball at 100 MPH. He won Rookie of the Year Honors in 2006, I thought that was the first real sign that I was a smart guy for keeping his card. In 2007 he pitched the first of two career no-hitters and went 18-6, another good sign. So 2008 rolls around and I am thinking is now a good time to part with his card. I thought maybe I could trade it for something else, but I didn't, I held on. My gut instinct pushed me to keep it awhile longer.

Verlander finished with a dismal 11-17 record in 2008. Was my instinct wrong? I had to suck it up and hope for a return to form in 2009. I am very glad I did. He won 19 in 2009, 18 in 2010 and a whopping 24 in 2011 proving he is a cut above many others. With 107 career wins at only age 28 he is well on his way to the 300 club if he remains healthy. Today's game is so different and the longevity for pitchers is nowhere near what it used to be, but Verlander seems to be in a league of his own.

Just before Verlander pitched his second no hitter, my Cardboard Connection co-host Rob said to me, "Man you missed the boat on that one." I told him that boat didn't even leave the dock yet, he's got a lot more to accomplish, he's a keeper. I am glad my big ole' gut told me so.

Card #242 from the 2005 Topps Chrome set is hard signed and limited to a run of about 500, but Verlander sports a weak signature, it's sort of sloppy and not recognizable, but at least it is legit.

SIGnifcant Cards - Don Sutton, Tommy John, Burt Hooten 2004 UD Legends

A Dodgers Legendary Triple Threat

Not long ago I wrote about my passion for the 1977-1981 NY Yankees. The impression left on me was one that hasn't been matched by any baseball team since. They had talent, swagger and a knack for making headlines on and off the field. Their primary opponents during those years were the Kansas City Royals and the LA Dodgers. The Royals were always tough in the ALCS and when they played the Yanks, you knew it would be good hard-nosed baseball.

The Yankees faced the Royals in playoffs in 1976, 77, 78, and 80. The Royals defeated the Yankees in 1980 to move on and lose to the Phillies in the World Series. In 1977, 78 and 81 the Yankees advanced to face the Dodgers.

Back then I despised the Dodgers. I didn't care about their history in Brooklyn, I didn't care that they were dominating the NL, all I knew was that they were in the way of the Yankees winning the World Series and they had to go DOWN!

Of course, as I grew up, I learned to realize and appreciate that they were also a fantastic team and somewhat of a dynasty as well. They had some great talent in their lineup too like Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Reggie Smith, Bill Russell, Ron Cey, Dusty Baker, Rick Monday & Manny Mota... Mota...Mota.

It was the pitching staff that made the Dodgers the total package, well when they faced the Yankees, they were almost... the total package. Three of the aces on the Dodgers staff are featured on this card from the 2004 Upper Deck Legends Baseball product. Combined, these guys put up 97 wins in 1977-78, that's strong, especially in an NL where you were facing Rose, Schmidt, Carter, Bench, Burroughs, Stargell, Foster and Dave Parker.

I also really enjoy the design of this card. There are three clear, nicely-sized photos of each player, clean autos that are on parchment stock and it has good descriptive authentication information on the back of the card.While I might not have ever rooted for the Dodgers, their stellar play certainly left an impression on this collector, so did the Upper Deck baseball card, something we might never see again, but that is another story for another day.

Video Box Break - 2011 Topps Chrome Baseball