Rainbow in the Dark 37: A Real eBay 1/1, Part 1 (of 2)

I kind of disappeared there for a few days. I flew home from Ohio late last week, and at some point my wife informed me that the air conditioning in the house had gone out. Our neighbor knew a guy, and the guy came and looked at it, and he said something along the lines of, "Well, you're $%*^ed!" The good news is that it's under warranty. The bad news is that the replacement parts are taking their time to get here, so the house is hot. Luckily we had a camping trip scheduled for the weekend, so we were up in the mountains with some relatively nice weather for a couple of days. But we eventually had to come home, and it's pretty warm here. The heat makes it difficult to want to do much, so I haven't done much scanning or post-writing. It's getting close to end-of-year where I work, too, and I am expecting to be at work just about every day between now and the end of September. So posts are probably going to be intermittent for the next few weeks.

I had pretty much put the 2014 Topps High Tek Jon Singleton rainbow to bed last December when I acquired the last non-1/1 card I needed, and I didn't really expect to find the various 1/1 variations this long after the product's release. Well, one of the 1/1 cards popped up on eBay and I hit the Buy It Now about as fast as I could once I spotted it. But that's not even the coolest part of this story. I'll get to the cool part later. First, the card I purchased.

This is the Black Printing Proof, which is one of the four Printing Plate equivalents in the set. There is also a Charcoal Diffractor 1/1 parallel out there somewhere. I think I remember seeing it on eBay at some point and missing out on it, though. Anyway, I was pretty happy to finally land a 1/1 for this particular rainbow. Getting the black plate/proof is usually pretty good, as it tends to have the clearest picture on it.

A little after I made my payment I got an eBay message from the seller. He asked me if I was the writer of The Raz Card Blog, as he recognized my name and location from reading some blog posts of mine about a player collection we have in common. He mentioned that if he had guessed correctly, he had some cards of that player he'd like to pass along. After a couple of messages back and forth he mentioned that he's also added a couple of Astros to the package. Unfortunately he doesn't have a blog that I can direct you to, but he said he has traded with a few bloggers who have me in their blogrolls. I'll revisit the cards he sent for our player collection in common later, but here are the Astros he added to the package. Remember, the only card I actually bought was the one at the top of the post. The rest of this stuff is pure generosity.

First up is this Clouds Diffractor parallel of Singleton's 2014 Topps High Tek card. This is a card I already had a copy of, but how can you dislike a shiny rare acetate baseball card of a player you collect? This one is numbered # 14 / 25.

This is a Black Mini parallel of Jason Castro, who is still on the team. I keep thinking that he is going to be replaced someday, but the other people Houston brings in as competition for the spot always seem to be even worse. He does enough with his defense to make up for some pretty streaky offense. This card is numbered # 170 / 199.

This is a Camo parallel of Chris Carter from 2013 Topps Series 2. These are pretty cool, although the camo colors clash horribly with the rest of the card. Carter has a lot of power in his bat, but he also has a lot of whiff in it. He is currently leading the NL in strikeouts while in a tie for 3rd in home runs for his new team, the Milwaukee Brewers. This parallel is numbered # 10 / 99.

This card of Lucas Harrell shares the same design as the Chris Carter, but it's a little smaller in size, being a Gold parallel from the 2014 Topps Mini release. It's numbered # 27 / 62. He's been bouncing around a bit over the last couple of years, spending time in the minors and majors with Arizona, Detroit, Atlanta, and Texas, where he is currently playing on the big league roster.

Coming back to 2014 Topps High Tek, here is the base version of George Springer's card. Springer is one of the Astros' young stars, putting up decent numbers over the last couple of years. The team as a whole has been struggling lately. A couple of weeks ago they were right in the thick of the Wild Card race and had a higher Postseason Probability than even the Division-leading Rangers. Now they have fallen behind the Mariners and have a Postseason Probability of 14%. There is still a fair amount of season left, but they need to be winning more games.

Last up for this portion of the package is this 2014 Bowman Chrome Green Refractor, also featuring George Springer. This one is numbered # 64 / 75 and features a nice shiny border.

That was a lot of cool cardboard (and acetate), but that's not even close to half of it. There is still the matter of the player collection cards for the as-yet-unrevealed athlete. This part of the package was pretty darn exciting, but that part of the package absolutely blew me away. I wasn't sure what to expect when the seller mentioned that he wanted to send me some PC cards, but I simply wasn't prepared for the card bomb he dropped on me. It may be a few days and a few posts before I get to Part 2 of this post, but I'll get to it. I still have a lot of research to do, as many of the cards he sent are from a time when I was out of collecting and/or still really focused on basketball cardboard. I am super-grateful for all of thise cards, though. That eBay seller really knocked me down with his kindness and generosity, just because he recognized my name and location from my Blogger profile.

Topps Mini Baseball Scan Clear-Out, Post 4 of 4: The Relics

Now that I've showcased all the colored parallels from my boxes of 2013 and 2014 Top Mini Baseball, here are the relics from those boxes. Each box promised one relic or autograph, but out of the many (many, many) boxes of both years I opened I only ever pulled one autograph. The autographs in this stuff were hard to find. Kicking things off is this PWS (Plain White Swatch) of Albert Pujols from the 2014 set. I like the design on these cards. It's pretty simple but I think it looks good.

It was pretty nice to pull this Hyun-Jin Ryu card, as he is a guy I kind of PC. I don't know if I have ever gone out of my way to pick up his cards, but I like pulling them from packs. Hopefully he comes back healthy next year, as he missed the 2015 season and had shoulder surgery.

This is my representative from the 2013 set, a pinstriped relic of famed pitcher Kerry Wood. Unfortunately this card came out of the pack with heavy damage on the bottom edge, as you can see in the scan on the right. whole layers of the card were peeled back and torn. I assume the collation machine is responsible for the damage. It's kind of disappointing for the one hit in the box to be damaged, especially a nice relic with a stripe and a good photo on the front.

Most of these relics are jersey pieces, but I did get one bat relic in this Ian Kinsler card. The main thing that sticks out in my mind about Kinsler as I write this up is that he had some pretty negative stuff to say about the Rangers after they moved him to Detroit. I think the young kids these days call it throwing shade when you badmouth a person or organization like that.

Keeping things in Detroit, here is a PGS (Plain Grey Swatch) relic of Miguel Cabrera, This dude has put up numbers all over the place.during his career. I imagine he might find himself in the Hall of Fame one day.

That does it for this group of posts. I got a pretty good batch of relics in this bunch of boxes, especially compared to breaks I've done in the past where I got a bunch of relics of lower-tier guys. In these boxes every relic was a famous name.

Topps Mini Baseball Scan Clear-Out, Post 3 of 4: The Rare Stuff

I've already shown off the Gold and Pink parallels from a few boxes of 2013 and 2014 Topps Mini Baseball. Now it's time for the rare stuff. These Black parallels are limited to 5 copies each. I got this Miguel Montero from one of the 2014 boxes. It's a pretty cool card, I suppose.

These two cards came from the 2013 set. Again, nothing too earth-shattering but they are at least guys I've heard of before. Alex Rios is currently in the playoffs with the Royals. He's had kind of a down year individually, but his numbers haven't been too bad in the playoffs. Asdrubal Cabrera is similar because he's a few years removed from his best seasons, but dissimilar in that he is not in the playoffs with his current team, the Rays.

There are 1 / 1 Platinum parallel cards in these products, but I have never pulled one. I have pulled a handful of Printing Plates, though. This one is the Cyan plate of Brian Duensing. He's kind of a bullpen arm / spot starter who has played 7 years with the Twins.

Lastly I have this Sergio Romo Yellow Printing Plate from the 2014 set. I think my favorite part of this card is the numbers on the back of the plate, coming out from behind the sticker. I read an article about how these plates are made recently, but I forget where I saw it. It was pretty interesting. Maybe not as interesting as Mr. Rogers visiting the crayon factory, but still pretty interesting.

Topps Mini Baseball Scan Clear-Out, Post 2 of 4: Pink Parallels

Yesterday I showed off the Gold parallels I pulled from a bunch of 2013 and 2014 Topps Mini Baseball boxes I opened in late 2014. Today it's time to display the Pink parallels from that same batch. I'll probably let the pictures do most of the talking here, as pretty much none of these hit on any players or teams I am very interested in. The Pink cards from both years are # / 25. You can see pretty clearly on these scans the condition problems that the colored parallels had coming out of the pack in 2014. Whatever they used to color the borders was a flaky chipped mess.

Matt Cain had a pretty good run from like 2009 - 2012, maybe even 2007 - 2012 as long as you don't put much stock in Wins when evaluating a pitcher. But 2009 - 2012 was the peak and he did come away with a couple of World Series Rings.

Even with his struggles the last three seasons, CC Sabathia has got some good career numbers and one Championship Ring to go along with a Cy Young Award. Yovani Gallardo has got an All-Star appearance and a Silver Slugger award, so he's got that going for him. He's actually kind of had a second peak to his career with pretty good numbers lately.

Eric Chavez has managed to hang around for about 7 years past his prime, which is an achievement in itself. Tommy Hanson can grow a ginger beard. He's been bouncing around a bit trying to hang on in the minor leagues. From what I can tell he is currently in the Giants system somewhere.

Juan Nicasio is a bullpen guy who made 53 appearances for the Dodgers this season. He's also the final card in this batch. I like getting these rarer parallels, but in a 660-card set you don't always pull superstars or PC guys. The boxes were cheap enough that I can't cry and moan too much about my pulls.

Topps Mini Baseball Scan Clear-Out, Post 1 of 4: Gold Parallels

These pictures were buried at the bottom of my Scans folder for a very long time, and I've finally gotten around to chopping and cropping all the images. Judging by the contents of the scans vs. what I remember coming out of the average box of these cards, I think the scans are made up of the 'hits' from 4-5 boxes of 2014 Topps Mini Baseball and either one amazing or 2 really good boxes of 2013 Topps Mini Baseball. The scans are dated December 2014, so these were probably the result of some Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals. I've gone ahead and broken the scans out by insert type. Today's post features all the Gold parallels from the scans. This first card is a League Leaders card featuring the 2013 NL Home Run leaders Pedro Alvarez, Paul Goldschmidt, and Jay Bruce. The Gold cards from 2014 Topps Mini have a print run of 63 cards while the Gold parallel in 2013 had 62 copies of each card.

The star of this trio is Adam Wainwright, who was unfortunately injured early this season and missed much of the year with a ruptured Achilles tendon. Somehow he was able to make a very rapid recovery and made 3 relief appearances late in the season, just 5 months after the injury. That didn't help my fantasy teams any, though, as I drafted him at the top of my rotations in a couple of leagues this year.

Anibal Sanchez is another guy I drafted in a couple of fantasy leagues, although not in the early rounds like I did Adam Wainwright. His numbers did plenty of damage to my teams' pitching lines before I dropped him. I didn't do very well in fantasy baseball this year. It was nice to pull a Josh Reddick Gold parallel as he is one of my main PC guys. I haven't added a whole lot of his cards lately, though. The 2014 Mini parallels suffered heavily from chipping and flaking along the edges and corners.

One of the 2013 Gold cards was this World Series card featuring the moments leading up to some man love between Sergio Romo and Buster Posey.

I can't say I have any love for the Giants. Madison Bumgarner has pet Basset Hounds, though, so I guess there is something good about the Giants. Their fans do seem pretty devoted, at least among the category of 'people I know who are Giants fans.' Here's my Basset Hound:

He's kind of a lazy turd, which makes him a perfect pet for me. His fur is super soft, which is pretty much why we keep him around.

Here are the rest of the 2013 Gold cards. Nothing too crazy there. Motte's beard game is pretty strong, so I tend to take notice og his cards. Kyle Seager has been a pretty decent sleeper player in fantasy baseball the last couple of seasons. He hasn't got the big name or the big market appeal, so he comes at a discount in drafts.

This guy, however, does not come at a discount. Most years over the last decade or so he has been worth the high pick, but 2014 and 2015 saw most of his counting stats dip a bit over previous production that led to two MVP Awards and plenty of voting consideration in the years he didn't win the award.

Jason Motte and his beard make another appearance in this post, this time with his 2014 card. That grip on Matt Thornton reminds me of an idea I had to photoshop fruit into the hands of players so that they all would appear to be standing around holding apples and pears and stuff. It would work especially well in sets with a lot of close-up posed shots, like Heritage.

Jeurys Familia racked up 43 saves in the regular season and he's come away with 5 saves so far in the postseason. Pretty good stuff. The Astros could have used a bullpen arm like his for their playoff run. The Mets are a game away from a World Series berth. If the Blue Jays and Cubs don't put something bordering on miraculous together it looks like there's gonna be a Royals - Mets World Series for 2015.

Closing things out (shoulda put Familia's card here; then that would have been a good pun) is this trio. Brad Peacock started one game for the Astros this year, then went on the DL with an intercostal strain. He could come back in 2016. Nelson Cruz was an All-Star for the Mariners this year, hitting 44 home runs and batting .302 on the season. Pretty good numbers. Josh Beckett's card shows the chipping and flaking that this year's parallels had, especially along the right edge there. Josh Beckett retired after his 2014 season was derailed by injury. He was in the Cy Young conversation in 2007 and a 3-time All-Star. He put up decent strikeout numbers for a starter throughout his career, so I had him on a few fantasy baseball rosters over time.

That does it for the Gold parallels from this batch of 2013 and 2014 Topps Mini baseball parallels. This is by far the longest of the four posts I've put together for these cards, as the Golds were the most numerous parallels in these sets.

Pack of the Day 106: 2013 Topps Mini Baseball Box Break

One of the things I picked up in my Dave & Adam's Card World order was a box of 2013 Topps Mini Baseball cards. For just a little more than the price of a blaster I got a whole box of (little) baseball cards. It comes with fairly low expectations, but you can pretty much count on 4-6 low-numbered parallels and probably a relic card with an outside chance at an autograph.

I've shown most of these base cards at one point or another before. The Josh Reddick card gives me an excuse to post a link to my 2013 Topps Josh Reddick Super Rainbow. No more of the cards from that rainbow have popped up since I added the Magenta Chrome Printing Plate, so that project might be about as complete as it's going to get. That Ben Zobrist photo just makes me laugh every time I see it. R.A. Dickey is another one of my player collections. I may not have shown that Dallas Keuchel card before. Did anyone know who he was in 2013?

There is really only one insert set in 2013 Topps Mini Baseball, a small version of the Chasing History set from the regular Topps issue. I pulled 4 of these that I needed for my set, so that was pretty good for me. I've had boxes where all the cards were doubles. They are seeded at 1:4 packs, so you get 6 per box.

Here are the horizontal cards. The Gold parallels are numbered out of # / 62 and you get three or four of them per box. Most boxes have six total parallels in them, but some only have four or five. I got three Golds in this box. Pablo Sandoval's World Series card is the horizontal card here.

I've got two more Gold parallels here that feature fairly well-known names, but no superstars. I guess you could do worse than Michael Brantley and Dan Uggla. The Pink parallels are numbered # / 25 and you get 1-2 of them per box on average. Other possibilities are Black # / 5, Platinum # 1 / 1, and Printing Plates. I've pulled a couple of Black parallels and at least one Printing Plate, but no Platinums yet. Jay Bruce is a decent pull for one of my Pink parallels, and I am not sure I really know who Luis Jiminez is.

Each box contains one relic or autograph, with autographs being much more rare than relics. In the seven boxes I have opened and tracked I have pulled one autograph and six relics (including 2 Hank Congers!). The hit in this box is a PGS (Plain Gray Swatch) relic of Jayson Werth. Not much to say about it, really. The Nationals really had a rough 2015, and Werth was a part of that.

And that does it for this box of 2013 Topps Mini Baseball. It's a fun break even though there aren't really any big hits to chase. You still get a few cool bits in each box and the price is right. I am looking forward to the Astros playing the Yankees tomorrow in the WIld Card game. I really hope they can pull out a win. From here on out they have a tough road as there aren't any patsy teams in the playoffs.