Doubling Up with Topps Supreme

I picked up a couple of Topps Supreme autographs recently. In what has become a recurring theme lately, one of them was an example of a card I already had in my collection. This first one is nearly the same as a card I already had, but it is at least a different parallel which means those little triangular swooshes at the bottom of the card are a different color and the print run is different. This one is the Orange parallel of Munenori Kawasaki's 2013 Topps Supreme autograph card. It's got a nice low print run, being # 06 / 15.

Kawasaki recently signed a deal with the Cubs. I hope he gets pictured on some cards next season, although I have to wonder if he will get any playing time. The Cubs are pretty well-stocked with talent. I am a fan of Kawasaki independent of any loyalty to the Blue Jays, so the move doesn't have much effect on me either way. I just think that he had room for more playing time on the Blue Jays roster.

Here is the card I already had a copy of, a Purple autograph of Jon Singleton from 2014 Topps Supreme. This one is numbered # 16 / 25. It's a cool card, but I don't really need two of them. I can take some consolation in the fact that it was cheap, selling to me for the opening bid of $0.99 + shipping. I don't know what I paid for my original copy, but I can be pretty sure that it was more than that.

A Nice Supreme Dickey

As I mentioned in my last post, life has been pretty busy for me lately. So it's time for another one-card post. This card is an Autographed Patch Relic card of R.A. Dickey from 2013 Topps Supreme. It's got a nice little blue and white relic swatch and a sticker autograph from the knuckleball thrower. I think the gold background of the card goes well with the Blue Jays colors. This one is numbered # 22 / 25.

I haven't been thinking much about baseball lately as I've been focused in on the Denver Broncos and fantasy football as well as the Houston Rockets and their woes in the early stages of the NBA season. I am curious, though, to see how R.A. Dickey's 2016 plays out. If I am recalling correctly he started off 2015 very slowly, but had great numbers through the last couple months of the regular season to help the Blue Jays into the playoffs. Once there, he had a short but good start against the Rangers in the ALDS and a couple of very bad innings against the Royals in the ALCS. These knuckleballers can hang around for a long time and are very valuable as inning-eaters, so hopefully there will be plenty more Dickey cards for me to collect in the coming years.

Gray Whale Harpooned: 2013 Topps Supreme Munenori Kawasaki

I recently was able to land a Gray Whale of mine (h/t Cervin' Torren' Up Cards), a card that I wanted but could never really justify at the prevailing asking price. The card in question is any version of the 2013 Topps Supreme Munenori Kawasaki autograph. They are up on eBay all the time, it seems like, but either the bidding always $10-15 more than I feel like spending on one or it just comes around at a bad time for me financially.

Well, events converged for me and one of the Sepia # / 35 copies popped up with a Buy It Now price a little less than the # / 50 ones usually go. I hit the button after a couple hours of thinking about it and worrying that someone else might purchase it before I made the decision to do so. I was also able to use my eBay Bucks certificate from last quarter to bring the price down quite a bit more. It's a very nice card, and I am pretty happy with it. It is a sticker autograph, but the signature is all on the sticker and the sticker is framed fairly well and applied pretty evenly. Last year I was able to add a Munenori Kawasaki relic card to my collection (make sure to read the funny anecdote shared by Zippy Zappy in the comments section), and now I've got an autograph to go with it. This one is numbered # 18 / 35.

He has seen some action this year for the Blue Jays, coming into games mostly in the 7th or 8th innings and getting 17 plate attempts over the course of 12 games during May and June. The rest of the season has been spent in AAA. He's a pretty popular player in spite of his pedestrian numbers, and I would imagine that is why he gets as much run and attention as he does. Pretty much every video clip you see of the guy is entertaining, and you can tell he enjoys life. I hope he is able to hang on for a couple more years and get a few more cards out there with his picture on them.