2015 Topps Tribute Jon Singleton Autographs

Last night after class was over, I decided that I was going to try catching a Padres game at Petco Park. The Mets are in town and I wanted to see as many teams as I could while I'm here. The Padres' next series is against the Pirates, and I already have tickets for one of those games on Saturday. The Twins are in town next week, so I'll see if I can make it to the Tuesday night game.

I made it to the ballpark with relative ease. My seat was up pretty high, but the ticket was cheap and the view was pretty nice. The home team won the game 6-3, thanks in large part to Luis Torrens' 3-run triple in the 3rd inning. That hit was soooo close to being a grand slam, but it bounced off the wall just short of going over. I thought the ballpark was pretty nice, although there wasn't a big crowd. You can only expect so much from a Padres game on a weeknight, I guess. There wasn't as much in-game promotional stuff as you'd see at a Reds game, but I was generally entertained.

The Topps Tribute product from 2015 had some issues with streaky autographs. The complaints were so heavy that Topps actually recalled the product, offering to replace cards from the set with other cards. Some cards obviously didn't get sent in to Topps for replacement, so you can still find them in the wild. I picked up a couple of Jon Singleton autographs from the product on eBay a couple of months ago. You can see on this Orange Tribute Autograph parallel that the autograph skips and streaks due to the coating or the type of pen used. This one is numbered # 65 / 75.

The same issues exist on this Green parallel of the card, with flaws in the signature. This one is numbered # 11 / 99. These didn't cost an arm and a leg to pick up, and they still count as unique cards for my player collection, so I was happy to get them. I may have been less happy if I'd pulled them at full retail price, though.

A Rare Tribute to Jon Singleton

2015 Topps Tribute was a high-end product that boasted all on-card autographs. Unfortunately, the UV coating on the cards caused the on-card autographs to run, streak, and bubble. It was so bad that Topps wound up issuing a recall on the product, offering a refund on unopened boxes and replacement cards in exchange for opened product. As I understand it, the recall period ended on 30 JUN 2015, so any remaining cards out there are not eligible for exchange.

A player I collect, Jon Singleton of the Astros, was on the Tribute checklist that year, but you don't see his cards from this set pop up as often as his cards from similar sets like Triple Threads or Supreme. This Gold parallel of his autograph card from the set exhibits the ink problems that got the product recalled, but it's numbered # 14 / 25 and I got it for a couple bucks. I'm not going to be too picky at that price point.

There's not much Singleton news these days. The Astros dropped him from the 40-man roster in November, after he went through all of 2016 without a call-up. He only played in 19 games for the team in 2015, and the backlog at his position 1B/DH means that if he gets a chance again, it will probably be for another team. He's still only 25 years old, but he's running out of time to make good on his power potential. He did get a Spring Training invite, though, so maybe all hope is not lost. I really should be focusing my cardboard collection on some other Astro, like Jose Altuve or Evan Gattis, but I don't take to change very well and I'll probably still chase the odd Singleton here and there. Eventually the card companies will force me to quit, as Singleton doesn't project to show up in many future sets, unless he starts hitting or finds a role on another club.