Salvador Perez Members Only

The government is still closed, and I am still not on my way to the school I need for my big promotion at my day job. I am a little bit salty about that, but there isn't anything I can do except keep up on the news and try to keep busy with other things. Even though I am not being paid, I still have to drive in to work in the morning so that I can sign some paperwork and have my bosses tell me that the government is still closed. Just a one-card post today.

I picked up another Members Only parallel from 2014 Topps Stadium Club. This one has Salvador Perez on it. I don't have much else to say about this. Every time I think the supply of these things has dried up, I find another one. I imagine it has to end at some point, with less than 10 copies of each card in the set being printed.

I've slowed down quite a bit on my card organization project, but I try to at least get a few cards cataloged and put in the box every day. I'm approaching 4,000 cards in the organized part of my collection, and I think I'll have to expand to a second box here in another 300 cards or so.

Max Scherzer Members Only

It's finally the weekend here in San Diego, so I am trying to get in some sight-seeing before class starts again on Monday. My wife drove down from Idaho to visit me for the weekend, so we're having a bit of a mini-vacation. It's a pretty long drive for her, but it allowed her to drop off the kids at her brother's house in Utah, and she loves long road trips anyway, so really it was a positive thing overall.

After she got her yesterday evening, we walked across the street from the base to go to dinner. We were just going to grab something quick at one of the chain restaurants there, but I saw a sign for the Corvette Diner, which is a place I remembered from my time here fifteen years ago. We decided to go there instead, and it was a lot of fun. It's a themed diner, so they play oldies music, all the waitstaff has big hair or big-hair wigs, and they do all sorts of crazy stuff like throw handfuls of straws at you, make necklaces and big hair bows out of straws, and there is a big choreographed dance every hour or so. The burgers and shakes were excellent, too, and pricewise were comparable to a couple of combo meals you'd find locally. Well worth the visit if you're in the area, in my opinion.

I continue to be surprised at the number of Members Only parallels I've been able to pick up from 2014 Topps Stadium Club. This is my latest addition, a Max Scherzer card from the set. This parallel isn't serially-numbered, but the print run on these was supposedly less than ten, and you only got one Members Only card per case. I got this for pocket change on eBay.

The seller also included the base card in the package. I really like the Stadium Club reboots of the last few years. The formula is pretty simple, based around great photographs, but since the photo is a primary piece of the card it makes for a quality set.

Jose Altuve Members Only

The Houston Astros have jumped out to an early lead in the AL West standings, and some of their best players haven't even started out well. That doesn't mean much, though, as there is a lot of baseball left to be played and it seems like there is always a team set to make a late season run that attempts to take advantage of a slump by the leaders. But I have moderately high hopes for the Astros this year.

Here is a rare Astros card that I was able to add to my collection for a song. The Members Only parallel kind of flies under the radar because it's not flashy and not serially-numbered, but these were a case hit in 2014 and the math says that there are only 5-10 copies of each one out there. I snagged this Altuve on eBay for my 2014 Topps Stadium Club Members Only collection. I am not ever going to have a complete set of these, but I am working on getting as many of these parallels from 2014 as I can.

A Legendary Members Only Card - Jackie Robinson

I've been saving this card in my draft queue for a while now, so that I could post it today. As the back of the card notes, today was Jackie Robinson day, the anniversary of the date in 1947 when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier and became the first black man to play in a Major League Baseball game.

The card itself comes from the wonderful 2014 Topps Stadium Club set. It's one of the Members Only parallels, which weren't serially-numbered, but are rumored to have a print run of around 7 copies each. I've been chasing down as many different Members Only cards as I can get from the 2014 set, but it's not often that I add one featuring a legitimate legend of the game. This one cost me a little more than my usual ceiling on these cards, but the price was good enough that I jumped on it right away.

I even got to spend Jackie Robinson Day at the ballpark. I am in Ohio again for training, so I went and watched the NL Central-leading Reds take on the Milwaukee Brewers, with all of the players wearing Jackie Robinson's #42 on their jerseys. My seat was right on the field, but it unfortunately it was also right behind the ball boy, so I couldn't really see the pitcher or much of the infield at all. That was kind of disappointing, but I guess that's how it goes sometimes. The game was a nice back-and-forth affair, with plenty of offense and a lot of pitchers coming in to the game. The Reds eventually came out on top, winning 7-5.

Notable highlights from the game were Eric Thames hitting two home runs for the Brewers and Jesse Winker getting his first MLB hit, a double that landed about 35 feet from me and brought home the go-ahead runs for the Reds. I can barely see myself in videos of the highlight, but not well enough to tell other people how to find me. I was sitting right out in the sun for the whole game, and I am definitely feeling it now. My arms and face have turned a very bright shade of red, and my skin is probably going to be on fire tomorrow. It's already started a little, and I can really feel it on my scalp. In spite of the obstructed view and the sunburn, it was still a pretty good day. I have a pretty full day lined up tomorrow as well, and hopefully I'll be able to recover enough to make it back to class on Monday.

Members of the Club

Today is a scheduled day off for me (we work 9-hour days instead of 8-hour days so we get a day off every two weeks), and I've been trying to stay busy doing productive things instead of vegging out at my computer all day. It's gone pretty well, I guess. The current project is moving wargaming miniatures and LEGO kits into the attic so I have room to sort and organize my comic book and trading card collections. The other stuff will eventually come back out of the attic, but right now I need the space and those are the easiest things to move. All the packing and climbing around has kind of tuckered me out, but that's okay. It's good to be making progress. With all of the clutter in the basement, it's hard for me to enjoy any of my hobbies to any great extent.

I've picked up a couple more Members Only parallels from 2014 Topps Stadium Club over the last couple of months. With a rumored print run of less than ten each, they are pretty rare, but I've managed to acquire a couple dozen of them. Jeff Samardzija only spent half a season with the A's, moving on to the White Sox in 2015 and the Giants for 2016. He was recently announced as the Giants' fourth starter for 2017. I was kind of surprised to see that last year was his first season above .500 as a starter (he went 8-4 as a reliever for the Cubs in 2011), although I know pitcher wins are kind of an empty statistic. It seems like he had bad luck during his best statistical season in 2014, going 2-7 in the first half for the Cubs in spite of a 2.83 ERA across 17 starts, and then 5-6 in the second half for Oakland in spite of a 3.14 ERA over 16 starts. I guess the takeaway is that even a good pitcher needs run support.

Marcus Stroman made his big-league debut in 2014, and did pretty well for himself. He missed most of 2015 with an ACL injury, but came back for four starts at the end of the year, plus a few starts in the playoffs. His numbers dipped in 2016, but he is still the probable #3 starter for the Blue Jays this season.

I grabbed both of these cards from eBay on different occasions. Outside of the superstars, these tend to fly under the radar, as they aren't serially-numbered and don't stand out much. The only distinction between them and the base cards is the little foil Members Only stamp.

Another Addition to the Members Only Collection - Also Reaching Out to cynicalbuddha

Before I get to my post, I need to ask cynicalbuddha to get in touch with me about your prize from my contest. I e-mailed the address listed on your Blogger profile, but I didn't ever hear back from you. I'd love to send it to you, but I need an address.

I am not feeling particularly inspired to post tonight, but I do want to get through my draft queue, so I am going to post anyway. It feels like it's been a long week. The new supervisor at work seems like a pretty good guy, but change is always hard for me. He has a lot of knowledge, so it's been good to get his take on a few of the things we've been struggling with over the last couple of months.

Probably the most exciting event of the day was that I managed to get a spot for a Stan Lee photo op at the Salt Lake Comic Con FanX in March. We named our three sons after Marvel comic book characters, with two of those characters being creations of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, so Stan Lee is a pretty big deal in our family. Supposedly this will be his last appearance in Salt Lake, so I was glad to get a spot. They sold out within one day. Now I just have to hope that my kids can manage to look at the camera for a few seconds without blinking or scowling or something.

I've been steadily adding cards to my collection of Members Only parallels from 2014 Topps Stadium Club. This Wilmer Flores card is another one. It sat on eBay for a very long time without anyone buying it, and eventually I got around to buying it. The Mr. Met patch on Flores' shoulder is pretty cool, and I like how blue the card front is in general. I don't have a lot more to say about this. When you're chasing a parallel set, there are some cards that are going to be more important than others.

Click Here to View Cart 20: COMC Black Friday 2016 Haul

Some people around the blogging community go crazy during the annual Black Friday sale at COMC, buying up stacks of cards and taking advantage of free shipping offers for cards they've accumulated during the year. I personally probably haven't made the best use of COMC, as for whatever reason it is never among the first options on my mind when looking for cards to purchase. This past year I did find myself browsing the listings during the big sale, though, and I picked up a total of 6 cards.

The first card is this shiny Danica Patrick card from the 2016 Panini The National set. COMC is calling this parallel Hyperfoil. My card is numbered # 17 / 49. I've been tracking various versions of Danica's The National and The National - VIP cards on eBay, but haven't picked up nearly as many as I'd like. It seems like the prices plus shipping are always a little more than I want to spend. This one was on sale and I was able to combine shipping with the other cards in the order, so into the cart it went.

The other five cards in this order were all from the 2014 Topps Stadium Club Members Only parallel. I have a goal to add as many of these to my collection as I can, so I picked up the five cheapest ones that I didn't yet have copies of in my collection. The horizontal card from the lot is pitcher Chris Archer.

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The other four are Josh Hamilton, Michael Wacha, Nelson Cruz, and Julio Teheran. No huge superstar names here, but I was happy to add five more of these to my collection without completely breaking the bank. I had several more in my cart for a while, but they were in higher price tiers and I ultimately decided to just pare my order down to these ones. I've already progressed much further with this collection than I ever thought I would. I know I am not ever going to complete the set, so I feel less pressure to gather them all. That frees me up to seek out the best deals I can and pass unreasonably-priced cards.

Although these aren't serially-numbered, the rumor is that only 5-10 copies of each Members Only card were printed. As time goes by I would expect the supply to really dry up, but here in early 2017 there are still a few to be found. I think that in some ways the passage of time helps, as people have probably moved on from 2014 Topps Stadium Club in the search for the next hot thing, and this is a parallel set that kind of flies under the radar.

I also got one scratch-off ticket in the package, which netted me a $5 credit on the site. I used the money to purchase a card that I had already purchased once. The seller sent me a different card (which I also needed for my collection), and I let it slide. The card I actually purchased popped up on COMC around the time I scratched my ticket, and I negotiated a discounted price on it with the seller. Pretty dramatic stuff. Right now it is sitting in my COMC account. I will have it shipped to me some day in conjunction with another order.

A Big eBay Score Leaves Me Feeling Guilty

I've been gathering up Members Only parallels from 2014 Topps Stadium Club pretty much since the product released. I've mentioned more than once that I can usually only grab semi-stars and commons from this set, as the print run on these was rumored to be less than 10 copies of each card. Well, a while back the Bryce Harper card from the set popped up on eBay with a $0.01 starting price and free shipping (from Canada).

If I recall correctly, I put in a bid that was around the price of a blaster box, fully expecting to be outbid at some point before the auction ended. After 7 total bids, the auction closed with me winning for a whopping $0.72 (with free shipping). That was pretty exciting, but I wondered if the seller would even send the card. I also felt a little guilty about winning such a scarce card of a legitimate superstar.

To ease my guilty feelings, I checked out the seller's other auctions to see if there was anything I could pick up to at least cover the shipping cost. They had quite a few Buy It Now listings that I added to my cart, including this Expos sticker from Panini.

I just grabbed an assortment of random stuff that interested me. The seller didn't have much that I really 'need,' so I went after names I recognize and shiny/die-cut stuff. Apparently I hit the Bowman Platinum pretty hard, with that Segura up there and the die-cut Vogelbach and Goldschmidt inserts. I also snagged a Topps Chrome insert of Johnny Cueto, a Phillie Phanatic from Opening Day, and a base card of R.A. Dickey.

These extra cards probably covered at least the cost of shipping plus eBay fees with a couple of dollars left over, so I can sleep a little easier. I was honestly kind of surprised that the seller shipped the Bryce Harper card. I guess I've spent too much time on the Blowout forums lately, where there are new threads every day about deals gone wrong. I probably couldn't have found much fault with the seller if they had merely cancelled the sale, but I am glad to add the Harper as the centerpiece of my 2014 Topps Stadium Club Members Only collection.

Members Only in the Hall of Fame

It's not often that these Members Only parallels from 2014 Topps Stadium Club pop up for Hall of Famers, and most of the ones that do come up are usually Buy It Now listings that are priced well out of my price range.

So I was pleasantly surprised when this Tom Seaver card popped up in my eBay feed at a reasonable price. It was still a bit more than I am usually comfortable paying for cards from this set, but I usually have to settle for semi-stars and common players when it comes to Members Only. It was nice to add a certifiable star to my accumulation of these cards for just a few dollars more than I typically spend on cards of less-prominent names.

A Quick Post for Members Only

It's gonna be another quick post today, as I am tired and I have to work all weekend. Today was 'Meet Your Teacher Day' at my kids' new school, so we went and did that this evening. I've got one son going into 2nd Grade and my twin boys are going into Kindergarten. Three of my sisters live in the same city as we do and signed their kids up for that school, so we ran into their families and had a miniature family reunion in the playground. I think between the four of us we had 10 kids there. 

Today's card is another rare Members Only parallel from 2014 Topps Stadium Club. I've been on a pretty good run with these lately, and I kind of wonder how long it will last. This one features Tim Lincecum and his Mario Bros. mustache. The shine has come off of Lincecum lately, but he had a pretty dominant run there for a while. Either way, I was pretty happy to get this into my collection.

I Found Some Allen & Ginter...

...but I'm not going to post any of the cards from it. While I was in class today the instructor mentioned a comic book shop while giving directions to another student. I asked about the comic book shop and he told me approximately where it was. I had also planned on going to a Maverick's Cards and Comics location nearby, so now I had two locations to check out. I went to Maverick's first. They had some pretty cool stuff in there, including quite a few LEGO kits and a pretty fair number of action figures, toys, statues and whatnot. On the way out I saw that they had boxes of 2016 Allen & Ginter for sale, but the price was a bit higher than I wanted to pay. I needed to get out of the shop and run the numbers a bit before committing.

So I went to the place the instructor had mentioned, Bell, Book and Comic. It was a pretty decent comic shop, as far as I could tell. They had a guest artist there signing a shop-exclusive comic book variant, so that made an already-cramped location even tighter. There were a few things that caught my eye, but nothing I absolutely had to have.

I went back and forth for a while and finally decided to just get a box of Allen & Ginter from Maverick's. After tax it was about 32% more than the delivered price on the cheapest boxes on eBay and about 14% more than the delivered price on boxes from the big-name online retailers, but I wanted my A&G fix NOW, and I ponied up the extra to get it done.

I won't say much about the box I got, as it's probably the only box of A&G I will get this year and that means I have to save it to score for Gint-a-Cuffs. Unless there is some miracle, I do not think I will have a chance at winning Gint-a-Cuffs this year. If my recollection is correct, you need over 200 points most years to win, and I am guessing that my box will finish well under the 200 mark, maybe in the 135-150 range. I did pull one hit that seems to be doing well on eBay right now, and I am hoping that I can flip it quickly and at least recoup the cost of the box. I wasn't very impressed with the rest of the box. Maybe I am just jaded after my three years back in the hobby. I guess at the moment busting packs feels a little empty to me. I could pick up probably all the singles I want from this set for the price I paid for the box, and the box didn't really yield anything PC-worthy. I was lucky to pull a decent hit, but if I hadn't pulled that card I would have felt really bad about this purchase instead of merely ambivalent.

Here is a card I got on eBay for much less than a case hit should sell for. It's another Members Only parallel from 2014 Topps Stadium Club. Pedro Alvarez isn't all that popular these days, which is something that seems to happen when a low-average power bat becomes just a low-average bat. I am just happy to add another of these Members Only parallels to my collection. They rarely show up these days, and I pounce on them when I can.

Jean Segura Members Only

I guess this card has some relevance to my recent history, as this past weekend I saw Jean Segura hit a lead-off home run for the Diamondbacks at the game I attended this past weekend. I had to look  up how exactly he got to the Diamondbacks from the Brewers. It was a trade, and the names I recognized going the other way were Chase Anderson and Aaron Hill. Segura is having his first pretty good season after he broke out in 2013.

This card is another 2014 Stadium Club Members Only parallel. I have added quite a few of them to my collection since the release of the set, mostly only in the semi-star and just-a-guy categories. These parallels were pretty limited, falling at one per case and carrying a rumored print run of only 5-10 copies each. Most of the big names go for big money, but every so often one slips through the cracks. This one sat on my eBay Watch List for a few months, and I finally got around to making the purchase around a month ago. I keep thinking I'm done getting these Members Only parallels, but every so often I still pick up another.

When Do You Give Up On a Project?

I picked up a card that's got me asking when it's time to quit on a project. I've been picking up Members Only parallels from 2014 Topps Stadium Club pretty much since the product came out. They aren't serially-numbered, but they were seeded one per case and have a rumored print run of between 5 and 10 copies each. I've probably got nearly twenty of them, but I know for sure that I'll never complete the set, or even come close. The product has been out for a couple of years now, so not many of these show up anymore, and most of the ones that do are priced extremely high or are cards that I've already got.

That has me wondering what my goal is with this set? I guess it's just to accumulate as many of them as I can. I can't imagine I will accumulate much more than 30 of these parallels at the most, or just 15% of the base set. Maybe it's not really a question of when to quit. I probably won't stop getting these as long as I still find them interesting. I just don't have a good definition for what I'm trying to accomplish. It is fun to pick up some 'under-the-radar' super-rare cards of stars and semi-stars, because there's no way I would be picking up colorful serially-numbered Refractors of these guys for these prices, yet the Members Only parallels are just as rare as the # / 5 or # / 10 stuff on the market.

The latest addition to this collection is Dustin Pedroia, the former Rookie of the Year, MVP, and multiple-time All-Star. It popped up in my eBay feed with a reasonable Buy It Now price and I went ahead and grabbed it. The photo is decent, with both player's uniforms featuring camouflage accents. I think it's cool that Topps made sure to include the ball in the frame, lending a bit more action to the photo. Stadium Club sure has done well on the photography front the last couple of years. I'm kind of looking forward to seeing the 2016 set.

2014 Topps Stadium Club Members Only Trevor Rosenthal

Kind of a short post today. I have been sick since last Thursday evening, and it seems to be the sort of thing that just hangs around for a while. I hope to get over it soon, as I have some busy times ahead of me and I need to be able to do more than sleep this coming weekend.

Today's card is another 2014 Topps Stadium Club Members Only parallel. These cards were not serially-numbered, but there were rumored to be less than 10 copies made of each. I've been picking them up when I can, and I've probably got a couple dozen of them now. I'll never be able to get most of the big names and Hall of Famers, but I've have pretty good luck at tracking down the other players on the checklist. This one features Trevor Rosenthal, the Cardinals' closer. He's been pretty good during his career so far, with the only real knock against him being his WHIP, which is a little higher than you usually see on an elite closing pitcher. He still manages to get the job done, though.

Jason Kipnis Members Only

Just about any time I can find  2014 Topps Stadium Club Members Only parallel at a decent price I will grab it up. This Jason Kipnis example showed up on eBay in early December and I won it with a very low bid. He's not a superstar or anything, but he's a good enough player that this card probably should have gone for more. I guess the Jason Kipnis super-collectors' loss is my gain.

I don't have much more to post about today. December is usually a hard month for me in a lot of different areas of life, and this year has been no exception. I don't know why, but that's how it's been for about as long as I can remember. Maybe the holidays bring heightened expectations that aren't realized. Maybe the transition to the New Year makes me reflect on where I'm at compared to last year. Maybe the weather brings me down. Maybe I expect December to be bad, so I sabotage my own life in a pattern of self-fulfilling prophecy. I don't know. Eventually I will dig out of this funk and get back to my baseline.

Rare Cards of an Ace and a Flamethrower

I was able to add a couple more cards to my collection from the 2014 Topps Stadium Club Members Only parallel. They aren't serially-numbered, but the rumored print run on them is less than ten copies per card. Luckily for me the price tag doesn't always match the scarcity on these things, and I've been able to gather a fair number of them. The two most recent additions are a top starting pitcher and a top reliever. First up is the starter, Max Scherzer. He had a pretty good season for the Washington Nationals this year, although the team as a whole was dysfunctional and fell far short of projections. He's probably got a couple more years of ace status left in him.

Next up is the hard-throwing Aroldis Chapman, who gathered 33 saves for the Cincinnati Reds in 2015. He piled up the strikeouts, too, with an absolutely ridiculous 15.7 K/9 ratio on the year, which was actually a slight decrease from 2014. He throws the ball so fast that the MLB website has an Aroldis Chapman filter when you look at the fastest pitches of the year on the statistics page, because without the filter engaged the whole page is just him.

I always think that I'm pretty much done adding cards from this set to my collection, but every so often one will pop up at an agreeable price. Most of the stars and especially the Hall of Famers go for prices well past my limits, but a lot of the semi-stars and lower-end stars sneak through at my level.