The Best Cards from The Best Bubble

Recently Bob from The Best Bubble reached out about a small trade. I hadn't traded with him yet, so it was an easy yes, especially because he promised some Tinos! Bob is a newer blogger and collects a bunch of fun genres, so go on over and check out his blog HERE.

The best card to me - at least in terms of that I needed - was this Tino Martinez from 2020 Pacific Paramount. I definitely didn't have the green foil parallel of this card, and was surprised to see it included in the package. Really nice card to check off the list.

And I told you there were more Tinos.

Bob also collects die cuts, so I hope it wasn't too hard to give away this card. It's so pretty!

As is this Luis Severino All-Star jersey card. The 2017 jerseys - from Miami - were such a bright blue!

One of my other favorites were these two cards from Stadium Club - Power Zones of Gleyber and Andujar. I've always enjoyed the Power Zone insert set!

Bob, thanks for reach out, and I promise to get you some cards in return very soon!

Big. Fun. Game.

Several years ago, Napkin Doon started the Big Fun Game. Essentially, it was a White Elephant/Yankee Swap type of game where one randomly guesses what is behind closed doors, or steals a prize previously unearthed by a different participant.

It was always great fun when Napkin Doon ran the game, and I'm still bitter over losing out on a 1958 Roberto Clemente. I always liked to steal to stir the pot, and that was a bitter taste of my own medicine.

Well, the Big Fun Game antics were brought to another level recently by Wes over at Willinghammer Rising aka JBF. I believe he even sought the permission of Napkin Doon for the naming rights. Wes is more of a gentleman than the Doon, so that should surprise no one.

I picked mid-pack...not usually the best place for Big Fun Game placement. I made an early steal, snagging a Mookie Wilson signed jersey that I thought was super cool. But an item can only be stolen twice before it's frozen, and that was its first steal. I figured it wouldn't hold up, and it didn't. It was stolen from me quite quickly, bring back painful memories of that Clemente card. I gathered my composure and stole the prize I ended up winning:

Sure, I don't collect Mike Trout. But a jersey relic of the best player in the game? Pretty easy choice. It's not a card I would normally buy, and I wouldn't be lucky enough to pull it in a pack. The pick held up, and that was my prize. Success!

But like Wes would every stop there. Does he ever stop there? He padded the envelope with a team bag of Yankees. I gotta show off the Tinos first, because duh.

 

And a bunch of Jeters! I'm about to embark on a Jeter organization project to see how many I have. Most of these were new to my collection. How sweet is that Skybox Thunder?

 

Wes also threw in a cool Yogi managerial card, which will go in Joey's binder, as well as some other '90s releases.

Lastly, I'll show a very low numbered Andrew Miller refractor. Would look mighty nice with a signature on it...just sayin'.

JBF, thanks for your generosity and reviving the game.

Topps Yankees Project: 2016 is complete!

The most stressful part of Topps Series One launching each year is combing through the Yankees checklist and seeing who the good TTM signers are. It’s crucial so that I can get a jump on the next addition to the Topps Yankees Project. I prefer to get it out of the way early. If I have to, I can always wait until Series Two, or god forbid, Update, but it calms me to know as early as possible that the Project lives on another year.

It’s not easy. Many of the players included in the checklist are aging stars (not shocking, I know) who haven’t signed in years. Then you have the group of younger players who do sign at decent rates, but aren’t included. Plus, I assume by sheer volume of mail, guys instantly become worse signers once  they are a Yankee. 

I always hope for a reliever or two and a prospect, as that usually results in the best odds. Also of note, when players move on to other teams, that can help with their success rates as well.

Once my team set came in, here is who I sent a request to:

Nathan Eovaldi – previously good signer, but I haven’t had luck with him

Robert Refsnyder – signed in minors early in career, doesn’t seem to be much of a signer now

Luis Severino – not a good signer, but I took a shot

Chase Headley – used to be a good signer

Andrew Miller – my best hope, I received a TTM success from him last year

Chris Young – good signer in past, now with Boston

Greg Bird – good signer in minors, tough now after Big League success; just had shoulder surgery as well. He better not be straining that shoulder answering mail.

As you can see above, there are a few chances, but not many golden opportunities. I sent to those guys knowing it would be a longshot. I was thrilled when this came back last week:

Boom! Andrew Miller checks all the boxes I need for the Topps Yankees Project for 2016. Not only is he an awesome reliever, but the signature looks great and I don’t have him included in the Project. He’s definitely only of the bigger names I’ve gotten recently. I’m not sure if I’ll get anyone else back, but if not, I’m thrilled to use this as my entry for 2016! If I do get more back, then I’ll have a decision to make. That’s a good problem to have.

Thanks, Andrew Miller! You’ve saved me a lot of stress. Now, on to the 2017 edition…

Hoops and Yanks from Cards on Cards

My pal Kerry over at Cards on Cards is always looking out for me. Not only does he send great Yanks, but usually a stack of Knicks accompany his packages as well. I always appreciate that since the Knicks are my favorite basketball team. Plus, I don’t usually buy basketball cards, so I use Kerry’s packages as a way to get a glimpse of products over the last couple of years.

I’m not sure why I don’t buy basketball cards anymore. Growing up, I probably collected NBA more than MLB. I was much more into sports seasons then. Baseball cards during the summer, basketball during the winter. It’s just how it went. Maybe with baseball products pretty much year round now, that curbed my basketball buying? I’m still a big NBA fan, so it’s odd that when I got back into collecting, I just focused on baseball. I just don’t have a great reason.

Here’s an example of an NBA Hoops card from this year’s product. The design is ok. It probably would annoy most baseball collectors. Hoops was a low-end, affordable product when I was growing up. Packs were usually a buck or less, but I’m not sure if that’s still the case. I did get a box of them one year for my birthday, I believe it was for the 1995-96 release. Those ones came with a Block Party or Number Crunchers insert in every pack. Either way, I like this Melo card with LeBron guarding him. 

Here’s a Panini from 13-14. Look how big PANINI is with relation to the player name and team. This would cause blogger outrage if Topps did this for a baseball release.

There were also a few older Patrick Ewing cards, including this 1993-94 Upper Deck Skylights card. The Jordan from this set is still one of my favorite cards of all time. I like this Ewing since you can see part of the Twin Towers. I was 10 or 11 years old at this time, so to a kid, these looked super cool.

Moving on to baseball, my favorite card of the bunch that Kerry sent was Don Mattingly rookie patch manu-relic. It is the first of its kind for me. I had thought that the whole card within the card was this cloth-fabric, but it’s actually just the player image. The rest of the card is part of the cardboard design.

Speaking of cloth, here’s a pretty cool A-Rod from 2011 Lineage.

Here are some minis from 1986 Fleer. I admit that I didn’t know this set came in miniature form.

A couple sweet parallels. The Andrew Miller is low-numbered, and CC pink is very striking. Side note – I could not be more impressed with Andrew Miller’s tenure as a Yankee so far. He’s handled everything with complete class. Last year, he didn’t get into a back-and-forth about being the closer, a job he ultimately won and excelled in. This year, he battled not only constant trade rumors, but lost his closer role to Aroldis Chapman. I’m sure he didn’t love that, but he still said he just wants to win and will pitch wherever he is needed. He’s been great. He's an easy guy to root for, despite his Red Sox ties.

Lastly, some nice Topps Archives. I wish Archives wasn’t a yearly product. I am very confused as to which designs have been featured which years now.

Kerry, I owe you some cards. Or Cards. Or both. Thanks again!

TTM Success: Andrew Miller

Man, it's been forever since I got a TTM return, but at least it was a very good, unexpected one.

I sent this custom card to Andrew Miller back in spring training. It was a card I made through the Rookies app. It was the only image of Miller in a Yanks hat at the time. It's a little odd, but could be worse.

Miller has been great for the Yanks. I like him a lot. I was definitely worried when David Robertson wasn't re-signed, but the worries are gone with Miller now closing the door for the next few years.

It's cool of him to answer his mail as the season goes on. Also, shout out to the USPS for forwarding this to my new address.