Rey Ordonez Holy Grail

Being a super collector of a player is tough, especially when that player played in the 90's and early 2000's. Card companies were much more plentiful back then and they loved their parallels. I already have enough trouble trying to keep track of the cards released. I can't even fathom trying to be a super collector of a modern day player.

Speaking of parallels, Pacific Trading Card Company had their fair share of different colored parallels, including low serially numbered parallels. I also believe they may have been one of the first trading card companies to include 1/1 printing plates into packs. Unlike the Topps printing plates, Pacific didn't include a sticker on the back of the slab of metal with card info. Kinda bland if you ask me, but again they were pioneers in this area.

Recently I had a chance to pick up not one, but two Rey Ordonez 1/1 printing plates. I ran across a seller that was selling printing plates of many different players and he had two cards of Rey. I didn't even know these cards existed and I took a lot of pride into the completeness of the list of his cards I've compiled. Needless to say I was quick to strike a deal. The cards just arrived the other day and man are these awesome. Of course it threw off my organization in my binder and had to move a lot of cards to make way for these, but hey that's part of the growing pains collectors go through.

1998 Pacific Omega 1/1 Printing Plate

I honestly can't remember if Topps releases the print plates for the back of their cards, but obviously Pacific did. While it's cool to own this card, it's really not the easiest card to read because of blue text on the light blue background. I also recently discovered the front side of this card was recently on eBay...but I was sniped at the last minute this week and lost out. I really wish I could contact the buyer and make them offer so I could "complete" this card.

1999 Pacific Private Stock 1/1 Printing Plate

I also grabbed this '99 Private Stock printing plate. I particularly loved this set by Pacific and was able to build the entire set by hand. I'm so thrilled to be able to add this card to my Rey Ordonez super collection as well.

I'm getting down to a few autographs, low serially numbered parallels and 1/1 of cards before my collection will be complete (if that will ever happen) so you can imagine my being on cloud 9 with these purchases. I've been at collection Rey ever since his rookie year in 1995 and I'm thrilled I'm getting closer and closer to picking up every card he has. Still have some work to do though so if you can help me out or at least point me in the right direction I'd very much appreciate it. Here's a link to my master collection of what I have (in blue) and what I'm looking for still (in black).

Community Gum comes through again

A few weeks ago those great guys from Community Gum broke a case of 2012 Topps series 2.  While there wasn't any new Tim Hudson cards for me to chase there was plenty of other new Braves cards.  In their typical fashion the guys pulled some great Braves cards which I quickly swooped in on.

In addition to picking up all the base cards of the team and the normal inserts like the '87 Minis and the various gold themed cards I came away w/ 2 higher end inserts.

The Braves have a pretty young pitching staff this season and while most of the guys have had some rough starts lately it's always great to pick up autographs...especially when they come cheap.  Randall shows a lot of promise.  Even though the auto is a sticker at least it makes the Golden Moments design look better.

The highlight of the deal for me was picking up another 1/1 printing plate card.  This time it's #429 Michael Bourn.  He is having a great year and I really hope he gets that last needed push to end up on the All-Star team.  I've heard other Braves fans say he reminds them of Marquis Grissom and I can see the resemblance.

I think I'm going to start having Andy and Jon open up all my packs as they pull more and better Braves than I ever do.  Thanks guys!

Firsts for Tony Gwynn & Gary Sheffield Collections

I always have admired Tony Gwynn's plate discipline when he played the game, but it hasn't been long that I've been collecting his cardboard.  A few days ago I was researching something on eBay and I stumbled across a Fleer card of Gwynn that stood out.  There were a few days left and the bidding was rather low.  I had a few bucks left over in my PayPal account so I put in a bid.  I really thought I would be instantly outbid, but I wasn't.  Another day or so passes and I get the confirmation e-mail that I won the card!  Needless to say I was surprised...not only that I won but the ending price was less than 4 bucks.  Have no idea what the card books for...could care less.

I also ran across this 1/1 Black Printing Plate of Gary Sheffield from 2007 Upper Deck Elements for around $10.00.  I don't normally spend much on single cards, but I don't any 1/1 cards in my sports collections so it made it really hard to pass this up.  Plus I really like steel cards.

 

Box Break - 2010 Topps WWE Platinum

I believe this is Topps' first foray into the higher end of wrestling cards and the final result is pretty good.  Topps borrowed the Platinum design first used for football so if you are familiar with that design then you know what you are getting here for the base cards.  The draw for a lot of fans and collectors alike will be the inserts.  Each hobby box guarantees 3 hits - autograph, autograph relic and relic.  There are also TONS of parallels of both the base cards and the inserts.  I was going to post the odds of the inserts, but there are so many freakin' parallels and such it would require more energy to type them up than I am willing to muster!

The base set consists of 125 cards.  This is a step up in number of cards from the base WWE set released earlier in 2010.  Inserts include Platinum Performance, Legendary Superstars, Platinum Autographs, Platinum Autograph Relics, Platinum Relics and Platinum Triple Relics.  Parallels include refractor like cards one per pack printed on thicker cardstock, sequentially numbered green (/499), blue (/199), gold (/) and red (/1).  Printing Plates (1:174) are also included and are 1/1.  The inserts also come in the various colored sequentially numbered variety as well as printing plate versions.  Still hanging in there?  Good.  Now I'll let you relax your eyes and share some of the inserts and the hits I got out of my hobby box.

#d 17/25 - odds 1:385

#d 15/99 - odds 1:87

non numbered version Relic

  

  

  

#d /499

  

  

#d 238/499 - odds 1:12

Overall I really like the inserts sets, though I could do without all of the various colored parallels.  The cards do look better in person.  Upon seeing scans of the green and blue cards online I wasn't too excited about them.  After holding a few in my hands I can report they look beautiful...I just don't care to chase any more of the down.  The Legendary Superstars are nice because you get current talent and a similar veteran/hall of famer on the same card.  The Legendary Superstars highlight career moments for each character.  Both of these inserts feature a refractor like rainbow sheen.

I was very happy pulling the Big Show autographed relic card.  The fact that it was a parallel version numbered to 99 didn't hurt either.  The design on the t-shirt swatch is cool too as not all of the relic cards have designs...case in point w/ the Sheamus relic card.  I have no clue who Curt Hawkins is and I watch a good amount of wrestling so his card may be up for trades if anyone shows interest.  I was really surprised to feel the cold steel of the printing plate card.  By the time I got to it I had already pulled 2 of the 3 guaranteed hits.  This marks my first ever 1/1 card I've pulled.  It's a neat gimmick I suppose, but either way the card was a nice bonus on top of a great box.

I was a little disappointed however when I collated the base cards and found myself with maybe 75% of the set.  I'm not buying another box and I really don't want to buy more packs or blasters to finish off the set.  I'm hoping that someone that is reading this will help me complete my base set.  I may go after completing the other inserts, but right now I want to focus on the base set.  I'll list my wants in the side bar of the blog shortly.

Another thing I was disappointed about were some rather obvious errors Topps made.  One would think with a mid to high end set the quality control would be stepped up.  Upon reading the backs of the cards I ran across simple typos and a few cards were miscut.  Alright call me anal.  Those may not be big things, but check these 2 cards out and tell me what's wrong with them.  Winner gets a patent "no-prize".

 

Come on Topps!  You really dropped the ball here!  How you can possibly mix up the names of the guys that comprised one of the most iconic tag teams in wrestling history?  Opps?  Wonder if they'll ever correct this.  Doubt it.

Outside of a few flaws I really enjoyed opening this box.  The base set, while finger print prone, is done very nice.  WWE announcer Michael Cole did a good job writing the bios on the backs of the cards.  Just like on RAW however he majorly kisses the Miz butt on the back of his card!  Inserts have a good theme and are well presented and the autographed relics are very nice.  Kudos to Topps for getting different talent to autograph cards from the base WWE set.  They are still sticker autos, but that isn't a huge deal breaker for me as it will be for others.  If you are a fan of the WWE and like wrestling trading cards then I encourage you to at least try this product.  Retail packs can be had for $3, retail rack packs for $9 and hobby boxes seem to currently be in the $45-$60 range.  Let me know what you think.  Better yet, help me out with some base cards!